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 3 of 3 pages. 1 2 3
brm50diboll 
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Chapter 33 - OG Loc So when CJ steps into the red marker in front of Big Smoke's house, the first of the Big Smoke series of missions starts with a cut scene where Sweet is visiting Big Smoke and Sweet and Smoke ask CJ to go with them to pick up a former Grove Street friend named Jeffrey at the LSPD headquarters where he is being released from prison. When the cut scene ends, once again CJ is asked to drive, and the three take Big Smoke's Glendale to LSPD HQ and Smoke explains to CJ on the way there that Jeffrey is calling himself OG Loc now and fancies himself as a gangster rapper, but he obviously is a laughing stock to them. When they reach the red marker at LSPD HQ, another cut scene follows where OG Loc (a truly silly character - a parody of all that is the worst about gangster rappers) tells the others that while he was in prison a Vagos gangster there named Freddy "stole his rhymes" and now he needs to get even so he asks them to drive them to Freddy's house in the Vagos hood of East Los Santos. When they reach the red marker in front of Freddy's house, another cut scene has Sweet and Big Smoke deciding to go home in the Glendale, but CJ decides to stay with OG Loc as he pays a visit to Freddy. CJ goes up with OG Loc to knock on Freddy's door, and Freddy insults OG Loc and runs out and gets on a motorcycle. CJ and OG Loc get on another motorcycle and the instructions are to chase Freddy and kill him. This motorcycle chase forms the heart of the mission. CJ is the driver, of course, and OG Loc is firing his micro-SMG at Freddy whenever they can get close to him, but Freddy's motorcycle is fast and it is virtually impossible to stay close to him for very long. OG Loc is a terrible shot anyway so Freddy takes almost no damage during the chase. CJ could fire his SMG, but that risks accidentally killing OG Loc, which would automatically fail the mission, so it is best CJ not fire while driving. Freddy frequently goes the wrong way down streets in heavy traffic, so CJ tends to keep crashing into oncoming vehicles unless his driving is very good. If CJ gets off the motorcycle, OG Loc will get off as well. It is possible for them to change vehicles, but the likelihood is that if they are off their motorcycle for more than just a few seconds, the game will announce that Freddy escaped and the mission was failed, so an effort to try to stay as close to Freddy as possible as his drives crazily throughout LS is critical to passing the mission. The way I passed this mission originally is just to drive as fast and carefully as possible all the way through the crazy chase without losing sight of Freddy until he finally arrives at the basketball court in Jefferson and gets off his bike, then CJ and OG Loc can get off their bike as well and CJ can kill Freddy there pretty easily with his SMG. One would like to try to kill Freddy earlier in the chase, but OG Loc isn't much help, despite all his shooting. The route that Freddy takes, though seemingly very erratic, is actually completely programmed by the game AI and, with experience, it is possible for CJ to take a shortcut and actually get ahead of Freddy in his route at one point fairly early in the chase. My current method for passing this mission is to take that shortcut and get ahead of Freddy, then, just as Freddy reappears and starts to cross in front of CJ, CJ gets off his bike with the minigun selected and quickly wipes out Freddy before he can drive past. The automatic aim feature of the minigun makes this very easy as long as CJ is facing Freddy as he starts to drive across. The mission is not immediately passed when Freddy is killed, though. After the death of Freddy, CJ still has to drive OG Loc to his new job site at a Burger Shot restaurant in West Los Santos. He may have acquired a wanted level from all the shooting by this time, so a police chase might make this last part of the mission more difficult, so getting rid of any wanted level is a priority at this point. When CJ arrives at the red marker at the Burger Shot, a final cut scene occurs where CJ volunteers to help OG Loc in the future with his so-called rap career. Then the mission is passed and, not only does a red marker reappear in front of Big Smoke's house for the location of the second mission in the Big Smoke series, but also a red marker appears at the Burger Shot to indicate the start of the brand new OG Loc mission series. At this point in the game, there are actually *four* red markers available, labelled BS, R, CV, and OG, representing the four possible mission series that could be pursued here: Big Smoke, Ryder, Cesar Vialpando, and now OG Loc. A player could choose any one of those in the order he wants, but I will continue the Big Smoke series in my description, so the next mission I will discuss will be the second Big Smoke mission, called Running Dog. But again, there is no real hurry here. Next time I will move on to the next mission in the Big Smoke series of missions. Reply #41. Jan 01 24, 10:38 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 34 - Running Dog This is a pretty short and straightforward mission. Upon