Everything you need to know before you step into the city

• How a fight is calculated
• How shields work
• Heat, the police pressure
• Respect or Terror
• The economy and the safehouse
• Convoys
• Syndicates

1. 1

   How a fight is calculated

   Every soldier has an attack and a defence. The attacker’s power is the sum of the attacks of the troops sent, multiplied by luck and by the class bonus: each class hits certain classes 50% harder (see The army). The defender’s power is the sum of the defence of the troops left at home, plus the Wall and Capo bonuses, and between 22:00 and 07:00 it is multiplied by 1.5. If the attack does not beat the defence, the attacker loses everything it sent. If it does, it wins, but it loses a share too: troops × (loser’s power ÷ winner’s power)^1.5, at most 90%. The closer the score, the more the victory costs.

   Example

   100 Street knifemen (attack 10) hit 30 Street knifemen on defence (defence 14). Attack: 100 × 10 = 1,000, with no luck. Defence: 30 × 14 = 420 by day and 630 at night. The attacker wins either way. By day it loses 100 × (420 ÷ 1,000)^1.5, about 27 men. At night it loses 100 × (630 ÷ 1,000)^1.5, about 50. Luck could move those 1,000 attack points anywhere between 850 and 1,150. The convoy dialog does this arithmetic for you, with every factor on its own line.

2. 2

   How shields work

   There are five kinds: the newcomer shield (72 hours from founding), the anti-harassment shield (5 days, after five lost defences in a row when your unprotected stock is under 5% of three times your depot capacity), the inventory shields (8 hours, 1 day, 3 days or 7 days), which stack on top of what you already have, the Law firm’s 4-hour Writ of Judicial Protection, and the golden Jubilee shield (12 hours, once a year on your account anniversary), which attacks cannot cancel. Occupied rackets never have a shield. If you attack a player while shielded you lose your shield, and the game asks you to confirm first.

   Example

   You still have a 5-day shield and want to use a 3-day one: the total would be 8 days, above the 7-day cap, so the game refuses. Once the active shield drops to 4 days or less, you can use the item.

3. 3

   Heat, the police pressure

   The meter runs from 0 to 100% and only rises when you strike: an attack on a compound adds 15% plus up to 10%, depending on how much the defender lost; a racket held by another player adds 15%, a gang racket 5%, and a strike on a Federal Transit 15%. Gathering and defending add nothing. From 25% your convoys are 10% slower, from 50% they are 20% slower and attacks on players cost 25% more ammunition, from 75% they are 30% slower and the safehouse protects less, and at 100% attacks on players are blocked and the raid arrives in 15 minutes. After every attack the meter holds still for 15 minutes, then falls 2% per hour (4% per hour with a level 9 Law firm). You bring it down faster by bribing the prosecutor (−10%, 1,000 cash) or the commissioner (−25%, 2,000 cash), or with Pass the Blame (−15%, you hand 20 Brawlers to the police).

   Example

   You send 100 men and the defender loses 40, dead or wounded: +15 + 10 × (40 ÷ 100) = +19%. Two such attacks put you at 38%, so your convoys are 10% slower. If you keep quiet you are back at 0 in 19 hours (about 10 hours with a level 9 Law firm), plus the 15-minute pause after an attack.

4. 4

   Respect or Terror

   Towards Respect you are pushed by gathering at home (+0.5), reinforcing allies (+1), bribing the prosecutor (+1) or the commissioner (+2.5), and by calm: +0.5 per hour after 6 hours without an unprovoked attack. Towards Terror you are pushed by an attack on a compound or on a player-held racket (−2), a night raid (−2.5), heavy losses inflicted on the defender (−3) and Heat above 50% (−0.8 per hour). The perks grow in proportion to your position and peak at ±100. Respect: +12% production, faster healing and +10% to Brawlers. Terror: +10% attack for Gunmen and Machine gunners, +15% convoy carry, but 25% more Heat. An attack made under a vendetta does not push you towards Terror.

