Bones [917218] —
Original article
Following the announcement of Torn's 500th award, one of our city's most decorated players explains what it takes to make the hall of fame, and which awards have eluded some of the top players so far.
Alan Alda said "Awards can give you a tremendous amount of encouragement to keep getting better, no matter how young or old you are." This is true of life in Torn City too. Whether you're five or five-thousand days old, it's never too late to set goals and begin the hard work needed to achieve them.
From the moment I joined Torn I was intrigued by all the different medals you could get. Even as a noob it was pretty easy to start racking them up just by playing as normal. Then honors were introduced, and even more awards became available, with everything from trashing items and making hits through to getting married and winning competitions all rewarded with a shiny new medal or honor bar.
This week saw the 500th award made available in Torn, with the appropriately named honor bar 'Honored' now given to players who have racked up 500 awards. Such an achievement is impossible for the time being, as while there are 240 medals and 260 honors in total, many of these are no longer achievable for a variety of reasons we'll explain later.
However, with a new honor added every Tuesday and publicised via the Patch Notes, the Honored award will soon be in reach of our city's most decorated citizens, some of whom are less than twenty awards shy of the required total. There are roughly twenty or so further awards in the pipeline for release in the near future, with more likely to be added in future. And with so many awards on offer for so many different things, even our veterans find it hard to keep track of which ones they have and which they're close to achieving.
Pictured: The top 20 award winners as shown on Torn Stats this morning.
The awards organizer script made by AquaRegia personally helped me progress to my current awards tally much easier, allowing me to focus on the awards I was most likely to achieve in the near future. But the real game changer came when the Torn API was released, as this allowed Torn Stats to add an awards tracker to their list of features, and thus a veritable arms race began among Torn's biggest players to see who could collect the most awards.
To celebrate our 500th award, I reached out to some of our city's highest achievers to find out how they operate, which awards they are currently chasing, and if there are any they've given up on. My first question was to ask whether your ranking in the awards list means anything. Some people consider their status in the top 20 as vitally important and follow it meticulously, whereas others see the pursuit of awards as a unique playstyle where ranking doesn't matter.
The ownership of a wide range of awards is seen as a sign that you have a well rounded experience in Torn, with the number of medals on your chest deemed more significant than your overall battle stats. HT-Supermikk echoed this sentiment, saying "It irritates me that people judge you on how high battle stats you have, but nobody cares about how many awards you got. Battle stats can be bought. Not so much with awards."
That being said, his placement in the awards list clearly means something to HT-Supermikk. This legendary Torn veteran is currently ranked 7th, but admitted he's holding back a few awards so that he can "pass L4suicide when he is not expecting it." HT is currently 11 awards behind our current leader with some pretty challenging ones left to achieve. However, he has more than a few tricks up his sleeve, including one really big trick in his display case.
Pictured: HT-Supermikk's neat trick.
Jimmy007 is much closer to the top spot as he stands just five merits behind at the time of writing - he was overtaken by Megalomaniacal while we were writing this article. Jimmy told the Times that he had no idea he was so close to L4suicide until someone informed him, and he remains hopeful he can take top spot eventually. BodyBagger, on the other hand, has stopped focusing on awards entirely, as having already acquired every medal, he has just 23 honors remaining to achieve; these days he just "gets them as they come."
Our award leader L4suicide has also completed every medal, with HT-Supermikk and Htr close to achieving the same feat. The only medal these two are missing is the Boss of All Bosses award for earning 100,000 respect. 9th-place Dutch also lacks this medal to complete his collection, along with Guru Buster, which is awarded for performing 8,000 busts. Others in the top 20 are lacking three or more medals, with the most common missing medals being Fortress, Boss of All Bosses, and Tycoon, as the following graphic shows.
Pictured: The most common missing medals among the top 20 award winners.
Those who have opted to skip the drug crime awards tend to be missing the most. MightyGoober is one such player. He told me that when he joined Torn eleven years ago he realised he'd never be able to acquire the kind of stats some players already had, "so I decided to collect every merit I could. That's how I wanted to play the game, and still do." (Note: During the editing of this article, MightyGoober fell out of the top 20).
However, MG wishes he'd started on the crime merits a little earlier, as despite having 469 awards to his name, nine of those he's missing are for drug crime achievements. MightyGoober is prevented from achieving these extra awards due to his status as a Presidential Assassination leader in his faction. This role requires you to have a high natural nerve bar, but failed drug crimes can seriously impact this, so MG feels these last few awards aren't worth the potential sacrifice right now.
When it comes to honors, there are a few that are so unique and expensive that only a handful of players possess them. Megalomaniacal, for example, is the only player in the top 20 to have won the slots jackpot. L4suicide and Franky are the only two who have dropped a dirty bomb, earning both the Slow Bomb and RDD bars for their efforts. Manic also joins Franky as one of the only two who have obtained the Champion award for winning a community event.
