It is a blast to play Mafia Wars because we get to express an alter-ego – our criminal mastermind.  New players aren’t twitching about uncovering the inside goods from a Mafia Wars strategy guide.  As a beginner, you’ve got enough to think about trying out all the browser buttons and making sense of your Mafia Wars profile.

After playing for a awhile, you might start thinking the other gamers know something you don’t.  You’re not feeling very street smart.  You feel somewhat lame-o about game strategy.  What is up with the submissive posture you’re taking on?

• Add me, please!
• Please join my crew!
• Can you help me with job?
• I need this item to complete collection X, please?

Is the constant boot licking you’re doing wearing your out yet?

That’s when you start wondering about a Mafia Wars strategy guide.  If only there was an ebook that showed you how to stand up and be the criminal mastermind you know you are!  You’ve got a premonition that winning Mafia Wars is in your future.

Occasionally, you come across those untouchable, expert gamers.  You take in their profile and you wonder:

• I didn’t know the levels went THAT high!
• This player WANTS to be hitlisted?
• How do they gather these mafia members and make their family so big?
• How can I rake in that kind of Mafia Wars money?

…this guy must play Mafia Wars 24/7!

Positioning yourself in those top tiers of Mafia Wars is 100% possible. Those players simply have how-to information you lack.  Maybe they gathered their insider 411 the old-fashioned way.   The painful learning curve of unassisted mastery may be their only teacher. 

Or maybe they acquired a Mafia Wars strategy guide.

There’s good news and bad news about a Mafia Wars strategy guide.  On the bright side, guides are out there.  The bad news is that you can’t know which guide is the perfect one for you.  I’ve plunked down some serious cash on Mafia Wars strategy guides.  Reading and reviewing them is a hobby for me – a pricey hobby.  Some are good and some are just not what you need.

Mafia Wars Blueprint is a fresh new Mafia Wars strategy guide – just released.  It’s got a Mafia Wars overview AND leveling guidance, which makes it a hybrid of the other guides you can get on the market today.  The author is THE top Mafia Wars player, too, so you can be confident the guide is rock solid.

This is the guide that will take your Mafia Wars sessions to the stratosphere. 

• Get the goods on Cuba AND Moscow
• Say ‘see ya’ to getting beat down and robbed by upper level players
• Build a huge mafia family
• Level up with tons of Mafia Wars money to go around
• Avoid those mistakes that 99% are making in Mafia Wars

Mafia Wars Blueprint is the top shelf Mafia Wars strategy guide on the market right now.  You can read my Mafia Wars Blueprint review for yourself.

How unfair is it that the first time you fired up Mafia Wars you had to choose a character type although you had no clue about Mafia Wars strategy for leveling up?  Sadly, there is no way to alter your starting character pick once it’s made, anymore.  When Mafia Wars first came out, you could alter character type in exchange for Godfather reward points, but that option was removed from the game.

I’ve heard rumors that Zynga will return the Mafia Wars character type switcheroo option back into the game, but as of the writing of this article that’s just what it is…rumors.  Although I’m surprised Zynga doesn’t reintroduce the character change option, because they could scoup up lots of Godfather points.  I know lots of Mafia Wars gamers who would be willing to cough up reward points to have a different character.  Zynga doesn’t usually pass up the opportunity to make money!

Looks like for the time being you must remain the character that you chose when you were a noob without any Mafia Wars strategy for leveling.  You had three options for Mafia Wars character:

Mogul
Maniac
Fearless

Each character type has 1 character stat benefit, a top mafia spot specially related to them, and a bonus power.  In order to understand the leveling discussions that follow, read these character descriptions.

Character: Mogul
Primary benefit: Gets the 60 minute take every fifty four minutes.
Top Mafia position: Bagman
Intermittent power: If you are promoted into Bagman in another’s mafia, you sometimes earn double the money on jobs

Character: Mafia Wars Maniac
Primary benefit: Energy returns at one point every 3 minutes, rather than 1 point every five
Top Mafia position: Button Man
Come-and-go power: A Maniac in the Button man position can win a percentage of fights he or she initiates even though outgunned, outmanned, and outclassed by the defender.

Mafia Wars Fearless Character
Major benefit: Health rebuilds faster – 1 point every 2 minutes rather than 1 every 3.
Top Mafia spot: Wheelman
Bonus Power: When you occupy the Wheelman position in another gamer’s mafia, a Fearless can complete a certain percentage of jobs without expending.

Many Mafia Wars strategists agree that the Mogul character doesn’t assist a player to level up any faster in job-based leveling.  A Mogul has perks in Mafia Wars income because of the extra 2.4 hours of income they get every 24 hours.  In the lower levels of Mafia Wars – and in Cuba, too! – the additional income a Mogul receives is a real help for a player.  Once you figure out Mafia Wars property investment, though, you’ll have lots of Mafia Wars income whether you are a Mogul or not.  A Mogul will always make money more easily, but  that won’t be as valuable in the upper levels.

Mogul character out of the argument, you get into a heated argument about the best character for strategic Mafia Wars leveling when you start talking about Fearless and Maniac.  These are summaries of the debate:

Pro Maniac Character Position

The best Mafia Wars leveling character is Maniac, since energy is what gets you experience and leads to speed leveling.  Mafia Wars energy is what it’s all about.  And although the Maniac’s unique power doesn’t help you much once you pass a certain level and only attack when you know you can win the fight anyway, the energy recovery of the Maniac is always helping you level faster.  And that’s why you want to pick a Maniac character when you want to get to top boss quickly.

Arguments in Favor of Fearless

If you want to level quickly, select a Fearless character.  Although the main benefit to being Fearless – faster health regeneration – doesn’t exactly wow Mafia Wars gamers, the intermittent power of no energy cost jobs means that you will get a huge advantage in speed leveling.  The leveling strategy only works if someone puts you into their top mafia Wheelman spot, which can be a hard sell since your character isn’t much of an asset to a crew at first.  Once you get into that Wheelman positon, you can do up to eleven percent of the jobs for zero energy cost.  Those preserved energy points allow a Fearless to level up a lot more quickly.  That Fearless advantage means even more as you climb the tiers and jobs demand more and more energy.  And Fearless’ more speedy health recovery actually are pretty useful after level 35 because the fightlist in Cuba tends to drain your health faster, and who wants to shell out for hospital recovery with pesos?

So, what’s the conclusion – is Fearless or Maniac the superior leveling character in Mafia Wars?  If you can wheedle a Wheelman in someone’s top mafia, I’ve got to select Fearless as the superior Mafia Wars leveling character.  More critical to Mafia Wars strategy overall is what both characters have in common.  If you want to level with speed, you’ll have to learn all you can about managing.  Whether you recover your energy more quickly or don’t have to use energy at all on certain jobs, you can see that leveling is about Mafia Wars energy.

Maybe you’re bummed now that you realize you’re initial character choice won’t maximize your leveling.  The positive news is that you can always improve your Mafia Wars strategy, no matter what character type, by using better strategy for energy.  If you’re really eager to try faster Mafia Wars leveling and you aren’t a Fearless, you can always open a second Facebook profile.  A new Fearless character would benefit from promotion into top mafia Wheelman and receive gifts from your existing character, as well!  Just don’t have so many characters going that you can’t keep track (yeah, don’t get me started on that story!