Do you know what clan is?

For Open for public clan, they accept anyone.. you can just become a member without any obligation to put a name tag in front of your mafia name. You can attack anyone even your own clan members.. The admin or GodFather of the clan only need high numbers of their mafia members, that’s it.

The transition to life after Moscow can be rough for some, I know, so I have put together a checklist of things you can do while waiting for Bangkok to come out:

1) Get the Lotto Collection – This is something everyone should do!

If you don’t have the lotto collection yet, get it. You can trade the highest quality Moscow loot pieces for lotto collection pieces on the official trading forums (called the “Gift Giving” forums for some reason).

Lotto pieces are currently going for 25-50 pieces of Moscow loot. I picked up the 6 of 8 pieces I needed for 188 total top-end Moscow loot pieces.

While this may sound like a lot, just remember Bangkok could be coming out within a week, at which point your Moscow loot will be worthless. If the developers do a rolling start like they did with Moscow, your Moscow loot pieces will still only be top dog for another month. Why not just dump them now while the stock is high, vault the lotto collection, and as a result make yourself able to collect Bangkok loot at a quicker rate?

I think the Lotto collection is grossly underrated, particularly for items that have a really low drop rate. The bonus, +10% item drop rate, is additive rather than multiplicative. Here is how it works:

Item A has a 5% drop rate (you will find it on 1/20 job times doing the job).

- By mastering the tier all three times, you get +10% drop rate. This brings Item A to a 15% drop rate (you will find it on 3/20 times doing the job).

- By vaulting the lotto collection, you get another +10% drop rate. This brings Item A to a 25% drop rate (you will find it on 5/20 times doing the job)

Just by having the lotto collection, you can get a huge increase in drop rates (in this example, 60%-300% drop rate increase), especially for rare items.

If you are playing multiple accounts, your highest level account with the largest energy pool should vault this collection.

2) Get the Money Laundering Collection – Something everyone should do, but only after vaulting the lotto collection.

While I understand the vault boost (-3% on banking fees) is only useful if you use the bank, odds are you are going to be using the bank a lot on Bangkok launch day, at least for the first two episodes. If money is anything like it is in Cuba (low totals), you might even use it a lot more.

You can get the money laundering collection pretty easily just by helping 5 friends launder money each day. You can then trade your excess collection pieces with friends or on the forums to complete your set.

If you’re really lazy or impatient, you can also trade high quality Moscow loot for money laundering collection pieces – usually 1-2 pieces of Moscow loot is enough to get money laundering collection items.

Extra Credit

If you already have the 2 collections listed above, here are three more things you can do prior to the release of Mafia Wars Bangkok:

1) For the most dedicated player: you can collect Faberge Hens and save them on a second account. You might have to trade for some of the eggs, though!

2) For those using Mafia Wars Blueprint: Get a collector account up to speed and save it for the release of Bangkok.

3) Call your mother. It’s the holidays after all!

To be blunt, if you are chasing down the 999 trillion dollar achievement, you need to get your head checked. The best paying job in New York only pays out $56 million and costs 35 energy. You would need to do this job over 17 million times to collect $999 trillion, and at 35 energy per job, you would need to spend over 600 million energy to hit that mark. In other words – it is not happening in this lifetime.

You would need 6.25 million energy to hit the 10 trillion achievement. If you spend about 20,000 energy a day (I usually do about that on my main account), you can get this in a full year’s time, if you focus entirely on the “Take Control of a Casino” job.

What a colossal waste of time. Between the 1 trillion achievement, the 10 trillion achievement, and the 999 trillion achievement, that’s a grand total of >>>>3<<<< skill points. Three skill points! You can get three bonus skill points just by playing the daily chance for a few weeks.

You get more than that for just leveling up! If you did the “Settle a Beef.. Permanently” job, which pays out 2.11 XP:Energy instead of “Rob a Casino”, which only pays out 1.96 xp:energy, you would get far more skill points just by leveling up more.

