New Game - Skill Progression Not Working

[h̴one̵st̷.snake̷.̷]

Had an issue where I would load the game and my skills would be down to the same 2 skills (360 pole swing and environmental mastery) no matter what skills I had just unlocked on my save. This would also be reflected on me attempting to start new saves and 'import skill progression - for whatever reason I'd only have those two skills unlocked, even if I'd have had many more skills unlocked on another existing save by that time.

So I dug into AppData/Local/Sifu/Saved/SaveGames and deleted everything that's there to try and see if there was maybe a corrupt save file.

Situation slightly changed - my skill progression on that one save I passed squats in is fine, but if I attempt to "Import Skill Progression" on any of the remaining 2 saves my character starts with no skills.

Is there a way to go around it?
Am I not understanding how overwriting / importing skill progression works?

[Box_Giver]

Had same issue, than found this out:

To unlock Sifu Skills permanently you need to spend XP, which is only earned by defeating enemies. By accessing the Skill Tree through Shrines or death you can initially unlock a skill, after which you'll then need to invest a further five times the original XP cost to permanently have access to it.

Pretty sure the game doesn't tell you this, was getting frustrated lol.

[h̴one̵st̷.snake̷.̷]

Oh damn. And as to the nitty-gritty, does it have to be unlocked 5 times:

a) on the same save and in the same continued playthrough (e.g. if I have a playthrough where I unlock it 1st time on the first level, 2nd and 3rd time on the second level, 4th, 5th on the third level for example then it's fine)

b) doesn't have to be the same level, doesn't even have to be the same playthrough - e.g. you unlock it five times across three saves somehow then it's fine, the next time you create a new save then it'll be permanently unlocked?

c) might even not be the same continued playthrough, e.g. you keep replaying the first level over and over, and restarting it, and as long as across all the 100 retries you somehow unlock the same skill 5 times then thereafter it's permanent?

[Hundinger]

You have to unlock them in the same save but if you start a new save, you can choose to import your skills.

You can simply farm them by repeating the first level over and over, I did that in my first playthrough. Needed the practice anyway. Don't forget to spend xp in your Dojo before you get back to the level or else this xp will be gone.

You can also play in order or jump back and forth between levels, doesn't matter. Once you spent xp on a particular skill five times, it's permanent.