I have been playing iMafia (iTune App Store link), a free social game on iPhone for more than two weeks. It doesn’t take up too much of my time, probably 3 minutes every session and I play it 3-5 times a day.
If you are good at personal finance, it will be revealed while playing this game. I believe that gamers with different level of financial education will have different outcomes. Let me show you what I mean.
What is iMafia?
iMafia is a free social game designed by PlayMesh. You can compete with other players (even if you aren’t playing at the same time), and buy virtual goods that will help you along the way. The graphics are pretty basic, with two-dimensional artwork and text-based instructions giving users a variety of options.
iMafia Screen Shot
The game is not hard to play. If you have an iPhone, just download the game on App Store. After you have gone through the simple tutorial, you shall master the game in no time.
How is it connected to real life in terms of personal finance?
Just like real life, to succeed in this virtual world of iMafia, you need money (a lot of it). You need money to do these stuffs:
1. To buy real estate properties – this will give you hourly cash flow
2. To buy weapons, armors and vehicles – this will aid you to do quest and fight other mafias
3. To heal in the hospital – this will replenish your health after wounded in mafia fights.
4. To hire more mafia members – this will allow you to do higher-paying quests such as smuggling, blackmailing politicians etc., and also manage more real estates investment.
Basically, if you want to advance through the game, you need a lot of MONEY $$$.
How do you make more money in iMafia?
As time goes by, your money will increase provided that you have a positive cash flow in the game. The money will pile up hourly, a lot faster than real life where most people get their cash inflow monthly.
Several things you can do to earn money are:
1. Fighting other mafia to steal their money (only if you win) – this requires Stamina points and Health points.
2. Completing quest such as smuggling, robbing banks etc – this requires Energy points. You will need more mafia members and better equipments to do quests that pay more money.
3. Investing in real estate to increase your hourly cash flow.
You can see that doing item No.1 and No.2 require active participation in the game. You need to keep playing the game in order to earn more money. But when your Stamina, Health and Energy points are depleted, you can’t proceed further until they are replenished over time.
Only item No.3 – investing in real estate will provide more money for you even without you playing the game all the time.
iMafia Game Strategy
Here is my game strategy:
1. Invest the money in real estate in order to have a higher cash flow. I buy a lot of properties until my mafia size can’t manage the portfolio (one mafia member is limited to manage only 5 properties). When I hit the limit, I will hire a new mafia member, one at a time.
2. When your level advances, you will have Skill points to increase your ability. I use the skill points to increase energy level, so that I can play less frequently in the future.
iMafia - Quests
If you are playing this game, add my character (KCLau) as your friend to share our progress. You can add friends in the café.
It is a fun game to play and it won’t take up too much of your time. Please share your character below in the comment section so that I can add you as friends too. What is your strategy?
Update 28th May 2009
The below information is provided by Druzel, who masters the iMafia game. (Thanks a lot Druzel!)
In general, Playmesh try their best to balance the game. If you pay careful attention as you play, you will find the best way to play, level up and/or make money. Also, please note that Playmesh points are NOT required for ANYTHING in the game. They only help you advance faster. Thats all.
The Raid quests
The 20% for the Raid Gun Dealer quest refers to the chance you have of getting an Uzi. Each time you perform the quest, you have a 20% chance of getting an Uzi. That means, you have an 80% chance of NOT getting one (the likely outcome each time). Over time, this balances out but its entirely possible (and unlucky) to perform the quest 20 times without getting a single Uzi. Its also possible to do the quest 10 times and get an Uzi every time. Its the luck of the draw.
Once you have your 10 Uzis (and the other requirements), you can then go for the military boats. Note that this quest only gives you a 10% chance. You only need 5 boats (instead of 10 Uzis) but the chance of getting one each time you perform the quest is only 1 in 10.
You may decide not to do these quests in favour of those that make you money. Then come back to the Raid quests at a later stage.
Armani Suits:
These you can get by downloading the other (free) Playmesh apps. You must pay careful attention to the instructions and follow the steps exactly or you will not get the points. Read the steps in the App Store for each application.
