Tips and Miscellaneous Info
Early Money
San Andreas is fairly unique in that you aren't going to be rolling in cash in the early game; it can take a long time before you have enough money to do much of anything. Here are some ideas on how to get some money early in the game.
Stoppies: If you can find a sportsbike, you can use it to do stoppies over and over again for small amounts of cash. The easiest place to do this is in the canals behind Sweet's house, as there isn't any traffic to worry about. Just hit the accelerator, shift your weight forward, hit the brake, and try to balance the rear wheel up in the air for as long as possible. With a little practice, you can get over 20 bucks a shot, which is perfect when you only need a little money but don't want to spend a lot of time.
Taxi Missions: Taxi missions are accessible immediately after you begin the game (all you need to do is jack a taxi), and can offer quite a bit of reward money. You should be able to clear a couple thousand dollars just for delivering six fares in a row, making it a low-risk, high-reward profession.
Killing Gang Members: You'll notice clusters of gang members in the various hoods of Los Santos. If they're wearing purple or yellow, ram into them with a car, then get out and grab the cash. You won't always make a lot of money from this - the amount dropped is somewhat random - but it can make for good padding when you're just starting out. You will also get 9mm Pistols and the occasional Tec-9, though.
Unique Jumps: Although getting Tags won't get you cash, as collecting packages used to, Unique Jumps still reward your efforts, with 500 dollars going into your bank for each one you manage. There are plenty of Unique Jumps around Los Santos - over 20 in all - with four or five of them situated along the railroad tracks that run from Unity Station to the northeastern corner of the city. Hit any likely-looking or conspicuous ramps with a fast car, and you should be able to make some easy money.
Obtaining Rhinos
One of the ultimate weapons in the last few GTA games has been the Rhino Tank. Known primarily for their near-indestructibility, their ability to destroy cars merely by running into them, and their formidable turret, the Rhino is one of the most fun vehicles to drive in GTA.
Of course, actually getting a Rhino is fairly difficult, if you're not willing to use a cheat code to do it. (See the cheats section below.) If you're a perfectionist, then you'll eventually wind up gaining a Rhino when you get a 100% completion percentage; at this point, a Rhino and a Hydra will spawn outside of your home in Los Santos.
If you want a Rhino earlier in the game, though, you'll have to jack one from the Army. Unlike in Vice City, you won't see any Rhinos as part of your missions, so you'll need to get yourself up to six wanted stars before the Army starts rolling into town. This is most easily accomplished after you get to Las Venturas, where the two rocket launcher pickups in the Emerald Isle parking garage (on the eighth level and above the tenth, near the helipad) will let you create a whole heapin' helping of mayhem, as well as destroy the helicopters that will come to harrass you. The helicopters themselves are one of the keys to getting more stars, as after a while, killing cops becomes a seemingly inefficient method of gaining a higher wanted level.
Eventually, though, you'll gain a six-star wanted level. After the Rhinos start appearing (you might have to move around a bit to encourage this), you have a few options with which to grab one. The most obvious would be to wait until the driver pops out, then run alongside and jack the thing, but there are obvious difficulties here, the most obvious of which is the fact that the Army grunts pack M4s, and thus will be able to drop you fairly quickly. If you can take him out, then proceed with caution, as there are likely more cops, FBI men, and Army grunts in the area.
A second method, and one that proved fruitful in Vice City, is to try and get into a Pay N Spray while there are Rhinos in the area. If you can get in and out of the Pay N Spray, then the occupants of the Rhinos will likely wait there passively, or drive slowly away. This will let you get alongside them and jack them much more easily. Of course, as with most occupied military or police vehicles, the doors will be locked, but as soon as the grunt gets out, you should be able to start your entry animation, thus taking minimal damage (if any) from his weapon. This will probably jet you right back to six stars, though, depending on how long you waited after leaving the Pay N Spray, but hey, if it gets you a Rhino, go for it.
Lastly, and perhaps best of all, is to use an exterior save point, such as those at the garage in San Fierro or outside Wu Zi's casino in Las Venturas. When you hit an exterior save point while there are tanks or other vehicles around, all of your wanted stars will disappear, as they would with a Pay N Spray, but all of the vehicle should still be cluttered around. Best of all, you won't have a probationary period as you would with the Pay N Spray, meaning that if you do go ahead and jack a tank, you shouldn't wind up with more than one wanted star, making it a cinch to get back to a garage and stow the tank away.
After you get into a tank, you'll have to maneuver it back to a garage of yours in one piece. Unfortunately, the Rhino of San Andreas is a bit more limited than those of previous games. To begin with, you can't rotate the turret all the way around the tank with the right analog stick, making it more difficult to propel yourself along with repeated blasts. You can still rotate it around by holding down the L2 and R2 buttons, but it will automatically reorient itself towards your front side when you let go. Also, it appears to be slightly less resilient than previous tanks; you can still take plenty of damage with it, certainly far more than any other vehicle in the game, but you can't go headlong through huge numbers of cars without fearing for your safety. We haven't counted or anything, but it appears to be around 50 close-range explosions before your tank catches on fire; when it does, you have to get out immediately, because you can't bail out like you can from most other vehicles.
Note also that the Rhino may be too big to fit in some garages; the large freight-size storage spaces in some of your San Fierro safe houses are usually your best bet to stow it safely.
