Hints and Tips for GTA 5

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This is page 7 of our general hints, tips and guides for Grand Theft Auto V single player (story mode). If you have any hints or tips of your own, feel free to send them in!

Overview

Ultimate Map

Stabyourself from Reddit took it upon himself to stitch together a 6,000 x 8,000px map of Los Santos and Blaine County (warning: 14.3 MB). Easily the best map we've come across! Click the image below to see the full size version.

Ultimate Gta V Map Small

Underground Train Station Shoot-out

If you liked hospital shoot-outs in past Grand Theft Auto games (noting they don't exist in GTA) then this subway shoot-out feature might be for you.

Travel to the underground train station by going to the place indicated in the maps below.

Train Shootout

Train Shootout

Shoot a few randoms up top to get your wanted level up and the police will start arriving...

Train Shootout

Train Shootout

As a bonus, you can choose to simply loose your 5 star wanted level by running further into the station.

Thanks to sirtrivium

Under the Bridge Aerial Challenge Locations Guide

If you complete all 50 Under the Bridge Aerial Challenges then you'll be half way through to the "Close Shave" Trophy or Achievement. You also need to do all the Knife Flight challenges to get that one! Details here by the way.

You can do all of the 50 challenges with a Maverick helicopter from the South Los Santos hospital helipad. We have a handy hint for getting that too. If the chopper doesn't spawn at first just go back down the street and then back up to the helipad.

To make a fly through count towards the challenge you can't let any part of your chopper touch either the ground or the bridge. You'll be notified on-screen when you do a correct fly under.

Also make sure you quick save before doing some of the harder ones. Even if you get through, or if somehow you damage you chopper, then will enable you to quickly get going again with a fully repair aircraft. See this hint for details.

Finally, if you're doing this with a plane and not the chopper, make sure your landing gear is up! It will fly much more smoothly that way. Press down using the left analog stick (when you're in the air!) to pull the landing gear up.

Unlock Packie McReary

You can unlock Packie McReary as someone to use in your heists.

To get Packie in your crew pay him a visit at the location below. It's that easy!

Packie Mcreary

Use Truck Trailer to Ditch Cops

If you are driving a truck with a trailer you can press right on the digital pad to detach its trailer. This can be useful to block of narrow roads and alleyways etc.

Vapid Bullet Spawn Location

Check out the Youtube video below to see where the Vapid Bullet spawns in story mode in GTA V. It's one of the fastest cars in the game but can be a little hard to control!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O3XN67oz_6M

Vibrating Mobile Phone

Head into the settings of your cell phone and you can actually set it so that it will vibrate when an in-game call is received, as opposed to ringing.

160 Comments

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  1. use quik save the reloas that save poof brand new un damage ride work for getting attack helis out of fort zacudo , takes me 2 to 3 times doing this to get in the heli ' save ' then load the save then soon as game gives you control lift and go for the fence towards ocean ' save ' after passing the fence then go for deep blue sea lol the 3rd save is to reload and not have the cop helies on top of you then just try to fly to the left or right edges of there view cones you want them flying to wards where you entered the game at ' after the load in they head allmost exactly where your load in spot was get away from that spot as fast as possible lol every time you load in the heli will be brand new " untouched " hope this help make you attack with a heli on the city enjoyable lol 👍 and enjoy gta'ers out there , this does not involve any type of cheat codes 🙂

    1. this save then loading does not remove the stars but it reloads the game with out the cops all on top of you on the radar when you load back in the cops then start moveing to your load in area allmost like getting 1 star then the cops gotta get in sight of you acctually know your there meaning if you load in away from that spot fast as possible the cops start looking for you in that exact location sooo if you not there when they get there byby stars eventually lol 🙂

  2. Actually,you can repair your car while in it with the health cheat...it removes any damage done to the car so the guide is wrong about not being able to...I do it all the time

  3. my son has xbox 360 he can't jump his bmx he wants to know how to fix it so that can

    1. It's definitely RB on Xbox, R1 on PS. Try another type of bicycle if not working for you.

  4. GTA 3 had some great cheats I don't see in GTA 5. Remember everyone dressing like Elvis? Or giving everyone rocket launchers? So far the only cheat I've been able to get to work is the Buzzard attack helicopter.

