Wanted 2.0

New wanted system with witnesses and 6 stars.

Source: leak analysis — no official description of the police system. Shift 27/8: The leaks' rumor became an official system: six stars and witness/evidence icons visible in the EL HUD (scene el-02). The biggest Rumor vindication on the Wall.

The cops search your last known position — not the spot where you actually are.

You see it in the chase on the Raul job: the moment line of sight is lost, the search organizes around the spot where you were last seen — not around you.

Six wanted stars — the scale goes back to six, after GTA V's five.

The six star slots are visible in the HUD from the police raid on the apartment block. The rumor from the 2022 leak became an official system.

Hollow stars = they're looking for you without line of sight; they fill in when they spot you.

The switch between hollow and filled stars is clearly visible in the HUD during the escape from the building — two search states, visible on-screen.

Below the stars, icons show what the police know about you: face, clothes, vehicle, cameras, duo, weapon.

The evidence/witness system shows up on-screen in the raid: the wanted level is no longer one red dot but a list of what's been recorded.

Recognition countermeasures: a full change of appearance — clothes, mask, vehicle — or splitting up the duo; a haircut on its own isn't enough.

Rob Nelson explained in the previews how the police recognize you by what you're wearing: a hair change alone isn't enough — it takes a full change of appearance or vehicle.

The fugitive's handbook in action: you torch the car, switch vehicles, disappear into the neighborhood — and the search fizzles out.

The getaway on the Raul job closes exactly like that: burning the car, switching vehicles, vanishing into Bayside — the whole cycle visible in the video.

“Busted” is back — and one of the two can get arrested while the other stays free.

From Rockstar's explanations in the 27/8 previews: arrest is once again a possible ending, and the duo doesn't always “go down” together.

Suppressive fire: you shoot beside the target on purpose to pin them down — and get away without killing cops or civilians.

Rob Nelson presented it as a “new feature” in the Famitsu interview: “Instead of shooting at your opponent, you deliberately miss and hit beside him — you scare or confuse him and buy time to get away”. The design purpose, in his own words: “to have the option not to kill cops or civilians while escaping”. He added that “there are many spots where you get through without killing anyone” and gave as an example the scene where Jason shoots at the patrol car's tires: it flipped over, no cop was killed. It ties into the narrative of the hunted couple. Careful: fighting remains an option — but it charges the Criminal Profile (c-055/c-057). Independent coverage: Kotaku 28/8, GameRant, VGTimes.

For the first time in the series you don't hide the guns: long guns stay visible in your hands — people back away and the cops stop you.

“In this game, for the first time, you can't carry concealed weapons” — that's how Nelson put it to Famitsu. He admitted the decision took a lot of thought, because pulling a shotgun or a rocket launcher out of nowhere was a hallmark of the series — they were afraid part of the fun might be lost, but judged that having more options is worth more. The realism rationale, in his own words: in GTA V you walked around with a carbine in your hand and nobody reacted — “way too unnatural”. A detail of the mechanic: carrying a long gun doesn't cause panic on its own; the reaction comes when you hold it in your HAND — then people walk off annoyed or react aggressively. And it fits the story: a couple hiding from pursuers doesn't go around openly armed.

You have a bank account on top of your cash — and on “Wasted” or “Busted” you lose all the cash you're carrying on you.

“Besides the cash you carry, you also have your own bank account. Cash is at risk of being lost in a Wasted or Busted state — and if a cop or a civilian takes you down because you caused trouble, you lose all of it, so it's better to deposit it somewhere safe” (Nelson, Famitsu). He said it in the flow about the revamped wanted system — meaning the deposit is part of the risk calculation before every job, not a decorative app. “Busted” was already Confirmed (c-054); here we learn what it costs you. There is a banking app on the phone (c-142). CORRECTION 4/9: the original wording said “everything you carry on you” — the source says explicitly “cash”, and only that. It was narrowed, because the broader “whatever you carry” visibly contradicted c-131 (weapons always end up in the locker or the trunk).

Before the stars there's “Heat”: the police don't know where you are — they're looking for you off a description of clothes, appearance and vehicle from the report.

