What is there to DO in this game?!?!

eRepublik is not a game of instant gratification!

As 99% of all games revolve around the idea of a “quick fix”, this gets overlooked. Clicking train and seeing your Strength rise from 4.04 to 4.08 is not the same as getting a head shot in a first person shooter! On the other hand, seeing the results of hard work and planning pay off a month down the road can be very rewarding. Or devastating! Recently the eUS planned and waited a month for an attack on eRussia only to have the plans leaked at the last minute!

Knowing this means understanding that the game is also a test of patience. This is a real challenge! Its easy to get antsy in this game, but try your best to enjoy the journey of it. If you look at many of the successful players, they have been playing seriously for many months. Don't expect a quick rise to power, especially if your only playing for 30 min a day.

Whatever you wish to accomplish is largely based upon the quality and quantity of your personal network.

The game is billed as a SOCIAL strategy game. Making friends and building a network is built into the mechanics of the game. There are different ways to do this and for this article I'm going to focus on joining a pre-existing network.

The fastest way to access a network is to join a party which is organized. But don't assume that just by joining a party your game experience will be magically transformed. You still need to get involved with them. Get to know the members. Volunteer your time. Make yourself known! It's OK not to know as much as other people, so never be afraid to ask questions. I've found that before I ask a question though, I try first to find the answer in the forums. This makes me read more, and most of the time I can find the answer myself.

Some short term goals when you join a party:

-Find out who is in charge of helping new members.

- Pick a time slot that you can dedicate to volunteer work for your party and make it known. Be sure to follow through once picked. Everyone likes consistency!

- Realize that one way or another, before you gain influence in the game, you will be paying some form of dues. This usually entails grunt work for the party. People will notice and appreciate this! A lot of volunteer work revolves around the elections, so keep that in mind. Again, forming relationships takes time. Be patient with people and don't think you are entitled to anything.

- Always stay positive in your conversations.

- Learn who the leaders in the party are and what their jobs are. Keep your eyes open for a position that appeals to you. Then you can have something to aspire to.

- Join and be active in your party's irc chat. The chat is mostly filled with ass and penis jokes, but there is its fair share of game talk too. Don't go overboard on dirty humor to impress people. When you get in the chat, do more listening than talking. If you have a question, you can private chat someone.

- Make a spreadsheet of people you have good conversations with! Try to add to that list as much as possible. Remember, the main goal is to grow your network, so keep track of it!

I hope these tips help! I realize a lot of you read the above suggestions and said, “Man, I ain't no follower to no party!”. Thats OK, the party system isn't for everyone.

How do I get a job?
Go to the "market" tab on the main menu at the top of your screen and a scroll-down menu should appear. Click on "job market" (formerly human resources) and you should then be presented with a blank screen with several symbols at the top. Don't click on the flag for now. Where you see "all" click and select whatever skill level of job you want (your skill levels will be to the right of those menues, next to your character avatar). It doesn't matter which industry you get a job in at first, they all pay equally bad at the beginning - but when you start to level up is when you should consider moving your employment around, and by then you should understand more about the game simply by playing it.

Why did I apply for a job and I'm not getting paid the amount that it said I would?
Just like in the real life, the US government loves to tax you. In the eUSA, we have the highest income tax rates in the world (20%), so don't expect to be hauling in loads of money anytime soon, most likely the government will take it all.

What's the point of owning an organization?
Well, there's a lot of advantages to owning an organization. Most experienced players use them to own mulitple companies to make mucho money. If you have an organization to own the companies for you, you can then work for the companies you own (neat, huh?). Also, you can set up an organization in a country other than the eUSA to buy items cheaper than they would be here in the eUSA. By donating your paycheck to your organization and having them buy foreign food for you and then donating that food to yourself, you can easily get items cheaper than they would be here in the US.

Someone recruited me to join the National Guard, should I join?
Yes!
The National Guard is one of the most important branches of our military because it serves to train and educate new players much like this FAQ. However, the National Guard differs in that it has a formal education program and also a "gifting program" for you to gain wellness. Contact your National Guard commander today to learn more!

What's a gifting program?
When you go to the marketplace, you'll see all assortments of items for consumer purchase. One of these items is gift. You cannot use gifts to improve your wellness. However, you can gift someone else and improve their wellness. Why would you do this when you can just buy food? The answer is simple.
You can only eat once per day, but you can give gifts mulitple times per day for increased wellness. If you can find a buddy (through your friends or through a government program) you can get your wellness up to really high levels and work and fight more efficiently!

