Spuds’ Killing Method I Weapon: Hunter Helicopter Auto-aim Minigun
Sustainable killing rate: About 3000-5000 kills per hour.
Location: Runway area located across from the main terminal at the airport, mostly between the "parking" entrance sign and the west fence bordering the runway-- I hover mostly about 20-30 feet up about 1/2 way between the south fence and an imaginary line run between the two light poles in this area (anywhere south of the light poles is ok so you don't run into them). This location is good in that it is very difficult for the Ranchers to get under you where you can't target them--although they do get in occasionally, they generally stay on the south side of the fence and drive past you.
Preparation: You must have access to the Hunter by either collecting 100 hidden packages or completing story line missions. Get your favorite weapons and I recommend the PSG-1 sniper rifle and get the cop uniform and save at the Mansion. If you head around the left side of the mansion (poolside not the maze side) the Sea Skimmer is always there and you can fly to Fort Baxter to get the Hunter in a few minutes. Make sure your health & armor is at maximum. When you head to Fort Baxter approach low, this seems to make the Hunter spawn more often-- if its not there, fly to the junkyard and back and make sure you approach low--its there every time I do that. After you land there, use your Sniper rifle and shoot soldiers to get you wanted level up to at least 3 stars- is easier to raise your wanted level this way then with the Hunter. By the time you are ready to start your spree you willl be at the desired 5 stars.
Method: Get a Hunter and start a Brown Thunder vigilante mission and try to get the 12th level to spawn in the runway area and do about 20-30 levels. Use your rockets and start blowing stuff up to get your wanted level up to 5 stars (if you haven't raised it previously). Keep your wanted level at 5 stars-- this makes the FBI Ranchers spawn, each of them carrying 4 FBI agents (aka pre-corpses).
Go to the killing spot and hover with the helicopter pointing south and keep your mini-gun shooting continuously and blow up the Ranchers as they drive by. Try not to get behind the “parking sign” as it blocks the bullets. By using the mini-gun instead of the rockets (besides being easier to aim) is that your wanted level rises slower then if you blow them up with rockets. When the police helicopter shows up (it will about every 90-120 seconds, blow it up with rockets--hopefully you see it approach which makes it easier) this is usually what raises your wanted level. Anytime the wanted rises to 6 stars (approximately every 8 minutes), fly over to the bribe behind Sunshine Autos and lower it back to 5 stars and then back to the killing spot (if you are good in the Hunter you can fly there and back in about 20-25 seconds)-- you can do this method without being on a vigilante but your wanted level will rise to 6 stars prior to the bribe re-spawning so you will have to fly to the one in Little Haiti to clear the 6th star this costs valuable killing time.
The purpose of killing while on vigilante is that it takes longer for your wanted level to go from 5 to 6 stars and you can keep getting the close bribe by Sunshine Autos. Also, if the Hunter starts taking damage and smoking you can complete several levels of vigilante and this will heal the chopper—if you see any smoke coming from the engines heal the Hunter.-- I recommend doing 15-20 levels each time which will build the armor up on the Hunter. If you have a good spawning point (ie the runway area) you can complete 20 levels in just a few minutes--and you still get kills but at a slightly slower rate then this method. When you are ready to go back to killing, make sure that you don’t destroy the criminals cars on the runway—let just one of them drive around but make sure you do blow up the 3rd car that usually spawns outside the airport if it does not destroy itself—if you don’t its possible for that car to end up downtown doing the loop in front of the stadium and it takes too long to fly over and kill it. The cars at the runway are close so if you take damage you can quickly fly over, kill them and heal yourself.
A conservative way of this method is every other time you have to clear a star, go and do 15-20 vigilante levels which will keep the helicopter health up and help fight boredom.
Spawning trick: The game engine hates having to keep track of too many cars (even blown up ones on screen at the same time) so if you get too many on screen, the FBI Ranchers stop spawning. A trick I figured out is to try and get the camera angle to point at the Hunter from the side but you want the road to still be visible in the shot (see pic below). Do this by moving joystick a little as you hover. If you start with the hunter near the fence pull it back a little and the camera angle will shift to the side, push it back forward a little to stop the helicopter from continuing to move but not too far or the camera angle will revert back to pointing forward. I know there are other ways to get the camera angle to the side but this method allows you to keep shooting as you get the camera in position--use whatever method is easiest for you.
By getting the angle to the side it makes the Ranchers spawn faster (I’ve had them spawn almost 1 per second before—this is 240 kills per minute—but they generally won’t keep spawning that fast for long)
Keep the Hunter pointed south with the mini-gun shooting and the Ranchers will blow up off screen but the blown up ranchers won’t register as being there so new ones will keep spawning—I am happy if I can keep one spawning every 3 seconds or so since that equates to 20 per minute which equates to 80 kills per minute. Clearing the stars and blowing up the police helicopter takes time away from this.
If you get a good spawning point/camera angle try not to touch the keypad or joystick (as this will change the camera angle and stop them from spawning so fast or the can stop entirely)
When the police helicopter shows up use your rotation buttons to turn the helicopter and your up and down buttons to try and line up your shot—if you see the police helicopter spawn in the distance, line up your angle but don’t go up until he starts to approach you, otherwise he won’t dive down at you and will likely pass over you. As he approaches, hit your up button and keep firing rockets as you rise, you should be able to shoot him as he gets close and he will pass under you. If the police helicopter is off screen and you don’t see him approach, use his tracers to try and line up your shot and just keep firing your rockets at it as you rise up to his level—the screen shakes when you hit it you won’t see it. After you shoot down the helicopter (you should know if you hit it by the sound and the screen shaking a little), use rotate so you are pointing south again and decrease your altitude til you are at a desirable height. If you keep missing the helicopter you will have to move eventually as he gets to close to you for you to kill him without taking damage. This is the hardest part of the method and takes practice to line up the shots when you can't really see the helicopter.
