Grand Theft Auto: The Guide For San Andreas In Depth Guide For PS2
Parental Warning: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas is not a game for children. The rating is MA which is meant for adults over the age of 18. The review for this game is loaded with language and suggestive words and also not meant for those under age 18. The reality is many children under the age of 18 do in fact play this game and are probably reading this review right now. That is between them and their parents. I cannot supervise children who read this review nor can I be in your living room to stop them. That is your job.
If you are a parent, at least be aware if your children are playing this game and set down boundaries for them. If you choose to let them play, make sure they know the difference between fantasy and reality, most children do understand the difference and would never do these things in real life. A handful of disturbed individuals, regardless of age, may be unduly influenced by this game. If you are responsible for such a person, please make sure they are not playing it.
Grand Theft Auto is a game that glorifies killing and general bad behavior including drugs and illicit sex. It is a game for sick degenerates who think it is funny, myself included. All of the Rockstar series of the Grand Theft Auto Games are rated MA.
If you do not want to hear the spoilers, go to the first GTA San Andreas strategy guide. If you don't mind the spoilers and it is your first time playing it, you may want to check out the first guide which tells you about the controls and other helpful basics.
This is still a work in project. I am writing this report as I am playing it the 10th time.
Welcome To The Angel Pines
Tenpenny et al have put you in a squad car with a bag over your head and only after begging for it to be removed do you find yourself in a strange location with orders to stay away from Sweet and do a little favor for the cops. Of course, you don't have to get to it right away. There are some things you should probably do to prepare yourself for what is coming next.
Side Mission Part Two
Girlfriend
Helena Wankstein is a lawyer you will find first at the roof near the Ammu-Nation in Blueberry. Unless you are skinny (less than 25% muscle and fat) and have a high sex appeal, she won't give you the time of the day. Once the Catalina missions are over, you should find her more often. When you date her, go to her farm in Flint Range between 14:00 and 2:00 or 8:00 to 12:00. For a food date, go to the Rodeo district of Los Santos. For a dancing date, go to the club in Los Santos. For driving, she likes a slow and steady pace around her farm area. Just for dating her, you have access to the weapons in her barn. At 50% you get the keys to her Bandito. At 70% she will invite you for coffee. At 100% Helena will give you rural clothes.
Pictures (difficulty 0/10)
While you travel around San Fierro with a camera, there will be hot spots for you to capture. You need to collect 50 photo ops in order to get weapons at your garage in San Fierro. Use this map to find where they are located. If you do this mission before Badlands, you will have a camera with unlimited film, so you won't have to look around for extra cameras. You need these for 100%.
Reward: A stash of weapons by the garage and money for each picture taken.
Buy Property (difficulty 0/10)
Hope you saved your money in the first part of the missions. If you fall short, you can always make a few trips to the betting parlor and gamble your way to riches. You have more property now available to purchase. Two of them have a garage. You need these for 100%.
- Angel Pine - $20,000
- Blueberry - $20,000
- "The Cult Farm" - $100,000
- Dillimore - $40,000 - One Car Garage
- Palomino Creek - $35,000 - Two Car Garage
Oysters (difficulty .5/10)
While you were able to collect these from the beginning, now is a good time to start collecting, even if you cannot get them all at this point. Getting them now will increase your lung capacity you will need by the time you reach Wu Zi because he will need you to swim for him. Get a reliable map and find the first 34 out of 50 available oysters. If you feel really lucky and are maxed in health and armor, you could try and snatch the ones in the danger zones on the north island. You will need to be careful getting 2 of these oysters because they will always be in a dangerous zone, on San Fierro, right near Easter Bay airport, is a secret military area. If you enter this territory, you have an immediate 4 star wanted level (5 stars if the other island is opened up.) Plan this trip carefully as you may only have one shot to get both of them. Drive as fast as you can on the property until you get to the end of the pier and jump out and into the water. Swim to the middle row and keep your head down until you get the oyster. Swim as fast as possible to the boat towards the NW and collect that one. Or just take a very fast boat and collect these. By the time you got both, CJ should be close to death unless you packed on max health and armor and have some lung capacity and max stamina. If you survive, make it to shore and steal the nearest car. Make your way to the nearest clothing store and buy a new outfit. You need all these oysters for 100%.
