(Alright, I know it has taken Me a long ass time to revise this, and I apologize. I blame it on My need for multitasking, even though I seem to suck at it. *grins*)

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 hopefully this thread will get you started in the right direction.

#1 - Family -

You have 48 hours to find a family that will take you in and protect you. 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 so 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, its IMPERITIVE that you are sponsored by a family within that first 48 hours.

#2 - Timer bar & Corrupt Agent -

You obviously will not be starting the game with enough 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.

#3 - 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.

#4 - 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, therefor getting into a routine is important, and having that timer toolbar reminds you when you can do something again.

#5 - 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! Its revenue. Stick with it.

#6 - Buying and Selling Drugs -

With the new districts introduced to the game, 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 are 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.

#7 - 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 pick-pocket 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.

#8 - 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 afore-mentioned routine.

#9 - Jail-breaking -

This will be your go-to for experience towards units for most of the game. Other things give experience  of course, but as far as I know, jail-breaking gives the most. 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.

#10 - Gun Control -

This will not be a tutorial on how to build a gun, but I feel it necessary to warn and advise on the matter. Do NOT shoot your weapon for any reason until speaking to your Crew Leader or Hit Squad Leader. They will give you the best direction on how you should go about it. A simple "Oh I didn't know" excuse will not cut it in this world.

If you make even an innocent mistake costing someone their life, yours will most likely be taken in return. I can not stress this enough. Don't even do a range until you speak to your Crew Leader about what type of role you would like to play in the Crew. When it comes to your gun, its all or nothing. Anything in between can't be put to much use effectively.

#11 - 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]. Bribe him over and over (stick with one city to do this) until he changes what he says to you, usually something along the lines of "We'll have to change the way we do business".

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 : 21(23)) this means you have the experience for lvl 23 but either 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.

Civilian          - This is what you start as, when you enter "this thing of ours".

Petty Thief    - Only takes a few petty crimes to reach this rank - (promoted by game)

Thug              - Either after 12 hours, or joining a family - (promoted by game)

Gangster       - After 24 hours - (promoted by game)

Goomba        - 2 days - (promoted by game)

Earner          - 5 days - (promoted by game)

Wise Guy     - 8 days - (promoted by game)

Made Man    - 11 days - 25 units minimum (promoted by CL)

Capo            - 14 days - 30 units minimum (promoted by CL)

Boss            - 17 days - 35 units minimum (promoted by CL)

Consigliere - 20 days - 40 units minimum (promoted by CL)

Don             - 40 days - 45 units minimum (promoted by CL)

Godfather   - 120 days - 60 units minimum - 30 member family (promoted by game when certain steps are taken)

(I'm still planning to make a more advanced Guide in the future, just no idea how long it will take. Thank you to everyone who sent thanks and support mail about the last Guide. It was nice to know how many people used it.)

I've been way overdue to update/revise this. I think I've been putting it off a couple years now. I appreciate everyone that is still using it, and I promise my next account will be another Dalton and I'll update it for sure. Much <3