Grand Theft Auto 3 - The Rhino Tank FAQ  -  Version 1.1
Auteur: Matthew Rorie
Email: azraelot@stratosgroup.com
Date: October 31, 2001

Table of Contents:

1. Introduction
2. What Is The Rhino?
3. Methods of Acquirement
4. Reader Submissions
5. Gameplay Notes
6. Mission Walkthroughs (missions that are easier with the Tank)
7. Acknowledgements
8. Misc. Junk

Revision History (such as it is)

1.1 - Oct. 31, 2001

Additions:

*Tidbit on prerequisites for getting to six stars (you have to be able to
travel to Shoreside Vale)
*New reader strategies for acquiring tanks
*Cheat code for acquiring a tank, with no combat necessary
*re-worded some paragraphs
*added contributors/thanks section
*the turret trick for increased speed
*added a bit on destroying tanks (hint: molotovs!)
*added a mini-walkthrough on the final mission of the game, using the tank

1.0 - Oct. 29, 2001

The first draft.

------------
Introduction
------------

Well, Grand Theft Auto 3 has hit the streets in a very big way. I myself have
been playing it non-stop for the past few days, and can only say that it's one
of the most brilliant games available on the PS2.

Anyway, all small talk aside, this FAQ is intended to be a resource on the
Rhino Tank, the biggest and baddest vehicle in the game world. It won't be the
longest FAQ you'll ever read, but if you have any questions about the tank,
hopefully you'll find them here without having to wade through a longish FAQ or
messageboards (no offense intended). The Rhino can be a bit of a pain to
acquire, and I anticipate that many gamers will have questions as to how to go
about getting one, so that will be the bulk of this document, with a bit of
gameplay analysis and tips for maintenance and care of your tank to round it
out. Enjoy, and hopefully you will email me any comments or suggestions that
you have.

-------------------------------
What Is It? Why Is It So Great?
-------------------------------

The Rhino is a treaded tank capable of firing shells from it's main (rotating)
turret. Whereas most vehicles will explode or become dangerously damaged within
a few minutes of a car-jacking, simply from contact with other cars and
buildings, the tank is for most intents and purposes indestructible (but more
about that later). What's more, the tank crushes any car that it comes into
contact with, usually resulting in an immediate explosion. Even small,
incidental contacts with the tank will generally be enough to destroy another
vehicle, reminding this author of the Abrahams/Zucker movie "Top Secret!", in
which a Ford Pinto immediately detonated after a jeep hit its rear bumper at a
fraction of a mile per hour.

Suffice to say, the tank combines potent offensive power with the bulk and
endurace of...well, of a tank. It's the Death Star of Grand Theft Auto 3, and
no player's gaming experience is really complete without one.

--------------------------------------
So How Do I Get One Of These Bad Boys?
--------------------------------------

Well, I'm going to lay out my technique, but keep in mind that it's easier said
than done. It requires some patience, a bit of practice, and probably a bunch
of reloading, but you should be rolling off in a death machine before too long.
[**Note**]: Check the next section for reader-submitted techniques; at least
one of them is easier than the method I have outlined below. The same
ingredients are necessary, though. There are at least two ways to get a tank
without fighting anyone, and I've included those as well, at the very end of
this section.

The essential ingredients:

1: You must have progressed into the game far enough to reach the third island,
Shoreside Vale. Until you reach that island, you will not be able to hit six
stars on the police wanted meter. Check a walkthrough or missions FAQ for
details on which missions you need to complete; suffice to say, Donald Love on
Staunton Island is the key.

2: You'll need to get yourself outfitted for a fight with the police. Make sure
you have at least a dozen rounds for your Rocket Launcher. (Since this weapon
is a somewhat essential part of the recipe, you'll probably need to wait until
you've completed the Phil the One-Armed Bandit mission given to you on Staunton
Island by Ray Machowski, a.k.a. the guy in the toilet. Phil will sell you
Rocket Launchers at 25,000 bucks a pop after you help him out. Incidentally,
his tank is locked when you first meet him, so don't bother trying.) Also be
sure to have full health and armor, and at least 30 or so grenades (more is
better). Any other weapons are incidental, though you will need something to
attract the cop's attention.

