Being a Faction Member - A Simple Guide

This guide is intended for those looking for a faction or a new faction. It will help you identify:

- The types of factions.
- How to find the right faction for you.
- Their expectations and how you'll contribute.
- Definitions for chaining and filler factions.
- Rule out bad leaders.


UPDATE Nov 13, 2017

A new chaining system has been released which encourages more use of the Territories system, as well as war targets capable of being anyone, including non-faction players. Respect will be much more difficult for smaller, weaker factions to obtain. The full system is not yet released and has not shown it's full impact on Torn. I suspect these three definitions will change somewhat, mainly;

Powerhouse factions will favor termed wars that abuse Territories for extra respect gains, but also that target higher level players for maximum respect.

Aggressive factions may not be a thing depending how the new system prevails, as it will be nearly impossible for new factions to gain the respect required to do any serious chaining without first gaining a solid ground in Territories (a system unfavored by players.)

Peaceful factions that do not already have established respect, will be pointless to be in for any but the newest of players who will settle for crap faction perks.

Conclusion: The system should naturally favor fewer factions, having players migrate to the top 300 or so factions while others are left for complete newbs and multi banking. New players shiuld focus strongly on building battle stats to gain entry into better respected factions.


The Three Types of Factions

Powerhouse: Strong, old players. Termed wars. Typically this type of faction will be found in the Hall of Fame, high rankings, or generally highly upgraded. These guys usually look for high gym stats from any member they recruit. They don't take on new players, but they often have sub-factions that do. They don't think twice about declaring war on filler factions, often spend the majority of their time training as opposed to chaining, and when they do war it is often under specific terms.

Aggressive: Active players, varied stat expectations, constant wars.These factions are usually middle of the road in terms of special upgrades. They are trying to grow stronger through chaining and aggressively recruit and war (but probably have aggressive training sessions as well). Their goal is to gain respect and strength as fast as possible. Usually these factions will not be competition for the large, established factions as their demand for energy and lack of high end specials requires them to recruit newer, weaker players. These factions are the best for teaching new players the faction ropes, but new players can expect to be in the hospital a lot. As well, the demand for war will put a strain on these players ability to grow in stats individually. A well managed Aggressive faction will keep its warbase full with filler factions that are easy for newer players to beat, and to avoid being used as filler themselves.

Peaceful: Anyone, not actively recruiting, social or banks. These are also commonly referred to as filler factions. The faction leader may be using the faction as a bank, for a small social circle, or they might have strong specials and simply not be interested in warring anymore. These factions usually are not actively recruiting but will often take on new players with minimum or no expectations. In other cases, they will not be open to recruits at all.


What Faction Type is Best for You?

Old player, high stats, primary focus is gym gains: Powerhouse
Old player, high stats, primary focus is warring: Powerhouse or Aggressive
Old player, low stats, primary focus is gym gains: Peaceful
Old player, low stats, primary focus is warring: Aggressive
Newer player, very active: Aggressive
Newer player, not active: Peaceful

Brand new player: Build stats up before joining a faction. Otherwise you'll be in the hospital constantly and the game will not be fun for you.

Old players have more options, especially if they have huge stats.

Newer, active players can benefit greatly from an Aggressive faction in that they can learn quickly and earn fast merits through chaining. Some Aggressive factions have training breaks. For a newer, active but weaker player these factions that mix aggressive training in with aggressive chaining will have the most benefit.

Newer, not active players will not be accepted into a Powerhouse and should not join Aggressive as they will be a hinderance on that faction. A Peaceful faction open to letting you use decent steadfast and hermetic upgrades would be ideal. You can still expect to be hospitalized a lot being used as filler, but the 5%+ gym gains will be worthwhile as you try to build yourself stronger.

Revivers: There are no factions specifically identified to you, however you'd want to join a faction with Salutary 10 to reduce reviving cost to 25 energy. Some factions will allow you to join them for free if you supply them with free revives, while others will charge a weekly/monthly fee but have little or no other expectations. Regardless of your stats, you'll identify with either Aggressive or Powerhouse factions.


