What You'll Need
- A clean save file. Some events (notably Madd Dogg's mansion side activities) are easier to chase before story progress locks certain areas.
- A dedicated save slot for save-scumming the timed events (school tests, schools, stadium events). Reload if you bronze when you needed silver/gold.
- Patience for the collectibles. The 270 hidden pickups (tags, snapshots, horseshoes, oysters) are the longest single sub-task. Pull up a printed map and knock them out in geographic chunks.
- Don't trust the pause-menu percentage alone. Cross-reference the in-game Stats screen — it lists each requirement with its current/target count.
The Full 100% Checklist
All story missions (the spine of the percentage)
Every main-storyline mission counts. That's the Los Santos arc through The Green Sabre, the entire Badlands chapter, the San Fierro storyline (Wang Cars, Zero RC, T-Bone Mendez), the Desert / Las Venturas storyline, and the return to Los Santos for the final missions. Plus the four "strand" sub-storylines that gate parts of the city:
- Sweet's strand — gang missions in Los Santos.
- Cesar's strand — lowrider mission and the early racing intro.
- Catalina's strand — robbery missions in the Badlands.
- The Truth's strand — the Mount Chiliad bridge mission and unlocks for San Fierro.
Pro tip: Mission count alone gets you to roughly 60% of the bar. Everything below is the remaining 40%.
The four schools — bronze or higher on every test
Each school requires at least bronze on every lesson. Gold isn't needed for 100%, but maxing them unlocks unique vehicles.
- Driving School (San Fierro): 10 lessons. Gold all = NRG-500 + Hotknife spawn.
- Pilot School (Verdant Meadows, unlocks after buying the airfield): 10 lessons.
- Boat School (Bayside): 5 lessons.
- Bike School (Las Venturas): 4 lessons. Gold all = FCR-900 + Freeway spawn.
Pro tip: Save before each test. The bronze threshold is generous, but a clean reload is faster than waiting for the next attempt.
Hit every vehicle / side-mission threshold
Each side mission counts toward 100% at a specific level — you don't need to max them, just reach the threshold below:
- Taxi Driver — 50 fares (press R3 in any taxi).
- Vigilante — Level 12 (police car).
- Paramedic — Level 12 (ambulance).
- Firefighter — Level 12 (fire truck).
- Pimping — Level 10 (Broadway, after the LS arc).
- Trucking — Level 8 (RS Haul, after asset complete).
- Freight Train — Level 1 only (one delivery loop).
- Valet Parking (Burger Shot Rodeo) — Level 5.
- Courier missions — Level 5 in each of Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas (3 separate runs).
- Quarry missions — all 7 challenges (Hunter Quarry, Bone County).
- Burglar mission — steal $10,000 of goods on the burglary minigame.
Pro tip: Paramedic Level 12 also permanently maxes CJ's health bar. Do it early — it's one of the most impactful unlocks in the game.
All asset properties (and their mission chains)
"Buying" an asset isn't enough — each one has its own short mission chain you have to finish for 100% to register:
- Roboi's Food Mart (LS Pizza delivery) — clear to Level 10.
- Hippy Shopper (Santa Maria Beach) — one delivery run.
- Burger Shot (Rodeo) — Valet Level 5 (counted in Step 3 too).
- The Quarry — 7 missions.
- Wang Cars (San Fierro showroom) — all 5 import lists.
- Easter Basin Docks (Import / Export garage) — deliver every car on all 3 lists (30 cars total). Some only spawn in specific weather or time windows.
- RS Haul (Trucking) — Level 8.
- Verdant Meadows Airfield — purchase + complete the Pilot School inside.
- Zero RC missions — all 3 (Air Raid, Supply Lines, New Model Army).
Pro tip: Wang Cars' five import lists overlap heavily with the Easter Basin export lists. Print both, work through them together — most cars satisfy both checklists in one delivery.
Stadium events, races and the Triathlons
Stadium and race events each tick a single box. Most are one-and-done — show up, win once, never come back:
- Stadium events at the Los Santos / San Fierro / Las Venturas stadiums:
- 8-Track (LS) — win the stock-car race.
- Blood Bowl (Bloodring, Las Venturas) — survive 5 minutes.
- Kickstart (SF) — first place on the BMX assault course.
- Dirt Track (Las Venturas) — first place.
- NRG-500 Challenge — Easter Basin docks, finish first.
- Lowrider Challenge — Los Santos, hydraulics dance contest.
- All Street Races — every city has a slate of races (LS, SF, LV). Win each at least once.
- Beat the Cock! Triathlon — win one in each of the three cities (Santa Maria, San Fierro, Las Venturas).
- Brown Thunder — Hydra side-mission at Verdant Meadows, hit Level 12 to count (same threshold as Vigilante).
