GRAND THEFT AUTO: LIBERTY CITY STORIES
SPECIAL VEHICLES GUIDE
Version 2.1
By GTA_Loco
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1. WELCOME TO THE GARAGE
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The creation of this guide was inspired to a great deal by System Error's
cool Bulletproof Car guide for GTA: San Andreas, which comprehensively
covered the special vehicles that can be found in the game. So all efforts to
try to make this one a cool guide as well would be significantly attributed
to that cool dude.
GTA: Liberty City Stories is supposedly set-up in 1998, three years before
GTA3. The story revolves around the life of a Leone gangster named Toni
Cipriani, one of the main characters in GTA3 who gave missions to Claude.
It was intended to be a “mini story”, something to fill up a few backgrounds
on some characters and the events that supposedly transpired before GTA3.
It was originally developed for the PSP intended to boost the sales of that
platform but perhaps Rockstar realized that they must not disappoint other
fans who only own PS2, so eventually GTA: Liberty City Stories was ported to
the bigger console.
The game turned out to be quite expansive, in terms of lots of storyline and
side missions to accomplish, something that made it to be not quite small in
terms of scope of tasks to be done. Apart from the tasks, there were even
some additional features that made GTA: Liberty City Stories even more
versatile compared to its sequel GTA3; like better game controls and the
addition of more vehicles that include motorcycles, more boats and a few
helicopters.
In the usual GTA trademark, one aspect that made GTA: Liberty City Stories
appealing to a lot of people that has won their hearts and pockets is the
fact that there are varieties of vehicles that can be commandeered in the
game, practically anything that you see around you. But not only that; some
of these vehicles, especially the mission-based ones, have some little
secrets that were bestowed into their characteristics, intended to be part of
some hidden neat stuffs to be discovered, and as bonus fun for some who would
take an interest on them. These little vehicle secrets will be the focus of
this discussion and will be the basis of this guide for classifying them as
“special”, dedicated to assist those who have taken the task of collecting
them.
Ok, so it's all about the Special Vehicles in GTA: Liberty City Stories. You
might then ask, so what's so special about these so-called special vehicles?
We are talking here of practically any ride-able means of transportation,
most of which are land-based and basically of similar types to the ones you
can find regularly parked/spawned or driving around the cities except that
they have some extra/different qualities which are not your regular staple.
Basically, we're talking here of four main aspects that make these vehicles
special:
1) Armoring: Protection of a vehicle from certain types of destruction.
2) Exclusive colors in their vehicle class.
3) Rarity: Something that's difficult to find or obtain.
These are the properties which are not obtainable from ordinary vehicles you
see driving around in free roam, neither will you be able to create these
properties (without using cheat codes or a mod device) in-game. In the case
of rare ones, their being special stems from the fact that they are not the
type of vehicle that can be regularly found anywhere at anytime in the game.
However, not included here are the R3 vehicles.
The only snag here is that these special vehicles can only be found when
doing both storyline and some side missions. Particularly, those in storyline
missions are one-time appearance only, so it’s important not to miss them or
that you should choose carefully which are the only ones that you would like
to obtain, otherwise, you get one-shot only at an opportunity.
This guide will be divided into five sections:
1.ARMORED VEHICLES
2.EXCLUSIVELY COLORED VEHICLES
3.RARE VEHICLES
4.IDENTICAL SEPCIAL VEHICLES
5.UNOBTAINABLE SPECIAL VEHICLES.
This guide will also attempt to document practically every single special
vehicle that can be found in the game, inclusion of many of them will mainly
be for the purpose of completion of the list only. Definitely not all of them
are worth the trouble acquiring or that many of them are practically useless
to have, aside from the fact that there aren't enough garages to store them.
Some methods will include a few additional details in the walkthrough, so
please just bear with reading through them. They might be useful in giving
you a bigger picture of the environment you have to work around on to
facilitate your quest for the special vehicles.
As for contributions, both for discovery of a vehicle and/or methods to
obtain it, I will include as valid ones only those that didn’t resort to
using cheat codes or modifications. Rather strict huh? Well that should
encourage you to brush up more on your gamesmanship then. Cheating is cool to
an extent but spoils the fun and challenge, that’s why this guide will only
give recognition to those people whose efforts have involved raw skills only.
Regularly this guide will be updated if new finds and/or better methods were
submitted. Any additional informations on the same contribution will be
entertained as confirmations.
So maybe now we're clear about everything somehow? If you have something to
contribute or inform me about anything related to this guide, please write me
to:
srgvm2005@yahoo.com
I'll be more than glad to correspond with you on anything about special
vehicles ONLY, but not on anything else about the game. Please just do that
in the proper forum or consult other guides.
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2. COPYRIGHT
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"Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories" is copyright 2005-2006 by Rockstar
Games, a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. All rights
reserved.
"GTA: Liberty City Stories Special Vehicles Guide" is a copyright document
2005-2006 by GTA_Loco. No part of this material may be reproduced in any
manner for whatever purpose, commercial or personal unless it is with my
consent. If you wish to use excerpts from this guide or the entire guide, ask
for my permission first before doing so and most possibly I'll allow you.