I guess some people wonder why these achievements actually exist, and here’s your answer:

The trillion dollar achievement is pretty easily achievable just by having a decent amount of property. The other two however are the relics of an old Mafia Wars. The hitlist used to be uncapped, and since there was no use for money, bounties were huge (some people would get hitlisted for many trillions – you could win that just in a bounty).

Now, for players who played back then, the $999 trillion achievement is not a problem. For the rest of us mere mortals, it’s an exercise in futility. Yes, I know there was a window where you could do this with rackets, but really, it’s not worth the effort. Three skill points, remember?

Another reason why chasing these achievements is not worth it is because there is a good chance when robbing is reintroduced to the game, there will be new properties added as well (i.e. earn money faster). I’m going to be prepared when robbing is back anyway – I’d much rather be winning my robbery attempts then have two irrelevant achievements unlocked.

The Last Score of 2009 job is different than other event or holiday jobs in that for the first time players will be able to choose their own path with three separate jobs to choose from.

Each job has its own rewards and time frame. Here is a quick breakdown of the jobs that are available along with their pertinent information.

When given the opportunity to publish these jobs on your wall you should do so because any mafia members who click on “Score Big” will be awarded 2 Free Reward Points.

Job mastery awards a rare item but as yet I do not know what it is. Rest assured that I will post the item as soon as I get some information on it.

So I began playing the game.  Then I could say I knew what I was talking about.  But I was in for a pretty big surprise. In no time, I was attacked and out of money.  Also, my character was basically paralyzed because each time I was attacked it drained my health. I have to admit, there is a whole lot more to this game than I had originally thought.

Although I was getting a little better I wasn’t doing anything very spectacular, to put it mildly.  It seemed like everyone else knew some kind of secret that made them win more fights, play at higher levels and achieve more.  I kind of felt like everyone knew something I didn’t.  And I thought, “Boy, it sure would be nice if someone would tell me their secrets.”  So, I began to think that maybe it wouldn’t hurt to see what these guides were about. I wasn’t really expecting much, but since I hadn’t done so well playing my own way, I figured it was worth a try.

So I picked up a guide called Mafia Wars Blueprint, and was floored by the tips I found in their guides and videos. You wouldn’t think there were so many ways to screw up a mafia strategy game but believe me, there are.  And I was making all the classic errors.  It didn’t take long for things to change though.  Within several weeks of devouring the videos and guide my game skills skyrocketed!  I mean I went from losing every fight to winning every single fight!  I built up my income from nothing to having hundreds of millions a dollar an hour pouring in.  And that amount is continually rising! And I rose from Level 30 to Level 250 in no time!  I still use the guide and videos as a reference.  I also receive an email newsletter that’s been extremely useful.  In fact, one of the newsletter updates I received more than paid for my course because it revealed a way to gain tons of members overnight.  I used to think it was impossible to add 100 members in a single day let alone several hundred.  Overall I’d have to say Mafia Wars Blueprint, the guides, the videos and the updates have been a fantastic investment.

Players who lack the ability to recruit new members will earn less money, lose more fights and have a limited amount of opportunities and bonuses to choose from as compared to successful recruiters.  It’s unfortunate because adding new members to your mafia is actually one of the easiest things to do!

Income Benefits

Mafia Mike’s provide players with the highest return on investment than any other property available in the game.  The catch is your ability to purchase this valuable property is dependent on the amount of people you have in your Mafia.  The more members you have the more Mafia Mike’s you can purchase.  And these properties cannot be robbed or attacked (a feature that is currently disabled by Zynga).

Also, the more members you have the more notifications you’ll receive for assists.  Assists are a type of alert you receive to help someone in your family with a job or a fight.  They can be quite profitable and help you level up faster because you receive bonus money and extra energy for each notification you receive.  Currently, players can participate in 25 assists per city per day.  In a nutshell, these are as close as you can get to receiving free money and free experience points!

