GTA: San AndreasThe Desert

Black Project

77of 105

Mission 77 of 105Story mission

01/04

Briefing

The Truth has been waiting the whole game for this: Area 69 has something in it that he calls the Black Project, and Carl is going in to get it. The base is guarded, lit by searchlights and patrolled, and there is a deadline of sunrise on the whole thing.

What is at the bottom of the launch bay is a jetpack, and it is how Carl gets out. It is the strangest mission in San Andreas and one of its longest, and it is the one that finally explains what The Truth has been talking about since Flint County.

02/04

Objectives

12 objectives, in the order the mission gives them.

Get into the Area 69 research lab and retrieve the Black Project
Use the control tower blast doors as the way in
Avoid the searchlights — shooting more than two triggers a lockdown
Use thermal goggles to find the military patrols, and avoid or eliminate them
Reach the research labs before 05:30
Activate the control tower switch to open the blast doors
Cross Area 69 to the research lab
Shut down the exterior defences from the control room to make the escape easier
Find a keycard for the launch bay door
Retrieve the Black Project from the bottom of the launch bay
Escape by jetpack through the launch bay opening
Deliver the jetpack to the drop-off in the canyon

03/04

Walkthrough

Two searchlights and no more
The mission counts them: shooting out more than two puts the base into lockdown. Everything else is avoided by movement rather than removed, which is the discipline the whole first half runs on.
05:30
There is a real deadline on reaching the labs, so time spent clearing patrols that could have been walked past is time the mission does not have. The thermal goggles are for routing around them rather than for hunting.
The control room detour
Shutting down the exterior defences is optional in the sense that the objective is listed separately, and it is worth the minute — the escape is flown out through the top of the launch bay and into whatever is still shooting.
Out on the jetpack
The Black Project is the jetpack, and the exit is straight up through the opening above the bay. The drop-off is in the canyon, and the flight there is unopposed once the base is behind.

04/04

Unlocks

The Desert Eagle

Where this mission leads

Who this mission brings together, and the ground it covers.

Playable
Carl Johnson
Home in Los Santos after five years in Liberty City for his mother's funeral, and stopped by the same two police officers who drove him out. Rebuilding the family's standing turns into rebuilding most of the state's.
All 105 missions · 7 as giver
Gives the job
The Truth
A Flint County grower with a camper van, a conspiracy for every occasion and rather better government contacts than any of them should imply.
7 of 105 missions · 4 as giver