GAME. It’s all here!

The bummer is that you picked a Mafia Wars character classification before you knew much about Mafia Wars strategy or Mafia Wars leveling.  Sadly, there is no way to change your starting character choice once it’s made, anymore.  There once was a way to change Mafia Wars character type in exchange for reward points, but that opportunity no longer exists.

You hear reports about Zynga bringing that Mafia Wars character switcheroo option out again, yet so far no deal.  Although I’m amazed Zynga doesn’t bring back the character change option, because they could rake in lots of reward points.  Many Mafia Wars addicts would be happy to pay the Godfather reward points price to alter their Mafia Wars character type, I’m sure.  Zynga doesn’t usually pass up the chance to make money!

Looks like for the time being you are stucks with the character that you chose when you were a rube without any Mafia Wars strategy for leveling.  These are the three character options in Mafia Wars:

Mogul
Maniac
Fearless

A character type has one major benefit, 1 top mafia spot, and one come-and-go power.  In order to understand the leveling arguments that we’ll examine next, read these character descriptions.

Mafia Wars Mogul Character
Major benefit: receives the 60 minute take every fifty four minutes.
Top Mafia position: Bagman
Intermittent power: If you are promoted into Bagman in another’s crew, you sometimes receive 2xs the money on jobs

Mafia Wars Maniac Character
Primary benefit: Energy returns at 1 point every 3 minutes, rather than 1 point every 5
Top Mafia position: Button Man
Bonus power: A Maniac in the Button man spot can win a percentage of fights he or she initiates even though outgunned, outmanned, and outclassed by the defender.

Character: Fearless
Major benefit: Health rebuilds more quickly – 1 point every 2 minutes as opposed to one every three.
Top Mafia spot: Wheelman
Bonus Power: As Wheelman in another’s crew, a Fearless character will be able to complete some jobs without putting out any energy.

Being a Mogul doesn’t get you to level up more quickly in Mafia Wars when your leveling strategy is job-based.  Mogul is an awesome character for Mafia Wars money since they earn more than 2 hours of extra money every day.  Being a Mogul character is a real plus in the lower levels when a Mafia Wars gamer is trying to balance income and upkeep.  Once you figure out Mafia Wars property investment, though, you’ll get 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.

Leaving the Mogul character aside, there is a fierce debate raging about whether Maniac or Fearless is the best character for strategic Mafia Wars leveling.  These are summaries of the debate:

Arguments in Favor of Maniac

Speed leveling is all about energy, and Maniac is the character with the fastest energy regeneration.  Energy is the name of the game in Mafia Wars.  Sure, the Maniac doesn’t have the best bonus power because once you know what you’re doing in Mafia Wars  you only attack when you can win anyway.  But the rapid energy refills are where it’s at for leveling.  Therefore, the Maniac character is the one to choose when you want the quickest leveling possible.

Pro Fearless

The best Mafia Wars leveling character is Fearless.  Although the main benefit to being Fearless – more rapid health regeneration – doesn’t exactly thrill Mafia Wars gamers, the intermittent power of no energy cost jobs means that you will get a major advantage in speed leveling.  The key to this speed leveling strategy is that someone has to promote you into their Wheelman top mafia spot, even if your character isn’t too advanced yet.  Once you get into that Wheelman positon, you can do between three and eleven percent of the jobs for zero energy cost.  Leveling up while in Wheelman will go much more quickly.  When the jobs start consuming more energy as you move into the higher tiers, the Fearless bonus power gets more valuable.  Fearless’ health regeneration actually is somewhat more useful as you level up, because when you get to Cuba your health will take a dive! That makes Fearless’ health perk a bigger asset after level thirty-five.

What is the ultimate character choice for Mafia Wars leveling strategy?  As long as you can get into the Wheelman position in someone’s top mafia, I think Fearless is going to level fastest for you.  Regardless, you can take away this observation from the leveling debate.  The most critical element of Mafia Wars when you want to level up fast is energy managment.  Whether you recover your energy faster or don’t have to spend energy on certain jobs, you can see that leveling is about Mafia Wars energy.

Maybe you’re bummed now that you see that you’re initial character choice will limit your leveling speed.  There is often room for improvement in Mafia Wars leveling, regardless of character, if you get the most from your energy!  If you’re really eager to try quicker 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!