What are the Marines and can I join?
Most likely if you require the aid of this FAQ, you cannot join. Hell, even I can't join the marines and I've been playing for three months! The Marine Corps is made up of players who have a strength of 8 or greater and who also have a rank of Lieutenant or greater. They are deployed overseas to help our allies in wars and are the cream of the crop of our military.

What's a "tank"?
A tank is basically the love child of a marine on steroids and crystal meth. They have an extremely high strength and a more often than not generals or field marshals. The reason they're called "tanks" is because they can do several hundred points of damage in a single fight if they have good weapons.

How do you know all of this?
Well, experience and paying attention to the newspapers (the good ones) in the game, but also by looking at off-site material.

Are there any good tools for me to use to learn more about the game?
Of course there are!
There:
eGobba - a map of the world updating in real time showing different statistics
eRepublik.ws - a bunch of tools and calculators made to make your life easier
And the eRep Forums and eRep Wiki that offer great tips and knowledge for new players and experienced players alike.

How do I heal?
First of all, I have to mention in this FAQ that certain regions and have hospitals and certain regions do not. Furthermore, only New Jersey and Florida and Q5 (Quality 5) hospitals that are the best to use.

You can only use a hospital after you've fought at least once during a battle. As soon as you decide to stop fighting, click "go back to battlefield" on the battle menu and in between the damage reports for the opposing sides should be the word "Hospital". Click on that word and click the "heal" button and you should gain wellness from the hospital.

DO NOT FIGHT AFTER USING A HOSPITAL! You can only heal once per day, so don't exhaust yourself too early or you won't be able to fight if the battle rages on for another day.

How do I eat?
All you have to do is have food in your inventory and then your citizen will automatically eat food every day. You can only eat once a day, though.

What's the difference between experience and skill?
Your experience level is largely based on how active you are in the game (work, fight, train, vote, etc.) and the higher it is, the more game features you can unlock. Your skill levels relates to how many days have you worked in a particular industry. The higher your skill level, the more you produce when you work and the higher your pay.

I have a newspaper and I want to display a non JPEG file, how do I do it?
It's easy, just write img before your URL and /img after it. Don't forget to wrap the img text in brackets, though.

How do resistance wars start?
Resistance wars can only be started when a region is not occupied by its original owner (e.g. if Vermont was controlled by Canada). Then, anyone living in the occupied region can start a resistance war if they have enough gold. The battle then ensues and works like any other battle - if the resistance wins, the region is given back to the original owner, if the defenders win, the occupying powers continue to hold the region.

How do I know if my employer has enough money to pay me?
There's no sure-fire way to tell whether or not your employer has the cash to pay you, but there are some good indicators:
If other employees in the company have worked recently, that means they've gotten paid.
If the company has a lot of products on the market consistently, there stands a good chance you'll get paid.
If the company is for sale usually the manager is in an unprofitable business or doesn't have the cash to pay you - find a new job at this point.

Is there a way to tell if I've healed at the hospital already in one day?
Yes, there is. When you fight, click "go back to battlefield" and look in between the attacking and defending side's stats. If the game recommends that you go visit a hospital, then you haven't healed. If it has, then you have healed.

Can I carry over my skill level to another industry?
No, you cannot. If you have a skill level of 4 in the construction industry and you want to go into manufacturing, you'll have to get a skill 0 manufacturing job. This applies for all the industries.

How do I get gold?
There are three ways of getting gold in this game: buying it with real life money, leveling up, and getting achievements. Buying it with real life money is self-explanatory and you'll need a credit card or PayPal account to do so. Gold is awarded to you automatically when you reach experience level 6 and at levels 16+. Also, each time you earn an achievement (hard worker, super soldier, etc.) you get a 5 gold bonus to your citizen.

I can't buy anything with my gold, it's useless!
No it's not. When you have gold, go to the "market" tab in your menu and click "monetary market". You'll then see the monetary exchange of the game. Go to the upper left corner where it says "buy" and click on the American flag. You can then exchange your gold for dollars. You just need to pay attention to how many dollars the person is selling and what the exchange rate is.

Do I need a new email address every time I create a new organization?
Yes, you do. You need one email address for your citizen and a completely new email address for each of your organizations.

How do I vote?
First, you need to be experience level 6. Next, you can only vote on the 5th, 15th, and 25th of each month - this is when presidential, party president, and congressional elections are held, respectively. On these dates, go to the "community" tab on the menu and click "elections" and then vote for your favored candidate.

Why should I vote?
Aside from patriotism and the fact that votes in eRepublik matter exponentially more than they do in real life (many presidential elections have been decided by just one vote) - you also get two XP points from voting. That's the equivalent of one fight people!

