Join the new world

*This is an slightly adapted repost of a Canadian article. The original author is Rogour6, if you like it, give his newspaper a sub!

Hello, newer player! Welcome to erepublik. This is your ol' Uncle Daniel Parker with more Advice for Newbies on medals.

There are lots of ways to measure accomplishment in the eworld, but some of the more obvious markers are the medals. As a newbie player, we often start with the idea that we'll collect the whole set, but that attitude can cause you to lose focus, do some of the wrong things, and then subsequently become unnecessarily discouraged. You can avoid that with a proper understanding from the start.

Here are the medals and how much attention you should focus on them:


Medal: Hard Worker
Your Chances: Excellent if you have daily access to the internet
All you have to do for this one is work every day for 30 days in a row.
You can change jobs in that time, as long as you work each day.
For most of us, this is the standard medal and there's no limit to how many of them you can rack up if you just spend the time. A medal a month just for perfect attendance. This should be where the majority of your medals come from.
Now, if your lifestyle or interest just doesn't allow you to show up 30 days in a row, not much you can do about this, but don't be surprised if this one comes your way. 30 days can pass pretty easily in this world, and just showing up and working each day is not a major time commitment.


Medal: Congress Member
Your Chances: zero right now, but maybe fair later
The country elects 20 congress members a month, but incumbency is a huge factor and many of them are very established players. If you are very active and involved in a party and prepared to run in a smaller province, you might get lucky, but for now you should just focus on learning about the eworld and seeing how the parties work.


Medal: Country President
Your Chances: Asymptotic to zero
Don't waste your time thinking about this until you've at least managed a congress seat.
By then, you'll understand better exactly how miniscule your chances are, and that you probably don't even want the job.


Medal: Media Mogul
Your Chances: Very Low
You might think I of all people would encourage players to write - and I do. I tend to write on average 2 or 3 articles a week, and I read a lot more than that. But don't confuse being a writer (or being a good writer) with being a media mogul. If there's one mistake I see newer players make, it's thinking they can become Media Moguls. In a country with as small a population as eCanada, the pool of subscribers means this is very unlikely. Very few papers in eCanada have over 1000 subscribers. Every so often there is an article, typically in the international press, explaining how you can become a Media Mogul. The advice isn't wrong, but typically explains that your best chance of jumping subscribers consists of appeals to the lowest common denominator, specifically by inserting pictures of women in states of undress, joke photos, or offering giveaways. Do yourself a favour, don't waste your time chasing after this. More than that, do your fellow players a favour, the eworld does not need yet another pointless tabloid clogging up the channels. Start a newspaper because you feel you have something to express, and don't worry about ever getting subscribers. Definitely don't start a newspaper as reflex as soon as the game allows you - it's the most expensive experience points you'll ever buy. Unless you have a burning desire to write, your time and effort is far better spent on other things. And definitely don't start a newspaper with the goal of becoming a Media Mogul, because chasing after subscribers will take a lot of effort and probably distort your message as you pander in the hopes of higher subscribers. There are a number of good newspapers out there. If you are prepared to accept that good writing is its own reward, great, I look forward to hearing from you.
I just don't want you wasting your time (and mine) chasing this medal.


Medal: Battle Hero
Your Chances: Embarrassingly Low
You'd have to outfight guys with a three year's head start in training and access to country bankrolls for top weapons and wellness packs. Forget about it. Rank doesn't provide any larger in-game benefit. Join a MU and they will help supply you with weapons. Bank your cash for the regular sales on Town Hall upgrades and new productive land. Do not purchase weapons. Your (far superior) alternative is to purchase land, develop and upgrade companies, and make your own weapons.
The new battles have made it possible for a player to “save up” energy bars and Bazookas and make a Battle Hero run. This has given some of the non-tank players a little something to scheme, plan for, save up for, scout out, and then try. Some have succeeded and feel rightly proud of that accomplishment. Many have found their efforts frustrated when one of the true tanks of the game swooped in during the dying minutes of a battle and grabbed the Battle Hero medal out from under them with their massive damage totals. So, you know, triumph and heartbreak. For now, my advice to new players is use bazookas and energy bars when the home country is under attack and just save them up the rest of the time, unless you are going to try for the Mercenary Medal (more on that later).


