GTA 6 beginner tips: the GTA 5 habits that no longer work

The one-button car theft of Grand Theft Auto V is gone. Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, told IGN on August 27, 2026:

“Previously, you could just press triangle to automatically hotwire and steal any vehicle that you wanted and take off. We felt like that left a lot of potential gameplay on the table in terms of progression and decision-making for players. So now, you start off the game and there are certain parked cars that are not accessible to you until you get a bit further along with the story and you acquire certain tools to get into them, but you can always carjack any driver you see.”

Grand Theft Auto VI arrives on November 19, 2026, and seven other GTA 5 habits run into the same wall.

Eight GTA 5 habits, and what GTA 6 does with them

The habit	What GTA 6 does with it
Grab whatever car drives past	Carjacking still works at any moment, but the driver calls the police (Rob Nelson to Dexerto, August 28, 2026)
Smash a window to take a parked car	Newer models need a Slim Jim or a key cloner (Rob Nelson to IGN, August 27, 2026)
Outrun the police	Patrol cars vanish from the minimap, replaced by a circle marking the search area (VGC, August 27, 2026)
Change your haircut to shake a description	The appearance icon clears, the clothing one does not: it takes a full change of outfit (IGN, August 27, 2026)
Keep your money on you	Cash carried is lost on death or arrest, money in the bank is not (ComicBook, August 28, 2026)
Sell the stolen car right away	It goes through a fence, and keeping it in your garage means paying to register it (IGN; ActuGaming, August 28, 2026)
Walk out of the hospital after dying	That sequence is gone in its old form, the player respawns nearby (ComicBook)
Cross the street with a gun out	A visible rifle draws a reaction from the city, and stowing it in a vehicle keeps you unremarkable (Rockstar to Dazed, August 26, 2026; ComicBook)

Nelson also spelled out what starts the whole chain: “The Wanted system in GTA 6 requires that someone witness the crime, or an alarm needs to be set off for it to be reported to the law. One star is not going to be too difficult to get away from.” What follows depends on what the police were told, not on your speed.

Three things to do before the first real job

The first is banking: IGN noted on August 27, 2026 that some main missions require raising a sum before they open, so losing the float does not cost you a purchase. It stalls the story.

The second lives in the trunk, wardrobe and weapon locker in one. Swapping mask, hat and clothes right before a crime lowers the wanted level it earns, VGC reported on August 27, 2026, and a mask taken off after the crime keeps any description from reaching the police, even past a security camera, IGN wrote the same day.

The third is the phone. Nelson demonstrated the WAINK app to IGN: “For example, it tells me this car is locked, it’s got an alarm, and has no tracker. It also tells me how much it’s worth if I go to take it to a Pay n’ Spray or a specialty car fence, and how much it would cost for me to register it for myself.” Reading it before breaking a window keeps you off a GPS tracker, which alerts the police depending on how fast you drive.

A counter runs even when you are not robbing anything

The Criminal Profile sits apart from the wanted level and tracks behaviour over a playthrough. Nelson calls it the successor to Red Dead Redemption 2’s Honor system, without a clean good and evil axis, and gave Dexerto the threshold: “It’s when you go beyond what is necessary on a consistent basis, or you do completely unnecessary stuff consistently, that you may start to sway your Criminal Profile in a certain direction.” Shooting an enemy in the legs reads better than killing him, ComicBook noted, and crimes a mission asks for do not necessarily move it.

Nelson also told Famitsu on August 28, 2026, in an interview Kotaku translated, about firing deliberately wide of a police officer to buy time without killing anyone. In the Extended Look, Jason shoots out a police car’s tyres and leaves the officers alive.

A second counter follows the couple, fed, Nelson told IGN, by time together: exploring, pool, mini golf, kayaking, robbing stores and banks as a pair. The romance itself stays optional and carries no gameplay bonus. The body keeps a third record: Rockstar told Dazed on August 26, 2026 that “Food affects Jason and Lucia’s weight, while exercising visibly builds and tones their muscles”, and per Famitsu, three training days in a row raise stamina and strength.

Rockstar has published no control scheme

What circulates about the sprint button comes from Italian creator MikeShowSha, hosted at Rockstar North in July 2026 without holding the controller: a click of the left stick would now be enough to run instead of hammering X. Numerama noted on September 1, 2026 that no button list had been published, and that was still true on September 7.

Important content will not be systematically marked on the map, so exploration does the work. The Focus system, which picks out objects and people of interest, is the only documented aid, alongside the activities counted in the August 27, 2026 video.

No outlet has played GTA 6. Every preview from August 27, 2026 was hands-off, guests watching Rockstar developers play, so no difficulty advice published so far, this page included, rests on hands-on play.