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Drug Wars - Underworld
The Guide
By: Chaucer's Squire
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Version History:
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01.00 - This one. That's it. This is numero uno.
01.50 - Corrected information on Informants, added vehicle chart, updated
information on loans, added some secret "tricks":
*info on combat strategy on day one. (See Encounters and Conflicts
section)
*airline travel trick. (see Changing Locations section)
*The HUGE BUY repetitive trick... (See Non-Combat Events section)
*Drugs will drop/increase in price method (see Messages section)
01.75 - (*Eventually, if asked*) Hi/Low/Average price guides for all items.
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Legal / Disclaimer
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///Legal Notices by Geekphase.com:///
Drug Wars - Underworld
Version 1.2
Published by Geek Phase Corporation
www.geekphase.com
Copyright � 2002-2003 Geek Phase Corporation. All rights reserved.
Drug Wars - Underworld, Geek Phase and the Geek Phase logo are trademarks of
Geek Phase Corporation.
///Copyright Infromation for FAQ:///
This FAQ may be not be used in part or whole in any way, shape, or form without
prior consent from the original creator and may not be edited in any way from
its original form. This FAQ also may not be used on any other web site other
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Any person(s) or website caught using this FAQ improperly are punishable by
copyright laws. You may only use this FAQ for personal private use and may not
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questions regarding the use of this FAQ, please email me. I'm really a nice
guy and don't mind distributing this for free, so long as you email and ask
first. For those of you who go off selling my faq, charts, etc. for profit, or
by publishing this information without my consent, may a plague be on your
home, business, and self until your ill-gotten guide is removed from your site.
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Contents
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To jump quickly down the guide, simply go to Edit, Find, and copy/paste in the
proper "Section Search Code" in the box.
///Section Title/// ///Section Search Code///
"What's This Game About?"
Ch. 1: Introduction to Game csdwuch1
"How Do I Play?"
Ch. 2: Creating Characters csdwuch2
Ch. 3: Starting a New Game csdwuch3
Ch. 4: Using the Main Window csdwuch4
///A. Location Map///
///B. Character///
///C. The Market///
///D. Your Inventory///
///E. Action Buttons///
--1. Buy
--2. Sell
--3. Drop
--4. Charts
--5. Inform
--6. Thugs
///F. Messages///
///G. Status Bar///
Ch. 5: Buying and Selling csdwuch5
Ch. 6: Changing Locations csdwuch6
Ch. 7: Items and Stores csdwuch7
Ch. 8: Loans and Debts csdwuch8
Ch. 9: Banks and Accounts csdwuch9
Ch. 10: Encounters and Conflicts csdwuch10
Ch. 11: Hospitals and Health csdwuch11
Ch. 12: Charts (Drug Avg. Price, Vehicle Chart) csdwuch12
"How Do I Contact You?"
Ch. 13: Credits csdwuch13
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(csdwuch1)
Introduction to Game
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This game is basically a buy/sell game. No highly intense action that keeps
your nerves on the edge of your seat. No long-delayed role playing game that
takes forever leveling up your characters, going out on secret quests for some
sword. No incredible graphics. It's just, basically, a plain text-based game
with some graphics. However... If you are all about trying to get high scores
for things, this is your kind of game. If you like pinball, the first version
of Mega Man, games like Galaga or Centipede, or just want an hour to kill
doing senseless fictional drug deals and gang wars without the stress, this is
your game. Think of this as an adult's version of "The Lemonade Stand." Or
"Clickomania" with a little bit of more thought to it.
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(csdwuch2)
Creating Characters
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If you are just trying to go for the top score, the only thing you really need
to do is raise your evasion and combat stats to 100. Lower the other ones to
an equal level to ensure of your 100% range for the stats mentioned above.
Strength really doesn't add much, and bartering only lowers costs for bribery.
There are better ways to make money than by using strength and bribery... So
ignore those stats.
Evasion = running away from combats altogether.
Combat = increasing accuracy to hit opponents in scuffles.
Damage isn't that necessary. Especially when you hire thugs. But if you don't
have a registered version, then you may want to tag on a little strength to
make up for it. But even then, evasion and combat are the primary skills to
sink points into. Run away from things when you're dirt poor, then when you
have a posse' and you're packin', you'll be owning those tricks like you're a
P.I.M.P. And then you loot the corpse and take their cash.
You don't even really have to worry about sinking points in combat either.
If you just go for the highest score possible, evasion is all you need. Just
keep running. And if you have the registered version, the thugs you hire will
do all of the work for you.
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(csdwuch3)
Starting a New Game
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Since only registered users can create their own, I will simply focus on that.
(Non-registered users can only have a thirty day game, and only in New York.)
Registered users can have their choice of shuffling between New York, Austin,
and Amsterdam. If I would reccomend one place start, I would pick Austin.
