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GTA 6 beginner guide: your first ten hours
A plain plan for your first session in GTA 6. What to do first, what to ignore, and the settings worth changing before you start.
Open world games waste your first evening if you let them. This plan gets you through the opening hours of GTA 6 with a map that is opening up, money coming in, and none of the busywork that feels productive but is not.
Change these settings first
Five minutes here saves hours later.
- Aim assist. Pick one mode and stay on it. Switching halfway through the story means relearning every gunfight.
- Subtitles on. Dialogue in this series carries mission detail, and car radio talks over it constantly.
- Radio auto tune off. Otherwise every stolen car resets your station.
- Motion blur down. Helps you read traffic during chases on a large TV.
Hour one to three: follow the story
Resist the urge to drive off. The opening missions unlock systems in a deliberate order, and skipping ahead locks you out of the map, the weapon wheel and the money you need to use either. Play the intro straight through.
What to pick up on the way
- Any weapon a mission hands you. Free is free.
- The first safehouse the story gives you. Do not shop for a better one yet.
- Whatever vehicle you finish a mission in, if the game lets you keep it.
Hour three to six: open the map
Once the story stops holding your hand, drive the coast road end to end. It reveals fast travel points, and it teaches you the road layout better than any minimap will. Our Leonida map regions guide breaks down which areas are worth an early visit.
Hour six to ten: start earning
This is where most new players stall. They grind low value activities because the game rewards them visibly. Read our GTA 6 money basics before you commit an evening to anything, and skip the methods that pay in the low hundreds.
Three things not to spend on yet
- Cosmetics. Clothes and paint jobs do nothing for progression.
- The first expensive car you see. Missions hand you vehicles for free.
- Property upgrades before you own a property worth upgrading. See which safehouse to buy first.
Common beginner mistakes
- Running from police in a slow car. Break line of sight instead of outrunning them.
- Ignoring cover in gunfights because the aim assist makes it feel unnecessary.
- Selling a mission vehicle for a few hundred and losing a free garage slot filler.
- Saving only through autosave, then losing an hour to a failed mission chain.
- Chasing a shortcut. Every site promising free cash is covered in our guide to GTA 6 money scams.
Frequently Asked Questions
What should I do first in GTA 6?
Play the opening story missions straight through. They unlock the map, the weapon wheel and your first safehouse, and skipping them makes everything else slower.
Do I need to have played GTA 5 first?
No. GTA 6 is a new story with new characters in a new state. Previous games only help with muscle memory for the controls.
How do I make money early in GTA 6?
Stick to story missions until they stop paying, then move to the highest value repeatable activity available. Our money basics guide ranks the options as they become measurable.
Should I buy a property early?
Buy the cheapest one that adds a garage slot, then stop. Expensive property is a late game purchase in every previous GTA.
How we reviewed this article
- Written by
- Marek VosGuides editor
- Reviewed by
- Iris LangeNews and database editor
History
- Added the settings section and the pre-release notice.
- First published.
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