Why should I join a party?
You can vote regardless of what party you belong to, even if you don't belong to a party - however, if you have aspirations to become a president, congress(wo)man, or party leader, then you need to join a party.

How do I run for congress?
First of all, you need to either belong to the top five political parties in the nation: the USWP , the UIP , the CvP , the AAP , or the Libs or you must be endorsed by them. You also need to be at least experience level 12 to run for congress.

I placed my candidacy for congress and I'm not on the ballot! What's wrong?
Nothing. You're either not in the top five parties or the party president picked another candidate over you.

What do you mean "picked another candidate"?
When two people are running for the same congress seat, it falls to the party president to decide who will be on the ballot and who is not. If they don't pick you, you're not on the ballot - if you're in the top five parties and you're the only one from your party to run for a particular state, then you're automatically on the ballot.

How are election ties resolved?
The candidate with the most experience points is elected if there is a tie.

Can I run for party president?
Yes you can, so long as you're experience level 13 and have two gold. The party president position is the only elected office you need to pay to enter - a two gold fee to submit your candidacy. Unlike other elections, party president elections are only limited to specific parties, so you don't need to be in the top five parties to be in this election.

Can I run for President?
Depends. Are you experience level 14? Are you in the top five parties or received their endorsement? Do other people want you as president? The last one is crucial, since the presidential candidate position is the only position you can't apply for, the party president must nominate you.

I'm in congress! Now what?
Assloads of work, that's what. Be prepared to virtually live in the House of Representin' and sell your soul to the President and Speaker of the House. Don't run for congress if you aren't prepared for the job, but if you can handle the work and responsibility and want to be a part of the eRepublik political process, by all means announce your candidacy and start campaigning, you never know where your eRep political career will take you.

How do I start a business?
First you need to decide if you want to start the business with your citizen or an organization. If you want your citizen to control the business, then you need to be at least experience level 9. For an organization, you must be experience level 11 to start an organization and have five gold. To start a business, you must have at least twenty gold in your citizen/org account and go to the "my places" tab in the menu, select "company" and then select "create new". You then start filling in the fields indicated such as company name and logo and presto! You now own a company.

What are export licenses?
Export licenses are exactly what they are named for - once purchased for a one-time fee of 20 gold, you can then begin exporting your company's product to whichever country you purchased the license for. You do not need to purchase a license for the country you start your business in.

What's the importance of high resource regions?
These regions are basically the only plausible way you can have a profit from a raw materials (RM) company. A high iron region will increase your iron production, a high grain region will increase your grain production, etc. RM companies not in high resource regions face severe production penalties and will find it difficult or impossible to compete with other RM companies in high resource regions on the market.

What is VAT?
VAT stands for "Value Added Tax" - a.k.a. sales taxes. No VAT can be imposed on raw materials, however it can be imposed on anything else in the game. The percent value of VAT will be added onto your purchase and increase the consumer price for the product in question.

What determines my productivity?
There are several factors which determine your productivity at work:
-Your wellness (health)
-Your skill level
-The number of employees at your job
-In raw materials companies; the resource value of the region

What determines my battle damage?
There are several factors which determine the damage you do in battle:
-Your wellness (health)
-Your strength level
-The quality of the weapon you have (-50% damage if none)
-Your military rank (private, corporal, etc.)

What is a "wall"?
A "wall" is a term used by military officials to describe the damage a particular region can take before falling to the enemy. A region's wall strength is higher based on population and defense system quality and is raised by defenders fighting against attackers. If the wall has not reached zero by the end of the battle, the defenders win. If the wall reaches zero by the end of the battle and the defenders cannot restore the wall to previous strength levels, the attackers win.

What positions are available in government?
Aside from the presidency and the members of congress, there's the president's cabinet and ambassadorships to any and all eRepublik nations. There are also several opportunities available for advancement in the eUSA military.

What are forfeit points?
Forfeit points are used by the admins to gauge a player's level of douchbaggery. Basically, the more forfeit points you have, the more of a douchebag (read: cheater/troll/hacker/scammer) you are because you've been breaking the rules. If you have no forfeit points, keep doing what you've been doing.

Why are "lulz proposals" proposed?
The public always gets in an uproar when "lulz' proposals are proposed because they treat them as serious proposals. However, around the time party presidents have to pick their next congressional candidates (the 16th of each month), there is very little official business left to do in congress. So in order to maximize the experience gained in congress (members of congress get experience points by introducing and voting on legislation), many unused proposals are used up so that senators can grab that extra bit of experience before their term ends.