entering the red marker in front of Big Smoke's house, the cut scene shows Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski leaving Smoke's house and harassing CJ a bit as they do so. Smoke tells CJ the officers are always bothering him but he doesn't tell them anything. After the cut scene ends, Smoke asks CJ to drive him (in his Glendale) to meet his "cousin from Mexico". CJ drives him into Vagos hood territory in East Los Santos. When you reach the red marker there, it turns out that Smoke was trying to get some marijuana from some Vagos, but they blew him off. Smoke attacked one of the Vagos, but the other runs off and Smoke quickly gets winded and tells CJ it is up to him to kill the other Vagos. When control returns, CJ is chasing the Vagos across East Los Santos on foot. It is pretty easy. CJ will get winded (unless you have the infinite sprint perk - which is possible - but I haven't discussed how to get that yet) if he sprints for too long, but he can take some shortcuts and get ahead of the Vagos and kill him pretty easily. If he doesn't catch the Vagos quickly, the Vagos will get into a car and then the chase can become a car chase. The mission will be failed if the Vagos gets too far away, CJ gets killed or busted, or the Vagos can get all the way to his eventual destination. But it is pretty easy to catch up to him and kill him before any of that happens if you know what you're doing. Don't try to sprint with a heavy weapon (you can't.) Carry the SMG to sprint, get ahead of the Vagos with a shortcut, and take him out. Then another red marker opens in front of Smoke's house again to set up the next mission in the Smoke series. Reply #42. Jan 10 24, 5:41 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 35 - Wrong Side Of The Tracks It's been awhile since my last post because I've been busy proving myself wrong. It turns out that it actually *is* possible to get all 50 Horseshoes while still "In The Beginning". So before I get into the mission for today, I will outline what I had to do to collect all 50 Horseshoes that early in the game. The ideal vehicle for collecting horseshoes is the jetpack, but without cheats, the jetpack is completely unavailable that early. Since several of the horseshoes are at elevation in places where one cannot climb up to the position, an aircraft is necessary to get there. But using aircraft with a four star wanted level (which you will get for *every* trip into Las Venturas to collect horseshoes "In The Beginning") will attract Hydra jets shooting missiles at you, so I had thought there were a few places where you could not get to before you got shot down by the missiles, even with ideal piloting of a helicopter. But when I managed to get the horseshoe on the top of the Emerald Isle Casino building (the tallest building in Las Venturas), I began to rethink my position. While very difficult, the Emerald Isle horseshoe turns out *not* to be the most difficult horseshoe to collect. That honor goes to the one on the Victim billboard in East Las Venturas, which I saved for last. Most of the horseshoes can be collected either at ground level or by climbing up to a roof where they can be collected. For those, the standard four star raids approach on a NRG-500 motorcycle using the Fallow Bridge trick to cross over to Las Venturas is sufficient, though still difficult and exhilarating. But for the handful that require an aircraft to reach, the Sea Sparrow is the best options. Trying to use planes and parachutes is theoretically possible, but planes get shot at by missiles just as helicopters, and planes move too fast to maneuver well. A small helicopter (the Sea Sparrow) is best. Yes, you could use the one stored on the Mulholland garage roof that I talked about, but you are likely to lose your helicopter in the getaway from Las Venturas after collecting the horseshoe, so it is best just to steal a different Sea Sparrow beforehand with a four star raid, clear the wanted level, and exchange it at your Mulholland garage for a fresh one if you had taken any damage at all in the theft. That way you will always have a Sea Sparrow in reserve at your Mulholland garage and you will be taking a fresh undamaged Sea Sparrow into Las Venturas for the horseshoes collection at elevation. Even with ideal piloting, you will likely take at least one missile hit on your raid getting to the horseshoe location. The second hit will cripple the copter so it can't rise properly, and a third one will destroy it (and CJ), so after collecting the horseshoe, you usually have to ditch your helicopter and find an alternate way back home to Los Santos. The reason the Victim billboard is the most difficult location of all is that it is fairly far away from tall buildings that give your copter cover from the pursuing Hydra jets, and the top of the billboard is too small to make a safe landing while being pursued, so you have to hover just above the top of the billboard and jump out just right to fall safely to the billboard landing so you can collect the horseshoe. But you have no way of getting back into the helicopter (which would still be true even in you had had time to actually land the copter on top of the billboard). After collecting the horseshoe, you must jump to the ground, dash