How can I speed up the cooldown for the helicopter homie?

Question

After calling him, I keep having it grayed out for awhile, with no idea what drives it or what I could do to get it refreshed besides go about my business. Is there anything I can do to speed this up? There are so many fewer cribs with heli-access, it seems, in Saints Row 3.

Asked by Maslow

Answer

There is a cooldown period after each call to a particular homie. It seems to me it is roughly the same period that your pay timer is on, though not synced. I'm in my mid-30s and I don't see an upgrade that will speed up the cooldown of homie calls.

Answered by CyberSkull

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Is there any way I can prevent my own Manapult from sucking me into it?

Question

I received the Manapult truck as part of the Professor Genki DLC. However, running around and sucking up helpless citizens and shooting them as cannonballs tends to raise your notoriety with the police pretty fast. I was pulled from my truck and when I ran around in front of it during the firefight in order to get into it again, it promptly sucked me up to use me as ammo.

When this happens, the only way I can seem to get out of it is to fire myself from it, and this can take away a lot of my health and sometimes even kill me if my health is low enough from the firefight and I wasn't shot at a high enough trajectory to open my parachute.

Is there any way I can prevent the car from using me as ammo?

Asked by FallenAngelEyes

Answer

Unfortunately there seems to be no way to deactivate the "suck" function of the Manapult, unless you're already full of people.

Answered by Mayhem

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What is a “no-weapon kill?”

Question

I've been trying to clear out the Saints Book, and I was working on Angel's "No-Weapon Kill" challenge.

I assumed this was simple, and I'd go up to cops/gangs and punch the crap out of them for a bit and get it. But, as this album attests to, I beat up the cops for a while. When I checked my progress on the challenge, though, I was still at 14/25 kills.

Clearly, at some point through playing the game, I've gotten 14 kills the game considers "no-weapon" kills, but I have no idea what I would have done to get them to count. I would have thought at least the wrestling moves would count, since that's what Angel would have wanted, but I made absolutely no progress towards the challenge.

What the heck does the game mean by a "no-weapon kill?"

Asked by Dave McClelland

Answer

No-weapon kills are just as you say - they're kills you make only with your fists. Any other melee weapon or gun will disqualify you. You can feel free to do wrestling moves, but I'd avoid the "nut assault" move, as I think that puts you in a different category of kill. Some of the melee moves also cause you to draw your weapons, even if you didn't intend to, so watch out for that.

I believe though, that you will have to do this against rival gang members. Several of these challenges distinguish between rival gang members and everyone else, even though they don't say so specifically.

Some of these moves will pop a little "respect circle" in the upper right corner of the HUD. I didn't see one for no-weapon kills on either gang members or police officers just now, so I'd just go kill a gang member with your fists and verify that the count is going up. You'll also see a "challenge progress" popup every so often, so keep an eye out for that. I think getting to 15 should make it show up.

Answered by agent86

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How do I change melee weapon in Saints Row 3?

Question

I upgraded my baseball bat to level 2, and now if I want to switch to the stun gun or the Penetrator, how do I do it? Seems like a silly question but I cannot do it!

---

I thought I should add more info:

I bought all 3 melee weapons at the shop, the Penetrator, stun gun and baseball bat, in that order. Now my baseball bat is always equipped, both in crib AND in weapon store, I use my Ⓛ to select the slot, hit Ⓐ and I do see all three weapons, but only the baseball bat is ever equipped ... how do I equip other melee weapon in that slot, please?

I have tried to press all buttons and some combinations even, nothing equips or changes the melee weapon.

Hope that's clear. thanks.

Answer

You can do this from your crib interface, or from any weapon store. Cribs show up as house icons on the radar, and weapon stores show up like handgun icons.

When you're in a crib or weapon shop, the game will show you which button to press. From there it's just a matter of navigating the menu and selecting a new weapon from the weapon wheel. Each slot on the wheel can only hold one weapon at a time, and the slots are only for specific weapons. For instance, you can't take two pistol-class weapons at once.

