A Hot Rod Tractor is a great asset to have when you’re working the fields in FarmVille.  It allows you to plow 9 plots at a time instead of a measly four that the regular tractor can handle, saving you a bunch of time and energy.  This is an especially useful asset when you have a large farm with seemingly endless fields to plant.

How to Get Your Tractor

As with many of the specialty items in FarmVille, you can purchase the Hot Rod tractor in one of two ways.  Once you reach level 12, you’ll have the option to purchase this item for 55 Farm Cash.  However, if you’d like to be able to purchase your tractor with coins, there’s a bit of a new twist involved.  Rather than requiring a minimum number of neighbors to unlock the coin purchase option, the Hot Rod Tractor can only be purchased with coins if you have a Mafia Wars account that’s at least level 10.

To be honest, this is a pretty ingenious cross-marketing strategy on Zynga’s part.  Getting all of their FarmVille players hooked on Mafia Wars too could be a huge benefit for them.  However, even if you don’t want to play Mafia Wars on a regular basis, it’s worth it to log in and work your way up to level 10.  This won’t take you much time, and even if it’s not your thing, the game is pretty engaging on its own.

Quick Leveling in Mafia Wars

It can be a bit confusing logging into Mafia Wars for the first time, though.  There’s a lot going on, and unlike other Zynga games like FishVille and Café World, Mafia Wars doesn’t quite follow the same layout as FarmVille.  Nevertheless, you’ll be able to get the hang of it pretty quickly, especially if your goal is to merely reach level 10.

The key to leveling up quickly in Mafia Wars is making good use of your Energy.  Just like in FarmVille, you have to earn Experience Points to level up, but in order to get those Experience Points, you have to do Jobs.  You’ll have a few Jobs to choose from at the outset, and the number of those options will increase as you move up to new levels.  What is constant about all of the Jobs, though, is that they all require Energy to complete.

Skill Points

Each time you reach a new level or master a Job (achieved by doing that job over and over again), you’ll be awarded some Skill Points.  You’ll then be able to apply these Skill Points to different aspects of your character.  If you were actually playing Mafia Wars long term, you might want to spread your Skill Points around by putting a few into each category.

When you’re just trying to level up quickly, however, all you want to do is dump all of your Skill Points into increasing your maximum Energy.  With more energy, you can do more Jobs, level up quickly and unlock that Hot Rod Tractor.  And who knows?  You may wind up liking Mafia Wars a whole lot more than you expected.