Torn City Basic

Merits

The following information is all the things you can spend your hard earned merits on. But be warned, you cannot get back your spent merits.
NB: You get one merit per award you get. To find out how you can get an award, see our Awards page. You can also exchange 500 points for a merit* in city > points building, but that's not recommended in the current TC economy.

We recommend that you hold onto merits until you know what you want to spend them on. You can benefit very well from putting one or two merits into some incrementals early on however.

Ratings: These ratings will vary depending on your needs and wants, and personal opinion. They are only to be used as guidelines from experienced players. Feel free to check the descriptions and reach your own conclusions.

You can't sell Merits.

Incremental Upgrades

Non-incremental Upgrades

Buyable Items

Incremental Upgrades

You can only buy each one of these ten times, but the price goes up each time. It will cost 55 merits to upgrade just one incremental upgrade to its maximum.
* If you pay 1 merit to upgrade an incremental upgrade, the next time you want to upgrade it you will need to pay 2 merits and 3 after that, then 4, etc etc until you reach 10.

Increase your max nerve bar by 1
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Nerve is used within the game for doing Crimes . Your nervebar can increase by 5 on its own whenever you have gained enough crime exp (called a 'natural' nerve bar), up to 45, but this can be lost again by failing crimes. Increasing your nervebar does not increase your skill at crimes- it purely means that you can do more at a time. If you log in very often, and your nerve never refills to the top, you do not need to use merits on this. If you don't log in too often however, and your nerve bar is often full, then the extra crimes can gain you a lot more money and exp in the long run.
Rating:	9/10

Increase casino tokens gained each day +5
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Casino tokens are used within the Casino to play all the games (apart from poker). All casino games are based on luck. Using a merit gives you 5 extra goes on a game. For comparison, one day in the lowest Casino Job rank gives you 25 casino points (at level 10), while one day in the highest Casino job rank (at level 25) would give you an extra 275 casino tokens. Quite useless.
Rating:	0/10

Increase critical hit rate +1%
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	This upgrade applies to your fighting skills. Critical hits have a certain % chance of happening when you attack someone, and if it happens, you deal a devastating blow to your opponent (2-3 times your usual damage). We believe the default chance of getting a critical hit is somewhere below or at 10%. Critical hits strike your opponent no matter what their dexterity is. If you fight often, especially against opponents that are difficult, this can be a worthwhile upgrade. Not that useful if your problem is people with high speed.
Rating:	6/10

Increase awareness
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Every hour you have a chance of finding something in the city, when you click on the 'City' link in your sidebar, and then go through a link from there. Chances of finding something is slim, and the chances of finding something rare even slimmer. You can however find things such as the famous RPG... Please be aware that no matter how many merits you spend on this, it still comes down to luck- you still might never find anything. This just increases your chances. Here is a list of items you can find in the City.
Rating:	4/10

Masterful looting
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Increases the amount of money you get from people when you mug them. The amount that you mug people for without merits is 1-10%, which is completely random. We're unsure how much % this upgrade adds, but we speculate that it's around 1%. Only usefull if you mug people for cash, and preferably know people with large amounts of money on them.
Rating:	3/10

Improve stealth
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Makes it less likely for people to see you when you attack them. When you attack people, there is a chance that it wont tell them who attacked them- you'll just come up as 'someone'. Obviously is only useful if you don't want people to know it's you attacking them. We're unsure how much it improves your chances of stealthing someone.
Rating:	2/10

Increase interest
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	The bank is a great way of making money, and the easiest. Extra interest earned can mean a lot of money in the long run.Each upgrade gives you an increase of: 0.1% interest a week, 0.3% for 2 weeks, 0.9% a month, 2.2% for 2 months, and 3.7% for 3 months. You can check Here for the full interest rate table and calculator.
rating:	9/10

Hospitalize for +10 minutes
Cost:	Can Vary*
Description:	Increases the amount of time you put people into hospital by 10 minutes when you hospitalize them. Can be good for annoyance value. If you're chaining a faction you don't want them to be in hospital for long, so that you can attack them again, and a full 55 merits spent on this can be countered with a single morphine.
Rating:	1/10

Non-Incremental Upgrades

The non-incremental upgrades can be bought as many times as you wish/can.
All 'x level' upgrades should only be considered after minimum level 20.