While in a crib, you'll see "Press (button) to access crib interface." Pressing that button brings up a menu. Move down to "weapon cache" and select it. Move your weapon wheel to highlight the slot, and select the slot. Then scroll through the available weapons and select the one you want.

From a weapon store, press the button for shopping, and then select "Access Crib Weapons" from the menu. You can then select a slot, and then select a weapon as above.

Some weapons can be purchased, others are gifted to you as a reward from missions, and others you can just pick up off of dead enemies. If you pick up a weapon off a dead enemy, it counts as being "bought" and you can select it from any crib or weapon store in the future.

If you're trying to change weapons at the crib and you don't already own the weapon, you won't be able to. You're limited to selecting from the weapons you already own when at your crib. Interestingly enough, at weapon stores you can switch to other weapons you've already purchased/found without paying for them again.

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Is there any way to lower the bridges?

Question

At a certain point in the game, the bridges between islands in Steelport raise up. I'm trying to finish all of the vehicle theft challenges in the Saintsbook, and this makes it a bit more challenging. Have you ever tried jumping a garbage truck or a limo off a bridge ramp without ending up at the bottom of a river? Let me tell you, it is frustrating.

Is there any way to get the bridges to lower after I've finished the game?

Answer

I don't know of a way to lower the bridges, I can only offer a couple of tips:

1. Buy the "nitrous in every car" ability, I think it's available around level 26. This enables you to really speed up car thefts and will allow you to clear the bridges quickly. I managed to clear a bridge with the garbage truck this way. Fire coming out of a fire truck's exhaust is a sight to behold.
2. Buy the "police forgiveness" ability. This greatly reduces the difficulty of escaping with any car, allowing you to gain speed before bridges and clear the gaps without interruptions. This ability must "recharge" between uses, however, but apparently you can just reload your save after usage and it'll be available again. Alternatively

You can also use the mayor forgiveness option if you got it as a reward for the zombie mission

Also, keep in mind that not all bridges are raised to the same height (there is at least one gap that you can clear on foot), and bridges with an elevated track above them are significantly harder to clear and land safely. You don't always have the option to choose another crossing, but in areas where you are stealing one of a type of car instead of one specific car, it might help to steal one nearer the easier bridge to cross.

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How do burnouts work?

Question

In Saints Row, The Third, I can't figure out how points for burnouts work and how you can earn maximum respect from them.

To get one started, you hold your brake and accelerator in the car. Even then though sometimes the game doesn't award anything for a burnout. It doesn't even seem consistent how it starts awarding points for it. At one point I thought the #/12 counter meant that if you did one for 12 seconds, you would get maximum respect, but that's not the case. I've also tried doing 12 doughnuts thinking that was maybe it. The most points I've ever been awarded is around 5 of 12 or 6 of 12, but nothing higher. Is there a way to earn all 12 of 12 possible points?

Answer

Maximizing respect from burnouts can be fairly difficult. The reason for this is:

Your score is determined by the number of people cheering for your burnout.

Yep, you read that right. The more people you have clapping, shouting, and fist-pumping at your burnout, the higher your respect bonus will be.

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If a takeover is used in co-op, does the second player also get the activities completed?

Question

In Saints Row the Third if player one uses a city takeover (cell phone upgrade, STAG, etc) to secure a district will player two also get all activities in the district marked as complete? I have 2 hard Insurance Fraud activities left and am hoping I can join someone's game when they go to use a takeover perk to get those done. I hate the Insurance Fraud activity.

Answer

Since city takeover percentage is calculated separately, I don't believe this is the case. I seem to remember my partner using one of these during one of our sessions, and I don't believe I got credit for it. I got the phone call from the homie congratulating me on the district being cleared, but I didn't get credit for any unfinished activities.

If you're having issues with Insurance Fraud, have you read the question/answer about it on the site? It's a pretty easy diversion once you know the tricks:

What's the easiest way to maximize profits from Insurance Fraud?

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While streaking, can I “shock” police officers?

