Since these two games were written by the same company, Zynga, they are almost identical in nature, just only the wording is different. With that being said, I'll explain the terminologies used in these games...
MAFIA WARS || VAMPIRES = DEFINITION
Home || Home = Your game's Home page, much like your MySpace Home, but this mostly gives you quick links of what you can do and who recently attacked you.
Help || Help = Very basic details about the game. I highly recommend reading this right after you finish the Tutorial!
Level || Level = How good your character is. The higher their Level is, the better they are, and they have access to better stuff.
Upgrades || Vampire = Every time you raise a Level, you can spend 5 points to increase different things to improve your Character.
Experience || Experience = How many points you need to go raise to the next level.
Cash || Blood = Currency used in the game for buying stuff in the game.
Bank || Bank = Where you can store your currency so no one can take any if they beat you in a fight. The Bank will take 10% of what you deposit, and usually require a minimum first deposit and/or a minimum balance afterwards.
Jobs || Missions = Different tasks you can do to earn currency and Experience points, based upon what you can do or what you own, and how many people are in your group.
Energy || Energy = Points for how many missions you can do. Each mission requires a certain amount of Energy points to do them.
Fight || Fight = Other people you can fight against. Sometimes you can hit the "jackpot" or get stuff when you win a Fight.
Hitlist || Hitlist = Just as the name implies, it's a list of people with bounties on them!
Stamina || Rage = Points for how many people you can attack. Each person you Fight costs one Stamina/Rage point.
Health || Health = Points for how close you are to being dead after fighting, like HitPoints in many other games. When you get down to 0, you're dead. If you die, you loose Experience points.
Hospital || Replenish Health = Use your currency to raise your health after getting hurt. I've never used this, personally.
Properties || Minions = Either places or people you own that bring you hourly income. The more you own, the more hourly income you bring in.
Inventory || Abilities = Items you own or talents you have you can use for Jobs/Missions and for fighting other people. Some Inventory items or Abilities require hourly upkeep costs from your hourly income.
Looted Inventory || Rare Abilities = Stuff you can get doing certain Jobs/Missions.
My Mafia || Clan = People you have in your group, both real and "fake" (computer players). These people help you fight and defend against other people. The games' maximum is 501 group members, so the more the merrier!
My Mafia || My Clan = The people in your group and people in your MySpace Friends List you can invite to play the game with you and join your group.
Forums || Forums = A great place to get your questions answered, and an even better place to find people to join your group!
Godfather || Elders = You can use Favor Points for different things, such as for more currency to buy stuff, or add "fake" members to your group.
My Stats || My Stats = Everything there is to know about your character.
1. First of all, ALWAYS DO THE TUTORIAL!!! Even if you know how to play the game, if you complete the Tutorial, you'll get a "free (fake) member". No matter how tough your character is, you're only as powerful as how many members you have in your group, and larger groups almost always win every fight. Also, most Jobs/Missions require a minimum group size to do them. The more people you have in your group, the more and better Jobs/Missions you'll have available to you as your Character Levels-up.
2. After doing the Tutorial, if someone (such as myself) invited you to play the game, go to your My Mafia/Clan to accept their offer to join their group. Only join someone's group that you trust.
3. After you joined someone's group, visit the Godfather/Elders and spend all of your Favor Points. If you have 20 Favor Points, I recommend getting more "fake members" to increase your group's size. If you only have 10 Favor Points, then I usually spend it on getting more currency to buy more stuff with. If you don't do any of the deals offered on this page, this will probably be the last time you'll ever visit this page again.
4. You'll want an hourly income starting off. After visiting the Godfather/Elders, buy the cheapest Property/Minion available.
5. After buying the cheapest Property/Minion, buy at least a couple of other different Inventory items/Abilities than what you bought during the Tutorial so that you can do a few different Jobs/Missions that require different Inventory items/Abilities to do them. You may want to take a quick look at the list of Jobs/Missions first before buying any Inventory items/Abilities so you know what to buy.
