GTA:VC General and 100% Speedrunning FAQ

100% FAQ

Q: Why didn't you get that package/stunt?
A: I get it later when it's slightly faster, safer, or doesn't make a difference.

Q: Why are you looking at the store owners?
A: Since Tommy doesn't actually point the gun at them using standard controls on the PC version, you just have to look at them in a certain way at a certain distance with a non-melee weapon in hand and it'll work. Plus, all 15 store robberies are required for 100% completion.

Q: Why do you shoot the store owners?
A: This prevents them from setting off the alarm and making me get 2 stars. In some instances, it doesn't matter or is even advantageous to get 2 stars though, so I don't shoot them in those instances.

Q: Why aren't you taking the heli on G-Spotlight?
A: Three unique stunts, required for 100%, are done on these buildings.

Q: [SSA Instadeliveries] What the hell is going on?
A: I started Loose Ends with an om0 call (see "OK, but what's an instapass" below), took the phone call and killed certain people, then started it a second time (i.e. duped it). Since this mission has such an absurd amount of NPCs, it starts messing with the game's memory and actually manages to screw up the Sunshine Autos car lists a little. This is abused to instantly complete the lists, but unfortunately it only does the bottom half of the lists, so I still collect the cars of the top halves earlier on in the run. As for why I kill those specific people in the first mission instance, it's because having too many of them makes it so even if I deliver some cars, they sometimes don't even count. It's quite finicky, and you need the perfect balance of NPCs for it to go smoothly.
Also, since it is dependent on NPC spawns, the street pedestrian/gang spawns are mandatory as well. If it is raining or nighttime, it will not go very smoothly either, so I make an effort to set the time to late morning with clear weather before doing this strat.

Q: [Trial by Dirt duping] What the hell are you doing?
A: Video version: youtube/watch?v=l4pfpGDal8w
This involves starting the Trial by Dirt off-road mission many times with rampages, and then starting Vigilante or Taxi Driver.
  * For Vigilante, starting it after duping (duplicating) Trial by Dirt 12 times instantly completes all 12 levels, with a fairly high risk of the game crashing unfortunately.
  * For Taxi Driver, the "fare" dropped off in this massively duped version of Taxi Driver will give you as many "taxi fares" as you had running instances of Trial By Dirt before starting Taxi Driver. The actual destination is copied from the previous instance of Taxi Driver due to a side-effect of starting Taxi Driver with Trial By Dirt, so a suitable Downtown destination is set up beforehand and used to drop off a close fare without picking anyone up. This is split up into two segments of 50 dupes each, because duping it over ~63 times crashes the game. It saves 40-50 minutes over regular duped Taxi Driver and removes a huge RNG element from the run, even though failing a dupe can be pretty soul-crushing.

  Why this works: basically, by playing a saved replay from beyond 2 minutes in "the future", the game will think you've failed a rampage by "running out of time". This lets you start Trial by Dirt over and over. When you cancel the rampage, Trial by Dirt will restart, but the rampage must be re-activated extremely quickly, otherwise there is the risk of the mission starting on its own without the rampage and preventing the "duping" streak from continuing. This is why the keypresses are the way they are for this, and why there's a 5+ minute waiting period before this: to obtain a replay sufficiently far in the future that the whole segment, with its usage of rampage instant-fails, can be completed.
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General FAQ

Q: Why is the game in Asian?
A: Full-game speedruns of Vice City are typically done on the Japanese version because it is one of the so-called "Haitian-friendly" versions (look it up if you don't know what that means). This means the mission script has been slightly modified from the original game, which in turn is relevant for different instapasses. The only other Haitian-friendly PC versions are the German Green Pepper version (no rampages and two cut missions, severely altering the route in a bad way and its 100% isn't considered 100% for leaderboard purposes), the Australian version (game crashes on Dildo Dodo and upon entering the Ammu-Nation menu), and the Polish version (technically unofficial and same issues as Australian version). You can technically use the Australian version for No SSU since Ammu-Nation isn't used in the route, but there's no real advantage to being able to switch languages nowadays anyway.

Q: OK, but what's an instapass?
A: It's shorthand for instant pass (further abbreviated to "IP"), i.e. instantly completing a mission by starting it while on a certain part of another mission.
  For a basic example, you can start a rampage + Vigilante at the same time (using a saved replay; rampages can be activated if picked up in a replay), and then cancel Vigilante so that the game thinks you are not on a "mission", when in fact the rampage is still running. In this example, you'd then be able to start a mission—for instance, Hit the Courier—and then fail or complete the rampage, at which point the game once again sets the mission state to 0, meaning you are not considered to be on a mission (the variable in code is $ONMISSION, abbreviated to "om". om0 = "not on a mission", om1 = "on a mission").
  From here, you can start Distribution on the Japanese version and it will instantly be completed. It just so happens that the part of Hit the Courier's mission script before you obtain the plates has about the same offset into the mission code as the mission pass section for Distribution on the Japanese version, and for some reason starting another mission carries over the first mission's script offset. Thereby which it is "instapassed". There are quite a few different instapasses, many of which can be observed in All Missions and 100% runs.

A list of the instapasses you may see:
  * Paramedic (with the start of the G-Spotlight elevator cutscene)
  * Pizza Boy (with Love Juice → Spilling the Beans → suicide)
  * Demolition Man (with The Shootist, between rounds 2 and 3)
  * Friendly Rivalry (with Bombs Away!)
  * Bombs Away! (with Vigilante)
  * Spilling the Beans (with the "I had a beautiful woman" voice line from Trojan Voodoo, softlocked by cancelling a held phone call)
  * RC Raider (with the remaining instance of Spilling the Beans, after threatening the dude on the boat)
  * Distribution/Ice Cream Mission (with the very start of Hit the Courier)
  * Cabmaggedon (also with the very start of Hit the Courier)
  * Double IP (instapassing The Job with the final cutscene fade of Keep Your Friends Close, and then using the remaining instance of The Job to instapass Keep Your Friends Close using the "Hey Tommy, why've we stopped" voice line, softlocked by a phone call)

Q: How did you teleport?
A: You can pick up objects within replays.
  * If you save one over a property purchase marker, you can buy that property through the saved replay, and it'll place you at the property that you just purchased.
  * As for save markers, they only work when you're in the same zone as the save marker that you made a replay over (but they can be "buffered" to teleport you as soon as you enter the property's zone). For example, if you want to teleport to the Vercetti Mansion via a save marker replay, you'd have to be considered by the game to be on Starfish Island, otherwise you would not warp. But if you play the replay and then enter Starfish Island afterwards while not on a mission, you'd teleport as soon as you enter Starfish.

Q: What is that sliding thing?
A: More replay stuff. When you change movement animations and play a replay at the same time, Tommy will begin sliding, which works during phone calls and is very useful for heavy weapon rampages, since you go a lot faster than the forced slow walking speed with those weapons.