Mafia Wars

Mafia Wars is one of the most popular social games on Facebook right now with millions of people playing daily.  But the game itself is actually broken down into several different objectives that you will want to master.  First there is a level system that you have to go through in the game.  This system rewards you (and everyone else) with money, loot, collectible items, and more as you complete jobs and go through each area.  Second, there is an economic part to the game that will also reward you for any good choices that you make as you play, helping you convert your earnings into passive income so that you can afford all of the other things that you need in the game.  And then there is the social aspect of Mafia Wars that helps you in so many different ways, such as collectible items, quests, money, and so on.  We'll get into all of these different aspects later on in this guide and get more in depth with each one, don't worry.  For now, we just wanted to acquaint you with the different components of the game.  Overall, Mafia Wars is extremely fun, extremely addictive, and you can actually get pretty far in the game with minimal time spent daily.

How It Works

The one main thing that you should always keep in mind is that Mafia Wars is a social game.  No, you can't visit people like in FarmVille, but you do need your neighbors to really get ahead in the game.  Mafia Wars has three main parts to it that you'll want to truly master to get ahead in the game:

1. Social aspect: You'll want to build up your friends and mafia list so that you can get free gifts, special items, and even bonus help on some quests.
2. Quest aspect: Just like any good RPG game, you have a long line of quests that you'll need to undertake to level your character quickly.
3. Money aspect: You will have to learn how to use the different properties in the game to make you a ton of money, and you'll have to learn how to manage it so that you can always afford anything you might need in the game.

Once you master these three areas of the game, leveling will be a snap.  Of course, without having a good strategy down, you can easily get overwhelmed and get lost.  If this happens, you can get frustrated with the game way too easy and most people end up giving up because they feel that they just don't have the time that it will take to truly play the game.  But this couldn't be further from the truth.  It actually doesn't take long at all to play the game, even if you cannot play every day.  As long as you have a strategy in place and as long as you follow it, you can easily level up just as fast as those players that are taking hours a day to play Mafia Wars.

While we listed the three main areas of Mafia Wars that you will need to master, we will go through all of them more in depth throughout this guide so that you can come up with a strategy that will not only fit your gaming style but will help you to level easier than you ever thought possible.  Before we get too ahead of ourselves, let's begin with how you get started in Mafia Wars and what are the best ways to choose your character and learn the interface of the game.

Getting Started

When you log in to Mafia Wars, the first thing that you will do is create a character.  Of course, you get to choose your mob name first, and you want to make sure that you choose one you'll like and that is not offensive.  You can change your name later on in the game if you want to, but it's expensive to do this.  After you choose your name, you'll get to choose your character type.  Now, there is a trick to this and how you choose your character type will determine how you play the game overall from this point forward.  If you have already chosen your character type, don't worry.  We'll help you fix your strategy for that particular type later in the game.  For now, let's assume that you do not have a character yet and you are ready to start playing. 

There are three different character types that you can choose from: the Mogul, the Maniac, and Fearless.  Each has different perks and each has different down sides, so you will want to choose wisely so that you'll have a character that fits your gaming style.  Let's take a look at each one closely:

Mogul: This character type gains cash quicker than any other type as your properties will be ready to collect on every 54 minutes instead of every hour like other character types.  Also, when you are a Mogul, you'll be eligible to become a Bagman for one of your friends.  A Bagman gives you the chance to get double money from jobs.  The problem is that money isn't really a big issue for any player until you reach about level 40, and it can be hard to find friends that need Bagmen in their mafias.  But, for those that want to be sure to have the most properties, the most inventory, and always have the cash to do whatever you want, then the Mogul is your character type.

Maniac: This character type regenerates heath faster than any other character type as you will get energy at a rate of 1 every 3 minutes instead of 1 every 5 minutes.  For those that want to be able to play more, the Maniac is a good choice since you get more energy constantly over other character types.  Of course, for those that cannot log in more than once a day (or less) this might not be the character type for you as you won't be able to take advantage of the energy boost.  Also, for those that are trying to speed level, you will be counting more on the ability to use the energy refills after you level or energy packs instead of from waiting for it to refill.

