Fil Kearney's Mafia Wars Blog

Essays on Clans and Game Play

2010-03-08T11:44:00.001-08:00

--What makes a great clan?
--What can you expect from your Soldiers? what should they expect from their leaders?
--Why do (or DON'T) people in your clan do what you want?
--How does minimum qualifications affect recruiting in a clan?
--Earning Respect vs. Demanding Obedience -- who's clan is it, anyway?
--What went wrong, and why does it feel SO right?

Soldiers of Peace as a clan has been an incredible experience for me personally.
Anyone can start a clan, but there's a lot of "moving parts" set into motion with that decision.
I'll be sharing my own thoughts and philosophies on how clans work, and how they don't.

--Farming or Fighting?
--When is more better, and how much is too much-- clan war philosophies
--Winning vs. Losing
--Timing is everything
--What is "the curve", and how are YOU going to get ahead of it?

Many clans have a philosophy on what makes you "strong" or what's "the best way" to build your account.. sadly, the "popular opinion" is not necessarily in YOUR best interest. More to come.

How To - Elite Soldier

2010-03-08T11:33:00.000-08:00

One of the exciting aspects of joining Soldiers of Peace is the Elite Soldier program.
This has proven to be incredibly successful at building combat-capable accounts in very short time.

We will be providing the exact process [SOP] uses to produce Elite Soldiers, and updating information as new information is released. This is the "Building Bible" of our clan to answer the questions our new recruits have consistently asked.

I will be using this discussion to go into a lot of detail about what we are doing and how we are going to do it..

First-- what to expect.
We have a very precise regimen for where you put your skill points at what time.
The account is a modified Clan Farmer initially while gaining levels finishing jobs.
Once the energy pool is large enough, it switches gears to build combat strength.

---->level 600 by day 7: Energy Fun Run
22 attack
35 defense
3700 energy
138 health
97 stam (using 294 GFPoints only)
----> level 800 by day 45: Disposable Hero
1000 attack
35 defense
3700 energy
142 health
125 stam (using 98 GFPoints only)
----> level 872 by day 65: Glass Canon
1000 attack
35 defense
3700 energy
300 health
300 stam (using 70 GFPoints + regular skill points)
----> level 1040 by day 140: Elite Soldier
1000 attack
1000 defense (using 182 GFPoints + regular skill points)
3700 energy
300 health
300 stam

Everytime you get 14 MarketplaceRP, buy 4 skill points and put in stamina.
Once you hit 3700 energy (may be earlier than level 600 for some of you, depending on achievements) ALL skill goes straight into attack. This is going to allow you to use the growing stamina pool for additional xp rather quickly.
By the end of those 45 days, you are already strong enough in attack and have enough stamina to be a nuisance on the battlefield. your poor health will weaken your ability to ice opponents in a live skirmish or war, this is strengthened by the 65th day, where you are with 300 health.
From her
all skill points and Marketplace RP now go towards boosting defense up to 1000 to attain [SOP-Elite] status. by now, you will be winning most fights against you on the fight page and lasting well on the hitlist (free xp!) and will be able to hold your own against most "typical" fighters ranging from level 400 - 600 in most skirmishes.

Next is the specific schedule of which jobs to do
****PLEASE NOTE****
The process for building an Elite is NOT the same as following the city guides one after the other. It is juggled between various cities to maximize your productive time.
If your gaming schedule does not allow you to maintain the daily routine; follow along in your best capacity with the time allowed.

day 1 ny + cuba + 1st ep BANG + 1st ep mosc
Work NY as the guide states-- but when you master Consigliere, start building money in Cuba while juggling underboss and boss. You will finish NY while accumulating the necesary money in cuba. you can juggle high tier and low tier jobs together to sustain your leveling in cuba.
Open and work through the 1st episode of bangkok only to finisahing chapter 3... do not bother completing it at this time... the next day you will move on the the next episode. Moscow, however, go aheasd and complete the finale; you WILL be repeating ep. 1 tomorrow.
day 2 juggle cuba while working the 2nd ep BANG and mastering the 1st episode of mosccow for the second time.
day 3 Juggle cuba while finishing the 3rd chapter of bangkok episode 3. keep working sat phones until you have enough Baht to buy the pirate business. keep collecting sat phones until you have B$120k so you can produce 5 pirates every 3 hours. you may need more baht if you cant collect every 3 hours... just gather sat phones until you have what you need for your game. Finish the 3rd mastery of moscow episode 1... tomorrow you'll begin moscow ep 2.
day 4 juggle cuba with the 4th ep. of Bangkok just like ep. 3-- stop at the end of 3rd chapter, and work on opening the drug business. continue working SAT PHONES from ep 3 until you have the baht to build the drug business to your optimal harvesting/game time schedule.
YOU ARE NOW DONE WITH BANGKOK until you have finished moscow. By allowing days to pass working elsewhere, you allow your businesses to produce the pirates and drugs you will later need.Be dedicated to collect them as often as you have allowed. if you are finding your RL schedule restrictive; go back and farm more sat phones until you have enough capacity to meet your changing online schedule.
finish the 2nd episode of moscow through chapter 3
day 5 finish the 3rd episode of moscow through chapter 3- juggling cuba or NY settle a beef as necesary to continue leveling.
day 6 finish the 4th episode of moscow through chapter 3
day 7 finish the 5th episode of moscow through chapter 3
day 8 finish the 6th episode of moscow through the finale. we'll master all 3 tiers of ep. 6 to improve efficiency and accumulate R$ quicker.
day 9 finish the 2nd mastery of 6th episode of moscow
day 10 finish the 3rd mastery of 6th episode of moscow and farm it as necesary to acquire R$. You will now stop using cuba to juggle; use pakhan and settle beef as necesary.
day 11 finish the 2nd mastery of the 2nd episode of moscow
day 12 finish the 3rd mastery of the 2nd episode of moscow
day 13 finish the 2nd mastery of the 3rd episode of moscow
day 14 finish the 3rd mastery of the 3rd episode of moscow
day 15 finish the 2nd mastery of the 4th episode of moscow
day 16 finish the 3rd mastery of the 4th episode of moscow
day 17 finish the 2nd mastery of the 5th episode of moscow
day 18 finish the 3rd mastery of the 5th episode of moscow
moscow is done-- and we will now be moving back to bangkok.
W specifically will be doing these tiers in order to allow the drugs ande pirates grow. When you find yourself short on baht; go back to sat phones to gather more.
day 19 finish the 2nd mastery of the 1st episode of bangkok
day 20 finish the 3rd mastery of the 1st episode of bangkok
day 21 finish the 4th mastery of the 1st episode of bangkok
day 22 finish the 2nd mastery of the 2nd episode of bangkok
day 23 finish the 3rd mastery of the 2nd episode of bangkok
day 24 finish the 4th mastery of the 2nd episode of bangkok
day 25 finish the 2nd mastery of the 3rd episode of bangkok
day 26 finish the 3rd mastery of the 3rd episode of bangkok
day 27 finish the 4th mastery of the 3rd episode of bangkok
day 28 finish the 2nd mastery of the 4th episode of bangkok
day 29 finish the 3rd mastery of the 4th episode of bangkok
day 30 finish the 4th mastery of the 4th episode of bangkok
day 31 finish the 1st mastery of the 5th episode of bangkok
day 32 finish the 2nd mastery of the 5th episode of bangkok
day 33 finish the 3rd mastery of the 5th episode of bangkok
day 34 finish the 4th mastery of the 5th episode of bangkok
day 35 finish the 1st mastery of the 6th episode of bangkok
day 36 finish the 2nd mastery of the 6th episode of bangkok
day 37 finish the 3rd mastery of the 6th episode of bangkok
day 38 finish the 4th mastery of the 6th episode of bangkok
day 39+ from now of, farm whatefver top loot you wish from moscow and bangkok; using NY settle beef to make up the difference in energy.

