by Dr Raph Azrin

Created on: September 26, 2009   Last Updated: October 02, 2009

Cuba was the second installation of the Mafia Wars game by Zynga and tweaked gameplay makes it a far more challenging than of New York where one needs to complete the level and off you can do the next one. Moscow is another tricky segment where you choose sides.

Cuba, unlike New York, consists of Businesses which replaces Properties and the requirement of a Politico Corrupto or Corrupt Politician in a few of the tasks makes it very hard to master especially you are given 5 Politicians every 3 hours to collect and the ability to buy off another 10 more everyday for 500,000 Cuban Pesos. Also, unlike New York, Pesos are harder to earn in Cuba as the game requirements will cost you bribes, hitting as much as 80% of the job earnings.

In layman terms, every item, weapon, armor or vehicle will cost you 0.5% in bribe money to the local cops. And the total amount imposed on your earnings is calculated by the number of purchased items in your stash multiplied by 0.5%. Of course, you will still make some money, but the worst case senario like in El Cacique requires 26 RAS-29, 30 wise guys and 12 trucks plus 8 corrupt politicians (not counted in the formula) for the Help Get An Associate A No Bid Contract Job paying out C$4,619 but in reality, you get 'taxed' at 34% if you just have these items in your cache. Drop loots are not counted to the tally.

So, in real terms, you discard any arsenal that is not in use for that job tier you are working on, and you will earn much more money than the rest of the crew. Of course, you will loose 50% of the amount paid for the items, but if you just wish to concentrate on a certain tier to maximise your income or points, you have to let some go. 50% of some items, than 80% of your hard work. Plan ahead, as the timing must be correct when you are working through the US Time Zones as many thieves are out there, trying to have a go at your loot.

So whatever money earned, you SHOULD UPGRADE YOUR BUSINESS. It's a painstaking way to do stuff, and if needed get money out of your bank account. However, if you don't have enough to upgrade all, here is a tip: Upgrade your business straight up, from cans to cocaine. And before you collect the profits of a business, see if you can upgrade it a bit. If you have some money, upgrade them BEFORE collecting as the system will pay off the highest possible investment return.

Of course, the bank is there for you to save up, but in terms of experience to currency value (how many energy to experience points per currency unit and compared against the cost of upkeep in health etc in each city), Cuba is expensive to heal, so FLY OFF to New York. So go to New York and check in to a hospital. 300 Health Points cost you about US$390,000 but it cost about C$45,000 which is hard as you tend to receive only about C$3000-5000 max a job compared to US$52 Million in the high tiers.

Drop Loots of Tracked Loader, Canonazo, Gaff Hooks are pretty good attack and defensive weapons hitting back about 40 points to the enermy. Of course you can blow someone up with a TNT and the HU-9 helicopter will do much damage to the attacking party, if you have tons of them.

Cuba returns a rate of 0.9 experience per energy point as compared to 0.68 in Moscow. So, head to Cuba if you need to level up but try not to get into a fight, as it's harder there.

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