Work like a Tanuki!
An Early Game Work Guide
Most conversation and attention in Torn’s early game focuses on combat, and rightly so. War is
the main focus of factions and the center of the game as we know it.
The working system is complicated, and the tutorial barely tells you about it; it just drops you off
in a city job and moves on, but Ol’ Tanuki has come to pick you up. I’ve read many
working/company guides and felt around in the darkness to learn my lessons the hard way. I’m
writing this to give you a better start than I had and to answer a lot of questions you surely have.
Table of Contents
Terminology
Strategy
Finding A Job
Being A Good Employee
Perks Money Can't Buy
Early Goals
Things To Keep In Mind
Company Types
Buying Trains
References
Firstly, let’s clarify the terminology.
Terminology
Manual often (Man), Intelligence (Int), and Endurance (End) are your working stats (WS)
Your working stats generate efficiency in a player company, which in turn allows the company to
generate money/gain stars.
A city job has solid requirements for jobs, so you will not be able to have them unless you have
the required stats. However, player companies can assign you to any job with any requirements.
The company receives efficiency based on the percentage of the requirement you do have. If
you have over the required stats, the company gets even more efficiency.
A florist recommended stats are 1000 End and 500 Man. If you have 500 End and 250 Man, you'll have 50 efficiency.
If you have 1000 End and 500 Man, you'll have 100 efficiency. The formula does not stay consistent as you go above the recommended stats.
If you have 2000 End and 1000 Man (double the recommended stats), you'll have 105 efficiency. Directors competing in a particularly popular company often want you to have 3x-10x the recommended stats.
Salary- Each city job has a salary that you will get daily at about 18:00 TCT. Player companies
have the same mechanic, but it’s up to the director what your salary is, and it could be 0
Job points- Depending on what city job you have and depending on how many stars a player
company has, you’ll receive daily job points when you receive your salary. Certain perks which
are benefits based on the type of company you’re working in operate based on your job points.
City jobs also require that you have a certain amount of unspent job points to get promoted.
Training- Mostly referred to as trains, this is a resource directors have where they can
spend 1 train on any employee to give them plus 50 in their position's main working stat and 25
in their secondary work stat. These are very valuable and are most of the reason why player
companies are going to be better for you than a base-level city job. Directors can give 1
train per day based on how many stars the company has. So a 5* company can give 5 trains
daily. The only exception to this that I’m aware of is a firework stand, which has a good enough
efficiency to employ trainers as a position which gives extra trains.
Addiction- Every time you take a drug, you gain a certain amount of addiction points (and also
have a certain risk of overdosing) addiction points directly lower your level of working efficiency.
Most directors want you to stay above -10, and some have mandatory Saturday rehab visits.
Player-owned companies gain and lose stars on Sunday, so directors love it when employees
rehab Saturday evening. This sets them up to have the best possible chance to gain stars/keep
the stars they have. This is only relevant to working at a player company. City jobs don’t care
about many drugs you’re on. (Addiction levels can get high enough that your education course
will kick you out, around -5%.)
Perks- Each job has its perks; they are vast and varied. Some are passive, and some require
your job points
Strategy
So now that we’re speaking the same language, let’s talk specifics and strategy. City jobs give
an increase in all 3 of your work stats every day. And the base levels (army, grocery, casino) have
no requirements. They generally have perks that are not so good. There are 3 higher-tier city
jobs (education, medical, and law) that have much higher requirements and are much better.
Mostly they are done as a speed run when you already have the stats required for the highest
tier because upon reaching the highest rank you receive a passive bonus that stays with your
account forever even if you leave the city job. Education gives a 10% reduction in education
length, and Law gives plus 10% crime XP. Medical gives you the ability to revive, which is a whole
career path in itself.