   Example

   At +50 Respect you have half the bonus: +6% production. At −100 Terror your convoys carry 15% more, but every attack adds 25% more Heat.

5. 5

   The economy and the safehouse

   Production keeps running while you are away, but stops at the Central depot’s capacity: anything over is lost. The hidden safehouse protects 10% of every resource at level 1 and another 2% per level, up to 50% at level 21. An attacker steals only from the unprotected part, and only as much as its convoy can carry. Ammunition can never be stolen and is spent only on attacks against other players: one bullet for every 5 units sent. From 75% Heat the safehouse protects up to 20% less, a penalty a level 10 Law firm removes.

   Example

   The depot is level 11, so the safehouse protects 10% + 10 × 2% = 30%. Of 10,000 wood, 3,000 are safe and 7,000 can be stolen. An attack with 100 men costs 100 ÷ 5 = 20 bullets, or 25 from 50% Heat.

6. 6

   Convoys

   You pick the mission (gather, attack or reinforce), the troops and the Capo. Capacity is the sum of the troops’ load: a Street knifeman carries 10, a Gunman 6, a Machine gunner 8, an old utility vehicle 60. At a resource point the convoy gathers 25 × the point’s level per minute, at the normal pace, then drives home. Heat, boosters, the Garage and the Syndicate change the trip speed. A convoy can be recalled while it travels or works. Squads you use often can be saved under a name (up to 10): one click puts the same troops and Capos back in the window, trimmed to what is at home, free and within capacity.

   Example

   100 Street knifemen carry 100 × 10 = 1,000 units. At a level 3 point (25 × 3 = 75 per minute), loading takes 1,000 ÷ 75 ≈ 13 minutes 20 seconds, plus the round trip.

7. 7

   Syndicates

   You build the Syndicate hall (Villa level 4), then found a syndicate for 1,000 gold, or join one with room or send a join request. Reinforcements are troops sent in a convoy to a colleague’s compound, where they defend it until you recall them. Every level of the hall lets you send 4% more troops in a reinforcement march and makes them 2% faster. Ranks run from Don to Soldier, and the leader can propose alliances or declare rivalries with other syndicates.

   Example

   At hall level 10 a reinforcement march carries 10 × 4% = 40% more troops than the usual convoy capacity and arrives 1.2 times faster (10 × 2% = +20% speed).

The compound

Fifteen buildings behind the wall

The compound is your private base and cannot be destroyed, demolished or deleted. Even when beaten you keep every building. Here are all fifteen, in their three looks: levels 1–9, 10–19 and 20–25. Next to them, the Black Market is a fixed shop that is always built and never upgrades.

The window of every building

Click a building and its window opens. The Details tab shows what the building does, the progress of a running upgrade (under construction, with its Speed up button), the Building requirements with the level you have now, and the Effects by level table, with your level highlighted and the look it has at each stage. The Upgrade bar stays fixed at the bottom with the cost, the time and the upgrade button, so you never have to scroll to find it. At level 25 a green note tells you the building is fully developed. The second tab is specific to the building: troop training at the Barracks, research at the Library, healing at the hospital, the Respect or Terror gauge (Don villa tab) and the Scrapbook at the Villa, recruiting at the Recruitment office, the garrison at the Wall, the Club at the Clubhouse. Buildings without a specific part (depot, lumber mill, metallurgy, armory) only have the Details tab. On the map, every building carries its name and level, with a golden arrow when you can afford the upgrade. Only one window is open at a time: opening another one replaces the current one.

Only one order runs at a time in each queue, and orders are paid when placed. Construction, training (one queue shared by the Barracks and the Garage) and research each start with one place and can gain a second one for 500 gold, so no queue ever holds more than two orders. Extra places never run orders in parallel: they only hold the next orders, which start by themselves. The Villa caps every other building: none can go above its level. Running orders show a Speed up button, and Active operations groups constructions, training, research and healing in one place. A placed order cannot be cancelled.

