Subject: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas Mobile
Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Aug 16 23
A replay of a classic game I had played a couple of decades ago, this time on a mobile platform.
Posted by: brm50diboll
Date: Aug 16 23
A replay of a classic game I had played a couple of decades ago, this time on a mobile platform.
48 replies. On page 2 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
brm50diboll 
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Chapter 13 - Firefighter Side Mission Another side mission that can be completed while "In The Beginning" without messing up the filename is Firefighter, which I previously mentioned. Firefighter is performed in a firetruck, one of which is available in downtown LS. It can be cancelled by pressing the button on the left or getting out of the firetruck. If the mission is cancelled while a target vehicle is still burning, that vehicle will explode. Firefighter involves using the water cannon on a firetruck to put out fires involving vehicles and passengers. You put out the vehicles' fires first, then flaming passengers get out and run around crazily while burning and you have to put out their fires as well. All of this has to be done in a time limit. There are 12 Levels to Firefighter in total, and as the Levels increase, there are more burning vehicles and passengers whose fires need to put out in order to successfully completed the level. The hard part of this mission is the learning curve in aiming the water cannon, especially at the crazily running passengers. Takes a little practice, but not that difficult if you're persistent. As previously mentioned, the special reward when Level 12 of Firefighter is successfully completed is that CJ becomes flameproof, a very useful ability. Firefighter can be replayed as often as you want, even after CJ becomes flameproof. The firetruck is a surprisingly fast and durable vehicle for its size. Reply #21. Sep 05 23, 7:58 AM |
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Chapter 14 - Pimping Side Mission This one is probably the easiest of the LS side missions which will not overwrite the filename after saving. The mission requires a Broadway vehicle, which is fairly plentiful in LS, and there is a parked location for one next to the carwash near the Alhambra dance club. You get into a Broadway, press the button on the left to start the Pimping side mission, and you follow the instructions to pick up your girls and deliver them to the assigned locations in the time allotted. Pimping only has 10 Levels for completion, not 12 like the others. In the later levels of the mission, CJ will have to kill violent customers without harming his girls. Pimping is one of the rare missions (like Vigilante) where CJ can get out of his vehicle without automatically cancelling the mission. As in Vigilante, when CJ exits his vehicle, he will have only a few seconds to get back in a Broadway before the mission is ended. The mission, like the other side missions, can be cancelled by pressing the button on the left side of the screen. When CJ completes all the levels, he receives his reward and the mission ends automatically. He can, however, replay the mission anytime later to make more money, but he only gets the "special reward" the first time he completes all the levels of Pimping. That "special reward" for completing Pimping for the first time is that afterwards the prostitutes in San Andreas will pay CJ for their "activities", rather than the other way around. Pimping can also be activated and immediately deactivated to trigger a way to save helicopters in the "Police Impound Lot" glitch. Utilizing that glitch successfully is difficult, and I don't really want to take the space here for it now, but it can be facilitated by landing a helicopter close to a parked Broadway, getting in the Broadway, triggering the Pimping mission on and off, the exiting the Broadway and heading to the Police Impound Lot in the basement garage of the LSPD headquarters to verify the helicopter is there. If you are thinking as you read this "What are you going to do with a helicopter in a basement car garage?", then you understand a small part of the difficulty of using this glitch. There are other difficulties as well, like the three star wanted level you usually get going into that garage. But I might deal with all that a lot later. Reply #22. Sep 07 23, 1:30 PM |
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Chapter 15 - Wanted Stars and Their Management I've mentioned wanted stars several times in this thread so far without discussing them in much detail. This is rather deliberate, as I intended this thread for readers with at least a passing knowledge of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, not total newbies. I didn't want to get bogged down in such introductory details as how does CJ drive a car, etc. Anyone who ever played San Andreas for even a few minutes will encounter wanted stars, and if you don't figure out what to do when they appear, you will quickly get either busted or wasted, neither of which is good. But as I move deeper into this, I wanted to discuss my tips for dealing with wanted levels, particularly at the higher levels. A one star wanted level will occur whenever CJ kills someone, even accidentally, in the view of a passing cop, or has a nonlethal encounter with a cop, such as ramming his vehicle or jacking it. It is mainly a minor annoyance, as most one star wanted levels go away by themselves automatically after a few seconds of CJ running or driving somewhere. At most, one cop on foot or one cop vehicle tailing you is all that happens with one star. In other earlier GTA games, a one star level meant a cop would not shoot at CJ. Not so in San Andreas. Cops will shoot at CJ with only one star, so you can't just stand there and try to fist fight the cop. It is particularly annoying on those rare occasions when the one star doesn't seem to go away after a few seconds though. This is something I've seen regularly in Vigilante missions. If the star isn't going away, you must actively try to shed it. The best way is to go through a nearby Police Bribe (know the map! check the internet!). You can also go to a PayNSpray, but only with a civilian vehicle. That approach won't work if CJ is in a government vehicle. Plus, PayNSprays may not be that close, so the Police Bribe is the best option, but be advised that once used, a particular Bribe will not spawn there again for six game hours (minutes of real time.) There are other ways to shed a one star wanted level, but I will cover them when I talk about the higher wanted levels. The two star level occurs with several small infractions, or just one cop killing. Now multiple pedestrian and vehicular cops chase you relentlessly while shooting at you the whole time, and the two star level (and all the higher levels, as well) will not go away by itself. You must actively work to shed it. One approach is one Police Bribe to knock it down to one star, then continue to run a bit in the hopes that last star will go away by itself. It is pretty easy to outrun cops with two stars in most vehicles, but you do have to worry about getting a tire shot out, which slows you down a lot, and then police cars can ram you and knock you off cliffs and bridges and so forth. You certainly can't outrun cops on foot for more than just a few seconds. Besides the Police Bribes and PayNSprays previously mentioned, with two or more stars, a couple of other approaches can be used to shed the stars: if you are on a mission, successful completion of that mission will shed the stars. But if you are not on a mission, but in free roam mode, that approach obviously isn't available. The other approach is to go into one of your safe houses and change clothes. This will also shed higher wanted levels, although you will get shot at in the interval between when you leave your vehicle and enter a safe house. For "In The Beginning", you have special problems using the change of clothes method to get rid of wanted stars: you can't go into the Johnson Family House without triggering the first story mission, and other safe houses might be difficult to get to. Also, the various clothing stores in SA aren't open yet, so CJ has only his starting outfit available. You can still change clothes with that, but it is a bit tedious: I have CJ take off his white tank top, step out of the dressing area, step back in and put the white tank top back on. Simply taking it off alone won't shed the stars. At three stars, the cops drive much faster and set up blockades on the bigger highways. Also, a police helicopter pursues you and shoots at you if you are one foot. You can't last long on foot with three stars. Police helicopters can't really hit you if you are in a vehicle, though, so getting in a vehicle fast, even a stolen cop vehicle, is important with the higher levels. If you are on foot, cops will rappel down from the helicopters to the ground and shoot at you with SMGs, so don't get caught on foot. You have to be a good driver to deal with all the fast cop cars ramming you at the higher levels if you want to get somewhere where you can shed the stars. At four stars, large police vans called Enforcers chase after you and also set up roadblocks. You may get two helicopters after you at that level. Four stars cannot be shed at all while in a "locked island" area. They remain no matter what you do until you get back to Los Santos or Red County and then can start to shed the stars. If you are in an aircraft at four stars, military planes called Hydras tail you and shoot missiles at you and will kill you unless you are an incredibly skilled evasive flyer. The Hydras will still follow you in LS and Red County until you have begun shedding the stars. Five stars cannot occur "In The Beginning". That does not become possible until San Fierro is unlocked later in the story missions. At five stars, the FBI comes after you in black, very fast, FBI Ranchers. The highest possible level, six stars, occurs only after Las Venturas has been unlocked late in the story missions. Six stars brings the Army after you, in tanks called Rhinos and Barracks transports. The army soldiers themselves are armed with M-4s, and will kill you almost instantly if they see you. Even the slightest bump into a Rhino will result in your instant death as vehicles (other than other Rhinos) explode immediately when touching a moving Rhino. Your only chance with six stars is to be in an enclosed area protected from the pursuit and armed with a minigun, or in a Rhino yourself. In fact, stealing a Rhino from the Army with six stars is one of the first things you want to do once the six star wanted level becomes possible. But all of that is much, much later in my discussion. For now, four stars is enough to deal with. If you get busted or wasted, just exit without saving and reload your most recently saved game and try, try again. It can take lots of failures to learn how to properly learn to do a four star "locked island" raid successfully, but they are worth it. Reply #23. Sep 09 23, 8:26 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 16 - Vigilante Side Mission This is the toughest of the side missions that can be completed "In The Beginning" without overwriting the filename, and for that reason I saved it for last. I had mentioned it earlier as a method for obtaining rare cars. The reason this mission is so difficult to complete "In The Beginning" is that the vehicles that are best for it, the Rhino and the Hunter helicopter, are cannot be obtained at this point of the game except through chest codes. Of the vehicles that are available, the HPV-1000 police motorcycle is the best choice available, but you are highly likely to lose it at some point and have to get another police vehicle, and the police cars do not allow you to fire straight ahead and take massive damage from enemy fire when shooting from the side, so you are pretty much toast if you cannot get another motorbike fast enough. It took me something like over 30 tries before I finally passed all 12 Levels of Vigilante "In The Beginning". In the old