What are Godfather points? How do I get them? What should I spend them on?

What are Godfather points?

Godfather points (often abbreviated GF) are special points that can be spent on the Godfather tab on a variety of things that you cannot buy with money. Things like stamina & energy refills, large sums of money, extra mafia members (they are not actual people, but rather "virtual" family members), name changes and special items are some of the stuff only the Godfather can offer.

How do I get Godfather points?

• You accrue one Godfather point most times you level.
• Zynga sometimes offers free Godfather points. Be sure to sign up for their Mafia Wars Fan Page to get updates when they have something special going on.
• You can complete "offers" on the Godfather tab, ranging everything from taking surveys to signing up for DirecTV. Be very careful because most of the offers require either lots of personal information, recurring monthly charges or have a lot of fine print. Don't get trapped in a contract to pay too much for something you don't want just for the sake of a game!
• You can buy them outright from Zynga. Prices range anywhere from $0.22 to $0.24 per GF; the smallest amount you can buy is 21 GF for $5.00. Buying in bulk gives you the cheapest price per Godfather point at 700 GF for $150.00. They take all credit cards (except for American Express) and Paypal.
• You can also buy GF with programs like Spare Change and Social Gold, or by using mobile payment services like Zong and Mobill Cash and others. Check the Godfather page to see what options are available.
• You cannot trade, give away or receive GF points as a gift.

What should I spend them on?

In my opinion, the only thing worth spending the Godfather points on is the 4 skill points offer. In some cases I guess also the offer to rename yourself, if you really want or need to. Everything else is dross to me. Let me elaborate...

You get 5 skill points for leveling up. So does everyone else. What you do with those skill points will determine, in different ways, how strong you are when fighting, how often you can fight and how many jobs you can complete. Consider a world without Godfather-granted skill points. Every level 80 would have 400 skill points to spend between attack, defense, health, energy and stamina. Sure there would be variations between players, but everyone's skill budget is limited to that 400 skill points.

Into this bleak and limited world comes you -- a well-connected (and good-looking!) mafioso with a very generous Godfather who will give you extra skill points. You have an edge. Now you are a level 80 with 400 skill points and 70 Godfather points (roughly), which you've saved up for a rainy day. Did you just hear thunder? BAM! You purchase 5 of the "4 extra skill point" offers and now your skill budget just went from 400 to 420. That means you can have some combination of 20 extra attack, defense, energy, hit points or 10 extra stamina over what anyone else can have. It is an edge you cannot get any other way.

Here is my reasoning against the generous Godfather's other offers that I definitely can refuse:

• The Godfather offers you a gift: A <insert current crate type here> crate!

  • You have a 10% chance of getting a rare item, a 30% chance of getting an uncommon item and a 60% chance of getting a common item from these crates. Those aren't great odds.
  • There is not really comprehensive list out there about what you have a chance of getting, but it hardly matters. Because of the way the combat system works, a single additional skill point added to either your Attack or Defense has a significantly greater effect than adding a single piece of equipment. A single rare item from a Godfather crate will not begin to compare with 4 skill points placed in attack or defense. For more a more in-depth discussion about skill vs. equipment, see this amazingly informative thread by Big G, featuring The Wanderer (creater of the Combat Calculator.)
  • If you just want to collect different items, perhaps take up a cheaper collectible hobby like a trading card game. Or the bafflingly popular Mafia Wars Gifting app.
  • One crate is 20 GF, versus 14 GF for 4 skill points.

• The Godfather offers you a gift: 3 <insert current crate type here> Crates!

  • Same argument here, multiplied times 3!
  • These 3 crates cost 55 GF. For 1 more GF point, you could buy 20 skill points instead.

• The Godfather offers you $<some randomly large amount of cash>.

  • Money is sadly almost irrelevent in this game after the first few days of playing. It will start coming in so fast that you cannot possibly spend it all.
  • If you are hard-pressed for cash and low level, adding a higher level mafia member and assisting them with a job will net you a relatively huge pile of cash and some experience besides.
  • You can also get more money by just being patient and waiting for your property income, energy and stamina to refresh and then simply rake in the dough.
  • This costs 10 reward points. Think of how long it takes you to get 10 levels... you'll get a metric frack-ton more money much quicker than that.

• The Godfather offers you <some #> extra family members.

  • You can easily get lots of real people to join your mafia within a very short timeframe. I'll show you how and link it here soon!
  • Don't be worried about adding strangers on your Facebook.
    • You don't have to keep them as your Facebook friend permanently if you don't want to.
    • You can set your privacy so they won't see all your "what spirit animal r u?" quizzes and embarrassing beach vacation photos where you look hung over and sunburned.
  • You can promote your real mafia members to your Top Mafia and get bonuses from them.
  • You will passively earn experience and money when your real mafia family members fight others. Your 'fake' mafia members just sit there twiddling their virtual thumbs.
  • Your real mafia family might have some generous souls who will give you stuff free stuff or stuff off your wishlist!
  • The 20 GF that this offer costs could buy you 4 skill points and put you almost halfway to buying another 4. Think of how long it takes you to gain 20 levels. You could probably get all 501 mafia members much quicker than that if you had a free weekend. :)

• The Godfather offers you a full energy refill.