Question

I'm working on the Saintsbook challenge for streaking, and occasionally I raise the ire of the police. Normally I run away from them, seeing as they're shooting at me and I'm rather... vulnerable. However, it seems like having a high wanted level might make this easier to shock enough people to get to the higher levels.

Do I get credit for shocking police officers (and STAG officers, army soldiers, etc)?

Answer

I've determined that you can, in fact, shock police and military officers. In fact, you can shock gang members, and even people driving cars, if you can get close enough.

The Saintsbook challenge is for time though, and the rewards are otherwise uninteresting. If it's a pain, you're better off just starting streaking, waiting for time to run out, and then starting again. There's no added benefit to actually doing "well" at the minigame.

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Where can I store cars that I find?

Question

Where can I store/save cars that I find? I don't see any garages or cribs on my map.

Also, can you save cars during a mission?

I just started playing and found a really nice Wasabi but failed a mission and now I lost it... argh.

Answer

You can store cars in the garage at any crib, and at any Rim Jobs. Cribs show up as little house icons on a yellow background. Rim Jobs are green icons with wrenches on them.

At the start of the game, you'll only have access to Shaundi's Ex's Loft as a crib, but complete more story missions and more will open up to you (as Ashley list indicates). Some of the cribs have helipads, and these store air vehicles such as choppers, and later... well, I don't want to spoil it ;)

You can buy Rim Jobs locations, but this is not required to store cars or access your garage. This just allows you to lose your wanted level if you enter it, and gives you a "periodic income" boost. You'll be taken to a Rim Jobs location early in one of the plot missions, but they are located across the city and are unlocked from the start. Rim Jobs locations can't be used if you have a wanted level, unlike crib garages which work regardless of your wanted level.

If you invest any money in a car, it becomes yours permanently unless you delete it from your garage - you can lose the car, destroy it, drive it off a cliff into the river, etc, and it will always reappear in your garage shortly afterwards. Under certain circumstances you may have to pay a $500 fee to recover a car that's been lost or destroyed.

You can usually store cars whenever you wish, so long as the car isn't required for a mission. There are times when you can't access the garage, and the game will tell you so if you try to approach it.

When it comes to what can be stored - if it is a land vehicle, and you can drive it, you can store it in any garage. You might not think you can fit a tank inside Shaund's Ex's Loft, and it's a little bit of a squeeze, but it fits :)

In addition to the "land vehicle" garages, and helipads at certain cribs, there is also an airplane hangar at the airport you can buy, and a boat dock or two if you wish to store some boats.

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How do I perform a stoppie in Saints Row: The Third on PC?

Question

How do I make a motorbike do a stoppie (reverse wheelie) for the challenge?

I've tried every key combination I can think of!

Answer

By default, stoppies are not bound to a key. You can change this in the settings menu, though.

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Why did I die when my car exploded?

Question

In the middle of a 5 star fight with the Morningstar, I hopped into one of my tricked out rides and lead the gang members on an exciting car chase filled with gunfire and vehicular mayhem.

I had just bought the "Damage - Explosions 4" upgrade, which supposedly makes me immune to explosion damage. As my Saint's purple car caught fire, I quickly went to exit the vehicle, but I was too late. The car exploded anyways and I woke up in a hospital, my wallet $500 lighter.

Was it because I was in the process of exiting my car that caused SR3 to glitch, or is car explosion damage a whole different type of damage?

Answer

I've actually noticed the opposite of the effect Dave describes when playing, which is more in line with what you saw. I had all the invulnerabilities, and I noticed this odd behavior.

If you jump out of a vehicle right before it explodes, you'll die. However, if you're in the vehicle and it explodes, you'll survive. It caused me no end of consternation because when the vehicle catches on fire, my first instinct is to jump out of it. Staying inside keeps me safe, though.

With all the invulnerability upgrades, you can crash a jet directly into the ground at high speed and survive. If you jump out right before it explodes, you'll end up hurt or dead.

I don't know if it's a glitch or a feature, but it's something to be aware of nonetheless.

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How do I unlock helicopters?

