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If you’re asking, 
“Why do I need to hit better chain targets?” 
Well the answer is simple. It earns more respect. 
If you’re not trying to earn respect, why are you chaining? 

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Now if you’re asking, 
“What makes a good chain target?” 
Well here’s a quick breakdown.

If you didn’t know, every time you defeat an opponent as a member (not a recruit) of a faction, you will get a certain amount of respect, which is indicated by the number that appears next to the name of the opponent.

The best type of attacks for chaining is “leaving.” Hospitalizing (doesn’t earn as much level xp) and mugging (doesn’t earn as much respect) should be kept to a minimum. 

As a new player with less stats, you’ll be wanting to aim for around 3 respect per hit. 

Around 2 respect is decent. 

Around 4 respect is pretty good.

Around 1 respect is bad. 

Here's a handy chart. 

 Now, because of how chains work, you’ll get bonus respect from each additional hit, which means that it can be harder to ascertain if the target is good later into the chain. 
But, there’s this handy thing in the chain page that tracks the “fair fight” multiplier. 

If you’re at the max fair fight multiplier (x3), you have a great chain target. But anything close to (x2) is also decent. 
 

This is a very very simplified explanation of how respect works. If you want to read more about how respect works, go here. 

You’ll also want to split your target list into two halves: ones that you can defeat with no cooldown, and ones that you can defeat on xanax. Trust me when I say it’s not a very pleasant surprise to get one shot by a target that you could beat if you didn’t have the xanax debuff.

There’s one exception to this rule though. If you beat a target earlier in the chain, then take xanax, you should hit them when they come out of the hospital. Chances are, they’ll give a significant amount of respect due to the chain bonus while being easy to beat due to their low health (this is why you leave. Hospitalizing and mugging gives the opponent too much hospital time which allows them to regenerate more health).

Now, respect is not the only thing that’s important in choosing a good chain target. You actually have to beat the damn person first. 

See? No respect. 

Also you have to make sure that you can also consistently beat the target. If you’re taking massive amounts of damage each time, it’s probably not the best of targets, even if you get massive respect from defeating them. 

If you hit a hundred of these targets a day you’d probably go bankrupt from the medical costs.

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Now that you know what a good chain target is, the question still remains:
 “How do I find good chain targets?” 
There’s actually an easy solution, and it starts with “D” and ends with “uke”. 

Oh please no. Nooooooooooooooooooooo.

Now I know people have had less than desirable experiences with Duke missions. I’m no stranger to this. 


How do I do this first try???

But, Duke gives you missions based on your battle stats. They aren’t random. It’s a pretty underutilized strategy, but it’s also a pretty useful and easy strategy. All it requires is that you do your one Duke mission every day. Aaand you get free shit from mission credits. Just saying.  
 

I love me some light reading. 

Oh, and keep track of your chain targets somewhere. I prefer discord, but anywhere you can write works really. 

All from Duke. They really add up over time.

The second method is much more tedious, but if you really don’t like Duke missions, you can use this instead. 
You’ll really want to have the torn tools extension for the stat estimator.

Additionally, you’ll want to have the “best damage dealt”, “xanaxes used”, “LSD used”, “energy drinks used”, “energy refills used”, and “Consumable boosters used” stats under the user info comparison.
 

Now, you’ll want to search for people in your general level range who aren’t in a faction and have been inactive for over a year. 
 

 If you don’t have donator status, that’s perfectly fine. Simply adjust the Torn Tools search filters as necessary. 

Now, find people who you can beat. The easiest stat to look at for finding is the “best damage dealt” stat, as that is a flat out statement of what that person’s strength is. If they’re significantly lower than yours, they’re probably a safe target. Now check their stat estimation. If they’re in the same range as your stats, you’re good to go. However, you’ll also want to watch out for defense “whores” that have insanely high defense, which can usually be spotted by their high “defends stalemated” stat and their “tank” status. 

