2/10/2010

Valentine's Day Massacre Love Meter Reward

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

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.

Yakuza or Triads Episode 4

Since some of you have been asking, here is the Yakuza vs Triads post for Episode 4 (Commandent) of Mafia Wars Bangkok:


Chapter 2

The Yakuza Tier



The "Set Up An Opium Shipment" job drops the Yakuza-only Forest Scorpion (weapon; 25 attack, 37 defense).


The Triad Tier


The "Set Up The Import Of Illegal Chinese Arms" job drops the Triad-only Hung Fa RPG (weapon; 39 attack, 20 defense).

Conclusion: It makes no difference whether you pick Triad or Yakuza here; either way you are going to be using drug shipments.


Chapter 3

The Yakuza Tier


The "Pass On Information To The Thai Police" job drops the Yakuza-only Royal Thai Army Jeep (vehicle; 38 attack, 25 defense). This job also requires the use of a Satellite Phone.


The Triad Tier


The "Eliminate An Insurgent Escort" job drops the Triad-only BRM-38 (weapon; 23 attack, 38 defense).


Conclusion: By siding with the Triads in Episode 4, Chapter 3, you can get out of spending satellite phones. None of the loot is worthwhile here so that is a non-factor.

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Short Answer for who to side with in Episode 4: Does not matter for Chapter 2, and side with the Triads in Chapter 3.

2/07/2010

Valentine's Day Massacre Limited Time Job; Mafia Wars Event

For Valentine's day, Mafia Wars will be launching a Valentine's Day Massacre Limited Time Job.

From the description and pictures on this official Facebook post, it looks like the limited time job will be set up much like the New Year's Eve event. There are three total jobs: Trick Target to Attend Meeting (5 minute cooldown), Scout Out The Location (8 hour cooldown), and Procure Untraceable Sub-Machine Guns (24 hour cooldown). Each job promises a "100% chance of a rare item", which is nice.

..but that is not all! In addition to the limited time job, there will actually be a new holiday surprise - a limited time collection just for Valentine's Day. For vaulting the items in the collection, players will receive a "coveted Cupid's Arrow" as a reward - probably a weapon with decent stats. To get collection pieces, simply do jobs and fight in game, just like with the old 8-piece item collections. One of the pieces will be a free gift, so you will have to receive it from a friend.

Finally, players will be able to send Valentine's Day items through the gift safe house. If you open enough gifts, your "love meter" will increase, and when it maxes out, you will get another limited edition loot piece. The only catch is that players can send you a "gag gift" which will actually lower your love meter if you open it. I foresee this function causing many wars!

Updates on loot to come whenever they put the event in!

Job Mastery Rewards for Bangkok Episodes 3 and 4

I now have the job mastery items for both episodes 3 and 4 of Mafia Wars Bangkok available for you all to see:

For mastering Pirate (Episode 3), you will get the Harpoon Cannon (88 attack, 51 defense):


For mastering Commandant (Episode 4), you will get the Armored War Elephant (96 attack, 69 defense):


At this rate, it looks like the rewards for Episodes 5A and 5B will be a weapon and body armor piece with 100+ defense on each. Will have more information soon.

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Other relevant Mafia Wars Bangkok information:

- After completing the first level of mastery on Episode 4, players will have access to both Episodes 5A and 5B, assuming they have the faction. Episode 5A requires Trusted with the Triads, and Episode 5B requires Trusted with the Yakuza. I can only see this being an issue if you paid no attention to faction in previous episodes and sided with one side the entire time, as you can rack up quite a bit of faction will earning enough $B to beat the earlier tiers. It looks like Episode 5B will be slightly more expensive in terms of consumable and $B needed to pass through. However, Episode 5B has no collection associated with it currently.

- If you are having trouble with the Bangkok frames (can't scroll around or click things), do this: Run Firefox as your browser, simply right click on the Mafia Wars background, scroll down to "This Frame" and then click on "show this frame only". That will load the Mafia Wars game in its own window.

- The Mafia Wars Toolbar appears to be issuing mini-energy packs once again. I just got a 25% boost.




- It appears that all of that Bangkok loot that was available in fighting a week or two back is all of the current new loot in game. There are no "new" items then with the release of Bangkok that you can collect large numbers of. I am a bit surprised by this as it makes the only clear upgrade over Moscow loot to be the two armor pieces purchasable in the faction store, and the cost of these items is so high it does not seem if these will be easily collectible in large quantities.


Up-and-coming Updates:

I will post the rest of the Yakuza vs Triad info, loot lists, job mastery rewards, and any other pertinent information that I may have missed. If you have any other requests for Bangkok information, feel free to ask in the comments section.