Grand Theft Auto III is an action game by Rockstar Games released in October 2001. The star of the game, a no-name thug, is betrayed by a woman named Catalina who lets you get thrown in prison after robbing the Liberty City bank. After a series of planned events, you and a fellow inmate named 8-Ball successfully escape police custody and are released upon Liberty City to do missions for crime bosses, odd jobs for a little extra cash, or just cause some all-out mayhem.
Note: Console and PC are considered separate categories due to various gameplay differences (such as aiming).
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100%, Single-segment: 4:10:05 by 'guywithalightsaber'
Author's comments:
Glossary:
Replays - Pressing F1 will show you the last ~30 seconds (it’s more based on file size rather than length) of gameplay, F2 will save it, F3 will play the saved replay.
Rampage - A minigame that gives you the goal of killing a certain amount of people (or vehicles) in 2 minutes. They are activated by collecting a blue icon with a skull.
Click on the link that best describes your question, or jump to page 2 to read everything.
Full route by CasterTM if you want to follow along
Q: Why does the camera change so much?
A: The top-down camera view makes traffic disappear. This can either be used by quickly going through all the camera angles or just using the top-down camera on its own.
Q: What’s the flashing that happens when you enter a car?
A: This is called a megajack/megaenter. Using replays as you enter a vehicle at the right time will skip the animation either partially or entirely depending on if a driver is present and the car doors.
Q: What’s the significance of rampages/replays? Why do you stand in random spots?
A: If I’m standing in a corner, I am usually saving a replay over where a rampage icon would be. I will later play the same replay to pick up the rampage remotely to start missions with them. The goal is to either start the same mission twice to pass it quicker, or to start another mission once the rampage timer runs out.
Q: What’s the weird teleport/super jump?
A: This is called a megajump. When you punch/shoot, jump, and then play a replay, in that order, it will shoot you forwards at a very high speed; the same thing can be achieved from jumping twice. This trick is used sparingly as it is easy to die from it unintentionally. Conversely, it is often used to intentionally die very quickly.
Q: Why are megaenters/replays not used at certain spots?
A: The crane for the Harwood crusher and the Portland Harbor will drop any vehicle if a replay is played. This is a non-issue if it’s done within a few seconds of pickup because it will drop it back into the pickup zone. Playing it later on will result in the car getting stuck/lost in most cases. I often wait for the confirmation message that the vehicle has been delivered before playing another replay.
Q: Why is the first split 2 hours long?
A: All of Portland is nonlinear. This is because you have to look for 4+2 rare vehicles (Flatbed, Bus, Mr. Whoopee, Trashmaster; Moonbeam and Rumpo can also be grabbed early) at some point during the run for Portland’s Import/Export. As a result, some parts of the run will take longer than others. Depending on the in-game clock, some missions are done in a different order.
Q: What’s with the Vigilante toggling?
A: Starting Vigilante (and Firefighter) will load car models into memory. This is good for making sure rear vehicles are driving around the island but is also good for making sure duped Vigilante doesn’t crash later on. The crash is caused by the game trying to load a car model that doesn’t exist.
Q: What is going on during (duped) Vigilante?
A: There’s a lot going on but all you need to know is that the real criminal is around where they were last sighted and are usually on foot. All kills need to happen while the player is on foot in order to be credited with 4.
Q: How do you have so many rockets/M16 ammo?
A: By playing a replay at the exact moment a rampage ends, you keep the ammo given to you for the rampage. This trick can easily be missed as the time window is 1/30th of a second. If I am doing a mission differently that is usually done with an M16 or rocket launcher, it is because of this.
Q: Why do you play replays specifically before the turn of the hour (XX:59, XX:00)?
A: If you press F3-F1 when the in-game clock ends with :59, and then play the same replay with F1 afterwards, you increase the value used to represent the current weather that’s being cycled through this array. This trick is often used to skip rain since rainy weather comes with slow and sluggish rain physics. It is crucial to have as clear weather as possible for “A Drop in the Ocean” as rainy and foggy weather affect water waves. The replay that you see at XX:00 is me playing an F3 replay so that I don’t unintentionally advance the weather when doing something else.
