What does a dirty bomb do, and how does it work during a faction war?

TornLife researched this question and found the points below; each one is taken from the sources cited. TornLife could not write them up as a full answer.

How do players use it in war strategy?

• Attack settings for defence are relative weights, not percentages. Staff confirmed that with Primary 80, Secondary 40, Melee 60 and Temporary 100, the chance of using a Temporary each turn is 100/(80+40+60+100) = 35.71%.^[1][2]
• The wiki says ranked wars are a tug-of-war: each team attacks the other's members to gain score, aiming to cross a target net score first. Any active chain is forced into cooldown 5 seconds before the war starts.^[3]
• The Torn Wiki says a weapon is an item that can be equipped to enhance fighting ability against another player. Up to four weapons can be equipped, one each in the Primary, Secondary, Melee and Temporary slots.^[4]
• A ranked war normally ends only when one faction meets the target score or one participating faction is destroyed. There is typically no forfeit.^[5]
• The wiki says score in a ranked war is gained by attacking opponent faction members and equals the respect earned with each hit. Mugging gives 75% of the score of leaving or hospitalizing, and chain bonus hits generate large amounts of score.^[6]
• An item named Book is a Temporary weapon (ID 581) that lowers the opponent's respectability; it is not in the Books category. It sells for $20, circulation 9,872. It was once given to players reaching level 5 in Torn Lite on Facebook.^[7][8]
• The wiki says Torn's game is Foot Russian Roulette: players point a gun with 1 bullet chambered at their own foot and take turns firing until the bullet goes off. The first to shoot themselves loses and gets a small hospital time; the winner takes all the money.^[9]
• Ranked war participants receive bonus respect, points and Caches containing special weapons and armor. Rewards scale with faction rank and division, win (2x) or loss (1x), number of full members, participation (0x-3x) and random variance.^[10]
• Distraction is the group-attack mechanic in Torn combat. It governs what happens to a defender attacked by multiple players, applying debuffs under a 'Distracted' status effect that weaken the defender's effective battle stats. It is not a Crimes 2.0 mechanic.^[11]
• During a war, members of either faction get 60 seconds of protection from outside hitters after leaving hospital or jail. Early Discharge is available immediately for incoming outside hits. Recruits can still be hit to build the opponent's score.^[12][3]
• The wiki's Back to Basics page warns that faction members must stay active for organized crimes and attack enemies at war. Some factions require daily chaining, minimum stats or a Donator Pack. It advises talking to the leader first.^[13]
• Players in 2020 described scamming as legal in Torn. Trade cancelling was debated as to whether it counts as a scam. One player said retaliation such as bountying or attacking is within the rules. (one player's report)^[14][15]

What is the Dirty Bomb item and what is its effect when used?

• Temporary weapons listed in the 2025 wiki include Tear Gas (200.00 accuracy, Dexterity to 1/3rd for 120 - 180 seconds, Argentina), Stick Grenade (87 damage, 97.00 accuracy, United Kingdom), Throwing Knife (69 damage, 10.00 accuracy), Trout (35, 90.00), Snowball (5, 50.00), Wrench (14, 53.00) and Tyrosine (500% Dexterity bonus for 120 seconds).^[16]
• The Handbag is a Melee Clubbing weapon. After using a temporary, a melee attack re-equips another one instead of dealing a damaging hit. Only the same temporary type can be re-equipped (flash grenade then flash grenade, not then smoke grenade), and you need at least one more of it in inventory.^[17]
• 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.^[18]
• 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.^[19]
• 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.^[20]
• 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.^[21][22]

How does it interact with ranked wars, territory wars or raids?

• Caches are the ranked war reward items. Each gives at least a Yellow quality weapon or armor with a class-specific bonus, with small chances of Orange and smaller of Red. Types: Melee, Small Arms (SMG/Pistol), Medium Arms (Rifle/Shotgun), Heavy Arms (Machine Gun/Heavy Artillery).^[23]
• When a faction is destroyed at zero respect, members are removed and all unloaned items, money and points go to the leader. This is the only documented case in these sources of vault money moving on a member's removal, and it goes to the leader, not the members.^[24]
• 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.^[25][20]
• 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.^[26][27]
• An example detonation message: injuring 377 citizens and decreasing the target's respect by 113,797 to 521,938.^[27]
• An unofficial changelog from 2022 lists mobile Torn bugs: various pages (faction, warbase, item/bazaar/stock market) not working properly, property upgrades failing, faction armory inaccessible on some devices, and huge data consumption. It refers to mobile Torn generally, not specifically the app. (one player's report)^[28]

