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You can gain the Athletic trait through mental breaks, the Medicine Lifestyle focus, and Athletic friends.
Gaining this trait through mental breaks is random and carries some risks, so it’s recommended to use one of the last two methods if you can. But we’ll cover all three in this guide.
Method 1: Mental Breaks
You’re most likely to encounter this trait through a mental break. A mental break happens when your character’s stress increases by one level.
A character with Stress Level 2
During the mental break, you’re forced to choose a coping mechanism or another stress penalty. Sometimes, the Athletic trait will be offered as a positive coping mechanism here.
A mental break with the option to become Athletic
The coping mechanisms offered here are random, and you’re more likely to be offered negative coping mechanisms with large debuffs. If you’re trying to get the Athletic trait there are less risky methods.
Method 2: Medicine Lifestyle Focus Event
Choosing the Medicine focus, found under Learning, gives you a chance of encountering an Athletic and Journaller event. In this event, you’ll have the choice of pursuing one of these coping mechanisms.
A Medicine event with a choice of the Athletic and Journaller coping traits
Since you don’t have to sacrifice your stress levels, this method is quite safe. You might need to switch focuses though.
If you don’t get the trait on your first try then the event can repeat. The event might take some time to fire, but it’s not extremely rare as long as you don’t have these traits already.
Method 3: Friend Events
Friends are a great source of traits like Athletic.
You can pick up this trait during a Befriend scheme or from an existing friend.
Befriend schemes can be unlocked in the Diplomacy Lifestyle Tree. It’s the first perk on the tree so it’s easy to pick up.
The Diplomacy Lifestyle Tree, with the Befriend perk highlighted
During a Befriend scheme, if you or your target has the Athletic trait, you might have an option to exercise with them. This can grant you the Athletic trait if you don’t already have it.
A similar event can occur if you have any existing friends with the Athletic trait.
It’s a good idea to befriend athletic characters, but these events can be rare.
A friend with the Athletic trait
What Does the Athletic Trait Do?
Athletic is a coping mechanism trait that allows you to reduce your stress levels. It also provides the following buffs:
+1 prowess
+20% stress loss
+0.25 health
The Athletic trait tooltip is shown
To reduce stress when you have this trait, you can choose to work off some stress in the decisions menu.
The Work off Some Stress decision is highlighted in the decisions menu
This is an excellent way to reduce your stress since the penalty for doing so is very minor. Every time you exercise, you receive a -5 debuff to General Opinion. It lasts for 1 year.
The Work off Some Stress window is shown, with the resulting stress loss and Sweaty Stench debuff highlighted
Note: After exercising through this decision, there is a three year cooldown until you can work off stress again.
Samantha is a Scottish writer, editor, and lifelong gamer living in Czechia. She loves to travel around Europe and enjoy the outdoors, as long as it's not too hot! She can usually be found constructing her next CK3 dynasty, carving some tails in Monster Hunter, or enjoying a horror show or two.
