There are no public guides on bounty hunting, because most bounty hunters won't give away their secrets because they don't want the competition. I have ended my bounty collection career, so decided to share my guide with a wider audience. I have shared a version of this within my faction for a while now.
Bounty hunting can make you money, work towards merits (bounty and combat), and improve your Elo score. You don't need high stats to collect every large bounty; I have seen players with noob protection get bounties over $1m and level 20 targets get $5m bounties.
If you want to collect bounties, you don't need to wait until you have better battle stats. When you start collecting bounties earlier, you get practice to refine your skills as your battle stats improve.
You won't collect every bounty you try to get: someone else may get it first, the target may defeat you, or someone could attack you and finish before you collect. If you can't accept failures, bounty hunting is not for you.
Bounty collection is not for everyone. Success requires a collection of abilities: to make fast decisions and act quickly, to carefully consider your chances of winning and patiently wait for the bounty target to become available, and to avoid getting in over your head.
This guide is geared to PC users, since that is what I use. Being able to see several open tabs at once helps a lot.
Bounty collection requires preparation, careful selection of targets, stalking patiently, then rapid attacking. Each is described below.
1. PREPARATION
Obviously, the better you are at combat, the more bounties you can collect. This includes battle stat training, armor and weapons, weapon mods, and putting merits into combat-related areas.
Prepare different loadouts for different types of builds. Different weapons, mods, and temps are better against different opponent builds (for example, high accuracy weapons/mods and pepper spray for high DEX targets; high damage for high DEF). Some players equip a HEG to one-shot targets with low life, so they can even hit targets with more battle stats than they have.
Develop several methods of determining which targets you can defeat and which build they have. You need quick methods to be the first to act on newly placed bounties AND more thorough methods if the quick methods do not give a clear result. (More on how to do this below.) Practice and hone these on Duke mission targets or any target when you know their stats.
Copy the URL templates below for a direct link to a player's attack screen. These exist for both name and player ID:
NAME: https://www.torn.com/profiles.php?NID=
PLAYER ID: https://www.torn.com/loader.php?sid=attack&user2ID=
By adding the name or Player ID after the '=', you get a direct link to load their attack screen. This template is essential to reload the attack page (F5) quickly once the target is out of hospital. Without this, the delays in loading the attack page means you will usually be too late. Alt+ arrow keys also lets you switch between loaded pages, so you can quickly move between the status and attack page.
2. CAREFUL SELECTION OF TARGETS
Selection of targets starts with the dollar value of the bounty. Set a threshold on your price for energy, and don't try to collect on targets below that dollar threshold. Be sure to set a high enough value to account for the attacks you will lose but still cost energy.
Next carefully identify if you can win against the bounty target. Careful does not mean slow - a target not in hospital may soon be unavailable, so decide as fast as you can. I have five methods, each with increasing accuracy but also time.
INSTANT:
Use the TCT bounty page to call up the target's mini-profile. If someone is about 1/4 your age and 1/4 your level, you can just attack them. Their stats should not be enough to trouble you even if they are a restart doing max gym training and level holding. (Your numbers may vary, especially if you have had inactive periods.) You can use the attack button on the mini-profile to attack them.
FAST:
If the instant method is not clear, open the target's profile. If you use TornTools, it may show you the target's battle stats. These may be inaccurate due to age or incorrect information. TornTools also shows recent battle history results, which is helpful when you collect a lot of bounties and have not memorized everyone in Torn by name and stat build.
QUICK:
Open the target's personal stats page for drugs. Look at the target's total number of Xanax used for an estimate of energy gained. If it is significantly lower than yours, you can attack. (If the target is over 1,000 days with less than 50 total Xanax and Ecstacy used, they may be an SSL user.)
SLOW: There are two valid methods using the personal stats pages.
For players at lower stat levels, look at battle statistics to see what your target can do. Compare the target's total damage over total hits to estimate damage per hit. Then combine that with the percent of hits that land to estimate how much damage they will do. Also look at defends won versus lost - if over 10% then they either have higer DEF/DEX or have bought Defends. Finally, opponent escapes will be high if the target has high DEF but not high DEX, low if the target has high DEX. Use the information to select a loadout to improve your chances of success.
For players at higher stat levels, you can consider total energy intake and whether it has been used for gym training, attacking, or reviving.
Look at their Xanax and Ecstacy (happy jumps) used and energy refills, energy drinks consumed, books read, attacks made, and revives done. Crimes completed is a good estimate of activity (compared to yours) to estimate regenerated energy used. Active targets who don't attack or revive much likely have used more energy on training and their battle statistics may not show what they are capable of.