Traditional Advice
The much-beloved Baldr suggests that you join the casino at level 1 and stay there until you
have the requirements to start medical (300 Int). Then jump over to education (500 Int) until you
totally complete the education career path. The first tier in each job type gives 1, 2, and 3 increases
to your stats. Casino gives 2 to intelligence, which is the highest you can get in intelligence at this stage.
So 40 days into your future at the casino, you’ll be ready to go to the second rank and become a Gaming Consultant.
You’ll have 42 Man, 82 Int, and 122 End. So it’s going to take a while to get the requirements for even the first jump to
medical like Baldr suggests. According to my Tanuki math, it’ll take for fucking ever to get all the
way through to the highest rank of education. BUT! Once you do that, you’ll have 1500 manual
5000 intelligence and 1500 endurance. The principal rank in education is really good; it allows
you to gain 170 work stats daily, which is really good but allows no other benefit whatsoever.
Now you could stay there until you can be hired by a 5* AN or a 7* Sweet shop, which are
two pretty preferred player companies, and it wouldn’t be a terrible path. If you don’t want to
trouble yourself with working the community and sending lots of messages, then do that method.
Tanuki Method
Now let us consider another path, and let’s call it working like a Tanuki. You join the army at level
1, and you use all your job points to gain strength until you get to level 3. Keep your army job points if you want to speed run the army as some point though I don’t recommend it. AS SOON AS you
reach level 3, you quit and apply to a player company. I know you have terrible stats, which is not
much to offer; however, many directors want you. Torn players are often going inactive and
directors have to replace them. Simply by being active, you provide enough value as an
employee for certain types of companies. The main value these companies give is trains. A
single train equates to 75 points gained. Back in the first rank of a city job, you were only
receiving 6 stats a day. So a single train = 12.5 days in your city job. This is quite a boost, so let's
go over the company types to find one likely to give trains.
Firework Stand ((5* and less )( higher probably won’t hire you))
Notable perks include:
Illumination: passive awareness, which increases your rate of finding items on the city map
Audaciousness: allows you to spend your job points for nerve, which is pretty nice
Flower Shop 5-10*- Flower shops are one of the cheapest businesses to start, so the category is
flooded with directors that have no idea what they are doing.
Notable perks include:
Import flowers: gives a flower worth 45-55k, but herbal cleansing; the 5* perk reduces your
addiction points, which is really nice. Rehab is less and less effective over time, so as you play
you’ll have to spend more and more money on it.
Herbal Cleansing: gives you a nice flat reduction to help stave that increase off. You could get
all the way to a 10* shop as a new player, which would give more trains.
Property broker 5*+ - Relatively unpopular company type that is occupied mostly by a small
group of incredibly wealthy directors that use the perks to flip private islands; as such, they often
pay a small salary and give daily trains. THE Tanuki himself parked it here for quite a while.
Notable perks include:
Insider Trading: provides a random property (trailer-castle) which could potentially give you a big
cash boost.
A note about job points- job points stay with you even when you leave a company but you need to be at the same company type to spend them. If you earn 10 job points at a flower shop and leave without spending then you still have 10 flower shop job points. If you rejoin a flower shop at any time you’ll be able to spend those job points. You cannot use job points earned at one company type in another company type.
Finding A Job
Directors post in the company recruitment forum when they are looking for employees, so look there.
They will also generally change their company name to include (H) or hiring. You can also see how many employees they have out of the total they could have by looking at the company page. A great way to find companies is by using the newspaper.
If you go to the newspaper and click the job listing option, it will show all the company types. If you click on Find Jobs, it will bring you to a list of all the companies in Torn and sort them by how many stars they have.
You will have the best rate of success by finding companies that indicate they are hiring in their name and looking to see if they actually have a spot available in the company.
Oftentimes, directors are looking to replace inactive or low-stat employees, and they don’t want to fire them until a replacement comes along, so don’t be too discouraged by seeing the company roster is full.