Pro tip: The Lowrider Challenge is one of the most missable boxes — it's not on the radar by default. The starting point is the parking lot south of the Unity Station racing area in Los Santos.
Every collectible (the 270 + 70)
The grind-iest section. 270 hidden pickups across the state, plus 70 stunt jumps:
- 100 Gang Tags (Los Santos only) — spray-paint icons on walls. Reward: $50,000 + free weapon spawns (Tec-9, MP5, AK-47, sawn-off shotgun, molotovs) at CJ's Grove Street house.
- 50 Snapshots (San Fierro only) — photograph specific landmarks with the camera. Reward: $50,000 + Desert Eagle, sniper rifle and tear gas at Doherty garage.
- 50 Horseshoes (Las Venturas only) — maxes gambling skill (doubles casino bet limits). Reward: $50,000 + weapon spawns at the Las Venturas safehouse.
- 50 Oysters (rivers / sea floor across the map) — maxes lung capacity + sex appeal stat. No cash reward, but the lung boost is essential for some missions.
- 70 Unique Stunt Jumps — yellow ramps spread across all three cities and the countryside. Each one needs you to land them cleanly (no flips during landing).
Pro tip: Use the Jetpack (unlocks after Black Project in Area 69) for oysters and tags — you can fly to almost every pickup, no swimming or climbing required.
Verify, mop up, claim the rewards
Once you think you're done, open the Stats screen (pause → Stats) and walk down it line by line. Every requirement that counts is listed with a "X / Y" count. Common things people forget at this stage:
- One missed gold-cup at a school (only need bronze, but the screen shows your best — easy to miss whether you actually finished a lesson).
- One missed pickup of each collectible type — 99/100 tags is a frequent killer.
- The Freight Train Level 1 box (cargo train pickup at Linden Station — quick to do but easy to forget).
- The Beat the Cock triathlon in San Fierro specifically (people often only do the Santa Maria one).
- One car on one of the three Import/Export lists that only spawns in a specific weather window.
When the Stats screen reads 100%, head to Madd Dogg's mansion in Mulholland (Los Santos). The back parking area now permanently spawns a Rhino tank and a Hydra jet, and CJ gets a new T-shirt unlocked in his wardrobe. Both vehicles also get cheats waived — they're yours forever, no save-quirks.
Pro tip: The Rhino at Madd Dogg's spawns regardless of cheats used. The "no cheats run" pride is purely a self-imposed challenge — Rockstar doesn't track it.
Tips & Tricks
- Do Paramedic Level 12 ASAP. Permanent max-health boost makes every story mission afterwards easier.
- Grab oysters with the Jetpack. Swimming to all 50 is tedious; flying down to each one and tagging it cuts the task to about an hour.
- Save before every stadium event. Bloodring and the 8-Track are particularly punishing — a clean reload is faster than driving back from the hospital.
- Print a collectible map. Don't try to do tags / oysters / horseshoes from memory. There are well-marked PDFs on every fan wiki — work through them in geographic chunks.
- Stunt jumps land cleanly. Land on your wheels (no spin during touchdown) or it doesn't register. The "Insane Stunt Bonus" message confirms the jump counted.
- Use the Stats screen, not the pause-menu percentage. The percentage rounds; the Stats screen lists each task with its raw count, making it easy to spot the one box you missed.
- Knock out side missions while travelling. If a story mission is sending you to Las Venturas anyway, do a few horseshoes en route. The grind is much shorter if it isn't a dedicated session.
What Does NOT Count Toward 100%
Lots of activities that feel like completion tasks aren't actually on the checklist. Skip these if you're chasing the stat:
- Gang territory ownership. Counter-intuitive, but yes — gang wars don't count toward 100%. They unlock for fun (and free respect) but the percentage doesn't care.
- Maxing CJ's stats (muscle, stamina, fat, sex appeal). Only gambling skill indirectly matters via horseshoes. The rest are pure flavour.
- All six girlfriends fully courted. Their unlocks (Hydra, Rancher, etc.) are nice, but the relationships themselves aren't on the checklist.
- Buying every safehouse. Convenient for fast-travel, not required.
- The casino games (blackjack, poker, slots, Inside Track). Pure money-grinding, not completion.
- Photo Opportunities outside San Fierro. Only the 50 official Snapshots count — random photos don't add to the stat.
What You Get for 100%
Rockstar's reward for finishing the checklist is parked behind Madd Dogg's mansion in Mulholland (Los Santos):
- A Rhino tank that respawns every time you leave and come back.
- A Hydra fighter jet — same respawn behaviour.
- A new T-shirt for CJ in his wardrobe.
- The "100%" status on your save file, visible on the load screen.
The Rhino and Hydra also count for the in-game stat tracker "Vehicles owned," and both are insured for free at any Pay 'n' Spray — so they're effectively permanent toys, not single-use rewards.