This method will take a lot of trial and error. Expect to hit a lot of targets that are either too easy or too hard for you. But, if you persevere, you should end up with a nice batch of chain targets just right for you. If this seems a little too time consuming, it’s really not. Just spend 5-10 minutes every day finding potential targets then spend 10-15 minutes hitting those targets during chains. 

Now that you’ve finished reading the guide, you have now been magically imbued with the ability to find good chain targets. Go out there and start kicking ass. 
 

Courtesy of Crazygamer7477

A faction can provide up to +10 through perks.
These perks are paid for by the faction with Respect, a lot of which is gained from chaining. Chaining is good.

A Private Island with airstrip provides +10, removes the cost of flying and reduces travel time by 30%.
I highly recommend renting a private island that has an airstrip for 7 days to get you started. This should not cost more than $3.5m ($500k per day).
Once you have moved in you need to hire a Pilot. After that you're set to fly fast and cheap.
ROI: It will take you 17 hours of flying to recoup this cost.
Or: You need to fly 2.5 hours per day to offset this cost, the rest is free money.
Once you've built some capital you should look for a private island with 3700 happy or more to help with your gym gains, but that is a different topic.
You absolutely need to live on a Private Island immediately. Sell losses, marry a sugardaddy or borrow money. You'll make it back in a day.

A Large Suitcase provides +4.
This will cost just north of $10m.
ROI: It will take you 250 hours of flying to recoup this cost.
While not as urgent as a Private Island, you 100% need this item eventually. So get it as soon as you can afford it.
There are smaller suitcases which you can buy meanwhile if you want, but I don't know how easy they are to sell back to the market. My first suitcase was the Large Suitcase.

Working in a 7* Toy Shop lets you carry an extra 5 plushies.
A toy shop requires low working stats so it is not too difficult to get hired in one. Make sure it is 7* or higher.
ROI: Flying 10 hours a day will make you an extra $500k. But at the same time you are not working in a different company (like a sweet shop) where you could potentially make more or gain different bonuses. Company choice is a topic on its own.

Working in a 7* Flower Shop lets you carry an extra 5 flowers.
Same as Toy shop, but flowers are generally less profit than plushies.

Working in a Cruise Line Agency provides +2 total capacity at 3* and +3 more at 10* for a total of +5 total capacity.
Cruise Line requires very high working stats and if you are a new player you will not get into a 10* without a friend owning the company.

So the max carrying capacity you can reach right now is 34 items. Quite a difference from 5.

Where to fly, what to buy
Items will get bought and eventually have 0 stock. Once at 0 it will restock in half the time it took to deplete.
So if an item restocked to 2500 at 1am, reached 0 stock at 3am (2 hours), it will get restocked to 2500 again at 4am (1 hour since depletion).
Items only restock on a quarter hour. If there is no good stock when you arrive, wait until the next quarter hour and refresh. If you stay too long you will get mugged.
The easiest way to fly after you completed everything in the previous topic is:
Fly to the UK and buy Red Fox Plushie, Nessie Plushie, or Heather.
This trip takes about 3h45m and with max capacity earns you a net $1.3m per trip.
The reason this is the easiest option is because there are 3 items that all yield a high profit. Most locations only have 1 and if it's out of stock when you get there all you can do is wait.
Bring enough money to buy the item that costs the most, in case that is the only one available. In this case Heather costs $5000 to buy so bring $200k.
It is good to bring a bit more than you need in case you get mugged and lose 10%.

If you want to get nerdy about it use these links:
https://doctorn.rocks/travel-hub/ This shows what the current stock is for each item. Take note of how long ago it was updated. If it was 20 minutes ago the numbers can't be trusted.
https://arsonwarehouse.com/foreign-stock alternative to the link above if it's not working.
https://eski786.pythonanywhere.com/flyguide This shows what the current profit is for each item. It assumes you sell to a trader, so the profit will be bigger if you sell from your own bazaar.
If you don't have a bazaar do not sell on item market, in that case it's better to sell to a trader.
If you want to get super nerdy about it collect data for 18 hours and make a spreadsheet to estimate at what stock levels you should fly for different items. 

