I've kinda hit pause on the main game for a while, because I've fallen into a habit I'll call "Messing
with the Cartel."
To be clear, I'm talking about the group of non-player characters whose role in the game is that they're
members of a Colombian drug cartel. Not real people — just characters in the game Grand Theft Auto III.
In the story, the cartel were operating out of a cargo ship anchored at Liberty City, manufacturing a
drug called "spank." The Colombians are putting "spank" on the streets, and the mafia — another group of
non-player characters — find the cartel's intrusion bad for business. My character (who I recently learned
is named "Claude") has been working as a "fixer" for the mafia boss, and is asked to destroy the ship to
restore the mafia's illicit revenue stream. The successful completion of that mission has meant that every
time Claude is in the proximity of a cartel member, Claude gets shot at — sometimes, enough to make the
vehicle he's driving catch fire.
So I've decided to capitalize on that virtual vitriol to make some extra cash.
Even though the cargo ship mission occurred on the Liberty City map, my fun little game takes place on
Staunton Island. The Pan-Ocean Construction company is apparently a cartel enterprise — or, at least,
employs a lot of cartel members. Claude's hideout is about a block away from one of their construction sites.
This site has a gated entrance at the corner closest to the hideout, but has an open entrance further down
the block. There are health and armor power-ups on the second floor of a building on the site. There are
also vehicles on the site — a Cartel Cruiser (a dark blue pickup truck with a roll bar) and a company
mini-van. Finally, there's a little gatehouse to the left of the gate inside the fence perimeter. (It'll be
on your right as you drive into the site.) That fence is what makes the construction site KEY to this little
game, because the gate opening will control cartel access to Claude. As long as Claude remains inside the
construction site, the cartel attacks are completely manageable.
A big part of GTA-III is stealing vehicles. The Staunton Island hideout can store two vehicles
for you. You'll want to steal and maintain (meaning, store it in your garage when you save your game) a
vehicle strong enough that you can bust through the gate at the construction site. A Cartel Cruiser handles
the job well — plus, it's a little irony bonus. Accelerate your vehicle through the gate so the gate
smashes. If you're not moving fast enough, the bar may remain intact but get knocked off its posts... some
of the cartel NPCs may have trouble navigating around the fallen pipe, so it's better to smash it to bits.
When you bust through the gate, turn to the right and park your vehicle along the fence beside the
gate house. This gives you easy access to the vehicle in case your health and armor run low and need
a quick getaway.
So the idea here is to simply collect as much money as you can by killing the cartel NPCs. I find the
best time of day in the game to do this is starting at about 8 PM, with peak time between 3 AM and 7 AM —
that's when the cartel characters will be carrying the most money.
It doesn't take much to attract the cartel's attention. Simply stand on the sidewalk just outside the
gate, with your back to the street. You should see bullets flying in your direction within seconds. Run
back into the construction site and the cartel will follow you. Gun them down inside the construction site
to minimize the chances of hitting, say, a police officer walking the sidewalk outside. I find its best
to use the Uzi for single targets, and the shotgun for multiple targets.
Keep a very close eye on Claude's health, and manage his exposure to the Liberty City police. If it's
time to jet, get back in your car and drive down to the open gate area at the opposite end of the block --
your vehicle should be pointed toward that exit anyway. At the open gate, you can turn left to head to
the hospital or turn right to return to your hideout. If you're going to your hideout, you can avoid the
giant mess you made by following these directions:
- Turn right out of the open gate
- Turn right at the intersection, then
- Make a very
quick left onto the overpass
- Get into the right lane and make a very quick right into the alley
- You should see a minivan parked in an open garage directly in front of you in case you need to switch
cars (for example, if the one you're driving is on fire)
- Drive through the alley and turn left onto
the street
- Cut through the courtyard in front of the yellow building with the steps to get to your
street. You can drive on the wide sidewalk. Watch out for the trees, though.
