Merits
What TornLife's research has established about Merits, and the questions players asked about it.
What TornLife has verified
- The Torn Wiki's Education Quick Reference (2021 capture) lists PSY2680 as a 10% increase to Awareness. It also lists education courses that unlock artifact finds (medieval coins, Asian sculptures, Quran pages, Senet board pieces, amulets) and locations (Museum, Sports Shop, Pharmacy). (documented; Education:Quick Reference › Awareness & City finds / Locations, )
- The Merit wiki page lists the Bank Interest merit upgrade generically as 'Increases bank interest by 5%', upgradeable up to 10 times (55 merits total), taking effect on the next investment started; the page does not specify City Bank versus Cayman Islands bank. (documented; Merit › Upgrades, )
- Merits are the currency awarded for achieving goals in Torn (e.g. reaching a level, stat point total, or number of attacks); completing an award typically grants Medals and Honors along with merit points. Merits can also be purchased at the points building for 300 points each, capped at one merit per 2 levels gained, up to a maximum of 50 purchasable merits at level 100. (documented; Merit, )
- The Affronted is categorized on the wiki as part of the 'Award' system's Honors (specifically Honors > Miscellaneous), not as a standalone merit-earning action distinct from the general Merit page; the general Merit page describes merits as earned via achieving goals such as level, stat points, or attack counts, but does not list Affronted specifically. (documented; Award › Honors › Miscellaneous — table, )
- General merit mechanics (how merits are earned, bought, reset, and spent on upgrades) are documented on the Torn Wiki's Merit page, but no source in this pack shows a wiki entry specifically detailing the Forgiven merit's trigger condition or point value. (documented; Merit, )
- Several threads (2019-2022) ask whether awareness merits are worth it, with players reporting few finds even with 8/10, level 3, or a Candle Shop job. The pack shows no measured find rate. (player reports; Is it worth spending points on awareness?, )
- Torn's Bank/Patch History confirms that as of patch #97 (11/06/19), natural APRs without merit upgrades were raised, and 'Bank Interest merits now increase the APR by 5% each' for the City Bank investment system; this entry sits under the 'Investment bank rates' heading, i.e. the City Bank, not Cayman. (confirmed by Torn; Bank/Patch History, )
- The Torn Wiki's general overview page on awards and merits directs players to the separate Awards and Merits wiki pages for details on how to earn specific awards/merits and what the merits can be spent on, but does not itself list the Collector award's requirement. (documented; Down To Details › Awards and Merits, )
- A developer bug-report thread is titled 'Exact stats preventing Nice merit from happening'; the training log shows stat totals containing repeated '69' digit sequences. The dev's fix corrected activity-log number formatting/rounding, implying the Nice trigger depends on a player's exact displayed stat total and that rounding bugs could block it. (confirmed by Torn; Exact stats preventing Nice merit from happening, )
- The only developer post in this pack specifically about Cayman Island Banking (2018) discusses display/statement visibility, not interest mechanics or merits, and does not mention the Bank Interest merit at all. (confirmed by Torn; Cayman Island Banking, )
- The patch note entry confirming merit-based APR increases is listed specifically under the heading 'Investment bank rates' and describes per-length APRs on investments, matching the City Bank's fixed-term investment system, not the Cayman Islands bank. (confirmed by Torn; Investment bank rates — changes to Bank/Patch History)
- The Torn Wiki's Faction Challenges page lists a separate 'Overseas banking' faction perk track (five upgrades, Tier I through V) that increases Cayman bank interest by 5%/10%/15%/20%/25%, unlocked via faction challenges requiring cumulative Cayman interest earned, not via personal merit points. (documented; Faction Challenges › Excursion, )
- Taken together, the patch note's City Bank-only scope and the wiki's own list of Cayman interest boosters (a faction-challenge perk and an Oil Rig special, with no mention of personal merits) indicate the Bank Interest merit affects only City Bank APR, while Cayman interest is boosted by separate mechanisms. (documented; Cayman Islands › Special, )
- A staff member responding to a player who had placed at least 5 collector items in their display case for two weeks without receiving the merit said the award description does not list any specific conditions, and that the award is granted once the (unspecified) conditions are satisfied. (confirmed by Torn; Collector Merit, )
- Within a company, Employee Effectiveness merits add +1 effectiveness point per merit level and can, with low-stat players, raise effectiveness by up to 4 times its base level when fully upgraded; Addiction negatively affects effectiveness, while director Education and Settled-In bonuses also contribute. (documented; Company › Operation › Employee Effectiveness, )
- The current wiki Perks page lists the full merit category set: Nerve, Critical hit rate, Life %, Crime success %, Education Length, Awareness %, Bank interest, Mug Amount %, Stealth, Hospitalizing Time, Addiction mitigation %, Employee effectiveness, the four battle stats, and ten weapon-class mastery merits plus Temporary weapons, each at +1% damage/+0.2 accuracy per upgrade. Maximum of 27 merit perks total. (documented; Perks › Personal Perks › Merits, )