Once you're ready to go, head back to Portland and save your game in the garage
near Luigi's club. Now jack a car and head south. I've successfully managed to
nab a tank both from the roof of the building to the southwest of Luigi's club
(you have to climb up to the roof of Luigi's building and then jump over) and
the building to the south of Mr. Wong's Laundrette (check your map), the one
with a yellow Rockstar Games billboard on top and an Uzi rampage for Triads in
the alleyway. I recommend the latter, as you'll have much greater mobility and
the guardrail around the roof will prevent you from falling off.

When you're on the roof of this building, start attracting cops to your
location. Do whatever you like; snipe bypassers, chuck molotovs off, etc. The
best technique, and one you'll be using to get the tank, is to walk to the edge
of the building and throw grenades into the street. A single tap on the O
button will get them far enough away so that they can't harm you.

The cops should be nice and riled in short order, if you raise hell like I
enjoy doing. Since you're on the roof, no cops will be able to shoot you
(unless you get real close to the edge), so all you have to worry about are the
helicopters. Once you hear the rotary blades coming, back away from the edge
and switch over to your rocket launcher. Take out helicopters as soon as you
can, or they'll whittle your armor down bit by bit. I believe you're required
to destroy one anyway to get to six police stars, but you'll probably send two
or three down by the time the Army comes out.

At any rate, once you hit five stars, the FBI starts to pull up, and you'll
want to be extra careful about not exposing yourself to their AK-47 fire.
Continue to chuck grenades off the building,  and eventually you'll see the
sixth star flashing. If you stay in one position, nothing much happens, so run
around on the roof until you hear the tanks pulling up.

Now here's where it starts getting somewhat dangerous. If you're on the
building south of Wong's Laundrette, the tanks *should* begin to drive into the
little courtyard by the stairs. Once you see them pulling into the courtyard
(you might need to run around a bit to lure them in), stop moving and wait
until you hear the doors pop open. The soldiers have the fully-automatic M-16
rifles (my brother and I just called them Heaters, since they resembled
strongly the ones used by the robbers in the film "Heat"), so be real careful
about exposing yourself. Once they're out of the tank, chuck a few grenades
over, and try to get a good field of fire by rotating a bit in between each
throw. When all the grenades have detonated, peek over the building's edge and
see what's going on below. If the soldiers were killed, you'll see white
circles for their dropped Grenades lying by the Tank. If something moves or
fires, throw a few more grenades down. Once you're relatively sure the tank
isn't moving, and that the soldiers are dead, jump off the building and jack
the tank as quickly as possible. (Running down the stairs takes too much time,
and often will result in your tank getting blocked off by the enemy controlled
tanks.)

When you've gotten inside the tank, immediately reverse or accelerate,
whichever the case is, to get out of the courtyard and away from the cops. The
tank moves very slowly, as you'll notice, and the cops or soldiers stand a good
chance of busting you if you can't get away. Once you're on the street, though,
there's really no stopping you. The six-alarm police warning isn't going to go
away anytime soon, so book it! You *cannot* put the tank in your garage in
Portland, so head back to Staunton via the bridge. (You can take the tunnel,
but it's fairly easy to get busted in there. Besides, the bridge is closer. You
can put the tank in your garage in Shoresdale Vale, but it is a very tight
squeeze and a rather long trip.) Don't waste time shooting stuff up, just get
back to where you can save your game. The enemy tanks will give chase, of
course, but they can't really do much to you except try to block you off and
halt your progress. Avoid them as best as you can. (Don't even try to blow them
up; it'd take much longer than you'd probably think.)

Once you save your game, you'll probably want to immediately re-load it to get
rid of the police warning. Congratulations, you now have your very own
deathmobile!

