Mafia Wars Property Change

The new property change is now live for *most players*. 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.

I also have no idea what will happen for people with rackets, and if those influence points will be refunded. Good luck!

Mafia Wars Boosts ! Mafia Wars Strategy Guide

Just logged in to some cool new updates. One new feature in Mafia Wars is the boost. Also, a new Cuba tier was added - El Cacique. I'll cover boosts in this post, Cacique in the next. Boosts are consumable power-ups that give you added bonuses, for example +5 attack when fighting or energy reduction costs for jobs.

You can get them two ways. The simpler ones can be bought by going to Inventory, then "Boosts". As of now, you need to be in New York to buy boosts, they are not sold in Cuba (yet). I am assuming they will put more purchasable boosts in. This is a needed change because it actually gives Mafia Wars players something to do with their virtual cash. Here are some pictures:

That is an example of some the three boosts you can buy. You may notice that below it is an item called "Hobo Lookout" which provides +60 robbing skill. The more powerful boosts like this one are the result of turning in collection items. You can re-vault a collection to receive a number of boosts. This number appears to vary from collection to collection (but it not a random number). Feel free to post in the comments how many items each vault gives so I can post it up.

Boosts are automatically used if you have them. As an example, one of my hobos will be used up every time I am robbed. Once I have been robbed 7 times, all my hobos will be gone and I will no longer get that bonus. Here is an picture showing using a boost in a fight:

This is where the new interface comes in handy; things would get quite messy if your boost was listed somewhere in the wall of text of equipment in the old fighting interface.

When you vault a collection, you get a message like this:
The boosts can then be found in your inventory. There is a different set of boosts for each collection. Here is a complete list:

Diamond Flush Collection:
Tripwire: +10 fight defense skill

Heart Flush Collection:
Cappuccino: -3 job energy costs

Sculptures Collection:
Alarm System: +15 robbing defense skill

Poker Chips Collection:
Bulldog: +18 fight defense skill

Club Flush Collection:
Problem Solver: -5 job energy costs

Boxing Collection:
Semi-Pro Boxer: +15 attack skill

Cigars Collection:
Fixer: -8 job energy cost

Spade Flush Collection:
Sting Grenade: +20 attack skill

Billiards Collection:
Bouncer: +27 robbing defense skill

Rings Collection:
Blueprints: -10 job energy cost

Ties Collection:
Injunction: +25 fight defense skill

Paintings Collection:
Motion Detector: +37 robbing defense skill

Cufflinks Collection:
Corporate Muscle: +35 attack skill

Barber Collection:
Shave and a Haircut: +30 fight defense skill

Great Race Horses Collection:
Inside Tip: -16 job energy costs


Cuba Boosts (need to be at Cuba collections screen to turn these in):

Rum Drinks Collection:
Flaming Shot: +30 attack skill

Tropical Fruits Collection:
Boosted Smoothie: -18 job energy costs (2 received per vault)

Entertainers Collection:
Sandbag Wall: +35 fight defense skill (7 received per vault)

Tropical Fish Collection:
Blowfish Dart: +40 attack skill

Beards Collection:
Hobo Lookout: +60 defense skill (7 received per vault)

Conclusion:

All in all, a nice little addition to the game. Hopefully the developers will add more boosts that you can purchase with money so that in game currency actually has some value!

Mafia Wars Moscow Business List; Strategy Guide

I just realized that I never posted a finished business guide for Mafia Wars Moscow (Click to see full size):

There are 5 total businesses:

Unlicensed Taxi Stand (free business for going to Moscow)

Cigarette Smuggling Ring (unlock by completing Episode 1 chapter 3)

Black-Market Car Lot (unlock by completing Episode 2 chapter 3)

Munitions Trading Camp (unlock by completing Episode 4 chapter 3)

Trafficking Operation (unlock by completing Episode 6 chapter 3)


In Moscow, each business is exponentially more expensive. In other words, upgrading the cigarette smuggling ring fully is 3+ times cheaper than the Black-Market Car Lot, despite the fact that the Black-Market Car Lot only pays out twice as much.

What this means to the player is it is best to upgrade the cheapest business you have access to first. All in all, you will need to spend around $600,000,000 rubles to fully upgrade your businesses. Despite this high price tag, Moscow businesses are very good.

Moscow businesses pay out a lot. With all the businesses fully upgraded, you will earn about over 70,000,000 rubles per day or so, thereby repaying your initial investment in less than 10 days. Upgrade your businesses right away, especially after the recent change.

Mafia Wars Blunderbluss and Lefty Guns' Leather Coat; Strategy Guide

Yesterday Mafia Wars added some new free gifts to their free gifting menu. I'm guessing these items will continue to cycle through with regularity like in FarmVille.

There are currently 5 "limited edition" items that you can send:

Claymore: Weapon, 19 attack, 10 defense

Blunderbuss: Weapon, 27 attack 7 defense



Lefty Guns' Leather Coat: Armor, 10 attack 24 defense


Mara Serpiente: Vehicle, 24 attack, 18 defense

Garza 9: Weapon, 25 attack, 10 defense

The first three items were originally the "limited edition" items you could buy for $10,000 for each 2 people in your Mafia. The Garza 9 and Mara Serpiente can be also found in Cuba, so nothing to exciting here.

Mafia Wars Moscow Re-tuned; Strategy Guide

And by re-tuned, I mean nerfed.

Update:

Yes, bribe penalty is completely gone - confirmed; jobs are paying out 100% now regardless of the items you own.

Here is a picture of the new business payout as well (click for full size):



Businesses now pay out around $70,000,000 a day. This is about 3.5x as much as before, which makes it a big buff. But, considering you need 6,000,000,000 rubles to get through Moscow and upgrade your businesses. At this amount, it would still take your businesses over 2 months to produce that.

Also, I noticed on a lower level account that I can buy the Trafficking Operation despite only being on Episode 4. Not sure if this is intended as I have not seen it mentioned anywhere officially.

So, even with this unprecedented boost, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a second Moscow nerf within a month if they want to stick to the plan; the plan being Mafia Wars Bangkok coming out around the holidays. Even with this business upgrade, I'm betting the majority of the 6,000,000 daily Mafia Wars players will not be done by Christmas.