How many story missions are in Mafia 3?

The main campaign includes nine district chapters, each with two racket missions plus a capo mission, along with the prologue and the finale. That works out to roughly 30-plus required story missions before optional content.

Do you have to do missions in a specific order in Mafia 3?

Only the prologue is strictly linear. After you recruit your first underboss, you can tackle most districts in any order, though the final three districts require an extra key-character step before the capo mission unlocks.

What are the betrayal missions in Mafia 3?

Betrayal chapters trigger when an underboss turns on Lincoln, usually based on how you distribute districts. They aren't guaranteed in every playthrough, so some players never see them.

Can you miss optional missions in Mafia 3?

Yes. Conversation missions expire if you don't complete them before a set story milestone, while agenda and trafficking missions stay available as long as you keep assigning districts.

How long does it take to beat all Mafia 3 missions?

A main-story run takes about 20–25 hours, while a full completionist playthrough with optional chapters and DLC runs 50-plus hours based on player experience.

Mafia 3 All Missions in Order: Full Story Walkthrough

Complete list of Mafia 3 all missions in order, from the prologue to the final sit-down, plus district rackets, capos, and DLC chapters.

Mafia 3 drops you into New Bordeaux in 1968 with one goal: tear down Sal Marcano's empire piece by piece. The problem is that the game never hands you a clean checklist, and its district-based structure makes it easy to lose track of what comes next. That's why so many players search for Mafia 3 all missions in order before starting a second playthrough or cleaning up missed chapters. This walkthrough breaks down every story mission by district, explains how rackets and capos gate your progress, and covers the optional and DLC chapters that are easy to skip.

Related Mafia III guides you may find useful:

How Mafia 3's Mission Structure Actually Works

Mafia 3 doesn't use a straight line of numbered levels like its predecessors. Instead, the campaign is split into two mission types: story chapters that advance the main plot, and optional chapters that flesh out characters and rackets.

Each of the nine districts in New Bordeaux has one main story chapter divided into two parts. Those two missions are tied to the district's two rackets — you have to take over both before a third mission unlocks that lets you kill the lieutenant or capo running the district. The final three districts add an extra wrinkle: a key character has to be dealt with before the capo becomes available.

There's also a set of betrayal chapters. Depending on which underbosses you favor with district assignments, one of them may turn on Lincoln, and you'll have to put them down. According to community reports, these missions only trigger under specific loyalty conditions, so not every playthrough includes them.

Story Chapters vs. Optional Chapters

Chapter Type	Required to Finish?	Who Gives It	What It Unlocks
Story chapters	Yes	Automatic progression	Next district, capo kill
Betrayal chapters	Conditional	Story triggers	Removes a hostile underboss
Agenda missions	No	Underbosses	Character backstory, perks
Conversation missions	No	Various characters	Backstory, expire if ignored
Trafficking missions	No	Underbosses	Racket earn boost, side mission

Why the Order Isn't Always Identical

Because you choose which districts to hand to Cassandra, Burke, and Vito, the sequence of some missions shifts between playthroughs. The fixed content is the prologue and the district chapters themselves — the order you tackle districts in after the opening is largely up to you. That flexibility is why a single "canonical" mission list is tricky, and why most guides organize everything by district instead.

The Prologue: Missions 1–9

Everything before you take the reins of the empire is linear. Guides like the GamePressure story mission breakdown group this opening stretch as the prologue, running nine missions before the game opens up. This is where you meet Lincoln Clay, witness the betrayal at the Federal Reserve, and survive the ambush that sets the revenge plot in motion.

Key beats in this section include:

The Vietnam flashback that establishes Lincoln's combat skills
The robbery that goes sideways
The massacre at the bar and Lincoln's near-death recovery
Father James's role in sheltering him
The first sit-down with your future underbosses

Once the prologue wraps, you'll recruit your first lieutenant — Cassandra — in the mission often listed as Old Times' Sake. From there, New Bordeaux is yours to dismantle in whatever order you like.

Mafia 3 All Missions in Order by District

Below is the full district-by-district breakdown. Remember: within each district you clear both rackets first, then the capo mission opens up. The final three districts also require handling an additional key character before the capo is vulnerable.