Fights:
You gain attack and defense points by buying weapons, armour and vehicles for your mafia members as well as using your skill points to increase your Attack/Defense statistic. Add all these up and when you attack an opponent, your Attack points are matched to their Defense points. If you have more points, chances are youll win (though there seems to be a small amount of chance involved). The closer the end result is, the more experience points you get (up to 9). Also, please note that the amount of life you and your opponent lose always adds up to 29. So, if you easily beat your opponent, you might lose 6 points. He would then lose 23. You would also receive fewer experience points. This is to balance the game. If you lose more health, you would also gain more experience. See how it works?
Moguls, brawlers and workaholics
Moguls generate 10% more money. They gain income every 54 minutes instead of every hour (60 min). Brawlers regenerate health and stamina 10% faster. Workaholics generate energy 10% faster so they can do more quests. Those players who do not choose one of these three player types lose out on these bonuses.
Mafia Members
Heres the formula for calculating the cost of the next mafia member. Just copy and paste into Excel:
=SUM(mafiasize^3*500)
For example, your 80th mafia member would cost 79*79*79*500 = $246,519,500.
Summary
Pay attention, read different forums and youll find out all this stuff for yourself. Im a level 60 mogul and have been playing for 62 days. Its fun but it shouldnt take over your life. If you have complaints about the game, provide Playmesh with some constructive feedback instead of whining and complaining. If you dont like it, dont waste your time on it. Lifes too short.
{ 123 comments… read them below or add one }
Next Comments →
I play iMafia for 3 Weeks now and I am Lvl 40.
I made my money by doing quests. Yes, this needs active participation, but getting money via property does not make you better in the game.
Try to get as fast as possible to the bankrobbery, skip fighting and save gear, that needs upkeep. 15 M4 assault guns and 3 pimped humvees are enough at the beginning.
Make sure that you get:
Energy 60 (3 times High Sea Smuggeling)
Health 200 (enough to make your fights)
Stamina 8-10 (Stamina is generated fast, you can fight every 4 minutes)
Critical/Evasion +1/Level after matching the points above
At/Def all the rest
That Stats should make sure, that you can earn good money by making quests, and live long enough to make your fights.
Fighting Tactics
I don’t take me time, to watch the equip my opponent is using. I simply fight. If i win, and get high money (50.000+) I fight him a again and again, until he is in hospital or death. If not, I switch target. When I win by critical, I also switch…
I play as Zillionaire and am currently level 46. I play by alternating back and forth between real estate collecting and building up mafia for next level quest. I gauge when to switch back and forth based upon which one has the highest hourly rate. For quest I divide the the average income by the time it requires to generate the energy. For examplae Casino Heist has an average income of 3,000,000 and takes 40 energy. 40 x 5 / 60 = 3.333 hrs. Then 3,000,000 / 3.333 = 900,000 /hr from quest. I’ll switch to mob building when my hourly income from real estate is over 2x that. I’m still working on developing the ultimate switch time frame, but it does seem to work.
I use fighting and such just for fun and extra income on the side.
Hi Digitaldoc,
Thanks for your sharing.. I saw you adding me as friend.
Just like what you do on fighting, I just fight mafia who stole money from me. That’s for fun actually.
“I use the skill points to increase energy level, so that I can play less frequently in the future.”
This statement doesn’t make sense to me. It seems that energy is only used in determining when you can do quests. Can you elaborate on why you spend leveling points on energy?
Hi Doug,
It takes 5 minutes to replenish 1 energy point. That means to replenish 120 energy points, it takes 600 minutes (10 hours).
When your energy level is max, the point won’t increase anymore because it is capped. Unless you use it up and the point will keep replenish again.
My energy level is 84 now. I can play the game in the interval of 7 hours (3 times a day) and I won’t lose out any time needed to replenish the energy.
i am j3r3m4 on iMafia and I am playing for top 6 income spot. currently I make 32mil every hour. i dont see any point in fighting because at best it only yields 100k per attack which is not that much.
@j3r3m4
Wow … you are among the top ranked iMafia gamers!
I just found out recently that when our cash holding is less than $10 million, 1% will be stolen whenever we lose a fight when attacked by other mafia
When it is over $10 million, the offender will only get 100k max, which is really pointless to fight.
Do you know what is the disadvantage when a mafia got killed in a fight?
hi kclau can ask gt other game same as imafia that can play in computer?
yo this game is the shit…no questions asked
I enjoy iMafia. It is the game that takes up very little of your time. I have a different take on the game.
