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Find out how to protect yourself against our city's newly empowered muggers, and how to profit from the new protection system too.
Torn's much-discussed changes to the mugging system went live at 2pm TCT on Tuesday. As detailed in our previous newspaper report on the subject, muggers will now take anywhere between 5 and 10% from their victims' on-hand cash, regardless of how much they have on them at the time. Mug protection has also been altered, with this benefit being wiped as soon as you interact with the protected cash, and the protection itself deteriorating at a quicker rate than before.
The full details of the aforementioned changes can be found by reading the linked article in the paragraph above. But in this piece, we're going to look at the effects of this new mugging system on certain types of players, while also investigating how you can protect yourself, and make a little money on the side. First up, how to avoid being a victim. Liverpool fans, take note.
VICTIMS ADVICE
Let's begin in true tabloid style by making you aware of the scale of the mugging threat Torn's citizens now face. In the 24 hours prior to the changes being implemented, 24,716 mugs took place, with a total of $9,746,812,119 being stolen - $394,352 per mug. In the 24 hours since the mugging mechanics were tweaked, there have been 38,490 mugs with $11,926,308,292 being stolen - $309,854 per mug.
What this tells us is that more mugs are being made, but less is being stolen, which is probably due to most players being more cautious than usual. We'll continue to monitor these rates and let you know if and how they change in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, if you're worried about being a victim, then there are still a few ways you can avoid being sucker-punched.
The number one thing you can do for yourself is to join a clothing company, whose 7-star employees are given a passive bonus of 75% mug protection. The usefulness of this special means competition for jobs will be intense, so some of you may be better off applying to low-star companies in the hope that they'll grow.
Pictured: Just try and mug me bro.
If you don't want to join a clothing company, then the best advice we can give you is to make sure that you're only handling money when you're active. If you're selling items through your bazaar, trading, buying items or stocks, or you're gambling at the casino, make sure you're alert enough to react to a threat at any moment.
Traders will have to be especially careful now, as while they used to refresh their mug protection every few hours, it is no longer financially viable to do this. Anyone who wants to keep their bazaar open 24/7 must now make themselves unavailable to attacks while their store is open, because muggers will definitely target traders now that they aren't using mug protection.
Pictured: A meme courtesy of Indubitably.
All players should keep an eye on their wallet and events at all times while online. Have a couple of tabs open, and get ready to instantly deposit any new cash you might receive in a safe place! Also, if you're going to engage in a big trade, keep your mouth shut! Don't take any chances if you can't afford to lose the cash. Not everyone has the time to be active of course, but this means you will need to make a sacrifice in order to protect yourself.
Travelling is one of the best ways to protect on-hand money since you can remain offline for a few hours at a time, and the trips are profitable if you remember to buy flowers or plushies. Alternatively, you can self-hospitalise with the wrong type of Bloodbag (~1 hour), Small Explosive Device (5 hours) or Bounties (~3-8 hours depending on the attacker). Don't forget to turn your revives off.
Lottery winners are also expected to be targeted more by muggers. Thankfully, winnings are paid out in cashiers checks which go straight into the bank, so the immediate risk is to any on-hand cash you have when you're announced as the winner. However, cashiers cheques run out after 24 hours, at which point they are paid into your on-hand balance. It's obviously unlikely you'll win any given lottery (unless you're Franky), but if you do enter, make sure you'll be online within 24 hours of it ending, or your stroke of luck will turn into a slice of misfortune.
Pictured: Franky, the lucky bastard.
Of course, eventually, you'll need to find a place to stash your winnings or profits for when you're online too. If you'll likely need access to your cash in a hurry and your property vault isn't big enough, many people store cash by buying up points at the points market, as they tend to sell relatively quickly. However, there's a chance of being mugged when you sell your points, so be careful with this method.
The same warning applies to those who want to store their cash in the form of items, with Xanax, Donator Packs, Cans and Feathery Hotel coupons being the most commonly bought commodities. However, if you're not bothered about having liquid assets on you, then high-end items such as stat enhancers or auctionable rarities should be bought up instead.
Another good place to hide your cash is a shell company. Players can purchase a company when they reach level 10, with Candle Shops, Flower Shops and Firework stands only costing $500k to start up. Employees at a software company can steal 1-3% of your company funds using their 5-star perk, but if you hide your company well, this shouldn't be an issue. You can also prevent this situation entirely by investing in the SYS benefit block, which currently costs $1.4bn. Of course, ownership of a company will prevent you from working elsewhere, so this should only be used as a temporary measure for most people.
