Marked/H Conversion Combined and Refined (Save up to 12 H vehicles, works on all platforms) and DP Conversion of RC Bandits

[imkira3]

Hello everyone, I just thought I would share my newest strategy. I'm currently making a save focused on being overpowered this time, rather than collecting cars. Basically my goal is to make Tony as OP as possible. 12 AP vehicles, and 10 of them heavy. I can't make the AP Hunter or AP/TP converted vehicle heavy, but nvm that. Basically my entire strategy revolves around converting marked vehicles to H and then playing the 33 or so missions until I unlock Shoreside Vale, then I store and save everything. The problem is the videos currently on youtube are too inefficient. I admire everyone's work here, but through my experiments I was able to refine the exploits, making them more efficient. For one thing, this method will combine the marking and the H conversion into a single mission attempt, which will reflect better on your stats. For another, it eliminates some possibilities of failure. Blowing up the wrong Sindacco vehicle at the wrong time will pass the mission and kill you if your close for example but in Lethal Vaccines video on H conversion he comes very close and adds unnecessary steps. Not good for something you might have to do 8 times in a row. Another noteworthy alteration is you don't have to die to mark vehicles with this method. I recommend beating all missions involved first except the molotov rampage and A Volatile Situation so it will reflect better in the stats. You don't get extra mission attempts for failing missions you already beat. You should beat all other main missions too, except perhaps the final mission with Ma that triggers the hitmen. I like to do it with the hitmen so I have a steady source of armor on Portland (we will have to fail many missions without passing any and nothing will respawn until we beat missions) but if you would rather do it without hitmen you can buy armor at the Ammunation on Staunton Island via ghost car. (This guide will assume you understand most of the common glitches like ghost cars and such, but I will explain where necessary, look up DP conversion to learn how to make a ghost car.) If your on PSP you might as well mark your vehicles with the PSP method and use regular H conversion.

Stage 1

First we must start with opening the Bumps and Grinds course menu, and using that to exit the TOYZ van the moment the door closes by pressing triangle. This is one of those things most of us rare car collectors already know, but if your confused, watch part of this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xp68yKb87Rg You can see at 6:36 he presses triangle for the first time WITHOUT holding the analog stick to the side. He doesn't explain, but you can't press X or Triangle without holding the analog stick to the side after opening the course menu, or you will f*ck it all up so I suggest driving backwards. I hear you can't press circle on the PSP versions either, and need to look to the side to press X Triangle or Circle. Triangle can only be pressed once and then the menu closes, you can see when he does and the menu disappears at 6:36 in the video, then a few seconds later the mission fails as soon as it starts and leaves us with a little lap timer from the mission and a few blips on the map. The blips are annoying, yet unavoidable. The timer however is going to override other timers in some missions, forcing the timer to count up forever. This will allow us to halt A Volatile Situation at any time by allowing a Sindacco leader to plant a bomb, and it only has to be done once. You can remove the timer later by entering the TOYZ van normally, but it won't interfere with any missions in a negative fashion until Shoreside Vale except A Volatile Situation. (All blips and timers will be gone after loading, though I hear they may be more permanent on the PSP versions)