days, on Playstation 2, there was a glitch involving restaurants and diners that allowed Vigilante to completed easily by just repeatedly going indoors every few seconds (taking care to return to your police vehicle outside before the time clock expired on you) as the targets spontaneously destroyed themselves while you were indoors. I tried that approach on my mobile phone multiple times (in diners like the Little Brown Jug, as restaurants aren't open "In The Beginning"), and it never seemed to work, not even one target casualty, so the glitch must've been fixed. But even with the police motorbike, your vehicle, as well as CJ himself, will take plenty of damage pursuing and shooting at the target vehicles, especially at the higher levels, where their shotguns become devastating. You will also have high wanted levels which cannot be cleared with a PayNSpray as you are driving a police vehicle, and finding Police Bribes is time-consuming, so the chase from the cops also hinders you. I have read that some players move ahead of the target vehicle convoys at higher levels, then destroy them with heavy weapons like rocket launchers or miniguns by getting off your bike briefly to shoot at them as they pass by. That method doesn't seem to work for me as their route isn't all that predictable and you have chasing cops that complicate the matter since you almost always have at least some wanted level at the higher Levels of Vigilante. So I was left by tailing the target vehicles in the police motorcycle and shooting forward at them with your SMG (the only weapon class that can fire from a moving vehicle) at *just* the right distance behind them, which is very difficult to judge. You absolutely *must* have tons of SMG ammo to have a chance at passing Vigilante. Too far behind, and your shots won't damage the targets fast enough to beat the time limit. But too close, and the return fire you get will kill you quickly in the later Levels of Vigilante, especially those enemy shotguns. It takes great driving skill, a thorough knowledge of the map, and a bit of luck in obtaining replacement police motorcycles if (as it likely) you lose your original in the course of the mission. But with enormous persistence, it *can* be done. The reward for passing all 12 Levels of Vigilante is that your maximum body armor stat now increases to 150. Like the other side missions, you can play it again for money, vehicles, or fun anytime you want to even after passing the mission as a whole. Reply #24. Sep 13 23, 3:04 PM |
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Chapter 17 - Collecting Snapshots I'm sure the developers of San Andreas would have considered this part of the game to belong with the San Fierro story missions, certainly not "In The Beginning". Of course, in the old days, that is exactly when I did the snapshots. They are quite easy to do when San Fierro is unlocked - you just go to the sites where they are on an internet map of snapshot locations and click your camera at the icon. The only one that might give you a bit of a problem then is the one on the ship docked at the Easter Basin Naval Station. If you go into the Naval Station then, you will receive 5 wanted stars. But even that difficulty could be remedied by taking the photo from a boat at a safe distance from the ship using the camera's telephoto feature. You don't actually have to wait until the San Fierro story missions to have an easy time doing the snapshots - as soon as the second island is unlocked after completion of the notorious "The Green Sabre" story mission, you can go into San Fierro and start taking the snapshots without difficulty, even though none of the safe houses in San Fierro are available to be purchased at that time. Perhaps this is why, after successfully completing "The Green Sabre", when you are stripped of all your weapons, even your brass knuckles, the only thing Officer Tenpenny (the main villain of the game) leaves you with is a camera. I guess it is a subtle hint that snapshots are now easy to take. But even in the old days, I wanted to do the snapshots before the second island was unlocked. One way of doing that is in so-called "exploits", certain story missions that, if you ignore doing them the way they were designed to be done and instead wander off on your own, you will find no wanted stars in the locked islands. There are several of these "exploits" available in the Los Santos story missions. In the old days, I did snapshots, horseshoes, and oysters during the exploit of the "Reuniting The Families" story mission, but there are considerably earlier exploits available. In my first go-through on mobile, I chose the earliest possible exploit to do these, the "Drive-By" story mission, which is quite early in the game indeed. But not "In The Beginning". And yes, snapshots can be done "In The Beginning", but they require multiple four star wanted level San Fierro raids to accomplish. The first problem is obtaining a camera. The only camera available in Los Santos is in CJ's upstairs bedroom in the Johnson Family House, which cannot be accessed without triggering the first story mission, "Big Smoke". There are plenty of camera pickup locations in San Fierro, but to get to them "In The Beginning" requires four star wanted level raids in and of itself. But it definitely can be done because I did it. Got the camera and took all fifty snapshots while "In The Beginning" doing multiple raids. Exhilarating! On almost all of the raids, I could only take one snapshot before having to race back to LS to shed the wanted levels. Only a couple of times was I able to get in two different snapshots before starting my return. The cops are just that aggressive. The only snapshot that can be taken "In The Beginning" *without* triggering a four star wanted level, by the way, is the Panopticon Bridge one, which can be taken from the safety of the Red County side of the bridge. I saved that one easy one for last. When all fifty snapshots have been successfully taken, the reward is that four weapons spawn at the Doherty garage that will become your main base in the San Fierro story missions much later on: the grenades, the regular shotgun, the micro-SMG, and the sniper rifle. Of these four, only the sniper rifle is a preferred weapon for me, but since you can store vehicles in the Doherty garage even "In The Beginning" (on raids, of course), it is nice to pickup the sniper rifle ammo when visiting that garage. Reply #25. Sep 20 23, 2:42 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 18 - Collecting Oysters There are four types of collectable items in San Andreas: Gang Tags, Snapshots, Oysters, and Horseshoes. I've already discussed Gang Tags (the 100 items for Los Santos) and Snapshots (the 50 items for San Fierro). The Horseshoes are the 50 items for Las Venturas and I will save discussion of those for later. But the Oysters (of which there are 50) are fundamentally different from the other three types of collectables. First, they are not localized to one particular area of the map. They are spread out all over San Andreas. Second, they are all underwater. This means that to collect them CJ must swim and dive to them. I really haven't said too much about swimming and diving, as they are pretty basic skills for CJ. Certainly oyster collection will definitely help CJ improve his swimming and diving skills, particularly one stat on the main screen which only shows up when CJ is swimming or diving - lung capacity. Lung capacity, like CJ's other skills I have previously discussed, is *not* maximal for CJ at the beginning of the game. It starts at a fairly low level and gradually builds as CJ dives underwater. When CJ is swimming or diving, the lung capacity stat shows up as a white line next to his health and body armor stat lines. When CJ dives underwater, the lung capacity white line starts to turn blue, meaning he is expending his lung capacity. If he stays underwater too long, his lung capacity line will turn completely blue and then his health stat will rapidly start turning from bright red to dark red. That means CJ is drowning. If his health stat turns totally dark red, CJ drowns and is "wasted". Not good. Therefore, it is important for CJ to surface before his lung capacity stat turns totally blue. Once on the surface of the water, CJ's lung capacity stat gradually starts to turn from blue back to white again. CJ needs to rest a bit after diving to replenish his lung capacity stat. But if he damages his health stat, that cannot be repaired while CJ is swimming or diving. He will have to get out of the water and deal with his health stat they ways I mentioned previously to fix that. Anyway, a good swimmer isn't going to drown. The more CJ dives, the more the length of his lung capacity stat bar gradually lengthens over time. This means CJ can stay underwater longer before he starts to drown. Anyway, like Snapshots and Horseshoes, the game developers intended for the Oysters to be collected *later* in the game, not "In The Beginning". This is because many of the Oysters are in waters in the "locked islands", meaning you will get a four star wanted level trying to collect them in most places "In The Beginning". Only the Oysters in the Los Santos area can be collected without risking the big wanted levels. Nevertheless, I am discussing them here because, like the Snapshots, the Oysters *can* be collected "In The Beginning" with "raids". This is a project I am actually currently working on - collecting all 50 oysters while "In The Beginning". It is quite doable, though very difficult. (Not so much for the Horseshoes, however - which I will explain sometime later.) Some Oysters near "locked islands" can be collected by swimming and diving to them as long as you don't accidentally touch land, which would trigger the four star wanted levels. But some cannot, as they are in bodies of water in the interiors of the "locked islands", so the wanted levels are inevitable in some cases. Nevertheless, it can be done and I am working on it. It is, admittedly, a lot easier to wait until an "exploit" becomes available to go collecting them. When you get all fifty Oysters, unlike the other three types of collectables, you do not get weapons pickups as a reward. Instead, the reward is your "lung capacity" stat is maximized, there is a large monetary reward, and his "sex appeal" stat is also maximized. What this last stat means is that later in the game, when CJ starts dating girlfriends, he won't have to jump through hoops to convince them to agree to go on a date with him, as would be the case otherwise. With all 50 oysters collected, when CJ shows up to the red marker outside a girlfriend's house (indicating she is home) she will *always* agree to date CJ, no matter how much he fails to meet the requirements she otherwise would insist upon. Anyway, the key to obtaining oysters in "locked islands" is to have it well planned out, be fast, and get out of the water to safety in LS to shed the wanted stars as fast as possible (a fast boat nearby will be absolutely necessary in the larger bodies of water). A lot of trial and error involved in doing the more difficult ones, like the ponds and swimming pools inside Las Venturas. Reply #26. Sep 27 23, 4:47 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 19 - BMX At this point, I have pretty much exhausted everything that can be done "In The Beginning" without overriding the save filename after completion. So it's time to move on. There are still a few things one can do in Los Santos before playing the first story mission, but *these* side missions *will* override the filename when you save after completing the side mission. The first such side mission is the BMX mission in the bicycle park near downtown Los Santos. You have to go through a bunch of red circles while on a BMX bicycle in a certain amount of time. All you get for passing this side mission is a monetary reward. However, you can replay it anytime after passing it as often as you want to try to beat your previous best time, which the stat page keeps a record of (and you earn more money by passing it again.) It helps to have maximized CJ's cycling skill before attempting the BMX side mission, as your ability to make high bunny hops with maximum skill helps you get through some of the more difficult red rings. It takes a few runs through it to find the optimal order for completing the side mission in minimal time, but it is not that difficult with persistence. Reply #27. Oct 04 23, 1:18 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 20 - 8 Track This is a Los Santos side mission available at the beginning of the game which, when successfully completed, *will* override the save filename. In the stadium in Southeast LS, you race a car called a Hotring racer against other vehicles on a track shaped like a figure 8. You have to finish first to pass the mission. After passing it, you can replay it again as often as you want to earn more money and try to beat your previous best time in the race. The key is not to go full speed the entire race, because you will lose control of your vehicle and crash into the side. You have to get a feel for just how fast you can go and still be in control of the car, and where on the track it is necessary to slow down a bit. That takes a few tries, but it isn't too difficult to figure out. In addition to the money for passing the mission, you get a special bonus: a Hotring racer and a monster truck now spawn in the stadium parking lot after passing the mission for the first time. The Hotring racer, though fast, isn't as fast as other vehicles I've previously mentioned like the Infernus and the Cheetah. Reply #28. Oct 13 23, 11:45 PM |
