How to Play Build a Syndicate
The beginner's road from street operator to Don — everything your first week in the city looks like. Build a Syndicate is a free mafia browser MMO: no download, phone and PC, and every rival you meet is a real player.
1. Your first hour: run the jobs
You arrive with pocket change, one operator, and a city that doesn't know your name. Open the Jobs tab and start with the small stuff — pickpocket runs and shakedowns pay out in minutes. Jobs are the engine of your early economy: every payout counts toward your lifetime take, and lifetime earnings unlock bigger operations — ATM skimming, car boosting, armored trucks, cartel escorts.
Two rules the veterans live by: always keep a job running (they finish on a clock, even while you're offline), and hire more operators early. Your second operator roughly doubles your income for pocket money — it's the best purchase in the game.
2. Bank it before you lose it
Cash on hand can be taken. The Bank can't be raided — deposit what you don't need, earn a little interest, and upgrade your vault as your fortune grows. Wire transfers let you pay other players directly by Bank ID; the wire is how deals, debts and favors move through the city.
3. Raise your army
Muscle is survival. In the Army tab, train Thugs first — cheap, fast, expendable. The Research Tree unlocks the real specialists: Spies for intelligence, Motorcycles for speed, Enforcers to hold the line, Hitmen and Mercenaries for the heavy work, Doberman Handlers for defense. Grow your barracks capacity through research, equip your soldiers with Black Market weapons and armor, and remember: every unit is accountable — soldiers standing garrison abroad still count as yours.
4. Found (or join) a syndicate
Solo operators survive. Families run the city. A syndicate gets you ranks, a shared stash, an armory, group chat, and the diplomacy game — alliances, declared wars, armory contracts with other families. Founding one costs almost nothing; the real cost is earning the loyalty of the people in it. If you're new, joining an established family is the fastest way to learn — and to be protected.
5. Take territory
The World Map is where the endgame lives: four nations, dozens of cities, every one of them holdable. March your soldiers to take a city, garrison it, and it pays your syndicate income. Rivals will march back. Spies tell you what's coming; reinforcements decide whether it matters. Territory war is slow, mean, and the most profitable thing in the game.
6. The rest of the city
- Hideout raids — any player can be hit. Loot travels home with your soldiers.
- Player contracts — formal escrow-backed trades: units and cash on real paper, two signatures, no scams possible.
- The Weed Farm — plant by the season, harvest at the peak, sell into the heat.
- The Casino — the Golden Crown takes chips, and the house always has an edge. You've been warned.
- Friends & chat — a live city talks. DMs, group chats, world chat, and a Creator who answers.
Your first-week checklist
- Register free — username and password, under a minute
- Keep a job running at all times; hire operator #2 as soon as you can
- Bank everything you aren't spending
- Train 20 Thugs, then research Spies
- Join a syndicate — or found one with friends
- Scout the map before you march. Then march.