GTA 6 police and wanted levels: witnesses, descriptions and six stars

In GTA 6 the police don’t know about a crime until someone reports it. In late August, Rockstar North co-studio head Rob Nelson played GTA 6 for journalists and YouTube creators at the studio. Here is what they saw of the new wanted system, with who reported each detail.

No witness, no stars

A wanted level starts only when a pedestrian sees the crime, an alarm goes off or a camera records you (IGN, Famitsu). Officers then get the details of the report and head to the area. The hot area stays marked on the map after you leave, and the police keep searching there until it cools down (IGN).

Your face, your clothes, your car

Icons under the wanted stars show what the police know about you: your appearance, your clothes, your car. A new haircut removes the appearance icon, but the police still know your outfit, and glasses or a hat won’t fool them. You need a full change of clothes, which is why IGN suggests keeping a spare set in the car’s trunk.

GameSpot counted six of them in the Extended Look. A camera means the recording of you still exists, so the file has to be destroyed. A hanger stands for your clothes, a face for your appearance, a weapon for the gun they saw you carry, a car for the vehicle. A pair of figures means the police know they are after two people. GameSpot suggests Jason can also lose the face icon by changing his facial hair.

A mask worn during the crime and taken off during the escape keeps your face out of the description, even if a camera caught you. Switching to another car cuts the heat too. If the police have no description at all, the stars appear as hollow outlines, and leaving calmly is enough to get away (IGN). Kinda Funny adds that you can take the camera footage from a store after robbing it.

The stars carry their own message. Solid white means an officer has you in sight. Flashing means you broke that line of sight. Solid red means they lost you but are still working the area around the crime, and hollow outlines mean there is no description of you at all. In the Extended Look Lucia drives past a patrol with hollow stars and nothing happens.

Six stars and narrow streets

The six-star scale is back; GTA 5 had five. One star is meant to be easy to shake, and six is full chaos. From three stars up, escaping by car in the city is hard: streets are narrower and traffic is dense, so it can be smarter to run through alleys. Rockstar reworked running, jumping and climbing for this (IGN).

Esquire Australia and Flow Games report that the police no longer show on the radar during a chase.

There is one way to see them anyway: GameSpot writes that focus mode shows officers through walls.

Two fugitives

If the report says the suspects are a couple, Jason and Lucia can split up: one draws the police while the other slips away and texts once it’s safe (IGN). According to Flow Games, splitting up during a chase lowers the wanted level by one star. If one of them is busted or wasted, it ends for both, even if the other was still getting away (IGN, Esquire).

Not every encounter needs a gun

Aiming at someone without firing can make them run instead of starting a fight (IGN). According to the TGG channel, officers now give a verbal warning when you draw a weapon near them.

Carrying a gun in the open is a different matter. Florida allows it, and GameSpot says the game follows suit: a rifle on your back is not a crime to report, and the calls start when you point it at someone.

The criminal profile

The criminal profile is GTA 6’s take on the honor system from Red Dead Redemption 2, but without a clear right or wrong. It records patterns: needless violence and extra mayhem count, and so do small good deeds such as throwing away your own trash. Crimes you’re forced into on missions don’t necessarily shift it. A consistent style changes how people in the open world treat you and how the story plays out (IGN).

Update, October 29: in Edge’s preview the profile is a scale from Professional to Irredeemable, and Rockstar confirms it affects the story (fact). The same demo showed stinger strips and police dogs (Edge preview).