Mafia – Useful Tips and Tricks

Tips and Tricks

Please note: all credit goes to Kvasmeister!

Introduction

I’ve been playing this game since I was a little kid. This guide contains everything I learned about this game that is not immediately apparent on first playthrough.

Before you play

Play the tutorial. It will teach you some important things

Customize your controls. Default controls in Mafia are nuts, many key binds make no sense at all. Change it to your liking.

Cross and dot is the best way to aim.

Tips for every mission – general tips

Talk to Salieri, Frank, and Luigi before leaving Salieri’s bar. They might have a hidden piece of dialog for you.

Before most missions, Ralph will teach you how to steal a new car. But you don’t have to use that car.
More often than not it’s better to take a different car than the one Ralph have for you.

Enabling side rolls might make it difficult to aim on long distances. Consider playing without it.

Tips & tricks for every mission – general driving tips

In high speeds, it’s better to take your foot off the gas when turning.

Primary and secondary controls in this game don’t do the same thing!

  • Primary controls turn wheels gradually.
  • Secondary controls turn wheels to the max instantly.

Using secondary controls to turn gives you better control over your car in high speeds. Primary controls give you more precision.

Honking will get other cars out of your way.

Tips & tricks for every mission – car chases

You will be chased. A lot. By police or other gangsters. The best tip I can give you to successfully escape is to drive into tight spaces. There are indestructible objects like poles, fences, etc. Driving between them and a wall is great way to lose your pursuers. The way AI works in this game makes it hit these objects when chasing after you.

Tips & tricks for every mission – dealing with police

Police is strict in this game. Punishable offences include things like driving over a trash can or running a red light. Cars in this game are slow and police rubber bands heavily, so often it’s better to just pay the fine.

If you are in car, it is ok to ignore the on-foot policemen. Police cars will however persuade you and it’s not easy to get rid of them

You can run a red light without alerting police. Just drive around the traffic lights on the sidewalk. Make sure to not hit any pedestrians and police won’t notice.

You can turn in-car policemen into on-foot policemen. After they start to persuade you, stop your car and wait for them to come to you. Be careful, if they want to arrest you, they will pull you out of your car so don’t let them come too close. Once they come to your car, start driving but just for a second. Policemen will turn around and head to their car, but once you stop driving, they will return to you. Repeat this to lure them out of their car. When they stop returning to their car, you can just drive off and they have no chance of catching up to you on foot.

The police symbol (fine, handcuffs or gun) can become greyed out/transparent. This means police know who are they looking for but don’t directly see you at the moment. You can exit a car (if you are in one) or enter a car (if you are on foot) and the police will get confused. Then you can just walk away or drive off no problem. Demonstration in the video below.

An Offer You Can’t Refuse

Take the first right turn, continue straight until you arrive to small parking lot. There’s a small, pedestrian only alley on the right side leading to Twister cinema. Go through that alley, carefully jump the few stairs at its end. Morello’s gangsters will often not make the jump. With their car tuned on its side the mission is a piece of cake.

Running Man

As you leave the last passageway, there’s a woman waiting for a man. You can talk to her.

Molotov Party

Once you arrive to Morello’s bar, there’s a box you can pick up. Use it block the back door.

You can exit a car and leave the engine running. Press the exit button to turn off the engine. Then press the forward button to start it again and immediately after press the exit button. Tommy will exit the car, but the engine will be kept running. Do this with the Falconer in the garage for faster escape.

You can pick up Paulie on your way out or just leave him be. He will arrive to Salieri’s on his own. You can even see him driving the Bolt Ace you arrived in.

Ordinary Routine

You can shoot the wheel off the yellow car parking in front of Clark’s motel to avoid the final car chase.

Alternatively, you can shoot the second window from the right. You should hear a guy scream in pain as you shoot him through this window. When you kill him, the mission ends.

Inside the Clark’s motel there’s a gangster with Thompson behind a bar. Shoot some of the bottles behind the bar, then shoot the light above the bar. The gangster will catch on fire.

