Guide to Training Statistics

Why train your squad members? Watch a group of sand ninjas carve their way through a hapless mob of hungry bandits and you've got your answer. Specializing your characters is a great way to make them more effective at their chosen jobs, as well as enhance their survivability when they do get into combat.
Unlike other games, the amount of experience needed to level up in Kenshi does not change depending on the level. Instead, the rate at which you will gain experience decreases depending on your experience total. If the base experience of a skill is too low you will not gain any experience. As the xp amount given will equal 0 before reaching level 101, no skill can reach that level (With the exception of Field Medic and Robotics (Which level up based on time spent)) and many cannot even reach 100. 
== Recommended order for training combat skills ==
If you train up athletics and stealth first, this allows you to avoid (via speed or hiding) enemies in the wilderness, allowing you to engage in combat only where it would be beneficial. Next, build Toughness to reduce all damage taken followed by melee defense by getting hit by units with high attack. Followed by attack/dexterity by using rusted junk quality weapons with high cut and low blunt damage.
== Athletics and Swimming ==
Athletics and Swimming are trained in a very intuitive way. Athletics can be trained fastest by having a character's encumbrance percentage at or close to 0% and sending them running across the map. When at 0% encumbrance, characters will gain Athletics XP at 1.5 times their current level's XP rate. After a certain level, characters should be easily outrunning any hostile characters and can easily be sent running around without the user actively watching their location.
Athletics training in groups can be combined with strength training for an easy and safe training regimen. Reach 70% encumbrance with one character while carrying another unit, while everyone else at no encumbrance. The strength character will be at maximum strength training (50%), and all other characters will move at the same very low speed despite training at the maximum athletics rate (150%). Now just march back and forth inside the walls of a large city or your base. 
You can train swimming in order to easily escape powerful foes. Important to note however that your characters will never swim faster than they can walk. It is suggested to avoid swimming in water in areas like the Floodlands, South Wetlands, and The Swamp as many animals can still attack you while in the water. Always avoid swimming in acidic water as weather protections from armour against acid will not decrease the damage taken from swimming in it. Hive and Skeleton characters do not have to worry about Acid and are fine. Skeletons do not have to worry about leveling swimming at all, no matter their level they will swim at the same (6.711mph) speed. Note, characters cannot drown. When swimming carry another unit to double your experience gain. You cannot train strength while swimming but carry bonus applies to swimming.
== Combat ==
=== Dexterity ===
Weight actually has nothing to do with XP rate for Dexterity, despite the description. It's all based on the ratio of cut to total Damage on the weapon. The more cut relative to total damage, the more Dexterity XP.
Also see "Take Prisoners" in the section about Melee Fighting.
Weapons which will train Dexterity the fastest relative to Attack/Martial Arts XP are, Martial Arts, Katanas, Polearms (except staves), or Sabres. The lower the quality of the weapon the higher the cut damage will be relative to blunt so using Rusted Junk quality weapons will result in more experience. To calculate the amount of Dex experience gain when using a weapon simply take the cut damage and divide it by the total damage on the weapon:
\text{Dexterity XP} = \frac{Cut}{Cut+Blunt}
Then multiply the result by your racial experience modifiers. (Sheks = 0.8x, Scorchlanders = 1.1x, Hive Prince/Worker Drone = 1.2x)
Reloading crossbows and turrets also raises Dexterity, provided you have enough bolts: it can be an effective way to train Dexterity without increasing your Melee Attack, please note that leveling Dexterity in this way is extremely slow and will stop giving you experience before level 100.
=== Martial Arts and Dodge ===
Martial Arts can be a very tedious combat method to train because characters engaging in 'unarmed combat' can be injured through their attacker's hits as well as when landing their own hits. Starting out training Martial Arts against characters who are wearing anything heavier than Light Armour can easily result in a lot of self-inflicted damage taken over the course of the fight. If available, it is suggested to upgrade to Robot Limbs as they do not take damage from striking an enemy with Martial Arts.
Damage done while using Martial Arts depends on three skills: Martial Arts, Strength, and Toughness. Because of this, it may be better to grind Strength after to increase the number of attacks you can do before knocking out enemies while training.
As with Melee Fighting skills, the XP rate of Martial Arts and dodge is connected to whether a character is fighting someone who is better trained than them. Wearing Equipment which increases Martial Arts stats will result in easier battles but result in very little experience. The fastest way to train Martial Arts is to wear armour that reduces your Martial Arts levels while being over encumbered. Fighting young animals (like crabs in nests) can lead to very fast levels even in the late game.
