Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Tips and Tricks

[SegaAges]

This thread is setup for people that have found tips and tricks in the game, or know of them, without using codes. Hopefully we can keep the topic like this for as long as possible. I will start with a good money trick I found out about on the net that I used to go from about $1500 to $24.6 mil in about an hour (real time, not, gta time):

go to the horse betting place, put all of your money on the 12-1 horse (sometimes it is 11-1). If you lose, simply reload, and try again. If you win, go save the game. Keep doing this, and everytime you win, you will get 11 to 12 times the amount of money you have and that will be added to the money you already have.

The last mission I got through was the ddr-type mission, and I am sitting on 24.6 mil with no codes entered yet.

Health trick:
this is something that was used in vice city and I am pretty sure it was used in 3: if you are low on health, go to a safe house, go to your save point. I always save at the save point, so I can't vouch whether this works when you don't save, but it will always fill your health.

[jerkov]

Slightly off-topic, but someone may be able to help: I can't find the Euros (a sports car). I tried checking on the Gamefaqs board, where idiocy runs rampant, and they all say to check under the sphinx in Las Venturas, but I see no cars parked under there at all. Anyone find this car, and does anyone have a SPECIFIC location?

[SMB]

If you have police on your tail and you want them off, go to your save house,save, and walk outside. The copcars and/or bikes will there(abandoned).

Right now I am almost done with the San Fiero(the baron land).

Can anyone tell me how much I have left of it? I just finished the valet parking for the D.A(had to plant drugs in his car).

[DigitalSpace]

If an area of your gang territory is under attack and you don't want to fight them off, just go to a safe house and save your game, and you'll keep the area.

Need to access a safe house/fast food restraunt/etc. but don't want to deal with an enemy gang hanging out near it? Try driving around a block or two and then come back. They might not be around. This might help if you're low on health and concerned about getting wasted if they shoot at you.

[Neil Koch]

A good way to get cash> look for the drug dealers... either white guys with hoodies or black guys with big dookie chans in black jeans... they stand around with their arms crossed. If you shoot them, they usually drop a couple of thousand bucks and some ammo. Go into the Ballas terriotory (north of the Johnson house) and there will usually be one on every block.

Easy way to do Vigilante missions> grab a police car and drive to the Cluckin Bell north of the Johnson house. Start the missions (hit R3) and wait for the message about "suspects seen in..." to pop up. Go into Cluckin Bell and wait about 10-20 seconds. The suspects should automatically be killed. Exit Cluckin Bell and get back into the police car and repeat until you get to level 12.

There's a shitload of weapons right by the Johnson house... 45, brass knuckles, shovel, body armor and mini SMGs are right there. If you grab that shit, a LOT of the missions in Los Santos are a piece of cake.

Keep your fat high... you might look like shit, but you will take less damage. You can eat 6 big meals a day without puking, and if your muscle is maxed, any fat isn't going to affect your foot speed.

The horse racing thing is also good... there's a save house close to downtown so you can save and try betting on the 10 or 12-1 horse and then simply restart if you lose. You only really need a few hundred thousand to buy every property.

Personally, I saved outside of the Four Dragons and played blackjack. If you play enough, you can bet a million bucks on each hand. Double down on 14/15 and stand on 16/17 and you'll eventually break the house... I have about $24 million right now.

If you want to build up your weapon profiecieny, go to Wildwood. There is a AmmuNation and a save house within 2 blocks of each other. Just hop into AmmuNation to grab the weapon you want to get good at and some armor... once you get 4 or 5 stars, head back to the save house and save to get rid of the stars. Remember that shooting at vehicles (even when no one's on them) will increase your proficiency and that helps.

To do the 50 Taxi pickups, go to the strip in Las Venturas... most of the fares will be right on the strip.

To get into the airports before you have a license, park a bigger car next to the gate and simply climb up on there and jump over the gate.

You can turn off the SAMS/5 star rating that you get from going into military areas by sneaking into the "restricted area" in the desert. Use the jet pack to drop in on the central roof and there's a switch in the main building.

If you're looking for a particular car for the garages, drive around with a "generic" vehicle like a Taxi.

[THXII38]

you can pass your boat test early in the game, by swimming north to the boat school, it will appear on your map after you pass driving school.

