Early Merits

 what should I spend my first dozen merits on? Just curious if there’s ones you should prioritize above the others?

Edu, nerve/bank intrest 

also is avoid posting as a newbie you become a target 

I personally made a point to max out education time reduction and bank interest payout

Like the other guys said, 

1. education merits will save you years
2. bank will make you billions
3. nerve will help you with crimes
4. opt for life/crit/hosp if youbwar a lot and have the top 3
5. avoid mugging until you have stats
6. avoid awareness its a scam
7. avoid masteries and passive stats until you have the main category stuff filled up to your liking
8. addiction mit isnt super useful, EE might make you some extra cash but dont lose out on edu or bank for it

0) This belongs in Questions.

Assuming you login several times a day, first 165 points should be spent this way:

1. Education Length 10.
2. Crime Progression 10. Skip it if you login only once a day.
3. Bank Interest 10. Better than any other option, but you aren't likely to have any money worth mentioning to make a use of it early-game.

Ignore everyone suggesting to put points into Nerve Bar. Its a horrible advice, and they are horrible people for suggesting it.

Awareness isn't great, but for a new player 2-3 points there wouldn't hurt (you'll reset your merits eventually and put those points somewhere else). Especially, if you intend to get History Bachelor.

Thank you for the advice. Sorry, I thought I did post this in Questions. Seems like education first is best bet

Next time for something like this I'd post in Q&A forum >> https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=forums&f=3&b=0&a=0

Ok, my bad

How are you going to make suggestions when youre hardly out of the noob stage yourself? 

nerve is valuable to accelerate your crime xp, crime progression merits are less valuable without it. Awareness is literal dogshit, reccomending anyone puts merits in it outside of awareness week is terrible advice and you should feel terrible for making yourself sound so credible while suggesting it. 

How are you making suggestions when you never even played the game we are playing?

nerve is valuable to accelerate your crime xp, crime progression merits are less valuable without it.

Nerve Bar is trash. Points there become relevant only when Nerve gets maxed out. Which usually happens only once per day. Which means you are spending 55 merits to get 10 Nerve per day. This is 1 Cannabis. You are suggesting to set 55 merits on fire just to get the benefit of 1 Cannabis. Do you not realize this?

And Awareness is flat income. It is pointless for 6 year old players. Even for new players 6 years ago it was pointless. But today things are different, as there are very few income sources for new players. Getting on average even +50k daily (especially for low-activity players) isn't a bad deal. And in a year or two those merits can be moved elsewhere.

Nah youre putting merits into it to avoid wasting regen, and to get kore nerve out of your refills.

wtf are you on about me never playing the game your playing? Are you playing f**kin noob simulator or some shit? Cause Im playing torn, and ive been playing it a hell of a lot longer than you. 

Awareness doesnt guarantee you shit, those merits youre suggesting to put there could make 50k anywhere else, you could probably save more than 50k in a day just by not dying in attacks with a merit or two in life. 

I, most certainly, am not playing a game where Nerve refills have any practical use.

This is the way. 

Education

Bank interest

Crime progression

Also these:

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Should keep you busy for a while.