You can find a Thompson in one of the motel rooms.

You can take a piss on the toilets.

Fairplay

The infamous racing mission. How to beat the race even if you are bad at driving?

Right at the beginning there’s a U turn. Break sooner and cut it on the grass. This will give you advantage over other racers.

This first turn and the turn after downhill section with chicane are the only turns you should be hitting the breaks for. In every other turn, try to drive without breaking. Let go of the gas if needed, but don’t break.

Speaking of the chicane, just drive over grass. The car will make it no problem.

If you need extra speed, shift manually. The finish straight and downhill part with chicane are the only places where you should shift to third gear. In every other place just use second. The car will scream like crazy, but the speed gains are huge.

Sarah

You can pick a wooden log to fight off the goons. You also have a boxer.

Better Get Used to It

Once you arrive to Service Station, leave your engine running. It will make you catch up to the hoods faster in final chase.

Try to aggro enemies to Paulie, then send them sleeping with one full bat swing.

You can ram the car you are chasing for alternative ending.

The ♥♥♥♥♥ and The Priest

There’s a guy in naval uniform in the restaurant and guy in black coat on the first floor by armchairs. They both have guns and will shoot you to the back. Kill them.

On the first floor you can find knife in one of the rooms. If you use it to one hit NPC (works the same as with a bat) security guards won’t attack you. You can get out of the hotel without shooting a single bullet.

Video below show how to disable police on the roof. Usefulness is questionable thought because it is very hard to pull off.

When escaping from the church, take the route as shown below. At the cross, leave the car and wait for the police to stop chasing you. You will need to go through very tight alley.

A Trip to the Country

Horns don’t make any sound on your initial drive to Salieri’s warehouse. But they still make other cars move out of your way. It’s known a bug in the game.

Try to end up with as many HP as possible before the final chase. Other than that, there are no tips I can give you, this mission is pretty straight forward.

Omerta

As you go to find Frank’s family, there’s a guy calling the police. Kill him and the police won’t come.

There’s a tower next to hangar with a sniper on it.

Omerta – Lucas Bertone

You don’t need to fight Stan. Just shoot him twice with Thompson. Don’t shoot him more than twice, it will fail the mission.

Visiting Rich People

Salvatore can open more than just safes. Doors or cars are no problem. Use him to get Silver Fletcher.

You should knock out exactly 4 people. Others can be avoided.

  • Right as you enter the garden, security guard is walking to your left. Knock him out and steal his keys.
  • Use the electric panel in the left corner of the garden (by the hedge) to turn off the lights. Another security guard will come to check it. Knock him out.
  • There’s a gazebo by the gate with a guard in it, knocking him out is not necessary for sneaking in to the house, but it makes the escape more chill.
  • Knock out maid inside the house.

Salvatore will open the safe for you, but you still need to get the documents yourself. Don’t leave them in the safe!

After you get the documents, you can either sneak out or kill the security guards. Just don’t kill prosecutor. I recommend shooting the guards as it allows you to get Sliver Fletcher early in the game.

Great Deal

There are grenades behind the white Falconer on the second floor from the top. They are very useful for the barricade on the ground floor.

Barrels explode in this mission.

Bon Appétit

The weapons dropped by Morello’s men will stay on the street even after cutscene. You don’t need to risk getting in danger keeping one last guy alive to pack up on ammo and weapons.

Happy Birthday

There’s a glass of liquor on the bar. You can drink it. The drunk effect is quite trippy.

You should find a bucket and clean up the dirty toilet. If you don’t do it, the skipper will find the gun on you.

You Lucky Bastard

Keep the engine running by Italian Garden for faster escape.

The chase to the port is quite buggy. You can easily overtake Morello Jr. There’s no point in doing that, it can break the game and you’ll need to reload so don’t rush.

As you enter the port, Windows error sound will play. This is normal and happens on all Windows versions. I don’t know why it happens, it just happens but don’t worry, nothing bad is happening, there’s no error window. The game just plays this sound for some reason.

