Log in to your crew, or start one from scratch.
The Estate Agent on floor 11 of Crown Tower is open for business, and a new row of shops has gone up on the City Map: Station Parade. Two units are for sale, paid from your bank: a Laundromat ($15,000) and a Vape shop ($25,000). Each one fills a space on the parade, and each one launders money - put up to $2,000 (Laundromat) or $4,000 (Vape shop) of cash through the books, and 12 hours later collect double that, clean, straight into your bank.
Fed up with your crew? The detectives at Police HQ will give you a new name and a fresh start in another faction - if you give them everything on your old one. It costs all your respect, all the cash on you and every item you own. You keep your level. You can only switch to a faction that is taking new members.
The showroom next to the car park is finally selling. Four motors on the forecourt: the Fraud Fezza Mk3 ($5,000), the Snoxhall Celestial ($10,000), the FloorMover Baller ($100,000) and the Pizzarati Payton ($1,000,000). A car adds to your defence when you defend in Turf Wars - +10, +20, +30 or +40 - and you can own one at a time. Your car waits for you in the new Garage tab at the Safehouse.
Petty crime now draws heat. Every job you pull in Union Park pushes your heat bar up, and it cools off slowly by itself. Get past 50 and the cops start looking for you: the hotter you are, the likelier your next job ends in handcuffs. Arrested players sit in a cell at Police HQ for 30 minutes - no crimes, no Alley, no fights - unless someone pays the $500 bail. Police HQ in Crown Tower is now open, and shows which of your faction are locked up so you can bail them out too.
The Hardware shop now has Attack and Defence tabs, and a new Dagger (+6 attack) on the shelf. Weapons now go in your right arm and shields in your left, so you can carry one of each. Anything you were holding in the wrong arm has been moved across for you (or put back in your bag if that arm was taken).
Crews at The Agency now take a bigger name to lead: you can have one follower for every 10 respect (100 respect = 10 followers). Anyone who already has more than that keeps their crew, but can't hire again until their respect catches up.
Your level now counts in every fight: your attack is your level plus your weapon. In Turf Wars, attackers pool their attack (level + weapon, multiplied by their soldiers) against the defenders' pooled defence (level + armour, multiplied by their bodyguards). The bigger side wins and the losing side - attackers or defenders - is beaten down to 0 health. Winners get hurt too: the closer the fight, the worse. Win 75 v 50 and you won by a third, so every winner loses the other two thirds of their max health - and anyone who went in weaker than that dies with the losers. Go in at full health. A walkover leaves you untouched.
Every level from 1 to 12 now brings a new face to the Alley. It starts with a sewer rat on day one, then the hobo (level 2) and the thug (level 3), with muggers, bouncers, loan shark enforcers, bikers, hitmen and cartel gunmen joining the dealers, crackheads and methheads further up. Each one is a little tougher than the last, and pays a little better. Also: every petty crime now costs 8 energy.
Levels were coming far too quickly, so we have slowed things down. You can now rest at the Safehouse once every 15 minutes (was every 5), and petty crimes give less XP: Hustle 4-8, Rob 8-12, Drug lookout 12-16, Drug runner 16-20 and Street dealing 20-44. Cash rewards are unchanged, and nobody loses any XP or levels they already have.
Hiring at The Agency is now much cheaper. Your first crew member costs $500 (down from $1,000), and each one after that costs just $100 more (down from $500). Building a crew should feel a lot less of a grind.
Petty Crime and Attack now live together on one page: Union Park, in the menu and on the city map. Petty Crime is the first tab and Attack is the second (it opens at level 5). You can also use items mid-fight now: health items patch you up in the Alley and in Union Park, but using one gives your opponent a free swing. Flashbangs still get you out clean - in Union Park too.
From level 5, Petty Crime in the menu becomes Attack. Pick another player who is level 5 or above and not hiding in the Safehouse, and jump them in Union Park. It is one on one: no bodyguards, no soldiers, no grenades - just the gear you have equipped. Knock them out and you walk off with a big cut of the cash in their pockets. Their bank is safe, so bank your money. Anyone who has just been robbed is left alone for an hour. Petty crime is still round the back of Union Park on the city map.
The Agency now charges a one-off $5,000 to get through the door. Pay once and everything opens up: hiring prospects, their jobs, the stash and its upgrades - plus every district your faction holds pays into your stash. Anyone who already had a crew there has been let in for free.
You can now buy an office at The Agency for $5,000. Once you have one, every district your faction holds pays $10 an hour into your stash - so the more turf your faction takes, the more you earn. Collect it from the Agency like the rest of your crew's money.
Two new jobs at The Agency: bodyguards and soldiers. They earn nothing, but in Turf Wars your defence is multiplied by how many bodyguards you have, and your attack by how many soldiers - 10 bodyguards means 10x defence. (The Alley does not care who you bring.) And if you have joined a turf fight you did not start, you can now back out before it is settled.
