Greetings!

You've just stepped foot on these shores, and you are clueless as to what to do first. We were all there at one point. Much of the game you will pick up as you go along, but being told things might save you time on the discovery end.

As always we recommend the tutorials sponsored by the game - mostly because I wrote them and don’t want to reinvent the wheel. These are a good explanation of what you need to know based on a timeframe (That way you aren’t overloaded with 30 pages of text while you are here to play a game).

I recommend reading this Wiki, however, there may be things that are outdated as the game is constantly evolving, things are always being added or changed. This Wiki was written by players, not the staff so it isn't updated as often as one would like.

https://wiki.mafiareturns.com/wiki/Getting_Started

The in-game tutorial written by Squishy (The Man Behind the Curtain) can be found here:

Tutorial #1 What to do in your first 24 hours

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1026866/tpass/46a8a9063a1352a95a3247a7a9be7bd0

Tutorial #2 What to do in your first week

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1026867/tpass/e3aa4185e5100b74fc30927dab321432

Tutorial #3 Becoming a Made Man - What you should know

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/1026868/tpass/2c042fe44bf52f8ed5878599604cf901

The information below may be repeated from the tutorials but there is also information below that only your Crew Leader can tell you about this world (Things that aren’t officially published by Mafia Returns).

Family

If you are reading this you have already joined a family, welcome! This is the best family but if you want to be prepared for next life or want to start over with a lesser family here is what you need to know.

You have 48 hours to find a family that will take you in and protect you from being killed in the Streets as an unsponsored member of the community (These are seen as a risk to the status quo.). The game offers protection until then. I am sure in your first 48 hours someone is bound to Mail you in-game, introducing themselves and feeling you out as a potential addition to their Crew.

It is entirely your prerogative to take the first offer you receive, but I would suggest doing a bit of homework before accepting an invite to one. The family you end up joining could be a part of your MR life for months. In any case, if you choose to do some extra research before joining a family, look in the main toolbar under [News & Info] / [Crews].

This will give you a list of Crew Leaders, their Right and Left hands, how many members each family has, and whether they are accepting new members (open) or full. You can also click on (open) to look at more detailed information on the Crew, including activity levels of the Crew Leader, and Right and Left Hands. Whether you decide to do the homework or not, it’s IMPERATIVE that you are sponsored by a family within that first 48 hours.

Timer bar & Corrupt Agent

On your first character, you will be given some timers to use, keeping them going costs credits to buy these, but they are invaluable. The reason I have them listed as #2 is to convey that importance, and strongly suggest these be bought ASAP. The timer bar cost 5 credits for 30 days (you can buy credits with in-game cash on the market under [Manage] / [Marketplace]). The timer bar will let you know when you can do an in-game action again. Once you get used to it, it is very hard to play the game without it.

The CA is a bit more expensive, but does so many crucial things for you, and pays for itself in the end. It will keep you out of jail, allow you to get your drug units higher without bribing officials, collect drugs from busts, which you can sell when you find a good price. Both of these things are optional, but will majorly enrich your gaming experience in MR. They both also require credits, information for that can be found below:
 

Credits:

Not everyone will be able to spend credits on throwing jails or spawning MIA's to shoot at, so this is entirely down to you as an individual. You can still gain units quickly if you use all of the above methods but you will gain an advantage if using credits obviously. Play within your means though and find whatever is the best fit for you.

If you wish to power rank and have access to credits, I would recommend the Petty and Felony perks as these will trigger quite often and will also help with your achievements.

Another excellent way to gain credits is to join IRC - as the gods of this world give out credits to those that are active on IRC.
 

Achievements:

Just about everything in the game that you can get experience from has an achievement. Start with the smallest easiest ones and work your way up. This will help you get your units the fastest way possible. You can find the screen under [News & Information] / [Achievements].

Every time you finish an achievement you will get an extra boost of experience and cash as a reward. That can help majorly early on, as some of the smaller achievements can be completed within minutes of starting the game.

