[pdescobar]

Yesterday, I discovered it is possible to get the BDEF-proof Mothership from the Black Project mission. No cheats are required but it takes a long time and my CJ did have to die. Below is the method, which I submitted to System Error for his Bulletproof Car FAQ. This was done on xbox version 1. Some of this might be considered to be a spoiler; this is your only warning.

Original, slower method

Preparation: You need a sawn-off with a lot of ammo (probably 1,000+), some reasonable method of suicide like satchels or an RPG, and some space in the Verdant Meadows Hangar or Garage. Infinite sprint from doing the Burglary missions is real handy too.

Now, go through the Black Project mission until you get the jetpack. Instead of flying over to the meeting place with the Truth, fly South to the quarry. Then land near the crane and walk into the red marker; you can press Y/triangle/enter to enter the crane and then when you exit back out the jetpack is gone. The good news is that you can now use whatever weapon you want. The bad news is that the jetpack is only sorta gone and you can't actually enter any other vehicles. Note that the other enterable cranes (Doherty construction site, LV casino one, probably I/E crane too if it's open) should work too, but the quarry seemed to be closest.

Next, you have to run back to the meeting place. It's a good idea to hit the Cluckin' Bell or a vending machine on the way there to reset the hunger counter. Once you get to the meeting place, stay away from the red marker and whip out the sawn-off. Blast the Mothership backwards and off the cliff; the goal is for it to land near the paved road. Depending on how the Mothership lands, it may or may not explode. The time I successfully did this, it had exploded from landing on its roof. I have not yet tested to see if this is necessary or not.

Follow it down by either running back along the dirt path or grabbing the parachute and doing a short base jump. Now simply blast it back to Verdant Meadows along the road. No traffic will spawn and your wanted level is probably frozen so you don't have to worry about any cars or cops getting in the way. Once you get back to Verdant Meadows, blast it into the hangar or garage. Then, go into the garage with it and kill yourself. When I did it, I dropped a few satchels on a Hydra I had parked in there, stood next to the Hydra, and blew us both up.

This will obviously fail the mission and you'll show up at the hospital next to the LV airport. Jack a ride back to Verdant Meadows and check out your new ride. From testing it looks to be bullet, damage, fire, and explosion proof and the proofings did stay through a save and reload. If you can come up with a better way to fail the mission than dying, that'd be great, but this worked for me and it didn't even require a cheat.

One other note, I tried once where it was not destroyed and after I blasted it to the hangar, I ran back to the meeting place and entered the red marker. The mission actually passes even though I didn't have the jetpack and the cutscene is pretty well empty, but the Mothership disappeared from the hangar.

Faster methods using vehicles

digimetal and serge have contributed ways to speed this up so that you can get into vehicles and push the Mothership back to the garage with that instead of having to stay on foot and use the shotguns.

serge's method is to use the Import/Export crane at the SF docks to get rid of the jetpack. Apparently, unlike with the other cranes, using this one does not strip you of the ability to use vehicles afterwards.

digimetal's method is to use a slot machine at a casino to restore this ability. My new suggested method would be to fly to LV and use the crane behind the Clown's Pocket to get rid of the jetpack, then run the short distance to Caligula's, play once at any slot machine (not video poker or anything else, it must be the slot machine). Then you can leave the casino, grab a car off the strip and go get another vehicle to push the Mothership.

Since your wanted level is suspended during this mission, the best option is probably to head to Area 69 and grab a parked Rhino and use that. Other heavy vehicles like the Dumper would probably work fine too. This speeds things up considerably, although you are still forced to kill yourself inside the garage to fail the mission and must remember to load the Mothership in the garage horizontally if it hasn't been destroyed in transport.

This post has been edited by pdescobar on Wednesday, Apr 5 2006, 20:35

[Fireman]

Woh, that's a pretty long trick Great find though ! Have you testede it more then once?-Slurp Slurp, Hmmm... Sprunk!

