Sunday, July 20th, 2008
Issue: 83   Editor: JamesDean


Safe houses? Bullet stoppers? Or a useless expense? luco
Safehouses were once considered the elite of protection. When in danger or a crew war broke out, the safe house was the place to be. However, in recent weeks, many questions have arisen as to what the safe house actually does. I took it upon myself to find out the pros and cons of this once greatly used tool.

The safe house is located on the Establishments page, when a user buys land he/she will have the option to buy either a 100 car garage or a safe house. Now for the most part, safe houses are regarded as the best option because you can make the most revenue from building itself, with the demand of players using the safe house to hide from enemies.

There are many rumours as to what the safe house does. Some say it’s a lottery if you find them, some say it takes 6 hours, some say it takes more bullets to kill, and some say it doesn’t help at all. So in my research I tested a number of scenarios. The first test was putting a Hitman in a neutral safe house, and doing a standard 4 hour search. Results were not what I expected. I found him, with a full hour left on the searches! Remarkable.

I, as the people who were helping me with the research, were perplexed. We discussed further, and came to the conclusion that rank was perhaps the reason. So, this time, I put a Godfather in. Did another 4 hour search, and, to my amazement, I found him, with 45minutes to spare. So, all in all, we can agree that safe houses are not the strongest of points when it comes to searches. So what about killings?

I managed to find a poor lad who would go in a safe house, and let me shoot at him. Brave guy; (this was also going to risk my 100% kill rate). So, the target went in, I searched for 6 hours, and found him with ease. The targets protection was a reinforced Duesenberg when entering the safe house, and so I shot for respective protection. Unbelievably; he died!

So, where does this leave us? There have been many rumours that safe houses do limit searches and require more bullets when a target is shot at. I, have witnessed this before, when a crew was taken over, everyone was hard kicked and shot. However, one person in the crew put himself in a safe house over night, as he thought a takeover may happen. Low and behold, he was hardkicked and shot at, but survived. So, does a safe house work in this circumstance alone or do you just have to be lucky to survive a kill? Unfortunately there is only so much testing someone can do.

I for one now know, not to go in a safe house. It just costs you money!