Worker Skill Values

A Note On Skill Values
In the game you will see the various skill values displayed as numbers between 0 and 100 and they are always whole numbers.

It is important to note that this is just for ease of use, as 'behind the scenes' they are broken down into decimal places; i.e. a value may be 51.7 and you would see it as 51 (it's always rounded down). During this part of the handbook you will see mention occasionally of the decimal places; this is just to let you know how things operate behind the scenes, it does not mean that you should be looking for that level of detail onscreen.

Scouting
Every worker has six scouting categories - in ring, physical, entertainment, performance, broadcasting, refereeing - which define how accurate skill reports will be.

The lower the rating, the wider the spread of numbers. For example, at a low level you might see '30 - 70'; this means that the skill is somewhere in that range, but you don't know where. Each of the six scouting levels is hidden in game, but will slowly rise as the worker performs. However, they are linked to what the worker is doing - for example, the refereeing scout level only goes up when the worker is actually refereeing a match. The longer the segment, the quicker scouting increases.

In ring scouting affects Brawling, Puroresu, Hardcore, Technical, Aerial, Flashiness, Psychology, Basics, Selling, Consistency, and Safety.

Physical affects Stamina, Athleticism, Power, Toughness, and Resilience.

Entertainment affects Charisma, Microphone, and Acting.

Performance affects the various performance skills (babyface, heel, cool, etc).

Broadcasting affects Announcing and Colour.

Refereeing only affects Refereeing.

The following skills are not affected by scouting and so are always shown with full accuracy: Experience, Respect, Reputation, Star Quality, Sex Appeal, Menace, Business Skill, Booking Reputation, and Booking Skill.

Brawling
This is a measure of a worker's ability to work a brawl-style match. It is used to calculate a worker's in-ring performance in most match types.

Like most of the basic in-ring skills, workers learn Brawling from performing in matches and do so quicker if they are working with people who have higher values than them. Brawling is one of the slowest skills to degrade once a worker enters their decline phase, meaning workers can generally still brawl to a good standard even when they're quite old. Brawling can be impacted by size and shape changes.

Puroresu
This is a measure of a worker's ability to work the type of match closely associated with Japan where it's a mix of stiff strikes, realistic ring work, and impactful throws and suplexes. It is used to calculate a worker's in-ring performance in most match types.

In most cases it is effectively an 'alternate Brawling' in that the higher of the two values is used in any calculation. Like most of the basic in-ring skills, workers learn Puroresu from performing in matches and do so quicker if they are working with people who have higher values than them. The Puroresu skill degrades slightly faster than Brawling, but still has one of the slowest rates of any of the skills. Puroresu can be impacted by size and shape changes.

Technical
This is a measure of a worker's ability to work a technical match. It is used to calculate a worker's in-ring performance in most match types, but not those that are specifically about brawling or high flying.

Like most of the basic in-ring skills, workers learn Technical from performing in matches and do so quicker if they are working with people who have higher values than them. Technical is the slowest of the basic in-ring skills to degrade once a worker enters their decline phase.

Aerial
This is a measure of a worker's ability to work a match with an aerial, high flying style. It is used to calculate a worker's in-ring performance in most match types.

Like most of the basic in-ring skills, workers learn Aerial from performing in matches and do so quicker if they are working with people who have higher values than them. Aerial degrades very speedily once a worker starts declining; it has the quickest value loss of any of the skills. It can be affected by injuries and size and shape changes. Workers with a high Aerial skill are also eligible for creating new high spots and getting benefits from that.

Psychology
This is how well the worker understands wrestling psychology and can apply it to a match. It is one of the most important values in the game.

It is relatively easy to learn to a reasonable level just from working matches, progress slows as the worker starts to get really good, and it's quite difficult to get a complete mastery of it. Working with wrestlers who have a higher rating helps a worker learn quicker.

There are two sets of effects for Psychology, overall and individual. The overall effect is based on the highest Psychology rating in the match, which can be boosted slightly if the road agent's score is higher (to simulate their influence). If the highest Psychology rating is significantly less than the match rating then penalties can be given, increasing in severity in line with the size of the difference. If the highest Psychology rating is poor compared to the length of the match, this too can cause penalties to be incurred. The longer the match, the higher the Psychology needs to be to stop it dragging.

Individual effects create bonuses or penalties by looking at each worker's Psychology as an absolute value (i.e. the match rating is not important). Generally speaking, if the value is 60 or less than increasingly severe penalties apply, while above 74 potentially gives bonuses. However, the value is modified by other elements such as whether the match is scripted or not and what the aim of the bout is. For example, a wrestler with 50 Psychology may have that boosted upward if he's in a scripted bout because he doesn't have to worry about improvising.

Psychology also impacts each worker's performance in the match. It acts as a modifier, so high Psychology can make them perform slightly better, low Psychology does the opposite. Note that Psychology is far less impactful in battle royal matches due to their nature; it is rare to see bonuses or penalties for Psychology in these sort of matches. Psychology is one of the few skills that does not degrade with age; once a wrestler has mastered the art, he or she always has that ability to fall back on.