    1. has this been patched? i've been trying-doesn't work, and googling if it's been patched-no results yet!

    1. There is a way to make loads of money. Go to the stock market page on your phone. Choose the cheapest one and dump All your money into it. Then click on sell all. Just check your balance!!!!! Surprise surprise.

    2. That doesn't always work too well. I choose one which is near 'low' then buy in with Trevor's cash. If it sinks then I buy in with Franklin's cash. If it sinks AGAIN then I buy in with Michael's cash. I sleep with Trevor a lot because he sleeps for 12 hours. Eventually the stock will rise so that even Trevor makes a profit (and Michael makes a huge profit because he got in at the ground floor). Sometimes however, it takes AGES to reach a profitable stock price. Sometimes if you reload a save the stock will rise. Sometimes you feel forced into reloading from the beginning = all your work is for nothing. But yes you can make $100s of millions this way if you don't mind the grind.

  5. There is a sultan at the NOOSE facility where you get the helicopter w/rockets and no guards. Its in the parking lot

  6. Hi I would like to ask bout Lester assassins missions, are them only for online and does online has a storyline just liked single player?

    1. use stealth...it also prevents you from smashing the window which in turn sounds the car alarm and attracts cops twice as fast lol

  7. Hi my name is Donna I have a playstation 3, and I'm looking for the best and rarest car, truck and plane cheat codes for my son, he doesn't think I can find better than he has, any help in proving I'll always be the best would be great thanks

  8. Here is a easy way 2 make money on any console online or offline rob a taxi and be a driver pick up a customer and drive around 4 about 5 to 6 hours and then drop the him or her off and u should have 10million dollars in your pocket

    1. LOL no way 10 million dollars. I drove my customer 2 times around the entire map on the freeway loop then dropped him off at his location and got paid a little over $2,500 that took about 20 minutes. I also tried it using tooth picks to hold down the forward and turn key while at the airport leaving my taxi to turn in a circle most of the night while I slept. The fare will eventually time out on you if you don't get your customer to his location. I stopped the car at the airport gate to be let out but then the customer jumped out saying something mean to me and ran off. lol

    2. being a taxi driver doesn't pay as much...towing pays more like 500 each time if I remember right

    1. I cannot find da scuba gear can someone pleas give a good pic of map locationor at least direct directions

  9. Hey, I just restarted the game to exploit the stock market, and i found out that when the game starts the Merryweather stock price is around 15 dollars, so load up on them before they start talking about them on the radio and cash out when they are at their peak

  10. Explore the ocean wreckages I found 3 rocket launchers lots of body armour and assault rifles even hidden packages and spaceship parts.also found a crowbar as a melee weapon by Los santos customs near the underground hotel plaza were the de santas stayed up the stairs thnx to Chop:D

  11. (gta online) M NT ABLE TO SELL ANY CAR WORTH ABOVE 50,000$ IN LOS SANTOS CUSTOM Y IS IT HAPPENING PLSSS HELP ANYONE??

    1. (Gta online) Buy car worth less than 50,000. then upgrade it as much as you can. Go back to your garage. So it saves your car. Then go back to the customs shop. Sell the car, right after you confirm that you want to sell it press the start button. Goto online and scroll down to swap player. Reload as your same character and you have the money for the sale as well as the car you just sold. I get 80,000 for my car. So after 13 times i have a 1,000,000. Bucks.

  12. (ps3 gta online) any body m nt able to sell gruffade adder online the los santos custums says "u can only sell vehicles up 50,000 $,,, wat the issue i can sell all other cars...y is this happening??

  13. when your putting the DLC code in e.g abcd-efgh-ijkl don't put the dashes in I REPEAT DON'T PUT THE DASHES IN e.g (abcdefghijkl) if you pre-ordered a brand new game the code should now work.

    1. sorry i didnt know anyone replyed if you put the code in your blimp is now on the gtav phonebook you call it up and its delivered to a random location marked on map.

  14. Entrep why aren't my comments being posted, In the last week I have posted about 10 difference tips including a revised of the gun at location #3 but none are being posted but my replies to people are...
    How come?

