General tips

These tips come from my own experience, which is why they are missing for the “Messing With The Man” and “Dirty Lickin's” missions, as they do not appear in the version of the game that I played. Also, tips for the controls always refer to the PS2 version.

1. Always have full HP, full armor, no stars and firearms in the missions, preferably also a submachine gun and a bazooka.

2. Collect all 100 hidden packages with a guide so that weapons spawn at your safe houses and you don't have to keep collecting them when you die or are arrested, e.g. https://www.powerpyx.com/gta-vice-city-definitive-all-hidden-package-locations/. At the location of package 61 a helicopter that you can use for the search waits for you.

3. Most missions can be solved in an easy way. It's often more about finding the trick than playing perfectly. Examples of tricks that have helped me can be found below.

4. To unlock the last two main missions (Print Works mission “Cap The Collector” and Tommy Vercetti mission “Keep Your Friends Close...”), you must play the main missions until you get Diaz' estate in the "Rub Out" mission. From this point on, you can buy seven different properties. Complete the Vercetti missions up to and including “Cop Land” and buy the Print Works, where you can complete missions up to and including “Hit the Courier”. You then have to buy five more properties and complete their missions until they yield money. Once this is done, “Cap The Collector” is unlocked and then the last mission “Keep Your Friends Close...".
A list of the choosable real estate missions and which ones are the easiest is below.

5. You can only shoot from vehicles with submachine guns. In a car you have to look left or right with L2 and R2, on a motorcycle you can only shoot forwards.

6. To earn money quickly, complete the “Rub Out” mission, as you can then buy real estate. Unlock the easiest missions first (see below) to generate money as quickly as possible. Then you just have to collect it every day.

7. The inverted controls for aiming with rifles can be switched off. However, they remain inverted in the airplane or helicopter.

8. Saving replenishes your HP.

9. Save after each mission, the game does crash sometimes.

Main missions

Ken Rosenberg

Back Alley Brawl: Beat up the cook until he dies and drops his cell phone. When the other cooks show up, just run after Lance and flee in the car.

Riot: Beat up the workers until the riot starts. Don't stay in one place for too long if you don't want to get hit. In the back area, shoot the guard and shoot at the barrel with the two transporters next to it. You can either park the other van closer to the other barrel and make it explode or drive it against the wall until it burns - but then quickly jump out and run away.

Avery Carrington

Four Iron: It's best to take a weapon that can aim automatically (e.g. submachine gun or revolver) with you on the mission, even if you have to hand it in at the entrance. As soon as you approach the target, he will send his bodyguards after you and flee towards the exit. The best thing to do is to overtake him in the golf cart, run out, retrieve your firearm and shoot him before he reaches the car. If he manages to escape in the car, chase after him and try to take it out with the submachine gun.

Demolition Man: Time only starts running when you pick up the first bomb. Therefore, first fly into the building and fly low and head-on against the attacking workers. There are also guards with firearms on the upper two floors, which you should take out first. Once they are all dead, you can place the bombs from the bottom to the top - you don't have to fly out at the end of the mission. The helicopter is easier to control if you use L2 and R2 to turn.

Two Bit Hit: Always approach the hearse from the side to shoot at it with the submachine gun. It drops exploding coffins behind it.

Colonel Cortez

Treacherous Swine: You run slower with the chainsaw, so it may be advisable to switch to your fist first during the chase.

Mall Shootout: Park a car at the rear exit of mall. When the courier flees on a bike, you can ram him with the car and run him over.

Guardian Angels: It is best to use a self-aiming weapon such as the submachine gun. Pay attention to which direction the enemies are coming from on the map and shoot them before they get too close to Diaz. As soon as they are all dead, one of them will flee on a motorcycle. Chase him on the remaining bike and shoot him with the submachine gun.

Sir, Yes Sir!: Drive to the tank and follow it at a distance. As soon as the convoy stops, run over the soldiers next to it and get into the tank. Then you must drive to your destination quickly, which you will reach from behind, not through the side alley - even if it looks like it.

