Moscow leveling guide in mafia wars:facebook

Moscow Strategy

 

If you are like me, Moscow has been VERY frustrating in terms of money.  It seems I always have to “park” my character to get more money and the jobs I’ve been parked on haven’t produced the loot I really wanted.  And it’s a trade-off between doing jobs that have a higher ruble payout versus those that give loot.  After examining the structure of the Moscow jobs, requirements and loot, I’ve designed, tested, and implemented a strategy which has taken much of the frustration out of Moscow and can help others enjoy these episodes rather than be frustrated by them.

The first thing that needs to be done is deciding what your goal happens to be.  For me, that goal is make my character stronger by looting the best equipment I can find.  I want to be maxed out on the high end equipment (501 less special items) with my first emphasis placed on high attack items.  Defense items are nice and there are a few that you will really want, but the best defense STILL remains leaving your Mafia Wars session with less than 20 health.

So, with that in mind, Moscow provides several “must have” items for attack, and some defense items that are just too good to pass by.  These include the following with their stats, Episode, Chapter, and “side” where applicable.

Shturmovik (“viks”); Armor, A: 45, D: 28; Episode 4, Ch. 2, VORY – This is a +11 attack item over Guerrilla Squads

Zoloto Sports Car (“Z cars”); Vehicle, A: 43, D: 22; Episode 6, Ch 3, BOTH – This is a +6 attack item over Track Loaders

Executive Overcoat (“coats”); Armor, A: 22, D: 45; Episode 6, Ch 1, BOTH – This is a +11 defense item over Camo Body Armors

Zmeya Carbon Blade (“blades”); Weapon, A: 28, D: 44; Episode 6, Ch 2, MAFIYA – This is a +9 defense item over Gaff Hooks

In addition to the above “must have” items, there are 2 “optional items” that you may want to consider not locking yourself out of.  I personally believe we will see these items improved upon in future countries, so I would save these for after you get the above items and loot them while you are passing time waiting for the next country to open.

Ubijca Assault Rifle; Weapon, A: 43, D: 18 ; Episode 5, Ch 2, VORY – This is a +1 attack item over TNT

Konstantin Cargo Carrier; Vehicle, A: 18, D: 44; Episode 6, Ch 2, VORY – This is a +2 defense item over State Cars

As you can see, everything you really want, with the exception of viks, is in Episode 6.  There is a nice defensive weapon in Episode 5, but it is +8 over Gaff Hooks which isn’t as good as the blade at +9.

So, the question becomes how to get through the Episodes with the funds that you have.  In the real world, the philosophy I’m going to present doesn’t make a lot of good financial sense, but in MW, it does.  The biggest problem we face are bribes which are dictated by the amount of equipment you own.  The concept of bribes was introduced in Cuba, but they REALLY didn’t keep you from moving forward in the game the way Moscow does.  Pure and simple, Moscow is money driven!  Episodes 1-5 use a very wide variety of equipment and it is difficult to “pawn” much off to decrease the bribes.  There ARE opportunities to do this, but you definitely have to plan ahead and see what the future episodes need before you do it.  And always remember that with each level of mastery within an episode, the equipment requirement goes up!  So if you needed 5 Dubinas at level 1 mastery, you will need 10 for level 2 and 15 for level 3! (5/10/15)

Episode 6 is a little different.  With the exception of the Sokel Helicopter, it uses ALL NEW EQUIPMENT.  Also, the ruble/XP ratios are MUCH higher in Episode 6 (this means you get more rubles for the same amount of energy).

So here is the game tip in a nutshell.  The loot you really want is in Episode 6.  Power through all the earlier episodes to complete Chapter 3 (no need to master) to open the next episode until you can get to Episode 6.  Once there, sell all your equipment you have purchased so far and buy only what you need to do the “coats” job in Episode 6.  Fill up on “coats” and pad your bank account (about 1,200,000 rubles each time you do the job) in the process and then go for the other items and Episode mastery.

I’m now going to lay out EXACTLY how to do this, how much money you will need, and what “side” choices to make in the process.  The money requirement MAY be different for mogul characters, I just don’t know if they get different payouts from jobs or lower equipment costs.  I’m going to start with the Ep. 4, Ch 2 (side selection).

Episode 4:  Artoritet

1. Ch 1 is now complete
2. Sell your Balaclavas, Taxis and Mototsykls – This will make the “cases” job unavailable, but you don’t need them anyway
3. Ch 2
   1. Choose Vory
   2. Pick up a few “viks” in Ch 2 and to get money to move on (if you need it).
4. Complete Ch 3 to open Episode 5
5. You have the choice to master the lvl if you want, but if you do, be sure you have the cash to get the equipment to complete Ep. 5, Ch1 because your viks job will be unavailable and you will need to purchase more equipment to do the Ep. 4, Ch 1 jobs.