    1. It's definitely R1 on Xbox, RB on PS. Try a different bicycle if not working for you.

  15. 555-0164 the number on a billboard out in the desert for Bar Bender J's Bonds when you call the number the person also yells at you for calling

  16. Really cool way to blow several cars up at once place several sticky bombs on the ground outside of the cars then pour gas around the car make sure you pour it next to or on the bombs make a trail then set it ablaze and watch as the fire creeps to the cars and blows them sky high, I got the trash truck to go pretty high just by itself

  17. If you hold X while coming down the ladder you'll slide down it instead of climbing down a lot quicker on long ones

  18. Hey Entrep..
    I made a mistake about the MG gun at money location #3 it is NOT at the end of the pole it is actually at the very start of it.
    Face the back of the wreckage with the hatch in front of you now swim to the right of the hatch and straight down pass the wreckage you'll find the gun glowing.
    Please edit this..

    1. Can Michael and Trevor get earrings?
      The drive character definitely doesn't work, they are either stopped or completely somewhere else.
      W.T.F. is up with this BAWASQ always down, its a real pain in the ass, and I am not wrong everyone is complaining about it.
      Also the jumping on bus to max out strength and shooting, that's a bitch as well.

  19. the midi gun at base if you get it, you can walk out to the lift and back in it respawns until you have the full ammo for each character.One question you do lose it after a while even when you save.I had them for all 3 characters for a week now gone.Also characters driving themselves sometimes works most of the time it doesnt.

    1. Go to the top of the page where it says Hints hover over it and then click on the Money Hint page and scroll down to Infinite Money #3 & #4 and you'll find a map and at location #3 you can get $25,000 & a big gun & Location #4 you can get $9,000 and several guns I wrote the section for #3 & #4 so trust me they are there location #3 is easier then #4

      Here is also a map that shows you all the hidden package locations every one of the red dots is money but none of them give you as much money as location #3 does..
      Location #3 is very easy to find just zoom your map in to where it's the same size as where the picture shows then waypoint it and it's very easy to find in the daytime, nighttime is a little harder but because it's right on top of the wreckage it's easy to see it'll be glowing but location #4 wait till it's daylight cause you'll loose your bearing and great thing is you can quick save and reload right back to the spot and go back down and repeat the same thing over and over again BUT if you don't have 100% lung capacity use the invincibility cheat or get the scuba gear or else you'll die before you can make it back to the surface

      http://maps.achievementhunter.com/guides/overview/grandtheftautov

    2. No they haven't the ones I mention are still there.
      The thing that was patched was spawing back and forth between Trevor, Mike or Franklin but the money is still there.

    3. I have gone to sites 1, 3 ; 4 ; 5 ' and 8 as Michael, b4 I gave up. forget the respawn they were not even there. I don't need the money but it was the challenge. Can anyone else confirm if they have "recently" looked for these and found them. I know I went to the right places, as your Vids, are good and very clear.

    4. Yes they are still there, What you need to do is watch the video & pause the video when the show the map then zoom your map so it matches the one in the video then mark it with your waypoint. Do this with Location #3 by the peri it is the easiest & the most money $25,000 they money itself wasn't a glitch they are hidden package so they won't be removed. Best time to go is in daylight steal a dingy so you have Scuba Gear so you can stay under water longer to look around at location #3 it's going to look like a submarine & a long rusted pole is going to be visible if you find that you'll find the package in order to see the package you have to get close it will be on the left side. Keep looking it's there you'll evtually find it you'll know when you're at the right place thers no mistaken it. Locaton #4 is very hard to find so avoid it the reward isn't worth it #3 has the mmost money out of em all

    5. I wear the scuba for these so I have plenty of time t look around and find the spot, no need to tell me about pausing- and the map. what I mean is, I have found the exact spots where you pick up the "package" on those 5 or 6 locations. Not somewhere near there, but the exact spot- no package. I thought spot #2 was the easiest to find, because of the markers around the area, and its not deep, but again, having found the exact spot, nothing there.

    6. Playing on PC, a lot of the time the briefcases weren't there but if I then saved and reloaded they were.

      A week of real time later, I went back to the shallowest one looking for body armour and saw the briefcase again. I then went around and collected them all a 2nd time.