• 

  

  

  Don’s villa

  The heart of the family. It decides the maximum level of the other buildings and how many convoys can be out at once (from 1 to 4). Its Don villa tab shows your Respect or Terror gauge and the Scrapbook keeps the family photo album.

  • Max level 25
  • Starts built

• 

  

  

  Central depot

  Storage for wood, iron and cash: 5,000 each at level 1, multiplied by 1.34 every level. A safehouse hidden inside it shields 10% of your resources from raids at level 1, plus 2% per level, up to 50%.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 3

• 

  

  

  Lumber mill

  Produces wood every minute, even offline: 1.8 per minute at level 1, 20% more with every level, up to 143.1 per minute at level 25, on top of a base income of 0.35. Production stops while your Central depot is full.

  • Max level 25
  • Starts built

• 

  

  

  Clubhouse

  Bars, clubs and casinos that bring in cash continuously. Cash pays for troops, research and Capos.

  • Max level 25
  • Starts built

• 

  

  

  Metallurgy

  Smelts iron every minute, even offline: 1.5 per minute at level 1, 20% more with every level, up to 119.2 per minute at level 25. Iron pays for the high building levels, vehicles and elite troops. Production stops while your Central depot is full.

  • Max level 25
  • Starts built

• 

  

  

  Armory

  Regenerates bullets every hour (10 at level 1, up to 286 at level 25) and decides how many you can stockpile (100 at level 1, up to 7,950). Without it, you cannot attack players or rackets.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 4

• 

  

  

  Barracks

  Trains infantry (brawlers, gunmen, machine gunners) from T1 to T5, one order at a time, with a second queue place unlocked for 500 gold to line up the next order. Its level increases the training batch and speeds up recruitment.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 3

• 

  

  

  Garage

  Assembles and coach-builds vehicles from T1 to T5, in the same training queue as the Barracks. Its level enlarges the assembly batch and adds logistics bonuses: speed for every convoy, carrying capacity, a secret compartment and iron savings.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 4

• 

  

  

  Library

  Unlocks the 26 economic, gathering and military researches, including T2–T5 troops. Its level caps the level of the researches.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 5

• 

  

  

  Hospital

  Heals soldiers wounded in battle. Its level sets how many beds you have for them.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 4

• 

  

  

  Recruitment office

  This is where you recruit new Capos with cash. The candidate list changes every hour, and the bar’s level raises how many candidates you are offered, from 3 to 5.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 5

• 

  

  

  Law firm

  Bribes the prosecutor (from level 1) and the commissioner (from 5), cools police heat faster and softens federal fines. From level 20 it buys a Writ of Judicial Protection, a 4-hour shield.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 5

• 

  

  

  Syndicate hall

  Required to found, join or apply to a syndicate. Each level enlarges the reinforcement marches you send to allies by 4% troops and speeds them up by 2%.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 4

• 

  

  

  Switchboard

  Early warning for incoming attacks, intel on enemy convoys, microphones on neighbourhood rackets and spies. From level 20 it also taps the federal police lines. It needs the Barracks at 60% and the Armory at 50% of its level.

  • Max level 25
  • Built from scratch
  • Needs Villa level 5

• 

  

  

  Compound wall

  Basic defence for the compound and the place where two Capos stand guard as a garrison.

  • Max level 25
  • Starts built

The classes

• 

  Brawlers

  Tough and hard to take down. They hold the front line and soak up the hits. They do not stand up to automatic weapons.

• 

  Gunmen

  The fastest on the map. They wreak havoc among brawlers, but vehicles run them over.

• 

  Tommy gunners

  With the Tommy gun they wreck armour and brawlers. They move slowly and cost a lot, but they hit hard.

• 

  Vehicles

  They haul huge amounts of cargo and are decisive over long distances. They lose to Tommy gunners.

