What the muscle icon represents
The muscle icon tracks Strength. Higher levels affect maximum health and melee/tree-cutting damage; they do not establish increased firearm damage.
Actions described as building Strength
- Swing tools or weapons.
- Pick up logs or stones while your carrying capacity permits it.
- Use the chainsaw’s secondary swinging action.
Combining tree chopping and material collection is a practical way to use those actions during normal play.
What does not count in the reference list
Simply walking while carrying a log, running, swimming or jumping is not listed as a levelling action. Building and crafting are also outside that list. Firearms, explosives and bows do not provide the listed Strength progress.
Do not equate time spent holding a log with experience gained.
Separate supported damage changes from reported stats
The full-release change list supports +1% melee and tree-cutting damage per level. Community Stats describes a level cap of 100, +2% maximum health per level and progressively harder levelling. The health percentage, cap and growth curve were not independently confirmed here.
There is no established per-swing XP table, fixed HP conversion or verified number of minutes to reach maximum level in this guide.
The console command setstrengthlevel 100 directly sets a level. It is a modification, not evidence of a natural levelling strategy.