Question

How do I get helicopters for my personal use outside of activities? I've bought the hangar, but I don't see any copters lying around the airport. Do I just need to look around more or complete a specific mission/activity, or level up and buy the Helicopter Homie?

And once I've found one, where do I garage them?

Answer

The earliest I have found that you can unlock a helicopter is during the main storyline. Once you complete the mission Trojan Whores, you receive a Vulture helicopter for the mission reward. It's accessible at the Saints HQ pad in Sunset Park. Just go outside next to the pool (after you're inside the HQ, so the outside of the penthouse) and you'll see the floating key indicating a garage, which is where you'll be able to store future helicopters.

I was level 15 when I acquired this, which is 9 levels earlier than you can receive the Heli Homie. I'd also done a bunch of activities on the side to raise my level though, so if you just go straight for the Trojan Whores mission, you'll unlock it earlier.

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Is the Cyber Buster effective against aircraft and tanks?

Question

I'm contemplating a change to my weapon loadout in Saints Row 3. I have access to the "Cyber Blaster" now, which is a weapon you use during one of the Decker missions. So far I've kept the RC Possessor in this slot, and the Annihilator in the explosive weapon slot.

I'd want to replace the Annihilator with Satchel Charges, and the RC Possessor with the Cyber Buster, but I'm not certain if the Cyber Buster is capable as an anti-aircraft weapon. The Annihilator locks on, and can take down most VTOLs/choppers with one hit, which makes this sort of thing a breeze.

If I take the Cyber Buster and the Satchel Charges, will I be at a disadvantage against aircraft?

Answer

The Saints Row Wiki says that a single fully-charged Cyber Buster shot will kill aircraft instantly. So, no, you'll be fine.

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Are there trains in Saints Row 3?

Question

It occurred to me as I was driving around today that there's a bunch of elevated train tracks in Steelport, (you can see some from the helipad of Saints HQ, for example) but I don't think I've ever ridden a train or even seen one anywhere, and I don't remember seeing any train stations. I'm not even sure I know where the tracks go, except in a big circle.

Are there trains in Saints Row 3? Can I ride in or hijack one, if so? Where do they go?

Answer

There are no active trains, either ground or elevated trains. There are disabled trains on the ground in a couple of places (so beware if you are riding a motorcycle along the tracks), and there are disabled trains on the elevated tracks as well.

I've made a complete circuit of the elevated tracks on foot, and there's no way for a train to run on them: at one point, one of the wrecked trains blocks the track in both directions, requiring you to make a physically-impossible jump to continue the circuit (jumping out and steering yourself back onto the track). There are no signs of activity on any of the trains, although you may wish to investigate at least one of the train cars on the ground. (Perhaps there's something inside it?)

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Do wheel spikes actually accomplish anything?

Question

When upgrading cars, it's possible to purchase wheel spikes that add a spinning metal blade to your car's tires, ostensibly to pop other cars' tires and to injure pedestrians—so far, though, I haven't actually seen any tires popped as a result of this upgrade. Does this even do more damage than simply ramming such targets off the road? What's the benefit of this upgrade?

Answer

Wheel spikes do indeed pop tires. They extend from your car's tires gradually as you start to accelerate, so they won't be at full tire-popping potential until a few seconds after you start moving. While there are only a few points at which this can be an advantage, the upgrade's pretty cheap and you might want to take it on at least one car anyhow.

For one thing, popping tires is not considered an additional hostile act, and in fact I think it might not be considered hostile at all in certain cases - I've popped cop tires before without getting a police wanted star, and I've popped other tires in full view of police without upsetting them, but I've not tested it exhaustively. Careful not to hit the enemy vehicle hard, lest you upset them.

This means that it won't increase your wanted level, but it can get pursuers off your back. Dave's right to point out that the AI rarely has trouble with popped tires (it seems to be able to set speeds with vehicles that are beyond the top speed they can normally travel) but they do have trouble with popped tires and tight turns. The Luchadores especially fall victim to this with their penchant for large trucks.

I don't think the pedestrian injuring features are all that useful, more often than not it will cause you trouble rather than solve anything.

