Taking over territories easily

[Joizen18]

Something I had a hard time with when I started playing GTA: SA again after all these years was gang territories. The Ballas did a lot of damage to me, not least in the third wave when they use ak47's. I was very easily surrounded and thus died very quickly. Now I have taken over several areas all by myself without GSF members and still barely hurt myself at all. I will now try to explain how.

When it comes to weapons, I prefer m4 or ak 47. But it also works well with, for example, mp5 and sniper. AR weapons are best here because they have long range, large magazine and shoot fast. I guess weapons like miniguns work very well but due to the heavily limited ammunition it would take a very long time to go back and forth for ammo. it just isn't worth it in the long-term, AR's works fine.

I would recommend recruiting as many GSF members as you can before you start. In terms of combat, they are useless but they can absorb some of Balla's shots so that not everyone focuses on you at the same time (as mentioned earlier, this is not needed but it is recommended).

Starting a war in a territory is not always easy. Especially in very small territories. The only way I know of is to wait out the time and Ballas should show up eventually. I myself have experienced that Ballas is generally easier to start a war with than Vatos is. If I notice that Ballas is not coming or that the war is not starting no matter how many Ballas I kill, I go in and out of a building. For example, clothing store or gun store. I have no technical evidence that it helps but I have experienced that it does.

When you have provoked a war, go straight to some kind of corner, like the corner of a house. The waves usually comes from different directions. Use the corner as protection against the wave that you do not shoot against. Or go to a place so that the different waves are as collected as possible. When you move around the territory, I recommend switching to a lighter weapon because you can't sprint with AR's.

It is also important to keep as far away from the enemies as possible because the smg enemies dont reach as far as you do with an AR. You can usually do damage to AR Ballas before they are close enough to shoot you. Even if they are so far that you can't see their health meter you can still do damage. Sometimes it can be worth it to go outside the territory to maintain a certain distance between you and the Ballas (just remember not to go too far and for too long).

It is often at least one car that drives around and does drive-by. It's not a must to kill these Ballas so i advice to ignore them as far as possible and focus on the other enemies. On the other hand, it is worth keeping an eye on the car on the mini map (same icon as other Ballas but larger) because if the car approaches, it is a priority because the drive-by will hurt alot. I would recommend shooting the driver first from as far away as possible. Then shoot The Balla who is sitting next to him and shooting after him. He often stays in the car and depending on the angle at which you approach the car, he doesn't get a chance to shoot you. Or you just shoot him from a distance because he's using a tec-9.

Because the waves of the enemy can be very large and intense, not least when two come from the same direction, it is important to keep the weapons loaded. As far as I know, there is no button to reload in GTA: SA, but all weapons are reloaded automatically every time you switch to another. So when you shoot and start to run out of the magazine, quickly scroll back and forth, you can basically shoot uninterrupted. When you completely run out of ammo and automatically reloads, it gives Ballas time to get closer and sometimes start shooting. The scroll method does not give them the same opportunity for this.

Not all Ballas are visible on the mini-map, so it is not 100% certain that you are completely safe just because the dots on the mini-map are not near you. An advantage of having GSF members with you (if they survive long enough) is that they often shoot at these Ballas and you can thus easily identify them as well.

Is there something you don't agree with? Is there something I missed?

[Valden21]

In my experience, not everything you mention is required. For example, I've never needed to have other GSF members with me when taking territory, and on some playthroughs, I've taken almost 3/4ths of Ballas territory before getting on with the main story. I also don't see any mention of armor and health pickups in your post; these pickups spawn at the end of each wave, and they're easy to see. Another thing is the enemy gang members tend to charge at you in a broken line along the sidewalk, and only the gang members at the front of the line will fire at you; in general, this means that only about 1-2 gang members will be firing at you at any given time. Finally, the gang car showing up is not a given. I think it's just a random thing, as I've seen it only rarely, and only when I'm trying to take certain pieces of territory.

[Agarillobob]

you really only need the minigun and at the point where you really gotta take over territories it spawns for free in torenos house
its literally free and not hard at all
and if you have a vehicel that starts a side mission /cab/police bike/ambulance you only need to do 2 waves to take over the territories and can skip the last wave

[Joizen18]

Originally posted by Valden21:

In my experience, not everything you mention is required. For example, I've never needed to have other GSF members with me when taking territory, and on some playthroughs, I've taken almost 3/4ths of Ballas territory before getting on with the main story. I also don't see any mention of armor and health pickups in your post; these pickups spawn at the end of each wave, and they're easy to see. Another thing is the enemy gang members tend to charge at you in a broken line along the sidewalk, and only the gang members at the front of the line will fire at you; in general, this means that only about 1-2 gang members will be firing at you at any given time. Finally, the gang car showing up is not a given. I think it's just a random thing, as I've seen it only rarely, and only when I'm trying to take certain pieces of territory.