The reason for this is very simple: When you have too much money and don't
know what to do with it, you stick it in a bank to accrue interest. The East
and West Side of Austin has a bank that gives you 10% interest - the highest
in the game that I have seen. If you stick to a 30 day game, you should start
here. Make your big deals, your big buys, and stick the rest in a 10%
account. You'll never be happier.
I should also mention that you cannot "save" your game... Which is why I
usually just stick with 30 day games. A normal 30 day game will take about
an hour to an hour and a half of your time if you're really trying to go for
a high score, and not just walking around blasting everyone. A 180 day game
could take you a better half of an afternoon, and a 365 day game is...
well... for those really bored, and you have nothing else to do while
they're on vacation. Just remember... YOU CAN'T SAVE! So if the power goes
out, you're hosed.
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(csdwuch4)
Using the Main Window
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///A. Location Map///
This map simply gives you the five areas that you can go to. Certain areas
give you access to better banks, places to accept/pay loans, use the airport,
stores, etc. Usually the starting points of each game is the area where you
need to return to for these places, but each game is random, and can add in
it's own random things.
///B. Character///
This basically shows you how much money you have, what's in the bank, how
much you owe, and how much damage you have taken. This also shows how much
space you have used in your inventory, and how much total space is available.
///C. The Market///
This shows you what is available to buy, the prices per product, and the
amount available to buy. You can change how items are listed by clicking on
the title columns. This will alter items listed in either alphabetic/reverse
alphabetic order; or by price, highest to lowest, or vice versa.
///D. Your Inventory///
Basically, the same as the market, but listing all of your inventory you have
on hand from the purchases you've made.
///E. Action Buttons///
Here's where most of the action comes from. You will have your choice of six
differnt options, provided you registered for the game.
--1. Buy
--2. Sell
--3. Drop
--4. Charts
--5. Inform
--6. Thugs
--1. Buying: Click on the drug you want to purchase, then hit the buy
button. It will ask you how much you want to buy first, defaulting to
the highest amount you can carry/available. Select the amount, then hit
OK. Buy stuff when it's cheap!
--2. Selling: Same as buying, but out of your own inventory. Sell stuff when
it's expensive!
--3. Dropping: If you need to get rid of products that you don't want
(especially if you are paranoid of getting busted by drug sting) you can drop
your products. But let me offer this bit of advice instead. If possible,
sell it anyway. Selling usually doesn't trigger busts. Buying does, at
least from my own experience.
Also, if you show up at a place that doesn't have any of the product you want
to sell, just drop 1 of that product,especially if you need to ditch it for a
better deal on another product. The 1 drop that you did will now show up on
the market at a price. You can then sell the rest of your product to that
price instead of dropping all of it.
There have been times where you show up somewhere and the product isn't
there. For example, I had 100 heroin on me, with an average price of about
7000. A great deal. But now I have to drop this to make room for the coke
that dramatically lowered it's price to 14000, and there's a lot of it, and
I need to make room. I sold all of the other stuff, but still needed to
make more room... So, I had to drop 7000 for one heroin.
BUT! When this happened, the price of heroin showed up on the market worth
almost 12000. So, not only did I free up room for the cheap coke, I also was
able to sell the heroin at a profit, even if I initially lost 7000 on the
drop. And then I made a killing on the coke later...
Dropping in short: It's useful. Don't think it sucks.
--4. Charts: First, you need to buy a laptop to get this option to work for
you. Once you do, you can follow peaks and valleys in prices, and try to
anticipate when there will be a spike in certain places for prices on
specific products. Honestly though, in my opinion, I keep better track of
trends using a spreadsheet program. I have a chart of my own that I follow
very well, and I tend to get some amazing scores because of it. See this at
the end of the faq.
In short: The charts on this game aren't very reliable. Save money. Don't
buy a laptop.
--5. Informants: In order for informants to be effective, you first need to
buy something to communicate with them. A pager, a cell phone, something.
Secondly, your informants will only tell you what's going on in their
locations. Finally, if you click on the informants button and then read
the tips they've given you, they seem to be incorrect for some reason. I
honestly thing this is a glitch in the game that needs to be fixed. So, I
highly reccommend either copying the information they give you each day so
you don't forget, or get a good memory. Their tips will appear at the
bottom of the screen at the beginning of each day much like the tips you
receive from the word out on the street, or notes you pick up from defeating
your enemies.
I used to think that informants were stupid and a waste of money. But after
trying things out, I have learned otherwise. Yeah, sometimes you hire an
informant that never gives you any tips. It happens. But without them, you
will miss out on chances happening elsewhere on some serious deals. I have
increased my top score significantly because of tips I've received from
informants. I have come to realize that they are indeed necessary for the
huge deals.