1. Buy property like crazy. Residual income is the way to go.
2. Only get enough energy to do the quest you want to do. Let me explain. Although you can spend less time playing, you are actually crippling your character by getting tons of Energy. Get the energy you need and then setup an alarm schedule on your iPhone to let you know every time your energy is replenished. This way you can use your skill points to build up other areas and not waste them on simply playing less often.
3. Figure out which quests are to costly and skip them.
4. Buy property like crazy. Oh, did I say that already. Trust me on this one.
5. It ain’t fun to play a game with tons of weaponry and not use it, so try to kill all those that attack you mercilessly while you are sleeping. If you can’t kill them amp up your mafia and go after them again.
6. I recommend buying mafia one at a time early on up to say level 25 – 30. After that you should increase in groups of 3 -5. I know it is expensive, but the payoff is nice. So you have this jackass that keeps clobbering you at night. But you are patient and swing a 5 mafia increase with the works. You then revisit that peckerhead and crush their spirit. Oh this is so much fun.
7. Only FIGHT when you are bored or if you need a few extra dimes to pick up a lot without having to go to the bank.
8. About the bank. Unless you are just getting strafed constantly you should keep a couple uh million in the bank. The rest you should be buying properties with. Oh yeah! Buy property like crazy. So you have 30 million and you keep getting attacked. Don’t waste the 3 million in fees to bank it, just pull some more out and buy a property. Never let your money sit.
9. If you don’t like a player, ask them to be your friend. Make sure you are ready to amp up 3 – 5 mafia. Once they accept, make them wish they had not. Attack them relentlessly until they scrap the friendship. Did I say this was some serious fun? I love tickin’ folks off.
10. I go by Thick. Happy iMafia’ing.
@Masterk13
yeah .. buy real estate like crazy
AcidPete here. Just stopping by to say hi and thanks for the strategies. I’ve been on board with most of them but have learned a thing or two.
Thanx!
AP
130 health,
stamina around 5
energy just enough for quests.
critical and evasion high as possible.
use the money gain from fights in the bank to pay for healing.
attack gets the 1 point left over.
You know it!
Avoid Camo Gear and Police Shields. Big waste of time and money.
Don’t compromise your plan to be emperor of imafia. I’ve found that as long as I stick to my plan I seem to get to my goal. Okay..If you get really hacked of at some jerkwad load up and crush him. Just recognize that you may not make your monetary goal as planned. Sometimes you just gotta light someone up.
Hey Guys,
As a tip for making money, quests are important, but lets face it, the best way for making money in the game is property. The reason why property should be the number one way to go, is that if you level up to quickly you will be at a disadvantage if you do not have enough goons of weaponry.
I made a list of properties and the order you should buy them in for maximum efficiency.
You can do it yourself also. You take the land requirement add it to the value of the property and divide it by the cyclical return.
To give you an example, when for a condo you need to purchase the land which costs 5000. Add this to the value of the condo 10000 and then divide by 300. This means that the condo will pay itself off in 50 cycles.
If you are a mogul then you will get 26 during the day as your payout occurs every 54 minutes. Thats 10% faster than the brawlers or workaholics. Property should be your number one means of earning cash in the game, it’s slow and painful but it will payout better than fighting or quests. Naturally you do need to perform quests in order to get the cash up in the first place, but do not fight.
In the latest version 1.3 of iMafia, you no longer level up if someone attacks you and you win. This is a great feature as you can now just defend yourself and not have to worry about leveling up.
Leveling up.
The primary focus of your leveling for the the first 29 levels should be energy and nothing else. 29 levels x 3 points per level = 87 energy + 10 initial = 97. 97 energy means that it will top itself up every 8 hours. This means you can go to sleep and wakeup without wasting any energy. Brawlers and Moguls get 12 energy per hours will Workaholics get 15. As a workaholic you will need to get your energy level to 120 to sustain this. Thats level 37.
Quests
Only perform quests which output the highest yield. e.g. divide energy by average dollar amount. This should be pretty plain to see, but sometimes you might need to perform some quests to get to others.
