SyphonGames

Los Pantalones guide: story, gangs, money and losing the cops

Updated 1 November 2026

Los Pantalones is an open-world crime comedy set on an island city of eleven districts, from the Hemline riverside to Beltloop Airport. You arrive fresh off the bus with nothing, and work your way up by taking jobs from the people who run the place. This guide covers the controls, the story, how the gangs and the police react to you, and the fastest ways to make money.

Play Los Pantalones

The title card for chapter one, Fresh Off The Bus, over the city block by the bus station, with the minimap in the corner.
Los Pantalones on SyphonGames.

Controls

These are the defaults; every key can be changed in Settings. A gamepad works, and on a phone the controls appear on screen.

  • W A S D or the arrow keys: walk, or accelerate, brake, reverse and steer in a vehicle.
  • E or F: get in or out of a vehicle. Parked cars are easy; the driver of an occupied car gets pulled out.
  • Left click or left Ctrl: attack or shoot. Hold right click to aim. R reloads.
  • Q and Z: next and previous weapon.
  • Shift: sprint. Space: handbrake. H: horn. C: camera zoom.
  • Tab or M: city map. N: change radio station. J: start a vehicle job.
  • Esc or P: pause.

Getting started

Your suitcase is stolen the moment you arrive. A payphone is ringing in the bus depot lot: walk to it and the first job begins. From then on, people with work for you show as coloured ! markers on the minimap, and ringing payphones around the city have jobs too. Every job pays cash and street cred, and if you fail one you are offered a retry.

Street cred decides your rank: Nobody, then Pickpocket at 60, Joyrider at 180, Hoodlum at 400, Wise Guy at 750, Big Cheese at 1,250, Kingpin at 2,000 and Grand Pantaloon at 3,000.

The story and the contacts

The story runs to 40 jobs over seven chapters:

  1. Fresh Off The Bus, for Dolly Fumble, pawnbroker and part-time fence.
  2. Hot Wheels, Cold Feet, for Lugnut Lola, boss of the Hubcap Hyenas.
  3. Turf & Tantrums, for Lola and Brother Crankshaft, High Priest of the Grease Monks.
  4. Needle & Thread, for the Tailor, head of the Cufflink Family.
  5. Heat Wave, for Commissioner Gristle and Captain Grout of the Barnacle Syndicate.
  6. The Big Hem.
  7. Pants On Fire.

Four more people have five side jobs each: Dr. Nettles, a back-alley vet; Mama Porkpie, who runs a diner and sells information; Reggie Scoop, a reporter for The Daily Wrinkle; and Wendell, a conspiracy theorist. The Progress & Stats screen shows how far through the game you are: the story counts for most of it, with the side jobs, buttons, jumps and activities making up the rest.

The four gangs

The Cufflink Family, the Hubcap Hyenas, the Barnacle Syndicate and the Grease Monks each keep a respect score for you, from −100 to 100. Jobs for one gang often cost you with another. Your standing with each is shown on the Progress & Stats screen:

  • Family at 75 or more, Trusted from 40, Friendly from 10, and Neutral around zero.
  • Hostile at −30 or below: that gang's members shoot on sight.
  • Kill On Sight at −60 or below.

Attacking a gang's members makes them fight back for a while even when they are not hostile, so do not start fights in a neighbourhood you need to drive through.

Wanted stars and how to lose them

Crimes the police see, or that witnesses report, earn wanted stars, up to five. The more stars, the more police, with roadblocks and a helicopter at the top end. Once they lose sight of you, they search the place they last saw you, and if they stay unsighted long enough you drop a star:

  • 6 seconds at one star, 11 at two, 20 at three, 28 at four and 38 at five.
  • At one or two stars, being glimpsed again only sets the countdown back by half, so simply driving away usually works.
  • From three stars, any sighting starts the countdown again. Break line of sight properly: round corners, through alleys, away from main roads.

There are faster ways out, most of which only work when the police cannot see you at that moment:

  • Spray-N-Pray. A respray and repair clears your stars, unless the police watched you drive in.
  • Your safehouse. Walk into a safehouse you own while unseen and the heat is off entirely.
  • Pants Depot. A new outfit drops your wanted level by two stars if they have lost sight of you.
  • Box of Donuts. Three sit at fixed spots in the city and come back a couple of minutes after you take one; each takes a star off.
  • LPPD desk. At one or two stars, a "donation" clears them: $300 at one star, $1,200 at two. They will not take your money at three stars or more.
  • Shyster & Shyster. The lawyers clear any wanted level for $450 a star.
  • Sell the car. Selling your car at a chop shop while the police cannot see you puts them further off your trail.