Try to be considerate, since much effort has been put to produce this guide.
Anyone who might be interested in this guide and whom I'll allow to use this
may only distribute and/or post the guide in its ORIGINAL FORMAT. DO NOT
ALTER it please.
The following sites are the only ones allowed so far to post/use this guide:
-GameFaqs.com
-IGN.com
-Supercheats.com
All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
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3. TABLE OF CONTENTS
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1. Welcome To The Garage
2. Copyright
3. Table of Contents
4. Version History
5. Garage Facts & Features
6. Relevant Game Facts
7. Starting a New Game
8. A Few Tips on Looking for Special Vehicles
9. Definition of Terms
10.The Fun Begins Here
11.Armored Vehicles
11.01  Bulletproof/Fireproof/Explosionproof Cars
11.02  Fireproof Rumpo
11.03  Fireproof/Exclusive Color Thunder Rodd
11.04  Fireproof/Exclusive Color Stallion cars
11.05  Bulletproof/Fireproof Avenger
11.06  Fireproof Sindacco Argento
11.07  Fireproof Sanchez motorbikes
11.08  Bulletproof/Fireproof or Explosionproof/Fireproof PCJ 600
11.09  Fireproof Leone Sentinel
11.10  Bulletproof/Fireproof/Explosionproof Motorbikes
11.11  Fireproof/Exclusive Color Black Sentinel
11.12  Bulletproof/Fireproof Stretch
11.13  Fireproof Banshee
11.14  Fireproof Maverick
11.15  Bulletproof/Exclusive Color Yellow Patriot
11.16  Bulletproof/Explosionproof/Fireproof Speeder
11.17  Fireproof Barracks OL
11.18  Comprehensiveproof Forelli Exsess
11.19  Bulletproof/Explosionproof Rhino
11.20  Fireproof Securicar
11.21  Fireproof Stretch
11.22  Bulletproof/Fireproof/Exclusive Color Landstalker
11.23  Fireproof Street Racing Cars
11.24  Fireproof Street Racing Motorbikes
12.Exclusive Color Vehicles
12.01 Black Kuruma
12.02 Dark Brown Patriot
12.03 White Pony with White bumpers
12.04 Black Sentinel
12.05 Black PCJ 600
12.06 Pink Patriot
12.07 Navy Blue Manana
12.08 Light Navy Blue Kuruma
12.09 Black & White Banshee
12.10 Permanent White Stretch
12.11 Chrome Red Stallion with Navy Blue Roof
12.12 Black Bobcat
12.13 Black Pony
12.14 White Bobcat with Brown bumper
12.15 Yellow Faggio
12.16 Light Blue Faggio
12.17 Chrome Red Rumpo
12.18 Light Blue Stinger
12.19 Black Landstalker
12.20 Black Patriot with Chrome-plated Black bumpers
13.Unique Vehicles
13.01 Campaign Rumpo
13.02 Ballot Van
13.03 Bickle 76
13.04 Manchez
14.Rare Vehicles
14.01 Mr. Whoopee
14.02 Faith’s Maverick
14.03 Lightless Taxi
14.04 Lightless Bickle '76
15.Identical Special Vehicles
15.01 Black Sentinel
15.02 Fireproof Rumpo
15.03 Black Pony
15.04 Light Blue Stinger
15.05 Black Bobcat
16.Unobtainable Special Vehicles
16.01 Sky Blue and White Coach
16.02 Fireproof Kuruma
16.04 Bulletproof/Explosionproof/Fireproof Kuruma
16.05 White Pony with White bumpers
16.06 Bulletproof Triad Fish Van
16.07 Navy Blue Yankee
16.08 Bulletproof Thunder Rodd & Stallions
16.09 Bulletproof Sanchez motorbikes
16.10 Comprehensiveproof Maverick
16.11 Bulletproof/Fireproof Hearse
16.12 Comprehensiveproof Pony
16.13 Kazuki's Bulletproof/Explosionproof/Fireproof Maverick
16.14 Explosionproof Securicar
16.15 Bulletproof/Explosionproof/Fireproof Speeders
16.16 Bulletproof Racing Cars and Motorbikes
16.17 Explosionproof Vehicles in shooting missions
17.An Overview of the Special Vehicles
18.Acknowledgement
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4. VERSION HISTORY
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Version 1.0 (June 29, 2006): Created this guide.
Version 1.1 (July 03, 2006): Corrected some informations, refined this guide
and fixed some typo errors. Added 3 Fireproof vehicles, a few other
Exclusively Colored vehicles. Expanded list of spawned vehicles and altered
order of some of them according to mission sequence and which ones are much
easier to obtain.
Version 1.2 (July 04, 2006): Fixed more errors. Added missing informations on
some listed vehicles, which weren't included and fixed their numbering.
Avenger bike classification is updated.
Version 1.3 (July 09, 2006): Refinements, revisions, additions & updates.