Medal: Campaign Hero
Your chances: Not worth thinking about
As a new player, you have zero chance of getting a medal like this – it is the purview of the tanks, players who have been playing years longer than you, have probably purchased substantial amounts of in-game gold, and have massive strength advantage to show for it.


Medal: Resistance Hero
Your Chances: Low, but not entirely out of reach
Starting resistance wars has gotten much easier now that the expense is split between 10 players. The trick as a new player is you don’t yet know which RWs have a realistic chance of success and which are fools’ errands, or distractions. For now, save your dough as indicated above.


Medal: Super Soldier
Your Chances: Great
Train every day and these medals will come, regular as clockwork. Around about once a month depending on a number of factors. Again, don’t try to rush this process by building training facilities and paying gold for training until you’ve got the “economic side” of your land going well and making a steady profit for you.


Medal: Society Builder
Your Chances: Not super, but it doesn’t hurt to try.
It's not easy to get these medals. Getting some friends to join using your link, as opposed to just joining, is a wee bit tricky. The real tricky part is trying to get them to Level up enough, a lot of people find this isn't the game for them and drop out. If you are a keener this is one of the medals you really should be trying for. You are performing a very beneficial public service, having others you know playing alongside you will enhance your enjoyment of the game, and the bonuses for recruiting are there for each and every player you recruit, so even if you don't get to 10 you will find yourself rewarded for your efforts. So please, if you've got the time and interest to go for a medal, make it this one.


Medal: Mercenary
Your chances: Good over time
This is one of the more interesting medals to try for, as it takes a good bit of work and careful planning. What it requires is that you fight for 50 different nations, generating 25 Kills for each. Now, as a new player, generating 25 kills for any nation will take some time, so concentrate on things that increase your total fights per day (such as improved Town Halls). The trick with mercenary is that eCanada doesn’t have 49 allied or even neutral nations in the world, so to actually get this medal will require you to a) move and b) fight against Canadian allies many times. Before you recoil in abhorrence from b), to me one of the fun parts of trying for this medal is that you can set a goal of fighting for the “bad guys” when it doesn’t make a difference – for example, in the last couple of minutes of some battle they are clearly going to win by a huge margin. Of course, some don’t even restrict themselves about that, but are just true mercs and fight where they need to against whomever they need to (even Canada) if it helps them tick off that box.
While a click on the medal space on your profile page will give you details of your kills for various countries, keeping track of whom you still need to fight for and how many times can definitely be time consuming. Then there is the complication of travel. For a new player, I’d say it is generally better to stay put and get into the more social aspects of the game. But at some point after you feel like you’ve got the other aspects down, if you’re looking for a way to see the world and shoot people, go on a merc run. Just don’t equate it with being a great fighter. Canada’s huge tank, Fritzhill has over twice my strength and hundreds of battlefield medals to my none. He has a single Merc medal and I have 5. What does that tell you? A) they don’t mean too much but b) they are in range of the “average” player.


Medal: Top Fighter
Your chances: Hilariously, insultingly small
Before we get too deep into this, the newest-minted medal, you need to recognize there are a number of different types of players of erepublik. There are those who pay hundreds of dollars to buy gold and be a bigshot here, who keep the game going by allowing the people who offer this game (“the admins”) to make money. They are a core group and they are the big boys here. Then there are the rest of us, who rarely or never buy gold, but our contribution to the business model is that we provide a broader playing field in which the core player can strut his stuff. Top Fighter is the kind of medal exclusively reserved for the core player, to such a degree that the rest of us could actually feel like we are being given the finger by the admins when they announce it with such fanfare.
It’s like being shown teaser ads for an electric car during Hockey Night in Canada, only to find out it’s a $100K Tesla two-seater. Just not the world we live in. Anyway, not to discourage you from becoming a core player, but don’t just jump at this right away until you are very experienced.
A new player could literally spend hundreds of dollars making a run at this and not get it.



tl;dr summary

Don't be distracted by the wide range of potential medals.
As a new player, focus only on the 3 that relate to the functions of WORKING, TRAINING, and RECRUITING.
Those are Hard Worker, Super Soldier, and Society Builder.