Remember-- gaining a level is WAY more important than anything else... if you have to settle beef all the time to keep leveling, then do it. Your energy pack will allow you to at least once per day harvest loot or do less efficient jobs during this process.
With the toolbar miniboosts, daily energy pack, and stamina supply-- you should be able to stick to this schedule easily. If it does take you longer to finish all the cities; that's fine. it is a 150 day process. you have time.
Some of you may double up bangkok and moscow jobs if you already have the drugs and pirates necessary.

If you have any questions, be welcome to join the SOP Open Group
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237571172671

There is a discussion thread dedicated to this subject here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=13846&uid=237571172671

Folks-- I could have put this in some pdf and charged $20 like all those lame "dominate blah blah" books that promise us everything and deliver squat... Ironically, this guide ACTUALLY delivers what you want-- levels, power, and a formula to do it with no BS attached.
If this has been a help, please make a donation so my wife doesn't feel so neglected. :)
Here's a guideline:

$5 = This Really Made a Difference!

$10 = Holy Hannah! I Can't Believe You Didn't Charge $20 For This!!
$20 = I don't mind paying "full price" for great information that is current and USEFUL.

Send to my paypal email: filkearney@gmail.com

How To -- Speed Level & Energy Farming

2010-03-08T10:47:00.000-08:00

The earlier tutorials on the various cities did not discuss specifically HOW to use your skill points... those publications demonstrate the most efficient way to complete them.
Those steps spell out the core "How-to" of Speed leveling already.
This section is to point out a few tweaks and procedures that are specific to the Speed Leveler / Energy Farmer.

There are two types of speed leveling: Energy and Stamina
Stamina relies primarily on fighing weaker opponents. It's advantage is that you can designate a "victim" to attack over and over and over... these are unpopular because MOST people choose to run this type of account by running an attack macro... not actually playing the game at all. Just letting the computer work. Zynga frowns on this-- Facebook frowns on this-- I do NOT recommend this style of play; I am mentioning it here to help you understand the difference between this type of stamina leveling and what I recommend; Energy Leveling.

Energy Leveling very simply adds all skill points to Energy. every time you can get a
skill point, you slip it into Energy so you can do more jobs. more jobs. more jobs.

A straight energy account will never put skill points anywhere else, and will use the chop shop to add even more energy by building the Solar Flare (+5 maximum energy!)

Whenever you gather 14 reward points... go to the marketplace and buy 4 skill points for 14 RP... add those 4 to Energy.

Daily chance rewarding you with a skill point after 4 tickets are played per week-- add to Energy

Mystery Bag grants you 5 skill points.... add to Energy.

This style of play-- sometimes called "Energy Farmer". can jack up to 1000+ levels in a week if you play OFTEN.

The Energy Farmer has two further subdivisions:
-- Beef Eaters do only the jobs needed to finish underboss for the 5% xp bonus, and whatever is needed to get to level 100 ASAP to "settle a beef".
Settle a Beef is the MOST efficient job in the game with virtually NO materials to do it. Also known as a "serial leveler"; this type of play levels to level... it has no purpose beyond leveling. This often ends up on a macro. I am not going to encourgae it.
--Clan Farmers, however, are designed to serve the needs of a Clan. They follow the guides here to master ALL jobs in short order. The Clan Farmer's strongest advantages is that it can PLAY THE GAME. It can gather any special loot event, It can complete any job, tear through new expansions... It typically is the first with the "new toys"... if you are here to simply log in, have some click-happy fun and be done... this is a great choice! You will ALWAYS feel like you are accomplishing something, and you have the ability to gather anything anyone would want.. so if you are playing for the social aspect alone; to treat others with gifts... this is a fun choice.

The real DISadvantage of the Clan Farmer is that it absolutely cannot fight worth a damn. Mafia Wars doesn't care about your ability-- when it comes to fighting, it pits you against opponents of the same LEVEL... so if you have a new account, follow this blog and explode up to level 600 in a week-- you are going to find yourself squared up against opponents who have taken a YEAR to get very strong at fighting... Even with great combat gear being collected.. you are a squishy target with no chance of survival.

Clan Farmers are the life-blood of a clan. to use lions as an example; Farmers are the Lionesses that feed the Protectors. Farmers go do jobs and collect loot. This loot is easily attained by the Clan Farmer who diligently completed every job there is... but the loot is useless because the Clan Farmer simply doesn't have the combat strength to use it. The Protector/combat accounts NEED this loot to win battles.
Ironic, isn't it?

In the Bangkok expansion; and presumably in the upcoming Vegas release; we have faction loot, which CANNOT be gifted at all... so now the Farmers that so easily collect money have no REAL use for it.. because even faction loot alone cannot compete against combat accounts.
But the Combat accounts-- they desperately need money-- as much as they can get!
Sadly, MOST combat accounts simply don't have the energy to be able to collect B$ with any haste at all.
Energy accounts tend to accumulate a LOT of money and max out businesses pretty fast-- this leaves them with "nothing better to do" with their money. so it tends to just lay around and get neglected.
This is a NEW role the Farmer can play for the clan! by banking money, the farmer can "save" 93% of the money it accumulates to be dispersed later. How?
So obvious-- The farmer will pull money out of the bank, and remove the combat account from it's mafia / friends. the combat account can now easily attack the farmer.

Interestingly; the attacker is rewarded 10% MORE than the farmer loses each attack... so banking the money is a zero-loss to the clan. A "good" farmer can easily accumulate B$1,000,000 per day or more-- often enough for a combat account to buy 2 or 3 Faction inventory each day they work together.

