Stress & Training - GarwelGarwel/KerbalHealth GitHub Wiki

Stress is one of the factors influencing health of all your kerbals while they are on a mission. It is a bit more complex than most other factors and merits a separate discussion.

Base value of Stress is -2 HP per day, which makes it one of the most important factors to manage. But fear not, it can be reduced to merely -0.3 HP/day, and here we'll tell you how.

Training Level

Stress effect is lowered by training level, with 0% training level meaning full, 2 HP/day drain on health.

The maximum attainable training level is determined by the level of the Astronauts' Complex:

  • Level 1: Training Cap is 60%; Stress can be reduced to -0.8 HP/day
  • Level 2: Training Cap is 75%; Stress can be reduced to -0.5 HP/day
  • Level 3: Training Cap is 85%; Stress can be reduced to -0.3 HP/day

Training is tracked for every kerbal and every relevant part (which as of now include all parts with crew capacity), weighed by its "complexity". Complexity is higher for parts with command pod, science lab and other special capabilities.

Example: Bill Kerman has 75% training for a command pod with 100% complexity and 0% training for a Hitchhiker with 50% complexity. The overall training level will be (75% * 100% + 0% * 50%) / (100% + 50%) = 50%. It means that Stress will reduce his health by -2 * 50% = -1 HP per day.

Training

Kerbals can train for parts in two ways. One is "learning by doing": when a kerbal is in a vessel with parts he/she isn't fully trained for, they will very slowly increase their training level for this part (or parts). By default, it will take the kerbal 50 game days to become fully trained for a part with 100% complexity. More parts with more complexity will increase this time accordingly. While their training level is gradually increasing, Stress will similarly decrease.

It is much quicker (2.5 times quicker, to be precise) and safer to train kerbals before the mission. In order to start training, the kerbals must be at KSC and at least 90% healthy.

Here is how to do it:

  1. Design the vessel in the Editor
  2. Assign crew (specific parts don't matter)
  3. Open Health Report and check how much time the training will take
  4. Click Train button; all the assigned kerbals will start training if possible (you will receive a message notification)
  5. Save the vessel, exit the Editor and wait for training to complete (their condition will change from Training back to OK)
  6. Launch the vessel

The first time a kerbal trains for a part, they will take twice as much time. After they complete training at least once, it will be considered "familiar" and next training will be quicker.

Notes:

  • A kerbal can only train for one vessel at a time.
  • If you send the kerbal on a mission, their training will automatically stop. You can resume it by repeating the same steps.
  • If Training is disabled in the in-game settings, all kerbals will be automatically considered fully trained for all parts. It means that their Stress will be determined only by the Astronaut Complex' level.

You can check training progress by clicking the ? button in the Details view for the kerbal. Note that the vessel names in the training information window may differ from their actual names (if you renamed them), but it won't affect training levels.