GTA3 Speedrun route, SS any% , your guide to GTA3 glamour!

v.8

• This crap was written by oasiz during one slow work day (contact info at the bottom).

• This mostly follows the route done by 'SCM' with contributions from #gta at speedrunslive IRC

• This is done in order to clarify some of the route decisions and stuff plus to help people speedrun this game.

• This route is mostly what I have been using for a long long time and adapted by other GTA3 SS runners.

  If you see a GTA3 run on stream, you can probably follow what is going on by reading this file :)

Let's start with some basics that you will need:

Car doors - Opening and closing should be done fast, bind sprint to mouse4 for example and hold it each time you enter a car to keep the doors from closing. When opening a door, be sure to move at the same time in order to keep the door open. Sometimes it is not fully open and has to be yanked before Claude fits himself inside.

Traffic - This is the biggest motherfucker in the whole game. I suggest that you practice and use the same angles when turning around corners or approaching intersections as this gives you more edge to predict where they can spawn. The cars only spawn in the direction you look at so you can easily manipulate where the traffic should spawn by looking at that direction. Usually you want to do this in order to drive straight and fast by looking behind you. This is not 100% reliable as some of the cars might still be left on the street that you didn't see, forcing you to avoid them blindly.

Locks - The Car locks are determined by a % chance defined in the main.scm script file that handles all the random car spawns in the game. The police cars in portland's station for instance have a 60% and 70% locked rating.

Cheats - While practicing, these can be pretty useful. Nothing you really do in actual runs but getting back to speed after a stupid death can be time consuming: gesundheit - Heals you / car tortoise - Armor ifiwerearichman - Boatloads of money gunsgunsguns - Weapons, every additional 'guns' written gives you another set

Luck - There are two missions in the run where you need stupid luck, these are: Taking out the Laundry - This one is a run killer. The three vans spawn in different locations and all have different destinations. A good run would be that they all are around chinatown all the time but usually one goes towards Harwood or the other one goes for Atlantic quays. With shitty luck they both go. Evidence Dash - Pickup starts at a fixed spot but the route is random and really unpredictable most of the time. Police can be really nasty in here as well. Another runkiller. There used to be a third one "Van heist" but thanks to recent discoveries, it is much more reliable.

I assume that you have completed the game at least a few times, enough to know what you need to do.

I refer to these binds: F - enter/exit car mouse4 - Sprint, used when entering a car to keep the door open

A task to do, route to take and so on

• Does not really affect the route but will speed you up, optimization mostly. (recommended) ++ Rather nasty to perform but will speed up a bit or a lot. +++ Stupidly hard to pull off consistently, useful for segmented strategies. = Extra trivia / info regarding the mission, can make your life easier, in some cases slower but preserves sanity.

I won't really mention obvious things such as cutting corners all the time.

Deciding your strategies There are various ways to complete portland, but there are tradeoffs on both. If you don't feel comfortable with 9 pistol bullets then AK47 is something you can try. The AK-47 strategy is a bit slower overall and also the fastest way to perform it is really tedious. You will want to do the pistol strats but it relies on RNG.

				Let's break it down:
				-	Your first need for a weapon is Chunky Lee Chong, pistol or AK both work fine for this.
				-	AK47 is a bit out of the way but serves you fine for the rest of portland tricks
				-	Pistol is something you get from random gang members (or police). No specific spot.
				-	After Chunky you still need to handle the three triad dudes later on with an AK.
				Bottom Line: You WILL need both AK and pistol for optimal speed, AK is only needed later.
						
				This boils down to two options:
					(1)	Get early AK and pistol from ammunition during 3vans (old way)
					(2) Get early pistol from some NPC and AK later. (new way)
				You can of course vary it a bit but any changes to this will lose extra time.

						

OK! Now for the damn missions.

