Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas/Dating

San Andreas introduces the ability for the player to pick up dates and go out with them.

The main reason to date a girl is to get a special bonus in exchange. However CJ's girlfriends, just like in real life, require upkeep and pampering, and the right care for their personality and tastes.

Pickup Methods

There are six girls found around the map that are dateable. They have a blue marker above their head to alert the player to this fact. Each girl can only be found in one particular place (see below).

Carl Johnson can date more than one girl at once, and, unlike in real life, the other girlfriends don't seem bothered if he adds another to his harem (unless they catch you cheating).

All that is necessary to get a date is to walk up to a woman. CJ doesn't have to say anything; if she likes the look of him she'll ask for a date, if she doesn't she'll brush him off and say what she doesn't like about him.

There are usually particular appearance features a girl likes. If CJ meets her criteria, it's a date; if not, she'll give him tips about what to improve so he can dress up and work out and try again later. However if CJ's sex appeal rating is high enough (through things like a modded car, clothes, and oyster collection) that will override the girl's fancy and he can date her regardless of his physique.

The Right Ride

Get a fast or pimped-up car before you go on your date, as it will improve your sex appeal while you are in it or have just exited it. However, some girls do not like fast driving, so watch the acceleration when riding with them.

Consider flying your date in an airplane or helicopter if her location makes this feasible. Fly the woman to another city for the date. They will be VERY appreciative, even if you are barely able to land (at least with the "Hot Coffee" mod which may have unlocked some additional uncensored materials). But it won't always work. If you take Millie for a driving date in a helicopter she will quickly get upset about the speed and the date will end soon. Do this after you complete the mission learning to fly.

Starting the Date

To start a date with a girl, simply go to her house. However the girls will only be home at certain times. If she's home a two-player icon (PS2 and Xbox only) and a red marker will appear, along with her car. Simply walk or drive into the red marker to begin the date.

If she's not home the red marker and car won't be there, and if CJ tries to visit anyway a text message will tell him she's not home.

Upon entering the marker, one of several types of dates is chosen randomly and the girl will tell CJ where to take her. Each type of date has specific objectives, and each girl's requirements for the date is different.

Types of Dates

As in life, your girlfriend will want to decide what to do in the date. She has a few choices.

Eating Date

In this date, which normally comes up first, your girlfriend will want to go out to eat. Take her to a fast food joint, bar, diner or restaurant (some of these may not show up on your map until you start the date).

Each girl will have her own taste and may not like the place you take her. If you take her to a place she likes, you get sappy music and a happy cutscene. The date will be successful. If not, you get Rage Against the Machine and a failed date.

Dancing Date

In this date, you will take your girlfriend to a club. There's a club in each major city:

• The Alhambra in LIttle Mexico, Los Santos
• The Gaydar Station in Queen's, San Fierro
• Caligula's Palace in Las Venturas.

When you get to the club, a minigame starts. You have to hit the buttons as shown as they pass though the circle, as in the Life's a Beach mission.

Driving Date

In this date, you take your girlfriend for a drive. Some girlfriends will like you to drive fast or slow. Drive in a neighborhood she likes at a speed she likes and the Fun meter rises. Crash, drive at the wrong speed or in the wrong place, and the Fun meter falls. Max out the Fun meter for a successful date. If it drops to zero, you have failed the date.

Special Date

Some girlfriends have a date specific to them. See the individual girlfriends' descriptions.

Date Results

• successful date: the ideal goal, CJ drops his girl home and she expresses enjoyment of it. Then there's the possibility of coffee.
• failed date: CJ drops the girl off home and has failed. This might be that he failed to follow the girl's requirements, or that the date took too long, or even if appearance standards are too low when he drops her off (perhaps if he swapped clothes or cars in the meantime). this also happens if you are caught cheating.
• "abandon date": CJ leaves the girl behind. The easiest way to do this is to get in a car and roar off before she has time to get in. Once CJ is so far away that her marker is at the edge of the mini-map, the date instantly ends.

What Not To Do on a Date

Make sure to never hurt a girl, even by accident. Hitting her once might not fail the date, but hitting more than once or shooting will instantly end the date. Understandably, the relationship meter goes down by a huge amount and will be difficult to get back up to where it was.

The girls have a lot of health but they can still be killed; if a girl is killed by CJ (not counting other drivers etc. killing her) she will, obviously, no longer be available for dating, although you still retain the rewards you got for dating her. For that reason, try not to engage in a turf war while on a date.

Don't get lost! If you take too much time getting your girlfriend to the date or back home, she will get bored. This counts as a failed date, even if you're on the way home from an otherwise successful date.

