Help me right the ship

[deuces]

Anubis just suggested starting a thread asking for advice if you're level 90 and havent finished the fighting goals yet. Im on championship round 33 and thug life 24 right now, at level 82. I've completely stopped pvp'ing for the time tho, and am focusing on raising my economy/attack/defense. My only xp gain for the last level was from robbing buildings with $1500+ at 1:1 respect or 2k+ at 1:2 respect or better. (no warehouses FML)

Current stats are:

Jobs completed: 3031
Fights won: 4415
Fights lost: 633
Robberies won: 7417
robberies lost: 533

# of mafia: 344 (was 180 less than a week ago, my attack/defense were too low tho. raising it to max currently, and attempting to outfit them fully. I have ~330 vehicles and everything else covered, all of my spending is going into cheap upgrades and camaros right now.)

# of weapons: 1088
# of armor: 512
Total mafia attack: 8771
Total mafia defense: 12003 (1896 building defense) edit: damn, 1164 and dropping in defensive explosives too.
Income per hour: 28492 (no laundromats, quickest pickup time is 3 hours)

I guess im just looking for any more input on what i should be doing...i think im mostly on the right track now. I dont think i'll have much fun with the game strictly camping, and it'll take me 2-3 weeks to get to level 90 with how im robbing right now...im hoping that will give me enough time to bulk up enough to where im in the top 20ish% for my level, and i'll be able to quickly pvp/loot my way up to 110 where i can slow down again and build up further.

Econ wise, i got my MT's to level 5 and lofts to level 2. Now im using all my cash to buy weapons/cars, and upgrading stuff like level 5 barbershops etc.

Was spending my respect points on NVG but today i switched to bikes once my mafia exceeded the number of cars i had.

Any help greatly appreciated!! Also thanks a ton to everyone on here who figured all this out before me! All the guides and general chatter is great.

Thanks,

Jesse

[deuces]

bump, any help appreciated.

[Rarelibra]

Your fight stats are low for your level. You should be using stamina to PvP every chance you get - you get good respect points, good drops, and good xp (depending on the win, of course). Also, it is a good guide that the number of mafia is equal to 5 x your level (so at level 82, you should have the magic number of ~400-410 with enough guns, melee, armor, and vehicles to go around). Save your money and don't spend on the camaros. The way it works is

guns - farm the M4s from the Boardwalk like crazy. You can get several each day and within a month be up above 100 easily. Don't do any more storyboards until you have farmed enough M4s and completed your thug lifes and championships to get the RPs, exeleros, and RPGs. Don't spend money on guns.

melee - you should be concentrating on chain whips (if unlocked). As you go above 100 and get stronger, you can easily get several hundred RPs a day in PvP, meaning you can get a chain whip added every other day. If you get your economy going well, you can also purchase steel garrotes to supplement.

armor - concentrate on NVGs (avoid the combat suits for now).

vehicles - use your RPs for Yamaha Race Bikes. Supplement with Mustangs. Don't spend money on Camaros. If you want, you can also farm Devilish Taxis (6/5) from the junkyard (decent drop rate).

don't worry about explosives until you are strong enough with a roaring economy to support purchasing them.

My personal opinion for you is to stay in place and camp while farming M4s and doing some PvP. Get your mafia boosted in size and get them equipped - when you get over lvl 95-100 you are going to be wide open and most lvl 100+ have att/def well over 10k. If not properly equipped you will be fish fodder.

All strategies are different - this is what I did:

I was doing like you until about level 30 when I started getting owned big time. Someone was nice enough to tell me that I didn't know what I was doing and gave me some pointers. I immediately turned to equipping my mafia (even over-equipping, planning ahead). Then my focus went to

guns - I bought 100 machine pistols and 100 AK-47s to strengthen and equip my mafia. I also spent RPs on 100 Tommy Guns. Then I started farming M4s and never looked back.

melee - I bought 100 brass knuckles and 100 stiletto knives. Then I bought 100 street knives and focused on Columbian Knives. Now I am focusing on chain whips (I have 5) and steel garrotes (I have 15).

armor - I bought 100 ski masks and 100 steel toed boots while concentrating on 100 combat boots. Now I am solely focused on NVGs.

vehicles - I bought 100 junkers and 100 motorcycles and worked on getting 100 mustangs until I got to the missions with hatchbacks and pickups (I have 65 and 38, respectively). I am totally focused on Yamaha Race Bikes (64 so far) and farming Devilish Taxis (22 so far).

