Top 20 Hardest Missions in GTA

Anything with a timer is just plain annoying, especially when you have just over the bare minimum amount of time necessary to complete the mission. Couple that with a plethora of enemies with automatic weapons, and a car chase at the end, you essentially have the trifecta of difficulty. By the time you even get to the person you need to rescue, half your time is up, which causes you to rush the gunfights, which are to your detriment, as they will literally tear you to pieces. If you do get to him in time, he’s most likely going to be one shot away from death.

There’s no arguing that the Ballad of Gay Tony is excellent content. It’s got fun characters and exciting missions. However, some are more challenging than others, such as this one, and that’s thanks to the clunky helicopter controls. Tasked with destroying a yacht, the buzzard you’re in can barely keep steady, making it hard to land successful shots. Couple that with having no clue if you’re a meter or ten above water, all while trying to avoid a barrage of the enemies’ own missiles, and you have a recipe for disaster.

Ahh, yes. Another helicopter mission. Our favorite. This mission doesn’t have you just flying a helicopter from point A to point B. It requires the player to slowly and carefully hover over a container to pick it up. Not so bad until you have to pick up another one off the back of the truck. When you think it can’t get any worse, a dreaded timer appears, and this time you have to pick up a car while you’re being shot at. The speed in which you have to move to keep up with the car doesn’t make it easy for you to dodge trees and buildings.

There are three triathlons in total, and you’re lured into a false sense of security with the first two. They’re quite short to get through, which means if you don’t win, it doesn’t hurt to try again. The final triathlon, on the other hand, takes thirty real-world minutes to complete. Your thumb will be in so much pain by the end of it, and if you lose, well, that’s another thirty minutes of your time you need to spend again. Can we just go back to driving and shooting, please?

If you thought the helicopter missions were frustrating, wait until you get a load of this one. Flying a plane isn’t a bad way to get around San Andreas unless it’s the one you’re using for this mission. It has you flying behind another plane to get close enough to freefall onto it, and you’ll be lucky if you can even reach it. One wrong move, and it’s almost impossible to catch up, forcing you to restart the mission over and over again. At least when you do catch it, we are rewarded with an outrageous cutscene of CJ jumping from one plane to another.

You have to expect the final mission of any game to be difficult, and this is certainly no exception. It doesn’t rely on any gimmicks or trivial gameplay mechanics, just tough enemies to get through. You’re limited in the equipment that you have available to you at the start of the mission, and you’re facing off against a ton of baddies with automatic weapons. If you can avoid being shredded right at the beginning and make it to the dam, you also have to keep an eye on the enemies perched above.

You’d think fighting the actual U.S army would be the hard part, but no. Here, you have to load weapon crates into the back of a truck. Seems fine, right? It’s not until you get in the forklift to load the boxes in, do you realize how frustrating this supposedly simple task is. The controls make it a challenge to even line up behind a crate to pick it up. This struggle is amplified by the fact that when you get in position, Ryder is being decimated by troops, which means you have to get out, save him, and get back in, over and over, and over again.

With a mission title like this, you’d hope they would go easy on you, but it’s quite the contrary. While the first two sections of the mission aren’t so bad, teaching you basic flight controls, they quickly jump up a few notches. On your first day learning to fly, you’re expected to perform outrageous aerial maneuvers, sharp banks, and harsh landings. The controls are clunky, and there isn’t much room for error. One slip-up, and you’ll have to go again—nothing like some flight-sim missions in a Grand Theft Auto game.

Everything about this race is an absolute nightmare from start to finish. Your opponent, Hilary drives like an absolute madman, swerving into you in an attempt to slow you down. If you’re not being directed into a wall by Hilary, then it’s the police who are doing it as they chase you throughout the contest. It also doesn’t help that your own car isn’t anywhere near as fast as your opponent’s, forcing you to race dirty as well.

Our favorite moments in Grand Theft Auto happen when we get to take a break from all the violence and destruction, and relax. Jokes aside, this mission is more of a nuisance than anything. While the cutscenes and concept themselves are quite funny, the precision required to have Michael conduct the yoga poses without fault will make you sweat, and your hands tremble. Seriously, we have never had to concentrate this much in the entire game. If you have even the slightest thumbstick drift on your controller, it’s going to be nearly impossible.

