San Fierro

This city, based on San Francisco, has a number of huge hills on which to get Insane Stunts. It also features one of the few exterior save points, so if you want to build up your weapon skills, start blasting away with your chosen weapon on the civilians near the garage, then hit the save point when the cops start coming. A couple dozen cycles of this will let you max out a weapon skill, but you’ll have to have plenty of ammo, obviously.

The hidden items here come in the form of screenshots that you can only see when you’re using your camera. Check our Extras section for more details and locations of these.

CJ

With Flowers In Your Hair

After you’re done screwing around in San Fierro, you can start taking missions. The first isn’t given by any specific NPC, but is listed as "CJ" on your map. This is a simple little escort mission, where you have to take Truth around to find a few friends. No combat, no wanted stars, no high-speed chases; just get your garage set up and start getting your business running.

555 We Tip

Tenpenny wants you to frame a D.A. by loading up his car with dope while he makes a stop at a hotel.

’FOOOORRRRE!’

First off, head to the Vank Hoff hotel downtown and follow the valet into the garage. After he gets out of the car, kill him and take his uniform before returning to the hotel’s driveway. You’ll have to wait for the D.A. to arrive in his car, but don’t worry about memorizing its make and model; you’ll be notified when it arrives. Note that you can’t just kill the other valets here to make sure that they don’t get the car, because if you do, you’ll fail the mission.

After the D.A. comes up, grab his car and drive back to your garage. You don’t have to worry about any damage, so head two blocks west, then floor it back south until you hit your stash. You’ll then have to drive it carefully back up to the hotel; you can damage it a bit, but if it takes too much damage, you’ll fail. When you get to the hotel, watch out for valets on the ramp down to the parking garage, as killing either of them will be an insta-fail as well.

When you have the car safely stowed away, return outside and call the cops.

Deconstruction

This is another two-parter. Firstly, grab a bulldozer and destroy the six portable trailers in the construction lot above your garage. You have to get a bit of momentum behind yourself before you can actually pop the trailers, and you’ll have to be careful about getting jacked by the construction workers, but apart from that, this shouldn’t be too difficult.

Don’t worry if you accidentally drive a cement mixer into the ditch; there are two of them in the lot, so you’ll get another shot at it.

Next up, you have to kill off the construction foreman, who’s holed up inside a portable john. You’ll have to maneuver him into the ditch near his position - the dozer should suit you well for this task - then back up a cement mixer and fill in the ditch while he’s in it.

After that bit of Hoffaesque business is taken care of, wait for Jethro to call you on your cell; when he does, you’ll be able to take some driving school classes at the facility down the road to the south.

Back To School

The driving school takes the form of 12 discrete driving challenges, each of which will force you to score 70% or higher to pass. For most of them, the trick is to avoid hitting cones, as they pop up a 10% or 20% penalty. The good news is that the tests are short, and thus easy to repeat over and over until you pass them.

Video Walk-through

Getting a 100% mark on this race will take a few tries, but it can be done.

Watch It »

The exception is, of course, the last mission. This sees you trying to get from the driving school all the way to a bay halfway across the city without getting damaged, all in under two minutes. You have significantly more leeway on the damage than you do the time, though; the damage takes the form of a percentage penalty, not an automatic failure, so don’t get too concerned if you bump somebody. A good path is to take the inner-city streets until you hit the waypoint, driving on the lines or on the trolley tracks to avoid traffic, and then scoot down the eastern coast on the highway there before jetting back up towards the school. If you’re on the highway, keep an eye out for a big brown factory on your right side; when you see it, drive up to its northern side, where there’s a ramp just big enough to fit your car onto. (There’s also Body Armor here, so note the position for future item runs.) Taking your car up the ramp will get you onto the rail lines, and it’s a short trip south to the road leading back up to the school.

Photo Opportunity

Cesar’s got a line on some Ballas that have been running dope into San Andreas, so meet up with him in the back country. Don’t worry about keeping your car in nice condition on the way down there, but Cesar will refuse to get into any car but his own, so you’ll need to keep his in one piece until you hit Angel Pine.

When you do reach your old haunt, all you have to do to complete the mission is photograph four men, but you’ll have to get a close-up of their faces. Two arrive in the garage across from your position, while two more roll up on the road off to the right. After you get them all, you’ll have to make your way all the way back to the garage in San Fierro before your next mission. Ugh.

Jizzy

The delightfully named Jizzy is apparently the biggest pimp in town, and if CJ wants to get close to the Ballas connections, he’ll have to get close to Jizzy.

You’ve got four tasks to run for Jizzy before he’ll start giving you missions, though, and you’ll have to do all of them in his pimpmobile, so keep the collisions to a minimum. First off, drop off the girl at the hotel, then head up to Hashbury and take out the rival pimp. The pimp will run south when you catch up to him, so approach from that direction and drop him before he manages to get around the corner.

These vehicles are resilient, so use your MicroSMG to do most of the damage.

Next up is a timed run towards a ho in trouble, so get to her before the hometer runs out and kill the two freaks before they ice her. The last mission here is the toughest, as you’ll have to take down two cars while still in the same pimpmobile; use your Uzi to do most of the damage to avoid wrecking your ride. After both cars are destroyed, you’ll end the mission, but you will have a two-star wanted level to contend with as you make your way back to a save point. Luckily, you can ditch the ride and grab something else to ride back to the garage with.