| brm50diboll
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I have been absent from this thread for a long time because I've been busy doing lots of other things, pursuing prestige points, starting the Halloween Challenge, and lots of other things got in the way. But I decided to make time for this thread today. There are a few other side missions which can be done in Los Santos other than the ones I've previously described, but none of them are active near the beginning of the game and require significant story progression before they will be opened to play. For completeness' sake, they include the shooting range challenges at Ammunation, the Cluckin' Bell Challenge, the Train missions, etc. I will discuss them later when they are able to be done. So I have finally reached the point where it is time to discuss the very first story mission of the game: "Big Smoke". For a long time, I have said "Don't walk into the red marker outside the Johnson Family House on Grove Street because it will trigger the first story mission." Now it is time to walk into that marker. When you do, several cut scenes will occur. The first has CJ enter the Johnson House to be confronted by an old friend, Big Smoke, who starts to attack him with a baseball bat before he recognizes CJ. Then the two of them head off to CJ's mother's funeral at the cemetery in West Los Santos where they meet up with CJ's brother, Sweet, and his sister, Kendal, as well as another old friend, Ryder. Sweet is the head of the dwindling Grove Street Families gang (dressed in green), and an argument ensues with Kendal who storms off. As the rest of them prepare to leave the cemetery, the rival Ballas gang drives by and destroys Big Smoke's car. The others get on bicycles and start pedalling back home. At this point, the cut scenes end and CJ is instructed to get on a bike and follow the others home. Now most people at this point will do exactly what I did when I played this game many years ago on PlayStation II: they will have CJ get on the bike and start pedalling after the others. If you hadn't done other things first, CJ will have no weapons and no body armor at this point and be very awkward on the bicycle, constantly crashing and falling off. Furthermore, a Ballas Voodoo car will come by and start shooting at CJ. In the old days, I got CJ wasted by the Ballas several times and had to keep restarting the mission. After having played GTA III and Vice City previously, I was deeply shocked that San Andreas had started with a first mission that was so difficult. It eventually dawned on me that CJ should do a few things like get some weapons and body armor (and maybe work on his cycling skill) before doing this first story mission. If you have done the things I've mentioned in this thread previously beforehand, then this first story mission will be no problem at all. Here's what I do now with this mission: I have my fully armed (including with the minigun) and fully armored CJ (who also has maxed-out cycling skills) get on the bike and start pedalling *opposite* the direction of the others. (Turns out they will wait for you, no matter how long you take.) You pedal up into a parking lot where the Voodoo that has started following you will not be able to back out of once it has entered the lot. Then you quickly get off the bike, run off to the side a bit, and switch your weapons over to the minigun. It turns out that the AI that controls the Ballas Voodoo is actually programmed to follow and shoot at *the bike* you were on, not CJ. Interesting! Once you are off the bike and off to the side a few feet, the Voodoo will get stuck trying to back up, and that's when you destroy it with your minigun (which takes almost no time). Using the minigun on the Voodoo will probably earn you a two star wanted level, and your body armor value may have been depressed a bit from Ballas gunfire, but there is no hurry. Get back on the bike and pedal through some police bribes (you know where they are by now) to lose the wanted levels before the cops can catch up to you, and maybe replenish the body armor, then turn around on your bike and head back towards where the others went. (They've been waiting there the whole time, no matter how long you took.) At this point, you pedal home following the others with no problems at all, as the pursuing Ballas Voodoo car was destroyed and there are no other pursuers in this mission (assuming you shed the wanted level). Pedal into the red marker on Grove Street and Mission Passed! Another cut scenes will follow and when it ends and control of CJ is returned to you, you will be instructed to enter the Johnson Family House once again. If you do, you now can explore the House a bit, even save the game there if you want. If you did all 100 of the gang tag sprays as I had described, you will find four weapons pickups in the kitchen (but only the Molotov cocktails one is recommended for use by me.) Upstairs in the bedroom is a spray can, which you will wish you had had access to earlier instead of constantly having to climb on top of the Pawn shop rooftop, but no matter. There is also a wardrobe upstairs, but at this point in the game, the only clothes you have are the ones you are wearing (but you can still take them off and put them on again as a method for shedding a wanted level as I'd previously discussed.) When you walk outside again, you will get a cellphone call (which you should pick up) from Officer Hernandez, a partner of Officer Tenpenny, the main villain of the game. The call will tell you not to leave town, but you already know (because you have done it several times) that travelling to the "locked islands" gets you a four star wanted level. You will notice a red marker has now appeared next door in front of your friend Ryder's house. This is the marker that will trigger the second story mission. But no hurry. Take your time, Explore some more, arm up a bit more. Save the game a few times (it will now save with the filename "Big Smoke") before you enter the marker for the second story mission. Reply #29. Oct 28 23, 3:05 PM |
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Chapter 22 - Ryder A few corrections to my last post: The title was missing. It was Chapter 21 - Big Smoke. The first phone call after completing the mission was from Sweet, not Officer Hernandez. Sweet was explaining the gang situation to CJ. Officer Hernandez's call comes a little bit later in the story. At the time of the first mission, only the camera is available in CJ's upstairs bedroom at the Johnson Family House. The spray can does not appear there until a couple more missions. Now that I got all that out of the way, on to the second story mission: Ryder. CJ walks into a red marker outside a house to the left of the Johnson Family House - Ryder's house. This triggers a cut scenes where CJ visits his old friend Ryder - who shows his drug issues in the scene, then tells CJ he wants to rob a pizza place. After the cut scene, Ryder asks CJ to drive Ryder's car, which you do, and are directed to go to Old Reece's Barber Shop. This opens the Barber Shops all over San Andreas. CJ is instructed to get a haircut and goes inside. The default haircut CJ starts with is called the Cesar. I actually like the Cesar, so I have CJ get an Afro haircut, and after leaving the barbershop, instead of doing what Ryder wants CJ to do, which is go inside the Well Stacked Pizza place across the street, I have CJ double back into the barbershop again to get his haircut set back to the default Cesar before continuing with the mission. Entering the pizza place opens the restaurants across San Andreas for the first time. Before that, CJ could only eat at vending machines and street vendors, like corn dogs. You can eat much more in restaurants, making rapid weight gain easier than at the beginning of the game. Anyway, CJ gets something to eat and then another cut scene follows where Ryder tries to rob the pizza place and the clerk runs both of them outside with a standard shotgun. When the cut scene ends and control returns to CJ, the clerk is shooting at CJ with the shotgun, so I generally just have CJ kill the clerk (usually the SMG is good enough for this), before he takes any damage. Killing the clerk usually triggers a one star wanted level, so I have CJ rush into Ryder's car and speed off before the usually nearby cop gets to him. You don't want to get busted on such an easy mission. Ryder tells CJ to head home, so you drive back to Ryder's house into the red marker there to successfully pass the mission. As with (almost) *all* missions, if you have a wanted level when you successfully complete the mission, the wanted level goes away automatically when Mission Passed! appears on the screen. There are a few rare exceptions to this, but I will note those when I get to them. It generally isn't necessary to bother to shed the wanted level before the mission is completed in this case, but it is easy enough to do if you wanted - either the PayNSpray nearby the barbershop, or driving in the alley through the Police Bribe just past the Gym will clear that one star. Only if you were careless enough to kill the cop and raise the level to two stars would taking those steps be necessary if you are fast enough. Just don't stand there outside the pizza place and let yourself get busted - a newbie mistake. Anyway, after finishing the mission, Ryder tells you to go visit Sweet about the gang tags, setting up the third mission, and a red marker now appears outside Sweet's house to the right of the Johnson Family House. I generally do not go from one story mission directly to the next. I take my time and explore and fix any damage I might have taken in the last mission and save the game before moving to the next mission. There is no hurry. I will mention here that although the story missions are numbered in the internet guides you can find on the game, there is some flexibility in the order you can do missions, particularly after branch point missions are completed. But since we haven't reached the first branch point yet, the first few story missions have to be done in the order I have described, although you can take as long as you want doing exploration in free range mode before moving to the next mission, which is my usual approach. This allows me to keep CJ at maximum health and body armor and fully armed for all missions. To summarize, this second mission has now opened all the restaurants, barbershops, and also tattoo parlors (although you didn't use this in the mission) throughout San Andreas (although the "locked islands" are obviously still locked, if you go into them, you can enter these places, albeit with a four star wanted level). You also get a bit of a feel for Ryder and his drug problem, which will become an important story point as the game continues. Reply #30. Nov 12 23, 11:51 PM |
