Demolition Man – GTA Vice City

The central staircase you’ll need to familiarise yourself with

Demolition Man is the toughest of the early missions on GTA Vice City.

Not only do you have to master how to fly a helicopter with an unfamiliar set of controls, but also you have a host of angry builders trying to take out the helicopter with hammers and shots.

All this and you only have 7 minutes and several floors of a building to negotiate.

So, how do you complete Demolition Man?

This is one mission where you could do with a cheat, but unfortunately there’s no easy fix and no cheat available if you’re on a touch device. However, we can offer a series of tips to help you complete the mission:

• Before you even get into the van, head over to the building covered in scaffolding to the west of you. You’ll need to know where the all-important staircases are. Head over keeping the building on your right and the central staircase is on your right. As you go up the next staircase is behind you once you’re up. Even better you’ll find a few things hidden in the building.
• On your first attempt at the mission, don’t even bother picking up the bombs to start with. Just get used to flying the helicopter. The direction control is the same as being on foot, but the helicopter doesn’t go in the direction you expect it to. First use the ‘accelerator’ to fly up, then the circular arrow button to point the direction you wish to go, then press up on the left-hand direction control. By pressing up (forward), you’ll go the way the helicopter is pointing even if it doesn’t seem that way. It’s frustrating, but you need to learn how to use the helicopter if you’re going to complete the mission.
• Once you’ve familiarised yourself with the controls, don’t pick up the bombs just yet. Instead start flying towards the building and get used to flying up the staircases efficiently. Unfortunately, the helicopter won’t fly to the top, you’ll need to enter via the staircase.
• OK, you’re ready to pick up the bombs
• Pick up the first one and head to the building. The workers will attack you with hammers and on the higher level, guns. By moving quickly and keeping airborne at ceiling height you can avoid almost all of them. Fly your helicopter up through the levels to learn the location of the drop zones. Don’t bother dropping the bomb at this stage as you’ll almost certainly run out of time or get the helicopter destroyed
• Once you’re familiar with how best to evade the workers and know the location of the drop zones, then have another attempt at the mission
• Start at the bottom, this way you don’t lose time flying all the way back down as you don’t need to get out of the building after you’ve dropped your 4th bomb. Use the radar to check where you are relative to the drop-zone and go as fast as you can making sure you minimise damage to the helicopter by crashing into the walls or getting attacked by the builders.
• With (a lot of) practice and some luck piloting the annoying helicopter you’ll get there

Alternative strategy for Demolition Man

If the above is not working for you, you can try another, albeit riskier strategy:

• Before you pick up a bomb head over to the building in the helicopter
• Move through the levels looking for the workers. When you see one, use the helicopter blades to take them out. It’s safer if you’re moving fast and they don’t have time to attack you
• Be careful you don’t bump into the walls, as this will add to the damage you’ll be incurring by taking on the workers. Too many hits and the helicopter will explode.
• Once you’ve taken them all out, head back and pick up the first bomb and you’ll have an untroubled 7 minutes to try and fly your way through the levels and dropping the bomb
• It’s difficult to do this and then complete the mission without destroying the helicopter, but it’s easier if you don’t have the builders distracting you