  20. To steal a 747 the biggest jet in the game, Make sure you go though the side gate over by where you can buy the hanger take a right and drive in front of the planes sitting on the tarmac and up ahead you should see the big 747 it says USAIR on the side of it.
    If you go into the side gate the Wanted Stars is delayed by about 10 seconds giving you more then enough time to get to the jet and get in it.
    To enter the jet you have to go under the landing gear and press the car enter button and you can back up and take off.
    But you can't save it, Too big to fit in Trevor's hanger

  21. Another way to break into to Army Base without any stars is by using a Cab as soon as you break though the gate turn on the Cab Missions and the dispatcher will start to talk now you only have about 10-15 seconds of free time before the dispatcher stops talking and the Wanted Stars pop up

    If you want a Jet take an immediate right after your crash though the gate and on your left hand side there is a hanger where a Fighter Jet will be if you do it right you'll be able to grab the jet before the stars pop up.
    If you want a Tank as soon as you crash though the gate follow the road straight and a Tank should be coming towards you get out and grab it before the Wanted stars come up.
    You can save the Fighter Jet inside Trevor's hanger

    1. Hey you seem switched on can you tell me, where you can find the pharmaceutical truck for Mrs Phillips, and the glitch in the garage, to get the GTR I think press the D pad and a car should come up, I tried that does not work, has the garage got to be full? Do you have to be Michael and last, some cars I bought have gone missing, not at the impound, whats up there?Thanks.

    2. I found parachuting into the base works well but still don't have much time to get a plane.

    3. People always seem to make the mistake and they go to the one in the hangar but it's blocked by the Cargo plane, Go for the ones underneath the car ports on the left side of the hanger you can jump in hit the thrusters and take off in a very short take off you can take off almost after pulling out of the car port but you have to worry about the SAM's coming at you.

    4. Can you tell me how Franklin can buy the towing compound.I must have had to do this earlier on as now I go there and there is no real estate sign, it was never on my game as a list to buy.What can I do please answer this.

    5. I bought it after I did the last towing mission.
      From what I understand is, If you don't buy them at a certain time you won't be able to buy them later.

  22. This is where you can find the Free Scuba Gear.

    Go to the location I pinpointed on the map and go over to the end of the sidewalk make sure the barge is on your left side and in the water on your right there should be a black dingy if the dingy isn't there just drive around the block and come back and it will be there.

    Remember the Scuba Gear you will only be able to get the Scuba Gear with the Dingy or Submarine it does not follow you though the game.

    http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/a610/AiraCobra1686/photo_zps7a5ac20a.jpg

  23. I no how to get into the airport without a wanted level first play the misson were you get the ztype when it tells you to exit the airport grab a plane toke it as close to the exit as possible and getout of the plane go to the marked area you'll complete the misson and then just get in you plane and their no wanted level

  24. If you go to a store whilst the police are looking for you it will say the store is closed however you can have your weapon out . Shoot the cash register and a sack of money will appear (best if the shop has multiple registers) collect the money by walking over it. Go out of the store and quick save and go back into the store the money sacks will re appear. Its very quick and easy way to make money and you can do this over and over.

  25. Not sure if this has been mentioned but at the north part of Paleto Bay in the cluster of side roads I found a random encounter where two guys were getting ready to kill a girl. After killing the guys and taking the girl where she wanted to go I got a call from her and she wired 60,000 into my account. I did this with Franklin and haven't tested it with the other two.

    1. I found the encounter with trevor just after you complete the lost mc airstrip mission and you should be able find the grave they were digging for her in the first horizontal dirt trail north of town. So you can mark it.

  26. Some hazardous glitches when you used "Free Property" trick. Make sure that the icons for said properties appear on the map ("H" for helipad, "Anchor" for boat dock, "Garage" and "Hangar": self-explanatory). If they're not on the map and you accidentally overwrited your main save, you can kiss that propert(ies) goodbye. You can't park any vehicles or buy any from websites as they won't appear.

    I once tried to use this trick on helipad for Franklin, but the map showed that the helipad is at the airport, with Blimp icon, and get named as Pillbox Hill Garage. Luckily I have multiple save files in case something went awry. Beware.

  27. I think a couple of these tips don't work - The one where you mark a waypoint then switch characters doesn't work for me. They often tend to go off in the opposite direction. Also the sneaking while stealing car trick doesn't work and they smash the window anyway.

