Crime & Money

Money matters more to this campaign than any previous GTA. Rockstar has confirmed that players may need to raise a specific amount of cash before parts of the main story will advance.

Robberies

You can hit locations alone or as a couple, and the design centres on one tension: escape quickly, or steal as much as possible.

• Safes can be blown open, fast, but it damages the contents and reduces the value.
• Or you can search for the combination, slower, riskier, but the haul survives intact.
• Police can surround a store or bank and simply wait for you to come out.
• Many locations have secondary exits, so the front door is not the only answer.
• Targets scale from convenience stores, gas stations and phone shops up to bank heists.

Low-level crime plays a much bigger role than in previous games. The corner-store holdup is a real part of the economy now, not just something you do for fun on the way to a mission.

Fences

Stolen goods must be sold through specialised fences rather than converting to cash automatically. Vehicle fences go further. They provide intel on valuable cars sitting in police impounds, which turns fencing into a source of new targets rather than just an exit.

Stealing cars is now a skill check

Vehicles are separated into security tiers, and the theft method depends on the tier.

• Confirmed Older vehicles can be opened with simple equipment such as a slim jim
• Confirmed Modern luxury cars may require advanced devices such as key-cloning tools
• Confirmed A phone app called WAINK scans a vehicle and reports estimated value, registration cost, lock status, alarm and tracking
• Confirmed Certain cars carry advanced GPS trackers that automatically report their location to police
• Confirmed Damage to a vehicle reduces its resale value
• Confirmed Some vehicles are only unlocked through story progress
• Confirmed Carjacking occupied vehicles is still available

Vehicle trunks are real storage

Cars have physical trunks used for storing weapons and alternate outfits. Combined with the wanted system, this is the game's core loadout loop: your getaway car carries the clean clothes that clear your description.

Weapon limits

The bottomless weapon wheel is gone. You can carry two rifles and two pistols at once; anything else lives in a vehicle trunk or at a safehouse. Loadout is now a decision made before the job, not during it.

The Criminal Profile

Replacing Red Dead Redemption 2's Honor system is something called the Criminal Profile. Crucially, it does not sort your actions into good and evil. It tracks patterns of behaviour, and those patterns influence how Leonida's residents react to Jason and Lucia and how parts of the story develop.

• Violence required by a mission does not automatically damage your profile.
• Completing crimes efficiently improves your criminal reputation.
• It is a reputation system, not a morality meter.