If you have any questions regarding this information, be welcome to join us at the SOP Open Camp:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237571172671

A discussion thread is provided to continue this conversation here:
http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?topic=13847&uid=237571172671

Side Projects

2010-03-08T09:14:00.000-08:00

There is more to Mafia Wars than just doing jobs and fighting people. These various "side projects" will be detailed on how to improve your game in general, regardless of your level.
--Building your mafia-- do's and don'ts
--Chop Shop Optimization
--Lotto and Laundry

Vegas Tutorial

2010-03-08T09:12:00.000-08:00

Zynga is going to roll out yet another City in 2010!
Every expansion means more kick ass stuff for us to do in Mafia Wars!

We'll report it as fast as it is available, and optimize it within days. :)

Moscow Tutorial

2009-11-03T21:06:00.000-08:00

Moscow(*) is very different from NY or CUBA-- we have to go through each job in the order they give them to us... so we can't just jam 300 levels and go straight to the top tier. Everyone has to slog through each chapter in the order presented.

If you charge ahead into Moscow like I did when Moscow was first released, you find out that if you complete the finale, you have to start the chapter all over again.
It only takes R9 million to afford the inventory for 1st mastery-- but now you have to buy another R9 million of inventory for 2nd mastery, and again for 3rd. Right now, that is small enough to entice us into just doing it, but by chapter 3... it gets nearly impossible.

For the record;

1-It takes a whopping R$ 8,499,600,000 (yes, BILLION) to collect ALL the inventory to do all the jobs in Moscow.

2-no job pays better than R$ 1,806,420.

3-It take approximately R$ 500,000,000 to buy and fully upgrade ALL businesses.

4-When all businesses are maxed out they generate R$ 68,904,000 per 24 hours.
5-Businesses take 124 days to fully pay out R$ 8.5 Billion.

DON'T waste money on businesses until you have gotten to episode 6.

Here's the laundry list of stuff you need to finish full mastery for each episode (including finale)

This is only for ONE mastery... so you'll need to double and triple this for 2nd and 3rd mastery.

DO NOT TOUCH the finale of ANYTHING.

The only purpose Baklany serves is to access Boets... then to Brigadir to Avtoret so we can get to Vor and Pakhan where all the REAL loot is hiding. Simply finish chapter 3 and move on to the second episode. You can come back later and do it after opening up Episode 6.

AS SOON AS EPISODE 2 OPENS, WE ARE DONE WITH EPISODE 1

SKIP ALL THE FINALES, AND MOVE UP AS FAST AS YOU CAN.

Here's how much it will cost to finish the third chapter once for each episode:

Baklnay R 7,100,000

Boets R 42.600.000
Brigadir R 111,200,000

Avtoret R 379,200,000

Vor R 711,400,000

Pakhan R 739,200,000

Total: R$ 1,990,700,000

add 10% for bank: R$ 2,189,770,000

There is no "secret" to building the R$ needed to clear each episode like Cuba... you simply do the most profitable job as often as you can until you get the R$ needed to buy the next episode of loot...
((I WILL do the math and tell you which job to do how often in each tier... but honestly, just pick one that pays well and drops a loot you like. I'll spell it out later, but it really is that simple.))

Vory Vs Mafiya?

I personally do vory every episode except episode 6.. Here's what I want:

attack
ubijca assault rifle from ep 5 vory: attack 43 (this can be a permanent choice)
shturmovik from Moscow ep 4 vory: attack 45 (this can be a permanent choice)
zoloto from Moscow ep6 chap 3: attack 43 (works with both vory and mafiya)
defense
zmeya blades from Moscow ep 6 mafiya defense 44 (see below***)
excoats from Moscow ep 6 chap1 defense 45 (works with both vory and mafiya)
Lloyd Spectre from Bangkok ep 5a-yakuza: defense 45 (see below***)

Moscow ep. 1-3 don't really matter at all. (either can be permanent)

***Bangkok is offering the Lloyd Spectre.. In ep5a. this is a 45 defense vehicle, but zmeya blade is still the top pic for farmable defensive weapon, tied with the ep5b yakuza cleaver (both 44 defense weapons... funny they are both melee, one hand weapons.) so you can abandon any thoughts of the KCC in favor of the Lloyd (but lloyds can't be traded... zing!)

What About the Businesses?

For the record; maxing out the businesses earns about R$ 70 million per day.
Now that the bribes are gone, it will take very little time to accumulate the R$ needed to start buying businesses in Ep. 6. Go right ahead. This WILL make acquiring the inventory for the 2nd and 3rd mastery of the 3rd, 4th, 5th, and 6th episodes easier. (see below) Again; I don't recommend finishing the first mastery of any episode until you have the R$ accumulated to attain ALL the inventory up through chapter 3 of the next mastery... that way you don't have any real down time not having access to any of the loot that someone may put a request in for.

What about finishing Moscow?
Accumulating the R$ needed to finish all 3 mastery will be VERY easy once you open up ep 6.
Run to Pakhan (ep 6) as fast as you can so you can access those large R$ jobs. Buy up the businesses and let them start working with you. Back-tracking through the lower episodes will now be much easier to complete.
I recommend mastering all 3 tiers of ep 6 first, since it's the most expensive, has the highest costs, and has the best loots.

(*)Please note: In this tutorial we specifically held off doing Moscow until after we had finished both NY and Cuba... as an energy/speed leveling account; this gives us a MASSIVE battery of energy to blast through all the jobs in as short a time frame as possible.

In practical application; you can realistically juggle NY, Cuba, and Moscow jobs as soon as you hit level 70. This guide is to tell you HOW to complete each city; not at what level or with how much energy. These methods work no matter what level, no matter how much energy.
SOP training has a specific order in which you complete NY, Cuba, Moscow, and Bangkok to optimize your character's performance. If you wish to be mentored, contact SOP. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237571172671

Patiently awaiting Vegas!

Cuba Tutorial

2009-11-01T18:32:00.000-08:00

Cuba(*) is an interesting challenge because it requires Politico Corruptos and has BRIBES.