Money can be stored in stocks temporarily too, by searching for a stock on the rise, buying up as much as you can, and immediately putting it up for sale. When it sells, you will be paid in a cashier's check, giving you 24 hours to find somewhere to store that cash. The Torn City Bank is also a good last-minute resort, but you're only able to retrieve this money after a minimum of one week - which is still better than losing it.
Conversely, the Cayman Islands Offshore Bank offers the best of both worlds, as it allows you to store unlimited money and retrieve it whenever you like - although cash must remain undisturbed for more than a month to accrue any interest.
Pictured: Plus you get a nice little holiday.
However, this method comes with a huge risk of being mugged as soon as you step off the plane in Georgetown. If you need to deposit money in the Cayman Islands, have a friend mug you first and keep the remaining cash on hand. Although your protection will wear off somewhat during the flight - less so if you use a Business Class Ticket - you will have a lot less at risk when you reach the Caymans in case a mugger can get to you before you deposit.
One final tip is to set up a ghost trade with a trusted friend. All you need to do is add however much cash you want to protect to the trade screen and offer it to another player. This trade won't be accepted (if your friend is trustworthy) and the trade will time out after six hours, returning your cash to you. During this time, your cash will be completely off-limits to muggers, so long as your "friend" hasn't squealed and set you up for a fall.
MUGGER'S ADVICE
If you have a juicy victim and you're dying to make them part ways with their cash, this is now easier than ever. You only need to be sure of two things: your victim is "Okay" (not travelling, hospital, jail etc), and they will have new money in their wallet before you mug them. Perhaps you've seen them posting in trade chat looking for a certain item. Or they might've just bought a tonne of points from you. Maybe they've just won the lottery or the slots jackpot. If so, their new money is basically dangling out their back pocket. Morally, it's yours.
Also, if a potential target has a lot of items in their bazaar and they're marked as Okay, they're already ripe for the taking. Set up a couple of tabs, ready yourself on their attack page, and then purchase and mug! Over the first few days of the update being implemented, most people won't be aware of anything having changed. Moreover, some players/traders that are aware may simply forget and leave their bazaars open. Fill your boots, muggers!
It is now more profitable and therefore worthwhile to mug those who are selling casual items. Whereas bazaar owners will always go to great lengths to protect themselves while selling big-ticket items, few will bother setting anything elaborate up while they're flogging an FHC or a Donator Pack. But the increased mug percentage now offered means the potential rewards for buy-mugging these items are rather tempting indeed.
Pictured: Yoink.
Another potential source of revenue for muggers is the Slots Jackpot. A recent change to the slots payout system has meant that the rate of winning has been increased for higher bets. This means that jackpots are expected to grow larger before being claimed, and with increased mug percentages now in place, you'll be laughing all the way to the Caymans if you manage to catch a recent winner unawares.
Other areas where muggers may wish to stake out potential victims include the Property market, the Points market, the Stat Enhancer market and the Auction House. Anyone seen selling something for a decent-sized fee will almost certainly be targeted by hordes of muggers sat there refreshing the page waiting for the signal to attack. If you want to make some good money, you'd best be the fastest clicker in Torn City.
Pictured: This, at 5,000 times the speed.
In lieu of proper mug protection, traders and other cash carriers may seek alternative ways of protecting themselves, so make sure you're au fait with any new defensive methods so you don't waste your time. One possibility is that those with the maximum hospitalisation merits will be hired by traders to hospitalise them for long periods of time as a form of protection. We may start to see muggers lingering outside the hospital exits waiting for traders to leave, with many of them employing the DocTorn stakeout tool to keep an eye on their potential victims.
Those who provide mug protection for a fee also stand to lose out badly from this change, and we might see this mechanic replaced by actual physical protection rings being run in Torn City. It might be hard or even impossible to prevent someone from performing a one-off mug, but the insinuation of consequences may prove a deterrent to repeat offenders. You'd think twice about attacking a faction whose profile said "Under the Protection of SA", and there's no reason this wouldn't work if displayed on a bazaar profile either.
But before any new protective measures are discovered, the people who are going to be most affected by this change are the long term, mostly idle players who don't read the forums, are annoyed by the newspaper icon and probably don't even know the Seasonal Newsletters exist. If you know of anyone who is notoriously out of the loop on such matters, give them the gift of knowledge by shaking them down multiple times and letting them find out the hard way about our brand new mugging system.