Stage 2

Later in the video, he grabs a taxi and uses it to cancel A Volatile Situation by failing a rampage shortly after arriving at the Casino, however in this video on marking vehicles: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FATbVV9QIog&feature=youtu.be you can see this fellow here has opened the course menu before starting A Volatile Situation and then uses the course menu to cancel the mission about the same time as in Lethal Vaccines video. This is where the two methods converge. Whether we cancel the mission with a rampage or the course menu it will work just the same, but we can time it better with the course menu, ergo we can combine the two methods this way as long as we have the timer ready. After you have your timer, open the course menu again. (I hope it goes without saying to have your desired vehicle ready and in the garage first) You will have to open the course menu a little differently this time, and every time after. You must exit the police car with 54 seconds on the timer, then stand beside the bike and get on when it says rampage failed. (This is important for using the course menu many times in a row) Now start A Volatile Situation and do as in that video on marking vehicles. Make sure you use one of the Leone Sentinels by the casino to block the door as they will be marked until we close the course menu. The trick is to block the drivers side door to force Tony to exit out the passenger door as he enters the yellow light. That is the point you press triangle and close the course menu, as you can see he does at 2:52 as the screen goes black, though a delay keeps it on the screen for a few seconds as the next scene loads. If done properly, on the PS2 version the passenger door will be ajar unless your timing was off, but it doesn't matter unless you marked the wrong door. The door being ajar can serve as a warning. If the drivers door is ajar instead of the passenger door, you f*cked up. You can push it into your garage, but you can never enter it as you will be unable to exit the vehicle, therefore you can't H convert it which is why we force Tony to exit the other door instead. If another vehicle blocked the other door too when you pressed triangle, you f*cked up. If you think it worked, approach the passenger door and try to enter. If Tony fails to enter through the passenger door, you have marked it, meaning it will never disappear but isn't necessarily immune to carjackers on the drivers side. We will have to lock the cars up later where carjackers can never reach. (The doors will be normal and the car unmarked after saving in the garage, except on PSP) Bikes are different and require a different strategy and order of operations. Read this too if your marking bikes, then I will explain below where the strategies differ.

Stage 3

Now for the next stage, kill the 2 Leones in front of the casino and hop in your marked vehicle. I cannot stress this enough, but you must not go more than a block or so from the casino at any time unless your at the proper stage. Many factors ranging from traffic to the automatic detonation of the truck bomb when your far away can ruin this, so stay near the casino and eliminate the first two waves of Sindaccos, then let the third wave leader plant the bomb and then kill all the Sindaccos. The third wave leader must not die before planting the bomb, or it's game over. If an earlier wave planted a bomb, you can still follow along with the next step but you will have a few extra waves of Sindaccos to kill first and the casino will be on fire.

Stage 4

Once you have the mission frozen after the third wave plants it's bomb, you can advance the mission by force by activating the mission again. This will send out the heavy truck bomb. I suggest waiting until traffic clears before starting the mission, then don't press anything after the cutscene starts until you can see the truck bomb on screen. Then cancel the cutscene and race the truck to the casino in your marked vehicle. Enter the yellow light as the truck arrives at the casino. For some odd reason this passes the trucks heavy properties on to your marked vehicle. Wait until the cutscene says "The truck bomb is armed!" and then cancel the cutscene.

Stage 5

Now then all you gotta do is wait by the casino. I'm surprised nobody noticed, but if you H convert correctly every Sindacco vehicle will become a truck bomb. The Sindacco Vehicles are even crippled like the truck bomb which explains why they will be moving slower now, but the red blip gets attached to the real truck bomb so you won't see the Sindaccos coming on your map. You usually can't use the Sindacco vehicles as the truck bomb because as soon as you kill the Sindaccos the truck bombs properties pass onto the next Sindacco waves vehicle, unless we let them plant a bomb first and freeze the timer. So move a short distance from the casino until the red blip by the casino disappears, then let the first wave plant a bomb this time, kill them, and move the Sindacco vehicle nice and close to the casino so the safe distance meter is empty. Move your marked vehicles a safe distance away, I prefer on the sidewalk opposite and behind the casino on the same block as the hospital. There, now all you gotta do is blow up the Sindacco vehicle while a safe distance away. I like to fire an RPG at it while 2 blocks away. You should keep one marked vehicle out to block the door and make your job easier, but stay away from it as much as possible. Carjackers won't spawn near it when your not near the car. Drive your marked vehicle towards the Pay N Spray, there is a gate on the same street on the opposite side. Jam the car against the gate pointing in and then kill any carjackers and run around the blue wall until you see a small entrance. Make your way to the other side of the gate. If you placed the car properly, you will be able to open the gate from the inside but the gate will remain open until you move the car. Place it inside, where it will be safe until it's time to save it in a garage. Now rinse and repeat. You don't need to open the timer again, start again from Stage 2 when you have your garage prepared. When it's time to pass the mission, blow up the first Sindacco vehicle in the second wave when it's far away from the casino and you. Never try to fail the mission the first time around once begun, always the second time as this will avoid a blackscreen error.