One thing you need to keep in mind is that you can have a maximum of 32
informants. If you scatter your informants all over, so that you know what
is going on in each and every corner of the drug world, it is reccommended
to hire two informants in each area of each city. Each city is divided up
into five areas for a total of ten informants per city, and three cities
total thirty informants. This will give you information access to each
area of each city comfortably, and if one informant doesn't seem to pay out
any information, you have another to take up his slack. Hiring five
informants in each place will not allow you to have access to all of the
information you could otherwise gain in every city, but if you are only
planning on staying in one place, then I reccomend this option. But I
strongly suggest that you fly, and have access to other cities. Your score
will improve significantly.
As for the hiring costs of the informants, I still have yet to be proven
wrong that the cheapest informants do just as good of a job as the expensive
ones. You'd think that the more you pay them, the more info they'll give
you, and give it more often. But that simply isn't the case. It's always
random. Therefore, I always outright pay for the up front cost of the
cheapest two informants. It saves me money, improves my score, and doesn't
make me want to cuss out the informant that I spent a lot of money on that
didn't give me jack. I have peace of mind in spending less.
In short, two simple words: HIGH SCORES.
--6. Thugs: Two more simple words: BIG MONEY. Every thug, in contrast to
the informants who may or may not pay out, are worth every cent. Not only
do they assist you in your battles, but they are also another way to
maximize your inventory space. Buy them at their up front cost, always.
When you fight, they will do the work for you, and even in just battles
alone from looting corpses, they will pay for themselves. Plus the extra
space they give you can really have a positive impact on your score. They
are also a cheap alternative to getting massive space. A large trenchcoat,
a backpack, and a cargo pants will give you an additional 75 space. Each
thug gives you roughly 20 space. But they also fight your battles too.
And you don't have to pay them a dime for ammo. Very, very handy men.
They also improve in combat for every fight you put them in.
If you play your game right, you can, with the assistance of a big rig
truck, the three items mentioned above, and a number of thugs, accumulate
a maximum inventory of over 1000 (depending upong their carry amount).
There is also a limit of 32 thugs you can have follow you around. I have
watched as I tried buying the same thug four or five times, only to watch
my cash dwindle and the thug not join my party... So if you buy a thug, but
he doesn't disappear off of the list, you have too many. Stop buying thugs.
You may want to fire a thug who does poorly for you when you come accross a
thug that has a higher carry capacity. But again, I believe this is a
glitch in the game. I have hired higher capacity thugs often, but still end
up seeing low numbers (usually all poor carrying capacities with a Sports
Car equals out to be 905), and other times when they were all poor in
carrying capacity, but managed to somehow get 975 with the same vehicle...
I don't know how to explain it, but I have a suspicion that it has something
to do with when you purchase a backpack, cargo pants, a large trenchcoat,
and when you hire your thugs. I can't verify it yet, but from the few times
that I started out wonderfully with a high cash flow in just the first few
days, I hired thugs early on with extra money. On those games, I never
needed to buy the backpack/etc. items until much later. And also on those
games, when I finally purchased those items (hiring thugs first as time went
on), I peaked out at 975, even though my thugs all said "poor" for carrying
capacity.
At any rate, your big deals are not going to come from how much you carry,
but at having the right amount of drugs at the right place at the right time.
Even with only having a capacity of 905, I managed to get a score of $45
million dollars in only thirty days. On most occasions, you don't need to
have a high capacity to do well. But it is certainly without a doubt that
the higher capacity, the more helpful it is, and undoubtably it increases
your chances for a higher score.
In short, two more simple words: Buy Thugs!
///F. Messages///
These pop up every now and then to tell you that informants want to talk to
you, words out on the street about police raids or mafia activity, prices
dropping or increasing, and so on. Pay close attention to this information.
You don't want to miss out on some seriously important deals that will shoot
your score up to the tens of millions. The most important information you can
receive is when prices are going to drop, and when they are going to increase.
In times when the prices are going to drop, you want to be at that location
in the morning (if possible) to buy up every single amount of the drug on
high discount, or land in the city from the airport, and be there in the
afternoon. If you for some reason can't carry all of the product, or can't
afford it all, you can always go to a different location in the afternoon/
evening, sell it all somewhere else, and return for the rest. But if possible,
buy it all in one turn. Cops usually surface later on in the day, and can
bust you if you're not careful.
In times when the prices are going to increase, this is when you need to go
around and collect as much of the drug as possible. Usually you will have a
lot of time to prepare for these events, but they are also the most risky of
all. If at any time you get busted, all of your work is wasted. Here is my
strategy for when these situations arise.
First off, if it's a stupid drug worth little money (ecstasy, weed, etc.) I
usually don't bother with it, unless it's very early in the game when I don't
have a lot of money to start with. It's just more profitable to find better
deals on other things.
