Paper Trail -can save up to ~45 seconds

The less obvious: -Don't spam a skip cutscene input until the cutscene begins to fade in (you could bypass the scene and softlock the mission) -It takes 43 seconds for the mission to fail after skipping the cutscene -Don't get too close to the road when calling the police (this can block the spawns) -If you're too close to Jacob's heli when the mission fails, you'll have to watch a cutscene before receiving the restart mission text (the radius reaches nearly to the point where the backup cop usually comes to a stop, so be careful) -The optimal way to handle the computer section is to wait on the 2nd option on the first screen, press UP ARROW when you hear the beep, press ENTER, then use W or S to move to your target selection, then PRESS AND HOLD ENTER -The cop car that you're using the computer in will be permanently locked once you respawn and it will be waiting where you left it, unless it's sitting where Niko spawns in at (in that case, it will despawn) -Controlling Niko while unable to see isn't as easy as it may look (PRACTICE!) -The yellow GPS line appears the very moment you can drive the car (this is when you should let go of ENTER, starting the vigilante mission) -Never hold any other keys (W or S) when letting go of ENTER (if you're holding W, the selection can move up one slot, you'll then have to let go of W for your selection to process, and if you're holding S, the selection will can move down one slot, in either case you'll be forced to select the highlighted slot) -If all of your vigilante locations are bad, you absolutely have to enter the police car and drive down to the heli before letting go of ENTER (the bad vigilante locations don't give you enough time, driving to the heli will distance you from all of these locations, thus giving you enough time) -NEVER PICK 'GRUMMER ROAD', even if you're driving and holding (criminal target spawns can literally be next to the heli, some vehicle target spawns can as well) -If all three of the vigilante locations are for 'Grummer Road', pick a vehicle target (if you don't have a vehicle target, pick a gang activity (multiple targets)) -The game will crash if you enter the heli after reaching your vigilante target (even if you pass or fail the vigilante mission) -The optimal cop car exit is ~10-20 meters from the gate -To spawn under the map, you must hold 'pitch forward' (left analogue stick in the forward position OR Numpad 8 ) as soon as Niko starts to enter the heli. Then, wait to skip the cutscene with 'throttle up' (A or X on the controller OR W) and hold 'throttle up' as soon as the cutscene starts to fade out (hold 'pitch forward' the entire time) -Spawning above the map is less optimal due the time it takes to reach the target heli's radius (not a huge deal, unless your timer is short for some reason) -Call someone after entering the target's radius to block the next set of dialogue between Niko and Jacob (hang up this call as soon as the mission passes, though sometimes it won't work, try holding the hang up input to get it to work and/or let go of throttle up and then press the input) -There are many good places to descend into the void, so find one that you're comfortable with -If you don't practice this strat at least 50 times, you're asking for trouble

-Scenario 1: The vigilante mission fails while inside of the target's radius. Fly away from the target heli to despawn it and pass the mission. -Scenario 2: The vigilante mission fails while outside of the target's radius, but you've spawned the target in. Continue to fly towards the target until you've entered its radius. Then, fly away to despawn it and pass the mission. -Scenario 3: The vigilante mission fails while outside of the target's radius, and you haven't spawned the target in. The mission is softlocked. -Scenario 4: You fly into the target's radius, then exit it's radius before the vigilante mission fails. If you don't turn back quickly, you'll fail the mission. -Scenario 5: The vigilante mission fails, you're inside the target's radius, Jacob exits the heli due to descending too low into the void or due to simply getting too close to a surface. The target hasn't despawned, you begin flying away from both the target and Jacob. The game crashes due to getting too far away from Jacob before the mission passes.

The current list of possible vigilante locations:

Pick from: Columbus Vauxite Ivy Drive Vespucci Union Drive Topaz

Never pick: Grummer Boleyn Exeter Frankfort Galveston (this location seems to always reset the "Please re-enter your cop car before failing" timer once it hits 0 seconds)

Another way to do this (riskier)