Coming Back After Years Away: A Practical Catch-Up Guide for Returning Veterans
A quick note before we start
This guide is NOT about reaching endgame overnight. It's a strategy to make the return easier for older players who have been away for the last few years. The game has changed a LOT, so if something here is badly wrong, point it out and I'll fix it. Hope it helps!
My Background
My account is almost 20 years old, but for a long stretch I only played on weekends. As a kid I didn't have 24/7 internet, it was dial-up, and it was only cheap on weekends, so that was the only window I had to play for a few years.
Even after I got broadband, I still didn't have real money for Donator Packs (DPs), nor the knowledge or motivation to play "the right way", boosting net worth to buy DPs with in-game cash, doing happy jumps, stacking xanax, etc. In short, I played passively for many years: log in, train, join a chain once in a while.
Somewhere between 2015–2018 I started taking the game more seriously and made some real progress, but in 2022 I quit entirely. I only came back last year, after the launch of OC 2.0, Crimes 2.0, Ranked Wars (RWs), and RW equipment. That's when I decided to make a few deliberate choices to boost my account's effectiveness and make up for lost time. The goal of this guide is to share those tips with people in a similar situation.
Tip #1 — Pick a battle stat to specialize in
A fully balanced build is not the way to go. I don't have the patience to explain it in full detail, but I'll drop some guides at the end to help you re-orient yourself on your return.
In short, you should specialize in Defense or Dexterity. I've read about top players speccing Strength as an anti-meta play against other top players, but I don't have the details (I'm guessing they use sureshot weapons against DEX and defense debuffs against DEF).
- DEF and DEX give you effectiveness against a large chunk of the playerbase.
- Focusing on STR and SPD makes you a glass cannon build, which usually doesn't pan out in any game.
- Make sure you keep at least 1B in each stat to secure merits. A little extra DEF or DEX is always useful anyway.
Tip #2 — Drop the money-grinding company job, chase stat perks instead
Quit money-oriented company jobs (e.g. Oil Rigs) and aim for companies whose perks make your character stronger right away. Personally I'd pick one of the first two:
- Ladies Strip Club (LSC): excellent for DEF whores, 10% gym gains on defense training, 25% passive defense, a Serotonin boost, and melee damage mitigation (great for missions). These perks can let you hit effectiveness in wars against players with FAR more battle stats than you. It's a way to gain years of training almost overnight.
- Gents Strip Club (GSC): same as above, but for DEX whores.
- Private Security Firm: armor boost.
- Clothing Store: 25% passive dexterity + 20% armor bonus.
Tip #3 — Focus on missions + special ammo + weapon mods
- Acquire LOS share: they grant a 25% bonus to missions.
- Do every mission. The points are a powerful way to level up your character.
- Identify the mods your combat strategy needs and work through every tier (once you grab a lv1 mod, a better version becomes available to buy down the line). For example, the "small" 0.75 accuracy difference between a Reflex Sight and a Thermal Sight can be a shortcut past years of speed training. (To be crystal clear: still train speed!)
- Build a solid stock of special ammo. It boosts your combat effectiveness immediately. Again, the equivalent of years of training if you'd otherwise stick to standard ammo. (Note: hollow point = trash.)
Tip #4 — Find "no-brainer" income sources
It's nice to make money without having to think too hard, real life is exhausting enough lol. If you want to play the stock market or be a full trader (possible mandatory activities to boost your NW and reach out the endgame), that's on you; either way, securing income matters (especially since you just dropped your money-grinding company job).
- Buy stocks that give a 20% ROI (return-on-investment benefit).
- Get 10/10 banking merits and deposit the maximum funds for 3 months.
- If you have a Private Island (PI), rent it out and consider splitting a PI with someone. I rent mine for 75M every 100 days (and pay more or less 17M to share the costs of a full upgraded PI)
- Program Firewalk viruses and put them up for sale.
- Join a faction and do OCs and Ranked Wars. Both are great income sources.
Tip #5 — Crimes
- Make sure Crimes 2.0 is active on your account.
- Even with years of experience, you'll feel like a noob: each crime has different mechanics, and you'll rarely get the luxury of just clicking to execute without some planning/thought.
- There's a learning curve that puts you almost back at new-player level, and that's totally fine.
- Focus on hitting 100 skill in every crime (yes, each crime has its own skill bar).
- Focus in earning as much as possible merits first, check section 7 for more details.
- Not much more to say, I still need to max all my crime skills myself. lol
Tip #6 — RW Equipment
- There are now armor and weapon sets with bonuses (some good, some bad), plus ways to combine perks so they complement each other.
