How to Power Level in Mafia Wars
Mafia Wars is one of the most popular games on Facebook. Many play it due to its Mafia themed appeal of rising through the ranks from being a small time Don to a truly powerful Crime Lord. But as much fun it is to do missions and complete hits against other players, the new player would of course have to cut through a bit of leveling to get to the 'good stuff'.
But like many others before them, the leveling can be a slow tedious process limited by energy, time, and available helpful or needed items. You can pay actual cash and speed things up, but as a more casual player, I would suggest forgoing that. Money doesn't add but so much to the game anyway.
But this leaves you limited to your available stamina and energy. At best you may get three or so missions to level off of till the energy timer counts down - assuming you don't fail a mission missing out on experience along with using your energy pool.
But these few tricks can speed up leveling and are accessible even to new players.
Choose Maniac on your character at creation.
Choosing Manic will cause you to gain energy back faster, allowing you to be able to attempt more missions per lock out period and gaining more experience per day in the long run.
Log into the game multiple times per day.
Like most mission based Facebook games, Mafia Wars has a timer that starts once your energy has been used up. This 'locks' you out of trying any other missions or jobs regardless of stamina left until the energy is recovered. The timer may be as short as a few minutes, to 30+ minutes. This prevents constant sitting in one marathon session, but allows repeated logging in at different times of the day.
So abuse this and use the available regained energy to complete jobs. Don't worry about gaining money or items along the way; focus on the highest experience gaining jobs. Jobs usually have the amount able to be gained for it (plus rewards and cash) listed to the side. Skipping around unlocked job tiers to find high experience gaining missions is highly recommended.
Using energy packs wisely.
While you are logging in so often, also keep track of your energy pack gains. Every 24 hours you are awarded use of one energy pack. These not only refill your energy to full but also give an extra 25% of your total energy. By using this you essential gain a free 1 ½ play session to gain more experience off of.
Place most if all skill points into energy.
Every time you level in game, your character gains skill points. Most are tempted to spread the points around to have even stats. But to speed up leveling gains, place the points into your energy stat instead. Energy gains are key to speed leveling - once you have reached a good point in levels (or wish to focus on things outside of leveling) you can then place points into other stats.
Investing in property.
Purchasing property if done right can generate passive income. Since you are not normally spending time in doing jobs for needed weapons or cash, this method will make it easier to buy said items later. In fact, only use your income to buy needed items for jobs. Any other cash should go to buying more property to keep steady passive income flooding in.
Building up your Mafia (and later using said Mafia to attack other players).
This is where your Facebook friends (and back stabbing of enemies) come into play. Since you are pooling so much into your energy in this method, your stamina and other stats are probably lacking. Recruit through your Facebook friends and Mafia player groups to gain members. Trying to fight and defend against other players will become especially difficult without a decently large Mafia.
Once your Mafia is sufficiently built up, go ahead and start spending some of your points into stamina. Have your Mafia assist you in directly fighting or in robbing opposing other players' property. This will gain you a bit more on experience points helping you to level.