Floor eight of Crown Tower is finally answering the buzzer. From level 5, The Agency will find you prospects to hire - put them to work as runners, lookouts and dealers and they bring in money while you are away. Collect it from the Agency before the stash fills up, and upgrade the stash to hold more. You can never have more followers than respect - hover over your Respect to see how many you have. Also new: the Bank now takes up to $10,000 in deposits a day.
You no longer have to wait until level 5 to fight for your faction. Turf Wars now opens at level 2 - pick a side, join an attack or help hold the line.
Petty Crime is a lot easier on your energy now: jobs cost 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 energy, and they go wrong far less often. Each job now shows what it pays and how much XP it earns, and the bigger jobs take a little longer before you can do them again.
Turning your back in the Alley has a price. When you run, the enemy may land a parting shot as you go - and once in a while they block your way out altogether. Want a clean getaway? Throw a flashbang. Grenades and flashbangs now stack 6 to a bag slot.
The shutter is up at the Gun shop in Mercer Mall. The Offence counter has the Revolver, FiveSeven, Glock, Magnum and Desert Eagle, plus hand grenades and flashbangs. The Defence counter has light, medium, heavy and extra heavy chest armour and a bulletproof helmet. Everything unlocks at its own level. Grenades and flashbangs stack in your bag and are thrown in the middle of an Alley fight: a grenade hits hard, and a flashbang gets you out of there without a scratch.
The map has been rebalanced so no faction starts right next to the City Centre. The Mafia have pulled out of Delancey Heights and taken over Cold Storage instead. Every faction now has to win a district before it can go for the Centre.
You can now take turf. From level 5, start an attack on any district next to one your faction holds. The whole city is told, and everyone has 24 hours to pick a side: the attacking faction can join the attack, anyone else can help defend. When time is up the strongest side wins - and if the attack fails, every attacker is beaten down to 0 health. HQs can never be taken.
You can now add an email address to your account (optional - only you and the admins can see it), and refer your friends. Find your referrer code and a ready-made sign-up link in Settings. When a friend joins with your code, you get a notification.
Someone got the old espresso machine at the Safehouse working. Drink a shot to fill your energy right up - but you can only stomach one every 4 hours. Check your Dashboard to see when the next one is ready.
Max health and energy now grow with your level. Everyone starts at 40 health and 50 energy, and every level up adds 5 to both - so the higher you climb, the more you can take. The Hospital now brings you back with half your max health.
The Gun shop, Hardware shop and Convenience store have moved in together on Mercer St, with the Alley running between them. Click Mercer Mall on the City Map to see the whole row of shop fronts. Two units are still to let - watch this space.
The Black market block has a new neighbour upstairs: the Casino. Take a seat at the blackjack table - beat the dealer without going over 21. Blackjack pays 3 to 2, and you can double down on your first two cards. Bets come out of the cash you are carrying.
A Bank has opened on the City Map, just below the new Car dealership by the car park. Deposit your cash and it is safe for good - when you die, the Hospital only takes the money you are carrying, never what is in the bank. The Car dealership opens soon.
The tower with the helipad on the City Map is now Crown Tower. Click it to see every floor: Police HQ down low, a mysterious outfit called The Agency in the middle, and an Estate Agent near the top. None of them are open for business yet - but they will be.
Going AFK? You can now hide at the Safehouse for 24 hours, safe from anyone who comes looking for you. Heading down the Alley, doing crimes, shopping, selling or using your gear brings you out of hiding, and it wears off after 24 hours - so set it again every day.
The Alley just got meaner. From level 7 you might run into a crackhead with a rusty shiv, and from level 9 a methhead swinging a lead pipe. Both hit hard and take a beating before they go down - but they carry a lot more cash. Gear up before you go looking for them.
You can now buy energy drinks, coffee and protein bars in bulk - pick how many you want before you buy. They stack up to 12 per bag slot, so a whole crate of coffee only takes one space. The Black market will take a full stack off your hands too.
Turf Wars is open from level 5. The city is split into 30 districts, each coloured by the faction that runs it. Bloodz, Crips and Mafia each have a headquarters that can never be taken, and the City Centre is up for grabs. Taking turf comes next - learn the streets while you can.
The News box on the right now has two more tabs. Faction chat is a private room for your own faction - talk as much as you like. Global chat is open to everyone, one message every 10 minutes, so make it count. Keep it civil: admins can remove messages, and some words are filtered.
A Convenience store has opened on the City Map, between the Alley and 3rd Ave. Pick up energy drinks (+10 energy, $80), coffee (+5 energy, $35) and protein bars (+10 health, $60). They go in your bag - use them from your Inventory whenever you need a boost.
Beating someone in the Alley now earns XP as well as cash and respect, and it pays better than petty crime. Hits are no longer fixed, so every fight carries some risk. Street dealing pays a little less than it did. Logins are also safer: 10 wrong passwords locks an account for an hour.