If it is something worthwhile, like coke for example, you want to do as little
buying and selling as possible, and avoid cop locations. They will be around,
and they will encounter you during these times. If you keep your buying and
selling at a minimum, you will significantly reduce your chances of getting
busted. But in the instances where you get a note from a cop, stay away.
This is usually a dead giveaway as to where you will more than likely be
busted. Only "shop" in those places if and only if that location is the place
where the coke is going to increase. You'll only be making one transaction
there anyway.
I typically follow this pattern: Once I know that there will be an increase
of price of a drug, I first buy two, maximum of three drugs that are cheap.
No more, no matter if the whole list of drugs is cheap. Just choose the
ones that will give you the best possible net profit. Once I made these
two or three purchases, I buy up all of the drugs that will increase in price
in the next day. Then I move to the next location.
Once I move on to the new location, I first sell any drugs worth a profit,
BUT I KEEP MY DRUGS THAT WILL INCREASE IN PRICE. This can be so tempting to
sell them, but you can't. You will get so much more money if you just wait.
If I can't sell any drugs at the new location for a profit, I then buy more
of the two to three drugs, and finish out with the drug that will increase.
Buy them all. Do this another two times.
On the last part of the day (night time), I finish by sticking to just the
two to three drug scheme, and if I have to fly, I do it at night. (You should
always fly at night. Otherwise, you waste the entire afternoon that you could
otherwise be selling drugs.) When I land, I continue following the method
above. If I don't need to land, I just pick a different location to start
at again.
When the new day comes, this is the day where you have to focus on only buying
the drug that will increase in price. Make sure you remember where that
location is. If you have a bad memory, write down where it's supposed to
happen. If you forget where it is and guess, and you guess wrong, you'll kick
yourself for screwing that up. When morning comes, sell your extra drugs that
will give you a profit, but don't buy any new ones. Limit your buying and
selling to TWO. One of them is for buying all of the price-increased drug.
The other should be to sell one type of drug, or to buy more of it if it's
a good buy price. Then move on to a different location. Repeat this
process, and on the last movement, move to the location where the drug is at
an increased price. Then only sell all of that drug. And as soon as you are
done, put the money you made on the deal in the bank. Then if you feel it
is necessary to buy/sell more, you can do so, but be warned that you are at
an increased risk of being arrested. Also, when buying the price-increased
drug in the various places, you will probably notice that the prices are
a bit higher, sometimes a lot higher than the average price. Don't worry
about it. Your return will be even higher than this. It's worth the extra
cost. If you follow this method, you will be very careful, and greatly
lower your chances of getting busted with a huge amount of drugs.
As an example, I was buying coke all over (quantaties will be low too, but
buy them all up anyway...) I'd buy 20 here at $23,000 and 45 there at
$25,000. There was a spot that had over 100 of it for nearly $28,000.
It was a huge cost. But a necessary one. I bought it all up.
Eventually, in seven turns (four from the previous day, three for the active
cost-increased day) I had more than 400 items of coke. When I made my move,
I sold all of it for about $80,000 each. I made close to $35,000,000 from
that deal. And then stuck it all in my fatty bank account.
And I didn't get arrested. You don't want that. And that's why you need to
limit your buying/selling during these times.
///G. Status Bar///
This will show you information about the product you selected in the market
or inventory. A calculator will show you how much you will gain/lose by
selling it, and if you have a laptop, it will show you if the price has
recently been raised/lowered, and get an average price for products in the
market in that game. But again, not as reliable as my chart at the end of this
faq.
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(csdwuch5)
Buying and Selling
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Duh! This is the most important part of the game! Buy things when they're
low, sell them when they're high! Not when YOU'RE high! It's really just that
easy! See the charts section (csdwuch14) to see the average costs for things,
and pay close attention to the 20% discount column. Remember the dropping
trick I taught you in the Main Window section. You could use it.
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(csdwuch6)
Changing Locations
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Simply click to new locations on the map to move there. Explore the prices of
things in the shops, if you can pay off loans, make new ones, take off at
airports, etc. while there before you buy/sell stuff just to give you a mental
note of things. If you have a vehicle of any kind (sports car is a nice start
for this - but don't ask how all of the thugs get on it with you! they must
be circus dwarfs or something...) it will basically allow you to go from
"morning" to "afternoon" to "evening" to "night" (see charts at end of faq)
instead of just moving up a day each time you move. When given the chance to
buy a vehicle, do so. You might start off slow again, but you are effectively
doubling to quadrupling your time while moving to new locations by having it.
By day 10, you should have one already. I've been lucky a few times on some
amazing deals, and have been able to pull out a sports car on day 5. That
30 day game turned out to be a 45 million dollar score, even after getting
busted twice! Eeerrrggggghhhh! But still, an amazing score for 30 days.
