Challenge Mission Paris Chapter 1

Challenge Mission: Paris Chapter 1 is now live! Players can go to Paris via the travel tab and participate in the first of three chapters. Chapter 2 will come out in a week, so you only have 7 days to finish chapter 1 unless you want to end up behind.

As you do jobs, the first thing you will notice is the heat meter:



The heat meter basically makes it very painful to power through the content. When it says "the tougher the job is to complete" it means it requires more energy and more importantly, more Parisian maps. Notice the difference in map cost when I have some heat built up:


After 8 hours passes, the heat meter will reset. It resets all at once; it does not go down over time. It only takes doing 3 jobs to make the heat meter go up. Once the heat meter is in the yellow, jobs cost an extra Parisian map. Once it is towards the higher end, jobs cost an extra 2 Parisian maps.
There are three jobs to complete in Chapter 1:

Enter Paris (requires 9 Parisian maps if you do it at minimal heat - 12% mastery each time you do the job).
Track Down Your Fixer (requires 17 Parisian maps if you do it at minimal heat - 6% mastery).
Gather The Materials

Comparatively, if you work through it in one sitting, it requires about 200 maps.

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So far, it looks like chapter 1 will be pretty easy, as long as you can log on often. If you are able to log on twice a day, 8 hours apart, even if its only for a couple minutes, you will be spending far less time worrying about maps and finishing the content in time. If you want to sit there and work through all the jobs in a day or two, its going to be expensive.

Even if you finish Chapter 1 early, just remember that the developers have said each chapter is harder than the previous episode (just like every city). Just know that by "harder" they mean "will need more Parisian maps". Don't stop stocking up on these even if you blow through Chapter 1.
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Since some of you have been asking about how to get maps: maps drop from fighting, doing jobs, and grid clears in robbing. Grid clears cost a lot of stamina, so this is not an efficient way to get maps.
Do the cheapest job you can afford that still drops random loot items (associate tier jobs in New York for example) in order to rack up a bunch of maps. Also spend your stamina on fighting, as this only costs 1 stamina per fight; each win in a fight can be thought of as a chance to get a map.

Mafia Wars Challenge Mission: Paris

Mafia Wars Paris, also known as "Challenge Mission: Paris", now has a preview available in game. This is actually not like any other city we have done before.


Here is what we can tell so far:

1. Paris, unlike other cities, is basically an extended limited time job.

Yep, that's right. Paris is not actually like any of the other cities. Really, its more like a big limited time job. And it's limited in time - note that on the Travel tab the "limited time only" text underneath the Paris option.


Essentially, once the Paris event goes live (which it seems like it will just before midnight on Sunday night, players will have 3 weeks to finish it. After that, it's gone!

2. You need to some mafia members to get started.


This is pretty easy - just browse around on the Mafia Wars fan page on Facebook and you will see plenty of "add me" comments spammed in reply to all the posts on the wall. Just in case you need to add more new people with the release of additional Paris chapters, I would keep a few people stocked on "add mafia" list and accept them after Chapter 1 comes out (just to be safe).

3. The rate at which you can do jobs depends on how many of these Parisian Maps you own.


As you can see from the text above, you will apparently need a bunch of "Parisian Maps" to finish Paris. You can collect some each day from the Paris screen (just like I have the option to collect 5). They also seem drop randomly from jobs, fighting, and robbing in other cities and can be bought in the marketplace. Start stocking up now; I am guessing we will need a lot of these.

4. There are 3 main rewards for finishing this challenge.


For finishing chapter 1, you will get a Parisian Fixer (armor; 30 attack, 61 defense). For chapter 2, a French Kiss (weapon; 75 attack, 45 defense), and a DaVinci Q415 (vehicle; 63 attack, 103 defense). Since you have to finish the previous chapters to move on to the next chapter, I am assuming this DaVinci Q415 is the final reward for stealing the Mona Lisa (in addition to the achievement):


5. Chapters will roll out weekly.

There are three total chapters, and it seems like we will get access to one more chapter as each week passes. Sunday night we will get Chapter 1, the next Sunday we will get Chapter 2, and the following Sunday we will get Chapter 3. We will have 1 week to finish Chapter 3 before Paris disappears for good.