Armour which gives Martial Arts stat boosts are: Martial Artist Bindings, Gi Pants, Gi, Sleeveless Dustcoat, Assassin's Rags, Ninja Rags and Armoured Rag Skirt.
Max martial arts boosts are: 
* Shirt Martial Artist Bindings +4
* Chest Assassin's Rags +6
* Legs Armoured Rag Skirt +4
For a potential maximum total of 14. The other armour slots do not provide any bonuses. You can further increase this by fighting indoors for another +8, grant a max total of 22. 
Max martial arts maluses are:
* Chest Samurai Armour -10
* Legs Samurai Legplates -10 
* Feet Samurai Boots -5 
*Duststorms -10 (Certain locations have weaker Duststorms) 
*Encumbrance -0.8% Martial Arts per 1% (Max of -80% for 100% Encumbrance)
For a potential malus total of -25 from armour alone, -10 from weather as well as -80% from Encumbrance. The other armour slots do not provide any maluses.
Around 30-40 points your characters should be hitting fairly often and depending on your Strength and Toughness your damage should be fair. Remember to try and weigh your characters down a bit while fighting to increase your Strength while you fight.
Dodge is trained alongside Martial Arts and will be trained when hit while unarmed, interacting with something (Sleeping, lockpicking, bandaging etc...) or while staggered. If characters have weapons equipped, they will try to use their weapon to block instead of dodge incoming attacks. An effective and safe method is to lower your character's dodge stats by wearing specific types of armour (E.g. the Samurai armour set) that reduce this stat, which will increase the speed of level gain. Your dodge experience gain will be reduced based off your encumbrance percent so training strength prior to dodge will be very useful. (Example; If you had 40% Encumbrance you would only gain 60% Dodge XP)
=== Melee Fighting Leveling Tactics ===
* Use light armor - Early on (until you build up your melee attack and defend skills) it makes sense to keep your fighters light - nothing but light armor or less, and focus on items that improve skills (bandanas, martial arts bindings, ninja or assassin rags, etc). This is both because a -1 skill or +1 skill effect means a lot more when your base skill is 1 than when it's 50. This has a second benefit: it makes them faster and better able to kite enemies (see below).
* Fly a kite! - Kite mobs of slower enemies to build up melee attack. Training dummies are useful (sort of) but slow. If you don't mind a bit of micromanagement, you can speed this up quite a bit. With one or two light fighters selected, attack a bunch of mobs (it'll probably work better if you use "attack target" from the right click menu on the nearest enemy). When your character(s) squares off against the enemy, watch carefully and use pause repeatedly to determine whether your character or one of your enemies is going to swing first. If it's your character, great. If not, run away just out of range and then reengage. Rinse, repeat. This will keep enemies from surrounding you and can often allow you to kill large groups of enemies without a scratch. Of course, if you make a mistake, you'll probably get mobbed and bludgeoned into the sand. But that's good for your toughness skill, right?
* Take prisoners - Once you can build prisoner cages, you can build training rooms that will help you level up fighters very quickly. Build 4 or 5 cages in a house, and fill them with the most skilled enemies you can capture on the battlefield. Don't forget to heal them before you bring them home, though, so they don't bleed out on the way! Once an enemy has recovered (enough), send one fighter into the building, close and *lock* the door behind them, and then let the enemy out. Fight them until one or the other of you falls. If the enemy wins, unlock the door and send in the rest of your troops to flatten them. Then heal your trainee and the foe and return your training "partner" to their cage to rest up (you can also use a bed for this, if you're willing to micromanage recovery times). This works much better if you give your enemies and yourself weaker weapons (rusted junk quality, craft them with a low level weaponsmith skill) and the best armor you have. Early on, this can result in a point of melee attack or defense and a point or two of skill in your chosen weapon every time you win (or a point or two of toughness when you lose). Depending on the weapon you use, you will also train Strength and/or Dexterity.
==== Training equipment ====
Train melee attack and defence with equipment that has maluses.
Melee attack max maluses with variants are:
* Head Tin Can -5, variant Samurai Helmet -4
* Body Hive Prisoner Shackles -15, Crab Armour -10, variant Samurai Armour -8
* Back Large Backpack -10
For a total potential malus of -30.
Melee defence max maluses with variants are:
* Head Armoured Hood -2
* Body Hive Prisoner Shackles -15, variant Armoured Rags -5
* Back Large Backpack -10
For a total potential malus of -27.
