GTA 6 Gameplay Mechanics Explained: Criminal Profile, Wanted Stars, Car Theft

Where these explanations come from

An Extended Look shows the new systems on screen but never explains them. The explanations on this page come from two people who watched more gameplay at Rockstar North with Rob Nelson, the studio’s co-head, and asked him about it:

• IGN. Rachel Weber watched the video plus about 30 minutes of live gameplay, and wrote an exclusive preview published August 27, 2026.
• TGG. The YouTuber watched the video early plus about two and a half hours of gameplay, then posted a 41-minute breakdown on August 28 that quotes Nelson throughout.

These are press reports of a pre-release build, not rules published by Rockstar, and details can change before November 19. Where only one of the two reported something, this page says so. For what the footage itself shows, see GTA 6 gameplay: everything shown in An Extended Look.

Criminal Profile

Jason and Lucia each have a Criminal Profile as well as a wanted level. IGN calls it “an upgraded version of Red Dead Redemption 2’s Honor system,” but it does not measure good and evil:

• Proportionate violence is fine. A shootout during a robbery or firing back at an attacker is a reasonable response. Escalating a situation you could have walked away from changes your profile (IGN).
• Small actions count too. Throwing trash in a bin seemed to help in the demo, and Nelson told IGN that feeding animals will also count.
• Acting like a professional also raises it, not only doing good deeds like petting a dog (TGG).
• The two profiles are separate. The switch menu shows a different profile icon for Jason and for Lucia.

Nelson to IGN: “There isn’t a right or wrong way to play this game, but consistent actions may have an impact in terms of how the world reacts to you and how the narrative plays out.” Asked by TGG whether it affects the story, he answered: “It may, depending on how you play… You can still cause as much chaos as you want if that’s what you want to do.”

Wanted stars and what police know

The wanted level still goes up to six stars. The row of icons under the stars shows what the police have on you. According to IGN, once you are seen committing a crime, police can get a description of you, your car, your clothing, and whether you are moving as a couple. Changing any of those helps you escape, and so does ditching the car and running.

TGG says Nelson walked him through the different star states:

Stars	What they mean (per TGG)
Solid white	Police can see you
Blinking	Police have lost line of sight and you are close to escaping
Hollow	Police are on the way but do not know who they are looking for
Red	Only “heat” is left. Stay out of the red search areas on the minimap and deal with the clues shown under the stars

When police are not on the minimap, a red-and-blue light at the bottom of the screen shows which direction they are coming from. Nelson also told GamesRadar that police remember clues after you lose them, and that Focus reveals officers during a chase (GamesRadar).

Combat and Focus

These points come from TGG’s breakdown. Most of them can be checked against the footage:

• No hard lock-on. Aiming no longer snaps straight to enemies, which is how aiming worked in earlier games. There is ordinary third-person aim assist, and you can swap shoulders.
• Three hit markers. White means a hit, yellow means the enemy is incapacitated and will not get back up, and red means a kill.
• Focus is the second bar under health. It slows time and marks red (lethal) and yellow (non-lethal) points on targets. TGG says it also marks weak points on vehicles, which the video does not show.
• Kill cams and crash cams can both be switched off in the settings (TGG).
• The weapon wheel has Weapons and Items tabs. You carry two one-handed weapons and two two-handed weapons at a time, and the rest stay in your vehicle.
• Cars can be disabled by shooting the engine, the fuel tank, the tyres or the driver.

Stealing cars

Nelson explained the change to IGN:

“Previously, you could just press triangle to automatically hotwire and steal any vehicle that you wanted and take off… 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.”

• Tiers of entry. Smashing the window works but sets off the alarm, while a slim jim opens the door quietly. Some high-end cars need a key cloner to start, and until you have one, pulling a driver out is the way to get those cars (TGG and IGN).
• GPS trackers. Some cars carry one, which forces you to drive fast to avoid getting caught. A scanning app on Jason’s and Lucia’s phones shows whether a car has a tracker, what it would sell for, and what registering it would cost (IGN).
• Driving is harder. “The streets in this game are narrower and more realistic in terms of scale,” Nelson told IGN, and traffic is denser.

Robberies, cash and bags

• Robbing stores is a main way to make money. The three robberies in the video are cut together from separate jobs. Nelson told TGG: “You can do these robberies by yourself or you can do them together. Making money this way off mission is an important part of the game.”
• The story sometimes waits for money. TGG was told that at certain points you cannot start the next mission until you have enough cash.
• Cash and bank are separate. The top right shows two balances. Cash has to be deposited at an ATM, and you lose the cash you are carrying if you die or are arrested (TGG; Nelson made the same point to Trois Couleurs).
• Loot bags have to go somewhere. You can carry two duffel bags, and vehicles store more depending on size. A motorbike holds none (TGG).

More on the city you will be robbing: Vice City.

Jason, Lucia and their relationship

• Switching works at almost any point, GTA 5-style, and the two can also roam together (IGN).
• The relationship builds with time together. Texting, holding hands, shopping and holding the door open all count. There are no gameplay rewards for a perfect relationship, so you can ignore it, and there is no break-up (IGN).
• It shapes the story, not the partnership. “They will remain partners in crime,” Nelson told IGN. “Whether you’ve nurtured the relationship or not will definitely have a bearing on how their story plays out.”
• Splitting up can help with police who are looking for a couple, and if one of them gets into trouble with an NPC, the other backs them up (IGN).
• Your AI partner can drive while you shoot. Nelson described it to TGG: “all of a sudden a train goes by and blocks them and you lose the cops and it just feels like you’re playing a mission.”

Meet the pair: Jason Duval and Lucia Caminos.

Health, Focus and safehouses

• Food and drink give buffs. Consumables can push health and Focus above their normal limits for a while, and workouts at the gym raise the limits permanently (TGG). IGN also mentions managing stats “with food buffs and workouts.”
• Safehouses are closer to Red Dead Redemption 2 camps. You can take a drink from the fridge and change your hairstyle there. Nelson: “The safehouses in this game are probably closer to the camps in RDR2 than they are to safehouses in any GTA game before” (IGN).

HUD and settings

Only TGG reported these, from menus he was shown:

• The minimap can stay on permanently or be turned off, and there is a compass-only option.
• The menu has a copyright-free music option for streamers and video creators.
• The minimap shows buildings in 3D. Mission waypoints are magenta and custom waypoints are cyan.

Still unconfirmed

Rockstar has not published the size of the map, how long the story takes, or the full list of activities. What is known about the map is in how big the GTA 6 map is. This page does not use claims based on the leaked footage.

Sources

• Rockstar Newswire: An Extended Look now playing
• IGN: GTA 6 exclusive preview, Rachel Weber (August 27, 2026)
• TGG: GTA 6 Every New Gameplay Feature & Mechanic You Missed (August 28, 2026)
• Trois Couleurs: preview and Rob Nelson interview (August 2026)
• GamesRadar+: Rob Nelson on police memory (September 2026)