A trick I learned with flying is that the prices will always change if you
click back on the plane after hitting cancel. It's not a set price in stone.
So you can repetitively keep clicking on the plane and choosing your travel
destination until you get a "suitable" price. You can fly from Austin to
Amsterdam for as cheap as $5100 if you're patient enough, from Austin to
New York for around $1200, and from New York to Amsterdam for under $4100.
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(csdwuch7)
Items and Stores
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In terms of the store, you should only concern yourselves with the following
items:
For carrying more items:
*Backpack (adds 50 max inventory space)
*Cargo Pants (adds a petty 5 max inventory space)
*Large Trenchcoat (adds 20 max inventory space)
For transportation:
*Motorcycle first, then when you can "upgrade" (sometimes I skip this
altogether and go right for the Sports Car.)
*Sports Car (X4 move! Minimal hassles with police busts! +20 max inv. space)
*Big Rig (also adds 150 max inventory space)
All vehicles will at least give you "morning" and "night" to shop around,
instead of just adding a day when you move from one location to another.
It basically doubles your possible score (minimum) from that point on.
Buy a vehicle a.s.a.p.! And if possible, save to buy a Sports Car. They are
the most cost effective vehicle of all.
If you absolutely "need" to use weapons...
*Body Armor (only if you're not using thugs)
*Uzi, 9mm
*9mm ammo
As a side note, these three items will also use up one inventory space apiece.
If you add a laptop and other such things, each of those will also add one
inventory space.
That's it. The Uzi will take out, usually, one person every time you fire.
Ammo is costly though, but chances are, if you're using a weapon anyway,
you don't care about the cost... So, mow 'em down.
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(csdwuch8)
Loans and Debt
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Yeah. They have loan sharks out there. And you'll hate them too. It really
sucks only given $2000, and then having to pay back $20,000... What a rip off.
But drug dealers gotta come up with the money somewhere... So hence the loan
shark.
This is hard-wired into the game, so you aren't getting around it. You can
try to run away or blast the loan shark, but in the end, any outstanding loans
you have at the end of the game are subtracted from your total score. So I
just pay it when the time rolls around. Why not sooner? There have been
times I could pay off a loan at turn 5, but when I tried, he still wants a
huge portion of the profit anyway. So you still end up paying close to
$20,000... So I usually just keep the money anyway and use my profit I've
made so far to just keep increasing it. I do sometimes run away if I have a
huge deal, like if a particular drug is going to increase the next day. I
just run, or I can always say "Pay Later." The first time, he's nice. The
next time he hits you. Then he does it again for more damage the next time.
And the next. You get the idea... As an experiement, I waited until nearly
the last day (after blasting his thugs over and over again) and then selected
the "Pay Later" button. He slapped me for 160 damage, even though I was
wearing body armor that hadn't been scratched yet. So in short, pay it off
as soon as you can, so that you're not losing a tremendous amount of profits.
He'll still charge you more and more interest as time goes on, making that
$20,000 grow to as high as nearly $200,000 of debt, and that's just in a
thirty day game. So if possible, pay it off a day or two early even.
It can, however, work to your advantage to gun down the loan shark's thugs
for a few days and get a little bit of money out of them. If you can't seem
to pay off the loan shark right away (and it should be because you want to
take advantage of a huge deal. Otherwise, if you can't pay him off by day 10,
you should honestly start over) you can blast him for a few day's worth and
use the money you get off of him to pay back his "interest." There have been
times when I have used this method, and used nearly $15,000 of his own money
to pay off his debt. I've been lucky some times to get over $5000 off of him
to use for this purpose. But many times, it's not so high. But you should
expect to get a few thousand out of him for each occurrence.
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(csdwuch9)
Banks and Accounts
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Banks are a great way to hold large amounts of cash, so that in the event that
you are in fact busted by a drug raid, you don't lose half of your total worth.
Banks are in fact, a great safety net.
However... You CAN have your bank account frozen and seized completely.
This doesn't happen too often in shorter games (< 31 turns), but you may have
it happen once or twice in longer ones. I actually had a friend have several
10% interest bank accounts open up on a 365 day game. He was busted by the
police, and lost a huge amount of money. So he opened up his first account
and tried to withdraw, and it was seized. No money. He lost, literally,
fifty million dollars. He tried #2. Seized. Same amount lost. #3. Same.
#4... When it was all said and done, all but one account was seized. He
finished the game, all 365 days, with only have earned $30 Million. That's
it, for all of his hard work.
Hard lesson learned. So this is how to basically get around that.
First off, you'll be o.k. if you use the same bank account for the entire
game, so long as it's a short game. You may, just in case, want to have two
or three of them as a backup. I usually have one account where I just deposit
huge amounts of cash into, and just let it sit... Perhaps when coke is
really low, or will increase within the next day would I consider tapping
into this account. I just let the interest keep this going high.