Created separate listing for Unique Vehicles and removed Spawned Special
Vehicles section. Updated classification of Landstalker.
Version 1.4 (July 31, 2006): More additions: BP/EP/FP Speeder, 2 Fireproof
Rumpos; one from Friggin the Riggin mission previously listed as unobtainable
can now be obtained in the PSP. Made modifications on some methods. Added
Faith's Maverick in the guide and a few more Exclusively Colored cars. Added
Rare Vehicles Section.
Version 1.5 (September 05, 2006): Updates! Faith's Maverick can now be
obtained cheat less! Big thanks to Alejandro Hernandez Samanieno (sjano29)
for discovering a cheat less method. Minor corrections.
Version 1.6 (September 09, 2006): Additions and revisions.
Version 1.7 (September 14, 2006): Added the Lightless Bickle '76.
Version 1.8 (October 19, 2006): Fixed some garage facts and other updates.
Included System Error's method for the False Idols BP Patriot, as well as
additional methods to obtain the other special vehicles.
Version 1.9 (December 07, 2006): Major guide update and revisions. Previously
listed unobtainable fireproof vehicles on the PS2 version are now listed as
obtainable. What with information coming from System Error that garages in
PSP can restore vehicles, the list of obtainable special vehicles was
boosted.
Version 2.0 (December 11, 2006): Minor updates.
Version 2.1 (May 25, 2008): After a long while, another helicopter was
discovered to be obtainable, and it’s a fireproof one! The only deal here is
that it can be acquired only in the PSP version. Additional informations were
also included in the guide after a very long delayed update.
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5. GARAGE FACTS AND FEATURES
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Just like in GTA3, you are given in this game only one garage per island
where you can store your vehicles, but unlike in GTA3, these garages are not
opened from the very start of the game. You don't need to buy them though
like in Vice City and San Andreas, but you do have to complete all the main
missions in one island and proceed to the next to open the safe house to be
able to save in its garage.
The three safe houses with garages are located in St. Mark's, Portland
Island, Newport, Staunton Island and Cedar Grove, Shoreside Vale.
Portland Island safe house is useable after you complete your very first
mission “Home Sweet Home”, while Staunton Island safe house will open after
you accomplish the mission “Driving Mr. Leone” for Salvatore. Finally, your
Shoreside Vale safe house will be accessible once you have completed the
mission “Love On The Rocks” for Donald Love.
Early in Portland Island you can utilize some cheat less tricks that can
transport you to the other two islands where you can find some of the special
vehicles already, but given that you cannot save yet in any of the safe
houses and store vehicles in the closed garages, it's almost pointless to
even bother going there for them unless you just want to complete doing other
related important tasks.
Due to the very limited garage and space given to you and the fact that there
are quite a lot of the special vehicles that are obtainable, it is only
logical that you must decide which are the only ones that you may want or
need to get. Preferably you must collect the armored ones, although this will
be best left to anyone's preferences.
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5.01: Garage Capacity
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Contrary to some perceptions, you can maximize storage in your garages even
when you’re notified that you've reached maximum capacity already. All the
garages have an Absolute Capacity of 4 vehicles, even though the game would
dictate a technical capacity of only 1 in Portland, 2 in Staunton and 3 in
Shoreside Vale.
By Absolute Capacity we refer to the maximum number of vehicles you can
actually save in the garage without the risk of being "eaten" by it.
By Technical Capacity we mean by how many vehicles the garages will
automatically open to allow you to store any vehicle. This function is
perhaps designed as a safety mechanism, allotting one to two vehicles
equivalent of vacant space in the garages to prevent stored vehicles from
possibly disappearing. This does not necessarily mean though that you can't
store any more than what's allotted to you technically. Maximizing vehicle
storage boils down to some clever layout of the vehicles inside the garage in
relation to their sizes.
In brief, here is a list of the approximate number and sample types of
vehicles that can be stored in your garages:
1.PORTLAND ISLAND
Capacity: 3 or 4 (risky though)
Vehicles: Samples of what can be stored here are:
a. Storage 1:(1)FP/ECV Thunder Rodd, (1)ECV Banshee, (1)BP/FP Avenger and
(1)ECV Faggio or (1) BP/FP PCJ 600
b. Storage 2:(1)FP/ECV Thunder Rodd, (1)ECV Manana, (1)BP/FP Avenger and
(1)BP/EP/FP Motorbikes
c. Storage 2:(1)FP/ECV Thunder Rodd, (1)FP Leone Sentinel, (1)BP/FP Avenger
and (1)BP/EP/FP Motorbikes
2.STAUNTON ISLAND
Capacity: 4
Vehicles: Can vary on the size of the vehicles you're storing but samples
of what can be stored here are:
a. Storage 1:(1)BP/EP/FP Banshee, (1)ECV Stallion, (1)Rhino and
(1)ECV Faggio
b. Storage 2:(1)BP/EP/FP Banshee, (1)ECV Stallion, (1)BP Patriot and
(1)BP/FP Stretch
c. Storage 3:(1)FP Maverick, (1)FP Leone Sentinel, (1)Patriot and
(1)CP Forelli Exsess
3.SHORESIDE VALE
Capacity: 4
Vehicles: Can vary on the size of the vehicles you're storing but samples
of what can be stored here are:
a. Storage 1:(2)CP Forelli Exsess, (1)BP Patriot, and (1)BP/FP Stretch
b. Storage 2:(2)CP Forelli Exsess, (1)BP/FP Landstalker, and
(1)BP/FP Stretch
c. Storage 1:(1)Rhino(risky), (1)BP Patriot, and (1)BP/FP Stretch
A Rhino can fit in the Shoreside Vale garage despite the low clearance of its
door, although you will run the risk of damaging and destroying it given that
it will involve forcing the tank in.
