Dirty Bomb
What TornLife's research has established about Dirty Bomb, and the questions players asked about it.
What TornLife has verified
- A Dirty Bomb is built in a faction and used against another faction to cause respect loss. If the target has low respect it can be devastated; a faction reduced to 0 respect is destroyed instantly and its items, money and points go to the faction leader. You do not need to be in a faction to use one. (documented; Dirty Bomb, )
- The wiki describes the Dirty Bomb (item ID 337) as a Special item whose effect is to damage a faction's respect and cripple its members with radiation poisoning and hospital time. (documented; Dirty Bomb (infobox), )
- Hazmat suits are the only protection against dirty bombs. Neumune tablets remove some radiation poisoning effects, but full recovery still takes a long time. (documented; Dirty Bomb, )
- Random online players may be hit by radiation poisoning, generally less severe than the target faction. Normal medical items and revives do not work on it. Affected players have energy, nerve and happiness set to 0. Players under New Player Protection outside the target faction are unaffected. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Effects › Players, )
- All faction rosters are locked while a dirty bomb event runs. When a Dirty Bomb activates, the Airport and the East Side of the city (except the Estate Agents) are temporarily closed. (documented; City › Daily Items Allowance / City and Dirty Bombs, )
- Building requires the faction leader, a faction with all other armory upgrades and 25 man capacity (20+ members), General Science education, the Laboratory upgrade for 105,027 respect, 100 Cesium-137 donated, and a Hazmat Suit equipped. Assembly takes up to 200 hours (some report 184 or 173), during which members cannot leave or travel abroad, and random members are hospitalized with radiation poisoning. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Construction, )
- Priming requires 24 hours, giving staff time to check the bomb was obtained legitimately. Bombs can be traded but are unprimed for a receiver who has not primed that specific bomb. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Usage › Planting, )
- A bomb can be planted only if no other dirty bomb event is running (events take up to 6 hours). The user enters the target faction's leader. Everyone in Torn is notified of placement. Detonation occurs 1 to 2 hours after planting, and the planter stays anonymous unless they reveal themselves. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Usage › Planting, )
- An example detonation message: injuring 377 citizens and decreasing the target's respect by 113,797 to 521,938. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Usage › Detonation, )
- Since the Stocks 3.0 update, dirty bombs no longer cause a brief crash in share prices. (documented; Dirty Bomb › Trivia / Related Awards, )
- Awards: Discovery (be in a faction when construction begins), RDD and Slow Bomb (both for using a Dirty Bomb). (documented; Dirty Bomb › Trivia / Related Awards, )
- Patch #206 (24/08/21) gave Dirty Bombs a dedicated networth valuation of $50b. (confirmed by Torn; Gold Plated AK-47/Patch History, )
- The wiki says Cesium-137 is a Material item with a chance to spawn on the city map after a Dirty Bomb detonates. It is a component used to construct a Dirty Bomb. Item ID 336, circulation 6,579. (documented; Cesium-137 › Historical Notes, )
- Cesium-137 was changed from Special to Material on 10th October 2025. (documented; Cesium-137 › Historical Notes, )