GTA 5 Wiki

Story Mode weapons unlock through missions, Ammu-Nation purchases, world pickups, edition bonuses, and a few special grants. Their class, availability, price, and stat bars help you compare practical choices without pulling GTA Online gear into the mix. Some entries only appear in certain editions or scripted missions, so access depends on more than story progress.

Story Mode vehicles are stolen from traffic, bought from in-game websites, granted through Special Vehicles, or kept as a protagonist's personal ride. Purchases store in a garage, marina, hangar, or helipad, and a destroyed buy is gone because there is no insurance. Original DLC cars sit in Special Vehicles, while Enhanced and Expanded & Enhanced move those same models onto the websites. Some vehicles stay mission-only, edition-locked, or collectible unlocks rather than street cars.

Story Mode follows Michael, Franklin, and Trevor, plus the named people who hire them, live with them, or get in the way. After each lead unlocks, you can switch between them when they are not locked in a mission. Role, affiliation, and status are Story Mode facts, not GTA Online identities.

Story Mode missions are the letter jobs that move Michael, Franklin, and Trevor through Los Santos and Blaine County. You start them from colored map icons, switch characters between jobs, and replay finished missions from the pause menu for gold medals. Heist letters split into setups and approaches, and Franklin still has to pick an ending after The Big Score. Some Lester assassinations and Michael's family phone jobs sit off the required path.

Story Mode lets you buy Dynasty 8 businesses after the market opens, and a couple of properties are granted by missions. Each one has a buyer, a price, and either weekly income or pay for jobs. Extra garages, a marina, a helipad, and hangars store vehicles, with original editions granting some of that storage free. Story houses are not for sale, and GTA Online properties sit in a different mode.

Story Mode heists are the multi-part jobs that fund the Los Santos plan. You unlock them through the story, pick an approach when the job offers one, run the setups, then hit the finale with hired crew or the three protagonists. Approaches, crew cuts, and who actually keeps the take change from job to job. GTA Online heists use a different unlock and payout system.

Lester's Story Mode heist board lets you hire a gunman, and on some jobs a driver and a hacker, on The Jewel Store Job, The Paleto Score, The Bureau Raid, and The Big Score. Each specialist takes a fixed cut of the net take, and starting skill changes loot drops, getaways, and hacks. A few members only appear after a random event or a phone call. Surviving a job can improve later scripts for some roles without changing the cut.

Strangers & Freaks missions are the question-mark encounters and contact chains that add side stories to GTA 5 Story Mode. Their protagonist gates, unlocks, order, rewards, and gold objectives vary by contact, and some connect to 100% work or later activities. GTA Online contacts and unrelated collectibles stay separate.

Story Mode random events turn ordinary travel into rescues, robberies, ambushes, rides, and unexpected rewards. Choices can unlock heist crew members, cash, vehicles, contacts, or later outcomes, and some encounters disappear after a story window closes. Enhanced releases add their own events, while GTA Online remains separate.

Story Mode hobbies fill the space between missions with sports, races, flight lessons, parachuting, shooting practice, bail work, and trafficking jobs. Required activities advance 100% completion, while optional work pays its own rewards. Some activities depend on a specific edition or returning-player entitlement.

Story Mode cheats are official codes you enter with a button combo, a PC console word, or an Enhanced phone number. They change the current session, allow saving, and disable achievements until you reload. Original PS3 and Xbox 360 have no phone cheats, and a few Enhanced vehicle spawns wait on random events. None of this works in GTA Online.

Story Mode radio lives on the vehicle radio wheel. Music stations play in both counties, talk radio is county-locked, and later editions add stations plus extra songs that original consoles never had. PC can also run Self Radio from a User Music folder. GTA Online-only stations stay off the Story Mode wheel.

GTA 5 awards achievements and trophies for Story Mode missions, heists, collectibles, and a launch GTA Online set. The PlayStation Platinum needs both modes, while Xbox and PC use the same achievements without a Platinum. A later story choice can lock a few Story Mode trophies that need a specific protagonist, and cheats disable them for that session.

Story Mode gangs and factions hold neighborhoods, fronts, and headquarters, then collide with Franklin, Michael, and Trevor on named jobs. You run into them on turf and during missions, not by joining a GTA Online crew. Street gangs own South Los Santos, while cartels, the Lost MC, and Trevor's own crew fight over Blaine County. The FIB, IAA, and Merryweather sit on the later agency work, and the cults only appear if you chase their side missions.

Story Mode wildlife appears in free roam, Trevor's hunting trips, Franklin's photography challenge, and Enhanced Peyote transformations. Species vary by habitat and edition, and some special forms never spawn as ordinary animals. GTA Online pets and events follow different rules and stay separate.