Thanks to Proxima for the bulk of this article. Further thanks to ORAN, Iribuya, Josephine, Onlyelmosaints, Dunmugmeh, Tezwar, SinCitySinner, ArttiIsGod and ABCDEFGHIJKLM for their contributions.
The full details of the aforementioned changes can be found by reading the linked article in the paragraph above. But in this piece, we're going to look at the effects of this new mugging system on certain types of players, while also investigating how you can protect yourself, and make a little money on the side. First up, how to avoid being a victim. Liverpool fans, take note.
VICTIMS ADVICE
Let's begin in true tabloid style by making you aware of the scale of the mugging threat Torn's citizens now face. In the 24 hours prior to the changes being implemented, 24,716 mugs took place, with a total of $9,746,812,119 being stolen - $394,352 per mug. In the 24 hours since the mugging mechanics were tweaked, there have been 38,490 mugs with $11,926,308,292 being stolen - $309,854 per mug.
What this tells us is that more mugs are being made, but less is being stolen, which is probably due to most players being more cautious than usual. We'll continue to monitor these rates and let you know if and how they change in the coming weeks. But in the meantime, if you're worried about being a victim, then there are still a few ways you can avoid being sucker-punched.
The number one thing you can do for yourself is to join a clothing company, whose 7-star employees are given a passive bonus of 75% mug protection. The usefulness of this special means competition for jobs will be intense, so some of you may be better off applying to low-star companies in the hope that they'll grow.
Pictured: Just try and mug me bro.
If you don't want to join a clothing company, then the best advice we can give you is to make sure that you're only handling money when you're active. If you're selling items through your bazaar, trading, buying items or stocks, or you're gambling at the casino, make sure you're alert enough to react to a threat at any moment.
Traders will have to be especially careful now, as while they used to refresh their mug protection every few hours, it is no longer financially viable to do this. Anyone who wants to keep their bazaar open 24/7 must now make themselves unavailable to attacks while their store is open, because muggers will definitely target traders now that they aren't using mug protection.
Pictured: A meme courtesy of Indubitably.
All players should keep an eye on their wallet and events at all times while online. Have a couple of tabs open, and get ready to instantly deposit any new cash you might receive in a safe place! Also, if you're going to engage in a big trade, keep your mouth shut! Don't take any chances if you can't afford to lose the cash. Not everyone has the time to be active of course, but this means you will need to make a sacrifice in order to protect yourself.
Travelling is one of the best ways to protect on-hand money since you can remain offline for a few hours at a time, and the trips are profitable if you remember to buy flowers or plushies. Alternatively, you can self-hospitalise with the wrong type of Bloodbag (~1 hour), Small Explosive Device (5 hours) or Bounties (~3-8 hours depending on the attacker). Don't forget to turn your revives off.
Lottery winners are also expected to be targeted more by muggers. Thankfully, winnings are paid out in cashiers checks which go straight into the bank, so the immediate risk is to any on-hand cash you have when you're announced as the winner. However, cashiers cheques run out after 24 hours, at which point they are paid into your on-hand balance. It's obviously unlikely you'll win any given lottery (unless you're Franky), but if you do enter, make sure you'll be online within 24 hours of it ending, or your stroke of luck will turn into a slice of misfortune.
Pictured: Franky, the lucky bastard.
Of course, eventually, you'll need to find a place to stash your winnings or profits for when you're online too. If you'll likely need access to your cash in a hurry and your property vault isn't big enough, many people store cash by buying up points at the points market, as they tend to sell relatively quickly. However, there's a chance of being mugged when you sell your points, so be careful with this method.
The same warning applies to those who want to store their cash in the form of items, with Xanax, Donator Packs, Cans and Feathery Hotel coupons being the most commonly bought commodities. However, if you're not bothered about having liquid assets on you, then high-end items such as stat enhancers or auctionable rarities should be bought up instead.
Another good place to hide your cash is a shell company. Players can purchase a company when they reach level 10, with Candle Shops, Flower Shops and Firework stands only costing $500k to start up. Employees at a software company can steal 1-3% of your company funds using their 5-star perk, but if you hide your company well, this shouldn't be an issue. You can also prevent this situation entirely by investing in the SYS benefit block, which currently costs $1.4bn. Of course, ownership of a company will prevent you from working elsewhere, so this should only be used as a temporary measure for most people.