(Luigi) Give me liberty + Mash F during the talk along with the spring button, hold mouse4 when entering the car. > Drive full speed, turn left and take the alley. + Smash the driver's door in the alley by hugging against the wall after the mid-bump. > Immediately lean left once you exit the alley to pass the stairs. = Watch out for the boxes, they can instantly slow you down + Start looking behind before reaching the road to avoid cars. > On the big road, turn right and get to the safe house + Park as close to the door as possible, the sphere extend a lot further to the door than it actually shows to be. ++ Exit the car roughly on the same frame the scene changes to skip the exit animation during the cut scene as the scene shifts as soon as you are inside the apartment. + Try to turn the car to face as right as possible without losing speed so that you can turn towards the exit without having to reverse. > Turn right, right, right and drive straight.

===> If using pistol + late AK strats then start looking for a convenient pistol <===

(Luigi) Luigi's girls > Drive to Misty + You can jump over the car to get straight to the door if needed. + After you pick her up, reverse, tap look behind to reset your camera and drive through the railing's gap. + Park close to the alley. + Exit the car before the sphere gets triggered for the cutscene. (Luigi) Don't smack ma bitch up > Skip the bat, you are going to drive over the dude. = You can drive over the girls as well = The baseball bat pickup is not needed for this mission + If you parked close enough, hold spring and mash F to enter the car automagically during the fade as this mission places you facing unoptimally. + Smash straight to the wall facing straight as this slows you down the quickest. > Head towards the paint & spray. > Park the car. + Jump out from the garage to get as far as possible for the closing scene. > IF you decide to not get the police car, you can skip the next section.

Getting the police car This is something that will benefit you a lot, very tedious to get at times but makes your life so much easier.

		POSITIVES:
		¤	5 Shotgun bullets
		-	The pickup, you can easily take out the guys in here with the shotty
		¤	Really fast
		- 	Speeds up a lot in the missions until you get the mafia sentinel
		-	You can get to the AK-47 a lot easier with this car
		¤	Really durable
		-	Takes a beating and causes damage as well, really useful in the Van heist mission.

		NEGATIVES:
		¤	Very light and floaty, which means that you have poor traction during high speeds.
		¤	A big red restart-chance with cat sized letters, the cars have a 60% and 70% lock rate at the police station, 
			meaning that if you wish to use the car then you absolutely need to be prepared for a lot of restarts in this 
			section.

(Luigi) Drive Misty for me + Park as close to Luigi's alley as possible, park the door to the opening so that you can actually get out. > Go get Misty. + While inside the sphere, sound the horn and exit the car a few frames after that. This way the bimbo runs the second section of the cut scene instead of crawling like a snail stuck in tar. > Drive to Joey's + Take the box alley to Joey's ++ Smash the driver's door open by hugging the left side of the alley, smashing in to the first boxes while hugging the left side of the wall should do it. + When entering the sphere, you can exit the car again to do the animation during the CS. (Joey) Mike Lips' last lunch > Get towards the car + Immediately turn left to the walkway to prevent shitty traffic. + You can take a shortcut trough the grass = Align with the rising terrain to prevent flying away. > Do the bomb + Immediately reverse with the door open, it doesn't collide. ++ Go through salvatore's gate and drop down, this requires the right speed and a bit of practice to get right. It's not hard once you grasp it. A good reference is the two trees in the distance and current speed run videos. Your speed should be around your running speed when you do the drop. > Avoid traffic and get back, init bomb and wait for the crawling fat fuck to explode. + You should be inside a car during this cut scene so that you can head away quickly.

=== Skip this one if you don't use AK47, but you'd better have a pistol at this point ! ===

Different AK-47 Strats SLOW: (+) ¤ Get the AK-47 and armor behind Tony's restaurant, a courtyard has those. After this you can call it a day. You could get these during the Lips mission. Good thing is that you have close to 2x the ammo you'd get from the faster pickup and this is something you should do when you practice running for the game.

