Random Characters

Not everyone you can meet in Liberty City is a mission contact—there are some crazy characters roaming the streets. The random characters appear as blue friend icons on the map; they’ll appear as you get close to their locations.

Here are the locations of the random characters from What They Do Not Want You To Know.

Many of the random characters appear after particular story milestones have been reached or completed, such as unlocking a new island or even sparing someone’s life. This section reveals all of the random characters and details on their side missions. Most of these contribute to 100% completion; the random characters that you could have killed during the single player game don’t count. Meet all the random characters to unlock the No More Strangers achievement on the Xbox 360.

Brian

Early in the game, find this friend near the cab depot. Walk up to Brian and after a brief conversation, he’ll hand you $100. Possibly the easiest money you’ll make in the game!

You’ll find Brian the tweaker again south of your original safehouse a few missions after discovering him the first time. He’ll still give you money but now you have to help him out to earn the cash. Grab a vehicle; Brian gets inside. Drive Brian to his destination on Masterson Street. Park at the marked location and Brian exits to make his deal. After it completes, take Brian to Wappinger. Drop him off and pocket $200.

Later, find Brian a third time downtown on the eastern island; he’s near the underground weapons store where Dimitri said you could purchase a Micro-SMG on Faustin. When you meet Brian this time, he claims to be clean. He had sunk pretty far but now he’s engaged and plans to pay off his old dealers. Get into a car and take Brian to the dealer; just follow the marked route. Unfortunate the dealers don’t see it Brian’s way—they attack Brian because he forgot interest. Eliminate Brian’s attackers then take Brian home and collect $500 for helping out.

Badman

You meet Badman during the Little Jacob mission Shadow. After the task, find Badman sitting in front of the Pill Pharm in East Island City; it’s on the northern edge of your start island. Walk up to Badman and speak with him.

Get into a vehicle. Badman tells you the Russian gang members are in the alleyway just off Carrollton Street doing a deal—take Badman there. When you reach the destination, eliminate the thugs. The firefight is tight but not difficult. Target and eliminate each enemy in turn; protect Badman by standing in front of him and becoming a human shield. Complete the task and earn $500 for helping Badman.

Mel

After acquiring your second safehouse (when you move to Bohan), check the area around your first safehouse—just north you’ll find Mel, a guy who’s seen you at Comrades Bar before. Mel owes a guy money and wants you to come along and help keep him cool.

Get into a vehicle then drive Mel to the meeting; just follow the marked route. The meeting doesn’t go well—eliminate Mel’s old friends. There isn’t a lot of enemies here; just target each foe and terminate them with your favorite weapon. Pick Mel back up and take him home. Your generosity pays off with $500 in cash (that’s the money Mel was going to pay…but you killed the guys he owed!)

Ilyena

Sometime after performing missions with Manny and Elizabeta and you’ve received the mission marked by the question mark, drive down to the boardwalk south of your old safehouse (where you took Michelle bowling). Search the western side and find Ilyena Faustin—yes, that Faustin. She seems to have gotten over the death of her husband but is still angry about her daughter’s boyfriend.

Objective: Go and speak to Anna’s boyfriend.

Grab the nearby motorcycle or just jack a different vehicle and drive to the marked location to find Ilyena’s boyfriend—he’s just standing around on the sidewalk. Approach the boyfriend and he starts to get tough. Ilyena requested that you don’t kill him. Complete her request—or don’t. You can simply beat him up with fists until the mission completes. That should teach him!

Hossan

Around the same time Ilyena becomes available, check the streets of Suffolk (southern area of the middle island). You’ll find Hossan on the side of the road. He’s an old friend from the boat over to Liberty City—and of course, he has a favor to ask. A former boss owes Hossan money and he needs help getting it back.

This task becomes a high speed car chase—the target’s car is very fast—so it’s important to drive a fast vehicle over to the first objective. It’s also not a bad idea to do this mission during the day when high speed driving might be a bit easier. Plus there’s generally more traffic during the day, which will help slow the target down.

Objective: Take Hossan to collect his back pay.

Get a vehicle and wait for Hossan to get inside. Drive along the marked route and reach the marker to complete the objective. The cutscene doesn’t last long—Hossan’s former boss is on the move!

Objective: Get Hossan’s money back.

As mentioned before, this is a high speed car chase to recover Hossan’s wages. You need to get the boss’s car stopped. Use your sub machinegun while driving to aim for the target’s tires to slow him down. When he’s slowed, he typically drives to bail the car and run away on foot. Eliminate the boss and he’ll drop Hossan’s money.

Objective: Retrieve Hossan’s wages.

Once killed, the boss drops the wages. Get out of your vehicle and grab the dropped money. The only danger here is if all the commotion has alerted the police, which could create problems when trying to recover the money. The police will start shooting when you’re going to grab the money! Grab it quickly and get back inside the car.

Objective: Take Hossan to the alleyway off Feldspar Street.

Follow the marked route to drop Hossan off in a marked alleyway. Completing the mission provides a nice $500 reward.