Final Missions

Settling the Score

This is it.

#69 — Ghost Hide

In the intro cutscene to this mission Mickey asks Joey about the point of working for other gangs. Joey explains that he wanted to beat Toni to the punch of trying to sway them to either side. Mickey admits that it's a good idea and Joey, in turn, asks him if he's got any info about Toni's whereabouts. Luigi interjects himself into the conversation and announces that he's learned of a place that Toni is using as a hideout for his loyalists: it's a building located in an abandoned village north of Shoreside Vale. If you haven't gone for all hidden packages, chances are you haven't tried exploring the tunnels since they've been blocked off in III. No such thing in Frosted Winter, as those tunnels lead to Ghost Town, a literally abandoned part of Liberty City (mostly because it's apparently hell to script pedestrian nodes, so nothing spawns there organically and the mod excuses this by Ghost Town being an abandoned city expansion project). Anyway, if Toni has a safehouse there (along with a stash of guns and money), we're gonna have to clear it out.

This is the longest mission of the mod. Unlike in previous cases, the length isn't just in the distance we have to travel, it's also in the amount of objectives. With no checkpoints along the way, I'd say don't expect yourself to beat it on your first try (that being said, don't let me discourage you!) and be prepared to spend anywhere between 10 to 20 minutes on just this one job. Make sure you're topped out on health and armor too, in case of any surprises.

"Ghost Hide" starts by asking us to get over to the tunnels in Cedar Grove, which I don't even need to point out that it's quite a long drive from the Leone Mansion. Once you get there, carefully drive past the barricade into Ghost Town using the eastern tunnel that normally leads into Upstate Liberty. Keep in mind that nothing will spawn organically past the entrance to the tunnel, so make sure to drive carefully and avoid flipping your car unless you don't mind running excruciatingly long distances on foot. When you pull up next to Toni's hideout, you'll get a cutscene explaining your next steps: kill all of Toni's men, then steal their stash of weapons and money using the Walton parked in the back area...

PSYCHE! In a turn of events I genuinely consider one of Frosted Winter's coolest ideas, you are ambushed and surrounded by Toni's men while still inside the cutscene. It's a rug pull which I quite honestly enjoy; you're presented with a set of objectives, only for the situation to drastically change within the same cutscene, which is usually the "safe" time for the player. We see Leo exit the building and order his men to get Joey out of the car.

The action cuts to Joey in a dead end inside an abandoned coal mine. He makes threats to Leo, who laughs them off and smugly announces that Joey won't get his revenge. Toni's crew are to bring some explosives to the mine and detonate them, leaving Joey to die under the collapsed rocks. As Leo takes off to inform his boss about Joey's capture and imminent death, he leaves us to the two goons with pistols. All our weapons have been taken away, leaving us unarmed against two chumps who will start shooting once we try to get out of this dead end. Due to the mod's scripting your fist might not respond to you pressing the attack button — if this is the case, use your weapon switch button and the fist should work again.

This will get clunky: you need to get out of the mine, and while the path to the exit is actually straight-forward, said exit is guarded by two goons with AKs. Your best bet here is to place yourself in one line with the two goons with pistols and attack the one closer to you while using him as a meat shield for the other one's pistol, then loot the guns from their corpses. Ignore the game offering you a side path and head straight ahead, following the minecart tracks. Watch out for one more guy with a pistol on one of the side paths. Take out the guards using your pistol, then head into the staircase they were guarding and keep heading up to leave the mine.

That was one hell of a situation... but the mission is not over yet. Joey is dead set on actually wiping out everyone in that hideout. However, your health and ammo might not be too hot after all of what just transpired. There are two cars parked in front of the entrance to the mine; these are the only ones you can get in this part of the map. You don't fail the mission for leaving Ghost Town without completing the objective, so if you don't mind the additional time investment, you can very well return to Liberty City and refuel your health, armor, and weaponry, then return to the hideout. I'd actually advise against using the RPG here, as you can potentially destroy the Walton and fail the mission, which can be disheartening after all this time.

Once you've killed everyone in the hideout, the last thing to do is to drive the Walton with the stash back to the Leone Mansion. Preferably very carefully since it'd be pretty silly to flip it on the way back, when there aren't any threats anymore. Do this, and you're done with what was arguably the mod's meanest mission.

Reward: $10,000

#70 — Holy Tribulation

Joey asks Luigi if he's seen Mickey anywhere (which I've heard is a very good way to subtly indicate your favourite son). Luigi doesn't know, but announces that he's got some intel: Toni's lieutenants (or generals, apparently) are holding a meeting in the Staunton Island church and they're likely scheming about a hit on Joey. Naturally, being the badass that he is, our protagonist decides to bring the party to them and show up there to personally derail their plans.

Indeed, when we arrive at the cathedral, we see Leo and five other generic looking Mafia goons at the altar. Leo calls us a son of a bitch, presumably for having escaped the mines, while the other goons don't share his bravado and express that they would much rather run away. Three of them decide to do so while Leo and the other two dorks decide to stand their ground as Joey taunts them that they can run, but they won't be able to hide from him.

Once the cutscene ends, immediately jump to the side and crouch behind the seats (finally that Q key comes in somewhat useful!). We get a "miniboss" fight here, with Leo taking the center and the other two generals standing to his sides. Be aware that the trio at the altar are not the only people shooting at you — you also need to watch out for a few goons trying to sneak up on you from behind. The altar generals are armed with AKs while Leo is carrying an M16 and a cubic shitton of health. Stay crouched and only peek out for less than a second to shoot your enemies. If you have M16 ammo, it's a good idea to stay in cover and use the first person aim to eliminate everyone around.

