The Manhattan Exploit

Thanks to Jennifer of the MW LootLady Blog for this post!

Well over a year ago, Zynga added a new destination called Manhattan. It replaced New York in a small percentage of new accounts. This was a major problem when Missions were introduced into the game because accounts with Manhattan are unable to perform many of the Mission tasks. In March of this year, Zynga was being nice and offered to convert these accounts back to New York (1). Keep in mind it was emphasized that you could not get Manhattan added to your account.

#1       Today, 01:00 AM

Cerulean Master  Super Moderator Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Moderator Lounge Posts: 2,300

Do you have Manhattan? Hey Mafia Fans, If you are a Manhattan player that would like New York (includes missions), please send me a PM with your UID. *Switching from Manhattan to New York may reset your New York progress.* *This is not for those that want Manhattan, this is for those that have Manhattan but want New York.* Thanks, CM __________________

There is much more to this story. Accounts with Manhattan have a special ability that will enable any other account to level up non-stop. The technique used is possible because of the Boss Fights. There are 8  Districts in Manhattan and each one has it's own Boss.
(images from the Mafia Wars Wiki)

A few of the Bosses allow you to ask your mafia for help. I'll use the District 4 Boss, Donald Harper, as an example.

When your mafia members click on your request for help, they get to fight the Boss too. It doesn't matter if they have Manhattan or not.

When you click on the request for help, you will be notified of how much stamina is required and have an option to leave or fight.

If you decide to fight and are successful in defeating the Boss (it isn't hard), you get a nice experience pay out. This was a Silver Level Boss Fight and I got 437 experience for helping.

Here is where it gets interesting. There is no cap on the number of times you can help. As long as the player with Manhattan doesn't defeat the Boss, they can start the Boss Fight and ask for help as many times as they want. In turn, you can help them as many times as you want and get large experience bonuses every time you do. To demonstrate, I helped with the Donald Harper Boss Fight on the Ruby Level multiple times. I underlined my experience needed to level to show that the screen shots are not identical.

Fight #1

41,094 Experience Needed to Level

+511 Experience 

 Fight #2

40,583 Experience Needed to Level

+511 Experience 

 Fight #3

40,067Experience Needed to Level

+511 Experience 

I could have done this all night long and gained as many levels as I wanted to. The fact is there are many players who have been doing just that for over a year. Anybody can help with the same Boss Fight so one little account from Manhattan can be used to level up many players. Mike Nestor also helped with this Boss at the same time I did when it was on the Gold Level.

Those who were all pissed off that some players were able to get unlimited war loot that is now outdated should be extra pissed about this. While Zynga has been pumping out new content which is driving the player base away, they failed to take a look at existing features and some have major holes. The Ruby Level District 8 Boss of Manhattan offers a 830 experience payout to helpers and accounts with Manhattan have been a valuable thing on the Black Market. Power Leveling services have been using Manhattan as a means to quickly level accounts for a profit. It's been going on for a long time and Zynga hasn't done anything to stop it. Will rollbacks happen? Probably not as it would be very difficult to figure out. This exploit blows a leveling playing field out of existence. Even if they fix it, the damage has already been done.
(image from Da Irish Kids Photobucket Account)