As mentioned in the beginning of this post, Paris is basically a bigger limited-time job. You will need to log in each day to collect your maps and perhaps find a few from jobs if you want to get everything done in time.

I am assuming other than collecting the maps, none of the new jobs will be too energy intensive. It's just a matter of consistently logging on. This is definitely interesting and I look forward to seeing how it all unfolds.

We'll see in a few days when Chapter 1 opens!

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As a side note, even though it was kind of a big stealth change, businesses have now all been converted over to a property style set-up:


Now all the old businesses produce a static amount of whatever item they used to (no more output / capacity / quality) and have 8 to 72 hour timers for when they are ready for collection. The most expensive businesses take 72 hours to mature, while the ones with goods (like politico corrupto) mature in 8 hours. Everything else is in between.

While this may not seem like a big deal at first, I am thinking this is the developers moving to open up robbing in all cities. Now that all cities will have properties, the same robbing system can be implemented in all cities. I really hope this is the case when Las Vegas comes out - it will be fun when currency is tight to have robbing available. Things will be pretty dicey at the start and there will be lots of robbing and competition!

Oh, and on the topic of robbing, you can now "call for backup" if you lose a robbery with the use of "burners":


Basically, there is now a cell phone icon at the top right of the robbing page, and you start off with a few burners (based on your level).

If you lose a robbery attempt, you can use one of your burners with the "ask mafia for help" button that has now appeared on the grid beneath the property where you failed.

You can ask your mafia for burners each day in order to get more. You can also help people who ask to get 1 more burner per helping attempt.

These burners are pretty useful for energy accounts trying to nab some of the new robbing achievements:


However, note that you can't use a burner on the last property you rob to get the bonus, so save an "easy" property for last. Currently, when you go to rob the last property, you are awarded your grid clear bonus before you can ask for help; you can still ask for help on the last property if you lose, but it won't change the outcome of your bonus either way.

New Mystery Bags

I opened some bags and didn't get one of the already-giftable free gifts. Instead, I received:

- XP Bonus
- Keys to open a gold treasure chest (+10 reward points possible here)
- Daily chance tickets
- Energy boosts (like truck drivers, fixers, etc)
- Attack Boosts
- Chop Shop and Weapons Depot construction items
- Items off your wishlist
- +30% stamina boost
- +5 free skill points.
- Baht (based on level)

I definitely consider this change an upgrade. The rate at which you get good items is more common now and items still drop off the wishlist. It is also a lot more convenient too with the increase in the rate of items dropping.


A little strategy:

You can add high-end Weapons Depot items (such as the Railgun) to your wishlist and then as you open bags, you can find a lot of these items. This is how a few players have 50+ railguns already; rather than trading for them, they simply found them via mystery bags!

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Just some info about this "exclusive" mystery bag: as far as I can tell, there is nothing exclusive about it.


When I clicked "send bag", I was simply taken to this screen:

..which is the same screen you get taken to when you gift mystery bags normally. I think however that mystery bags which come through this invitation end up in a different screen on your Facebook requests page, which is how you might end up with a split between gifts, like so:

Charm 84 MH, King Snake, Ingred 9-9; New Free Gifts

There are three new free gifts available in game, the Charm 84 MH, the King Snake, and the Ingred 9-9.


Charm 84 MH (vehicle; 20 attack, 13 defense)
King Snake (weapon; 23 attack, 12 defense)
Ingred 9-9 (14 attack, 22 defense)

While normally I wouldn't post about this kind of update, I needed an excuse to posting the following picture:

Who else is having fun robbing only casinos and tenements? Looks like this is one way to slow down the rate at which people find diamonds!


Update:

Looks like Mafia Wars decided to invade Cafe World!

Street Thug Job Changes

As I'm sure many of you have noticed, the Street Thug tier got a stealth make-over sometime during the day today:


Let's clear some things up:

- First off, it's clear that this is 1) some sort of test and 2) rushed and incomplete.

- Secondly, there still does appear to be three tiers, though they may not be working for everyone.

- Thirdly, it seems like I (and many others) lost job mastery randomly on some of the jobs. As a side note, I tried mastering these jobs and while I was able to regain my lost mastery, I did not get a new skill point for mastering the job.