Routine:

Your routine will change as you rank up and progress in the game, but depending on how long you have to play each day, getting into a routine will help a lot. Petties, jailbreaks, grave-robbing, pickpocketing, traveling & buying and selling drugs all give you experience toward raising your units, so that you can buy and sell more drugs, and make more money.

Whenever one of these things is off cool-down, you should be doing it again, therefore getting into a routine is important, and having that timer toolbar reminds you when you can do something again.

Petty Power:

You will be doing petties more than anything else in this game or you will be missing out. One of the longest achievements is for petties. You must complete 75 petties before the game will even trust you with a gun. The trick is to start on the easiest petty and watch your achievement list. When you get the achievement for the easiest one, move up to the next one, etc, etc.

It shouldn't take you long to get up to the hardest one, which you will be doing every 3 minutes and 20 seconds for the rest of your game life. Hey! It's revenue. Stick with it.
 

Buying and Selling Drugs:

You can move around within a city every 5 minutes, buying and selling drugs as you go, and with the cash, you should have generated quickly with the petty achievement rewards you should be set to go. The min/average/max for the major cities is displayed underneath, so feel free to use those to help know when to buy and sell.

Remember that flying to another city has a much longer cool-down, so be prepared to stay there for a while before you can fly again. You can always ask in-game chat or IRC for where a good price is before you fly.

There are several achievements for drugs as well, so when not finding a "hot" drug to sell, keep an eye on the lower ones so you can finish the achievements for those as well. Every little bit helps at the start of the game. Even selling for $1 more with a full load counts toward the achievements.

If there is no one online that can give you a good price for the drug you have, you could always go to [News & Info] / [Tips] and ask an NPC for a tip where the best price is.

Grave-digging & Pick-pocketing:

These both use the pick-pocket timer, which has a one-hour cool-down. Grave-digging has its own achievements which you will miss out on if you pickpocket from the start since the option to grave-dig disappears once you become a Made Man. I would suggest starting with grave-digging until then since pick-pocketing is more complicated and controversial. You can switch to pick-pocketing when you reach Made Man.

Multiple Tabs:

I find it much easier to keep multiple tabs open for different things in-game. You can have one main one that you do all your petties, felonies, jailbreaks etc, and others for Obituary, Achievements, Forum activity, Mail and more. Trying to do everything from one screen can be confusing and frustrating. This will also help get you into the aforementioned routine.

Jail-breaking:

This will be your go-to for experience towards units for most of the game. Just remember though, as you bust more and more out of jail, you will earn less and less experience for each bust, signified by a 125% when you start, down to a 25% when you have done many, many busts in a row. This percent will go back up to 125% if you don't do any busts for a while, how long, I am not sure.

Start small, busting the ones with 0 guards, and work your way up, taking into consideration that some cities are harder than others. You can end up in jail yourself for a failed bust, so try to stay within the guard limit you know you can handle. If you own a Corrupt Agent though, they will immediately get you out of jail so you can continue busting. If you have absolutely no chance of busting someone, the game will add a message underneath that you may need more practice or something to that regard.

Units & Ranks:

I figure I should end this basic guide by giving some information on Ranking and Units. The amount of units of drugs you can carry is equal to your level. Each rank has a minimum amount of time and units required. The game will automatically rank you up all the way to Wise Guy whenever you reach the required experience and time for each rank. From there on, your Crew Leader will be in charge of promoting you, although you will still need the required time and units, and any other requirements unique to each Crew Leader.

A Corrupt Agent (costs 10 credits, approximating close to 5 million game cash, although if you are careful selling the dope he collects, he can pay for himself) will make sure every time you have the experience to go up units/level as soon as you sell your next load of drugs you'll get them, without ever having to bribe the FBN Agent.

For anyone that doesn't have a CA, pick one city, and bribe the FBN agent (found under [News & Information] / [Tips]). It will look like this if done correctly. You will then tip him over and over again, which will cost anywhere from $100,000 to $350,000 depending on how early or late in your career you decide to do these tips. I recommend tipping as much as possible early as possible to avoid paying more funds. You know you‘ve tipped enough when the message changes to:

You seem to understand how this relationship works. I'll be sure to spread the word that you're good for business.