Ambulance (difficulty 2/10)
Required for 100%. Soon you will see why this is the easiest spot to do the mission. Nearby the house CJ can buy in Angel Pines is a hospital. Around the back of the hospital is an ambulance. Get in and activate the mission. The first person will be nearest the motel where you can pick them up, and turn around the block to go back to the hospital. The next batch, along that route again and then a little further up the road heading towards the trailer park. The next batch, those spots and then along the strip on the far end of town. Then the rest will be grouped up in these sections. All are in close proximity to the hospital and have little traffic and very few peds in the way.
Reward: 150 health.
Chilliad Challenge
There are 3 in this series and all are required for 100%.
Go to the top of Mt. Chiliad where you will find a mountain bike, some campers, armor and a parachute. Get on the mountain bike between 7:00 and 18:00 to activate the Chiliad Challenges. You need 40% bike skill to attempt this. If you have the patience of a saint, feel free to get this out of the way now. Or wait until you have access to the jet pack to get up the mountain easier. If you fail the mission, you have to start all over by going back up the mountain and time is of the essence in this game. Try to get your bike skill at 100% to make it less likely you will fall off.
Scotch Bonnet Yellow Route (difficulty 5/10)
This is the easiest of the bunch and it is a tad difficult. Get the unfair advantage. There are two campers. Park them on the path so as to block the other bikers. It will slow them down a bit so you can get a head start. If you have grenades or moltov cocktails, lob it at the others and take off. Make your way down the path without falling off the mountain. You have to be in first place to win. If there are some ahead, stop short of the finish line, take your sniper rifle and kill your competition that has already crossed over, then finish at first place.
Birdseye Winder Yellow Route (difficulty 6/10)
Same as above, but a bit more tricky as you have more blind corners and high areas with no safety border so you can easily fall off the mountain.
Cobra Run (difficulty 7.5/10)
Keep on your brake and hand brake and stay steady along the wood path. Try to get ahead of the two others in the game and keep the lead, but don't go too crazy because it is so easy to get off course. Every time you get a straight path, floor it for awhile and slow down before the end. Bunny hop to get at some of the points. You must be in first to win.
Reward: Goes towards your completion.
Gym (difficulty 0/10)
Cobra Martial Arts is now available to learn new moves. Go to this gym in San Fierro and challenge the master to a fight. It won't take much to defeat him. Learn your new moves for your 100% and you're off. I like the way CJ fights after he learns these moves.
The Hippy Shopper (difficulty 3/10)
You need it for 100%. In San Fierro outside the Hippy Shopper is a Freeway motorcycle that starts the mission. Take it in groups of 4 and deliver the packages in a timely manner all over San Fierro.
- Three drop off points, 3 minutes, close together.
- Four drop off points, 5 minutes, spread apart.
- Five drop off points, 5 minutes, close together.
- Six drop off points, 6 minutes, spread apart.
Reward: The Hippy Shopper is now an asset that gives $2000.
Blood Bowl (difficulty 4/10)
Required for 100%. An arena mission in San Fierro. While there are no missions available just yet in this area, you can get this out of the way. If you have a very high driving skill this will be easy. Get the rings as quickly as possible without getting hit by other drivers. You will have someone in the car with you shooting at everyone on your behalf. Just concentrate on staying away from the herd and drive as close to the top as possible before swooping down to the rings. If you need a car repair, drive to a wrench. Each ring you collect gives you more time. You need to get at least 60 seconds or more built up to finish the race and time has a nasty way of getting away from you.
Reward: $10,000 + Bloodring Banger spawns outside the stadium.
NRG-500 Challenge (difficulty 6/10)
Required for 100%. A tough one, even with high motorcycle skills. It will involve collecting rings, but some will be at high angles that you must learn how to speed your bike into the curve just the right way so your bike will jump up to hit it.