All Hands On Deck!: Take a bazooka with you and destroy the two helicopters with it. Otherwise, shoot all the enemies that come on deck and shoot at the ships in front of you to break through the blockade.

Ricardo Diaz

The Chase: Pursue the thief first on foot and then by car - don't kill him!

Phnom Penh '86: Watch out for enemies standing near barrels or cars and destroy them first to wipe out as many as possible.

The Fastest Boat: Drive the car onto the harbor area and preferably into the hall, running over as many enemies as possible. Then press the lever in the hall and run to the boat to escape.

Supply & Demand: It's all about getting to your destination as quickly as possible. Don't follow the other boats, but rather turn left to take a longer but easier route where you can go full throttle almost all the way.

Kent Paul

Death Row: Drive to the junkyard as quickly as possible. Ram the car in the entrance and run over the enemies there to take their submachine guns. Then shoot your way through to Lance and flee with him directly to the car to the left of the hall where he is being held. Then escape to the hospital as quickly as possible.

Ricardo Diaz 2

Rub Out: Fight your way to the back entrance by the pool and enter the building through the corridor on the right via the staircase.

Tommy Vercetti

Shakedown: Race to the shopping center with a minigun and no other weapon. This way you can quickly switch to the minigun for shooting and the fist for running. Shoot the windows right next to you first - even on the second floor. If the police gets too annoying, you can change clothes here as long as you have two stars or lower to get rid of the stars. Then work your way to the back. If you run out of ammunition, stand behind the shop windows on the inside and let the police shoot them for you. The mission ends shortly after the last window has been destroyed.

Bar Brawl: Run over the two marked enemies and talk to the bar owner. Drive to the indicated point quickly and kill the enemies - for example by driving your car into the middle of them and fleeing quickly as soon as it starts to burn. Then get a new car and ram the two motorcyclists until they die.

Cop Land: Get into a car with Lance and drive to the garage. Get a star near the garage by running over a policeman or ramming a police car. Then lure two policemen into the garage. If the door cannot be closed because there is a car in the way, get in quickly and drive it forward. As soon as the door closes, Tommy and Lance will automatically kill the policemen and steal their clothes.
Grab the police car to the right of the garage and drive it back to the Vercetti Estate. Take a helicopter there and park it behind the mall at a distance before you get in - to shake off the policemen who will be following you on foot later. Then go inside, plant the bomb and run back to the rear exit. Get in with Lance and fly back to the estate.

Print Works (Dollar symbol): 70.000 dollars

You can start these missions after "Rub Out" by purchasing the print shop. They are also main missions.

Spilling the Beans: Land the helicopter on top of the ship. Go down the stairs, shoot the guard if necessary and go to the point. As soon as Tommy leaves the ship again, run up the stairs to the helicopter and escape with it.

Hit the Courier: Wait outside the harbor until the courier arrives. Do not destroy the helicopter with a bazooka! Instead, kill the courier when they run to the car, even if they are heavily guarded. Alternatively, chase them with the car and shoot them with the submachien gun. At some point - before it starts to burn - the two people will get out and you can kill them, take the plates and flee.

Cap The Collector (must be unlocked first, see above): Drive directly to the collectors and ram them off the motorcycle with the car. There are six collectors in total, two of whom sit on each motorcycle and can be killed together. The collectors drive around your properties and want to extort them. To do this, they stop there, get off and walk for a few seconds. The mission will fail if they collect protection money from all your profitable properties, so it's best to be fast enough so that each pair only manages to extort one property.

