Where are all the EXPLOSIVES??!?

[Vile Lynn]

I check stats & inventory... NObody else uses explosives. Why not?
I do. I'm maxed out for my mob, usually.
It's sorta expensive to keep them in inventory, but the points add up.

Why don't more players use them? Just curious...

[eb0nyknight]

Good question. It's possible, that many just don't know about them. Remember explosives were a new weapon with the last update. Many players don't come to these boards and unless you are proactive in looking around, it's possible (probable) you might not even know about them.

But that is just my theory.

Also, people might not see any benefit in spending money on "expendibles", but then again, any money weapons and armor fall under that description, when they get "outdated". *Shrug*

[nycpizzalover]

I check stats & inventory... NObody else uses explosives. Why not?
I do. I'm maxed out for my mob, usually.
It's sorta expensive to keep them in inventory, but the points add up.

Why don't more players use them? Just curious...

I had spent 5 million on explosives. Got 500 hazard grenades, 200 IED, 20 napalm and 20 land mines. After a slew of fights, I am now down to 7 land mines left.

In that time, I was able to fight with several rival who had stronger stats than me. One I had reported because I believed he/she was a cheater. One I now have a truce with and we are on each other's mob list.

That 5 million is money I could have applied to a money building. I think that is the downside of why it isn't worth getting explosives. They are gone with the only tangible benefit that they help you fight or defend against stronger players. Once that is accomplished, there is no need any longer to keep stocking up with explosives until another strong person comes after you.

[skunk]

I have maxed out attacking explosives, but no defensive explosives.
I can control where I use attacking explosives, by attacking only people who I should beat, but defensive explosives (or explosives that do both) simply get used up in a few nights with people attacking me.

I cannot control that so they are just a waste.
There will always be people stronger than me, so I will always get attacked and always waste these explosives.
So I don't buy any more.

Just my opininon.

[heath4pack]

At my level, I don't have much trouble winning fights, so I just use the defensive explosives to help boost my defense

[Lars]

I agree to skunk. Another problem is that defense explosive do not help against robbery, just against attacks. And being attacked successfully does not hurt (except perhaps your pride :)) if you bank you money.

Attack explosives on the other hand seems to be a nice safety buffer for winning streaks rounds and also a good way to quickly reach goals of type "get >= X mafia attack". However, having finished all available winning streaks/championship/thug life rounds I do not invest in explosives right now, maybe later.

[whocareswhatmynameis]

i started using defensive explosives after i started getting robbed by some rivals. once i armed myself with explosives, the robberies stopped. i haven't lost any explosives in a couple of days. explosives primarily serve as deterrents (rivals visit your hood, see you have a high defense stat, so they move on). of course, if i start losing explosives due to strong players attacking me, i would have to reconsider my strategy. it would essentially boil down to whether investing in explosives is more cost effective than income lost to robberies.

[skunk]

Another problem is that defense explosive do not help against robbery

Yes they do.

I rarely get attacked (cos I carry zero cash and have low mafia count. I lost all my defensive explosives (why I bought them) to robberies.
You can lose explosives very quick this way. I have 30 buildings + hence I can lose 60 robberies in a night !!
OK not all will come up for collection in a night, but I don't have big buildings (I'm a frequent player so have high value quick turnover) so I cold lose 40 robberies a night easy - each cost 5 - 10 explosives, thats 200 - 400 in a night.
OUCH !

[khung003]

The worst use of explosives is using against robbery. losing explosives but still being robbed.

[Lars]

Yes they do.!

Oh, then I misinterpreted my tests with defensive explosives -- thanks for the correction. I bought a couple of defense explosives (about 100) when they were freshly introduced. Never lost any to robberies, all consumed by being attacked.

As I suffer only very few successful robberies in recent times I consider going for a bunch of explosives. On the other hand it might still be to expensive losing them to a few super-strong attackers just to prevent a few robberies on my low-income buildings (those with short collection cycles).

[ShotInTheDark]

don't use explosives

[Dorian Gray]

I just don't feel like I need them. I don't like them in the game because they're essentially an 'artificial' boost to people's stats.

