diff --git a/configs/experiment/scheduling/matnet-ppo.yaml b/configs/experiment/scheduling/matnet-ppo.yaml
index cd07b802..3abb9c4c 100644
--- a/configs/experiment/scheduling/matnet-ppo.yaml
+++ b/configs/experiment/scheduling/matnet-ppo.yaml
@@ -37,6 +37,6 @@ model:
   val_batch_size: 512
   test_batch_size: 64
   mini_batch_size: 512
-
+  n_start: 8
 env:
   stepwise_reward: True
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/rl4co/models/rl/ppo/stepwise_ppo_ep_rew.py b/rl4co/models/rl/ppo/stepwise_ppo_ep_rew.py
index cffe7462..5aff5496 100644
--- a/rl4co/models/rl/ppo/stepwise_ppo_ep_rew.py
+++ b/rl4co/models/rl/ppo/stepwise_ppo_ep_rew.py
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@
 from rl4co.envs.common.base import RL4COEnvBase
 from rl4co.models.rl.common.base import RL4COLitModule
 from rl4co.models.rl.common.utils import RewardScaler
+from rl4co.utils.ops import batchify, unbatchify
 from rl4co.utils.pylogger import get_pylogger
 
 log = get_pylogger(__name__)
@@ -42,6 +43,7 @@ def __init__(
         self,
         env: RL4COEnvBase,
         policy: nn.Module,
+        n_start: int = 0,
         clip_range: float = 0.2,  # epsilon of PPO
         update_timestep: int = 1,
         buffer_size: int = 100_000,
@@ -64,7 +66,7 @@ def __init__(
         self.automatic_optimization = False  # PPO uses custom optimization routine
         self.rb = make_replay_buffer(buffer_size, mini_batch_size, buffer_storage_device)
         self.scaler = RewardScaler(reward_scale)
-
+        self.n_start = n_start
         self.ppo_cfg = {
             "clip_range": clip_range,
             "ppo_epochs": ppo_epochs,
@@ -87,8 +89,14 @@ def update(self, device):
                 logprobs, value_pred, entropy = self.policy.evaluate(sub_td)
 
                 ratios = torch.exp(logprobs - previous_logp)
-
-                advantages = torch.squeeze(previous_reward - value_pred.detach(), 1)
+                try:
+                    advantages = sub_td["advantage"]
+                    value_loss = 0
+
+                except KeyError:
+                    advantages = torch.squeeze(previous_reward - value_pred.detach(), 1)
+                    # compute value function loss
+                    value_loss = F.mse_loss(value_pred, previous_reward)
                 surr1 = ratios * advantages
                 surr2 = (
                     torch.clamp(
@@ -100,9 +108,6 @@ def update(self, device):
                 )
                 surrogate_loss = -torch.min(surr1, surr2).mean()
 
-                # compute value function loss
-                value_loss = F.mse_loss(value_pred, previous_reward)
-
                 # compute total loss
                 loss = (
                     surrogate_loss
@@ -141,9 +146,15 @@ def update(self, device):
     def shared_step(
         self, batch: Any, batch_idx: int, phase: str, dataloader_idx: int = None
     ):
+
         next_td = self.env.reset(batch)
         device = next_td.device
+
         if phase == "train":
+
+            if self.n_start > 1:
+                next_td = batchify(next_td, self.n_start)
+
             td_buffer = []
             while not next_td["done"].all():
 
@@ -155,10 +166,16 @@ def shared_step(
                 next_td = self.env.step(td)["next"]
             # get reward of action
             reward = self.env.get_reward(next_td, 1)
-            reward = self.scaler(reward)
 
-            # add reward to prior state
-            td_buffer = [td.set("reward", reward) for td in td_buffer]
+            if self.n_start > 1:
+                reward_unbatched = unbatchify(reward, self.n_start)
+                advantage = reward - batchify(reward_unbatched.mean(-1), self.n_start)
+                advantage = self.scaler(advantage)
+                td_buffer = [td.set("advantage", advantage) for td in td_buffer]
+            else:
+                reward = self.scaler(reward)
+                td_buffer = [td.set("reward", reward) for td in td_buffer]
+
             # add tensordict with action, logprobs and reward information to buffer
             self.rb.extend(torch.cat(td_buffer, dim=0))