Ron, Trevor, and Survivals

You should easily recall the details of Ron, Trevor, and their company -- it played a major role in the plot for the single-player story-mode of Grand Theft Auto V. You did play the single-player story-mode? Right? I mean, you know, right?

Since we cannot assume that you did, in fact, play through the game and are fully aware of what that sub-story consists of, we should probably cover that here...

The Trevor Sub-Plot

Ron and Trevor, both Elders in the Mormon Church, are sent to Africa to share the Book of Mormon with the natives, and there they find that the natives have in fact experienced just this sort of thing before and the results were nowhere near as promising as they were made to believe. Now they pretty much curse God for all the bad things that happen.

Bad things happen. So instead of succeeding in their quest to spread the Book of Mormon, Ron and Trevor are taught to cook Meth by the natives, and then return to San Andreas where they go into business for themselves as extraordinary meth cooks, in the sleepy community of Sandy Shores, on the Alamo Sea.

Their business is soon targeted by lifeguards who, wearing skimpy red swimming costumes and carrying large orange float devices, go to war with the pair by turning into different types of cars and farm machinery.

Their leader, Mitch Buchannon, who is also known as Decepticon, moves to Germany where he becomes a pop star, while Trevor takes his place as the head lifeguard and soon has all the other lifeguards moving his product.

Now as none of that is true -- it is basically a combination of the plots for the stage show Book of Mormon, the TV shows Baywatch, and Transformers, and a few snippets from Breaking Bad, we now know you did NOT play the single-player story-mode, and shame on you!

By not playing through the story mode you missed what is clearly some of the best dialogue work and writing in a video game. Ever.

The character of Trevor appears to be an insane and over-the-top psychopath on the surface, but in fact is not insane at all -- what he has is more of a condition of poor impulse control, and a willingness to do the things that make him feel good, while at the same time confronting himself with the truth that the things he does -- some of which are really evil -- are in fact simply what seems right and a good idea at the time.

Take for example his need to dispose of the (still living) movie star who is locked in the boot of the car he is driving. He does not really want to kill the man, but recognizes that circumstances have put him in a position in which he really and truly has no choice. The man has seen all their faces and, contrary to his promises not to tell the police if Trevor would just release him, will in fact go straight to the police were Trevor so dumb as to let him go.

Cause and effect. About now those of you who have actually played the game are nodding your heads and saying to yourself, yes, that pretty much sums up Trevor, while those of you who have NOT played the single-player story-mode are sitting there wondering why ANY of this is important?

The answer is that it is important BECAUSE this is the point in the game in which you unlock the Survivals Mode!

The Survivals Mode

Trevor Philips is the perfect character to introduce you to the Survivals because his entire mindset is focused around the entire philosophy of self-preservation and survival!

When you show up at his trailer in Sandy Shores he rips you a new ******* -- verbally -- and then orders you to get your *** out there and fix the mess that you made in the meth production and distribution empires that dominate the underground economy of the area!

Now forget for a moment that you are being scape-goated and that not ALL of the problems were created by you... What he is referring to is the first mission that we played in the Tutorial in which we diverted the package of drugs by the way, but still that is small fry compared to all of the other Events.

At this point, having been thrown out of the trailer you simply get in your car and drive around until you get another call from Ron, who tells you that his buddy is being attacked and asks you to help, at which point the target icon is added to your map.

Head to the location and you will then engage in your first Survivals Job. Once you complete it the full Survivals System will unlock in your game -- it is possible to have unlocked five or so that are directly accessible on the map before this, but the Host/Join Survivals Jobs will still be locked until you complete this part of the limited story mode for GTAO and actually get the call from Ron on your phone.

You do not actually have to head to the nearby icon for the Survivals Job - the Job type has now been unlocked and you can do them at your leisure -- we just wanted to be sure you understood the route that you have to take to fully unlock that Job and activity in the game! So well done you!