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Ever since its release, Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel has pleased fans of the iconic series with its accessible mechanics that hold a surprising amount of weight and depth. It differs from the main Yu-Gi-Oh! card game in a number of important ways, such as its focus on positional monster placement and its four-way battles.

RELATED: Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel: Tag Duels Guide

Another key difference between Cross Duel and the regular game is that Cross Duel gives you the ability to power up your cards by giving them various Skills and buffs. With the right Skill loadout, even your weakest monsters can be turned into tactical masters that, when deployed at the right time, can help you to turn the tide of battle. In this guide, we'll go over everything you need to know about how monster customisation works in Cross Duel, as well as how to equip your monsters with the best possible Skills.

What Is Monster Customisation?

Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel - Celtic Guardian Skill Tree

If you have experience with Yu-Gi-Oh! outside of Cross Duel, you will probably be surprised to see that, at first, every monster in the game is a normal monster. This means that none of them have any effects and all of them have unique flavour text, even iconic effect monsters such as Elemental HERO Flame Wingman.

Instead of having monsters' effects available to you from the very beginning, you instead have to unlock Skills for your monsters, which then turn them into effect monsters. Each monster has a unique set of Skills available for it, which are all found on that monster's Skill Tree - here, you can progress your favourite monster's Skill development and choose what path you want it to take for your deck.

Skills are unlocked on the Skill Tree by using Skill Materials, which come in various sizes. You can gain lots of these by completing daily missions and competing in Ranked Battles, although they are also available in other game modes.

Monster Skill Trees are accessed by first opening the Cards menu, then choosing the Monster Customisation menu and choosing which monster you want to augment from here.

These Skills have a wide variety of effects, from boosting your monster's stats to changing the battle position of your foes. You will find that most Skills are shared across multiple monsters, and the Skills a monster has access to are sometimes determined by its Type: for example, most of the monsters with the Wizardry Skill on their Skill Tree are Spellcaster-Types. This allows you to build powerfully synergistic decks by making the most of how the monsters in your deck share common Skills.

However, some characters have unique Skills called Special Skills. These belong to only the most iconic, powerful monsters from the Yu-Gi-Oh! anime and are massively powerful Skills that unlock that monster's hidden potential. They also often behave in accordance with that monster's effects in the TCG - for example, Ojama King's Special Skill locks one of your opponent's monster zones.

Special Skills may seem like powerful additions to your deck, but they should be used with caution, since they often change the summoning requirements for the monster they're attached to. Make sure you double-check that you can still summon your monsters when they have their Special Skills attached!

What are Skill Slots?

Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel - Elemental HERO Flame Wingman Skill Setting

Unfortunately, kitting out your characters with powerful Skills isn't as simple as just unlocking those Skills on that character's Skill Tree. You also need to equip your Skills to your monsters within the Deck Editor - this gives you the flexibility to play the same monster in different decks, with a different Skill loadout in each, giving you some impressive versatility in your deckbuilding. When unlocked, Skills can be attached to the Skill Slots of your monster when it's in your deck.

Each monster begins its life with one Skill Slot, but with enough resources you can unlock up to five Skill Slots for each of your monsters, giving you the power to stack Skills on them like there's no tomorrow. Unlike Skills themselves, new Skill Slots are unlocked using duplicate copies of a card, so that, as an example, my spare copies of Giant Solider Of Stone could be used to unlock Skill Slots for Giant Soldier Of Stone. You can also substitute cards of the same rarity as the card you're unlocking Skill Slots for, although you'll need many more copies than if you just had the same card as the monster you're unlocking slots for.

You can see how many copies of each card you own through the Vault, which is accessible through the Cards menu on the title screen.

Available Skills

Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel - Black Luster Soldier Skill Tree

Although powerful ace monsters often have their unique Special Skills equipped, regular Skills can also help you turn the tide of battle if implemented correctly. Here are all of the non-Special Skills available in the game:

Skill Name

Effect

ATK Boost

<When Summoned> Gains 200 ATK.