Fearless: This character type regenerates health at a faster rate than any other character type, which might not sound like much at all since only those that fight other mafias a lot will need more health.  Of course, the game makes up for this by allowing you to be a Top Mafia Wheel Man, which gives you a special ability.  When you get this title, you can do a job with the chance that it won't cost you any energy.  Since the higher the level you are, the more energy it can cost to do a job, it can be hard to level once you get up there.  So, this is an excellent bonus to any player that is trying to speed level your character.

As you can see, choosing your character type is all completely up to you.  Each has good and bad about it, and while some people will tell you that you have to go one way or another with your character, the choice should be based on how you play.  For example, if you cannot play but once a day or less, than the Mogul might be best for you as it allows your money to really grow more and will allow you to build up your inventory.  For those that can check in more than once a day, the Maniac or Fearless might be the best route for you to go since you can take advantage of the energy boosts that you can grab up.  Choose the character type that you feel best about - and work from there.

Once you have your character type chosen, you will get an initial set of skill points to use.  ***NOTE: Before you plug any of your points into health, defense, or attack, you want to level your energy up to 30.  After that, you can even out your other attributes if you want to.  Make sure that you see the section Advanced Tactics to learn more about your skill points and where you should focus them.

The problem with Mafia Wars is that you cannot just start over if you aren't happy with your character.  If you really want to start over, you have to actually delete the whole application, then wait 60 days for it to time out, and then you can log back into the application and start all over.  This is a bad way to go, as there is really nothing out there that a little bit of work can't fix.  So, if you feel that your character type isn't a good match for your gaming style, don't worry!  It's not that hard to take care of, which we'll talk about later in the Advanced Tactics and Fundamentals.

Once you have your character created and you're ready to hit the game running, you will go through a little tutorial to get you acquainted with the game, the story line, and so forth.  You'll also get to see your very first property, Uncle Louie's Deli, and go through your initial stats on the interface bar.  It is this bar that you will spend most of your time keeping an eye on throughout the game.  Here is what your interface bar will look like:

As you can see, we have blacked out a few things, such as the stats that were there - but this is the basis of what your interface will look like and what you'll need to learn to read so that you can easily find what you need quickly.  Let's go through the different areas of your interface so that you'll learn what each one is for:

Cash (Bank)

When it comes to earning cash you can do this two different ways: through doing quests and through your properties.  You will have a certain amount of energy to do different quests with and each quest will offer you a different amount of money when you complete it.  As you level through the game, you'll gain access to higher paying quests and be able to complete specialty quests that will earn you a ton of dough.  The other way that you will make money in Mafia Wars is through your properties.  Every hour, your properties will pay out money to you and any maintenance costs will automatically be deducted from any profits you make. 

When you gain cash from any way (properties, fights, jobs) in Mafia Wars, you can then see it under the area of your interface where it says "Cash".  To put your cash in the bank so that it can't be robbed from you, you can click on "Bank" and a pop up will appear that will allow you to deposit or withdraw funds and will show you your current bank balance.  The problem with depositing large amounts of cash is that the bank takes a 10% laundering fee out.  So, you are better to deposit smaller amounts and not take a huge hit on the fee.

Health

This is the next area on your interface that you'll want to keep an eye on.  Now, while you're doing jobs, your health won't matter.  But, if you are fighting or fighting a mob boss, it will matter and you'll need to watch it carefully.  If it gets too low, you can click on "Hospital" and another pop up will come up that will allow you to pay to heal yourself.  This is a great thing, but it does have a cool down, so be careful how you use it.  Of course, you can just leave it alone and allow it to naturally regenerate if you want.

