Grand Theft Auto III: Complete Guide

This guide covers the original 2001 PC version of Grand Theft Auto III: how to get it running today, how the three islands and the main story fit together, the side activities worth doing, and the route to 100% completion.

Researched September 2026 — current as of the original PC release (v1.1 Steam build); no official patches since. Live games change; check the linked sources if something differs.

Availability note: The original Grand Theft Auto III was pulled from digital stores in October 2021 ahead of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (released November 11, 2021). The Steam page (app 12100) now reads "Grand Theft Auto III is no longer available on the Steam store." If you already own it on Steam, it stays in your library and downloads normally. Rockstar later brought the classic versions back as a bundle on the Rockstar Store. Everything below is written for the original PC version; most mission advice also applies to the Definitive Edition.

Quick Start

Save often, and only at safehouses. There are no checkpoints. Failing a mission means driving back to the start marker, so save before every mission. Your first safehouse is the Portland hideout near Luigi's club; walk into its save point to save.
Mission givers show up as letters on the radar. L is Luigi, J is Joey, T is Toni, S is Salvatore, and so on. Ringing payphones also give missions.
Work through Portland in order. Staunton Island opens after the Portland story, and Shoreside Vale opens later on. Before that, the bridges are closed and the tunnel isn't finished.
Paramedic first. Finishing level 12 of the Paramedic side mission gives you unlimited sprint, which helps with every on-foot mission afterward.
Losing wanted stars: Drive through a Pay 'n' Spray (it costs money and repairs your car), or pick up a police bribe (star) icon. Each bribe removes one star.
Hidden Packages give you free weapons. Every 10 packages adds a weapon to your safehouses. The weapon pickups respawn, so this is how you stock up for the late game.
Armor is the real health bar. Body armor pickups sit near police stations and in various hidden spots. Grab them before hard missions.
Cars catch fire and explode. If flames come out of the hood, get out right away. At 3+ stars the cops set up roadblocks and spike strips, so take side streets.
Keep a getaway car nearby. Park a fast car close to a mission start so you can reach the next objective quickly. Stolen cars stored in your safehouse garage are saved with your game.

Controls (PC Default)

The original PC controls work fine with mouse and keyboard. Controller support is poor out of the box (see the fixes section). Defaults can vary between versions and config files, so check Options > Controls to confirm your bindings.

Action	Typical Default
Move / drive	W A S D
Enter/exit vehicle	F or Enter
Fire	Left mouse
First-person aim (sniper, rocket, M16)	Right mouse
Cycle weapons	Mouse wheel
Handbrake	Space (in vehicle)
Change camera	V

Two bindings you'll need to find in Options > Controls: Sprint (unlimited after Paramedic) and Sub-mission, the key that starts Taxi, Paramedic, Firefighter and Vigilante jobs while you're in the right vehicle.

The City and the Story

Liberty City is split into three islands, and each one unlocks as the story moves forward.

Island	Main Crews	Opens
Portland	Leone Mafia, Triads, Diablos	Start of game
Staunton Island	Yakuza, Yardies, Colombian Cartel	After the Portland arc (Callahan Bridge repaired)
Shoreside Vale	Southside Hoods, Cartel	Later, when the Porter Tunnel finishes and the Lift Bridge opens

Plot outline (light spoilers): Claude, a silent protagonist, gets shot and left for dead by his girlfriend Catalina during a bank heist. During a prison transfer, the Cartel ambushes the convoy and he escapes with explosives expert 8-Ball. 8-Ball introduces him to Luigi Goterelli, and Claude works his way up through the Leone family (Luigi, Joey, Toni, and Don Salvatore Leone). Salvatore sets him up, so Claude switches to the Yakuza led by Asuka and Kenji Kasen. Along the way he takes jobs from corrupt cop Ray Machowski, tycoon Donald Love, and others. It ends with a showdown against Catalina and the Colombian Cartel at the Cochrane Dam.

Portland Mission Flow

Portland teaches the core systems and is the longest opening act.

Luigi: early jobs that teach driving, escorting and gang-war basics.
Joey Leone: car jobs, a hit, and the "The Getaway" bank-robbery mission.
Toni Cipriani: warfare against the Triads, including the Triad fish factory raid.
Salvatore Leone: the big-ticket jobs. They end in the setup that pushes you out of the family.
Marty Chonks (payphone): short, gruesome side jobs.
8-Ball's bomb shop: a free car bomb for your vehicle (the first one is free during a mission).

