BraveKath [1815519] —
Original article
Read on to find out how Forged Through War quietly made over $25 billion in a few months... without rackets
The introduction of rackets in September 2019 led to a major shift in the way Torn's most powerful factions focus their efforts. These days, the acquisition of territories is less driven by respect than it is the presence of Illegal Casinos, Truck Stops and Money Launderers. And when individual rackets are sometimes worth several hundred million dollars a pop, who can blame them?
Torn's racket industry pumps in several billion dollars worth of cash and items into Torn's economy every single day. Those who are powerful enough to grab a slice of this pie are often too full for anything else afterwards. But what about the rest of us? With extortion rampant and "protection" even more so, how can ambitious factions earn good money without dipping their toes into the territorial waters of others?
How about Faction Destruction?
The ability to destroy factions, also known as Faction Death, was introduced in January 2019. When a faction's respect is reduced down to zero, either through a Dirty Bomb strike or other acts of aggression, the faction is permanently deleted. There is no way to recover the faction whatsoever, and all of its items, money and points are given to the leader at its time of death.
If one were so inclined and had planned ahead properly, one could follow up a Faction Destruction with a well-timed mug of its leader, whose pockets would be swollen with the proceeds from their faction's recent demise. This is precisely what Forged Through War have been doing recently, and it has earned us a cool 25 billion dollars.
This method of earning money was based on a project that Hank and I coordinated when I was in Relentless. If I recall correctly it was his idea, but this was back in the day when chains were limited to 100 hits, so it took some patience to achieve. Given how much respect is now taken thanks to longer chains, Faction Destruction has become much easier.
In January 2019, FTW was preparing for a 25K chain. Our leadership hoped there would be some money for folks to mug along the way, but that was our secondary objective. As it turned out, both the faction and some members benefitted - let’s face it, every faction can always use more money.
I realized that our bonus was high enough to potentially destroy some factions during the chain. With destruction in mind, we quickly identified a mission target who fit the bill perfectly: Gareth-Bale. Gareth had his own solo faction, was inactive, and potentially had stacks of cash waiting for us to take upon his faction's death.
This was a gamble with no real risk, as while player networth can be taken up with items and stock, at least we'd still have completed our chain if we succeeded without extracting funds from his wallet. As we prepared to strike Gareth-Bale, the target and what was going to happen was kept a secret from all of our faction bar its leaders.
The DESTRUCTION HIT - 01/02/19 3:55:44 AM BraveKath hospitalized Gareth-Bale (+10,240.00)
When the bonus was done, FTW leadership team explained to everyone what was happening. Everyone got excited and caught up in the fun. Then, we waited for the faction to officially be destroyed.
Then the ransacking began. We ended up mugging over $350 mil in the end, until others in Torn realized there was money to be had there. We were actually surprised we got to mug uninterrupted for so long, since Gareth was a known mission target. And don't forget, this event took place prior to the mugging changes, thus timing and mug amounts were significantly lower than they are now.
We could've capitalized on this new strategy immediately if the Insurgency vs TUN conflict hadn't erupted. As a result, we didn’t return to this concept until recently. One thing we learned from our first experience was that some friction came up between some players - not much, but we sought to minimize it anyway. In fact, every time we've destroyed a faction, we have brought about changes in response to the feedback our leaders received.
But it was specifically when mugging changes were implemented that one of our leaders, Gun_Ru, brought the Gareth-Bale Project up and asked why we couldn't try it again. He had done the homework and had two targets lined up. It was a great idea. So once more, the planning began.
Based on the experience we gained in destroying Gareth-Bale's faction, we decided on a different approach when it came to handling muggings and hospitalizations. We planned for two 10K chains, but this time we involved the faction more; after the faction was destroyed we had members use our forums to coordinate keeping the target in the hospital and having our 10/10 mugging members do the twice daily mugs.
Whereas our previous destruction was planned and conducted more privately, taking the leap of faith and being open about it within the faction seemed to work fine. The faction worked together and kept the target hospitalized for 12 hours ready to be mugged on the next second. FTW members cooperated with each other terrifically.
Here are the results of our attempts to destroy two factions during our normal respect farming-chaining period. The numbers speak for themselves.
DECEMBER 2019
06/12/19 Forged Through War has initiated a raid on Lakaz mama
Destruction Target: Lakaz mama
Leader (solo): Elsa (Inactive Player)
Revive-able: yes
Networth $11.6 Billion
FINAL OUTCOME: The faction was destroyed, but it seems as though Elsa's Networth was all in stocks, items or in the Caymans, as our mugs resulted in no cash being acquired.