to steal a car before the pursuing ground cops kill you, then speed to the jetmax boat landing in South Las Venturas and speed away before the coast guard boats can kill you, then speed the boat to the landing in East Los Santos, dash to the parking garage tower without getting killed, steal a new NRG-500 motorcycle, speed off into the aqueduct without getting killed by the cops, then finally get to the PayNSpray to clear the wanted level so that the game can safely be saved. It CAN be done - I did it! All 50 Horseshoes on 50 separate four star wanted level raids. OK. After all that excitement, the mission for today is a bit of a letdown. It does have a very steep learning curve though, and most players fail it multiple times before finally learning the tricks needed to pass it, so they see the most famous closing fail mission cut scene in the game, the one where Big Smoke gets off the Sanchez bike after failing to kill to Vagos and tells CJ "All you had to do was follow the train!" Actually, there's a lot more to it than that. The real problem is that Big Smoke is a terrible shot and you have to be positioned just right for Smoke to kill the Vagos, and there are only a couple of points where the train slows down enough for you to get into position, even traveling at maximum speed. And you can't shoot yourself because you don't have the right angle on the bike. Furthermore, the game won't let you get off the Sanchez until you have either failed the mission or killed all four of the Vagos. So let's start from the beginning. You walk into the red marker outside of Big Smoke's house, and there is a cut scene with Officers Tenpenny and Pulaski again. When the cut scene ends, you are in Big Smoke's Glendale and told to drive to Unity Station (the Los Santos train station.) When you get there, there is another cut scene where Smoke explains that the Vagos and the San Fierro Riga gang are making a drug deal at the train. You see four Vagos gang members jump on top of a train, then you are instructed to get on a Sanchez motorcycle (with Big Smoke as well) and follow the train as Big Smoke attempts to shoot the four Vagos with his Tec-9 (a poor semiautomatic gun). Now it is actually possible (and there are some good YouTube videos demonstrating the technique), to take a ramp at the first track curve, jump onto a building roof, and then jump your bike down to land on top of the train as it passes so that Big Smoke gets an easy clear forward shot at the Vagos. This approach is the easiest way to pass the mission if you can pull it off, but it takes perfect timing. Failing being able to jump onto the roof of the train, you are stuck following the train at ground level from the right of the train, with car explosions and two speeding trains going in the opposite direction which can crash into you and make you unable to kill all four Vagos before they reach the bridge in Red County, at which point you will get the notorious mission failed cut scene I mentioned. To be able to actually have Smoke kill the Vagos at ground level, not only must you successfully dodge the explosions and oncoming trains, but in the brief periods where you are free to move, you need to be on the right train track near the front of the train you are pursuing for Smoke to get the angle that he needs to actually kill all four Vagos. Takes good driving skills as the Sanchez is not a very fast bike and is easily knocked off its path. When you do finally kill all four Vagos, you still have to drive Smoke back to his house to finish the mission, although at that point you can get off the Sanchez and even change vehicles and Smoke will follow you, so the hard part is done when the fourth Vagos is killed. When you finally get Big Smoke back to his house to pass the mission, a new red marker appears outside Big Smoke's house for the next Big Smoke mission. Reply #43. Jan 24 24, 10:21 AM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 36 - The Second Exploit Opportunity Earlier I had discussed what an Exploit was, how it could be useful to a player to accomplish certain goals earlier in the game than would otherwise be possible, and how the first Exploit opportunity came with the mission Drive-By. I had also mentioned at that time that other Exploit opportunities would arrive with later story missions. We have now arrived at the second Exploit opportunity, with the Just Business mission, the final of a series of Big Smoke missions. I am not interested today in how to pass that mission; instead, I am interested in how to fail it in just the right way that it can be used as an Exploit and even repeated as often as one wants before finally turning to pass the mission. Once a mission is passed, it cannot be repeated, so if one wishes to have that particular Exploit available as many times as wanted, it must be carefully failed each time the Exploit is used. I had also earlier mentioned that not all Exploits were equal - some were better than others. The earlier Drive-By Exploit was probably the best possible Exploit in the game: it came early in the story, it was easy to access (just have CJ not get into the Greenwood with the others but run off instead), it was easy to stop (just have CJ finally enter the Greenwood, then immediately