Experience
Experience is a measure of how much ring time the worker has had.

Like all other skills it is learned; the more matches a worker wrestles (regardless of whether it is an event, a TV show, and independent show, or a house show), the quicker it will rise (angles do not have any affect on Experience). Longer matches will lead to quicker learning.

It does not rise in a linear fashion - people new to the business act like a sponge and gain it quite fast, it then levels off (and sometimes slows) as they get older. Unlike most other worker skills, Experience cannot go down and is not capped: every worker will eventually reach 100 if they wrestle enough. As a (very) rough rule of thumb (which may be useful for database makers), wrestlers in the first few years of their career would gain about 0.3 Experience for every 2-3 matches they have. After that, it becomes closer to 0.2 for every 3-5 matches. Workers with low Experience (defined as 20 or less) get a penalty to their in-ring performance to simulate the fact that they are green. The penalty gets less as they become more experienced.

Workers with very high experience can reduce the penalties they would receive for booking issues, such as if they get gassed or are booked poorly, because they have the benefit of knowing how to deal with it. The benefit of having at least one worker with high Experience in a match is that if something unplanned happens - for example, an injury, an audible, or a botch - then they will be able to cover it somewhat. This takes the form of lessening or removing the associated penalty that otherwise would happen.

The other significant use of Experience is with road agents as it is one of the two major stats (alongside Psychology, with Respect being a less powerful third influence) that decide how good a road agent is at his or her job. It is generally unwise to use a road agent who is not significantly experienced.

Finally, experienced workers are significantly better at passing on their knowledge. This manifests itself in the fact that working with experienced veterans leads to a quicker rate of skill learning.

Reputation
This is a measure of the worker's reputation within the business.

It always begins at 50 for new workers and then slowly increases each month. It can be boosted by some events (such as being with a company for a specific amount of time) and reduced by others (negative random incidents, botching moves, etc). In terms of effect, Reputation is primarily used by the Al for hiring, firing, etc, as they will want to stay away from 'bad eggs'.

It has no direct impact upon matches or angles and so is not considered a particularly important skill, more something that can be used as a warning signal about someone who is likely to be trouble.

Charisma
This is a worker's general charisma, which could be described as their ability to connect with the crowd without verbal interaction.

Charisma primarily is used in entertainment-based angles, but can also give mild boosts to a worker's in-ring performance if its high enough (66 or above) and is used by managers to rate their performance. Considered quite an important skill because of how widely it is employed, a high Charisma skill will add significantly to a worker's value in terms of contracts. The Al will also tend to highly prize charismatic workers (product dependent). Charisma is learnt by being in angles and will also naturally rise over time. It tends to rise slowly at low levels and then snowball as the value rises.

Acting
Acting is a measure of a worker's pure acting ability.

There is some natural overlap with Microphone skills, of course, due to their nature. Acting is used almost exclusively in relation to performance in angles. Like the other entertainment-based skills, learning Acting tends to start off fairly slowly before rising faster wants a worker is proficient at it.

Star Quality
Star Quality is a reflection of a worker's intangibles / 'X factor' / aura, the innate quality that separates the stars from everyone else.

A worker cannot 'learn' Star Quality, although they can see a natural increase in it during their early career as they grow in confidence. Star Quality does not fade with age. In terms of use, Star Quality primarily adds a small boost to any match the worker takes part in (as long as it is 66 or above), is used in several Rated On categories in angles, and impacts hiring, contract values, and some random incidents. Star Quality in isolation isn't that important, but finding a talented worker who additionally also has Star Quality is generally a good thing as they tend to have great careers.

Sex Appeal
This is a measure of a worker's attractiveness.

It is primarily used in eye candy matches as the basis of the worker's performance and in angles that are specifically rated upon it. Outside of the ring, Sex Appeal comes into play for some random incidents and is also used in relationship calculations. Some companies also require a certain amount of attractive women (defined as being a rating of 71 or above). For managers (of either gender), Sex Appeal, if high, can be used as the basis of the calculation to decide their quality, which impacts how they earn Respect and their value. Sex Appeal degrades with age, sharply in some cases, and can be impacted by changes in size and shape.

Menace
This is how menacing the worker looks.

It is not an important skill. It is used almost exclusively in angles that are specifically rated on it, with its other uses limited to Al hiring and some random incidents. Menace is fairly static, generally only being impacted by changes in size and shape.

Basics
This measures the worker basic wrestling skills.

If it is 40 or under then the worker is eligible to get penalised for not being properly grounded. There is no benefit to having a particularly high value, so once a worker has gotten past 40 the skill can effectively be ignored. Workers will learn Basics at a steady rate just from having ring time.

The Basics value does not go down with age.

Consistency
Consistency measures how often the worker has a 'bad day' in the ring. The lower the rating, the more often they'll get hit with a penalty for being 'off their game'.

