Rob Squad Boosts and The Docks

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On July 22, 2011, the Rob Squad Boost was introduced to the game and Zynga called this The Big Heist.

We were told by Customer Support that they would be around for approximately one week (1).

That was over a hundred days ago and the Rob Squads are still here. Zynga has never officially stated that they are a permanent feature. In fact, the Rob Boost Page and the Rob Squad activation area on the Robbing Page says "Limited Time" as does the Free Gift Page.

This is why many were surprised that the fifth property in Chicago, the Docks, pays out in Rob Squads. A fully upgraded Docks pays out 10 Rob Squads every 8 hours. If you activate your Taskmaster Crew Bonus, you can get 20.

This throws a little wrench into the rules of the Rob Squad boost.  According to Zynga, you can collect 20 Rob Squads per day through the free gift system and 5 through feed requests.  Unfortunately, there isn't a counter on the Rob Squad gifts so it's hard to keep track of how many you have already accepted for the day.

You can request Rob Squads by generating a feed request from the Robbing Page. Look for the little question mark between the Rob Squads and the Burners. Click on it and then click the "Ask for Rob Squads" button.

You only get 5 whether you make the request or click on posts generated from your mafia.

Once you collect 20 Rob Squads from free gifts for the day, they convert to Mystery Boosts.

There is also a limit of how many Rob Squads you can have at a time. Before the Docks, it was 50. This limit is still enforced through gifts and feed requests. If you have 50 Rob Squads in your inventory, you can still help your mafia but you will not get one in return. You can also ask for them but you will not receive any. If you haven't collected your 20 Rob Squads for the day but have 50 in your inventory, the gifts will also become Mystery Boosts.

In addition to free gifts, news feed requests and collecting from your Docks, you can also get Rob Squads from robbing. If you successfully rob a Docks property, you will get one Rob Squad.

I wanted to see if the limit of 50 Rob Squads pertains to the new property and the good news is it doesn't (if you are into Rob Squads). I started with 0 Rob Squads and collected 20 from gifts and 5 from the news feeds for 2 days in a row, bringing my total to 50.

0 Rob Squads

25 Rob Squads

50 Rob Squads

I collected from my Docks and all Rob Squads were added to my inventory. I forgot to activate the Taskmaster bonus.

60 Rob Squads

I did some target specific robbing and got 9 additional Rob Squads.

69 Rob Squads

I collected from my Docks again and there doesn't appear to be any inventory limits for the Rob Squads associated with the properties. The only limits that are enforced are from the news feeds and the free gifts.

88 Rob Squads

For more information on how Rob Squad boosts work, their benefits and how they can help you level faster, go here.

Of course none of this is relevant if you are one of the many players who keep losing all of their Rob Squads. More details can be found on this forum thread. Losing things to the Zyng Black Hole is nothing new to Mafia Wars. Now that there is a way to collect many Rob Squads, Zynga should look harder into what is causing it and fix it.

#1       10-27-2011, 07:18 AM

Don Vincentio  Party Starter Join Date: Nov 2009 Posts: 1,000

Rob Squads disappearing Some, but not all players, are having Rob Squads disappear from inventory. The problem is known and is being worked on.

It was pointed out that collecting from your New York properties via the Home Page will use your Rob Squads if you have them. When Union Hall was added to the game, the Rob Squad got an additional feature of giving a collection bonus on New York properties. I collected on my properties from the Home Page and only 1 Rob Squad was used. This wouldn't explain why many players are losing all of their Rob Squads. Most state that they didn't even collect from Union Hall.

Thanks to Suhariyanto for reminding me to add the part about the disappearing Rob Squads and to Shza for the forum link.

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Article written by Jennifer Patterson, Creator of the MW Loot Lady Blog, The Mafia Wars Loot Lady Facebook Fan Page and Co-Host of The Informant Podcast. All material is protected by copyright law