You don't trigger a security alert, as long as you stay on the jetty, and don't stray onto land. There is a helicopter there.

[SegaAges]

taking over gang territory easily:
this is what I did to takeover the territory just east of downtown los santos.

find a secluded spot where the gang can only come at you from 1 side. walk out of the spot and shoot enemy gang members until a gang war has been provoked. run back into that spot, crouch down, and pick them off as they come at you. it sounds super simple and it is. when i took over the territory just east of downtown los santos, i used the garage at the house just left of the safehouse. guys came up the driveway and i picked them off as they came up. some went to the back alley right behind the house, and i tossed some grenades back there to take care of them.

in the mission where you takeover glen park, i went to the little archway under the bridge in the middle. i was facing right (if looking at the lake) and all of the guys came from that side except for 1 or 2. if you try to just run and gun, you will get surrounded and get picked off. shotguns are not recommended, but machine guns are highly recommended. i haven't tried this beyond getting these 2 territories, but it has worked so far, so i don't see why it wouldn't work at other places

[Ninja Blacksox]

Gee!

Thanks Sony!

Because you made such a HORRIBLY MADE SYSTEM, I can't complete GTA: SA!

Awesome!

-A Boy

[SegaAges]

are you getting disc read errors or something?

i have a friend who is having the same problems. my problem is that it says i am having controller issues, which means that my second 1st party ps2 controller is going out. that sux because my other controller is the street fighter 2 edition and it doesn't have the dual joysticks that are needed for gta:sa

[DaBargainHunta]

my problem is that it says i am having controller issues, which means that my second 1st party ps2 controller is going out. that sux
Are you getting those "the controller has been disconnected" errors? I had the same problem and my third - yes, third - 1st Party PS2 controller finally went completely haywire on me last week. I posted a thread asking for advice on a suitable replacement other than the Sony 1st Party controller (LINK (http://www.digitpress.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=474046)), and most of the people who responded advised me to go with the Logitech Wireless. I got it in the mail over the weekend, and it ROCKS! You should definitely consider it. It's a bit more expensive, but it's worth it. Just make sure you get the newer "Action" version of the controller (Logitech also has an older wireless controller that isn't as good).

[petewhitley]

Can anyone tell me how much I have left of it? I just finished the valet parking for the D.A(had to plant drugs in his car).

Though you've probably made some progress since that post, that's approx. 50% through the story missions.

[SegaAges]

yes, this will be controller 2 that will be going out.

now let's stay on topic.

um, i have 2 more missions until san fiero is unlocked, so i am going to try and conquer all of the gang territory using my tactic in los santos. i will let you guys know how well it works with all of the los santos places

[DaBargainHunta]

yes, this will be controller 2 that will be going out.

now let's stay on topic.
Erm, *you're* the one who strayed off-topic in the first place. ;)

Anyway, I'm still early in the game, but here's a good tip courtesy of my friend: In the races, you don't necessarily have to be a speed demon to win. Take your time and try not to crash. The other people in the race will crash from time to time, which is very helpful, so just keep your cool and you'll end up sailing ahead of the pack. I just beat the first lowrider race using this advice.

[petewhitley]

Speaking of "tips", is it just me or has Rockstar done a pretty good job of removing alot of the opportunities to cheese your way through a difficult mission. I remember in Vice City and moreso in GTA III doing stuff like parking tour buses in front of competitors cars before a race, or blowing up a get-away car before a mission. Seems that they've taken those type of opportunities out (probably for the better), so that more often than not you have to beat a mission in the general way intended.

[Neil Koch]

um, i have 2 more missions until san fiero is unlocked, so i am going to try and conquer all of the gang territory using my tactic in los santos. i will let you guys know how well it works with all of the los santos places

There aren't any gang wars in San Fierro or Las Venturas. Even if you get all of the territories in Los Santos, you have to do them again anyway towards the end of the game (you don't HAVE to do them all, but basically you're sent back to square one).

[DaBargainHunta]

Speaking of "tips", is it just me or has Rockstar done a pretty good job of removing alot of the opportunities to cheese your way through a difficult mission. I remember in Vice City and moreso in GTA III doing stuff like parking tour buses in front of competitors cars before a race, or blowing up a get-away car before a mission. Seems that they've taken those type of opportunities out (probably for the better), so that more often than not you have to beat a mission in the general way intended.
I dunno... I liked that you could beat missions in unorthodox ways.

