TORN CITY // GUIDE
Guide · terms every faction member should know
New to faction warfare, or just tired of nodding along when someone says "watch the chain, I'm about to retal"? Here's what the recurring terms actually mean, in plain English, with links to a deeper guide wherever one exists on this site.
Torn's weekly matchmaking system that pairs two factions of comparable size and strength against each other for a set period. See how faction wars work.
The number both sides race to reach first. It's built entirely from the respect earned in fights between the two warring factions — nothing outside the war moves it.
Torn runs on UTC, referred to in-game as TCT. Matchmaking, resets, and most scheduled events are timed against it — worth checking if you're coordinating across time zones.
Separate from a ranked war: factions can also fight over control of city territory, which affects income from rackets (recurring illegal income sources tied to holding specific blocks). This runs on its own mechanics outside the ranked-war matchmaking system.
The multiplier that scales how much respect a fight is worth, based on how evenly matched the two fighters are. See Fair Fight explained.
A running counter of successful attacks landed in quick succession, shared across everyone contributing to it, that unlocks escalating bonuses at milestone hit counts. See chain bonuses & chain-breaking.
The member (or members) whose job during an active push is to watch the chain timer and make sure it never times out unattended.
Attacking someone back after they've hit you. A common war-day rhythm: get hit, wait out any hospital time, retal once you're free.
One member weakening a tough target (without fully finishing the fight) so a teammate can land the actual hit — used against opponents that would be too risky for either member to take on solo.
The three broad outcomes of a successful attack: mugging takes cash from the target for reduced respect; leaving them (a straightforward win) or hospitalizing them scores the full respect value of the fight.
The two resources that gate action: energy for in-city activity like training, nerve for attacking. See energy & nerve for war day.
A precise read on another player's exact battlestats, obtained via in-game spying mechanics or services — the most accurate stat signal available when one exists, but only for players someone has actually spied on recently.
A player's own battlestat total, self-confirmed and shared (usually anonymised) rather than seen through gameplay inference. Exact, but only exists where the player themselves opted to share it.
A best-available guess at a player's battlestats, built by blending whichever signals exist — verified totals, spy reports, Fair Fight leakage, rank brackets — since an exact read isn't always available. See understanding stat estimates.
A coarse strength estimate based on a player's in-game rank tier, used as a fallback when no sharper signal (spy, verified, FF) is available for that player.
The credential that lets an external tool read data from Torn on a player's behalf, in one of several access tiers. See Torn API keys explained.
Multi-member crime activities that pay out shared rewards on success — not war mechanics directly, but a major part of how factions fund their war chest (armoury supplies, medical items, and everything else a war day burns through).