Politico Corruptos;
Some jobs require up to 12 PC's each click... that sucks because you can't loot them. They are only available through a cuba BUSINESS that produces them. If you are being sponsored by SOP, or have generous friends.. this is a non issue. If you are doing this on your own; go join SOP or make some generous friends and then come back when you have all 2040. :)

Bribes;
To do a job other than holding up a taxi driver, you have to buy the inventory... but every piece of inventory you buy, you get less money per job because you have to pay a bribe for every piece of inventory you buy! This isn't very apparent initially , because you can afford to buy stuff as you go. The first tier lets you make enough money to buy the inventory for the second tier.. but by the time you get to the third tier, you have so much inventory, the bribes are preventing you from making much money at all on any of the jobs you are doing.

here is the grocery list and cost for ALL the inventory you need for all the jobs in Cuba:

weapons
2 machete @ 1000 = 2000
18 lead pipe @ 5000 = 90000
2 hatchet @ 12000 = 24000
26 ras-29 @ 15000 = 390000
14 gadyuka @ 24000 = 336000
4 .308 sniper rifle @ 32000 = 128000
8 bazooka @ 40000 = 320000

armor
2 local guide @ 4000 = 8000
8 local tough @ 8000 = 64000
3 camo fatigues @ 10000 = 30000
3 jungle tracker @ 14000 = 42000
14 hired thug @ 22000 = 308000
30 wise guy @ 30000 = 900000
4 rebel sniper @ 38000 = 152000

vehicles
2 cm seta @ 10000 = 20000
2 4x4 @ 18000 = 36000
5 cm venga @ 22000 = 110000
8 barge @ 27000 = 216000
12 oso-12 cargo truck @ 38000 = 456000
6 commercial helicopter @ 45000 = 270000

163 items costing C$3854000 for all inventory required.
Each piece of inventory subtracts 0.5% of the C$ you would have earned doing ANY job in cuba. The game stops the amount taken from us at 80%... once you get 160 items at .05% each... you are having to pay 4 of 5 C$ for the bribes.
This wouldn't be so bad, but unfortunately, the most ANY job in Cuba pays is C$5000 (Cacique tier)... but to afford the inventory for Cacique; you need a ton of C$... so you get the picture. Inventory is BAD.

To make it easier, Zynga set it up so that you would buy businesses that produce money on a 3 hour cycle. I'm guessing they figured we'd be willing to hunt on the fight page to take lazy pesos from easy prey, or spend the hard earned money on jobs to buy businesses, and eventually... very slowly... afford to do the high level jobs.
And if you have to bank your money to protect it from hunters while you try to accumulate more... bank sticks us with a 10% penalty to protect the money while it accumulates (assuming you bank ALL the money you need to buy all the inventory required) total of 385400
Add this to the actual money needed; worst case scenario: C$4239400 total required.

Speed levelers like us don't follow conventional logic. Here's what we did....

We finished the first mastery of El Soldado while working Capo and Consigliere in NY.
the amount of inventory needed for El Soldado is:
2 machete = 1000
2 pipe = 5000
2 hatchet = 12000
2 guides = 4000
3 toughs = 24000
2 setas = 20000
total: C$65,000

I know what you are thinking..."I see you guys finished the first mastery, but where is all your inventory? "
Good question!

All that junk from El Soldado was already taking 7.5% of our gained C$. we cannot continue into the next tier with that snowballing on us. We are going to do just a few jobs-- "stairstepping" up the tiers at different levels so we can get access to the high paying Cacique jobs with the minimum amount of Inventory necesary, so we can slip past the bribes, and make good money.
We'll accumulate enough C$ to be able to afford ALL the inventory in one single shopping trip.

During this exercise; everything is going to assume you have a 15% bagman on your top mafia to give you more money each job. If you DON'T have a 15% bagman, your C$ per job will be worse, and thus take longer to succeed.

Here are a few great 15% Bagmen to add right now...

Jeff Jensen
FB Profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=750904737
[SOP] Don Jensen - http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/remote/html_server.php?xw_controller=group&xw_action=view&promote=yes&uid=750904737

Ruthann Zervos
FB Profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1346541873
{SOP} RAZ - http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/remote/html_server.php?xw_controller=group&xw_action=view&promote=yes&uid=1346541873

Deddy Van Anthonie
FB Profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1252728333
[SOP] Mr.Brownstone - http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/remote/html_server.php?xw_controller=group&xw_action=view&promote=yes&uid=1252728333

Rod Falk
FB Profile - http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1049157100
[SOP] Purgatory - http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/remote/html_server.php?xw_controller=group&xw_action=view&promote=yes&uid=1049157100

Follow these steps:

1. sell off the unneeded inventory from the Soldado tier.
2 machete = 1000
2 pipe = 5000
2 hatchet = 12000
2 guides = 4000
1 l,ocal tough = 4000
that gives you C$26,000 on top of whatever you have accumulated.

you are left with 3 local toughs and 2 cm setas

2. purchase the RAS-16 needed for "Transport a Shipment of US Arms" in the El Capitan tier for C$15,000.
This is now the only job you can do in Cuba (aside from that poor cab driver)
This job pays C$1232. with a miniscule 2.5% bribe-- so this job will pay C$1201 per job.

After accumulating C$170,000-- that's 142 jobs. (remember- it'll take more to bank!), we can sell the cm seta, and buy everything we need for the El Jefe job, "Take Over The Docks"

3. The C$3197 requires 7.5% bribe = C$2957 per job.
(I prefer the larger C$ provided by "Take Over"... but some feel the Hooks are a vaulable acquisition. If you would rather "Pillage A Shipyard" for the Gaff Hooks... go right ahead. )

4. Once you get to C$1,200,000 (only 406 jobs away!); sell off everything and switch gears to the El Cacique tier, "Launder Money Through A Resort"

This job has FANTASTIC ratios and offers a whopping C$5939. This job has a 20% bribe, but still provides C$4,751/job.
You only need C$2,644,000 more to get all the inventory (that is 557 jobs).

5a. IF you banked... go to NY and pick a fight with the toughest punk you can find and spam that guy until you lose enough health to no longer be a target. Go back to Cuba and pull whatever you saved in the bank, and buy everything the jobs require!

5b. (Optional) We did this in about 40 minutes. So fast we didn't bother banking.
For an extra C$million; you can max out the Bribery Ring to accumulate Politico Corruptos.

If you have generous friends, or have signed up to work with SOP, then this isn't necesary.
But for those that INSIST on doing it alone; you get 10 politicos per 6 hours (max output is 10... so you better be cashing in every 6 hours, otherwise your business has gone idle.)
You can buy 10 MORE for C$500,000 when your business maxes out... so best case scenario; you can get all the PC you need in 25 days if you collect each day; every 6 hours. This assumes you collected an additional C$51,000,000. IF you don't buy the extra 10; it will take 50 days... you may as well take 30 minutes and join SOP.

I didn't bother, but you can max out all the businesses if you want... about another C$3.5 million should be enough... but at this point; you don't need businesses at all. I'd recommend you get to work on finishing all the jobs.

6. with all the inventory purchased, go back to the beginning of Cuba and blast through all the jobs.

Woo hoo!

(*)Please note: In this tutorial we specifically held off doing Cuba until after we had finished NY... as an energy/speed leveling account; this gives us a MASSIVE battery of energy to blast through all the jobs in as short a time frame as possible.

In practical application; you can realistically juggle NY and Cuba jobs as soon as you hit level 35. This guide is to tell you HOW to compete each city; not at what level or with how much energy. These methods work no matter what level, no matter how much energy.
SOP training has a specific order in which you complete NY, Cuba, Moscow, and Bangkok to optimize your character's performance. If you wish to be mentored, contact SOP.

