Tips for Building a Strong Mob on MySpace Mobsters

Mobsters is currently one of the most popular applications on MySpace. It is a great opportunity to meet new people and to test their strategy skills against those of thousands of others. However, as more people add this application and grow their mobs and their skills, it is becoming more and more difficult for one to rise among the Mobster ranks. Consequently, as a seasoned Mobster, I thought I would give you some tips that will help you stand your ground against the Made Men of Mobsters.

Tip #1: Start Building Your Mob Early

Although your mob can only fight with 5 times your current level (i.e., level 10 = 50 members), it takes time to send friend requests and application invites. Keep in mind also that you can advance to new levels in only a short amount of time, especially in the beginning. (I easily reached level 10 in the first day.) If you keep a reserve of extra members, you will be able to face each new level without worrying that you will be targeted because you do not have enough members.

Tip #2: Familiarize Yourself with the Ways to Add Members

Invite your current friends.

There are a number of ways to attract and acquire members. Typically, the first way to increase your mob is to send invites to all your current friends. (You can send invites in the section "My Mob" in Mobsters.)

Join Mobster-related groups.

Next, you can also get into contact with other Mobsters seeking to expand their mobs by searching for and joining groups on MySpace that are Mobster-related. You must remember, though, that just because you become a member of such a group, it does not mean that you will be getting a ton of friend requests. Oftentimes, you, yourself, must take the initiative and go to each member's profile and send each one a friend request. And also, do not forget to check back with your group (or groups) periodically. They are bound to be new members joining that will be valuable assets to your mob.

Post your URL on your stats page.

A simple way you can help attract new members for your mob is to post the URL of your MySpace profile in the Comments section of your "My Stats" page in Mobsters. Every time someone clicks on your mob name while playing Mobsters, he or she views this page. Thus, for only $500 of your mob cash, you can help other Mobsters find you so they can add you to their mob. (This is especially helpful for those Mobsters that do not know how to locate a person's MySpace profile from the Mobsters application.)

Use the "Fight" page to gain members.

This is a much more complicated way to grow your mob, but it is very effective. Each name that appears on the "Fight" page can be clicked on, which allows you to see that Mobster's stats. Of course, you always have the option to post a comment below rival Mobsters' stats to ask them to join your mob. However, this costs $500 each comment, so this can get mighty expensive rather quickly. Therefore, I recommend that you practice using the URL at the top of each Mobster's stats page to locate his or her MySpace profile so you may send him or her a friend request. Here is an example using the URL of one of the newest members of my mob:

http://profile.myspace.com/Modules/Applications/Pages/Canvas.aspx?appId=104283&appParams=%7B%22show_user_id%22%3A%22313104194%22%7D

As you can see, this long URL looks really complicated. However, once you get the hand of it, it will actually become pretty simple. First, go to the address bar and click on the URL. This will bring you to end to URL and highlight it. Click again at the very end of the URL to remove the highlighting.

Now you can begin isolating the user ID number. Delete everything from the end to the URL until get rid of all percentage signs on the right. (In this case, you would delete %22%7D.) Then click right after the first two numbers of the user ID number. These are actually NOT a part of the member's ID number, so they must be deleted to locate his or her MySpace profile.

Keep deleting everything before the ID number until you reach http://profile.myspace.com/ and press enter. This will take you to that Mobster's profile. (Using my example, you would be left with the following: http://profile.myspace.com/313104194).

Remember this also comes in handy when someone leaves a comment on your stats page but does not leave his or her URL. Simply click on the picture beside his or her comment and follow the above steps.

Tip #3: Put Territory & Defense First

In the beginning, this is extremely crucial. Territory is a very important step in building a successful mob. Territory allows you to bring in a steady income to finance your mob and to allow it to grow. Although you can earn cash to buy your weapons, armor, and vehicles by doing missions, you can only do missions while you are logged in and they require energy, which takes some time to build up again. Territory, on the other hand, allows you to earn steady income by the hour, regardless of how often you play Mobsters.

You should also try to build the best defense as possible. It is very tempting to buy the coolest weapons you can afford and to start attacking rival Mobsters to see how many of them you can whack. However, some mobs are very close knit, so once you target one of their members, you have 10, 20, sometimes more Mobsters trying to whack you all in the same day. Keep in mind that if they have enough money, they may choose to hit list you and you will have many more Mobsters trying to whack you to get the bounty on your head. Consequently, you should try to hold off as much as you can on the attacking until you have the best armor for each of your members and use some of your experience points for defense power.