How to Be Good at Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Start with stamina. Unlike other GTA games, San Andreas' protagonist, Carl “CJ” Johnson has a wide array of stats that can be altered by player's choices. With high stats, missions get significantly easier; with low stats, they can become next to impossible. Start with the easiest and cheapest stat to train, stamina. Every in-game day, spend some time sprinting Carl around until he gets tired. Other ways to improve stamina include riding a bicycle and swimming.

• The gyms also provide exercise equipment for quickly and efficiently improving CJ's stamina and other physical stats. Try the treadmill and the exercise bike.
• You can get stamina as high as you want with no ill effects. Eventually, once you complete the optional “Burglar” mission (by stealing a total of $10,000 worth of goods from houses), Carl will be granted functionally infinite stamina; before then, training it will save his life in police chases and other tricky, fast-paced situations.

Build other physical stats. In addition to stamina, CJ has muscle mass and body fat whose percentages can be altered by working out. To build muscle mass, lift weights at the gym. You're aiming for a rating of around 75-85% to maximize physical strength without sacrificing speed or agility. Body fat can be lowered to about 5% with no ill effects; get rid of it completely, and CJ may lose muscle mass during strenuous physical activity. All exercise decreases fat over time.

• You may also want to build up CJ's lung capacity, allowing him to stay underwater for longer periods of time. Lung capacity can be trained by swimming underwater until the last second and then resurfacing for air. Finding oysters on the ocean floor also has a minor effect on it, and after collecting all fifty hidden oysters, lung capacity is removed altogether and you can stay underwater for as long as you wish. Lung capacity isn't exceptionally useful except in a few scenarios.
• Don't forget to eat properly as you train. Eating most foods will cause CJ to gain some fat, but food is also very important to building stamina and muscle mass. Whenever you eat, if your body fat is above about 3%, order a salad, as it's the only food that doesn't add fat. If you're practically out of fat, eat anything else to gain it back (up to 3% per meal), then work it back down to around 5% before each mission.

Master vehicle stats. In between training Carl's body, spend time driving or piloting every vehicle you can get your hands on. There are four vehicle stats: bicycles, motorcycles, cars, and aircraft. The only way to train any of them is to drive any vehicle of the appropriate category. As CJ's skill level increases, vehicles begin to handle better in terms of turning, braking, and general stability. High skill with motorcycles and bicycles also gives Carl a better chance to avoid being knocked off when you've collided a car.

• Mastering vehicle stats takes a fair amount of time. Just keep at it steadily and space out your vehicle training with other types of training sessions.

Become a weapons master. CJ's weapon skills are trainable just like his vehicle skills; unfortunately, as opposed to those, there's a separate skill gauge for nearly every individual weapon. Weapon skills are trained by shooting people or vehicles, and range from “Poor” to “Hitman.” At the Hitman level, CJ can dual wield some weapons, including sawn-off shotguns, pistols, and machine pistols (the Micro-Uzi and the Tec-9).

• Some weapons can't be trained. These include thrown weapons like grenades, sniper rifles, all melee weapons (baseball bats, spades, etc.), and all heavy weapons, such as the rocket launcher. CJ will deal more damage with a melee weapon if his muscle mass is high.
• It can be difficult to safely train CJ's weapon skills, since shooting people will get you into trouble with the police in short order, and shooting vehicles only counts until the vehicles are destroyed (at which point they explode). Try shooting from nearby a save point or change of clothes, both of which will reduce your wanted level when used.