Other Benefits

Simply put, “The more people you have the more powerful you are.”  Your top 501 players are used to determine your overall attack and overall defense ratings.  Therefore your chances to maximize these critical metrics are also a function of the number of people in your mafia.  If your numbers are high and someone attacks you, chances are they will not only lose the fight, but they will also lose money.  Their loss is your gain.  I’ve received $100,000 per attack when weaker opponents have tried to fight me and lost.

On the other hand, players with high attack ratings can also benefit from being the aggressor.  Winning not just experience points but a few hundred thousand dollars a pop sure can be fun!

So be sure to post your “Add Me” link to the various groups on Facebook.  Also, take advantage of the ability to send out “Invites” under the “My Mafia” section in your Mafia Wars control panel.

But, at some point (better earlier than later) you may want to get a lot more out of this game. Every time you move up a level, you unlock new jobs which requires additional loot items and other requirements. This means that in order to get the most out of your Mafia Wars experience, you’ll have to level up quickly to unlock as many items and bonuses as you can.

The Basics

But how do you do this? There are several things to keep in mind if you want to level up quickly in Mafia Wars. The most basic idea though is, if you’ve spent and used Godfather Points early on in the game on anything other than Energy, you’re not “Leveling Up” efficiently. Why?  Because when you increase your Energy you’re able to do jobs that give you more “Experience Points”.  And each “Level” is comprised of a certain number of Experience Points.  So, the more Experience Points you can gather the quicker you can “Level Up”.

Focus on Playing Smart

In turn, all your ‘Skill Points’ (five bonus points are awarded to players after each ‘Level’ is successfully completed) should go towards increasing your Energy.  Many novices use their skill points to build their Health or Stamina.  This is a mistake…if you’re trying to ‘Level Up” quickly, (NOTE: If you’re getting confused between the terms; GodFather Points, Experience Points and Skill Points; don’t worry!  We’ll elaborate on these terms later!).  So use your skill points to increase your Energy.  Period!

You should also let your GodFather points accumulate.  That is, do NOT use them early on in the game.  What does “early on” mean?  Well, let’s just set a somewhat arbitrary number and say that anything before Level 200 is too early.  Why?  It’s because it’s far easier to go from, say, Level 8 to Level 9 than it is to go from Level 200 to Level 201.  It’s far easier because the quantity of experience points needed to advance to each successive level grows as the game advances. Therefore, why use your GodFather points to max out your Energy early on in the game?  After all, you’re still getting the same amount of Energy after a certain amount of time elapses anyway.

Also, be careful WHEN you use your GodFather points and/or Energy Bonuses to replenish and max out your Energy.  For example, let’s say we have a scenario where you only need 2 more Experience Points to advance from one Level to the next AND you accept an Energy Bonus someone has sent you.  That would be a huge mistake because if you were to do that, you would have maxed out your Energy.  Remember, you only needed to acquire 2 more Experience Points to ‘reset’ and fill up your Energy.  So the best strategy, in this scenario, is to simply by do a job or initiate a fight.  Then…viola…you’ve replenished your health, energy and stamina!  So they are all full!  And, best of all, you still have your Energy Bonus and GodFather Points to use at a later time!!  So using Energy Packs or GodFather points too early is like robbing yourself of time and money!

Definitions:  SKILL POINTS can go towards increasing Health, Energy, Stamina, Attack or Defense.  EXPERIENCE POINTS are the points that make up a Level.  More and more Experience Points are needed to complete each successive Level.  A single GODFATHER POINT is acquired after successfully completing a Level.  Once ten GodFather points are earned, a player can ‘purchase’ an Energy Refill.

We’re also just on the verge of unleashing Bangkok! If you haven’t already, go get a head start and collect your loot items needed to unlock Bangkok. Keep your eyes peeled – you’ll be able to grab your Thai Passport and travel to the new city soon enough.