Q: What cars are needed for Import/Export?
A: Portland (crane):
Shoreside Vale (nonlinear unless stated otherwise):
Q: Why NOT the deathwarp at the beginning?
A: The package (behind the apartments at Hepburn Heights) is grabbed at Salvatore’s Called a Meeting.
Q: Save and reload?
A: Saving at the Portland safehouse is for adjusting the in-game clock for the time-sensitive missions later on. Reloading is so Vigilante starts when attempting to dupe it with Turismo/Espresso-2-Go! instead of Firefighter (i.e. it flips the thread order). Saving at the Shoreside safehouse is for adjusting the in-game clock for the BF Injection, which spawns between 18:00-23:59.
Q: Why is there a mission missing on the checklist (72 out of 73 missions, 19 out of 20 rampages, etc.)?
A: Gangcar Round-up is instapassed early on in Staunton. The method used doesn’t increase the mission counter but gives percentage, so it’s allowed. The same thing goes for the Shoreside flamethrower rampage that is used in combination with Uzi Money.
Q: How come you are not on a flamethrower rampage during Big'n'Veiny?
A: When doing I Scream, You Scream/Trial by Fire IP, I usually pick up the flamethrower “rampage” associated with Trial by Fire to advance the mission so that it doesn’t crash when entering Big'n'Veiny. If I have a cop car before this point, I can use Vigilante to cancel the Trial by Fire instance and continue as normal.
Single-segment: 0:56:46 by 'guywithalightsaber'
Author's comments:
In contrast to the previous run, this run makes heavy usage of manipulating the ‘onmission’ flag (onmission0 = can pick up missions; onmission1 = cannot pick up missions). This is what allows us to enter a mission multiple times or instantly pass them (instapass) with other missions in some cases.
[0:02] –Give Me Liberty–
New strats:
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-Megaenter/megajack - The use of replays to partially skip door-opening animations. The latter applies when a driver is present, which typically skips the animation completely.
-Pausing into markers - Pausing sets the car speed to 0 which is what’s needed to activate markers.
-Dialogue skip - When replay.rep isn’t present in the game user files directory, pressing F3 before has the side effect of skipping it. Because replay usage is rampant and using this trick in other places can cause issues, this is the only time it is used.
-Camera switching - While not a new strat, the use of it is used very liberally compared to the previous run.
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[1:19] –Luigi’s Girls–
A taxi is needed to hold the taxi driver submission throughout the next mission and to later enter Cipriani’s Chauffeur while on a rampage to dupe and fail the subsequent mission, Taking Out the Laundry.
[2:17] –Don’t Spank Ma Bitch Up/Drive Misty For Me–
The submission key (also bound to look behind) is held throughout this mission to have a rampage running onmission0.
New strats:
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Megajump - Playing replays when blending an animation (attacking or another jump) + jumping will propel you forward very quickly.
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A cop car and pistol are still needed for Joey’s missions. The pistol is situational as you can play a replay on the exact frame the M16 rampage ends to receive ~30000 ammo.
[5:52] –Mike Lips Last Lunch–
Instapass with Vigilante.
[5:59] –Farewell ‘Chunky’ Lee Chong–
The onfoot camera is switched to top-down before the mission to quickly gain control of the camera after exiting a vehicle.
[6:28] –Van Heist–
The van is used to push the taxi closer to the mission's end.
[7:35] –Cipriani’s Chauffeur/Taking Out the Laundry–
M16 replay is saved for Salvatore’s Called a Meeting (SCAM) instapass. Stumbling out of the marker dupes the cutscene when skipped at the very last moment which is a little quicker than manually entering the marker (in most cases after this one).
[10:02] –The Pick-Up/Salvatore’s Called a Meeting–
A taxi is needed for the SCAM IP setup. Megajumps are used to acquire the firetruck for Firefighter which is used to break out of onmission1. The series of replays after the second jump prevents falling and helps with the firetruck spawning. Taxi Driver instapasses SCAM.
