What is the best order of completion for main story missions and side missions early in the game (PC version)?

[gta3rookie]

Hello guys,

So I just finished gta3 100% (ofc with no cheats) and getting started with San Andreas on PC. So far , I have done the following in SA: tags (100/100), oysters (15/50, only those in LS), firefighter, taxi, burglar, weapons all hitman, vehicle skills maxed (cycling, bikes and cars, haven't tried flying yet, might take a while till I get the hang of the PC controls for that). Roboi and 8-track done. Using the betting shop, I earned enough to buy all available houses in LS and still have 600,000 extra. Last main story mission completed was OG loc.

So here my questions:

- In which order should I best complete the main story missions (Sweet strand or OG Loc strand first?) in order to get as many special vehicles as possible (preferably AP, don't care much about UC)? I know I already missed one in Nines and AK's

- Is there a way to make vehicles damageproof without cheats (like the taxi/crusher glitch in gta3)?

- I read paramedic and vigilante are best done in Angel Pine. Would Palomino Creek or Montgomery work as well? Since I haven't unlocked access to Angel Pine yet.

Hope you can advise on the best course of action to reach these goals without cheats or mods. Thanks in advance 

Edited November 13, 2018 by gta3rookie

[lil weasel]

Anyway you want. I do Firefighting first to get the money to buy a safe house before "reporting in" at Grove Street.

Other than that the game is open.

Second, the Paramedic missions to get the double health bar.

Third, violating the Air-Space (wanted stars) to meet Kathy for the keeping of weapons when "Wasted" and on rare occasions to meet Barbara for the same, when busted.

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by lil weasel

[gta3rookie]

1 hour ago, lil weasel said:

Anyway you want. I do Firefighting first to get the money to buy a safe house before "reporting in" at Grove Street.

Other than that the game is open.

Second, the Paramedic missions to get the double health bar.

Third, violating the Air-Space (wanted stars) to meet Kathy for the keeping of weapons when "Wasted" and on rare occasions to meet Barbara for the same, when busted.

 

Ah thanks, also for the saving help with the gym glitch btw - uploading the corrupt savefile to gtasnp.com and get it fixed there with one click, really appreciate

[Beg_Ultra]

It all depends on your preferences.

For example, there are many of us that like to do the "Starter save", which means doing everything possible before doing any missions. I have my own plan how to do it (spent a lot of time investigating and developing it). For example, one of my goals for Starter save is to keep CJ's welcoming sentence (the one you hear when you reach Grove St for the first time). I reach 13,37% without triggering that sentence, it's really difficult but for me it's a must. The things I need to do and which would trigger it, are painting the tag on the bridge next to Denise's house, and of course using the garage to save the vehicles. 2 best ways to do it without triggering the sentence, are during the pimping mission, there are parts of that mission where you aren't timed, so you can use as much as you want of your time to bring any cars to Grove St house. But I'm usually long time ago already done with the Pimping when I'm collecting the vehicles, so I use another mission, which is Vigilante. It gives you 60 seconds to return to your Police vehicle, which is more than enough time to park a car in the garage or paint the tag. Of course, during the entire Starter save gameplay, I have to avoid passing arround Grove St's save house, in order to avoid triggering the sentence.

Also, I'm extra careful when I'm doing Taxi mission or Pimping mission, because I don't want to damage the car too much as it would require using Pay'n'spray, and one of my goals is to never use Pay'n'spray through the entire game, only when mission required (hence unavoidable).