The final part of careful target selection is to check if their faction is warring or chaining. During a Ranked War, they probably have war perks making them a harder target - which matters much more for factions with higher respect and more perks. During chains, factions will likely retaliate on you if they can and your attack is not stealthed. Active targets in chaining factions are likely trying to get in their chain attacks; if they attack someone while you attack them, you will lose stealth.
NOTE: You might fly to another country to collect a bounty. If someone has Abroad status but their profile says they are "Hiding out in ..." it means you can't attack them because they went inactive for 7 days or more.
3. STALK PATIENTLY
Refreshing the bounty page is needed to see newly placed bounties. Quite a few are placed soon after a new day starts for mission targets. Many bounties are placed on inactive players during Ranked Wars by their own faction members so they can't be hit for score.
It can be very lucrative to sit on an active target's profile until they come out of hospital. Set a timer for their time in hospital, but also watch for targets coming online to med out early.
For targets flying in, if you can calculate their landing time from their last active time plus flight duration and set a timer. Also watch for targets coming online: some do just prior to landing, but some go active in the middle of flights so you can't be sure how long they have been flying.
If you have time, see if the target has multiple bounties and their values so you know if you should do follow-up hits. On their profile page, click the bounty icon to see all the bounties on that target.
4. ATTACKING
Once you decide to attack, speed is required to make the Hospitalization. When possible, use the direct link to the target's attack screen for fastest response time. Your timing will very, but you can start refreshing the attack page even before they come out of hospital. For newly placed bounties, use the mini-profile to initiate an attack.
Since you only get 1 hit per second, it pays to put your target down fast if there are others trying to collect. Some use a HEG for this.
5. FOLLOW UP
As soon as you hospitalize the target, the bounty award is in your wallet where it can be mugged. Stash your money quickly, especially if you don't stealth on a very large bounty.
Some targets come out of hospital immediately after being hit, and not all of those are active (freevives can be fast). Be prepared to repeat your attack and claim another bounty award - if a good one is available. Knowing if the target has another bounty you want to collect will prevent you collecting $1 bounties.
Some targets will have revivers reviving them as fast as you hospitalize them. Some bounty hunters work with revivers to revive targets for them.
WRAP UP
Bounties can make you plenty of money if pursued correctly. If done wrong, you can spend all your energy and medical cooldown giving away Defends and make nothing.
Energy spent collecting bounties is not going to gym training, so balance your gameplay appropriately. Most bounties are placed on weekends, so focus on training during the week. As your stats grow, you can raise your bounty minimum and make better profit.
Bounty hunting can make you money, work towards merits (bounty and combat), and improve your Elo score. You don't need high stats to collect every large bounty; I have seen players with noob protection get bounties over $1m and level 20 targets get $5m bounties.
If you want to collect bounties, you don't need to wait until you have better battle stats. When you start collecting bounties earlier, you get practice to refine your skills as your battle stats improve.
You won't collect every bounty you try to get: someone else may get it first, the target may defeat you, or someone could attack you and finish before you collect. If you can't accept failures, bounty hunting is not for you.
Bounty collection is not for everyone. Success requires a collection of abilities: to make fast decisions and act quickly, to carefully consider your chances of winning and patiently wait for the bounty target to become available, and to avoid getting in over your head.
This guide is geared to PC users, since that is what I use. Being able to see several open tabs at once helps a lot.
Bounty collection requires preparation, careful selection of targets, stalking patiently, then rapid attacking. Each is described below.
1. PREPARATION
Obviously, the better you are at combat, the more bounties you can collect. This includes battle stat training, armor and weapons, weapon mods, and putting merits into combat-related areas.
Prepare different loadouts for different types of builds. Different weapons, mods, and temps are better against different opponent builds (for example, high accuracy weapons/mods and pepper spray for high DEX targets; high damage for high DEF). Some players equip a HEG to one-shot targets with low life, so they can even hit targets with more battle stats than they have.
Develop several methods of determining which targets you can defeat and which build they have. You need quick methods to be the first to act on newly placed bounties AND more thorough methods if the quick methods do not give a clear result. (More on how to do this below.) Practice and hone these on Duke mission targets or any target when you know their stats.
Copy the URL templates below for a direct link to a player's attack screen. These exist for both name and player ID:
NAME: https://www.torn.com/profiles.php?NID=
PLAYER ID: https://www.torn.com/loader.php?sid=attack&user2ID=
By adding the name or Player ID after the '=', you get a direct link to load their attack screen. This template is essential to reload the attack page (F5) quickly once the target is out of hospital. Without this, the delays in loading the attack page means you will usually be too late. Alt+ arrow keys also lets you switch between loaded pages, so you can quickly move between the status and attack page.
