How to Play GTA San Andreas Without Resorting to Cheats

Alter the way you play. If you cannot play well, you may want to avoid doing anything especially dangerous or foolish in the game. Remember, cheating can make certain missions impossible to complete and it can also damage the game irreparably.

Try different ways to complete a difficult mission. There are many missions you have to approach one way only, but there are many you can be creative with, as well. Don't hesitate to take a helicopter to a shootout mission and land on a nearby roof to snipe enemies, or defeat a barricade by accelerating a heavy car to ramming speed and then jumping out of it as it hurtles forward, snagging a smaller and faster car to follow through once the blockade has been destroyed.

• If you can't make things work one way, keep retrying the mission from different angles, and with different weapons and vehicles. Never give up, and you'll eventually find a way to pass the mission.

Build up Carl's abilities. Unlike other GTA games, San Andreas' protagonist, Carl “CJ” Johnson has a wide array of stats that can be altered by player's choices. With high stats, missions get significantly easier; with low stats, they can become next to impossible. Investing in stats such as stamina, muscle, vehicle and bicycle driving, weapon skill, and respect makes missions easier to complete. Doing this in the open world can also serve as practice for taking on missions.

Know what to do when you run out of health. Instead of cheating to get more health, you can regenerate by eating, drinking soda, or getting in an ambulance. All of the above options offer very little health increases, but they are much better than cheating. You may also just load a previous save to recover all health, armor, and weapons, but make sure you have a recent save by saving often so you don't lose much progress.

Learn how to use the guns without resorting to cheating. A normal newbie or cheater will just usually spawn 'em. But where is the fun with that? The only other option that you have is to hunt for them, which can be both tedious and dangerous. Cheating, however, can have the more dangerous effect of lowering your Criminal Rating.

Learn how to get cash. By gambling, killing drug dealers, or performing a bike stunt off of the Los Santos tower, you can get money. (If the gambling backfires, you can reset the game to get it back.)

Learn how to change the wanted level. Like usual, many players will take the easy and dishonest route to adjust their wanted level. Despite this, there are simple tricks on how to remove wanted level, such as receiving "bribes", taking special missions, or saving the game.

Learn how to get the vehicles. Unfortunately, many of these are obtainable solely by cheating. To get the cool vehicles, you may have to do some things that resemble cheating. For the Phoenix, you can save it to your garage, and it will stay there. The Monster truck, Hotring racer, and the Bloodring banger can all be attained by normal gameplay means. (The Monster truck and Hotring racer can be attained at the Stadium in Los Santos just a few feet far behind Grove Street. It is very easy, just do the P.I.T. Maneuver which will make them spin out of control and give you advantages. Do not destroy them, under any circumstances.) The Hunter, Hydra and Stuntplane can also be attained without cheats, but the Hunter and Stuntplane will require you to do some tasks at the AC tower Graveyard, while the Hydra is obtained throughout the storyline. To get the Stuntplane, get at least silver on all of the tests at the Tower. For the Hunter, finish all of the tests with the rank "Gold." It may be hard at first, but you will find it easy after a few gaming hours.