A second account would be made then with the same interest rate, but put in
secondary money. You can pull out all of the money if you'd like, leaving
just the minimum balance just to keep the account going. Use this to spend
on items, buy drugs, etc. But always replenish it with any excess cash that
you wouldn't otherwise throw into the heavy account. My rule is usually to
keep the secondary account to a high maximum of about $5 million. If the
secondary gets higher than this, put the excess in the heavy account.
Finally, one third account can be made, even if it only has a little of
interest. This is just to hold onto your cash temporarily, if you get a sixth
sense that you may get busted and lose a large amount of cash. Stick a lot of
it in there, then if anything goes wrong between purchases, you have a large
amount to start with when you get out of jail from this account. Just close
the account, and make a new one when your sixth sense picks up again.
After a while of depositing large amounts of cash into your primary
holding tank of moola, close the account, and make a new one. This way you
won't punch your monitor in the event that your account does, in fact get
seized. I can't prove this yet, but I have a feeling that there is a random
timer of the number of times that the account is used. Once it reaches a
certain number of "accessed" times, it is seized. So it doesn't hurt to
just start a new one every so often, just to be safe. It's not like it
costs you anything. So it honestly doesn't hurt one bit.
Shop around for good banks. And always use ATM banks. Very, very
handy. And as stated very early, the East and West Sides in Austin has
the 10% interest you are looking for. Nice bank. :)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(csdwuch10)
Encounters and Conflicts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Before I begin, let me give you a neat little first-turn trick that can start
you off on a profitably right-footed direction. First of all, if I start out
the game, and none of the drugs are cheap, I start over right away, before
I even buy anything. Why begin the game at a disadvantage? If you were
honestly going to get involved in any sort of investment venture, why buy
any stocks or anything when they're high, unless you were positive they were
going to soar in price? That's definitely not the case in this game. So,
first off, if you start out with high prices, start over.
Next, what I tend to do is buy whatever drug that comes up cheap, and fill up
the rest with weed or ecstacy (again, if they're cheap.) Sometimes I'll just
sit there and buy/sell back and forth until I get messages to pop up, like if
a particular drug will increase/decrease, someone is desperate, or, more
importantly, if thugs/cops/organized crime (especially these guys!) are going
to be around.
Once I get this message... I then sell my drugs back, buy a gun (typically
a .357 with about four rounds of ammo) and fill the rest up with drugs, if
I can still afford them. Then I walk over to where the mafia is hiding (or
cops, if that's the only thing I get.) I then blast the mafia dude, and take
his money. Usually, it's a lot of money anyway. I've started out with Day
Two, and almost $15,000. That's a nice way to start out the game. And you
have a weapon with some ammo left, in case any more mafia people show up.
Even if the drugs sell really high if you bought them low instead of going
with this method, you usually won't make this much in your first turn. You
can then snowball your profits from this point on, taking advantage of the
possibility of coke lowering in price, or buying a couple of heroin early on
if they are going to increase in price the next day. Even if you don't get
lucky and these events don't happen, having that huge boost in income right
off the bat can really make a huge impact on your game. Having an extra
three days, or more even, to devote to making huge profits at the end of the
game instead of struggling to come up with loan money early on can be the
difference of having a thirty-day score of $40,000,000 for the aggressive
player, or maybe $10,000,000 for the not-so-aggressive player.
******************************************************************************
Anyway, moving on.
According to Geekphase, there are five types of major encounters:
*The Cops
*Mafia Enforcers
*Gangs
*Loan Sharks
*Non-Conflict Events
The Cops
Why is the man always trying to put down your operation? They always try
to get in your way, shooting at you, trying to bust you, take away your
stuff... But hey man, you can run from the man, you can even bribe the
man to look the other way, but better yet, you can "fight" the man. A
successful "fight" can even give you some extra cash, so nail the man with
your posse. Or if you work alone, nail him yourself. Sometimes it's
better when it's personal.
Sometimes The Cops can have anywhere from just one officer, to a detective
and a few officers, to a large group. Usually speaking, the higher the
number of people in the group, the bigger the payoff you'll have from
looting the corpse. But that's not always the case. In terms of threat
and how much damage they can do, accuracy, etc. The Cops generally do pretty
well in combat. If you're losing, you may want to just suck it up and
surrender. I usually just say "screw that" and start over. Surrender
to the man!? Never! You can always run too.
Mafia Enforcers
Much like The Cops, Mafia Enforcers try to teach you not to mess around
in their businesses. You're stealing their business! You're on their
territory, doing their work, but they aren't getting their "share of
protection..." So teach them a lesson like the man, or run like hell.
