All information taken from the game's files.
Updated August 5th 2025 with help from MMMM (O_O) & AspidZeus's Information Spreadsheets.

Kicker: Allows both The Player and SWAT AI to Kick all doors down in one kick.
Effect only applies once.

Paramedic: Changes a SWAT AI's "Killed In Action" status to "Hospitalised" instead.
Effect stacks. (1, 2, 3, 4 Officers will be saved for up to 3 missions. After that each Officer only have a 50% to be saved. The Player won't be saved.)

Breacher: Damages Civilian and Suspect Morale more when using Door Kick, Battering Ram, Breaching Shotgun, and C2.
All Breaching Methods lose effectiveness the more they're used. Using any breaching method a second or third time will have 75% reduced effectiveness on Morale, and any more than 4 times will have no effect at all on Morale.
Effect stacks. (+25%, +50%, +65%, +75% more Morale Damage from Breaching Methods.)

Intimidator: The Player's & SWAT AI's presence (Not shouting, shooting or beaching. Simply being looked at.) damages Civilian and Suspect Morale. The Player or SWAT AI must be seen for this to take effect.
Only applies to Suspects & Civilians unaware of you. Making it only useful early in missions before gunfire happens or attempting to fully stealth missions.
Effect stacks twice. (+50%, +100% more morale Damage from presence.)

Morale Officer: Arresting Civilians & Suspects Alive (NOT Incapacitated or Dead) will heal more Stress for SWAT AI.
Your SWAT Team's Stress ranges from 0 (Content) to 1 (Crisis).
Suspects heal 0.08 Stress when arrested, Civilians heal 0.03 Stress when arrested with no Morale Officers.
Suspects will heal 0.12, 0.16, 0.184, 0.2 Stress when arrested and Civilians will heal 0.045, 0.06, 0.069, 0.075 Stress.
With 4 Morale Officers, you only need to arrest 4 live, conscious Suspects to completely heal from a Crisis.
Effect stacks. (+50%, +100%, +130%, +150% Stress Healed.)

Negotiator: Increases chance of Civilian and Suspects surrendering on Compliance Yells from both The Player and SWAT AI.
Effect stacks. (+25%, +50%, +55%, +60% Surrender Chance on FIRST Compliance Yell.)

Pacifier: Adds a chance for Suspects & Civilians to instantly surrender when affected by Less-Lethal munitions and grenades. For CS Gas, this chance is rolled every 0.5s while inside the gas.
Effect stacks. (+25%, +50%, +55%, +60% Instant Surrender Chance.)

Riot Control: Increases Stun Duration from Grenades and Less-Than-Lethal Ammo for both The Player and SWAT AI.
Effect stacks. (+0.33s, +0.66s, +0.75s, +0.80s Stun Duration.)

SBAGS: Reduces Stress Gain for SWAT AI from Civilians Suspects, and you being killed or falling unconscious. No effect on Watt Community College.
Incapacitated Suspects still count as dead when adding Stress to your Team.
Effect stacks. (-20%, -35%, -40%, -55% Stress Gained from casualties.)

Veteran: Reduces Bullet Spread and Improves Reaction Time for SWAT AI.
Effect stacks. (+15%, +30%, +35%, +40% Tighter Bullet Spread.)

Thanks to MMMM (O_O) over on the Ready or Not Discord for helping me expand this section with more information revolving around these two Traits specifically as well as providing the Ready or Not: Mechanics, Damage & Suspects Spreadsheet. Thanks for the mention!

This section will go in-depth into how both traits function, and how much of a benefit they are under real gameplay circumstances.

Armorer: +50% Ceramic Armor, Ballistic Mask, and Helmet Durability for both The Player and SWAT AI.
+5% Damage Reduction for Kevlar (50%), Broken Ceramic (40%), and Steel (86.5%)
With Armorer, Kevlar would now reduce damage by 55%, Broken Ceramic reduces damage by 45%, and Steel reduces damage by 91.5%.
Effect only applies once.

*Further Context: Ceramic Plates have a durability of 4, Ballistic Masks have a durability of 2, and Helmets have a durability of 1. Armorer improves this to 6, 3, and 1.5 respectively.

Ceramic Plates, Ballistic Masks and Helmets block all damage until broken.
Only Ceramic Plates continue to provide a 40% Damage Reduction after being broken.

Helmets have a 25% Chance of deflecting bullets, even after being broken. This causes no damage to the player or Durability remaining.
Ballistic Visors have a 33% Chance of deflecting bullets.

In order of least damaging to most damaging.

.45 ACP rounds deal 0.6 Damage.
9mm & 10mm rounds deal 0.7 Damage.

12 Gauge Buckshot deals 0.125 x 8 for every pellet that hits the armour (1 Total).

And all other calibers deal 1 Durability Damage per bullet.

Simplified, with Armorer your armor can survive:

Helmets will survive at least 3 .45ACP & 9/10mm Rounds, and 2 .357/Buckshot/Rifle Rounds.

Ballistic Masks will survive at least 5 .45ACP Rounds, 4 9/10mm Rounds, and 3 .357/Buckshot/Rifle Rounds.

Ceramic Plates (Each Plate) will survive 10 .45ACP Rounds, 8 9/10mm Rounds, and 6 .357/Buckshot/Rifle Rounds.


Nutritionist: Increases both The Player and SWAT AI's Health.
Effect stacks. (+25%, +30%, +33%, +35% more Health.)
*For reference: The Player has 160HP. This is increased to 200HP, 208HP, 212.8HP, 215HP respectively per Nutritionist on the Team.
Your SWAT Team has 250HP because they're dumb and slow. This is increased to 312.5HP, 325HP, 332.5HP, 337.5HP.


