Knowing how to steal cars in GTA 6 is going to be a key part of your progress around Leonida, because it’s not like you’re going to catch the bus across Vice City! While previous entries in the series have relied on vehicles being conveniently unlocked or sticking your fist straight through the glass, the GTA 6 process is going to be considerably more nuanced. With that in mind, here’s what we know so far about stealing cars in GTA 6.
Find out what rides you’ll be swiping with our round up of the GTA 6 cars identified so far, along with the GTA 6 weapons you can arm yourself with.
How stealing cars works in GTA 6
From what we’ve seen during the Extended Look, when you approach a vehicle that you can thieve a selection of prompts will pop up, offering different ways to steal the car in GTA 6. In this example, you can either use a slim jim (a thin strip of metal that’s technically called a lockout tool) to slide in and pop open the lock non-destructively, or simply smash the window to gain access. Presumably, breaking the window will be quicker but draw more attention and increase the likelihood of getting a wanted level, while popping the lock will take longer but help you remain inconspicuous.
If you opt to use the slim jim then a simple lockpicking minigame appears, where it looks like you need to use the right stick to push towards a curved bar until it fills up completely and the door opens. It’s likely that higher end vehicles, if the slim jim option is available, will have a smaller or even moving target bar to fill and make this process more difficult, though from what we’ve heard so far about character development it’s also possible that the more cars you steal in this way, the better you’ll get at lockpicking and the easier it will become.
Although this is all we’ve seen so far, Rockstar says GTA 6 won’t let you magically hotwire every car and that you’ll acquire certain tools as you progress through the game to access more of them, though you can still carjack any driver you see to take control of their vehicle. There will even be a phone app you can use to get more details on any cars you have your eyes on, telling you what you need to steal it, how much it would be worth to sell, and the cost of registering it as your own vehicle. Certainly some big changes when it comes to grand theft auto!
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