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### Topic

#### Unclear on Unlearning

I have a feeling that the answer is going to be 'no', but I thought I'd better ask!
if you unlearn the first levels of a skill set does this then prevent you from operating at a higher level you have subsequently gone on to achieve, given that earlier levels are a requirement when you are learning?
For example, if I unlearned Mining II, would I lose my level 3 status because I no longer have the requirements needed for it?

Posted 11 months ago by dipity | Permalink

### Replies

- You have to unlearn the higher levels first, and work your way down.
  Posted 11 months ago by Draron | Permalink
- You can't unlearn Mining 2 until you've unlearned Mining 4 and then Mining 3. . .
  (It's the reverse of "You can't learn Mining 2 until you've learned Mining 1")
  --Me
  Posted 11 months ago by SchWM | Permalink
- Thanks guys. I should have realised that. Doh!
  I may as well go on to present myself as a complete eejit and ask another dumb question. So you presumably revert back to being only able to operate at the most basic level and lose the abilities to reap super harvests, bonus items etc.?
  Posted 11 months ago by dipity | Permalink
- Aww I hoped it didn't work that way. I really hoped I could clear out the supporting levels and keep the top ones in place. Why would anyone choose to loose skills.
  Posted 11 months ago by Octo | Permalink
- I assume you do it, so you can learn another longer skill faster. But then once that skill is learned you can again learn the skills that you have unlearned? I think? I find this very confusing also but I maybe just having a senior hour :)
  Posted 11 months ago by Qizara | Permalink
- I don't understand why you would want to unlearn anything anyway ...this whole skill is confusing to me. What is the purpose?
  Posted 11 months ago by Bella | Permalink
- i'm glad it's not just me that was unclear on this.
  I agree with you both,Octo and Qizara,,,, it seems pointless unlearning something to learn a new skill faster if you only then have to re-learn what you unlearned in the first place!
  Posted 11 months ago by dipity | Permalink
- The ticket I think is unlearning skills you don't use, say you rarely harvest peat bogs you could unlearn it's skill and learn another faster. Also for longer skills say mining 4 or potions 2 you could unlearn the gassifying and bubble tuning skills and learn mining 4 faster and still relearn tuning and gas in less time then just learning mining 4 and not unlearning anything in the first place!
  Boaz
  Posted 11 months ago by Boaz Jachin | Permalink
- It would be useful only if you unlearned something right away but you don't, it takes time to unlearn there by just wasting time you could have spent learning a new skill in the first place.
  Other problem you need to pay attention to is cross skills. It takes knowing a few different skills to learn botany or how to work machines.
  Posted 11 months ago by BlackWolf | Permalink
- I believe there is greater things at work here. I seems that there will be added a buttload of skill come the new housing system, and in the months following that. As the imagination grows bigger, perhaps it will become more interesting to unlearn stuff you don't use as much, to reap benefits otherwise locked.
  For those who have already accumulated a high skill set and levels, unlearning may seem unnessesary, but for those who are just joining one path to wealth could be: mining skills to provide currents and wealth for a house, then unlearn to become a master chef and gardener quicker.
  Posted 11 months ago by Hen vla Ham | Permalink
- I think unlearning will make a lot more sense when there are more skills. They keep saying they have a LOT of new skills in the works, so eventually, it will make a lot more sense to specialize, especially if you don't feel like waiting a month at a time to finish higher level skills.
  So, maybe you realize at some point that Blockmaking is kind of pointless, and decide to unlearn it, so you have more brain space to learn something like Mining V faster. That's all.
  Posted 11 months ago by Wintera Woodswitch | Permalink