[K@le]

i have from every explosive 100 pieces, i hardly loose any of them and yesterday for the first time i see 2 players who where way higher then me but because of the explosions i robbed them for a total of $200k and that in 1 night.
I maybe lost about 250 def points and 100 attack poinst, but i got the 200k and they attack me back i win and 1 guy only robbed my sports bar for $28 hahahaha.
I love them, people always look on your profile and then they see your high stats and mostly leave, someone here mentioned that he had low mob members and hardly get attacked by strong players, for me the same i am level 87 with only 379 mob friends i never get attacked succesfully but sometimes i get robbed but hey thats the game it is funn to get back and kill and attack kill and attack kill and attack :D.
People with 9k attack loose from my 14k def, and i still dont loose explosives haha

[skunk]

at level 87 you will see people with 14 - 15k attack + and if they hit you, you ill lose thousands $$$ in explosives.

[Mb Tnk]

at level 87 you will see people with 14 - 15k attack + and if they hit you, you ill lose thousands $$$ in explosives.

The number of people with 14-15k att @ 87 I can count on 1 hand.... no need to worry K@le, but there will come a time, very soon, that the number of lvl above you, will wipe out your money on expl, just spend money on att explosives.

[martMode]

but there will come a time, very soon, that the number of lvl above you, will wipe out your money on expl, just spend money on att explosives.

agree with Mb Tnk... the initiation peroid starts where levels 200 and below start attacking you 24/7... those guys have more than 25k attack right up to 50k or more... the def explosives will get wiped out while you are sleeping...

attack explosives, good to use. they are in your control as you will determine if you want to attack or not.

[k0de]

Explosives have helped me a lot. When I started I used to just buy weapons needed to complete areas once and would rob buildings when my energy ran out, but would only attack players if they had some cash on hand (almost never). I wasn't interested in Winning Streak, etc. As a result, I leveled up quickly and collected few loot items while not earning the big respect bonuses, leaving my mob really weak. I decided the thing to do would be to better equip my mafia, but in hindsight I went the worst possible way about doing it, electing to rob the money for weapons and repeat the highest paying jobs available (leveling me even quicker, with no loot items). I fell far behind most other players before I realized I should be doing the opposite- attacking to complete respect goals and mastering areas for loot and skill points to buy stamina. This proved difficult as there were so few players I could confidently beat, so I had to be patient when looking for rivals but I managed enough to start equipping with more respect items which helped me some. When explosives were introduced, I was wary of them since they were expendable (to what degree was unknown). The idea of spending good money on something only to watch it disappear, rather than something permanent seemed counter-intuitive. But after reading the arguments for and against by people here, I eventually decided to try them out and bought $20k worth of Molitov Cocktails, equipping 200 of about 300 mafia. I have to say, it was pretty exciting to see my attack jump by 200 points in an instant. I made a few cautious attacks (though still against players far below me) without losing any explosives. I quickly equipped the rest of my mob and continued until eventually losing about 12 of them which I replaced immediately and would continue to do. Fortunately at my level at the time (60ish) the 300 point jump in attack put many more players within the range where I could beat them than it may have had I been on level 80. In time I understood more about the mechanics of expendability and was confident enough to start buying Hand Grenades and later Frag Grenades, allowing me to be much more competitive and led me to play much more PvP (also, I was stuck at Circuit Street). This meant more loot and more respect, which I'd been horrendously short of prior to that.

While I can't yet just walk into anywhere and start busting the place up like a boss, I am in a much better position now than before. Had I not been able to boost my attack so quickly and easily I would have had a much tougher time getting to where I am now.

I suppose that while they're a very powerful tool, there are several reasons explosives are not widely used. Being expendable may deter some players from ever trying them in the first place and without ever using them, you never gain an understanding into the way they work (how many are consumed and at what rate). Also, players who already have reasonably good stats probably don't see the need for them if they can already beat most others they come across, while players who are right at the bottom may not gain enough to make it worthwhile to spend the money. For people new to the game who have started only since the introduction of explosives, I'd say they are more likely to try them out. However, there will be some who after seeing them expended feel that they don't represent value for money ($100 for a pistol which you get to keep vs the same for a Molitv you don't) and this experience very early on in the game may cause them to hold to this idea as time goes on. Additionally, none of the PvC missions require explosives to complete (unless some have been adjusted for 2.0 but I don't think so).