OK I went away from the topic, back on it now: Personally, I do Paramedic (in Red County) and Vigilante (again, in Red County) first, because it gives you a lot of money, and increases your health/body armor, and also allows you to use the Vigilante mission to obtain rare cars and to store them in Grove St house (+to paint Grove St tag). Then I do all the collectibles: 50 snapshots in SF, 50 horseshoes in LV, 50 oysters all over the map, and 100 tags in LS. Basically, my first visits to SF and LV are to do the collectibles, because it gives you the weapons at Doherty garage and at Four Dragons casino, so you can quickly and easily collect a lot of ammo, which is of course very important for me, and also doing the collectibles gives you a lot of money which you need to buy all the safe houses (since I don't use the Fast Track because one of my goals is to have "Money won gambling" at $0.00 at the end of the game, that money from the collectibles is very important for me). And, you need a lot of health to collect all these things while having 4 stars, so that's why I first do Vigilante and Paramedic. Also I use a HPV-1000 for Vigilante, which increases my bike skill, and it's very important for collecting the Snapshots and Horseshoes, because I mostly use a motorbike for that. Then I do Pimping, Taxi, Firefighter (in Red County). The reason why I do whatever I can in Red County instead in LS, is because my rule is to kill the Ballas and Vagos wherever I see them, literally (the ones on foot, not the ones in cars, it would be too much), I know I'm crazy but that's how I play SA. So I try to get out of the city as much as I can, and even when I'm in the city I'm trying to use the roads without the gangs as much as possible, so I have to waste as less time as possible on killing Ballas and Vagos. And then I do the rest, like the Stadium events (all easy apart from that damn Kickstart because of course I only want 61 points and I don't turn off Frame limiter off because that's not how it should work), the challenges (by now I already have most or all the skills maxed so it's easy), also I use a car as much as possible because building up Driving skill is far the slowest skill of all, so it takes forever. Of course, I build up all the skills before doing the first mission, so between above mentioned things I visit Verona beach gym, shoot parked cars and tires arround to max weapon skills, drive all vehicles to max their skills etc. After that, only 2 things left to do - to obtain all possible rare vehicles (with the ones like Hydra, Rustler etc it can take a lot of time), manage all the garages, and once I'm done with that - to waste arround 20 or so hours of my life and reach King of San Andreas criminal rating, by destroying thousands and thousands of planes and helis at SF and LV airport, using Hydra or a Seasparrow, or sometimes a bike and a minigun/heat seeking RPG/grenades). And that's it, my starter save is done

 

About the Story missions, the best way to manage it (I think I know what you're talking about: you don't like seeing Sweet, Ryder, Big Smoke and OG Loc missions all together on your map, you want to do one strand after another... I know, I'm the same) are the phone calls. Just DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE CALL after you pass some mission. Instead, go and save the game. And then play another mission from the same strand. After you've done and the map is clear, you answer a phone call (answer just one, because there can be like 2-3 phone calls coming one after another because you've been ingoring all of them), and open another strand. Simply: don't answer any new call as long as you have any mission on the map to do, and when you do answer it, then answer only 1 call. That's the best way to manage the missions until the end of the game. It's still not possible to do it in perfect order (I mean, to have only 1 strand opened at the time), but using this method you can make it better, and reduce the time when you have 2 or more strands opened at the same time. Also, if you care about the stats like I do, and want the lowest possible Mission attempts/Mission passed number, then you will have to hold all the calls during San Fierro part as much as possible, in order to block Cesar's annoying calls where you gotta go chase a Patriot or a Sanchez for that courier, because these calls will increase your Mission attempts number. I also don't do the Burglary mission because it increases Mission attempts, as well as playing the Pool, the games etc (hence I skip all these) and they're not required for 100%. If I want, I can simply do all them after 100% completion. Regarding the special vehicles, the order you do the missions doesn't matter much, because you will get the same vehicles any order. Just investigate it properly before starting the story (I still need to do it, to check ALL the vehicles and missions, to decide which ones exactly to get, especially because I don't do Mission failures or suicides so I collect only the ones that don't require these things, and also some vehicles I don't find matching my categories for obtaining, such as Unique Colors 2 that aren't even visible, or obtaining some stupid vehicles such as Tanker trailer), because remember - you need to manage your garages, so you need to know in advance which exactly vehicles you're gonna get, and to know your garage space, so you can make a plan and avoid getting into a trouble later on with not having enough space for your cars. 

22 hours ago, gta3rookie said:

- Is there a way to make vehicles damageproof without cheats (like the taxi/crusher glitch in gta3)?

Yes, there is.A GF date glitch, that can make any vehicle all-proof. If you're gonna do that, then collecting most of unique vehicles becomes pointless. If you're like me and don't use glitches in your game, then collecting the unique vehicles still makes sense. 

 

22 hours ago, gta3rookie said:

- I read paramedic and vigilante are best done in Angel Pine. Would Palomino Creek or Montgomery work as well? Since I haven't unlocked access to Angel Pine yet.