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Chapter 23 - Tagging Up Turf You walk into the red marker in front of Sweet's house and there is a cut scene of Sweet playing basketball with Big Smoke (there is a side game of basketball in the game which can be played - the basketballs now appear on the courts in San Andreas after this mission - the basketball game is not needed for reaching 100% completion of the game - just a diversion, like the pool and video games in the game). Sweet tells CJ he needs to spray some gang tags to achieve his respect and when the cut scene ends and CJ regains control, he is outside next to Sweet's car holding a spray can with infinite "ammo" in his hand. Whatever was in that slot before will be automatically replaced with the spray can. Many missions do this - they feature a specific "weapon", and will replace any other "weapons" in that slot with the featured one. If you are unaware of this, it can be a problem sometimes - totally destroying whatever arsenal you may have built up for the slot. The infinite "ammo" is a feature of the mission only - when the mission ends, the spray can will have a finite "ammo". If you were holding other weapons in other slots, they will be unaffected. You still have them, but you will be holding the spray can (though you can switch out to other weapons in other slots if you want). The mission is a tutorial on how to spray gang tags (which you should already know, but whatever.) There are six gang tags featured in this mission. If you had already sprayed some or all of the featured tags earlier, they will be "erased" for the purposes of the mission. Any gang tags not featured in this mission that you had previously sprayed will remain sprayed, so as the mission progresses, as you spray the featured tags, the count of tags sprayed on the screen may read "96, 97, 98....". If you had previously sprayed all 100 gang tags before the mission, when you spray the last featured tags in the mission, it was say "All Tags Sprayed", so you don't lose anything by doing the spraying before the mission, you just get back to where you were. Spraying gang tags is technically an illegal act, so if any cop is nearby, you will get a one star wanted level and the cop will pursue you and may shoot you or bust you if you aren't careful. Also, any Ballas members when you spray a tag will also come after you and start shooting. I usually switch out to a gun on the second-to-last tag where the two Ballas members are and kill them first before spraying that tag, then run to a nearby Police Bribe to shed the wanted star before heading to the final tag - this minimizes the damage to health and armor that CJ could otherwise get from this mission. Sweet drives off while you are spraying tags and comes back after the last tag is sprayed. If you wanted, you could wander off and do totally unrelated things, Sweet will wait for you, no matter how long you took, even if it was hours. If you want to see what happens if you just deliberately kill Sweet, it isn't much - you just get a "Mission Failed" notice. Any time you kill an ally assigned to you in a mission, or even if the ally got killed accidentally some other way, this "Mission Failed" will occur and you would have to start over. The last tag is a bit of a tutorial on how to climb over fences and onto roofs, but you were actually capable of doing that from the beginning (and many of the things I described required you to use those climbing skills). You can't climb everything though - only things CJ can reach with his hands raised on a short jump - nothing tall. Climbing ladders doesn't work either in this game for some reason, except for one story mission later only. I have discovered that if CJ attempts to climb something and gets shot at during the climbing process, he usually loses his grip and falls back down, which can be very irritating, so it is important to clear any potential shooters from an area where you want to climb. After finishing the last tag and returning in Sweet's car back to the red marker outside Sweet's house, there will be an ending cut scene, followed by "Mission Passed" and CJ will now have in his hand a spray can with the finite 500-500 "ammo". If CJ goes into the Johnson Family House after the mission, he will *now* find the spray can in the upstairs bedroom (along with the camera which is still there). Since the spray can and the camera occupy the same slot, you cannot have both, and switching from one to the other destroys the "ammo" you had previously collected. For this reason, I try not to switch between these two items. If you had already finished all 100 gang tags, the four weapons pickups in CJ's kitchen that were there before will still be there. Stepping outside the Johnson Family House now triggers the Officer Hernandez cellphone call I had incorrectly talked about earlier - it actually follows "Tagging Up Turf". Another red marker now appears again in front of Sweet's house for the upcoming fourth mission, but no hurry, take your time and do other stuff before heading for that. Reply #31. Nov 14 23, 7:49 AM |
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Chapter 24 - Respect and Recruiting Before moving on to the fourth story mission, I wanted to talk a little about respect and recruiting Grove Street Families gang members. Respect is a stat which is measured on the stat page. It starts at zero and can be built up by passing missions or performing certain tasks in free range mode, such as killing enemy gang members or taking enemy gang territories when "gang wars" become available at certain points in the story progression. Having respect allows CJ to recruit Grove Street Families gang members (dressed in green) to follow him and perform certain tasks he can direct them to do via instructions on the main page which can be clicked during play. This recruiting can be done from the very beginning of the game once CJ's respect stat is high enough. There are also actions which lower CJ's respect stat: killing friendly gang members, abandoning territories during gang wars, etc. When CJ's respect stat reaches its first base level, CJ can recruit 2 Grove Street Families gang members to join him by tapping on them on the main screen and then clicking the recruit option which pops up. Recruited gang members will be armed (even if unarmed before being recruited) and will follow CJ and get into vehicles with CJ (if possible) unless instructed by CJ to remain in place. If any game characters like enemy gang members or cops start shooting at CJ, recruited gang members will begin returning fire. CJ has the option to disband his recruited gang members at any time after recruitment. Further increases in CJ's respect stat will allow CJ to increase the number of gang members he can recruit, to 3, 4, 5, all the way to an eventual maximum of 7 when CJ's respect level reaches its maximum. If CJ enters a vehicle, his recruited gang members will attempt to enter with him, but are subject both to the number of gang members CJ has recruited and the carrying capacity of the vehicle CJ enters. If CJ has more recruited gang members than can fit into a vehicle, some gang members will be unable to enter the vehicle and if CJ speeds away from them in the vehicle, they will be automatically deleted from his recruited gang members list. As an example, a motorcycle can only hold one passenger (besides CJ, the driver), so if CJ has three recruited gang members, only one of them can get on a motorcycle CJ gets on, and the other two will be left behind and deleted from CJ's gang number if he leaves them on his motorcycle. It is the *bus* which is the only vehicle that can handle CJ's maximum recruited gang size. But the bus isn't easy to store or find, and isn't very fast or maneuverable, so it isn't used much for transporting recruited gang members. Usually, it is best to have CJ pick a fast four door sedan so that three gang members can ride with him. On drive-bys, the three gang members will shoot at anyone who shoots at the vehicle (enemy gang members or cops), even if CJ himself doesn't shoot. The vehicle might take enough enemy gunfire to explode, killing CJ and all his recruited gang members. Or individual gang members might get picked off by enemy gunfire, and their dead bodies will remain in the vehicle until CJ exits it, when the dead bodies will fall out. Now I haven't mentioned this business before even though it was available "In The Beginning" because, frankly, I never found it to be of much use, even in the gang wars that are to come later. Recruited gang members are poor fighters and, for me anyway, tend to get in the way. So I usually have CJ fight even his gang wars solo. There are a few story missions that *require* CJ to recruit gang members, though. Much the same can be said for any allies that a particular story mission might assign to CJ for that mission - they are usually poor fighters that just get in the way, but if allies get killed, then the mission is failed. This is quite irritating, actually. CJ's brother Sweet is actually the leader of the Grove Street Families gang, but on missions where Sweet is assigned to be an ally for CJ, even though Sweet is armed, he almost never shoots, and he gets in the way of what CJ is trying to do. One of the relatively rare problems for me with the AI programming of the game. People who use the recruitment option frequently in the game usually just use the recruited gang members to divide and distract enemies, as "cannon fodder", but anytime a recruited gang member gets killed, CJ's respect stat drops, so I rarely use the recruitment option, mostly only when a mission forces me to. But it is there for players to experiment with on their own. CJ can only recruit Grove Street Families gang members when they are actually available to be recruited. It may seem strange, but in actuality, for the majority of the game, the green-shirted Grove Street Families gang members are nowhere to be found and thus cannot be recruited. Yes, they are available at the beginning and in the early part of the game, the so-called first Los Santos missions. They also appear near the end of the game, the so-called second Los Santos missions. But for well over half the game, they are completely absent. Why? Because Sweet is their leader and Sweet is actually imprisoned for most of the game. When Sweet goes to prison, the Grove Street Families gang members disappear, and they do not reappear until Sweet is released from prison, which is very late in the story mission progression of the game. Just a heads up - no Sweet, no Grove Street Families gang members on the street. Reply #32. Nov 15 23, 2:07 AM |
