Tear Gas

A Tear Gas canister in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Tommy Vercetti with Tear gas in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

"Semi-legal, highly dangerous way of causing crowd unrest."
-Vice City Bureau of Investigation file description.


In real life, tear gas is generally considered to be a non-lethal weapon, but in the world of GTA, it's anything but. Granted, it does take prolonged exposure to the gas to kill, but in confined spaces, this can be arranged. However, seeing as the gas causes people to stop what they are doing while they cover their face and cough, the most practical use for this weapon is to slow enemies down while the player is trying to escape or switch to another weapon.

In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, by deploying the Tear Gas too close to the player, he too, will lose health from the noxious gas, and the longer he stays there, the greater he loses his health, thus dying, much like other pedestrians (except in the iOS and Android versions of GTA Vice City, where the player remains undamaged, possibly due to a bug in the coding). In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Tear Gas can be used to attack pedestrians, while the player is unaffected (like in the iOS and Android versions of GTA Vice City) and can freely walk around the gas, until the smoke subsides. By dropping more Tear Gas, the smoke will be longer and any pedestrians or cops enters the smoke will be choked on by the toxic gas until finally dying. However, using a tear gas in a very populated area in San Andreas, such as the strip, will give a player a very high wanted level rather quickly. The gas lasts a long time, and if used in a crowd, the wanted level will just advance upwards, possibly even being able to give a player a 6-star wanted level if the grenades are used in succession.

The Tear Gas is not meant to be obtained in GTA Vice City (except for the original PS2 version), GTA Liberty City Stories, and GTA Vice City Stories. However, the weapon is fully functional and can be obtained only by using trainers or modifications.

Locations

GTA Vice City
  • Washington Beach - Behind the Washington Beach Police Station (original PS2 version only - grenade in other versions)
GTA San Andreas

Gallery

In-game model

HUD icons

Glitch

There is a glitch in GTA San Andreas involving the Tear Gas. After the Tear Gas is thrown into a crowd, the player can do a stealth move on one of the people in the gas. Everyone affected by the gas will undergo the same animation and die at the same time.



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Trivia

  • When you throw the Tear Gas at someone when they die, blood comes out like if you killed them with a gun or melee weapon.
  • While unobtainable outside of the original PS2 version of GTA Vice City, the Tear Gas still received a new weapon icon in the data for the mobile (iOS and Android) versions of the game, styled like the weapon icons in GTA III except colored blue and pink.