Identifying the Faction Types

Powerhouse factions will have high specials, usually Steadfast and Hermetic will be 8-10 and their other specials will be highly upgraded. Their front page will ask for very high minimum stats such as 500m or 1b, may declare that they are not recruiting, or will recommend a sub-faction to join. Their names are usually intended to be menacing or satire, and have thought put into them. They will often sit full or close to full of members.

Aggressive factions will have varied specials but usually Steadfast will be around 5-7. Their front page will ask for Daily Active Players, Chainers, might offer free meds or xanax for chaining, and could display their big war wins. Chaining will be a central theme. Their names are usually intended to be menacing or satire, and have thought put into them. They strive for a full member count, but could be anywhere from 20-80 normally even if they are well managed.

Peaceful factions will often have in their name or on their front page something along the lines of No War, Peaceful, or Bank Only. Their names can be nonsensical, childish, based on television or movies, and generally don't have much thought put into them. Their front page should have little to no expectations and they are not likely to have many members, usually under 10.


Living Up To Expectations

Powerhouse factions place most of their expectations on your stats and ability to defeat other strong players. Once joined, their primary concern is your ability to continue to compete with strong players, be as active as possible, and make massive contributions in times of war. During training times you'll sit pretty and build up quickly, but if lazing during war times you will likely be kicked. These factions are well managed, give great information, but will expect you to be able to take care of yourself in fights and financially. Finally, you can expect to use IRC and be active in the forums, but often the faction chat is dull. Not for newbs.

DO NOT JOIN IF you are not very active, lazy, don't want to chain, have low stats, don't follow instructions or don't communicate. You will be wasting their time and yours, and will likely be branded a leech. This can result in enemies and repeated hospitalizations. Often these factions will outright state they are not taking leeches/scammers/shit-talkers.

Aggressive factions place their expecations on your ability to chain, and sometimes have little expectations on your stats. You must be active daily and they will expect you to make a minimum daily or weekly hit count. These factions vary greatly in their expectations of what you/they provide:

Type A: Offers xanax, meds, armor, weapons, money, rainbows and unicorns but wants 100% committment to chaining.
Type B: Offers xanax, meds, usually some armor and weapons, but does not pay you. A good faction will teach you how to be self sufficient financially. If they are not training in this regards, you could find a better faction unless you are already self sufficient. Usually you'll need to prove yourself in helping to chain before access to drugs and armors are provided, but meds are typically a given.
Type C: A poor aggressive faction may only provide meds. If they can't even do this, the leader is too weak to be leading a faction.
Type D: Socially funded. This faction has such admirable leadership and dedicated members that extra meds, money, drugs and other goods are donated regularily by the faction members as well as leadership. There may not be an expectation to donate, but there might also not be what you need when you need it. These factions are the most fun as everyone works together and is typically very chatty.
Type E: Cash foundations. Depending on leadership they may expect a $ donation per week to be in the faction, but in exchange provide all goods. Or they may choose to pay members weekly, but provide nothing. Or a variation. These factions typically do not last as members usually feel they are owed something and so will not pay into a faction, and a paying leader often goes broke very quickly. If a faction asks for cash or states payment to be a member, keep truckin'.

Since factions vary widely based on leadership and experience, there may be mixes and matches of the above.

When chaining, these factions will expect you to be able to communicate effectively. This may only require faction chat, or it might require IRC. They will be willing to teach you how they chain, but you must be able to follow their instructions. Often their forums are bare, but in a well managed faction they should be full of help and activity.

Aggressive factions are the most likely to encourage members to recruit, and this is often done as aggressively as warring.

DO NOT JOIN IF you are not very active, lazy, don't want to chain, are brand new to Torn, don't follow instructions or don't communicate. You will be wasting their time and yours, and will likely be branded a leech. This can result in enemies and repeated hospitalizations. Often these factions will outright state they are not taking leeches/scammers/shit-talkers.

Peaceful have little to no expectations and these can usually be easily identified on their welcome page. If your interest is in a socially active faction, aggressive is the best way to go as the communication has to happen in order to be effectively warring on a regular basis.

DO NOT JOIN IF you want to chain, socialize, learn, or if you want to earn merits quickly.


What is Chaining?