After this transaction happens, and again, it takes a good ten to twenty times of tipping before it will pop up, so just keep doing it even if it says the same thing every time; you will go to the drug dealer page and quickly buy and sell any drugs you want - it does not matter what kind as long as it is a full load that you buy or sell, this is not to make money but to simply get your units. After you sell, your levels will now say 22 (22) and you should be all set.

Now you are ready to sell a load of drugs and boom, any units you have experience for at the time, you will get. If your profile shows a number (for example 20(23) this means you have the experience for lvl 23 but either you haven't bribed the FBN agent enough, or haven't sold drugs in the bribed city yet. Just remember, you don't have to do any of this tipping if you own a Corrupt Agent.

You can actually keep gaining units regardless of your rank, even having 60+ units/Level at Wise Guy (for example). The minimum requirements for each rank as per Units/level and minimum time are as follows.

How to Gain Units:

•    Petties
•    Felonies
•    Organized Crimes (OC's)
•    Drug Run's
•    Achievements & Travel
•    Gun
•    Pickpocket & Grave Robbing
•    Jail Breaking
•    Credits
•    Forts
•    Posting - Streets/Business District

Petties (XP Gain: Medium)

Petties are simple enough, you should be doing them constantly, as soon as your timer is open. The more you are active, the quicker you will level using this method. Always start with the first petty and do this until you have completed the Purse Pilfer achievement. Once that is done, move onto the second crime and stay with this one until all relevant achievements are completed. Same applies to the third. When you reach the fourth petty, just keep doing this one when your timer is open.

Felonies (XP Gain: Medium)

This same logic as Petties applies to Felonies. When your timer is open, you should be doing them straight away. Start with the first one available and continue with this until you unlock the higher ones as you progress in units. There is not much difference between the types available (Safe crack/Lockpick) so don't worry too much about choosing which to do at a certain unit level. These also have achievements, so decide whether you want to focus on a certain type for that achievement, or move higher once the new felony is unlocked.

Organized Crimes (OC's) (XP Gain: Medium)

These will only be available to host for those members who have worked hard and become 'Made'. (You can be invited to an OC at any Rank, given your Felony timer is Open.) These will require one than one person to complete them and will payout a much greater cash reward. With OC's, the more people of high rank you have in it, the higher your success chances but the lower your cash share so try to find a good balance on participants to ensure it succeeds with a nice payout for all members. There was a change that also included the person's crime skill in the success rate of OCs. From an experience point of view, try to run these whenever you have it available.

Drug Run's (XP Gain: Medium)

Buying and selling drugs is how you make your money in this life and a set amount of full load sales per hour will net you a small amount of experience. However, it can also be used to gain experience by doing achievements. You should start out with Marijuana and buy/sell the maximum amount of units you have, making a profit each time until that achievement linked to that drug type is completed before moving onto the next type.

[Note: At the beginning, say when you can carry 10 Units - Purchase 3 units of 3 different of the cheapest drugs, that way BEFORE YOU FLY there's a chance to still sell off the other 6, buy it into the one that's highest, and sell for an overall profit. Then BEFORE YOU FLY, rebuy 3 different types of drugs, to ensure your chances of chipping the lower drug achievements off BEFORE GOOMBA!)

[Post-Note: Only a *full* sale for a profit will net you experience/Achievement credit]

Flight Pattern - I've developed quite the route for each City. I find that a good 80% of the time using this method, and the Tips at the top of the Drug page, you'll make a profit.

Achievements & Travel (XP Gain: High)

This is one of the key ways of gaining units quickly. You should constantly be checking your achievements to see what is open and following these as a guide on what you need to do next. Achievements can be found under 'News & Info'.

Some achievements require you to travel around to complete a set of criteria within each of the various cities so make sure you are using your travel timer efficiently. Your local travel timer should be used to shift your drug units to try and make the early cash and complete the drug-related achievements.

Gun (XP Gain: None - Only via achievements)

You should never share details of your gun to anyone except your CrewLeader and members of the upper structure of your Family. Hitting a target will not yield any XP returns, however, you should refer to the achievements to see which targets can be shot for the rewards from that.