Fighting
Don’t worry so much about the gear that the other guy has. Most of the time, he holds a rocket launcher just for show. Look at his properties instead. If he has high valued properties you should worry. This is because you probably has a high income and has more than one rocket launcher. Only attack players with low level property counts.
Properties
The order one should buy properties in. Mind you, this is strictly theoretical, as in if you were given a massive wad of cash and you could afford a strip mall first (as it is the most efficient). This list also takes into consideration prices of land and increase in property buying value. As a tip always buy the land required for a property e.g. lot or town square. This is because you will need them to buy the properties anyway and they will give you money while you save. Sometimes it is good to have multiple Outer City Lots because the combined payout from them will actually out yield whatever you might be buying (only if you have enough mafia members though).
Hokay so here is the list.
C \ Condo
R \ Restaurant
G \ Gas Station
A \ Apartment
H \ Hotel
S \ Strip Mall
C , R , G , A , H , S
50.0, 50.0, 45.0, 50.0, 45.0, 42.0
53.3, 54.3, 49.3, 54.0, 49.0, 46.0
56.7, 58.6, 53.5, 58.0, 53.0, 50.0
60.0, 62.9, 57.8, 62.0, 57.0, 54.0
63.3, 67.1, 62.0, 66.0, 61.0, 58.0
66.7, 71.4, 66.3, 70.0, 65.0, 62.0
70.0, 75.7, 70.5, 74.0, 69.0, 66.0
73.3, 80.0, 74.8, 78.0, 73.0, 70.0
76.7, 84.3, 79.0, 82.0, 77.0, 74.0
80.0, 88.6, 83.3, 86.0, 81.0, 78.0
83.3, 92.9, 87.5, 90.0, 85.0, 82.0
86.7, 97.1, 91.8, 94.0, 89.0, 86.0
90.0, 101.4, 96.0, 98.0, 93.0, 90.0
93.3, 105.7, 100.3, 102.0, 97.0, 94.0
96.7, 110.0, 104.5, 106.0, 101.0, 98.0
Basically you buy in order from lowest to highest. Each row represents the value to buy a property after you owe that number already.
The strip mall is the most efficient property out of them all.
I only include these properties and stop here only because only once you’ve reached this number of properties would you bother with any of the other properties.
The next property after strip mall is the luxury estates. For your first luxury estate you are paying 5,050,000 and you get a yield of 50,000. Thats 102 turns before it pays itself out. There is not point to it. The only time you look at higher yielding properties is if you don’t have enough mafia to manage your low level ones. But it will take a bit of time before this happens.
Well I hope this is a good start, and if you’re happy with what I have to say add me. My name is TheHound.
Cheers
Hi John B,
We can see that you analyze the game thoroughly. I never realize that the game play will be different among mogul, workaholic and brawler. Before reading your tips, I always thought that their energy level, cash payout and other stuff will replenish the same way. But they are not!
Great tips!
i need to earn upkeep so i can get better wepons
idk how to get upkeep though
i have an hourly income of 550k.
im only level 17. all i do is wait for my money to grow and buy properties.
every now and then i completely upgrade my weapons and everything so that im as strong as you can be. so that anyone that attacks me wont steal my money.
What a cool game. Amazing how something so simple can be so addictive.
I was really stoked about my cash flow of $10K/hour until I saw people with nearly $1M/hour.
That’s what happens when you get bored at work one day and some dude called clownpants kills you three times in a row (I was dumb enough to retaliate).
10k/hr is pretty good when you are starting out but it does seem small when i am making 68m/hr. i have been playing for 49 days now. I am still trying to fight for the #6 spot for most income/hr but as soon as i get in the top 6 someone kicks me off lol.
I am making 23m/hr now. The real estate is getting more and more expensive.
I only increase my mafia size when they can no longer manage more properties.
I played once in a while thus my level is now LV20. Making around 70K from properties. Ya..i think the best and faster way to get alot of Moolah is to buy buy properties..
Can anyone tell me the requirements for the Mission after Flight Smuggeling, the one you unlock at 55 ?
I would like to plan ahead a little ^^
this game mus hv i phone , if dun hv gt other?
@eric
There are mafia and tycoon games in Facebook
I play as dokstex
how do you hitlist people???