After the fight: the hospital

Of the troops lost in a fight, 40% die, 40% end up wounded and 20% walk away unhurt. The wounded go to the hospital as far as the beds allow; whoever has no bed dies. Healing costs 40% of the training price and takes 40% of the time, and the Emergency medicine research cuts it further.

The Garage: vehicles and logistics

Vehicles are no longer trained in the Barracks but assembled in the Garage, which shares the training queue with the Barracks: Villa level 4 unlocks it, T2 needs Garage 5, T3 needs 10, T4 needs 15 and T5 needs 20, plus the Library research. Iron is most of a vehicle’s price. The Garage also gives logistics bonuses to every convoy: up to level 9, +0.5% march speed per level; from level 10, up to +10% vehicle capacity and a secret compartment that brings 10% of the cargo home even if the convoy is wiped out; at level 20, assembly needs 20% less iron.

Research

The Library has 26 researches. The economic ones raise wood, iron and cash production, ammo regeneration, warehouse capacity and construction speed. The gathering ones make your convoys faster and heavier-laden and your rackets more profitable. The military ones unlock T2–T5 troops and give you attack, defence, speed, march slots and bigger batches. One research runs at a time; you can unlock two more queue places for 500 gold each to line up the next researches, which start by themselves.

The Law firm

You build it from Villa level 5 and it gets you off the police’s back. At level 1 you can bribe the prosecutor, at 5 the commissioner, and at 20 you can ask for a protection warrant: a 4-hour shield for 4,000 cash, once every 48 hours. Every action has a cooldown that shrinks with level. The level also makes Heat fall faster by itself (4% per hour from level 9), cuts the fine of a lost raid to 10% instead of 25%, and from level 10 you automatically get 30% of the confiscated cash back.

The Switchboard

Without it you hear of an attack 45 seconds before it lands. With it you get 105 seconds at level 9, 240 at level 19 and 300 at level 25. You also get intel on hostile convoys: from level 1 the approximate troop count and the Capo’s class, from level 10 the troop classes too, from level 20 the exact composition. Microphones listen in on the rackets of your neighbourhood, and spies, each with a name of their own, 1, 2 or 3 by level, bring back a report on another player. From level 20 the federal wiretap warns you by mail and notification when your Heat reaches 90% and the police are preparing a raid, and the window shows the expected raid force, the number of federal agents and their power, which follows your troops and Wall. The Incoming events tab, next to the Details and Switchboard tabs, counts down to the next Federal Transit (12:00–18:00) and the next Neighbourhood Feast (18:00–00:00) and shows where they are. Feasts are not announced by mail. The office phone rings here too. The Switchboard needs the Barracks at 60% and the Armory at 50% of its level, and the Villa waits for it: for the Villa to reach level N the Switchboard must be at N−1.

Shields

• Newcomer shield: 72 hours

  Every new compound is protected for 72 hours from its founding. If you attack while shielded, you drop your own shield, and the game asks for confirmation first.

• Anti-harassment shield: 5 days

  If you lose five defences in a row and are left with almost nothing to steal (under 5% of three times your depot capacity), the family gets a 5-day shield. It is a safety net, not an excuse to stop defending.

• Inventory shields

  Shields of 8 hours, 1 day, 3 days or 7 days stack on top of the current shield, up to 7 days in total. You earn them from achievements and the club, or buy them with gold at the Black Market.

• Writ of Judicial Protection: 4 hours

  From Law firm level 20 you can buy a 4-hour shield for 4,000 cash, once every 48 hours. It is refused if you already have a longer shield.

• The Don’s Jubilee shield: 12 hours

  Once a year, the first time you enter the game after the anniversary of your account, the family throws a Jubilee: a golden festive shield for the first 12 hours. Attacks cannot cancel it, not even the ones you launch yourself, and it never counts towards the 7-day cap of your other shields.