Reward: Mission passed. This one really sucks.
If you passed these side missions, you don't have to think about it and can focus on the tasks to come. Go to Los Santos and pick up a sniper rifle in the movie studio by climbing up the outside stairs up to near the roof. While in the area, try and find a knife, most of the hookers by CJ's house have one. You will need it for Tenpenny's mission. Also restock your weapons at the Angel Pine's Ammu-Nation, a silenced pistol is needed, and grab the armor in the alley next to the home CJ bought in the new area. Right now, you have unlimited film, so if you want to do the photo opps, now is your last chance to take advantage of that glitch.
Badlands (difficulty 2/10)
Make your way up the path on Mt. Chilliad. As soon as you get close to the compound, you are ordered to be quiet, sneak in, shoot the man, and take his picture. Quietly leave and drop off the film. Easy! That is unless you attract the attention of the guards and the guy escapes. If that's the case, you will chase him down the mountain.
Hint: Silenced pistol, knife, sniper rifle, armor, and a camera. Use a dirt bike to make it up the mountain. Get off at a distance and sneak the rest of the way. Crouch down and pick off security one by one, when they are alone. If someone sees them going down, it will tip them off and your guy will escape, so take it slow and easy. When they are all dead, sneak in and kill the guy and take his picture. Don't shoot him in the head or you will not have the proof you need on camera (no face to see.) Hop back on your bike and drop off the film.
Or you can just wait until there is a clear path when the guards all walk to the other sides of the building and sneak into the building hiding away from a window, shoot him with a silenced pistol or knife, and take his picture. If you get caught, the guards will start shooting at you, but at least if your guy is dead and you have armor on, you can take a few hits while getting the picture without too much worry.
If you get caught, it gets trickier. The guy will hop in his car and you will have to chase him down the mountain in a bike. In this case, you had better have an automatic weapon to do a drive-by on your motorcycle. Don't even bother go towards the building because he will already be on his way out the door and in the car, go directly to your motorcycle. Catch up to his car and keep blasting it until it starts to catch fire. He will, with luck, bail out and you jump off your bike and shoot him then take the picture. (Sometimes if you trap him so he can't get out of the car, he blows up and you fail the mission, so give him room to bail.)
Reward: Mission Passed. Cesar calls to check up on CJ and he lets Cesar know he is safe in Whetstone. Things are messed up in Los Santos. CJ tells Cesar to watch after Kendl. Cesar tells CJ he has back up on the way, his cousin. Now the fun begins!
Soon after, Sweet calls to let him know he is in the prison hospital and asks CJ to help him and look after Kendl.
Catalina Missions
Catalina is Cesar's emotionally and physically violent cousin who has issues and a crush on CJ. She's not really there for CJ's benefit, but he is there to help her pull off some heists in the sticks. These can be done in any order. You will start off with just First Date and can choose to do the Tanker Commander, Against All Odds, Local Liquor Store, or the Small Town Bank first. After you complete the first Catalina mission, you will get a call to tend to other things and the rest of Catalina's missions won't be ready until you get it done. Just to make it simple, I will group all the Catalina missions together and you can choose which one you want to do out of the lot.
First Date
This initiates your first encounter with Catalina. You go to a bar in Dillimore to meet up with her. If you can, before you meet her, make sure you save in the nearby home in case you fail the mission. When you meet her, she will put CJ in his place and tell him the spots she wants to hit. You decide where to go first.
When you finish your first Catalina mission, Truth will call and open up a mission, Body Harvest. After that is done and you get a call from Cesar to start A King in Exile, then you can continue on with Catalina's missions. The rest of the Catalina missions will require you go to her home in the hills.
First Base
CJ comes back to Catalina's shack in the woods to apologize and make things right, but it seems she isn't around...until she sneaks up on him and attacks. It's time to do another mission and it is up to Carl to figure out which one to do next.
