¶ Mugging
A successful mug works like other attacks in that it sends the target to the Hospital, but it also steals cash. The attacker takes 10% of the target's unprotected cash on hand. Cash in the bank and in property vaults cannot be stolen by a mug.
Mug cash gains can be increased with the Calm Negotiator Achievement reward: +5% per level, up to 10 levels (50%). That scales the base 10% take, so at maximum Calm Negotiator a mug steals 15% of unprotected cash on hand.
A successful mug also hospitalises the target for roughly 35 minutes — about 15 minutes less than a standard attack hospitalisation — and awards roughly half the Reputation of a normal attack win.
¶ Mug Protection
Mug Protection stops someone from draining all of a player's cash on hand by repeatedly mugging them in a short window. It is a decaying cash shield, not full immunity to mugs.
¶ How it works
- After a successful mug that steals cash, the target's Mug Protection is set to the cash remaining on hand after the steal, and the protection timer starts at 100%.
- Only cash above the current effective shield can be mugged. The steal is then 10% of that unprotected excess (plus any Calm Negotiator bonus).
- Cash gained after the last mug (jobs, bank withdrawals, trades, and so on) does not raise the shield. It sits above the shield as unprotected excess and can be stolen normally.
- If a later mug steals £0, the existing shield and timer are left unchanged.
- If a later mug does steal cash, the shield is refreshed to the new remaining cash on hand and the decay timer resets to 100%.
¶ Decay
The shield's effectiveness starts at 100% and falls by 0.0023 percentage points per second (about 0.138 per minute). It reaches 0 after roughly 12.1 hours. While decaying, only the remaining percentage of the original shield amount still protects cash.
¶ What it does not cover
- It does not block attacks, hospitalise outcomes, or leave outcomes.
- It does not protect bank cash or property vault cash (those cannot be mugged anyway).
¶ When Mug Protection is cleared
Spending cash — and some other cash-moving actions — clears Mug Protection entirely (shield and timer). Common examples:
- Placing a bounty
- Casino bets that spend cash
- Town purchases
- Item Market purchases
- Listing items, Points, or dogs on the Item Market (listing tax)
- Buying a new Production
- Depositing cash in the Bank
- Depositing cash to an owned Property
- Buying, upgrading, or paying rent/upkeep on Properties (when paid from cash on hand or bank)
- Creating a Cartel
- Starting a University course
- Buying dogs or Pet Shop upgrades
- Church cash donations
- Hiring sicarios
- Police Auction bids
- Buying Points with cash
- Collecting a personal smuggling run
This list is not exhaustive. In general, most ways of spending cash on hand clear protection.
¶ What does not clear Mug Protection
- Bank withdrawals — cash comes onto hand, but the old shield stays. The withdrawn cash is unprotected excess.
- Adding cash to a Trade — trade cash escrow does not clear Mug Protection.
- Leaving Jail with a Personal Favour — does not clear Mug Protection.
- Simply receiving cash (for example from jobs) does not clear protection, but that new cash is still unprotected relative to the existing shield.
See also: La Paz Market · Features overview · Beginner's Guide · Properties