Robbing: Attack a player to damage a property and win a cash bonus. Players are limited to a Mafia size equal to their own level. The Defending player loses no health. Cash reward varies by property type and quantity owned. (1-3 xp per Rob)
Hitlist: Attack a player on the hitlist for a bounty. The Defending player loses health even if below 20 and until they are killed. (1-6 xp per Hitlist)
Basic Fights: Attack a player. If the player is above 20 health, they take damage and can lose up to $100,000 per attack. If an attacker wins money, they gain $65,000. Defenders below 20 health won't be notified about additional attacks (called Ghost Attacks). (1-6 xp per Attack)
In Brazil, it takes a different amount of Stamina to attack an opponent
Fighting in Bangkok
When Bangkok's beta released, the option to Fight there wasn't open. That option opened on February 5, 2010.
One unique feature about Bangkok fights is that when you fight one faction, your standing points with that faction goes down by one, and up by two for the other faction.
How Fights are Won
Old Fight Formula
In August 2009, Zynga updated the Fight Outcome Formula. The old formula used a combined stat formula to determine the outcome of a fight. The old formula was as follows:
COMBAT STRENGTH = (MAFIA * (ATK + DEF Skill Points)) + EQUIPMENT (ATK + DEF Total Value of All Items Used)
This formula weighted your skill points and Mafia size very heavily. Combined with a 501 Mafia, a single skill point was the equivalent of 501 points from Equipment (roughly 8x TNT). The new fight formula dramatically increases the amount of contribution from Equipment relative to Skill Points.
New Fight Formula
While quite a few tests have been done to determine the revised Fight Formula, the exact formula has yet to be determined.
Here are the important things that we CAN tell about the new formula:
Zynga no longer combines the Attack+Defense on Equipment. If you are Attacking, only the Attack value of your equipment will be used in your Combat Score. Likewise, when you are Defending, only Defense value will be used.
Zynga no longer combines the Attack+Defense score of your Skill Points. Attack is only used for Attacking and Defense is only used for Defending.
Equipment value plays a much bigger role in determining the outcome of a fight than with previous formula. Depending on your level, this has been measured from as little as 600% to as much as 8300% more contribution.
Skill points become increasingly more important as you progress relative to your overall combat rating. BUT -- due to the Equipment value change -- not nearly as important as under "old" formula.
Ties go to the Defender.
New source of information claims that new Fighting formula is like this
Equipment now plays a MUCH MORE SIGNIFICANT ROLE than it ever has before. I can somewhat understand why Zynga shifted course of direction on that as with their previous model, people didn't have much motivation to buy equipment with their Godfather Reward Points. We still believe that buying skill points will make your character stronger ... but lets face it ... we all LOVE collecting equipment (and Zynga knows this) ... and now there isn't as big of a difference whether buying skill points or buying Godfather loot.
Mafia Size
The single biggest contributing factor to winning a fight is Mafia Size. The bigger your mafia, the more fights you can win. So if you don't have a 501 mafia, that's the #1 thing you can do to improve your combat score.
Having a larger Mafia means you can bring more equipment to a Fight. Attack and Defense values from Skill Points also appears to be modified favorably by a larger Mafia.
Rule of thumb is that if your Mafia is bigger, you will win even if you have very few points invested in Attack or Defense.
Diminishing Returns on Equipment
One theory that would explain why Equipment seems to become less valuable as players progress is that it suffers from Diminishing Returns.
The basic idea being that the first 5,000 points from equipment provide more incremental benefit than the next 5,000. In other words, you would expect 10,000 points to be twice as effective as 5,000 points. But due to DR, it may be only 50% more effective.
The net effect is that "skill points" become increasingly more important relative to "equipment" points the more progressed you get in the game.
Mafia Strength
One common misunderstanding is that the Attack and Defense values shown on the Fight page and Inventory pages represent the total Attack (or Defense) value you bring to a fight. In truth, it only represents the value from Equipment.
Zynga describes these values as the total equipped offensive (or defensive) power of everyone in your mafia. Up to 501 mafia members including hired guns help you in fights, each using 1 weapon, 1 armor, 1 vehicle and animal, and 1 Henchmen.
In other words, adding 10 skill points to Attack will not raise the value shown in the above image. Adding a new loot item which has 10 more Attack points will raise it by 10 points.
The actual contribution from skill points is a "hidden" value that is not shown to your opponent. If you lose to someone with a lower Mafia Strength, then their hidden value from skill points must be higher than yours.
Spending skill points on Attack will make you better at Attacking. Spending points on Defense will make you better at Defending.
Of course, since you CHOOSE who you are attacking, a lot of people would argue that Attack isn't all that important to them (because you can always find someone you can beat and bookmark them).
By contrast, you don't get to decide who attacks you -- particularly if are on the Hitlist a lot. So in that respect, improving your defense means you will WIN more fights that you don't initiate.
Although the other argument is that most players Attack far more frequently than they Defend. Therefore, having more options in who you Attack and what you can do with your Stamina is more helpful.
And finally, there is the school of thought that Attack and Defense don't matter much at all. The idea being that if you find yourself a couple of low Mafia whipping boys to Fight, that you can use your Stamina exclusively on them. You will lose fights initiated against you, but proponents of this strategy would argue that these are few enough and infrequent enough not to worry about.
Ultimately, how YOU want to play is entirely up to YOU. There is no wrong answer.