The director is listed at the top of the roster in the company view. When you find a company you’d like to work in, message the director and include your work stats. Here’s a good sample message:
”Hey, I found your company in the newspaper. I’d like to join your company. My work stats are 2 Man 2 Int and 2 End”
If you know what specific job you want, you could include that, but I would keep it short and sweet. If they respond saying that they will hire you, ask if they give rotating trains and if they give a salary. It’s better to make sure it’s a good fit before you join because it can be really frustrating to have employees join and leave immediately.
Force Lightning
Tanuki believes in mutual respect, creating good interactions, and building community, so I recommend you use the template I laid out in the previous section; however, there is an effective strategy that you can employ if you find yourself frustrated by not receiving any messages back from directors (or you can’t bring yourself to using your people skills). If you do not currently have a job, you can apply to up to 10 companies at a time. You can just apply and check the box “include working stats” and hit send. The best way to use this technique is to isolate a company type and star range you want to target.
So, for example, if you want to join a 4-5 star fireworks stand. You can use the newspaper to find the list; start at the highest listed 5-star and apply to the top 10 highest 5-star fireworks stands. You will be placed in the first company to accept. I would wait 24 hours, and if you don’t get accepted, go down the list and apply to the next block of 10 companies. It doesn’t help facilitate personal connections, but it can get you hired.
Being A Good Employee
Lots of new players wonder if they have to DO something for their job. Mostly the answer is no; the game is just plugging your working stats into the background system. Logging in every day and doing an action keeps your account “active.” Every day that you’re inactive, your working efficiency receives a reduction. Most directors have a 3-day rule, but some will start trying to replace you after just 1 day of inactivity. Managing your addiction level also makes you a better employee. Ask your director what they want you to keep your addiction level under the most common limit is -10. Timing your rehab trip for the Sunday star review is also important. Your director wants the best possible shot at starring up or just keeping their stars. The only other thing that will help is putting your merit points into Employee Effectiveness. This isn’t a merit guide, so I’m just going to give you a tiny bit of my take on early merits.
Merits and Employee Effectiveness
Employee effectiveness is very important in a competitive company type. Many directors will not take you unless you have a certain amount. They are NOT companies that will take you in the early game anyway. I would not prioritize it in the early game. Do all of your education and bank merits first, then you can get unique.
There are many interesting types of companies with cool perks. Many players are inspired by a company type and decide to launch a company with no idea how to do it or how difficult it is. I strongly caution you against joining a 1-3* company of any type, but especially companies that are money makers. Technically, you could join an AN and when it gets to 3* have access to eDVD’s and make pretty good money, but these companies are infested with inactivity problems and inexperienced directors.
Perks Money Can’t Buy
It is often said that all Torn problems can be solved with either money or friendship. This is largely true, but some things just take time. It will take about 7 years to go through all the education available to you. That’s why reductions are so valuable, but there are only 3 10% reductions available. The only way to shorten the time more than that is with education reduction perks available ONLY at a Fitness Center or Hair Salon. There are many benefits from education, but unlocking blood bags in the biology tree (which only takes two classes btw) and doing all of Sports Science are vital.
Music Stores have a unique perk that allows you to unlock your next gym 30% faster. There is no other way to boost this, and it’s incredibly helpful. Your gym gains are limited by your gym, so getting to better gyms faster has a serious effect. Spend some time on the wiki and learn about the perks available.
Early goals
It’s good to have a plan for the future; your job now is training your skills for the next job. So if you know that you really want a future job that requires high endurance, you’ve gotta figure out how you’re going to get it. I personally think that getting the stats required to speed run the law and education city job career trees is very important, so that’s what I’m shooting for. If your goal is to have a job that will require you to have 50k endurance, you’ve gotta figure you should probably start working endurance.
4000 End 2000 Man is the lowest level of stats where you could be hired by a good adult novelty where you’ll make a little more than 1m daily selling eDVD’s. 2500 Int and 1250 End is the lowest level of stats where you could be hired by a good sweet shop.