Increase your life by 50 x level
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Very useful, helps a lot in battles. The only other ways to gain life is through leveling and the Medical Job. For comparison a level 25 will have 12,500 life (500 life per level), and would gain an extra 1,250 life using this upgrade. In the top medical rank they will be earning about 11.25 life daily.
Rating:	7/10

Increase crime success rate
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Increases your chance at succeeding crimes. Has only ever had negative feedback, and has little or no effect in our experience. Widely considered wasted merit.
Rating:	1/10

Strength bonus +10 x level
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Boosts your strength stat. At level 25 you would gain 250 strength. Can be useful if you need to boost low stats, due to low stats being very hard to train.
Rating:	4/10

Defence bonus +10 x level
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Boosts your defence stat. At level 25 you would gain 250 defence. Can be useful if you need to boost low stats, due to low stats being very hard to train. Is relatively often used on defence, since defence trains slower than other stats (Formula ).
Rating:	5/10

Speed bonus +10 x level
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Boosts your speed stat. At level 25 you would gain 250 speed. Can be useful if you need to boost low stats, due to low stats being very hard to train.
Rating:	4/10

Dexterity bonus +10 x level
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Boosts your dexterity stat. At level 25 you would gain 250 dexterity. Can be useful if you need to boost low stats, due to low stats being very hard to train.
Rating:	4/10

~~Money bonus +25,000 x level~~
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Merit has been discontinued: Presumably to decrease inflation within TC.

~~Respect bonus +10 on current faction~~
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Merit has been discontinued: Presumably because of multi abuse.

Buyable Items

These items can be bought as many times as you wish/can.
We don't recommend using merits on any of these, as they can all be bought from other players.
All of these items can also be found in the City .

Yasukuni Sword
Cost:	10 Merits
Description:	The best melee weapon in the game, apart from the Dual weapons gained in the level 35 mission.

Xbox 360
Cost:	2 Merits
Description:	Regenerates 15 - 20 Happy (randomly) for the cost of 5 Energy.

Rusty Sword
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	The worst melee weapon in the game, never hits.

Coat hanger
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	Allows you to attempt the GTA crimes.

Firewalk Virus
Cost:	1 Merit
Description:	This virus is vital for the completion of the Level 25+ Mission, Operation Firewalk: Alternatively, can be programmed using the Personal Computer

*There is a limit to how many merits you can purchase: 2 x level - recieved Merits/ Awards

Comments (40) Add Comment

...
written by rah, February 27, 2007

The increase crime success rate thing doesn't even work, I used 9 with no effect.

Aerozol: We tested it in BETA with the same result... Not a good one to use merits on, thanks for the reminder

...
written by Capoo, March 06, 2007

Description: Causes you to be more likely to find an item by visiting the city. So how do I do that visiting the city?

Aerozol: Any time you click on the City link, then visit another area in the city, it gives you a random chance of finding something. This only happens once an hour though, and you can be jailed for refreshing the city too often

...
written by patrokle, April 07, 2007

I used a merit on 10 x level speed but after a level upgrade I did not get my speed increased by 10... is it normal?

TCB: It gives you a one off boost of speed (10x your level), and not 10 speed every time you level...

...
written by leeaphorn [481645], July 02, 2007

what do u suggest i use my merits on? im a level 2 (with 2 merits) jut started 2 days ago and want to know what would benefit me the most at this point.

TCb: We recommend you save merits until you know what to do with them. When you are a higher level and really want them for something, you'll be glad you saved them.

...
written by CrazyDiamond, July 27, 2007

From what all I've seen, people recommend that you save your merits until level 15 or 20, then spend them on either stats or hit points. I spent most on stats, and a few on nerve. But if you are very active, spending on nerve doesn't do much, since it only max's out your cap.

...
written by dansrokin, August 07, 2007

i would save up for the sowrd its a very good mele weapon as i found out after blowing a few merits on crime success rate.

...
written by MadKiller, August 10, 2007

dont spend your merits on the sword. let someone else do that and buy it on the market. you can allways get more cash.

...
written by destruction90, August 22, 2007

i was wondering if one could buy merits?? if so how??

...
written by pr3mium, August 26, 2007

yes. you can buy merits in the points market for 500 points, whihc i know is not worth it, but if you want everything fully upgraded, that's really the only way.

