Banco Dorado: Mexico Banking

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The bank used in Mexico is called the Banco Dorado which translates to the Golden Bank in English. Banking in Mexico is identical to that of South Africa so it shouldn’t be difficult to explain. The currency used in Mexico is the Peso and this is the second time Pesos have been used in Mafia Wars. Unfortunately Zynga didn’t return our hard earned Pesos from Cuba so we need to start from what they give us upon entering the destination for the first time. The term ‘peso-nification’ used in the in game instructions is most likely a play on the term ‘unification’ as the real Cuba is currently in the process of unifying their 2 currencies [1]. Like with South Africa there is a property to build and a holding capacity. The Banco Dorado is not considered one of the City Properties and has unique building parts. Below are the details on upgrading this property to Level 5, how to get Pesos and alternative banking solutions.


All players will receive 100 Pesos upon entering Mexico for the first time. In theory you should also receive the number of Pesos equivalent to the number of Pesomystics you collected in the Unbound And Unrepentant pre-release event [1]. The rewards, if any, were listed on the Welcome popup. Some players reported not getting any additional Pesos but they may have been victims of attacks as you can steal Pesos from other players through fighting.

If you click the “Where’s all my cash?” link on the game header, you will get more details about Pesos and how they work in Mexico.
Unlike the City Properties, you don’t need to progress in the district or do anything special to open your Banco Dorado. All players start at Level 0 and automatically have a holding capacity of 3,000 Pesos. Clicking the (Bank) link shown above opens your Banco Dorado and all begging and banking will take place from the screen below.

The Banco Dorado has 6 stages of development but the highest Level is 5. Having a Level 0 throws off the math.

The 1st 4 building parts can be acquired by generating news feed requests. Click the “Ask Friend” button of which ever part you want and each request will yield 4 parts. The good news is you can ask for parts every 18 hours instead of every 24 hours like in South Africa. This makes things more convenient as the timer is the same for Mexico City Properties. If you aren’t patient then you can always buy the parts using reward points. Even if you go this route you will be unable to upgrade the property until you earn the required number of Vault Doors and those can’t be purchased. 

Clicking on requests made by others doesn’t grant you any parts or other rewards but it’s a nice thing to do for your mafia members. Plus if you don’t click on any requests you could find it more difficult to have others click on yours. We may complain about the bots when there is something good in the news feeds but this is one instance in which the bots are favorable to your game.

Mexico

South Africa

As mentioned above, you also need Vault Doors to upgrade the Banco Dorado. These can only be acquired by mastering any level of any district. You see them in the mastery popups. Zynga has an identity crises with these as they are called Vault Doors on the property page and inventory but on the popup they are called Vault Codes. They are called Vault Codes in South Africa so this is probably just a copy/paste oversight. Only 3 of the 11 Districts of Mexico have been unlocked so it’s only possible to earn 12 Vault Doors at this time. You need more than 12 to fully upgrade to Level 5 so we will all have to wait until more districts are released. When you have enough parts, click the “Upgrade” button and your bank will jump to the next level. Surprisingly there isn’t a brag option on these popups.

The chart below shows how many items are needed to upgrade to the next level. Because of the Vault Doors, the highest anyone can go is Level 4. We will need to wait for 2 more districts to unlock before there will be enough opportunities to earn the 8 Vault Doors required.

						Capacity
0	1	2	1	2	6	1 |      3,000
1	2	4	2	4	12	3 |    15,000
2	4	8	4	8	24	3 |    75,000
3	12	20	8	20	60	5 |  150,000
4	24	40	16	40	120	8 |  300,000
5	--	--	--	--	--	1,000,000
	43	74	31	74	222	20

The delay in reaching Level 5 may hold up progress on the Very Pesos-Tant Achievement which requires having 1 million Pesos in the bank. As you can see from my progress below and the amount of deposited Pesos you will probably get the achievement if you have 1,000,000 Pesos on hand as a deposit doesn’t seem to be required. We will have to wait for a gunner to farm 1 million Pesos and see. That could take a while.

Like with any banking in Mafia Wars, there is a fee for making deposits. For each deposit you make, 15% will be taken out of the funds. If you try to deposit more than the capacity, only what can be held will be deposited. If you are at full capacity, nothing will be deposited. As most of us have learned the hard way, players are eager for Pesos and they will attack you to get them. Any Pesos you have outside the bank is fair game and with a banking capacity you have to think outside the box to put them somewhere safe. Las Vegas and South Africa also had holding capacities in their banks and many players used the City Store as an alternative bank. We had Arachnoid Phobia in Las Vegas and the Bank of Mr. Z in South Africa. In Mexico we have the Border Agent Bank. Any item can be used to embezzle your currency and Team Spockholm chose the Border Agent to bank currency while fighting so the Border Agent Bank will be our pseudo-bank for this destination. we could get fancy and call it Banco de Agento.  All you need to do is go to the City Store and purchase items with your excess Pesos and save them for a rainy day. The fee of 50% of the original item cost is much steeper than the 15% taken from the Banco Dorado but the capacity is unlimited. City Store bonuses reduce the cost of items but they don’t apply to the buy back. Without discounts the Border Agent normally costs 120 Pesos but you always get 60 Pesos for selling one.  

If you have the Spockholm Toolbar installed, there are more options for City Store purchases than are given by Zynga.

Zynga vs Team Spockholm

The best way to earn Pesos is through fighting. Keeping them is another story. If you are actively healing in Mexico and raking in the Pesos, somebody is going to find you and steal them before you get a chance to bank them. If you use the Assassin-a-Nator, go to the Configuration page and turn on the Mexico banking setting. You can protect Pesos outside of the bank by keeping your health below 20 or travelling out of Mexico. They can’t be stolen if you aren’t alive and aren’t in Mexico.
You also need to set a banking threshold or it won’t work. I set mine to 1,000 but you can go above or below this value. It depends on how paranoid you are that someone will steal your Pesos. If you choose the ‘Bank during attacks’ option it will slow you down and you could lose ices but if all you care about is currency and people are attacking you, go ahead and select it.

It’s also a good idea to check the “Cash from same city” option in the filters. If you are after Pesos it wouldn’t make sense to waste stamina on players who are in New York. You can’t steal Pesos unless you and your opponent are in Mexico. I set the minimum to 1 because at this stage of the game I’ll take anything I can get.

As you accumulate Pesos, Assassin-a-Nator will hide them in the City Store.
You can use your Kamikaze accounts to get Pesos but it seems like a lot of work to farm them, protect them and try to ensure that they go to your main account and then assure they don’t get stolen from your main account. If both accounts are in Mexico and your kami loses Pesos to you when it attacks. If your main account isn’t healing you won’t get as many.

Pesos can also be acquired from the Hacienda City Property and robbing and more details on that will follow in future posts. The Robbing Boards haven’t opened yet so until they do that topic will have to wait. If you are counting on the Hacienda to float you through Mexico, you will be disappointed. A fully upgraded Hacienda with the Taskmaster Bonus activated (double the take) only pays out 320 Pesos every 8 hours.

You could always purchase Pesos from the Marketplace but the ways shown above are much cheaper! I don’t know why Zynga always thinks currency is more valuable than it is and they always overcharge. Perhaps if they reduced the cost more players would bite.