Best Weapons in GTA III

The best weapon in GTA III is the M16: 60 rounds a magazine, the heaviest firepower of any gun in the game, and enough punch to wreck cars. Liberty City has 13 weapons in all, from the baseball bat to the rocket launcher, and nearly every one of them can end up yours for free if you know where to look.

Where the Guns Come From

There are only two Ammu-Nations in Liberty City: one in Portland, on the edge of the Red Light District and Saint Mark's, and one in Newport on Staunton Island. Shoreside Vale has none. You buy by walking over the floating icons, under a fixed camera.

The heavy hardware is sold elsewhere. Phil's Army Surplus in Rockford, on Staunton Island, opens after the mission Arms Shortage and sells the shotgun, the M16 and the rocket launcher. The garage of the Pike Creek police compound in Shoreside Vale opens after A Drop in the Ocean and sells the flamethrower and Molotovs. The shotgun is never on sale at Ammu-Nation, but every police car you steal comes with one.

The M16: Best in Show

The M16 holds 60 rounds, fires faster than anything else and hits hard enough to destroy a car, which makes it the answer to the police, to gangs and to long missions alike. Like the sniper rifle and the rocket launcher, it can be aimed in first person.

You first get your hands on one in Arms Shortage, where Phil uses it beside you, and Phil sells it for $5,000 afterwards. Free ones wait inside the walled area of the Liberty Tree offices in Bedford Point, on the porch of the pink house in Cedar Grove and on the stairs of the Cochrane Dam's west platform. Collect 90 hidden packages and one appears at every safehouse.

Against Cars: Rocket Launcher and Grenades

The rocket launcher destroys almost anything in one shot and is aimed in first person. Phil sells it for $25,000, a free one sits on the west roof of the big pink mansion in Cedar Grove, and it is the reward for all 100 hidden packages, along with $1,000,000.

Grenades are the cheap alternative: one is enough for an ordinary car. Newport's Ammu-Nation sells them for $2,000, you pick some up from 8-Ball in Taking Out the Laundry, soldiers drop them, and 30 hidden packages put them at your safehouses.

The Everyday Guns

The pistol, a 12-round Colt, costs $250 at the Portland Ammu-Nation after Pump-Action Pimp; a free one sits on the north ledge of the tall building south of the Callahan Bridge, and ten hidden packages give it to you for good.

The Uzi holds 25 rounds and can be fired while running. It is also the only gun Claude can use for drive-bys, which makes it more useful than its damage suggests. King Courtney hands you one in Uzi Rider, both Ammu-Nations sell it for $800, and 20 packages unlock it.

The shotgun fires one shell per pump and costs $1,500 at Phil's, if you have not already taken one from a police car; 40 packages unlock it. The AK47 holds 30 rounds and fires fast, but hits much lighter than the M16; it costs $3,000 in Newport after Last Requests, and 70 packages unlock it.

Sniper Rifle, Flamethrower and Molotovs

The sniper rifle fires one shot per load and only in first person. Newport sells it for $10,000, you are given one in Bomb Da Base: Act II, a free one waits on a roof south of the Belleville Park fire station, behind the MSX FM sign, and 80 packages unlock it.

The flamethrower is first put in your hands in Trial By Fire, to burn through the Triads in Chinatown. It costs $25,000 at the Pike Creek compound, a free one sits on the roof of Head Radio in Harwood, and putting out 20 fires on each island in the Firefighter missions delivers one to your safehouses. Molotovs cost $2,000 at the same garage, wait in the abandoned rail tunnel near 8-Ball's place and on the Liberty Campus, and 60 packages unlock them.

Hidden Packages: A Free Arsenal

Liberty City hides 100 packages, worth $1,000 each. Every ten you collect leave a new item outside all three safehouses, so a patient player never has to buy a gun again: the pistol at 10, the Uzi at 20, grenades at 30, the shotgun at 40, body armour at 50, Molotovs at 60, the AK47 at 70, the sniper rifle at 80, the M16 at 90 and the rocket launcher with $1,000,000 at 100.

The 2021 Definitive Edition keeps the same arsenal but plays it with modern controls taken from GTA V: lock-on targeting and a weapon wheel, which makes the M16 and the Uzi far easier to use than in 2001.

GTA III Weapons at a Glance