Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas/Turf Wars

This page is about Turf Wars in general; for information about unlocking hidden territories, see the 178 Territories Glitch.

A turf war is where two rival gangs fight it out for control of an area. However San Andreas' implementation of gang rivalry is different from GTA2; gangs will only attack the Grove Street Families' turf (hereafter abbreviated GSF like in the game itself); they will not attack each other. And the only gangs that attack GSF's territories are the Ballas and Vagos.

Reasons for starting a Turf War
For every territory controlled, more money is generated at The Johnson House on Grove Street. It also increases CJ's overall Respect rating. However just as it is possible to take territory from the Ballas, so too can they take territory back from GSF, resulting in losing money and respect. In the 'Return to Los Santos' segment, you must take over 35 percent of the city to trigger the endgame.

Locations that can be fought over
There are a total of 54 territories to take over. There are some territories on the Westside, near the beach and towards the hills in the 'Vinewood' area, but most of the enemy turf is on the eastern side of Los Santos. However, is not required to take over all of the territories to complete the game or get to 100%.

Look at the colors on the map (screenshot); if a territory is  green , CJ's gang GSF controls it. If it is colored  purple  (Ballas) or  yellow  (Vagos), CJ can choose to attack it. Territories successfully won will turn green, but if captured back by the enemy they will change color once more.

Turf War!
To begin with, there are only two periods in the game when you can engage in turf war. The first period is between the time that you are introduced to the concept of banging and when you have to leave Los Santos. During the successive missions in San Fiero, Las Venturas, and so on you will not be able to access turf wars (the rationale being that the Grove Street Gang is defunct during this time). Once you are into the end-game, turf wars open up again and even become crucial to finishing the game. The final mission will not be triggered unless you have about a third of the city under GSG control.

As you haven't acquired some of the best weapons and skill levels during the first set of Los Santos missions, it is feasible and less frustrating to simply not focus on turf war until you return to Los Santos. At that point you will have gear like the rocket launcher and access to the tank (see below), which make turf wars a lot easier.

To start a turf war, simply kill three (or sometimes four) rival gang members. The gang members do not actually have to be inside the colored territory for the kills to count -- what matters is that CJ is standing in the colored region when the kills occur. This is helpful for starting turf wars in some of the smaller territories; CJ can use a sniper rifle or other long-range weapon to kill gang members a ways off as long as he is standing in the territory you wish to take over.

Also, these kills must take place while CJ is on foot -- gang members killed doing drive-bys or running them over will not count towards starting a turf war. Gang members pulled from their cars and then killed DO count (as do kills performed by shooting gang members in the head through their car windscreens); often it's easier to find gang members in cars rather than waiting for them to spawn on foot.

The gang members killed can belong to either rival gang. That is to say, killing three Vagos in Ballas-controlled territory will still start a gang war with the Ballas and vice-versa.

Each turf war has three waves. When a wave starts, about a dozen rival gang members will converge on your location. You must kill all of the rival gang members in each wave to complete the wave.

In some territories, armor and hearts will spawn during a particular wave. Take advantage of them in the lull between the waves.

You may also draw the attention of the police if you harm civilians or vehicles during the battle. This will complicate matters, so make sure you focus your fire on the rival gang members only. Remember, these are the guys with the bandanas on their heads.

Gang war can be waged by recruiting your own gang members. However, in practice it is best to have CJ go alone. Kills by your gang members don't count for starting a war, so it may be difficult to get a rumble started properly. Your gang's AI is not any different than rivals (which is to say, not too smart), so it is dubious whether they are much help during the battle. They may get in the way if you are in a constricted area. They can also die from friendly fire or even get run over by vehicles. And you won't have any time to recruit replacements in the middle of a wave.

Some missions require that you have an NPC (for instance CJ's brother) accompany you on a gang war, and the NPC will have their own health bar. You can lose if they die. A message will nag you if you get separated from the NPC. Actually, you should ignore this. If the NPC is hanging out somewhere away from the action that is a good thing. They don't have any different AI than the standard friendly or rival gang member and if they get into the heat of battle they typically won't last very long.

Essentially each turf war is an individual minigame which uses a portion of the terrain of San Andreas as a puzzle. To 'solve' a given turf war you need to find a good defensive position in the particular territory.

The first thing to consider is that (thankfully) the opposing gang member AI is pretty simple. They tend to follow the path of least resistance to CJ's location.

The other fact is, in a nutshell, 'AIs can't jump.' CJ is the only being in the San Andreas universe who can climb, swim, or step over low obstacles! Exploit this fact to the max.

If you find an enclosed area, get behind it. If there is some higher ground get on top if it. If there is a building you can get on the roof of, use that. The gang members will flock to the other side of the wall, or below you if you are on top of a building. Obviously, they can't shoot you. You can see them milling around on the radar and hear them complaining about running into each other (they seem to be a bit adverse to touching each other!). Now you can take them out with grenades if you are behind a wall, or if you are on a roof, by sniping. In some cases if you get on top of a bridge or a bridge-like object (like the eastern wharf on the beach) the gang members won't follow you either.