==== High Risk, High Reward ====
An effective yet high-risk method of raising melee attack and defence quickly is by lowering your combat skills, taking advantage the Stronger Opponent Logic systems. This happens when you equip a backpack, various helms or some armours such as the Holy Chest Plate. By lowering your effective skill levels, you may be able to drastically increase your bonus exp gained from fighting "stronger" opponents (up to x6 the normal exp rate for your level).
It is very important to note though, this does NOT make you level as fast as the penalized level. Your base exp rate is still based on your actual level. This only affects the bonus/penalty multipliers that come from fighting differently skilled opponents.
==== No Risk, High Reward ====
This method takes advantage of the game's AI system and results in dummy battles significantly easier than the Take Prisoners method. Start by recruiting someone into your squad, give them the best armor you have, a weapon with a defense bonus, put them on block then exclude them from your party. Since they are no longer a member of your faction, you can attack them. However, their AI does not seem to have a command which allows them to switch out of block mode, even though they will be in combat with you. This lets you super overload your characters you want to train up and beat on someone way over their level with no danger. 
Note: This method works until you reload a save. After loading, the AI returns to the default combat mode.
=== Ranged Fighting ===
One governs accuracy and the other is friendly fire. The FF one is only trained by shooting your friends, if you fail to hit your friends by accident you get no XP. The Accuracy one is trained simply by aiming, so fire rate has no effect. Important to note is that characters can aim at enemies even if they are not in their line of sight. Thus, aiming at an enemy, which is not in line of sight, without triggering aggro may prove to be a useful training method. For example: aiming at an enemy mounted on a turret. A great way to afk train your crossbow skill is to kidnap an enemy, stop his bleeding and block him off with weapon cabinets. When he wakes up, he won't be able to move. Take your archers and put them on "hold", then have them attack the entrapped enemy. They won't have a direct line of sight on him, so they won't shoot, but their crossbow skill will go up continuously.
Reloading a crossbow also trains dexterity and is conducted faster with a higher dexterity skill.
Trained by using a Training Turret for a while or simply by starting out on a defensive Turret and firing at enemies.
== Crafting Skills ==
Armour Smith, Crossbow Smith, and Weapon Smith are all stats which involve crafting Equipment and can be trained on the related Crafting tables. In the case of Armour Smith, experience can also be gained while creating the materials needed to craft Equipment. Working in darkness does not have an effect on XP rates, but it will slow down production speeds. So, letting the trainee work in darkness may get the same amount of XP while using less ingredients for training.
== Engineer ==
Training Engineer is pretty straightforward. When building objects, simply have all the individuals you want to gain Engineer XP work on them. They'll all gain experience quite quickly. You can also semi-automate this process by shift-right-clicking on a build project with all your engineers selected before assigning any other permanent jobs. These characters will then drop whatever they're doing and rush over whenever an engineering project becomes available.
A method of grinding the Engineer skill is to continually partially-dismantle (use the right-click option, not the option in the UI that appears upon object selection) and rebuild a previously fully constructed player-built object. This works because dismantling and rebuilding an object will not require more resources but still reward experience for BOTH dismantling and rebuilding. This does require micromanaging the object so it never fully becomes dismantled, else the object will be destroyed and some construction components will be lost, requiring more to recreate it. This is more easily done on an object with a high Condition value as you will need to be less attentive in switching between dismantling and build. It should be noted that the initial dismantling will take some of the object's Condition away immediately (usually 1 full Condition point) and can be enough to fully dismantle some objects with lower Condition amounts.
== Field Medic ==
The field medic skill allows you to bandage faster. It also allows you to fully use Advanced Splint Kits (51 hp) and receive the speed and cost benefits of the top two first aid kits. The basic first aid kit is horribly slow. Even if you advance your medic skill, your speed won't improve much using the basic kit. Beware head injuries, since they will lower your field medic skill. 
The basic first aid kit does have one benefit-it slows down healing so you can gain more XP for injuries you heal, since XP points are based on time spent healing. 
Even if you are tempted to train specialized medics, there is a good argument to be made for spreading out medical training (and first aid kits) to everyone in the squad because having lots of people healing simultaneously is generally faster than one specialist running around healing everybody.
Some recruits might have a field medic skill less than zero! A unit with their field medic skill too low may possibly apply negative bandaged health. Remember you can heal enemies to train up this skill, and there's always a reason to heal up allies. 
If you have sufficient medical kits and want to boost healing faster, remember not to limit your healing only to your own squad; you can boost your healing ability by healing any NPC or animal you find that are injured. You can use this tactic on hostiles only if they are unconscious or playing dead since they normally try to fight you, preventing your healing. Animals are one of the best ways to level field medic as they have massive health pools and do not have armour. 