Be Strong, Have Fun!

Bangkok Tutorial

2009-11-01T00:11:00.001-07:00

Bangkok(*) is actually very simple.

(Still some screenshots pending)

We have to do jobs in order like Moscow, so there is no thinking there.
There is no bribes, so we can just buy stuff as we can afford it.

We can master each episode 4 times--Great change! There are 10 jobs total per episode, like moscow... 40 per tier means even better leveling opportunities!

THE TRIAD VS YAKUZA DEBATE

This is glaringly obvious because of the big faction meter across the page.

like Moscow, which loot is available to farm depends on whether we partner with yakuza or Triad in chapter 2 and chapter 3 of each episode.... we'll visit that in a few paragraphs below.

What is REAL important is that you are trusted by the triad when you get to episode 5a, and that you are trusted by the Yakuza by episode 5b... and that you are allied with both to access the faction store's combat gear.

751 is "trusted"

1401 is "Allied"

To assure you attain these status, you are going to want to "juggle" between the factions each chapter and/or episode. We can do this two ways; jobs or fighting.

Jobs

You do jobs to accumulate favor with either faction. Each clan-job done adds 3 alliance to the "favored" clan, and reduces the "shunned" clan by 1.

SO by juggling jobs back and forth, you can gain the top favor, "allied" of both clans...

Here's a mental exercise on how it works (this is just to illustrate... see below)

First, do Yakuza 500 times... 500 jobs x 3pts / job = 1500 faction

This drops Triad to 000. ... 500 jobs x -1pt / job = 000 faction

Next, do Triad 500 times. 500 jobs x 3pts / job = 1500 faction
But drops Yakuza to 1000... 500 jobs x -1pt / job = 1000 faction

Now, Do Yakuza again; you only need to do it 167 times...
167 jobs x 3pts / job = +501
501 + 1000 = max of 1500
This drop s Triad down 167 points... 1500 - 167 = 1333

Finally, you bring Triad back up with 42 jobs...
42 jobs x 3pts / job = 126 + 1333 = 1459
This drops Yakuza again; 42 jobs x -1pt / job = 42. 1000 - 42 = 1458

Now just juggle the two evenly from here on forward, and you always have full alliance with both.

To get to this point requires 1209 jobs... worth noting about bangkok: the cost per job goes UP each mastery! Same amount of alliance points costing MORE energy each mastery... What to do?

Fighting

Real simple; when you fight someone in Bangkok, they are either yakuza or triad, depending on their faction scores. When you attack, you get 2 points towards one faction, and -1 for the other...

750 yakuza = 1500y / ot

750 triad = 750y / 1500t

375 yakuza = 1500y / 1125t

188 triad = 1312y / 1500t

94 yakuza = 1500y / 1406t

47 triad = 1453y / 1500t

24 yakuza = 1500y / 1476t

12 triad = 1488y / 1500t

6 yakuza = 1500y / 1494t

3 triad = 1497y / 1500t

1 yakuza = 1499y / 1499t

...2250 fights may be easier for combat accounts to do than 1209 jobs.

--> This is the start of a trend that Zynga has eluded to; that stamina will become an actual game mechanic instead of just something with which to beat on each other... expect to see more in-game uses for stamina in the future.

SO.. WHICH FACTIONS SHOULD YOU CHOOSE WHILE DOING JOBS?

Yakuza loot is superior to Triad loot in both Ep. 5a and 5b.... and the amount of pirates/drugs depend on which faction you choose. I am strongly recommending you lean heavily on Yakuza for the sake of better loot...

--Episode 1 & 2 choose Triad. it really doesn't matter in the first 2 episodes, but it matters later. you will do a LOT of yakuza later, so this will always be a cheap source of Triad faction..

--Episode 3 & 4 choose Yakuza. their need for satellite phones is less, so its actually easier on you, plus you'll need allied status for 5a access.

--5a requires allied with yakuza. this should be no problem considering the amount of cell phones you have to gather... but you can farm chap 3 more if you need to plus fight fight fight!

-chapter 2 really doesnt matter, but for the consumables; go yakuza.

-chapter 3 pick yakuza to get the tanto. [43,28] this is as good as the ubijca in Vor, but it is less expensive to acquire, with a better energy to xp ratio.

--5b requires allied status with triad. by now you should already have allied with bith factions, but if you need, you can go get Ep1 and 2 for cheap.. plus fighting as usual.

-chapter 2 pick yakuza. lloyd spectre with its 45 defense trumps the moscow KCC... but it requires a satelite phone to run the job... so it's one point advantage over the KCC may not be worth it... the Elitist snob will insist it is :p.

-chapter 3 yakuza offers cleaver with 44 defense.. this matches zmeya blades, and the cost is comparable in energy... just another resource. Odd that both top defense weapons are small melee weapons.. zmeya blades and cleavers.

INVENTORY --> FACTION STORE

Each clan offers different items that can be bought in the Faction store under inventory
You have to have varying levels of alliance with either clan to get the various items offered.... but by the time you can afford them, you should have alliance with both factions anyway... so that doesn't matter.

Worth noting is that currently we have to have dominant alliance with the faction we are buying from.. if yakuza has more alliance than triad (even if both are "allied") you cannot buy top triad inventory. once bangkok is fully released, you can push both up to 1499, and thus BOTH are dominant, and you can buy everything from both sides.... but you can always just juggle the jobs now that fighting will modify the score.

The ONLY way to acquire these gems is to BUY them with Baht-- this is new. We've never had stuff we can buy worth actually HAVING before.. so money has never been an issue beyond paying for prerequisites to do jobs. but that has changed.

To get the best inventory, we HAVE to have the best alliance with BOTH factions, and then pay for them like normal inventory... This is INCREDIBLY expensive. Some is B$400,000 per item.
B$400,000 x 501 = B$200,400,000!!!
Businesses bring in B$150,000 / day... it'll take 1336 days to max out ONE of these suckers.... So get to jobbing and fighting!!!

Also interesting is that these cannot be gifted! You have to buy them for yourself!

I'll share my opinions on this later.

HOW TO MOVE THROUGH BANGKOK QUICKLY

Bangkok is very linear; we go through each episode in order; each chapter in order... but when we finish chapter 3, the next episode opens up!

(screenshot pending)

It pays to not go charging in. Each mastery requires more inventory... so it quickly becomes a money pit.

