Mafia Wars is one of the most addictive games on facebook. I’m not going to give you paragraph after paragraph of strategy. I’m just going to list a few tips that believe will give you a boost in starting your own mafia empire.
Character Type – Choose maniac as you character type. They recover energy much faster.
Max out your energy - Spend most of your skill points on your energy. More energy = accomplishing more jobs = more experience and money = Quicker levelling up. Don’t worry too much about your attack and defence as these can be upped by purchasing weapons, armour and animals.
Choose jobs wisely - Choose the jobs that will give you the most experience points for your energy. Doing the jobs that that take up the most energy does not necessarly give you the most experience points. For example if a job is going to cost you 20 energy for 30 exp points. This will not be better than doing a job that costs you 10 energy for 18 exp. Although doing other jobs may result in better loot or money. It really comes down to how you want to play the game.
Stamina - I don't really rely on much stamina. But it is a good filler to get in some extra exp points and cash through fighting other players when you have no more energy to complete jobs. So now and again you should give your stamina points a boost.
These are the steps that helped me level up at a fast pace. I wish you all the best of luck.