Gang territories in San Andreas, after the mission "Doberman"

Gang warfare is a gameplay feature in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.


It is available upon completion of Sweet's mission Doberman, but is temporarily unavailable between The Green Sabre and Home Coming. Taking over enemy gang territory gives the player more Respect and Money. The money is generated over time and can be collected in Grove Street outside the Johnson House. Neighborhoods also become safer for CJ to travel around since enemy gang members will no longer appear in the area, instead being controlled by the Grove Street Families.

Taking Over Enemy Territory

The gang territories in San Andreas are denoted by colored areas on the map. This is a list of gangs whose territories Carl can take over, with their corresponding colors:

Gang Color
Ballas Purple
Grove Street Families Green
Los Santos Vagos Yellow

To take over an enemy gang's territory, enter the territory on foot and start attacking gang members (note: the initial kills must be done on foot). Once Carl has killed three gang members, an on-screen message notifies that a gang war has begun. Health and armor pickups spawn in the streets, and the first wave of gang members will move in on CJ.

Enemy territory Gang war in progress The hood is GSF's
Territory Territory3 Territory4

Generally, an area with a darker shade of a gang color means a greater presence of that gang in that area. This means that an area that's shaded light purple, for example, would have few Balla members roaming around, which would make it hard to trigger a gang war in that area. To overcome this, walk over to the one or two Balla members, then get them to chase Carl until he finds some more Balla members. This will let Carl lure the three gang members required to trigger the war.

Available Territories by District
District # territories
East Beach 4
East Los Santos 6
El Corona 2
Ganton 2
Glen Park 2
Idlewood 6
Jefferson 5
Las Colinas 7
Little Mexico 2
Los Flores 2
Playa Del Seville 1
Santa Maria Beach 2
Temple 5
Verona Beach 5
Vinewood 1
Willowfield 5






Recruiting Gang Members

Carl can recruit gang members at any time he wants. Once they are recruited, he has the option of either calling them to him, having them stay put, or allowing them to scatter.


No. of Gang Members

1% 2 members
10% 3 members
20% 4 members
40% 5 members
60% 6 members
80% 7 members

If gang members are following Carl, they will attack any person that attacks him. They will also attack anyone the player attacks. If CJ attacks an enemy gang member, the recruited gang member will attack any member of that gang. When driving in a car and there are enemy gang members walking down the street the recruited members will attack them automatically if they have a weapon. If the police are chasing on CJ, they will shoot at the police.


Gang Members do not have the best aim, and thus, are better served as a 'distraction' to give Carl more freedom to attack, rather than as 'protection' to CJ.

if CJ recruits a gang member and attack another gang member which is not recruited, the recruited gang members will attack him, but will never hit.


Clean up

  • Another useful method is to tackle less concentrated areas first, leaving highly concentrated areas to be taken over last. This is because a gang war can also be triggered by shooting enemy gang members from afar. As long as the player is standing in the area with little enemy gang presence, he/she can bring that area to war by killing gang members from the neighboring areas. This sometimes cause a minor bug where, for example, killing Vagos members leads to a gang war with the Ballas.
  • This helps if the player just wants to get the warfare done to unlock the final mission or wants to take over the small territories: After surviving two waves, the territory is shared between Grove Street and the enemies. To unlock the final mission, this is enough. So if that is what the player wants, go to the territory of choice in the waiting time between the second and third wave and after the enemies spawn start & stop e.g. Vigilante/Taxi etc. and start the next war by shooting those gang members. If the player prefers, he/she can use this trick to start a war in small territories and then take over the big hood that was used to start that war completely after that. Credit mainly goes to 'S.' for that one.
  • Starting a gang warfare will wipe out any wanted level acquired prior to starting the warfare, and will prevent the player from acquiring a wanted level during the warfare. Once the player has successfully taken over a territory, acquiring a wanted level becomes possible again.
  • It is also possible for Carl to make use of heavy weapons in Mike Toreno's Ranch. Get a Minigun then save. Repeat the process and he will have enough ammo for taking over territory easily.
    • It is recommended that if the player decides to use a Minigun and is on the third and final wave, be advised as to not kill anyone else or blow up any more vehicles after the gang war is complete. This will trigger a wanted level.
  • It is possible to start wars by killing gang members in cars, by blowing them up or shooting in their head. If hitting the car, some get out and start a fight, others flee.
  • If Carl hasn't planned on taking over all territories, it is generally a good idea to make sure that the player still does take every territory which contains either an Ammu-Nation store, or a fast food restaurant. Fast food restaurants also make gang war in their area much easier, as not only the player can use them to restore health during a battle, but can also wait inside for a one star police rating to wear off as well.
  • Be cautious when scouting for enemy gang members along the borders between Grove Street and enemy territory, as it's common for Grove Street members to enter the periphery of other territories and be potential targets for friendly fire. Killing one of the Grove Street Families members results in a respect penalty.
  • Some territories are extremely small, often little more than a sliver of land, and as such may not clearly show up on the map. If an area that is considered is clear is still being attacked, this means there must still be a tiny enemy gang territory on the periphery. If in doubt, attack any non-Grove Street gang members that are seen hanging about along the edges of a Grove Street territory, even if enemy colors aren't visible on the map. Small territories will also spawn less enemy waves, an example is the eastern continental part of Ocean Docks, where around 4 to 5 Ballas members appear and just one or two have light guns. Small territories can be extremely hard to take over, as enemy gang members can be extremely rare.
  • Good cover is essential, especially places where it is able to crouch and shoot enemy gang members from. Standing in the open will get decrease the armor and health bars very quickly in gang wars. The player ideally wants to find checkpoints which only have a single way in, and are blocked off on the other three sides.  This way the player can shoot gang members one at a time, as soon as they come into view.
  • The player can leave the car on the sidewalk so that if hostile gangsters close to the car, it is possible to shoot it and blast them at once.
  • A sniper rifle can be useful to take out enemies a distance away so it should noted that Carl wouldn't have to exchange gunfire nearby with them as its possible to lose health or armor in the process.