Tip: The Portland Pay 'n' Spray and 8-Ball's garage are close together in the Harwood/Portland harbor area. Learn where they are before gang heat builds up.

Staunton Island

Staunton brings in Asuka (Yakuza), Ray (payphone jobs via the park toilets), and Donald Love. It's denser and hillier, and police patrols are heavier. Bank of Liberty and the Newport multistorey car park are the landmarks to learn first.

Shoreside Vale

The last island has the airport, the Cochrane Dam and the rich Cedar Grove neighborhood. Late Cartel missions happen here, including the final mission, "The Exchange."

Weapons

Weapon	Notes
Fists / Bat	Only useful early. The bat stuns pedestrians.
Pistol (Colt 45)	Weak but accurate. It's your main gun for the first hours.
Uzi	Can be fired while driving (drive-by: look left/right and shoot).
Shotgun	Huge close-range damage. It knocks targets down.
AK-47 / M16	Automatic rifles. The M16 has first-person aim and is the best all-rounder.
Sniper Rifle	First-person scoped. Needed for several hits.
Grenades / Molotovs	Throw distance depends on how long you hold the button.
Rocket Launcher	Kills vehicles in one shot. Every late-game helicopter problem is solved with this.
Flamethrower	Reward for the Firefighter side mission. Great against crowds.

Ammu-Nation stores sell weapons on each island, and more stock unlocks as you advance through the story.

Side Missions and Rewards

These are needed for 100% and give you permanent bonuses:

Activity	How to Start	Reward
Paramedic	Steal an ambulance, press the sub-mission key	Level 12: unlimited sprint
Firefighter	Steal a fire truck	20 fires: Flamethrower at safehouses
Vigilante	Any police vehicle (cop car, FBI car, Enforcer, Rhino, Barracks OL)	Level 20: police bribes spawn at safehouses
Taxi Driver	Any taxi	100 fares: the special Borgnine cab spawns in Portland
Rampages	Skull icons around the city	20 total. Kill a quota of targets within a time limit.
Unique Stunt Jumps	Ramps on all islands	20 total. Needs air, flips and distance.
Import/Export	Import/Export garages and the emergency-vehicle crane at the docks (each posts its wanted list)	Deliver listed vehicles for cash and unlocks
Street races/challenges	"A Ride in the Park", "Gripped!", "Multistorey Mayhem", "Patriot Playground"	Vehicle time-trial side jobs

Paramedic tip: Drive with the handbrake and stop fully on top of patients. Each patient adds time. On later levels, carry up to three patients at once and pick the delivery route with fewest turns. Ambulances flip easily, so don't take jumps.

Vigilante tip: A Rhino tank (the army sends them at six wanted stars, or spawn one with a cheat) makes the job trivial, because targets die just from touching it.

Hidden Packages

There are 100 Hidden Packages across the three islands. Each 10 collected adds a weapon pickup at your safehouses:

Packages	Safehouse Reward
10	Pistol
20	Uzi
30	Grenades
40	Shotgun
50	Body Armor
60	Molotov Cocktails
70	AK-47
80	Sniper Rifle
90	M16
100	Rocket Launcher, plus a $1,000,000 bonus

Many packages sit on rooftops or ledges you reach by vehicle ramps or by climbing stairs to multistorey car parks. The last ones in Shoreside Vale are the hardest. Use a printed map or an online package map and tick them off.

100% Completion Checklist

All main story missions
All side missions from phones and characters
100 Hidden Packages
20 Rampages
20 Unique Stunt Jumps
Paramedic level 12, Firefighter 20 fires, Vigilante level 20, 100 Taxi fares
Import/Export and the vehicle-challenge side missions

The Stats screen in the pause menu shows your completion percentage. If you're stuck below 100%, it usually comes down to an Import/Export car, a rampage, or a missing unique jump.

