Before you start picking and building your gladiator, you must understand the effects of each skill and its worth. A gladiator you bought and raise from level 1 can have maximum of 375 skill points to spend. Before investing in any other expertises, remember to max out fast learner first or risk losing skill points.

• Strength Capped at 150. Each point in strength increases your gladiator damage by 1. Strength is vital for gladiator to deal enough damage to defeat the enemy, especially when you don't have a good weapon. As it is difficult to get and maintain a decent weapons in early game, you will need to pour a lot into strength in the beginning. However later in the game, it might be better to focus on somewhere else while training a new gladiator and rely on the weapon damage instead.
  
  
• Stamina Capped at 150. Without any modifier, each attack will cost 8 stamina. Each point in stamina increases stamina capacity in combat by 1. Once your gladiator runs out of stamina, the gladiator will rest for a turn and recover half of the maximum stamina. While it is vital to have enough stamina for the fight, it is better to invest skill points on other skills after you feel that the gladiator have enough stamina to be effective in a fight. Remember to check the combat logs to see if you gladiator have enough stamina. Fights tend to end quickly in early game if your gladiator have enough dex as the enemy don't know how to defend yet. But, the fight will drag longer in middle-late game when enemy starts to have decent defensive skills and armor.
  
  
• Agility Capped at 150. I refer to agility and reflexes as 'defense skills' Every 2 points in agility will increase the gladiator chance of dodging by 1%. The gladiator can have maximum dodge chance of 75% at 150 agility. The gladiator will only dodge if the enemy attack will hit in the first place. It will have no effect if the enemy already miss the attack. Thus, the defense skills will only show their worth with the enemy that do have some dex to hit you. it is vital against stronger enemy.
  
  
• Reflex Capped at 150. I refer to agility and reflexes as 'defense skills' Every 2 points in reflexes will increase the gladiator chance of blocking by 1%. The gladiator can have maximum block chance of 75% at 150 reflexes. The gladiator will only block if the enemy attack will hit in the first place. It will have no effect if the enemy already miss the attack. Thus, the defense skills will only show their worth with the enemy that do have some dex to hit you. it is vital against stronger enemy.
  
  
• Dexterity Capped at 150. Every 2 points in dexterity will increase the gladiator chance of hitting the enemy by 1%. The gladiator can have maximum hit chance of 75% at 150 dexterity. This is perhaps the most important skill in the game. Do remember that the 'hit' can be blocked or dodged and the actual chance that the attack will land will be lower. Much lower.
  
  
• Intelligence Capped at 150. Every point will increase the EXP gain from training or combat. While it is usful for quickly building a gladiator. It is useless for combat. A smart gladiator can help you get the business up and running quickly.
  
  
• Health No known cap. 1 skill point will increase the health by 5. More health means the gladiator can endure more hit. However it is better to invest in defense skills and don't get hit in the first place. Even if the gladiator survive the hit, the time it takes for the gladiator to heal can cripple your business.

Note on defense skills: Statistically, developing single high defense skill will give a better chance of successful defense than balancing both. A character with 150 agi and 50 ref will have 75% doge and 25% block chances, giving 81% chances of defending the attack. A character with 100 in both will have 50% in both, giving only 75% chances.

Expertise are special ability for your gladiator. One gladiator can have maximum of 39 points of expertise. Plan how to spend you expertise well. Before investing in any other expertises, remember to max out fast learner first or risk losing skill points.

• Critical Chance Capped at 15. Each point in critical chance increases critical chance by 2% up to the maximum of 30% increase or 35% critical chance. This expertise is important for aggressive oriented gladiator for potential quick critical damage.
  
  
• Critical Damage Capped at 3 points. Each point increases critical damage by 25%. This expertise is important for aggressive oriented gladiator for potential quick critical damage. In early to mid game, a gladiator with maxed out critical damage may one turn kill the enemy. While one turn kill the enemy in late game is much less likely, the bonus damage will help end the battle faster which is vital for aggressive gladiator.
  
  
• Flair Capped at 7. Increase your gladiator chance of being spared from excution when lose. It is better to not lose in the first place. It also only works if the enemy gladiator only 'win' without landing a killing blow.
  
  
• Fast Learner Capped at 5. A MUST HAVE expertise. Regardless of the build. Each point in fast learner increase the skill point gain when level up by 1. It does not appy to the previous level. Avoid raising more than 1 level at once untill you maxed out the fast learner.
  
  
• Killing Instinct Capped at 5. It does not increase combat capability but it does increase the chance of killing the enemy with killing blow when you win by 5% each point, allowing you to progress through the game faster, especially when going against enemy with great history or high flair which has more chance to survive the execution. You have to win first though.
  