Marking bikes/Marking one vehicle while H converting another

Bikes are a bit different, but they can still be marked. You just can't ride them after marking until properly storing them in the garage. Fortunately the Portland garage is close, though we will have to change the order a bit, H conversion will have to occur in the bikes before marking as they can't be rode after. Fortunately, though I combined H conversion and marking you can still make one vehicle heavy while marking another. I'll explain it in terms of marking a bike, but minus pushing it to your garage the concept is the same for cars. First you will have to do one H conversion without marking the bike. Use a traffic vehicle for the marking if you wish, but this is a good time to mark a DP/PP police car for opening the course menu. Then next time you start the mission, mark the bike you made heavy. After the third wave plants the bomb you need to push your bike down the street towards your garage. Unless it's DP, be very gentle. H bikes are very fragile. A small ways down the street in that direction is a store called Barberism. Shove your bike flush against the sidewalk in front of the Barberism store. That will keep it far from the casino explosion and out of the path of the Sindacco vehicles. That done, fetch the next vehicle to be H converted from your garage and proceed as instructed above, until it comes time to blow up the Sindacco vehicle. After you moved it close to the casino, drive your heavy vehicle back to the garage and park it in there. Keep in mind it's been marked in a way too, by the mission and will be unmarked when the mission ends. This can be bad for proper garage storage, it's a different sort of marking but any vehicle registered as being involved in some way with an active mission can't be saved in the garage. That is why you will have to blow up the Sindacco vehicle while leaving your vehicle saved in the memory. You can stay within a block of your garage and fire an RPG at the Sindacco vehicle from there, then walk back to the garage, open and close the garage door again and that should do it. That leaves us with a marked bike by the sidewalk that cannot be driven. It's best to get it away from traffic ASAP, so go get a police car and start pushing it to your garage. You can be less gentle now, as if it catches fire you can activate and then deactivate vigilante mode to put out fires but you will have an easier time pushing it up the hill if it's less damaged. If traffic becomes an issue, drive a ways away and come back to despawn everything. Leave your sirens on too, this will discourage any drivers that become enraged near you. Be careful of the last street before turning the corner towards the garage, as it goes downhill and your bike can slide too far. Get it down that hill, then you have to push it up the other hill to your garage. I suggest getting a firetruck for that, firefighter mode will put out fires too, any mission can. Once you get it in your driveway properly, push it around until you find a solid spot. (Bikes tend to slide around the driveway in most places and can damage themselves this way) Then go get a police car, the firetruck is just too bulky for this. Now push your bike into the area by the dumpsters on the other side of the wall. Not too far or it might get stuck, just get the bikes out of the way so you won't drive into them by accident. Make sure it's not sliding around. There! It's an unbelievable hassle to mark bikes and store them in the garage, but more annoying than difficult. All you gotta do now is push them in the garage with a police car when your ready to save them.

DP Conversion (RC Bandit Method)

Consider this a sidenote, but an important one. Nobody seems to have tested it yet, but I have and successfully too. People say you can't DP convert the RC Bandit as it has no passenger seat, but I figured the bike conversion method would work, and it did. I used the Sindacco method during A Volatile Situation, but I'm sure other methods will probably work too. Funny thing is if you do it wrong you can get an entire wave of Sindaccos to take control of the RC Bandit and force drive you to the casino! The Sindacco AI will actually take control of the player rofl. The timing is much less specific too, it took me less than 30 tries. Here is a video of the method I speak of, though I'm sure most of you know already: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e0zparaLsLI

Edited September 6, 2020 by imkira3
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