Mafia War

Double Your Chop Shop

2010-04-07T02:21:00.000-07:00

In case you've been living under a rock and missed this, here is an easy way to produce 2 cars a day at your chop shop:

1. Wait until your chop shop is ready to build a car and ready to collect parts from.
2. Build a car (prior to collecting parts).
3. Collect your parts. Your car building timer will have just reset!
4. Build another car.

You can repeat this every 24 hours. Enjoy getting twice the cars while it lasts!

Speaking of how long it will last - I'm not really sure. On one hand, many players know about this and are using it. On the other hand, it's not going to break the game as it is limited by the amount of car parts you have, so it may be low on the priority list.

New Chop Shop Levels and Cars

2010-04-07T02:20:00.000-07:00

The Chop Shop is now upgradeable to level 12 and several new cars have been added! First, there are a few new mid-level cars, the Sirroco 9-Z (48 car parts; 46 attack, 15 defense) and the Andresen 420si (68 car parts; 41 attack, 43 defense):

Additionally, there are 2 new high-end cars that come along with levels 11 and 12:

The Mugati Sport (35 attack, 51 defense, and +3 to your total max defense skill) costs 135 car parts and 1 "High Tech Car Part", which is a brand new piece. The Hunter 'Spy' XS (52 attack, 29 defense, and +3 to your total max attack skill) costs 155 car parts and 2 high tech car parts.

It's a bit of a toss-up on which car to pick now! On one hand, the two new cars, at only providing +3 stats (compared to the +5 energy or stamina cars), may seem a bit weaker. However, with 51 defense and 52 attack on each of these cars respectively, these pieces are also very strong. Since robbing small properties weighs heavily on your most powerful items, if you end up robbing a lot, you may want to beef up your stats by picking some of these new cars up.

High-tech car parts a new rare drop that drops randomly from any job, apparently in any city.

Easter Crime Basket Limited Time Event

2010-04-07T02:19:00.000-07:00

It looks like Mafia Wars decided to roll out a last-minute Easter event after all. Fortunately, this is a week-long event, starting today and lasting until April 9th at midnight.

This event is fairly straight-forward to finish up, but it seems like it will be a little more difficult than previous events. Here is how it works:

Step 1: Master the Easter Job to 100%

This is the easiest in the bunch. Simply repeat the limited time job and get to 100% mastery. No matter which of the 3 jobs you end up picking, all of them will add to your mastery total. The 5 minute job gives 1% total, the 8 hour job gives 12% total, and the 24 hour job gives 20% total.

Just make sure you are always doing a job and this will be finished in no time. For mastering the job you will get the Golden Egg (collection piece). There may be an additional item reward - will know soon enough.

Complete the Easter Egg Collection

Unlike the previous holiday event collections, collection items are no longer drop randomly from fights. Here is where you will find each egg:

Striped Egg - Crew Collections
Polka Dot Egg - Crew Collections
Checkered Egg - Crew Collections
Plaid Egg - Crew Collections
Paisley Egg - Free Gifts (friends send them to you)
Last Year's Egg - Random drop from the limited time Easter job (all 3 choices can drop this)
Golden Egg - Rewarded for getting to 100% mastery on the Easter job.

Yep, crew collections. This can be kind of a pain, since helping your friends does not give you one of the eggs as well. The only way to get an item is to have a friend help you out or have one gifted to you (by trading or by a 2nd account).

How to Help Friends

Search your news feed for a Mafia Wars message such as this:

After agreeing to help out your friend, you will get the following message:

Once you click "Start Searching", it will work just like any crew collection. It does not appear as if the job is hidden in the last tier you were in - I ended up helping people in Bangkok and then Moscow without ever changing cities. This job can be done to help your friend find the item:

While doing the job, you have a random chance to find the egg. The drop rate is not particularly good - perhaps around 5-10%:

Notice that my reward was 200 XP, not the Striped Egg. Only the person you help gets the egg, you have to have someone help you in order to get an egg!

Getting Friends to Help

This is pretty simple - just go to your collections page and click "Ask Mafia" next to the Egg Collection.

If someone completes the process listed above, you will get your egg. While it seems that up to 5 people can assist you for each call for help, unfortunately, you will get the same egg each time rather than different eggs (at least in my initial experience).

There is an 8 hour cool-down between asking for help, so it will take a bit for everyone to get their eggs.

At any rate, for vaulting the collection you get an Easter Metsubushi, which I am guessing is a weapon with 26 attack and 48 defense.

Step 3: Complete the "How Eggsciting" Achievement

Pretty simple here - this achievement is rewarded for vaulting the collection and mastering the Easter job.

Step 4: Find the Thugs Bunny

This item drops randomly (but rarely) from any of the limited time Easter Jobs.

If you do the 24 hour limited time Easter job each time, you will easily master the job by the time that the event is over. However, due to the essence of the random number generator, if you want a sure-shot to get all your items, you will want to do the 5 minute job quite a few times - if you just do the 24 hour job 7 times, there is a decent chance you could end up with no Thugs Bunny and just a bunch of extra collection pieces.