It’s important to know also the size of the vehicle you're storing and try
experimenting with how you can position them inside. You can store all of
them sideways or just some of them, depending on the length and width of your
vehicles. Take note that the Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale garages have
a high ceiling and allow enough room for you to conveniently jump on top of
small size cars so you can squeeze yourself in between them should you need
to push any of them out after cramming them inside. Though the ceiling of the
Portland garage is low, you can still have enough room to jump on a small car
like the Manana or a Banshee if you need to push your car out.
If the garage door won't open anymore, one way to bypass this is to grab a
small to medium sized car or a motorbike and use it to wedge the door open,
parking it half in and half out, and then driving the vehicle you wish to
store while the door is opened. There maybe occasions when the door will
remain opened after you've parked in the vehicle to be stored, especially if
it’s a long one and a portion of it will be sticking out of the garage. To
solve this, just get in another vehicle you can grab nearby without leaving
the garage door opened long enough or going too far away from it, and for
some reasons the garage door will just automatically close as if by remote
control.
It might be helpful also to do the missions in a certain order, to be able to
obtain one more extra storyline mission-based special car beyond your garage
capacity, which you can just save until the next island opens and the garage
in your next safe house is useable already.
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5.02: Garage Features
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There's at least one garage feature that’s different between the PSP and PS2
platforms: its ability to restore destroyed vehicles.
Anyone who has engaged in a special vehicle hunt in GTA: San Andreas would be
aware that one trick involved in preserving and obtaining the special
qualities of some armored vehicles is by destruction and restoration, in
which the garage is a critical tool for the latter. By destruction in this
sense we mean by blowing up a vehicle until it is already unusable. Such a
procedure serves as some sort of a “preservation mechanism” on the special
qualities bestowed on an armored vehicle.
Take note however that there are at least a couple of ways that the game
acknowledges a vehicle as destroyed: one is by blowing it up until it
wrecked, and the other is by ditching it into the water. In the latter case,
the vehicle will still be rideable (except if has gone deep into the water
and was irretrievable) but for some technical reasons it will be recognized
as destroyed already once it is considerably submerged into the water.
On the PS2 version of Liberty City Stories, all the garages only have the
ability to repair but not restore. Any blown up vehicle you try regenerating
will always disappear once you let the garage door closes on it. This
unfamiliar feature makes it impossible then to resort to a method in
obtaining the armored ones by blowing them up. This only leaves the other
option of destroying them by using the waters.
On the PSP platform however, you can use the garages for restoration in the
usual way as it was in the GTA Trilogy. You can resort to any or both of the
mentioned ways of destruction if ever this action is necessary, and this
therefore offers you more chances of succeeding in your acquisition.
When on a mission, take note that your garage will be unable to restore,
repair or save a special vehicle that is strategically assigned to you on
certain assignments, or those others that are involved in the script in one
way or another. This is something that has been the case with them as far
back as GTA3.
You’ll notice that your garage won’t acknowledge its existence, as indicated
by the vehicle not getting restored or repaired. You can only use the Pay N
Spray for repair, but be careful resorting to this if it involves any of the
exclusively colored ones, or you risk losing the special paintjob. The only
time that it will acknowledge and confirm the existence of whatever vehicle
you try saving will only be after you fail or pass a mission.
A tad of a downside in this game concerning the garages and which is common
to both PSP & PS2, is their somewhat downgraded functionality of not being
able to keep any mission-assigned vehicle in whatever condition, if you fail
a mission by getting killed or busted even if you’re just within the
proximity of a garage. Anything that you leave inside it, destroyed or
intact, and including all the others you’ve stored will be deleted once you
return to normal play.
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6. RELEVANT GAME FACTS
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Although GTA: Liberty City Stories has a lot of improvements in most of the
previously known attributes of its sequel GTA3, both significant and minor
ones, there were some that remained the same; like your inability to swim,
eat or the absence of enterable places just to name a few.
But here we shall examine more some scheme of things related to one thing
that has constantly bugged a lot of unaware GTA players and is quite
consistent throughout the series: vehicle disappearances.
If you’ll be collecting and using the special ones for whatever purpose, you
wouldn’t want your treasure to just unceremoniously vanish into thin air
during a play through after all the hard work you’ve done to get them would
you?
