Welcome to Los Santos, CJ. You've been robbed by the cops and dropped off in enemy gang territory with no weapons and only a bicycle in the alley.

First Steps

1. Get yourself south/southeast to Ganton where you grew up.
   
2. Follow the quest chain, meeting Big Smoke, Ryder, Sweet and Kendl.
   
3. I recommend stopping after the "Tagging Up Turf" mission.
   
4. Or keep going until after the "Nines and AKs" mission.
   

If you stop chain-running the main missions after "Tagging up Turf", you'll be in a good spot and can treat Los Santos and Red County like a big sandbox. Prior to that point a lot of things are closed off (such as restaurants and barbers). You'll also be able to use the Johnson House as a save point and a place to stash vehicles.

If you keep going until after "Nines and AKs", you can use the location where you met Emmet for target practice. Although some Ballas gang members might decide to come see what the racket is about.

At this point, you cannot leave Los Santos or Red County. The bridges have roadblocks on them (as do the train tracks).

Weapons

We need weapons in order to easily earn money. (Here-in lie a few spoilers... such is life.)

To the east of the Johnson House is a smaller light blue house. Go around the back to the eastern corner. If you stand about a meter away and jump, CJ should grab the edge of the roof and hang there. Jump again, and he'll climb up onto the roof.

Go west, jump onto the Johnson House garage, then jump again to get up on the sloped roof of the Johnson House. To your south is the flat roof of a store with a rotating can of spray paint. Grab it, then make your way back to the roof of the light blue house.

To the north of the light blue house is Sweet's house. Run towards the edge of the light blue house's roof, then jump at the last minute. If you time it right, CJ will end up on Sweet's roof. Jump a second time to get over the low wall and you'll gain access to the TEC-9.

Jump down from Sweet's roof into the basketball court on the north side and go behind the houses. To the north, in the corner of the backyards is a 9mm pistol.

If you want brass knuckles, look under the overpass west of Ryder's house. If you want a shovel, look behind Ryder's house. Ryder's house is a bit west of the Johnson House.

For armor, go east from Grove Street into the flood control channel (sometimes called an aqueduct). Look under the large bridge just north of Grove Street. You'll want to take careful note of where you find armor because keeping your white armor bar full means that you'll be less likely to get wasted.

Now you'll be strapped with a few basic weapons and you won't have to resort to using your bare fists. Weapons respawn after about 6 hours of game time, but only if you're not in the area. So go inside your house and save (which advances the clock forward 6 hours), or go run around the town for a while and explore.

There are lots of other weapons scattered around Los Santos and Red County. Each weapon type has an associated skill that can only be raised through use (shooting people, vehicles, cardboard boxes, or other destructible items like lights). Higher weapon skill results in more accuracy, better range lock, and other benefits.

Random Gameplay Notes

• If you die (get wasted), all of your weapons and ammo will be removed. You'll be charged $100 and discharged from the hospital. (Much later in the game you can date a nurse and retain your weapons/ammo.) It's a real pain to lose ammo that you've collected, so make sure you always have body armor on.
  
• If you get arrested (busted), you once again lose all of your weapons and ammo. The police will attempt to cuff you if you are not wielding a gun, or they'll attempt to pull you out of vehicles and arrest you. There's a girlfriend that you can date later on in the game who will give your weapons back if you were busted during a mission.
  
• Don't bother hoarding large quantities of ammo. Unless you always plan on reloading your game after getting busted/wasted. There are also a few points in the game where all your weapons are stripped anyway, so use it if you've got it.
  
• On a related note, an automatic weapon will chew through 100-200 rounds of ammo very quickly. While the 9mm pistol will feel like you have plenty of ammo even with only 100 rounds. And 50 rounds for a shotgun can be considered "a lot".
  
• Press the [Tab] key while on foot to see CJ's stats.
  
• To restore health, hit a food joint or vending machine, or go and save the game.
  
• Keep CJ's fat level somewhere in the 5-15% range. If it drops too low, he'll start burning muscle mass. The biggest meal at the chicken / pizza joints adds 3% to the fat bar each, so eating 3 or 4 big meals will be best if you were almost empty.
  
• Don't shoot your weapon or carjack in front of police. Doing so will immediately give you one wanted star.
  
• To get rid of wanted stars, you either need to run away for long enough that they lose you, drive/walk over a police bribe location, or go save the game. Each bribe location or save point will remove a single wanted star. Alternatively, if you're in a vehicle, visiting a Pay'n'Spray will result in all of your wanted stars being suspended. As long as you don't commit any new crimes while the stars are flashing, they'll eventually vanish without police pursuing you again.
  
