One of the most frequently asked questions on the Mafia Wars Loot Lady Fan Page is "How many consumables do you need to master the new districts in Chicago?". I went over this information the individual posts for each new district (
4,
5,
6) but I will now review it collectively. Each district has a new consumable item. The required numbers for each level are shown below. Districts 5 and 6 require more than one consumable per click. This has caused some confusion as Zynga didn't bother to put a number next to the image on the Job Page. Many players have contacted Customer Support because they thought it was a bug that was telling them they needed consumable items to do a job.
Consumable Item | 
Confidential Records | 
Beer Barrel | 
Mediator |
District | 4 | 5 | 6 |
# Needed Per Job | 1 | 3 | 2 |
Bronze | 37 | 51 | 60 |
Silver | 37 | 51 | 60 |
Gold | 37 | 51 | 60 |
Ruby | 37 | 51 | 60 |
Total # Needed | 148 | 204 | 240 |
The higher levels in Chicago Districts 4-6 require a lot of energy and you don't want to make consumables as you need them. The best strategy is to farm enough of them on the Bronze Level. If you don't, you will be stuck having to make them by doing jobs that cost much more energy.
Confidential Records
Beer Barrel
Mediator
The drop rates of consumable items are not 100% so you can't say for sure how many jobs you will need to do in order to acquire enough. I did a ReapeatJob run and had to do 378 jobs to get 240 Mediators. The cost was 68,040 energy. The drop rate was 66%. The same run done on the Ruby Level would have cost 408,240 energy.
Now that we know how many consumables we need and where to get them, it's time to review some basic strategy that will reduce the number actually needed and save you energy. The Chicago Crew Bonuses if used correctly will increase the drop rate and decrease the number of consumables required.
The Strategist Bonus will double the mastery of 20 jobs. This means you will need to do 50% fewer jobs which greatly reduces the number of consumables needed.
To compare, here are the number of consumable items you will need if you always activate the Strategist when doing the jobs which require consumables.
| Mastery | Consumables Needed per Level | Total
| Mastery with Strategist | Consumables Needed | Total |
Confidential Records | | | | | | |
District 4 Job #4 | 5% | 20 | 80 | 10% | 10 | 40 |
District 4 Job #8 | 6% | 17 | 68 | 12% | 9 | 36 |
Beer Barrel | | | | | | |
District 5 Job# 8 | 6% | 51 | 204 | 12% | 21 | 108 |
Mediator | | | | | | |
District 6 Job #2 | 8% | 26 | 104 | 16% | 14 | 56 |
District 6 Job #5 | 6% | 34 | 136 | 12% | 18 | 72 |
The Lockpick Bonus doubles your loot drop rate for 20 jobs.
When using this bonus, loot items will have a green boarder which lets you know that you got two instead of one.
Due to the fact that the overall drop rate isn't 100%, there are no guarantees that you will get twice the loot. In the example above, the drop rate for Mediators was 66%. I did a 20 job run with the Lockpick activated and the drop rate was 115%. I wouldn't be surprised if there is something written into the code that lowers the drop rate when the Lockpick bonus is activated,
It's important to use the Strategist and Lockpick bonuses at different times. Don't activate them both at once because they aren't as effective when used on the same job. You need to use the Strategist while doing jobs that require consumables and the Lockpick on jobs that produces them.
Do
Don't
To further reduce the number of consumable needed per job, you can ask your mafia to help you with the job of your choice once per day. If the "Ask" button is highlighted, click on it to generate a news feed request. In the example below, I asked for help on a job that required a consumable item and was 0% mastered.
I posted my help request and waited until the maximum number of players helped me. Good mafia members will always add in the comments of the post that they were too late to help. This lets others know that clicking on the post will be a waste of their time.
When I returned to the job, it was 30% mastered. This job gives 6% experience per clicks. Based on further testing, a maximum of 10 people can help but you only get half the mastery per answered help request. That's the equivalent of 5 free jobs per day which can save you 5-15 consumables depending on what district you are in.
2X Mastery Boosts will also reduce the number of consumable jobs you need to do because you get double the mastery on jobs when they are used. They work for the Bronze, Silver and Gold Level jobs but are not applied to the Ruby Level. You can collect 5 2X Mastery Boosts per day from your mafia and they can also be acquired through Mystery Boost Packs and the Daily Take.
There are no District 4-6 consumable items available through free gifts or from your Speakeasy property. Hopefully Zynga will get on it and add these as many players would appreciate it.
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