The loot and its limits

• A compound is never destroyed, conquered or removed from the map.
• A winning attacker steals from the defender’s unprotected stock (not the share hidden in the safehouse), up to carrying capacity.
• Bullets can never be stolen.
• The defender gets the alarm 45 seconds before the attack arrives. The Switchboard extends the warning up to 5 minutes.
• Attacks on gangs (NPCs) spend bullets just like attacks on players.

Mail: battle reports

Every fight and every gathering run ends with a message in Mail: who won, which troops were sent, how many died, how many were wounded, the luck roll, the Capo abilities, the loot and the XP. Each battle report also has a timeline (convoy dispatched, arrived, night bonus, the 12 rounds, the decisive result, losses, loot, Capo rewards and the return home) and a “Why these losses” section that shows how both powers were built, how much the winner lost and how your troops split into dead, wounded and survivors. Messages are filtered by category (Battles, Gathering, System), have an unread counter, and the read ones can be deleted. Back after 30 minutes or more offline, one activity report mail sums up what happened, in four sections (Economy, Operations, Underworld, Threats), with a button to the relevant screen and a red block for anything urgent.

Objectives and inventory

Every job done pays off

The Objectives tab has two tabs: the Daily Newspaper, with the missions of the day and the news of the last 24 hours, and Achievements, for those who go far. What you earn lands in your depot, in your inventory and, sometimes, in the gold purse.

• Daily Newspaper

  The Omertane Daily Newspaper comes out every day at 08:00 game time, with 4–6 missions picked for you and written as articles: gathering trips, defeated rackets, finished constructions, trained troops, research, healed wounded, marches with a Capo. Targets grow with the Villa’s level. The reward comes in resources, often an item too, sometimes gold, and finishing all of them earns a bonus: a Capo box or a large speeder, plus 3 gold. At 08:00 the old edition disappears, along with anything you did not claim. Below the missions, a City news section tells what the whole city did in the last 24 hours: rackets seized or contested, the top raider, the war leader, federal transits hijacked, wrecked or delivered, new pacts, vendettas and new syndicates. It refreshes about every minute and shows only public information, never resources, coordinates or spy information.

• Weekly check-in

  The calendar icon in the top bar shows your login streak. Collect one reward a day for five days in a row: production of each resource and speeders on days 1 and 2, gold, a research speeder and a production booster on day 3, a resource pack and speeders on day 4, and on day 5 25 gold, a Capo box, a research speeder and ammunition. Miss a day and the streak restarts at day 1; the calendar resets every Monday at 00:00 game time.

• The office phone

  Once you have the Switchboard (Villa level 5), a phone rings every hour on the hour, game time, while you are connected. An informant offers you a job and leaves two choices, each with its own cost and risk. You can send the boys after a whisky truck, with good odds of a haul and a risk of an ambush, or you can let it go. The call rings for 5 minutes, then it is lost until the next hour. You find it in the Phone tab of the Switchboard.

• Achievements

  29 achievements for the long road: buildings reaching level 20, the Villa at 15 and at 20, power of 10,000, 50,000 and 200,000, a million resources gathered, ten Capos, ten thousand war points. They give plenty of gold, Capo boxes and 7-day shields.

Rewards do not arrive on their own: you press Claim when an objective is complete, and what you get is added on the spot.

The inventory

Items pile up in the Inventory and you use them when you need them. The game warns you if a speeder would be longer than the time left.

• Protection shields

  8 hours, 1 day, 3 days or 7 days. They stack on top of the current shield, up to 7 days.

• Resource packs

  500, 1,000, 2,000 or 5,000 of wood, iron and cash at once, or of a single resource. They cannot be used if they would exceed your depot capacity.

• Capo boxes

  Mostly fragments of a Capo you do not own yet (a quarter to half of what the Capo needs), with a 5% chance of a whole Capo. The rarity follows roughly 66% Common, 24% Rare, 8% Epic and 2% Legendary. A Capo you already own never comes up.

• Speeders

  They cut the time of a construction (up to 24 hours), a research or a training (up to 8 hours).

