Driver: San Francisco Walkthrough/Strategy Guide/FAQ
Table of Contents - Walkthrough
Walkthrough
Prologue
When you gain control of the Challenger, use the Right Trigger/R2 to accelerate, and use the Left Trigger/L2 to brake. Drive to the waypoints. After the next cutscene, you’ll have to follow Jericho. Just stay on him and don’t try to go too fast. Not only can you not catch him, but you’ll probably overshoot when he turns. After a bit, you reach an alley, and Jericho comes out behind you. Drive straight for several seconds to initiate the next cutscene.
Head to the waypoint. After the cutscene, you will have “shifted” into an ambulance. You need to make it to the hospital before the patient’s heart rate drops below 20. This is fairly simple as long as you don’t mess up too much. Once this is done, head to the next waypoint and you’ll shift into another car. You are now tasked with shifting on your own. After jumping into a couple of different cars, jump into a taxi. They are the yellow dots on your mini-map.
Stunt: Go For a Spin
Jump into the Ford GT. You will have to overtake 10 vehicles to start with. To count as an overtake, you must be going at a decent speed and you must be near the vehicle when you pass it. After this, head for the waypoint and enter the blue zone. Inside, you’ll need to do a 10 meter jump, which is very easy to do. After this, you’ll enter a checkpoint race. Once you complete that, this mission is complete. After you’re done, move towards the big T on your mini-map. This is Tanner’s Challenger. Trying to shift into it triggers a cutscene. You will have to complete another city mission if you want to progress in the story.
Chase: Takedown
Hop into the police Charger. You will need to chase down the getaway car and ram it until it goes down. On your mini-map you can see a red circle around the car. If you leave this circle for 10 seconds, you will lose the car, so stay on him. This is easy, just don’t get too greedy. If he starts to slow, he’s probably going to try and turn, and you could easily overshoot him and the corner. Once he’s down, head back to the Challenger and jump in. Drive to the police station to finish the Prologue.
Chapter 1
Use the Right Thumbstick to zoom in and out while in shift mode. Zoom out and enlarge your mini-map, then find the Dare. Dares are small challenges that give you a little bit of Willpower, which is the currency in the game. All you have to do here is go right down the road without hitting anything for a bit. After doing this, head to the nearby garage and buy your first car. Only a few are unlocked, and some of them are too expensive right now, so your choices are limited. However, once you leave the garage, you will start accumulating Willpower. Every 20 minutes you get a chunk of Willpower. The size of the chunk depends on how many cars and garages you own. You’ll also start getting Willpower for doing stuff while driving around, like overtaking, drifting, nearly missing other cars, and hitting jumps, among other things.
Now head for the newly unlocked Activity. You’ll have to navigate a checkpoint route here. There’s no timer, but the faster you move through each checkpoint, the more Willpower you get. Once you’ve completed that, a bunch of Missions, Activities, and Dares open up for you to examine. You can also explore the garage and buy another car or look at your newly unlocked upgrades (which you probably won’t be able to afford right now). There’s even another garage to buy!
Stunt: Learn to Scream
This is a simple mission. All you have to do is get the driving instructor’s heart rate above 180bpm. Just drift a lot around the corners and hit Car Transporters (Ramp Trucks) when you see them. Also, aim for overtakes and near misses.
Stunt: Breaking News
Head to the waypoint and park the van there. Shift into a car well outside of the blue zone. You have to go 100mph while inside of the blue zone, so get some distance between you and the zone and start driving towards it. After that, you need to do a 20m drift while inside the zone, which is incredibly easy with the proper amount of speed. After that, run head-on into another car. You can now shift back into the news van.
You need to film more stunts, however, so head to the next waypoint. Shift into a car and look for a cop. They appear on your mini-map as red dots. Hit a cop car to initiate the chase, then head into the marked alley and jump off the end of it to complete this mission.
Race: College Fund
Simple 20 checkpoint race against three other drivers. Once you complete this mission you unlock the Boost ability.
Chase: Meet the Heat
You’ll need to outrun the cops, then head for the waypoint. This is definitely made easier if you’ve acquired the Boost ability. Try to trip the cops up going around a corner, then blast off on a straight. Also, you only have three and a half minutes to do this. When you complete this mission, you unlock the Ram ability.
Story: Prove It
Hop into the Jackass’ Solstice and jump off a Car Transporter. These ramp trucks show up as yellow dots on your mini-map. After doing this, shift back into the Solstice and tag a cop. You’ll now have to lose the cops. After doing that, shift into the Solstice one last time and ram into the back of a Tow Truck. You’ll automatically hook yourself up to it. You can do this with any Tow Truck at any time, by the way. Doing that ends the mission.