For instance, consider the BMX bike park. This has a fence with two entries in it. If you challenge the territory on the north side of this fence, run into the bike park and head for the inside northeast corner of the fence. The rival gang members will flock to that corner, on the outside. They are too stupid to run down the street and into the bike park. Toss a few grenades over the fence and voila.

Another example is a street on the west side with a parking garage with a spiral ramp. Start a war, run up to the second or third story of the ramp, and the rival gang members will flock to the base of the spiral ramp. They are too dimwitted to follow you up the spiral. You can take them out with grenades and sniping.

Taking over the area near the carwash to the north of the freeway is pretty easy. Just get on top of the carwash and bomb and snipe.

Some areas don't have stuff you can climb on top of or get behind. In this case, find an alley or passage between two buildings, and pick them off with your best gun (ideally a rocket launcher) as they come at you.

For instance, there is an area to the north of the end of the dry river on the westside. Run down the stairs and into the alley on the right. Use rockets to hammer each guy as he comes up the alley.

Do not leave the territory under dispute. If you step outside of it while the war is in progress for more than a minute or so, you will forfeit and will have to start another war. Sometimes the last few gang members will end up fleeing several blocks outside of the territory. Then you will have to chase them down before the time limit runs out. In some cases, you may be able to use the sniper rifle to take them out from several blocks away.

If you are later in the game and have unlocked the desert area, you might consider the following strategy which will make taking over the entire map a snap (and a lot of fun).

Start at the Verdant Meadows airfield. Make sure you have nothing parked in the garage. Take the rocket belt or a helicopter south into the 'forbidden zone.' There are some hangers on the north east side of the fenced compound; one of them has a tank in it. As your wanted rating will be maxed the moment you cross the fence, land immediately and jump into the tank. Drive the tank to the south east corner and through the breakable area of the fence (it will have a different texture than the rest of the fence).

Drive the tank north like crazy, and into the Verdant Meadows air field. Park it in the garage. You will undoubtably have a traffic jam of high level heat on your tail. Use the tank to thin out the pursuers if they get too dense, but focus on getting the tank into the garage. Exit the tank and sprint into the hut and save the game.

Now drive the tank to Grove Street. It helps to take the rail lines. The tank can take a lot of damage, but if you drive over cars (or even sideswipe them) they will explode immediately and eventually your hard-won tank will be ruined. Taking the rail lines means that all you have to dodge is the occasional train.

Park the tank in the Grove Street house's garage backwards. If you drive it in forward, you may not be able to get it out later. It will be a tight fit and if you have anything in the garage, you will have to lose it before you park your tank.

Once you have the tank, save your game at Grove Street. Then go out and get into the tank. This may be a bit dicey. CJ will not get into the tank unless the hatch is on the front of the garage and there is some wiggle room. You may have to walk into the garage, get behind the tank and push it a bit to allow CJ to get into it.

Now drive the tank to a rival gang area. Get out of the tank and shoot three rival gang members. Get back into the tank. Shoot or run over each of the three waves. Make sure you don't damage the tank too much. After you've won, drive carefully back to Grove Street and back the tank into the garage. Repeat until the entire map is yours!

"Our 'hood is under attack!" onscreen message
The enemy gangs can randomly decide to capture back a territory; they usually try to capture back a territory GSF took from them, but not always. It is usually adjacent to one they already control, but not always.

These challenges will not occur if you are outside San Andreas city limits, so if you are on an expedition to Las Venturas or San Fierro you won't have to rush back and take care of business.

There are a few options at this point.

Do Nothing
If you just save the game at this point, the territory will remain yours. This may not always be feasible (you may not be close to a save point), but it is worth considering.

If an enemy gang attacks and CJ does nothing, the territory is not completely conquered; instead it is simply a "no-man's land" that neither OGF nor the attacking gang owns.

But, as always, attacking three gang members in this limbo territory will start a turf war. This turf war will still have three stages and be the same as any other.

Penalty for Doing Nothing
If CJ dies in a turf war (regardless of who started it) he will die and lose the territory. In the case of a limbo territory, it will be well and truly owned by the squatting gang, and the map shows their color for it. However it can still be attacked and taken over once more, no territory can be permanently owned by a gang in the sense of it being unable to be attacked, the exception being the core GSF territory with the The Johnson House and Grove Street at the centre.

Respond to the attack
Simply enough, race off to defend the turf and beat back the enemy. The game gives a generous amount of time for the player to arrive there, as San Andreas is quite a large region.

There is just one wave and there are usually generous helpings of powerups, so none of the challenges are particularly difficult. They are simply a balancing element in the game, so the designers obviously decided to make them a bit easier than taking over a neighborhood from scratch.

The wave is only spawned the moment you entere the challenged territory, and they are all clumped in one place at that point. Typically a few rockets lobbed into the clump finishes the job.

Even more territories
Some players finish all the turf wars but wish there was more to conquer; those seeking to conquer almost the entirety of San Andreas can activate the 178 Territories Glitch.