Bangkok is an expansion city that is available for level 18+ players assuming they have Triad Coin, Yakuza Sake, Thai Note (collected from NY jobs) and Thai Passport. The energy and experience values for Bangkok jobs are different for players between levels 18-200 and 200+.
Bangkok has many new or updated aspects that are not seen in earlier cities, such as reputation, faction stores, boost producing businesses, four mastery levels and dynamic energy, experience and money payout values.
Factions and Reputation
The most visible new feature in Bangkok is the reputation system where you can earn reputation points towards either of the Bangkok factions, Triad or Yakuza.
As you gain more reputation with the factions you will be able to buy exclusive faction store items, unlock new episodes and businesses.
To gain reputation with a faction you must perform a choice point job for that faction or attack someone of the opposing faction in fight list. Doing a job will award you +3 (AND -1 for the opposing faction) reputation points while fighting awards +2 and -1. This means you can achieve maximum reputation with both factions at the same time and therefore get access to all reputation rewards.
Faction standing thresholds:
Hostile: 0 - 200 points
Suspicious: 201-400 points
Neutral: 401-700 points
Trusted: 701-1000 points
Honored: 1001-1400 points
Allied: 1401-1500 points
The initial standing is 50/1500 towards both factions.
Noteworthy Reputation Rewards
Yakuza Assassin, strongest amassable offensive armor - Allied with Yakuza Gun Running Operation, offensive boost production business – Trusted with Yakuza Unlock Episode 5B – Trusted with Yakuza
Shaolin Bodyguard, strongest amassable defensive armor - Allied with Triad Yaa Baa Parlor, defensive boost production business – Trusted with Triad Unlock Episode 5A – Trusted with Triad
For a high energy account without much fighting capabilities a great way to gain reputation fast is to do FIRST mastery choice point jobs in the early Bangkok episodes when the energy costs are at their lowest, you will still gain +3 and -1 per job done but gaining mastery will increase energy costs significantly but reputation point gains per job remain unchanged.
For normal accounts, fighting in Bangkok will give you all the reputation you need (while giving you $B as well).
Dynamic payouts and energy costs
In order to master an episode in Bangkok you need to fully complete it four times instead of the normal three. This makes for a whole lot of extra skill points but acquiring the mastery item from each episode takes significantly longer than you might be used to.
On top of this, energy costs increase each time you master an episode. The energy cost increases by 33% in the second level, by 66% in the third level and by 100% in the fourth level. Also, mastery % progression works a bit differently in Bangkok. The second level mastery increases are 75% of the first level, the third level mastery increases are 50% of the first level and the fourth level mastery increases are 25% of the first level.
For example: (standard rounding is used)
First level % mastery increase = 6% per job.
Second level % mastery increase = 0.75 * 6 = 5% per job
Third level % mastery increase = 0.5 * 6 = 3% per job
Fourth level % mastery increase = 0.25 * 6 = 2% per job
First level energy cost = 39
Second level energy cost = 39 * 1.33 = 52
Third level energy cost = 39 * 1.667 = 65
Fourth level energy cost = 39 * 2 = 78
What’s interesting is that the experience amounts (and money payouts) grow as well but in different proportion. Meaning that the exp/energy ratios change as well, for example a job might have 1.5 ratio on the first mastery but 1.97 on the fourth mastery. This makes it very beneficial for energy accounts to achieve 4th mastery of an episode so they can abuse the high ratio for consecutive level ups (energy refills).
So if you are wondering what a farmer account should do: keep farming with low energy costs and low drop rate or master first for higher drop rate AND a ratio that supports consecutive leveling? The answer is pretty clear that you should master first as you will be stuck after one load of energy when doing a bad ratio job anyway.
Bangkok Business
The money making businesses in Bangkok are a horrible, horrible investment. Currently it takes 50 days to get your initial investment back, twice as long as in Cuba! So I don’t recommend buying the businesses in their current state at all.
Buying businesses for drug shipments and pirates is a necessity unless you can get them from somewhere else. Pirates especially are needed even after mastering Bangkok to farm the only upgrade from Moscow.
The boost producing businesses are a good investment (if you fight). The boosts produced give a noticeable difference (+32 attack or defense) unlike hot coffees and pairs of eyes but most importantly they are amassable and therefore you will actually use them for most of your fights, unlike smoke grenades or other high end boosts which you don’t even notice before they are gone. Unfortunately it takes $B40,000,000 to fully upgrade both boost producing businesses and you’d probably be much better off with 90~ Yakuza Assassins or Shaolin Bodyguards.