I think that, in time, they will become more widely used, though probably not universally. There will always be players who don't need them, either because they are already powerful enough or if they only play PvC. Others will simply decide there are better ways to spend their money. For now, they provide an alternative way to give your stats a big boost without having to spend money on gold items. Granted you get to keep the gold items permanently and could theoretically equip each mafia member with an item adding tens or hundreds of A/D each (and then burn a pile of money when you start to feel cold!) vs a maximum of 30A/25D for the top explosive category weapons. However for the average player, that is, those of us who saw CC in the App Store and went "Woohoo!!! Free game! Free! Free! Free! Free! Free!" spending even thousands of dollars of in-game cash is much easier to justify than spending a weeks pay. After all, you can't buy food with respect points and even if you lose all your explosives, at least the rent is taken care of.

Personally I'm glad so few people use them because while I've begun to catch up to some of the stronger players now and am evenly matched with a lot of others I still think the rest of my inventory isn't yet of the standard it should be although it has improved a lot. But until I reach that level, often any advantage I have comes in large part from the hundreds more weapons I'm using (where we both equip all mafia with guns, melee and armour, and probably have about the same number of vehicles but only mine have explosives vs none of theirs). If every opponent I faced suddenly started using them, a number of them would move ahead of me again. But hey, the option is on the table- it's their call.

As for them giving an "artificial" boost, I disagree. The only difference between explosives and any other class of weapon is that they are expendable. Now, imagine for a moment if that were not the case. Would they be artificial then? And would you use them? No need to respond- I already know your answers. Now, there are no doubt times where the only reason I win is because I'm dropping bombs and my opponent isn't. Yes, I have an advantage- I'm using more weapons. But how is that any different to fighting an opponent who doesn't have as many armor? Or vehicles? Far from being artificial, it's actually natural that the better equipped mob should win, no doubt you'd agree- it's just common sense really, innit?

[Anubis]

I like the molo cocktails as it is 100att for 10K, your in full control over them, and they are very cheap to replace. Kind of like buying food in other MMO's to boost your players att, magic, stats etc. Those expendables usually have a time limit or dissapear if you KO - these explosive expendables are limited in other ways. The boost becomes pretty insignificant after you pass 10-12k att but its still a cheap boost to maintain.

If you were to spend 10M on 500 Napalm you'd get 9000att, at level 100 that would mean you would be able to rob anyone without fail aslong as your stats are in line with at least the 'norm'

[JosephMartin]

Means at level 100 you must spend 10M on 500 Napalm to rob anyone. Right?

[Anubis]

I didn't mean it like that, just that 9000att would make you invincible at 100 when atting/robbing. Its not something I would do (unless I had a spare 10M $ which I don't and prob won't until much much higher levels.

[Dorian Gray]

As for them giving an "artificial" boost, I disagree. The only difference between explosives and any other class of weapon is that they are expendable. Now, imagine for a moment if that were not the case. Would they be artificial then? And would you use them? No need to respond- I already know your answers. Now, there are no doubt times where the only reason I win is because I'm dropping bombs and my opponent isn't. Yes, I have an advantage- I'm using more weapons. But how is that any different to fighting an opponent who doesn't have as many armor? Or vehicles? Far from being artificial, it's actually natural that the better equipped mob should win, no doubt you'd agree- it's just common sense really, innit?



LOL You don't think they are an 'artificial' boost to stats yet your whole post is about how you messed up early on so you used explosives to 'boost' your attack so you could compete. So you needed an 'artificial' way to boost your stats because you didn't do it 'naturally' like a lot of others have.


-The concensus seems to be atk explosives are really the only ones worth buying because they're the ones you have control over losing. If I could buy defense explosives and have control over losing them the way you do with atk explosives... Well then I'd be singing a completely different tune. I stand by my statement that they are an artificial way for people who have weak atk stats to quickly and cheeply give themselves a chance to compete. I mean, c'mon... this seems to be the whole reason explosives were introduced.

edit- And in direct response to your question you didn't want a response to - If they were not expendable then it wouldn't be an 'artificial' boost because I could just as cheeply buy defense explosives to counter the attack explosives. But because they are expendable it doesn't work that way.

[k0de]

Cool, no problem. I disagree but I respect your point of view.

[Cooz]

That 5 million is money I could have applied to a money building. I think that is the downside of why it isn't worth getting explosives. They are gone with the only tangible benefit that they help you fight or defend against stronger players. Once that is accomplished, there is no need any longer to keep stocking up with explosives until another strong person comes after you.

There isn't any point when there are always stronger and weaker players below you. If you are on the weak side of your level, spend the money on weapons that don't expire after one fight. What you gain fight-to-fight doesn't even come close to what you are spending on it.

I play this game probably far more often than I should and I don't even sniff $5 million. That's insane!