Join the new world

Noun:

1 Low spirits; a feeling of boredom or depression: "colour catalogs will rid you of February doldrums".
2 A period of inactivity or a state of stagnation: "the mortgage market has been in the doldrums for three years".

eRepublik is easy when you start. You level up very quickly, you're building your little empire of production facilities and training grounds. You gain a rank pretty much every time you log in, and then you have all these missions to complete with their enticing rewards.

Unfortunately, this doesn't last. Right around level 22 after you've picked up your first hard worker reward, you'll start to notice that things start to slow down, and then slow down even more, until you feel you are going nowhere fast. You are in the eRepublik doldrums.

It is at this point that we find out whether you are going to last as an eRepublik player. Because it is at this point that you realise that the only way you are going to be a citizen of note, and a soldier to be reckoned with, is by taking a long term perspective on this game. To be blunt, it's going to take at least a year of logging in and training every day before you become a force to respected, let alone feared on the battleground.

So, the purpose of this article is to warn you about this upcoming scenario, and how you can go about ensuring you survive it.

1. Routine. It's vital to get your health building up to 500 as soon as possible. This means that you can maximise your day in terms of results by logging in 3 times per day, instead of 5 times with a 300 health building. This is less wear and tear for you.

2. Fight. You don't have much control over your strength, apart from seasonal bonuses, you'll be chugging around at +11 strength per day including training/working bonuses and the training wall. What you do have control over is your ranking points. In order to max your rank points you need to be max fighting each day, and that means having the food and weapons to cover this outlay. If you can't afford to pay for this, you'll need to join an MU that will support you in doing this.

3. Competition. Competition is good, in your MU there will be players that are the same rank and higher than you. Strive to beat them. Grind them into pulp. Show everyone that you are the better, committed player. Even if no-one notices, there is a tremendous boost when you finally catch up on that player that was 20,000 or 200,000 points ahead of you. Don't stop there, pick a new target and move on.

4. Picking a MU. Intrinsically, most of what we achieve is by fighting, so the MU you choose is the most important decision you can make. Please ensure that their goals match your own, whether it be defending your nation, aggressive expansion, or freeing oppressed states. The people who you fight alongside are likely to be closest to you in terms of attitudes and morals, so pick well.

5. Achievements. Hard Worker and Super Soldier are so ho-hum. So target the mercenary medal. Save you bazookas (about 50) so you can be a battle hero. Better still, become a society builder. Any person you get to join eRepublik and gets to level 21 will generate about 3 gold for you. Getting 10 = 30 gold with a 5 gold achievement is nothing to be sniffed at.

6. Get involved! Parties and MU's need dedicated players prepared to put the work in. Not only does this add variety to the game, it also ads to your understanding of the game and promotes your ability to make a difference.

I hope this article helps the newer player understand what is ahead of them, and by doing so, ensures that stay in the game