There are grenades by the train locomotive. They are very useful in the last gunfight in the warehouse where Morello Jr. is hiding.

You Lucky Bastard – Lucas Bertone

You will need a fast car with four seats. I recommend stopping at Salieri’s before going to Lucas and getting either Thor 810 or Silver Fletcher.

Crème De La Crème

Paulie and Sam can kill Morello during the chase if you drive close enough. It’s hard to do constantly but it is possible and completely skips both regular endings.

You get the bridge ending by keeping the distance between yours and Morello’s cars short. As you exit the city you need to be driving fast before the game loads the next section. Keep up the speed after the game loads and you should get the bridge ending. You obviously need a fast car to pull it off.

Crème De La Crème – Lucas Bertone

Lucas will ask you to get rid of a wanted car. The wanted status cannot be lost, so there’s no point in waiting it out.

You don’t need another car to push the wanted car to water. Drive to the road leading to light house. Stop on it, put the car in neutral, hold on to hand brake, turn off the engine. Now release the hand brake and exit the car at the same time. The car will start moving down the hill on its own.

If you walk all the way back to Lucas on foot, you will get a special dialog.

Election Campaign

There’s a construction worker by the manhole you use to enter the prison. If you leave him be or kill him, there will be a detective when you exit the prison. He will search you for weapons and will try to arrest you. If you kill the worker and hide his body to the sewer, the detective won’t be there.

Alternatively, you can keep the worker alive and don’t get arrested. Before you exit the prison, hide your weapons. After you leave the prison, immediately open your inventory and throw away all your weapons. The detective will search you but won’t find anything so he will leave you be. Then pick up your weapons but you need to hide them as soon as you pick them up. Basically, just mash the pickup button and hide button at the same time.

For some reason, the sniper aim button unbinds every time you load the game. You need to rebind it in settings once you get to the prison tower.

Election Campaign – Lucas Bertone

There are two guys admiring the car you are supposed to steal. Talk to them before you steal the car to chase them away. Otherwise, they’ll alert the guards.

Just for Relaxation

Brute force won’t work. Except it will. You can just kill everyone, load up the boxes and leave.

Silent approach means carrying a lot of boxes. Not just the Scorsese boxes. If you want to lure out the guy guarding them, you need to do what he tells you and move bunch of boxes to dispatch hall. But don’t worry, you don’t need to do it alone. Ask the two guys hanging out in front of the dispatch hall to help you.

Once you leave the harbor guards will chase you. You can lure them to a trap Paulie and Sam prepared or you can lose them in the chase. If you manage to lose them in the chase, there’s a special dialog when you meet Paulie and Sam.

Moonlighting

When escaping the bank, follow the route marked below. Once you are in Palermo Club exit the car. That should confuse the police. Then just wait until wanted symbol disappears.

The Death of Art

Beware of grenades!

If Mafia has a boss fight, it’s the shoot-out with Sam. Crouch and hide behind the wall. Move slightly out of cover, elbow sticking out is enough. Sam should start shooting at you, hide behind the wall again. Repeat until he starts reloading. This is when you come out of the cover and start shooting him.

The Death of Art – Lucas Bertone

Thor 812 is guarded by dogs. If you kill them by explosion (the only way to cause explosion is to explode a car) you can pick up a rare weapon – dog head.

Egor Opleuha
About Egor Opleuha 8080 Articles
Egor Opleuha, also known as Juzzzie, is the Editor-in-Chief of Gameplay Tips. He is a writer with more than 12 years of experience in writing and editing online content. His favorite game was and still is the third part of the legendary Heroes of Might and Magic saga. He prefers to spend all his free time playing retro games and new indie games.

1 Comment

  1. Does parking a car too far from the bank in Moonlighting cause it to despawn or not…. I parked my car next to the phone booth on the corner, only to find that it had disappeared during the chase. I had to escape using a stolen police car.

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