I did a happy jump with my new player refills as outlined in a guide on these forums to get an early boost in stats and now I'm doing some attacks to get to level 15 to open up the travel options.
After that, I'm not sure how best to balance my energy usage. I see people say a lot, to just use it all in the gym but I'd like to do some attacks too. After all, what's the point of having great battle stats if you don't fight right? :-)
I'm really not keen on the idea of flower/plushie running for money - it just doesn't fit my playstyle. I'd rather mug people I think lol, seems more exciting. But of course I don't want to do so many attacks that I'm blowing all my energy and gimping myself in the gym department.
So is there any kind of rule of thumb with regards to energy usage percentage wise to put into gym / attacks for that kind of play style?
no need for you to go around mugging people for change. just put most of your energy into training and your stats will be fine.
as for income: youre at lvl 8..just wait for 15 and do a flight or 2..theres lots of merits in flying btw...and some good money for starting your journey in torn..as for mugging...might just be the worst way to earn an income
If you join a faction, you'll be able to have better training gains. And in terms of attacks, once they go to war you should participate if you want to fight.
There isn't a need to deliberately fight; bearing in mind that if you level up too fast, you'll also turn into a punching bag for others who have trained properly.
The problem with mugging is that you will be much weaker than someone who trained their E instead; thats why most people would recommend making money without consuming E.
Since flower/plushie running doesn't fit your playing style, I won't suggest it. For your desired playing style, I'd recommend 75% training with the energy, and 25% attacking. A number of factions follow that average (i.e. three weeks of training, followed by a week of warring without training), and it works pretty well. It will keep you growing stronger but allow you to spend a decent amount of time doing what is most fun for you. As long as you understand that you aren't going to be growing at the same pace as other actives in your age range, which will not help you long-term.
Others have mentioned the wisdom (or lack thereof) of mugging for income at your level/stats.
There are people playing this game who have billions of stats. So really you are still a baby field mouse despite the training. You need to train a lot more yet.
My rule of thumb is if i think i will get more to attack the person than it costs to replace the E I will attack to mug them. This train of thought breaks down as soon as you start using maximum energy boosters daily though.
Unfortunately, this game is old enough that progression is pretty clear cut. Plushie/flower running is almost a must if you want to make money in this game, whether you like it or not. Unless of course, you buy a bunch of DPs with real money and sell them on the market for TC cash.
Mugging is not really a reliable way to get money at your level and your battle-stats, so I wouldn't really suggest that.
Edit: Just wanted to say that you can also make money by selling revives. Once you finish the medical job tree you get a passive forever that lets you revive for 75e