Just added ya, I’m Baricat. Currently a level 46 mogul. I, however, have not been buying max properties, but have instead opted to follow a more workaholic approach to the game. I currently have 90 energy points and perform air smuggling when I can. I’ve maxed out my mafia weapons with AK47s and Police Humvees (since the Abrams is a total waste of upkeep due to its minimal increase in power from the Humvee.) However, I’m confused as to how an AK47 is more powerful than a main battle tank XD
Anyway, I’m gonna start buying as much property as I can now, seeing as how I’ve more or less overlooked this crucial bit of gameplay. Any advice as to what range of properties to max out on, as I’m now a higher level player? I’ve been buying the high-end (resort, casino, hotel) recently, but they’re becoming more and more expensive. I’ve also noticed that, as the property price goes up, the efficiency of lower-cost properties become greater, and I can buy those to help out.
Sorry if this is a lot to read, but I’ve been playing this game for a month and haven’t had anyone to talk to about it :p
Hi Chris,
Every mafia member are limited to manage only 5 properties. So at later stage when mafia members are expensive to hire, it only make sense to buy the high end properties, although the return rate might be lower.
The only defect of the game is the ability to chat with friends, inside the game. Maybe Playmesh should look into this. More interaction amongst gamers and we will be here forever
I’ve been playing about 1.5 days. I went straight for Mogul. I currently only have an hourly income of 400 dollars. This is because I spent a lot of money on things other than property. Property is my plan!
Yeah does anyone know what the quest is at level 55?
I’m a few levels away but bored of the AIr smuggling – though the returns are good and want to plan ahead in terms of getting the right number of mafia and energy levels ready!
cheers
Mark
At level 55, the new quest is Art Heist ($70m-110m), 60 exp, 50 energy, 55 mafia size, 15 night visions, and 5 helicopters.
Are there any new properties after the resort? I already have 20 of them and I’m sick of wasting money on them
@ Dan,
I am also stuck with 26 resorts and there is nothing new.
Im bringing in a little over 4million an hour (lvl62, 41 days). Whats the deal with the Armani suit.?? I want more because the attack/defence is good but you can only sell it for an undisclosed amount. Properties and bounties. Dont waste time at the fights.
@ Heavyweightchef
There is an offer to get the Armani suit for free. You will need to install Playmesh new game – iRacing, from the Godfather building (earn point tab).
I installed the Iracing game but just got playmesh points – the godfather still won’t let me have the armani suits!
John B.
I’m trying to understand your list, but no matter how many times I analyze it, it doesn’t make sense to me. Can you explain your property list to me?
i am a level 31 mogul making 183k per hour i have 19 mafia members should i buy a member and a mega yacht for smuggling by sea or keep doing bank robbery and buying more properties?
I play as Fer1713. Great info here. I was wondering what was the difference between mogul, brawler and workaholic.
Do you play iracing too?
I need to know what the tuxedo costs…
I’m not yet level 15, but i got the quest where you need the tuxedo already.
Hey. Can anyone tell me what the last quest up till now is? If you can, what are its requirements? Also, add me: Carli.
I’m on (day 24) L44 with a 9.3 million in income, but I have to keep updating my Mafia’s weapons to keep the mobs off me. I’m trying to get the top 5 also, should I keep updating weapons ($756k) upkeep…or just buy more property and not worry about the fights?
anyone knows how to recover playmesh points that they have paid for if a character reset is needed? thanks
i am gonna cut out the rant that can win me a pulitzer, i am just gonna provide concise details.
1. lvl 71 with 43M/hr income. 85 mafias
2. purchased itype mafia and ishapes
3. spent the playmesh points
4. clicked on the little ? mark ingame, u guys can go read it yourselves
5. decided that i want to play the game a different way now.
6. reset
7. followed PlayMesh ingame instructions, deleted the 2 apps i paid for, redownloaded and install them. Reopened them as well.
8. fire up imafia and entered godfather building…..