GTA: Liberty City Stories has a typical environment that runs on a regular
cycle of spawning and deleting all the interactive random pedestrians and
vehicles in the field, with the exemption of weapons, armors, and some R3
vehicles spawns.
The deletion of the random elements may well have something to do with
keeping the playing field clean so as not to strain and crash the whole game
with an overflow of informations. Vehicles that are subjected to this
mechanism include practically anyone that is outside of the garage. However,
a vehicle that you’ve ridden thereby having a direct physical contact with,
will be saved from being omitted in the environment for a longer but limited
time, but is still not spared for as long as it is outside of a garage.
Eventually, it will still be removed from your surroundings on given
circumstances.
Exempted from this phenomenon in most cases however, are those vehicles that
are assigned to you or part of the script one way or another on certain
missions. They stay indefinitely in the environment, with or without
consideration to most of the outlined circumstances here that make vehicles
disappear, but, for as long as only when the mission is active and if they
aren’t subjected to some other conditions that can still cause their
disappearance. You must therefore take precautions on the following instances
that can make you lose your vehicle in the process:
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6.01: Mission Play
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There are missions that for one reason or another will immediately delete any
ride that you’re driving at the time you start them, regardless of whether
you will be assigned with another vehicle or not. The script appears to
delete any unwanted vehicle data that you came in contact with and that isn’t
mission-generated once you commence your task.
This concern can be a bane more particularly if what you will lose in the
process is one of your precious armored vehicles, in the event you decided to
use one for the purpose of facilitating your tasks in a mission.
In other occasions the removal can occur not at the start but at a later
stage, in the case of missions having several checkpoints. This occurrence
however can affect only those vehicles outside of the garage, so the safest
thing to do then if ever you need any of your armored vehicles at certain
portions of your task, is to start the mission first before you take out
anything from the garage.
Take note also of missions that will eventually force you to abandon your
ride, either by assigning you with another one, or will place you in a
scenario that will make you leave your vehicle far behind.
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6.02: First of Three Vehicles Deletion
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You are allowed for a limited time and distance to keep only two vehicles
that you’ve had direct contact with at a time, from disappearing from your
surroundings. This applies to the non-mission generated ones, whereby the
first in every three successive vehicles you’ve ridden will almost always
vanish. A small exception to this case can occur only if you’re within a
considerable proximity of the vehicle, or are having a close visual on it.
But if you move further away, or looked away long enough, there’s always the
risk of it disappearing.
How is this a concern then with regards to your special vehicle quest? It has
something to do more with convenience and preparation. Certain methods might
importantly require using certain types of vehicles, such as big trucks, or a
Rhino that must be used as a tool for leverage, pushing, and/or destroying
certain special vehicles when obtaining them during or after a mission.
The preparation aspect is when you need to keep a vehicle or two in the open
environment prior to doing a mission, which can be used later on for a
mission or for other tasks required before you must do a mission. Such is the
case of the methods for getting Faith’s helicopter in the PS2 platform, or
accessing Shoreside Vale via blue hell to perform AWOL Angel for triggering
your wanted level to six stars even before Shoreside Vale opens. In the
latter case, you may need the use of an early Rhino for many of the special
vehicles in Portland Island.
If you run into a situation whereby you lost your tool vehicle in case you
overlooked this factor, chances are, you will find yourself in a difficult
situation facilitating your effort. You may always just grab another one
anywhere you can find it, but if the special vehicle you’re trying to get is
in a destroyed condition, you certainly risk losing it if it vanishes once
you leave it.
A simple work around to prevent this from happening if ever you have to
temporarily leave your vehicle for one reason or another and later on just
come back for it, is to go on foot on both occasions, but as long as the
circumstances do not involve a destroyed special vehicle.
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6.03: Proximity & Visual Contact
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Leaving your vehicle far away behind or losing sight of it for an extended
time can spell doom for your ride. However, this can happen in most cases to
anything that is outside of your garage and is not mission-assigned.
Observing the first of three vehicles deletion scheme or having direct
physical contact won’t help in this respect. It’s a standard norm in a
dynamic playing field like GTA, that once you have increased your draw
distance from a vehicle, chances are, it will be deleted from the background.
The same applies with visual contact. For some reasons, anything that you
took your sights away from for a certain period of time can vanish, even if
you’re considerably close to it.
The simple rule to observe here then to avoid this from happening is to
always keep a good eye on your ride and stay close to it as much as possible.
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6.04: Destruction
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Defined here in more specific terms as a vehicle’s condition of being in a
blown-up state, this can be beneficial and necessary, or a bane and must be
avoided, depending on which platform you’re using and/or for what specific
purpose. Bottom line here is, a destroyed vehicle has more chances of
disappearing much more quickly than when it is in a healthy condition, so
caution must be thrown if ever there’s a chance of this occurring or have
occurred already, intentionally or accidentally.
There are more constraints on the PS2, given the garages’ inability to
restore a wrecked vehicle, so destruction must be absolutely avoided at all
costs. On the PSP however, the vehicles are in relatively safe hands, since
you can use the garage for restoring them.
