When the Grand Theft Auto series came out, there were a lot of players that were changed by the experience. After all, having the ability to do whatever you want on a sandbox world is kind of empowering. And when Rockstar Games released GTA V in 2013, everyone wanted to play. Now, thanks to Steam’s GTA V sale, everyone is reliving their love for this wild game.
In this guide, we’ll show you an in-depth guide to GTA V, and show you some tips and tricks to get started on the game.
What Is GTA V?
GTA V is an action-adventure game created by Rockstar North and released by Rockstar Games. It’s the first main entry in the GTA series since last 2008’s GTA IV. The game is set in the fictional state called San Andreas, based on Southern California. The single-player story sees the exploits of three different criminals and their efforts to do heists. They do this all while under pressure from a government agency and several powerful crime lords. The open-world design allows players to see San Andreas’ open countryside and Los Santos, freely.
Gameplay
You can play GTA V from either a first or third-person perspective, and the world navigated either on foot or on the in-game vehicles. Players lead the three main protagonists all throughout the single-player campaign and switch between them during and outside missions.
The story is centered on the various heists and missions that involve both shooting and driving gameplay. As a staple of the GTA games, the “Wanted” System governs how aggressive a response the law enforcement will have to players that do crimes. Meanwhile, GTA Online, the online multiplayer of GTA V, allows a maximum of 30 players to engage in a myriad of co-op and competitive game modes.
History and Development
The development of GTA V began after GTA IV’s release and got released throughout most of the studios that Rockstar owns worldwide. The game’s development team took influence from a lot of previous projects like the Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne series. In doing so, the game centered around the three lead protagonists in order to innovate on the core structure of the games before it.
A lot of the development work for the game is around the creation of the open world. A number of team members made field research all around California in order to get footage for the game’s design team. The game was released in September 2013 for the PS3 and Xbox 360, in November 2014 for the PS4 and Xbox One, and in April 2015 for PC.
How to Download GTA V?
Thanks to recent events, it is ill-advised to go out and buy a physical copy of GTA V. However, you can usually download GTA V in your respective console of choice. It’s a game you need to buy using in-app purchases. This means you have to buy it before you can play it. Here’s how.
PC
With the release of the PC version of GTA V in 2013, fans of the series have dived into the world and enjoyed themselves. If you’re one of the people who haven’t yet, here’s how you can download the game for yourselves on PC:
- Go to the digital storefront of your choice.
The official way to download this game is to go to a digital storefront, typically Steam or Epic Games Store. Rockstar also has its own storefront that you can use. For the purpose of this article, we’ll show you how to download a Steam game here.
- Search for GTA V.
Go to Steam and, using the search bar, type in, and search for GTA V.
- Purchase GTA V.
After you’ve found the game, select the Add to Cart option to add it to your online cart. You’ll be automatically sent to the cart page. Select the Purchase for Myself option, and you will then receive a prompt to purchase the game.
- Download GTA V.
After purchasing the game, you will have to go to the games library of your storefront and download the game there. This process will take some time, but it’s worth it to be patient.
PS4 and Xbox One
You can also download the game on the Playstation and Xbox stores for the PS4 and Xbox 1 consoles respectively. And the procedure is similar enough to the PC version. You can also get a Playstation or Xbox code from Amazon for a great deal.
Tips and Tricks
You’ve downloaded the game. Now it’s time to play. But what you probably didn’t know is that there are a few things that will make your GTA V experience easier. Well, here are a few of them that are useful to both new and experienced players.
How to Make Money Easily in GTA V
It can be hard to get cash during the first few hours of GTA V. But don’t worry, we’ll teach you how to make money in GTA V. If you’re in need of a few extra bucks to get some Super Heavy Armor or rain explosive death with either a Grenade Launcher or RPG, you might want to read on.
Assassinations
The absolute best way for you to get a boatload of money in GTA V’s story mode is to do and finish all of Lester’s stock market assassination missions. Finish all of them and you can get a pretty stock of cash. There are guides on how to do them all over so you don’t really need to look that far to find them.
Investing in Stocks
The tried-and-true trick of buying stocks low and selling them high still holds true in GTA V. Keep a close eye on the in-game news to have a head start on which of the stocks in the game are doing good or bad.
To make a quick buck, save your game while shutting off the game’s autosave. Then, invest all your money into a particular stock that you think is on the up and up. Make your way to any safe house available to your character, and then rest without saving the game. Either that or wait for around 45 seconds before checking your portfolio to see the resulting profit. Keep checking the stock until it peaks out and then sell. The more cash that you invest, the better the eventual return, and if the said stock does badly? Just load your save file and you’ll have all the cash you’ve invested without repercussions.
Participating in all Franklin Assassination missions is the best way to get rich quickly. So it will be worth the wait for you to finish the game’s story mode in order to invest the most cash with all three characters.
What Is GTA Online?
GTA Online is an MMO game inside GTA V. However, unlike other MMO games, you only play with 29 people at the same time on a single server. It has the same open world as the game’s single-player, and you’re given carte blanche to roam wherever you wish. Do note, though, that some activities and missions in the game rely on certain instances. This means that you get placed in an area where only you and other players you’ve partied with can see each other directly.
How to Play GTA Online
If you’re wandering around the game’s open-world with online mode enabled, you’re fair game for other players, so stay on your toes. If you want to play GTA Online solo, start the game’s story mode, and select GTA Online from the game menu as an “invite-only.”
