Skills not Improving

[Champagne]

I have several skills maxed on one of my characters Archery 7 mechanics 6 cooking 6. I want to know how to improve them because using them does not seem to do anything to improve them. Is there a cap on how much a skill can be improved by using its related tasks in-game?

[pingpong]

If you’re playing normally, skill rust is on. I couldn’t even get more than one skill to be above 7 for a while, because it would rust out, chew threw my xp, and then rust out again. If you go into the options, you can turn it off ( ? key for the in-game menu). If you’re playing the same char, you’ll probably have to use some more xp for it to not be rusted below 00, but it will start climbing again

[Champagne]

It sounds to me like skill rust is broken then. because I only use a bow as a weapon any my archery never goes above 7(0%).

[Endovior]

Yeah, skill rust is somewhat broken right now. Apparently, it’s possible to accrue ridiculous amounts of ‘negative xp’ in a skill, that effectively prevent you from leveling it up ever again, since you can burn through an entire XP pool without making any noticeable impact on the rust. I’ve been experimenting with the rust cap (skill rust 1), to see how that makes things different, but I’ve yet to have another really successful survivor get to that point where the problem is really obvious.

[halberdsturgeon]

My current character has the enhanced memory bionic which prevents skill rust, and he’s had no trouble getting his skills to 10+.