8-Ball

Background

8-Ball is an explosives expert in Grand Theft Auto III and the first friend Claude makes in Liberty City. He is a skilled bomb-maker with a long criminal record and good contacts in the Leone family, and he runs a bomb shop at 8-Ball's Autoyard in Harwood, Portland.

Events of GTA III

8-Ball is being moved in the same police convoy as Claude when the Colombian Cartel ambushes it on the Callahan Bridge. His hands are badly burned in the attack, so Claude drives during their escape in Give Me Liberty. 8-Ball takes Claude to a hideout to change clothes and then introduces him to his friend Luigi Goterelli in Luigi's Girls, setting Claude on the path into the Leone family.

8-Ball's bomb shops become important through the rest of the game. In Mike Lips Last Lunch, Claude takes Mike Forelli's car there to fit a bomb. In Taking Out the Laundry he collects grenades from 8-Ball's autoyard, and in Blow Fish he drives off in the Trashmaster that 8-Ball rigged with explosives to destroy the Triad fish factory. Claude also uses the bomb shop to rig a police car in Kanbu Bust-out.

His biggest role comes in Bomb Da Base. Salvatore Leone wants the Cartel's SPANK ship in Portland Harbor destroyed. 8-Ball demands $100,000 for the explosives and then goes with Claude to the harbor. Because his hands are still too injured to hold a gun, he gives Claude a sniper rifle and plants the bombs while Claude covers him from the dockside. The ship is destroyed, and 8-Ball disappears from the main story afterwards.

Even after Bomb Da Base, 8-Ball's bomb shops stay open across Liberty City, letting Claude rig his own cars for the rest of the game. The bomb shop is also central to Kanbu Bust-out on Staunton Island.

Personality

8-Ball is laid-back, loyal and good-humoured. He is a professional who expects to be paid, as his price for the Bomb Da Base explosives shows, but he treats Claude as a friend and never betrays him. He is proud of his craft and confident around the mob.

8-Ball takes his work seriously and often jokes about his injured hands.

Relationships

• Claude: fellow escapee and friend, whom he introduces to the Leones.
• Luigi Goterelli: his friend in the Leone family.
• Salvatore Leone: a client who hires him to destroy the Cartel ship.

Trivia

• 8-Ball is voiced by Guru, the rapper from the hip-hop group Gang Starr.
• His bomb shops let Claude buy timed, ignition and remote car bombs; the remote bomb comes with a detonator.
• He also appears in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, set in 1998, where he works with Toni Cipriani.