2. CAREFUL SELECTION OF TARGETS
Selection of targets starts with the dollar value of the bounty. Set a threshold on your price for energy, and don't try to collect on targets below that dollar threshold. Be sure to set a high enough value to account for the attacks you will lose but still cost energy.
Next carefully identify if you can win against the bounty target. Careful does not mean slow - a target not in hospital may soon be unavailable, so decide as fast as you can. I have five methods, each with increasing accuracy but also time.
INSTANT:
Use the TCT bounty page to call up the target's mini-profile. If someone is about 1/4 your age and 1/4 your level, you can just attack them. Their stats should not be enough to trouble you even if they are a restart doing max gym training and level holding. (Your numbers may vary, especially if you have had inactive periods.) You can use the attack button on the mini-profile to attack them.
FAST:
If the instant method is not clear, open the target's profile. If you use TornTools, it may show you the target's battle stats. These may be inaccurate due to age or incorrect information. TornTools also shows recent battle history results, which is helpful when you collect a lot of bounties and have not memorized everyone in Torn by name and stat build.
QUICK:
Open the target's personal stats page for drugs. Look at the target's total number of Xanax used for an estimate of energy gained. If it is significantly lower than yours, you can attack. (If the target is over 1,000 days with less than 50 total Xanax and Ecstacy used, they may be an SSL user.)
SLOW: There are two valid methods using the personal stats pages.
For players at lower stat levels, look at battle statistics to see what your target can do. Compare the target's total damage over total hits to estimate damage per hit. Then combine that with the percent of hits that land to estimate how much damage they will do. Also look at defends won versus lost - if over 10% then they either have higer DEF/DEX or have bought Defends. Finally, opponent escapes will be high if the target has high DEF but not high DEX, low if the target has high DEX. Use the information to select a loadout to improve your chances of success.
For players at higher stat levels, you can consider total energy intake and whether it has been used for gym training, attacking, or reviving.
Look at their Xanax and Ecstacy (happy jumps) used and energy refills, energy drinks consumed, books read, attacks made, and revives done. Crimes completed is a good estimate of activity (compared to yours) to estimate regenerated energy used. Active targets who don't attack or revive much likely have used more energy on training and their battle statistics may not show what they are capable of.
The final part of careful target selection is to check if their faction is warring or chaining. During a Ranked War, they probably have war perks making them a harder target - which matters much more for factions with higher respect and more perks. During chains, factions will likely retaliate on you if they can and your attack is not stealthed. Active targets in chaining factions are likely trying to get in their chain attacks; if they attack someone while you attack them, you will lose stealth.
NOTE: You might fly to another country to collect a bounty. If someone has Abroad status but their profile says they are "Hiding out in ..." it means you can't attack them because they went inactive for 7 days or more.
3. STALK PATIENTLY
Refreshing the bounty page is needed to see newly placed bounties. Quite a few are placed soon after a new day starts for mission targets. Many bounties are placed on inactive players during Ranked Wars by their own faction members so they can't be hit for score.
It can be very lucrative to sit on an active target's profile until they come out of hospital. Set a timer for their time in hospital, but also watch for targets coming online to med out early.
For targets flying in, if you can calculate their landing time from their last active time plus flight duration and set a timer. Also watch for targets coming online: some do just prior to landing, but some go active in the middle of flights so you can't be sure how long they have been flying.
If you have time, see if the target has multiple bounties and their values so you know if you should do follow-up hits. On their profile page, click the bounty icon to see all the bounties on that target.
4. ATTACKING
Once you decide to attack, speed is required to make the Hospitalization. When possible, use the direct link to the target's attack screen for fastest response time. Your timing will very, but you can start refreshing the attack page even before they come out of hospital. For newly placed bounties, use the mini-profile to initiate an attack.
Since you only get 1 hit per second, it pays to put your target down fast if there are others trying to collect. Some use a HEG for this.
5. FOLLOW UP
As soon as you hospitalize the target, the bounty award is in your wallet where it can be mugged. Stash your money quickly, especially if you don't stealth on a very large bounty.
Some targets come out of hospital immediately after being hit, and not all of those are active (freevives can be fast). Be prepared to repeat your attack and claim another bounty award - if a good one is available. Knowing if the target has another bounty you want to collect will prevent you collecting $1 bounties.
Some targets will have revivers reviving them as fast as you hospitalize them. Some bounty hunters work with revivers to revive targets for them.
WRAP UP
Bounties can make you plenty of money if pursued correctly. If done wrong, you can spend all your energy and medical cooldown giving away Defends and make nothing.
Energy spent collecting bounties is not going to gym training, so balance your gameplay appropriately. Most bounties are placed on weekends, so focus on training during the week. As your stats grow, you can raise your bounty minimum and make better profit.