NOTE:  There may be opportunities to offload a few other items, but I’m not going to address selling 5 or 6 items if you still need them in future jobs.  You can do that analysis if you want

Equipment Requirement to Complete Episode 4, Vory

Weapons:

(9) RAS-28

(8) Shturmovaya Vintovka

Armor:

(8) Bronezhilet

(6) Arctic Camo Suits

(7) Riot Helmets

(8) Tracksuits

Vehicles:

(2) BYK-922

(3) KRZ8

(5) Lisitsa 32 Sedans

Total price tag, per level of mastery (this will be important later) – 356,300,000 rubles

Episode 5:  Vor

1. Complete Ch 1 (NOTE: Remember that you can ask for help on the job WITHOUT having the equipment to DO the job!  So don’t buy it just to do the job.  The XP payouts are terrible on these – rely on your friends!!!)
2. Sell your Bronezhilets, Riot Helmets, Forrest Camos, and Lisitsa 32 Sedans – you don’t need them any more
3. Choose Mafiya!  This is probable the first time you have chosen them so here is why.  In Ep. 3, you had to buy some Arctic Camo armors.  In Ep. 4, Mafiya needs these and Vory needs the Forrest Camos (this is a switch).  So we are building on the equipment we already have in stock to get to Ep. 6.  There is also the Klyk-9 defensive weapon available to Mafiya side that we will improve upon with the Blade, but if you get a few now, you might choose to stick with them later.
4. Complete Ch 3 to open Episode 6
5. Go ahead and master lvl 1 if you want.  No pros or cons either way here.

NOTE:  Again, there may be opportunities to offload a few other items, but I’m not going to address selling 5 or 6 items if you still need them in future jobs.  You can do that analysis if you want

Equipment Requirement to Complete Episode 5, Mafiya

Weapons:

(15) RAS-28 SMG

(5) Dubina

(8) Boevoy Nozh

(12) Shturmovaya Vintovka

(5) Snayperskaya Vintovka

Armor:

(10) Bronezhilet (sell after completing Ch 1)

(10) Riot Helmet (sell after completing Ch 1)

(10) Arctic Camo Suit (MAFIYA ONLY)

Vehicles:

(8) Lisitsa 32 Sedan (sell after completing Ch 1)

(4) BYK-922

(4) KRZ8

(4) Sokel Helicopter

Total price tag, per level of mastery (this will be important later) – 764,200,000 rubles

Episode 6: Pakhan

1. Sell everything!  With the exception of the Helicopter that you won’t need till Ch 3, it is all new equipment and you don’t need the heli to later in Ep. 6.  You should be rich enough to buy them back at that point. By selling everything, you should be able to bank around 350,000,000 rubles!  That’s quite a start on your empire!
2. Buy the equipment needed to complete the “coats” job (94,200,000 rubles) and PARK HERE!  Do the coats job until you have all you want or get enough of a bankroll to go forward and get the other items.  Don’t go forward too quickly because this is a GREAT place to pick up a lot of cash with almost no bribe.  As you move forward, your bribe is going to increase.  I’m not going to tell you how much money you need before you go on, but I’d recommend having at least 2 Billion to move through Ep. 6, lvl 1 mastery and having a billion to repurchase your equipment to do lvl 2 mastery of Ep. 4.  If you wait around on the coats job long enough to fully stock, you’ll be well over this.  You’re going to get about 1.1-1.2 million each time you do it and it is a 108 energy requirement job.  So you will need around 144,000 energy points to get that kind of cash.  
3. Choose Mafiya and stock up on “blades” – You will probably be tired of the coats long before this, so, at your own risk, you CAN move onto the blades before you have the 2 billion.
4. When you have all the blades you want, move onto Ch 3 and get the “z cars”. 
5. I cannot emphasize this enough – Don’t GO BACK to the previous episodes until you are sure you have enough cash to finish them!  You are going to be buying a LOT of equipment and your bribes are going to go through the roof!  Get the cash in Ep. 6 while you don’t own the equipment or else you are going to be using GF points for rubles again!!!
6. Master Ep. 6, lvl 1

Equipment Requirement to Complete Episode 5, Mafiya

Weapons:

(15) RAS-55

Armor:

(18) Enforcer

Vehicles:

(5) Sokel Helicopter

(5) Zharpesta Sedans

(5) Tracked Truck

Total price tag, per level of mastery – 944,400,000 rubles

Wrapping things up: Mastering Moscow

1. It’s time to go back and wrap things up now.
2. Ep 4, mastering each lvl and filling out your “viks” supply
3. Ep 5
   1. Finish lvl 1 as Mafiya if you didn’t earlier.
   2. Lvl 2 and 3 should be chosen as Vory and stock up on a few Assault Rifles
4. Ep 6
   1. Again, sell everything except Ep. 6 equipment requirements.  The cash may be coming in handy now!!!
   2. Lvl 2 and 3 mastery should be as Vory picking up the carrier, or, if you didn’t get enough blades, do mafiya again and get some more

You know those $/lvl mastery from earlier?  The answer is “Yes”, you are going to have to spend712,600,000 rubles to buy back all the stuff and the additional items you need for lvl 2 mastery to move through it, and then ANOTHER 356.3 million to do lvl 3 mastery.  And THAT’S just on Episode 4!  Fortunately, there are some duplicate items for Ep. 5, but you’re going to have to spend some cash there as well.  But in the big picture, this is really only costing you ½ of the money for 1 lvl of mastery.  You were going to have to spend the rest of it anyway.  This approach just helps you get it while you are reaping some huge looting benefits.

I know this is a tough pill to swallow to sell all that stuff you worked so hard to get and probably spent some GF points to purchase, but Ep. 6 is where the good stuff is and is also where you can get some money.  This approach may not work for you, but it IS an option.

Good luck, whatever path you take!