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.
4/07/2010
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.
High-tech car parts a new rare drop that drops randomly from any job, apparently in any city.
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
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!
---
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!
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!
---
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!
4/02/2010
Robbing Mastery Requirements and rewards
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!
---
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.
----
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.
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 robbingLevel 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!
---
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.
----
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.
3/25/2010
More Robbing Details and Information
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.
---
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.
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.
---
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.
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