The Special ability of Trevor is not increasing.

[Outlier]

I want to max out all the skills of all 3 characters. The only 2 skills I left to max out is the Special ability of Trevor and Michael. With Michael, it's slowly increasing. I've paid more attention to using his ability during missions and going for headshots and it's slowly going up. But for Trevor, I don't think it's moved since the beginning of the game. It's slightly below 60%. I've done everything that's been recommended - jumping into pedestrians, killing pedestrians with explosives, taking damage, being run over, doing rampage missions, etc. and doing all of the above while using the ability. I'm 70% completed and don't want to complete the game without everything maxed out. Is there anything else I can try? Has anyone else had this issue?

[globefish23]

I have never had that issue.
IIRC, the special skill statistic was maxed out for me pretty consistently throughout the game.

Normally, just using the skill should increase the bar of the special skill.

Have you tried doing one of Trevor's Rampages?
They have a separate form of his Red Mist skill, so I don't know if it counts towards maxing out the skill.

[Outlier]

Yes, I've done all of his Rampage missions and repeated a few. His special ability bar did not increase at all. It's stuck at just below 60% and I think it's been like that since the beginning of the game. Anything else I could try?

[Daynov]

Just to be sure, when doing the rampages you're actually activating the skill, since there're two different versions and the one that's automatically "on" during the rampages doesn't increase his skill stat.

Normally, his skill stat will increase by just being turned on. I maxed mine pretty fast by going to one of the farms and going on a cow killing spree (they constatly respawn and can't call the cops).

[globefish23]

I read here, that there are bugs with the special abilities of Franklin and Michael.
Maybe you have something similar with Trevor.
http://gta.wikia.com/wiki/Special_Ability#Bugs

[globefish23]

I just had a look at my stats for Trevor, and I remember completely wrong.
Mine is also stuck just below the 3rd bar.

Guess I'll got back to single player, hunting some cows now...

[Outlier]

I just tried a rampage mission again and this time I used Trevor's special ability. After it was over, the special ability meter did not move an inch. I'll try the Grapeseed cow farm now, is that the cow farm you went to?

By the way, when you say to use Trevor's special ability, do you let it run all the way out? Typically I just use it when needed and then I stop it when there's a break in fighting. Then I'll turn it back on when I start shooting again. That way I don't waste it. But Daynov, do you let it run all the way out?

[Outlier]

Daynov, how many cows did you kill to max out Trevor's special ability? I killed like 20 of them using the special ability and the special ability meter has not moved up. It is still stuck at just below 60% (just below the 3rd bar). I'm on PC. Globefish23, if you ever get Trevor's special ability meter to rise, please let me know what you did...

[globefish23]

I just maxed it out.

I did the Rednecks Rampage in Sandy Shores four times and was there.

In between I went to Grapeseed and had a go at the cows, but didn't see any change in the meter.
I got the last tiny bit before the 100% stats message popped up, when I was doing "near hits" while driving with Trevor.

Getting near hits is a way to replenish the special meter for all three characters.
For Trevor it's also headshots and explosive kills.

[Outlier]

At the time you maxed out Trevor's special ability meter, did you finish all of his Strangers & Freaks missions? That's the only thing I can think of. Maybe it can only be maxed out if you've finished a certain number of his side missions which I have yet to do.

[fantasma]

Originally posted by Outlier:

At the time you maxed out Trevor's special ability meter, did you finish all of his Strangers & Freaks missions? That's the only thing I can think of. Maybe it can only be maxed out if you've finished a certain number of his side missions which I have yet to do.

If you really want to, try this:
As Trevor, get on the train, make the police chase you and kill as much as you can while using his special ability. You can also lose the 5 star chase easily.
It works for me with Michael and Trevor.

[Outlier]

I figured it out. It's definitely a bug. The way to fix it was to intentionally die and then respawn at a hospital. Previously if I had died, I just reloaded a previous save (to prevent me from spending the $5000 hospital bill). After coming out of the hospital, I did the Rednecks Rampage and then I finally saw the special ability meter increasing. Note, immediately after completing that rampage, it was not available to start back up again. So I went behind the building and killed myself by shooting a gas tank which exploded. This respawned me at the hospital and then I went back to the Rednecks Rampage to do it again. I kept doing that until the special ability meter got to 100%. It cost me over $20,000 to do that but at least I got the 100% maxed out on all skills for all 3 characters. It's definitely a bug but I'm glad it's fixable.

[globefish23]

Glad you figured it out.

And nice that you gave feedback to help others.
You might also tag your own answer as the helping solution to tag this thread as solved.

Originally posted by Outlier:

Note, immediately after completing that rampage, it was not available to start back up again. So I went behind the building and killed myself

It seems to be a cooldown timer.
You could have slept at your safehouse, and saved that money.

[Outlier]

The reason why I intentionally killed myself after the rampage mission was because at first I did try doing other stuff and coming back to do the rampage again later (without dying again). When I did that, after completing the rampage, the skill meter actually DECREASED. That's how I knew this had to be a bug. So after some trial and error, I found the best way was to simply kill myself after the rampage was over, respawn at the hospital, and then re-do the rampage mission and keep repeating that until the meter is full.

Regarding the lost cash from the hospital bill, I've finished the main story and I've realized that money is not an issue if you buy Augury Insurance stock when the main story is over (and then sell it when its price rises) and then follow the guides on the Lester missions (provided that you haven't done them yet). The money maxed out at a little over $2.1 billion for each character - you can't get more than that even if you earn it.

[Avenger25]

I can confirm, that doing rampage mission sometimes does DECREASE your special ability meter. What WORKED for me is rasing my lung volume by a whole fifth just to check if leveling up my abilities works at all and it did. I went back to rampage missions as soon as my long volume meter rose. After every rampage, keep an eye on your special ability level. I also fought the police during all of this, saved the game every time I saw an increase and died a few times. And suddenly I got finally 100% from having like 85% for weeks.

[Mr. Polite]

I thought I was the only one with this problem. I don't know how to fix it at all, but I'm just glad to know that I'm not alone. My OCD makes this problem so much worse too since I want to max all of my character stats.