(screenshot pending)

DO NOT COMPLETE THE FIRST EPISODE

DON'T move past chapter 3 in the first episode. Move directly on to episode 2 and work it through chapter 3 then on to episode three.. etc, etc up through episode 5b. You can loop back later... but ep. 1 is VERY cheap energy costs... you may want this available to get your faction up for ep. 5a and b. You can always finish mastering these jobs later when everything is available... but for now focus on getting to ep.5b where all the good paying jobs are waiting to fund the rest of the city's enormous B$requirements.... plus we have two business- produced consumables now-- Pirates and Drug Shipments. (see below)

Episode 3 also includes the consumable; Satellite Phone
(screenshot pending)
this is a loot drop on the faction jobs... build faction, B$ -AND- get SP is awful generous. you will need truck loads of these for chapter 3,4,5a & 5b.. so work this; get baht, SP and faction needed for 5a & 5b plus faction store loot.

BUSINESSES:

(screenshot pending)

Maxed out, these things offer about B$150,000 per 24 hours. You are going to need as much Baht as you can get... Inventory is INCREDIBLY expensive, just like Moscow.
but be sure to build up the pirates and drug shipments rackets FIRST (see below)

A further warning;

the two businesses; yaa baa operation and gun smuggling-- they produce +32 defense and +32 attack BOOSTS. they have NO value! save the B$300,000 to access these worthless money pits, and get some good upgrades on the Pirates and Drug Shipments....

PIRATES AND DRUG SHIPMENTS

Cuba has Politico Corruptos... Bangkok has Pirates and Drug Shipments.
That's right-- TWO business-farming consumables.
Pirates are acquired in Episode 3-pirate
Drugs are acquired in Episode 4-commadant
Start up cost requires completing chapter 2 for each episode, and a B$40,000 investment each.
At first, you will have a business that produces 1 every 3 hours; max capacity of 5.
You can upgrade all the way to 10 every 3 hours (1 per upgrade);
you can upgrade all the way to max cap of 50 (5 per upgrade).
It will cost about B$1,200,000 to get to 10 / 3h
It will cost about B$1,200,000 to get to max cap 50
that's about 2.4 million baht for 10/50 ... for each business.
Here's the breakdown:
B$40,000 to start each
cost - produces/capacity
B$7k - 2 10

B$12k - 3 15

B$21k - 4 20

B$36k 5 25

B$62k 6 30

B$107 7 35

B$181 8 40

B$307 9 45

B$523 10 50

so it costs B$40k to get a pirate business producing 1 pirate every 3 hours, with a capacity of 5 pirates... 2/10 will cost B$54,000... 40k for the startup, 7k for +1 production, 7k for capacity from 5 to 10.
IF you can consistently play every 3-5 hours, all you have to do is bump up max cap to 10 (one upgrade about $B10,o00) and max out the 10 / 3h. for B$1,000,000.
If you have a work / life schedule that prevents gathering for 12 hours, then obviously you will want to max out both to 10/3h-50cap.. more expensive, yes. but you gotta use your time economically.

Here's how much of everything you ACTUALLY need if you go ep1 & 2 triad, the rest yakuza

Satelite Phones - 674
Pirates - 619
Drug Shipments - 468

so.... it takes some time. :)
Every challenge has a solution. Keep reading.

First, some hypothesis;

Folks, you are looking at Zynga's solution to farmer accounts feeding combat accounts. What currently happens is a combat account will have dismal energy, so it cannot collect HighEndLoot. So high energy "farmer accounts" work as slaves to the combat accounts. Collecting loot with their superior energy batteries, and then giving the HEL to the combat account... so the combat account ends with great combat skill AND top combat loot. The farmer of course, has NO combat, and then NO loot either... This pissses Zynga off. You can tell.
Unfortunately, they have not considered that this is the life blood, economy, and REASON clans exist at all! The warriors protect and support the farmers, who are gathering the inventory to strengthen the warriors. Without this interaction, we may as well play on MySpace. YUK!

Their "solution" to our social gaming is to make bangkok loot non-giftable. you buy it-- you USE it. this makes farmers pointless in bangkok... and thus likely worthless in the future Vegas release... and thus worthless altogether. The combat accounts now stuck with their weak energy have a few choices;

1. begin building energy to eventually afford to farm B$ to buy the HEL... VERY SLOW solution... could take a year to fill up!

2. keep building combat stats, and rely on businesses to accumulate the B$ needed to buy another HEL... this will take YEARS!

3. pull out the plastic to BUY godfather points to put towards B$. THIS is of course, Zynga's preferred answer :)

This is very clever of Zynga-- but we at SOP are smarter! Our clan, Soldiers of Peace, have already anticipated this, and can provide a strategy to not only have STRONG combat stats, but to also be able to harvest these new items in a timely manner!
As unfortunate as this change is, this is a great opportunity for those that are prepared, and look for opportunities to succeed. If you want to succeed, and take advantage of the new changes; join us at SOP!(**) We are actively recruiting both new players and disillusioned veterans.

(*)Please note: In this tutorial we specifically held off doing Bangkok until after we had finished NY, Cuba, and Moscow... as an energy/speed leveling account; this gives us a MASSIVE battery of energy to blast through all the jobs in as short a time frame as possible.
In practical application; you can realistically juggle NY and Bangkok jobs as soon as you get the necessary items from the Soldier, Enforcer, and Hitman tiers of NY.. at best level 18. This guide is to tell you HOW to complete each city; not at what level or with how much energy. These methods work no matter what level, no matter how much energy.

(**)SOP training has a specific order in which you complete NY, Cuba, Moscow, and Bangkok to optimize your character's performance. If you wish to be mentored, contact SOP.

Next chapter; everything about Cuba!

NY Tutorial Pt. 3 - From Capo to Boss

2009-10-30T08:12:00.000-07:00

Last installment, we kicked through NY, completing everything up to Capo in about 2 hours or so.
I tell you what; the Cuba and Moscow expansion has made NY so easy to beat it borders on pathetic. I cannot emphasize enough how valuable it is for you to gather and vault all energy and stamina collections.

We will now continue to run up through NY:

CAPO:
Without the consumables; you will be working Enforcer and Moscow of dozens of levels. Please join a clan or get a mentor to help you. Otherwise, this is a cakewalk. you won't even be able to access underboss or boss jobs at this point... and that's fine. You don't need them. You'll finish this in about 45- 60 minutes.

CONSIGLIERE:
Again: resources are king. the 13 stamina provided by vaults is not totally irrelevant on the success or failure of each level... don't bother. It'll just slow you down at this point. Get done in about 45 - 60 minutes.

UNDERBOSS:
This is pure gravy. The ratios are much better now, and the amount of energy accumulated from all the jobs is causing us to tip in favor of winning despite ourselves. DON'T GET SLOPPY. pay attention to what you are clicking, and your ratios. It's easy to make a mistake because things just glide along. Keep your wits about you and you are done in 30 minutes.