Story: Kidnapped
The first part of this mission has you going from waypoint to waypoint. Eventually, you shift into the kidnapped woman. Mash on A to open the trunk. Now you’ll have 24 seconds to get to the each of the next three waypoints. After the cutscene, shift into the vehicle that’s been marked. You must now drive head-on into the escaping car. Keep shifting into other cars and running into the front of the bad guy’s car until he goes down. This completes the mission and the first chapter.
Chapter 2
You’ll immediately acquire the ability to Rapid Shift. Hop into the police car and then shift out of it. Now use rapid shift to get back in. You and another police car will be tasked with taking down a fleeing suspect. You can use rapid shift to immediately bounce from one police car to the other.
Stunt: The Big Break
This is an interesting type of stunt. You have 50 seconds to drive the woman to the waypoint. Unfortunately, you will not make it in 50 seconds. You have to smash obviously-marked signs along the way to add a few seconds to your timer. Keep doing this until you reach the destination. This is a pretty simple task.
Race: Double or Quits
You control the same guy you did in the last race. You’ll be up against three other drivers while going through 28 checkpoints.
Chase: Street Race Takedown
You’re in a cop car, and you’re tasked with taking down four street racers. However, you have to do it before they finish their 24 checkpoint race. The best strategy here is to constantly shift into oncoming traffic and just ram them head-on.
Chase: Mission From God
You’ll have to take down another fleeing criminal, but he’s in a truck, and it can take more damage than a car. Luckily, you have two Escalades at your disposal, which do a lot more damage than a car.
Story: Real Police Work
Head for the waypoint. Once there, you’ll have to tail the white car. If you get too far away, outside of the blue circle on your mini-map, you’ll lose it. If you get too close, however, the suspicion bar will start to fill up, so find the right distance and stick to it. It’s better to stay near the edge of the circle. If you start to lose her, just boost back into the circle again. Follow her onto the Golden Gate Bridge to end this mission.
Story: Eyes on the City
You’ll be in a helicopter for the first part of this mission (you don’t get to fly it). After the pilot flies around for a while, you’ll see a red SUV that’s marked. Scan it and you’ll shift into it. You now have 55 seconds to drive it into a parked semi. Once you hop into the semi, you’ll have to drive from waypoint to waypoint until you get to the police. Each waypoint adds more time to clock. On your way, enemy cars will try to slam into you to damage you. They usually blow up in the process, but this can take a chunk of health off.
Chapter 3
Stunt: Paranoia
You’ll need to get to the waypoint, but you must try to avoid main roads. Driving on a main road increases your client’s paranoia. Driving in alleys decrease his paranoia, so look around for the thin gray lines on your mini-map and use them. After the cutscene, you’ll need to get to the next waypoint, and the paranoia meter is still active. However, this time you only have two minutes to get there. Once you’re close to the waypoint, there’s no harm in using the main roads, as long as you actually get there on time.
Race: Team Colors
This is a 2v2 race. You need to get both of your cars into 1st and 2nd, so there’ll be a lot of rapid shifting and trying to disable the enemy cars. If you just enjoy the challenge you can simply shift between your two cars, but the easier way is to let the two cars handle themselves and constantly bombard your rivals with oncoming traffic.
Chase: Nick of Time
For the first part of this mission you control an SUV. All you have to do is follow your police escort to the bomb site. Once there, you take control of two police cars. Wreck the suspect’s vehicle to end this mission.
Chase: Wrecked Evidence
Hook the prison van up to the Tow Truck at the gas station, then drive away. Some enemy vehicles will ram into you and the van to try to disable you. They shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, since the waypoint isn’t very far. Once you get to the waypoint, however, you’ll have to defend the prison van while it sits stationary in front of the building. Enemies will be marked as soon as they spawn, so start shifting and hitting the enemies head-on. They’ll start coming from all over, but they spawn far enough away that it shouldn’t be a problem.
Story: Shakedown
Head to the waypoint. You’ll commandeer Haines’ Shelby when you get there. Drive it around, doing stunts to get his heartrate up to 180bpm. After you do this, you’ll have to outrun a few enemies on your tail.
Story: Freeway Inferno
Head to the waypoint and you’ll come across a tanker. Shift into oncoming traffic and ram it until it’s down. The next waypoint leads you onto the freeway, where you’ll have to deal with two tankers. Still, this is incredibly simple, and completing it ends Chapter 3.
Chapter 4
Race: Bay Area Baja
This is a simple checkpoint race against some other drivers. However, you’ll be in a buggy for this one, and the entire thing is off road. Dirt is slippery, so you might have to fight to keep control of your vehicle if you’re not used to it. There’s also plenty of drifting to be had, but remember that it’s usually easier and faster to simply go around a corner than to drift around it. You won’t be able to stop from drifting most of the time though.
Stunt: Handle With Care
You’ll be deposited into a semi carrying a bomb. If you hit something, the instability bar will start to fill up. If you go under 60mph, the instability bar will fill up. If you drive carefully, it will empty. You need to get the rig to the waypoint. There will be times during the journey when you have to make a sharp turn, which usually involves hitting a lot of stuff AND going under 60. Just try to recover as quickly as possible and you’ll be fine. Once you actually get to the waypoint, shift out of the semi and into one of the marked cars on the road. Drive the car under the semi and sit there until the mission ends.
Stunt: Paper Money
Head to the waypoint. Once you’re there, you’ll have two and a half minutes to get to the next waypoint. However, travelling on the main roads will fill up the bar in the upper left corner, which is bad. Driving through alleys, however, will lower the bar, so stick to them as much as possible. Once you reach the next waypoint, you’ll have three minutes to get to the final destination. On your way, you’ll need to hit a police car. Once you’ve done this, more cops should close in on you. Make sure you’ve got three coming for you, then hit the waypoint to finish the mission.
Chase: The Getaway
You’ll need to move from waypoint to waypoint while keeping the cops off your tail. You can’t outrun them until you’re prompted to, at which point you’ll have three minutes to lose them. Once you do that, head to the final waypoint to finish this mission.
Story: The Conversation
You’ll need to tail Krug for the first part of this mission. Don’t get too close and don’t fall too far behind. After a while of listening to him make desperate phone calls, you’ll have to protect him from enemy cars. Use oncoming traffic to bust them up. If they’re too close to Krug and you can’t get a clear shot, use same way traffic or your own Challenger to shove them away. After taking down a few cars, you go back to tailing Krug for a bit.
Story: Collateral Damage
Chase Jericho down and smash his car up using oncoming traffic. Switch back to your own car if you start to fall out of the red circle. Once he’s down, you find out that it’s not actually Jericho. However, Jericho does have your shifting powers. You’ll now have to make it to the checkpoint while Jericho shifts into cars along the way and tries his best to take you down. If you see him enter a car, simply boost away and he’ll ditch it. Make it to the waypoint to finish the mission and the chapter.
Chapter 5
Race: Racing Hearts
This is a simple checkpoint race, until you get around the ninth checkpoint, at which time cops start showering the area. You’ll now have to outrun the other racers and the cops on your way to the finish line.
Stunt: Ticking Clock
Start by moving your car under the two semi trailers. You’ll need to hold under the trailers until the bombs are defused. After this, enter shift mode. You’ll now have three minutes to defuse bombs from 10 trucks throughout the city. Shift into the lowest car near the truck and head under it. Two of the trucks are stationary.
Stunt: Drive to Survive
This is an open checkpoint race, but you’ll also have to keep your passenger’s heart rate above 30bpm. This means checking your map to make sure you’re going the right way and drifting around corners whenever possible. Drifting and overtaking cars are going to be the two best methods of keeping the guy’s heart rate up.
Chase: Bad Medicine
Get to the waypoint and start driving through the crates of bad medicine. Each smashed crate adds time to the clock. At the end of this, you’ll have to destroy the three semi trucks hauling the bad medicine. Just shift into oncoming traffic and let ’em have it.
Story: Test Drive
Get to the waypoint and you’ll have to move through a solo checkpoint route. That’s all there is to this simple mission. Time isn’t on your side, though, so don’t mess up too much.
Story: Frozen
After you freeze the city, drive forward to trigger another cutscene. You’ll soon see an ambulance fly by. There are two trails coming from its taillights. You need to follow it and have at least one of those trails touching your car. This will lower your heart rate. At one point, the ambulance disappears and then reappears. After he does this, you can drive right through traffic. Touching any vehicle will simply make it disappear. If you touch the ambulance, it’ll disappear and reappear ahead of you, which doesn’t really help much. Stay in the trails until your heart rate has been lowered to 85bpm to end this mission and the chapter. A side note: When I was playing the mission, my game glitched and I was unable to lower my heart rate after reaching the point where you can drive through traffic. If this happens, simply lose the ambulance and restart the mission. It’ll put you right at the spot where you can drive through traffic, and this fixed the problem for me.
Chapter 6
Stunt: It’s For Charity
You’ll need to shift out as soon as possible. Enter the four different cars and deliver them to their respective semi trucks. One of the cars has you outrunning some enemies, and another car is severely damaged when you shift into it.
Race: Group 8 Classic
A simple checkpoint race against other drivers, except most of it is off road. Luckily you’re equipped with a car that does well on the dirt roads here, so let the drifting commence.
Chase: Triple Cross
You’ll be in a semi and you need to make your way to the waypoint. There will be a ton of cops coming after you, mainly from the front. Try to avoid them as much as possible. You can take a lot of damage, but there are just too many cop cars to destroy. Once you reach the waypoint, you’ll have to take down Foghorn’s semi, so shift into cars ahead and drive into him.
Chase: The Best Defense
Drive the armored van to the waypoint and don’t take any damage. Once there, you’ll have to protect the stationary van from an onslaught of enemy vehicles. Shift into oncoming traffic in front of the vehicles and slam into them head first.
Story: Escapist
Get to the waypoint and you’ll shift into Ordell. Outrun the cops and then get to the next waypoint. Outrun the cops again and get to the final waypoint to end this mission. The second time you have to outrun the cops, there will be a lot of them, especially on the large roads, so try to lose them on smaller streets if you can.
Story: The Target
When you shift into the Hummer, drive to the target. The target is you, it seems. You’re stuck in the Hummer, but you can remotely drive your Challenger as well, and it’s always in front of you. Each waypoint you hit gives you more time. This really isn’t that difficult, and after a while the mission automatically ends, along with the chapter.
Chapter 7
Stunt: Special Edition
You’ll be doing stunts for the TV crew again, but this time the van is moving, so you’ll have to do the stunts inside the mobile blue zone. The first one is a simple 30m drift. Next, you have to have a head-on collision with another car. After that, you need to be going 150mph inside the blue zone, so find a quick car a ways behind the news van and get rolling. After that, you’ll need to go 100mph into oncoming traffic. Finally, you need to tag a cop and get two police cars chasing you inside of the blue zone.
Race: Checkered Flag
Another simple checkpoint race, except this one is on the freeway, and you and other racers are driving fast cars. You’ll be stuck inside a Pagani Zonda.
Chase: Fever Pitch
The first part of this has you smashing fake meds again to put time on the clock. Eventually you reach a pick-up truck with fake meds in it, so take it down. Every time you hit the truck, you get time on the clock. After taking him down, head to the next waypoint. You’ll go along another smash route, then you’ll have to take down another truck. After that, the mission ends.
Chase: Undercover
Lose the cops and then head to the waypoint. Now you need to get to the next waypoint, which leads you onto the freeway. Don’t worry about losing the cops, just keep driving until you see the marked semi. Drive into the trailer to end this mission.
Story: Entrapment
Head to the waypoint. Once there, you move onto the freeway. Each waypoint adds time to the clock. You’ll have to evade the enemies while you drive. Once you get near the Golden Gate Bridge, you can start to lose the bad guys. Leila’s vehicle is just ahead. Shift into other cars and take her out head-on to finish this mission.
Story: Deja Vu
Once the city is frozen and empty, just drive around. If you take a wrong turn, you’ll have to repeat the previous stretch of road. You’ll know you’re going the right way when you drive through a flock of crows. They always gather on the road that you need to take. After a bit of this maze-like driving, multiple black trucks show up, each driven by Jericho, and each one gunning for you. When you finally get to the waypoint, drive down the alleyway for a bit. This ends the mission and the chapter.
Chapter 8
You are immediately thrown into a fight with Jericho. You need to destroy his truck. You can shift into other vehicles to do this, but remember that he has the same ability, except amplified. He can and will shift into multiple cars simulatenously, so don’t leave your Challenger unattended for too long. After this phase is over, you’ll be chasing Jericho on a freeway. You can’t shift, and you can’t damage Jericho. He won’t shift either. Instead, he’ll hit cars with the lightning and send them flying towards you. All you can do for a while is follow him and avoid the barrage of cars. Jericho eventually disappears. After the cutscene, you’ll be chasing Jericho on the freeway again. This time, however, you can damage him. You can also throw cars. Shift into a car and it’ll automatically fly at Jericho. He can do the same, but if you just keep throwing stuff his way, he’ll go down first.
In real life, once you’re in the Camaro, head for the waypoint. You now have to deal with Jericho the old fashioned way. You don’t actually have to take him down. This lengthy chase sequence ends at a predetermined location. That ends the game, too. Once you finish the game, you are sent back to dream land to continue cruising around, if you wish.