I always do both of them in Red County area, and it works just fine.

 

 

Yeah, long post, but what can I do - I just love this game.

Edited November 14, 2018 by Beg_Ultra

[gta3rookie]

6 hours ago, Beg_Ultra said:

6 hours ago, Beg_Ultra said:

It all depends on your preferences.

For example, there are many of us that like to do the "Starter save", which means doing everything possible before doing any missions. I have my own plan how to do it (spent a lot of time investigating and developing it). For example, one of my goals for Starter save is to keep CJ's welcoming sentence (the one you hear when you reach Grove St for the first time). I reach 13,37% without triggering that sentence, it's really difficult but for me it's a must.

OK let me hold you right there, because obviously there are things a game expert can do, like e.g. getting collectibles in a 4stars environment having no trouble finding their way through a map and a city they know. For us newbies, it's a bit different. Wouldn't bet much on my chances of surviving 4 stars in, say, San Fierro, where I've never been, not knowing the good from the bad shortcuts, the dangerous turns in streets never seen before, the areas to avoid. Especially while being relentlessly hunted by a crazed police AI. But then it's just my opinion, of course...

Quote

OK I went away from the topic, back on it now: Personally, I do Paramedic (in Red County) and Vigilante (again, in Red County) 

 And that's it, my starter save is done

 

 

 

Good idea, might give vigilante and paramedic a try in Red County. The other way you choose to play for a starter save, I can only say wow , way beyond my level but thanks for the useful infos. Can't play like that without infinite run (burglary) as a beginner but I get that you like a challenge right from the start having more experience with the game... Thanks again and good luck on your perfect save run

Edited November 14, 2018 by gta3rookie

[Beg_Ultra]

Well....apart from completely not using Pay'n'spray to remove the wanted level, I also don't use the police bribe stars at all. For me, it's all about stats, and I want both of these to be at 0 when I finish the game Maybe it sounds too difficult, but trust me it isn't. You simply change the clothes in wardrobe.

About the collectibles, and surviving 4 stars...you just need to learn the map. To know it by hard. I literally know it all. Once you know it all, it's gonna be much easier. You'll know where you can find vehicles when you desperately need it, where the streets with roadblocks are and where the ones without it are, where the cops spawn and where they don't, which planes are locked and which aren't etc. And, once you get used to surviving 6 stars level, then surviving 4 stars will become a piece of cake, especially when your health is maxed, your skills are maxed and your arsenal is full.

And, regarding the collectibles, I suggest you to make a map. I made my own map, in which exact order to collect them, from 1st to last one. Also, practice it several times before really doing it. Memorising the locations will help, I know all the locations so when I collect for example horseshoes, or snapshots, I get all 50 without pausing the game to look at the map. And, it's more fun if you get all 50 at once, in one play.

And yes, another reason why it's better to play Vigilante, Paramedic, and even Firefighter in Red County, is because it's much easier as you don't have to care about the pedestrians, which can be difficult to not to run them over when you're doing it in LS, as you will always be driving on the streets and they will all be full of people. Even if you don't care for not killing pedestrians (some do, some don't, personally I do), running over a ped in LS area can easily get you 1 star wanted level, which can get you busted or can escalate to 2 stars if you repeat it. Well, doing these missions in Red County pretty much eliminates that problem, as the villages are small, and you'll spend most time running between them, which is ok once you learn the map so you don't take wrong ways (there are several rivers in that area, so you need to know all the bridges, otherwise you might end up facing the river and being far from the bridge, so driving all the way to the bridge and then on the other side returning back can take a lot of precious time

Regarding infinite sprint from Burglary, well once your stamina and muscle are maxed, along with your health, you'll be able to sprint for very long time without Burglary's infinite sprint, and in most of the cases it's enough as you won't be running that much to make CJ exhaust and become slow.

And, of course, these perfect runs I'm doing lately, I wasn't able to do always it took years and many plays. I remember times when passing NRG challenge was a nightmare even without 4 stars, or when jumping from LS to LV without falling in the water was impossible for me Just patience....it all comes by time and practicing  

Edited November 15, 2018 by Beg_Ultra