  28. **SPOILER ALERT**

    At the end of the game you can call Richard Soloman & have a conversation about having lunch & making another movie. Does this ever happen or does RichardsMajestic stock stay low forever? I wasted 100k on that stock thinking our movie would make it go high.

  29. Tried to do the one " Robbing Any Store" it didn't work. Well i coul do the door tick fine, but i couldn't get in the store right awya, When i am half way out of the store, and already selected my weapon, i have to to point it to the cashier before i get inside, but than i could rob than, they just stayed there screaming but nobody give me any money, and if I shoot the register nothing happens.

    Does anybody know how long do I have to wait fot the stock market changes? I also tried to do some os the trick here, and after a few GAME days nothing change in the market.

    1. For robbing the store, shoot the registers until you see them short-circuit. Money bags will then appear somewhere either in front of or behind the register. The only stock market changes I've done were after the assassination missions with Franklin but those worked almost immediately.

    2. Thanks Zach, That Actually worked. get in the store and shoot the register until i see the short circuit and the bag of money appears.. thanks a lot

    3. When robbing shops, just Shoot the door of the shop a few times before
      entering, you can then rob the shop and not have to fuss with holding
      the door open.......

  30. Ok, I did some exploring, grabbed a cargobob at trevor's helipad and then hoisted the submarine into the lake to look for the plane wreck, there are several heavy weapons in the plane wreck, you need to have scuba gear on, but there is a lmg, a sniper rifle, a few assault rifles, a shotgun, an rpg, and a super heavy armor vest around the wreck

    1. The android version of the app hasn't been released yet. And the PC version of the game hasn't been released yet too.

    1. For GTA Online you can create a female character. For the single player game you are stuck with the 3 protagonists.

  31. Entrep, is there a way to locate the "robbable" stores in LS and Blaine County? If not, does anyone have locations on these?

    Also, is there a way to do heists once the story is completed? Or are these only part of the story line?

  32. Some simple tricks I found:

    1. Replenish pickup-able items (weapons, armor, etc): Wait 45 minutes in-game time and they will re-spawn. No need to save and reload.
    2. Instant vehicle repair: Stay inside the vehicle, quick save, and reload. You can repair a banged-up vehicle on top of a mountain in a jiffy.

  33. guyz I have a couple of questions...
    1_ is there a cheat for health and armor and guns and money?????
    2_ what is that empty spot in the character select pad michael is on the right, franklin is at the top, trevor is on the right, but at the bottom there is an empty spot... what is it for????
    3_ can we work out with our characters and make them look more muscular like GTA SA when CJ went to the gym????
    plz answer these questions guyz ....thanks. 🙂

    1. 1. Yes, yes, yes, no - we just haven't quite cracked them yet.
      2. Your GTA Online character.
      3. Nope

    2. no money??????????????????????????? thnx a lot....
      and how can we make that online character??????

    3. Making an online character requires you to wait for online mode to come out. I have a feeling we are going to have a lot of fun with online mode in this game, fellas.

    4. Your second question is easy to answer that spot is for your online character if u go on it and let go it takes you to GTA online

  34. (HINT!!) Not sure if anyone else knows this or noticed yet but if you go into your phone contacts and press Square(PS3)/X(360), you can bring up the number pad to type in numbers and dial them.

    So far, I've dialed a ton of numbers from GTA IV and none of them return any result other than Busy or a dial-up internet/fax sound. I did get one result though. If you ring the number from the GTA IV mission "Lure"(545-555-0122), you get some guy telling you to stop prank calling him.

    I wonder if we can find any numbers we can actually get a result from?!

    1. When robbing shops, just Shoot the door of the shop a few times before entering, you can then rob the shop and not have to fuss with holding the door open.

Matt Gibbs

Matt Gibbs // Articles: 1313

Matt first came across the Grand Theft Auto series when he rented GTA III from his local video store, and it's been an obsession since. After playing through every GTA game since then, he decided to start GTA BOOM (initially GTA5Cheats.com) in preparation for the launch of GTA V and as a way to document the hype, news and rumors about the then upcoming game. When Matt isn’t editing the content on BOOM, you’ll find him working on the server or making other improvements to the site, helping to update our library of guides and make them more useful for readers. Find Matt on LinkedIn or Twitter.