Choosing your Character type strategy

After installing Mafia Wars for the first time, you will be given the chance to choose your character type. Each character type can generate a certain skill faster than normal, and each character type gains a unique bonus during game play. There are three characters available in the game. Before selection. know about the character type in detail and be very, very sure about your selection of the character, as it has important implications in the game, and it currently cannot be changed.

The Three Characters

Mogul	Maniac	Fearless

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Moguls gain money from property faster than the other character types and they get extra 5% income for every business that they own. This is a common choice for new players who believe that making money is the best choice. However, Boss-tier jobs can easily dwarf the earnings of a Mogul, and after reaching a certain level, you will not need the extra money except to use for healing or to earning certain money achievements in New York. Only the Mogul character type can be a Top Mafia Bagman. This gives them a small chance to gain double the money they earn from doing jobs.

Mogul in detail

Top Mafia Positions as Mogul

Positions	Top Mafia Bonus
Mastermind	Your Mastermind gains a small chance of gaining 50% more experience when performing jobs (maximum 11% if 14999+ jobs done)
\Bodyguard	Your Bodyguard gains a small chance to always win fights when they are attacked (maximum +11 increased defense if 49999+ fights won)
Safecracker	Your Safecracker gains a small chance to gain double the money when fighting or robbing (maximum 15% if 49999+ successful heists done)
Bagman	ONLY FOR MOGUL Your Bagman gains a small chance to gain double the money when performing jobs (maximum 15% if 299+ leveled gains)

Maniac

The Maniac character type regenerates energy faster than the two other character types. This is the most popular choice because energy drives leveling, although leveling at higher levels is driven mostly by the use of energy packs, and does not rely greatly on energy regeneration. The Maniac is the only character type eligible to be a Top Mafia Buttonman.

Formerly, they had a chance to instantly win fights that they initiated. This meant that if they would normally lose the fight against a stronger player, in a small percentage of cases they would win the fight instead. However, critical hits have been removed from game, so this is no longer applicable.

Maniac in detail

Top Mafia Positions as Maniac

Positions	Top Mafia Bonus
Mastermind	Your Mastermind gains a small chance of gaining 50% more experience when performing jobs (maximum 11% if 14999+ jobs done)
Button Man	ONLY FOR MANIAC Your Button Man gains a small chance to always win fights they initiate. (NOTE: This occurs when it would normally be a losing fight) (maximum +11 increased attack if 299+ leveled gains)
Bodyguard	Your Bodyguard gains a small chance to always win fights when they are attacked (maximum +11 increased defense if 49999+ fights won)
Safecracker	Your Safecracker gains a small chance to gain double the money when fighting or robbing(maximum 15% if 49999+ successful heists done)

Fearless

Fearless characters regenerate health faster than the two other character types. However, the health regeneration is less useful at higher levels, as healing is easily affordable, and you can top-up your health once per minute; this can even be seen as a disadvantage: due to their faster health regeneration time, they attract more attackers and lose more money than other two characters. The redeeming quality of the Fearless is their special spot in the Top Mafia: the Wheelman. A Fearless character has a small chance to spend no energy on a job. A Fearless character that is both a Wheelman and a Mastermind will have an easier time gaining levels, on par with the Maniac character type.

Fearless in detail

Top Mafia Positions as Fearless

Positions	Top Mafia Bonus
Mastermind	Your Mastermind gains a small chance of gaining 50% more experience when performing jobs (maximum 11% if 14999+ jobs done)
Wheelman	ONLY FOR FEARLESS Your Wheelman gains a small chance to perform jobs for no energy. (maximum 11% if 299+ levels gained)
Bodyguard	Your Bodyguard gains a small chance to always win fights when they are attacked (maximum +11 increased defense if 49999+ fights won)
Safecracker	Your Safecracker gains a small chance to gain double the money when fighting or robbing (maximum 15% if 49999+ successful heists done)

Strategy of choosing the character types

These calculations will show you how much energy you will get within a 24 hour time period:

• Maniac: Every 3 minutes you get 1 energy. (1 energy/3 minutes) × (60 minutes/hour) × (24 hours/day) = 480 energy/day

• Fearless/Mogul: Every 5 minutes you get 1 energy. (1 energy/5 minutes) × (60 minutes/hour) × (24 hours/day) = 288 energy/day

Once you master the Boss tier, you will receive the Golden Throne, giving you double energy per regeneration period; once you master the Consigliere tier, you will receive the Helicopter, giving you a 30-second reduction on your energy regeneration timer. Your energy within 24 hours will then be like this:

• Maniac: Every 2.5 minutes you get 2 energy. (2 energy/2.5 minutes) × (60 minutes/hour) × (24 hours/day) = 1152 energy/day

• Fearless/Mogul: Every 4.5 minutes you get 2 energy. (2 energy/4.5 minutes) × (60 minutes/hour) × (24 hours/day) = 640 energy/day

AT THE MOMENT, ZYNGA OFFERS NO WAY TO CHANGE YOUR CHARACTER TYPE ONCE YOU HAVE SELECTED ONE!

Choosing the Maniac character will give you a lot more energy and make you level faster than the Fearless/Mogul characters, as you can see from these calculations. But at higher levels, this difference is smaller, since you should have huge energy reserves.

If you want to make more money and are determined to get the money achievements, Mogul may be for you, but at higher levels it also doesn’t matter as much for players who have the new racket system, or who have large numbers of properties and do boss fights often. As for the business bonus (+5% cash per business), gameplay is not significantly affected after completing that city, except for use in healing.

The Fearless character is a good choice since you have a chance to do the job with no energy, but the chance is small and can be offset by the extra energy provided by the Maniac character. If you are lucky enough, you can have this small chance more often. The main disadvantage is gaining health faster, which attracts more attackers and gives more opportunities to lose money.

Even after that, if you are afraid to choose other than Maniac, the good news is at present the stamina cost only one skill point per stamina point, and fighting gives a higher experience/point ratio (average around 2.5 per stamina point expended) than doing jobs with energy. The best possible experience/point job is Run Illegal Poker Game in the Enforcer tier at 2.235 experience/energy point. So if you increase your energy at a good amount the leveling will not be a problem and remember the main source of gaining loot is fighting, not doing jobs.

Even though this is my own view, details of characters are given above so think and choose wisely.