The other issue I have with car upgrades in general is that most of the missions and other diversions require you to drive a particular car, and getting your own car out of a garage is usually rather painful. I upgraded several sports cars, thinking I'd have a use for them, but by and large I just drove whatever was closest to me while I was on foot.

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How do I get the Condor VTOL out of the park for the related vehicle delivery mission?

Question

I have attempted this particular vehicle theft mission at least a half dozen times now. I have to raid a STAG outpost that mysteriously popped up inside of one of the city's parks, and steal a Condor VTOL, and fly it to the airport.

The problem is that this vehicle is made from papier-mâché. If it isn't already smoking by the time I fly out of the park, random police and STAG soldiers shooting at it quickly get it to that point. I can eventually get up high enough to be outside the range of small arms fire, but then when I try to land at the airport, enough soldiers have already massed there that they put the final few bullet holes in the plane and I smash into the delivery point in a charred mass of metal and phallic weaponry.

What's the trick to this vehicle theft?

Answer

If you've reached respect level 20, you can buy Notoriety Wipe: Police from the Upgrade Store. This adds a number to your cell phone's contact list which, as the name implies, completely removes your police notoriety when called.

Call that number as soon as you enter the Falcon and your notoriety spikes — you'll be able to fly off at your leisure, unmolested by local law enforcement. Avoid causing any property damage along the way, and you'll be allowed to land peacefully, as well.

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How do I get the Falcon VTOL out of the park for the related vehicle delivery mission?

Question

I have attempted this particular vehicle theft mission at least a half dozen times now. I have to raid a STAG outpost that mysteriously popped up inside of one of the city's parks, and steal a Falcon VTOL, and fly it to the airport.

The problem is that this vehicle is made from papier-mâché. If it isn't already smoking by the time I fly out of the park, random police and STAG soldiers shooting at it quickly get it to that point. I can eventually get up high enough to be outside the range of small arms fire, but then when I try to land at the airport, enough soldiers have already massed there that they put the final few bullet holes in the plane and I smash into the delivery point in a charred mass of metal and phallic weaponry.

What's the trick to this vehicle theft?

Answer

If you've reached respect level 20, you can buy Notoriety Wipe: Police from the Upgrade Store. This adds a number to your cell phone's contact list which, as the name implies, completely removes your police notoriety when called.

Call that number as soon as you enter the Falcon and your notoriety spikes — you'll be able to fly off at your leisure, unmolested by local law enforcement. Avoid causing any property damage along the way, and you'll be allowed to land peacefully, as well.

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In the “Subtlety Optional” assassination, what counts as a muscle car?

Question

In the assassination "Subtlety Optional" assassination given by Angel, he says to pull up to a certain gas station in a muscle car to lure out the owner/target. I have tried several different cars like the Vortex and Raycaster, but none of them seem to be what he's looking for. Admittedly, those are more sports cars than muscle cars, but I'm not sure I've come across any actual muscle cars.

What cars can I actually use to complete this mission and where can I find them?

Answer

There's a very short list - I think maybe 4 total:

• Bootlegger
• Hammerhead
• Phoenix
• Hammer (although I'm not sure about this one)

They're tricky to spot, and they're not sports cars (so the Torch/Temptress/etc don't count).

I found they tend to spawn outside the Angel's Gym crib the most often, in the parking lot and surrounding lots.

I believe the Bootlegger is also a possible gang vehicle option, if you select it from the gang customization menu at one of your hideouts. However, you'll have to figure out a way to make your homies show up if you go this route. There's an upgrade option in the phone which gives you the ability to call some gang members, which is the most reliable way.

I think the Phoenix is driven by a particular homie (possible spoiler if you've not advanced the plot to the point where you meet the Mayor):

Mayor Reynolds - he drives a Phoenix customized to look like the Trans Am he drives in Smokey and the Bandit

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What's an hour of Saints Row: The Third time in real life?

Question

Saints Row: The Third is my first experience with the franchise, and I'm trying to understand when city income will be available for me to transfer out.