These are two very nice options that will help build your net worth. Often they offer some trains to their employees, but they also often sell trains, so you should ask the director before you accept a job. These company types are popular, so it can be hard to find a company. You will
probably need stats higher than the required to secure a job, but at this point you can make an honest attempt.
1252 Man 4365 Int 1236 are the minimum required stats to speed-run the city job education tree. The nature of the education perk makes it much stronger the earlier you get it. There are many valid strategies for navigating your career in Torn.
I just want you to keep a few things in mind when strategizing.
Things To Keep In Mind
Directors get random applicants all the time. Most don’t have people skills or the work stat requirements. If you have neither, you will probably not get any kind of response back. If you have both people skills and the work requirements, it’s a hell of a lot more likely you’ll get a
response. Be kind, use your words, and send the director a message to accompany your application or, better yet, connect with them before you apply. If messaging them before you apply, send them your work stats first.
Company Types
Categorizing company types can help you get a basic understanding of how they work.
Perks companies- Not much money is being made directly, but they give perks with some kind of
value. Increasing travel capacity, extra nerve, extra energy, increased experience, etc.
Profit companies- Companies that make a lot of profit from their company model or provide a
monetarily valuable product.
Train selling companies- Firework stands are the best train sellers because they are capable of
giving 15 trains daily instead of the normal 10. Other company types like to sell trains too but
tend to be sort of a hybrid.
Train types
All trains provide the same bonus, but these are the variations directors use to disperse them.
Rotational trains: The director is giving all available trains to their employees and spreading them out evenly.
Paid trains: The director sells the trains to an employee (not necessarily just someone coming in to buy a block of trains).
Partially rotational trains: A hybrid; it is some mixture of paid and rotational.
Buying trains
Finding a company to sell you trains is difficult. Generally speaking, there’s a lot more buyers than sellers in the current market. There is a dedicated thread in the company recruitment forum where buyers and sellers can post. You will have better luck buying if you are buying at least 100 trains and if you aren’t picky about what kind of company it is.
The cost per train is 350k-1m; the more perks a company offers, the more they can charge for the trains. Adult Novelties put money back into the train buyer's pocket, so they generally charge the most. Expect to pay the total cost of your training block up front, but some directors will let you pay per week or pay 50% up front.
The traditional advice is to wait until you’ve got your 2b in the bank before you buy trains. That’s probably smart, BUT it’s not what I did. I did some math to see how long it was going to take me to reach education speed run stats and decided it was worth it to buy trains to get there sooner. I paid 500k per train (which is pretty standard) for 50 trains. It cost me 25m and allowed me to start education about 40 days sooner. I decided this was worth it because I’m planning to get into an Adult Novelty (AN) or Sweet Shop (SS), gaining about 1m daily. So, it almost paid for itself and allows me to apply the 10% reduction to classes sooner. Make sure to crunch the numbers and weigh the cost vs benefit to see if it’s worth it for you. Also be warned that most companies won’t sell you trains if you can’t meet the position requirements because it jeopardizes their stars. If you have tiny stats (sub 3k), a flower shop is probably your only option.
Unfortunately, I couldn’t figure out how to make this any shorter than it is. There's a lot of information out there, and I did my best to give you the essentials. If you found this helpful, I’d love a Xanax as a tip (to help fund my poker addiction) and a thumbs up.
Thanks for reading and best of luck out there!
References
I’m standing on the shoulders of giants, and I’d like to link the most helpful guides I read.
Baldr’s new player start guide
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16034448
Tesla’s guide for speed running city careers
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#!p=threads&f=61&t=15953852&b=0&a=0
Torn Wiki (Not a guide but a great resource for positions within a company type perks)
https://wiki.torn.com/wiki/Job
DrVoid’s Employee guide
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16207045&b=0&a=0
TranQuilizer’s guide on rehab and addiction
https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16181560