Wrong Side of the Tracks

Tenpenny and Pulaski leave Big Smoke's place again. Big Smoke says Three Deep gave him a good lead and has C.J. use Big Smoke's Glendale to drive him to Unity Station. There, he tells C.J. he's looking for a meeting between some San Fierro Rifa and some Vagos, who are making a deal. When Big Smoke sees the Vagos, without the Rifa, standing on a ledge over a train tunnel, he tells C.J. the Vagos "clocked us": beat them there and the Vagos jump on a moving passenger train to make a getaway.

The game wants you to have C.J. take Big Smoke on a Sanchez to speed along the locomotive so Big Smoke can shoot them with a Tec9. The BradyGames guide and most others say to stay just to the right of the track to the right of the train, avoiding the car the train hits, the oncoming train, and taking the high road by the track when Big Smoke says to.

Running Dog

Tenpenny and Pulaski, arrogant again, leave Big Smoke's home. Big Smoke wants C.J. to take him to meet his cousin Mary--marijuana--from Mexico. The deal goes sour--Big Smoke hits one Vago with a bat and C.J. chases the other. 

Add the fast repeated tapping of Left Shift to W so C.J. can catch him and kill him.

C.J. gets Respect.

OG Loc

Big Smoke and Sweet want C.J. to pick up Jeffrey, just released from prison and now calling himself OG Loc, from a police station. He wants Freddie killed for raping him in prison. At Freddie's home, Big Smoke and Sweet leave C.J. alone to help OG Loc.

Freddie makes a getaway on a motorcycle. C.J., with OG Loc on board, gives chase on another; have C.J. do a forward drive-by while OG helps. The game is forgiving if you make some wrong turns, but you fail the mission if Freddie gets too far away for too long. Freddy doesn't go so fast if C.J. generally follows from about half a block away. If the chase lasts till the end of the run, Freddie stops by three Vagos who open fire. Have C.J. help OG shoot all four of them, then take him to Burger Shot.

Robbing Uncle Sam

C.J. says Ryder has been a drug dealer since he was ten (and likely getting high on his own supply like he is currently, too). Ryder thinks a local National Guard Depot would make a good place to steal weapons (see what I mean?). Have C.J. drive Ryder down there in a truck, which is quickly supplied by someone Ryder only identifies as "LB."

Once there, don't open the main gate as prompted. As Rusk instructs, have C.J. go clockwise around the big building to the left, shoot the couple of guards by the warehouse and one by the gate, shoot the lock box of the warehouse door to open it, and shoot the two guards inside. As the BradyGames guide instructs, you can use the Forklift (NP8 to raise the fork; NP2 to lower it) to put six boxes to the side of the inside of the warehouse door.

Catalyst

C.J. can get this mission at Ryder's house between 20:00 and 6:00. Ryder is cooking that water now (preparing the PCP to make it more potent?), unconcerned that C.J. wants him to knock it off. Tenpenny, Pulaski, and Hernandez come in without asking and accept what Ryder is doing--Tenpenny wants some of the water for his wife. Tenpenny tells C.J. to check out something that's arriving by train.

Have C.J. drive Ryder in Ryder's Picador to the train, kill three Vegas, then kill four Ballas who emerge from a car.

C.J., with the 1st person view, has to throw ten crates of weapons from a flat car of the train to Ryder, who stands in the bed of the Picador which follows the train, in a minute and a half. The longer you hold down the LMB before releasing it, the farther C.J. throws; aim with the Mouse.

Then have C.J. drive S to the Pay 'n' Spray, to get rid of three wanted stars, and drive Ryder home.

C.J. gets more Respect.

Home Invasion

This mission is available at Ryder's house (next door to the W of the Johnson house) between noon and 20:00. It's like the "Burglary" mission (which the BradyGames guide says becomes available after this mission but which is really available from the start of the game).