N O P O I N T S
9. click on the deals tab and NO DEALS to be REdownloaded inside Imafia.
long story short, if you bought points and used it, you will not get them back. if you have left over points (which i did), you will still retain those. i had 1 left over.
so playmesh, i am not gonna play this game no more. you just lost the chance to sell me anything more in the future. this would have been a great game had you NOT killed the replay value and the people who supported you.
now i am gonna to complain to app store and get my money back. **** PlayMesh and Charles Jew. I will not support liars. and Charles, u better pray u dont run into me.
if they release 1.6 and fix this as a bug, I retract my statement and would continue to play.
peace out
Can anyone tell me the new item that is available at lvl 65? I am currently having a feud with a pinhead and was hoping that if I hit 65 first I can smoke him/her with new gear
hey my name’s gawdfada. im level 42 but only making 500k an hour. how do u guys make so much?
Go for propertys!!! also save up around 450mil then buy 5 resorts (if you have already bought about ten of everything else) oh and don’t be afraid to foot the bill and trade ine you kevlar vests for night visions they’re only around 10mil for 20 of them and they are better in the long run. Anotther thing avoid the quests that require you to purchase lots of crappy weapons because those quests weaken you. And if you don’t want to be constsanly attacked get your win loss ratio to 3 to 1 that way people will avoid attacking you. I’ve learned much of this the hard way as i am now level 52 with only 5 mil hourly income. AAAGGH!! lol
P.S. add me RamirezFamilia
In response to calrino: MEGA YACHT! that way you can trade the m4s 4 rocket lauchers
In response to worldwidemark: just open iracing
In response to worldwidemark: the helicopter quest, so get an additional 2.5mil income and 5 helicopters and to be on the safe side get 60 people (total)
@jeremy
You should have gotten a lot of properties in the earlier levels.
Also, add me: Carli
PS: Can anyone answer my earlier question?
Thanks.
i am at level 66. hourly income of 59 mill. mafia size of 95. i invest most of my skill points into energy. i compare prices on the real estate option to see what gives me the most money for my money. does anybody know if ONESLOW7 cheats? i dont understand how that guy does it.
What is the last quest up till now? What are its requirements?
I killed someone on the hitlist and nothing happened. What’s up with that?
Also, add me: Carli.
I am currently a level twenty making 5,300,000 every 54 minutes. I have a bounty of about 48,000,000. Being a mogul is the best way to go I have found!
hi im a mogul lvl 83
making just over 29mil an houre(54 mins)
having a bounty of 774.750.000
have won over 7000 fights
and lost over 1800 fights
ps
i am going for a lot of players, good weapons(ak47)
and police humvees(they are good for a normal upkeep.)
add me:
stephanoitz
Hey, I’m a lvl 52 workaholic
15 att/def
10.0% crit/evai
220 health
133 energy
5 stamina
mafia size: 58
with 7.5m income
add me (d3lt4)
i have 58 AK47s, 1 armani suit, 57 kelvar vests, 56 police humvees, 2 jet planes
personally, i dont really fight, i just get the stuff with best defense bonus (all the above) and i usually win when people fight me
just wondering whats the quest at lvl 55?
P.S. whats the bounty for like under ur stats?
Hey,
I just got clobbered by ‘Player903387579′, a four day old mogul as of this writing, completed 22 quests, and a bounty of 9.4MM.
My 33 sized mafia is fully equipped and I’ve got 33 attack/defense.
My only guess is that this play’a bought mafia members and skill points with PlayMesh points.
What do you think?
Hey I was just wonderin’ what the quests are for level 35 and what the requirements are for the quest so I can get the stuff ready
P.S. I would also like the reward
Thanks
Hi, i cheated when i jailbroke my ipod so i’m level 30 with 165 mafia members
How do u put a bounty on someone? At level 40ish what are the weapons i should get: 164 camo gears? what weapon?
Hey that guy who is complaing to playmesh, ask them to add more properties
Also whats the point of putting health up? A tip of mine is to buy properties in 10s as then there value doesnt go up everytime, sort of worth it
How do you buy the military boats???
I am level 15, and have an hourly income of nearly 5 million. The slower you level up, the more dominant you are in the game. I haven’t lost a fight in over 500 fights (since i started playing this way). I have killed more people than I have lost fights.( my record is 590-17) RIght now, I believe that there isn’t a level 15 that can beat me, simply because I DONT do jobs. The faster you level up, the faster you become a small fish in a bigger pond. Right now, I have 20 some odd energy (which i regret wasting my skill points on) 5 stamina, and the rest in attack/defense. I am unstoppable.
Next Comments →
{ 10 trackbacks }