Dominus Gladiatus Fatigue: Thresholds and Recovery Guide

Fatigue runs on a 0-to-5 scale on each gladiator, and the decisive rule is: at fatigue 3 or higher your gladiator enters the arena with reduced health, and above 5 they take an injury — so rest anyone at 2 or 3 before a fight. Training and fighting both raise fatigue; you lower it with the rest action or by assigning gladiators to the Quarters, which recovers fatigue faster. These values were shown directly in an in-game fatigue tooltip recorded in a Dominus Gladiatus playthrough video, so they reflect the demo build; treat exact numbers as subject to patch changes.

How the fatigue system works

The tooltip spelled out in the playthrough gives the full rule set:

• Training and fighting increase fatigue. Every day a gladiator spends training adds to the counter, and arena fights do too. A fighter fresh off a battle usually comes back "just tired."
• At 3 or higher, reduced arena health. The gladiator steps into the arena below their base health. In the playthrough a fighter with base 115 health is shown entering a fight at 2/5 fatigue without penalty, but at 3 the reduction kicks in.
• Above 5, injury. Exceeding five fatigue causes an injury. Arena fights can also cause injuries on their own at fatigue 3 and above.
• Three injuries of the same type become a severe injury. Treat injuries in the Infirmary before they stack into a severe one.
• Lower fatigue through gladiator actions or rest in the Quarters. Both routes work; the Quarters is the faster, dedicated option.

The gladiator panel displays the counter as "X out of five" with a descriptive word: 0/5 is "Fresh," and higher values show the fatigue level through an icon next to health and morale. The official Steam page lists fatigue alongside injuries and morale as one of the three management pillars you juggle when deciding who needs rest, who is ready to fight, and who can be pushed further.

How to rest a gladiator

1. Check the fatigue counter first

   Select a gladiator with the left mouse button and read their fatigue value on the panel. Anything at 2/5 is borderline; 3/5 or more means the next arena appearance will come with reduced health. The counter sits next to health, injuries and morale indicators, which the September 17 demo patch reworked for clearer display.

2. Use the rest action or the Quarters

   Two routes recover fatigue. The gladiator action menu includes a "rest from training" option — the playthrough uses it to pull tired fighters off skill drills. Alternatively, build the Gladiator living quarters (25 coins in the demo; raised to 30 coins by the November 2 pre-launch update) and assign a gladiator to it. The Quarters is described in-game as the place where gladiators rest and recover from fatigue faster, at a usage cost of 2 coins.

3. Let time run

   With the game unpaused (the sun icon, or space to continue), resting gladiators recover over in-game days. Gladiators left idle without any assigned task also gradually reduce their own fatigue little by little, so pulling someone off training helps even before they reach a bed. Note that a rest or training activity with less than 0.1 day remaining automatically finishes when an arena match is pending, so a nearly complete rest won't block your fight.

4. Confirm they are fresh before the fight

   Before selecting fighters in Arena Preparation, check that fatigue is back to 0/5 "Fresh" and that morale is positive. The playthrough's narrator repeatedly refuses to send anyone above 2/5 into the arena and instead books a cheap fight with a rested fighter — which also earns coins while the tired ones recover.

The Quarters and the Infirmary: what each does

The two buildings solve different problems, and mixing them up is the classic mistake:

• Quarters (rest building): recovers fatigue faster than idle rest. Costs 25 coins to build in the demo, raised to 30 coins in the November 2 update, plus 2 coins per use. If your fighters are tired but uninjured, this is the building you need.
• Infirmary (treatment building): heals injuries, at a per-use fee (6 coins in the playthrough). It does not solve plain tiredness.

Thresholds that interact with fatigue

Several systems feed into or interact with the fatigue counter, mostly confirmed through official patch notes:

• Doctore boost: since the October 16 demo patch, the Doctore's training boost no longer adds extra fatigue, so a boosted training schedule is safer than it used to be.
• Difficulty: on Easy, critical arena damage causes less fatigue, and defeats on Easy award 50% rewards versus 25% on Normal — so the fatigue you accumulate per fight is partly a difficulty question.
• Mines: sending a gladiator to the Mines hits the morale of everyone in the Ludus, including gladiators occupying rooms (prioritized over other morale events since November 2). It's an income tool, not a recovery tool — never rest someone there.
• Fast recovery talent: slaves with the "fast recovery" talent, visible at the slave market, are described as better at shaking off minor fatigue, making them stronger candidates for a fight-heavy rotation.
• Morale link: according to the October 16 patch notes, the interaction between critical injuries, low morale and suicide risk was reworked so maximum injuries raise risk only for gladiators already suffering prolonged low morale — another reason not to let fatigue-driven injuries stack up.

One reviewer at Little Bits of Gaming notes that once the fatigue-reduction upgrade unlocks early on, the rest-train-fight loop becomes quite forgiving, which matches what the playthrough shows: with a Quarters built, rotating two fighters between training, resting and arena bouts keeps everyone near 0/5.

A sustainable rotation

The loop demonstrated in the playthrough works as a standing routine:

1. Train a skill until the fatigue counter climbs to 2–3.
2. Swap that gladiator into the Quarters (or use the rest action) and start training the next fighter.
3. Send only fresh or near-fresh gladiators into the arena.
4. After each fight, check fatigue and injuries immediately; treat injuries at the Infirmary and rest in the Quarters before the next bout.

This keeps reduced-health arena entries rare and stops the same injury type from reaching three — the point where it turns severe.

Next steps

• Morale interacts directly with injuries and fight refusal; see the guide to Dominus Gladiatus morale for how low morale compounds injury risk.
• Crowd calls and favor affect fight outcomes independently of your fighters' condition — the crowd favor page covers that side of arena preparation.

FAQ

What is Dominus Gladiatus fatigue and what do the numbers mean?

Dominus Gladiatus fatigue is a 0-to-5 counter shown on each gladiator. Training and fighting increase it. At 3 or higher the gladiator enters the arena with reduced health, and above 5 they get an injury. Arena fights can also cause injuries directly at fatigue 3 and above.

How do I lower fatigue quickly?

Build the Gladiator living quarters and assign tired gladiators there — the Quarters recovers fatigue faster than anything else, at 2 coins per use. The rest action from training also works, and idle gladiators gradually reduce their own fatigue. Build the Quarters early; it costs 25 coins in the demo, 30 coins after the November 2 update.

Why is my gladiator still tired after the Infirmary?

Because leaving the Infirmary early heals injuries only in proportion to the recovery time completed and restores fatigue to its value before admission, per the September 17 patch notes. Send them to the Quarters afterward.

What happens if I ignore fatigue?

Above 5 the gladiator is injured, arena fights at 3+ can add more injuries, and three injuries of the same type become a severe injury that needs Infirmary treatment. Combined with low morale, accumulated injuries were reworked in October to raise suicide risk for gladiators already in prolonged low morale.

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Check note (2026-11-08): fatigue thresholds, the Quarters and the rest actions come from the Dominus Gladiatus #1 playthrough video (demo build); patch details come from the developer's announcements on the official Steam page and the Steam Community hub. Exact fatigue-recovery speeds per day of rest remain unconfirmed, as does whether the full release changed any threshold value.