Energy

This is probably the stat on your interface that you will be concerned with the most in the game.  It will cost you a certain amount of energy to do jobs in Mafia Wars and this is how you mainly level your character.  You need to make sure that you are using your energy to it's fully potential, and don't waste any that you don't need to.  Your energy will naturally refill itself at 1 energy point for every 5 minutes that go by, unless you are a Maniac (then it's 1 point for every 3 minutes that go by).  There are a few ways around this though so don't get too frustrated just yet.  One of the ways that you can refill your energy quickly is to level up.  When you level, your energy is automatically refilled.  Another way is to use an energy pack, which actually refills your energy and gives you a boost of extra energy to help you out.  (We'll talk about energy packs later and the best ways to use them to your advantage.)

Stamina

This is the next stat on your interface and one that you won't need to worry about too much unless you like to fight.  Most Mafia Wars players will dump the majority of their skill points into their energy bar, but it's always good to put a few into Stamina.  Why?  Well, there will come a time when you are less than 10 experience points away from leveling, but have no energy left.  What do you do?  You fight some other mobsters and gain those xp points so that you can level.  So, while your Stamina isn't a place that you want to dump a ton of skill points, you always want to have a few - just in case.

Experience Bar

This will tell you two things: what your current experience points are and the amount of experience points you need to get to the next level.  You want to keep an eye on this and make sure that you are using your energy as wisely as possible so that you can easily level quickly and refill that energy to keep on leveling.  It should be very easy for you to get to about level 12 the first time you play, provided that you use your energy and skill points right.  (We'll talk about how to place your skill points later.)

Level

This just tells you what level you currently are.

Travel

When you have the appropriate level, and the items you need for a particular area, then you can travel to one of the following locations: Cuba, Moscow, or Bangkok.  Coming sometime in 2010 is Las Vegas and sometimes there are specialty areas that you can travel to, such as London, to complete special jobs.  In each of these areas, you'll have special properties, weapons, armor, jobs, mob bosses, collections, and achievements.  So, you want to travel to them whenever you can so that you'll easily be able to level up as well and gain the bonuses that are available there.

The buttons below your stats will allow you to go to different areas of the game that you will need to complete jobs, check on your properties, and buy and manage your inventory.  Let's take a look at the different ones so that you'll know what you need and where it is:

Home

This button takes you to the Mafia Wars home page where you can do all sorts of different things.  There is a great little checklist here that will help you go through the things that you need to do daily to help you level.  Once you do everything on the daily checklist you'll gain an extra skill point - which is a good reason to do this every day!  You can also send gifts quickly from the home page, open gifts, see your mafia, and even see player updates.  You will also be able to see and do specialty jobs and special events in Mafia Wars that will all be listed here.

Jobs

This is where you will go to level your character.  In the Jobs tab, you will see the different levels that you can complete jobs in by name, such as Street Thug, Associate, Soldier, Enforcer, and so on.  The thing about the names is that when you completely master one of these areas, say the Street Thug, by mastering level one of all of the jobs here, you will gain that title and can then switch it up when you want to.

You will be able to see everything about a job in this area, (which we'll go through in more detail later), such as the title of the job, the payout, how much experience you'll gain from it, if you have a chance to loot something special, the energy that job requires, and what inventory you need to do the job.  Simply click "Do Job" and your character will complete that job.  Once you do, the top of that job page will change and will tell you if you successfully did the job, what you received and if you got anything special.  As you level up, you'll be able to go to higher levels and do jobs there.  You do want to make sure that you master each of the levels as you go though so you can gain special rewards and bonuses when you do.

You will also find that in some of the different job areas you can fight different bosses.  These fights cost you energy instead of experience, but pay out pretty well if you win.  Be careful though, these guys are extremely tough and will take you a little while to beat them.