The game says one hour, but it seems I have funds I can transfer out at least a couple times an hour, and at one point I thought I got 'paid' rather quickly, with a death in-between.

Is an hour a set time period, or do in-game activities (deaths, missions, etcetera) have an impact?

Answer

I did some testing, and I think the time it takes to earn another round of cash from your owned buildings is right around 15 minutes. Unused time doesn't seem to carry over between restarts of the game, so if you play for 5 minutes, shut it down, and load the game later, you'll still have to wait a full 15 minutes for more money.

There's only two things that stop it:

• Hitting the "Transfer Limit" which increases as you gain city income. This is a multiple of your money-per-unit-time value, and it's just there to keep you from leaving the game on overnight to make mad cash.
• Pausing/quitting the game. If the game isn't running, you don't gain money.

If you thought you got "paid" twice in quick succession, it's possible that you had money laying around from a previous bank transfer that you hadn't picked up yet. There's no "push" notification that money's available, so you might have taken money out twice 5 minutes apart, even though it was really 15 minutes of clock time between times you actually got paid.

"Game time" is a bit weird. I don't know if my sample running time was too small, or if the game rapidly transitions between times of day at certain points, but I took a save just after the climax of Act 1 and let it run for about 40 minutes, and the sun stayed in the same spot. A 15 minute test of my cleared save yielded similar results. However, I'm certain that eventually, time passes and there's a day/night cycle. It's possible that, as others have speculated, it doesn't pass until late in the game, but I feel like I've seen this happen earlier in the game as well.

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How do I get the “You're My Hero!” achievement?

Question

To get "You're My Hero!" you must finish all of the challenges listed in the Saintsbook. This is probably one of the more involved achievements in the game.

What's the best way to clear each challenge?

Answer

The best way to finish challenges is to wait until you've finished the main story missions and you've cleared all the levels of all the activities. By this point in the game, you'll probably at or very close to level 50 respect, and have enough cash to afford at least the "damage immunity" upgrades and "infinite explosive ammo/grenades" upgrades. You'll also probably have cleared some of them just by completing the objectives in other game modes. Trying to max out most of these challenges before that point is just going to be a waste of time.

Be warned that there may be minor spoilers below, so if you haven't finished the story and the side activities you might want to stop reading here. Nothing major, but still, you've been warned.

ONE BIG FAT WARNING

STAG Commandos stop spawning after you clear the game. Some people have reported that you can get STAG Commando kills by replaying the final mission. I've also seen a co-op bug that if you don't finish the game on your own save (ie, you use the co-op skip feature on the final level) you won't be able to replay the final mission. If this happens, you'll have to co-op with someone who still has the ability to spawn Commandos, or be ready to load an earlier save.

Survival is key

By far one of the most time consuming ones is the Survival challenge. This is time consuming for 2 reasons: one is that it takes a while to complete each wave of each survival, and the other is that you can't decide when one starts. Always answer your cellphone when you're given the option, and make sure that you're going to the location and staying within the radius for the entire challenge. Don't bother bringing a chopper or VTOL to these, as it's somewhat glitchy about how high off the ground you can be and still stay within the radius.

If you've got most/all of the damage immunity and it's a timed survival, just hide someplace and perhaps mark a few of the Saints in the area as your homies. Let them do the work, and revive them as needed. You can hide inside buildings, behind low walls, underground, etc, so long as you stay within the red circle on your map.

If you're working on a "kill x number to get to the next wave" survival challenge, you'll want to focus on blowing up gang cars. Kill off or dismiss any homies, as their kills don't seem to count. If you've got a co-op partner, their kills do count.

Each survival is unique, in that you'll get a different call from a different person inviting you, and they'll send you to a particular location each time they call. Even if you answer the call, it's possible to "miss" the challenge by ignoring the blue map icon for long enough. If you miss the call or the challenge, they will call you back again later.