Franky distinguishes himself even further by joining SourRon as one of the only two people to have spent 365 days in the air, earning them the Globetrotter award. However, one thing Franky has missed out on so far is the Velutinous bar for getting a comic published in the newspaper; L4suicide and Andyman are the only two of the top 20 to have achieved this.
Tiger Skin (100 hunting skill) is another elusive merit for our best award hunters, having only been earned by L4suicide, Andyman, BodyBagger, and KPCSlor. This and many of the other awards require you to put specific effort into a certain area of Torn. However, some of the awards the top 20 are missing are quite general and have only been released recently, such as Sidekick for assisting in 250 attacks. Many players feel they will likely gain awards like this through their normal chaining and attacking habits though, so they have opted against targeting them directly.
Pictured: The most common missing honors among the top 20 award winners
Unfortunately for some, there are several awards that are now unobtainable, including three from Torn of the Dead, four from the Endurance Challenge, The Socialist from reaching level five on Torn Lite, and Time Traveller for surviving a restore. Most of our greatest award winners have been around for long enough to snag some of these honors, but some like Franky have missed out on the odd one or two - in his case, The Socialist.
Others were able to get one or two of the Torn of the Dead honors, but not all three. It remains to be seen whether this competition and its honors will be resurrected in the years to come.
Pictured: The now unobtainable honors.
In addition to those that are completely unobtainable due to changes in the game, a few of the top 20 consider some awards off limits for personal reasons. Andyman, who is ranked number four for awards, has "no plans to make newspaper article, drop dirty bomb, do drug crimes, and unlikely that torn of the dead would happen due to me being such a high level and notable target." Bodybagger also expressed his disappointment at not being able to achieve "Semper Fortis" for beating someone stronger than him.
L4suicide has spun the slots nearly 230,000 times and still has not won the jackpot but remains hopeful he one day will. It may take him a while, though, as there have only been 100 slots jackpot winners since September 24th, 2016, with an average of one winner every 9.3 days. Yet while some have given up on certain awards, others are looking to the future, anticipating awards Ched may release soon.
Many have been working on unarmored attacks while some have been doing daily casino token refills, as our award hunters attempt to second guess which unique achievements will soon be rewarded. Megalomaniacal advised new merit hunters to keep an eye on the personal stats page for hints, as when new stats are added, a new honor may be on the horizon. When he saw "candy eaten" added to the personal stats page, he bought it while it was cheap and started eating it, getting a head start on the Diabetic honor.
Pictured: Megalomaniacal stocking up on candy.
Over the longer term, most of our top 20 players already have plans in place for the few remaining awards, as many require months of financial or strategic preparation. Both BodyBagger and Megalomaniacal mentioned that setting goals for yourself is important early on. Anyone wishing to follow in their footsteps should consider which awards they will likely achieve through their typical Torn activities, and then seek to augment these by actively striving for others while you can - don't put off the drug crime awards if you're planning to one day get involved in organised crimes!
KPCSlor, who is ranked eleventh, plans to "get to 100b networth for the final medal and then buy a DB and go SE crazy." However, he wanted everyone know that he would be happy to drop a Dirty Bomb on anyone if someone would be so kind as to supply him with one for the merit, because, in his opinion, it "worked for Evil Duck didn't it?"
Pictured: Achievement unlocked.
Also, while Andyman may consider the publication of a newspaper article as something he'll never achieve, this very reporter is living proof that with enough dedication and effort, anyone can snag that award. The newspaper is not averse to helping anyone acquire the journalist merit for a one-off article, so long as they take the task seriously and create something the Torn public would genuinely like to read - FYI, you may want to wait a while before you submit another article about awards!
New players should also participate in game-wide events as often as possible, as there are currently eight honors available from participation alone, and an additional twelve that can be purchased in the token shop with your competition rewards. Nearly 80 awards come from attacking and chaining too - not including those for runaways or defends - so contests like Dog Tags and Elimination offer you a great chance to push for several awards at once.
Many of the awards require just minor tweaks to your play style and can be achieved with very little effort. Taking a look at the commonly missing awards among the top 20 and setting some of those as long term goals may also be helpful. Some of them like Fortress for winning 10,000 defends, Don't Drop It for busting 10,000 players out of jail, Boss of All Bosses for earning 100,000 respect, and Globetrotter for spending 365 days in the air will take a considerable amount of time. Getting started on those early can help ambitious award winners make their way towards the top 20.