I'm guessing the drop rate for the Thugs Bunny from the 24-hour job is somewhere around 20-30%. As a result, if you did the 24-hour job exclusively and didn't spend any godfather points to speed up the timer, there is a 8% (if the drop rate is 30% to 21% (if the drop rate is 20%) chance you will wind up without a Thugs Bunny. It's hard to say just yet what the drop rate is - just know that you've been warned!

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And that's it for this event. If you are having problems getting people to help you out on the Crew Collections, try helping a few friends out and then posting on their wall to let you know you did so. They will be much more likely to help you back in that case!

Robbing Mastery Requirements and rewards

2010-04-02T05:45:00.001-07:00

Along with the addition of robbing, there is now a mastery system that allows players to "level up" as they complete more successful robberies.

There are 10 total levels, and each level confers a new title to the player along with a "reward" of some sort. Here is what is known so

Level: Title earned for mastering level, # of heists needed, bonus earned for making it to the next level

[For finish level 1 and reaching] Level 2: Burglar, 10 heists, 6% bonus XP for robbing

Level 3: Master Burglar, 25 heists (more heists, the 10 from the previous level do not count), 7% bonus XP for robbing

Level 4: Apprentice Robber, 100 heists, 8% bonus XP for robbing

Level 5: Robber, 500 heists, 9% bonus XP for robbing

Level 6: Master Robber, 1000 heists, 10% bonus XP for robbing

Level 7: Apprentice Thief, 2500 heists, 12% bonus XP for robbing

Level 8: Thief, 5000 heists, 15% XP for robbing

Level 9: Master Thief, ??? (guessing 10,000) heists, guessing the bonus will be ~20% XP bonus

Level 10: Grand Master Thief, ??? (guessing 20,000) heists - this is the title for level 10 - I am not sure yet if this title will be granted to the player simply for reaching level 10 or if the player has to max out level 10 mastery first. I'm guessing the reward will be ~25% XP bonus, along with an item of some sort. It has been stated that we will receive an item reward, just not sure what it is yet. It will be awhile simply due to the large number of heists needed to get this high, but perhaps we will find out early if someone exploits!

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Strategy:

Note that quality of type of heist does not matter for leveling up. The only thing that is important is winning. You do not get bonus mastery % for robbing high-stamina cost targets (Casinos etc). As a result, you want to focus on robbing low stamina cost targets.

If your board looks like this:

Flophouse x2 (costs 2 stamina to rob)
Pawn Shop x3 (costs 3 stamina to rob)
Restaurant x2 (costs 7 stamina to rob)
Mega Casino x2 (costs 20 stamina to rob)

..by robbing (successfully) the 2 flophouses, you will add 2 successful heists to your total, while only spending 4 stamina (10 times more efficient than robbing casinos).

As a result, I recommend never robbing casinos (unless you are trying to collect cash or XP). It's simply a lot faster to level up your robbing mastery by robbing everything but the most expensive targets (casinos, uptown hotels, and even office parks) and getting new, cheaper targets.

Think about it this way - you can leave 4 properties unrobbed each time and for only a 4 stamina cost, however, simply by robbing a Casino over a Flophouse, you have spent 18 more stamina!

In short, rob the cheapest properties and then refresh your property page.

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In other news, I'm not sure if we will see an Easter event or not. It's in between being a Christian holiday only and being secularized, so I wouldn't be surprised if there is not an event associated with it. Holiday events didn't become the "norm" until the 4th of July event, so there's no way to know for sure since we didn't see what they did last year.

Also there's a few new free gift items, so if you're into collecting weak loot, it's your lucky day!

You can also get a new 51 attack, 30 defense weapon (Pocket Rockets) by leveling up in Zynga Poker. The reward system is buggy as usual, can't help you there if you didn't get it! The only tip I have for you is to go into your achievements page in Mafia Wars after you have earned your levels.

More Robbing Details and Information

2010-03-25T02:24:00.000-07:00

So, earlier today a new post was mentioned containing more information on the upcoming re-implementation of robbing. Here is how it is going to work:

When you click on the "robbing" tab, you will be given access to a "grid" of a few properties, from which you can decide who you want to rob.

Couple of things:

1. For robbing properties, you get experience for a separate leveling bar. Level 10, the top level, earns you the title of Grand Master Thief (hopefully you can use that as your profile name) and an unknown reward item.

2. You can earn robbing collection pieces from robbing.

3. Note that the difficulty level of each property is already calculated for you. So when you decide to rob an easy target, you'll probably win 100% of the time, and if you decide to rob a "Hard" target, you'll probably lose 100% of the time. Turns out you won't need to use your brain with the new feature.

4. Also, note that the stamina cost appears to vary from property to property. In the picture above, robbing a casino appears to cost 20 stamina. This may depend on the level of the property, we will have to find out. It's a nice change either way, as spending a few hundred stamina can be a pain. Hopefully the reward for spending that extra stamina matches the cost.

