The Long Stretch

Mission start places Lucia in or near Vice Beach. Before you touch the first objective marker, open the full map and note police stations, hospitals, garages, and any water routes - The Long Stretch punishes players who improvise without geography.

Read every line of the phone, corkboard, or in-person brief. Rockstar-style Leonida missions often hide soft fail conditions in dialogue: do not kill a contact, do not leave the district, keep a vehicle intact, or protect a VIP. Old Liberty City contacts catch up with Lucia in Vice Beach. A warehouse meet turns into a multi-wave shootout.

Recommended opening routine: repair or replace your vehicle, buy armor and snacks if a shop is available, set a waypoint to the primary pin, and approach without sideswiping traffic. Early wanted stars almost never help a gold medal run.

Tourist crowds, neon corridors, and marina access. Social-media NPCs film constantly - keep masks on during heist beats. Oceanfront roads are fast but heavily patrolled.

Quick reference walkthrough: Enter armed, clear the betrayal ambush, chase on bikes through Vice Beach. Ending choice affects later Music Network dialogue.

Rewards on completion: $12,000 · Combat shotgun stash. Unlocks tied to this mission: Heavy weapons early access tip.

This mission follows a single primary path. How loud you play and which dialogue choices you pick can still alter later banter, relationship flags, and optional contacts.

Objective 1 of 4: Meet the Broker contact at the warehouse.

This opens The Long Stretch. Travel to the marker without farming wanted stars. Use the approach roads around Vice Beach that keep you off camera clusters and police stations. If a cutscene plays on arrival, your loadout and vehicle state carry through - arrive prepared.

Stay oriented on the mini-map. Story missions in Act I often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Tourist crowds, neon corridors, and marina access. Social-media NPCs film constantly - keep masks on during heist beats. Oceanfront roads are fast but heavily patrolled.

Objective 2 of 4: Survive the ambush.

Mid-mission objective in Vice Beach. Expect the resistance level to rise compared to the previous pin. Clear the immediate area, complete the interaction or combat beat, then reassess ammo and armor before moving on.

Gameplay tip: this is often where The Long Stretch teaches or stresses a mechanic - hacking, trailing, intimidation, boat handling, or protagonist switching. Failures commonly restart at a mid-checkpoint rather than the mission start.

Tourist crowds, neon corridors, and marina access. Social-media NPCs film constantly - keep masks on during heist beats. Oceanfront roads are fast but heavily patrolled.

Objective 3 of 4: Chase the fleeing lieutenant.

Mid-mission objective in Vice Beach. Expect the resistance level to rise compared to the previous pin. Clear the immediate area, complete the interaction or combat beat, then reassess ammo and armor before moving on.

Complication tip: plans break here on purpose. Prioritize the objective over perfect cleanup. Civilians and side enemies only matter if a gold criterion calls them out.

Tourist crowds, neon corridors, and marina access. Social-media NPCs film constantly - keep masks on during heist beats. Oceanfront roads are fast but heavily patrolled.

Objective 4 of 4: Decide: spare or finish.

This is the closing beat. Enter armed, clear the betrayal ambush, chase on bikes through Vice Beach. Ending choice affects later Music Network dialogue. Confirm gold-sensitive conditions before you trigger the end marker: vehicle health, VIP health, wanted level, and any cargo integrity. Once the final cutscene starts, you usually cannot reverse a failed criterion.

Stay oriented on the mini-map. Story missions in Act I often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Tourist crowds, neon corridors, and marina access. Social-media NPCs film constantly - keep masks on during heist beats. Oceanfront roads are fast but heavily patrolled.

When the last combat or interaction objective clears, The Long Stretch still requires a clean handoff. Lose heat with tunnels, public garages, mangrove blinds, district borders, or chop shops depending on where Vice Beach sits in Leonida.

Deliver cargo, intel, cash, or VIPs to the final marker with integrity intact. Damaged vehicles and bleeding allies can fail gold after an otherwise perfect shootout.

Do not skip the debrief cutscene on a first playthrough - Heavy weapons early access tip often appear as map icons or phone contacts immediately afterward. Save manually if you are about to chain heist prep.

Common fail states in The Long Stretch include death of a required character, destruction of a mission-critical vehicle, abandoning the mission area for too long, or killing a contact the brief told you to keep alive.

Wanted-level soft fails appear on stealth-leaning medals even when the story continues. If you are hunting gold, treat stars as a fail and checkpoint-restart rather than fighting the whole district.

On dual-character missions, letting the idle partner die in the world while you play the other can still fail the mission - watch both health bars when the UI shows them.

Gold medal checklist for The Long Stretch:

• 1. Accuracy 70%+
• 2. Chase under 2:30
• 3. Choice completed

Strategy: run a learning attempt to memorize routes, spawn points, and fail triggers. Then replay specifically for medals with cutscenes skipped and a pre-staged loadout.

If a criterion conflicts with another (speed vs stealth, for example), prioritize the harder one on a dedicated replay - many players unlock gold across two focused attempts rather than one perfect run.

After gold pops, you can freely replay for fun or collectibles without worrying about medal state.