		FAST: (++)
		¤	Immediately after the lips mission, get to the closest EL-Train station and go up
			the stairs, follow the track with your car. Track you want is the one that is on the
			same side you enter the tracks originally. When you get the first slope, slow down.
			You can stop to look around, on the left close to the support you can see a building
			really close to the tracks, this is where you will be dropping into.
			If you are walking, then you can use the support to jump on top of the building.
			Hard to pull with a car though and this is where the police car comes in handy.
			Around the midway part of the slope, start accelerating and turn left just before
			the support, this way you should land on top of the roof. Continue following it
			to find 1x pills, health, armor, AK-47. Pick them as needed, avoid the pills.

=== END SKIP ====

(Joey) Farewell Chunky Lee Chong I assume that you have the police car at this point, you're on your own if you do things the other way + Park in front of the garage door but not too close to the sphere, this way you can start entering the car during the black fading thingy > Go near Chunky, use the south entrance of the three possible entrances. + Gun down that motherfucker. > Drive to Joey's, this time around you can park normally since the driver's side is facing the sphere so you won't have to open the door if you blindly mash F to enter (Joey) Van Heist Nowdays you can dance with joy since there is a alternate strategy ! = There are two possible routes that the van can take: West or North, after that it changes it's AI pseudorandomly. = The best path is that the Van goes to north, this way the van is as close to the shipyard as possible without driving around. = You really don't want police to spawn at this point as they can bust you really easily. = Use grassy patch to skip the need to drive around too much.

		>	Just park the police car in front of the van (carefully) just a tiny bit closer compared
			to where the van would normally stop if you blocked him.
			Something like this:
			http://i.imgur.com/BSQIRJR.png
							
		>	And then just explode the police car with a shotgun for example.
			Remember to be CAREFUL with the distances,
			too far => Van gets spooked, not enough damage
			too close => Van will catch on fire
			nnnoice! => van gains about 80-90% damage and the dudes exit immediately.
		=	After this the van is REALLY on it's last breath, try not to damage it !
						
						
		OLD ROUTE:
		;=   The best pattern is: North > East and south/north.
		;+	Park sideways in front of the car, wiggle your way to block him all the time.
		;	Use the handbrake brother!
		;	Be prepared to restart if you take too long with this one.
		;=	Usually the first kuruma you used is still intact when you end the mission,
		;	this is useful as it wont trigger any alarms but might be slightly slower.
		;	You still have the broken car door and some hp left on the car to make it.

(Joey) FIX ME + You can park in front of Joey's, as close to the sphere as possible. Despawn doesn't matter since you use the Mafia sentinel anyway. > Drive to the laundry > Drive to the restaurant + Take the entrance trough the raised corner to the parking lot. This way you will have Tony's side facing towards the sphere. Mission complete is triggered once Tony gets close enough to the stairs. + Get out of the car for the cutscene once you touch the sphere (Toni) Three vans This mission is easy but it can take VERY long if you have shitty luck. Last mission that determines the main portition of portland's end time. > Destroy the three vans + You can stock up for UZI ammo at the ammunation and this is REALLY recommended! + 8-ball has some throwable shit that you can use as well but this is harder and slower. = You will want all vans to be inside the chinatown area optimally. = Sometimes the police car from the Van heist mission is still intact, you can park it nicely to block the traffic flow. This can be used to prevent the vans from going to Atlantic quays or Harwood. Going there will usually result in a really slow time. + Use the same mafia sentinel you got from the previous mission. ++ Bust the driver's door open. Prepare to restart all the fucking time for this son of a bitch as well. (Toni) The pickup + Use the same mafia sentinel from two missions ago. > Drive to the location + Use the shotgun to deal with the enemies by using a spread shot = You can buy a pistol during the previous mission to help you here. (Toni) Salvatore called a meeting > Drive with the mafia sentinel, usually at this point it's smoking pretty badly, watch out. + Park in front of the garage, as close to the sphere as possible (despawn is ok) > Get to Luigi + Park the rear close to the entrance for shortest walking distance (a bit angled). > Get Tony + Immediately turn left, get smashed against the wall. Wait 1-2 seconds and go. The wait should be timed so that you start moving immediately when you see the right side truck enter in the street. This way you will not be smashed to bits. + Get pushed by the trucks at the hill for some boost (Looking behind helps) (Salvatore) Chaperone > Drive to Chico + Mash keys to skip the talking > Drive to the party + Drive close once she starts her exit animation for a small speedup = The bust happens 10 ingame units after she disappears = Maria is the 9th person to come out + Drive over person no. 8 so that she can enter in quick > Get to Salvatore's while avoiding cops + Mash keys to skip the talking = If you skip the last talking, you will still be stuck walking for a while, this is normal.