To get survival challenges to spawn, you'll have to be on foot and not involved in another activity. I recommend doing the following while you wait:

Group 1: Hostages and Surfing

• Hostage taking - When you get into a car that has passenger(s), you'll be given the option to press a button to start the hostage diversion. I found the best place for this is near the Rusty's Needle tattoo shop that is northeast of Saints HQ. I don't know why this intersection is so profitable, but it is. Run in a circle around the intersection and look for cars. Parking minivans and other 4-door cars in the intersection sometimes helps spawn more of these. You don't need to complete the hostage diversion in order to get credit for taking hostages. As soon as you start it, you can jump out of the car and you'll get credit. You get +1 to this counter for each person in the car when you start the diversion. You can't do hostage diversion with gang members or police, including your own gang. They'll just get out of the car. You can't jump through either side window without kicking any front seat passengers out of the car, so make sure that if you're going to jump into the car, you do so through the front windshield. Passengers in the car don't spawn until you're looking at the car and you're fairly close, and they despawn quickly after the car leaves your field of vision, so don't chase cars that you missed but appeared to have passengers; you'll just find the car with one person in it when you catch up, usually. This one's in the top five most painful, in my opinion.

• Vehicle surfing - if you get to the "lucky intersection" and you don't see any cars with passengers, find a car with a flat hood and crouch on it. When the car starts moving, you'll be shown the proper button to start the car surfing diversion. If the driver doesn't seem interested in moving, a shot through the window at the passenger's seat usually gets them "motivated." You'll have to maintain your balance on the hood to keep the diversion going. 30 seconds to a minute is a good amount of time per attempt, but you'll need a total of 10 minutes to compete the challenge. As long as the car is moving, it doesn't really matter what the driver is doing. They can swerve left and right, speed up and slow down, etc, and the balance minigame is pretty much the same regardless. Probably the most boring 10 minutes of the game, unfortunately.

Group 2: Looks like we're going to have to JUUUUUMMMMMP!

• Base jumping - Go to Saints HQ, and get to the penthouse via the front door or the garage elevator. Run past the pool and the helipad, and jump straight out down the street. Use your parachute, and then you'll be given the option to set a target. If you jumped straight out from the helipad, the target's always in the same place, under some elevated train tracks. You can either land on the tracks, or go underneath them to hit the street level, either counts. For the most part, you can just pull back on the stick to slow your forward progress. You shouldn't need to move left or right. Jack a car and drive back to Saints HQ to start again.

• Car torpedo - When you're approaching Saints HQ to reset from the base jump, hold the "exit car" button while going at high speed to start the car torpedo diversion. If you've got other cars parked in front of the HQ from previous attempts, you'll easily get high scores.

• Windshield cannon - If you've maxed car torpedo when resetting for base jumps, slam the car into the front of the building at full throttle instead of jumping out. If you've already done the base jumps, start the Insurance Fraud diversion and drive the wrong way down the highway. Hitting other cars is very likely to fling you out. If you can manage to get thrown completely off an elevated highway section, you'll go a long way towards finishing this. When you almost run out of time in the Insurance Fraud activity, pause and exit the activity. For more info and a video, see: How can I most efficiently launch myself through my car's windshield?

Group 3: Stupid Car Tricks

• Big air time - at a certain point in the plot, the bridges between the islands will go up. Get a fast car, give it max torque and the nitrous upgrade, and then go full throttle at the raised bridges. With a fast sports car, you can probably hit 250 per jump.

• Wheelie - to do a wheelie, get a motorcycle and accelerate while pulling back on the "move" stick. Be careful, though: you have to land cleanly to get credit for the wheelie toward the challenge, just like you do to get respect for it. (This means no crashing until you touch your front wheel down. You can also mess up your wheelie by tipping too far back and having your back fender touch the ground, but it doesn't always cost you your entire wheelie.) The easiest bike to do this with is the Sandstorm or the Estrada, although by the end of the game/activities you'll have the "Cyber Blazing" bike in your garage permanently. Some bikes are too heavy to lift, so if you're on one that you can't tip back, ditch it and get another.

• Stoppie - to do a stoppie, accelerate a bit and then brake while pushing forward on the "move" stick. You'll go up on the front wheel and slowly come to a stop. This is pretty easy compared to the wheelie.

