How to Start a Gang in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Last Updated: August 6, 2020 Approved

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one of the classic GTA games playable on multiple platforms. In the game, you can start a gang and recruit gang members to assist you in carrying out missions, and they will help you attack your enemies. It's very simple to start a gang in GTA: SA. Once you've gained enough respect in the game, you can begin recruiting.

Part 1

Part 1 of 4:

Gaining Respect

1
Understand how Respect works. You gain and lose Respect as you proceed through the game, and it is one of the hardest stats to increase. There are a variety of factors that influence the Respect that you gain or lose. Below is how the Total Respect bar is broken down to total 100%:
- Running Respect: 40%
- Completing Missions: 36%
- Territories owned: 6%
- Total money: 6%
- Muscle: 4%
- Progress with girlfriend: 4%
- Appearance: 4%
2
Gain and lose respect by performing actions. 40% of your Total Respect comes from the Running Respect category. These are actions that you can take throughout the game that add or subtract from this total. Below are the actions that can gain or lose your Running Respect. Remember that these actions just affect your Running Respect, which makes up 40% of the Total Respect:^{[1]
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- Killing a dealer: +.005%
- Killing a rival gang member: +.5%
- Killing a Grove Street gang members: –.005%
- One of your gang members dies: –2%
- Take a territory: +30%
- Lose a territory: –3%
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3
Improve your Total Respect to gain the ability to command gang members. Your Total Respect will increase as you complete missions, gain money, workout, and dress up. As your Total Respect increases, you'll gain the ability to command more gang members.^{[2]
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- 1%: 2 gang members
- 10%: 3 gang members
- 20%: 4 gang members
- 40%: 5 gang members
- 60%: 6 gang members
- 80%: 7 gang members

Part 2

Part 2 of 4:

Recruiting Gang Members

1
Find some Grove Street members. You'll find Grove Street members near your starting area, and in any Grove Street territories. You'll be able to tell that they're Grove Street by their green clothing.
2
Aim at the gang members. You'll need to aim your gun at the Grove Street member that you want to recruit.
- PC: Right-mouse button
- PS2: R1
- Xbox: RT
3
Press the Recruit button. Once you have the Grove Street member targeted, press the recruit button to get them to join you. Remember, you can only recruit as many members as your current Respect level allows.^{[3]
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- PC: Press G. You may have changed this when setting your controls, so refer to the Settings menu if this doesn't work.
- PS2: ↑
- Xbox: ↑

Part 3

Part 3 of 4:

Giving Commands

1
Have your gang members help in a drive-by. Any of your gang members that are following you will try to get into your car automatically. Get a four-person car to get the most firepower possible. Drive past enemy gang members and your recruits will start shooting automatically.
- If you have more than three gang members following you, you'll only be able to transport them by bus and they won't all shoot out of the windows.
2
Run around with your gang members. Your gang members will follow you around, though they are quite a bit slower than you are. Recruits will automatically shoot back at anyone that attacks you, and will fire on rival gang members and cops on sight. Make sure not to leave them behind if you're in a hurry.
3
Tell your recruits to come to you. You can give your recruits a command to hurry to your current location.
- PC: G
- PS2: ↑
- Xbox: ↑
4
Tell your gang members to wait. If you want your gang members to hold their ground, or want to go on ahead without them shooting everyone up, you can tell them to wait.
- PC: H while not targeting anything.
- PS2: ↓
- Xbox: ↓
5
Disband your gang. If you don't want your recruits to follow you anymore, press and hold the Wait button for a few seconds and they'll take off.
- PC: Press and hold H
- PS2: Press and hold ↓
- Xbox: Press and hold ↓

Part 4

Part 4 of 4:

Taking Territory

1
Complete the "Doberman" mission for Sweet. This mission will unlock the Gang Wars feature, and will allow you to take and defend territory from rival gangs. You'll need to complete the mission before you can start taking territory.
2
Start taking territory. Taking territory will earn you money, as well as provide some fun gunfights. Territory that you control is also safer to travel through, as the rival gangs will be replaced by your crew. Check your map for colored blocks, indicating ownership by a rival gang. Darker shades on the map indicate a larger number of rival gang members, while lighter shades mean less resistance.
- Purple - Ballas
- Yellow - Los Santos Vagos
3
Gather your recruits. Round up as many Grove Street recruits as your Respect level will allow. They aren't that great in a fight, but they're good for distracting enemies from shooting at you.
4
Kill three rival gang members in the colored block. In order to initiate a Turf Battle, you'll need to kill three rival gang members while inside the colored block. Finding three rival gang members isn't an issue in the darkly-shaded blocks, but it can be difficult to find three in the lightly-shaded blocks. One trick is to stand in a lightly-shaded block and shoot into a neighboring darkly-shaded box.
5
Fight off the waves of rival gang members. Once the turf war has started, the block will begin flashing on the map. Rival gang members will begin appearing in three waves of increasing difficulty. You'll need to fight off all three waves in order to take control of the block.
- Find a high spot that allows you to easily shoot down into the street. This can make it easier to protect yourself from getting surrounded.
6
Don't worry too much about taking territory early on. Without going into too many spoilers, you won't be able to do gang battles for most of the middle of the game, and all of your early progress will be undone during the story. Only worry about gang wars when they're first introduced if you really need the money.
- Taking over 100% of the territory is not required in order to 100% complete the game, but once you've taken all of the blocks, none of them will come under attack from rival gangs.

Community Q&A

Question

I've taken 100% of territories. How can I make my area under attack?

Community Answer

You can use mods to allocate some of your territory to enemies' gangs. If you leave at least one turf to another gang, it'll start attacking you.
Question

How do I start a gang war for a new area?

Community Answer

You could star one with the San Fierro Rifas in San Fierro. This can be done by aligning with the Triads.
Question

How do I dance my car in a certain mission?

Community Answer

Look into your control settings: you'll see there special left, right, up and down. Use the assigned buttons to finish the dancing car mission.