=== If using "no AK" strats, prepare to get the "slow AK" NOW! ===

(Salvatore) Curly bob > Get a taxi near the espresso stall spawn in saint marks. (Or steal one) > YOU MUST get the slow AK if you don't have one already. You need to make zero mistakes. > Drive to Luigi's, in front of the entrance + Leave slight room to move, this way you can move a few pixels if there is a car behind you as otherwise he might get pissed and ram in to you if you wait for too long. (Toni) Triads and tribulations > Use the AK-47 in this mission, otherwise you are on your own. Collect it after Mike Lips. > Drive to the fish factory, drive to the side (on the wrong side of the complex). You should be between the wall and the road that leads to the diner. (x) and shoot (y)
> 1st dude: + PREFER HEADSHOTS! This way you can use the AK-47 for all of them (Toni) Blow Fish > Drive to 8ball. + Bust the fence near 8ball, car showroom side. > Drive to fish factory + Go trough the now broken fence if you broke it. > Drive to the factory + Exit truck immediately run to the van and do a quick enter, drive to the gates. If you do this fast enough, the gates will open during the cut scene. + Drive to Salvatore trough the grass patch near the tunnel, mall and boatyard's edge. (Salvatore) Bomb Da base > Drive to 8ball + Use the same spot to drop as in Mike Lips to skip a huge chunk of driving > Drive to docks + Use the tunnel + You can snipe the guys from the spot where you drop off 8ball (Salvatore) Last requests > Generic driving, no tips for this one. > Remember to pass near Luigi's place (Azuka) Sayanora salvatore > Kill Salvatore + Get a banshee (recommended) + Drive to Luigi's service door + Place your car like this: x = Player, y = Salvatore will come from here, D = Mafia men exit from here

		= 	This missions is a motherfucker in the sense that it will round the portland time to the closest minute. It 
			rounds up and adds 2½min and sets that time for Salvatore to leave the club, meaning you can't finish the 
			mission before then. See http://www.speedrunrecords.com/Grand_Theft_Auto_III/guide/3ybwf for more 
			details on how this works and even a way to manipulate the timer. 
		= 	I suggest that you repair your banshee, usually plenty of time for that
		= 	Buy weapons + armor. AK47 should be enough and uzi for drive-by. Nades won't hurt either.
		= 	If the mission fucks you over by glitching the mafia men then throw some grenades inside the door to finish 
			them (usually just one guy) off, ~5-10% chance of happening.
		> 	Head back to staunton + Azuka's place, try not to damage the car. A good way to get to Azuka's safely and 
			quicker is to drop at the same road where ammunation is.
			http://i.imgur.com/6kZsPzD.png
			Once you are at the X, slow down to zero and accelerate to get a safe drop.
			practice until you get it right and remember that different cars have different
			weight distribution. Stinger for example sucks for all drops.