=== Craft Medical Items ===
Build a Crafting table (Medical Workbench). Medical crafting increases Field Medic skill. This workbench is also used to craft Sleeping Bags, and while doing so continues to increase the Field Medic skill.
* Please note that crafting items at a Medical Workbench will level you very slowly compared to just bandaging units.
== Labouring ==
Very straightforward. Just give them a labor job and leave them alone. Loading a backpack up with heavy stuff and making them carry it around in their inventory (not on their back) might be helpful to train strength when hauling their stuff in the long run.
== Outpost Skills ==
These skills are almost exclusively used at a player outpost but can still be trained at some buildings in towns. Make sure to keep a light source near these buildings in order to avoid Working in Darkness stat drainage which will reduce the quality of the station's output. Working in Darkness does not have an effect on XP rates aside from slowing production speeds.
=== Cooking ===
The Cooking statistic will affect the speed of cooking. There is no specific skill requirement for different recipes, or increased quality of food produced.
=== Farming ===
Farming stat will affect the speed of farming as well as the success chance in which characters harvest crops from farms. The more farming skill a character has, the less likely they will fail to harvest a crop. Having over 1.0 in yield will not result in bonus crops.
=== Science ===
Science statistic is a skill which will enable characters to research Technology faster as it levels up. Additionally, the science skill will determine the range and accuracy of Prospecting. Working at a Research Bench or on an Electrical Workbench will boost Science experience.
== Robotics ==
Robotics is trained when doing repairs on a Skeleton or character with a Robot Limb. It can also be trained by crafting at a Robotics Bench or Skeleton Limb Bench. You can train XP continuously by having someone repeatedly craft Motor > Press > Skeleton Muscle > Robotics Component > Skeleton Repair Kit > Skeleton Repair Kit. Make sure to keep a light source nearby the crafting station in order to avoid Working in Darkness stat drainage which will reduce the quality of the station's output. Working in darkness does not have an effect on XP rates aside from slowing production speeds.
You can also station Skeletons in some place like Gut, The Shrieking Forest, The Bonefields etc... Zones where there are constant hordes of enemies who deal cut damage. Have your Robotics character nearby - on Passive if they aren't a Skeleton, and Attacking Enemies if they are - ready to repair the continuous stream of damage. Taking Cutting damage is the goal, as any stun (What blunt damage does) damage will recover on its own.
== Strength ==
=== Encumbrance ===
If you wish to build your Strength up, a safe tactic is to get a stacking Backpack full of Raw Iron and keep the backpack in your inventory instead of on your back. This will maintain a high encumbrance percentage up to level 100. Please note that this method is very slow and will take hundreds of days to reach 100 if that is your goal, and requires you to have a town loaded in. Without a town loaded in the max level of Strength reachable via walking is 96.65636 as a Shek. It is however safe and able to be done with multiple characters at a time. To achieve the full 50% XP rate, these characters need to be carrying someone. Any items carried by the unit you are carrying do NOT add onto your encumbrance, but carrying a unit does add 30 to your weight.
When not training or fighting, overload your characters and assign them jobs where they'll do a lot of running. Alternatively overload them and assign them to follow a patrol or some other traveling character around. Make sure to assign "follow" as a job to prevent your characters from stopping once they get interrupted somehow. A carried (not worn) backpack full of stacks of ore makes a great set of training weights. Important to add that swimming while encumbered will not result on any strength XP.
=== Weapons === 
Gaining strength XP while melee fighting is based on the required strength level of the weapon (Which is 40x the blunt damage of the weapon, or the weapons base weight, whichever is greater). You will receive more exp per hit for every strength level you are below the required level to use, capping out at (110% XP) 20 levels below.
=== Martial Arts ===
Characters can earn strength fairly quickly by overloading their character with encumbrance, and then fighting with martial arts. The STR XP you gain for hitting a unit is based off your encumbrance percentage. This caps at 100%, therefore it is 10% worse than using a weapon that you lack 20 Strength or more to use. Martial Arts also lacks far reach with their attacks making it even slower than using a weapon to train Strength.