5. Getting new targets appears to cost stamina (note top left of the picture). So if you can't find anyone to beat on the robbing list, it looks like you'll have to spend some stamina to get a new list.

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While it's too early to make too many assumptions, I can safely assume that robbing will be stamina intensive (20 stamina for robbing the casino in the pic above, and 6 stamina just to get targets). As a result, I'd recommend stocking up on stamina over the next few days if you plan on doing a lot of robbing. The Rebel 2 chop shop car gives +5 stamina for building - considering making one of those each day until robbing comes out.

New Mystery Bag Items

2010-03-23T02:05:00.000-07:00

The mystery bags got a makeover - same concept, just new items.

In addition to some new items, players can now get 100 Free XP from mystery bags.

Here is what I have found so far:

100 Experience Points
Wishlist Items
Many different kinds of boosts
+5 Free Skill Points
+1 Reward Point
Chop Shop Items
Cricket Cage
Uilleann Pipes (St. Patrick's Day Collection Item)
Shamrock
Luck of the Irish
Green Limo

..and I'm sure there are a lot more items (feel free to post what you find in the comments).

The unfortunate thing that is a lot of these items are either 1) free gifts 2) easily gotten (chop shop items, boosts, etc).

There are still a few useful items (+100 XP, +5 skill points, +1 reward point), however, it seems that once again the "good" rewards are limited. Nearly everyone's first mystery bag seems to yield 100 XP, and the +skill points and +reward points are fairly rare. However, they're certainly better than nothing! The +5 skill point reward can go very far along with the extra stamina and energy each day from the chop shop!

St. Patrick's Day Collection and Dublin Derby Event

2010-03-18T03:30:00.000-07:00

The St. Patrick's Day event is now live! Here are the details:

Fix the Dublin Derby

There is a new limited time job, and like previous events, there is a 5 minute, 8 hour, and 24 hour option.

Each job has it's own item associated with it:

Blackmail the Judges: Vintage Binoculars (weapon; 14 attack, 23 defense). Thanks Juliano for the pic!

Switch the Jockey: Horse Training Whip (weapon; 24 attack, 13 defense)

Steal the Favored Horse: Horse Trailer (22 attack, 16 defense)

For mastering the job (getting 100% mastery), you will get the Winner's Wreath:

Much like Valentine's Day, there is a new collection, the St. Patrick's Day Collection. There are 7 total pieces:

Irish Flag (drops from featured job - simply keep performing the featured jobs until you get the flag)
Green Fireworks (drops from random jobs; any normal job can drop this)
Leprechaun (drops from random jobs; any normal job can drop this)
Green Bowler's Cap (drops from random jobs; any normal job can drop this)
Lucky Pint Glass (drops randomly from fights; any normal fight can drop this)
Pot of Gold (drops randomly from fights; any normal fight can drop this)
Bag Pipes (free gift from friends; can be sent on the free gifts page)

This time, all the limited time jobs drop the Irish Flag (not just the 5 minute job like with the Heart Tattoo). Since every limited time job can drop the Irish Flag, it is unlikely that it will be as valuable as the Heart Tattoo became, although there is a chance this item will be at least worth a high-end loot piece or two.

The reward for vaulting the collection is the Irish Wolfhound (weapon; 48 attack, 29 defense).

Lucky Shot Achievement

For vaulting the collection and mastering off the Dublin Derby limited time job, you can achieve the Lucky Shot achievement.

Find the Rare Dublin Stallion

This item has a very low % drop rate from the limited time job and can also be purchased for Godfather points. It is a horse (vehicle) with 26 attack and 51 defense.

Lucky's Pot o' Gold:

From the marketplace. I'm not really sure what the appeal here is - buying 7 items (and spending 100 reward points+) for a chance to win 100 reward points? That's like buying a raffle ticket for $5 for a chance to win $4.

I'm not sure what marketplace items count for the total. If you find out, feel free to leave a comment!

Crew Collections; Prototype Carjacking, Theft of a Drone, and Weapons Shipping Hijacking

2010-03-13T02:38:00.000-08:00

A new type of collection has been introduced to the game - the Crew Collections.

Here is how it works:

Basically, you can get collection pieces either by 1) asking for help 2) helping out your friends. However, it is not quite that simple.

Helping a Friend

When you offer to help a friend, you get around 1 hour to "find" the piece assigned to you in the mission. The drop is completely random but unfortunately very rare. As a result, it can take quite a few job completions to get your item, which can be tough within the hour time span. Your best bet is to repeat the 1 energy cost job in the Street Thug tier.

Once you find the piece your friend is looking for, you will both get a copy of the item. You can help out 5 friends in a 24 hour period.

Additionally, you have to earn at least 1 piece from each collection before you can call for help on it, so you will have to help out friends who have other collections unlocked in order to get access to all the items.

