Hunter level and run upgrades are a constrained path
Pass the Fear ships seven playable hunters. Each hunter starts at level 1 and can reach level 6. Level 1 includes two core or basic skills. Levels 2 through 6 each present one row of three alternatives, giving the finished hunter five personal choices—not fifteen simultaneously active upgrades.
Plan the rows as mutually exclusive decisions. Combining two options from the same level creates a build that cannot exist in the game and hides the real tradeoff between damage, reliability, survival, or trigger support.
Open any hunter in the Characters archive to inspect the official localized skill rows and starting weapon.
The six-level cost path totals 100
The later levels are more expensive, so plan which row materially changes the build instead of treating level 6 as the only meaningful state. A lower-level comparison can be more useful when it reflects the resources available in the run you are actually playing.
- Level 1 starts at 0 cumulative cost.
- Level 2 costs 10, for 10 cumulative.
- Level 3 costs 15, for 25 cumulative.
- Level 4 costs 20, for 45 cumulative.
- Level 5 costs 25, for 70 cumulative.
- Level 6 costs 30, for 100 cumulative.
Choose personal upgrades in dependency order
Define the hunter's repeatable action
Start from the hunter's core skills and movement pattern. Decide which action the weapons and relics can reinforce consistently. A personal upgrade is strongest when it improves that repeatable action or removes the point where it fails.
Choose one option per level row
Compare the three alternatives against the same loadout and scenario. Do not mix an unconditional bonus from one row option with a conditional payoff from another. Record the selected branch explicitly.
Recheck the second weapon after each major choice
An upgrade that changes skill timing, damage type, health behavior, or magazine preference can change what the second weapon should do. Keep it as a coverage tool rather than an unrelated source of extra rarity.
Test the legal five-choice path with both weapon slots in the Build Planner.
Team Talents are permanent progression, not personal rows
The shipped Team Talent data contains 50 source records. Eleven are higher-rank upgrades of base records, producing 39 visible nodes. The current point budget is 12. A child cannot be learned until its parent reaches maximum rank, and a parent cannot be refunded while a learned child depends on it.
This graph affects the account-level planning context, but it should not be merged with a hunter's five personal level choices. Keeping the systems separate makes a build reproducible and makes respec cost or dependency mistakes visible.
Plan ranks, dependencies, and the 12-point budget on the Team Talent tree.
Use progression to answer a specific failure
Spend levels and Team Talent points against a diagnosed problem: low baseline health, unreliable trigger access, reload exposure, insufficient control, or a route blocked by dependency. Avoid a universal “best path” unless the hunter, loadout, scenario, and scoring method are all fixed.
After changing progression, compare the same weapon package and combat assumption. If you also change rarity, relics, tarot, and difficulty, the result cannot tell you which progression choice mattered.
Frequently asked questions
What is the maximum hunter level in Pass the Fear?
The current shipped maximum hunter level is 6.
How many personal character upgrades can a level-6 hunter choose?
Five. Levels 2 through 6 each provide one row of three mutually exclusive alternatives.
How many Team Talent points are available?
The current shipped Team Talent budget is 12 points, with parent-max-rank requirements for child nodes.