If you're going to play VC to 100%, you have a LOT of things to do. But what order should you do them in? Since the road is long and treacherous, you might as well make it as easy on yourself as possible. My guide here should help you do that

-- Click on any thumbnail for a larger pic--Pics hosted by chenjx1983 -- Thanks

Step 1	suit up
	Take the Admiral the lawyer gives you and head south to where the picture is (radar enhanced for easier location). If you take the stairs in the left of the pic, you'll get armor. When you come back down, grab the PCJ600 there and nead north.
Step 2	get yourself and the bike into the Film Studio
	Head north and take the curve that takes you over to Prawn Island. At the foot of the bridge there, turn left. Take the stairs you see in the first pic. Take the right ramp over the alley as seen in the second pic. Once there, head to the right a little bit then do a U-turn and take yourself to the end of the "plank" there and turn around. You should be lined up like in pic 3. If done correctly, this will not only get you into the Film Studio, but will also give you your first Unique Jump.
Step 3	getting onto the western island
	Once inside the studio, head to the back corner where the Packer is parked. Turn it around so that it faces just right of the water tower and the face of the truck is lined up with the white crate as in the first pic. Once you're lined up, exit the Packer and immediately begin walking away so Tommy leaves the door open. Now get back on your bike and head for the opposite corner as seen in the second pic. Gain as much speed as you can and hit the Packer straight on as seen in the third pic. ONCE YOU ARE AIRBORN, start aiming to your left so that when you land, you won't go straight into the rail and fly off into the water.
Step 4	get yourself airborn and mobile
	At the foot of the bridge, you COULD just turn to your right and head for the roof of the VCN building where the VCN Maverick is parked. As that heli is extremely delicate and very touchy, I recommend skipping it. Instead, at the foot of the hill, turn left and cut through where you see in the pic. Take that road south and then take a right at the first light.
	Once you've turned right, a short way down the road, there will be an alley on your right as seen in the pic. Head back there and there is a stairway. This leads to the roof of the police station where the Police Maverick is parked. This heli is the second best in the game in terms of good handling, durability, and speed.

Now that you are airborn, I recommend you collect hidden packages. Not only will this get you the items that could greatly benefit you, it will also unlock a couple key vehicles including the Sea Sparrow and the Hunter. Throughtout the instructions you are about to read, keep in mind that anytime you are stranded and without the vehicle you need, you should grab a Taxi and do Taxi Driver missions until you can find the vehicle you're looking for. "Nickel and diming" the Taxi Driver missions as you go will make them a lot less boring. Another good time for doing the Taxi Driver missions is later when you're hunting for cars for the Sunshine Autos car lists. It should also be noted that the Taxi Driver mission is the only R3 mission that CAN be done on the western island prior to it being opened legitimately. And since it is much easier on the West Island, you should save the bulk of them for there.

I recommend getting the hidden packages, but I recommend starting on the west island instead of collecting them in order. If you need a map, there are actually a couple good ones over at thegtagarage.com. They have one with just numbers and one that provides pictures when you hover over the numbers. The main reason I recommend starting on the western island is so in case you heli is destroyed, another one isn't far away instead of having to go through all the trouble to get back over there. Once you've gathered 10, I recommend you go and purchase the Skumhole Shack and save the game. This way if something should happen and you're not too far along from your save, you can just reload instead of going through all the trouble of getting back to the west island. The Skumhole Shack is a useful save point because there is a semi-automatic at the foot of the stairs, a PCJ600 showcase at Howling Pete's, JUST southwest of it, there is an armor pickup in the slightly enclosed area just behind The Greasy Chopper, and of course the Police Maverick is one block north of it. A great place to start at any stage of the game.

As you're gathering packages, keep an eye on what time of day it is. As it approaches the 20:00 - 23:59 hours, you may want to head to the stadium. There are 3 different courses to run there and they alternate days. Because of their times nature and the fact that you'll be heli-ing around "aimlessly", this is a good time to get them out of the way. If you plan when you save and the fact that saving adds 6 hours to the game clock accordingly, you can help manipulate the timing to your favor.

CONTINUED IN MY NEXT POST...

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Thursday, Oct 27 2005, 04:40

...CONTINUED FROM MY LAST POST.

