How does mugging work, what is lost when mugged, and can the victim identify the mugger?

A mug, one of the three options after winning an attack, steals a percentage of the defender's cash on hand: 5-10% at base, 7.5-15% with Masterful Looting merits^[1][2]. The victim is also hospitalised. Usually the victim cannot tell who did it, because a stealthed attacker shows as 'Someone'; this rests on player guides and undated wiki notes.

How a mug works

Mug is one of the three main options after winning an attack. It takes a percentage of cash on hand, not money in the bank or vault.^[2]

• The base is 5%, modified by a multi-dice-roll RNG up to 10%. Values near 5% are favoured and values near 10% are extremely rare.^[1]
• Masterful Looting merits raise the base by up to 50%, giving 7.5-15%.^[1]
• The Plunder weapon bonus adds 20% to 49% and is additive with merits. Merits plus Plunder give 9.95-19.90%, or up to $199,000 at $1,000,000 on hand.^[1][3]
• A 7* Clothing Store gives a 75% mugging reduction.^[1]
• If cash on hand is negative, a successful mug yields $0.^[4]

What else is lost

The victim is hospitalised. The wiki lists a base 30 - 45 minutes for Mug, against 15 - 30 minutes for Leave and 3 - 3.5 hours for Hospitalise.^[5] The attacker gets reduced respect and experience; mug gives about 55-60% of the experience of Leave.^[5][6]

After a mug, the money left in the wallet is protected, and the protection decays linearly to zero over 12 hours. A later mug reaches only wallet minus protected value. Spending, gambling or depositing protected funds invalidates protection on them, and any mug resets existing protection.^[7]

Can the victim identify the mugger?

Usually not. Stealthing means attacking so the victim does not know who attacked, and the log then reads 'Someone hospitalized you'. Stealth is checked turn by turn and only the lowest achieved stealth turn counts. The Stealth merit adds +0.2 stealth level per upgrade, though the wiki says it is unclear how much this decides the ability to stealth.

A 2021 player guide says you almost never can identify who attacked or mugged you. It says a friend waiting on your attack landing page can see the attacker, unless the attacker one-hit you or used a Theatre job point for sure stealth. This is a player report.

Avoiding a mug

Bank cash rather than leaving it in the wallet. Selling from a Bazaar or Item Market invites buy-mugging, where the attacker mugs as the payment lands in your wallet.

Travellers are a common target. Player guides give a window of about 10-15 seconds after landing: one describes a 15-second invincibility window^[8], another says close to 10 seconds^[9], and a third advises flying back within 15 seconds^[10]. A staff ruling says hospital time from a mug abroad carries over to Torn and must be served there before flying again.^[11] The mug mechanics come from 2021 wiki captures.