Money can be stored in stocks temporarily too, by searching for a stock on the rise, buying up as much as you can, and immediately putting it up for sale. When it sells, you will be paid in a cashier's check, giving you 24 hours to find somewhere to store that cash. The Torn City Bank is also a good last-minute resort, but you're only able to retrieve this money after a minimum of one week - which is still better than losing it.
Conversely, the Cayman Islands Offshore Bank offers the best of both worlds, as it allows you to store unlimited money and retrieve it whenever you like - although cash must remain undisturbed for more than a month to accrue any interest.
Pictured: Plus you get a nice little holiday.
However, this method comes with a huge risk of being mugged as soon as you step off the plane in Georgetown. If you need to deposit money in the Cayman Islands, have a friend mug you first and keep the remaining cash on hand. Although your protection will wear off somewhat during the flight - less so if you use a Business Class Ticket - you will have a lot less at risk when you reach the Caymans in case a mugger can get to you before you deposit.
One final tip is to set up a ghost trade with a trusted friend. All you need to do is add however much cash you want to protect to the trade screen and offer it to another player. This trade won't be accepted (if your friend is trustworthy) and the trade will time out after six hours, returning your cash to you. During this time, your cash will be completely off-limits to muggers, so long as your "friend" hasn't squealed and set you up for a fall.
MUGGER'S ADVICE
If you have a juicy victim and you're dying to make them part ways with their cash, this is now easier than ever. You only need to be sure of two things: your victim is "Okay" (not travelling, hospital, jail etc), and they will have new money in their wallet before you mug them. Perhaps you've seen them posting in trade chat looking for a certain item. Or they might've just bought a tonne of points from you. Maybe they've just won the lottery or the slots jackpot. If so, their new money is basically dangling out their back pocket. Morally, it's yours.
Also, if a potential target has a lot of items in their bazaar and they're marked as Okay, they're already ripe for the taking. Set up a couple of tabs, ready yourself on their attack page, and then purchase and mug! Over the first few days of the update being implemented, most people won't be aware of anything having changed. Moreover, some players/traders that are aware may simply forget and leave their bazaars open. Fill your boots, muggers!
It is now more profitable and therefore worthwhile to mug those who are selling casual items. Whereas bazaar owners will always go to great lengths to protect themselves while selling big-ticket items, few will bother setting anything elaborate up while they're flogging an FHC or a Donator Pack. But the increased mug percentage now offered means the potential rewards for buy-mugging these items are rather tempting indeed.
Pictured: Yoink.
Another potential source of revenue for muggers is the Slots Jackpot. A recent change to the slots payout system has meant that the rate of winning has been increased for higher bets. This means that jackpots are expected to grow larger before being claimed, and with increased mug percentages now in place, you'll be laughing all the way to the Caymans if you manage to catch a recent winner unawares.
Other areas where muggers may wish to stake out potential victims include the Property market, the Points market, the Stat Enhancer market and the Auction House. Anyone seen selling something for a decent-sized fee will almost certainly be targeted by hordes of muggers sat there refreshing the page waiting for the signal to attack. If you want to make some good money, you'd best be the fastest clicker in Torn City.
Pictured: This, at 5,000 times the speed.
In lieu of proper mug protection, traders and other cash carriers may seek alternative ways of protecting themselves, so make sure you're au fait with any new defensive methods so you don't waste your time. One possibility is that those with the maximum hospitalisation merits will be hired by traders to hospitalise them for long periods of time as a form of protection. We may start to see muggers lingering outside the hospital exits waiting for traders to leave, with many of them employing the DocTorn stakeout tool to keep an eye on their potential victims.
Those who provide mug protection for a fee also stand to lose out badly from this change, and we might see this mechanic replaced by actual physical protection rings being run in Torn City. It might be hard or even impossible to prevent someone from performing a one-off mug, but the insinuation of consequences may prove a deterrent to repeat offenders. You'd think twice about attacking a faction whose profile said "Under the Protection of SA", and there's no reason this wouldn't work if displayed on a bazaar profile either.
But before any new protective measures are discovered, the people who are going to be most affected by this change are the long term, mostly idle players who don't read the forums, are annoyed by the newspaper icon and probably don't even know the Seasonal Newsletters exist. If you know of anyone who is notoriously out of the loop on such matters, give them the gift of knowledge by shaking them down multiple times and letting them find out the hard way about our brand new mugging system.
Thanks to Proxima for the bulk of this article. Further thanks to ORAN, Iribuya, Josephine, Onlyelmosaints, Dunmugmeh, Tezwar, SinCitySinner, ArttiIsGod and ABCDEFGHIJKLM for their contributions.
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