Take note however, that even though you can restore vehicles on the PSP, you
still risk losing it regardless of whether it is a mission-related one or
not, if you violate the rule of proximity and visual contact, or you’ll turn
your smile upside down. The playing field seems to be more unforgiving with
thrashed vehicle data than a usable one.
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6.05: Theft
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Rockstar was clever enough to find a neat and somewhat funny way in cleaning
up the playing field with vehicle data, which was even designed for the
purpose of giving a realistic feel of the gaming environment: they’ve
employed the services of thieving pedestrians.
These scums will randomly snatch up any ride including yours, if you happened
to be unfortunately on their crosshair. Though this can occur very rarely, it
can still pose as a threat to your convenience and losing a ride, after a
hard day’s work to obtain one.
Familiarize yourself with and watch out for specific types of pedestrians
that have a few of them programmed to steal vehicles. This way you can take
measures to prevent them from messing up your efforts if in case you see
their presence within the vicinity where you’re doing something.
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7. STARTING A NEW GAME
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You don’t just begin your game and start looking for the special vehicles
without putting into important considerations a few of the non-storyline
tasks that can provide you with the necessary tools and character upgrades
helpful in your quest.
These tools and upgrades can be significant in your preparations to ensure
that your survival and success in obtaining the special vehicles are
guaranteed when your need to depend on them arises. Many of these can take
some hefty amount of time to accomplish, but the fruits of it all at the end
of the day, will all be worth it for one purpose or another.
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7.01: Side Objectives
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Some of the various side missions and objectives in the game will reward you
with benefits that will substantially prepare you in your tasks ahead. They
may be necessary to perform so that you can obtain the essential tools and
character upgrades for what you must do later.
1. Collect Hidden Packages.
A GTA3 trademark that’s back but in a rather different form, in the guise
of a hand with a raised pointer and pinky fingers as in a devil’s horn
sign. For some reason they were called packages even though they look more
like a charm or an icon. 100 pieces of these items are scattered all over
Liberty City, collect them and you will upgrade yourself with a variety of
weapons and become one deadly killing machine.
You don’t need to collect all of them though if you’re just after some
tactical weapons and if you’re not aiming for a 100% completion. Other
weapons can even be picked up in some spawn locations if you can’t be
bothered with the packages.
10 Packages – Pistol
20 Packages - Shotgun
30 Packages - Body Armor
40 Packages - SMG
50 Packages - .357
60 Packages - M4
70 Packages - Laser Sighted Sniper Rifle
80 Packages - Flamethrower
90 Packages - Rocket Launcher
100 Packages - $50,000 (One time reward only that’s automatically added to
your money)
40 packages can be found in Portland Island, 30 in Staunton Island and 30
in Shoreside Vale. Note that not all of these packages can be collected
right away if you’re aiming for an early accomplishment of this task.
Despite the existence of a few tricks that can give you early the locked
islands, at least three to four of these packages can be collected only
after you advance through the story. Some are in locations that are
difficult to reach or are hidden behind structures, and in both cases the
packages will be collectible only once you’ve completed certain missions.
2. Vigilante Mission: Complete 12 levels. Upgrades your Body Armor to 150.
Having a body armoring with an upgraded strength will ensure that you
can increase your chances of surviving firefights in unavoidable
confrontations with your adversaries. Trigger this mission by pressing R3
when you’re riding in any law enforcer vehicle, inclusive of a police car,
Enforcer, FBI Cruiser or a Rhino.
3. Paramedic Mission: Complete 12 levels. Earns for you unlimited sprint
capability.
This skill upgrade is necessary for at least three reasons: to move
around more conveniently and faster, to provide you with unlimited energy
when pushing vehicles, and to survive situations and confrontations where
tactically running away from a fight is the better part of valor. Trigger
mission by pressing R3 when in an ambulance.
4. Firefighter Mission: Complete 12 levels. Makes you fireproof.
It’d be quite unpredictable when you will figure in a literally fiery
situation when on certain missions. There will be times when resorting to
flame-based weapons will be your best means for survival, and it’s best to
be always fire-retardant from the resultant blaze if things get a bit out
of control. Get in any fire truck and trigger mission by pressing R3.
5. Noodles Punk or Pizza Boy Delivery Mission: Complete 12 levels of any of
the two food delivery missions. Extends your Health.
Every little means of boosting your chances of survival may count
significantly in your objectives. Having an extended health can help
you get past life-threatening situations in order to successfully
accomplish your tasks. This upgrade may not be as critically significant
as having an armor or being fireproof, but the benefit it can give you is
one that isn’t to be taken for granted. Trigger mission by simply hopping
onboard the Pizzaboy scooter parked at the Noodles Punk located in
Chinatown, Portland Island, or on a Pizzaboy scooter parked by Joe’s Pizza
at Bedford Point in Staunton Island.
*****************************************************************************
7.02: Early Access To the Locked Islands
*****************************************************************************
It has been a GTA feature to always lock or make inaccessible some locations
early in the game. Perhaps this was designed to compel you to stay in one
island and finish all the tasks there first before you can set foot somewhere
else.