  • With a bit of patience, you'll get your energy back over time.
  • You get one energy pack every 23 hours. It will will refill your energy to 125%
    • Only use the energy pack when you are out of energy AND not close to leveling. You will waste precious energy otherwise.
    • If no one has sent you an energy pack, send yourself one.
  • Your energy refills when you level. If you are close to leveling, try winning some fights or robberies to get 1-3 experience per win.
  • At higher levels, consider riding the hitlist to gain passive experience by spending stamina instead.
  • Keep putting skill points into energy so you can keep pace with the progressively higher amount of experience required to level -- by having a large energy bank to recharge, you're making efficient use of the time when you're NOT playing Mafia Wars.

• The Godfather offers you a full stamina refill.

  • Depending on how much stamina you have, you can probably go watch some TV and come back and have enough stamina to keep you entertained.
  • Considering that GF are about $.22/each, instead of spending the 10 GF that this offer costs try walking to 7-11 and grab a coffee or a snack. Then walk home. Now you've had a snack, gotten some fresh air and exercise and you've spent less and you've got some stamina to play with too. Win-win!
  • "But Ava," you say, "I don't play very often and want to be able to do lots of attacking when I do get a chance to log into Mafia Wars!!!"
    • Consider pumping some skill points into stamina so you have a large stamina bank to draw from. While you're not playing, it'll fill back up -- which makes very efficient use of your downtime as well as your playtime! Savvy!
    • What's that you say? Why yes, you could use your Godfather points to buy 4 skill points and get 2 extra stamina to use every single day for the rest of your life, rather than refilling your stamina one measly time! Yes, that is a good value. You are so damn clever! Go on with your bad self.

• The Godfather offers you a full health refill.

  • Look at your health bar
    • Is it full?
      • Yes.
        •  Then you don't need this. In fact, it will not even be available for you to click.
      •  No! And it hurts! I think I have a punctured lung. HELP! Maybe I should go talk to my Godfather and have him patch me up...?
        • No. Listen to me. First, do not panic.
        • Look underneath your health bar. Do you see the word "Hospital"?
          • Yes! Hurry up, I'm bleeding all over my Armani suit here and I have no club soda or Tide To-Go pen or anything!

            • Click where it says Hospital under your health bar, then click on the button that says Heal your character for $xxxx. Here's a Spongebob bandage and a lollipop for our best patient ever!
              

        • No! I don't see the world Hospital under my health bar!

          • Take a deep breath and check again. This is what it should look like.

          • If you still don't see it, refresh your page. Are you actually hurt? Perhaps a miracle occurred!

  • You can cheaply heal yourself at the Hospital every 60 seconds.There is no need to track blood all over the Godfather's foyer and spend 2 GF on being healed when you're less than a minute away from being able to heal yourself.
    

• The Godfather offers you a new name.

  • If you hate your name or other people hate your name, go for it. Life's too short for that kind of hate.

  • You've joined a clan and want to be tagged, or left a clan and want to get un-tagged, or whatever.

  • You've decided to live out your Twilight fantasies by roleplaying a sparkle-loving member of the mafia named Don Bella LovesEdward4Ever. Or you feel you're a man trapped in a woman's body, but want to ease into your new sexual identity through Mafia Wars as Don Bruno "Butch" McGee instead of Donna Karen before you invest in surgery. Or you want to spoil Harry Potter Book 6 for the four people who haven't read it and also play Mafia Wars by changing your name to "Don SNAPE KILLS DUMBLEDORE". Etc etc etc.

  • If it's something you really want, then go for it. Just be sure you pick something you'll be happy to stick with, since these 15 GF points could have got you 4 skill points... and if you rename yourself again, that'll be another +15 GF and -4 skill points for you.

• Limited Edition Loot XYZ - Visit the Godfather.

  • Every few days, a Limited Edition Loot that can be purchased with GF points item will be offered on your Mafia Wars homepage. Same argument against the Godfather crates applies here, with the exception that you know what you are getting.

  • Resist the temptation to get one "just for collecting." I spend my GF points on skill as soon as I get 14 just so I don't have the points hanging around to be tempted or accidentally buy something I don't want!

If you read all of the above, congratulations! I think we can both agree it was worth it for the ol' Snape Kills Dumbledore joke. Nevertheless, here is a little something extra.