[zmweasel]

um, i have 2 more missions until san fiero is unlocked, so i am going to try and conquer all of the gang territory using my tactic in los santos. i will let you guys know how well it works with all of the los santos places

There aren't any gang wars in San Fierro or Las Venturas. Even if you get all of the territories in Los Santos, you have to do them again anyway towards the end of the game (you don't HAVE to do them all, but basically you're sent back to square one).

There is, however, one gang war outside of Los Santos.

-- Z.

[Neil Koch]

I can't find the Euros (a sports car). I tried checking on the Gamefaqs board, where idiocy runs rampant, and they all say to check under the sphinx in Las Venturas, but I see no cars parked under there at all. Anyone find this car, and does anyone have a SPECIFIC location?

I haven't even seen that car. Do you know what it looks like? It helps when you're looking to drive a similar car (in this case, like an Infernus or Bullet). There's always a lot of high class sports cars on the Venturas strip at night, especially if you're already in a good ride.

[shopkins]

The cars between the ballers and Grove in the House Party mission are bulletproof, at least the Tahoma on the right was. It was very easy to push it to my garage and get a bulletproof ride after the mission. The tires are normal and it still blows up from crash damage, though.

I like to defend my territory by driving straight into the attacking gang, then jumping out and letting the exploding car kill most of them. I took a whole gang out like that during one attack

update: The tahoma's tires pop when I shoot them, but I just used it to "pacify" all the other families and take over the territories and not one pop from the ridiculous hail of rifle fire. And the front window shows the shattering animation, but the bullets still bounce off where the window should be.

[Bluteg]

Well about those unorthodox ways of completing missions, you can shoot out the tires of Jizzy's ride before you enter though the roof on the mission where you have to kill him. This makes it insanely easy.

[nesgamer]

Tip (I guess): Go into the police station on the first island and go into the showers and you'll find a purple dildo. I'm not shitting you, theres a dildo in the game. LOL

[jerkov]

I haven't even seen that car. Do you know what it looks like? It helps when you're looking to drive a similar car (in this case, like an Infernus or Bullet). There's always a lot of high class sports cars on the Venturas strip at night, especially if you're already in a good ride.



I found it. It does spawn right underneath the Sphinx between the two driveways, but I guess it doesn't appear until you unlock the third import/export list. It never appeared for me until I unlocked this, and now it's there all the time. AFAIK, this is the only place to find it and it is not ever driven around on the streets.

[SMB]

Jump the wall into the Airpport and look for the big plane in there, there is a large weapon in between the ramps the end of the landing strip.

[THXII38]

There is one mission where you use a "sky crane" A helicoipter with a winch.

You have to winch up a security van. I wanted some fun first though. I wanted to winch up cars with passengers in and drop them from great heights.

I could not. :( Apparantley in GTA world, a taxi with a driver and no passenger, is heavier than a loaded security van. What happened was either, I flew a little bit, and lost height, or ..... I kinda "water skiid" in ther air, as the taxi pulled me along. LOL

I am also dissapointed to say, that triggering a 5 star wanted level (entering the naval base is simplest) and proceeding to the import/export crane lacks excitement. There is no chance to attack anyone with the crane, altough you do stay safe from harm for the duration of yhour stay in the crane,, two helicopters, one police, one news crew are in view, but the winch fails to damage them at all. It simply falls through them :(

edit: I managed to lift occupied FBI cars with the crane. Also, it's very boring, but it's possible simply by moving back and forth, for a long, ling time, to blow helicopters up. Not very entertainging though, I did manage to "dunk" an FBI car in the sea a few times, before blowing it up.


The Leviathan helicopter floats. I guess most people knew that anyway?
I didn't, :embarrassed: but I realised it looked a lot like a Coastguard BRISTOW search and rescue chopper, and those float.

I'm not the best game player, and I know I will not get 100% on this game, I haven't managed it on Vice City (98%) - but I have a lot of fun just messing about, and exploring "what happens if......" scenarios.

It's a shame that the jet-pack does not feature a "Space Harrier" mission

[kainemaxwell]

Just started playing SA at a friend's house today and had a blast with it, especially some of the humor in the game!