Locked places can be explored already and without penalty from the
authorities, but only if you can find a way to get there by breaking through
any form of barriers that were put up. Using some cheat codes obviously can
facilitate this, but we‘re not considering this option in this case.
A few reasons that can be cited for justifying traveling to the locked
islands early on include both significant and rather trivial ones:
1) Collect packages for some weapon spawns in the safe house.
2) Obtain a Rhino from the military, by triggering your wanted level to 6
stars if you do AWOL Angel in Shoreside Vale.
3) Get out of the way some tasks required for 100% completion if you’re
aiming for this.
4) Satisfy the curiosity or simply do some cyber gallivanting.
Among these, obtaining a Rhino early on may be the most important one,
primarily in connection with obtaining the special vehicles on the PSP
platform.
For sometime this barrier thing has posed quite a challenge to many people,
especially those who would like to find their way around the places using raw
intuitions only and wouldn’t want to be put off by such obstacles. GTA gamers
have been known for their knack for working their way around things, so the
issue of these barriers to the locked islands was eventually solved in more
ways than one. Veteran gamer Orion_SR even made several nice videos of these
tricks to give some people a visual guide on them, which can mostly be found
in google video.
A. The Hepburn Heights Drop
Orion_SR came up with this method that is so far the most consistently
working and reliable compared to other methods, though the procedures might
be quite tricky for the unskilled and inexperienced. It’s one that involved
falling down to grey hell and using a couple of underground paths that
somehow connect the three islands, but the only catch here is that you must
pass through a sort of secret opening in the water to be able to access grey
hell. Since you cannot swim in this game, chances are, you’ll get wasted if
you miscalculate your actions.
This secret opening we’re talking about is a relatively small spot in the
water located by the west edge of the concrete embankment at Hepburn Heights,
underneath the train tracks and in between its northernmost pillar and a
lamppost. Now you need to dump a land vehicle first into the water that you
must use as sort of a portal to allow you to safely fall through it down to
grey hell. But before you can perform this, you will also need to have a lot
of RPG ammo, necessary for illuminating the safe path.
First, you need to get in any big vehicle, preferably a Trashmaster or any
truck that is wide enough and head over to the location. Strangely, a fire
truck won’t work for this. Any other cars can also be used, although it’s
kind of risky using any of them given that they may not be big and wide
enough for the job.
Now once you’re in a Trashmaster, drive towards the Harwood ferry terminal,
then as you get near the entrance, steer left towards the concrete embankment
that goes along the west side of Portland Island. Drive south along the
embankment, and then stop once you reach the first pillar of the train
tracks. Alternatively you can count fourteen lampposts on the embankment,
this will eventually lead you underneath the train tracks and the first
pillar referred to. That’s the part of the water where you can fall through,
in between the fourteenth lamppost and the pillar.
Position your Trashmaster in such a way as its rear will be facing West, then
slowly back it until it starts to fall off the embankment’s edge. At this
point, quickly get off your vehicle and just let it slide into the water,
hopefully still in the same position as before you ditched it. Now go down
the road and grab any motorbike you can find nearby, from motorists passing
along that route or the Sanchez parked at the Bumps & Grinds course, avoiding
not to start the side mission though.
When you have jacked a motorbike, next is to head back to where left the
Trahsmaster, carefully go over the edge and land on the submerged
Trashmaster. At this point, get off your motorbike and you will fall through
the top of the vehicle down into an invisible solid ground in grey hell.
The first thing that you must do at this point, is to load the structures
including the concrete path that you must use to your destination. This
concrete path is actually the underground railways but for some weird
reasons, doesn’t operate normally in grey hell. Now you can do this by
approaching the nearest underground terminal located in Red Light District,
Portland Island, but given that everything’s still invisible, you must either
wait for a train to pass by and try to carefully follow its path towards
there, or fire some rounds from your RPG every step of the way to illuminate
the safe path where you can walk on.
Alternatively you can use other weapons but the RPG is perhaps the most
suitable one for the job. Do not go West, as somewhere along the way in
Staunton you’ll hit a barrier and there’ll be no way to get past it. Be
careful also when trying to trace the way towards the terminal as the
invisible path doesn’t go in a straight manner and will curve quite a lot at
certain points. Actually, for that matter, what you don’t want to happen when
you’re in grey hell already and trying to find your way somewhere is
accidentally falling into space at any time, whether the path is visible
already or not yet, or you’ll spawn back somewhere in Portland Island. You
will have to redo everything again.
But assuming no untoward accident happened along the way, the GTA: Liberty
City Stories screen will load as you approach the terminal and the structures
will now be visible. The surreal experience on this part is that pedestrians
and vehicles will start to fall from above, so be careful of them. Grab any
ride if there’s one that fell, or you can just go on foot and head North
until you reach Fort Staunton area. You will eventually reach somewhere where
below you there’s another long and winding structure with a reddish metal
design, which is actually a portion of the Shoreside Vale/Staunton Island
tunnel under construction.