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Chapter 25 - Cleaning the Hood Entering the red marker in front of Sweet's house triggers the fourth story mission, entitled Cleaning the Hood. There is a cut scene of Sweet, Ryder, Big Smoke, and CJ all talking about the drug problem with the Grove Street Homies. Big Smoke defends homies being involved in the drug trade, but Sweet argues with him. CJ and Ryder then leave to try to recruit more homies to their side. Although this is a mission given by Sweet, it is Ryder that is CJ's assigned ally for this mission. CJ gets into a car (Sweet's Greenwood is most convenient) and Ryder follows him into the car as the passenger, telling him to drive to B Dup's crib. Upon arrival there (CJ drives, as is usual), another cut scene follows indicating how deep the drug problem is, as B Dup tells them to get lost and orders around Big Bear, who has become B Dup's crack slave. When the cut scene ends, CJ and Ryder get back into the car to drive to a house next to the Little Brown Jug Bar on Grove Street where they see a homie in green buying drugs from a crack dealer. CJ and Ryder get out of the car and CJ is instructed to beat up the crack dealer. I prefer one shot with the sniper rifle, so as not to accidentally kill the homie. Another cut scene follows where Ryder tells CJ he knows where the crack dealer CJ just killed was from. When this cut scene ends, CJ is told by Ryder to pick up the deceased dealer's baseball bat. I ignore that, preferring to use an SMG or Desert Eagle for the next part of the mission. CJ and Ryder get back into the car and CJ drives them into Idlewood to the crack den that was the dealer's house. They get out of the car and go into the crack den and another cut scene follows where CJ and Ryder are attacked inside the crack den by another baseball bat-wielding crack dealer and some unarmed Ballas. I generally finish all of them off quickly with my gun (using the baseball bat would take more time and result in CJ taking damage, plus I prefer the chainsaw as my melee weapon anyway). The one thing you have to be careful with using a gun here is to avoid accidentally killing Ryder, which would cause the mission to fail, although you have the option to replay the mission from the B Dup checkpoint. After killing the dealer and the Ballas, CJ generally has a one star wanted level at this point, so I just stay inside the crack den with Ryder until the one star wanted level goes away before I exit the house, because I don't want a police pursuit. Once I do leave the crack den, CJ and Ryder get back in the car and CJ is instructed to drive Ryder back to Sweet's house. Doing so will complete the mission. There is another cut scene when the mission ends as CJ tells Ryder he thinks he has run off the drug dealers from the hood and the homies can get back their old status again. (CJ turns out to be very wrong about this, but I don't want to give too much of the story away.) Another red marker appears in front of Sweet's house for the upcoming fifth story mission. This mission isn't hard at all, and serves mostly an expository purpose. The Grove Street Families gang has fallen on hard times recently because their homies are mostly crack addicts, and CJ thinks he can change that. The fact that Big Smoke defended drug dealing as a money maker for the gang is another red flag about Big Smoke that will become important as the story progresses. Sweet here is portrayed as adamant that the Grove Street Families should have absolutely nothing to do with the drug trade, a position CJ wholeheartedly endorses and Ryder also seems to back CJ and Sweet's position at this point as well, despite the fact that Ryder himself has a serious marijuana habit. Reply #33. Nov 21 23, 2:18 PM |
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Chapter 26 - Drive-Thru Stepping into the red marker in front of Sweet's house triggers a cut scene where the guys (CJ, Sweet, Big Smoke, and Ryder) decide to go get something to eat. When the cut scene ends, the three other than CJ get into Sweet's Greenwood car and ask CJ to drive. Once CJ gets in the car and starts driving to the Cluckin' Bell south of Grove Street, CJ asks about how his mother was killed. Ryder mentions that some said a Green Sabre (a Sabre is a type of car in the game) was seen doing the drive-by shooting that killed CJ's mother Beverly. Big Smoke argues the point. When you reach the red marker in the drive through lane at the Cluckin' Bell, a hilarious cut scene follows with the guys ordering and Big Smoke has this colossal order (much spoofed). As they are about to leave after getting their orders, a Ballas Voodoo appears and starts shooting at them. They are instructed to follow the Voodoo and destroy the car and the Ballas gang members inside it. A couple of odd observations here: in the free roam mode of the game, the drive through lane of all the restaurants in San Andreas is nonfunctional. To get food, CJ must walk into the restaurants; he can't get food through the drive through. Also, the cut scene shows that the food given is in Burger Shot packaging, even though they are at a Cluckin' Bell. As CJ follows the Ballas car, care must be taken; otherwise, they can all get killed and the mission failed. Sweet and Ryder shoot out windows at the Ballas car. Big Smoke does not shoot - he is eating all the chicken, including the other guys' orders. Although CJ could shoot with his SMG, I recommend not to do that - focus on the driving. CJ cannot shoot forward out of the windows, he can only shoot sideways. If he pulls up even with the Voodoo to get a decent shot, he is too much of a target for the Ballas shooters, not to mention that he might kill his own passenger if he shoots right, which would fail the mission. It is best to stay just barely behind the Voodoo with Sweet and Ryder doing all the shooting. To keep the Voodoo from speeding too far ahead, a few "pit maneuvers", where CJ bumps the Voodoo on its tail end a little from the side to cause it to spin, helps slow it down. Once visible flames start on the Voodoo, CJ needs to speed away from it fast so that his own car won't get caught in the explosion that is coming, which would destroy his own car and result in mission failure. The explosion of the Voodoo does not usually kill the Ballas as they bail out running away before the explosion and still shoot while on foot. After the Voodoo explodes, CJ needs to double back to take out the Ballas (with red arrows over their heads). This is best and most quickly done by just running over them in the car, but it needs to be done quickly to prevent the Ballas from destroying CJ's car. CJ cannot bail out without mission failure. If CJ's car or any of the passengers in it are killed, the mission will be failed. Also, if they do not take out the Ballas car and its passengers quickly enough, the Ballas car will reach Grove Street and a cut scene will ensure showing the Voodoo doing a drive-by shooting at Sweet's house, with a "Mission Failed" notice. So CJ can't run away or dawdle. The Ballas car and its passengers must be destroyed before they can get to Grove Street. After destroying the Voodoo and its passengers, CJ is instructed to drive back to Grove Street to the red marker in front of Sweet's house. Upon reaching it, another cut scene ensues where Ryder and Sweet get out of the car, but Big Smoke asks CJ to drive him home, so the last part of the mission is CJ driving Big Smoke to his house in Idlewood (in Ballas gang territory, by the way), while discussing why Big Smoke didn't shoot at the Ballas earlier. Upon reaching Big Smoke's house, the mission is passed. A couple of interesting things happen after this mission is passed. First, not one but *two* new red markers open up to set up future missions. This is our first *branch point*. CJ could go to the marker at Sweet's house (labelled S on the map) or to the marker at Big Smoke's house (labelled BS on the map) for the next mission. He has a choice of which mission he does next, so he is no longer forced to do the missions in the exact order that I will describe. I will describe the Sweet mission series before the Big Smoke mission series, but it doesn't have to be done that way. Also, when CJ gets out of the car after passing the mission, he gets a cellphone call from Sweet telling him he needs to build up some muscle by working out at the Gym across from the far end of Grove Street. This gym has actually been open since the beginning of the game, but there are glitches with it in mobile mode. Anyway, there is a martial arts ring in that gym that lets CJ learn "a new move". Similar gyms in San Fierro and Las Venturas to be encountered much later in the story progression will also teach CJ "new moves". Since I don't like hand-to-hand fighting, I don't find these gyms too useful, although there is a story mission later that tries to force CJ to fight hand-to-hand, and "stealth mode" is useful for that mission, although there are other ways to get around that mission without fighting hand-to-hand as the developers want CJ to do. I will discuss those issues when I get to that particular mission. By this time, you should be getting a little suspicious of Big Smoke. He dresses in green, but he lives in a house in Ballas territory and he didn't shoot at the Ballas in the Drive-Thru mission. He also defends the drug trade as a way of making money, something Sweet is deeply opposed to. Furthermore, he did everything he could to stop Ryder from discussing the Green Sabre killing of CJ's mother. When you do Big Smoke's series of missions, you will learn even more about Big Smoke's connections. But I will discuss the remaining Sweet series missions first, although they don't have to be done before the Big Smoke missions. Reply #34. Nov 22 23, 5:43 PM |
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Chapter 27 - Obtaining the Damageproof Tampa The fifth story mission is called Nines and AKs. But before I discuss how to pass that mission (it is quite easy), I want to discuss how to deliberately fail the mission in a very special way so as to obtain a vehicle known as the "Damageproof" or "Allproof" Tampa. In the game of GTA San Andreas, occasionally, during certain missions, special vehicles appear which have properties not obtainable elsewhere in the game. The Nines and AKs mission features a so-called "damageproof" or "Allproof" Tampa, which is an otherwise ordinary two-door car. It isn't actually totally damageproof, but as close as you can get to it in the game, and I will go through why it has that moniker. Other damageproof vehicles will appear in other missions later in the game. First, it is bulletproof. You can shoot at it all day (even aiming directly at the gas tank) without it taking damage or exploding, and if CJ is inside it, he can't be hurt by enemy fire. Two small limitations here: the tires can be shot out, making driving difficult, and the windshield can be shot out, but no other part of the car can take any damage from gunfire, even the minigun. And the tires and windshield will repair just by putting the car in a garage, letting the door close, and then letting the door reopen. Second, the car is explosion-proof. Grenades, sticky bombs, and rocket launchers do no damage to the car. Another exploding vehicle right next to it will also do no damage to it either. Third, the car is impact-proof. You can drive it into walls and barriers all you want, even at high speed, and the car takes no damage. Even trying to smash it with a chainsaw or other melee weapon does no damage to the car, no matter how long you pound at it. Fourth, the car is fireproof. Flamethrowers and Molotov cocktails do not affect the car from the outside, nor does driving through actively burning areas. One limitation here: flames *inside* the vehicle can destroy it by explosion. Fireproof CJ can catch on fire while taking no damage, but if he enters a damageproof vehicle *while* he is on fire, the vehicle will catch fire and explode, killing CJ. So make sure all flames on CJ have stopped before entering a damageproof vehicle, as it cannot be damaged from flames from the outside. For completion's sake, I will also list the few other ways the "damageproof" vehicles may be destroyed: driving them into deep water, flipping them upside down with no way to get them rightside again (this causes the vehicle to burst into flames and then explode after a few seconds of being upside down.) Wedging them somewhere where they become sick and can't pull out. Despite those few limitations, a damageproof vehicle is easily maintained in its pristine state. It can even go through PayNSprays and car modifications and retain its damageproof properties. However, using a damageproof vehicle in an actual mission can, upon successful mission completion (if CJ is in the car when the mission is successfully completed), sometimes cause the vehicle to lose its damageproof properties due to glitches, so I use damageproof vehicles only in free roam mode, or only briefly during a mission, making certain to always have the vehicle safely stored away in a garage before reaching mission completion. In most missions where a damageproof vehicle appears, as in this one (Nines and AKs), getting the vehicle isn't easy. You can't just get into the vehicle in the middle of the mission and drive off most times. Obtaining a damageproof vehicle in a mission usually involves a complex