This is a part of my Mafia Wars strategy guide, which I have broken up into several mini guides for easier browsing. Be sure to check out my other guides for Mafia Wars. I play this game on Facebook but most of the strategies work the same on other platforms, such as MySpace.
PROPERTIES
In New York, properties are another big way to earn money. You can get by with fewer properties if you can earn a lot of energy to do jobs and attack or rob other mafias, but you should really get some sort of steady income that pays you without the need for energy.
When you first start the game, you earn a free Louie’s Deli for defeating one of the bosses. This property is like a freebie just to get you started; all of the other properties need to be purchased.
First, you need to buy the undeveloped space (Lot, block, property) on which to build your property. You earn income on the undeveloped spaces but nowhere near as much as when you build a property on them. If you buy a space and then buy another without helping a property on them, the price will go up — it is a good idea to buy them in quantities of 10 to lock in the lowest prices. Once you buy 10 spaces, you should build properties on them right away before buying any more because, once you build a property on the spaces, the price of the spaces will be sent to the original cost. Before purchasing spaces, you should have enough money to purchase the coinciding properties as well. A list of the undeveloped spaces available is as follows:
Abandoned Lot
Cost: $4,750
Income: $100
Commercial Block
Cost: $47,500
Income: $300
Prime Downtown Lot
Cost: $950,000
Income: $2,000
Beachfront Property
Income: $8,000
Cost: $3,800,000
Once you buy undeveloped spaces, you can start building properties of them and earn more money. Just like the spaces, it is a good idea to buy the properties in quantities of 10 to lock in the lowest prices. The difference is that when you buy properties in quantities of 10 at the same price, each consecutive quantity of 10 will cost you more. A list of the properties available is as follows:
Louie’s Deli
Earns: $250
Mafia Mike’s
Built on: Abandoned Lot
Earns: $12,000
Rent House
Built on: Abandoned Lot
Earns: $300
Italian Restaurant
Built on: Abandoned Lot
Earns: $700
Apartment Complex
Built on: Commercial Block
Earns: $5000
Valu-Mart
Built on: Commercial Block
Earns: $10,000
Marina Tourist Shops
Built on: Beachfront Property
Earns: $50,000
Office Building
Built on: Prime Downtown Lot
Earns: $150,000
5-Star Hotel
Built on: Beachfront Property
Earns: $200,000
Mega Casino
Built on: Prime Downtown Lot
Earns: $300,000
Undeveloped spaces and properties can also be sold at substantially lower prices than the original cost.
In the first 10 or so levels, don’t think too big with properties. You should focus on Mafia Mike’s and Rent Houses, neither of which can be robbed, and Italian Restaurants because the income is too low for robbers to care about robbing. Mafia Mike’s should be your focus in the beginning because they earn the most at a relatively low price. Note that Mafia Mike’s require a certain number of mafia members to buy more than one. After the first one, each consecutive one requires two more members.
Once you get past level 10 and earning a few hundred thousand dollars an hour, then you can start buying bigger properties, such as the Apartment Complex and Valu-Mart.
When you start earning close to $1 million an hour, then you can start taking on the bigger properties, such as the Marina Tourist Shops.
Finally, when you start earning over $1 million an hour, you can start saving up for the biggest properties, such as the Office Building, 5-Star Hotel, and Mega Casino.
One piece of advice, if you want to save money buying properties, is that if you buy them in quantities of 10, each property will be the same price. If you buy one at a time, the price will increase by 10% each time. Buying properties in quantities of 10 results in all 10 properties costing the same price — after you buy the 10, the price will go up for the next 10 and so on. When you buy lots of land, the price goes up until you build something on them and then the prices reset, so nothing to worry about with land.
One concern to think about is that your properties will be attacked, so you will need to buy protection. If it is attacked and the health goes down below 100%, it will start earning less and less money each hour. I try to keep all my property at full health at all times. Once you see that your property was attacked, you need to repair all of your properties to bring it up to 100% health. Then you will be asked to pay for protection. I’m not really sure how effective this protection is because the health of the property being attacked seems to go down as soon as someone with the strength to do it robs me. My suggestion is that, if you have a lot of money, pay for the protection; if you need your money, skip it.
BUSINESSES
When playing in Cuba, there are no properties. Instead, you need to take over businesses and then earn profits off of the goods. One thing that makes them unique from New York properties is that they do not earn money just by waiting for each hour to go by. In Cuba businesses, every three hours each of the businesses produces a set number of products that need to be manually sold for money. The products will remain in stock until you sell them off, so you need to keep on top of it, especially if you need a lot of Cuban money. When each business is fully upgraded (5-10 upgrades each), quality will be at different values C$8-C$80 (after 5 upgrades), capacity will be at 2240 (after 10 upgrades), and output will be at 280 every three hours (after 10 upgrades). Stocks will be full after 24 hours, so it is a good idea to sell off all of the stock each day and let it refill. A list of the businesses, what they sell and the quality price per unit is as follows:
Tobacco Plantation: Perfectos (C$8)
Sugar Plantation: Anejo Rum (C$16)
Factory: Engines (C$32)
Coca Field: 100% Pure Coca (C$80)
Two businesses were just added into the mix, as the Cuba side of the game is updated. They both are unique compared to the original for businesses.
Bodega produces canned goods and a quality price of C$2, capacity of 800 and output of 100 every three hours. So far, this business cannot be upgraded.
Bribery Ring is a work in progress business that does not exactly work like a business. It does not earn you money but buys you Politico Corrupto, or corrupt politicians, for use in certain jobs in Cuba. When fully upgraded, the capacity is 10 and the output is 5. Like the businesses, it produces corrupt politicians every three hours, making it full every six hours. You really need to stay on top of things to make the most of this “business” because it can be filled four times a day, producing up to 40 corrupt politicians each day. I assumed that this business will play a larger role in the game over time.
