- Cortez: "Gracias, amigo. Hasta luego."
- Tommy: "Adios, amigo."
- ―Tommy bids farewell to Colonel Cortez
All Hands On Deck! is the final mission in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City given to protagonist Tommy Vercetti by retired army colonel Juan Cortez from his boat docked in Ocean Bay Marina in Ocean Beach, Vice City.
Mission
The French secret service has discovered that Cortez sent the courier (in Mall Shootout) to steal the missile technology guidance chips, and now they want them back. Cortez, however, wants to keep them and so is escaping Vice City on his yacht. He asks Tommy for assistance. The boat leaves dock, with French secret servicemen firing from the docks and four boats following the yacht. Tommy fights them off and then more gunmen on Dinghys. The yacht reaches a bridge, which is blocked by more boats. More servicemen are also climbing on board, but Tommy again manages to defeat them. The French then attack with two Maverick helicopters and then a Hunter, with Tommy destroying all three. When in the open sea, Cortez asks Tommy to keep an eye on Mercedes and gives Tommy a speedboat to return to Vice City. Despite being told to keep the speedboat as a gift, there is no way to actually save the speedboat as there is no 'garage' for boats, but it will respawn where Cortez's yacht used to be.
Mission Objectives
In order to complete the mission the player must:
- Defend the Colonel and his yacht at all costs.
- Get up front and clear the route for the Colonel's yacht.
- Shoot down the helicopters, do not endanger the yacht.
- Shoot the attacking helicopter out of the sky.
Post mission phone call
Kent Paul: Alright, Tommy, it's Paul. I just heard from a mush that you've been a real naughty boy. Somebody has taken offense to you acting like the big guy all of a sudden, giving it the big shot thing. Well, don't say I never warned you or nothing. Boasting is a mug's game, son. Anyway, I heard there's some price been put on your head and someone's going to have a crack at you, so watch yourself, and remember me, mate.
Reward
The reward for completing the mission is $ 5,000 and a Speeder, which cannot be saved, but will re-spawn where Cortez's yacht used to be.
Obtaining the Black Washington
The French Secret service arrive in black Washingtons at the start of the mission, which can easily be confused with FBI Washingtons. These are unique to the mission, and there are two methods for obtaining them.
Method 1 (confirmed on PC)
- Once the mission starts, quickly kill Cortez's four men. This is recommended in order to prevent unwanted French casualties.
- Go downstairs to the first storey of the Yacht, and stand next to the entrance at the left. French agents on the left side should be coming in a Speeder and a Rio.
- Shoot the driver of the Speeder in the head. Now that the boat is out of control, the Rio will push it towards the Yacht, and Tommy will be able to get into the Speeder (just press the "enter vehicle" button as the boat is nearby and he will teleport in it; there's no need to manually jump on it). If this doesn't work, kill Cortez to fail the mission and repeat the process.
- Use the Speeder to reach the Ocean Bay Marina, and go to the black Washington at the entrance of Pier 1 but don't enter the vehicle yet, otherwise it will disappear since it is too far from the mission's start point.
- Use Tommy's body to push the Washington to a decent distance towards the start point at Pier 2, and enter the car (or any other vehicle nearby). This cause the mission to fail (with the game stating that Cortez has died), and Tommy will re-spawn at the entrance of Pier 2, with the Washington available next to him.
- Get to the Washington and save it in a safehouse garage.
Method 2 (confirmed on IOS port)
- Once the mission starts, immediately kill Cortez.
- The mission will obviously fail, but the player must quickly move to the marker in order to restart the mission. This must be done before the retry popup shows up. If this step failed return to step one.
- After the mission has been restarted, the game may jump to the pause menu, just tap resume. Then commit suicide by jumping into water.
- A bug will occur here. Tommy will respawn at the nearest hospital, but the mission is not failed. Go to where the French parked their Washingtons. Do not enter any vehicle from now on, or else Tommy must return to step one.
- Use Tommy's body to push one Washington towards the mission start point. Get close, but not too close.
- Now enter any vehicle besides the Washington.
- This will cause the mission to fail, and the player should refuse to retry. This is because any vehicle entered before, if entered after the mission has failed, will cause Tommy unable to exit unless vehicle is destroyed/Tommy is arrested. Once the mission is failed, the player appears outside of a vehicle right before the starting point, the Washington is still there if done correctly.
Trivia
- The French Secret service that attack the player are the same model as a pedestrian that is seen throughout the city.
- The player receives a katana at the start of the mission. If they don't have a submachine gun or an assault rifle in their inventory, they will receive an Uzi and/or a Ruger as well.
- Cortez's Speeder is shown as having a red primary body color when being lowered in the sea, but the Speeder the player is in after the mission is white.
- Three boats were used by the French agents. The moving boats are Dinghies. The blocking boats at the bridge are Tropics and Marquis. At the start they steal other boats though.
- Even if all of Cortez's sidekicks are killed, they will still be heard saying lines such as "Port side! Port side!" and "Oh, shoot the helicopter!".
- If the player manages to go to the ground, they can see that streets are empty (the only NPCs present are clerks at Ammu-Nation and other stores). As such, wanted level is disabled.
- The doors of the secret service's helicopters are locked, and if the player shoots a pilot in the head, the helicopter will spin out of control and explode, therefore making them impossible to obtain.
- The Hunter used in the mission never uses its rockets.
- This is the only time in the game when Cortez appears out of cutscenes.