Leveling up is the major aim for many Mafia Wars gamers. Who doesn’t want to see the Master Boss title in front of their name? Not to mention the rewards built into Mafia Wars for reaching those levels; we all are eager to commit crime in Cuba and Moscow.

How does it really work to level on Mafia Wars? In order to complete a level, you need to earn experience points. As the levels go up, you need more experience to finish the level; you invest your personal energy and stamina stats in fights and on jobs to collect experience points.  Until recently, you could also earn experience via heists. (Does anyone else regret this absence?)

Leveling fast can be accomplished through a focus on jobs or on fighting.  If a Fearless character structures their own top mafia right and gets into the wheelman slot in another player’s crew, job centered leveling is laughably fast. And a Maniac has some advantages for both methods of leveling, since that character’s energy always refills faster.  If you’re a Mogul, you may want to focus on fight centered leveling strategy, since you don’t have any particular energy perk.

If you want to dodge the occasional vengeance freak in Mafia Wars, job leveling is the safest way to go. Grow a massive energy reserve by putting every skill point you earn into energy at first. You need to master every job and each tier all three times. You’ll see that jobs require a varying amount of energy and consumables to work and deliver different volume of experience points, cash, and equipment loot as the tiers get higher. You can work a given job tier depending on what level you have, and the higher tiers will open before you’ve completed mastery of the lower; stay focused and complete mastery if you want to maximize leveling.  Keep track of the experience:energy ratio of Mafia Wars jobs and do the jobs that give you the most experience out for your energy investment in. If this seems excruciating at first, you’ll be happy later when you’ve got energy to burn and you cruise past your friends who got impatient with mastery and ratios. Mastering tiers will give you more skill points to allot, solid money, equipment for your crew, and the sweet mastery bonuses. (And Moscow is so much easier when you’ve got massive energy reservoir.)

Leveling up fast with fighting is a bit different. Allocating your skill points in both stamina and energy is unavoidable if you plan to attack in Mafia Wars. You’ll also want to build a fairly large crew and equip yourself with specials or limited edition loot to have a successful start in the fighting method. It’s child’s play to score big money and pick up some cherry equipment when you stumble across a weak but deep pocket opponent.  Since fights earn you 1-6 points experience, it’s wise to throw in a job just prior to level up to get the experience point boost into the next level. Sure you’ll sprain your finger attacking constantly, but on the bright side you won’t have to hassle with consumables.

The best technique for leveling may be a compromise between the two – leveling quick with a melding of job and fight leveling strategies. Start your level by fighting until your stamina is gone, because fights yield more experience:energy which gives you a big push ahead in experience. And then start working jobs. This leveling combination will keep you from boredom, well-armed, and feeling like a real gangster while still getting you the perks of job and tier mastery. The best of both Mafia Wars level up worlds.