You can bribe them too, as their way of getting paid for the "protection"
they offer.
Again, as like The Cops, the Mafia Enforcers can range anywhere from
just one guy to a great many. The higher the amount of fighters, the
more money you'll usually receive. As far as combat goes, I tend to think
that these guys do a better job than the cops. I've been mowed down
pretty good by these guys at times, and need a couple of turns to recover
from it. But maybe they're just luckier than the cops. Their payoffs for
winning ARE higher though. Taking out one of these guys can sometimes net
you as high as $20,000. A standard payoff of defeating them is around $5000.
They can be worth the effort to take on, especially if you have enough fire
power.
Gangs
These punks think they own the place. Time to own them to put them back
in their place in society. That'll teach them a lesson of how real life
works. Tell 'em to bite the curb so you can kick them in the back of
the head...
As above, greater the number, higher the cash. But I'm telling you...
I usually don't get a lot of money from these guys, but these guys are
usually a pushover in combat. I once got in a fight with one of these
guys, and just had my fists. I was doing 2%-5% damage when I actually
hit them. I believe they had a gun, and couldn't shoot worth crap. I
ended up killing the gang member with my own fists, after taking some
damage. When it was all said and done, I think I only made a couple
hundred dollars.
Loan Sharks
When it's time to pay up, it's time to pay up. Here you could
potentially run away from them all of the time so you never have to pay,
or each day have another target to shoot at. This is completely your
decision for dealing with them. But honestly, after each day of them
popping up on the screen, they just get very irritating... So I have
since just learned to pay off the loan as soon as possible. If you pay
it off early, he will still charge you a large sum as a penalty... It
sucks, but sometimes it's better than paying off the entire $20,000 he'd
normally charge you. You save a little money this way... But at the same
time, if a huge deal comes up and you need that money, sometimes it's better
to just run away for a while so you can cash in on those huge deals.
Otherwise, if you pay it off, you could lose a lot of potential profit for
your score. What's an extra $1500 in interest, if you are going to end up
making over $25,000 in profit if you "don't" pay him? Be wise with your
money. It's your score.
Non-Conflict Events
Every now and then, a window will pop up and something "special" will
happen. These include the following:
*You find a type of drug, and some random amount for it. Pure profit!
Woo-hoo!
*Same as above, but you DROP some of your inventory (accidentally, I
suppose! Whatever!)
*You get busted by the cops. 1/2 of your cash taken, and all drugs. This
one will ruin your day. Especially if it happens multiple times. I had
a really good game going last night, where I had my loan payed off and a
motorcycle on day 7... By the time day 13 came, I had been busted twice.
I decided I had enough, and just went to bed early... Aaarrggh!
*Your bank account gets seized. This is another one of those where you
just want to throw your mouse at the screen and quit. And this is why
you always close accounts and start new ones.
*Some dealer comes up offering you usually small amounts of a drug really,
really cheap. Sometimes you get lucky, and he's carrying a lot... It's
basically a reverse of the desperate guy, but instead of having the drugs
on hand, you have to have cash on hand. The problem is guessing how much
he's going to sell you. You can show up with enough to buy a truck full of
it, but then he only sells you one and you lose a lot of potential interest
in a bank... Or you show up with enough to buy ten or fifteen, and he wants
to dump even more on you, but now you can't afford it. If you want to err
on the side of risk, bring a wad of cash. If that big deal comes up, you'll
be ready to make a killing... If you'd rather be safe and calculated about
it, bring enough to buy maybe 20 of a product, and leave the rest of the
cash in the bank. I often side on the safety, because more times than not,
you won't get a guy selling you more than 20 of something. But I've missed
some huge deals by being too cautious... It's really your call. This is a
true gamble in this game.
****************** Specail Profitable Circumstance ************************
*Some desperate guy comes up wanting to buy a specific drug for a huge
Profit for you. If you got it by chance, or if you've been reading your
tips, you can really clean up here. The profits from these deals are very,
very high.
In all seriousness, this is the time where you can really clean up. What
I reccommend in this situation is simillar to what I mentioned in the
"Messages" section in terms of buying up a particular drug that is going to
increase in price. The difference that you will make in this situation
is that instead of waiting until the end of the day to sell the drugs to
the desperate person at a high price, you should instead go to him as soon
as possible: in the Morning! (or Afternoon if you had to fly to get to the
desperate person, and he's not at the capital.)
Be sure when the plane lands that you have a vehicle, preferrably the
Sports Car! Very, very important! (Always important, actually!)
What you can then do is sell all of what you have to him (or as much as he's
willing to buy). You will then notice that all of the drugs he purchased
from you APPEAR IN THE MARKET WINDOW! BUY THEM ALL BACK (plus MORE if there
is more to purchase there), AND REPEAT!!!!!!!!