- I am glad to see I'm not the only one who finds unlearning weird. And I've come to the conclusion that it's not me (this is rare--it's usually I that am misunderstanding something, but in this case, I really think unlearning misses a fundamental point about brains: they are NOT computers. Brains are, like the Tardis said when she became human on Dr. Who, "Oooooh! It's bigger on the inside than the outside!" Now, she meant human beings, but I would posit that any sentient being (including Glitchen) has consciousness, and that's really what she was referring to. I would further posit that the more we learn, the faster learning should go. Because you're building on the foundational skills, which are always the hardest to acquire. So I won't be unlearning any skills. It's fun knowing stuff. And you never know when you might need it. Sign me a skills hoarder, and proud of it.
  Posted 11 months ago by Axa | Permalink
- So lets say for example, we have learned all the skills except.."unlearning". Would it make sense to learn those skills now, even if at present we don't intend to use them, but it might be beneficial to us in the future?
  Posted 11 months ago by Cryztal | Permalink
- I see it as more of a generalist vs specialist approach in the long run. Personally I'm a generalist (I know quite a bit about virtually everything) but I'm not a specialist so I truly cannot tell you the inner workings of one specific tech platform for example. Maybe this will come to play in the game where one who specializes in cooking will get greater and more advanced recipes than someone who is a specialist in mining or a generalist overall
  Posted 11 months ago by Snowpuff | Permalink
- Axa wrote: I would further posit that the more we learn, the faster learning should go.
  But that is not how your Glitchen brain works
  For each skill learned there is a time penalty for learning another one, (there are a certain number you can learn without penalties). I have a 550% penalty So Potionmaking 3 is currently quoted as taking 19 days 10hrs 2min 58 secs, so for ease I'm going to say that is 20 days, it will take me 110 days. And the penalty will go up by 3% for the next skill, so the next skill will take me 553% of the base learning time.
  But if I unlearned skills I don't use or want then that penalty % will be reduced
  Posted 11 months ago by IrenicRhonda | Permalink
- However, the Unlearning skill tree also increases the time penalty so in order to see benefits you'd have to unlearn at least four skills (the fourth one would be the first "real" decrease in the learning penalty).
  Edit: This is not true, see below. Unlearning skills don't increase your time penalty. Woohoo!
  Posted 11 months ago by Miel | Permalink
- As far as I know, Unlearning does not increase your learning time penalty. And I agree that Unlearning will likely be more beneficial in the future; apparently dozens more skills are in the works.
  Posted 11 months ago by Bradamus Prime | Permalink
- Yeah, they changed it so that the unlearning skills do not increase your learning time penalty. If you finish all the badges related to a particular skill, and aren't interested in doing it any more, it totally makes sense to clear a little room in your Glitchen brain.
  Posted 11 months ago by Penelope Sue | Permalink
- I'm unclear about the achievement that is supposedly earned for unlearning Unlearning I.
  www.glitch-strategy.com/wik...
  I learned and unlearned this skill yesterday and did not get any badge. I wonder if it's not really earnable at all.
  Posted 11 months ago by Beefwich | Permalink
- The devs have said when the skill was first released that it would not affect your skill learning time just like better learning. I have unlearned a bunch of skills and have cleared up a bunch of room in my head. Like jellisac hands... Who actually needs that??? Unless of course you like jellisacs. And blockmaking and engineering and so on. Lol. Crystallization or whatever seems totally pointless for me. So yeah. All those skills gone. Helped me learn AKwhateverthelastoneis a day of so faster and yeah.
  Posted 11 months ago by Clickadee | Permalink
- @Beefwich - It doesn't proc until you log into game. I had the same thought when I did it :)
  Posted 11 months ago by Yessi | Permalink
- *double post*
  Posted 11 months ago by Yessi | Permalink
- Oh, cool! Thanks Yessi!
  Posted 11 months ago by Beefwich | Permalink
- Just curious, Unlearning is the only thing I have left to learn. Is it a waste of time to learn it? Will it increase the amount of time the next skill to come along will take? Do I want to bother with it and the space it will take up in my brain? Your thoughts............
  Posted 11 months ago by Li'll Missy Brenda | Permalink
- I always thought that maybe there is a secret achievement for unlearning everything after you've learned everything.
  Posted 11 months ago by The Prophet | Permalink