Asking for Help

When you ask for help, in order to get the item needed, you have to get your friends to help you and then actually have them procure the item within the hour! This will not happen often, since only 5 friends total can help you out and the item drop that they are looking for is pretty rare. However, since you can only call for help once every 48 hours (total, not once for each collection), odds are your friends will at least try to help you out in an effort to earn a piece for themselves.

Sets and Rewards

As noted above, it can be quite tough to complete these collections. It's certainly doable if you spend a lot of time playing and chasing down these collections, however, it does not seem to be much worth the effort at the moment:

Reward for the Prototype Carjacking collection: Koenigsberg S10 (vehicle; 30 attack, 46 defense).

Reward for the Theft of a Drone collection: Military Spy Drone (vehicle; 33 attack, 47 defense).

Reward for the Weapons Shipping Hijacking collection: Fox Hunter (weapon; 48 attack, 27 defense).

As it stands, collecting these items does not seem to be worth the effort given that these are not much better than top-tier loot pieces. If you really want to finish the collections and are a high level player, I'm sure it will be quite easy to trade high-end loot pieces for the collection pieces rather than collecting the pieces yourself.

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Personally, I'm not going to even bother with these collections right now - the items just aren't worth the time spent. I'm sure in a week or two these collection pieces will plummet in value rapidly, and it will be easy to pick up a full collection set for a mere 10-20 high end loot pieces.

Ace in the Sleeve

2010-03-13T02:37:00.000-08:00

Ace in the Sleeve (53 attack, 23 defense) is an item now available in Mafia Wars.

To get this item, simply install the Zynga Poker App and get to level 6 (in poker). About the best way to do this seems to be to just get into a 1 round tournament and play.

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String of Firecrackers now has 46 defense. This is the reward from the Mystery Bag Collection.

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There are two new free gifts: Zip Line (vehicle; 15 attack and 20 defense) and Hyena on Chain (weapon; 20 attack, 16 defense).

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There's not much else going on in the game right now. St. Patrick's Day is coming up, so expect an in-game holiday event soon!

Chop Shop - The Final Word

2010-03-13T02:36:00.000-08:00

So, I've been messing around with the Chop Shop over the last few days, and here are the highlights:

Upgrades

The Chop Shop is upgradeable up to level 10. There are 5 items you will need for each upgrade: Shipping Containers, Cement Blocks, Power Tools, Car Lift, and Acetylene Torches. There are several ways to get these upgrade pieces:

- As free gifts. Every Mafia Wars player can send 2 types of these upgrade pieces as free gifts.

- From jobs and fighting. These upgrade pieces are a somewhat rare drop from doing jobs and fighting in any city.

- By asking for help. Every 24 hours, you can post a request for "help" collecting an item. Simply go into the Chop Shop page and click "Upgrade" and you will see an "Ask for Help" button below some of the item types. Pick the one you have the lowest one and offer up a request. Note: This 24 hour timer seems to reset if you upgrade your chop shop, so it is possible to call for help on items back to back.

- By spending godfather points. You can trade 1 godfather point for each item. It would require quite a few Godfather points to fully upgrade your chop shop, as you will a few hundred of these pieces to finish up.

The cost for upgrading = (current level + 4) car parts of each type. For example:

If you are level 5, you will need 9 (5 + 4) of each type of ingredient to upgrade your chop shop to level 6.

By upgrading your Chop Shop, your shop will produce more car parts per hour. You will also gain access to more vehicle types, which are listed in the Chop Shop Cars post.

Parts

Your chop shop will produce "Car Parts" on its own every 24 hours. This is a generic item and you will need quite a few of these items to make cars. You can also find these generic car parts as a common drop from fighting and doing jobs in any city. In addition to these items, some cars require other specialty car parts, such as Thai Car Parts, Bulletproof Glass, and Solar Panels.

Solar panels and Bulletproof Glass drop randomly from doing jobs and fighting in what seems like any city (though I found mine in New York). They have a very low drop rate, but if you play a lot, you will find a lot of these.

City Car Parts (Thai Car Parts, Cuban Car Parts, etc) drop from their prospective cities randomly while doing jobs and fighting. For example, you will only find Cuban Car Parts when fighting and doing jobs in Cuba.

Vehicles

Now, the Chop Shop no longer produces 1 vehicle randomly every 24 hours. You have to build vehicles using the car parts listed above. I listed all the vehicles in a previous post linked above that you can choose from. Unlock more vehicles by upgrading your chop shop.

Note that you can only produce 1 vehicle per 24 hours, even if you have the car parts. As a result, you want to pick the best possible cars to build.

Right now, it seems the best two cars are the Rebel 2 and the Solar Flare. The Rebel 2, with 40 attack and 45 defense, has pretty good stats and gives you +5 stamina for purchasing. That would be +5 max stamina - so you could go from 15/15 to 20/20 by purchasing this vehicle.

The Solar Flare stats aren't as high as the Rebel 2 but it gives out +5 energy for purchasing. Once again, that is max energy. Each time you buy another one of these cars you can increase your stats by +5. The only catch is that you can only do it once every 24 hours.

