GTA III: DE | Warning! | Uzi Money/No Purple Nines Bug | Affects 100% Completion and Trophies/Achievements

[GTA5201015]

I would post this in the GTA III Launch Bugs & Issues Reporting thread, but this bug warrants its own topic as it will very likely affect many completionists if the word doesn't go out - it already has in previous versions of GTA III. Many hours of progress will be wasted thanks to this. I would like to add to the fact that I looked up a platinum trophy guide on PowerPyx and it was not mentioned there either, despite it being an issue since the PS2 version. I guess people assumed that the issue had been fixed 20 years later. WRONG! Have they seen or played the definitive edition? Anyways...

 

The Mission:

Uzi Money is a pay phone mission you receive from D-Ice in Shoreside Vale (the 3rd and final island you visit) where the objective is to kill members of the Purple Nines gang. They are enemies of the Red Jacks gang. During the mission you are tasked to kill 20 Purple Nines gang members. Completion of this mission, as well as the rest of D-Ice's missions, will remove all Purple Nines from the game permanently.

 

The Bug:

If you've played through all of D-Ice's missions and you start a new game, while keeping the older save file on another slot, you will not be able to progress past the Uzi Money mission. The Purple Nines won't be around to kill, only the Red Jacks. You can search all over the internet for details on prevention and solutions. I'm just here to inform first timers. Bottom line, if you're planning on getting 100% completion, make sure to go for it on your first playthrough, otherwise, delete F'N everything.

 

How did I come across this bug? I played GTA III Definitive Edition as soon as it came out. Having only played GTA III once all the way though many years ago and without a guide, I didn't know some story missions would be inaccessible after progressing through certain missions. I decided to playthrough normally and then afterwards go for the platinum once a guide was made. Well, I beat the story and the pay phone missions, but I didn't complete every single story mission. So I started a new game on a different save slot... you know the rest. I played the PS5 version, but I'm sure this issue is present on all versions.

[Jeffryyyy]

So when is it safe to do the phone mission then? 

[Helegad]

The Workaround:

Exit the game, reopen it, then start a new game.

[IISolidSnakeII]

Thank you GTA5201015, I'm playing this on PS5 and just started a new game. Completed the Ambulance level 12 side mission (After raging that it was impossible after beating the game).

I was making a list of things to do and this thread came up. So grateful I found this otherwise I would of lost my mind hahaah.

I managed to glitch to the 3rd island and find 0 purple nine game members.

[GTA5201015]

12 hours ago, Jeffryyyy said:

So when is it safe to do the phone mission then? 

You can do the phone mission whenever you want, as long as you haven't done all of the phone missions at Shoreside Vale on a previous playthrough. If you've already done them and you didn't miss any story missions on your original playthrough, you should go for a 100% run on that save file. The problem you'll run into though is if you've done all of the story missions and payphone missions, without doing the vehicle missions, they'll be more difficult to complete due to the hostile gang members spread across the 3 islands.

 

They released an update recently, but the patch notes made no mention of fixing this issue. I already deleted my saves and reinstalled my game, so I don't know if they fixed this or not.

[HGB138]

Hello there, I completed all the missions on a GTA3 play through when I first got the trilogy but now want to 100% it. I had already finished basically all of Portland by the time I saw your post. If I just overwrite the old save will that be ok to still get 100%? Or do you need to delete the old save file before you start a new play through?