Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

I dedicated some time to unlocking this achievement earlier and I was checking my progress in the "territories taken over" category in the Gangs section of my Stats to see how many territories I had left to take over.

When I got to 19 territories taken over, the achievement popped for me. After checking the Gangs tab again, under "territories held", the number 30 was there. With that being said, it seems that you don't necessarily have to take over 30 territories, but have 30 territories under your control at one single time.

As an example, this means that you cannot take over 14 territories early on and then finish up the final 16 later on in the game, as it's not a cumulative counter over time.

My tactics to accomplish this feat consisted of taking a lot of cover (by crouching down behind things) and funneling enemies in through a tight space (like an alleyway or a driveway with high fences on both sides of it). My go-to weapons were the Tec-9 (I used it so much clearing gang territories that I ended up attaining the dual wield version of it and since most of the gang members carried submachine guns with them, the ammo for this was replenished quite often) and an AK-47 (which a lot of gang members drop, which in turn supplies a lot of ammo for it). I always made sure that I had Body Armor on since a large group of enemies were able to kill me fairly quick without it. Body Armor and Hearts (which replenish Health) are dropped pretty often during each battle, so it's best to scavenge the battleground between waves to stock up on ammo, health, or body armor. I also had "lock on" targeting mode on (which you can toggle on or off by going to the "game" section under Options) and after I would target an enemy and kill him, C.J. would quickly target any nearby enemies, making it easy to kill three or four gang members in one quick swoop since the targeting system snaps from target-to-target. I would also recommend saving at the nearest safe house after each territory battle for two reasons:

1. I always saved in close proximity to a gang territory so, if I were to die, I wouldn't have to travel that far when I reloaded the game (since being sent to the hospital sucks as it cuts off part of your cash).

2. Often, after I would take over a territory, another one somewhere on the map (that I owned) would start to be taken over. When I would save my game and exit my safe house, this territory would no longer be under attack and I would still be in control of it. In hindsight, this helped a lot, especially after I realized that I had to hold 30 territories at once to unlock the achievement.


The achievement is worded in an odd way, (as I was confused, myself) so I hope this clears the air a little bit. Just remember that the "territories held" subsection (under "Gangs" in the Stats menu) is your guideline for attaining this achievement.


Have a nice day!

If you are going 100% completion, I would wait until you are done with Las Venturas and return to Los Santos, Since you will lose any progress made before the "Green Sabre" mission. Additionally, you will have a higher health bar, better weapon proficiency, and copious amount of ammo by that time.

Once you complete the Sweet mission Doberman you will be able to take over gang territory.

To do so, head to a purple or yellow territory, and start killing gang members wearing those colours, 3 kills is usually enough to initiate a gang war, you then have to survive 3 waves of gang members.

Make use of the health and armour pickups, and use dropped weapons to your advantage, and you should be fine.

30 territories is about half of the available territories, so don't worry about capturing the tiny awkward ones, just go for the large, easy to get areas, and the Achievement should pop in no time.

You will not be able to start turf wars until the completion of the Sweet mission: doberman. Once you play this mission you will be able to take over rival gang territories marked with purple (Ballas) or yellow (Vagos). A short and simple tutorial will be given in the mission on how to take over hoods. If you're a not so good shot you may want to recruit some homies to come fight with you while taking over for extra firepower.

*Note after the completion of the final mission of chapter 1: the green sabre, you will not be able to have turf wars until chapter 6.

*Yes, another note: Kryten1029a has confirmed "You don't have to actually take over 30 territories. All that matters, is that you have 30 under your control. It popped for me after the 17th territory that I'd seized which just happened to my 30th total territory."