After you finish the robbery, CJ will get a call from Cesar to notify him about the race that will take place. It's best to finish that one after you are done with Catalina.
Gone Courting
CJ arrives, but Catalina has some heavy, kinky, romance in mind before they get to work. CJ does as he is told and goes along with it and when she is through, he asks if they can go back to robbing things again.
Made In Heaven
This finally kicks off the last mission you will ever have to deal with this psycho...except she will not lose your phone number and you will see her with a new boyfriend. Anyway, she hates you, so she claims and only wants to be business partners. Pick the last of the stores to rob.
And These Are Your Heist Choices
Tanker Commander (difficulty 3/10)
This is the gas station in Dillimore. Catalina tries to hold it up, but with bulletproof glass, the guy tells her off and she has a change in plans. CJ is to take the tanker full of gas by hitching it to the rig. Once attached, the clerks inside will get in their car and try to knock you off the road. CJ needs to get it to Mr. Whittaker's location before too much damage is done to this load.
Hint: Go into this with armor and a shotgun and machine gun of sorts for backup. After you get the tanker hitched, get out of your car and shoot the clerk's car with the shotgun. Just keep them away from the rig when you do because you want to blow up their car, but not near your tank. When they are out of the way, you can relax and take it slow and easy on the way to Mr. Whittaker who will offer you other hauling jobs.
Reward: $5000 and hauling missions are now available. However, you can hold off on these until the last side of the island is open because the last two require going over there.
Against All Odds (difficulty 3/10)
Betting shop in Montgomery. You will be given a satchel charge by Catalina. After she makes her threats, you place a charge on the door and explode it. Place another on the safe and explode it. CJ will automatically get the cash and you need to bolt pass all the cops chasing you with a 4 star wanted level. Steal a car and make it to a Pay N' Spray in another nearby town.
Reward: $2000. After you do this one, you will understand her daddy's girl issues as you start the next mission for her.
Local Liquor Store (difficulty 3/10)
There is a liquor store in Blueberry. Bring a submachine gun and a sanchez as well as armor. After you get there, you will see a cut scene that another group beat you to it. You need to chase after them through the rough back terrains and collect their packages. Catalina will be yelling at you the entire time, so you may want to mute it so you can concentrate. If you don't bring a sanchez, you can start with one of the left behind all terrain vehicles, but they really suck. Instead, park a bike just to the east and down the block of the liquor store before you start the mission or else it will disappear.
Reward: $1000. No matter which mission you do next for Catalina, she will bring up your pathetic driving in this mission.
Small Town Bank (difficulty 3/10)
This gets a bit tricky, but not really difficult. You go to the bank in Palomino Creek and hold people up while Catalina does what she does, but no matter what you do, someone will take their hands down and the alarms will go off and you will have to shoot the safes, take the money, get out the back door and kill all the cops shooting at you without killing Catalina, hop on the police motorcycle left behind and ride along with your date until she gets trapped by cops, pull up to her and wait for her to hop on your motorcycle and ride her home without getting caught..
Reward: $10,000
Body Harvest (difficulty 2/10)
Tenpenny, who is smoking something pretty good, wants to introduce Carl to his buddy, Truth. Time to do some good for a weird hippie while doing the bidding of Tenpenny. You are supposed to pay Truth on behalf of Tenpenny. He is supplying CJ with weed to plant on a DA to ruin his career. CJ now works for Truth. In order to repay him, CJ needs to steal a harvester from paranoid survivalists.
Hint: Armor, shotgun, and pistol. Drive in on a Sanchez or other steady motorcycle. Run over the farmers coming at you with a shotgun and shoot the rest. Make your way to the back to the harvester. Take the driver out and shoot him. Hop in the harvester and mow over the rest of the farmers turning them into sushi. As you make it off the property, a pickup truck will follow you and the guy in the back will shoot. Kill him and try to knock the truck over to explode. Make your way down the hilly path across the street and straight into Truth's barn.
Reward: Mission passed and respect. Cesar calls and tells CJ there's danger back in Los Santos and there's a price on both Cesar and Kendl's head. CJ tells them to rent a place out in Whetstone and lay low.