Going solo does limit your PC’s development somewhat, and you can’t complete certain missions alone. The best way to play GTA Online is to team up with other players that play in Online Mode with other friends. This way, you and your team can keep away from any griefers, and concentrate on finishing in-game missions and having a lot of fun.
Things to Watch Out For
There are, of course, measures in place on the game in order to discourage players from essentially turning the game into an impromptu battle royale, but the thing is, if a player wants to be an absolute ass and go on a one-man rampage, they can. And they will. So, as a piece of advice from me to you: when you’re in GTA Online and on free roam, keep an eye out for anything suspicious.
Take every vehicle in the game with the appropriate amount of caution, especially if you’re doing the trick that we’re going to show you in the next section of the article. Look closely at how the car’s parked, and if you think that it looks in any way fishy, move on. You don’t want to get hit by Killer Queen after all…
How to Sell Cars in GTA V?
In GTA Online, selling ill-gotten vehicles is a very good method for making a quick and easy profit.
The cash you’ll get for the sale of unmodified vehicles you obtain can go between $500 and $9,500. In general, luxury coupes and SUVs net the player the most amount of cash. Players have the ability to mod cars and sell them to get more cash. However, as of GTA Online’s Title Update 1.10, you can’t sell any vehicle without a tracker on Los Santos Customs for more than $10,000.
Similarly, you also can’t sell any stolen personal and/or high-end vehicles that are valued at $50,000 or more. You can only sell cars on GTA Online and not on the main game. Also, players can only sell their vehicles once per in-game day. That’s 48 minutes in real-time.
How to Start a Heist in GTA Online?
If you’re going to host your own Heist, your Player Character must be at Rank 12 and have at least one high-end apartment. On the other hand, if you’re under Rank 12 or don’t have a high-end apartment of your own, you still have the ability to join a Heist if a player invites you.
If you wish to join a Heist as a crew member with no invite from another player, take a merry jaunt to the Quick Job menu on the in-game phone. Choose “Play Heist” in order to quickly get to the action.
Once you’ve finished the prerequisites, Lester will call you so that you can set up your very first Heist. Once you’ve completed your first Setup Mission, there’s a brief and tiny delay before Lester will call you again for the next portion of the Heist. There’s another tiny delay in between finishing your first Heist and Lester’s subsequent call for the next Heist in the game as well.
If you want to replay a Heist, simply make a call to Lester through your in-game phone and choose the “Replay a Heist” option when he eventually answers. From there, you can replay any of the Heists in the game that you’ve previously finished.
How to Become a CEO in GTA V?
You can be a CEO in GTA Online if you’ve bought an Executive Office from your in-game phone. Specifically the Dynasty 8 Executive website. You’ll need to have around $1,000,000 in order to buy an office. Of which, there are four of them in-game:
- Maze Bank West – $1,000,000
- Arcadius Business Center – $2,250,000
- Lombank West – $3,100,000
- Maze Bank Tower – $4,000,000
After you’ve bought the office of your dreams, you’ll have a variety of customization options available to you. You can buy and add to your office a safe, a few gun lockers here and there, your very own penthouse living quarters, and all the furnishings a CEO could want. You’ll also have the ability to get an Executive Assistant to do all the dirty work, like picking you up and driving you back to your own office for free, buying food, and others. Lastly, you also have the chance to name your own organization and recruiting your Associates.
How to Use the Parachute in GTA V?
Once you’ve done the “Risk Assessment” mission on the GTA V main story, you will unlock the Parachute Jump activity. You can use any of the three characters in the game or even the online mode and do Parachute Jumps at the 13 different marked locations in the city.
These are the 13 jump locations on GTA Online, and they all have their varied payouts as well, marked in order:
- Fall of the Alamo – $550
- Damned If You Don’t – $550
- Carving the Mountain – $500
- Turbine Terror – $400
- The Decline – $400
- Photo Finish – $350
- Falling Mouse – $350
- Razer Rock Dive – $230
- Pacific Tour – $200
- Bank Bailout – $200
- What Goes Up – $200
- Runaway Train – $200
- Aim for the Fairway – $200
Xbox and PS4 Controls
Before you do your jump, you’ll have the ability to look around through the use of the right stick. When you’re ready to jump out, press either the square (PlayStation) or the X button (Xbox) to do the jump.
Once you’ve jumped, you can use the left stick to steer your fall. Use either the X (PlayStation) or A button (Xbox) to deploy the parachute.
After your parachute gets deployed, you’re going to get a wider range of controls given to you. Of course, you can still steer through the left stick, but now you can also do sharp turns by holding down the L1 or R1 buttons. Holding down both buttons as you’re approaching the ground will give you the ability to make a more precise landing. To release yourself from the parachute, you either press the triangle (PlayStation) or Y button (Xbox) in your controller.
Lastly, you can make use of the cinematic camera by holding down the O (PlayStation) or B button (Xbox).
Canceling a Jump
If at any point on the jump, you wish to cancel the jump and retry, you can by pressing the square (PS3) or X button (Xbox) on your controller. If you’re quitting a jump instead of making a retry, you’re not going to get any money for it.
PC Controls
Lastly, the controls work a bit differently on a PC. You can control your descent like you control your Player Character through the WASD control keys on the keyboard, and you can deploy the parachute through the use of the right mouse button. You cut yourself off the parachute by pressing F (to pay respects) on the keyboard, steer hard right or hard left with either the E and Q keys, activate the precision control through L-Shift and pop smoke with the X control key. Simple enough.