Everyone has a different strategy, and hindsight is 20/20. Had I read the forums before starting the game, I may have approached things quite differently since day 1.

[deuces]

Thanks for the response rarelibra. I have already stopped buying camaros, i was only buying them until my mafia was equipped with at least 1 car each. Im not spending all of my respect on bikes, and adding 1 mafia per bike i earn. All the cash i earn with robbing and economy is going to steel garrotes now (have purchased 23 i think since making this post, along with probably 20 camaros.) attack is up to 9122 from yesterday (350/day would be awesome im pretty sure.)

I think pvp'ing and farming m4's will level me up too quickly right now, thats why i've mostly cut that out, only pvp'ing when it will net me $2k+. and no farming. My thinking is that i will get the m4s eventually, and even tho my attack wont be great going into the danger levels, it will be good enough to beat 50% of the people probably, allowing me to pvp without much issue at all.

Also building a gatling turret every 8 hours right now to boost my defense a bit.

[Rarelibra]

Thanks for the response rarelibra. I have already stopped buying camaros, i was only buying them until my mafia was equipped with at least 1 car each. Im not spending all of my respect on bikes, and adding 1 mafia per bike i earn. All the cash i earn with robbing and economy is going to steel garrotes now (have purchased 23 i think since making this post, along with probably 20 camaros.) attack is up to 9122 from yesterday (350/day would be awesome im pretty sure.)

I think pvp'ing and farming m4's will level me up too quickly right now, thats why i've mostly cut that out, only pvp'ing when it will net me $2k+. and no farming. My thinking is that i will get the m4s eventually, and even tho my attack wont be great going into the danger levels, it will be good enough to beat 50% of the people probably, allowing me to pvp without much issue at all.

Also building a gatling turret every 8 hours right now to boost my defense a bit.

We'll see how it goes...

[Demoni696]

Unless every member of your mafia that is fighting has an M1A1 you do not have enough.

Your average attack per media member is only 25 8771/344

Just because you have an v,m,a,g (items) for every member dose not mean you have an strong mafia. You might want to drop about half of your members until you can get your mafia members better equipped. There is a reason I am able to attack pretty much anyone on my list and be successful. Even though I only have 100 members a good number of 300 member mafias have an lower def than my attack rating.

[deuces]

Everyones opinion seems to differ on that, and ive gone back and forth between having full mafia and pretty low mafia. I started adding again because once i hit the high 70s it seemed like i was falling behind. Still really not sure what mafia size i should keep :-/

[whocareswhatmynameis]

Unless every member of your mafia that is fighting has an M1A1 you do not have enough.

Your average attack per media member is only 25 8771/344

Just because you have an v,m,a,g (items) for every member dose not mean you have an strong mafia. You might want to drop about half of your members until you can get your mafia members better equipped. There is a reason I am able to attack pretty much anyone on my list and be successful. Even though I only have 100 members a good number of 300 member mafias have an lower def than my attack rating.

the information i am getting from many seasoned players is that "lean and mean" strategy doesn't work at higher level (>lvl 90-100). for what it is worth, this is the strategy i used till mid-70s, then increased my size since i wanted to complete the PvP quests. i never downsized again since i have better stat than most for my level.

[Tramp Stamp]

the information i am getting from many seasoned players is that "lean and mean" strategy doesn't work at higher level (>lvl 90-100)

That's the impression I got, too, but there's somebody on my list that got up to 200 with Mafia <= 50 and an economy <= $10k/hr. He's beefed himself up over the past few weeks but I'm pretty sure he had a def score around 3,000 and atk not much higher. From what I'm hearing doing this shouldn't be feasible.

[Rarelibra]

That's the impression I got, too, but there's somebody on my list that got up to 200 with Mafia <= 50 and an economy <= $10k/hr. He's beefed himself up over the past few weeks but I'm pretty sure he had a def score around 3,000 and atk not much higher. From what I'm hearing doing this shouldn't be feasible.

I've seen a few lvl 200s like that... they probably went swift and silent, who knows. That only means that members 100 levels below them can smack them around like red-headed... well, you know the deal.