Low-level petty crimes now pay less. If you want real money, try your luck in the Alley.
The Alley is open. Walk down it and you might be confronted by a hobo or a thug - or, from level 5, a dealer. Attack with whatever you are holding, or run. Beat them for cash and respect, but watch your health: they hit back, and only your defence softens the blow.
Getting revived at the Hospital now costs $2,000 and 20 respect, so think twice before taking on a risky job with low health. The Leaderboard also shows every player's level next to their name.
Hardware shop prices have gone up - gear now starts at $200. You will get a notification for everything you buy. Items can no longer be sold from your Inventory: take unwanted gear to the Black market instead, where the fence will make you an offer.
Buy weapons (baseball bat, crowbar, hammer, switchblade, machete) and protective gear (bike helmet, steel toecaps, leather gloves, bin lid) at the Hardware shop. Your Inventory now has a 15-slot bag and equipment slots on your character - weapons add attack, armour adds defence, and defence cuts the damage you take when a crime goes wrong.
There is now a bell at the top of the page with your notifications - you will hear about it when you level up and unlock a new crime. On phones it lives in a new menu bar at the bottom of the screen. The Dashboard also shows your character, your XP to the next level, your next unlock and what is ready to do right now.
The Hardware shop, the Alley and a new Gun shop now share one block on the City Map - the Gun shop opens soon. Petty Crime has moved to Union Park: click the park to get to work.
The Crime page is now Petty Crime, with three new jobs as you level up: Drug lookout (level 3), Drug runner (level 4) and Street dealing (level 5). Turf Wars is coming soon.
The City map is now a street grid you can explore. Click a building to go there: the Hospital, Safehouse, Black market, the Alley (for crimes) and the new Hardware shop, opening soon. The Hospital, Safehouse and Black market links have moved off the menu and onto the map.
Hustle is open to everyone from level 1. Robbing someone in the alley is now Rob someone in the street, and it unlocks at level 2 - earn XP hustling to get there.
Every successful crime now earns XP. Fill the green XP bar in your Player panel to level up - each level takes a little longer than the last. Your level also shows on your profile.
Once you are logged in, click any name on the Leaderboard or in the Players online list to see that player's profile.
The Live stats panel now shows who is on the streets right now. Click a name to see their player profile.
The Condition panel is now called Player. Cash, Respect and your new Inventory sit side by side with their own icons - click Inventory to see what you are carrying.
When you register you now choose whether your character is male or female, and your character now appears in your Condition panel on the right, dressed for your faction.
There is now a Terms of Service page, linked from the bottom of every page alongside Contact. It explains, in plain English, the basics of playing and what information the game keeps about you.
About us and About the city are now a single About page, covering how the game works, the factions and what inspired it. The navigation has been reordered to match.
The separate login page has gone. Click Login at the top and the login box on the left lights up, ready for your username. If you mistype your password you will stay on the page you were on.
The top bar now just has Login and Register. Home, Leaderboard and Rules have moved into the navigation on the left, and the Login, Register and Forgot password pages now have the same layout as the rest of the site.
Every page now has the same layout: the log-in box sits on the left under the navigation, and the right-hand column always shows the same panels. The Forums link has been removed for now.
You can now email us about Gangwars from the Contact page. The About us page also has a new section on what inspired the game.
The homepage has a new welcome, the log-in box now sits on the left under the navigation, and the footer has been trimmed down.
The homepage and the sign-up page now show a male and female character for each faction - Bloodz in basketball gear, Crips in tracksuits and the Mafia in suits - so you can see who you are joining before you pick a side.
Crimes can now kill you. If a job goes wrong and your health hits 0 you are dead: nothing regenerates and you cannot do crimes or rest until you visit the new Hospital to be revived. The hospital bill is $100 (or whatever you have, if less) and you come back with 50 health.
Every update on the News page now shows the time it went live as well as the date.
Click your badge in the top-right corner to see your name and faction, and to log out.
A new crime has hit the streets: rob someone in an alley (15 energy, every 5 seconds). Hustling now uses 20 energy. Every crime button now counts down until you can do it again.
You can now rest at the Safehouse once every 5 minutes, and the Rest button counts down until you can rest again. Your Condition (health, energy, cash and respect) is now always on show at the top of the right-hand column.
Once you are logged in, the header now shows a Log out button along with your name and faction, and the right-hand column is less cluttered. Forums and Screenshots are still in the left-hand navigation.
Hustling has moved to the new Crime page, and resting now happens at your Safehouse. Watch out: crimes can now go wrong and cost you health. If you are too beaten up, head to the Safehouse to recover before your next job.
Added About us, Contact and this News page. Fixed the Rest button, faction counts now say "1 member" correctly, and you will now see a message if your session expires mid-action.