Fight

In this tab, you can fight other mobsters.  Why would you want to do this?  While some people just like to fight, the only reason that you'll ever really want to do this is when you only have a few experience points to go before you level and you don't have any energy left.  When you click on this tab, you'll see more tabs at the top of the page.  These are: Fight, Robbing, Declare War, and Hitlist.  Fighting will allow you to fight other mobsters for cash and experience points.  You should only do this when you are extremely close to leveling and don't have any energy left.  When you fight other mobsters, you'll also lose health, so you will need to keep an eye on it so that you don't end up getting whacked when you don't expect it.

Under the Robbing tab, you'll be able to rob other people's properties.  Now, this might sound fun, but it's not really something that you should do all the time.  Here is why: when you rob other mobster's properties it makes your properties more likely to get hit as it puts you on the list.  So, you don't really want to do this so you don't have to make repairs or keep losing money to other people. 

Under the Declare War tab, you can declare war on one of your friends.  Now, you only get one attack, so you have to choose wisely so that you don't immediately get whacked.  But, this isn't really something recommended either, as it can really put a strain on your relationship with your mafia.

On the Hitlist tab, you can place people to be attacked by mobsters throughout the game.  You can also attack people that are on this list.  While it's not recommended that you place people here (as your name appears here and people will also attack you), if you feel like attacking people, it's up to you.  If you ice them, you get the bounty that is listed.

Properties

This is the tab that you can use to manage your properties that you own.  Here, you'll be able to see the properties you already own, buy new ones, and build up specialty shops, such as the Chop Shop and Weapons Depot.  You can also upgrade your properties to make you more money if you like.  Below each property you own, you will see how long until you can collect money from them, and in the right hand corner, you'll see what your total hourly income from your properties is.

Inventory

This is the tab that deals with all of your weapons, armor, loot, collections, and more and a vital part of the game.  When you click on this tab, you will see several smaller tabs: Inventory (which holds your weapons, armor, vehicles, and boosts), Loot (which holds all of the loot that you've gotten as drops from jobs), Collections & Vault (which holds all of the collection items that you've gotten and allows you to vault the collections you've completed), and Gifting (which allows you to give extra collection, loot, or boost items that you have to your mafia members).

On the Inventory tab, you can buy and sell weapons, armor, vehicles, and boosts to help you when you do jobs.  Each job that you do in Mafia Wars will require that you have certain items, such as weapons, armor, and even specialty items to complete them.  If you don't have enough of an item, it will show below the item a red box that will say "Need 1" or so forth.

Marketplace

This is where you can use your reward points to purchase specialty items of all types.  You can earn reward points as you go through the game, but the majority of the items that are in the Marketplace are over 20 points each.  In fact, the really good stuff is over 50 points.  To get larger amounts of reward points, you'll have to buy them with real cash.  While you can spend just $5 or $10, there are larger packages of these points that you can easily purchase if you're willing to spend more.  It's all up to you.

Profile

Under this area, you can see everything you need to know about your character.  When you click on Profile, you'll see three tabs: Profile, Achievements, and Crime Spree (which is new).  The tab that will automatically open is the Profile, where you can see your character information, such as your title (and you can change it here too), your skill points, your wishlist, your stats, your collection information, recent achievements, your finances, and inventory.

Under the achievements tab, you can see all of the achievements that are available to you and how many you've completed.  This is great, as you can see ones that might be easier to complete than others and finish them with out doing much at all.  By completing achievements, you will be able to gain bonus points and items and more.

Under the new Crime Spree tab, you can ask your friends to help you with a crime spree where they can earn experience, energy, or health plus a bonus.  When they help you, they send you a gift that will be listed in your safes below, and when you open a safe, you'll earn whatever special gift is listed there.  As you go up in levels on your crime sprees, it will take more to level up.  When you help a friend with their crime spree, you'll get a reward as well.

My Mafia

This is the last area on your interface and where you can see everyone that is in your mafia currently.  You can recruit, see your mafia, and send gifts here.

That wraps up the basics that you'll need to know about the game so that you can optimize your play time.  In the next area, we'll go through fundamentals of Mafia Wars that you will want to master as you go along to truly get ahead of the pack.