Dominus Gladiatus First 10 Days: Build Order

The first ten days decide whether your Ludus has a working engine or a roster of hungry mouths. The goal is not to win every fight. It is to finish day 10 with one reliable arena earner, a training pipeline, the Gladiator Quarters built and enough coins to survive one bad injury. This build order gets there without relying on lucky market rolls.

Quick answer

Buy one 100-115 Health recruit, start Combat training, build the Gladiator Quarters, then add the Palus before the Doctore. Take Until Surrender fights at Fatigue 2 or lower, keep 30-50 coins in reserve, and do not buy a second gladiator until the first one has earned two clean purses.

Before day 1: difficulty and class

Difficulty changes the crowd more than the combat math. Forgiving and Classic let the crowd start neutral or friendly; Ruthless starts it at Indifferent or Disliked and never at Liked, gives opponents 10% more Health and a 20% larger skill budget, and pays nothing on a loss. For a first run, Classic is the honest baseline.

Class choice for the opening fighter:

• Murmillo is the safest. The large shield plan forgives weaker equipment and gives you time to learn the fatigue loop.
• Secutor is the balanced pick. Shield Guard protects, Outmaneuver creates angle changes and Net Breaker answers Retiarius opponents.
• Scissor is the aggressive pick. Headbutt stuns and Brutal Kick pushes enemies back, but the class expects you to end fights before defence matters.

If you have not played the tutorial, take Murmillo. The first ten days are about cash flow, not highlight-reel finishes. The fatigue guide → explains why the Quarters purchase comes before a second recruit.

Official source: Dominus Gladiatus on Steam ↗

The ten-day purchase order

The opening purse is tight. Patch 4 lists the starting market band at 85, 100 and 115 Health for 35, 50 and 65 coins; the 100 Health recruit is the best value because it leaves coin for a building. Prices and purses vary by save, so treat the ledger below as a planning template, not a fixed script.

The order matters more than the exact days. Quarters before Palus, Palus before Doctore, Doctore before a second weapon. Each purchase removes the bottleneck that is actually slowing the Ludus.

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Dominus Gladiatus Training Guide: Skills & Ranks

The training guide explains why the Palus and Doctore stack, how long early ranks take, and when the whip is worth using.

Read Full Strategy Guide →

Why the Gladiator Quarters comes first

Fatigue is the resource that causes the most expensive mistakes. A win adds 1 Fatigue and a loss adds 2. At Fatigue 3 the arena injury chance is 25%, at 4 it is 50%, and at 5 it is 100% per the Patch 3 notes. The Quarters "allows gladiators to rest and recover Fatigue faster," and Patch 5 made that recovery even stronger.

Without the Quarters, your only recovery is idle time, which still burns upkeep. With it, a two-day rest can return a fighter to the safe 0-2 band and keep the arena schedule alive.

The building costs 30 coins and 2 coins per use in the build panel I checked. That is cheaper than one Infirmary stay caused by a Fatigue-4 booking.

When to buy the Palus

The Palus costs 60 coins, takes one day to build and raises training speed by 20%. Buy it before your second combat skill, not after.

Here is the math that matters: early Combat ranks take about 3 days. If you plan four ranks across two skills, the Palus saves roughly two to three days over the opening. Those days can become an extra purse, an extra recovery cycle or an earlier Doctore.

Do not buy the Palus before the Quarters. Training speed is worthless if your fighter is too tired to enter the arena and too injured to finish the block.

When to hire the Doctore

The Doctore costs 80 coins and pushes training faster through discipline and the lash. Patch 5 removed the whip's morale penalty, and Patch 7 removed the extra Fatigue from the training bonus, so the hire no longer carries the old hidden costs.

Hire the Doctore when all three conditions are true:

1. You have a fighter training continuously.
2. Your reserve still covers three days of upkeep plus one Infirmary stay.
3. You are not one purse away from debt.

If any condition fails, wait. A Doctore on a broke Ludus accelerates the path to a roster sell-off.

What to train first

Combat is the default first skill because it adds attack damage at every rank: +1, +3 and +5 in the panel I checked. The exact display depends on rank, but the direction is consistent. Damage shortens fights, and shorter fights reduce the number of incoming hits.

After Combat rank 1, pick the skill that covers your class weakness:

• Murmillo: Shield Guard for block consistency, then Iron Body.
• Secutor: Shield Guard, then Outmaneuver or Net Breaker if Retiarius is common in your bracket.
• Scissor: Brutal Kick or Headbutt support, then Deadly Strike for finishing power.

Do not spread training across four skills. A rank 1 in everything loses to a rank 3 in the skill that matters.

Which arena fights are safe in the first ten days?

Take Until Surrender contracts with a purse of at least 20 coins and an opponent whose Health is not dramatically above yours. Check the enemy tooltip before accepting: class, Health and traits are visible on the card.

Skip these:

• To-the-Death contracts for a normal purse.
• Any fight at Fatigue 3 or higher.
• Opponents with a class that hard-counters yours when your key skill is rank 1.
• Fights that would leave you below 30 coins after upkeep.

The first ten days are for building a repeatable income, not for proving the roster. A 40-coin win that costs four recovery days is worse than a 20-coin exhibition that costs one.

A sample day-10 checkpoint

A healthy day-10 Ludus looks like this:

• Two gladiators, one with Combat rank 1-2 and a second skill started.
• Gladiator Quarters built; Palus built or one purse away.
• Doctore hired or affordable within two days.
• Reserve of 30-50 coins after upkeep.
• No injury older than two days and no fighter above Fatigue 2.
• One reliable 40-55 coin purse available on the card.

If you have four gladiators, no reserve and a Fatigue-4 starter, the run is not ruined, but the next ten days should be a retrenchment: sell the weakest fighter, finish healing, and take only low-risk purses.

Official source: Dominus Gladiatus patch notes ↗

Official source: Steam achievements ↗

FAQ

Should I buy the 115 Health recruit instead of the 100 Health one? Only if the extra 15 coins do not delay the Quarters. The 100 Health recruit plus a building beats a 115 Health recruit with no recovery infrastructure.

Can I skip the Quarters and use idle time? You can, but idle time still burns upkeep and delays training. The Quarters is the cheapest way to convert coins into usable arena days.

Is the Doctore worth 80 coins in the first ten days? Yes if training is your bottleneck and the reserve survives. No if you are still fighting to afford daily upkeep.

How many gladiators should I have on day 10? Two is comfortable, three is possible with a good purse run, four is overextended unless you sold a fighter or earned an exceptional purse.