BOSS:
Now that we have the private island from Underboss, ALL of these jobs are self- efficient... the only thing to keep in mind is that if you ignore your skill pool for too long, you'll get stopped because you have 40 or 60 points to dump into energy... but even if that happens, the amount of energy you attain will let you clear the level. This is so efficient you are done in 15 minutes.

You can't be more efficient than level 196 to finish NY. From beginning to end, it will take around 6 or 7 hours to do all the tiers. A fun day to be sure. :)

MOSCOW:
Unless you are not being funded, there is no need to go to Moscow until you have finished NY. It is so expensive there that you will NEED the large energy battery you are creating to afford to do the jobs in the first place. Even then, I don't recommend it until level 500 when you have a few thousand energy at your disposal.

But if you are NOT following the advice of acquiring consumables by either joining a clan, or trading and dealing; you can use Moscow now to at least efficiently get both CAMs and UCPs. This is SO much more efficient and predictable than the electronic store! The store has CSUs.. but once you have your 250, no reason to ever go back there again!

As an additional observation: We are barely using "job help" at all either. The 25 per city per day is completely irrelevant right now: we haven't used them even once. This is a good fact; with the small amount of mafia we have in the beginning-- finding available jobs when we need them is a pain.

Now, some of you are going to want to do this yourself... click all the electronic stores, the Moscow jobs, the steal records to get all the consumables yourself... that'll add another 50 levels to finishing. You can do that non stop as well as long as you keep an eye on your ratios... do a few Estore or Moscow looting, then switch over to the NY job the consumables are for. This will help make sure you don't get stuck without energy.and you'll probably want to tough through and get the vaults on your own too.
And, some of you are going to want to get all the vaults on your own too... forget it. YOU CANNOT SPEED LEVEL LIKE THIS IF YOU ARE NOT VAULTING AT LEVEL 2. You HAVE to have a mentor, clan, or generous family help you at LEAST get the energy vaults. Stamina is real helpful too.. and the others are just gravy.

Just so we are clear: This is here for my clan to understand how to get big fast. We ARE providing the vaults and consumables. Anyone willing to play a fearless speed-build in our clan will have the exact results above if they follow along.
If you aren't in SOP; this is hardly a clan secret. There are many blogs out there about speed leveling (just not as thorough or efficient). Take this back to your own clan. Get them on board with you.. or just take this as food for thought.

Next, we'll be talking about Bangkok.

I'll post again when we finish NY.

NY Tutorial Pt. 2 - From Thug to Hitman

2009-10-29T08:10:00.000-07:00

In the first part, we set up the characer as wheelman and mastermind, got everything vaulted, and filled up on consumables. (thanks again to SOP!)

Now we will begin to actually work through the levels.

THUG:
Thug sucks. all the jobs are horrible energy : experience ratios. With everything vaulted, we don't need to worry about running out of energy before we level. You will need to dip into associate a little for higher efficiency jobs; and you are certainly welcome to use your stamina to pick off weak targets for easy experience. This will become necesary as you get into the 2nd and 3rd mastery. You should be able to finish it non stop in about 20 or 30 minutes if you pay attention:

Everything going to energy at this time... but no need to spend godfather points yet. We'll save those for later. What you want to do will determine how you use them.

ASSOCIATE:
This is where you can start to work the hitlist. Associate is pretty efficient as is; but dipping into enforcer (and soldier once you get your bounty taken care of) will make this an easy procedure as well... shouldn't take more than 30 minutes if you are focused:

SOLDIER:
This is where you will be glad you spent time on the hitlist collecting that bounty! There are some expensive equipment needed on this level, but it is pretty efficient. Now that you have the bounty out of the way, you can use the stamina to pick off easy targets for "free" xp so you don't have to stress over inefficient jobs so much. 30 minutes and you are done.

ENFORCER:
This tier is easy... there are some INCREDILBY efficient jobs available. when things start to get tight, remember that you will need a LOT of wiretaps for the hitman tier. Be free to use that job as "filler" to keep your energy ratios high enough to work the least profitable jobs on the tier. 30 - 45 minutes is all you really need if you pull out the calculator and really crunch the numbers.

HITMAN:
Not much to say here. Very efficient jobs... if you didn't get enough wiretaps during enforcer, you'll need to loop back and do that job some more.. juggle it with the least efficient Hitman jobs. 45 minutes at most to take care of this tier.

Worth noting:
This is where money becomes worthless. Once you have the money you need to buy the prerequisite inventory; you'll never worry about money in NY again. Don't bother banking. You'll die so fast now that you'll lose MAYBE $700,000 in the attack. Chump change. Banking is ONLY for attaining bank-related achievements.
On that note: The way to achieving the Trillions etc. achievements is NOT property. It's fighting this guy...

The MORE money you leave unbanked, the more he pays out! This will compound over time... but is literally YEARS faster than trying to get expensive properties to build the wealth passively.

Another benefit of Cleto is that he pays out pretty big XP.
Boss fights are the ONLY aspect of the game that increases the XP payout as you gain levels.
As you gain higher levels, you will have spare energy at the end of the level. This is a good place to spend it. Not only will it keep you moving towards the Trillions; it gives you a pretty big leg-up on the next level's experience needs.

This eventually becomes inefficient since the experience demands grow faster than the energy to do jobs... it will still provide a ton of $
(pending level 1400 screenshot to show the difference)

JUGGLING:
This basically means switching between two or more jobs at a time: a poor energy ratio job with a high energy ratio job. This is to make sure you will have-- overall-- enough energy to make the experience necesary to clear the level.
Some of you want to know exactly which jobs to do when... I really can't tell you; with the bonuses... everyone is going to be a little different, and there are a LOT of jobs to choose from.
We know we have to do the Enforcer tier Special Loot jobs beyond the 100% mastery because the jobs that consume them require it. Other than that, there is very little reason to do ANY job of any tier during any mastery more than 100%. If you screw up now and again, you screw up. No big deal, and it won't be by much. It's something you have to eyeball... and that damn Mastermind bonus tends to pop up at the end of a level when you are spending 25 energy to get 44 xp that SHOULD have put you only 1 xp away from next level... but oops. you got the bonus and you roll over to the next level anyway with the extra 22xp awarded. It'll be okay. Just spend your stamina FIRST, and that'll make doing the jobs much easier.

WHAT ABOUT CUBA:
At level 35, we get to go to cuba.

If you HAVEN'T vaulted all of your cuba stuff yet, you'll want to use this city to juggle with Capo and Consigliere... but if you are properly funded, you won't need to go to cuba at all prior to NY. I"ll be detailing Cuba in Part 5. So hang tight.

In Part 3, we'll be moving up from Capo through Boss.

More to come soon!

NY Tutorial Pt. 1 - The Beginning

2009-10-27T20:36:00.000-07:00

VERY IMPORTANT

For this to work, you must be placed as someone's Wheelman.

