Skills are a great way for you to define your Mount and Blade II: Bannerlord character. They determine what your character is good at, and the more of a particular skill your character has, the more perks they can gain to receive additional perks. Perks are an important aspect that you want your character to always have, and adding them to your character takes a bit of time.
To receive benefits for your character, you need them to upgrade and improve a skill. Developing a skill in Bannerlord involves doing a specific activity over and over again. For example, if you want to get better with a bow and improve this skill, you have to use it in combat and damage enemies with one regularly. The same goes for one-handed, two-handed weapons, firearms, and your character's tactics. If you ever want to know how to improve a skill, open your character sheet to see any of your skills, click on it, and it should detail what you need to do in Bannerlord to receive experience points for it.
Once you have enough levels in this skill, you have the option of choosing a perk from this skill tree. Some skills only have one perk available at a certain level, but most of your skill tree will give you an option between two of them. You have to choose which of these two you want to use by hovering over the perk, clicking on the expanded screen that appears describing what your character will receive, and then seeing the perk icon turn silver. When you choose all the perks you want to receive, go to the bottom of your character sheet and click done. It will save all of your choices, and you will now receive these perks every time you complete this activity.
You want to visit your character sheet often to see which skills you've improved and check if you've unlocked any perks next to that skill. The more advantages your character has, the more he becomes an influential and powerful leader in which Bannerlord.