But as many of the top 20 will tell you, it is the journey which is the most rewarding thing about the award hunter playstyle, not the accumulation of individual accolades. By striving to achieve a broad range of different statistical milestones you'll likely discover new activities and new people to boot. Torn is a dynamic and vibrant place where there are many interesting encounters to be had. There's far more to this place than the gym.
From the moment I joined Torn I was intrigued by all the different medals you could get. Even as a noob it was pretty easy to start racking them up just by playing as normal. Then honors were introduced, and even more awards became available, with everything from trashing items and making hits through to getting married and winning competitions all rewarded with a shiny new medal or honor bar.
This week saw the 500th award made available in Torn, with the appropriately named honor bar 'Honored' now given to players who have racked up 500 awards. Such an achievement is impossible for the time being, as while there are 240 medals and 260 honors in total, many of these are no longer achievable for a variety of reasons we'll explain later.
However, with a new honor added every Tuesday and publicised via the Patch Notes, the Honored award will soon be in reach of our city's most decorated citizens, some of whom are less than twenty awards shy of the required total. There are roughly twenty or so further awards in the pipeline for release in the near future, with more likely to be added in future. And with so many awards on offer for so many different things, even our veterans find it hard to keep track of which ones they have and which they're close to achieving.
Pictured: The top 20 award winners as shown on Torn Stats this morning.
The awards organizer script made by AquaRegia personally helped me progress to my current awards tally much easier, allowing me to focus on the awards I was most likely to achieve in the near future. But the real game changer came when the Torn API was released, as this allowed Torn Stats to add an awards tracker to their list of features, and thus a veritable arms race began among Torn's biggest players to see who could collect the most awards.
To celebrate our 500th award, I reached out to some of our city's highest achievers to find out how they operate, which awards they are currently chasing, and if there are any they've given up on. My first question was to ask whether your ranking in the awards list means anything. Some people consider their status in the top 20 as vitally important and follow it meticulously, whereas others see the pursuit of awards as a unique playstyle where ranking doesn't matter.
The ownership of a wide range of awards is seen as a sign that you have a well rounded experience in Torn, with the number of medals on your chest deemed more significant than your overall battle stats. HT-Supermikk echoed this sentiment, saying "It irritates me that people judge you on how high battle stats you have, but nobody cares about how many awards you got. Battle stats can be bought. Not so much with awards."
That being said, his placement in the awards list clearly means something to HT-Supermikk. This legendary Torn veteran is currently ranked 7th, but admitted he's holding back a few awards so that he can "pass L4suicide when he is not expecting it." HT is currently 11 awards behind our current leader with some pretty challenging ones left to achieve. However, he has more than a few tricks up his sleeve, including one really big trick in his display case.
Pictured: HT-Supermikk's neat trick.
Jimmy007 is much closer to the top spot as he stands just five merits behind at the time of writing - he was overtaken by Megalomaniacal while we were writing this article. Jimmy told the Times that he had no idea he was so close to L4suicide until someone informed him, and he remains hopeful he can take top spot eventually. BodyBagger, on the other hand, has stopped focusing on awards entirely, as having already acquired every medal, he has just 23 honors remaining to achieve; these days he just "gets them as they come."
Our award leader L4suicide has also completed every medal, with HT-Supermikk and Htr close to achieving the same feat. The only medal these two are missing is the Boss of All Bosses award for earning 100,000 respect. 9th-place Dutch also lacks this medal to complete his collection, along with Guru Buster, which is awarded for performing 8,000 busts. Others in the top 20 are lacking three or more medals, with the most common missing medals being Fortress, Boss of All Bosses, and Tycoon, as the following graphic shows.
Pictured: The most common missing medals among the top 20 award winners.
Those who have opted to skip the drug crime awards tend to be missing the most. MightyGoober is one such player. He told me that when he joined Torn eleven years ago he realised he'd never be able to acquire the kind of stats some players already had, "so I decided to collect every merit I could. That's how I wanted to play the game, and still do." (Note: During the editing of this article, MightyGoober fell out of the top 20).
However, MG wishes he'd started on the crime merits a little earlier, as despite having 469 awards to his name, nine of those he's missing are for drug crime achievements. MightyGoober is prevented from achieving these extra awards due to his status as a Presidential Assassination leader in his faction. This role requires you to have a high natural nerve bar, but failed drug crimes can seriously impact this, so MG feels these last few awards aren't worth the potential sacrifice right now.
When it comes to honors, there are a few that are so unique and expensive that only a handful of players possess them. Megalomaniacal, for example, is the only player in the top 20 to have won the slots jackpot. L4suicide and Franky are the only two who have dropped a dirty bomb, earning both the Slow Bomb and RDD bars for their efforts. Manic also joins Franky as one of the only two who have obtained the Champion award for winning a community event.