This is important, because if you have a vehicle (especially the Sports Car)
you can repeat this process again, and again, and again! Up to four times,
provided you didn't have to fly to the desperate person, or he was in the
capital of the city when the plane landed.
Imagine selling 100 coke, then 150, then 250, then 250 again to a desperate
person for $60,000 a pop! Or even higher, or in larger quantities! Stick
the profit in the fatty account in the bank! And on the last desperate
transaction, if the price is high, sell your remainder to the market, but
if it's still at a reasonable price, buy it all back again, and sell it
one more time somewhere else. I've had the unique opportunity to pull this
off once with Mescaline, doing this four times, and then taking the cheap
drugs off to Amsterdam to sell them all once more at an increased price
over there. I made a fortune!
Be sure to follow the same rule of buy/sell TWO items each turn. However,
the selling to the desperate person doesn't count as a transaction. In
this case, you will tend to find that there are a number of drugs cheap
alongside the drug that is being sold desperately. You can basically use
the money earned from the desperate person to buy the cheap drugs, almost
as if they were free to you. Just be sure to keep the purchases down. If
you get overly confident and start buying more and more like crazy, you just
might be busted, and not be able to capitalize on this huge money making
scheme. Watch the cops. You'll see them show up, and you'll know what
I'm talking about.
*****************************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(csdwuch11)
Hospitals and Health
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hospitals are for wusses. Your body can generally heal naturally on it's own
after a period of time, so long as your injuries are not below 51%. If you
are at 50% health, your health will not improve, and it will not get worse.
If it's below 50%, you will eventually start getting worse and losing more
health as time goes on. So get that health back up to 51%, and then start
naturally healing. It may take a while, but it's worth saving a little money
on this. I just tend to watch my health carefully, and if I'm still not well
enough to fight a battle, I just run. Save some money, and don't take the
risk of getting killed. A "0" for a score isn't good. You can always buy body
armor too, so that you don't have to worry about your health deteriorating.
The armor will take the damage for you instead.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(csdwuch12)
Charts
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Now, what you've all been waiting for...
This chart below is a compilation of many, many averages throughout many
different games, over many different places. This should give you a realistic
look on every game, not just the current one that you are playing... The
laptop prices can often be misleading... And that's why I made up my own
chart to follow. I tend to buy items that are anywhere close to the 20% off
column, and obviously if they are even less than this number, I buy it.
As a rule, especially starting out, I tend to get Acid, Mushrooms, or Weed.
This works out well at the beginning for some reason, and the profits are
pretty good. But always go by the chart, as you can have highs for those
three starting out, and lows for other things.
Now, the Drug Chart!
Average Price 20% Discount of Average
Acid . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 2439.4 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 1951.5
Angel Dust - - - - - - - - - $ 884.8 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 707.8
Cocaine . . . . . . . . . . .$24795.4 . . . . . . . . . . .$19836.3
Crack - - - - - - - - - - - -$ 2002.8 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 1602.2
Crystal Meth . . . . . . . . $ 885.8 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 708.6
Ecstasy - - - - - - - - - - -$ 33.6 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 26.9
Hash . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 653.6 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 522.9
Heroin - - - - - - - - - - - $ 9762.8 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 7810.2
Mescaline . . . . . . . . . .$ 3708.2 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 2966.6
Morphine - - - - - - - - - - $ 1457.2 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 1165.8
Mushrooms . . . . . . . . . .$ 611.4 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 489.1
Rippers - - - - - - - - - - -$ 380.8 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 304.6
Speed . . . . . . . . . . . .$10151.2 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 8121.0
Valium - - - - - - - - - - - $ 596.2 - - - - - - - - - - -$ 477.0
Weed . . . . . . . . . . . . $ 195.6 . . . . . . . . . . .$ 156.5
The Vehicle Chart +Max Inventory X Movement
Space
Big Rig 150 2
Limosine 80 3
Motorcycle 0 2
Muscle Car 20 4 - more tips, more bust risk
Pickup Truck 70 3
Rugged Truck 80 3
Sedan 50 3
Sports Car 20 4 - less tips, less bust risk
Van 100 3
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
(csdwuch13)
Credits
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, hopefully you enjoy the faq I made for you. I tried to add in every
ounce of information that I have discovered as time goes on. If you have any
questions or comments, please feel free to email me. I'd like hearing from
you, especially if you have any corrections you've found and I can verify.
Chaucer's Squire - Email: [email protected]
Again, if you would like to use this faq on your own website, please email
me to get permission first. Don't just steal it, post it, and try to take
credit for it. I spent a lot of time working on this for everyone, and to
give it away for free. I'm not asking for any special recognition, a link to
your site, any of that... Just an email to ask, that's all. In almost every
situation, I will grant the permission.
Thanks for your time. And happy smuggling!
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