Delray Hollow

Mission	Type
Thicker Than Blood	Racket takeover
The Way of Flesh	Racket takeover

Delray Hollow is typically your first real district and serves as a tutorial for the racket system.

Barclay Mills

Mission	Type
The Dead Stay Gone	Racket takeover
A Little Late for That	Racket takeover

Pointe Verdun

Mission	Type
The Blade Stained Red	Racket takeover
Brave New World	Racket takeover

River Row

Mission	Type
Work the Man Who Bleeds	Racket takeover
Fish Gotta Eat	Racket takeover

Tickfaw Harbor

Mission	Type
Hot Rubber & Cold Blood	Racket takeover
The Connection to Cuba	Racket takeover

Southdowns

Mission	Type
The Fists & the Flames	Racket takeover
Jesuit in New Mexico	Racket takeover

French Ward

Mission	Type
Evil That Men Do	Racket takeover
The Poor Sumbitch	Racket takeover

Frisco Fields

Mission	Type
The Privileged Die Slow	Racket takeover
There's a War Goin' On	Racket takeover
Yet Here We Are	Capo mission

Frisco Fields is one of the later districts and includes the extra key-character step before the capo becomes available.

Downtown

Mission	Type
Compromised Corruption	Racket takeover
Everyone Will Notice	Racket takeover

Bayou Fantom

Mission	Type
Sit Down	Story mission

New Bordeaux (Finale)

Mission	Type
In Comes the Devil	Final story mission

The endgame converges on the In Comes the Devil chapter, where Lincoln's war against Marcano reaches its conclusion and the fate of your underbosses is decided.

Optional Chapters You Shouldn't Ignore

Optional chapters aren't required, but skipping them costs you money, perks, and story context. There are three flavors, and each behaves differently.

Agenda Missions

Agenda chapters come from your underbosses and only advance when you hand them more districts. To see all three agenda missions for a given underboss, you need to give that character control of three districts. These missions chain short tasks with backstory reveals and are the main way to unlock underboss perks.

Conversation Missions

Conversation chapters unlock at fixed story points and offer quick character insight. The catch: they expire. If you don't complete a conversation mission before a certain progression milestone, it's gone for that playthrough. If you're a completionist, prioritize these as soon as they appear.

Trafficking Missions

Trafficking chapters give background on whoever assigns them and open an optional side mission that raises the earn rate of that underboss's rackets. In practical terms, these are your best passive income boosters, so run them early.

Optional Type	Expires?	Best Time to Do It
Agenda	No	After assigning 3rd district
Conversation	Yes	Immediately on unlock
Trafficking	No	Early, for racket income

DLC Missions and Their Place in the Timeline

Mafia 3's three major story expansions add their own mission chains. They're separate from the main campaign, but each is worth slotting in once you've finished the base game.

DLC	Notable Missions
Faster, Baby!	Another Brother Falls, Herbalism
Stones Unturned	Creature of Habit
Sign of the Times	A Little Closure

Faster, Baby! sends Lincoln to Sinclair Parish to help Roxy Laveau, Stones Unturned pits him against a military conspiracy with John Donovan, and Sign of the Times deals with a cult terrorizing New Bordeaux. Community consensus is that Stones Unturned has the strongest mission design of the three, while Sign of the Times adds the most new systems.

Tips for Keeping Your Mission Order Straight

A few habits make the campaign far less confusing:

Finish both rackets before hunting the capo. The capo mission literally won't spawn until both rackets in a district are under your control.
Assign districts deliberately. Spreading districts evenly unlocks agenda missions across all three underbosses, but concentrating them builds loyalty and avoids betrayal triggers.
Do conversation missions on sight. They vanish silently, and there's no in-game warning before they expire.
Use the map's district view. It shows racket status and remaining objectives at a glance, which is faster than digging through the mission log.
Save before big assignments. Betrayal chapters hinge on your choices, so a manual save lets you see both outcomes.

If you want the official patch notes and update history while you play, the Mafia series page on Steam is the most reliable source for version changes that occasionally affect mission triggers.

How Long Does the Full Mission List Take?

Based on player experience, a focused run through the main story chapters takes roughly 20–25 hours, while clearing every optional chapter, racket, and collectible pushes a completionist run past 50 hours. The DLC adds another 8–12 hours combined. Betrayal chapters can shorten or lengthen that depending on how many underbosses you lose.