Franky distinguishes himself even further by joining SourRon as one of the only two people to have spent 365 days in the air, earning them the Globetrotter award. However, one thing Franky has missed out on so far is the Velutinous bar for getting a comic published in the newspaper; L4suicide and Andyman are the only two of the top 20 to have achieved this.
Tiger Skin (100 hunting skill) is another elusive merit for our best award hunters, having only been earned by L4suicide, Andyman, BodyBagger, and KPCSlor. This and many of the other awards require you to put specific effort into a certain area of Torn. However, some of the awards the top 20 are missing are quite general and have only been released recently, such as Sidekick for assisting in 250 attacks. Many players feel they will likely gain awards like this through their normal chaining and attacking habits though, so they have opted against targeting them directly.
Pictured: The most common missing honors among the top 20 award winners
Unfortunately for some, there are several awards that are now unobtainable, including three from Torn of the Dead, four from the Endurance Challenge, The Socialist from reaching level five on Torn Lite, and Time Traveller for surviving a restore. Most of our greatest award winners have been around for long enough to snag some of these honors, but some like Franky have missed out on the odd one or two - in his case, The Socialist.
Others were able to get one or two of the Torn of the Dead honors, but not all three. It remains to be seen whether this competition and its honors will be resurrected in the years to come.
Pictured: The now unobtainable honors.
In addition to those that are completely unobtainable due to changes in the game, a few of the top 20 consider some awards off limits for personal reasons. Andyman, who is ranked number four for awards, has "no plans to make newspaper article, drop dirty bomb, do drug crimes, and unlikely that torn of the dead would happen due to me being such a high level and notable target." Bodybagger also expressed his disappointment at not being able to achieve "Semper Fortis" for beating someone stronger than him.
L4suicide has spun the slots nearly 230,000 times and still has not won the jackpot but remains hopeful he one day will. It may take him a while, though, as there have only been 100 slots jackpot winners since September 24th, 2016, with an average of one winner every 9.3 days. Yet while some have given up on certain awards, others are looking to the future, anticipating awards Ched may release soon.
Many have been working on unarmored attacks while some have been doing daily casino token refills, as our award hunters attempt to second guess which unique achievements will soon be rewarded. Megalomaniacal advised new merit hunters to keep an eye on the personal stats page for hints, as when new stats are added, a new honor may be on the horizon. When he saw "candy eaten" added to the personal stats page, he bought it while it was cheap and started eating it, getting a head start on the Diabetic honor.
Pictured: Megalomaniacal stocking up on candy.
Over the longer term, most of our top 20 players already have plans in place for the few remaining awards, as many require months of financial or strategic preparation. Both BodyBagger and Megalomaniacal mentioned that setting goals for yourself is important early on. Anyone wishing to follow in their footsteps should consider which awards they will likely achieve through their typical Torn activities, and then seek to augment these by actively striving for others while you can - don't put off the drug crime awards if you're planning to one day get involved in organised crimes!
KPCSlor, who is ranked eleventh, plans to "get to 100b networth for the final medal and then buy a DB and go SE crazy." However, he wanted everyone know that he would be happy to drop a Dirty Bomb on anyone if someone would be so kind as to supply him with one for the merit, because, in his opinion, it "worked for Evil Duck didn't it?"
Pictured: Achievement unlocked.
Also, while Andyman may consider the publication of a newspaper article as something he'll never achieve, this very reporter is living proof that with enough dedication and effort, anyone can snag that award. The newspaper is not averse to helping anyone acquire the journalist merit for a one-off article, so long as they take the task seriously and create something the Torn public would genuinely like to read - FYI, you may want to wait a while before you submit another article about awards!
New players should also participate in game-wide events as often as possible, as there are currently eight honors available from participation alone, and an additional twelve that can be purchased in the token shop with your competition rewards. Nearly 80 awards come from attacking and chaining too - not including those for runaways or defends - so contests like Dog Tags and Elimination offer you a great chance to push for several awards at once.
Many of the awards require just minor tweaks to your play style and can be achieved with very little effort. Taking a look at the commonly missing awards among the top 20 and setting some of those as long term goals may also be helpful. Some of them like Fortress for winning 10,000 defends, Don't Drop It for busting 10,000 players out of jail, Boss of All Bosses for earning 100,000 respect, and Globetrotter for spending 365 days in the air will take a considerable amount of time. Getting started on those early can help ambitious award winners make their way towards the top 20.
But as many of the top 20 will tell you, it is the journey which is the most rewarding thing about the award hunter playstyle, not the accumulation of individual accolades. By striving to achieve a broad range of different statistical milestones you'll likely discover new activities and new people to boot. Torn is a dynamic and vibrant place where there are many interesting encounters to be had. There's far more to this place than the gym.
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