Speed up any order

You do not have to hunt through the Inventory: every running construction, research and training has a Speed up button. It opens a dialog with the time left and the matching speeders you own. The game marks the best fit as Recommended and warns you if part of the time would be wasted, so you can still choose to use it anyway. Orders that have not started yet cannot be sped up. Every inventory item has its own artwork: shields, resource packs, boosters, speeders and Capo boxes.

The city underworld

Gambling, vendettas and the black market

Beyond buildings and convoys the city has an underworld: a clandestine club, boosters, a ledger of vendettas, a shop that asks no questions and a balance between respect and terror.

The underground club

In the Club tab of the Clubhouse (from level 2) you play European roulette, and from level 5 blackjack against the house. Every play costs one chip: you get one free chip per day (renewed at 08:00) and can buy more with gold, 3 gold each, at most 9 a day. Your chip stock grows with the Clubhouse’s level. Prizes are boosters, ammunition, shields, XP books for Capos, gold or Capo boxes, and after 12 plays without a big prize the next one is guaranteed.

The Vendetta Ledger

When someone attacks your compound or a racket you hold, their name goes into your ledger for 7 days. While the name is active your attacks on them cost 30% less ammunition, hit 10% harder, earn double war points and heat the police by half. You strike a name by destroying at least half of their home army or taking a racket from them: you get cash, 2 gold and prestige, which has its own ranking. The same pair can pay the reward once every 24 hours.

The Black Market

A fixed shop in the compound, open to anyone, with an animated window and six tabs. Speed-ups (construction, training and research speeders), Resources (packs and ammunition), Protection (shields, boosters and a relocation pass), Capos (Capo boxes, experience books and fragments) and Upgrades (the second construction, research and training queue places). Offers are paid in gold or, for the cheaper ones, cash, and have daily limits that renew at 08:00. Fragments you already hold make a whole Capo cheaper. The Buy gold tab shows the future gold packages as a preview marked “Coming soon”: no real-money payment exists yet.

• Boosters

  Inventory items won in the club, from the paper or bought at the Black Market, giving a temporary edge: +20% production of one resource (4, 12 or 24 hours) or +10% of all, +25% gathering (4 hours), +15% march speed (for the next mission or 4 hours), +20% defence (4 hours), 20% faster training (4 hours) and a one-hour counter-surveillance retainer that sends enemy spies home empty-handed. Using the same booster again extends it up to 24 hours, and different kinds stack.

• Respect or Terror

  Every family has a lean between −100 (Terror) and +100 (Respect). Gathering at home, reinforcing allies and bribing push you towards Respect; attacking players, night raids and the heavy losses you cause push you towards Terror. At the maximum, Respect gives +12% production, faster healing and +10% to Brawlers. Terror gives +10% attack to Gunmen and Tommy gunners and 15% more loot in convoys, but also 25% more police heat.

A family name is 3 to 10 characters long and must be unique in the city. The game shows it followed by “Family”.

Family crests

• Badge
• Crossed pistols
• Wolf
• Signet ring
• Rose and dagger
• Fedora
• Lion
• Eagle
• Tommy gun
• Ace of spades
• Crowned knife
• Olive branch

Make it yours

Trophies, titles and decorations are pure cosmetics: they give your family an identity and never any power, production, defence or speed. Open them from Customize on the Compound screen.

• Titles

  24 titles in four rarities, shown under your name on your profile, in the top bar and on the map panel of your compound. Some are free, some come with an achievement or a trophy, and five are bought with gold, once and for good.

• Trophies

  14 trophies are earned on their own the first time you win fights, hold rackets, avenge yourself, join the feasts and transits, gather Capos, or grow your power and your fortune. Pin up to six on your profile showcase.

• Decorations

  14 animated decorations for four fixed places: the gate, the roof, the yard and the street. Place one in each slot and every player sees them around your compound on the city map. Free, trophy and gold ones, bought once and kept.