6. Do the Jobs/Missions that you can do that gives you the most currency possible, and then when your Energy points start running out, then do the lesser Jobs/Missions until all of your Energy points run out.
7. After completing all of the Jobs/Missions that you can do, fight against a few other people until all of your Stamina/Rage points are gone, but only fight people with lesser group members than you currently have! This will greatly increase your odds of winning.
8. By now, you may have accumulated enough Experience to raise a Level. If so, then go to Upgrades/Vampire and put your 5 points into whatever you like!
Well, that'll get you started! Here's several tips and pointers...
* Always Bank your currency, and Bank it often! If you don't Bank your currency, then if someone attacks you and wins, they'll take a percentage of what you have on you! I've fought against people and gotten up to 210,000 from them! Ouch!!! Good for me, but sucks for them! LOL ;-)
* Since the Bank charges you 10% for every deposit, only deposit what you won't be using in the very near future! I use a calculator all of the time to deposit and withdraw only what I need to buy my next purchase so after I'm done, I don't have any currency left of me to deposit and lose another 10% on it. Plan your purchases ahead.
* Depending upon your hourly income, it's not a bad idea to play at least a couple of times a day so you can deposit your currency into the Bank. The more often you play throughout the day, the faster you'll advance, also! I usually try to play every couple of hours or so, unless I'm at work or sleeping, of course!
* Try to save-up money for better Properties/Minions first before buying Inventory items/Abilities, especially those that require hourly upkeep costs, so that you can earn more currency than you're spending on upkeep costs per hour. However, every time you buy a Property/Minion, to buy another one of the same one later, the cost goes up each time. So, if at all possible, try to save-up and buy at least 5 at-a-time, but buying even more at a time in large quantity is better! However, I usually only buy one of each Property/Minion that I can afford, personally.
* Inventory items/Minions are broken-down into 3 categories: Offensive, Defensive, and Movement. Vampires has these listed into categories, but Mafia Wars doesn't for some reason (at the time of this writing).
* When you're first playing, only purchase the required Inventory items/Abilities you need to complete the Jobs/Missions you can do, depending upon how many people you have in your group. After you have bought one of each Inventory item/Ability that don't require hourly upkeep costs, then start saving-up and buy Properties/Minions to help support the Inventory items/Abilities, you'll soon need, that do require hourly upkeep costs.
* Do Jobs/Missions where you have a chance of getting Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities. Try to collect as many of each one as to how many people you have in your group. How well you can Fight other people depends upon how many of the same Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities you all share, but only the best in each category, starting from the best going to the worst, until all of the people in your group is accounted for. So, if you have 5 people in your group, try to accumulate at least 5 of each Looted Inventory item/Rare Ability. Each Job/Mission that gives you the chance of getting Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities will give you the same Looted Inventory item/Rare Ability each time. Try to keep up with what Jobs/Missions that gives you certain Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities so you can attempt to match how many of that Looted Inventory item/Rare Ability to the people you have in your group.
* The Jobs/Missions that don't give you a chance of getting Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities do give you twice as much currency for doing them versus the Jobs/Missions that gives you the chance of getting Looted Inventory items/Rare Abilities. I recommend doing these when you need more money or when you have
* Once you start making some money from Properties/Minions and Jobs/Missions, start buying/learning as many of the Inventory items/Abilities that don't require hourly upkeep costs for as to how many people you have in your group. As mentioned above, how well you can Fight other people depends upon how many of the same Inventory items/Abilities you all share, but only the best of each category, until everyone in your group is accounted for. So, if you have 5 people in your group, try to buy/learn 5 of each Inventory item/Ability that don't require hourly upkeep costs. If you add another person to your group later, don't forget to buy/learn 1 more of each Inventory item/Ability to account for them!