11/12/19 Forged Through War has initiated a raid on Grinch Pimps
Destruction Target:
Leader (solo): Tonchikapa (Inactive Player)
Revive-able: yes
Networth $ 9 Billion
FINAL OUTCOME: Following the first mug, Tonchikapa was spied and had $3,372,562,895 on hand. When it was all over and before others found the target, we had mugged a grand total of $3,662,896,536.
In January 2020 our next ‘farming respect-chaining’ cycle rolled around and we turned our eye towards another faction. This last faction destruction was performed on the veteran player Fugazi [63491], from whom we mugged a grand total of $22,416,292,163.
HOW TO IDENTIFY A TARGET
The two factors which should initially determine your destruction targets are the length of your planned chains and the amount of respect that will be deducted from the target faction's total. Your goal is to zero out a faction's respect, thus destroying them.
NOTE: Using RAIDS is another effective way to destroy factions, but it can be a neon sign to others as to what you're doing.
Pictured: The respective respect gains and losses according to your bonus.
Once you have calculated the likely respect your chain will deduct, you should then have a number of factions in your sights - it will take time to scroll through the respect rankings, but it's worth it! However, it is also important to factor in the possibility that missed bonuses happen, so make sure not to overestimate your faction's abilities.
To narrow down your targets, check the networth of the faction's leader, co-leader and notable members. If some non-leadership faction members have an attractive networth it could be more of a gamble, but nothing is a sure thing unless you have insider intel. Using DoctorN and Tornstats expedites this investigative process massively.
Essentially, your target must have enough wealth to make it worthwhile. And remember, their networth may not be representative of them having cash in the faction, but instead in stocks, items or in the Caymans. I recommend only targeting those who have $3 billion networth or higher.
It's also vitally important that you check the last date the target/s logged in. If a player is active before final destruction takes place and sees their faction is in danger, they may store their money elsewhere and all your work will be for nothing. Long-term inactive players should be your preferred targets.
Check if the target faction’s leader can be revived too. This usually requires you hitting them, but it's worth the small amount of energy needed to confirm the possibility that you can control their availability. A revive-able target is easier to manage in some ways, but also more vulnerable to outside muggings.
Another thing you should check is if the leader and co-leader own companies. Ideally, they will not, as this gives them another place where part of their networth may have been stored other than their faction.
CHOOSE YOUR MUGGERS
When faction destruction is finalized, all of the money in the faction goes to the leader, and no one else. The faction monies are transferred to the leader at the top of the hour following the destruction, so your chosen muggers should be aware of this. Your faction mugging team should have all ten of the mugging merits, and obviously they must be active players who you can trust to be around at the time they need to strike.
When the time comes, your muggers must make their first mug and then keep the target hospitalized for 12 hours, allowing their subsequent muggable total to rise without others chipping away at it. After the 12 hours are up your muggers must hit on the next second. So if you mugged the target at 10:01:00, then you would mug them at 22:01:01.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
There are a number of ways that the leader of a destroyed faction could end up with less or a lot more money on hand than what their networth indicates. An increase will be no more than a pleasant bonus unless you know something about the faction’s background, but don't be surprised if this happens, as there are a number of reasons why it might.
For example, when the original leaders of a faction go inactive, it is the oldest remaining member who becomes leader. While they may be poor, the faction might not be, and if they have kicked the old leaders then you won't have any clues as to whether this is the case.
Another possible scenario is that a leader may have kicked a rich, old member for behavioral issues or inactivity. If said member left a sizeable sum stored in the faction, it will be there waiting for you in secret. Organized crime money may also be present in the faction, though unless they had a lot of PAs running, it is unlikely to be a significant amount.
Other factors you may wish to consider are factions who are known to receive lots of donations, factions who are currently bonusing or raiding, the networth of any faction members still remaining in a faction, and any additional knowledge you have about the inner workings of your target.
IT'S TIME TO GET STARTED!
If you're thinking of preening Torn's faction landscape in the near future, here are a few examples of how our target assessment system works, including several great targets with high potential.
Pictured: Last updated March 30, 2020 - changes may have occurred since this was written.