Tommy Vercetti 2

Keep Your Friends Close... (final main mission): Before the mission, get body armor, full health and a submachine gun with at least 300 rounds. At the start of the mission, duck behind the desk with L3 and look towards the door. Shoot everyone who comes into the room. As soon as you get the message that Lance has appeared, sprint up the stairs on the right and follow the corridor to the roof. Ignore the enemies. On the roof, duck behind the barrels and shoot all the enemies, but keep in mind that Lance can take quite a beating.
Be careful, the barrels in front of you can be moved by shots, so you may have to reposition yourself! You should also destroy the red barrel, otherwise Tommy will aim at it instead of the enemies in front of him even after you are inside again.
Take the health behind the helipad and return to the main hall. Shoot all the enemies on the way. As soon as Sonny appears when you are back in front of your office, run back to the right into the stairwell. Run all the way down to get body armor and health and then up one floor, where you may have to shoot enemies again. There is a passage leading to the lower level of the entrance hall. Stay in the corridor and shoot Sonny and his bodyguard from there. Since Sonny can take a lot of damage, you just have to stand still and keep pulling the trigger until he dies.

Choosable missions / real estate missions

As you only have to unlock five of these properties, I have sorted them by difficulty (in my opinion).

Pole Position Club (Pink P): 30,000 dollars

Go inside and turn left after the main room. Tommy will start throwing money at a stripper. Wait until this has cost you 300 dollars and then just stop.

Sunshine Autos (Yellow Sun): 50,000 dollars

Go down the ramp behind the car dealership. There is a pink dot where you can start races. Ignore it and instead look at the list on the wall to the right of the garage door next to the dot. There are six cars there that you have to steal and drive into this garage.
List of cars: https://www.gtabase.com/gta-vice-city/side-missions/sunshine-autos-import-garage

Cherry Popper Ice Cream Factory (Red cherry): 20,000 dollars

Get into the car parked in the entrance and drive to the next Pay ‘n’ Spray. Stop in front of it and briefly press L3 to play the jingle. Turn off the radio so that you can hear if it is playing. Once you have made four sales, you will get a wanted star. Drive straight into the Pay ‘n’ Spray, switch off the jingle and wait until the star has disappeared. Then drive out again and repeat the whole process. If there are no more customers nearby, drive to the next Pay ‘n’ Spray. Do this until you have made 50 purchases. Then you can just get out of the car.

Kaufman Cabs (Black and yellow K): 40,000 dollars

V.I.P.: Quickly race to the island and pick up the VIP. Chase the other cab with the car and shoot it up until the VIP gets out. Let him get in and just drive him to his destination.

Friendly Rivalry: Chase the indicated cabs and destroy them with the submachine gun. Caution: If they start to burn, they may drive up to you on purpose to take you down with them. They will also try to ram you.

Cabmageddon: Drive to the destination point, where several cabs are waiting for you and want to ram you. Dodge them until the boss arrives - it's all about survival! Then get out quickly and destroy his cab with the minigun.

Vicepoint Boatyard (Anchor): 10,000 dollars

Checkpoint Charlie: Get into one of the lower boats - I prefer the one on the left. Then the mission starts. You have to collect the floating parcels and drive carefully, especially at the beginning, as the route is twisting and turning. The most important thing is that you complete the three consecutive jumps, then you can step on the gas and drive to the last checkpoints.

InterGlobal Studios (Clapperboard): 60,000 dollars

Recruitment Drive: Ignore the thugs and quickly hop into a car to chase down and kill the agent. It's best to have a submachine gun ready.

Dildo Dodo: You have enough time to fly a loop or two, so it's better not to take any risks. It's best to start at the southernmost point and work your way north. When only the three northern points are left, start at the rightmost point. This way you can fly a nice lap from the six start points to the finish points without having to turn back.
The mission ends directly after the sixth target point, you do not have to fly back.

Martha's Mug Shot: Follow Candy in the helicopter. You can fly close to her, but don't let her get too far away or the mission will fail. As soon as the yellow and pink dots appear, fly to the pink one. If you get too close to the yellow one, you will be spotted and the mission will fail as well.
Land on the beach behind the hotel marked by the pink dot, preferably a few meters away from the stairs. Then go up the stairs and along the path until you can turn left into the building. Follow the staircase up to the balcony and take three photos of Candy and Martha.
You'll get five stars, but don't panic. Go down the stairs calmly until you come across two enemies, which you shoot. Further down there are two more enemies by the stairs and two in front of the exit. Shoot them all and run out to escape in the helicopter.

