Roguery is a unique skill in Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord. It offers a different playstyle for a medieval setting revolving around banditry, deceit, and greed, and it can be a valuable skill for any character.
From commanding strong armies of bandit troops to rescuing prisoners and taking over alley gangs, there's a lot to be gained from the Roguery skill. With the right perks along the way, you can get back the best out of your investment in leveling up this skill.
10 No Rest For The Wicked
The first choice in the roguery skill tree is an easy one. Sweet Talker can be a good perk for the very beginning of the game where you are in danger of getting attacked by bandit parties without having enough troops to defend you.
No Rest For The Wicked is a greater perk if you plan on using bandit troops in your army. The experience increase is a great bonus to prioritize in the early game, and faster raiding is crucial for completing raids and getting away before the enemy parties come to the village's aid.
9 Deep Pockets
Two Faced is a crucial perk for sneaking into enemy settlements and freeing prisoners, weakening them from the inside, but this benefit is utilized very sparsely throughout a playthrough. Deep Pockets is a more consistent perk, especially in the early game.
Tournaments are a great way of making money in the early game, and in combination with the first perk in the tree, you will have the potential to gather a considerable amount of wealth just with 50 skills in roguery.
8 Know-How
In Best Light allows you to gain more recruits when you force villagers for volunteer troops, and Know-How increases the loot you get from villagers and caravans. Both perks have their uses, but forced recruits become weaker in comparison in the late game.
Know-How is always a valuable perk as it increases your income from attacking villagers and caravans, but one of its best benefits is that you gain experience from looting defeated caravans and villagers. With this perk, you can level up your Roguery skill even faster, and unlock the more powerful perks in the tree faster.
7 Manhunter
One of the best ways to level up roguery is by ransoming prisoners. So if you want to focus on this skill, any perk that increases your prisoner limit is beneficial for your playthrough. Manhunter increases your limit by ten, and it also increases the ransom you get for normal troops.
Promises is a great perk if you use only bandit troops, but it becomes less valuable once you gain the Partner In Crime Perk later in the roguery skill tree. You can always start with the Promises perk and change it once you level up roguery further.
6 Scarface
White Lies offers a great benefit if you want to walk the thin line between war and peace. Once your criminal rating with a faction passes a certain threshold, that faction will declare war on your clan. So the faster decrease in criminal rating can keep you safe from that eventuality.
But Scarface offers more to your playthrough as you will be able to force bandits to join you and make villagers and caravans surrender and give up their goods without a fight. The secondary benefit of both perks are similar and don't offer much, so they don't affect your decision overall.
5 Partners In Crime
Partners in Crime is one of the greatest payoffs of leveling up your roguery skill. Even if you don't want to focus on bandit-only armies, the ability to instantly recruit every bandit party is a powerful way for you to safely and cheaply recruit troops to your army.
Smuggler Connections can be useful in prison break missions and certain gang quests, but the alternative at this level is way too good to even consider having this perk as your first choice. Gathering large armies is the hardest part of the late game when you face lots of casualties, but Partners In Crime make this task so fast and easy for you.
4 One Of The Family
One of the passive benefits of the roguery skill is that you gain more loot from defeating enemies. With a high skill in roguery, you can gain tons of money by defeating enemy lords, and over time money won't be an issue anymore. Salt The Earth is a great perk for gathering more loot from villagers, but once you have reached the roguery skill required for this perk, it won't have much of an impact anymore.
One of the Family is a decent perk for further empowering the bandit troops in your party. It synergizes well with other perks that help you recruit and level up bandit troops, and make your army of criminals even more powerful.
3 Ransom Broker
There are a handful of other perks like Carver that improves your performance during prison breaks and gang quests, where you only have access to civilian armor and weapons. These perks aren't beneficial in any other scenario, but they can be important if you want to focus on that aspect of roguery skill.
Ransom Broker offers a more consistent benefit. Firstly, it increases the ransom offered for the lord and ladies you have taken prisoner. But more importantly, it reduces their escape chance, allowing you to hold them for longer periods of time, which weakens your enemy considerably.
2 Arms Dealer
While roguery can make you tons of money, if you want it to be your only source of income in the late game, you need the Arms Dealer perk to get the most out of your looted goods. With this perk's extra profit on selling weapons, you can easily make tens of thousands of denars after each battle.
Dirty Fighting is a unique perk that can be very helpful for certain fighting styles. Kicking can leave your character vulnerable if you miss, but if you master the mechanics of kicking and bashing while fighting your opponents, and are not in desperate need of money, then Dirty Fighting can be the better perk for you.
1 Dash And Slash
The final perks in the roguery are relatively insignificant compared to the previous choices. While the skill's capstone is highly valuable, 125 in roguery is more than enough to get you the best options available.
But if you do get to this level, Dash and Slash will have a more noticeable impact than Fleet of Foot. The latter only works if you are unarmed, and is rarely useful in a normal playthrough. Dash and Slash does offer some extra damage, especially if you have high athletics skills.