Keep hammering away at the packages and throwing in the few Taxi Driver fares here and there until you reach 80 packages. Obviously you should keep going, but if you should happen to destroy your heli after 80 packages, getting back to the west island is much easier than it was before because you have the Sea Sparrow. If you have 80 packages and need to get back to the west island for any reason (including to grab a fresh heli), do the following...

Grab an Ambulance. If you're near a hospital, good enough. If not, use your fists to lay out a few peds and one will be delivered to you. Take it and go to the bridge to Starfish Island. Drive the Ambulance in between the rails as seen in the first pic. It may appear stuck, but keep your wheels turned and your foot on the gas and you will squeeze through. Once you do, hug the passenger-side rail so Tommy has room to get out. Get out and hop on top of the Ambulance as in the second pic. You want to run and jump to the left of the black fence. The bush is solid a bit off of the ground, so try to jump as far as you can as in the third pic.

Once you have all 100 hidden packages, the Hunter is now available to you. However, it is deep inside of Fort Baxter which has the army there that does not take kindly to civilian intruders and is only accessible from the air. So the best thing for you to do now is save. You can purchase Hyman Condos and save there, or just save at Skumhole and use the Police Maverick. Either way, you will need to take a heli and approach Fort Baxter from the north. As you approach, if you see army men spawning, turn back and try again. Or if you don't notice until it's too late, reload your game and try again. Repeat the process until your approach shows no army men in the section where the Hunter is kept. Now land your heli, get out and get in the Hunter. Once the Hunter spins up, GET OUT OF THERE.

Take the Hunter to the East Island and start Brown Thunder by pressing the sub-mission key. Brown Thunder is Vigilante, but in the Hunter. In the Hunter, it's actually quite easy and you remain relatively safe throughout the 12 levels you must pass. Simply hover somewhere near where the criminals are and use your machine gun. Yes, the rockets are more fun, but they require aiming and attract a lot of police attention. The machine gun will not only auto-aim, but it will generally not attract police attention as long as you're not shooting the innocent. Once you pass level 12, you can end the mission. If you're still airborn, you might as well land on the west island.

By now, you should have all 100 packages, passed level 12 in Vigilante/Brown Thunder, completed all 3 stadium events, have the Film Studio Unique Jump, as well as at least a fair share of Taxi Driver fares completed. Where to go from here is up to you. I recommend Paramedic and Pizza Boy Mission as they will yield benefits that will help you throughout the game. If you want to do Firefighter, it's not that hard. Until the west island is open, being able to do Firefighter isn't easy because you need to have access to a Fire Truck, which is only available in the west island. What I do is I grab teh Molotov Rampage by the lighthouse in the southeast corner of VC. During that mission, a Fire Truck will be brought to you. Once you pass that Rampage, hop on in and get it out of the way.

From there, you have quite a few things to do to get to 100%. Everything listed above is all the ones that will actually yield anything. It's probably a good idea to get the Rampages and Unique Jumps out of the way so you don't lose track of which ones you've done. You also have stores to knock off as well as some things you just can't do until later, like the shooting range, one of the Top Fun missions, and the Sparrow checkpoint missions. Otherwise, you're off to the missions. For help with the rest of 100%, you can consult the many maps/pics from thegtagarage.com or consult the 100% checklist at gamefaqs.com. That is beyond the scope of this tutorial. I just wanted to get you started in the right direction and you are now well underway Be sure to post if you got to 100% with the help of this guide If you need any help along the way, don't forget to visit my Save N Play Vice City thread for assistance.

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Thursday, Oct 27 2005, 04:45

Nicely done Demarest.Nics pics too.

I second that, That will come in very handy indeed!! Well done Demarest.
Im gona try it from scratch later on, Ill let you know how it goes! <Makes excuse and leaves work early...cough cough>


Waddy

Wow, fantastic guide Dem', very impressive. If you like, I can have it merged into the pinned topic... but if not, meh, its your choice really

Good Job.

Outstanding pics once again Dem mate..

The guides awesome and detailed to..

Maybe it should be merged??

Well I appreciate the votes guys. I vote no on a merge for 2 reasons. It would unnecessarily bury the information for one. And two, it doesn't really have the same goal as the pinned topics. But thanks.