Since you can increase your stats through this function, you can make big improvements in your character as it is like getting an extra level up each day that you build one of these cars. By doing this for a month, you could end up with an extra max 150 stamina or energy points. This will in turn result in more jobs done and more fights participated in, which would precipitate further levels and even more stat points. This is definitely a worthwhile use of your Mafia Wars time, don't ignore it if you want to stay ahead of the curve!

Chop Shop Upgrade - Info, Cars, and Parts

2010-03-13T02:35:00.000-08:00

The new Chop Shop is now live in game! Here's how it works.

The original 5 Chop Shop pieces can be used to upgrade your Chop Shop to different levels (power tools, cement blocks, etc).

There are 10 total levels, with each level unlocking a new car type and the ability of your Chop Shop to produce more parts.

At any rate, it starts off costing 5 of each type of car part for each level and this number increases by 1 per level (6 to get to level 3, 7 to get to level 4, etc).

There are a large variety of car types available at the Chop Shop. Here is a list:

Level 1: Random common car - 10 car parts required

Level 2: Random rare car - 25 car parts

Level 3: Tasmanian - 36 attack, 34 defense - 30 car parts

Level 4: CM Santiago R10 - 42 attack, 30 defense - 30 car parts and 2 Cuban Car Parts (guessing these drop from fights and jobs in Cuba)

Level 5: Rebel 2 - 40 attack, 45 defense, +5 stamina (not sure if you can collect +5 stamina each time you can collect a car - need confirmation) - 45 car parts and 2 bulletproof glass.

Level 6: Russian Dazatz 45 - 18 attack, 46 defense - 50 car parts and 2 Russian Car Parts

Level 7: Solar Flare - 34 attack, 34 defense, +5 energy - 65 car parts and 1 solar panel

Level 8: Thai XS Max - 45 attack, 35 defense - 75 car parts and 2x Thai Car Parts

Level 9: Trio Napoli - 47 attack, 23 defense - 95 car parts

Level 10: Red Angel - 16 attack, 49 defense - 115 car parts

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Some more information:

Car parts drop randomly from all sorts of jobs and fights, as do the specialty items such as "solar panel" and "bulletproof glass". The specialty items seem to be rarer but still seem to be a random drop.

Additionally, each type of zone based cart part drops from its respective city (Cuban Car Part drops in Cuba, Thai Car Part drops in Bangkok, etc). These drop from random jobs and fights as well - you just have to be in the city.

You can also get car parts pieces simply by fighting and doing jobs. It would seem that the fastest way to upgrade your chop shop would be to repeat a low energy cost job in New York!

Chop Shop Update and Upgrade

2010-03-13T02:34:00.000-08:00

Mafia Wars just announced an upgrade to the currently weak Chop Shop property. Currently, the Chop Shop produces 1 random vehicle every 24 hours, of varying quality, making it a fairly useless item. However, here are the slotted changes noted on the fan page:

We're updating our Chop Shop! Now, not only will you get car parts dropped from jobs and fighting, your Chop Shop will also produce car parts for you. Collect and turn them into hot vehicles. Also be sure to upgrade your shop to produce more car parts and unlock new rides! Updated Chop Shop coming soon!

Note that the Chop Shop is coming soon - it's not in game yet. Apparently, the chop shop will now produce car parts that can be turned into vehicles. I'm guessing players will be able to choose which vehicle they want to construct, so if a player who already has it all wants to collect 100 car parts for a top tier vehicle, he can do so, while a low-end player will be able to make some decent vehicles for a much lower cost.

Additionally, note that these car parts will drop from fighting and jobs - giving players a chance to earn extra vehicles that way.

Finally, it looks like the Chop Shop will now be upgradeable to different levels, enabling it to produce more cars or car parts. We'll have to see. Not sure when the upgrade is due in.

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Note: Collection pieces from the Valentine's Day Collection event (which are no longer collectible, but still able to be vaulted) are increasing rapidly in value. I expect a similar situation (but not quite to the same degree) with the mystery bag collection if they ever discontinue the mystery bags. Perhaps stock up on a few to be safe, and if you have a Heart Tattoo left over from Valentine's Day, know that it is now quite valuable!

Free Godfather Points Links

2010-03-01T00:22:00.001-08:00

To celebrate the release of the marketplace, there are two new free godfather points link from the Official Mafia Wars Fan Page on Facebook. Both links have been reported to work, possibly providing you with double GF points (thanks Milhael)!

http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/track.php?next_controller=marketplace&next_action=fan_blast&zy_link=marketplace0225&id=15

http://apps.facebook.com/inthemafia/track.php?next_controller=marketplace&next_action=fan_blast&zy_link=marketplace0226&id=16

You get a random number of Godfather points from 1-5. While it's a small condolence to those that accidentally spent 35 points on items, at least it's something.

Mafia Wars Marketplace Now Live

2010-02-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

So, the Mafia Wars Marketplace that has been mentioned over the last few days was just added into the game.