Energy and nerve
Your energy bar fills up from 0 to full in 5 hours.
Energy is the most precious resource in this game.
Any flight that takes a total of more than 5 hours will waste energy and should be avoided even if the highest profit item is in those locations.
Same thing goes for your nerve bar. Nerve regenerates at 12 per hour, so before you have 45 max nerve you will waste nerve on your trips to the UK. Some people are really into crime and do not want to waste nerve, while others don't see the point of crime so they don't care.
Either way it is arguably not as important as not wasting energy. Decide how you want to play.

Getting mugged overseas
Some people think a good way to not waste energy is to mug people overseas, since that uses energy. So the longer you stay in a location the more likely it is that you will get mugged. Bring 10% cash more than you need, and limit your time spent overseas.
You cannot use medical items overseas, so you have to wait the entire hospital time.
(Caveat: you can ask for a revive overseas which usually costs $1m and is paid with the honor system)

Merits
There are 22 merits to get from flying. 8 of them you will get without any focus, just keep flying.
The others require you to fly 50 times to each locations. When stacking energy for chains you can travel to places further than 5 hours away without wasting energy. You will still waste nerve.

Notes
ROI means Return On Investment. The time an investment takes to earn back its own cost. In the case of Large Suitcase it is not how long it takes to earn $10m, it is how long it takes those extra 4 slots to earn $10m.

The profit numbers in this post are very pessimistic, at around $10k per hour per carry slot. Actual profits will be up to 30% bigger depending on market and how you choose to sell your stuff.

The highest profit item to buy is actually Xanax from South Africa. It's around 20-25% more profitable than the best plushie but has 2 downsides.
It costs $745k each, so you need up to $20m in your pocket to fill your capacity. Carrying that much money is always a risk.
South Africa is a 7 hour trip so it wastes tons of energy. I'd only consider this trip when stacking energy, and even then you can waste drug cd since Xanax can go as low as 6h.

This has been one of the better posts I've found regarding this, and I don't think I could do better

https://www.torn.com/forums.php#/p=threads&f=61&t=16153607&b=0&a=0&start=0&to=20188665

Preferred Car by Tier

E Class - Volvo 850
D Class - Toyota MR-2
C Class - Corvette Z06
B Class - Sierra Cosworth (Mustang if you're cheap)
A Class - Ferrarri 458

Upgrades

The only upgrades you're going to want are going to be those that increase multiple stats at once.

First: Aerodynamics
Second: Engine
Third: Tires
Fourth: Exhaust and Weight Reduction

Again you're only going to want to spend points on those increasing multiple stats. You're also not going to want to spend all of your points in each class. At the time I'm writing this I'm at 4.58 skill and have 226 points saved up (after two crashes with my Sierra Cosworth).

The only way to gain points are from placing first, second or third in an official race. However you can just custom races overnight that offer 100 laps and gain driving skill this way. It's also worth noting that the "races won" metric is only for placing first.

Company Perks

(Mechanic Shop)
1 star Machinist + Racing point (5 job points)
3 star Discount Parts - 25% discount on car parts (Passive)
5 star Junkyard Dog + Random car (5 job points)
7 star Refurbish Lose no car parts after crashing (Passive)
10 star Driver + 25% driving skill gain (Passive)

(Car Dealership)
1 star Test Drive + Racing point (5 job points)
3 star Discount parts - 25% discount on car parts (Passive)
5 star Salesman No item market fees (Passive)
7 star Two-Faced + 25% fraud success rate and skill gain (Passive)
10 star Getaway car + 95% run away chance (Passive)

(Gas Station)
1 star Machinist + Racing point (5 job points)
3 star Discount Parts - 25% discount on car parts (Passive)
5 star Arsonist + 25% vandalism success rate and skill gain (Passive)
7 star Molotov Cocktail + Molotov Cocktail (5 job points)
10 star Blaze of Glory + 100% molotov cocktail damage (Passive)

 Despite my previous statement, you can also join companies for points, if you really want to.

