GTA:VC any% FAQ

GTA:VC any% FAQ by m00nchile

Q: What is any% anyway?
A: Any% is a general speedrunning term that means get from the start of the game to the end credits
as fast as possible without any restrictions or requirements. This differs from 100%, ie do everything
the game counts as progress, or low%, ie finish the game with as low a completion % as possible.
For example, low% in Vice City would be identical to any%, except for the fact you couldn't do
Cone Crazy for money generation, because Cone Crazy isn't required to finish the game but it
still counts towards 100% completion. If you want to know more about Vice City 100%,
then visit http://twitch.tv/justshanz.

********DEPRECATED********
Q: Why are you doing Cone Crazy? Why are you waiting before taking the last checkpoint?
A: In the later part of the run, you need to buy several assets, and you need 100k$ more than
you get from missions. Cone Crazy is the fastest way to earn that money. The way it works is,
every time you set a new lap record, your reward money doubles. If I did the first round as fast
as possible, it would become impossible to set new records and keep doubling up the reward.
********DEPRECATED*********

Q: Why is Cone Crazy no longer needed?
A: A new glitch has been found. By walking through the asset buy marker, then activating replay
and pressing the buy button while Tommy walks through the buy marker in the replay, you buy
the asset for free. You still need enough money to buy the asset, but it isn't subtracted.

Q: Why do you honk the horn when you get in vehicles?
A: Holding Shift (sprint button while on foot, horn button while in car) when entering cars makes
Tommy skip closing the car door, and you can drive off a little bit faster. Note, I still do that
with bikes and cars that don't have doors simply out of habit/muscle memory.

Q: The bikes seem very fast, how do you do that? How do you do the 180 turn with the PCJ?
A: If you tap the Lean Forward key while riding bikes, you will get a small boost every time
Tommy leans forward, resulting in greater than top speed, this makes the PCJ particularly desirable.
The 180 parking turn is done by handbrake turning and pressing lean back.

Q: How do you cancel the rolling animation after falling?
A: By spamming Space. Note that this only works if you walk off a ledge, if you jump you won't be
able to cancel the roll.

Q: Why are you looking backwards while driving?
A: Using the backwards cam while driving prevents cars from spawning in front of you.
Note that any cars previously spawned will not despawn, so you can occasionally still
crash even while using this trick.

Q: Tommy runs really fast and for a really long time? Are you using mods or cheats?
A: No, any mod or cheat would render the speedrun invalid. Tommy's run speed is just
what R* programmed it to be, and tapping the sprint button instead of holding it gives
you infinite sprinting.

Q: How come you can move during the Back Alley Brawl cutscene?
A: If you're fast enough, you can skip the very first cutscene of the game, when Tommy
drives to the hotel. Since the BAB cutscene has the mission marker on the same position as
the first cutscene, the game plays both cutscenes simultaneously, and since the first cutscene
is shorter than the BAB cutscene, the game gives you control while the cutscene is still playing.

Q: How did you just teleport through the Starfish island gate?
A: By lining up the Sanchez with the gate properly (as perpendicular as possible and a bit to the left)
and jumping off the bike at the right time, when it's pretty much vertical forces Tommy out of bounds, and since
Vice City doesn't like OOB situations, it sets your position to some local spot, which just happens to be right
in front of the mansion.

Q: How can you run while taking calls?
A: I don't know why this glitch works, but you do it by having a 1st person aim able gun equipped, then you press
TAB to answer the call, and immediately press RMB for a short time. You can then switch away from the gun and sprint
freely.

Q: How can you drive the thief to the mansion instead of following him in The Chase?
A: By using the previously explained infinite sprint glitch, you can beat the thief to where his compadre picks
him up. The important bit, is that your side of the door must be blocked when the thief gets in the car, and you have
to be moving too. The lamppost setup doesn't illustrate this perfectly, how this strat works is much easier too see with
the old set up that involves driving up to the wall just in front of you.

Q: You can jump through walls?
A: Not all of them. Here and there, map devs forget to assign hitboxes to certain surfaces, so you can just clip though them
like they weren't there. There are other such spots throughout VC's map, but they aren't pertinent to the any% route.