Essentially, the Godfather store has become flash-based. Note the menu bar on the side - you can scroll through for a variety of items of different sorts. This effectively lets Zynga sell more items in the Godfather store without making the page look cluttered.

There is no real significant changes except that now you can buy practically every type of boost and a large variety of limited edition loot pieces.

One of the more noticeable changes actually has nothing to do with the new interface, but rather the fact that there are now limited edition loot pieces which have a decent stat advantage over best-in-slot loot pieces.

Example of a few items you can buy:

Widowmaker (weapon; 27 attack, 52 defense)

Twin AK 47's (weapon; 52 attack, 26 defense)

Twin Garza 9s (weapon; 53 attack, 24 defense)

Love Birds (weapon; 26 attack, 53 defense)

Armed Doorman (armor; 51 attack, 24 defense)

Motorcycle Jacket (25 attack, 50 defense)

Mountain Goat (vehicle; 22 attack, 52 defense)

Crop Duster (vehicle; 52 attack, 28 defense)

While it was about time they made limited edition loot pieces worth while, the thing is that these higher end items now cost 35 godfather points. Ouch!

That seems like all with the Marketplace.. just expect 5-15 new limited edition loot pieces each week rather than the normal 3 pieces.

Class Changes Now Available!

2010-02-24T05:11:00.001-08:00

After many months of pleading, players are now able to change classes for 15 godfather points! You can pick this your class change in the godfather tab:

Additionally, Fearless and Mogul accounts have been improved. Fearless characters now regenerate stamina in 2 minutes less time (so 1 stamina every 2 min 30 sec for those with the Chainsaw Bayonet). Mogul characters now receive +40% bonus payout from this.

Now, note that there is no cooldown for this, so players are freely able to swap between classes. Need money for Bangkok? Switch to a mogul for a few days, spend all your energy, and then switch back to Fearless or Maniac. Same thing could be done for finishing content - when you still have content to clear, you can be a maniac, but as soon as you finish that, you can go back to Fearless to fight more often.

Additionally, many of you know that Fearless is my favorite class, so the fact that they now regenerate stamina, in my opinion, leads me to believe that Fearless is now the best class in the game in the vast majority of situations. Before, most players picked Maniac, but now, I see no reason not to pick fearless.

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Oh, and there's 3 new property achievements in game (all are easy to get), will post them up later!

Chop Shop New York Property

2010-02-21T23:39:00.000-08:00

For the first time in well over a year, there is a new property available in New York, the Chop Shop!

However, you can't buy it. You have to "build" it with free gifts:

Essentially, there are 5 different item types that you will need to pick up 10 of each from your friends (50 total items). The only thing is that each person only has access to 2 of the Chop Shop items, so you will need to collect from at least 3 different friends! To send these items to your Mafia Friends, simply go to the free gifts page and look for the items labeled "Chop Shop".

Here are the 5 items required to build your shop:

Acetylene Torches
Cement Blocks
Power Tools
Car Lift
Shipping Containers

You will need 10 of each! Alternatively, you can buy pieces for one godfather point.

Once completed, your Chop Shop is a standalone building that produces 1 random vehicle each day. The quality of the vehicle seems to be completely random as noted by the info in game - you can end up coming back for the day to collect a completely worthless vehicle or a good one. I see it as more of an incentive for people to check out this developing properties page.

Respect Gift Safe House

2010-02-21T23:38:00.000-08:00

Looks like the Valentine's Day gift safe house has been replaced with the "Respect" Gift Safehouse.

The idea is generally the same as the previous gift safe houses - you ask your friend for gifts, and if they accept, you will get a gift in your safehouse. Additionally, the "Love Meter" concept has stayed (if friends send you a positive gift you get 10%), so when you get 10 good gifts, you will get a reward.

The difference is that there appears to be different levels of respect - you start off at 0, and when you open 10 gifts, your "respect level" will rise to 1 in addition to getting a reward.

The reward for hitting level 1 is a switchblade (weapon; 14 attack, 16 defense):

Thanks Jeremy for the picture!

..which is pretty poor. However, in theory, the rewards could increase in value as you level up. I will keep an updated list - if you happen to hit some of the higher levels that haven't been updated, leave a comment or send an e-mail, and I will update accordingly. Here is the list so far (items are awarded upon reaching level):

Level 1: Switchblade (weapon; 14 attack, 16 defense)

Level 2: Grach (weapon; 20 attack, 10 defense)

Level 3: Puggio (weapon; 17 attack, 23 defense)

Level 4: Zip Gun (weapon; 24 attack, 16 defense)

Level 5: Samurai Helmet (armor; 12 attack, 28 defense)

Level 6: Ma Barker's Machine Gun (weapon; 30 attack, 20 defense)

Level 7: Ghillie Suit (armor; 16 attack, 42 defense)

So it appears that the items are indeed increasing in quality as levels rise. It seems like quite a bit of work though to send out all those gift requests and get them all answered for an item that only has 42 defense.