• LSC Benefit Block - Lucky Slots Casino will take about 51 weeks to pay for itself by giving you lottery vouchers.
• FHG Benefit Block - Feathery Hotel Group will take about 56 weeks to pay for itself by giving you hotel coupons.
• SYM Benefit Block - Symbiotic will take about 58-59 weeks to pay for itself by giving you drug packs.

At this point you'll want to focus on getting your bank filled up; 2 billion buckarinos. You should be investing in a bank anyways at this point, in which profits can be cycled inside of it. If you can get cheap stocks, purchase one of the three above until you finish your benefit block, do not purchase any below this point.

• TCHS Benefit Block - Torn City Health Services will take about 115 weeks to pay itself off by giving you medical boxes.
• PRN Benefit Block - Performance Ribaldry Network will take about 121 weeks to pay itself off by giving you Erotic DVDs.
• HRG Benefit Block - Home Retail Group will take a while to pay itself off, no hard math, by giving you random properties.

At this point you should consider investing in owning a Private Island. You can either do this here, or before the HRG benefit block. It's all personal preference.

Cash Dividend Stocks with 20% APR; they yield pure cash on average 4 times a year. Pretty infrequent:

• TSBC - Torn City and Shanghai Banking Corporation
• TMI - TC Music Industries
• IOU - Insured On Us
• GRN - Grain
• TCC - Torn City Clothing

From here we get really bleak outlooks on paying investments off.

• TCB Benefit Block - Torn City Investment Banking increases interest rate by 10% and will take about 265 weeks to pay for itself.

That's 5 years to get a return on your investment. That's about on-par with the cash dividends listed immediately above it. From here, you can invest in Private Islands to rent out. That will take about 5 years and 6 months to pay for itself.

• EWM Benefit Block - Eaglewood Mercenary will take about 516 weeks to pay itself off by giving you grenade boxes.
• SLAG Benefit Block - Society and Legal Authorities Group will take about 1000-1600 weeks to pay itself off by giving you lawyer business cards.

CE affects your chance of success on any particular crime. The higher your CE, the better chance you have of performing a crime. You have to have a certain CE before some crimes will be able to be successful. If you attempt a crime that is too hard for your particular level of CE, you'll either fail it (blue result) or get jailed (red result). Improve this success rate by merits, and by the faction upgrade tree 'Criminality'. Also, each crime has a crime enhancer item you can buy to improve the chance of success slightly (2%). There are 17 crime enhancer items in total, as there are 17 types of crimes. If you can afford it, is to get the enhancer for any crime you are performing as early as possible. Since you do thousands of crimes, 2% will add a LOT of successes you wouldn't normally get.

There's more than one way to progress your NNB safely, the one I've found the most successful is as follows:

New Player (10NNB)

Search for Cash -> Train Station, Old Bridge

Do this about 30 times.

15NNB to 20NNB

Sell Copied Media -> Rock CD's
(3 Nerve)

Do this about .. 150-200 times.

Shoplift -> Clothes Shop -> Jacket
(4 Nerve)

Do this for a while.

20NNB

Shoplift -> Clothes Shop -> Jacket
(4 Nerve)

You're going to be doing this some more.

25NNB

Armed Robberies -> Thorough Robbery
(7 Nerve)

At this point you should be working on unlocking your intro to GenEd course and the Driver's course. You're also going to want to pick up a Gas Can.

25NNB

Arson -> Warehouse
(11 Nerve)

Once you get your Driver's course and gas can, you're going to want to do this. You'll probably get some failures off of it, but the good news is.. you don't get jailed for it. You only get hosped. You're going to do this until you hit at least your 10,000 arson merit, however once you hit 40NNB you have some options.