(Azuka) Under surveillance > Head for the park dudes first + Use the AK-47 to snipe-kill them both, the right one is behind the bush but you can use its arrow for reference. > Drive to the van next. + Use a grenade to kill them all, small toss and use the alley near it to reach the casino. > Go for the casino. + Snipe the dude on the second lowest balcony in a higher area, take the stairs near the sign, you need to go up the steps two times, this way you can kill the 2nd dude and snipe the rest from ground level (roughly under the sign) > Get the weapons !! You will survive with one pick but two is strongly recommended. > Drive to Azuka's, you can use the long highway and drop down to the right. (Azuka) Paparazzi purge > This can be a tricky one if you have no experience but also really easy, thanks to a design oversight with the overpowered M16 and distance planning. + Get to the docks near Azuka's, don't jump in to the boat. ++ Use the first extension of the pier and shoot the boat with M16 + snipe the last bit. + Use the second extension of the pier and shoot the boat with M16. (1) You need to be standing at the VERY end of it. (2) Stand at the end, not as critical. Aim for the main body of the boat, slight above waterline and be prepared to shoot it as it starts to turn right the moment it gets hit. > Destroyed? Done! Back to Azuka. (Azuka) Payday for Ray > This mission is pretty generic and involves 100% driving, plan your own routes and remember to have a fast car for this mission, banshee works. Smash the door for extra speed gains. (Ray) Silence the sneak > Get to that dude's place. = If your banshee (Which you should still have from the Salvatore killing mission) is busted then park facing the ramp to do a quick repair after the mission ends. > Throw the grenade = You can use the bumps on the ground to determine distance, I always throw it just a bit after the 2nd bump. + M16 kill the car for near instant pass, grenades are unreliable as they can fall trough. (Ray) Arms shortage > Drive to Phil's ++ You can do a straight jump from the road near the stadium over to Phil's place. Use the minimap as a reference and align yourself with the pink dot near the end of the road and jump through the grass with close to full speed and aim for the sphere, it should land and the cutscene will start. This is really hard and scary as there are multiple ways it can go wrong but the savings are too great to ignore. + Skip the first talking scene (pre-fight) + Get the rocket launcher either by jumping on top of the tank (very buggy) or the three boxes near where the columbian guys spawn (more reliable bugginess). > Drive to Ray's = I suggest getting rocket ammo for espresso-2-go at this point, 2x should do (10+ ammo). = if your banshee is busted then switch to a new banshee or cheetah, next mission requires a REALLY fast car and durability, something that the banshee doesn't have (use cheetah). (Ray) Evidence dash > This motherfucker is luck based, have a nice day figuring this out. = It helps if you have a fast and durable car (like cheetah) = Try to bump straight back and collect it as it flies to you, the AI has issues enough while it tries to go around the roads If it slows down too much, cops will catch you. + Beg for a route that goes near Donald's place where you will end the mission by burning your car. + If you fail to get near Donald's then scout for a fast car that you can use in the next mission, do it only if something comes on your way. Having any car is a bonus. (Donald) MUTE ASIAN DUDE > Pick a fast/any car and drive to the construction site and look for a cartel gang car. > Get inside the area = You can drive in straight, once the guys get triggered, drive over the first dude and drive-by SMG the other one, rest you can either drive over or get behind the car pile and rifle the rest. = The mute asian dude spawns randomly inside the garages, I suggest going near and using the M16 aim mode to shoot the legs before they get to shoot you. = Watch out for the further two doors, those can fuck up the first person aiming for some reason, the aiming just goes crazy and you will die if you can't shoot the guy. + The mute dude will run for you... until you enter a car. So wait until he is close before you enter your car (or fetch him). > Drive to Donald's (Donald) Waka-gashira wipeout > Use that same car, drive to the parking lot's second floor. + Park the car on the 2nd floor as shown in the picture (use the pillars to get the place) + Stand slightly closer to Kenji, use the big lamp as a reference, Shoot in the middle & behind of the lamp texture and on the side of it (right side from the player POV). = After killing Kenji, you MUST return to the cartel car for it to register the kill! > Drive away and live happily ever