Taxi Driver Sub-Mission - Gta San Andreas

Vehicle Needed

Taxi

Cabbie

Introduction

The last of the older Sub-Missions are arguably the most frustrating. Not because of their difficulty, but because of their length and repetition. You need to drive around until a pedestrian flags down your Taxi, then let them in your vehicle and drive them to wherever they want to go, as usual with a time limit counting down. Unfortunately the pedestrians usually want to go literally to the other side of the city, so the journeys can take up to 5 minutes a fair which knowing that you need to complete 50 fares, can take a long time indeed.

Mission Failure

- The Taxi Falls Into Water.

- The Taxi Blows Up.

- The Taxi Flips Onto It's Roof.

- You Are Arrested.

- You Exit The Vehicle.

- You Push R3.

- Your Time Runs Out.

Basics
When you enter a Taxi or Cabbie Vehicle and you're not currently on a mission, hit the R3 button to start the Taxi Driver Missions. Drive around near some pedestrians and a blue icon will appear on your radar which symbolises a pedestrian who would like a taxi ride. Park next to the blue blip person and they will get in your vehicle, then a message at the bottom of the screen will tell you where to take them, followed by a yellow blip on the radar. As previously stated, they will want to go pretty far, but the game tries to make these journeys worthwhile by adding a "Tip Bar" which counts down with the longer you take. The quicker you deliver your passenger, the more money you'll receive from the tip. The tip bar will of course decrease with time, however the more damage you do to your car, the more it'll go down too, so if you want to use the Taxi Driver Missions to make yourself a lot of cash, you'll need to be a careful, yet fast driver. To make the missions a bit more fun, I might advise heading to TransFender and tricking out your taxi with a new colour and some new wheels. While you're there why not attach some hydraulics for fun?

Tactics
Now like all "Sub-Missions" I suggest you do the Taxi Driver Missions as soon as possible, as the rewards you earn for completing them will help quite a lot in the out-of-mission gameplay. There doesn't seem to be a specifically easy place to do these missions, unlike the previous two covered, however they seem to be relatively easy wherever they are attempted. Regardless of where you start the missions, you'll most likely have to drive into the next main city and drive around delivering people there, so I wouldn't advise you drive to Angel Pine just to be forced to have to drive to Downtown San Fierro on your next fare. The only way to beat these missions is through time. There's no glitches and no shortcuts to make it quicker, but it's not too hard as it is. Just remember to always speed to the next blue arrowed pick-up person once you've dropped someone off, try to plan the quickest route to their location, and stick to the roads. There's nothing worse than flipping your car just after you start to get going, plus you'll earn more money for the more that you do. Your time will be way more than enough after about 8 or 10 fares, so you'll be able to take it easy, and head to the Pay N' Spray if you are passing to get your vehicle fixed. Try to refrain from taking shortcuts unless you're about to run out of time, or you'll most likely flip the Taxi vehicles. Modifying them with hydraulics can improve their handling however, and a few extra colors can make the missions slightly more fun, but the only real way to beat them is through determination.

Completion
You will need to complete a total of 50 fares to 'complete' the Taxi Missions. Luckily these are 50 in total, not in a row, so you could just do 5 every now and then, and after 10 tries you'd have 50, but the bonuses made for doing them in a row may just make it worthwhile to try them all in a few attempts.

Rewards
Upon successful delivery of 50 passengers you will be awarded with some rather cool new features on your Taxi Vehicles. All Taxi's and Cabbies will now have Infinite Nitro attached, this means you can use it over and over, however it will need to recharge after 15 seconds or so. Additionally you will unlock the 'Taxi Boost' on both of the said vehicles, which means pushing L3 while you're driving along will cause your taxi to use hydraulics and boost itself off the ground. Alongside nitro and going up a ramp, this can give you a lot of extra speed and distance, perhaps needed for completing Unique Jumps.