About the GSF members, i literally wrote that "is not needed but it is recommended". I didn't mention health and armor since its not needed if you follow these tips. The same thing for the car, i wrote "often at least one car". Sometimes the car will spawn but just drive away

[Joizen18]

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

you really only need the minigun and at the point where you really gotta take over territories it spawns for free in torenos house
its literally free and not hard at all
and if you have a vehicel that starts a side mission /cab/police bike/ambulance you only need to do 2 waves to take over the territories and can skip the last wave

Yeah, the minigun is insane. You can also get one in south east of Las Venturas. However, i feel like its not worth it to use it when taking over territories because of the heavily limited ammo. Especially since ARs are great weapons and way easier (and faster) to get ammo too. And I didnt want to include cheats or glitches

[Valden21]

Originally posted by M3t4liz3r:

Originally posted by Valden21:

In my experience, not everything you mention is required. For example, I've never needed to have other GSF members with me when taking territory, and on some playthroughs, I've taken almost 3/4ths of Ballas territory before getting on with the main story. I also don't see any mention of armor and health pickups in your post; these pickups spawn at the end of each wave, and they're easy to see. Another thing is the enemy gang members tend to charge at you in a broken line along the sidewalk, and only the gang members at the front of the line will fire at you; in general, this means that only about 1-2 gang members will be firing at you at any given time. Finally, the gang car showing up is not a given. I think it's just a random thing, as I've seen it only rarely, and only when I'm trying to take certain pieces of territory.

About the GSF members, i literally wrote that "is not needed but it is recommended". I didn't mention health and armor since its not needed if you follow these tips. The same thing for the car, i wrote "often at least one car". Sometimes the car will spawn but just drive away

True, but the issue for me is that the guide is making these things sound like they happen a lot. I've seen the car show up rarely, only about 20% percent of the time. I also think you're making the additional GSF members sound a lot more necessary than they are. I prefer taking territory alone, as I feel it's easier that way.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by M3t4liz3r:

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

you really only need the minigun and at the point where you really gotta take over territories it spawns for free in torenos house
its literally free and not hard at all
and if you have a vehicel that starts a side mission /cab/police bike/ambulance you only need to do 2 waves to take over the territories and can skip the last wave

Yeah, the minigun is insane. You can also get one in south east of Las Venturas. However, i feel like its not worth it to use it when taking over territories because of the heavily limited ammo. Especially since ARs are great weapons and way easier (and faster) to get ammo too. And I didnt want to include cheats or glitches

thats why I told you to get the one in torenos house, you pick it up save pick it up again save pick it up again its not at all limited ammo after 3-4 minutes you have so many the counter goes away
on the other hand you can start and glitch 0´s first mission to get a ton of Minigun ammo

[buddy266]

minigun

[Joizen18]

Originally posted by buddy:

minigun

Yeah, the minigun is amazing. But it has very limited ammo unless you "glitch" or cheat. If you want to play the game legit and not gltiching or cheating the minigun has very little ammo and it will take forever to get more.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by M3t4liz3r:

Originally posted by buddy:

minigun

Yeah, the minigun is amazing. But it has very limited ammo unless you "glitch" or cheat. If you want to play the game legit and not gltiching or cheating the minigun has very little ammo and it will take forever to get more.

that is not correct you have nearly unlimited ammo without cheating or glitching
after vertical bird a minigun spawns every 6h (1 save cycle) in torenos house

[Joizen18]

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

Originally posted by M3t4liz3r:

Yeah, the minigun is amazing. But it has very limited ammo unless you "glitch" or cheat. If you want to play the game legit and not gltiching or cheating the minigun has very little ammo and it will take forever to get more.

that is not correct you have nearly unlimited ammo without cheating or glitching
after vertical bird a minigun spawns every 6h (1 save cycle) in torenos house

yeah, well technically its not glitching or cheating, but you are taking advantage of the games mechanics to achieve something better and faster than what Rockstar probably had in mind. And as i wrote in the original post, feel free to use whatever weapon you want but i personaly prefer AR.

[Agarillobob]

Originally posted by M3t4liz3r:

Originally posted by Agarillobob:

that is not correct you have nearly unlimited ammo without cheating or glitching
after vertical bird a minigun spawns every 6h (1 save cycle) in torenos house

yeah, well technically its not glitching or cheating, but you are taking advantage of the games mechanics to achieve something better and faster than what Rockstar probably had in mind. And as i wrote in the original post, feel free to use whatever weapon you want but i personaly prefer AR.

its not even a game mechanic abuse, rockstar specifally set the weapon respawn time to 6h to match the save cycle time so that you could actively collect the wepaons you unlock since it was not possible for them to make the spawnable weapon have more ammo in it
its the same for all the 50 picture weapons and the 100 tag weapons, specifically set to 6h