Ironically, this guide was made in response to another thread. By time I was done making it, it was clear to me that it deserved to be in its own topic. So you can see the irony in the prospect of merging it, no?

Sure thing Dem'... lets just hope it doesn't fall off of the page, eh
Maybe I'll include a 'link' to it in my guide topic... just for reference.

Nice work Demarest!

When I read about all the ways to get to the West island before they're opened, I want to kick myself for not being able to think 'outside the box' enough to try them.

Maybe next GTA....

There's another one too, but I think it's much harder. At Cortez's wharf, the northen gate has a section that is not solid. The easiest way to abuse that is to use the Film Studio trick to get a Packer out of there and use it as a ramp for the PCJ600 at the wharf. But I've been able to pull it off on foot. I had to use an Ambulance that was half driven up a Cheetah for height, but it worked. Not as reliable though.

That's a great guide Demarest, with some awesome pics too!!! I think you deserve a cookie for that

wow, another Demarest-quality article.
i dont understand how you have so much time to do all this

you know, ive never tried that second approach to starfish island. this gives my game a new purpose... theres always another way to start off quickly...

thanks

But the second approach only works well once you've scored 80 pakcages. Otherwise, there are no helis on the island before it's opened.

Demarest, i must admit, you are the king.
Thank you for this, I am going to restart my Vice game and use your way of starting. This helps a lot. I can get a quick start off of the game this time and reach my 5th 100% quicker.
Thanx again Dem .

Nice job on the guide (with the pics and stuff)-- the only thing I think you should add, which makes life so much easier, is the cone crazy money trick. Since alot of times in the game you need money for either weapons or property

To max out your money easy and early and fast (I read this on this board or another--can't remember which)--the following will max out your money in about 20-25 minutes.

Do cone crazy but when you have just the last checkpoint left pull up next to it but don't grab it until your timer is down to 1 second--then grab it. Take the stallion back to where you got it from and get out, get back in and cone crazy will start again-- repeat but then let timer get down to 2 seconds, then 3 seconds, then 4, etc...

Each time you beat your time your prize money doubles... it takes 23 times to max out your money... the money progression is as follows:

$200
$400
$800
$1,600
$3,200
$6,400
$12,800
$25,600
$51,200
$102,400
$204,800
$409,600
$819,200
$1,638,400
$3,276,800
$6,553,600
$13,107,200
$26,214,400
$52,428,800
$104,857,600
$209,715,200
$419,430,400
$838,860,800

If you do it 15 times, you will have plenty of money to finish the game--

The same trick can be used also on either test track or trial by dirt, but they take longer to complete.

Spuds.

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Saturday, Jul 31 2004, 04:32

When trying to play the missions of VC, I agree. But this guide is to help by starting you down the path of the side missions. You won't really need weapons except for Vigilante. If you've done 100 packages, you'll have a minigun as well as $110,000 just for getting the packages. That and whatever cash you get from everything else will be more than enough for properties and the like without ever having to touch a money pickup.

But now they'll have that choice, eh?

Outstanding guide Dem, this will surely help many and I'm sure many will use it as reference. This is undoubtely the fast way to get to 100%. Well done.

removed

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Friday, Feb 20 2004, 01:26

Normally, I would agree. But the context of this guide is getting started towards 100% by tackling the side stuff first. Without completing missions, the only useful weapon being sold would be the Mac or the Uzi. One is available near the boat yard, and the other just under Skumole. As for the rocket launcher, PSG-1, and pistol, they too are available as pickups around the city. Keep in mind that during my guide, one would only need weapons for Vigilante. Until you get the minigun, the perfect Vigilante weapon is the Ruger. It inflicts a lot of damage and can pierce windshields. While on Vigilante, use your car to stun them with a Pit maneuver, hop out, and start unloading at window level. Even if you miss the driver's head, you inflict tons of damage. As you go up in levels, you can begin to scoop up Ruger ammo from your kills. So if you purchase El Swanko where the pickup is, grab the pickup, and save, the pickup will be there again. Getting 2 of them will give you more than enough ammo to complete your task of Vigilante

Uzi	Mac
PSG	Rocket Launcher
Pistol	Ruger

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Thursday, Oct 27 2005, 04:49

removed

This post has been edited by Spuds725 on Friday, Feb 20 2004, 01:27