- Your hideout is in
the alley on the left
Save your game often. I've come to feel like as long as I've earned more than $1,000, it was worth the
effort. Sometimes I've gotten greedy (earning up to around $4,000) and then gotten busted or killed. When
Claude wakes up at the hospital door, you're out some money AND all of your weapons are gone. I would rather
load the previous save and start over again than proceed with the loss and without my weapons stockpile.
Here are some other hints to help you along the way:
- Cheat codes can be your friend. Type "tortoise" for armor, "gesundheit" for health, and "nopoliceplease"
to reset your wanted level. Note: after using the "nopoliceplease" cheat, type "c" to reset your camera angle
to normal.
- There's a group of Jamaican NPCs that are constantly mixing it up with the cartel NPCs. They'll fight in
the streets. You can take advantage of their rivalry to earn some extra dough. Just know that if the fighting
strays too far from the construction site, the gate you busted may have restored itself upon your return.
- To really drum up business, shoot at the Cartel Cruisers that drive by.
- I find that when I start, cartel guys are only carrying their weapon, or maybe their weapon and one or
two little stacks of money. But every now again — particularly within the peak hours — you can recover
a BUNCH of money stacks around one guy. Also, I'm not sure, but the weapon you use may matter — anecdotally,
I've found that I seem to earn more when I use the shotgun as opposed to using the Uzi.
- Using the shotgun is slower than using the Uzi. I try to reserve the shotgun for when I have plenty of
distance between me and multiple approaching cartel targets. If I'm going out onto the street, I try to
switch to the Uzi, in case I get swarmed. About that...
- The cartel will swarm you. If you're creating mayhem in the street, cartel will show up out of nowhere
and make very quick work of your armor and health. Keep an eye on these and get behind cover to use the cheats
to refresh them.
- Get invested in finding as many of the drug packages scattered across the maps as you can — with every
10 packages you find, you get a new type of weapon delivered to your hideout. Collect enough to have shotgun
ammo and Molotov cocktails delivered. (Note: There may be a cheat code to give you access to these weapons.)
- You'll notice the cartel will accumulate outside of the fence — especially the fence to the right as
you face the gate you drove through. The best way I've found to make a safe cash grab (safe for Claude, anyway)
is by throwing a Molotov cocktail at the fence where they've congregated. Wait until several have gathered --
you'll hear them all yelling at you, and you'll likely see the brims of their hats and other parts poking
through the fence. Stay a good distance away from the fence and throw one of the cocktails (they look like
bottles with rags sticking out of the tops). When it explodes, it will burn for a few seconds, and you'll
see the cartel's weapons and cash. Don't approach these while the fire's still burning, or you'll catch
Claude on fire and it'll burn through his armor and at least some of his health, at best. You can collect
all of the weapons and probably some of the cash by running along the inside perimeter where the fire had
burned, but you'll probably find more cash on the sidewalk outside of the fence.
- Don't completely trust the perimeter fence. Being a virtual object, I have seen some cartel members move
through it. Generally not the case, but it does happen sometimes.
- You'll earn extra money for blowing up police cars. As emergency vehicles will tend to accumulate outside
the construction site perimeter, you might want to clear up traffic a bit by stealing them and driving them
down into the site. Added bonus: you can use them to bust through the gate again if the gate has refreshed.
As you're about to leave the site to save your game again, you can blow them up to earn a few more bucks.
Hand grenades and Molotovs are pretty effective. Note: Your wanted level will increase
the moment you swipe one of these vehicles. It'll also go up when grenades detonate.
- When cartel members are revived by the medics (usually a pair of characters in green jumpsuits), you
can shoot them again and get more money from them. Shooting them inside the construction site keeps them
relatively confined, so they can be the gift that keeps on giving. Be careful, though — shooting the
medics increases your wanted level.
I've built Claude's wealth up to over $800,000 by playing this little game. Since I discovered the
cheat codes, I've been trying to earn about $4,000 over each night. I've gotten pretty good at typing
"nopolicepleasec" and "tortoise" fast.
Again, I'm talking about a strategy inside of a video game — not real violence, not real people. Please
don't take anything I've written in this post out of the context in which it was written.