exit and run off a bit), and it had the full "amenities" available during the Exploit, including being able to enter all interiors open at that stage of the game, including Las Venturas casinos where one may then gamble at will. Unfortunately, this second Exploit, the Just Business Exploit, is a much, much poorer Exploit. It can still be used, but it is much trickier and the interiors of buildings will be closed during this Exploit even if done correctly. I will discuss the proper technique for accessing and exiting this Exploit, and describe what will go wrong if the technique is not followed properly. There are three basic ways attempts to use this Exploit may fail: Early death of Big Smoke, early "teleportation" of CJ, or late "teleportation" of CJ. Any one of those things ruins the Exploit and would require exiting the game without saving and reloading to try again from the beginning. Yes, we want to eventually fail the mission, but not before we have been able to utilize the Exploit, nor do we want to fail it in a way that causes CJ to get wasted or busted. The ideal way to fail *this* mission would be to have Big Smoke die *after* doing what you want to do on the Exploit. But it is tough "threading the needle" just right so as to fail the mission the right way, and I will explain the details of that starting from the beginning of the mission. So CJ enters the red marker in front of Big Smoke's house. There is a cut scene which I will describe later when I talk about how to actually pass the mission. After that cut scene, CJ is in Big Smoke's Glendale with Big Smoke and CJ is instructed to drive to The Atrium in downtown Los Santos. On the way, Smoke talks about the Russian gangsters that are the enemies in this mission. Drive to the Atrium. Upon arrival at the red marker there, there is a second cut scene I will also discuss another day. After that cut scene ends, CJ is inside the Atrium building with Big Smoke and Russian gangsters are shooting at the two of them. A new icon, "Big Smoke's Health" appears in the upper right part of the main screen. At this point, whatever SMG CJ may have had at the start of the mission has been replaced by the micro-SMG, but since all SMGs share the same ammo, no ammo is lost and you can always switch back to another SMG (I prefer the regular full sized SMG) sometime later with no ammo lost. I would switch weapons to the M4 slot (or AK-47, if you have that in the machine gun slot, though the M4 is my preference for that slot). The M4 is ideal for quickly killing all the Russian gangsters inside the Atrium without risking accidentally killing Big Smoke, which might happen if you used the mini gun. After clearing out all the Russians inside the Atrium, Big Smoke's health should have only decreased a little bit, and CJ can pick up all the dropped money inside before following Big Smoke to the door. You cannot exit the Atrium until you have killed all the Russians (I've tried, the game won't let you.) When you approach Big Smoke, you will find yourself just outside the Atrium on the elevated crossover. Now is when it starts to get tricky! CJ will find himself with the micro-SMG in his hand again. Now I would stick with that particular weapon. Kill *exactly one* Russian gangster outside, the nearest one, and *no more*, then quickly jump over the edge of the crossover to fall to the street level and start running away from the Atrium as quickly as possible. I prefer jumping over the north side of the crossover and running north, but it can also be done over the south side (I've tried both), but it is more direct and less cumbersome to head north. Big Smoke's health meter will begin decaying with the outdoor gun fight and will continue to decay as CJ runs away from the action. You want to run away, do not stop, and do not attempt to jack a vehicle at this point as bad things might happen. And whatever you do, do NOT reverse direction at any point and head in the general direction back towards the Atrium. Keep moving away on foot, as fast as possible. If CJ tires from sprinting, he can continue to jog. I would keep going northward until I am completely out of Los Santos and deep into Red County. Now, if you do this right, Big Smoke's health meter will stabilize and stop decreasing with plenty of health left in the meter. Once deep into Red County, CJ can safely jack a car and head to the shore to swim across to San Fierro or Las Venturas or wherever he wants to go on the Exploit with the meter "frozen". Now let's talk about what may happen bad if you didn't do things exactly the way I described: if CJ jumps to street level without killing any of the Russians outside, Big Smoke's health will keep going down no matter how far away he gets, even into Las Venturas or San Fierro. When Big Smoke's health reaches zero, the mission fails and if CJ is in a "locked area", he immediately gets the four star wanted level, so no Exploit. A similar thing will likely occur even if CJ killed one Russian as recommended but runs away too slowly, stops, turns around, or takes time to jack a car while still too close to the Atrium. In all these cases, the decline in Big Smoke's health meter, even if it had stopped for awhile, will probably pick up again and may not be able to be