[Cull]

Nice find ill be sure to try it when i'm up to that point again which will be soon if i don't start playing another game

[Holmes]

There's an easier way. In the mission "Are you going to San Fierro?", when he is asking you to torch his field, jack it then and take it to a garage within the time limit.

[Mxyzptlk]

QUOTE (Holmes @ Dec 28 2005, 13:07)

There's an easier way. In the mission "Are you going to San Fierro?", when he is asking you to torch his field, jack it then and take it to a garage within the time limit.

I don't believe that one is BP/DP/EP/FP though.
Good find pd, and without cheats!

[Holmes]

Oh yeah, course. Whoops...

[pdescobar]

QUOTE (Fireman @ Dec 28 2005, 04:59)

Woh, that's a pretty long trick Great find though  ! Have you testede it more then once?-Slurp Slurp, Hmmm... Sprunk!

I haven't done the full trick more than once yet because it takes about an hour to do and it took me about five tries over the course of a week to get a workable method after several failed attempts. Part of the reason I posted it was so that maybe someone else can confirm it. I will go back and try it again at some point though; I especially want to test if having the Mothership blow up is necessary or not.

@Holmes: As Mxy said, the main benefit of this method is the proofing. If you just want a Mothership for looks and can't/won't use some kind of spawner, your best bet is Riot (quickest and easiest to fail; no special abilities) or Are You Going (where it is Explosion-proof only.)

[Warlord.]

Even though it's long, it's a great trick. Nice find. How long did it take for you to find it?

[digimetal]

cant u just blow it up in the cutsence? using the blowup car cheat and then blast it to your garage? or use a towtruck?

[pdescobar]

QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 14:15)

cant u just blow it up in the cutsence? using the blowup car cheat and then blast it to your garage? or use a towtruck?

Quoting System Error's FAQ:

QUOTE

Why you can't get it -------------------- You can't drop the Jetpack to get in it, nor can you shoot the Truth through the window. If you try blow up all cars, the cutscene goes into an infinite loop. It's a fairly amusing game freeze, check it out if you have the time.

The infinite loop problem is why I had to come up with a way to do it without using blow up all cars. I also wanted to find a method that didn't require cheats since I don't like saving after cheating as a matter of personal preference. A while back someone posted about using the cranes to get rid of the jetpack on Green Goo in order to take a picture of the goo, and that's where I got the idea to do a similar thing here.

As for a towtruck/tractor, you can't get into any vehicles until the mission is over; so even if they would tow it, there's no way to use one.

@Warlord: It only took me a few tries to get a working method, but it takes such a long time to complete that it developed over the course of a week or so. At least now there's a starting point though and someone else may have a clever way to shorten it somehow.

[digimetal]

i think i found a solution to this crap no offense.
I just did the mission.... what i did was... got the jetpack landed near the mothership. Use the cheat "blow up all car cheat".
and then push into the garage. now kill yourself.... *cheat wanted level or something* there u are done...

the problem was pushing the it into the garage.....

btw i think getting a dozer is better than shooting shotguns

This post has been edited by digimetal on Friday, Dec 30 2005, 02:45

[pdescobar]

QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 21:40)

i think i found a solution to this crap    no offense. I just did the mission.... what i did was... got the jetpack landed near the mothership. Use the cheat "blow up all car cheat". and then push into the garage. now kill yourself.... *cheat wanted  level or something* there u are done...

You were able to push it to the garage after blowing it up and without taking off the jetpack? Interesting. What platform and version were you playing? That would certainly be quicker if one doesn't mind cheating. Note that if you are going to cheat anyway, you might as well just use the suicide cheat to fail the mission.

QUOTE

the problem was pushing the it into the garage..... btw i think getting a dozer is better than shooting shotguns

As for the dozer, were you able to take off the jetpack and actually drive a dozer? If so, I'd like to know how. The whole point of the shotguns was that it's the only reasonable way to move the thing because you can't get into a vehicle and it is initially immobile.