DEF Boost

<When Summoned> Gains 200 ATK.

ATK Support

<When Summoned> All of your other monsters gain 200 ATK.

DEF Support

<When Summoned> All of your other monsters gain 200 DEF.

ATK Supplement

<At the end of the Battle Phase> Gain 400 ATK.

DEF Supplement

<At the end of the Battle Phase> Gain 400 DEF.

ATK Debuff

<Upon Battling> When battling an opponent's Attack Position monster, it loses 300 ATK.

DEF Debuff

<Upon Battling> When battling an opponent's Defence Position monster, it loses 300 DEF.

Immunity: Destruction Effects

Immune to destruction effects.

Immunity: Position Change

Immune to effects that change battle position.

Immunity: Skill Negation

Immune to effects that apply "Negation" to Skills.

Immunity: Negative Status

Immune to effects that give [Negative Skills].

Immunity: Bounce/Teleport

Immune to effects that would return this monster to the hand or force it to teleport.

Immunity: ATK/DEF Reduction

Immune to losing ATK/DEF from effects.

Provoke

<Upon Battling> When attacking an opponent's Defence Position monster, change it to Attack Position.

Crusher

<When Destroying an Opponent's Monster in Battle> Inflict 300 damage to the player who controlled the monster.

Superspeed

Boosts movement speed by 50%.

Speedy Summon

Can be summoned with one less Summon Material, but it loses 1000 ATK/DEF.

Reincarnation

<When Destroyed> This monster is returned to your hand with "Negation" applied to all of its Skills.

Intimidate

<Upon Battling> When attacking an opponent's Attack Position monster, change it to Defence Position.

Pierce

You will be able to attack your opponent even when you have attacked a Defence Position monster in their Monster Zone or Guardian Monster Zone.

Seal

<Upon Battling> Apply "Negation" to all Skills of the opponent monster.

Pendulum

<When Summoned> Gain "Pendulum Scale".

Curse

<When Destroyed in Battle> Until the end of the next turn, the monster that battled this monster gains [Immobile] and [Phantom].

Healer

<When Summoned> Gain 200 LP.

Cohesion

<Activation Condition> (Skill activates whenever you summon a monster) Gains 200 ATK/DEF for each monster you summon.

Inventor

<When Summoned> Gains one Skill at random. One additional Skill is gained if your monsters have activated [Inventor] four or more times in the Duel.

Snipe

<When Summoned> Inflict 200 damage to the player in the lane ahead.

Extra Attack

<When Attacking Directly> Gains 500 ATK.

Wizardry

<Activation Condition> (Skill activates whenever you activate a Spell Card) Gains 300 ATK/DEF if you activate a Spell Card.

Focus

<At the Start of the Battle Phase> Gain 200 ATK.

Link Arrow

Can be treated as 2 Summon Materials when used for the Summon of a Link Monster.

Detonated

<When Destroyed in Battle> The monster that battled this monster loses 500 ATK/DEF.

There are also a few Skills that only activate during Raid Duels:

Skill Name

Effect

Anti-Boss

<Upon Battling> Gains 500 ATK when battling a Raid Boss.

SP Efficient Summon

This monster can be Summoned without Summon Materials.

Anti-Raid Monster

<Upon Battling> When this monster in Attack Position battles a Raid Monster, that monster loses 500 ATK/DEF.

SP Boost

<When Summoned> Gains 2000 ATK/DEF.

Assist Boost

LP gained from assist healing increases by 500.

Anti-Shield

Damage to shields increases by one.

SP Reincarnation

<When Destroyed> or <When Assist Healing> Return this monster to your hand.

SP Support

<When Summoned> All monsters controlled by you or an ally gain 1000 ATK/DEF.

Boss Buster

<Upon Battling> Gains 1000 ATK when attacking a Raid Boss' weak point.

SP Hyperspeed

<When Summoned> All of your monsters gain [Hyperspeed].

Anti-Object

Damage to objects increases by one.

NEXT: Yu-Gi-Oh! Cross Duel: Deckbuilding Guide