Never allow a girl's respect for you to reach 0%. If it does, date her immediately until it is above 0%. A higher minimum is adviseable, but at the very least keep it above 0%.

Why? If you let a girl's respect for you reach 0%, and then date another girl, your current date will always once be caught by a jealous date whose respect for you is 0%. There are two answers to this situation, one better than the other, but both bad. You are told to escape. If you go too near the jealous date, both parties have caught you cheating. The current date is over. If you go far enough away from the jealous date, only the jealous date has caught you cheating, and the current date can still be a success. This remains a bad situation however, because whoever catches you cheating will dump you the next time you see her, no matter what else happens. Being dumped has the same effect as having killed her - you will no longer be able to date her.

Gifts and Kisses

On most date types, CJ can give his girlfriend flowers, a dildo, or, surprisingly, a vibrator; it is located in the weapon slot so scroll to it and give it to her by pressing the button when standing in front of her (on the Xbox, pull the right trigger and a prompt to pull the left trigger will appear). Be careful to not hit attack instead or he will attack her with it (see What Not To Do on a Date).

• Flowers can be found all over San Andreas, usually at gas stations, and can also be found hiding in flower beds and gardens.
• Dildos can be found in the sex shop featured in the mission "Key to her heart" or in some police stations around San Andreas.
• Vibrators can be found at the construction site in the Bayside (Northwestern Edge of San Andreas) area behind a big dumpster.

You might want to pick up your gift after the date so you don't forget.

CJ can also kiss his girl (by standing near her and holding ). If their relationship rating is rather low, she may push him away, but if the relationship is going well she will readily kiss him back.

However kisses don't always affect the relationship level positively; to help ensure a better rating give a gift and then kiss her immediately after.

Another thing CJ can do is take a photo of his girl (if he has a camera). Simply point the camera at her; if done right CJ will say something and she will wave and smile. However taking a picture does not seem to affect the relationship.

Coffee

After the relationship reaches a certain stage, your girlfriend will invite you in for coffee. Always respond positively. Also, based on the sounds and titles emanating from your girlfriend's house there's more than coffee in store.

Coffee increases the relationship score by 5%.

"Hot Coffee"

Some diligent hackers have discovered that Rockstar originally planned for you see a whole lot more in the coffee phase of the date. Read more about Hot Coffee at the Game Mods page.

The Girls

There are six girls who can become CJ's girlfriend.

Denise Robinson

• Where: Get from Burning Desire mission in Los Santos. Her house next to Grove Street in Ganton.
• When: 00:00 to 06:00 and 16:00 to 00:00
• Turn-ons: Drive-by shootings of non-Grove Street gang members, Fast food resturants (except Burger Shot). Bars. She's happy with the Cluckin' Bell south of her house.
• Turn-offs: Burger Shot, diners, upscale restaurants.
• Special Date: Drive-by shooting. This can be triggered while you're in the car for any other date.
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 40%
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her green Hustler car.
• Reward for 100% Progress: Pimp Clothes

Helena Wankstein

• Where: Blueberry, Red County on top of the Ammunation.
• When: 00:00 to 02:00, 08:00 to 12:00 and 14:00 to 00:00
• Turn-ons: The Countryside, Posh Restaurants, average men (muscle less than 25% and fat less than 25%) with lots of sex appeal.
• Turn-offs: Muscular men, Urban areas.
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 10%
• Reward for Dating: Access to Helena's stash of weapons in her barn, includes a pistol, a chainsaw, a flamethrower, and molotov cocktails.
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her Bandito car.
• Reward for 100% Progress: Country Clothes use clothes green

Katie Zhan

• Where: At the northeast edge of the golf course at the The Avispa Country Club in San Fierro (Souhtwest SF, near the gym).
• When: 12:00 to 00:00
• Turn-ons: Muscular men (muscle 75% or more), Chinatown, Diners.
• Turn-offs: Area around where she lives, Fast food resturants.
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 50%
• Reward for Dating: You get out of hospital for free after being wasted and keep all your weapons.
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her white Romero car.
• Reward for 100% Progress: Medic Clothes

• Glitch: If you date Katie, and then start a new game, or even if you write over your save file with a new game (after loading the old one), the reward for dating still applies for some reason - from the very beginning of the new game, you will not lose your weapons for being killed. This may be useful if you get dumped by or kill a girlfriend and want to start over, or if you want to play from the beginning with the useful bonus.