Defending Grove Street Territory

After taking over territory, while the rival gangs are still a force, they will periodically attempt to take territory back from Grove Street Families.

When territory is attacked by an enemy gang, the area flashes red on the map, and an icon will flash on the in-game radar. Carl will also receive a pop-up warning of the attack.

Enemy gangs will only attack one territory at a time. Furthermore, enemy gangs will attack GSF territory only when following conditions are met:

  1. Attacking gang controls at least one territory;
  2. GSF territory is adjacent to the attacking gang territory.

If Carl does not go to defend the territory, after a period of time it would be lost to the attacking gang, and respect would be drained. Once at the site of the attack, there will be one or more enemy gang vehicles blocking the road and a single (though sometimes large) wave of enemy gang members that need to be killed. Beware that some enemy gangs are equipped with a Shotgun that would likely lead to a hazardous and fatal result. Health and armor pick-ups will spawn in the area, just as they would during a takeover attempt.

There are three ways to avoid defending without losing that territory:

  1. Save at a safehouse. (Not recommended as this can cause damage to the game files.)
  2. Commence a side mission, such as Paramedic.
  3. Become wasted or busted.





Unlocking More Territory


Gang Color
Ballas Purple
Grove Street Families Green
Los Santos Vagos Yellow
Varrios Los Aztecas Turquoise
San Fierro Rifa Dark Blue
San Fierro Triads Red
Da Nang Boys Orange
Italian Mafia Gray (no territories on the map)

If Carl controls a plane and flies east or west for 15 or more minutes, then crash the plane in the water and let CJ drown, there will be more Gang Territory unlocked all over San Andreas after re-spawning at a hospital. This also works in a boat or in a car with the drive on water cheat activated.


It is possible to use this method to unlock more territory. As noted above, make sure Carl's dating Katie Zhan before attempting this glitch.

Can't trigger turf war


Territory of rival gangs besides the Ballas and Vagos made available by the aforementioned Unlocking More Territory method cannot be taken over, even if enough Ballas and Vagos members are killed in the territory to trigger a gang war.

Other gangs attacking the Grove territory

The player can make the Varrios Los Aztecas or any other gang, attack Grove Street territory. For example, first, wait for some Ballas to attack the hood. When one of the Grove's territory is attacked, lure 3 Ballas gangbangers into El Corona or Little Mexico, and kill them there. Then drive to the attacked hood. Blue points will appear on the map, either GlendalesBroadways or Hermes blocking the turf and Aztecas attacking it.

Enemy gang members spawn underwater


Pedestrian Glitch



  • The smallest territory of the game is located in Temple, this consists of a 24/7.
  • Taking over many territories in a row will result in Total Respect stat bar going out of the box. It can be seen by the green bar shows how much respect Carl has "picked".
  • When recruiting gang members while the player has a two star wanted level or more, CJ will tend to shout more and use insults (for example, he might say something like "Are you gonna put in work or be a punk ass bitch?" when the player recruits a new gang member whilst having a higher wanted level).
  • If the player attains a three-star wanted level or more and then provoke a gang war, Police Mavericks can still spawn and attack on the player during the battle with the rivals despite the wanted level being reset. Destroying them before the battle ends does not affect the wanted level, however.

See Also



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