This is the Part 1 of Ultimate Guide for Beginners that mentioning Basic Information, Securing Your Money, Faction Privileges and friends-enemies dynamics.

Firstly, I want to say two things;
This is something I heard from someone in Aquarius and it made sense: Torn is not a race, it's a marathon. I think they are right. Also, as this is a game, I think it should be played to be enjoyed. Second thing is I suggest downloading TornTools. I was very skeptical at first to download a extension for a text-based game but its incredibly helpful and convenient. I hope this guide will be convenient and helpful to you too. Without more chit-chat, lets begin.

Basic Information

At top left side, you can see Information panel. From top to bottom; Icons | Your Name, Money, Level, Points, Merits | Energy, Nerve, Happy, Life, Faction Chain | Mail, Events, Awards | Shortcuts | Contact Lists are listed.
🛑 Icons help you keep track of things but also some of them are shortcuts you can click on them.
💲 The amount of money you see in top left corner is the amount of “cash" you are carrying. You can make purchases with this money but it can also be stolen/mugged by other players. If you have a large amount of money (more than 250k), you need to secure it immediately. I will explain ways of securing it in the next sections of this guide.
🔼 By leveling up, you unlock new areas and your maximum health increases. I suggest you to keep unlocking your level until you reach level 15 and start holding your level. I will be mentioning when not to level hold in part 2.
📌 Points are a type of currency. You can buy energy and nerve refills once per day or use to unlock bazaar and stock market permanently. 💡 Merits are like skills in other games, they can be used to better a particular skill of your character. As a new player it is recommended to spend your merits first and fully on Education Length reduction.
💪 Energy is one of the most important resource in the game. With it, you can attack people or train your battle stats. The only way to increase your natural energy limit is by being a donator or subscriber. This increases the limit from 100 to 150. You can spend 4.85 to 5 dollars per month to become a Subscriber. Or you can buy donator pack by using real life or in-game money to get Donator status.

If you are under level 15, you should not attack people for money!! You should either use all your energy to beat people with a higher level than yours who you can beat, or you should gym training. If you need support, ask in faction chat. This is an important topic and we are happy to help you.

With nerve, basically you commit various crimes. You can replenish it by consuming alcoholic beverages.
The more amounts of Happy you have the more stats that you gain from training in the gym. You can increase the maximum Happy limit by moving into a better property. Generally, you are expected to rent a PI (Private Island). Airstrip upgrade is a must on PI because it will be useful on traveling/money earning later on.
Your max limit life points increases if each time you level up. You can replenish it by using medical items from Faction Armory. Its slowly regenerates 5% of your total life every 5 minutes, so in 100 minutes you return back to full health. Chain Bar is more of a faction event so I will mention it more detailed at Part 2.

Securing Your Money

Are you carrying more than $250,000? Bad idea. It may get mugged/stolen by another player. Even worse: if that player once smelled your "delicious blood" (meaning they mugged you for a high amount of money), they may keep coming back for more.

So how do you keep your money safe? Easy: store it in Faction Balance or in Stocks. Stocks: You can access the stock market by buying a stock ticker from the Points Building for 50 points (roughly $1.5m). It's pricey, but it's worth it since you control your money directly without needing anyone else for withdrawals. Plus, stocks are pretty rad. Faction Balance: The free option. Safer than carrying cash, but if you want to withdraw, you'll need to use Discord bots to request it.

No matter what, I suggest you not to keep more than 50k cash on you. You may need tools or materials but usually, you don't pay more than 50k for these anyway.

Faction Armory

Its a public space for resources, to be used for all. If you are on Recruit status, you can ask in faction chat to someone send you armors and weapons from armory. After reaching member status, you can pick any gun avaliable and use Temporary, Medical and Booster items.
You also get +40 maximum nerve, 15% boost to gym gains (specific to monthly schedule), 10 more item space in travels, 10%exp gain in crimes, +24 hours maximum booster cooldown… Stuff like that, you can check one by one in Faction > Faction Upgrades.

Education

Important part of the game but also takes time to progress. Me and many more suggests that you should follow this pattern: Biology: Introduction to Biochemistry > Intravenous Therapy
This unlocks you be able to fill empty blood bags, use blood bag your type of blood or use wrong one to hosp (hospitilize) yourself. This is pretty much a vital to get.
After you get Intra Theraphy, you might wanna go all on Sports Sciences. It increases percentage of battle stats gains from your gym trainings. At first its small but later on its snowballs.
You are free to choose your educations. For example, after I completed Intra Therapy, I got all 1% bonuses from Sports Science that increases stats then got other a few edus completed. Currently I am done with my goals and trying to rush Sports Sciences.

Merits

First thing first, Education Reduction: Takes weeks to get important courses and years to complete all educations so its important to get this one early. Go all in on it, 10/10 lol
Second thing I am gonna suggest is controversial. Many people suggests going all in or 7/10 on Bank Interest but I suggest going 5/10 on Crime progression if you are into crimes and OCs, or if you into fighting go 5/10 on Life Point or Critical Hitrates. I say this because I dont see much reason to invest in banks unless you have less than, like, 50 million or more. You need to pay for PI rent, materials and tools for crimes and Donator Packs if you are not a Subscriber.
Life Points if you wanna survive fights. I suggest going for Critical Hits to increase chances of keeping fights shorter. After some time of consideration, I think life points better choice no matter what than critical hits. If you are not gonna do crazy things like going all in on strenght and speed, becoming a total glass canon (which is not a healthy things, trust me XD) then crits not as good as health points. If you wanna become full glass cannon and not regret it, then go full damage, it might be funny for us to see :D

Friends, Enemies and Targets lists

You can use these to track people or like a bookmark but BE AWARE! People can find out who put you in enemy and friend list by using Detective Agency special. If you put some high level douchebag you had a fight with in your enemy list and he notices, he may create more problems for you… Put them on targets list :)
When you are getting married, you can only invite people from friend list to attend your marriage so make sure you put closest friends on that list (including me ;D )
You can increase limit of those lists with points but I would suggest you write name or IDs or use tools/websites rather than wasting your money.