Made Men is ideal due to their respect level and networth, but you never know the outcome until it's over. I’ve crossed out ABC because of two reasons: low networth and they have a company. A marginal target is Hall of the Mount, as the leader hasn’t been inactive that long, thus they may still get notifications and come back and bank their money, but still could be well worth the effort!
Torn's racket industry pumps in several billion dollars worth of cash and items into Torn's economy every single day. Those who are powerful enough to grab a slice of this pie are often too full for anything else afterwards. But what about the rest of us? With extortion rampant and "protection" even more so, how can ambitious factions earn good money without dipping their toes into the territorial waters of others?
How about Faction Destruction?
The ability to destroy factions, also known as Faction Death, was introduced in January 2019. When a faction's respect is reduced down to zero, either through a Dirty Bomb strike or other acts of aggression, the faction is permanently deleted. There is no way to recover the faction whatsoever, and all of its items, money and points are given to the leader at its time of death.
If one were so inclined and had planned ahead properly, one could follow up a Faction Destruction with a well-timed mug of its leader, whose pockets would be swollen with the proceeds from their faction's recent demise. This is precisely what Forged Through War have been doing recently, and it has earned us a cool 25 billion dollars.
This method of earning money was based on a project that Hank and I coordinated when I was in Relentless. If I recall correctly it was his idea, but this was back in the day when chains were limited to 100 hits, so it took some patience to achieve. Given how much respect is now taken thanks to longer chains, Faction Destruction has become much easier.
In January 2019, FTW was preparing for a 25K chain. Our leadership hoped there would be some money for folks to mug along the way, but that was our secondary objective. As it turned out, both the faction and some members benefitted - let’s face it, every faction can always use more money.
I realized that our bonus was high enough to potentially destroy some factions during the chain. With destruction in mind, we quickly identified a mission target who fit the bill perfectly: Gareth-Bale. Gareth had his own solo faction, was inactive, and potentially had stacks of cash waiting for us to take upon his faction's death.
This was a gamble with no real risk, as while player networth can be taken up with items and stock, at least we'd still have completed our chain if we succeeded without extracting funds from his wallet. As we prepared to strike Gareth-Bale, the target and what was going to happen was kept a secret from all of our faction bar its leaders.
The DESTRUCTION HIT - 01/02/19 3:55:44 AM BraveKath hospitalized Gareth-Bale (+10,240.00)
When the bonus was done, FTW leadership team explained to everyone what was happening. Everyone got excited and caught up in the fun. Then, we waited for the faction to officially be destroyed.
Then the ransacking began. We ended up mugging over $350 mil in the end, until others in Torn realized there was money to be had there. We were actually surprised we got to mug uninterrupted for so long, since Gareth was a known mission target. And don't forget, this event took place prior to the mugging changes, thus timing and mug amounts were significantly lower than they are now.
We could've capitalized on this new strategy immediately if the Insurgency vs TUN conflict hadn't erupted. As a result, we didn’t return to this concept until recently. One thing we learned from our first experience was that some friction came up between some players - not much, but we sought to minimize it anyway. In fact, every time we've destroyed a faction, we have brought about changes in response to the feedback our leaders received.
But it was specifically when mugging changes were implemented that one of our leaders, Gun_Ru, brought the Gareth-Bale Project up and asked why we couldn't try it again. He had done the homework and had two targets lined up. It was a great idea. So once more, the planning began.
Based on the experience we gained in destroying Gareth-Bale's faction, we decided on a different approach when it came to handling muggings and hospitalizations. We planned for two 10K chains, but this time we involved the faction more; after the faction was destroyed we had members use our forums to coordinate keeping the target in the hospital and having our 10/10 mugging members do the twice daily mugs.
Whereas our previous destruction was planned and conducted more privately, taking the leap of faith and being open about it within the faction seemed to work fine. The faction worked together and kept the target hospitalized for 12 hours ready to be mugged on the next second. FTW members cooperated with each other terrifically.
Here are the results of our attempts to destroy two factions during our normal respect farming-chaining period. The numbers speak for themselves.
DECEMBER 2019
06/12/19 Forged Through War has initiated a raid on Lakaz mama
Destruction Target: Lakaz mama
Leader (solo): Elsa (Inactive Player)
Revive-able: yes
Networth $11.6 Billion
FINAL OUTCOME: The faction was destroyed, but it seems as though Elsa's Networth was all in stocks, items or in the Caymans, as our mugs resulted in no cash being acquired.