procedure that must be performed correctly, and often performing that procedure correctly (as in this case) requires that the mission itself be failed. If the procedure is not followed properly, then either the damageproof vehicle somehow loses it's magical properties, is destroyed, or simply disappears suddenly. So in the mission Nines and AKs, the damageproof vehicle appears on Emmett's lot where he will have CJ destroy the vehicle with gunshots to the gas tank if you do the mission the way it is supposed to be done. Obviously, we don't want CJ to shoot the gas tank here. But before that shooting is supposed to occur, the doors of the Tampa are locked, so CJ can't just get into the car. If CJ tows the Tampa to one of his garages to store it and then returns to complete the mission (another Tampa will spawn in its place), he will discover after the mission that either the Tampa he thought he had stored away in a garage isn't there (mysteriously disappeared), or it will have lost its damageproof properties and will just be an ordinary Tampa. For the Tampa to have its properties intact, it must be destroyed *and* regenerated *with mission failure* in CJ's viewfield at the time - a tall order. So now I will take the time to carefully explain the correct procedure needed to obtain the damageproof Tampa from this mission. First, *before* even starting the mission, make sure that you have *completely emptied* the Johnson Family House garage. You don't want even one vehicle in there. Any vehicles you took out so that you can get the Tampa you can always put back later (subject to four vehicle maximum garage capacity) by moving vehicles you really want to other garages. And it needs to be the Johnson Family House garage for this purpose, as other garages are too distant from Emmett's lot to be practical for getting the Tampa correctly. Once you have an empty Johnson Family House garage and are ready to start, enter the red marker in front of Sweet's house to trigger the start of the Nines and AKs mission. After the opening cut scene ends, CJ and Big Smoke are outside Sweet's house with Big Smoke's Glendale in front of them with instructions for CJ to get into the Glendale and drive to Emmett's lot. Do so. When CJ enters the Glendale, Big Smoke will also get in the car, on the passenger side. You are directed to drive to Emmett's lot, which is quite a number of blocks away. You will park Big Smoke's Glendale on the south side of Emmett's lot at the red marker that appears there. A cut scene will follow where CJ and Big Smoke exit the Glendale and go into the lot and meet Emmett. Big Smoke will take the first few shots, and when that cut scene ends, control will return to CJ, who will find himself holding an ordinary pistol with instructions to shoot at a bottle. This is a bit irritating, as in many missions, because the ordinary pistol replaces any other weapons in that slot CJ might have had before the mission, including the Desert Eagle. But it is what it is. You will have to replace your lost Desert Eagle later. Anyway, don't shoot at the bottle! Look around and you will see the Tampa. You can't get in it, but, with difficulty, you can manually push it out the alley to the *north* side of Emmett's garage (opposite where you parked Big Smoke's Glendale). You will need the Glendale, however, to get the Tampa. So you go to the south side and drive (because you can actually get in the Glendale) through the alley and park in *behind* the locked Tampa on the north side. Emmett and Big Smoke will just stay in the lot doing nothing all this time as long as you don't accidentally drive over one or the other of them or shoot at them or something that would only cause you trouble and possibly lead to premature mission failure before you can get the Tampa. So stay away from Emmett and Big Smoke here! They will just keep put. Once you have the Glendale behind the Tampa, drive the Glendale into the rear of the Tampa to push the Tampa forward. There are a few turns here, so from time to time, CJ must get out of the Glendale and go to the Tampa to push it so that it is aimed in the proper direction at all times. The goal is to push the Tampa all the way north to the cul de sac where the Johnson Family House garage is. Care must be taken so as not to kill pedestrians and get a wanted level, as a police chase here will make pushing the Tampa too difficult. Also, don't aggravate any Ballas gang members you may see for the same reason. Eventually, you will have both the Tampa and Big Smoke's Glendale outside the Johnson Family House garage. You need *both* vehicles in that garage for this procedure to work. The Glendale is needed so that the mission can be failed at the proper time. You see, the mission cannot be passed until CJ drives Big Smoke back to his house in the Glendale at the end. The Glendale is therefore a *mission essential* vehicle in this case, which is important. Very slowly, while driving the Glendale behind the Tampa, you push the Tampa all the way into the garage first. You may have to get out of the Glendale briefly when the Tampa is at the garage door to get the garage door to open. Once the Tampa is completely in the garage, then drive the Glendale to the side of it, also completely in the garage. Then have CJ get out and switch your weapons slots so that CJ is wearing a parachute (Why? Oddly, having CJ wear a parachute helps CJ survive the explosion that is about to happen. The parachute doesn't protect fully, as CJ will take a lot of damage, but he will survive, provided he had full health and body armor before the mission). Anyway, have CJ jump onto the hood of the Tampa and start stomping on the Tampa. At this point of the mission, the Tampa isn't damageproof yet, which is why CJ could destroy it by shooting out the gas tank if the mission were performed as designed, but he can't shoot out the gas tank here because he doesn't have the angle to it in the cramped garage, so he has to stomp on the hood to damage the Tampa until in catches fire. As soon as the flames appear, as quickly as you can, have CJ get off the Tampa and run to the front of the Glendale, making sure CJ is still *inside* the garage, because you don't want the garage door to close too early and have your precious Tampa mysteriously disappear. When the Tampa explodes, CJ will take a lot of damage, but he will survive. He will probably lose all his body armor and much of his health. The explosion of the Tampa will cause the Glendale next to it to also catch fire. The explosion of the Tampa may have blown CJ out of the garage. If not, have CJ now move to the outside of the garage but close enough to the door that the door won't close, so CJ can view the second explosion, that of the Glendale. When the Glendale explodes, the "Mission Failed" message will appear on the screen. The mission was failed (intentionally, of course) because the Glendale was a mission essential vehicle and so its destruction automatically fails the mission. It was critical that the Glendale be destroyed *after* the Tampa. Now the destroyed hulks of both the Tampa and the Glendale are in CJ's full view. He takes a step or two backwards from the garage so that the garage door closes, then immediately takes a step or two forwards so that the garage door reopens, and when it does, a fully regenerated and intact Tampa and Glendale are side-by-side inside the garage. You don't care about the Glendale now, so drive it out of the garage to make room for other vehicles you might want to save there. But as for the Tampa, you will discover two things: One, the doors are now unlocked so CJ can get into the Tampa and drive it, and Two, the Tampa is now damageproof (the explosion and regeneration while in CJ's view, combined with the mission failure, gave it those properties). CJ can drive the Tampa out of the garage if he wants now and test its damageproof properties, but eventually he will want to save it in the garage. CJ is now the proud owner of a damageproof Tampa! There are a few things CJ may want to do now. He may want to go refill his depleted body armor and health and switch out his weapons slot away from the parachute, maybe even replace the ordinary pistol he now has with something better like a Desert Eagle (with much-reduced ammo, unfortunately). CJ will notice that a red marker has formed in front of Sweet's house. That is the same red marker for the start of the fourth mission, Nines and AKs. It is the same red marker because he failed the mission when the Glendale exploded, so the same mission becomes available again. Remember: *failing* a mission allows you to repeat it, but if you *pass* a mission*, in most cases, you can't repeat a mission you passed (there are a few exceptions, but Nines and AKs isn't one of them, so if you passed that mission, you would permanently lose your opportunity to get the damageproof Tampa, which is why I discussed *failing* the mission first.) Theoretically, you could move your damageproof Tampa to another garage, clear the Johnson Family House garage, then repeat another mission failure to get another damageproof Tampa. But since there are other damageproof vehicles later in the story mission sequence, you probably don't want to do that. Anyway, take a break for awhile, enjoy your damageproof Tampa, and eventually, when you are ready, you can redo the Nines and AKs mission with the intent of actually passing it. Next time. Reply #35. Nov 28 23, 2:10 PM |
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Chapter 28 - Nines and AKs OK. We're actually going to pass the mission this time, now that the damageproof Tampa is safely in the garage. CJ steps into the red marker in front of Sweet's house to start the mission, and the opening cut scene finds Sweet lamenting to Big Smoke that the Grove Street Families gang is hopelessly outgunned by the enemy gangs. CJ suggests that an old friend of the GSF, Emmett, might be able to help, but Big Smoke is decidedly unenthusiastic. Nevertheless, CJ convinces Big Smoke to go with him to visit Emmett. When the cut scene ends, CJ and Big Smoke are outside Sweet's house and Big Smoke's Glendale (which is not ordinarily there) is parked in the cul de sac. The Glendale, as pointed out in the last post, is a *mission essential* vehicle for this particular mission. Big Smoke will not travel in any other vehicle this mission. If CJ were to get out of the Glendale before reaching his destination, Big Smoke would yell "Get in!" at CJ and would just sit in the passenger seat of the Glendale and not move. CJ could run off, of course, but Big Smoke would not follow him. He would just sit there until CJ returns. Upon reaching the red marker outside Emmett's lot, another cut scene follows where CJ and Big Smoke get out of the car and go to meet Emmett, who is old and slightly senile. He shows them his paltry inventory of weapons, which impresses neither of them, and then they do a sort of tutorial on how to fire the ordinary pistol (which will replace any other pistol that may have been in that slot before the mission began.) Big Smoke goes first and shoots out one glass bottle. Control returns to CJ who is instructed to shoot at his one glass bottle with the pistol. If CJ were to kill either Big Smoke or Emmett (which could be done), the mission would automatically fail. So shoot the bottle. Another cut scene follows where Big Smoke shoots out three bottles. Then CJ is instructed to shoot out three bottles. Do so. It's very easy as the pistol, like most weapons in the game, has a default automatic aim feature which is very handy. Another cut scene follows where Big Smoke demonstrates the roll and crouch maneuvers, then shoots out five bottles. Once again, CJ is instructed to do the same. He doesn't actually have to do the roll and crouch to move to the last step, but you may as well practice it. After shooting out the five bottles, another cut scene shows how to use the manual aim feature on the pistol to shoot out the cap of the gas tank of the Tampa, which would cause the Tampa to explode. (One shot on the gas tank will cause *any* ordinary vehicle to explode, but manual aim is tricky.) To use manual aim, while