  
• Toughness Capped at 5. Each point reduce the damage recieved by 3 up to the maximum of 15. It shows its effect best when combined with plate armor (~60% damage migitation) making it only useful in late game for defensive gladiator.
  
  
• Quickness Capped at 5. Each point increase enemy stamina cost when the gladiator defended the enemy's attack by 2 up. At 5 points, that is 10 stamina cost increase on the enemy. Useful in forcing the enemy to rest and thus limiting their atack. Defensive gladiator benefit from this expertise the most. Very useful in long fights.
  
  
• Deftness Capped at 5. Each point reduce the stamina cost in the attack by 1, potentially reduce the attacking stamina cost from 8 to 3. This expertise allows the gladiator's stamina last longer which vital for longer fights. A defensive fighters will benefits from this the most. Agressive gladiator might want to have this in later fights when agressive gladiator cannot take the enemy down quickly.
  
  
• Weapon Training Allows the gladiator to get full damage bonus from the weapon he trained in. As there seems to be no difference between each type of weapon, there isn't much point in investing in this after you get stable weapon supply. However before you get enough cashflow to maintain stable weapon supply, having this expertise may make managing weapon easier.
  
  
• Armor Training Capped at 5. Allows the gladiator to wear heavier armor with no penalty. This is a late game thing expertise. At maximum level with plate armor and decent smiths, the armor can reduce the damage recieved by more than 60%.
  
  
• Second Wind Special, cost 10 points. Grants full stamina recovery when resting instead of half, allowing the gladiator to be maintain their combat effectiveness longer. However, 10 points is too expensive for this.
  
  
• Quick Reflexes Special, cost 10 points. The gladiator will dodge the first hit that suppose to land. A fail safe buffer. Very useful for any build.
  
  
• Out The Gate Special, cost 10 points. The first hit will always land. Potentially allowing the gladiator to do one turn kill regularly in mid game. It is significantly harder in late game where enemy start wearing armor though. But it is still very useful.
  
  
• Last Breath Special, cost 10 points. The gladiator recovers some health when health drop below 0 once, saving the gladiator from death. Another fail safe buffer. The worst expertise ever. 10 points are better spent on preventing your gladiator from getting to that point.

Reminder: Before investing in any other expertises, remember to max out fast learner first or risk losing skill points.

This section will guide you to evaluate the gladiator skill points into 'points worth' which is perhaps the easier way to measure the gladiator worth.

Firstly, DO NOT trust the scout evaluation in early game. Always prepare for lost. It is not uncommon for a gladiator scouted as a straight [A] grade turns out to be a straight [C] when recruiting with poorly skilled scout. Untill you get a decent scout, the recruitment is almost random.

After you do get a good scout though, you can start planning the recruit.

The scout evaluation grade range from [D-] to [A+]. Each grades at perfectly accurate evaluation can be calculated into numerical points below:
[A+] Around 65 points
[A] ~ 60 points
[A-] ~ 55 points
[B+] ~ 50 points
[ B] ~ 45 points
[B-] ~ 40 points
[C+] ~ 35 points
[C] ~ 30 points
[C-] ~ 25 points
[D+] ~ 20 points
[D] ~ 15 points
[D-] ~ 10 points

This grading applies to all skills.

As for the health, 5 health worth 1 point. Remember that there is a player perk which increases the gladiator health when recruited up to 200 health bonus. That is 40 points worth. You must add those bonus before calcuating the point worth if you do have the perk. The perk won't effect gladiator you already own though, so don't add the bonus on the gladiator you already own.

With these information, you can calculate the gladiator current points worth using the sums of all skills + health/5.

However, the method above does not account for potential growth. When you build the team, you must account for this growth. Thus, we must find 'potential points worth'.

The potential points worth of the gladiator is (current points worth) + (potential skill points)

Potential skill points is the skill points the gladiator can have in the future from leveling up. The total skill points you get from level 1-40 is 375 points if you max the fast learner expertise before anything else.

A level 1 gladiator has 375 potential skill points.
A level 2 has 370
A level 3 has 364
A level 4 has 357
A level 5 has 349
A level 6 has 340
A level 7 has 330 points.
At level 7 and after, the gladiator will get 10 points per level. Thus, remember to deduct 10 potential skill points each level from level 7 onward.

If the gladiator you are evaluating is level 1, then add 375 points to the current points worth to get potential points worth. If the gladiator is level 2, then add 370. Level 7, add 330. Level 8, add 320, and so on.

The simplest way to build a strong team is to get the recruit with the highest potential points worth. Any imbalance skill distribution can be corrected in later levels.

