If you’ve just started Ludus Magnatus: Gladiator Manager Simulator, the Doctore is one system worth understanding early. At first, it can look like they’re simply there to improve your gladiators’ stats, but there’s quite a bit more happening behind the scenes.
A good Doctore can raise your fighters’ skills, pass useful talents onto them, and even help remove several undesirable traits. That makes choosing and replacing a Doctore an important long-term decision rather than something you should do purely based on one stat.
This beginner guide breaks down how Doctore training works, which talents can be learned or removed, and what you should consider when building stronger gladiators.
Ludus Magnatus: Gladiator Manager Simulator Beginner Guide – How Training, Skill Caps, and Talents Work
Historically, a Doctore was an experienced gladiator trainer responsible for teaching fighters combat techniques, discipline, weapon handling, and arena tactics.
Ludus Magnatus uses essentially the same idea.
Your Doctore trains gladiators outside of matches. They can improve a gladiator’s individual skills up to the Doctore’s Skill Level Cap, while also potentially passing talents onto the fighter.
That second part is particularly important.
A gladiator spending enough time under a strong Doctore can potentially come out of training with more than just higher stats.
How Do You Train Gladiators With a Doctore?
Go to your Roster and open the Training View.
From here, you can select an Individual Training Focus for your gladiator. They’ll then gain experience toward the selected stat while training under your current Doctore.
There are two major things happening during this process:
Stat progression improves the selected skill.
Talent progression gives the gladiator opportunities to acquire additional talents.
During normal training, a gladiator reportedly has a 0.5% chance per training day to learn a talent from the Doctore.
With Heavy Training, that increases to 2% per day.
That makes Heavy Training especially interesting when you’re deliberately trying to develop a gladiator with several strong talents.
How the Doctore Skill Level Cap Works
There’s an important limitation to training.
Your Doctore can’t indefinitely improve every gladiator.
A gladiator needs to have at least one trainable skill below the Doctore’s training stat cap to remain eligible for progression.
If all relevant skills have already reached or exceeded the Doctore’s cap, that gladiator won’t continue learning from them.
And this affects more than stats.
Once the gladiator is no longer eligible for training, they also lose the opportunity to acquire additional talents through that Doctore.
You can identify capped stats in the Individual Training Focus menu by looking for the lock symbol next to the gladiator’s stat.
This is something to keep in mind when developing a fighter specifically for talent acquisition. Racing every stat toward the cap isn’t necessarily what you want if you’re still hoping to pick up more useful talents.
Why Heavy Training Is Important
Heavy Training isn’t simply a faster version of ordinary training.
According to the available player observations, it increases the daily talent-learning chance from:
Normal Training: 0.5%
to:
Heavy Training: 2%
That’s four times the reported chance.
Heavy Training also has another valuable purpose: certain negative talents can potentially be removed.
So if you’re developing an important gladiator with undesirable traits, Heavy Training can give you an opportunity to clean up their build while simultaneously chasing positive talents.
Which Negative Talents Can Be Removed?
Three negative talents are confirmed in the supplied information as removable through Heavy Training:
Weak
Weak gives:
-10% Damage
-10% Max HP
Considering both penalties directly hurt combat performance, getting rid of Weak should be a priority on a gladiator you intend to use long-term.
Unathletic
Unathletic gives:
-20% Dodge Chance
That’s a significant survivability penalty, particularly for builds that already depend heavily on avoiding attacks.
Heavy Training can remove it.
Fragile
Fragile causes:
+25% post-match Energy Loss
It isn’t as immediately dangerous as Weak or Unathletic during a fight, but it can hurt your fighter’s availability and recovery between matches.
Heavy Training can also remove Fragile.
Talents
Here’s where the system gets interesting.
Certain positive talents can apparently appear through Heavy Training even when your Doctore doesn’t possess that talent.
The listed talents are:
Strong
Provides:
+10% Damage
+10% Max HP
An excellent general-purpose combat talent because both bonuses are useful on practically any gladiator.
Athletic
Provides:
+20% Dodge Chance
This is especially valuable for improving survivability and is effectively the positive counterpart to Unathletic.
Weapon Master
Provides:
+10% Damage with all weapon types
Weapon Master is another excellent general talent because its benefit isn’t tied to one specific weapon setup.
The supplied source notes that Weapon Master being learnable without the Doctore possessing it was initially based on another player’s information and was later reportedly observed firsthand.
Talents You Cannot Learn Through Doctore Training
Not every desirable talent can be farmed by keeping a gladiator in training.
Some talents are determined when the gladiator is generated.
The specifically listed examples are:
Lucky
Talented
Colossus
These can’t simply be taught later by a Doctore.
That means a gladiator who begins with excellent genetic talents can potentially be much more valuable than an ordinary recruit because you can subsequently add trainable talents on top of those innate bonuses.