These weapons have their damage reduced by 50% from Kevlar. For headshot values, multiply by 6.
12 Gauge Buckshot deal 40 - 35 (Point Blank - Far Range) damage per pellet.
The Makarov and AK102/103 deal 50 - 40 Damage.
9mm Rounds deal 80* - 35 Damage.
.45 ACP & 10mm Rounds deal 100 - 60 Damage.


These weapons have their damage reduced by 86.5% from Steel. Spalling deals an additional 1 Damage that ignores damage reduction.
The P250 and FiveSeveN deal 80* - 45 Damage.
5.56x39mm Rounds deal 132.5* - 107.5* Damage.
.300BLK Rounds & SLR47 deal 145* - 112.5* Damage.
The M14 Rifle and .357 Magnum deal 175* - 105* Damage.
The SA58 & FAL deal 180* - 135* Damage.

*Suspects have a unique stat where the damage their weapons inflict towards only The Player is capped at 70 (80 on Hard). SWAT AI still receive full damage.

The listed values will be assuming you're hit in your armour with 7.62x51 rounds. You will survive many more rounds from smaller calibers.

No Nutritionist/No Armourer:
Kevlar - 3 Hits, Ceramic - 7 Hits, Steel - 8 Hits.
No Nutritionist/One Armourer:
Kevlar - 3 Hits, Ceramic - 9 Hits, Steel - 12 Hits.

One Nutritionist/No Armourer:
Kevlar - 3 Hits, Ceramic - 7 Hits, Steel - 10 Hits.
One Nutritionist/One Armourer:
Kevlar - 3 Hits, Ceramic, 9 Hits, Steel - 15 Hits.

Two, Three and Four Nutritionists/No Armourer:
Kevlar - 4 Hits, Ceramic - 8 Hits, Steel - 10 Hits.
Two, Three Nutritionists/One Armourer:
Kevlar 4 Hits, Ceramic - 10 Hits, Steel - 16 Hits.

Traits that are currently in the files, but are for now unused.

Explosive Ordinance Disposal: Bomb Objectives take longer to explode.
Effect stacks. (+1, +2, +3, +4 more minutes on Bomb Objectives.)

Border Patrol: SWAT AI automatically discover hiding Civilians and Suspects when entering a room.
Effect only applies once.

Here is what I would recommend to take depending on different scenarios. It's still entirely up to you if you want to bring a stab vest to Relapse, or Full Steel to the Gas Station.

Common Scenarios include Less-Lethal Runs, Lethal Runs, and Ironman Mode.

Regardless of playstyle in most situations. Lethal or Non-Lethal.

Armorer - Only Equip One
Being able to take more damage before dying is always a good thing and Armorer excels at that even better than Nutritionist. Ceramic Plates surviving more hits, and Steel making you even tankier? It's hard to find a better trait.

You may be smart and fast, but your SWAT AI definitely aren't. It's good insurance if you don't want your teammates dying.

Nutritionist - Ideally Only Equip One
Combined with Armourer you can nearly double the effectiveness of Steel Armour. Unfortunately it has little effect if you and your team are running Ceramic.


Veteran
Your SWAT AI Teammates are always on Full-Auto all the time. And have no concept of Burst Firing. The same applies to Semi-Auto Weapons (Sort of): They will always fire as fast as possible. Veteran makes them still fire Full-Auto/As fast as possible, but makes them accurate at the very least.

Very good effectiveness with Pepperball Guns, but has minimal effect with Beanbag Shotguns due to how slow they are to pump.


Pacifier - Two Recommended
Makes Beanbags & Pepper Balls way more effective and CS Gas stupidly strong. Being able to pacify a suspect faster than normal is always going to be good for Non-Lethal Runs. Spend your ammo and time on other non-pacified enemies.

Two is recommended, Three and Four Pacifiers have minimal effect.

If you're gunning for The Hermit Achievement or the Gold Watch Cosmetic, this was my team composition:

One Armourer - Less Chances of Everyone Dying.
Two Veterans - Better Accuracy = Faster Suspect Death.
One Nutritionist (if using Steel) - Less Chance of Everyone Dying.
One Paramedic (if using Ceramic) - Your first 3 hospital bills will be free of charge.

With this team comp you and your team become very hard to kill and (slightly) more reliable at killing. Be patient. A single trap can still wipe you and your whole team instantly.

Every other trait not listed falls into a more niche playstyle.

Breacher & Kicker are perfect for you if you prefer using options other than C2 to breach rooms.
...However, using a C2 & Flashbang is nearly guaranteed to make everyone in the room surrender the first time. Kicker also no longer works if your leg is broken as well.

Paramedic is good for The Hermit & the Gold Watch.
...But outside of that, hiring new teammates costs nothing except not having a perk for one or two missions.

Intimidator & Negoiator are good if you want to get Suspects to surrender more consistently without using Less-Lethal. Two of each for maximum effect.
...Personally, I would rather build for all Less-Lethal or all Lethal. Not both. Taking chances on shouting to surrender for The Hermit & Gold Watch is way to risky compared to CS Gassing rooms or using Pepperball Guns & Beanbags.

Morale Officer is good for small, easy maps like Gas Station if you're going for The Hermit or Gold Watch and don't want your officers leaving and don't want to wait for Therapy to finish. Who knew that shooting beanbags at a bunch of kids wanting money for a quick fix is that good for your mental health?
...No effect if your officers are already in a good state, and no effect in the mission itself compared to other Traits that influence survivability or threat reduction time (Either by killing or pacifying).

S.B.A.G.S. Has no effect on Elephant. The only map that will always massively impact mental state even on S Ranks which makes it pretty useless.

Riot Control
The Console Update changed Riot Control from increasing Stun Duration from up to 80% to just up to 0.8s. I wouldn't recommend this Trait in any scenario except getting The Emperor Achievement (Unlock all Traits once).