...
written by feelingorangey, August 27, 2007

Is it possible to send merits to other players?
Thanks

TCB: No, it is possible to sell the 'Respect bonus 10 on current faction' to factions, but the merits themselves can't be traded.

...
written by pr3mium, August 27, 2007

does anyone know why they took out the $25,000 x lvl. my brother use to use it all the time, but they took it out.

TCB: Probably to lower inflation

...
written by Nola, August 29, 2007

Anyone think the "increase awareness" is worth the merit? I have had 3 finds altogether in about 90 days playing, two in the first week i think-butterfly knife and bolt cutters. Today i had the third one, after so long and then when I look in my events, to my dismay, it was an M-9...:(

...
written by Makiasd, September 22, 2007

Is it worth using my merits on "Increase Interest Rate" or not?

...
written by takesh1, September 22, 2007

if you take your money to the bank, it might be worth it, else: let it be

...
written by extazy69, September 28, 2007

I used 6 merits on increase awareness and belive it or not i found a parachute and i'm lvl 24

...
written by sayapening, October 24, 2007

Well, I'm lvl 24. No awards on awareness. Found boxing gloves... (I'm not saying you wasted merits. Just saying I won't be using it on that skill.)

...
written by Spartan21, October 31, 2007

I was wondering if there is anyway you can sell merits?

TCB: No, it is possible to sell the 'Respect bonus 10 on current faction' to factions, but the merits themselves can't be traded.

...
written by Tozer, December 16, 2007

strange i used one of my merits to gain 5 casino tokens daily and it hasent done it in the 150 odd days i have been on the game :S do you think torncity should sort that out ?

TCB: You should post a bug report. Good luck!

...
written by stoner420, December 25, 2007

how do i get the merits ? what do i have to do? and how do i level up and go up in ranks?

TCB: Check our 'awards' page for how to get merits. You level up by attacking and leaving people, doing crimes and lots of other stuff.

...
written by allo, January 08, 2008

you haven't got the one where you can increase your max loan. how much does your max loan get increased?

TCB: You need to use 100 points to upgrade your max loan. We're not sure how much it increases it.

...
written by hirothehero, January 09, 2008

When you spend 100 points on max loan it increases the max loan by $100k upto a total of $1million possible loan

...
written by SiGNaTuRe_MaKeR, January 11, 2008

{Increase crime success rate}
Its really happens. I taste it with 8 of my merits. and it should. not much really. and there's way to do that. don't use all of your merits at once. use it wisely. say, if you are doing 5 nerve crime for a long time and whenever you want to do 6 level crime you just find yourself in jail. Use 1 merit and try to do some crimes and you will be succeded. and there's ways to do crimes. not do the same crime over and over. say you have 20 nerve bar and you can do 4 nerve crime. you just do sweet shop 3 times for 3 different items and goto market for another 2 crimes but obviously 2 different crimes. and if you want to go to next nerve only do it once and do 4 nerve crime the rest. some days later do 5 nerve crimes 2 times and the rest for 4 nerve. Its like this. For busting it can also be. don't bust many people in a row. do one and rest some time like 1 or 2 hours then do the next one etc. hope this will help for using merits for crime success rate and do the crimes and busting. for more information contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Thank you all.

...
written by IIyoyo, January 17, 2008

Is there a limit to how much merits you can save. Because I am level 10 and i went to the spending point place, click on 500points for one merit, and it says I can buy 0 merit at this level. Before when i do this at level 10 it says 2 merit. Right now i have 20 merits should i use it or else maybe next time i earn a merit it wont stack onto 21.

TCB: You can save up as many merits as you want. However, when you go to buy them it sets a limit (merits per level). There is no limit if you're 'earning' them.

...
written by Hmmm, January 28, 2008

The explanation for this merit use states:
> Critical hits strike your opponent no matter what their dexterity is
I don't believe this is true. I get quite a high proportion of critical hits, but for some players only a small proportion of my attacks hit.

TCB: This may be true. We've gone by quite a few players in the forums saying that they hit players they usually never hit with crits.

...
written by Distortion, January 28, 2008

Comments about 'Increase crime success rate' are true - I've selected it a few times and no noticeable improvement.

