When you sign on to Mafia Wars, is leveling up your main goal for your time? There’s no refuting the thrill of seeing your mobster star rise through the rank and file. And don’t overlook the incentives built into the game for reaching those levels; we all want to commit crime in Cuba and Moscow.

Let’s consider core concepts for Mafia Wars leveling. Leveling up is based on acquiring a certain number of experience points. You convert your energy and stamina into experience by doing jobs and participating in fights.  Until recently, you could also get experience through robbery. (Does anyone else feel the loss?)

If you want to level up faster, there are two routes – doing jobs and doing fights.  Job based leveling is easiest if you are a Fearless character, because you can get a  special bonus when positioned correctly in another player’s top mafia that makes your energy input zero on a about 5% of the jobs you work. Maniac characters also have a perk in speed leveling with either technique because of the fast recovery of energy points built into that character.  Using fights to level up may be the Mogul’s best choice, since they are lacking energy bonuses the other characters enjoy.

If you want to dodge the occasional retaliation nut in Mafia Wars, job leveling is the stress free way to go. From level one to one hundred, you’ll assign most of your skill points into your energy stat. You want to master every job and each tier all three times. As you go up in the tiers, jobs will demand more preparation and energy points to complete and you’ll receive more experience and loot too. Your given level dictates which job tiers are open to you, but don’t leap ahead of mastery too much.  Within each tier, focus on Mafia Wars jobs that yield more experience for your energy investment. It may seem like painful going at first, but this lays the groundwork for the upper tiers. Mastering tiers will give you more skill points to invest, decent cash, loot, and the sweet mastery bonuses. (You’re monster energy stat will also be an advantage in Mafia Wars Moscow.)

Fight based leveling is another thing altogether. You’ll need to allocate heavily in your stamina stat to enable you to fight non stop. You’ll also find it vital to build a fairly large mafia and arm yourself with specials or limited edition loot to have a winning start in the fighting path. It’s easy to rake in the cash and pick up some cherry equipment when you stumble across a weak but deep pocket opponent.  When you are near leveling up, choose a job that yields the biggest experience output to expend the last of your energy and you’ll get a bigger experience point boost into your next level. Sure you’ll dislocate your finger fighting so much, but on the bright side you won’t have to hassle with consumables.

To be sure, a marriage of job and fight leveling can be efficient and is (probably) the most fun. Start your level by fighting until your stamina is gone, because fights yield more experience:energy which gives you a big head of steam in experience. And then start working jobs. Combine fighting and job leveling ideas like this and you can be a tough and also collect that massive energy stat that will be such an advantage later on. The best of both Mafia Wars level up strategies.