Distraction, Suppression, and Stacking Breakdown

Hello everyone, 

Originally this was just a faction newsletter to quickly explain the concepts of stacking, distraction, and suppression. I decided, maybe it would be beneficial to post as an actual thread. In case I ever need to explain this concept in the future, I can just refer to this instead. So if this helps but even one new player in the slightest, I will be happy. If any more experienced players than myself notice that I have made a mistake, or am incorrect about something, feel free to pm me and I will fix it. I am aware the wiki uses different names, where aggression relates to strength and speed, while suppression relates to defense and dexterity

When you see someone like RGiskard, a player with 3.2 quadrillion stats widely regarded as one of the strongest in torn, you may think they are unkillable. Hyperlinks for his profile and the top 100 stat list included, just click the blue. But im here to explain why they're actually a lot easier to kill than you may expect, and players just like you all, can be the reason they are taken down. Crazy idea right? Well lets dive into the details.

Stacking:

Stacking is a term that describes multiple people attacking the same target. This concept is important, for quite a few reasons. The main reasons you want to stack, are distraction and suppression. I will explain those below the stacking section.

Now lets dive into some of the more niche reasons attacking someone is beneficial, for those curious:

• Someone who you are actively attacking, cannot attack you back. It will give them a message saying "This person is attacking you right now" which gives you effective immunity to them for the duration of the fight. 
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• Someone who is being attacked, cannot refresh their ammo supply or temporary weapons. So long as at least one player is actively attacking them, their guns and temporary items are worthless after they have been expended. 
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• Someone who is being attacked, is not allowed to use Ipecac Syrup or Bad Bloodbags. The only way to suicide when someone is attacking you, is to purposely attack a far stronger player who will kill you, or open a box containing a Small Explosive Device. There are other exceptions, but these are the main two. 
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• Someone who is being attacked is not allowed to fly. So long as one person stays on them, they are stuck in torn.
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• If multiple people are attacking the same person, stealth is impossible for the attackers. It will not display "someone" attacked them, but rather the names of everyone in the fight. A player can also suicide to prevent stealth attacks, as it will give them a log saying "xxx attacked you but failed due to a status change"
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• Multiple attackers on the same target will provide a score/ respect multiplier on the finishing hit. With diminishing returns for each new player

Distraction:

Distraction is a mechanic that reduces a players stats while they are being stacked. Each new player attacking someone will add 1 stack of distraction. 

For every stack of distraction, the opponents dexterity and defense is HALVED!!

Its easier to visualize how insane that is, with actual numbers. Lets use the number 1 TRILLION.  

• In a 1v1 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 remains at 1,000,000,000,000
• In a 1v2 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 becomes 500,000,000,000
• In a 1v3 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 becomes 250,000,000,000
• in a 1v5 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 becomes 62,500,000,000
• in a 1v10 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 becomes 976,562,500
• in a 1v25 fight, 1,000,000,000,000 becomes 29,802

This really puts into perspective how one strong player, alongside others helping reduce the stats of an enemy, can make a usually impossible opponent a feasible target. 

Now, in order to count as a stack of distraction a new player needs to attack each turn. This concept is explained in this short gif --> CLICK HERE

In that visual guide, the little blue counter shows exactly how many stacks of distraction are on the target. And mind you, for each stack, the opponent stats are halved. This is an exponential decrease. 1 stack cuts the original total in half, but 2 stacks cuts it into 1/4th. A third cuts it into 1/8th. You can see how fast this ramps up

So now you're thinking... "Wait, if I have to actually attack to count as a stack of distraction, won't I just die in one hit?"

Not always, and here's why. Lets dive into suppression.

Suppression:

Suppression is another side effect of stacking distraction. Conversely from distraction, suppression does not reduce the enemies stats at all. You'll notice that when I mentioned what stats were reduced from distraction, I only mentioned dexterity and defense. This is because during stacks, the enemy strength and speed remains the same

Soooo... how are you meant to survive? 

Suppression halves the opponents odds of attacking back at all. 

Let me explain. In a normal fight, you're used to this pokemon style of fighting where each player takes turns. You attack, they attack back. suppression during stacks changes this concept entirely. If two people are attacking the same player, the opponent has a 50/50 chance of not doing anything. And this is halved for each new player. Here are the numbers:

• In a 1v1 fight, the opponent has a 100% chance to attack you back.
• In a 1v2 fight, the opponent has a 50% chance to attack you back.
• In a 1v3 fight, the opponent has a 25% chance to attack you back. 
• In a 1v5 fight, the opponent has a 6.25% chance to attack you back. 
• In a 1v10 fight, the opponent has a 0.1953% chance to attack you back. (Chance may cap higher than this listed value) 
• In a 1v25 fight, the opponent has a 0.00000298% chance to attack you back. (Chance may cap higher than this listed value)

DISCLAIMER - I believe the reduction is capped, and does not continuously half forever. Nor am I 100% certain that it definitely halves every time beyond the first person. My personal experience during stacks leads me to believe it may half for the first few, and then tapers off or caps after 5 or so. So the 1v10 and 1v25 numbers, may be incorrect. I could not find any concrete numbers on this. And will update if a more knowledgeable player corrects me. But the main point I am driving, is that these stacks reduce a defenders ability to fight back. And it IS a substantial decrease. To the point where if you really do have 10+ people, you will hardly ever be hit back. 

So while yes, the player you're stacking is likely far stronger than you, theres a very good chance you remain untouched. Which allows you to build those stacks of distraction.

That is all folks, thanks for reading, hope you learned something! Any questions, feel free to pm as always. I try to spread the limited knowledge I have about this game where I can :)

Very good read

shhhh. we dont want everyone knowing how to do this....

reading is hard in torn .I need a video with the background of temple ground explaining this.

Thanks for sharing! All knowledge has power :)