This is when faction members combine their energy to attack and hospitalize enemies in their warbase (factions war has been declared with by either side.) They must communicate to hit targets within a certain time of each other to avoid the chain of hits being broken. The goal is to reach 100, as there are bonus hits at 10, 25, 50, 75 and 100. These bonus hits are very important in winning wars, especially against stronger opponents. Chaining earns the more respect than any other activity (random hits, organized crimes) by a long shot if done properly. A faction that does not chain will progress it's specials extremely slowly.

What is a Filler Faction?

Generally these are factions that are much weaker than your own in terms of how strong your members are to theirs. When chaining you may be facing one major war faction that is trying hard to defeat yours. To increase chains to higher numbers and hit that faction with greater bonus hits, you need weaker faction targets to build up the chain. This is where filler factions come in. When a much stronger faction declares on your faction, your faction is then the filler faction.

Powerhouse use Aggressive and Peaceful as filler and war hard with Powerhouse.
Aggressive use Peaceful as filler and war hard with other Aggressive.
Peaceful do not use filler and do not war hard.

Finding A Good Leader

I strongly recommend sending a private message to the leader of any faction you consider. This will accomplish several things.

- Get more info about who they are, expectations and know before joining if it's a good fit.
- Let them know more about your play style and stats, allowing the leader to inform you if you are not a good fit for their faction.
- Find out the leaders personality. Are they responsive or ignoring? Friendly or agitated? Welcoming or abrupt?

Good leaders respond with kindness, even in rejection. They remember this is a game and everyone plays for fun, even when their faction may become work or a burden on them. A leader that takes the time to respond to personal messages in a timely fashion will also take the time to train and be patient with new members.

Don't take expectations as rejection or pushiness. As much as the faction has to gain from members, members have to gain from the faction specials. Inderstand that it is a two-way street.


If you feel this tutorial can be expanded, please let me know what content you'd like to see and I'm happy to elaborate.

As a member of BC i like to think we're a mixture of powerhouse and peaceful on some months and then powerhouse and aggressive on others :x

far to vague and steotypical

doesnt take warring / peaceful phases into account.

certainly doesnt take group and personal character into account when choosing a faction....

good effort but needs way more research and understanding

That's how powerhouse is defined above.

But we differ in many others was more the point such as only asking for 50m and constantly recruiting etc

It was also more a point that we constantly change from A to B to C back to A

Warring and peaceful phases are taken into account with both Powerhouse and Aggressive. Aggressive being a middle of the road, active faction. I can break down in further detail if you like, but I didn't want to over analyze as I could write a book.

It does take the group into account, explaining which factions are more likely to be active and sociable and that potential members should be reading the faction descriptions.

It also takes the individuals desires into account, as that's what the whole guide is for. For someone that says a lot more research is needed, perhaps you should read the full post before offering your opinion.

There is a problem with stereotyping factions that are stereotypical in nature? Of course there is going to be vagueness, there are tens of thousands of factions. Not all are going to fit into a mould.

EDIT: In rereading my own post I believe I could put a category between Peaceful and Aggressive, called Softcore. Factions that regularily war but are not very strict/serious about it. Personally i believe this is a subcategory for Aggressive and this is meant to be a general guide. I trust that people who want to chain will consider multiple factions in the Aggressive category before making a decision.

I believe BC is hands down a Powerhouse faction. Highest specials, ranked 12th. As a powerhouse you can choose to train hard or chain hard, but the major wars are likely termed or just for fun (correct me if I'm wrong) and the social activity is there, unlike most peaceful factions.

Being more aggressive or more peaceful at times falls into the description above. Unless you guys regularily recruit noobies or beg factions not to war with you, you're not going to be a Peaceful faction. Aggressive war for the respect they NEED, Powerhouse war for aport or the respect they WANT.

Also, though I get the humor, tell me how this isn't a powerhouse description:


Only accepting applications from people with a bazilliontrillionbillionmillion stats.

Seriously, You must have Donator status, Be Active and willing to chain when required. Navin also requires billions of dollars in donations.

Also guys, note my use of language through the guide...

Typically. Usually. Most often. Generally.