pressing the fire button, a finger must be on the *right* side of the screen to adjust the aim. When CJ shoots out the gas tank and destroys the Tampa, Emmett congratulates CJ and Big Smoke and tells them to come back anytime to get more weapons from him. When that cut scene ends, CJ is instructed to drive Big Smoke back to his house in his Glendale. After doing so, the mission surprisingly does not end yet. CJ must get out of the Glendale to trigger the last part (the Glendale is now no longer mission essential, though CJ could drive it (or any other vehicle) if he wants.) CJ gets a cellphone call from Sweet after getting out of the Glendale telling him he needs to "some some greens" (green colored GSF gang clothes) at the Binco at the far end of Grove Street. A red marker will appear out in front of the Binco. Up to this point in the game, all the clothing stores in San Andreas have been closed and inaccessible, so CJ was stuck in his default white tank top, blue jeans, and old tennis shoes he was in at the start of the game. I have CJ go to the beach pickup point to switch out his ordinary pistol for a Desert Eagle *before* heading to the Binco. When he arrives at the marker, he may enter the Binco to buy some clothes. Binco is the cheapest of the various clothes stores. You only need to buy one item to finish the mission, but I have CJ buy a green shirt, green jeans, and white high top sneakers at this point. *Before* leaving the store, I have CJ switch to the active SMG slot. When CJ steps out of the Binco, a "Mission Passed" notice appears. This is really a pretty useless mission, except for the damageproof Tampa I mentioned last time. You never see Emmett again in the rest of the game! If you return to his lot, there is nothing there except a new pickup point for an ordinary pistol, but there already was a pickup point for an ordinary pistol in the corner of the near end of Grove Street from the very beginning of the game, so the additional pickup point for such a low tier weapon doesn't do much. You will find that having CJ wear green does improve his respect and sex appeal stats, however. Anyway, take your time, maybe build up some more Desert Eagle ammo, before heading to the new red marker outside Sweet's house for the sixth story mission (I will finish the Sweet string before going to the Big Smoke string.) Reply #36. Nov 30 23, 12:18 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 29 - Exploits and What to do with them A little clarification from the last Chapter first: at the end of Nines and AKs, only certain clothing stores are open for business: the lower end stores, Binco, SubUrban, and ProLaps. The middle and higher end stores remain closed. Those are, in order of costliness: Zip, Victim, and Didier Sachs. Each of these three will open at different times further along in the story progression of the game. The sixth mission is our first opportunity for an Exploit. There are many missions where CJ can leave the scene of action indefinitely and do other things, then come back to the action when he wants to. Not all missions are like this. Some missions are timed and will fail if not completed by the time limit. Others fail automatically if CJ leaves the scene of action. But simply being able to leave the scene of action of a mission indefinitely does not, by itself, constitute an Exploit. CJ could leave the recently completed mission Nines and AKs, but he was still subject to wanted levels, especially if he visited "locked islands", where he would get an automatic four star wanted level. No, the criteria for an Exploit is twofold: Being able to leave the scene of action of a mission indefinitely *and* a suspension of normal wanted level rules, even in the locked islands. Not all Exploits are equal, however. Some are easier to "engage" than others and some have more "amenities" available than others. I will discuss such differences as I reach the different Exploits in the game. The sixth story mission, Drive-by (not to be confused with Drive-thru, which was *not* an Exploit), is our first Exploit opportunity, and it happens to be a great one: very easy to access, with the maximum possible "amenities" (which I will describe), and easy to get out of as well. So let's describe Drive-by as an Exploit. Entering the red marker in front of Sweet's house starts a cut scene where the boys (CJ, Sweet, Big Smoke, and Ryder, all decide to go into Ballas territory together in Sweet's car (a Greenwood parked in the cul de sac in front of Sweet's house) for a drive-by shooting. When the cut scene ends, the three other guys get in the car and tell CJ to get in as well to be their driver (as usual). All you have to do to access the Exploit is *NOT enter Sweet's car*. The other three will just sit in the car indefinitely waiting on you, no matter how long you take. Now as you leave the scene, maybe jack another car, things look pretty normal at first glance, but if you pay careful attention, you won't see any cops, not on street patrol, nor in police cars or motorcycles. If you intentionally commit a crime that would normally earn a wanted level and attract police, nothing will happen. Killing lots of pedestrians, blowing up vehicles, nothing! If you go to an actual police station, you will see cops in the station, but they don't behave quite normally. There is no wanted level for entering the station or police parking garage while armed. Even shooting cops in the station doesn't earn a wanted level. The cops will shoot at you inside if you shoot at them, but if you leave the station, there is no wanted level and the cops won't chase you. The bridges to the locked islands are still closed, but if you enter the locked islands, there is no four star wanted level, or any wanted level at all. You can't even provoke one. You can get shot at with missiles if you fly over Area 69, but still no wanted level, and once you're clear of the area, there are no further missles or pursuit by the Hydra planes that would normally occur in the locked islands. You are free to do whatever you want in the locked islands, enter businesses that are open, even casinos in Las Venturas and gamble if you want, the first opportunity for casino gambling in the game. If you had not collected snapshots or oysters by four star raids as previously described, it is easily done in an exploit. And the horseshoes in Las Venturas can also be collected in an exploit. I did not try to do those by four star raids because there are a few which are virtually impossible to obtain with an active police pursuit because they are at elevation and cannot be reached by climbing. The ideal way to collect those difficult horseshoes is by the jetpack, but the jetpack is not available this early in the game, and planes cannot reach the tight spots they are found in, so your second-best option to collect difficult horseshoes is by using a small helicopter like a Sea Sparrow (which you could have obtained for your Mulholland garage "In The Beginning", if you were able to follow my advice then, or just pick one up in the Exploit by going to its spawn site just south of the dam in the desert.) There are a couple of difficult horseshoes balanced on billboards. You can carefully land a Sea Sparrow on top of the billboards and get out to fall onto the catwalk where the horseshoe is. You can't get back up to the copter, though, so you must jump to the ground after picking up your horseshoe, which loses your Sea Sparrow, so you have to go back to the spawn site to replace it. This is time consuming, but it will work and you can eventually get all 50 horseshoes. The reward for that is money, a max stat of 1000 in "Luck", and four weapons that spawn outside the door at the Four Dragons Casino: an SMG, an M-4, a combat shotgun, and a satchel charge ("sticky bomb"). There is no need to get all 50 in one session, however. You can do as much as you want, then close the exploit and save your progress at a safehouse, then repeat the exploit to collect more. The same idea works for snapshots and oysters as well if you hadn't already gotten them. How do "close an exploit", you may ask? Well, in order to try again, you will need to fail the Drive-by mission. I thought originally that to do that you would go back to Grove Street and find the Greenwood where Sweet, Big Smoke, and Ryder have been unmoving the entire time you have been on the Exploit for however long, and destroy the Greenwood. That will work, but it is actually simpler to exit the Exploit and fail the mission than that. All you have to do is go back to Grove Street, enter the Greenwood you avoided entering to start the Exploit, then immediately get out again and run off. After a few seconds, a "Mission Failed" message will appear. You can now go to a safe house and save your progress and then try the Exploit again to do more by repeating the same procedure. Eventually, you can get *all* the collectibles, even all the difficult horseshoes. You can also work on maximizing your casino gambling skills during the Exploit. That is a bit tricky, so let me describe what you need to do. The Four Dragons Casino is the best casino for this Exploit, as it is the most southerly casino. You enter the casino the first time as a beginner, so you won't be able to gamble at any tables with over a $100 bet maximum. You may not even be able to find a $100 table, so what do you do? You exit the casino and immediately reenter. You will find that the tables reset their limits when you exited and reentered. If you still can't bring a $100 table, repeat the exit and reenter trick and look again. Eventually a $100 table will be open. There are also slot machines available, but it is faster to maximize gambling skills at the table games of roulette or blackjack, (I prefer blackjack.) When you find a $100 table, you bet the maximum each round. Whether you win or lose is not particularly important, as, if you followed my Chapter 2 advice, you are a millionaire from horse race betting, and you can afford the losses. Anyway, after a few hands (about 5-7 or so), a message will appear stating your casino credit has increased and you may now gamble at $1000 max bet tables. At this point you leave your $100 table and go to a $1000 table if available. If it is not available, you do the exit and reenter the casino trick as many times as needed until a $1000 table appears and then you go to that table and bet the max for every hand, win or lose, for another 5-7 rounds until you get another message saying your casino credit has been increased to $10,000. Now you leave your $1000 table and go to a $10,000 table if available and, if not, you do the exit/reenter trick until a $10,000 table appears. If you check your gambling stat at this point, you will be at only 1%. You then bet the max $10,000 for another 5-7 rounds, and you now will notice your gambling stat increasing with each bet. When your next notice that your casino credit has been increased again, this time it will be as a high roller with a $100,000 table max limit. Your gambling stat at this point is about 10%. You leave the $10,000 table and go to a $100,000 table if available, and, if not, repeat the exit/reenter trick until a $100,000 table becomes available. Again, you bet the max $100,000 (win or lose) for another 5-7 rounds, and you will now notice *big* jumps in your gambling stat with each bet. After the 5-7 rounds, your gambling stat will hit 100% and you will get a last message telling you that you are now a "whale" and your casino credit limit has now been increased to $1,000,000 per round. You can then look for a $1,000,000 table if you want, or "create" one by the exit/reenter trick, but at this point it really isn't necessary as your gambling stat has now maxed out. The $1,000,000 limit is as high as it goes and you can now gamble at any table at any casino whenever you want (provided you properly exit the Exploit and save your progress when you are done.) There are other things you can do on Exploits, like multiple high-end weapons collection runs, that you can spend time on. You may end up doing as I did, and doing the Drive-by Exploit 30-something times, saving after each Exploit, until you finally think you've done as much as you want to and decide you actually want to pass the Drive-by mission. That's a big anticlimax, but I'll describe that next time. Hopefully by this point, you've finished all your collectibles (gang tags, snapshots, oysters, and horseshoes), done all 70 unique jumps (though those aren't required for 100% competition of the game), and loaded up on all the weapons you possibly could want (while keeping a Sea Sparrow helicopter at your Mulholland garage.) What *can't* you do on an Exploit? Well, since you are technically on a mission during an Exploit, you can't do any other missions, story or side, nor can you meet or date girlfriends. Reply #37. Dec 04 23, 7:20 PM |