[11:57] –Chaperone–
With the use of M16 ammo, the party-goers can be quickly killed to speed up Maria’s exit from the warehouse. Typically it doesn’t give you a 3-star wanted level and make cops unbearable but a poorly placed S.W.A.T. member made that happen.
[15:00] –Cutting the Grass–
The grenade rampage on the tracks is recorded for the end of Portland. You can megajump to deathwarp immediately after killing Curly Bob using the shooting animation.
[17:14] –Triads and Tribulations–
Paramedic takes a few seconds to start after the green message prompt - because Claude is outside of the vehicle, it instantly cancels, making this dupe work the way it does.
[17:45] –Blow Fish–
Similar megajumps from The Pick-Up to the dust cart.
[19:56] –Bomb Da Base Act I/Bomb Da Base Act II–
Typically replays are used to stop the in-game clock for Sayonara Salvatore. However, it wasn’t needed in this case. If I arrived ~10 seconds earlier, I would flash replays after picking up 8-Ball and find other times to do it until the completion of Last Requests. This starts the mission Sayonara Salvatore at an earlier time to avoid having to wait until the next hour for his arrival.
[22:25] –Last Requests–
First mandupe.
New strats:
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Mandupe - Starting a rampage and mission at the same time. Devastating strat as it is essentially random. The time it takes for the rampage to start has to be after the mission’s start, which is based on cycles.
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[23:51] –Sayonara Salvatore/Under Surveillance–
The molotov rampage is the closest rampage that can be reached in a very short amount of time. Most of the time waiting for Salvatore is used for setting up a glitched car (carjack animation is interrupted leaving the passenger standing in perpetuity while the car stays in memory). Enough damage is dealt to the car so it sets on fire in one sniper rifle shot during a future mission, Espresso-2-Go! Rockets rampage replay is made for Paparazzi Purge.
The molotov rampage is picked up at a specific time to line up with the Under Surveillance dupe and fail.
[28:01] –Paparazzi Purge–
Second mandupe. Rockets are needed for the mission and the ammo will be needed for the rest of the run.
[28:14] –Payday for Ray–
Similar to the wait during Mike Lips and SCAM instapass, ammo can be retrieved from rampages. ~30000 rocket ammo being the most impactful.
[31:07] –Silence the Sneak–
Rockets instead of grenades.
[31:57] –Arms Shortage–
30000 rocket ammo speeds this mission up tremendously. The strat of entering a vehicle to spawn the Cartel quicker returns.
[33:49] –Evidence Dash–
Okay pattern. Collecting the sixth package on foot and entering a random nearby car allows us to keep an already fast banshee.
[35:06] –Liberator/Waka-Garisha Wipeout–
A new shot for WGW allows for quickly entering and exiting the multistory.
[38:52] –A Drop in the Ocean–
Stopping by Ammu-Nation for the sniper rifle. A replay is recorded where the packages will drop and played immediately once all packages have dropped. Extremely difficult strat that saves 40 seconds over doing the mission normally.
[42:06] –Grand Theft Aero–
Unfortunate incident.
The introduction of megajumping to the construction site lift. Saves around 2 seconds.
[46:25] –Bait–
Dam touch instead of grass touch allows for the Cartel members to path to the deathtrap quickly and consistently.
[49:08] –Espresso-2-Go!–
Shooting the damaged car from Sayonara Salvatore to remotely destroy the third stall.
Megajumps are used to get to the dodo after the mission.
[54:22] –S.A.M./The Exchange–
Flying into the trigger zone to spawn enemies but enough to not start the cutscene that triggers the heli flight around the dam. Arriving at just the right time allows for an instakill of the helicopter.
GG sub 1.
Special thanks to (in no particular order):
Nick007J, Powdinet, Patrick, karl__k, blacklev, anti (achieved the first sub 1 run), Bristtful (a.k.a. flinch), ComputerRage, Chivu93, Kamiks0320, UltimaOmega07, SourKiwi9, suni, CasterTM, BosZz, domisbak, JOEdrinksBEER, Adam_AK, Eidgod (previous runner), Vegeto, Lighnat0r, and an underground of elusive Russian players for their contributions to making this run go under an hour.