Jump to the right and head towards that direction, do not go the other way as
this will lead you to a dead end back in Staunton Island. Now as you head
North traveling above the Shoreside Vale/Staunton Island tunnel under
construction, once you reach a “T” intersection, turn left and just follow
the direction and continue traveling westward until you reach Shoreside Vale
and a dead end with a blue barrier. This is actually a part of the barrier
that is blocking the unfinished portion of the Shoreside Vale /Staunton
Island tunnel. Take note too that from the point you reach the “T”
intersection, a large part of the structure will be soft, so you must walk on
either the left or right side of it which will remain solid.
In the same caution as when you’re underneath Portland but more importantly
in this case, whatever you do, avoid falling into grey space along the way
when you’re anywhere under Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale before you
reach the blue barrier. If that happens, you will end up inside the closed
portion of the tunnel where there will be no way back aboveground. You will
be forced to reload your game.
But once you’ve reached the Shoreside Vale barrier, it will be safe to jump
into grey hell, and you’ll find yourself somewhere in the third island. If
you jump to the left, you will end up in on the paved sidewalk in lower
Wichita Gardens, and if you used the right side, you will end up near the
barrier on the opened portion of the tunnel.
B. Portland to Staunton Warp Zone
Sometimes also referred to as the Construction Site trick. Fathedred
originally discovered this. He was experimenting on how to squeeze through a
seam he found in the Construction Site at Hepburn Heights, hoping that he
would somehow get to grey hell this way. When he finally managed to go
through, he discovered that it would directly spawn him in Staunton Island
instead.
The magic portal to Staunton Island in subject here is that small gap in
between a wall of dirt located in the southwest corner of the Construction
Site, and the concrete base of the giant crane. Based on some tests and
estimates, this small gap has a “hot spot”, somewhere in the middle of the
equivalent length of the concrete base. Try jumping on that spot in the gap;
once your feet get sandwiched in between it, your whole body will make a
rocking motion and if the timing is right, the Staunton Island loading screen
will appear indicating that you’ve succeeded in getting in. Next you will
find yourself slumped on a grey background for a few seconds, and then
finally you’ll spawn on the concrete sidewalk just behind the Liberty
Memorial Coliseum in Aspatria.
This trick however seems to work only on the PS2 platform; it can be
inconsistent and quite a pain in the rear. You will need to invest on a lot
of patience in performing this. There will be times when you can try doing it
for hours without ever succeeding, but there will be occasions too when you
can do it in as easy as a pie.
It’s also more of a short cut to the other island, without having to travel
through grey hell. The only catch here is that you can reach up to Staunton
Island only and not anywhere else. But this constraint is a minor one if ever
you need to reach Shoreside Vale, as there are at least three ways you can do
from this point.
So assuming you’ve resorted to this method and have made it to Staunton
Island only but would like to go to Shoreside Vale, you can either do the
Shoreside Vale Saved File Glitch, Staunton Boatyard Drop or the
Predator/Speeder Jump.
1. Shoreside Vale Saved File Glitch
Perhaps by far this is the easiest way you can open Shoreside Vale without
the help of grey hell or some tedious tasks. It’s simple, and works like a
charm for both PS2 & PSP, saving you a lot of time and trouble from
unfamiliar ways to do. The only condition here is you must have already
played the game before until you’ve reached the third island.
To make this work, all you need to do is to just load a saved game file in
Shoreside Vale, quit the game, and then load any saved file from Staunton
Island or even from Portland Island. Check out the bridge, and presto, it
should be operating as if you’ve already officially unlocked the third
island! It can’t be any simpler than that.
2. Staunton Boatyard Drop
This is basically similar to the Portland Post Drop or Fire truck Drop, but
somewhat less difficult to perform and also involves passing through grey
hell on your way to Shoreside Vale. What you will utilize as a portal to the
underneath in this case is a boat instead of a land vehicle. You may also
need to have a lot of RPG ammo that you must use for illuminating the
invisible solid path where you can safely travel. Any guns might do as well
but the RPG will still prove to be the best weapon to use here.
Assuming you have lots of RPG ammo already, get on any motorbike, proceed to
the boatyard in Newport, and locate the Speeder boat docked there. There are
three boatyards in that place and you should go to the second or middle one
located behind some crates and what looks like a warehouse.
Now the opening to grey hell is actually located directly within the spot
where the Speeder is, on the right side at the end of the wooden plank when
you’re facing East. Should you decide to use any other boat instead, for as
long as you park it on the same spot where the Speeder is spawned, everything
will still be just fine.
Carefully drive the motorbike on the boat, stop, and then get off your ride.
This will instantly let you fall down to an invisible solid ground in grey
hell. From here, either wait for a train to pass by so that you can follow a
safe path to walk on, or use your RGP to illuminate the invisible solid path.
Just like with the Portland Post Drop method, you must approach the nearest
terminal so that the structures will load as visible.
Now the nearest that you can go to is back in Red Light District, Portland
Island, which means you’ll have to make a long way around Liberty City to be
able to reach Shoreside Vale. You can’t go West as somewhere along the way