Making It Run on a Modern PC

The 2001 PC port has known problems on Windows 10 and 11. The community's standard fixes are:

SilentPatch (by Silent): fixes crashes and progression blockers (including the Purple Nines glitch), removes the DirectPlay dependency on Windows 8 and later, fixes the "Cannot find enough available video memory" error, and scales text to your resolution. It doesn't change the core gameplay, so install it first.
Widescreen Fix (by ThirteenAG): proper 16:9 and ultrawide aspect ratio with correct HUD scaling. Without it, the image stretches.
Frame limiter: Keep the in-game frame limiter on. The physics and some missions were built around roughly 30 fps and misbehave at very high frame rates.
Controller support: GInput (also by Silent) adds XInput controller support, including button prompts.
Missing radio or crashes after modding: verify the game files in Steam (Properties > Installed Files > Verify), then reinstall your mods one at a time.

Install mods into the game folder (Steam: right-click > Manage > Browse local files). Back up your save folder (Documents\GTA3 User Files) first.

About re3: a fan reverse-engineered source port called re3 appeared in 2020. Take-Two sent DMCA takedowns in 2021 and followed with a lawsuit, so it's not an officially supported way to play.

Cheat Codes (PC)

Type these during gameplay (not in a menu). Cheats don't disable saving, but they can mess up your save (for example, lingering wanted levels), so use a separate save slot.

Code	Effect
GUNSGUNSGUNS	All weapons
IFIWEREARICHMAN	Adds money
GESUNDHEIT	Full health
TURTOISE	Full armor
NOPOLICEPLEASE	Clears wanted level
MOREPOLICEPLEASE	Raises wanted level
GIVEUSATANK	Spawns a Rhino tank
BANGBANGBANG	Blows up nearby cars

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Saving over your only slot mid-chaos. Keep two or three rotating save slots. It's possible to save in a state that's hard to recover from, like being broke with no weapons after a long mission streak.
Picking fights with every gang. Once you betray a family, their members shoot on sight in their territory. After the Leone split, Portland's Saint Mark's area becomes hostile, so plan routes around it.
Ignoring armor. Late Cartel missions and anything involving the Colombians at the Cochrane Dam will shred you without it.
Using damaged cars for timed missions. A smoking car will die at the worst time. Swap it out, or repair it at a Pay 'n' Spray.
Driving into water. Claude can't swim. Falling into the sea is instant death (and you lose your weapons at the hospital).
Taking late missions without the Rocket Launcher. Several finales involve helicopters and armored vans. Stock rockets at Ammu-Nation or from the 100-package reward.

Advanced Tips

Busted/Wasted costs: Getting busted costs you your weapons plus cash. Dying costs cash and your weapons. Doing hard missions right after a save means you only lose a little.
Drive-bys are strong. With an Uzi in a car, look left/right and fire. Many hit missions go much easier if you stay in the car.
Rhino shortcut: At six stars the army deploys Rhino tanks (five stars brings the FBI). Getting into one gives you an almost invincible Vigilante platform and a way through blockades.
Car bomb tricks: 8-Ball's shop can rig a car with a bomb. Some target-vehicle missions become trivial if you park a rigged car in their path.
Don't sequence-break islands. It's possible to glitch onto a locked island early (players have done it with boats and dodo-style jumps), but it can break mission scripting. Stick to the intended order on a 100% save.
Import/Export shopping list: Note the car lists posted at each garage. Some listed vehicles only spawn in certain districts, so when you see one, grab it and deliver it right away.
Speedrun habits: Learn Portland's back alleys. Many route shortcuts save a lot of time on timed missions like "Turismo" and the early Joey car jobs.

FAQ

Can I still buy GTA III on Steam? No. It was removed from the Steam store in 2021 and the store page now says it's no longer available. If it's already in your library, you can still download and play it. The Definitive Edition and the Rockstar Store's classic bundle are the current ways to buy it.

How do I unlock Staunton Island? Finish the Portland story up to the point where Salvatore's setup pushes you to the Yakuza. The Callahan Bridge (where Staunton meets Portland) then opens for good.

Why is my game stretched or broken on widescreen? The original game doesn't support widescreen. Install the Widescreen Fix (ThirteenAG) and SilentPatch.

How do I get infinite sprint? Finish level 12 of the Paramedic side mission. It's the most useful permanent reward in the game.

Where do I save? At a safehouse (Portland hideout, Staunton Island condo, Shoreside Vale hideaway). Walk into the save icon inside.

Can you swim in GTA III? No. Falling into the water kills Claude immediately. Swimming arrived in San Andreas.

Is there multiplayer? Not officially. The game is single-player only.