40NNB

Option 1) Arson > Warehouse (recommended until at least 10k merit) 	
Option 2) Kidnapping > Kidnap the mayor (keep $75,000 on hand per crime)	
Option 3) Assassination > Mob Boss	

This should take you up to 60NNB. Kidnapping the mayor offers the best CE up until 55NNB. There is another route you can take; it will yield more merits, but take you much longer to hit 60NNB, because you'll likely spend some time in jail.

30NNB (Alternate, Slower, Unsafe)

Transport Drugs -> Transport Cocaine

Do this until 10,000 crimes done. After you hit your 10k merit, and hit 40NNB, you can proceed to the above route.

Crime-Related Companies

Pub - best option for CE/crime merits, at least until 60 NNB	
Amusement park if +10% CE perk is active	
Law Firm - For busting and OC's	

Crime-Related Player Bonuses

Job: Federal Judge +10% Crime Success
Education: Psychology Bachelor +10% Crime Success Rate
Education: Bachelor of Law & LAW2970 + 65% Busting Skill
Merits: +10 Nerve (Max)
Merits: +30% Crime Success (Max)

Nerve Boosters

Tier 1	Beer +1
Tier 2	Kandy Kane & Pumpkin Brew +2
Tier 3	Minty Mayhem & Wicket Witch +3
Tier 4	Misletoe Madness & Stinky Swamp Punch +4
Tier 5	Green Stout & Christmas Spirit +5

Suggested Pipeline:

Sports Science

The reason for going Sports Science first is the overall gains for gym training and battle stats (2% across the board, for both increased gains and effective stats).

SPT2440	Strength and Conditioning - Gain a 1% bonus to strength gains in the gym	
SPT2450	Physiological Testing - Gain a 1% bonus to speed gains in the gym	
SPT2460	Human Movement Analysis - Gain a 1% bonus to defense gains in the gym	
SPT2470	Bio Mechanical Determinants of Skill - Gain a 1% bonus to dexterity gains in the gym	
SPT3510 Bachelor of Sports Science - Gain a further 1% boost in all gym gains	
SPT2490	Nutritional Science - Gain a 2% passive bonus to speed and strength	
SPT2500	Analysis and Performance - Gain a 2% passive bonus to defense and dexterity	

After you finish your Sports Medicine, you can take Intro to Biology followed by Intravenous Therapy. This lets you take an empty blood bag and fill it. You can then finish it up with Intermediate Biochemistry and Advanced Biochemistry which increase effectiveness of medical items.

BIO2360	Intermediate Biochemistry - Gain a bonus of 10% to medical item effectiveness
BIO2370	Advanced Biochemistry - Gain a further 10% bonus to medical item effectiveness
BIO2127	Intravenous Therapy - Ability to withdraw and deliver blood

Second suggested pipeline: General Studies

This pipeline is also okay to start with. Job stats are some of the hardest things to obtain in Torn, and a bachelor in GenEd will increase the working stats you gain from course complete by 10%. It's a marginal boost, but it's better than nothing.

GEN3121	Bachelor of General Studies - Gain a 10% working stat increase bonus for all further educations that are completed

Ways to Reduce Education Length

Benefit Block

West Side South Bank University		You are entitled to receive a 10% time reduction for all newly started courses when holding at least 1,000,000 shares (-Market Price-).

Job

Highest Education job possible from the city (Principal)				Gain 10% passive decrease in completion time for all future education courses (Passive)

Merits

10/10 Merits in education reduce time by 20%

This benefit block is the only way to reduce the length of time for education that is easily obtainable; If you were ever curious on what to spend your first 100 million space bucks on it would be this bad boy right here.

After these are done, you have some general freedom in the direction you want to take, though there are definitely courses you can take to improve in certain areas. A lot of courses offer passive bonuses to battle stats, others offer bonuses to attacking or defending.