== Thievery ==
=== Stealth ===
The absolute fastest way to train Stealth is by sneaking nearby massive amounts of enemies. For a more passive approach you can activate stealth mode on while doing other things. The stealth ability will only improve while a char is both moving and while also in proximity to an NPC or animal that might see them, so training stops if 'out of range' of NPCs or animals. Stealth improves whether you are visible or not to the NPC (i.e. being 'spotted' doesn't stop stealth training), so remaining in stealth while moving around in town is a safe, however extremely slow training tactic. Note that athletics also improves while running under stealth, but your character will just move more slowly at earlier levels. Since characters can remain in stealth mode while doing other jobs, a safe way to auto-train stealth is to give them any job(s) that makes them move long distances while close to NPCs. One possibility is to have them stealth and then set a job to mining a node outside of a friendly town and then return the ore to a storage box inside town. They will train stealth from trying to sneak past the town NPCs. This works in locations like The Hub, since the gate guards in other towns have a 'bag-check' dialog which can halt the character's movement until you respond to them. Please note that this is extremely slow experience and by sneaking near many hostiles you can level your stealth from 1 to 90 in a few in game hours. (Minutes in real life playing at max speed)
=== Lockpicking ===
An effective way to train lockpicking early is by entering a cage, lockpicking it and then re-entering the cage. The cage automatically locks upon entering. You can repeat the process as many times as necessary, lockpicking yourself out of the cage and then re-entering it. Common places to find cages are inside the police stations located in every town. Bast has many cages to break out of as well. Successfully picking a lock grants 5x the experience that failing does. The difficulty of the lock does not change the experience gained.
=== Thieving ===
You only gain XP in Thievery when stealing from a container or unit when there is a chance of failing. If the chance of stealing is 98% or higher, no XP will be gained. When no one is inside of the building you are stealing from the chances of being caught are reduced, even more if the doors are closed. An effective method to quickly level up ones thieving skill is to find an enemy that is downed but playing dead with their leg health below their KO point. Commonly, they will notice if you try to steal their items, but do not get up, which allows for fast experience gain. You can repeatedly put the same item in and out of their inventory while paused to manually train as long as your patience holds out. If they get up to initiate combat with the thief, that is okay too since they are already injured and therefore can be easily defeated again.
Stealing items that aren't in containers will give very small amounts of XP but without any risk of being caught as long as you aren't seen. Pick up a bunch of items off of shelves while sneaking and repeatedly drop them and pick them up again at night, or behind an object that blocks line of sight.
One of the fastest ways to train thievery is in the Northern cannibal territory as they do not activate the 20 second time check that normally occurs when you are caught. This means that you can steal from the same chest during pause over and over just by putting the stolen items back in the chest and stealing them once more. Works great with stackable items.
=== Assassination ===
In early stages, Assassination can be trained by making use of an Assassination Dummy, built by the player or used in Thieves Guild watchtowers. Once some levels are acquired, the player will have to try to assassinate other characters for experience gain. Safe, but perhaps a less effective method is by knocking out prisoners, which are held in cages.
An opportunistic way to skill up is by waiting until two groups fight each other. Eventually an opponent with damaged legs will attempt to flee by crawling away. Enter stealth mode and attempt a KO. A failure is preferred as it gives 3x the XP and can be repeated until a KO succeeds. Carry the now unconscious opponent away from any guards. As long as their legs remain injured, they will only be able to crawl away when they wake up. Repeat. You can keep earning xp this way until loading a save which can break the cycle as they forget they should flee. Otherwise, it can continue until they die of preventable hunger or bloodloss.
It is relatively safe to attempt to assassinate Fog Heavies while they are trying to eat their victims. After a failed attempt, they will ignore you and go right back to what they were doing. Furthermore, it has been noted that the Wandering Assassins do not respond to assassination attempts. However, this does reduce your relationship with the Shinobi Thieves.
In slave start you can repeatedly try to knock out fellow slaves who are placed on prisoner poles at night. This method will rapidly increase your skill but requires constant attention and clicking. However, this method is completely safe and can be also useful for improving the stealth skill.
== Toughness ==
Get beat up. Every received point of damage can get characters the same amount of XP, but the best way to gain is by standing up instead of playing dead. The best enemies for training Toughness against are enemies which will not capture, enslave or eat unconscious characters. A recommended enemy is Starving Bandits in Skinners roam.
Cannibalistic Hostile Factions can also help players increase their toughness. While a prisoner in a Cannibals camp or a Fog Deathyard, the location's residents will start eating their prey. This can easily lead to lost limbs. Players can create situations like this except without danger by building a Peeler Machine into their outpost.
Contrary to what the game suggests, wearing high quality Heavy Armour actually helps you increase your Toughness faster. This is because Heavy Armour reduces damages, meaning characters can take more hits before passing out instead of falling instantly because the enemy made a lucky shot. Characters which have been knocked out should wake up faster when wearing Heavy Armour because the hit which knocked them out is more likely to do less cut damage, meaning that the character shouldn't be damaged as far below their knockout point. Waking up from a knockout in the middle of a battle gives characters a chance for "Playing Dead," which can be stopped for a huge XP boost.
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