GTA side missions

Updated 29 October 2026 · Fan site. Not affiliated with Rockstar Games or Take-Two Interactive.

GTA side missions are optional jobs you start from inside certain vehicles: a taxi, a police car, an ambulance or a fire engine. They began in GTA III in 2001 and run in rising levels against a timer. Finishing them pays cash and unlocks lasting perks, such as infinite sprint, fireproofing, extra armour or jumping taxis. Several count towards 100% completion.

What are side missions in GTA?

Next to the main story, every 3D Grand Theft Auto game has optional jobs that make the city feel like a working place. Wikipedia lists taxi driving, firefighting, street racing and bus driving among the jobs players can take on. The best-known group is a set of four vehicle missions that arrived together in GTA III (2001): Taxi Driver, Vigilante, Paramedic and Firefighter.

All four work the same basic way. You get into the right vehicle, press a button to go on duty, and the game sends you to a target with a time limit. Each completed level adds a harder one. Getting killed, being busted, leaving the vehicle for too long or wrecking it ends the run. The reward depends on how far you get.

How does the Taxi Driver mission work?

In a taxi, pedestrians hail you and give a destination. Deliver them before the clock runs out and you collect a fare. The GTA Wiki notes that the series' taxi jobs were likely inspired by Crazy Taxi. In GTA III, fares pay between $100 and $700, five in a row earn a $2,000 bonus, and after 100 fares a special Borgnine cab appears at the Borgnine Taxis depot in Harwood. In San Andreas the bar is 50 fares. Reaching it gives every taxi unlimited nitrous and a jump button.

How does Vigilante work?

Vigilante starts from a police vehicle. Dispatch marks a fleeing criminal, and you have to chase them down and kill them before the timer ends. If their car catches fire or gets boxed in, they jump out and run. In GTA III, 20 kills on each of the three islands are needed for 100% completion, and every ten levels deliver a police bribe to your safehouses. A bribe lowers your wanted level by one star, according to Wikipedia.

In San Andreas, Carl Johnson must clear 12 levels in a row. The GTA Wiki says level X pays $50 times X squared, for $32,500 over the full run, and the final level raises his maximum armour by 50%. Starting it from a Hunter helicopter turns it into a variant called Brown Thunder, which counts towards the same total.

How do Paramedic and Firefighter work?

In an ambulance, you collect injured people and drive them to hospital. Each level adds one more patient, and the ambulance only has three seats, so later levels mean several trips. In GTA III, finishing level 12 grants infinite sprint, and earlier milestones put health and adrenaline pick-ups at your safehouses. In San Andreas, the GTA Wiki says level 12 maxes out CJ's health and pays a total of $37,500.

Firefighter puts you in a fire engine to hose down burning cars, and later burning pedestrians too. In GTA III the target is 20 fires on each island, rewarded with a flamethrower at that island's safehouse. In San Andreas it is 12 levels in a row, and the reward is total fireproofing for CJ.

Other odd jobs in the 3D games

The four classics appear in Vice City, Advance, Liberty City Stories, Vice City Stories and Chinatown Wars too, according to the GTA Wiki. Vice City Stories adds an air rescue variant of the ambulance job. San Andreas widened the range most. Wikipedia lists burglary and pimping among its jobs, and the GTA Wiki mentions vehicle schools such as the Pilot School. Collectibles are covered on our hidden packages page.

Side missions in GTA IV and GTA V

GTA IV (2008) reworked Vigilante around the police car's computer. After the mission "Crime and Punishment" for Roman, Niko can open a list of current crimes and pick one: a gang to break up, a stolen car to chase or a suspect on foot. The GTA Wiki says 20 completed jobs, in any order, earn the "Cleaned the Mean Streets" achievement.

GTA V (2013) keeps taxi jobs, but the GTA Wiki lists no Vigilante or Paramedic missions for it. Their place is taken by Strangers and Freaks, short story missions handed out by odd characters around Los Santos and Blaine County. The GTA Wiki traces their roots to the random character missions of earlier games and to Red Dead Redemption. Examples include Tonya Wiggins's "Pulling Favors" jobs for Franklin and Omega's spaceship part hunt. Wikipedia adds pastimes such as scuba diving and BASE jumping.