GTA Vice City missions: Tommy works through 59 jobs from his arrival to his own empire

There is no single official number, and each database counts its own way. We use the GTABase numbering: 59 named missions, not counting the intro, In The Beginning.... All 59 are needed for 100%.

Where the other numbers come from:

• 59 — 22 opening missions, 13 missions from contacts around the city, 5 phone jobs from Mr. Black, 17 business missions and 2 final missions (GTABase).
• 62 — the same 59 plus the intro and two businesses with no separate mission: Sunshine Autos and The Pole Position Club. GTA Wiki counts them as business missions.
• 38 — the narrowest GTA Wiki count: story missions only, with no businesses or phone jobs.
• 86 — everything together: story, businesses, 6 races, 3 stadium events, 4 off-road challenges, 3 RC missions, Sparrow and side jobs (GTA Wiki).

Contacts hand out missions in parallel, so the order below is approximate. Other guides may shift the numbering by a few places: GTA Wiki, for example, puts Sir, Yes Sir! after all four Diaz missions. Mission names are in English, as in the game.

The “Reward” column lists the cash and what each mission unlocks. Amounts are cross-checked between GTABase and GTA Wiki, and they match. Daily business income is in the business table.

The deal is ambushed, Sonny’s money and goods vanish, and Tommy goes looking for whoever is responsible. The first jobs come from lawyer Ken Rosenberg at his office in Ocean Beach and from Colonel Cortez on his yacht. Starfish Island opens after Guardian Angels.

The second stretch is work for drug lord Ricardo Diaz out of his mansion on Starfish Island. The mainland opens after Phnom Penh ’86. Meanwhile Avery Carrington offers jobs at a construction site, and Kent Paul calls Tommy to the Malibu Club for Death Row.

Four missions here are optional: you can do them later or skip them entirely, but they are required for 100%. After All Hands On Deck! Cortez leaves the city. In Rub Out, Tommy and Lance kill Diaz and take over his mansion — and that is how the Vercetti Estate is born.

Now Tommy gives himself jobs from the estate. Sources disagree on who gives Shakedown: GTABase lists it under Lance, GTA Wiki under the estate. After Cop Land the estate brings in up to $5,000 a day.

These chains open at the same time, and you can play them in any order. Love Fist is the rock band Kent Paul works with. Mitch Baker leads the bikers from The Greasy Chopper bar. Umberto Robina runs the Cubans from Café Robina in Little Havana, Auntie Poulet the Haitians in Little Haiti. Mr. Black gives five jobs over payphones.

After the estate, Tommy starts buying up property. Buying a place is not enough: to make it pay, you have to complete its missions.

Sunshine Autos and The Pole Position Club have no missions of their own in the GTABase list: at the showroom you deliver the first list of stolen cars, and at the club you spend $300 on private dances.

Prices and income are the same in the original and the Definitive Edition. The eight properties for sale cost $400,000 in total. The most profitable is the Malibu Club: up to $10,000 a day after the El Banco Corrupto Grande heist in The Job.

Sunshine Autos income rises in steps: $1,500, $4,000, $6,500 and $9,000 after each of the four car lists. Tommy doesn’t own Phil’s Place: it is Phil Cassidy’s gun shop and brings in no money. According to GTA Wiki, all prices are halved in the 2012 mobile version (Print Works $35,000, Malibu Club $60,000); other sources don’t confirm this, so check in the game.

The second-to-last mission is Cap the Collector from the Print Works: Sonny Forelli’s collectors are shaking down Tommy’s businesses, and you have to take them out. The reward is $30,000.

The last mission is Keep Your Friends Close... at the Vercetti Estate. Tommy kills Lance Vance, who betrayed him, and Sonny Forelli. The reward is $30,000 and a Hunter helicopter at Fort Baxter.

So together with the estate you need seven income-generating properties. Everything else needed for full completion is on the GTA Vice City 100% completion page.

• Original (PS2, PC, Xbox) — no autosave and no mission checkpoints: those only arrived with the Definitive Edition.
• 2012 mobile version — the same missions.
• The Definitive Edition (2021) — the same missions and names, plus autosave, checkpoints and instant restart of a failed mission. Controls work like GTA V, and weapons and radio are picked from a wheel.

If you’re stuck on a mission, GTA Vice City cheats can help. In the Definitive Edition cheats disable achievements, so save to a separate slot before using them. Who’s who among the contacts is on the GTA Vice City characters page, and everything about the game is in the GTA Vice City section.