Rewards
Listed below is the possible rewards for winning a fight:
Secret Stash - You have the option to share a reward with a random member of your mafia. You both receive the same three items. This was introduced on December 2009.
Double Experience
Job Loot - You will receive a random job loot item.
Fight Loot - This was introduced on 15 June, 2010.
Fight Mastery was added on July 30, 2010. Like Robbing, you can gain levels for attacking in any city a certain amount of times.
Fighting gives Victory Coins, which can be used to buy items from the updated Fight Club
4 new Achievements became available with Fight Mastery: Master Slayer, Master Killer, Master Executioner, and Master Assassin.
Clicking "Attack 5 times" (aka "Power Attack") counts one less than the amount of times you attacked if you succeed in attacking 3-5 times (Remember, if your health reaches too low or you kill them, you may halt before attacking 5 times)
Experience bonus does not exist
Level
Title
Fight Win Start
Fight Wins Required for Next Level
Completed
Total
Level 1
Apprentice Bully
0
100
100
Level 2
Skilled Bully
100
300
400
Level 3
Master Bully
400
500
900
Level 4
Apprentice Brute
900
700
1 600
Level 5
Skilled Brute
1 600
900
2 500
Level 6
Master Brute
2 500
1 100
3 600
Level 7
Apprentice Hunter
3 600
1 300
4 900
Level 8
Skilled Hunter
4 900
1 500
6 400
Level 9
Master Hunter
6 400
1 700
81 00
Level 10
Apprentice Slayer
8 100
2 100
10 200
Level 11
Skilled Slayer
10 200
2 600
12 800
Level 12
Master Slayer
12 800
3 200
16 000
Level 13
Apprentice Killer
16 000
4 600
20 600
Level 14
Skilled Killer
20 600
6 000
26 600
Level 15
Master Killer
26 600
7 400
34 000
Level 16
Apprentice Executioner
34 000
8 200
42 200
Level 17
Skilled Executioner
42 200
9 000
51 200
Level 18
Master Executioner
51 200
9 800
61 000
Level 19
Apprentice Assassin
61 000
11 400
72 400
Level 20
Skilled Assassin
72 400
13 000
85 400
Level 21
Master Assassin
85 400
14 500
100 000
So it really only takes 85 400 fights won to get to level 21 to get achievement.
100 000 total is to get to start of level 22 which isn't required.
Shark Tank
Shark Tank Is the term used by Zynga to describe the top tier of their fighting structure.
Players levels 300 and under will only see players within that level range on their Fight List.
Players between levels 301 and 400 will only see other players within that level range on their Fight List.
Players between levels 401 and 600 will only see other players within that level range on their Fight List.
Players level 601+ will see all players above level 601 and anybody that opts-in to the Shark Tank.
There is an achievement called the Shark Tank, It is for winning 10 Fights after hitting Shark Tank status.
Players reaching level 601, officially graduate to The Shark Tank. In the Shark Tank, you will no longer be in the 'kiddie pools'. It will be possible to see your Fight List populated with players hundres or thousands of levels above yours. If you want to improve your chances of survival in the Shark Tank, you'll want to improve your items with rares, superior, and ultimate rarity items, and make sure you have plenty of skill devoted to Attack and Defense.
Prior to this change all players above level 450 were accessible to players above level 450 on the Fight List, so it was possible for a level 456 player to see a level 1234 player on their Fight List. In fact, this was one of the biggest complaints to Zynga! Players said having opponents thousands of levels higher than them on the Fight List was so unfair.
Players who now reach level 450, officially graduate to the Shark Tank. (Update)
We can’t wait for everyone to try the new Fighting experience, but, due to the excitingly massive scope of the feature, we will regrettably need to roll it out slowly to ensure stability. You will know you’ve been upgraded when you return to the game and discover that your Fighting screen has become much, much cooler.
Fighting gets redesigned When you attack another player on the Fighting page of any destination, you’ll get a fight results screen that makes it easier to follow your progress in a fight and ice your opponents. The new screenview makes it easier to finish fights without needing to scroll up and down to find new opponents. Icing separates the winners from the weak fighters. Ice players to become the strongest Mafia Wars player. Opponents get iced when their health dips below 20 points in a fight. Repeated attacks wear down your opponent’s health.
Opponent’s health menu bar added This is the biggest addition to fighting. For the first time, you’ll be able to see a visual indication of how much damage you are doing and how close you are to icing your opponent.
New fight loot and bigger boosts Win fights to gain new items and use 2 new boosts to help you in your fights. You can send attack or defense boosts to friends that will be a percentage of your overall attack/defense points. For power fighters, this will be a huge boost. You can also choose to turn boosts on and off during a fight. Each boost can be used only once.
Get Revenge You work hard to ice an opponent, but sometimes your ice gets stolen by another player. Now you can get revenge when someone swipes your ice. Attack that player and get your ice back!
Kills now equal 2 Ices / Get rewarded for killing your opponent with 2 ices. Now killing someone is twice as nice.
Vengeance Pack
Ever lose a fight and want to wipe that condescending smile off of your victorious opponent’s face? The new Vengeance Pack will allow you to do just that the next time you find yourself on the business end of your opponent’s favorite deadly weapon. For three Reward Points, you’ll be able to GET VENGEANCE on your enemy. One click will net you full health, 10% Stamina, and a one-time 200% attack bonus! Just look for this icon in the rare instance that you lose a fight: