The Third Way

Mission start places Lucia & Jason in or near Vice City. Before you touch the first objective marker, open the full map and note police stations, hospitals, garages, and any water routes - The Third Way 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. Ending C - refuse the federal deal, turn the tables, and try to get out together. Remapped The Third Way.

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.

Dense traffic, CCTV clusters, and multi-lane chases. Garages and underground lots are your best star-clear tools. Avoid beachfront promenades during wanted levels.

Quick reference walkthrough: Phone montage, multi-target hit list across Vice and the Keys, marina or runway escape. Both protagonists available post-credits.

Rewards on completion: Ending C completion · True ending flag. Unlocks tied to this mission: Post-game free roam with both alive.

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: Warn each other.

This opens The Third Way. Travel to the marker without farming wanted stars. Use the approach roads around Vice City 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 Finale often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Dense traffic, CCTV clusters, and multi-lane chases. Garages and underground lots are your best star-clear tools. Avoid beachfront promenades during wanted levels.

Objective 2 of 4: Eliminate the deal-makers.

Mid-mission objective in Vice City. 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 Third Way 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.

Dense traffic, CCTV clusters, and multi-lane chases. Garages and underground lots are your best star-clear tools. Avoid beachfront promenades during wanted levels.

Objective 3 of 4: Survive the city gauntlet.

Mid-mission objective in Vice City. 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.

Dense traffic, CCTV clusters, and multi-lane chases. Garages and underground lots are your best star-clear tools. Avoid beachfront promenades during wanted levels.

Objective 4 of 4: Escape Leonida together.

This is the closing beat. Phone montage, multi-target hit list across Vice and the Keys, marina or runway escape. Both protagonists available post-credits. 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 Finale often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Dense traffic, CCTV clusters, and multi-lane chases. Garages and underground lots are your best star-clear tools. Avoid beachfront promenades during wanted levels.

When the last combat or interaction objective clears, The Third Way still requires a clean handoff. Lose heat with tunnels, public garages, mangrove blinds, district borders, or chop shops depending on where Vice City 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 - Post-game free roam with both alive 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 Third Way 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 Third Way:

• 1. All targets down
• 2. Both survive
• 3. Escape vehicle intact

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.