by iakul

Created on: October 27, 2009   Last Updated: October 29, 2009

The term "loot" can have two different meanings in the game Mafia Wars. The game itself classifies any item that can't be bought and isn't a vault item under the item class "loot". Most players however, are referring to combat items dropped during jobs and fights when they use the term "loot" and will use the term "consumables" for the other items that the game itself classifies under "loot". Job mastery items and trophies are also referred to as such by players, rather than the item class"loot" that the game classifies them under. For this article, I'm going to use the common lingo and definition that players use.

Loot can be gotten via several ways, and depending on the stats you have chosen to allocate to your account, the "best way" might differ for you.

The first one and the one that involves the least amount of work for a new account is via gifting. If you have high level accounts in your mafia, it is quite likely that they will have mid to low level loot that they have outgrown and have no use for lying around. Most of us will be quite willing to outfit a new active player with loot, and will send some of our extra stuff your way. Well, most of us would be if the gifting interface were improved on, but that is another story. Still, while you can certainly get a head start this way, it is unlikely that you'll be able to get everything that you want this way, so you'll have to explore other methods of getting loot.

The other way that you can get loot is by winning a fight that you initiate. Every once in a while, one of your mafia members will randomly "find item X which has been added to your inventory". For "fighter" accounts with a sizable mafia, this can be a good way to build up some loot. However, what you get is pretty random, and could be anything from a Butter Knife to a Federal Agent. While it's still possible for you to build up your arsenal just from loots dropped from fights, it's going to be quite hard to build up 501 of whatever elite loot that you have your eye on. Still, if you are not too much into the numbers game, using this method won't affect your win/loss ratio all that much.

The other way that you can acquire loot is by completing jobs. Unlike winning fights, jobs are very specific about which loot drop that they give out. Each job either has a specific loot that they give out, or they don't give out any. However, loot drops are random, which means that you won't necessarily get the drop even though it says so in the job description.

Some jobs also require the use of "consumables" or some other criteria to be met before they can be done. This is especially true for the jobs which give out high end loot. For example, the Buy Off A Federal Agent job, available in the Boss job tier, which has a chance of dropping a Federal Agent, requires the one-use item Blackmail Photos before you can attempt the job. You can do the Obtain Compromising Photos job, available in the Hitman job tier, to obtain Blackmail Photos. However, they require the one-use item Concealable Camera, which you can obtain by either doing the Rob An Electronics Store, available in the Enforcer job tier, or the Smuggle Consumer Electronics For the Vory job, available in Moscow Episode 1, Chapter 1 to and hope they drop a Concealable Camera. All in all, getting loot this way will require you investing a lot of energy before you see results.

At the end of the day, it's up to you to decide which way you want to use to acquire loot. However, the important thing to remember is to enjoy yourselves while doing it.

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