Once you've dealt with everyone inside the church, you'll have to chase down the remaining three generals. You're not actually pressed for time though, there is no timer on Joey's thirst for revenge. The first general will simply drive around in a panic around Staunton Island without a clear destination. The second general will try to hide behind boxes in the basement of one of the buildings in Fort Staunton, where the mod spawns one of the hidden packages. The final general is fleeing towards the pier between Callahan Bridge and Kenji's Casino, where he will take a speedboat to the Statue of Liberty. If you're exceptionally quick with your reaction time, you can kill everyone in the church, quickly head out to the main street to the east to kill the roaming general, and then steal a car and head towards the Casino to kill the statue-bound general before he enters the speedboat — and the Fort Staunton general isn't hard to reach at all so it's, like, whatever.

Second finale mission done! The next time you'll be doing a mission marked with a J on the radar, it'll be the final one!

Reward: $10,000

#71 — Two Kings in Little Italy

We start the final mission with a... surprisingly good movie-like camera framing of the Leone Family talking to each other at the Mansion while Joey stares off into the distance, lost in his thoughts. As Mickey approaches, Joey tells him that he can sense Toni still plotting to destroy him. Mickey responds by saying that what the family's talking about is actually the info they've managed to obtain about Toni's whereabouts. This immediately captures Joey's attention, who decides to join the discussion and hear what his men have to say. Luigi says that the Bitch'n' Dog Food Factory had been turned into a warehouse after the death of its owner a year ago, in the standard III. Leone intel suggests that Toni is using it as his base of operations. Joey immediately says that it makes sense since it's fairly under the radar and manages to be painfully close to the mansion. With that info in our possession, we decide that it's finally time to put Toni down. Stock up on armor, health, and guns if you haven't already — no occasion better than the final mission, after all.

Once you arrive at the warehouse, you'll be attacked by three lightly armed goons, which is an interesting choice for the final mission. I suggest that you switch to the Tec since it lets you shoot while on the move. Once you put down the three jokers, it's time to enter the factory-turned-warehouse... which doesn't seem grandiose enough to be the setting for a final boss... and after entering the marker we get a cutscene where the only people inside turn out to be two ordinary goons...

...because the whole thing was a setup! We've been betrayed by Mickey! He tells Joey that he has played his role well, but it has come to an end and so must his life. When Joey asks what that's supposed to mean, Mickey reveals that the plan from the get-go was for Joey to lay the foundation for a criminal empire that Toni could steal from him, much like he did with the "original" Leone Family at the start of the story. All of Mickey's advice to us was always in Toni's service and we've been getting manipulated to either unwillingly serve up an empire that could be taken over, or get killed while trying, with Mickey actually never having been on our side... though he himself claims he hasn't exactly been working with Toni here. Or something. It makes sense in the moment and makes for good drama, but one could argue that some of these moves weren't really useful to anyone but Joey no matter how you try to spin the situation. Either way, after Mickey says that Toni's already retaken our mansion, his next step is to try and make us disappear — and we're obviously not going to stand for that.

When the cutscene finishes, you'll instantly be fired upon by all 5 enemies in the warehouse. Once Joey gets up after the shotgun blast, quickly flee into cover, preferably behind the stack of wood that the first two goons were hiding behind. The four Mafia members are easily dispatchable — it's Mickey who's the real threat here. Much like Leo in the previous finale mission, he's got a disgusting amount of health. Unlike Leo, he will not stand in place and will, in fact, chase after you. Thankfully the aforementioned stack of wood gives us line of sight without exposing us to Mickey here, so use it as cover as you unload bullets into him.

Once we survive this death trap, a cutscene shows cop cars closing in at the scene in response to the shootout. We are given two wanted stars, which sounds silly but can very quickly escalate into more if we keep shooting cops. Be careful as you leave the warehouse as there's a Mafia goon with a shotgun waiting for you just barely out of sight. You can use the wooden pallets inside the building as improvised cover to take out the guy with the power of your shots coming out of your crosshair. After that, you have two more losers with shotguns out in the open and two goons with AKs guarding the exit gate. Your next objective is to storm the Leone Mansion again, though I wholeheartedly recommend losing the cops and replenishing your health and armor first.

The very first thing you'll notice is that the Mafia in Saint Mark's is already hostile against us all over again. Thankfully this effect will go away once we finish the mission — and there's precisely one last prick separating us from that! The assault on the mansion is a smaller size version of the one from mission #52, "Home Sweet Home", but the same advice applies: approach from the rocky shelf to be able to ignore random spawns on the street and pick off the enemies one by one.

We arrive mere seconds too late to save Luigi, who gets gunned down by Toni before our very eyes while trying to run away. Toni scoffs at Mickey for his failure to kill us, and when Joey says that he'll make Toni pay for everything he's done to the family, he basically pulls a "no u" and taunts us one last time. Joey runs back a bit to avoid another situation of coming out of a cutscene straight into enemy fire, and our last objective appears on screen: "Finish off Toni!". Though additional goons start pouring out of the mansion to help Toni, our only objective here is Toni himself, who does not put up much of a fight, especially if you treat him to a burst from the M16 and end up ripping off one of his limbs or scoring a headshot.

The very moment Toni's health reaches 0, we are thrown into a cutscene of Joey stating his ultimate victory and his earned role of the Don of the Leone Family out loud... and that's the end of the main plot of Frosted Winter!

Rewards:
— Story completed;
— Callahan Bridge gets repaired;

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