after. + This is a good oppoturnity to get a fast car for the next mission. > Get to Donald's, the police won't be any bother as they will be gone really quickly. (Donald) A drop in the ocean > This mission is a nice timed mission as you have all the time in the world to restock on ammo, armour and health. Do some refills and head for Azuka's pier and get the speedster. > Leave a fast getaway car near the stairs (Like the banshee that is parked closeby). > Collect packages.... > Drive to Donald's + Drive to the left side immediately, through that warehouse/whatever area that leads to the casino, slow down when it turns grassy as it's pretty lethal. Cross your fingers for no roadblocks. ++ Drive straight from the docks to Donald's place by using the big roads, pray for no blockades. (Donald) Grand theft aero > Drive to the airport, bridge timing can be a real bitch during this mission. + You can drive straight in to the hangar as long as you kill the M16 dude first (drive over). He is the dude that runs near that corpse and behind the boxes (first you should see). ++ Take the dodo and fly to the construction site by using the area behing the hangar as a runway. ++ Land outside the site if you want to use it for the next mission or.. + Crash land inside, hoping for a nice landing, this should speed you up a bit. > Get to Donald's (either by dodo or car) > Get to the site again (Azuka) The bait > Haha, have fun with this. Let me explain the mission: Catalina is after you, she has hired some thugs that want to kill you, nothing you can't do? right? Nope! In this mission the Yakuza dudes have a tiny Mr. Wiggles and they need to kill some people for that to boost their pathetic japanese ego. The best way to understand this mission is that it's an escort mission. - You MUST safely escort the guys that kill you to the trap. - They MUST reach the trigger or the game considers them outside the area. - ANY death that happens outside the area will trigger a mission failure. - Even passive kills will trigger the end of the mission. On the plus side the cars have the ability to magically teleport after they fall down but they also have some of the dumbest AI you will see in this game and it's not uncommon to end a good run because of this mission. = The trigger for them to start following you is only 2D, this means that you can fly over as high as you want and they will still get triggered. = I suggest that you park inside the bait area and do not exit the car as that will confuse the AI. = Try to SMG the guys before they turn out their M16s at you, it's pretty lethal and hurts. > Get to Azuka's place. (Azuka) Espresso-2-go > Mostly driving, you can figure out the routes yourself, personally I do: Police station > rest of staunton > bridge to portland > tunnel to SSV airport. A combination of rockets and grenades is handy here, you did buy them, right? The park stall in staunton can be sniped with a rocket, the stall in St. Marks can either be done with a rocket nearby or a grenade behind the wall that is near Salvatore's. (Azuka) S.A.M. > Restock on supplies again because this is a timed one. ++ Prepare the dodo and use the runway to take off once you have the packages +++ This is a difficult trick but you can already shoot down the plane at the dam and fly off from there with the dodo. This requires more set-up and will be really difficult. Watch some of the faster runs on the leaderboards to get an idea of the timing. ++ Land the dodo safely near the mission end trigger. (Catalina) The Exchange > Get to Catalina's mansion ++ Use the dodo to fly there, recommended take-off is the road that goes from the yard and connects with the beach highway. Use the leftmost lane for take off. = Try to avoid too many bullet holes, those are lethal! > Do the betrayal thingy

		DODO strats:
		++	Fly to the Dam.
		+++	End the flight at the "Get this thing airborne" Trigger, midway to the dam
		CAR strats (slower):
		+ 	Grab a fast car and drive straight and turn right just before the bridge, go through the yard.
		+ 	Smash trough the cartel cars that block your path

		> 	Shoot Fatalina !
		+ 	If you want to time for a fast time on "lose control" then wait until she flies on top of the 
			building and shoot her, this makes the heli explode a lot faster and triggering the ending.
						  

						  
						  
						  
						  

"I don't understand anything you said, and you are a shithead!" 
Did you know that you can say it straight to my face? Catch 'oasiz' on IRCnet/Quakenet/Freenode.
I'll gladly help you if you have any questions about this route.
And I stream from time to time at http://twitch.tv/oasiz
on Speed demos archive I am known as 'oasiz' and yeah, I was the one who did the run at AGDQ2013

Thanks to all the GTA3 runners and contributors