How to lose the police in GTA 6: the four things you actually have to change

The single most useful thing to learn before November: in GTA 6, the police are working from a description. Not from magic.

Everything below was confirmed in the Extended Look on August 27.

First, they have to know it was you

Police are only alerted when an NPC sees the offence or a security system detects it. That is the start of the chain, and it is the cheapest place to break it. You can conceal a weapon, for instance holding a pistol behind your back, so you do not draw attention in the first place.

Stealing a car has the same logic. You can shim the lock slowly and quietly, or smash the window and go fast. Quiet may mean nobody ever reports it.

Hollow stars mean they are guessing

The wanted meter now tells you what the police actually know.

• Solid stars. They have a confirmed description.
• Hollow, outlined stars, officers are still searching, but they do not have one.

That is the difference between needing to hide and needing to change.

The four things you have to clear

Each piece of evidence is tracked on its own and cleared on its own.

Evidence	What clears it
Your face on camera	Wear a mask during the crime, then discard it
Your physical description	Change your hairstyle
Your clothing	Change your entire outfit
Your vehicle	Ditch the identified car

The mistake everyone will make: adding an accessory. Sunglasses and a different hat are explicitly not enough to clear a clothing description. It has to be a full outfit change.

This is why vehicle trunks matter. Cars have physical trunks that store weapons and alternate outfits, so the smart play is to stage a change of clothes in your getaway car before the job, not after it.

Watch the car itself, too. Some vehicles carry advanced GPS trackers that automatically report their location to police.

Six stars is a manhunt

The six-star wanted level is back after GTA 5 capped it at five. One star should be easy to shake. Six triggers an all-out manhunt.

Location matters as much as the star count. Three stars or higher is reportedly very hard to escape inside Vice City itself, crowded streets, tight roads and constant traffic work against you. Open country gives you room; the city does not.

After you escape, it is not over

The area you fled stays an active police zone while officers search it before calling off the investigation. Doubling back into it is how you get found.

Split up

Jason and Lucia can separate to divide police resources between two targets. One can be arrested while the other gets away, being taken in triggers the familiar Busted screen.

That is a real tactical option, not a cutscene. If one of you is clean and one of you is on camera, there is no reason to run together.