I recommend you to make a spreadsheet to calculate the gladiator worth and potential points worth and add some adjustment to the calculation to fit your preferences. For example, I remove int from the calculation in later game as it become less important and I calculate health at 0.25 point worth per 5 hp instead of 1 as I deem it less important than other combat skills.

To help you pick a gladiator:

The best gladiator I ever got has the potential points worth of 872 (without modifiers).

A potential points worth of 900+ is a perfect A+. Keep it. Brag about it.
850+ is a straight A gladiator. Must keep.
800+ is a good gladiator.
750+ is decent. Not good, but not too bad.
700+ is usable if you really don't have anything else. Change them out if you can.
Anything lower than 700 are trashes.

Let me give some example on calculating a gladiator worth. First the recruits:


From the picture, let's calculate the Ruga's worth using the conversion from evaluation grade and the potential points worth formular [(Potential points worth) = (current points worth) + (potential skill points) when (current points worth) = (sum of all skills) + (health/5) and (potential skill points) = 375] in a spread sheet program

Ruga's potential points worth = 10+65+35+40+10+10+(910/5)+375 = 727.


From the table above, you can see that I make two calculations: the current points worth and the potential points worth. The current points worth is the sum of all skills plus hp+/5. The hp was added by 200 as I have max bonus hp perk. The potential points worth is current points worth plus potential skill points at level 1 (375).

Ruga's potential points worth is 727. Not really good.

Let's compare him with my worst gladiator:


Plautus was one of most horrible hiring I ever did. His points worth was horrible. Before hiring, I estimated his point worth at around 800s. But the actual result:


687 He is a trash. Ruga is not that much better, but my teams are already set. I'm only looking for some spare gladiators, so let's kick Plautus out and try Ruga. I released Platus and hire Ruga. Now check his real skills:


And the calculation:


740 Compared to my extimation from the scout evaluation of 727:


He is better than expected. Though he still not worth training as I already got a good team and a stable business, he is a decent addition for earlier game.

Try to check your own gladiators and potential recruits. Making spreadsheets will help a lot. Replace your gladiators with poor potential points worth with recruits with better potentials and start building a legendary gladiator team.

I will give you the spredsheet I use to evaluate gladiator here:


Spread Sheet[mega.nz]

Before anything else, remember that you MUST max out the fast learner expertise before other expertises if you want to get the most skill points. You could lose up to 5 skill points for every level you did not have fast learner when you level up.

There are multiple builds you can choose:

• Early Bread Winner More than anything, this build need decent dexterity, strength, Stamina, and intelligence. The idea behind this build is to build a quick heavy hitter as soon as possible so that the gladiator can kill the enemy before they can land a hit. However due to the lack of defense skills, it is not recommended to use this build against more powerful gladiators or beasts which know how to land a hit. It is only useful for very early in the game and you should move out of the build after you manage to get a stable income.
  
  
• Early Regulars Gladiator with a balance of dexterity, strength, defense skill (either agility or reflexes), and some stamina. After getting some breads, you will need to build regulars that can really fight someone who can fight back. I recommend turning early bread winners into regulars by pumping the defense skill. Remember to raise either agility or reflexes and NOT BOTH
  
  
• Late Game Trainees There is no urgency in building trainees in late game. Thus, intelligence can be ignored. Better weapon in late game also allows the gladiator to be effective in a fight even with low strength. Put all points in dexterity to quickly build the gladiator up to challange the beasts. Remember to have enough stamina for the fight.
  
  
• Aggressive Gladiator Aggressive Gladiator aims to end the fight quickly and not let the enemy retaliate An aggressive gladiator will one-hit kill enemies in early-mid game until the enemies start wearing armors. Aggressive gladiator focus on dexterity and strength, with sufficient stamina pool and survival ability (Defense Skill/health/armor). At max level, the gladiator should have max dexterity, strength, stamina, and one defensive skill, with all remaining points in another. The aggressive gladiator expertises are Critical Damage and Chance. Out the Gate, Armor training, and deftness is also recommended in later part of the game.
  
  
• Defensive Gladiator Defensive Gladiator aims to drag out the fight to tire the enemy restricting their attack later in the fight. If the gladiator already have high defense skill and you want to build a defensive style gladiator, put those points into defensive skills and stamina. Remember that you also need some dexterity and strength to be effective fighter. At max level, the gladiator should have max both defense skills, stamina, dexterity, with the rest of the points on strength. The expertises defensive gladiator loves are Quickness, Deftness, Armor Training, Toughness and Quick Reflexes. Remaining expertises can be spend on crits.

Of course how you build the gladiators depends on your preferences. It is best to try out various builds and create the build you like the most.