stopped again even as CJ gets far away. Big Smoke's early death means the Exploit ends before CJ really had an opportunity to do anything with it. The reverse problem occurs with killing too many of the outside Russians. Maybe you can get away with killing two, but I wouldn't risk it. Certainly more than that will result in CJ "teleporting" to the next phase of the mission, where he finds himself on a motorcycle with Big Smoke driving fleeing Russian pursuers in the aqueduct. You definitely don't that to happen either. It happens because it means Big Smoke was able to kill the remaining outside Russians by himself, even after CJ flees. You want a standoff. You want Big Smoke not to be killed, but not to be able to clear the outside Russians either. A sign "teleportation" may be coming is the early stopping of the decrease in Big Smoke's Health meter even before CJ gets very far away. I have actually made it all the way to San Fierro only for CJ to suddenly be "teleported" to back of Big Smoke's motorcycle. This meant that somehow while CJ was running away, Big Smoke managed to kill the remaining outside Russians himself, triggering the motorcycle chase part of the mission. So? Why is CJ being teleported bad? Because once CJ finds himself on Big Smoke's motorcycle, there is NO WAY to return to the Exploit without quitting the game without saving and reloading and starting over from the beginning of the mission. Why? Because once CJ is on that bike, the game absolutely will not let him get off the bike until either one of two things happens: either the mission is successfully passed (which means you missed the Exploit and have no way of repeating the mission) or the new "Bike Health" meter that appears reaches zero and the bike explodes, killing CJ and failing the mission. Sure you could repeat it now, but CJ gets wasted and that goes down as a "times wasted" stat you can't remove after saving the game (plus you lose your weapons when CJ gets wasted.) There is literally no way for CJ to get off that bike once he's on it without either of those things happening, so if teleportation occurs, you might as well give up and immediately exit the game without saving and reload, and try again from the beginning of the mission. Let's say you successfully got into one of the "locked islands" with Big Smoke's health meter "frozen" at a safe mid level. You can now do whatever you want without fear of wanted levels. Even mass carnage with the minigun does nothing. But this Exploit, unlike the last one, won't let you go into building interiors, so you can't gamble. You can still explore the locked islands to your heart's content, collect any previously uncollected oysters, snapshots, or horseshoes, or collect weapons and ammo not available in LS like the minigun. But you still face the problem of ending the Exploit correctly. One of the worst things that could happen with this Exploit is to actually get to do everything you wanted on it, only to screw up the exit. You see, you could have had a great time, then when trying to end your Exploit, suddenly find CJ teleported to Big Smoke's bike at the last minute as you return to the Atrium. And you do have to eventually return to the Atrium. It is unavoidable because there is no way to save the game without ending the Exploit, and you cannot end the Exploit without returning to the Atrium. So when you have done everything you wanted to do on the Exploit, you make your return to the Atrium, but you do so slowly, keeping an eye on Big Smoke's health meter as you do. If everything is right, the meter will stay frozen until you are back in LS, maybe even until you are just a few blocks away from the Atrium. If, as you make your way back, you see the meter start to decrease again, then you are home free and can breathe a sigh of relief, because you just wait for the meter to reach zero and you will get a message that Big Smoke died and the mission was failed. The game will ask you if you want to retry the mission, but you select NO. The Exploit was successfully completed. You failed the mission after finishing the Exploit without getting CJ wasted or busted, and you are now free to go to a safe house and save your progress, then maybe try the Exploit again if you want. But if you are deep into Los Santos and the meter remains frozen, that is very worrying. If you manage to actually get within sight of the Atrium with the meter still frozen, your goose is probably cooked. Because actually arriving at the Atrium will likely teleport CJ onto Big Smoke's bike, as this means Big Smoke waited until you returned to finish off the outside Russians. Running away again won't help and there is no way to end the Exploit except by Big Smoke dying, which won't happen if the meter is still frozen that close to the Atrium. This is where you will regret accidentally having killed that second outside Russian way back - you thought you had gotten away with it, (sometimes you will) but you didn't. Late teleportation of CJ is the worst way to ruin an Exploit because you had done all that work for nothing. So approach the Atrium slowly and hope the Big Smoke health meter starts going down when you are a few blocks away from the Atrium. Next time we'll talk about what it takes to actually pass