Join the new world

This article is meant to establish three things. First, for new players, that it is very easy to achieve Lieutenant (rank 4) and that the benefits of doing so are well worth it. Second, also, that the benefits of purchasing Q1 weapons in times of real conflict are ever so worth it. Third, for established players, that there is some optimization you can do in your wartime purchasing if you can afford more than the usual five-pack of Q1 guns.

The game data for Strength, Rank, and Damage calculation are readily available on the eRepublik wiki.

The detailed numerical computations can be found in the Google spreadsheet (copy-paste link below) that is shared for free. I'm just putting it in plain English here.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0Aj6rDVlWTpAgdHdfSDFXaUVQZlVNWHpMV3hGM0hQQ0E&hl=en


(Theodore Pangalos, Greek general, 1878-1952)

Aspire to Something More, Young Man

Given the 7 free exp for an avatar and getting a job, and the 3 exp daily for work, training, and eating, every player should reach level 5 (25 exp) on their 7th day. Assuming that there is continuous war, either real or staged, and that you fight 5 times a day, the following should happen. (This is somewhat idealized because I assume you start at 100 wellness a day, and that's not really possible at the start without using gifts or wellness boxes heavily, so add a couple days for getting to 100 wellness if you like...)

Corporal: Achieved on the 9th day of fighting and the 15th day of the game. Improves upon the 120% damage bonus of Private to give you 140% damage.

Sergeant: Achieved on the 26th day of the game, which is the 20th day of fighting. Improves upon the damage bonus again, to give you 160% damage in battle from rank.

Lieutenant: Achieved on the 39th day of the game, after 33 days of fighting. Improves upon the damage bonus again, to give you 180% damage in battle from rank.

So, lieutenant is achievable within 33 days of fighting 5 times a day. This is fighting entirely bare-handed and using the lowest possible strength; it would be achieved faster if you started later, assuming you had kept up with your training, which most people do.

Considering that there has been continuous warfare for the past month involving Greece and that the conflicts have been real, why isn't every person with a Hard Worker medal also a Lieutenant? This is a problem. You may not be able to get those high wages in Greece if you do not fight to defend Greece and the allies of this nation.

On day 60, the idealized player was doing as much as 42 damage per fight with a Q1 gun, or 190 damage in the day. This was with the Lieutenant rank. Without the Lieutenant rank, as a Corporal, the damage would be only 127. You have lost out on 63 damage per day if you haven't kept up with the battles by fighting and healing.

Perhaps just as astonishing, you would have lost out on 10 exp per day, or as much as 300 exp, which will eventually get you to level 16 and the second time you will get 5 free gold for leveling.



Never Bring a Knife to a Gun Fight

That same Lieutenant at two months old? If he decided to ride it cheap during the big battles, he would be doing 80 damage per day. If he instead bought 5 Q1 weapons, he is doing that sweet 190 damage a day. Is 110 damage worth something like three quarters of a gold (or even as much as a full gold, if you buy from market at a bad time)?

The enemy thinks it is worth that much, and much much more. Battles are frequently decided on damages of less than 10,000. Would winning that battle be worth 100 gold? No doubt. No doubt whatsoever.

A tank like Nico Sianapar, president of Indonesia, deals about 340 damage and pays a bit over 3 gold a fight. You, at a couple months old, can deal damage far more efficiently than Nico does, with your 5 Q1 guns. So do it!



There is a Method to My Madness

For those of you who are looking to do a little more damage, I have some advice, but I'll keep most of it inside of the spreadsheet. I am basing the advice on the fact that the two fight-dependent factors of damage are wellness and gun quality, and that these can be manipulated, and that if you are spending extra on higher quality guns, you should spend so as to get the most bang for your buck. (The fight-independent factors are those that grow slowly, outside of the control of any one day, i.e. Rank and Strength.)

The first basic piece of advice is always to upgrade the first weapon that you're going to use first. The game does this for you, in a matter of speaking, by picking the highest quality gun to fight. But because you might have too many of them (for efficiency's sake), it's useful to have an organization to which to send the extras.

The other basic advice, which also ties into having an Organization, is that the Organization can gift you for 10 Wellness, allowing you to get in two fights at 100 Wellness. For roughly 0.4 gold per 10 gifts (international prices), it's a very bearable price for most people considering upgrading their guns.

The reference prices that I used (somewhat arbitrarily) for guns are these: 0.15 gold for Q1, 0.3 gold for Q2, 0.5 gold for Q3, 0.75 gold for Q4, and 1.05 gold for Q5. The absolute prices are not really important, so long as the ratios are basically sound. Each increment increases the price by 0.15 gold, 0.15 gold, 0.2 gold, 0.25 gold, and 0.3 gold, respectively, for Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4, and Q5.

And here is the advice:

(1) First, upgrade bare to Q1, starting at 100 wellness, and working your way down to the 60 wellness fight.
(2) Second, upgrade all Q1 to Q2, in the same manner, from top wellness down.
(3) Third, upgrade your Wellness 100 down to Wellness 70 Weapons to Q3.
(4) Fourth, upgrade your Wellness 100 weapon to Q4
(5) Fifth, upgrade your Wellness 60 weapon to Q3
(6) Sixth, upgrade your Wellness 90 and 80 weapons to Q4.
(7) Seventh, upgrade your Wellness 100 weapons to Q5.
(😎 Eighth, upgrade your Wellness 70 weapon to Q4.
(9) Ninth, upgrade your Wellness 90 weapon to Q5.
(10) Tenth, upgrade you Wellness 60 weapon to Q4.
(11) Last, upgrade all weapons to Q5.

This looks a bit more confusing than it really is. Basically, these are in descending order of efficiency (damage per gold), but also in increasing order of damage. So, figure out what you can afford by going down this list and stopping where you are comfortable, and then equip yourself in that manner. Don't forget the 10 Q1 gifts and a high quality food to cover the wellness lost from work and training.

Fight bravely, fight hard, and above all, Greece, fight smart! The latest battle is to retake the Aegean Islands as of the time of writing. I hope that this has helped.