If you're doing the bare minimum to stay in the game and not be marked idle, you need to log in and run at least one mission every week (10-60 seconds, depending on connection speed , etc.), but there aren't a lot of villages would take that from a non-genin.
Having genin in your village lowers the upkeep, which means more money and lower taxes. So, n00bs are always nice to have, so long as they don't go idle, and villages are rewarded for taking care of them, so long as they keep playing.
However, you're probably going to do more that that. Who wants to play a game for 60 seconds a week? There's a lot more that you can do when you have the time for it.
-<< Long explanation / Is OK to skip to #5>>-Here's a quick list, in rough order of importance:
1: Every day you can select one "
chore" to do for your village, which is one of the two important ways low rank ninjas help out their village. Genin and Chunin (rank 2 ninjas) are actually better at collecting resources than the more powerful Jonin and Sannin warriors. Take 5 seconds
2: Running additional
Missions earns you XP(skill points), AP(level-up points) and Ryo (money), but more importantly, a percentage of your ryo is given to the village as a tax. Villages need ryo to build and upgrade the various facilities that make it's ninja stronger.
Each day, there is a maximum number of missions you can run, denoted by your stamina score. This starts out pretty small, but a good village, most items, and a number of other things will raise this number. Burning up all your stamina can take a while once you have a lot, but you can unlock "Mega-Missions" that consume X10 Stamina, but provide X11 Rewards.
Running missions is the biggest "time sink," and you'll want to get a lot of it in, just to get the rewards. Every time you complete a given mission, you have an increased chance of getting a special "item drop" or "event." Events usually just give a small boost to stamina, XP, or Ryo, but drops can include sidekicks and items that you need to do certain quests.
3: The place that hurts the most when you have a tight schedule is
Quests. A certain major quest, "Goth Talk," requires you to click a button, and then come back in exactly 24 hours to click the same button. The penalty for failure is slight, but you have to plan ahead to pull this off, and it can be a hassle. It's just irritating to only be able to have one quest at a time, so you can't do any other quests for two days, even if you miss the timing, and have to start over.
Quests are probably the most fun part of the game, as they get weirder, harder, and more interesting as you advance through the game. These produce the best items and allies, if you have the right allies and items to unlock them. They are also where most of the plot and humor takes place.
The most important quests are
Ranking Exams (which take you to the next rank, giving you many small bonuses, but increased responsibility for your self and your village), and the all-important
Into the Loop. Into the Loop, resets your character back to
Level 1 Genin status, but you retain many of the items you got in your previous career, which are where most of a ninjas power comes from.
More importantly, you gain a
Season number, that goes up every time you loop. Many quests and areas are
Season Locked, meaning you can't do them until you reach a certain season, and your Season is a stat in it's own right, that you can use for certain things. Season is a much better indicator of a ninja's experience than his actual level or rank. After all, it's nice to be a Genin, sometimes.
4:
Village menu actions. This is a lot of different things that I'm goign to lump together for brevity. In addition to chores, there are a lot of other things you can do once a day, from the village menu. Do most of them as often as you can, as the rewards are usually worth it.
The
Party House (with a certain amount of bonus money that can only be spent there given each day),
Ramen Shop, and
Resource Forest, are great things to hit.
Things like the
Field Menu, and
Kaiju (city eating monsters), should probably be ignored, until you reach Season 3 or Sannin rank.
WorldKai (planet eating monsters), and Phases (monsters from cyber-space) are generally considered high season content, so feel free to ignore them completely.
The
Robo-Fighto, I could take or leave, as it doesn't give anything you really need, it can be very frustrating, and it
delights in wasting your time. It's still a fun way to waste time, but it isn't really an issue if you don't bother.
5:
Bonus Actions are the way the game rewards you for logging in at least once a day, and also how the webmaster proves his page-views to his advertisers. They are, honestly, very minor rewards, but popping in for a few minutes, to keep your streak bonus going, isn't that hard if you like playing the game anyway.
Once per day, one person from each IP address can answer a simple question about one of the ads for a small bonus. If you have siblings or roommates who play, it can be a race to be the first person to log in on a given day, and claim the bonus question. There are only like 10 questions, so once you learn all the answers, this goes a lot faster. Examples:4, 6, 9, 45, brutal, "assingnment", partnership, mother, broom)[/color] However, I'm pretty sure this is part of a plot to get you to remember looking at an ad, so whatever.
Every 7, 14 or 21 day streak awards you a small bonus, based on that number. At 21, your streak resets to zero.
This is the deal with "feeding your ninja."[/b]
I hope this helps in some way, but really, you should
just try the game. We totally understand if you don't like it, and don't want to stick around. (--but we will kick you out of the village if you become an "idle ninja" for too long)