Reaching level 7 is the cap at the moment - hopefully it will rise soon? Not sure what to think about such lousy rewards.

Free Mystery Bags and Chinese New Year Collection

2010-02-19T00:38:00.000-08:00

The gift safe house is finally gone now been replaced by mystery bags, which are a free gift you can receive from your friends.

Rather than making requests for mystery bags, you can send them out to your friends and accept them in the Facebook friend request tab.

In addition to loot pieces, you can also get a collection and even get free godfather points!

There are a variety of pieces you can get for a new Chinese New Year Collection, such as the Baoding Balls:

Unfortunately, the entire collection vaults into String of Firecrackers, which is a pretty weak weapon at 28 attack and 36 defense (thanks Yogesh for the info).

Gift Options (thanks to everyone for contributing):

- 5x of an item off of your wishlist (assuming you have an item on your wishlist that is not the lotto collection)
- +10 free skill points (best IMO)
- 1 free godfather point
- Huey (new limited edition vehicle with 47 attack and 20 defense)
- Chinese New Year collection pieces
- other random loot pieces of all sorts, including collection items and boosts

Crisis Crates Loot List

2010-02-13T12:45:00.000-08:00

The old Bangkok Crates were replaced by a new set, Crisis Crates, late last night in Mafia Wars.

And here is the loot list:

Weapons:

Fire Axe (common): 26 attack, 17 defense

Battering Ram (common): 28 attack, 14 defense

Shock Paddles (uncommon): 36 attack, 16 defense

Shaped Charge (rare): 51 attack, 25 defense - about time there was a decent loot piece from the crates

Armor:

EMT (uncommon): 18 attack, 35 defense

Ironside Tactical Vest (rare): 27 attack, 49 defense

Vehicles:

Hook and Ladder (common): 15 attack, 27 defense

Trauma Chopper (uncommon): 21 attack, 34 defense

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While the Shaped Charge might seem good, these are still a waste of GF points. It looks like they are headed on the right direction by making the rare items slightly better than the best-in-slot loot pieces. It's just not worth it right now though, especially since those pieces have such a low % drop rate.

Common items should be as good as uncommon items are now, uncommon items should be comparable (maybe 1-2 point advantage) over the best-in-slot pieces, and the rare items should be 8-10 points ahead of the best-in-slot loot pieces. This wouldn't create an unfair advantage for anyone, because it's not like anyone would buy the 3,000 crates needed to completely outfit their character, and even if they did, if they spent those 30,000 GF points that would be required on +4 stats, they would be unstoppable anyway.

Mafia Wars Property Change

2010-02-13T00:37:00.000-08:00

The new property change is now live for everyone. Check it out:

Some of the properties have changed names. Furthermore, some properties need to be collected as often as every 2 hours, whereas others only need to be collected once every other day. For most players (myself included), the properties with a collect time of less than 24 hours just lost a lot of value. Here is the property list:

Louie's Deli (can not be upgraded) - needs to be collected hourly.

Flophouse - needs to be collected every 8 hours.

Pawnshop - needs to be collected every 24 hours.

Tenement - needs to be collected every 48 hours.

Warehouse - needs to be collected every 12 hours.

Restaurant - needs to be collected every 2 hours.

Dockyard - needs to be collected every 8 hours.

Office Park - needs to be collected every 12 hours.

Uptown Hotel - needs to be collected every 24 hours.

Mega Casino - needs to be collected every 48 hours.

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Undeveloped lots were automatically converted into cash for players; lots are no longer purchaseable.

Players also now upgrade their buildings rather than buy new ones. If you had 300 mega casinos prior to the update, you will now have a "Level 300 Mega Casino".

Overall, this appears to be a nerf as some properties need to be collected manually every few hours, whereas before, many people did not have to collect a take at all (myself included).

The real purpose behind this change (I hope) is to allow players to rob each other's high level properties for some big $ and also give property some unique features (hence the map that is "Coming Soon".

I'm looking forward to it, and will withhold further judgment until more information becomes available.

Episode 5B Yakuza or Triads

2010-02-12T00:44:00.001-08:00

It's time for the final installment (unless they put out an Episode 6, hint hint) of Yakuza vs Triads, where you find out which side you should pick. Here we go:

Chapter 2

The Yakuza Tier

The "Make An Example Of A Wealthy Industrialist" job drops the Yakuza-only Lloyds Spectre (vehicle; 18 attack, 45 defense). This is the best-in-slot defensive vehicle. It also costs a Pirate (consumable from Bangkok business) to do this job.

The Triad Tier

The "Extort The Head Of The Hong Kong Polo Club" job drops the Triad-only Type-103 Machine Gun (weapon; 42 attack, 29 defense).

Conclusion:

Note that the Yakuza job drops a good item you will want but the Triad job does not cost a pirate. If you are short on pirates, consider picking Triad until the final time through the tier, and then switch over to Yakuza to give yourself permanent access to the Yakuza-only Lloyds Spectre. If you have plenty of Pirates, just pick Yakuza every time.