G-Spotlight: Follow the pink dots and jump out of the window on the motorcycle. From here you can dismount and run to the police helicopter behind the starting building. It is located on the roof, which can be reached via a metal staircase. The helicopter makes it easy to fly over the points.

Malibu Club (Palm tree): 120,000 dollars

No Escape?: Collect the police uniform on the left in the police headquarters and then go up the stairs to collect the key card. Go down to the pink dot and free Cam Jones. From this point on, the police will be hostile towards you. Run out quickly and escape together with Cam Jones in a car or helicopter that you have parked beforehand.

The Shootist: Collect as many points as possible in the first round. A target only gives points if all five segments have been shot away. Shoot all four lower segments of the front target, which only gives you one point, so that you can concentrate on the rear targets. In the first round, you are more likely to run out of ammunition than time, so be economical!
In the second round, choose two adjacent windows and shoot the targets there as soon as they appear. In the third round, choose one side and only shoot the targets there - don't be distracted by the other targets popping up!

The Driver: It is important to ram Hilary King. A good time is when you slowly catch up after the first bend and can drive into the side of his car from behind. Otherwise you have to drive flawlessly and ram him away whenever he threatens to catch up.

The Job: Run upstairs and shoot the two guards - one comes from the surveillance room on the left and one from the room in front. Don't shoot the manager cowering behind the table in the room at the back. Then go up the stairs and shoot the two other guards. Take the elevator to the top. There is another guard at the back of the vault.
Go back to the manager, take him into the vault and run back down behind the table. There you can take cover and shoot the SWAT members until you get the signal to escape.
Run out, shoot the four SWAT members and get into the cab. Make sure Phil gets in too and drive north to the Pay ‘n’ Spray. Then drive back at a distance from the bank - the people there will still shoot at you - to your destination.

Side missions:

These missions are all optional.

Phone missions

Roadkill (Unlocked after “Jury Fury”): The delivery guy is riding around on his motorcycle, so it's best to take a car and ram him until he's dead.

Waste the Wife (Unlocked after “Mall Shootout”): Since you're not allowed to shoot her or the car, you have to ram the car until it bursts into flames. When this happens, drive away quickly, as the woman will chase you to make you explode as well.

Autocide (Unlocked by “The Fastest Boat”): Take a bazooka with you. First collect the sniper rifle and then race to the first objective on a motorcycle or in a car. Stay on this side of the road and dismount at the beginning of the road. Shoot the first target at the top of the sign with the sniper rifle.
Drive quickly to the next one and park on the opposite side of the road - just not too close, otherwise he will see you and flee in the car. Shoot the car twice with the bazooka and drive to the next two targets. Again, two shots from the bazooka should be enough to kill them both.
Drive to the next target. Just before the bridge, there is a staircase leading up to the right. Drive across the area to the edge where palm trees grow. Find a reasonably clear spot and shoot the man on the boat with a sniper rifle.
The last target is on a motorcycle, so you can catch up with him and run him over.

Check Out at the Check In (Unlocked by “Shakedown”): Get the rifle and get as close to the target as the rising bar allows. Watch the woman with the pink arrow. When it disappears, she has handed over the suitcase. Shoot the person standing next to her, run to the suitcase and flee the scene. It is best to park a helicopter a few meters outside beforehand so that you can escape with it.

Loose Ends (Unlocked by “The Shootist”): Fly with a helicopter to the roof indicated as the target. Get out, shoot all the enemies on the roof, take the package and escape with the other helicopter that is already there.