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Chapter 30 - Drive-by I would not do this mission to pass until I had fully taken advantage of everything one could possibly do with Exploits first, particularly finishing *all* collectables - gang tag sprays, snapshots, oysters, and horseshoes. I would also amass a truly massive arsenal of difficult-to-obtain weapons such as the minigun and the combat shotgun and maximize all of CJ's skills. 69 of the 70 Unique Jumps can also be completed (the one which can't is the Gant Bridge Jump in San Fierro, where an "invisible wall" blocks your attempt and that "wall" won't go away until late in the story missions when the third island (Desert and Las Venturas) is finally unlocked with the Yay Kaboom Boom mission.) But let's assume all that is done and one is ready to actually pass Drive-by. After entering the red marker in front of Sweet's house, another cut scene describes the group's hostility toward the Ballas gang, and they decide to take it to them, with CJ driving again, of course. This time, CJ gets into the Greenwood that Sweet, Big Smoke, and Ryder got into and drives the group up into Ballas gang territory in North LS. Again, I would not have CJ shoot here, but focus on driving and let the others do the shooting. CJ needs to keep moving at all times - Don't stop! He can actually run over quite a few of the Ballas as long as he avoids running into walls or other vehicles and keeps driving through. If his car starts to smoke - even a little - divert to the PayNSpray south of the freeway to fix the damage immediately. There's no big hurry here. CJ *can* briefly get out of the car, but I wouldn't recommend it - it isn't necessary. Also, if CJ gets more than one wanted star, that is cause for diverting to the PayNSpray to clear it. The mission will require going there at least once anyway - it won't hurt to go there two or three times. After all the Ballas with red arrows over their heads have been killed and all wanted levels cleared, CJ drives the group back to finish the mission. Getting anyone in the group killed, getting the Greenwood car destroyed, getting wasted or busted, or straying too far from the Greenwood after first entering it or being out of the car for too long will all cause mission failure, but all those things are rather easily avoidable. Once the mission is passed, of course, that mission (and the Exploit associated with it) can not be replayed, but there are other Exploits associated with future story missions I will describe when I get to them. Reply #38. Dec 10 23, 8:03 PM |
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Chapter 31 - Sweet's Girl At the end of the previous mission (Drive-by), there are now *three* red markers on the map: the one in front of Sweet's house, the one in front of Big Smoke's house, and now there is also a red marker in front of Ryder's house. So we have reached another branch point in the missions. The player may choose to continue with the Sweet line of missions, or start the Big Smoke line, or even start the newly opened Ryder line of missions. I will continue with the Sweet line, as I had mentioned earlier, and the eighth mission is the next Sweet mission: Sweet's Girl. Upon entering the red marker in front of Sweet's house, a cut scene shows CJ in Sweet's house looking for his friends, but the house is empty. He steps outside to get a cellphone call from Sweet who tells him he was seeing a girlfriend in some apartments in Seville Boulevard territory (Southeast LS) when he came under attack by Seville Boulevard gang members and he needs CJ to drive him out of there. When the cut scene ends and control returns to CJ, there is a marker in the right of the screen showing "Sweet's Health", which is slowly decreasing. If that marker were allowed to go all the way to zero, Sweet would die and the mission would fail, so there is some urgency to this mission - CJ can't just run off for an indefinite period of time. Sweet had told CJ to go to Emmett's if he needed heat, but it is best to have CJ heavily armed before even starting this mission. In fact, if CJ is loaded up with the minigun as I would have him, this mission becomes ridiculously easy. CJ can get any car to go to the Seville Boulevard apartments, but it is best to choose a two-door one, as both Sweet and his girlfriend need to be rescued. I would have CJ park his ride a block or so away from the red marker at the apartments and come in on foot armed with his heaviest weapons (in my case, the minigun). The gangsters firing at CJ will be dressed in green and look exactly like Grove Street Families gang members, but they are actually the enemies in this mission, as the Seville Boulevard families (like the Temple Drive families) were formerly allied with the GSF but broke with them. Anyway, even though CJ can't sprint with the minigun, he can make quick work of all them with a minigun. With other weapons, it may take more time to kill them all. The minigun will also likely destroy the vehicle parked in the red marker, which is why I advised CJ parking his vehicle a little away from that site. After killing all the Seville Boulevard gang members, CJ can run back to his vehicle (or jack another one), then drive it into the red marker, and another cut scene will follow showing Sweet and his girlfriend running to get into whatever vehicle CJ is in at the red marker (provided it will hold both of them - if not, CJ will be instructed to get a different vehicle), then it will show several Seville Boulevard gang cars headed straight at them, guns firing. When the cut scene ends and control returns to CJ, there now will be a stat in he right of the screen saying "Car Health" and my advice is that CJ start up *in reverse* since if he goes forwards, the cars in front will ram him and possibly pin him and prevent him from moving until they've destroyed the car. But by reversing, spinning, and then driving out at full speed, CJ can avoid getting trapped by the pursuing cars and get out in front of them. Sweet will shoot at them as CJ drives. All he has to do to pass the mission at this point is get back to the red marker in front of Sweet's house without getting his car destroyed or anyone killed. If CJ gets out of his car, Sweet and his girlfriend will also get out, so they can change cars if necessary, but that probably won't be needed. Once reaching the red marker, there is an ending cut scene, followed by a Mission Passed notice, and then a new red marker appears outside of Sweet's house for the upcoming ninth mission. No hurry though.Take your time to refill CJ's body armor, health, and get more weapons before moving on. Maybe even buy more clothes. Green baseball caps and green high top sneakers, if not already purchased, are available at ProLaps in western LS. Reply #39. Dec 13 23, 5:28 PM |
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Chapter 32 - Cesar Vialpando Stepping into the red marker in front of Sweet's house starts a cut scene where CJ's sister Kendl introduces her boyfriend Cesar Vialpando, a Hispanic leader of the Varrios Los Aztecas gang. Sweet hates Cesar, but CJ is withholding judgment on him for now. The Varrios Los Aztecas gang members wear light blue, and despite the fact that CJ becomes friends with their leader Cesar, they will start shooting at CJ if he hangs around in their territory for too long. When gang wars become possible a bit later in the story progression, the Varrios Los Aztecas territories are unavailable for CJ to conquer. They will eventually be taken over for most of the game by the Vagos gang (also Hispanic), but I am getting ahead of myself in this story. Anyway, when the cut scene ends, CJ is instructed to drive to the garage in Willowfield. It doesn't matter what vehicle CJ chooses to take there, as it will need to be replaced by the Blade that CJ is given when he arrives at the garage, called Loco Low. Loco Low is the first of the car modification garages to open in the game. Loco Low specializes in lowrider cars, and will not accept non-lowrider models. The lowrider vehicles include the Blade (which CJ is given), Remington, Slamvan, and a few other models. CJ is asked to pull into the shop to make some modifications on the Blade he is given. You can do anything you want, but since I don't really want to keep this car after the mission is complete, I don't do much with it, just buy some nitrous oxide, which allows the car to have extra bursts of speed, but that isn't necessary for this mission, as the car is needed to compete in a lowrider bounce competition, and it already had hydraulics installed in it when it was given to CJ. The Blade is mission essential, though, so destroying it fails the mission, which cannot be passed without the Blade. CJ will then drive the Blade to the Unity Station (train station parking lot), where the Aztecas are holding their bounce competition. CJ is asked to make a bet and then the music starts and CJ must press the buttons that appear on the screen to match with the rolling symbols that are passing by with the music. This is essentially the same as a dance competition at one of the dance halls, such as the Alhambra in LS. Dance competitions are available from the start of the game and are useful to practice for this mission, as good timing is essential. On the mobile phone, I find both dance competitions and this mission quite difficult. It takes quite a bit of practice to get the timing right and failing this mission and having to redo it can be quite frustrating, but it eventually can be done. If CJ attacks anyone in the parking lot (or their cars), the mission is automatically failed, so CJ can't win by "taking out the competition". If CJ achieves the necessary minimum score, he will pass the mission. If not, he will be informed he failed and loses whatever he bet and would have to repeat the mission. If he wins, he gets twice what he bet. As money is not important to me here, I usually bet the minimum ($50) and win $100 when the mission is passed. After passing the mission, another cut scene follows where CJ and Cesar become friends. After the mission, CJ receives a cellphone call from Cesar about lowrider street racing which CJ is invited to. This appears on the map as a CV and a red marker appears in front of Cesar's house for this Cesar mission. At this point, the Sweet mission sequence is suspended temporarily. No marker appears in front of Sweet's house, and there are three markers: one for the Big Smoke series of missions, one for the Ryder series of missions, and one for the Cesar Vialpando mission that just opened up. The player can do these in any order, of course, but I will follow the Big Smoke series next, so the next mission I describe will be the first of the Big Smoke series, entitled OG Loc. No hurry, though. Take your time and arm up some more before moving on. The Loco Low garage is now open for lowrider mods, and in western LS, the TransFender garage now opens for modification of most other makes of cars, especially the super fast sports cars like the Infernus, Cheetah, and Banshee models that I always save in my garages, so at this time I will get the cars I want modded to the colors I want them to have, and put nitro on the cars to really make them even faster. You can put in hydraulics, but I am not really a fan of that, so I don't unless it is mission essential. Reply #40. Dec 26 23, 4:59 PM |
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