this mission - and it's not easier than today's topic. It's actually a tough mission to pass. Reply #44. Jan 28 24, 4:45 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 37 - Just Business Today I will discuss what it takes to actually pass this mission, as opposed to using it as an Exploit. CJ steps into the red marker in front of Big Smoke's house and there is an opening cut scene where Big Smoke asks CJ if he wants to go for a ride. When the scene ends, CJ and Smoke are in Smoke's Glendale with instructions to drive to The Atrium building in downtown Los Santos. On the way, Smoke talks to CJ about Russian gangsters. Upon arriving at the red marker at the Atrium, another cut scene features Smoke asking CJ to be his backup in his meeting with the Russians. Smoke goes inside and CJ hears him exclaim, so CJ runs in. Inside, CJ (regardless of whatever he may have had in his SMG weapons slot beforehand) is now carrying a micro-SMG as Russian gangsters are shooting at Smoke and CJ. There is a new icon in the right upper part of the screen reading "Smoke's Health". My recommendations at this point is to switch to the M4 slot, as it is very fast at killing all the Russian gangsters inside without endangering Smoke. CJ can pick up lots of money dropped by the Russians when they die, and there is also a body armor pickup CJ can use inside if he needs it. He could also switch out his micro-SMG for the full sized SMGs dropped by some of the Russians, but it is pointless to do so, since regardless of what he does, he will be carrying the micro-SMG again when he exits the Atrium. CJ cannot exit the Atrium until all the inside Russians are killed. At that point, Smoke will move to the exit doorway, and when CJ gets close to Smoke, both of them will find themselves on the crosswalk outside the Atrium fighting outside Russian gangsters with CJ holding a micro-SMG as stated earlier. Obviously, if the Big Smoke health meter reaches zero, the mission is failed, so since the goal this time is to actually pass the mission, it helps for CJ to switch back to the M4 to kill all the outside Russians as quickly as possible (and no jump by CJ to street level, either.) After killing all the outside Russians, CJ now finds himself on a motorcycle that Smoke is driving holding a micro-SMG that he can't switch out. This weapon unfortunately has lost its normal automatic aim feature, and must be aimed manually by CJ, which is a pain as Smoke constantly changes directions rapidly while he drives. CJ has no way to get off the bike, and even if he aims his weapon at Smoke's head, he cannot hurt Smoke. The meter in the upper right now reads "Bike Health". At this point, the only ways the mission can end are to either pass it or have the Bike meter reach zero, which causes the bike to explode, killing CJ and failing the mission. Smoke drives the bike through central LS and including into the flood control aqueduct while they are being pursued and shot at by Russisn gangsters in a variety of different vehicles. Most of the pursuers are on motorcycles, but some are in cars and there are even large truck and busses in the chase. Any vehicles which get close to Smoke's bike start to lower the bike health meter. CJ will mostly shoot backwards to kill the pursuers, and there is a steep learning curve for this mission, so most likely the bike will explode and the mission fail several times (requiring reloading the mission from the beginning to try again) before a good strategy can be figured out to kill all the pursuing Russians before they can destroy the bike. The best strategy is to focus on any motorcycles which get close to Smoke's bike. There are a couple of places in this long chase where CJ needs to aim forwards, at a roadblock and to shoot out a grate that allows them to enter a tunnel. Once in the tunnel, CJ's best strategy is to aim backwards at explosive barrels, as taking them out will take out multiple pursuing Russian bikers. If Smoke emerges from the tunnel with some Bike Health remaining, the mission will be passed. Smokes speeds off, leaving CJ alone in a parking lot after the mission is passed. There are a couple of unpleasant things about this mission, even when you pass it. Regardless of how much SMG ammo you may have had before this mission, when the mission is passed, CJ will find himself always holding a micro-SMG with only 80 rounds of ammo, so most of your SMG ammo is lost in this mission and even with switching afterwords to the full sized SMG (my preferred weapon for this slot), it will take a very long time to reaccumulate the ammo lost. Also, if police were encountered near the end, this is one of the few missions that does not automatically wipe away wanted levels when the mission is passed, so it is possible to pass this mission and still find oneself with an active wanted level after passing it, which must then be shed. Just Business was the last mission in the Big Smoke series of missions, so when the mission is passed, no new red marker appears in front of Big Smoke's house. I intend to explore the Ryder series of missions starting next time, but I would not hurry to that after finishing Just Business. Take your time to fix your SMG weapons slot to your liking and replenish your ammo there before