Nationality Talents
Gladiators can also begin with nationality-related talents that encourage particular equipment choices.
Barbarian
Provides +10% Damage when using Axes and Clubs.
If you have a Barbarian gladiator, building around those weapon categories allows you to take advantage of the bonus.
Carthaginian
Provides +10% Damage when using Swords.
Egyptian
Provides +10% Damage when Dual Wielding.
Hellenic
Provides +10% Damage when using Spears.
Roman
Provides:
+10% Block Chance when using Shields
+10% Defense from Armor
Roman gladiators therefore naturally lean toward shielded, defensive setups.
These nationality talents are inherited when the gladiator is generated rather than something you teach later through your Doctore.
Fame Talents Explained
Your gladiators can also become considerably stronger by accumulating Fame.
Experience Level 1 – 10 Fame
Provides:
+5% Dodge
+5% Block
+5% Max HP
+5% Damage
Experience Level 2 – 30 Fame
Provides:
+10% Dodge
+10% Block
+10% Max HP
+10% Damage
Experience Level 3 – 60 Fame
Provides:
+15% Dodge
+15% Block
+15% Max HP
+15% Damage
Experience Level 4 – 100 Fame
Provides:
+20% Dodge
+20% Block
+20% Max HP
+20% Damage
Experience Level 5 – 200 Fame
Provides:
+20% Dodge
+20% Block
+25% Max HP
+25% Damage
Legendary – 400 Fame
Provides:
+20% Dodge
+20% Block
+30% Max HP
+30% Damage
+50% Fame Gain
Legendary gladiators also don’t wear helmets.
Demigod – 1,000 Fame
Provides:
+30% Dodge
+20% Block
+50% Max HP
+50% Fame Gain
Demigods also don’t wear helmets.
These bonuses give you another progression path beyond simply raising your gladiator’s underlying skills.
Champion Talent
Winning the final match of the Cup can grant the Champion talent.
Champion provides:
+40% Damage
+40% Max HP
+50% Fame Gain
Those are enormous bonuses, so turning one of your carefully trained gladiators into a Champion can significantly increase their overall power.
What Happens When You Replace a Doctore?
Don’t casually replace an excellent Doctore.
When a Doctore is replaced, they receive the:
Former Doctore
talent.
This reportedly happens whether the replacement occurs on your team or another player’s team.
The former trainer is then released onto the Ludus Exchange, where they can potentially be recruited again—including by one of your opponents.
Former Doctore provides:
+10% Damage
+10% Max HP
-15% XP Gain
So replacing an excellent trainer can have an unintended consequence: you’ve potentially released a strong character for somebody else to recruit.
Consider whether the replacement is actually a meaningful upgrade before committing to the change.
Best Positive Talents to Look For
Beyond Strong, Athletic and Weapon Master, there are several useful positive talents worth understanding.
Armour Piercer provides +25% Armour Penetration.
Big Game Player gives +15% Damage and +15% Dodge Chance, although it comes with +50% post-match Energy Loss.
Dirty Fighter causes critical hits to apply an additional 25% of the damage dealt as poison over 10 seconds.
Individualist provides +10% Damage and Max HP when the gladiator doesn’t begin adjacent to an ally.
One Handed Specialist gives +20% Damage, +10% Block and +10% Dodge when using a one-handed weapon without a shield.
Loyal reduces Loyalty Loss by 50%.
Reckless provides +10% Damage dealt but also increases incoming damage by 10%.
Shield Breaker provides +20% Damage against enemies carrying shields.
Showman increases Fame Gain by 25%, although the gladiator can’t wear a helmet.
And as mentioned earlier, Strong, Athletic and Weapon Master are particularly noteworthy because they can reportedly emerge from Heavy Training without requiring your Doctore to already possess them.
Brawler Is Equipment-Dependent
Brawler deserves separate attention because whether it’s beneficial depends on your equipment.
With Tier 1–3 gear, Brawler provides:
+10% Damage
+10% Defense
But with Tier 4–5 gear, it instead gives:
-10% Damage
-10% Defense
So Brawler may be useful earlier but actively harmful once you’re running high-tier equipment.
Don’t evaluate the talent without considering the gladiator’s current gear.
Genetic Talents
Several traits are tied to gladiator generation rather than Doctore training.
Colossus
Provides:
+15% Damage
+15% Max HP
-20% Dodge Chance
You gain substantial offensive power and durability at the expense of Dodge.
Lucky
Provides:
+15% Critical Chance
A straightforward and useful offensive bonus.
Slow
Provides:
-25% Experience Gain
At first glance, this sounds entirely negative.
Interestingly, it may have a niche use for a future Doctore, which we’ll get to shortly.
Talented
Provides:
25% faster stat gains
This is essentially the opposite philosophy: the gladiator develops their stats much faster.