Some story jobs fix your wanted level for their duration, and none of the above works until they end.

Getting cuffed or flattened

  • Cuffed: you are released at the nearest police station after paying bail of 6% of your cash, never more than $2,500, and your weapons are confiscated. A lawyer's retainer from Shyster & Shyster ($2,500) lets you keep your weapons once.
  • Toast: you wake at the nearest hospital with a bill of 4% of your cash, never more than $1,500.

Either way you lose any armour, three hours pass, and a job in progress fails (with the option to retry). Hospitals also sell a patch-up for $60 and a full check-up with armour for $400.

Making money

Vehicle jobs are the steadiest income. Get into the right vehicle and press J. Each one gets harder and pays more as its level rises, and reaching a set level earns a bonus:

  • Taxi (a Pantcab): ten fares in a row pays a $5,000 bonus.
  • Paramedic (the Boo-Boo Bus ambulance): level 8 permanently raises your maximum health.
  • Firefighter (the Hosebeast fire engine): level 8 makes you fireproof.
  • Vigilante (an LPPD Cruiser or Interceptor): level 10 makes the police give up searching for you faster.
  • Courier (a Grunt BoxHauler): $4,000 at level 8. Pizza (a Zippa 250 scooter): $3,000 at level 8.
  • Bus route (an LP Metrobus): $3,000 at level 6. Tow (a Hookjaw tow truck): $4,000 at level 8.
  • Ice cream (a Mr. Wobbly van): $3,000 at level 8. Armoured pickup (a Fortknoks Cash Brick): $6,000 at level 6.

The paramedic, firefighter and vigilante rewards are worth more than any cash bonus. Get them early.

Activities are marked on the map and can be replayed after a cool-down:

  • Four street races, from Cuff Circuit ($1,500) to the Waistband 500 ($6,000), and three time trials.
  • Six hidden Mayhem challenges, such as wrecking eight vehicles in 70 seconds.
  • Four hold-ups, from chapter 2: draw a gun, stand at the counter until the till is empty, then lose the police.
  • Bounty boards and the Demolition Derby from chapter 3, eight turf wars from chapter 4, and Hold The Line at the stadium from chapter 5: survive a minute each at three, four and five stars.
  • The Smuggle Run, after a chapter 5 job: deliver a van of contraband without picking up a single star.

Selling cars: once you know Lola, her chop shop buys cars for 40% of their value, less if they are damaged, and much less for police cars. It will not take the same model twice within a few minutes, so bring variety.

Pickups: cash bundles respawn around the city, and Double Dough doubles your earnings for 60 seconds. Ramps marked as Sick Jumps pay a bonus the first time you land them.

Weapons

Guns & Buns sells everything; better stock arrives as the story goes on. Prices: the Big Stick (a bat) $150, Peashooter .38 pistol $400, Barn Door shotgun $1,200, Buzzsaw 9 SMG $1,500, Rattler AR $3,500, Spicy Bottle (a firebomb) $700, Pineapple grenade $900, Hairdryer 9000 (a flamethrower) $6,000 and the Boom Tube rocket launcher $8,000. The Peashooter and the Buzzsaw 9 can be fired from a moving car. Weapons are also lying around the city for free.

Two other pickups are worth knowing: Iron Pants make you invulnerable for 20 seconds, and Hot Sauce gives you a speed boost for 20 seconds.

Safehouses and cars

A safehouse is where you save, sleep six hours to heal, store cars and hide from the police. You start with The Lint Trap. The others are for sale: Pocket Change Apartment ($5,000, two-car garage), Dockside Loft ($12,000, three cars), Khaki Acres Bungalow ($20,000, three cars), Pleat Heights Penthouse ($50,000, four cars) and Marina Yacht House ($80,000, four cars). The last two also supply free body armour. The game autosaves after story jobs, and you can save manually at any safehouse door (the green H) when you are not on a job.

After a chapter 3 job, Hubcap Heaven tunes your cars: engine, brakes, tyres and armour, three levels each. Spray-N-Pray repairs and repaints them.

Lost Buttons

Sixty Lost Buttons are hidden around the city, each worth $250. Collecting them unlocks extra stock at your safehouses: body armour at 10, the Buzzsaw 9 at 20, the Barn Door at 30, the Rattler AR at 40 and the Hairdryer 9000 at 50. All 60 earn $50,000 and a monster truck called Big Stompy, waiting in your garage.

The radio

Every car has the radio: KRUD 88.1 (greasy funk), WOBBLE 99.9 (synth), POLKA PANTS 104.5 and SNOOZE 76.2 (lo-fi beats), or off. Press N to change station.

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