moving on to the next story mission. Reply #45. Jan 31 24, 4:40 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 38 - Home Invasion The first mission of the Ryder series, Home Invasion, is typical of the series. CJ goes with Ryder to steal weapons. None of the weapons stolen end up in CJ's personal arsenal, though. CJ enters the red marker in front of Ryder's house and in the cut scene Ryder tells CJ that he can make good money stealing stuff as Ryder has a friend who is a good fence for anything they can steal. When the cut scene ends, Ryder's friend has left a large black boxy truck in front of Ryder's house for the thefts of this mission, which will eventually be delivered to a lockup in Seville Boulevard. Regardless of what time of day it may have been when CJ originally entered the red marker, it is now around sunset and there is a timer on the screen which is for remaining darkness. All the thefts as well as the delivery to the lockup need to be finished before the timer expires or the mission is failed. The big black boxy truck is called a Boxburg, and it is a mission essential vehicle for this mission. The first step is to drive the Boxburg (with Ryder in it) up to a condo in East Los Santos that CJ and Ryder are to burglarize while the old man owner is sleeping. When they arrive, Ryder stays outside with the truck while CJ goes inside to steal some crates. There is a noise meter and while inside, it is important to keep the noise meter low or the old man will wake up, Ryder will flee, and the mission will fail. This forces CJ to move slowly while inside. It helps to have CJ crouch at least until he can pick up one of the crates. CJ can only take one crate at a time. When he gets outside, he goes to the open back of the Boxburg to put the crate in, then he returns inside to steal another crate. At least three crates need to be stolen (without waking up the old man) in order to pass the mission. CJ can steal more, and he would get more money if he did, but given the time limit, it is probably best for CJ to stop at three. After loading the last crate, CJ gets into the Boxburg and drives it to the lockup in Seville Boulevard. He needs to reach the red marker inside the lockup before the timer runs out to pass the mission. Upon passing the mission, Ryder tells CJ in a closing cut scene more of this sort of stuff is coming, then he leaves CJ by himself on the street. It takes some practice to keep sufficiently quiet, as it is very easy for CJ to accidentally make too much noise and wake up the old man, failing the mission and earning a wanted level. Also, if too much time is taken, the mission can also be failed by having the timer reach zero before the Boxburg can be delivered to the lockup. Destruction of the Boxburg will also fail the mission and it is a slow, clumsy vehicle that can be flipped over fairly easily. Reply #46. Feb 11 24, 3:30 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 39 - Burglary Burglary is a side mission which becomes available after completing the Home Invasion story mission which I described last time. When I began playing San Andreas on my cellphone, I had hoped that Burglary would be available "In The Beginning". Almost, but unfortunately not. Let me explain what I mean by "almost". Like other side missions like Paramedic and Vigilante, Burglary is done in a mission-essential vehicle, the black Boxburg truck I had mentioned in my last post. Now the Boxburg truck *is* available "In The Beginning". It can be found parked in an apartment complex across the street from the Ganton Gym. Like other mission-essential vehicles, when you enter it, there is an icon on the left of the screen that you can press to trigger the side mission associated with that vehicle. Burglary is designed to be done during the night hours in San Andreas, beginning at 8 pm, or 20:00 in the game. The icon is active "In The Beginning". If you press it after 20:00, the timer for the Burglary mission will begin counting down. But unfortunately, none of the interiors of the houses or apartments you can burglarize appear, so it is not possible to do Burglary "In The Beginning". After finishing Home Invasion, those interiors are enterable and denoted by the usual yellow markers for enterable interiors during the night hours. Although it is most convenient to work on Burglary in Los Santos after finishing Home Invasion, the Boxburg truck also has spawn locations in San Fierro and Las Venturas, so it can be done in those locations when they are opened, but you might as well just do it in LS. The play of Burglary is similar to that in Home Invasion. You have a Boxburg, you have a darkness timer, and when you enter houses, condos, or apartments at night, you are to quietly steal items like TVs, stereos, microwaves, etc. from the homes without waking the residents and load them into the Boxburg. When you have loaded what you think you can and still have time to deliver the Boxburg to the lockup before the timer expires, you drive the Boxburg to the lockup, which in LS is the same lockup used in Home Invasion, which is located in the Seville Boulevard neighborhood. If you make too much noise and wake up the residents, they will attack you with lighter weapons, like pistols or knives, and you