Stats that decay when you skip them

In CharacterSheet your six real-life stats (Strength, Endurance, Agility, Wisdom, Spirit, Willpower) lose XP when you stop training them. The loss only ever comes out of the XP bar, so a level you earned stays.

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What stat decay does

Each level of a stat asks for some training every day. Training buys days of cover, and each midnight uses one day. A night with no cover takes that day's ask from the stat's XP bar, and never a level. Doing what the level asks loses nothing.

The built-in Clock app and Reminders can nudge you at a set time, and Calendar can hold a block for a workout. None of them change anything when you skip it, so a week off costs nothing and the habit has no memory. Decay gives each stat a cost for being ignored and a reason to do a short session on a busy day. If you want the wider view of leveling a life, start with the guide to leveling up in real life.

How it works in the app

1. Train a stat with a timed session. Every stat except Willpower works this way, and a session can come from the phone or the Apple Watch app.
2. The session buys cover from its base XP, which is its XP before buffs. A buff cannot make a level cheaper to hold. Cover is capped at a week, so one long session cannot bank a month.
3. At midnight the app uses one day of cover. A night that is short by less than a tenth of the day's ask still counts as covered.
4. If cover runs out, that night takes the missing part of the day's ask from the XP bar. It takes only what the bar holds, so it cannot go below empty and cannot cost a level.
5. Open the Stats tab. Each stat shows a line such as "Covered through Monday. Level 35 asks about 23 min a day." or "Losing 40 XP tonight." and a ten-day strip: seven days back including today, and three ahead. Tap a day for a short bubble that says what you trained and what the night did.
6. Before a session, the setup screen can say "About 12 min covers tonight", so you know how short the session can be.

A worked example from the code: a level asks 10 minutes a day and you train 23 minutes on Monday. Monday and Tuesday nights are covered, Wednesday takes the other 7 minutes' worth of XP, and Thursday takes a full day's ask. Thirty minutes on Friday covers Friday to Sunday.

Every rule and setting

Where a stat settles. A stat climbs while the week's XP is above what the nights take. It stops where the two are equal, which is a level that asks twice what you do. Keep up a steady 15 minutes of strength a week and Strength settles at level 10. A level 60 week is about 300 moderate minutes of endurance, 180 of strength, 90 of agility, 210 of reading and 180 of meditation. Settle levels for the other stats come from the same table in the app.

Level-ups. Timed stats level up on XP alone. Decay changes the speed, not the rules. See Levels 1 to 60 for the curve and XP by the minute for what a session pays.

When it is the right tool

You start strong and fade

A habit built on a streak breaks at the first miss. Here a missed day costs a small slice of XP, and the stat still shows what you did across the last week, so one gap does not feel like the end.

You have a busy week

The "min covers tonight" line tells you the shortest session that holds the stat. With some cover still in hand, a short session is often enough to avoid any loss.

You train one stat and ignore the rest

The Balance card shows how many of the six are covered tonight, and each stat has its own strip. Neglected stats become visible. Momentum rewards showing up on any stat, while decay watches each stat separately.

You take a planned week off

Train a long session before you go. It buys up to 7 days of cover, so a trip of up to a week does not cost XP. A longer trip does, because cover is what you banked, not a promise.

You want a stat to mean something

If a level cannot fade, a high number says little. Because the app takes XP from a stat you stop training, a neglected stat stops climbing and its XP bar shows whether you still keep it up. Read the workout streak guide for how to pair this with streaks.

What it does not do

• It never takes a level through decay. The night's loss stops at an empty bar. A level you earned stays.
• It cannot be paused. There is no vacation mode. Bank cover with a long session instead.
• It does not warn on every bad night. The warning fires once when a stat first lapses. Stats that already lost XP are not announced again each evening.
• Removing a session can cost levels. Deleting a logged session takes back its XP, and that can lower a level, down to three below your peak.
• It does not count non-training. Dailies and penalty rows do not buy cover for the five timed stats.
• It follows training, not payment. Training done while the app is locked still buys cover, but its XP is held for up to seven days and paid only if you unlock in that time.

CharacterSheet needs iOS 26 or later. Apple's own list of iOS releases shows iOS 27.2 as the latest, from 26 October 2026, so the app runs on the current release.

More features

Works with Apple Health

Reads your workouts, heart rate, sleep, weight and water from Apple Health, and saves your workouts back.

An Apple Watch workout app where heart rate earns XP

Start a session from your wrist and let your heart rate raise the XP, by up to 25% for harder work.

Buffs for sleep, water and weigh-ins

Sleeping your goal, staying on pace with water and weighing in each add bonus XP to your sessions.

All features