Ryder is looking for water in the holes in his back yard. Ryder, whose license plate says "SHERM," has holes in his backyard because that's where he hides the PCP (he calls his "water") he sprays on his marijuana or dips his joints of them in. Marijuana treated that way is called Sherm. (I'd wondered if it was something to cook crack with, but Ryder at this time agrees with C.J. in being against crack dealers.)

Ryder wants to upgrade their weapons by stealing crates of weapons from Col. Fuhrberger's house.

C.J. takes Ryder in the "black" Boxville to the Col.'s house, where C.J. has eight minutes to steal at least three crates and drop them at (load them into) the back of the black Boxville. C.J. has to be quiet in the Col.'s house--if the Col. wakes up, C.J. gets two stars, and if the Col. sees him, the Col. uses a Shotgun. Every time C.J. enters the Col.'s house, have him Crouch, C, and press W to have him sneak; you can press W repeatedly at a rhythm that has C.J. sneak slowly, if you want. Use F or Enter to have him pick up a crate, then tap W quickly and repeatedly so C.J. walks forward in wiggles without raising the noise meter except when he opens a door. C.J. got all five crates when I tried it that way.

High Stakes, Low-Rider

Get a Voodoo, which has the best handling of the lowriders, and take it to Loco Low Co. for 10x Nitrous. (The lowriders that aren't Voodoos handle like cra*. Try not to hit anything if you use one of those, because they spin around easily. Without Nitrous, the Slamvan has the best acceleration of the lowriders, but it has poor cornering ability.)

There's a Voodoo in the driveway of a house three houses E of the El Corona save house.

Lowriders handle better when they're low to the ground. Use the pit maneuver--nudge the back of the side of the car ahead of you to spin it out--whenever you get the chance. It can't be that hard. Some lowrider that's slippery for racing--got spun out a couple of times.

C.J. gets $1,000.

Lowrider Challenge

Have C.J. enter the red shaft of light by the guy standing just outside the E wall by Unity Station. It's the same as the musical game with a bouncing lowrider of "Cesar Vialpando." 

A Voodoo is easier to do this with. (You use one for the next mission, too.) Depending on how much you bet, C.J. can win up to $2,000.

A lowrider has had the suspension lowered to ride as low as possible; sometimes the roof or body is lowered, too. 1961-1964 Chevrolet Impalas were often used, and in cholo culture, originally. If the vehicle has hydraulic suspension, you can raise the body for bumpy roads. A "jumpcar" or "hopper" can be used for bouncing and even jumping: "hitting switches."

Cesar Vialpando"

Kendl talking to Sweet Johnson

C.J. finds Sweet giving their sister Kendl a hard time because she's dating Cesar, whom Sweet refers to as a "cholo" (an Hispanic gangster, here meant in the derogatory sense of U.S./Mexican half-breed). After she leaves, he tells C.J. to go to the lowrider meeting Cesar and Kendl are going to. C.J. meets a mechanic, who tells him Sweet phoned ahead and he owes Sweet big, so he gives C.J. a lowrider. The mechanic says it's the kind used to compete with by "eses" (or "esses"--male gangstas of Hispanic ethnicity). When you drive it into the garage to learn about car modding, you can get it modded if you want to.

You can choose to gamble up to $1,000 at the competition, which is like the dance game for lowriders. A hooker gets into the car. Press NP2 for down, NP8 for up, NP4 for left, NP6 for right, and whichever two of those are the closest for diagonal arrows, in rhythm to the music to make the corresponding directional arrows light up as they pass in front of the circle in the middle of the screen. I had the best luck the last time I tried by lagging behind the rhythm a bit sometimes to press the keys when the arrow was in the middle of the circle.

Sweet's Girl

CJ in Sweet's house

C.J. can't find Sweet or Big Smoke in Sweet's house. Sweet calls: he's trapped at a girlfriends house by fire from the Seville Blvd. (Playa Del Seville) families. (These gang members look the same as the Grove Street gang members.) Send C.J. to help in a four-door car, like Sweet's Greenwood. The game suggests that you get C.J. a Pistol at Emmet's place and have him crouch behind walls across from the girlfriend's house for cover between shots, but you can do it any way you want.