- Additionally, it does not appear to show any loot requirements to participate in the jobs. I think this is just a bug, since it doesn't show what jobs drop items either, yet loot still drops.

- Finally, I don't necessarily see this as an attempt to revamp the actual structure of the game but simply the developers converting more features to Flash rather than text. All the jobs in Street Thug can now be repeated really quickly and it seems like the conversion to flash will increase the ease of playing.

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Mystery Vault Info

I finally got selected for the mystery vault - sorry for the delay in reporting this; I just never ended up getting asked for the bonus! Here is what it is and how it works:

When you log in, in what seems a random fashion, you have the chance to get this pop-up:


Note: You MUST have your email address submitted or you will not see this pop-up. You must give Mafia Wars permission to e-mail you or you will not be able to take advantage of this feature. You can add your e-mail at the "set-up" tab at the top of your Mafia Wars screen.

Once you have the pop-up and your e-mail address submitted, simply click "Email Me The Code". You will receive in email in a few moments.

Unlike the text says, you don't actually get a code. You get a link that you can click on in your inbox. Simply click on it, and you will log in and see an option right on the home page to "Open the Vault". Click that and get your reward:


So, the feature isn't too bad. It's not great, but it's not bad. What you'll get is 2 decent loot pieces, a random amount of experience, and a random amount of Reward Points. I seriously doubt more then 10 players will actually win 1000 reward points from this feature; it seems that the common range is 1-5. Still though, a reward point, a few decent items, and 100 XP for simply clicking a link is not a bad deal at all.

Weapons Depot Info & Items

A new property, the Weapons Depot, is now in game!



This building is pretty much an exact replica of the Chop Shop, except that 1) produces weapons, 2) requires different materials, and 3) seems to slightly better than the chop shop.

Just like the Chop Shop, it requires multiple pieces of 5 different components to upgrade: Forges, Gunpowder, Arc Welders, Buzzsaws, and Gun Drills. The initial requirement is 4 of each item and this scales up as you upgrade your depot. You can ask Mafia members for help for getting the items, however, calling for help is this fashion puts both the Chop Shop and Weapons Depot "Ask for Help" buttons on the 24 hour cooldown.


Loot

The items in the Weapons Depot seem just a bit better than the Chop Shop vehicles. While there are less options, there are 3 particular items which provide +6 stamina, +5 attack, and +5 defense, respectively:



Here is the weapon list, stats, and item requirements:

Level 1: Random Common Weapon; requires 1x Weapon Part

Level 2: Random Uncommon Weapon; requires 3x Weapon Part

Level 3: Random Rare Weapon; requires 5x Weapon Part

Level 4: Ninja Sai (30 attack, 40 defense); requires 8x Weapon Part

Level 5: First Blood (49 attack, 13 defense); requires 10x Weapon Part and 1x Explosive Arrow

Level 6: Ultrasonic Gun (22 attack, 48 defense); requires 12x Weapon Part and 1x Sonic Emitter

Level 7: Laser Guided RPG (37 attack, 42 defense); requires 21x Weapon Part and 1x Laser Rangefinder

Level 8: Robber's Utility Belt (33 attack, 41 defense, +6 stamina); requires 24x Weapon part, 1x Boomerang, and 1x Grapple

Level 9: Railgun (51 attack, 24 defense, +5 attack); requires 27x Weapon Part and 1x Railgun Barrel

Level 10: Plasma Rifle (40 attack, 47 defense, +5 defense); requires 35x Weapon Part and 1x Portable Fusion Reactor

Fight Club, Victory Coins, and New Achievements

It looks like there is some new features headed this way in Mafia Wars. In the marketplace, you can see a new tab called Fight Club, and a page with several very nice pieces of equipment which are not yet purchasable:



It looks like pieces are purchasable with "Victory Coins", which can will be earned through winning fights. I am assuming (and hoping) that this is not simply the result of winning 25 fights - if that is the case, it won't take very long for people to max out on these loot pieces. Perhaps there will be a grid, just like with robbing, and if players clear it with a winning record, they will get a victory coin. That's just a guess though, we'll have to wait and see.

New Chop Shop Levels and New Cars

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.

Easter Crime Basket Limited Time Event

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!

New Chop Shop Levels and Cars

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.