Mount & Blade 2: Bannerlord - 10 Best Scouting Perks (2024)

There are many non-combat skills in that helps your character in various aspect of the game. Diplomacy, managing your army and settlements, and traversing the world as efficiently as possible are done through these skills.

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Scouting is a valuable skill to train for your character, and even better to relegate to a companion as you can appoint them as the scout of your party. With a high level in this skill and the best perks in the skill tree, you can run from unfavorable encounters and choose your battles when and where they best suit you.

10 Day Traveler

The first perk choices in the scouting tree both offer a valuable movement speed to your party. While Night Runner offers more speed and sight range during the nighttime, days are much longer in the game's world.

Day Traveler offers slightly less speed and sight range bonus, but the longer duration of daytime, and the ease of combat in daylight both make this perk the better choice in most situations. Nigh Runner will help you catch up to fleeing armies faster during the night, but fighting in the dark might not be the ideal situation.

9 Pathfinder

The choice between Pathfinder and Water Diviner is a hard one. The secondary benefit of Water Diviner is extremely valuable as it unlocks more recruitment slots from villages over time as you increase your relationship with them.

But Pathfinder is the better option for a companion appointed as your scout, or even if you prefer the speed bonus as these small bonuses can add up over time to give you a considerable advantage in the late game.

8 Forest Kin

The choice between the third perks of the scouting tree relies on your culture and where you spend most of your playthrough. Desert Born is the better option if you are Aserai of Khuzait, or your kingdom is mostly at war with them as the perk increases your movement speed in deserts and dunes.

But otherwise, Forest Kin is the better option as it halves the speed penalty of moving through forests. It's a great perk that even stacks with the Battanian culture bonus, and except for the southern and eastern parts of the map, you will come upon many forests in your travels.

7 Forced March

In the early stages of the game where your party is small, Unburdened can be a great perk to help you when you're carrying lots of goods as it increases your speed and gives passive experience to your troops.

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But once you reach the later stages of the game and can keep the morale of your party above 75 more consistently, Forced March becomes the superior option. You don't want to have the overburdened penalty unless you don't have any other options, so Unburdened loses its value over time.

6 Tracker

Once you reach a high enough level in scouting, you will start to see tracks of other armies while traveling through the world map. Detecting and following these tracks gives your party's scout experience over time, and can occasionally lead you to enemy armies before they reach their destination.

Ranger and Tracker are the only perks that affect these tracks. Ranger is a great option for discovering more tracks and leveling up the skill faster, but Tracker's secondary ability is a crucial benefit for closing the distance between your party and fleeing enemies.

5 Mounted Scouts

Patrols is a decent perk in the early game as it gives you advantages against bandit parties. It helps you send out your troops to auto-resolve fights with bandit parties with fewer casualties, but as you approach the late game you are less likely to bother fighting with bandits.

Mounted Scouts is a great perk even if you get it early in the game, solely because of its secondary effect as it increases your party size limit. If you are playing a cavalry-heavy style then the primary benefit of the perk will also become a great addition, but It's still worth it if you don't get the sight range bonus.

4 Beast Whisperer

Beast Whisperer and Foragers each offer important benefits. Beast Whisperer gives you a small chance of finding mounts while traveling through steppes and plains, and Foragers reduces the disorganized state after the battle and let you get back to normal speed sooner.

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The ideal scenario is to train a companion as a scout, so they can choose the Beast Whisperer perk, and you as the party leader train the skill and choose the Foragers perk to gain both benefits. But if you can't spare the companion or the time to train the skill on two characters, extra mounts from the Beast Whisperer is the more valuable option.

3 Rumour Network

Rumour Network and Village Network are both perks that affect your trade profits and don't offer much else if you are not focusing on trading for your income. Rumour Network reduces trade penalties within cities of your kingdom, and Village Network does the same for villages.

The secondary benefit of Rumour Network is more useful as it helps you find bandit hideouts from further away, and if you do want to partake in trading, cities offer more goods and profits, making the perk better than its counterpart in every aspect.

2 Vantage Point

Keen sight is a great perk for keeping lords as prisoners for longer periods of time, and it also helps your party's sight range while traveling in forests. But the Vantage Point perk offers great benefits, especially for the late game.

In addition to increasing your prisoner limit by 10, the perk increases your sight range by 50 percent if you are stationary for more than an hour. This is particularly useful while you are sieging an enemy settlement, and you can see defending armies approaching from much further away, and you can act before it's too late.

1 Vanguard

The final perks of the scouting tree offer benefits for auto-resolving battles. Rearguard increases your troops' damage when they are sent to defend your siege camps, as well as increasing the recovery rate of your wounded troops.

Vanguard increases your troops' damage when they are sent to attack or sally out, making it a better option in most situations as when you are attacking you usually have the numbers on your side and can more safely auto-resolve your battles.

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