If you decide to play Mafia Wars (or any game in Facebook) seriously; I would highly recommend you set-up a “play account” that you use strictly for playing games. Keep your personal Facebook account that you interact with your real friends and family separate from your gaming account.
You would be surprised at the number of people who will look up your personal information (it’s kind of creepy), and there are a lot of perverts lurking around using games as a guise for their personal enjoyment.
Out of the three character choices you have in the game when first registering (Fearless, Mogul and Maniac); Fearless is the best choice if you are looking to just level up quickly; without care of attack or defense. If you are looking for a more leveled player, then Maniac is a better choice. For a more in depth discussion and analysis; please review the advanced strategy guide.
Build your Mafia to 501 members as quickly as possible. This may be the opposite of what you have read on other’s strategy guides, but having a large Mafia helps win fights. Also think about it from this point: if you have 501 people in your Mafia, the actual number 501 looks intimidating to someone who may be deciding to attack you. Also, as you move forward in the game, you will find it harder and harder to win fights without *at least* 501 Mafia members.
Going along with the concept of having 501 Mafia; try and get as many Mafia members as possible (if you think you can get to 5000 members: then do it!). The earlier the better! Why is this? Simple: Zynga added extra features in September that make it worth you while to have a larger mafia that will discussed in other tips found here.
This tip is in every guide, and is always worth repeating: make sure you have one weapon, armor and vehicle for each member of your mafia (hopefully 501). When you go and attack someone in the game (or they attack you); the number of mafia you have will use that many of each of the most powerful weapon, armor and vehicle (or loot in most cases) you have in your inventory. This is what creates the "Mafia Attack Strength" and "Mafia Defense Strength" number you see on the inventory page. Of course (using 501 mafia as an example), attack weapons are different from defense weapons; so as you move forward in the game, you will have many sets of loot weapons for each of Attack and Defense.
Don't waste your Godfather points on rare items the Godfather offers. For example, usually the Godfather offers a high end weapon each week to add to your arsenal. This is NOT worth it. Trust me, the godfather weapons in most cases are weaker than the loot you can find in higher levels of Cuba and/or Moscow.
Instead, buying skill points with your Godfather points is the best way to use your Godfather points. Currently the Godfather offers 4 skill points for 14 Godfather points. This is the best item on the list to buy for many reasons; there will be an in depth analysis and discussion of it in the advanced strategy guide.
Buy as many "Mafia Mike's" as possible. They can’t be attacked, and they pay out the best value; bottom line is you want property that is safe, gives you income in New York so that you buy weapons to complete the jobs in each Tier.
- I would suggest you do the following if you are looking to collect Godfather points faster. When playing the Daily chance lotto, you will have a chance to “Claim Ticket Mastery bonus” after you submit a ticket (or multiple tickets). If you wait, and let it build up all the way to 6 of 6 ; you will have a chance to win up to 5 Godfather points. Remember though, it is a chance to win up to 5 GF points. The minimum you get is still 1 GF point!
- The optimal strategy for playing the “Daily Chance Lotto”:
Step 1 - Play Mafia Wars everyday, making sure you get one ticket each day for seven days. This means the Godfather will have given you 7 tickets in total by the end of the week.
Step 2 - Select your numbers and submit your ticket. This will bring your ticket mastery progress meter to 1. Do not claim the mastery bonus yet! Instead, hold off till the next day for your 2nd ticket! If you have 2 or more tickets left, then move on to the next step.
Step 3 - Submit one more ticket, brining your ticket mastery progress meter to 2. Collecting the ticket mastery bonus after 2 tickets are submitted; you will get one free ticket. Select your numbers and submit this free ticket you just received. Now the ticket mastery progress meter should be at 1. However, DO NOT collect the bonus at 1, submit another ticket (if you have any left), or wait until tomorrow to receive another ticket!
Step 4 - Repeat step 3 when you get another ticket. Get the idea? You want to keep collecting those free tickets you receive after the ticket mastery progress meter reaches 2, and submit those free tickets right away. Essentially, you are getting 2 tickets per day, by using these steps. If you use this strategy, you should be able to submit up to 13 tickets per week from just the tickets you get from playing Mafia Wars each day (assuming you play everyday for a week of course), instead of the 7 you would normally get without using this strategy. Plus at the end of the week, when you can't get anymore tickets to get you to 2 on the mastery bonus, just claim your ticket mastery bonus with 1, and get a random loot item (although its not great, at least its something!).
Make certain that when you have access to Cuba and/or Moscow; as soon as you can travel there to do so. Even if you decide not to start the Cuba or Moscow Tiers, make sure to just travel there and start the respective businesses. This is because each country requires a significant amount of the local monies to purchases weapons, armor, and vehicles needed to do jobs in each tier. Trust me, by collecting and saving money now, you will feel less frustrated when you decide to take on the tiers in Cuba and/or Moscow.
Proceed to Chapter 1 - Tips for starting off