If that’s not enough for you, we’re also giving away 5 FREE Reward Points in celebration of the New Year and as a thank you to our players. Click here for your points and play now! Be sure to score big before 2010!

Thank You,

The Mafia Wars Team

The Japanese Yakuza and Chinese Triads have battled for control of this city and country for years and you will be thrust into the middle of the conflict just as you were with the Vory and Mafiya in Moscow.

While the expansion is not live yet Zynga is giving you the ability to get your hands on the items that will be required to unlock the expansion.

Here is a quick reference for the items.

• Triad Coin – This item can be found in the New York Soldier Tier.
• Yakuza Sake – Find this item in the New York Hitman Tier.
• Thai Note – You can find this item in New York in the Enforcer Tier.
• Thai Passport – To get this item you will have to wait until the launch date.

I hope that they iron out all of the problems with the expansion before they roll it out. The Moscow expansion was released before it was ready and resulted in major changes involving earning R$ and the bribe penalties. Perhaps they have learned from their mistakes.

While the exact release date of Mafia Wars Bangkok is unknown it is probably best to get the items to unlock the expansion now and be ready. Good luck in Bangkok and look forward to up to date information as soon as it is available.

The default settings for the new privacy features will make all of your information available not only to the 350 million Facebook users as well as search engines such as Yahoo, Google and others.

Does this open up your account to even more danger in the form of hackers, scammers and other unscrupulous entities? I believe that it can, but you can do more to protect yourself by tweaking the following settings.

Search Settings

With the release of these new privacy settings all accounts were set to a default configuration. This configuration includes resetting your public search settings to the on mode. This setting means that you are allowing your information to be seen by any search engine. If you do not want your information to be available to anyone who wants to see it you need to reset the option to the off mode.

Hyper Control

It seems that with the new “privacy” features Facebook is actually removing some of your control over who can and cannot view your information. If you want to have more control over who can see updates, photos, etc all you have to do is go to the Privacy Settings > Profile section and you can decide who can see your information.

Friends List

While Facebook generally controls your friends list you do have some control you do have control over who can see it. If you want your friends list to remain private (as I do) all you have to do is click on your profile link at the top of the page, then look for a pen icon next to your friends list. When you click this icon simply remove the check mark in front of “Show Friends List to everyone.” Should you want to allow your Friends List to be seen by specific people you can enter their name in the box in this area as well.

Password Protection

One of the smartest things that rolled out with these privacy upgrades was the requirement to enter your password to make any privacy changes. This step would go a very long way to keeping your account safe and hackers on the run if it only worked as intended. It seems that though the system is in place it needs a bit of tweaking by face book.

While Facebook has rolled these changes out under the façade of “more secure privacy” in my opinion is that they have implemented these changes to give search engines more access to its members and thereby increasing their search engine revenue. Not only do these new privacy settings allow search engines to readily see your information they also open up your email address to spammers.

If you want your personal information to remain personal you need to adjust your settings to limit search engine access as much as possible.

1.) Use your Energy effectively

This is probably the most important thing in Mafia Wars. If you want to level quickly you need to make sure that you put your energy to the best use. Visit one of the bookmarklet pages and pick up a tool to help you determine how to manage your energy when completing jobs.

2.) Linear Jobs

Complete jobs in a linear manner for the best results in the long run. If you are starting a new character begin with the Street Thug tier and complete all three levels of it before moving on. Resist the urge to jump around on the tiers simply because you are high enough level for them. This holds true for expansion as well. Visit them to get your business started then forget about them except for collecting your business payouts.

3.) Build a Strong Mafia

Spend time visiting add me pages or add me email pages to build your mafia. Only 500 of your mafia may participate in a fight but having a huge mafia is a boon in and of itself. Some of the advantages of having a large mafia are completing collections and re-vaulting for boosts. You will be surprised how quickly you can finish out collections and get the bonuses by simply asking for the items. Always be sure to gift in return when you can as well.