" Type C: A poor aggressive faction may only provide meds. If they can't even do this, the leader is too weak to be leading a faction."

Wrong. Are you going sit here and tell me that our leadership of LS is weak?

This is not a guide. This is one persons poorly educated option of what factions are.

I enjoyed reading this guide. Well written, understandable for a newbie to learn the ropes.

As far for Calculative - we definitely fall in the Aggressive category. :)

I found this to be too generic and lost interest half way through. How a leader or leadership run a faction is up to them and no one faction is the same. Take for example the Calc group of factions sure we are all big and have the same logo but thats pretty much where the similarities end. Calculated is pretty peaceful but are capable of winning wars against most factions in torn, Calculating is strategically offensive and Calculative is aggressive.

Hank

Thank you for your opinion I've been a member for a while with but we don't have many members with over a billion and re only ask for 50 million while still accepting less so by your definition we're not a powerhouse and yet you think us one because of the ranking, it would be more of an issue of how general your statements are, i think that as max points out you are trying to over just too much with one term - it's a good guide without a doubt but those are issues which once fixed would help it as a guide.

As for that i'd suggest checking our faction recruitment thread which shows what we actually need - looking at our members would show that we're not a faction of stats but as you pointed out by our rank, we're a faction which is amazing at chaining.

From your faction description,

Faction Perks:
1. Vicodin supplied for warring
2. Points supplied for big wars
3. Make friends and gain a family
4. Great Specials and Armoury
5. Get advice on how to help yourself grow

Drugs and points are more expensive than meds, so I'm not sure what you're arguement is.


Hank... Calculative family would be considered powerhouse with supporting factions that fall under aggressive. Too generic you say, yet your faction falls in the stereotype as agreed by one of your own.


AGAIN... people, understand the terminology is completely generic. Typically. Usually. Most often. Generally.

I'm getting the same complaints about how "my" faction doesn't fall in one of these categories (yet, they do) or that they are too generic. I've already addressed this.


FYI... this guide is not for players familiar with the whole faction scene. It's meant to give an overview of general expectations and types. The very minor tweaks I'm getting based on your faction versus the literal TENS OF THOUSANDS of other factions are trivial and do not warrant expanding the guide to accomodate your very specific way of running your faction.

Yeesh.

CC aint in the same league as you guys but when we fight, we all fight. when we train, we all train, we are a close knit faction.

when we dont have wars, we go quiet or the faction chat blows up.....

as for providing stuff, we provide meds all the time, points and combat drugs for warring but NEVER xanax, simply because i dont agree with babysitting ppl. if they cant afford xanax they cant afford the rehab.

we also provide housing, jobs and weapons

BUT the massive HoF faction dont provide ANYTHING, simply because they expect you to be a pro player, self sufficent, they dedicate their time to building DB's.



so basically i dont know which cat we fit into.....

I would also like to know which factions hes been in to research this guide, i mean, you would need to have been in at least 3 HoF to make a comparision between them. Then theres the idea of building a faction up from zero, the amount of time effort and money needed, ppl that have done that will know that it can be soul destroying until you find a core of regular players that become loyal and this quickly becomes friends. And that is were the personalty of the individual and the faction comes into play and thus shapes the personalty of the faction.


as i said, more research is needed

I think this is a cracking basic guide for new players. Whilst it is not all encompassing, it isn't intended to be. I think the breakdown of factions is fine and there is some other good tips.
As you get older in game you will realise that factions are not as black and white as stated here. But there is far too much grey to keep this simple for it's intended audience and impress you guys replying to the thread with detailed knowledge.

Good work OP.

It was refreshing and a good post .Rated +

Bloody brilliant.

Well done, that man there.

+1

Yeah I'm not so sure about this guide either.

The definitions are definitely one of the issues. No factions are peaceful as you cannot avoid war, you can simply allow yourself to be taken without a fight. Most factions don't war non-stop, but will go through various phases, and allow for downtime.

It's also a bit too wordy.

Nice attempt, but not quite there yet. I wouldn't recommend following it at this point.

some good points in your guide.

im leading a knitting circle with free meds and weapons and armour.

some of us have good enough stats to fight, we arent recruiting.

Thanks for this!