- Cryztal - as others have said, no reason not to learn Unlearning, once you have the rest of the skill tree. Unlearning doesn't use memory space or contribute to learning penalties, and it gives you options you wouldn't have otherwise.
  If you're a badge completist, it's worth learning Unlearning just to unlearn it and get the Confounder of Logic badge.
  IrenicRhonda-- as always, I (not irOnically) love your name. But PM3's base times is 4 days. It's only with your current penalty that it comes to nearly 20 days to learn. Which is still more than enough-- that and Bureaucratic Arts III together will take 53 days to learn for people like us that have the entire skill tree.
  Everyone-- this is the payoff-- those two skills (which are already in the Encyclopedia, so we KNOW they're coming, and I KNOW I want them) will take me 53 days 16 hours to learn. If I unlearn all the three hour skills or less first (which will take less than 3 hours with Unlearning 3), then they will only take 41.1 days to learn, and relearning those short skills (gas, spice milling, etc) will only take 2 days to get back-- net result is I've saved 10 days of learning time. That's a lot of shrine donations!
  If the skill tree gets bigger, or I was willing to unlearn more stuff (unlearning the "shortest base time" stuff gives the most bang for the buck) then the benefit of Unlearning becomes greater.
  There is no doubt (from multiple things staff has said) that they want to encourage specialization. It won't take very many more skills added before I'll be giving up the cooking tree entirely, and buy all my Awesome Stews on auctions or in person-to-person trades. If they add 3 more trees, I'll be losing Mining once I get my alchemical badges...
  Axa -- if they add three skill trees like Mining or TP, then it would take 6 RL months to be a skills hoarder and know everything. Just FYI.
  Snowpuff-- nothing wrong with being a generalist, but the place we're going in this game is that you can know the lower levels of EVERYTHING fairly easily, but the higher levels will take dedication (or giving up on some skill trees entirely...)
  (IMHO, that's a good direction, incidentally)
  --Me
  Posted 11 months ago by SchWM | Permalink
- Beefwich - I'd definitely report that. If you were capable of Unlearning (so you'd totally learnt Unlearning I) and you finished Unlearning (you didn't just click the skill to Unlearn it and then go on to doing something else) it, so know you're incapable of Unlearning, you should have gotten the badge...
  Argh. I'm typing so slowly and people are posting so fast that I'm being redundant. Sorry!
  --Me
  Posted 11 months ago by SchWM | Permalink
- @SchWM - I haven't actually logged in yet to check, per Yessi's suggestion, but if it's still not there when I do, I'll definitely report it.
  - Beefwich (logged in as dm)
  Posted 11 months ago by dm | Permalink
- SchWM wrote: IrenicRhonda-- as always, I (not irOnically) love your name. But PM3's base times is 4 days. It's only with your current penalty that it comes to nearly 20 days to learn. Which is still more than enough-- that and Bureaucratic Arts III together will take 53 days to learn for people like us that have the entire skill tree.
  Ah, so the quoted time already takes the penalty into account! I didn't know that , and quite reassuring.
  (Irenic=tending towards peace, conciliatory)
  Posted 11 months ago by IrenicRhonda | Permalink
- To give an example, I have a friend who is in love with the bogs. She lives there growing herbs and scraping together whatever food she can find. Based on conversations with me, she came round to my belief that processed food is not valued in the current economy and decided not to learn any cooking skills. She cannot even use a knife and board. She also does not fruit change or spice mill. But she gets plenty to eat - food is easy to get in this game.
  When potions came around, she was able to learn distilling within a few hours and was selling hooch for 100c per bottle. Potions I followed soon thereafter and Potions II was just another day after that. She was one of the first people with Purple essence and was able to amaze her friends (myself included) with bottles of it, then sell it for 10,000c per bottle.
  "I can wait", is the completists smug cry, but you have to hold them to that because their other morneful cry is "why is it going to take me a month to learn?"
  The learning penalty will (strongly!) encourage specialization within the skill tree. Some players will come to accept that and others will just sulk. I myself am beginning to wonder if cooking and croppery are really worth it - I might even take my own advice.
  Posted 11 months ago by WalruZ | Permalink