GTA 5: How to Use Cheats

While the user base of GTA 5 is constantly growing and new players still have a long and immersive single player story line to enjoy, those who picked up the title earlier will have likely already seen all there is to see in Los Santos when playing alone. While going Online is one way to keep getting fun out of the game indefinitely, solo players also have reason to return to single player even after they’ve maxed out all the content.

That’s because Rockstar decided to hide a whole lot of entertaining features behind cheat codes in GTA 5. While usually, cheats in games are cheap ways to get out of sticky situations, in GTA 5 – and in most GTA games before it – cheats are also used to smuggle game mechanics into the title that wouldn’t naturally blend with the franchise’s image. These cheat effects are often unrealistic, but absolutely entertaining.

Most of you who have been playing video games for a while now will know all of this, but the thing is, the vast majority of GTA 5’s player base are casual gamers, likely new to the industry as a whole or just inexperienced. As GTA 5 launched across five different platforms, there are multiple ways to activate cheats. While some methods overlap in some cases, oftentimes the codes vary from platform to platform. Luckily, the days of hastily scribbled cheat-sheets that we used back when San Andreas was the newest game on the block have passed. Now we can simply hit up a cheats website from our smartphones or even use an app for that.

Xbox 360

On the older edition of Microsoft’s home console we use the retro, tried and true method of activating cheats – good old button combinations. Here, each cheat has an associated string of button commands that need to be pressed in sequence quickly for the cheat to activate. Thing is, you won’t actually see any of this on your screen, nor is there a special window or menu to do this. You’ll simply be entering the code in regular game play, and your character will be reacting to the commands as well.

PlayStation 3

As the other past-gen console on the list of platforms that have GTA 5, PS3 players will use the same method as 360 players. While the method is the same, button-combos, the cheats themselves are different (you can find a list here). Of course, the fact that the two controllers have different buttons should give that away, but we thought we’d mention it nonetheless.

Xbox One

The button combination method from the older platform carries over, and luckily the codes are shared across the two Xbox models. That said, the new generation added a new method of activating cheats. The in-game smartphone allows players to dial any number they choose, and all of the cheat codes in the game have an associated number. Call the number and the cheat is activated.

Playstation 4

Like the Xbox One, the new-gen PlayStation also got the phone-cheat upgrade. In this case, codes are shared across manufacturers, so the phone numbers for each cheat is the same on these platforms (and on PC, but we’ll get to that in a second). Again, the button combos from the older system work here too.

PC

Things are a tad different on PC. While the phone-cheats are available here too, just like on PS4 and Xbox One, the alternate method isn’t button combos. Instead to use GTA 5 cheats for PC, players need to use the developer console, which can be accessed by pressing the tilde (~) key. Then, you’ll need to enter the phrase associated with the cheat of your preference.

This is all you need to know to start using GTA 5 cheats in single player, but keep in mind that they won’t work in online, and any form of foul play in the latter will also earn you a ban. Have fun!