Chapter 3

The Yakuza Tier

The "Sneak An Industrial Spy Into Hong Kong" job drops the Yakuza-only Cleaver (weapon; 25 attack, 44 defense).

The Triad Tier

The "Kidnap One Of Wei's Trusted Advisors" job drops the Triad-only Monk's Robe (armor; 29 attack, 41 defense).

Conclusion:

The Monk's Robe (Triad) is garbage and the Cleaver (Yakuza) is not. Furthermore, there is no difference in consumables between Yakuza and Triad. Opt for Yakuza every time here.

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TLDR:

Chapter 2: It depends on your current number of pirates.

Chapter 3: Yakuza, every time.

Valentine's Day Massacre Collection

2010-02-10T00:26:00.000-08:00

As the final piece of the Valentine's Day event, players have the opportunity to collect a brand new collection: the Valentine's Day Massacre Collection.

There are 7 pieces in the collection, but there are specific locations for each piece! The Heart Tattoo can only be received from doing the 5 minute version of the Valentine's Day limited time job. The Shoot the Moon, Stolen Heart, and Heart Locket pieces are found randomly when doing any job. The Box of Chocolates and Love Bear are found randomly when fighting. The Valentine is a free gift from fellow players.

After vaulting the collection, you will receive a Cupid's Arrow (weapon; 37 attack, 27 defense).

Items in the collection are giftable and you can not re-vault this collection for an extra bonus.

I really like the idea of this limited time collection - it is a shame the effort does not match the reward though!

Valentine's Day Massacre Limited Time Job Guide

2010-02-10T00:24:00.000-08:00

The limited time job, Valentine's Day Massacre, is now available in Mafia Wars. It is quite like the New Year's Eve job in that there are 3 different jobs you can pick from, each with different cooldowns and rewards. Additionally, no matter which job you pick, you will earn some job mastery percentage points:

For doing the Trick Target to Attend Meeting, I ended up receiving the Heart Tattoo Valentine's Day collection item. I have ended up getting this collection piece several times, but no luck yet on the rare item. The rare item is the Senza Pari, a vehicle with 21 attack and 12 defense. No picture yet. This job appears to be the only way to get the Heart Tattoo Valentine's Day collection piece.

For doing the Scout Out the Location job, I received a Lookout (armor; 9 attack, 22 defense):

Yes, this item shares the name of a boost.

For doing the Procure Untraceable Sub-Machine Guns job (24 hour cool down, 100 energy cost) I received Purple Gang's Gun (weapon; 19 attack, 30 defense) as a reward:

For hitting 100% job mastery, I received a Highball (weapon; 36 attack, 24 defense):

Nothing too special here; not worth spending the GF points on this event by any means - much better to use them in Bangkok.

Valentine's Day Massacre Love Meter Reward

2010-02-10T00:21:00.002-08:00

The Mafia Wars Valentine's Day Massacre event is now live! Among many features is the Valentine's Day edition of the Gift Safe House. By receiving gifts for the gift house, you can slowly increase your site meter. Once this is maxed, you are rewarded with a limited edition loot, Cupid (46 attack, 27 defense):

Thanks to James for the pictures!

Not a bad item at all considering the relative ease of getting it. Will have more updates on the Valentine's Day Massacre event later tonight!

Episode 5A Yakuza vs Triads

2010-02-10T00:21:00.001-08:00

Outlined below is a loot and job list highlighting the differences between the siding with the Triads or the Yakuza. This is where it starts to get important as higher quality loot is on the line, so pay attention and choose wisely!

Chapter 2

The Yakuza Tier

The "Help Broker A Minato-Matsumura Peace" job drops the Yakuza-only Scalding Hot Tea (weapon; 26 attack, 35 defense)

The Triad Tier

The "Assassinate The Minato-Kai Family Head" job drops the Triad-only Kage Jet (vehicle; 27 attack, 42 defense).

Conclusion: Don't be fooled by the stats on the Kage Jet; it is the same as an Armored State Car which has little value on the market. Siding with the Triads here costs extra drug shipments for the "Frame An Enemy For The Murder" job, so pick Yakuza.

Chapter 3

The Yakuza Tier

The "Gather More Evidence Of A Betrayal" job drops the Yakuza-only Tanto (weapon; 43 attack, 28 defense). This item is tied with the Ubijca Assault Rifle (from Moscow Episode 5) as the best in slot weapon. Since this job has no consumable requirement, this is a good way to farm $B. Note that the first time through, this job only costs 71 energy; with the lotto collection, farming these items can be quite efficient.

The Triad Tier

The "Spread Distrust Among the Yakuza Families" job drops the Triad-only Optical Camo Suit (armor; 43 attack, 26 defense).

Conclusion: The Optical Camo Suit is garbage; the Shturmovik from Episode 4 of Moscow has 2 more attack points. Pick Yakuza here.

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Episode 5A belongs to the Yakuza. Pick them in both Chapter 2 and Chapter 3.