It's considered to be one of the best missions in the game, but it's also one of the most frustrating. In it, Niko and Packie, along with some friends, rob a bank. The frustrating part comes when you have to shoot your way out of the bank and down the street, "Heat"-style. The barrage of cops make for tough opponents, and the long mission length adds to the frustration. When you're finally done shooting, you have to escape a three star wanted level. It's a loud, chaotic nightmare.

In this mission, you are given the almost impossible task of shooting down an airplane in mid-flight and then collecting its dropped packages while being pursued by the police. As if shooting down the plane wasn't hard enough, the limitless police make this mission almost impossible, as their sheer numbers are sure to leave you wasted time and time again. You have to drive all the way back to the mainland with a four star wanted level, complete with a helicopter, so escape and completion come only to the most patient.

GTA and drugs go together like peanut butter and jelly, so it's no surprise that this mission sees Niko retrieving a stolen batch of cocaine for friend Elizabeta. To complete the mission, you have to not only shoot your way through countless thugs, but also a heavily armed squad of N.O.O.S.E officers. Escape is barely manageable, as the police have heavy artillery and the escape routes are blocked. It's a frustrating mission filled with trial-and-error, and lots of deaths.

Remember the good old days of payphones? Neither do I, but anyway, in this mission, Claude is tasked with racing around Staunton Island, visiting four different payphones for Ray in a set amount of time. Timed missions are always a pain in these games, as the added stress of a time limit only adds to the frustration. As if that wasn't bad enough, the payphones are very far apart, and the second phone is placed in spot that appears to be underground, leading you into a dead end before you can barely get started.

Man, this old game was hard, wasn't it? For this mission, Claude is tasked with driving around the entirety of Liberty City while taking out coffee stands which are of course, fronts for illegal activities. As is the custom,, your hectic drive around the entire city is timed, and if that wasn't enough, each coffee stand is heavily guarded by Cartel members. The mission had such infamy that Rockstar changed the Cartel guns from shotguns to uzis to make the mission easier for players. You know it's unfair when the developer admits it.

Flying has never been GTA's strong suit, as "Flight School" from "San Andreas" can attest, and that fault is on full display in this mission which sees Tommy distributing pornographic promotional flyers throughout the city. The player must fly through small, circular checkpoints to drop the flyers, and of course, there is an annoying time limit. The mission is made especially hard due to the proximity of the checkpoints with small buildings, which the plane is liable to crash into. The awkward controls of the seaplane don't help either, making this mission completely frustrating.

It's always frustrating when the fate of a mission is in the hands of the atrocious AI. In this mission, CJ and Big Smoke are chasing down some rival gang members who are on a train, while on a dirt bike. It doesn't sound too bad, but not only do you have to keep up with the train, you have to dodge incoming obstacles, making it a chore to accomplish. The worst offender is the AI: Smoke not only shoots worse than a stormtrooper, but he berates you every time you fail.

You would think standing stationary and picking off targets with a sniper rifle would be an easy job, but you would be wrong. In this mission, you provide sniper support for 8-Ball as he plants bombs on a boat. The mission is difficult because the enemies' locations are so hard to pinpoint that by the time you do, 8-Ball is already long dead. 8-Ball is also not the smartest ally, and shows very little concern for his own well being throughout the ordeal.

Remember how we said flying was never GTA's strong suit? This is even worse. This mission sees Tommy flying an RC helicopter, planting bombs at various locations to destroy a building. This is probably the first time you’ll have tried a helicopter by this point in the game, and let’s just say this can be a difficult learning experience. It also doesn't help that - say it with me now - the mission is on a timer - or that there are angry construction workers trying to destroy your helicopter with hammers. Weird controls, a timer, and people trying to stop you? It's basically an assortment of everything which makes a frustrating mission.

What’s with the damn model aircraft? Sure to strike nostalgic fear in any "San Andreas" fan, this mission is responsible for many an abandoned save file. This mission sees CJ flying an RC plane and shooting Zero's rival's courier vans. It's extremely frustrating, as the plane has very limited fuel, making the flight across town next to impossible. The trick is to glide instead of holding the gas down, but that in turn makes the mission extremely slow. And that does count shooting the targets which is way easier said than done. This mission is frustration incarnate.