There seems to be a lot of confustion here :3 merits are really simple once to see the pattern;
if in 1 week you gain 10k merits - they are valid for four weeks, It's value being halfed each time for example, week 2 you will carry over 5k merits, week 3 2.5k and finally in week 4 1250 before being worthless in week 5.
so,
week 1 - 10k
week 2 - 5k + whatever you earn that week
week 3 - 2.5k + half of last weeks earnings + current weeks earnings
week 4 1250 + half of the halfed value from last week + half of last weeks earnings + current weeks earnings
Confusing yes but once you see the pattern you'll find it easy to work with, I currently maintain rank 5 by getting 5332/5334 (depends on the week) merits - highly achievable as 1k a day from undermining is easy ^^ 30 merits per kill in certain places (NPC) and most of the time they are transport ships
For those with steam visit the ED community page's guides' to see a table of how many merits you need to get and maintain rank 5 ^^ the table I posted there is the one I use and I have maintained rank 5 for 7 weeks
probally around 7 hours worth of gametime ^^ how you get your merits is up to you ofc how long it takes will differ in the way you get them than how others do :3
Hope this helps
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/ ... =507473152You don't need an account to view it.