Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Main Story Walkthrough: Every Mission, City by City

Los Santos: Grove Street and the Road Back In

CJ steps off the plane at Los Santos International already in trouble, and the opening hours make sure you feel it. "Big Smoke" and "Ryder" ease you into drive-bys and territory basics, but the run that actually teaches the game's rhythm is "Cesar Vialpando": tail Cesar's lowrider, listen to what he says about Kendl, and don't crash into a parked car trying to stay close. From there, Sweet hands out a string of Grove Street jobs that exist to rebuild the gang's reputation one block at a time.

• OG Loc's missions ("OG Loc," "Running Dog"): fetch-and-escort jobs that double as a Respect-building loop, finish them cleanly and later story missions unlock without a grind.
• Drive-by basics: hold the aim button while a passenger shoots, and keep the car at a steady speed, swerving breaks the gunner's aim more often than it dodges incoming fire.
• Early Driving Skill gate: several Grove Street missions want serviceable Driving Skill before they'll let you attempt the chase variants, so a few laps around the block before starting "Nines and AKs" save frustration.

Treat this stretch as the tutorial it is. The game won't say so directly, but every mechanic it introduces here (aiming on foot, drive-by shooting, basic stat tracking) reappears at higher difficulty later.

Big Smoke, C.R.A.S.H., and the Fall of Grove Street

The story sharpens once Officer Tenpenny forces CJ into his pocket. "Burning Desire" is a straightforward firebombing job, but "Gray Imports" introduces the stealth-adjacent pacing Rockstar would lean on more in later games, move too aggressively and the warehouse guards swarm. The arc builds to "The Green Sabre," the mission where Big Smoke's betrayal becomes explicit and Grove Street effectively collapses around CJ in real time.

• "The Green Sabre": survive the ambush, then focus on reaching the getaway vehicle rather than mopping up every enemy, the mission ends the moment CJ clears the building.
• C.R.A.S.H. blackmail missions: these exist purely to set up the state-wide plot, expect no reward beyond story progression, so don't farm them for cash.
• Respect threshold: Sweet's loyalty missions quietly require a minimum Respect stat, built from completed Grove Street jobs and territory wins, before the finale mission in this arc will trigger.

This section ends with CJ exiled from Los Santos under a bounty, which is the game's actual structural hinge, everything that follows in the countryside and San Fierro only exists because this arc burns Grove Street down first.

Wrong Side of the Tracks and the Countryside Interlude

"Wrong Side of the Tracks" is the mission most players remember for the wrong reasons: CJ and the Truth's associate Catalina rob a moving train while riding motorcycles alongside it. The trick isn't raw driving skill, it's positioning. Stay level with the open boxcar doors rather than trying to out-accelerate the train, and let Catalina's gunfire do the clearing while CJ focuses on not clipping the track's support beams.

• Motorcycle handling on dirt: the Badlands missions use unpaved roads that punish aggressive braking, feather the throttle through turns instead of stopping hard.
• Swimming and lung capacity: a few countryside objectives (and later, Zero's RC missions) assume CJ can hold his breath long enough to cross a river, which only improves with repeated swimming, so a few practice laps in open water before committing to a timed mission pays off.
• Catalina's chaos: her missions reward speed over caution, she drives recklessly regardless of what CJ does, so don't waste time trying to protect the vehicle she's piloting.

The countryside stretch is also where San Andreas quietly teaches off-road driving and rural navigation, skills the Las Venturas desert missions assume you already have.

San Fierro: The Truth, Woozie, and the Garage Heist

San Fierro's contact missions split between The Truth's drug-tinged comic relief and Woozie's triad-adjacent crew, and the city itself gates progress behind a driving school requirement for the first time. "Wu Zi Mu" introduces Woozie properly, while the "Mountain Cloud Boys" arc builds toward the garage heist sequence that defines this city's act.

