Amateur guide for new players.
The Basics
All credit goes to MIttFisto!
Action Points – Are represented by the number in the top left next to the AP Panel. Actionpoints will reset each day to your current maximum. You can increase your actionpoints as you progress through the game or finish a tournament in 1st position. Action points can be the bottleneck for progress in the early days, gaining three to four actionpoints early on will allow you to fight and research simultaneously.
Action points can be used to:
- Research – tournaments, new buildings, recruitment field, tavern, etc. You can also gain wood and food with research which is handy later on to field a larger crew or to save coin early on.
- Enhance – Mood, training etc.
- Pit – Fight in the Pit to gain coin and enhance skills. You will earn Skill Points after each succesful fight and have the option to increase either health, stamina or damage.
- Gain – Skillpoints with the sparring option.
It is worth noting that skillpoints not used within the day will be lost, so make sure you use them diligently each day. The cut off for using SP is 20:00, the time when the sleep option appears on the bottom toolbar.
Skill Points – Are shown in the gladiator skills and gear tabs and are specific to each combatant. You can gain a potential two SP per fight. These can be used to equip armour, change weapons and learn new skills for your gladiator. You will need five of these to unlock the basic tiers and 20-30 Sp for the mid to high level skills.
Jobs – You can assign gladiators to undertake certain jobs within your Ludus. Janitor (cleaning), Chef (Food) and Crafter (wood to planks). Assigning a job will make your gladiators carry out these duties while idle. It is important that your stores are replenised regularly and the school is kept clean. In the overview tab on the bottom toolbar you can open your Ludus to the public, fame and cleanliness seem to affect visitors. Gladiators will improve at a given task over time. Your more prestigious gladiators will not like being assigned a job so plan accordingly.
Note: Chef and Crafter requires stamina. Janitor duties does not deplete stamina and even increases it over time.
Job Bug/Design flaw: Assiging two gladiators to the same task does not appear to work. This is problematic when you upgrade your Ludus and cannot keep it clean.
Mood – Can cause your Gladiators to go into a Rage. When their mood falls below 10 they will become unproductive and even kill your staff. Luckily mood only seems to affect new Gladiators and once the fights start rolling in this stat will become very easy to manage or even irrelevant. A good supply of wine will keep your gladiators happy through the early levels until they can compete in the Pit. I would not waste actionpoints increasing their morale. Carrying out jobs or hunger will deplete your mood.
The Pit – Is where you will fight the majority of your duels. Signing up for the Pit requires one skill point. You have the option of sending the gladiator alone or spectating the fight. Note that sending a gladiator to fight alone will require a considerable amount of time to complete and is only worth doing early in the morning. Spectating will allow you to fight instantly while mantaining command of all your gladiators for the duration of the day.
Note: Spectating depletes your gladiators hunger instantly, this means that you will use a lot more food each day. Sending a useless recruit alone allows you to train your skilled gladiators without pumping uneccessary food into them, a good trick if struggling with resources.
Tip: I only send very low level gladiators, ones that I have bought mainly for job allocation, to attend the pit alone. If you would like to fight and train a gladiator in one day then you must spectate the fight.
Training – Stamina is the most important stat to increase early on. Having a larger stamina pool will mean you spend less time resting your gladiators in the baths and more time training. You will find that your opponent will spend their stamina pool early in the fight. Using a defensive stance to block the early torrent of attacks can be useful, this allows you to pick apart your opponent once their stamina is depleted and they are unable to attack.
Damage: Is a very useful stat but will not need heavy investment early on. I would raise it to 7-10 to comfortably handle the level 3 Pit Fights and lower league tournaments.
Health: Is not that important early on. 70-80 will be more than enough if you invest well into your damage and stamina. When you decide to push towards the 20 Pit bracket, investing in health can gain levels swiftly. You will need around 500-600 health to participate in the later tavern quests and level 20+ Pit fights. At level 20 I had around 600 health,160 stamina, 90 damage.
Strategy
This is a strategy that I have tested and seems to work well.
Setup: Enter build mode on the bottom toolbar and purchase:
- Two beds
- One Bath
- One Exercise Wheel
- One Sandbags
Engage your gladiator in stamina training (Wheel)
Go to market and purchase a low level gladiator. Assign your gladiators to beds. Engage your new gladiator in Janitor job, he will begin cleaning if left idle. At this point you should research Tournaments.
Rest your main Gladiator once stamina depleted. Engage your Janitor in Stamina training.
Once main gladiator has recovered alternate Stamina and Damage training and repeat for the rest of the day. You want to get them to level three or close to it.
On the second or third day you will want to enter your top gladiator in the PIT, go for a defensive stance and the ‘try your best option’ which grants an inspirattion buff (once your gladiators reach around lvl 10 you might want to start threatening your gladiators in order to gain a confidence boost) You can use the last daily Action Point to boost your training or gain another SP point per gladiator.
You should recieve some armour unlocks, wood, food or weapon upgrades over the next few days in the PIT. I would not waste coin on supplies or the blacksmith (market) armour types, unless necessary. Armour is not really needed till later on but (if rewarded in a Pit fight) should be equipped (5 skill points) to allow a serious buff over the lvl 3 pit fights and early tournament arenas.
Once tournaments have been unlocked you should aim to complete the first tier as quickly as possible. This will give you an extra actionpoint if you place 1st in the tournament, which is not hard early on. This will increase the amount of fights you can enter and result in a lot of coin.
Use the overview tab on the bottom toolbar. This will give you lots of information regarding your ludus. The factions tab will tell you how long till the next bandit raid. You will not be in a position to fight the bandits off until you have three to four skilled moderately skilled gladiators. Use this timer to make sure that you spend most of your coin before they arrive. You can upgrade your training equipment and baths (very important) or hire staff, the bandits will request more coin if you have large reserves.
Ultimately you will want to get four gladiators (researching the recruitment option early would be a good idea) three of which engaged in the jobs and your main gladiator fighting and training all the time. All four gladiators should fight each day to keep alot of coin rolling in, along with the skillpoints. Upgrade your Ludus fully and do not upgrade until you have the need of more fighters and the coin and food to accomodate them.
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