King In Exile (difficulty 0/10)
Not really a mission, just a bit to continue the storyline. Cesar has made it to the other side of the island with Kendl and are now in hiding. His boys either turned on him, in hiding or ended up dead, so there's a price on his head and Kendl's too. Cesar warned CJ that Smoke is up to no good and is dealing big time. There's a courier making regular deliveries if he wants proof.
There's no real point to this scene as you do not have to chase after them. You will have several opportunities each week to get them if you wish, up until you finish Ya Ka Boom Boom and the Syndicate missions. You will get a call from Cesar or someone else telling you about it. It does not count towards the 100%. You can make money for each bundle you take, but that's about it. The two parts of it are as follow:
Big Smoke's Cash (difficulty 2/10) Mondays and Fridays. The mark is driving a Patriot with 6 packages coming in from Los Santos and will go to Pier 69. Ram into it to collect the packages.
Yay Courier (difficulty 2/10) Wednesdays and Saturdays. The mark is driving a Sanchez cross country from San Fierro. Kill him before he loses all the proof.
Catalina will call CJ screaming at him to get his butt over there. Back to the Catalina missions. This mission with Cesar opens up the chase after the yay dealers.
Wu Zi Mu (difficulty 3/10)
Carl meets up with Cesar who was running late out in the middle of Red Country where an illegal street race is about to begin. They meet a man name Wu Zi Mu (his friends call him Woozie for short), who for some reason has strange mannerisms, like missing the location where people would shake hands and not looking directly at people when he talks. Anyway, you can bring your own car and the race is for cash or pinks.
Strategy: A cabbie or a rancher modified with off road wheels and nitro will get you far and less likely to flip over. Go from blip to blip and try not to spin out of control. In the beginning, you will see an open spot where you can fly by your competition. Get it and stay ahead of the pack. Keep up your lead by staying steady so you don't get out of control.
The key to coming out ahead of this race is to obtain an early lead and keeping it. As most of the terrain is farm road, gravel, hills and dirt and sometimes you may encounter rain, you need a vehicle with a solid chassis and wide base that won't flip or spin easily. Off-road wheels will help you handle the roads better. Nitro will help you get your speed so you can pass the pack early in the game. You really do not need any other modifications. If you passed the taxi missions, the cabbie as is will suffice.
Reward: $5000 and an invitation to look up Woozie whenever he is in the San Fierro area.
Farewell My Love (difficulty 5/10)
Prepared for another race, at the finish line of the last race, you catch up again with Catalina who is at the meet with another man and announces she is through with Carl. Anyway, this race is the reverse track of the last one with a car that you are given. While the course is pretty easy in the first race, it becomes much harder in the ZR-350. You cannot make mods to the car or switch it out. It does not handle very well, so keep it steady.
Hint: Get as high as you can with driving skills. Take in a bit of practice in the ZR-350 and do a bit of off-road to get a handle on what you will be doing under pressure. Take it easy around curves and near the bridges. Don't run into anything as it spins out of control very easily. When your competition show an opening, floor it and get ahead and try to keep the lead.
Reward: Mission passed and the deed to the garage in San Fierro and you are rid of Catalina.
A call comes in from Truth telling you the stuff is ready.
Are You Going To San Fierro? (difficulty 3/10)
CJ pays Truth a visit and gives him the money as three tons of grass blocks are stuffed into his van. Choppers are on the way and they must destroy the fields. After you take care of the fields, take care of the chopper and drive to the garage in San Fierro. Piece of cake!
Hint: Not much to it. You are supplied with a flame thrower and rocket launcher and a van. Just use it. CJ will be buzzed as the fields go up in smoke and everything will kind of spin as you play. Even aiming the rocket launcher will be a challenge. Just keep in the motion he is spinning with and you should get the aim right. When it comes down, you have all the time in the world to make it to the garage.
Reward: Mission passed. Respect. Truth is a friend and on your side.