Not to be confused with Home In The Hills, a race in Grand Theft Auto Online, a race with a similar name.
- CJ: "Man...You gave your multi million-dollar mansion to a motherfucking pusher?"
- Madd Dogg: "You know, CJ. These things happen! I was powerless!"
- CJ: "You fucking degenerate! Ah, man! How much blow can one guy snort?!"
- —Carl Johnson and Madd Dogg argue after CJ finds out what happened to Dogg's mansion
A Home in the Hills is the last mission in the Las Venturas mission strand of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas and brings the player back to Los Santos. It is given to CJ by the rapper, Madd Dogg at The Four Dragons Casino.
Mission
Kendl, Carl and Woozie are in Woozie's office in the Four Dragons Casino, judging auditions for casino talent. After a while, Madd Dogg appears and tells everyone that he wants to returns to his mansion in Los Santos. However, it has been seized by the Los Santos Vagos, namely their leader Big Poppa, in exchange for drugs. Carl furiously questions Madd Dogg's decision then tells Woozie and Kendl to come with him as they return to Los Santos to reclaim Madd Dogg's crib, which CJ wishes to use as a new base of operations in Los Santos since Grove Street is no longer safe. The scene changes to him and a couple of Triad gang members seen in an Andromada plane, preparing to battle the Vagos as Carl receives a phone call from Kendl.
Kendl says she, Madd Dogg and Cesar have gone to San Fierro to see if everything is in place before returning to Los Santos. When the plane reaches its destination, the Triads and Carl all jump out, parachute to the helipad on the roof of Madd Dogg's mansion and kill all of the Vagos on the rooftop before the rest of the team arrives, including Guppy.
Once all the Vagos outside are dead, the team shoot their way inside the mansion and finally find Big Poppa. Guppy and another Triad secure the balcony and Carl's rear from more Vagos while Carl chases Big Poppa down through the mansion until they reach the exit, where Big Poppa enters his Phoenix and escapes with Carl following him in a pink Windsor. After a chase around the city, Carl kills Big Poppa and officially takes back the mansion for Madd Dogg.
Mission Objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Try to land on the mansion roof with the Triads
- Help keep the roof clear until the Triads arrive
- Take the Triads inside the mansion
- Search the mansion for Big Poppa and kill anyone who gets in your way
- Big Poppa is downstairs, take him out
- Big Poppa is making a run for it, chase after him
- Big Poppa has left the mansion, follow him
- Chase down Big Poppa and run him off the road
Deaths
- Big Poppa - Killed by Carl Johnson in order to take back Madd Dogg's Crib.
- Numerous members of the Los Santos Vagos - Killed by Carl Johnson and several members of the San Fierro Triads for getting in their way of chasing after and killing Big Poppa and taking back Madd Dogg's Crib.
- Numerous members of the San Fierro Triads - Killed by several members of the Los Santos Vagos.
Reward
The reward for completing this mission is increased respect and the mission Vertical Bird unlocking. The player can also use Madd Dogg's Crib as a safehouse, but beware of the basketball glitch that can occur.
Note: Madd Dogg's house does not offer a storage garage, so utilize the Mulholland Safehouse for storing vehicles (such as the newly acquired pink Windsor).
Tips
- In order to land on the roof, Carl has to deploy his parachute immediately after leaving the plane and enter the "tucked in" position taught during Pilot School that allows him to travel forward. The Triad parachutes can be seen below, but it is impossible to catch up to them. Try to land exactly on the helipad if possible, otherwise Carl could land next to enemies and take damage while equipping his weapon.
- Just as with Breaking the Bank at Caligula's, missing the roof with the parachute does not fail the mission, but Carl needs to quickly return to the roof of the mansion in order to prevent all the Triad men from being killed. In the event that the player does not manage to land on the helipad but near the house, the easiest thing to do is steal a nearby car from the road by the mansion and park it next to the house. By climbing on the hood of the car, the player can now climb up to the rooftop to join the Triads and continue the mission.
- When the message alerts the player that Big Poppa is running away, it's easier to catch up to and kill him before he runs out of the mansion. Doing so allows Carl to finish the mission right away and skips the roadside chase. However, many armed Vagos members are scattered throughout the home, so pursuing this method would mean running past them as stopping to get rid of them allows Big Poppa to escape the house.
- It should be noted that it is impossible to perform this trick in the PC version. If the player attacks Big Poppa when he comes out, he will not get hurt from the attacks, forcing the player to chase him all the way out of the mansion.
Glitches
- If the host computer is running around 1-10 frames per second, the Triads will miss the roof. However, another one will spawn on the roof if this happens.
Video Walkthroughs
Trivia
- Inside the mansion, a girl, who has the same pedestrian model as Denise Robinson, can appear. Killing her doesn't affect any progress with Denise whatsoever.
- During the mission, Madd Dogg says his mansion has 19 bedrooms, however the actual in-game model features only six.
- During the short cutscene in which the Triads and Carl enter the mansion, one of the Triads gets decapitated by an SMG shot, despite SMGs not being able to behead pedestrians during normal gameplay. This was probably done to show the player that the member was actually killed by a headshot.
- Humorously, the Triad's last words before being decapitated were "We're heavily outnumbered, but if we all keep our heads, we should kick ass!"
- Big Poppa's Phoenix is an extremely rare car and can be obtained by the player, despite the fact that the vehicle is locked in the mission. The player can block the Phoenix and kill Big Poppa to complete the mission. The vehicle can then be obtained by pushing it to a Pay 'n' Spray or to the nearby garage at the Mulholland Safehouse (sniping Big Poppa will make his body fall out if there is enough space for the driver's door to open, unlocking the Phoenix).
- Radio Los Santos can be heard inside the mansion.
- Bounce FM is the default radio station for the Windsor given during the mission, as opposed to the usual Master Sounds 98.3. The pink Windsor has a unique license plate which reads "J LOMAX". The player can keep the Windsor after the mission is completed.
- This is the second time the Andromada is seen in a cutscene, the first being Stowaway.
- While preparing to parachute from the plane, Carl will jump out of it automatically without being controlled by the player.
- If Carl fails to land on the roof of Madd Dogg's mansion, the mission will not be failed. Carl then needs to find an alternative route to it.
- Also, if Carl lands close to the mansion roof looking the same way to the Vagos as the Triads and shoots the Vagos from the grass to the left of the mansion, he can gain a 5-star wanted level without being detected by any cops and/or FBI agents (neither in Police Mavericks or News Choppers).
- For some reason, the parachute that the Triads have is unique, as it has a different shape, texture, and seems to be an altogether different parachute. This parachute is unobtainable through normal gameplay.
- Furthermore, the Triads land properly, unlike CJ, who always does the glitched diving animation when reaching the floor.
- After Big Poppa goes outside, the player can also exit the house through the other exit. The rest of the mission will be the same. (Tested on the IPad version)
- If Big Poppa dies before he exits the mansion, then the game soft-locks and the mission cannot be completed. The only way to exit this situation is to reload a save file or to die. Getting busted isn't an option since the wanted level is locked at zero stars. (Tested on Remastered PlayStation 3 version)
- The short person who auditions in front of Woozie, Carl and Kendl may be related to a ‘Carpenter Chris’ featured on the talk show ‘Lonely Hearts’ on WCTR who is roughly the same height and also constantly drunk.