...
written by SuperChris, February 23, 2008

Ive put 3 merits into Increased Crime Success and passed all my friends in nerve and level. They were ahead of me by a decent amount when i started but I caught up then passed them. Now Im 3 levels above the closest one to me. it does make a difference. Maybe not noticable at first but over time it adds up

...
written by easylazy, April 01, 2008

The best ones are looting, intrest, and nerve bar. nerve bar is good for players like me who sleep for 8 hours and wake up to find their nerve bar full. I have upgraded 6 so far and it really adds up. intrest is also good for people like me since i like to put big money in for 3 months if i know i won't use it. it really adds up to 3.7k per 100k invested per nerve. i am full so if i put in 100f, i make 37k extra. looting is good if that is how you like to earn money. i prefer to put money in the bank so people don't retaliate. also, the worst one is crime exp. and hospitalize time. people in my faction have hospital time and it screw up chaining. crime exp doesn't add up as much as the nerve bar.

...
written by DiGiCuBe, April 04, 2008

Please help me...I have 27 merits and I can't decide what to do with it.

Thought of using it on stats but changed my mind after deciding that it's a waste since I can train for it.

I was thinking of using it on "crime success rate" but after reading the comments, it seemed like it doesn't really work.

Would appreciate your feedback. Thanks!

TCB: We'vd pretty much written all of our opinions/ suggestions/ knowledge into the merit descriptions on this page. If you still can't decide based on that, maybe another TCB user has advice for you.

...
written by Society, May 04, 2008

Upgrade your bank and nerve bar. Large returns on both making them extremely worth it.

...
written by Buzzar123, May 06, 2008

if i spend 500 points on a merit, is there a limti to how many merits i can buy?

TCB: Yes, the limit is 2 x your level - Merits/ Awards already recieved. Eg: if your level 25, and have recieved 48 merits already, you will be able to buy a further 2. Added note at the bottom of this page.

...
written by namelessone789, May 31, 2008

how much is a merit worth to sell?

...
written by spaz, July 24, 2008

I actually disagree that trading merits for items is a bad thing. I saved merits for a yakisuni sword. When I sold it I bought a penthouse and still had a mil left over. The penthouse allowed me to save money rather than spending it on expensive rents. I'm not going to pay money to play the game, so it was worth it for me. Once you have a bunch of money it is much easier to make more. If I had put the merits into interest, as the page suggests it would be years until I saw the same return. All you really need in TC is a couple of million. Then you can just sit back and let it grow.

...
written by Oddan, July 25, 2008

I went to lvl 11 gamerank 7 and 1000 thefts in one day, havent seen a merit yet. this i did 2 days ago

...
written by Joweeeee, August 18, 2008

Respect bonus 10 on current faction does not exist anymore, they have removed it and changed the organized crime to gain more respect and some other changes. Will post here soon after i explore the new changes :)

...
written by Deansrule, August 18, 2008

Today the Respect Bonus Merit was removed

Oh well it was a useless upgrade anyway IMO.

...
written by the-unit, August 27, 2008

lol u cant actually sell merits to factions anymore,
so can u update it plz,
and update the orginised crimes becuase it changed a bit now

...
written by seanyboy, September 17, 2008

13/09/08
5:59 PMYou found the item Sawed-Off Shotgun while walking around the city!Send eventSave eventDelete event
13/09/08
5:47 PMYou found the item Pack of cuban cigars while walking around the city!

More proof that multiple items can be found in 1 hour

...
written by chopclown, September 26, 2008

"Are you sure you want to swap 11 merits to increase the interest made at the city bank? Once this is upgraded you will not be able to get the merits spent on an upgrade back. Think carefully before upgrading."

What happens if I click that? Does it waste 11 of my merits, or does it just say something like you're already 10/10 and you can't do this...?

TCB: We don't know sorry. Please tell us if you try

...
written by yogie_das, December 14, 2008

mistyping, on
[quote]Respect bonus 10 on current faction
Cost: 1 Merit
Description: Merit has been disontinued: Presumably because of multi abuse.[quote]

TCB: Fixed thanks

...
written by chopclown, January 05, 2009

"You cannot upgrade this stat over 10 times."

You can't upgrade after 10 merits :)

Write comment

Show/Hide comment form

Last Updated ( Sunday, 14 December 2008 )

< Prev		Next >