Skip to content

Merits Guide 2025: New Player Approach

Source: Romarocky [3152013], thread t=16440203. Karma 2,320. Thread upvotes: 132. Updated Dec 2024.

Merit System Basics

27 upgradeable stats, each with 10 levels. Cost is cumulative: 1 merit for 1/10, 2 for 2/10... 10 for 10/10. Total cost to max one stat: 55 merits.

You cannot max all 27 stats (would need 1,485 merits, there aren't enough in game).

Key math: [7/10] = 28 merits. [10/10] = 55 merits. Two stats at [7/10] = 56 merits vs one at [10/10] = 55. Consider spreading at 7/10 before going to 10/10.

Resets: 1 free per year. Paid resets start at 500 points, increasing each time. Free resets don't increase paid reset cost.

50 merits buyable at Point Building: 300 points each, max 1 every 2 levels.

Early Build Priority (200 merits, first ~6 months)

  1. Education Length [10/10] (55 merits) = -20% course time. Finish Bachelor of Sport Science ASAP (+1% all gym gains). Reset these merits later once courses are done.
  2. Bank Interest [7/10] (28 merits) = +35% bank interest. Match investment to your net worth. First 2B should go in bank.
  3. Crime Progression [7/10] (28 merits) = +7% CE/CS gain. Nerve bar grows automatically with CE. More important than Nerve Bar for new players.
  4. Life Points [10/10] (55 merits) = +50% life. Win close fights, survive one more turn while trading.
  5. Combat Stats [3/10] = +9% to one stat. Not urgent but helps vs same-age players.
  6. Critical Hit [4/10] = +2% crit rate. Move to [7/10] eventually.

What to Avoid

Awareness: base city find chance is tiny. [10/10] = 3x tiny = still tiny. Author had 0 finds for 8 days with [10/10].

Addiction Mitigation: saves ~4 hours of travel to Switzerland every 14 days. Total rehab cost the same. Useless.

Stealth: not useful early. Better to just win faster.

Playstyle-Specific Merits

War focus: Education Length first, then Life Points + Combat Stats + Hospitalization Trading/money focus: Education Length + Bank Interest [10/10] Mugging: Education Length + Masterful Looting [10/10] Crime focus: Education Length + Crime Progression + Nerve Bar

All 27 Merit Stats Summary

Crime: Nerve Bar (+1 NNB/level), Crime Progression (+1% CE/CS/level) Money: Awareness (+20% city finds/level), Bank Interest (+5%/level), Masterful Looting (+5% mug money/level), Employee Effectiveness (+1 WS/level) Utility: Education Length (-2%/level), Stealth (+0.2/level), Hospitalizing (+5%/level), Addiction Mitigation (-2%/level) Combat Stats: Life Points (+5%/level), Brawn/STR, Protection/DEF, Sharpness/SPD, Evasion/DEX (all +3%/level) Combat: Critical Hit Rate (+0.5%/level), Weapon Mastery by type (+1% dmg, +0.2 acc/level)

  • Merit Spending Guide (Andyman)
  • Easy Merits and Honour Guide (Tempest)
  • OP Merit Breakdown 150 Perks (Broker)
  • Passive Merits Guide (DieselBlade)