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GTA Vice City Stories - Side Mission GuideTaxi Driver
Borrow a Taxi and make extra cash by picking up and dropping off passengers as a Taxi Driver in GTA Vice City Stories.
To start the Taxi Driver missions, you'll need to acquire a taxi vehicle and press the D-Pad Up button. There are a few different vehicles which can be used for the Taxi Driver missions, but the most basic and easiest to acquire is the standard yellow Taxi. You'll find them all over the place - stand still long enough and one will drive past sooner or later.
Vehicles you can use for the Taxi Driver missions include;
- Taxi
- Cabbie
The objective of the Taxi Driver missions is to find a fare - a pedestrian with a blue arrow above their head, pull up next to them so they can get in, then drive them to their requested destination.
During a fare, a 'tip meter' will be displayed on screen which decreases as time passes or as the taxi is damaged. Delivering the passenger before the tip meter expires will award a cash bonus, but ultimately the passengers must just be delivered before the overall time runs out.
The Taxi Driver missions are more relaxed compared to the other vehicle sub-missions as there's no level system in place. In Vice City Stories, the Taxi Driver missions can be completed in two different ways. You can either complete 50 fares in total, or you can earn $5,000 in total. These two tasks are cumulative and don't need to be done in a single run, although the bonuses for completing batches of 5 fares in a row add up and will make the cash target much quicker than the 50 overall fares.
The Taxi Driver missions are time consuming will probably take the best part of an hour. Completing 50 fares may take a bit longer, whereas hitting the cash target is possible sooner if you complete them in a row and grab a few 'tip' bonuses along the way.
Time Limits & Rules
The time will constantly count down, so you need to be reasonably quick at getting the passenger to their destination. Each sucessful drop off will give a time boost, which is based on the distance to the next destination.
If you're looking to complete 50 fares in a row, you'll likely need to head to the Pay 'n' Spray to get your car fixed a few times as passengers will refuse to get in, or even flee in terror once it starts smoking pretty badly.
You don't have to collect the fare which the game assigns you - occasionally pedestrians will spawn behind barriers that you can't get to - simply drive away and the game will spawn another passenger.
You'll also fail the mission if you are Wasted, Busted or you run out of time.
Passenger Scenarios
New to GTA Vice City Stories are taxi driver scenarios, which bring a bit of variety to the otherwise repetitive and boring missions. Each time you pick up a passenger, there's a chance your fare will want something unique...
Shopping
Sometimes when you drop off a passenger, you'll be told to wait in the car while they go shopping. After a short cutscene, they'll come back out and get back into the car where you'll need to take them to another destination. This makes the fare take much longer to complete, but you'll also receive a substantially higher payment.
Getaway Driver
Sometimes you'll drop off a fare and they'll tell you to wait while they take care of business. They enter the store with a gun in their hand and come out to the sound of sirens. You're then given a wanted level, usually 2 stars, and must deliver them to their destination while avoiding the police. Again, this takes longer but you're rewarded with more cash. Your wanted level is cleared as soon as the fare is delivered.
Follow That Car
The third and final special fare requires you to tail a random car which will be marked with a red arrow. It'll drive to one of the other drop-off destinations and you'll need to stay within range of it, not getting too close or too far away. Once it reaches it's final destination you'll then be told to drop off your fare nearby. These fares tend to be quite tedious as you may need to slowly follow the target car to the other end of the island, but they do provide the best rewards in terms of cash. While tailing a car, the mission timer is removed, so there's no risk of running out of time during these tasks.
Tips
The Taxi Driver missions are quite relaxing, albeit time consuming and repetitive. The time limit is often more than enough and the Taxi has decent handling and speed. Once your car starts to get damaged, take it to the Pay 'n' Spray to repair it so you can keep your streak going.
If you keep up your streak, you'll hit the cash target before you deliver 50 fares. I personally hit it at 35 fares, so if you're looking to get the missions out of the way as quickly as possible, I recommend you try to do at least 30 fares in a row and pick up as many 'tips' as possible by driving quickly but without crashing.
You can see how much you've earned in a taxi from the stats section in the pause menu.
Rewards
- After completing 50 fares in total OR earning a total of $5,000 in the Taxi Driver missions (whichever happens first), all Taxis will be equipped with a boost jump which you can activate by pressing D-Pad Down. This will launch the vehicle about 10 feet into the air meaning you can jump over small walls or oncoming traffic.
- Cash bonuses will increase with every 5 consecutive fares.
The Taxi Driver missions are a requirement towards 100% completion.