Katie likes the tin diner just north of her house, in Juniper Hollow. You can get there by following the boulevard on which she lives and taking the right turn before the bridge. Or you can take an immediate right to get on to the road behind Katie's House and veer off the hill at the point above the diner's parking lot. If you time it well, you get a unique jump, you land in the parking lot, and Katie loves it (not that it affects the relationship meter).

There is a Xoomer gas station in Juniper Hollow right down the street from Katie's. It has a Pay-N-Spray so you can make your car look presentable, and a flower pickup next to the soda machine.

The nearest club is in Queen's, which is a slightly disorienting neighboorhood because of its non-grid layout. To get there from Katie's, head east and turn right at the Xoomer. When you get to the border between King's and Queen's, turn right at the smokestack. Follow the curvy road and make a left at the hair salon. The club is on the left.

When doing Katie's driving date, she will keep urging you to go faster, even when the game tells you that you are driving too fast. Pay attention to the game and ignore the girl. She seems to like speed and car crashes well enough the rest of the time, but keep your vehicle at cruising speeds on the date or she will quickly become bored.

Michelle Cannes

• Where: Driving school in San Fierro.
• When: 00:00 to 12:00
• Turn-ons: Fat men (fat 50% or more), Bars. The "Hotknife" vehicle if you have access to it. She likes the bar near the gym in Garcia.
• Turn-offs: Driving slowly, Diners, Pizza.
• Special Date: She drives you around. Sit back and play with the radio.
  • Never exit the car by pressing triangle while on this date. Michelle will steal the car; the date will end and your progress will drop substantially.
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 40%
• Reward for Dating: Free use of Michelle's garage, which is basically a free Pay 'N Spray.
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her Monster truck.
• Reward for 100% Progress: Racing Clothes

Barbara Schternvart

• Where: El Quebrados, The Sheriff's Parking Lot, (Northwestern edge of map).
• When: 0:00 to 06:00 and 16:00 to 00:00
• Turn-ons: Diners, Fat men (fat 50% or more).
• Turn-offs: Driving too fast.
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 60%
• Reward for Dating: You get out of jail for free after being busted and keep all your weapons.
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her Ranger police car.
• Reward for 100% Progress: Police Uniform

Millie Perkins

• Where: "Key to her Heart" mission in Las Venturas. Her house is in Prickle Pine, a northern suburb of Las Venturas.
• When: 02:00 to 10:00 and 14:00 to 20:00; Some days only at exactly at 12:00.
• Turn-ons: Wearing the gimp suit, clubs?, nice restaraunts.
• Turn-offs: Damaging your car at all, Diners, Fast food, Smoothies
• Special Date: S&M (Gimp suit needed).
• Minimal progress needed for Coffee: 40%
• Reward for 35% Progress: A casino security entrance card, required for Breaking the Bank at Caligula's Heist Mission.
• Reward for 50% Progress: Key to her pink Club car.
• Reward for 100% Progress: None

There are some flowers at the Yellow Bell Golf Course not too far from Millie's house. If you're staying at the safe house in Prickle Pine it's on the way.

Millie likes the World of Coq in Las Venturas, southwest of her house.

Wear the gimp suit to trigger the special date. After the date you will be dressed normally, but the gimp suit will still be available in your wardrobe. Each session is a 10% boost to the relationship.

Dating Millie can be a hassle because of her pickiness about your driving speed. However, you need to date her enough get the keycard for the Breaking the Bank at Caligula's mission. Here are a few shortcuts:

• Do nothing but special dates.
• If you don't mind not being able to date her ever again, a simple method is to start a date with her, then immediately kill her. Afterwards, you should get a call from Woozie, and you can now just walk into her house and take the card.

Girlfriends Not Showing Up for Dates?

As a man that doesn't kill his girlfriends (or cheat on them for that matter), I've been through the whole "non-appearing" GF thing many times. But I've devised a way that works all of the time... for me anyway.

Denise, Michelle, Barbara, and Helena usually appear for dates at 00:00

Millie and Katie usually appear at 12:00

If your girlfriend isn't home during this time;

1. Go to a safe house near your girlfriend's home and save consecutively right through the current day, and ALL THROUGH THE NEXT DAY. (example: if it's Sunday on your game, save til it's Tuesday).
2. Right when you've reached the next day (which should be no more later than 6:00 two days after you started saving) go to the girl's house. Depending on the girl, she may not be there since they all have somewhat different times of showing up.
3. Enter the 'faster clock' cheat (I know. Some of you want a cheat free file, just trust me) to see if she shows up. Odds are, she will show up.
4. For those wanting a cheat free file, just load your previously saved game and save all the way up to the time your girlfriend is supposed to be there. You can also just hang around and cause mayhem whilst you're waiting! Trust me, It works!