[digimetal]

PS2 verison I got lucky on the way... okay i did the mission again.... i find out that if you exit the intertor of area 69 u will still hear the alerting noises. Anywhere u go u will hear them. Mxy will soon informed u of the exit in Area 69... I hope.
I try the "Ped hate u code" then Truth became invincble which mean u can also recruited him and Ill post again... once i explore some more

it was pretty funny to see the Truth falling off cliffs and still have green health, so then i led him to the river and die! After he is gone u can push the car now.... all the way to the garage.

This post has been edited by digimetal on Friday, Dec 30 2005, 04:41

[Mxyzptlk]

QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 23:34)

Mxy will soon informed u of the exit in Area 69... I hope.

I can confirm this unofficially, still trying to record the route and directions.... not sure what it has to do with the Mothership though!

[pdescobar]

QUOTE (Mxyzptlk @ Dec 29 2005, 23:39)

QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 23:34) Mxy will soon informed u of the exit in Area 69... I hope. I can confirm this unofficially, still trying to record the route and directions.... not sure what it has to do with the Mothership though!

I believe the idea is if you leave before you get the jetpack you may still be able to get into vehicles; just guessing. If the mothership is already at the meeting spot at that point in the mission, it might be less hassle to get then. I eagerly await the details of this method.

@digi: if that's how you did it, have you verified that the mothership has special properties at that point? i.e. is it still bulletproof, damageproof, etc then?

[Mxyzptlk]

QUOTE (pdescobar @ Dec 29 2005, 23:44)

[color=EECB8E] QUOTE (Mxyzptlk @ Dec 29 2005, 23:39) QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 23:34) Mxy will soon informed u of the exit in Area 69... I hope. I can confirm this unofficially, still trying to record the route and directions.... not sure what it has to do with the Mothership though! I believe the idea is if you leave before you get the jetpack you may still be able to get into vehicles; just guessing.

Oh yes, you can leave Area 69 and lose the jetpack in the process, via the spot digimetal found. I'll edit and post my vid in about 24 hours... sorry for the delay.
No cheats needed, by the way.

[pdescobar]

QUOTE (Mxyzptlk @ Dec 29 2005, 23:49)

QUOTE (pdescobar @ Dec 29 2005, 23:44) [color=EECB8E] QUOTE (Mxyzptlk @ Dec 29 2005, 23:39) QUOTE (digimetal @ Dec 29 2005, 23:34) Mxy will soon informed u of the exit in Area 69... I hope. I can confirm this unofficially, still trying to record the route and directions.... not sure what it has to do with the Mothership though! I believe the idea is if you leave before you get the jetpack you may still be able to get into vehicles; just guessing. Oh yes, you can leave Area 69 and lose the jetpack in the process, via the spot digimetal found. I'll edit and post my vid in about 24 hours... sorry for the delay. No cheats needed, by the way.

Sounds promising. Could definitely cut the time down if you don't have to detour to a crane and run back.

[digimetal]

sadly, i already try that like 1 hour ago while brainstorming... that the mothership will not appear until u have the jetpack I beileve that mothership is super proof alright... I think.. Im gonna try this mission one more time. then is night time for me

[digimetal]

OMFG I GOT IT acutally i dont.... thz to pdes's way. go to the quarry's red circle (not sure about if u have to do this). then go to the dragon casino (use the high speed cheat if u want). play those slot thingys or poker w/e. Now u can enter cars!!!!
The problem is... even if u input the "Ped hate u" cheat. Truth will get out of the car but, It still wont let u in.
Well at least u can still test your weapon on the car. and It is proofed. Glitch PWN3D! Next Glitch Please!!
Now u can use your bulldozer or w/e to tow this thing out. I think.....

[Mxyzptlk]

Escape Area 69

Lose the jetpack at the restricted area without cheats. I hope it helps.
Thanks to Digimetal.