• Fair fight was introduced with Attacking respect and Chaining 2.0 on 10/11/17: successful attacks by faction members generate respect, and similarity in stats between attacker and target can yield a bonus of up to x3.^[29]
• Factions cannot take part if their roster strength has substantially fallen since their last war and their rank is higher than expected. This rule started with the matchmaking cycle of 27 September 2022. Enlistment is also restricted for factions with too many members inactive abroad (patch 06/09/22).^[12][30][31]
• Patch #346 (09/07/2024) disabled auto enlistment after finishing a ranked war.^[32]
• Armor Cache and Melee Cache (both released 7 December 2021) are given to factions at the end of a ranked war, appearing in the faction armory. They can also be bought at Big Al's Bunker, and cannot be sold to a store.^[33][34]
• Quality is a summary of the rolled Damage and Accuracy, not a separate stat. Damage is a multiplier used in fight damage: fists are 10.00, so a 50.00 weapon does 5x damage with no other modifiers.^[35][36]
• Cooldown after a break: the wiki Faction page says 10 seconds per hit; the Chain page says 6 seconds per hit (600 seconds for a chain of 100). Hits during cooldown do not affect the chain.^[37][38]
• The wiki says a chain is built by successive hits on players outside your faction. It is a warring tool that earns more respect as it grows, with occasional bonus hits. Chaining must be unlocked by spending respect, and each longer chain length is unlocked after completing a chain of the set length.^[39][38]
• The Torn Wiki warns that storing cash in someone's faction bank is a scam risk: if they refuse to return it, it is lost. It recommends banking on your own account or in a house vault.^[40]
• The Handbag's Storage bonus lets you use two temporary items in a fight. You must spend an additional turn to withdraw the second temporary item. This is the only listed way to use more than one temporary.^[41]
• Diamond factions also have a numbered position. Beating a faction with a better position steals it, and the loser's position drops by one.^[42]
• Factions have an Actual Rank shown publicly, increasing with ranked war wins. There are six ranks: Metal (1 division), then Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum and Diamond (4 divisions each). Wins and losses move a faction up or down a division. A win in the final division of a rank gives two divisions (e.g. final Bronze to second Silver). Factions start Unranked in Metal.^[43]
• Rank decay: after a 10-week grace period without enlistment, a faction loses one division every two weeks until it reaches Bronze. Warnings come a week before. A faction remaining enlisted in the pool does not decay.^[44]

What counters, restrictions or recent changes apply?

• Staff said in 2025 that in the API attack log a stealthed attacker's 'attacker' object is null, because the attacker is stealthed. Staff planned a new optional field 'attacker_temporary_item' for temporary weapons.^[45]
• Patch #255 (06/09/22) added enlistment restrictions for factions with too many members inactive while abroad.^[46]
• Hazmat suits are the only protection against dirty bombs. Neumune tablets remove some radiation poisoning effects, but full recovery still takes a long time.^[19][20]
• Since the Stocks 3.0 update, dirty bombs no longer cause a brief crash in share prices.^[47]
• By June 2026 Cesium-137 had a built-in floor price of 500m on the market, with no shop buying it at that baseline. The thread author linked it to demand from OC 2.0. (one player's report)^[48]
• Players say a Dirty Bomb patch/rework was meant to encourage more factions to use them. Players report cesium prices fell to about 400m then 200m after Crane Reaction release. One player says collateral territory damage from dirty bombs increased fear and retaliation. (opinion)^[49][50]

How is it obtained, and what are its cost, limits and requirements?

• Patch #206 (24/08/21) gave Dirty Bombs a dedicated networth valuation of $50b.^[51]
• 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.^[52]
• 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.^[26]
• Awards: Discovery (be in a faction when construction begins), RDD and Slow Bomb (both for using a Dirty Bomb).^[47]
• Cesium-137 was changed from Special to Material on 10th October 2025.^[21]
• A 2015 trader's guide said Cesium cannot be bought from the game and comes from city finds and subscriber rewards, about 100 a month; 100 Cesium makes a Dirty Bomb. This is dated. (one player's report)^[53]
• A 2022 forum post priced Cesium at about 630,000,000 each on the item market, so about 63,000,000,000 for 100. It also said TiredSaladLego detonated 5 bombs at once. (one player's report)^[54]
• A 2025 honor guide says using a dirty bomb requires 100 cesium-137 and a hazmat suit, about 200 hours to make and 1 day to detonate. It estimated cesium at 600,000,000-850,000,000 each (60B-85B) and a hazmat suit at 12B, total 72B+. It points to newspaper article 308. (one player's report)^[55]
• Using a dirty bomb is a merit-linked honor (Slow bomb, RDD) in the honor guide. (one player's report)^[55]
• In OC 2.0, the level 10 Crane Reaction scenario rewards 1-3 Cesium-137. Players said its success odds were about 51.355% at the stated CPRs, with 36.4% of successes giving 3 cesium, 51.25% giving 2 and 12.35% giving 1. (one player's report)^[56][57]