Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 can get really tough, particularly in its later boss battles – so when you first jump in, you’ll want to focus on building up your skills and strengths with the most impactful early-game abilities. This is complicated by the game’s multi-option levelling system, which allows you to boost XP for Miles Morales and Peter Parker separately, and together, via three unique, overarching skill menus.
While it seems complex at first, this system becomes much more familiar over time, allowing you to see your options clearly, and make more effective choices. If you’re looking to get started on the right foot, read on for a comprehensive skill tree guide for Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, and advice for which abilities you should unlock first.
Read: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Review – Swing, Swing
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 Guide: The Best Skills
The best shared Spider-Man Skills to unlock
To kick off your adventure, you’ll want to devote your earned Skill Points to the shared abilities in the main Spider-Man skill tree. Most of these abilities are focused on improving traversal and combat, with every effect applying to both Spider-Men. Invest in these abilities, and you’ll find swinging and fighting through the streets of New York much quicker and more dynamic, allowing you to travel further, and faster, pushing you towards your goals.
Start with Slingshot Launch, and then grab the entire first row of shared abilities: Loop de Loop (for movement speed), Parry Disarm (for easier mob fights), Web Whip (for disarming), and Bounce Up (for dealing with heavy enemies).
Air Swap is also very handy for manoeuvring while in the air, and Web Throw is essential for manipulating tougher enemies on the battlefield. Combo Resupply and Perfect Dodge Recharge are less essential, but great for boosting your ability recharge rate.
Read: Marvel’s Spider-Man 2: Beginner’s Game Guide and Tips
Once you nab these essential skills, then you can turn focus to improving Peter Parker and Miles Morales individually.
The best skills to unlock for Peter Parker
Peter Parker’s skills diverge into two separate branches – symbiote abilities and mechanical spider leg abilities. Spider Rush is a great ability to unlock for the early stages of the game, but you shouldn’t invest too many skill points into the mechanical spider leg portion of this skill tree, as Peter’s abilities change rapidly in the early game.
It’s actually better to hold off on levelling Peter until a particular story event occurs, unlocking the symbiote abilities. When these come into play, grab every ability on the lefthand side of the skill tree – but particularly focus on nabbing Symbiote Strike, Symbiote Yank, and then the Extended and Empowered branches of these abilities. Focus on grabbing the Surge abilities later in the game, when battles get tougher.
The best skills to unlock for Miles Morales
Miles’ skill tree is far more linear than Peter’s and as such, you don’t get a lot of freedom to pick and choose abilities. In any case, your options are clearer: you should head down the ability tree, and grab everything in sight, starting with Venom Jump and Venom Punch: Concentrated Force.
When you get to the Jolt portion of the tree, which splits off into three categories, start with Mega Venom Blast: Beacon of Might to gain a strong attack, and then unlock Chain Lightning: Power Overwhelming to improve your Chain Lightning ability from 3 bolts to 6 bolts.
The rule of thumb for Miles is that you should unlock any ability with lightning-based potential as soon as possible. These abilities will all come in handy in the early and late game, particularly as you swing around New York collecting a particular character’s memorabilia.
The best Suit Tech to unlock
Improving Suit Tech should be one of your priorities as you travel through Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, as the most important stats are improved by this skill submenu. The four categories of Suit Tech to improve are Health, Damage, Focus, and Traversal.
Devote resources (Tech Parts, Rare Tech Parts, City Tokens, and Hero Tokens, found by completing side quests) to Health and Damage first, as these will increase your prowess and survival in battle. Some early battles will actually feel impossible without making these upgrades, so make sure you’re improving Suit Tech before you head off to those tougher main story missions.
Each upgrade line is fairly linear, although you do get a choice between two special abilities in every Suit Tech subtree. Go with your gut when presented with these choices – but know that any combat-focused skills are usually the better options. We will also say that on the Traversal tree, it’s best not to miss out on the All Seeing ability, which highlights tech crates on the minimap. Otherwise, the world is your oyster here.
The best Gadgets to upgrade
In addition to these skill unlocks, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 also offers the opportunity to upgrade the arsenal of Spider-tools available to both Peter and Miles in their journey. While it’s fairly easy to forget about these upgrades, you should absolutely make time to invest in them, as they can save your skin in battle.
You’ll want to focus on upgrading your Web-Shooters first, as these can help you stall opponents in mob battles easily – but eventually, you should also upgrade the Web Grabber and Upshot gadgets. Both pull and push enemies across the battlefield, and help to clear an opening for you to wallop your opponents. Web Grabber is particularly handy in its fully upgraded form, and proves very handy for battles with multiple enemies.
Ricochet Web can be left till last, in our opinion. It’s handy, but not game-changing. Sonic Burst is in a similar position. It’s handy in the late game and when dealing with particular side quests, but it’s not essential.
As with the Suit Tech abilities, you’ll need to devote collectible resources including Tech Parts, Rare Tech Parts, City Tokens, and Hero Tokens to unlocking these upgrades.
With this advice in mind, you should be able to kick off your adventures in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 on exactly the right foot.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 launches for PS5 on 20 October 2023.