Here are the two methods for acquiring a tank without fighting.

1: Simply finish the game. For those of you who haven't gotten to the end yet,
there is a single ultimate mission that you complete to achieve a credits
sequence. After the sequence is over, you will be standing outside of your
garage in Shoreside Vale, 1,000,000 dollars richer. You can now head back to
Phil's and pick up his tank, which will be waiting for you, unlocked.

2: Use the cheat code: When you're out of a vehicle and standing still, hit:
circle, circle, circle, circle, circle, circle, R1, L2, L1, triangle, circle,
triangle. A tank will pop out of thin air nearby, yours for the taking. I am
unsure of any repurcussions this might have on your stats or game completion,
so caveat emptor. You'll also want to start hitting this code when you're
wielding the baseball bat, as the L2 button will switch you to the fists for
the final circle press. If you start with the fist, you may wind up throwing a
grenade or molotov at your feet.

------------------
Reader Submissions
------------------

[**Hector Mejia sent in this note. I've tried it and it works extremely
well.**]

"On staunton island, go to the 5 story parking lot with a rocket launcher,
grenades, and a sniper rifle. Park a car on the 3rd floor,and get on top of it-
or go up to the 5th floor. Start sniping people. when you get a few stars, drop
some grenades down to the ground.. You won't ever see cop cars, but you will
hear them. When choppers show up, shoot them down with the rocket launcher.
when you get 6 stars, go to the first floor and leave. Take an immediate right,
then another right down the alley, towards the pay and spray and 8ball's
garage. Wait until you see tanks show up.Go into the pay and spray, and it will
remove your stars.Then walk up to a tank, and jack it. Two army guys will get
out. You need to kill them, and steal the tank. Drive to your hideout, which is
only two blocks away."

[Ed. Note: If you wait until the army guys get out of their tank before you
spray your car, they will sometimes disappear after you exit the garage,
leaving their tank free for the taking. Overall, this is probably the easiest
way to get a tank, other than simply completing a game and picking up one at
Phil's place.]

[**Blank sent in a similar technique.**]

"the easiest way i have found is to go to staunton island and get to the
parking garage.  attract the cops attention up to like 3 stars, then go in the
garage and up to the top.  you can hide on the next to the last upper level and
just keep peeking around the last ramp with the rocket launcher and shoot each
chopper that appears until you hit 6 stars.  then blast outta the garage wide
open and around the corner to the paint shop but leave the car parked outside
and hide inside.  peek out of the garage and shoot the copters down, then run
and jump on the ledge and there will be tanks below you.  just stand there and
the soldiers will get outta the tanks, i find it easiest to snipe them and then
hop in a tank, drive it up the ledge to the car you left parked at the spray
shop, then drive inside and the car is painted and the cops are gone.  then hop
in your tank and drive it over to your garage and save the game.

easiest to do if you have the bulletproof patriot (humvee).  you can just drive
back and forth in front of the spray and bomb shop and watch the tanks come,
even use it for cover to shoot down the police helicopters and then look over
the ledge and snipe the troops and then take a tank."

[**Another one from Jared Bruce.**]

"in stauton island there is a parking garage, and i beat the army surplus
mission from ray so i got some rocket launchers, sniper rifles, etc, and headed
to the top.  i spent the first 3 stars up top, chucking grenades down and
sniping, and when the choppers flew in i toasted them.  eventually i got low on
rounds so i headed to the second level.  using a blista i go high enough to
snipe out of and be able to see the cops (they couldnt go in because of the
roadblocks).  i shot them and the FBI agents till i got 6 (about 100 sniper
rounds and 12 grenades).  i saw a tank pull up, got in a banshee, sped out
(making sure i didnt destroy the blockades in) and stopped, waited for the
soldiers to hop out, and high tailed it back in.  the soldiers tried to run in,
but couldnt make it past the block, so i got back and shot them all.  (they
shoot m-16's, and yes they were the "heaters" in heat).