Cubans (Umberto Robina)

Stunt Boat Challenge: The radar shows the next to checkpoints, so keep an eye on it. Accelerate on the straights, but be slow and deliberate in the more winding sections. Hit the center of the target gates, as the edge does not always count.

Cannon Fodder: Shoot into the alley with the bazooka or minigun to make the car explode. Surviving enemies can be shot with a submachine gun or the colt. As soon as the sniper appears, shoot him with the sniper rifle. Your allies can take care of the remaining enemies first so that you can save health and armor.
As soon as you have to flee in the car, shoot the enemies around you first, as they can kill you quickly if they reach you and pull you out of the car.

Naval Engagement: Shoot the enemies at the dock with the bazooka, then shoot two shots each at the boats. First take the package at the dock and then shoot at the enemies at the house with a bazooka or self-aiming weapon. Collect the two packages on the veranda and run behind the house. There is an enemy with a shotgun waiting at every corner, which you should kill from a distance, as one shot from him will knock you down.
Take the Landstalker (Landrover) behind the house and drive over to the Vercetti Estate. Grab the helicopter there (on the roof or behind the house, depending on whether you have collected all the packages) and flee to your destination.

Trojan Voodoo (Unlocked after the last mission for Auntie Poulet): Drive to Little Haiti to Auntie Poulet's house by the trailer park - the small green area above the green rectangle on the map. The dark red Voodoo car is parked there. Drive it to the meeting point and follow the cars. When you get out at the factory, quickly shoot the enemies in the hall. Then place the bomb upstairs, the one in front of the stairs and finally the one at the entrance. Quickly run back to the gate and turn right just before you reach it, where there is a hidden staircase. Sprint onto the roof to avoid the explosion.

Haitians (Auntie Poulet)

Juju Scramble: Travel to the three locations with the powder as quickly as possible. They are quite close to each other and as soon as you are back at Auntie Poulet's house, on foot if necessary, the mission is complete.

Bombs Away!: Fly high enough so that the enemies don't catch you. First throw bombs at the fleeing boats, then at the fleeing car and finally at the last enemies on the dock.

Love Fist

Love Juice: Take a fast car. The dealer steals your money and you have to ram him off the motorcycle and run him over or kill him in some other way. When you pick up Mercedes afterwards, you have a very hard time limit. Therefore, drive the car off the bridge as soon as you are back on the west island instead of driving the loop. Drive on the central reservation wherever possible, as you don't have to avoid any cars there.

Psycho Killer: Chase the killer with the car and drive next to them if possible so that you can kill then with the submachine gun. Flee when the car explodes. There is no radar point, so don't lose sight of them.

Publicity Tour (Unlocked by "Hog Tied"): Drive quickly to the long road in the east of the island, where you can drive fast without having to slown down at corners. However, drive only fast enough for the detonation bar to not get any higher, otherwise you'll end up on winding roads again. Then turn right at the harbor and drive a little further to defuse the bomb.

Biker Gang

Alloy Wheels of Steel: Drive fast, but careful and hope that the extremely fast bikers cause some serious accidents.

Hog TIed: Ride the bike up the stairs and jump to the roof on the opposite side of the road and then jump down to the left at the end of the roof. To reach the bike, you have to run north and then turn left. It should be in a garage there. Take the bike and turn right, then left (i.e. south) and right and left again. There - opposite the fence - is a staircase that you can use to jump outside. Turn right and follow the road to your destination.

Phil Cassidy

Gun Runner (Unlocked by "The Job"): Drive to the military base in the north of the airport. Race through the enemies with your car, get into the tank and take it to one of your garages. Save and then start the mission. As soon as it starts, drive back to the garage and destroy the four cars (divided into two points) with the tank. Watch out, because once you have collected the first two weapons (on foot!), enemies will appear on motorcycles. Also collect the two weapons at the other point, then the mission is over.

Boomshine Saigon: Drive to the main road in the east of the island and follow it to the hospital. Then drive quickly down the main road until you have to turn right. This second point is the final destination.