The 10 Best Skills to Unlock First in Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 puts you in the shoes of both Peter Parker and Miles Morales, seesawing between the two in the story while letting you play as either in the open world. The two characters might have the same traversal and movement abilities, but in combat, they function wildly differently. Of course, to go along with two playable characters, Insomniac Games has created three separate skill trees for you to invest points in, one for Miles, one for Peter, and one for both. With so many different options to choose from it can be hard to know what to prioritize first, so here are the best skills you’ll want to get first in Spider-Man 2.

Best Skills for Both Spider-Men

You’ll earn experience for everything you do in Spider-Man 2, from main quests and side activities to simply stopping random crimes. While these skill points rack up quickly, there are over three dozen attributes to unlock in total. By and large, you’ll want to invest in the dual skill tree first, which features bonuses and perks for both Miles and Peters, applying to traversal, combat moves, and more. All of these skills can be unlocked from the very start of the game, unlike Peter and Miles’ trees, which have some skills blocked off until you progress far enough into the story. Here’s what you should focus on first.

• Spider-Jump and Spider-Dash – These two traversal skills are in the central column and only require you to unlock two previous skills, Loop De Loop and Corner Tether. You should unlock both ASAP as they greatly expand your traversal options and can make getting around the city, and chase sequences, even easier. These two skills recharge, and Spider-Jump lets you instantly perform a jump in the middle of the air, while Dash lets you, well, dash forward.
• Bounce Up – Bounce Up is one of a few similar skills, but it’s the first one you can unlock. Most importantly, it lets you extend an air combo by bouncing the enemy on the ground. This can be crucial for taking down tough enemies with a lot of health, on top of the fact that you’re typically harder to hit in the air. Increasing damage in the air and spending more time in a combo can help you handle battles with a lot of enemies.
• Wall Thrash – You should invest in almost the entirety of the left side of the skill tree before the right, as the moves are simply more useful in enhancing your combat abilities, and boy is there a lot of combat in Spider-Man 2. Wall Thrash lets you push an enemy against the wall and hit them with a flurry of kicks for huge damage. You absolutely want this skill unlocked before Symbiotes start swarming New York as they have much more health than your typical enemies, and this move both damages and stuns them.
• Web Line Double Takedown – Web Lines are a fantastic new feature of Spider-Man 2, letting you aim at a wall and press triangle to create a web line you can use for stealth takedowns. It almost goes without saying that being able to take down two enemies at once is a huge boon for your stealth capabilities.

Best Peter Skills in Spider-Man 2

Peter's skills are a bit unique in Spider-Man 2, as you won’t have access to half his tree until roughly 50 percent of the way through the story when he unlocks Symbiote powers. Because of this, you’ll want to unlock a few of his normal skills early on before focusing on the Symbiote ones.

• Spider-Rush: Tornado – Spider-Rush is Peter’s best ability, mostly because of how you can enhance it with other skills. It draws in nearby enemies from a greater distance, making Spider-Rush a hugely damaging ability that can disrupt a crowd of enemies.
• Spider-Rush: Express Webbing – Express Webbing is what really makes Spider-Rush fantastic as the first three enemies drawn in by the move will instantly be webbed to whatever they hit. For an enemy to get webbed, they’ll need to collide with an object, but this ability makes enemies travel so far it practically always works, and being able to instantly take three enemies out of the fight is a fantastic skill.
• Symbiote Yank: Empowered – With its Empowered version Symbiote Yank goes from a good ability to a great one. With it, Peter picks up multiple enemies at once before slamming them into the ground. You can only grab three at first, but Empowered breaks that limit so you can pick up nearly ten enemies at once. Massive damage and instant stagger make it obvious this is Peter’s best skill.

Best Miles Skills in Spider-Man 2

Miles starts out very similar to how he played in the previous game, but over time, he’ll unlock deadly new electricity powers that can drastically change how he plays. Most of these will be unlocked around the halfway mark, but one kicks in at about 75 percent of the way through the game. For our purposes, we’ve focused on abilities that are available early on.

• Bio-Siphon – Bio-Siphon should be one of your first unlocks, as it lets you use abilities more often. With this unlocked, Miles will charge his abilities slightly whenever he hits an enemy affected by his Venom. It’s a loop where the more you use, the more you charge.
• Chain Lightning: Power Overwhelming – Chain Lightning is the best ability in the entire game for crowd control, so it makes sense you’d want it to get even better. Power Overwhelming bumps up Miles’ number of bolts from three to six, letting you create longer attack chains. This is especially useful in large battles where enemies are grouped together.
• Thunder Burst: Static Boom – Thunder Burst is already a fantastic ability, letting Miles do a quick dash to an enemy, but having the ability to use it twice in a row completely changes your approach to combat. It gives you the option to get away from a tough enemy or zip around to opposite ends of the battlefield. A few fights with this unlocked and you’ll quickly see the difference.

Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is available for PlayStation 5.