Q: How did you get in the boat through the fence?
A: That was a simple oversight of the people who made this mission (The Fastest Boat). If you're within a certain radius of
a boat and you press the Enter Vehicle key, you'll teleport right into the drivers seat. It just so happens that the boat
is close enough to the fence so Tommy is within teleport range.

Q: Why do you use replay during Shakedown?
A: As long as the clip in your gun isn't empty, double tapping the replay button will refill your clip, allowing
you to shoot continuously without being interrupted by the reloading animation.

Q: Why are you parking the helicopter in the rose bushes after Shakedown?
A: The rose bushes are the closest you can get to the mansion where a vehicle doesn't despawn when starting Copland.

Q: Why did you get 2 wanted stars after Bar Brawl and why do you keep going into the stripper booth?
A: Completing the Pole Position asset requires you to spend 300$ there, every time you enter the booth you spend 5$,
so you need to go into the booth 60 times. The wanted stars are there to block phonecalls, if you get a phonecall, you
can't activate the booth.

Q: What's the point of buying and completing assets anyway?
A: In order to trigger the final two missions (Cap the Collectors and Keep your Friends Close), you need to be in
possession of 7 (out of 9) completed assets. Vercetti mansion and Printworks are required, as for the rest, we pick and
choose the fastest ones. Note, that even though certain assets and missions (Sunshine Autos, Taxi 2 and Cherry Poppers) are
pretty heavily RNG dependant, they are still much faster than Malibu Club of Film Studios.

Q: What is RNG?
A: Random Number Generation. It's a catch-all expression for random and luck based events in games.

Q: Why did you punch Lance in the garage and didn't take him with you to the mall?
A: Punching Lance gives you just enough time to take off with the helicopter without him getting in. The marker in the mall
activates weather Lance is with you or not, and if you leave Lance behind, he won't say any of his lines, thus saving time.

Q: Why are you jittering your camera up and down in front of Sunshine Autos, why do you use replay?
A: Completing SSA requires you to gather the following cars: Landstalker, Rancher, Blista Compact, Esperanto, Stallion and
Idaho. By learning what the low detail level models of the cars look like (how the cars look far away) you can recognize them
from a distance, if the right car doesn't spawn, flicking the camera down and back up will despawn the car and a new one will
appear. Double tapping the replay button can force the game to switch car groups, so if no SSA cars spawn for a while
(3-5 despawns), you can improve your chances like that. Repeat until you have all the cars.

Q: How can you move during the SSA cutscene?
A: By walking into the race marker, waiting until the cutscene starts and then pressing enter. Again, it's one of those glitches
that I don't know how it works in detail, I just know how to do it. Getting to the Deluxo just takes a little bit of practice and
knowing when to run forward and when to strafe.
**Simple "while you're in the race menu you can't move" and when the cutscene starts you're still in the race menu, so when you leave the race menu it sets your "can control character" flag back to True so you can move around in the cutscene.**
Thanks to LotsOfS for the explanation.

Q: That jump from the ship was cool, how did you do it?
A: Hold Shift + S while Tommy is walking out of the office. When you regain control, start holding D as well and press Space. Voila.

Q: What are you doing with the Ice Cream Van? Why aren't you taking all the deals that appear?
A: Completing the Cherry Poppers asset involves getting 50 deals (just innocent sale of ice cream :D). Every 4 deals you get a
wanted star, and the star lasts for 20 seconds. 2 wanted stars on the other hand are there to stay, that's why you want to avoid
having more than 1, since using the pay'n'spray is slow, and you spend those 20 seconds getting to numDeals%4 == 3 (a bit of programming/math :), and taking another deal as soon as the wanted star is gone.

Q: Why are you parking the Ice Cream Van that way?
A: Parking the van properly can cause the first set of collectors in the mission Cap the Collectors to crash into the van, thus
significantly shortening the driving distance and saving a nice bit of time.

Final words:
I hope this FAQ helped viewers who are new to Vice City any% to better understand some of the strats used in the run and any runners
who wish to link to this FAQ may do it freely and without asking permission. If you have any other questions, feel free to ask in chat,
if I'm able I'll answer, or some of the more knowledgeable viewers can answer in my place. GL & HF.