• If are careful and don't kill bystanders, you can often kill opposing gang members without getting wanted stars. Killing them gains you respect, a bit of money, and possibly weapons and ammo.
  
• Cops don't care if you run red lights or hit other vehicles. Just don't hit a police car or motorcycle or you'll be instantly awarded with a one-star wanted level.
  
• Blowing up a vehicle on purpose by shooting at it results in a one-star wanted level. Even if nobody saw you do it.
  

Money

At the start, you're only going to have about $300. Maybe a bit more after running some of the missions for Ryder and Sweet. Clothing, tattoos and haircuts are all in the $50-$500 range for the most part (some clothing is more expensive). Modifications to your car run from $500 up to a few thousand. Houses (a.k.a. save points) cost at least $10,000 at the low end, with one house in Red County going for $120,000.

However, at the start of the game, anything between $10k and $20k will feel very comfortable. On top of that, you'll want another $30k or $40k to purchase 3 or 4 houses in key areas, making it easier to find a save point between missions or to store vehicles for future use. Too much money will make things extremely easy and remove that element from gameplay, so be modest and not too greedy.

That sounds like a lot, but it isn't. You see, there is this rare breed of cat out there called a drug dealer. They stand on sidewalks, carry a decent amount of cash, and are generally easy to take out. Look for a pedestrian who is standing on one place with hands crossed in front of them down around their waist. One style is a black tank top, gold chain, and baggy jeans. The other tends to wear a light grey hooded sweatshirt with the hood up along with blue jeans and white tennis shoes. They typically drop up to around $2000 when killed. So go jack a car and start driving around town, keeping on the lookout for dealers.

Once you have about $10k, it's time to go gambling. For fun, go to the bar at the western end of Grove Street and play pool. The maximum wager is $1000, so you'll have enough cash to play a few games. If you lose, go hunt down some more drug dealers (or enemy gang members).

Alternatively, go bet on the horses. This is a much surer path to winning as the odds are heavily in your favor and the payout is much larger. To get to the "Inside Track" (an OTB betting parlor), you'll need to head towards Mulholland Intersection. This is on the north side of downtown Los Santos, just west of Glen Park. It's located under the stack interchange at the north end of downtown. If you find a gated parking lot under the interchange, you're in the right area. (You pass through this area during the "Sweet and Kendl" mission on your bicycle.)

The rules for horse betting are simple. Pick a horse, pick a wager amount, then start the race. If your horse comes in first place you win, otherwise you lose.

The key is in the odds. There are only five horses, each horse has an even chance of winning (no matter what the odds say). This means that betting on the 11:1 or 12:1 underdog is your best choice over the long haul. Never bet more then 1/10th or 1/20th of your money in a single race, always pick the underdog, and you'll eventually come out on top.

Unlike betting on pool where you can only win/lose $100 at a shot. The horse racing minigame can have payouts in the tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Which means it's real simple to bulk up that nest egg that you earned from gunning down drug dealers.

Driving Skills

At the start, there are (3) types of vehicles that you can drive. Bicycles, motorcycles and vehicles (cars, trucks, etc). Each vehicle type has an associated skill that needs to be raised in order for you to have better control over the vehicle type. It's fairly easy to max out your bicycle (cycling) and bike (motorcycle) skills, but takes a good bit longer for your driving skill.

To get started, I recommend raising your cycling and bike skills up to about 1/4 to 1/2. Grab a bike or motorcycle and head into the flood control channels and start riding around. After a while, you'll get a lot better, which will make it easier to do missions centered around those two vehicle types. In fact, for getting around Los Santos quickly, nothing beats a crotch rocket style bike. It can fit through small gaps, is highly maneuverable, accelerates quickly, and stops on a dime. I try to stash one in every house that has a garage.

At the start, you can get away with a low driving skill for vehicles. Do spend some time out on the road learning how to drive. Or drive on the railroad tracks or in the flood control channels. But you won't need to get about 5% or 10% skill in it early on, so don't kill yourself trying to raise the skill.

One side effect of raising your cycling skill is that you'll gain health and stamina while working off fat. It's not the fastest way to bulk up, but it kills two birds with one stone. If you want to get tougher, go lift weights or ride the stationary bike at the gym (west end of Grove Street).

Conclusion

That's the basics of GTA:San Andreas. You now have money, weapons and access to vehicles and can start gaining respect and taking back control of Grove Street territory. Go explore Los Santos and Red County. Work on tagging over enemy gang tags. Or find all of the weapon locations. Or go shopping at the clothing stores. Try out the various minigames. Jack a hot ride and go for a fast drive on the freeways.

One final note. Stay away from Officer Tenpenney at the donut shop in the Market District until you are finished with the other missions in Los Santos and you're ready to move on with the main storyline.