merit points

so yes im a noob, just wondering the best direction to go in with my merit points early? i understand everyone has a different strategy but its just a question

yes i understand that. Thanks I guess just curious on how other people started off.

I am going with education myself first. Seems the best investment as it reduces the total time spent from the word go. Plus, all that discounted education time adds up if you plan on doing them all. That is just my personal choice though, you may find options there that are more appealing.

I decided on resetting and putting 10/10 into awareness because I like city finds :D and then I do crit hit and life and a few other random ones

-Monkey- [892675]I decided on resetting and putting 10/10 into awareness because I like city finds :D and then I do crit hit and life and a few other random ones

Those seem pretty good choices from my personal point of view. The first 4 options kind of seem pointless. Ok, all maxed out gives you 30% increase per stat, but if everyone trains the same, you will always be weaker than the people already above you, so whats the point?

I will probably end up sticking with 1 weapon type, so picking one from the bottom set. Then spend the rest on some from the middle - non stat related. I also worked out that you could probably fill 7 and a bit bars realistically. Assuming you buy the max 50 merits, 6 bars if not. That does not include the merits for newspaper, special events, jackpots and referalls.

I am trying to plan accordingly, but will have to do a reset eventually when the education bar becomes pointless.

if you're planning a reset anyway, and are low age, low stats, etc

go with Nerve Bar, Crime Points, Education Length, & Awareness (in no particular order)


But yeah, just like bogie says, it's going to be up to you, lots of different possibilities...

Since you're looking for a cookie cutter build here's what I would do if I could start over again.

Long Term plan Option for an active drug user: (focus on wealth building, mugging,merit building)

10 Education Length
10 Bank Interest (first if you can get a 2 bil loan)
7 Critical Hit Rate
7 Masterful Looting
1 Point in everything else
Dump rest into Life, Stealth, whatever

Reasoning:

• 10 for education right off the bat if you plan on doing at least 3+ bachelors, because in the time it takes you to complete them you'll have more than 55+ merits done.
• Banking Next because with or without friends loaning you money this will be the most valuable merit (literally)long term
  
  
• Critical Hit Rate, to help attain merit
  
  
• Masterful Looting because until mugging system changes this is one of the biggest avenues of making money
  
  
• 1 Point in everything before reset so you can get Web of Perks easier (hint buy all crime enhancers)

You initially only max Banking and education and get 7 in anything else you want because levels 8,9,& 10 will cost you a total of 27 merits which could be nearly 7 levels in something else. (level 7 costs 28 merits)

Edit out areas you don't plan on doing, so if you don't plan on mugging just get 1 point until reset for web of perks merit.

If going drug free reset after taking 50 xanax unless the loss of hp OD doesn't reset anymore.

Crime merits suck for regular crimes (non-OC) only dump into them if you plan on going for PA's before reset otherwise you will hit 45 nerve easily by simply buying a crime enhancer without spending your merits.

Nerve bar merit also sucks if you are active since you only benefit from it if you don't play the game this is a loose less nerve a day merit (i.e. first initial log in/long flight times which you should avoid anyway) which should be substituted through the use of stuff like beer.

Brawn upgrade is nearly worthless for damage stick to one weapon and simply get the appropriate mastery for most value.

Don't level hold if you want merits (obviously)

Only spend in awareness if you like searching the new city map, if you get eyestrain/don't then you should avoid this.

final note: when buying merits, obviously you start buying merits when the price of 1 merit (through points), is less than the next available merit point you will get or you have excess cash on hand. i.e. going for "loan shark" before buying any merits at all is pretty dumb imo

Reset after web of perks and/or core educations (i.e. bus,psyche,sports,ect.):
10 Banking
7 into whatever you want/focus on
leftover into fluff or save to max next category

To give you an idea I'm at 193 merits in 2 years, i don't use drugs, and don't really war so if you are active attaining over 165 merits within a year (enough to max 3 things) is easily attainable with some proper planning.

Mugging is based one peple likehttp://www.torn.com/profiles.php?XID=1676075, and there are more examples of people like this anyway. Initial mugging starts as low as 1 million balanced, which again if you are active drug user (which I stated above) is easily done in less than a year.

that show you activity + mugging > you

I specifically wrote LONG TERM but i guess you like nit picking every post I say when this thread is asking for an opinion anyway right? (which i stated this was my opinion....)

Web of perks, or rather spending 1 merit point in the long run is nearly nothing (25 from merits) since later on you can reset your merits. The point was to reset once in your life time, and getting Web of perks PRIOR to resetting is probably good advice. Unless you like spending money on resets...

I'm at 61 perks w/ max edu (not in a fitness center mind you,and 3 bachelors) and a relatively low play time/age with 1 pt into everything else i'd be at 80 perks picking up the rest of the crime enhancers I don't have adds another 5+, the last 15 i could easily get within half a year if I cared. If you don't plan at all yeah then web of perks takes forever if you do it should be attainable within 2 years.

IF you wanted to argue that merits are a bit harder to get now that events aren't working then sure yeah that's true.

Since when has anything in torn been for the short-term anyway...



Not going to respond anymore because you never read my initial posts which i bother editing and continually bump a post with basically trolling so this is my final edit (because I can't post without bumping):

1 merit point in each or rather 25 merits total is a rather modest investment for web of perks to attain it within 2 years, and also a valid option to those planning on resetting out of max education like what my opinion stated (10 merits on education is pretty bad after you complete sports bachelors anyway)

Going to ignore your posts since you never seem to read mine all of mine anyway. Half of the time your arguments against mine I've already defended prior to you even typing them if you actually read my initial post.../facepalm whatever I guess.

Hold on to them until you're a bit older and understand the in's and out's of the game :)