We had a loophole for anyone becoming wheelman, but that has been "fixed" by zynga... so now the ONLY way to be a wheelman is by becoming a Fearless character type.
As of January 14, 2010; all characters are without a "type" designation until level 9.
Once you level up, you will HAVE to deal with this screen. Simply choose to recover health faster:

Now that you are Fearless, you can become a Wheelman on others' top mafia team.

You MUST get on someone's list as wheelman AND mastermind.

Mastermind: 1 of 20 jobs will award an extra 50% experience.

Wheelman: 1 of 20 jobs will be done at NO ENERGY COST.

These two together are massive: roughly an extra 15% experience is accumulated for the energy spent.. this can take you straight through to level 1000+ non-stop if you wish.

Build a large friends/mafia network.
Our friends at Top Mafia Disabled has the best solution in town:

http://topmafia.info/forum/index.php?topic=313.0

This is going to be important because
1. when you request help, you want it answered right away. Once I got to 4000 mafia, any request is fulfilled typically within 1 minute.
2. You will also want PLENTY of free job opportunities. Even if Zynga limits how many you can partake in, we'd rather have 500 to choose from than 10.
3. A larger family is going to help you collect vault SO much easier than a small little clutch of friends.

Vault everything in NY, CUBA and MOSCOW

If you have help, this can be done right out of the gate at level 2.

Collecting vaults is easier than you may think! This link will let you add cuba and moscow vault items to your wishlist at level 2:

http://shell.only4fun.org/~locheed/wish/index.html

Just put three items on your list and ask for help from a HIGH level player. Rinse, Repeat. most folks have a ton of vault junk laying around doing no good (because most boosts are truly worthless) As long as you explain what you are trying to do, point them to this blog, and promise you'll make it worth their while when you are doing Moscow (hint: think ep6 eggs or loot)... most high level players with nothing to lose except junk will be happy to help out a little. You may even earn some new friends!
So get a big mafia, find a LOT of high level players who are willing to help a little... and you are done in no time. :)

DON'T WASTE LEVELS COLLECTING CONSUMABLES.

Concealed Camera - 169
Computer Setup - 263
Untracable Cell Phone - 535
Blackmail Photo - 403
Illegal transaction Record - 424
Politico Corrupto - 1182
Satelite Phones - 674
Pirates - 619
Drug Shipments - 468

-- enforcer tier consumables cannot be gifted; so tough through it

--moscow consumables are nearly self-sufficient-- what you acquire is nearly enough.

That is a LOT of consumables... about 4800 total This can take MANY levels to accumulate if you do it all on your own. If you choose to go the lonely road; I recommend you go to Moscow ASAP so you can get cams and ucp more easily in the first two Moscow jobs. Much better than the electronic store.
Otherwise, add items to your wishlist and ask for help just like the vaults. It will take a while, but sometimes you find generous people...

Sound daunting?

There is a better way!
Soldiers of Peace has a mentoring program where we will provide new characters with all the vaults and consumables-- as well as place you as wheelman and mastermind so you can follow this guide smoothly! If you are interested in following this guide-- but are concerned about acquiring the massive consumable and vault collections, or getting someone to throw away their wheelman bonus for you; be welcome to contact me: www.facebook.com/killfear
or any member of SOP about being mentored.

Property; I wish Zynga would figure out a way to make Mogul a worthwhile choice... by the time we finish NY, we will have many $billion-- but properties will NEVER earn you the Trillion achievements.
Rackets; DO NOT put points in influence. You do not need any of what rackets offers. It will only prevent you from leveling quickly at higher levels.
(you cannot have both rackets and property in NY)
You are going to make plenty of money in NY to never have to worry about upkeep costs for inventory. Just forget about it.

Now that you are properly set up....

For the first 10 levels, you're pretty much stuck doing the 1st tier jobs. Just do them in order. You are not required to do each in direct order one after the other... but you want to be sure to take care of all 3 mastery of the first 3 tiers before you move too far along... there are a lot of skill points you pick up in these jobs, and that is important to stay ahead of the rising xp costs per level. It may initially force you to take a break for a few hours, or even overnight once or twice to regain energy to get through these first jobs. Do it. it's gonna take you a while to build up your mafia anyway... so burn your energy on poor jobs and take the time to go build a big team.
***If you acquire ALL the NY, Cuba and Moscow energy / stam collections right away; you will have virtually NO downtime.

The next challenge you will face is the high demands for $ starting in the Soldier tier. This stuff is expensive, but there is an easy solution...
Get a hit.

Man, this is sweet! Hitlisting is a bit of an art too. It may take you a while, so as soon as you get access to hitlisting, start dumping your stamina there.
1. don't waste stam on anything less than $800,000. That is the "magic number" to buy all the inventory for Soldier... or you'll need $4million for everything through hitman tier.
2. if it is a 7 digit bounty, that target probably has quite a few levels.
On a slow day, most big bounties die in less than 1 minute. so I typically count to 5 and then attack and attack again slowly until either I run out of stam or the target dies.
On a busy day, it could take hours for a target to be killed.. so if they have been on the list more than 1 minute, skip the attack, and wait for another juicy target to pop up.

Next part, we'll look at actually clearing levels through NY.

Thanks for reading! More to come.

The Big Picture

2009-10-26T10:29:00.000-07:00

First off... I want to admit that I am standing on the shoulders of a giant.
http://mafiawarsguide.blogspot.com/2009/05/mafia-wars-strategy-guide-summary.html
This blog taught me the basics of speed leveling back when there was only NY jobs.

I used that guide as a start to go from level 1 - 1000 in about 3 months-- so it's GOOD, but there have been MANY expansions to the game since those beginnings. There are so many options and activities in Mafia Wars now; it is important to have a strategy to optimize your time and the levels you attain.

This blog's true function is a "Building Bible" for our clan, Soldiers of Peace. Our goal is to help our team members reach their personal goals in the game, regardless of how casual or fanatical each member chooses to play.
We simply want our Soldiers to succeed-- as measured by their own standards.

This extends out to the MW community as a whole. Our clan is always seeking excited players that want to be a part of something bigger; but the information itself should be available to all.
So we present this blog as a tool for optimizing your game... whether you want to simply know the most effective strategy to finishing jobs in various cities or know how to sculpt your account to achieve specific styles of play. Be welcome to take what you want, and leave the rest.

If this blog resonates with you, [SOP] may be a good choice for how you spend your time playing. I'll say without ego that SOP is truly doing something special.

Big shout out to my many supporters as I grew in knowledge and ability.
Primarily-- the members of our clan, Soldiers of Peace
(http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=237571172671)
For whom I am privileged to serve, and thrilled to know.
I also appreciate my extended FB friends network
www.facebook.com/killfear
I simply would not be able to achieve any of this without all of you!