* How the fighting system works is, if you have 5 people in your group, and let's say you have 5 of each Ability/Inventory item, but the rest of your group only has 1 of each Ability/Inventory item, then the game is only going to use 1 of each Ability/Inventory item out of each category that each of you all share, starting from the best and going to the worst until all 5 people are accounted for. But if everyone else in your group has the best Abilities/Inventory items that you have 5 of in each category, then the game will use the best 5 Abilities/Inventory items that you all share.
* If you start making A LOT of money from Properties/Minions and Jobs/Missions, then you may start buying/earning more Inventory items/Abilities that do require hourly upkeep costs, up the the amount of people you have in your group. However, this can get REALLY expensive REALLY fast! Be careful! I usually only buy/learn just enough the certain Abilities/Inventory items that require hourly upkeep costs that I need to complete the Jobs/Missions that I can do, depending upon how many people I have in my group. So, if all of the Jobs/Missions I can do require at least 3 of a specific Offensive Ability/Inventory item, 2 of a specific Defensive Ability/Inventory item, and 1 of a specific Movement Ability/Inventory item, and all of these require an hourly upkeep cost, then I only purchase these specific 6 Abilities/Inventory items so I can do these Jobs/Missions. Buying/learning more may help you fight better, but can run you into a lot of hourly upkeep costs.
* Try NOT to sell/unlearn your Inventory items/Abilities! You only get half back for what you paid! Only buy/learn up to the amount of how many people you have in your group! Anything more is a waste!
* After you raise a Level, spend your 5 points wisely in Upgrade/Vampire into the 5 things you have to choose from: Attack Strength, Defense Strength, Maximum Energy, Maximum Health, and Maximum Stamina/Rage. I normally never spend any points into Stamina/Rage, since it requires 2 points to do so, and would rather spend them elsewhere, unless you just really enjoy fighting. I've also ran into several instances when you get higher levels trying to find people to fight who aren't already too weak or dead to fight! I also recommend spending them in Attack Strength and Defense Strength at first, until you raise these two up to 10, and then evenly distribute the points between Attack Strength, Defense Strength, and Maximum Energy thereafter. However, if you find yourself dying a lot on a daily basis, then you may want to spend some points into Maximum Health. Otherwise, I wouldn't, at least until all of your other stats reaches 100 each.
* Try to recruit as many friends as you can into your group! The bigger your group is, the more opportunities you'll have available to you! I've even made deals with friends that I'll join their group in their games only if they join mine! LOL :-) Never, ever Attack anyone in your group, and never remove anyone except when absolutely necessary!
* If you get as desperate as I did needing more people to join your group, then you may want to post a quick message in the Forums that you're needing more people. You'll get several responses, and you'll have to add these people to your Friends List in order to do so. However, most people won't respond unless you have your CAPTCHA and "Require your last name or e-mail" turned off.
* Only Fight people who have less people in their group than you do! This will greatly increase your odds of winning! However, if you can't find anyone who has fewer people in their group than you do, and if you have the option to do so, Attack people in your Friends List who aren't playing the game! This will give you Experience and some currency, which is better than nothing! And if you don't have that option, coming back to Fight people 5 minutes later or so may open-up a new opportunity!
* Before you decide to Fight someone, and if you have the time, take a quick look at what Properties/Minions they own versus the Inventory items/Abilities they have. If they own a lot of stuff that brings them a lot of hourly income and not many things that require a lot of upkeep costs, chances are you'll get a lot of currency if you win the Fight. However, if you're in a hurry, I usually will Fight different people until I find a "bread-winner", someone who gets me 1,000 or more each Fight. If you Fight someone who gives you 70,000 when you win, then use all of your Stamina/Rage points on them and them only! This doesn't happen very often!
* The Hitlist isn't popular in Vampires (at the time of this writing), but it is in Mafia Wars. When you start getting higher levels, such as in the hundreds, this can become a very nice source of income!
Well, I hope this might've been of some help to any of you out there, and I hope it may encourage anyone to join my group! I could always use more people! ;-) If you already play and have any additional hints and tips, please feel free to post them on here!
No comments:
Post a Comment