[**An interesting one from Mike Eiseman.**]

"First off as you stated in your faqs, you have to have a bunch of rocket
rounds, and have to have unlocked the third island. You go to the casino in
staunton island, the one you got jobs from earlier ( forgot the guys name
[Kenji - Ed.]). you take the stairs up to the roof where the parked chopper is
at and start causing trouble. there is many people who walk the sidewalks below
and a few traffic lights to halt traffic right in front of you for some real
fun. the only problem is that you cant shoot down with much accuracy at cops,
as they crowd the wall, and the roof is 3 stories up. However, cops will never
shoot at you, ever. you just destroy the choppers that come by and keep
killing. when the army comes you can run down the first flight of steps and
jump off the back of the balcony landing in the rear parking lot, or to lose
less health there is a slanted part of the ledge off to the left on the roof
that you can jump onto and slide down to the parking lot. either way you get
down and are now on the opposite side of the casino, and only army will be
there .... then it gets hard, you have to run up to a tank and when the first
guy pops out jump him and shotgun to the face. basically the smash and grab
method."

[Ed. Note - I got a few more methods that were similar to these, so I won't
include them all. Thanks to the many people who emailed me info, and hopefully
I remembered to thank you all below.]

--------------
Gameplay Notes
--------------

The tank is probably the slowest vehicle in the game, and one of the least
maneuverable. That said, it can still go at a pretty good clip on level ground
or downhill, and the emergency brakes are functional enough to enable somewhat
good steering through corners. When you're on a straightaway, though, you won't
be able to react quickly enough to get around tightly packed commuter cars.
Instead, go through them. Explosions don't rock the tank off of your course as
much as they do other vehicles, so you should be able to maintain your line by
simply flooring it through any cars that are in your way.

The turret can be rotated using the right analog stick and fired with the O
button. It's a bit tricky to actually rotate it while you're driving, so the
best bet is to just keep it pointed straight ahead and point your tank in the
direction you want to fire. You can also aim it behind your tank and pop off a
few rounds when you hear sirens approaching. Anything you hit with a round will
blow up right away, and any cars near an explosion will likely catch on fire.
The shells have a limited range, however, and will explode in the air if you
fire them at something too far away. This range is decreased, at least for
forward-firing shells, if you are moving forward. Lastly, firing does reduce
your speed a bit, so firing off shells while you're going uphill is not
recommended. This generally slows you down enough to make a cop bust a surety.

The tank is many times more durable than any other car in the game, but it is
not indestructible. Like anything else, if you flip it over, it will catch fire
and blow up, and if you take a long walk on a short pier and land in the water,
you'll drown quickly. (Interesting that the tank actually floats, and can fire
off rounds while in the water.) Lastly, attrition will slowly eat away at your
tank's stamina, and it *will* blow up when enough cars ram into it. This isn't
something you'll have to worry too much about if you're just running along on a
mission or something, but if you're raising hell, you can expect a sudden end
to your game after a couple of hundreds cars hit you. (Anyone care to count and
give me a better approximation?) The danger ramps up slightly once you get to
five stars, and the FBI gets called out. While highly amusing, the lemming-like
parade of FBI cars ramming into your vehicle will reduce its life expectancy
drastically, so you'll want to go from five to six stars rather quickly. (The
enemy tanks don't come in high enough quantities to damage you that much, and
thankfully they do not fire their turrets.)

Aside from actually destroying the tank, you can get jacked or busted fairly
easily, since the tank moves fairly slowly. Going from acceleration to reverse
and vice-versa is pretty dangerous when there are hostiles around, and the
aforementioned slow-down from the turret fire is something to take note of,
especially on inclines.

You can still pull off drive-bys in the Rhino, but pressing the O button will
fire off a shell at the same time as you begin firing your Uzi. If you want to
avoid this, simply rotate your turret to the left or right for the mother of
all drive-bys. :) Talk about improving your street cred...

There is no radio in the tank, sadly.