will likely get a wanted level, which will make completing the Burglary very difficult. Worse, in some of the residences, there will be residents actually awake when you enter. The best thing to do in that case is just to run out as fast as you can and drive off a bit in the Boxburg to another location. This will avoid the wanted level, though you might get a bit of damage taken anyway and time will unavoidably get wasted. There is no predicting when this will happen, but unfortunately it is fairly common, so you end up having to run off on a good percentage of your Burglary attempts. I usually start the side mission right at 20:00 and move southeast towards Seville Boulevard as the night progresses, so that the drive to the lockup at the end is short. There is the apartment complex where the mission "Sweet's Girl" occurred that is right across from the lockup and therefore very convenient to be the location of the last few burglaries of the night before going to the lockup. Obviously, if your timing is off and you don't make it to the lockup before the timer expires, you get no money for any of the burglaries you did, so you have to pay attention to the the timer. When you get to the lockup before the timer expires, you get money based on the number of items you loaded into the Boxburg before going to the lockup - the more items, the more money. But better to be safe than sorry, don't let that timer run down too much before heading to the lockup, as a little money is better than none. Besides, there is no hurry, since the Burglary stat on the stat page is cumulative and you can add to it each night with a few more burglaries each evening. Now, there is no major fanfare for this as with other side missions like Paramedic or Vigilante, but if you reach the natural endpoint for Burglary, you get a very special and extremely useful reward: infinite sprint. Infinite sprint allows you to run at max speed indefinitely without tiring. It also allows you to swim at max speed indefinitely without tiring. This is very a very useful perk to have, and it kicks in when your cumulative amount burglarized reaches $10,000. You can continue doing even more Burglary if you wish for more money, but there are no more special awards after infinite sprint is granted. Anyway, back to the next mission in the Ryder series of story missions next time. Reply #47. Feb 24 24, 9:11 PM |
| brm50diboll
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Chapter 40 - Catalyst The second in the Ryder series of missions is started like the others, by entering the red marker in front of Ryder's house. A cut scene follows where CJ finds Ryder with his "water" when officers Tenpenny and Pulaski make an entrance into Ryder's house (similar to what they did with Big Smoke) and Tenpenny tells CJ and Ryder a train is arriving with a little "something something" for the two of them. When the cut scene ends, CJ is (again) the driver in Ryder's car with instructions to meet the train near the tunnel in the northern part of LS. So you drive to where the train is stopped at the tunnel entrance and there is an ongoing gunfight between Vagos and Grove Street gangs. Get out of the car and start firing at the Vagos. I would switch to the M4 for this, but Ryder has a tendency to run ahead through your line of fire, so be careful not to kill Ryder as that will cause automatic mission failure. After you've killed all the Vagos, a car full of Ballas then arrives, so you have take out the Ballas with the same care as you did the Vagos. When all the Ballas are gone, a red marker appears at the back of the train for CJ to enter. But you don't have to enter it immediately if you don't want to. You can, for example, go replenish any depleted body armor before returning to the site. When you do enter the red marker, CJ is on the back of the now moving train with Ryder and a driver in Ryder's car following behind you. CJ is instructed to throw crates from the train to Ryder to catch. The controls on mobile for the crate tossing is a bit tricky. I use the two thumbs method: my left thumb controls the manual aim for CJ's tosses and is positioned on the left side of the screen. The right thumb strikes the hand icon on the right side of the screen to toss the crates. I would strike the right thumb as quickly as the game allows. Most of your crates will miss and explode, but they don't damage Ryder. Quick tossing with just reasonable aim will allow enough crates to be caught by Ryder to trigger the next part of the mission, although if Ryder doesn't catch enough crates by a certain point in the tracks, the mission will fail. When Ryder announces he has enough crates, CJ finds himself back in the driver's seat of Ryder's car along with Ryder in the back ready to fire at any police, because they now have a three star wanted level. The most efficient way to shed the wanted level is to head along the tracks to Idlewood where you can get on the road for the short remaining trip to the Pay'N'Spray. After clearing the wanted level, you drive Ryder back to his house to pass the mission. A new red marker will then appear in front of Ryder's house for the next mission in the series. Reply #48. Mar 06 24, 8:50 PM |
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