Consistency works as a probability. In short, a random number is generated and compared to the worker's Consistency. If the random number is higher, the worker has an 'off night' and the process is repeated - failing twice in a row would mean they have a truly wretched night ('really off their game') and the penalty is more severe. If they pass the first test, they're fine and don't incur any penalties. As the process is based on probability, it means that even someone with a high rating will occasionally get penalised. The one exception to this is someone will 100 Consistency; they do not have off nights... but even someone with 99.9 Consistency can!

Consistency is one of the skills that is most sensitive to age, and will drop quite sharply once a worker enters the decline phase of their career.

Safety
Safety is simply a measure of how likely a worker is to accidentally hurt an opponent.

The higher the value, the safer they are. A low value means that the worker may botch a spot and potentially cause an injury; this is closely linked to the Resilience value of the potential victim. Safety rises naturally at a steady rate as a worker gains in-ring experience and will usually end up quite high. Safety is one of the few skills that does not degrade with age; once a worker is proficient, they will never lose that ability.

Stamina
Stamina essentially just measures a worker's cardio, so how long they can wrestle for before getting penalised for tiredness.

A worker's Stamina value is adjusted when a match happens by how they are used (i.e. joining a match late increases their value as they aren't doing as much), the aim of the match, and the match type (i.e. you do less in a tag match as you get breaks)

The longer a match is, the higher a worker's adjusted Stamina value must be to avoid penalties. The weaker the worker's value in relation to the match length, the more severe the penalty. For example, a value of 40 would produce a very minor penalty in a match that went between 7 and 10 minutes, but would be a pretty severe penalty if the match was between 35 and 50 minutes. Your road agent will warn you during the booking process if the match time is going to result in a significant penalty to a worker.

Athleticism
This is a measure of how athletically gifted the worker is.

Its primary use is as a modifier to match ratings; for most bouts (except things like Comedy) it will provide a minor adjustment to a worker's performance to reflect their ability to use their physical abilities well (or badly). Athleticism degrades with age and can also be impacted by things like smoking, drinking, and steroid usage. It is also sensitive to changes in size and shape.

Toughness
Toughness is essentially how much of a bad ass the worker is in reality.

Wrestling's renowned hard men, ex-MMA fighters, and genuine shooters would all score very highly. However, it should not be seen only as being about real-life fighting skills, as to some extent it also takes into account the people who will tough it out and work through pain, etc. In-game, Toughness is primarily used in worker interactions such as backstage fights, intimidation, who becomes a locker room judge, and how they react to certain situations. Some companies will also take into account when hiring if they tend to bias toward legit hard men (and women).

Toughness is not static, but it is one of the skills that moves the least. Generally it will only increase while a worker is maturing or if there's a specific random incident that triggers it, and will only decrease very slowly with age or a random incident causes it to drop.

Resilience
Resilience is a measure of how injury prone the worker is.

The lower the value, the more danger they are in of receiving an injury during a match. Resilience works in tandem with the context of the match; so putting a worker with a low Resilience value in a highly dangerous match is asking for trouble, whereas someone with a high value is generally going to be safe in a basic bout. It is important to note that there is no such thing as being immune to injury, even at a score of 100. A very high value means that the chance of being injured is extremely low, but it is never entirely zero. Therefore even a person with 100 Resilience may end up getting injured several times during their career if they are particularly unlucky.

Resilience naturally decreases with age, and can also be impacted by changes in size and through injury.

Colour
This is a measure of the worker's ability to provide colour commentary. It has identical mechanics to Announcing.

During a segment, if of the worker's Microphone skills would be greater than their Colour score then they use that as their Colour score instead. This allows special guests to give colour commentary even if they have 0 for Colour. Most non-colour commentators have 0 for their Colour score. If they later add Colour Commentator to their list of possible positions then, if they have 0 as their current score, a new Colour value will be generated for them based upon their Microphone skill. Only workers who are currently set as having the Colour Commentator position can improve their Colour score during segments.

Refereeing
Refereeing is simply a measure of how skilled the worker is at officiating a match.

Unlike most skills, Refereeing is an absolute value. This means that the size of the company or quality of the match is not relevant to the required skill level. Please note that it is only used for workers who are set to be a Referee in the company; a worker who is not will be treated as a special guest referee when assigned to a match and their Refereeing value is not looked at (i.e. they cannot be penalised or gain bonuses).

A score below 15 will get a severe penalty, below 23 is a lesser penalty, below 30 is lesser still, and below 40 is the weakest penalty. Scores over 75, 80, and 90 will get increasingly powerful bonuses. Note that if a referee is overworked, his Refereeing value gets reduced with each subsequent match to simulate their tiredness.

Potential
Potential affects the worker's chance of improving skills and becoming a star.

There are eight Potential values. These are visible in the Skills part of the worker editor. These are used when a new game is created (or when a worker is imported into a live game) to calculate the skill caps that a worker will receive. These function on the basis of probability; a high Potential value means that it is more likely that the worker will receive a high cap, but it does not guarantee it.

Potential has no impact on the game once the skill caps have been calculated.