Thrown into command of a hospital on the frontlines of World War I, players will need to stay on their toes to effectively manage their workforce in War Hospital. In this incredibly fast-paced real-time strategy game, players will need to stay on top of pushing patients through the healing process, delegating appropriate treatments for everyone, and upgrading hospital functionality and staff size.
To keep up with the growing number of casualties as the war progresses, players will need to grow their hospital staff to an appropriate size to be able to appropriately treat each patient that is brought in. To hire new staff, players will not only need to upgrade the staff lodging building in the improvements tab, but they will also need to acquire staff permits that can be spent on buying each type of personnel. Players will be granted some staff permits throughout the course of the campaign, but once the tutorial phase ends, they will have to acquire them on their own. Here are some ways that War Hospital players can get their hands on more staff permits.
What Are Staff Permits?
Staff permits are resources players can earn that can be spent on hiring additional hospital personnel. While there are several ways players can acquire staff permits, these opportunities come very infrequently, so gamers will need to be wise about how they spend these permits, especially early in the game. Players can buy troops for the following amounts:
- All doctors – The first doctor is free, and the second costs 4 permits. Each additional doctor of the same type will cost one additional permit, up to 6 for surgeons, and caps at 5 permits for physicians and trauma specialists.
- Engineers – Engineers will always cost 2 permits.
- Nurses – The first nurse will cost 2 permits, and each following nurse will cost 3.
- Medics Teams – Medics will always cost 1 permit.
- Scout Teams – Scouts will cost 1 permit initially, and each additional Scout will cost 2.
Spending Staff Permits
Once players have acquired the necessary amount of staff permits to hire a desired personnel type, they will want to navigate to the Hire Personnel tab using the dropdown or wheel menu or by selecting the train and navigating to Hire Personnel. Players simply need to scroll to the staff type they wish to hire, select how many of that personnel type to hire, and click confirm at the bottom.
Once the staff member has been recruited, players will need to wait 4 hours in-game for the new personnel to arrive at the hospital. You can keep an eye on the new staff delivery by watching the train countdown timer in the bottom left corner of the screen.
How To Get Staff Permits
While possibly the most crucial resource in the game, apart from Surgical Supplies, Staff Permits can be incredibly difficult to acquire, with only a few opportunities to earn these permits presenting themselves throughout the game. It's even possible for players to fail or completely miss these opportunities. There are three different methods players can use to acquire staff permits: completing scout missions, completing side tasks, and rehabilitating VIPs.
Scout Missions
Assign scout missions in the scout map – completing missions will reward players staff permits and war permits to grow their hospital.
After players progress far enough in Chapter 1, they will be able to build the scout tent improvement and hire a scout team with 2 staff permits. Once the scout has been delivered to the hospital, players can open the scout map and assign available scout teams to missions on the map. While not a guaranteed reward for every mission, completing certain missions will reward players in the form of staff permits.
As players can control the number of scout teams available and how frequently teams embark on missions, this is the most controlled way to acquire staff permits. If other opportunities do not present themselves or players miss or fail those tasks, focus on improvements in the scouting tree and expand the number of teams available to rapidly complete scouting missions and get permits.
Side Tasks
Occasionally, players will be presented with a side task, designated by a gold emblem with an exclamation mark. Players will want to keep an eye out for these opportunities, as they can appear and disappear quickly without players noticing and having the opportunity to interact.
Typically, these tasks will require players to delegate specific troops to focus on an alternate project for some time, making them unavailable for use at the hospital. Other side tasks will require players to sacrifice medical or food supplies. Upon completion, players will receive a letter from HQ and be rewarded with a bonus of staff permits. There is not a hard notification for when these tasks appear, and players can miss the side task emblem if it spawns off-screen, so be sure to occasionally survey the entire hospital to not miss these opportunities.
Rehabilitating VIPs
Throughout War Hospital, players will intake VIPs who will come with a special letter of recommendation regarding the healing process. If players can fully recover the patient and properly designate the correct post-recovery path, they can be rewarded with a stack of war permits and staff permits to help grow the hospital.
Players should be cautious of ignoring these VIPs, as failure to heal these patients can cause punishment to be dealt out from HQ, costing players valuable resources.
War Hospital is available now for PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC.