- The Commitment honor 'Forgiven' is listed only with the vague requirement 'Be truly forgiven for all of your sins', with no numeric trigger given on this wiki capture, consistent with earlier findings that no source details Forgiven's exact trigger. (documented; Award › Honors › Commitment / Items / Miscellaneous / Newspaper, )
- The wiki (2022 capture) defines Awareness as the quantity of items a player finds in the City; higher awareness means more items found. Boosts are additive, not multiplicative. (documented; Awareness, )
- Awareness levels are additive: a 200% boost and a 300% boost give 500% extra awareness in total, not 600%. (documented; Awareness, )
- Wiki lists four ways to raise awareness: 20% per merit upgrade; 10% from education PSY2680; 50%, 50% and 70% from working at a Firework Stand, Candle Shop and Zoo; 2500% for 31 days from Book: Finders Keepers. There is also an unspecified boost during annual Awareness Awareness Week (3rd week of January). (documented; Awareness › Increasing Awareness, )
- In a 2019 bug report, a developer (Chedburn) acknowledged that the City Bank investment was 'almost pointless without any merit upgrades, while literally 100x better with 10 merit upgrades' and said the interest-rate/merit interaction needed adjusting, confirming merits materially affect City Bank APR. (confirmed by Torn; 29 day bank investment nets me 1,000,000, )
- The Affronted is listed in the Torn Wiki's Award page under Honors > Miscellaneous, with the stated requirement 'Irritate all job interviewers'. (documented; Award › Honors › Miscellaneous — table, )
- A developer confirmed that merely angering all job interviewers (shown via event log entries for each company/job) is not sufficient; the player must also speak with (start a conversation with) one of the interviewers after having angered them all in order to trigger the honor. (confirmed by Torn; The Affronted merit not received, )
- In a separate 2022 support case, the developer again asked whether the player had started a conversation with one of the interviewers prior to making them all angry, confirming the same two-step trigger (anger all interviewers, then interact/converse with one) is required for the award. (confirmed by Torn; The affronted, )
- Staff confirmed the company employee-effectiveness debuff from addiction does not scale linearly and is capped: once well above the maximum possible addiction debuff, further addiction changes (even halving addiction via a White Easter Egg) do not move the effectiveness debuff, though the underlying brain-icon percentage still changes. (confirmed by Torn; Employee Effectiveness, )
- The current wiki's Company > Employees section says directors like to see employees keep drug addiction down (degree varies by job type) and recommends Employee Effectiveness merits as 'always useful' for company work. (documented; Company › Employees, )
- Merits in general can be upgraded incrementally up to 10 times per merit at a total cost of 55 merits, with each upgrade costing one more merit than the last; this is a general merit-spending mechanic, not specific to Forgiven. (documented; Merit › Upgrades, )
- Torn staff (bogie) advised a player asking about long-term merit planning that it is better to save merits than to pre-emptively spend them on an upgrade that may not be needed, since regretting the choice later forces a costly reset. (confirmed by Torn; merit points, )
- A developer announcement confirms the Points Building price of one merit was raised from 250 points to 300 points, effective 3 September 2024; the cost of a full merit reset remained unchanged at a range of 500 to 5,000 points. (confirmed by Torn; Upcoming points building changes, )
- A staff-reviewed account bank log entry shows the exact transaction text for buying a merit at the current price: a player 'used 300 points acquiring 1 Merit,' confirming the 300-point price is live and tracked in the bank/wallet log. (confirmed by Torn; Spin the wheel not crediting the winnings correctly., )
Questions about Merits
- Which merits in Torn take the longest to obtain, and why?
The single longest-to-earn items are time-gated Honors, not the point-bought Merit upgrades: the marriage honor Stairway To Heaven requires staying m…
- Which merit upgrades are worth buying for long-term benefit, and what are their costs, caps and trade-offs against other uses of points?
A merit costs 300 points (up from 250 before 3 Sep 2024), capped at one per two levels up to 50 by level 100 . The durable buys are percentage catego…
- Is the Addiction Mitigation merit worth buying, considering its cost and effect on drug addiction build-up?
Worth buying for anyone who regularly uses addictive drugs: the developer's own test and formula confirm each merit point directly cuts the displayed…
Drugs ·
- How is the Affronted merit obtained in Torn, and what triggers the award that grants it?
The Affronted is a Torn honor whose stated requirement is to "Irritate all job interviewers" . The actual trigger, confirmed twice by the developer, …
- How does the Awareness merit affect finding items in the city, and is it worth spending merits on?
Awareness is the wiki's term for how many items a player finds in the city. The Awareness merit adds +20% per upgrade, and boosts add together rather…
- Does Torn ever offer a free merit reset, such as during Christmas?
Yes. The wiki says free merit resets have been given every year since 2018 as a Christmas gift, and they can also come from the book High School For …
- What is the best order or strategy to spend merits in Torn?
The two guides that rank merits (2020 and 2026) both put Education Length first. It costs 55 merits for all 10 levels . After that the order is playe…