If training your gun, be aware of the family rules and DO NOT shot anything if you are unsure about any details.

Pickpocket and Grave Robbing (XP Gain: Medium)

Whether you choose to do PP's or Grave-rob, these should be done every hour, based on your activity time. For me personally, I start with Grave robbing and use the tips (News & Info -> Tips -> Last option, 'Undertaker') to get the location of a nearby untouched grave. I find this to be the quickest method to ensure a fast progression. I do Grave robs up until I complete Phase 3 of the 'Grave Goblin' achievement before moving onto PP's. If you choose to PP, be aware that if you Pick the Pockets of someone who is unfriendly to it, you are likely to be Mugged - which will result in an addition 3 hours to both your Flight and PP timer, as well as a chance for the Mugger to obtain your Gun, and up to 90% of your on-hand cash. [To avoid this, simply bank your money beforehand, or fly out of the City immediately.)

If using the Undertaker tips to locate graves, you may think it's expensive to pay $20k each time but the reward for completing just Phase 3 (150 x grave robs) is $5 million so you will easily make a profit in the long run.

Jailbreaking (XP Gain: High)

Jailbreaking is probably the fastest way to gain units quickly but can be expensive if you are constantly using credits to refill the jails. You should start by busting out the 0 guard prisoners, gradually working your way up as your train this skill, until you can bust out the 20 guard Admin accounts. Your experience returns will slowly drop as you do more and more jailbreaks within a 6 hours period. It will start at 125% per break, dropping to 100%, 75%, 50% and finally 25% over time. If you are on 25%, you should let it cool down before doing more jailbreaks as the returns for your effort are a waste. Another tip for if you are using credits to throw jails is to pick a quiet city and/or time when not many players are online so that you get as many of the breaks to yourself as possible. Or, utilize the method of 'chipping in' for a Jail to be thrown by only spending partial credits.

[Note: The cities do have a different level of difficulty for JailBreaking. By flying around and seeing what you can bust at which point where you should be able to determine which is easier/harder to bust from.)

Forts (XP Gain: High)

Hitting enemy forts with Dynamite offers arguably the best experience returns in the game. However, this is something which you will not get the opportunity to do that often. You must only attack the forts of dead CL's or Tyler Durden unless given a specific order by your crew leader. When hitting a fort, your wack timer will open again after 30 minutes instead of the usual 60 from a shot. You will gain bonus experience if you are the person to destroy the fort layer instead of damage it.

Posting - Streets/Business District (XP Gain: High)

Posting in the streets is quite a popular way of gaining experience as it also helps build your reputation amongst the other mafioso. Please ensure you are always respectful if posting and do not spam posts just to gain easy experience otherwise it will be frowned upon and may have a negative impact if the admins of our world intervene. In addition to the experience, posting will also grant vision based on where your post has been made.

[IE: Street posting will increase your Vision/Info [the number of people you can see in your Local Listing, and your % chance to decode/receive Witness Statements *OVERALL*. Business District posts will increase your Info/Vision for *THAT CITY*



The biggest factor of all to gaining units quickly though is your online time. The more hours you put into this life, the more benefits you will get in return!

Buying or Selling Perks and Credits:

If you are interested in buying or selling perks fron other players please use the following thread:

https://mafiareturns.com/comm/thread/639104#19039497

If you are looking to buy and sell credits for in-game cash: 

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/marketplace.php

If you are looking to buy credits with your hard-earned dollars:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/purchase.php

Perks!:

Looking for perks?! Check this link out:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/spend.php

Other Credit Related Pages:

History Log:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/

Investing in the Game:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/invest.php

 

Transferring to Another Player:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/transfer.php

Saving Credits:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/savings.php

Rewards for Buying Credits:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/rewards.php

Gifts, Perks You Have Been Given:

https://mafiareturns.com/credits/gift.php

City Difficulty Ratings:

**A special thank you to Star for the original thread that I borrowed from her HQ. The core information is all hers. All I did was edit, add additional information, and format. She's amazing.** 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1i49vDQ2DjcfJQt_0hmVylP_ofsnpHXKnq2FRZYyctRo/edit#gid=0