Hajime Rising Skill Tree Guide: Unlock Order & Best Skills

The Hajime Rising skill tree is the panel the tutorial walks you through: you spend training points to unlock punches and utility moves, and every node asks for prerequisites on top — either an earlier move, or a stat raised through gym work. Hook and Uppercut are the first two named unlocks, X selects hooks and C selects uppercuts once you own them, and the branches behind those punches run toward named goals like Brawler. Here is how the whole tree fits together as of November 2026.

What the skill tree is

The skill tree opens during the tutorial, when the game first asks you to learn Hook or Uppercut. Unlocking happens inside the tree panel with the points you earn from playing, and it is deliberately separate from actually learning the move — the wiki’s core advice is that learning the key and acquiring the move are two different steps. A node you have unlocked still needs practice time before it does anything useful in a spar.

That split is what makes the tree feel like a lesson plan rather than a shop. Each unlock adds exactly one new control to your boxer — a punch, a dash, or a dodge — and the tutorial schedules them so you only ever carry one unfamiliar input at a time. Rush ahead and you end up with moves you cannot reliably throw; follow the order and each new node lands on a foundation you already own.

If you are still assembling the basics around it, the beginner guide covers where the tree sits in the full first-session flow, from the tutorial through your first spar.

Tutorial unlocks: Hook and Uppercut

Hook and Uppercut are separate skill-tree unlocks, not free starters. When the tutorial requests one of them, open the tree, spend your points on the named node, then return to the practice task it unlocks — time on the gym’s punching bag.

The inputs follow the game’s select-then-punch scheme: X selects hooks, and C selects uppercuts after the corresponding unlock. If you know the scheme from the controls guide, the tree is where those keys stop being theory — unlocking a punch node is what makes its key do something in your hands. Until the node is bought, the key simply does nothing.

Both punches also anchor the beginner learning tier list, which grades the early moves by how much new input they add rather than raw power. Hook grades first and Uppercut second precisely because they ride on inputs the tutorial has already taught you.

Branch routes worth knowing

Two named routes run through the early tree, and knowing them saves you wasted points:

• Hook, then Alternating Hooks, toward Brawler. The hook line continues into an Alternating Hooks node, and that route is the named progression path toward Brawler. We break that node down in the Alternating Hooks guide.
• Uppercut, then Full-Body Uppercut. The uppercut line has its own continuation in the Full-Body Uppercut node, following the same one-step-at-a-time shape.

Reading the tree as a sequence of separate goals matters because a previous move can be a requirement alongside your stats. Having points banked does not make every later node available — some are gated behind an earlier unlock first. When a node stays greyed out, separate its two possible blockers: finish the prerequisite move, or go train the stat the node asks for.

The wiki adds one more caution here: keep the displayed requirements attached to the specific node you want, instead of applying one character’s goal to every skill. Your route to Brawler and someone else’s route to a defensive build will touch different nodes, at different stat thresholds, on the same tree.

Early utility unlocks: Infighter Dash and Weaving

Past the two tutorial punches, the next tier of unlocks adds movement and defense. Infighter Dash is demonstrated with gloves and Q; unlocked Weaving uses Space. Both change how the opening lessons feel — one hands you a closing tool, the other a way to slip punches you would otherwise block or eat.

The editorial learning order for beginners runs Hook, then Uppercut, then Infighter Dash, then Weaving. Treat it as a practice schedule rather than a power ranking: give a newly acquired action a little practice time before adding the next one, because every node adds one more decision to each exchange. Players who skip the drilling tend to freeze mid-spar, choosing between inputs they never practiced.

Defensive unlocks reward that patience most. Weaving and its neighbours are what let you dodge hits instead of trading them — several players recommend the defensive nodes first once the tutorial punches are done, and the learning order agrees in spirit: movement and defense come after the punches they protect.

Prerequisites: moves vs. stats

Every locked node asks for one of two things, and telling them apart is the core skill-tree skill:

1. An earlier move. The node wants a prerequisite unlock first — Hook before its later branches, Uppercut before its continuation.
2. A stat threshold. The node wants gym work: power, endurance, stamina, speed, technique, and willpower all feed tree progress.

Early gates cluster around the 0.5 mark on a stat. Tutorial progression runs you to a technique of 0.50 before the next tree visit, and the same pattern shows elsewhere in the game — the double jab famously waits for speed 0.5, as the best builds guide notes. When a node will not budge, check which of the two blockers it is before spending anything.

The gym side of that work is straightforward. The punching bag trains your punches and your technique; the speed bag asks you to time each hit as it swings. Both drain stamina, and an empty stamina bar pauses the session — wait for it to recover rather than spamming through, because exhausted reps train nothing.

Funding your unlocks: quests and yen

Unlocking stays cheap early and grows expensive as the branches deepen, so income matters. Quests are the steady source: the quest log pays yen for training milestones, daily quests reset every day, and the weekly quests reset each week and pay the most. One reported daily handed out 2,500 yen for gaining stats from 40 training reps, and a weekly asked for 600 punches landed in fights (unverified — both figures come from a single player video).

For rerolls rather than yen, codes remain the fastest source of reroll tokens — the currency behind height and stance rerolls at character creation. Between quest income, codes, and honest gym hours, the tree itself is the only thing standing between you and Brawler.