• Driving School gold requirement: certain San Fierro and later Las Venturas missions check for specific Driving School medals (particularly the 8-Track and Wheelie tests), so clear gold on those before attempting mission chains that reference "special vehicle skills."
• "Zeroing In" and RC missions: Zero's remote-control jobs use a separate control scheme entirely, practice with the RC Baron and RC Bandit outside of mission context first since failure resets the whole attempt.
• Garage heist setup ("Zeroing In" through "Doberman"): these missions build toward a vehicle-collection sequence, steal parked examples of the required cars early if you spot them, rather than hunting for specifics mid-mission under a timer.

San Fierro's pacing is slower than Los Santos by design, Rockstar uses it to stretch out side content (the BMX and NRG-500 unlocks, the low-rider and street-race side jobs) before Las Venturas accelerates again.

Las Venturas: Woozie's War and the Casino Heist

Las Venturas opens with Woozie's turf war against the Triads, but the city's main event is the Four Dragons Casino heist arc, a direct homage to the Vegas-heist genre that culminates in CJ, Woozie, and the crew pulling off a full casino robbery across multiple interconnected missions. Before the heist can start, the game demands you've built out a getaway crew and completed setup jobs that each unlock one specialist (a hacker, a demolitions expert, a getaway driver).

• N.O.E. ("Nap of the Earth"): a low-altitude flight mission through mountain terrain in a Hydra jet, stay below the ridgelines rather than climbing to avoid collision warnings, since altitude triggers mission failure here rather than protecting you.
• Pre-heist crew requirements: each heist specialist mission has its own unlock condition (Pilot School gold for the flight specialist, a clean completion of "Freefall" for the skydiving contact), so treat these as checklist items before starting the casino chain itself.
• "Architectural Espionage" and "Key to Her Heart": the casino's infiltration pair, move through the vents and staff areas methodically, the mission punishes rushing far more than it punishes a slow, clean route.

Once the heist missions resolve, the plot pivots hard back toward Los Santos, and Las Venturas effectively becomes a sandbox of side content for the remainder of the playthrough.

Return to Los Santos: Freefall, Riot, and the End of Grove Street

The endgame drags CJ back to Los Santos for a direct confrontation with Tenpenny and the remnants of the Ballas-Vagos conflict. "Freefall" is a mandatory skydiving sequence, CJ must land precisely on a moving big rig, and overcorrecting the parachute steering is the single biggest cause of failed attempts, small adjustments land the chute far more reliably than sharp turns. The story then barrels into "Riot," a mission set during the Los Santos riots that externally mirrors the 1992 unrest, and finally "End of the Line," the confrontation that closes CJ's arc with Tenpenny.

• "Freefall" parachute control: nudge the steering only when the drift becomes significant, the truck's bed is wider than it looks from altitude.
• "Riot": the city is in chaos during this mission, expect aggressive NPCs and fires blocking some routes, so plan an alternate path to each objective marker in advance.
• "End of the Line": this finale is as much a chase as a shootout, keep a vehicle nearby rather than committing fully to a foot pursuit.

Completing "End of the Line" closes the main story, though San Andreas keeps dozens of side missions, gang territories, and collectibles open for players who want to keep building CJ's stats after the credits roll.

Toughest Missions: Strategies for the Breaking Points

A handful of missions trip up most players regardless of overall skill, and they tend to share one trait: the game expects a specific technique rather than raw reflexes.

• Wrong Side of the Tracks: match the train's speed exactly before attempting to board, trying to leap on from a standing start usually ends with CJ under the wheels.
• Supply Lines: this jetpack-and-RC-plane mission punishes impatience, fly the RC Baron at a steady altitude and resist the urge to dive for a faster pickup, the time limit is more forgiving than it feels on a first attempt.
• Freefall: steer early and gently rather than waiting until the last second, a late correction rarely has enough altitude left to work.
• N.O.E.: memorize the first canyon's layout before attempting full speed, a slow first pass through the terrain saves more time than it costs.

None of these missions require a different build or extra grinding, they require matching the specific input pattern San Andreas built the mission around. Once that clicks, the "notorious" reputation these missions carry stops making sense.