• Stores Robbed - Can I rob my own stores for challenge completion?

• Streaking time - While streaking, can I "shock" police officers?

• Two-wheel Distance - What's an easy way to complete the "2-wheels" distance challenge?

• Gang members taunted - See Can I get credit for lewd gestures at people who are already trying to kill me? - if you can't get gang notoriety anymore (ie, you've got 100% of the properties owned, gang ops destroyed, etc), see the "(Gang) Specialists Killed" section below. This is a super painful one as well.

• Nut shots - What's the most effective way to make Nut Shots?

During all of these you'll likely spend time wandering around on foot. If you still don't have all of them, just stand around in a quiet area and wait for the phone calls.

Post Survival Cleanup

These challenges you likely got organically during the story missions and the survival challenge farming, but I'll do a quick overview of them and how to farm them should you find yourself lacking:

• Distance travelled - Fly around in the VTOL or any other airplane if you've not travelled far enough yet.
• People run over - Drive on the sidewalk. Bring a tank if you want to farm some other challenges at the same time.
• Oncoming lane distance - Drive down the middle of the highway going the wrong way.
• Near misses - Drive down the middle of the highway going the wrong way carefully. :)
• Powerslide time - Press the powerslide button while you turn. If your car is fast enough, you might be able to drive in a circle with the powerslide button and the throttle held down to do this continuously.
• (Gang) Specialists killed - The only hard part about this is getting gang notoriety. You can replay side missions to get some temporary notoriety and to get some gang members to show up. Trafficking and mayhem missions in the regions where the gang used to control work best. Once you have notoriety, cancel the mission, but make sure some gang members are still around that you can kill to regain their ire.
• Vehicle Mod Spending - Take a bunch of cars to a Rim Jobs or your crib garages, and blow money on them.
• Human shields used - Grab everyone you can find and hold them with the human shield button. You can throw them or snap their necks immediately after grabbing them.
• Multi-kills - Destroying gang or police vehicles with a tank, rocket launcher, or other heavy weapon will give you a multi-kill.
• Grenade kills - Throw grenades. Infinite grenades helps.
• (Cars/Helicopters/Boats/Tanks/Emus) Destroyed - Obviously you can destroy enemy vehicles, but you can also use vehicles from your garage. Just take them out of the garage and destroy them, and then repeat. For helicopters, crashing the copter works fine. Note that VTOLs aren't counted towards this, so high STAG wanted levels won't help.
• Mascots killed - Prof. Genki's side mission is loaded with mascots, and one of the survival challenges is mascots in Emus. Two (sometimes literal) birds with one stone.
• Carjackings - This only counts cars that you stole from people, so cars parked in lots or on the side of the road don't count. Stand in a busy intersection and relieve people of their cars.
• Hoods explored - Drive around. This is probably one of the first challenges you will unlock.
• Shortcuts found - Watch for pathways between buildings that connect major streets, and drive through them. You only have to find about a quarter of the total shortcuts in the game, so it's likely you'll get this easily.
• No weapons kills - Equip your fists and beat down gang members or police. This is much easier once you're mostly invulnerable. Note that even if you've got all the damage immunity levels, you're still vulnerable to melee attacks, so be careful in close quarters lest you end up in the hospital.
• Stag commandos killed - In the story mission "Air Steelport" there are tons of these guys to kill. If you still need more, max out your police notoriety. They're relatively rare, but they do show up from time to time. If STAG is no longer in your city, you'll have to replay the final mission to encounter more STAG forces.
• Compliments paid - Just complement random people on the street.
• Gang ops defeated - You have to get near a gang operation for it to show up on the map. If you're missing a few, once you own everything and have all the activities completed, check parts of the map that aren't tinted purple. A quick drive around the area ought to turn the operation up.
• Kill brutes - Get your gang noteriety up (see "specialists" above) and brutes will spawn. You'll also see them in Prof. Genki's side mission.
• Headshots - Aim high! Use the pistols or an assault rifle for the best accuracy.

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