4.) Equip Your Mafia

Your mafia is only as strong as the equipment that you provide them. When you enter into combat you will provide each of the 500 members of your mafia with an offensive weapon, a defensive item, and a vehicle. Having the best is a way to ensure that you are a formidable enemy for anyone who chooses to attack you.

These four tips might seem like “no-brainers” but you would be surprised at how many people do not follow these simple ideas. Many are racing to get to the highest level they can and pay little or no attention to building and equipping a strong mafia. Others have no idea how to maximize their energy or where to find a bookmarklet to help. Use these simple tips to make your Mafia Wars experience more enjoyable.

As soon as I have the stats for the items I will post the list so you can incorporate it into your spreadsheets.

Zynga has been busy this year as well. When we had scheduled maintenance on Friday, December 12th, I thought that they may implement the Bangkok expansion but I was mistaken. Instead they were setting up a blowout sale, setting up Holiday Event, and presenting us with a charity to which we can contribute.

Holiday Blowout Sale!

Here is a quick list of the items that are for sale and their associated cost. In the list below the cost is paid in Reward Points.

Once per hour one item will go on sale at a very deep discount of 50% or more. If you purchase 10 or more items your will earn a limited edition reward. If you have been hoarding reward points this might be a good time to pick up some pretty sweet items.

• Mafioso Morgue – We Stab em Then We Slab em
• Carmine’s BBQ – Grill em Then Kill em
• Anthony’s Cleaning Service – Let Us Handle Your Dirty Work
• Mikie’s Dry Cleaning – We Launder Anything
• Who’s Yer Godfadda?

Zynga is in on the Yuletide season as usual and is holding a holiday event through January, 3rd, 2010. During this time they have made special Christmas gifts available for you to put under your mafia’s tree.

The Safe House

The Safe House is another Christmas feature but it should not be confused with the free gifts listed above. In order to get gifts from the Safe House you need to click on the “ask for more gifts” button and select as many of your mafia as possible each day.

In order to ensure that you get as many gifts as possible you should select members of your mafia that you know are active players. Daily players are your best of course. Make sure that you return the favor when your mafia members request gifts from you too.

The gifts that you receive are completely random but I am told that the items are some of the best yet in Mafia Wars. You can open your gifts early but it will cost you Godfather Points. Best wait until Christmas Day.

Limited Time Job

You will also have access to a holiday limited time job called “Bring the Family Together.” Completing this job results in special holiday gifts and is a multi step process once again giving you the chance to get you hands on some hard to get loot.

The holiday celebration gives Mafia Wars players the chance to grab some of the more rare in game items as well as the chance to win a real Xbox 360 or a Mafia Wars Jacket. If you have not started sending and asking for gifts do it now and your Christmas Day might include a game console or a jacket from our friends at Zynga.

This Yuletide Season Zynga has chosen a charity and asked that the members of Mafia Wars help. The charity that they have chosen is called FATEM and is based in Mirebalais, Haiti. The group is dedicated to bringing information technology to the people of Haiti which will help with economic advancement in the area. The group also supports the general education of Haitian children and ensures that these children receive meals that will help them grow and learn.

For you contribution Zynga has chosen to offer a special Limited Edition item that you can use in Mafia Wars at the cost of 25 Godfather Points.

Haitian Drum – 44 Attack – 46 Defense

As Mafia Wars players I can guarantee that none of us know what it is like to go without a meal or live in live in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. Haiti is the 7th poorest nation in the world and we have the chance to help Zynga bring needed food and technology to the country.

The cost of the item is 25 Reward Points. Many of us have that many saved up from leveling but using these points will not help the people of Haiti. You can purchase 42 reward points for a measly $7.00, less than most of us pay for a fast food meal. If you can afford it please invest in the future of another country.

Help Zynga change the lives of the children of Haiti if you can.