One thing I forgot to mention is that the warning signs of imminent destruction
for the Tank are very subtle and hard to read. It does start to smoke, but the
smoke is easily missed in the dark texture of the tank, especially from the
higher-up viewpoints. It will catch on fire, as well, but I've noticed that it
goes from seemingly undamaged to destroyed much too quickly to actually give
you time to exit the vehicle, especially when you're in the thick of an FBI
chase.

Mike Eiseman and Jared Bruce point out that if you rotate the turret of a tank
around so that it is pointing backwards, you can repeatedly fire the turret to
gain speed. This works well for increasing the top speed of the tank, and if
you find yourself poised precariously on a ledge or near water, you can use the
turret's recoil to give you an extra boost of speed to hopefully get out of the
situation.

lenankamp points out that Molotov Cocktails work wonders on tanks. Three or
four direct hits will usually result in an explosion. About ten seconds of
Flamethrower will also destroy them effectively, but good luck standing still
that long when the Army's after you.

----------------------------------------
**Spoilers -- Walkthroughs -- Spoilers**
----------------------------------------

Given that my job at the Stratosgroup (www.stratosgroup.com) is generally to
write walkthroughs for whatever project I'm working on, it'd be natural for me
to try and work some in to this document. :) There are, of course, spoilers
ahead, so don't read this section if you haven't FULLY COMPLETED the game, as I
will be describing the last mission in some detail.

I only acquired my tank at the very end of the game, shortly before I completed
the final few missions, so I'm not sure of any other missions it might be
usable for. I'm playing through the game again, so I will hopefully add a few
more tank-oriented walkthroughs in the future.

[**The Escort: Given by Donald Love**]

This is a fairly tough mission in any type of vehicle. Love's "oriental friend"
will be driving a van through the Porter Tunnel to Shoresdale Island, with the
eventual destination of a garage in Pike's Creek. Cartel Cruisers will be
attempting to smash his car off the road, and street soldiers for the Cartel
will be shooting at his vehicle. In all honesty, the bullet fire is more
damaging than anything the Cruisers do, but there's not a whole lot you can do
about the street warriors, unless you're willing to risk turret fire. What I
did to beat this mission was to simply keep the van in front of me, giving it a
certain cushion (make sure you don't hit it!), and veering into the Cruisers
when they attempted to pass. They generally come from behind you, so you can at
least protect the van from one kind of threat. The van's AI starts to get real
stupid-like once it reaches it's destination, so you might have to get out and
shoot any of the soldiers still on the street. In my case, the van started to
rub up against the walls near the garage it was heading for, and only managed
to reach it after about five (anxious) minutes of scraping. It did get there
eventually though, and it's worth pointing out that it cannot damage itself, as
far as I can tell.

[**The Exchange: Final Mission of the Game**]

Wowzer. You know, the first game I ever did walkthroughs for was Syndicate
Wars, and this mission reminds me of some of the final missions in that game,
in that it requires quite a bit of precision if you want to succeed. I'm sure
anyone who has tried it followed the helicopter in a Cartel Cruiser and has
been completely destroyed; I certainly was. Using the Rhino will make your task
quite a bit easier, as it's completely bulletproof and will be able to easily
kill any of the Cartel soldiers within range of the cannon.

First off, make sure your Tank is in your garage in Shoresdale Vale and safely
tucked away. Once you've saved your game, jack a car and run up the hill,
towards the "C" on your minimap. Once you get near the Cartel mansion, you'll
spot the blue circle. Walk into it and a cutscene will begin. (Incidentally,
you can go through this gate in a jacked Cartel Cruiser before or after the
mission to pick up another Hidden Package behind the mansion.)

After the cutscene is over, grab the gun ahead of you and run to your right.
Get into one of the Cartel Cruisers and head towards the gate. You might need
to run over the soldier to the left of the gate, or he'll pull you out. Once
you're through the gate, take a right and start heading up the street. You'll
see the helicopter fly over, and a message telling you to follow it. If you've
played the mission through once, you'll know where it's headed: Cochrane Dam.

