by Michael Strauss

Created on: September 27, 2010

Cuba is the second city that you encounter in the Facebook game Mafia Wars, published by Zynga.  Because it is the second city you encounter in the game, many of the features of Cuba are similar to New York, the starting city, in order to keep the game familiar.  At the same time, the designers changed some features of the city in order to give Cuba a unique feel and experience.  The following guide will help you navigate Cuba and take advantage of all of its unique features.

Accessibility – In order to access Cuba, you need to reach level 35.  All of the jobs, equipment, and properties are either accessible immediately upon reaching level 35 or by gaining additional levels.  The highest job tier, El Cacique, requires you to be level 151.  Once you reach level 151, you will have unlocked everything in Cuba.

Money – Cuba uses pesos as money and, like every other city, the money from Cuba can not be spent in any other location.  When you first reach Cuba, you have no pesos.  You can get some starting pesos by completing the Rob Your Cab Driver job, which does not require any equipment to perform.

Equipment – Equipment that you can purchase in Cuba is unique, because it comes with a built in penalty.  For each piece of purchased Cuban equipment you possess, you earn 0.5% less money from each job you perform in Cuba.  If you own 200 pieces of purchased Cuban equipment, you no longer earn money at all from Cuban jobs.  Since each job requires a minimum amount of equipment, jobs actually provide less income than indicated in the job description.  Like all other purchased equipment in the game, you can sell Cuban purchased equipment.  Also, animals purchased in Cuba do not lessen your earnings from jobs.

Properties – There are six properties that can be purchased in Cuba.  The first property, the bodega, can never be upgraded, and provides pesos every eight hours.  All of the other five properties can be upgraded as high as level 30.  Each of these properties also provides a set income at a rate of time specific to the property, with the exception of the bribery ring.  The bribery ring provides Politico Corruptos every eight hours.  The Politico Curropto is a piece of consumable equipment that is necessary to complete one job in each of the last three job tiers.

Collections – Collection items can be found as loot in each of the job tiers except for the El Cacique job tier.  The collection items are unique to each job tier.  If you collect all seven items for a specific job tier you can vault the items for a one time bonus to a specific attribute.

Achievements – There are 10 achievements available that are specific to Cuba.  In order to get these achievements, you need to travel to Cuba, gift a specific item to a friend, buy and upgrade properties, complete jobs, earn pesos, vault collections, and get into fights.  The wide variety of these achievements requires you to have a well rounded character and patience to complete them all.

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