Saints Row: The Third is either one of the easiest games in the franchise (only surpassed by its sequel in that respect) or one of the hardest (only its predecessor is harder). Stuff like this, well... this is more or less what makes SR3 fall in the former category. Especially once you gain a proper foothold in Steelport. So to wit...
Weapons
- Incendiary ammo for the TEK Z-10 SMG. It instantly sets everyone it hits on fire, continues to deal damage even if target is incapacitated, enemies set on fire start running around making other enemies catch fire as well (except for Brutes, which attack as normal, but are still damaged by fire). It also functions as a Disk One Nuke, as it's very easy to upgrade an SMG since it only requires spending around $40,000 and can be done before any mission in Steelport (with some money gathering). Since it's an SMG, it has high rate of fire, large magazine, large ammo reserve and, later in game, can be dual wielded. The only downside is that you can also catch fire, but much later, with your Respect level around 46 or 47, you can buy total immunity to fire damage, eliminating the only real downside of incendiary ammo.
- To a lesser extent, the .45 Shepard. Once you pay a measly amount to bring it to Level 2 to make its fire rate not painfully slow, is quite a potent weapon at little cost, with very common ammunition, since one headshot is enough to down most mooks, it still hurts Specialists and Brutes quite a bit with said headshots and can be dual-wielded much sooner than SMGs. By comparison, the KA-1 Kobra fires much faster initially but deals noticeably less damage when even the mooks don't die from single headshots. And when you upgrade the Shepard all the way to Level 4 and obtain the exploding bullets, you find it's surprisingly effective at taking out vehicles, especially those pesky helicopters.
- The Reaper Drone and Airstrike. The Reaper Drone is unlocked during the Saints' first mission in Steelport and can utterly destroy anything in the game with just a few hits. The only real downsides are its strict ammo limit and the fact Boss is left wide open while using it. The Airstrike isn't given to the player until about the halfway point in the game, but once they have it it makes outdoor missions MUCH easier. Best of all, it doesn't leave the Boss helpless while firing like the Reaper Drone does. Just aim, put the trigger, and run out of the attack radius. Even at the lowest level both these weapons wreak absolute destruction upon foot soldiers and unarmored vehicles, making gang operations and survival missions almost insultingly easy.
- The D4TH Blossom SMG when fully upgraded, can depopulate vehicles with ridiculous ease, ignore the riot shields on some enemies, and at the same time does more damage per shot and shoots faster than the other SMG, the TEK Z-10. The only downside is that it shoots too fast and will likely run the player dry if they don't control themselves with ammo.
- The Penetrator and liberal use of the run/roll and special attack buttons means that a savvy player can roll, run or rampage on a group in no time. This is great when you have barely any ammo during survival and are just waiting to use the heavy stuff for the brutes (and this is only to kill them off quicker than the micro damage done by melee).
- Level 4 Molotov Cocktails have the uncanny ability to one-shot most vehicles instantly, making them more like RPG rounds you can throw in an arc.
Vehicles
- Get the Challenger tank delivery upgrade, and you can suddenly fend off entire armies of rival gang members without a sweat. Even Brutes become nothing to fear with its fast-firing main cannon and a machine gun that's just as powerful as their miniguns, but never runs out of ammo. You can even turn standard Mayhem into Tank Mayhem with it and rack up the damage goal in no time!
- On a related note, if you use the infamous Rim Jobs glitch (mentioned below in Good Bad Bugs), you can turn much of Trafficking into a cakewalk by taking any variant of the N-Forcer (particularly the Saints N-Forcer, which is a snazzy Saints variant that you get after the third mission in the game if you have all of the DLC or The Full Package), souping its stats up to the max, parking it around the corner from the starting point, getting out of the Dealer's initial car, and then getting into your N-Forcer. The only downside is that the N-Forcer's turret can overheat, but at least it's better than getting constantly blown up on the harder Instances or running out of ammo. Especially since even if you've got unlimited ammo for all of your weapons, the only thing that will even have that at all times is your starting pistol, which is usually the KA-1 Kobra.
- If one has the above DLC, the player can also bring the Saints Crusader tank into Trafficking missions instead. This puts the Boss behind the same the of same Wave-Motion Gun that's on the F-69, which does massive amounts of damage with no overheating. The only real disadvantages are that your driver will keep banging the tank into walls when trying to drive around corners, and enemies will start packing rocket launchers. Even though they usually miss when driving, the Crusader can easily take several hits without much damage for this to be a major issue.
- Combine that with the famous garage glitch and you can make the tank virtually indestructable enough to survive a full Trafficking mission on hard before it even starts smoking. And the hundreds of enemies, vehicles and Brutes killed in mission will provide enough respect points that it's all but guarenteed the Boss will level up at least once every time.
- The larger vehicles like flatbeds and semis are usually fairly innocuous and innocent...unless they've been upgraded to have maximum durability, at which point activating the nitrous will cause enough vehicle damage to instantly take out other vehicles, turning them into short-lived tanks. Add in enhanced bumpers at they practically become rocket-propelled bulldozers.
Upgrades/Other
- You can buy immunity to a number of damage types, especially bullets. While you do need a really high Respect level (around 47 or 48) to even get the opportunity to buy it, the game is a cakewalk after that, save for the mission where you kidnap Josh Birk where it suddenly doesn't work, or anything that relies on keeping a vehicle intact, since you still die if it explodes before you get out. Yes, even with immunity to explosions.
- Oleg Kirrlov, once he's available as a homie after Act 1. You know how Brutes are a pain in the ass to fight? Now imagine having one on your team this time. Just try not to accidentally hit him (which can happen too easily if he charges at the same guy you're trying to kill), or else he'll leave and likely turn against you.
- The Notoriety Wipe consists of two upgrades that unlock the ability to ask for a complete reset in the Wanted Meters (there's one upgrade for the police meter and one for the gang's one). Once bought, the Notoriety Wipe can be used anytime. Most of the Vehicle Theft's difficulty comes from the game ramping up the player's notoriety once the target is stolen, forcing either the police or one gang (depending on the vehicle) to actively chase the player until the stolen vehicle is delivered to its destination. Did we mention the Notoriety Wipe can be used anytime? Yes, it includes "during a Vehicle Theft"; resetting the Notoriety Meter also results in the opposition stopping to chase you, which turns what is intended to be a high-adrenaline car chase into a very easy fetch quest.
DLC
- These DLC packs infamously made the game so ridiculously easy that quite a number of players advise new players to disable them to get any semblance of challenge:
- The "Unlockable Pack" gives the player access to all rewards in the story regardless of choices made... right at the start of the game. This means that the player gets the Apocafists, Killbane's Mask, AND a STAG city takeover before STAG even shows up!
- The "Bloodsucker Pack" gives the player bonuses to all cash AND respect earned which makes the early parts of the game insanely easy. It also changes the player's Neck Snap move into a neck bite that fully restores their health, which means that as long as a mook (or even just a normal citizen) is nearby it's pretty much impossible to run out of health. To top it all off this DLC is one of the cheapest available at only a couple of bucks.
- The "Special Ops" vehicle pack grants access to military-grade vehicles, such as the Tank and VTOL, right out of the starting gate (so long as there's access to a garage and heliport), well before the STAG forces show up with said technology. These armored nightmares can be used to cheese through certain missions or are just handy to get around with.
- The "Invincible Pack" does this ON PURPOSE! All it adds are several cheat codes ranging from classics like God Mode and unlimited clips all the way up to things like Super Saints (stronger homies) and bigger explosions!
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