11/12/19 Forged Through War has initiated a raid on Grinch Pimps
Destruction Target:
Leader (solo): Tonchikapa (Inactive Player)
Revive-able: yes
Networth $ 9 Billion
FINAL OUTCOME: Following the first mug, Tonchikapa was spied and had $3,372,562,895 on hand. When it was all over and before others found the target, we had mugged a grand total of $3,662,896,536.
In January 2020 our next ‘farming respect-chaining’ cycle rolled around and we turned our eye towards another faction. This last faction destruction was performed on the veteran player Fugazi [63491], from whom we mugged a grand total of $22,416,292,163.
HOW TO IDENTIFY A TARGET
The two factors which should initially determine your destruction targets are the length of your planned chains and the amount of respect that will be deducted from the target faction's total. Your goal is to zero out a faction's respect, thus destroying them.
NOTE: Using RAIDS is another effective way to destroy factions, but it can be a neon sign to others as to what you're doing.
Pictured: The respective respect gains and losses according to your bonus.
Once you have calculated the likely respect your chain will deduct, you should then have a number of factions in your sights - it will take time to scroll through the respect rankings, but it's worth it! However, it is also important to factor in the possibility that missed bonuses happen, so make sure not to overestimate your faction's abilities.
To narrow down your targets, check the networth of the faction's leader, co-leader and notable members. If some non-leadership faction members have an attractive networth it could be more of a gamble, but nothing is a sure thing unless you have insider intel. Using DoctorN and Tornstats expedites this investigative process massively.
Essentially, your target must have enough wealth to make it worthwhile. And remember, their networth may not be representative of them having cash in the faction, but instead in stocks, items or in the Caymans. I recommend only targeting those who have $3 billion networth or higher.
It's also vitally important that you check the last date the target/s logged in. If a player is active before final destruction takes place and sees their faction is in danger, they may store their money elsewhere and all your work will be for nothing. Long-term inactive players should be your preferred targets.
Check if the target faction’s leader can be revived too. This usually requires you hitting them, but it's worth the small amount of energy needed to confirm the possibility that you can control their availability. A revive-able target is easier to manage in some ways, but also more vulnerable to outside muggings.
Another thing you should check is if the leader and co-leader own companies. Ideally, they will not, as this gives them another place where part of their networth may have been stored other than their faction.
CHOOSE YOUR MUGGERS
When faction destruction is finalized, all of the money in the faction goes to the leader, and no one else. The faction monies are transferred to the leader at the top of the hour following the destruction, so your chosen muggers should be aware of this. Your faction mugging team should have all ten of the mugging merits, and obviously they must be active players who you can trust to be around at the time they need to strike.
When the time comes, your muggers must make their first mug and then keep the target hospitalized for 12 hours, allowing their subsequent muggable total to rise without others chipping away at it. After the 12 hours are up your muggers must hit on the next second. So if you mugged the target at 10:01:00, then you would mug them at 22:01:01.
ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS
There are a number of ways that the leader of a destroyed faction could end up with less or a lot more money on hand than what their networth indicates. An increase will be no more than a pleasant bonus unless you know something about the faction’s background, but don't be surprised if this happens, as there are a number of reasons why it might.
For example, when the original leaders of a faction go inactive, it is the oldest remaining member who becomes leader. While they may be poor, the faction might not be, and if they have kicked the old leaders then you won't have any clues as to whether this is the case.
Another possible scenario is that a leader may have kicked a rich, old member for behavioral issues or inactivity. If said member left a sizeable sum stored in the faction, it will be there waiting for you in secret. Organized crime money may also be present in the faction, though unless they had a lot of PAs running, it is unlikely to be a significant amount.
Other factors you may wish to consider are factions who are known to receive lots of donations, factions who are currently bonusing or raiding, the networth of any faction members still remaining in a faction, and any additional knowledge you have about the inner workings of your target.
IT'S TIME TO GET STARTED!
If you're thinking of preening Torn's faction landscape in the near future, here are a few examples of how our target assessment system works, including several great targets with high potential.
Pictured: Last updated March 30, 2020 - changes may have occurred since this was written.
Made Men is ideal due to their respect level and networth, but you never know the outcome until it's over. I’ve crossed out ABC because of two reasons: low networth and they have a company. A marginal target is Hall of the Mount, as the leader hasn’t been inactive that long, thus they may still get notifications and come back and bank their money, but still could be well worth the effort!
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