- You don't have to stick to the same loadout forever. For example, you can run weapons with bonuses that are effective against DEF whores (Weaken) or that earn more respect in RWs (Warlord).
- Avoid helmets with low head and throat coverage (or you'll eat one-shots constantly).
- Don't be impatient. Most factions have solid armory equipment you can use while you hunt for good prices on the auction house or contact item market sellers directly and ask for a discount.
Tip #7 — Earn Merits
Earn as much merits as possible and invest in upgrades. It's likely that there is a lot of merits you can obtain quite easily since you were retired for years. Below some possibilities to increase the merit count:
- Crimes 2.0 is a good source of easy merits.
- If you level hold, consider leveling to have access to buyable merits (1 every 2 levels) and increase maximum life. Not level holding has consequences, research about pros x cons and take a decision wisely.
- Consider buying honor bars avaliable trough token shop (that tokens we usually ear in events).
- Again, for instance, investing in upgrades such as life points, banking, crime exp, critical rate, battle states and weapons may help you cover the gap of years inactive.
What I Did Over the Last Few Months (the tips above, applied)
1. My character was STR-focused. I don't even remember why, I think I just thought it was cool, plus I'd worked in the army for years. I decided to migrate to DEF (still in progress).
2. I stopped working at an Oil Rig and joined an LSC. I actually bought a LSC and became director for the first time in nearly 20 years. A few months later I sold it, too much work (I already have a demanding job IRL + wifey and kid to take care).
3. I reshuffled my stocks and bought LOS, since I now do every mission religiously.
4. I put my PI up for rent and live with my husband (we split the costs).
5. I bought a full Assault set. Two months later I sold the helmet and bought the Marauder Facemask because I was taking too many crits in my head (right call).
6. My primary used to be a Jackhammer; I switched to an Armalite (rifles are better overall) with Powerful bonus, recommended if you use special ammo often. I'm currently near 100% weapon exp. I run a Sight (accuracy) + a Recoil Pad (to preserve special ammo). Down the line I'll swap Recoil for Light once I have a good special-ammo stockpile. I use Incendiary on weak opponents and Piercing on tougher ones. When a RW is termed and my faction is going to win, I try to grab a Warlord weapon from fac armory to boost respect gains.
7. I bought a BP MP9 with Revitalize (finishing hits have a chance to recover the energy you spent). I missed hits too often, so I switched to an orange QSZ-92 with Assassinate bonus (+damage on the first turn). The idea is to open the fight by hammering the opponent. I run Light (accuracy debuff on the opponent) + Trigger (+accuracy on the first turn only). I also use Tracer ammo to boost my hit chance even more (when I'm confident, I swap to the damage-focused ammo instead).
8. For melee I always used a DBK, and I bought a version with Eviscerate (more damage on every attack in the following turns). Recently (2 weeks ago) I sold the DBK and bought a Macana for the +4 accuracy bonus I would have, since I mainly use it to apply the debuff rather than for damage (where the DBK is better). It was a weapon-skill downgrade, but it'll be back to 100% eventually.
9. I buy some DPs with real money and sell them in-game to help with the bills. This is far from mandatory, but I decided it would smooth out my return to the game and my fun.
How I Run My Battles to Get the Most From My Gear
1. I open with the secondary weapon (Assassinate).
2. If the fight is easy or I'm in a termed war, I throw a Smoke Grenade to debuff speed and take fewer hits (other temp weapons get used in specific situations). If it's a serious war, or I really want to beat someone stronger, I use Serotonin for +450% defense (thanks to the LSC) and to recover any HP I may have lost on turn one.
- Serotonin is expensive to spam, so I save it for special cases like the above. I remember a real TW where Sero saved me against group attacks, in the end it still took 5–6 players to drop me, and they burned a ton of energy doing it, which was great for draining the enemy's attacks fast.
3. I use my melee with Eviscerate to ramp up the damage on subsequent attacks.
4. I try to finish the fight with hits from my primary.
5. In the future I picture myself carrying extra weapons with bonuses for specific situations. For now, this more generic approach has been effective at my level of play (nowhere near top 1000).
Useful Guides
- Cola's Stocks 3.0 Spreadsheet — for organizing your investments with the new shares available.
- Fight better than a top 100 player | Feb 12 update — I drew a lot of inspiration from the tips here.
- Euph's Guide to Becoming Elite in Torn — really good tips from an experienced player.
- [Crimes 2.0] A Criminal Primer — everything about Crimes 2.0.
Thanks for reading, and good luck on your comeback.
Cheers,
Devisz.