If you happen to get blown up cars on screen or they stop spawning, move to the east or west, and try to get the camera angle to the side again. I generally try to get the camera to point to the side of the killing area I’m on—west side pointed west, east side pointed east and you will see them spawn in the distance. Some will spawn some place else and they can blow up and end up on screen, as long as they keep spawning and blowing up don’t worry about this.
Also, it is important to only leave ONLY ONE of the vigilante criminal cars driving around-- the game has to still keep track of these which makes the FBI ranchers spawn slower-- it does make a difference in your killing rate.
Escape: Fly back to your mansion, end vigilante, and save. If you get shot down you can either try to jack an FBI Rancher and keep the vigilante alive. If you don't want to risk losing your CR points don’t try this—just run north on the runway, cross the road and go over by the billboards to the east and cut over into Little Havana. Stay behind the buildings and then cross the road to the big field that goes behind Sunshine Autos. Circle around the back side of Sunshine Autos and then save it (this is the safest route to a save point).
Advantages:+Rate of kills
+Ease of kills.
+Hunter protects Tommy from taking health/armor damage.
+You can clear stars easily by flying to them and 3 are easily picked up without landing on the second island (1 behind Sunshine Autos, and 2 in Little Haiti).
+You can listen to the radio while killing (if you kill alot you will appreciate this)
Disadvantages: -You can’t save while on vigilante so if you lock up or get killed or wasted you lose your criminal rating points from your kills.
-It takes at least 15 minutes (and as much as 30 minutes) to get the Hunter, raise your wanted level, and get your vigilante mission up and running (Level 25 or so).
-You are dependent upon where the vigilante spawn locks in as this affects how fast you can heal the Hunter, when the spawn occurs on the runway the third car almost always blows itself up and you can go through up to 15-20 levels in a minute if it keeps blowing up (I’ve done over 50 levels in a row without having to chase the third car).
-The spawning rate for the Ranchers varies, sometimes real fast and sometimes slow and its hard to get the camera angle to the side.
-Police Helicopter keeps interrupting your killing—slows you down.
This picture shows a desirable camera angle-- you can hear the ranchers blow up and the screen shakes but since they are off screen they keep spawning--you can see two FBI Ranchers in the pic (will be 8 corpses in about 3 seconds).
Spuds’ Killing Method II Weapon: Rocket Launcher (100% for unlimited ammo required)
Sustainable killing rate: About 4000 kills per hour.
Location: Mansion-- behind in the open yard east of where the Sea Sparrow is parked. From the center of the pool on the east side of the mansion head toward the water to your south. Stop about 5 feet from the water-- facing the water there will be a tree to your left about 10 feet away (estimate)-- the spot you stand will affect the cop spawning rate and where they spawn so it is relatively important where you stand, but you get good results in this area pretty much anywhere.
Preparation: You need 100% completion (so you have unlimited ammo), full health and armor, and the rocket launcher---all available at the mansion.
Method: Get up to 6 stars wanted level-- aim rocket launcher and hold fire button. Aim at the retaining wall to your north and blow up the cops that will spawn near the pool and at the base of the wall-- after you blow these cops up aim to your west and more cops will spawn on the walkway on the wall to your left-- blow them up and aim back to the north, the cops to the north will have respawned-- repeat. You will not have to aim up at the cops near the pool, just aim at the wall and the explosion should get them, same with the cops to the west. Keep firing as they spawn and you will eventually develop a firing rhythym.
Blow up police helicopter when it shows up (every minute or so)--do not stop firing your rockets-- try to blow up the helicopter in the air (keep firing rockets til it explodes) so it does not shoot you as it spins out of control.
Spawning trick: Keep turning from the north to the west and back to north to keep cops spawning. The police boats in the water will ignore you. If civilians are spawning instead of cops (they spawn in fewer numbers), run up next to the pool to your north and back to the spot--this usually changes them to cops.
Escape: No need to really escape since you can save at the mansion, but before trying to clear your stars, save your game and load up on armor/health. Easiest way is to grab the Maverick on the roof or the Sea Sparrow in the back-- fly to the bribe behind Sunshine Autos or either of the 2 "air" bribes in Little Haiti to lower your wanted level. Then land and grab a car to take to a Pay n Spray.
Advantages:+Rate of kills
+Armor, health, and save point all nearby
+Very little prep time--can start killing right away
+Raises your media attention quite a bit (if you care about this)
Disadvantages: -Police Helicopter keeps interrupting your killing—slows you down.
-Health/armor gets picked away if you can't shoot police helicopter down fast enough.
And just so people don't think I'm full of it-- this was the culmination of 8 months of killing in my spare time-- most of these were done with method #1 (which is why my vehicles destroyed is so high). I didn't discover the 2nd method til I was at about 370,000 kills.
This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Thursday, May 5 2005, 03:17
GTA: Vice City
It took me about 12 - 15 hours to complete. 