Head up the street towards Cochrane Dam, and drive back down the twisty hill.
(If you have armor available at your base, you can attempt to jump down the
hill, avoiding the turns, or simply drive your car off of it. Either way, there
will be plenty of time to complete your mission.) Once you reach your base,
pick up whatever weaponry you have available and get into your tank. When
you're inside, wheel it out of your garage and down the hill across the
entrance to your hideout. Once you're on the street below, wheel it around to
head north and get going. This road will take you to the Cochrane Dam facility.

Cartel Cruisers block the entrance, but you can either bowl them over or fire
your turret at them to bust through. The Columbians here carry AK-47's, so you
might want to pick them up if you didn't have one at your base. Head down the
hill, stopping to pick up the sniper rifle if you wish, and use your turret to
destroy another pair of Cruisers, along with the Columbians in the area.

Now you're in the thick of things. There are quite a few Columbians in the
area, armed with AK-47's, M-16's, and there's even one with a Flamethrower.
It's one of those situations where there are an infinite number of enemies: no
matter how many you kill, more will appear when you turn your back. Needless to
say, you're going to want to stay in your tank for as long as possible. Make
your way through the rubble, and eventually a short cutscene will pop in,
showing Conchita heading into the chopper. Destroy the troop carriers near the
elevated area where she was, and get your tank as close to the stairs as
possible, but make sure you have something of a path back to the entrance.

Here's where it gets tricky. You hopefully have a full 2 or 3 minutes left.
There is a Rocket Launcher on the makeshift helicopter platform, guarded by
Columbians wielding AK-47's and one with a Flamethrower. Once you run up the
stairs, you can attempt to take them out, or simply run towards the Rocket
Launcher, dodging their fire. Once you have it, run back to the edge of the
platform and jump down to where your Rhino is. Get in quickly; if a Columbian
jacks you, get up, shoot him, and get back in. Once you're in, head back to the
entrance to this area, preferably all the way back to the area where you
smashed up the first two Cartel Cruisers. Once you're clear of the Columbians,
get out of the tank and wait for the helicopter to come around again. It drops
some kind of explosive, but you should be in the clear where you are. Peg it
with a Rocket, and when it goes down, the timer will vanish.

Now, you have to run the same Columbian gauntlet over again, but it will be a
bit easier because you don't have to worry about coming back. If you're health
is low, you might wish to head back to your base to pick up another suit of
armor. Once you're set, head back to the helicopter platform, run up the
stairs, and head towards Maria. Once you get near her, the credits start to
roll.

When you come back after the credits, you'll find yourself a million dollars
richer, but all your ammo is still missing, and your tank as well. You can get
ammo in all the usual places, and you'll find a parked tank at Phil's place in
Staunton Vale.

-------------------------
Acknowledgements / Thanks
-------------------------

A lot of people sent me email after the FAQ went up, so I'd like to thank them
here. I believe I credited people with their contributions as they appeared in
the main body of this text, so I apologize if I used something that you emailed
me. If your name isn't in here, it's probably because you emailed me after I
uploaded this version and the FAQ and before it was posted.

In no particular order:

Will G.
Hector Mejia
Filter6569
Blank
Sephiroth101
Steven Kent
Skidmarks15
Trevor Mundy
WsiCarlos
Jamie Watkins
Mike Veenhof
Tyler Dola
lenankamp
Mike Eiseman
Jared Bruce
Austin Prince
Greg3797

----------
Misc. Junk
----------

Heck, go ahead and put this anywhere you like, I'm not picky. I'll only update
the one on GameFAQs, though.

I'd be interested to hear any reader accounts of how you got your tank; whether
it was a different technique or something similar to this. I know of no other
real way to get one, so I'm naturally curious, and will update this FAQ with
any submissions people care to give. I haven't been trolling the messageboards
(way too busy), so I'm sure there are other methods out there.

This document copyright 2001 Matthew Rorie.



