“Your exact position isn't known yet, but the search starts from information such as your clothes, your appearance and the vehicle you're driving. We call this state “Heat”” (Nelson, Famitsu). It's triggered, for example, when an NPC reports a theft and the radio calls out “the suspect is fleeing in the vehicle in question”. If you get out of the car the relevant icon goes out — but it's known that you're carrying a weapon, so you remain a suspect. c-051 already had the “what the police know” icons; here it gets a name and a pre-stars phase.

“Heat” has geographic limits: the police search inside a zone and as long as you're in it it doesn't go away — get outside the zone and the pursuers are lost.

“The police search inside the Heat zone, and as long as you're inside it the Heat doesn't go away. But if you manage to get outside the zone's limits, the pursuers disappear” (Nelson, Famitsu). Their explicit warning: even if the police leave the spot, getting back into the flagged vehicle exposes you again. It completes c-053 (“you lose yourself in the neighborhood and the search fizzles out”) by giving it a mechanism: it isn't time, it's distance.

The stars don't go up easily: Rockstar carefully weighs how many each act gives, so that the system doesn't become excessively strict.

“It depends on the type and the degree of the act, but the stars don't go up easily. How many stars each player action gives is something we judge carefully, making sure the rating doesn't become excessively harsh” (Nelson, Famitsu) — answering a remark by the journalist who saw live gameplay. Combined with c-039 (witnesses) and c-145 (Heat): the system shifted the weight from automatic punishment to investigation — “at two stars getting away is absolutely feasible”.

Focus also works as an out-of-combat tracker — it finds cops and objects on the map, not just slow-motion aiming.

In the same demo, Nelson revealed a second function for Focus — beyond the slow-motion aiming we already know about (c-072): “This is called "Focus", very close to "Eagle Eye" from Red Dead Redemption 2. You use it to spot things you want to find on the map — cops included, for sure”. He demonstrated it by activating it so that a nearby cop “lit up” on the screen. What this adds: Focus isn't just a Dead Eye-style combat tool — it also works as a detection/navigation tool outside combat, like the separate Eagle Eye in RDR2.

Mission design was deliberately opened up — multiple routes/ways to complete missions where possible, without losing narrative quality.

In the same interview, Nelson explained the general mission design philosophy (translated): “The narrative has to take precedence sometimes — at least for us. For the story to progress in a believable way, you have to hit certain beats, so in those cases we somehow have to guide the experience. But with this game we made a very conscious effort to open things up wherever possible, without degrading the quality of the experience”. He gave two specific examples: the first mission seen in Netflix's preview video, where the duo tries to get out of a tower block, has multiple exit routes; and the mission where they meet Raul — a police chase where one drives and the other shoots (see c-153/c-173): “There's an optimal route you're told to follow to get out, but if you don't follow it, you can still get out — the mission is essentially a police chase”. What this adds: it clarifies that the escape/approach flexibility we already knew about in specific systems (second exits in heists, c-064; switching between driving and shooting, c-153) is an expression of a deliberate, general mission design principle — not an isolated exception.

Holding a visible weapon worries bystanders even if you don't aim at anyone; you can put it down and de-escalate before a wanted star goes up.

Edge #430 describes a new detail of the NPC reaction system: simply displaying a weapon (e.g., carried over the shoulder) worries bystanders less than holding it in your hands ready to use — and in some cases they may provoke you. The game allows room: if you put the weapon down, there's a window to de-escalate the situation before reaching an official wanted star. This adds to the already-known Heat/Criminal Profile (c-048, c-051, c-055) with a new prevention detail before the star system is even triggered. Description of the piece via VICE (29/10), without a named quote. Ceiling Solid.

Police dogs (K-9) take part in chases — a new unit in the arsenal of the Leonida police.

Edge #430 confirms that K-9 units (police dogs) actively participate in police chases in GTA 6 — the first explicit mention of this unit for the game. Description of the piece via VICE (29/10), without a named executive quote. Ceiling Solid.

The WAINK phone app functions as a job board for fences — target vehicles with location tracking; expensive ones alert the police, and there are signal blockers at drop-off points.

Edge #430 reveals the “WAINK” app on the player's phone: a list of vehicles that fences are requesting, with location-tracking information. The more expensive/high-end vehicles automatically alert the police to their location — countermeasure: signal blockers exist at drop-off points. The vehicle's condition/wear affects the payout. Expands the Vehicle Theft system. Description without a named quote — ceiling Solid.

The Heat system logs appearance, clothing, weapons, accomplice, and CCTV footage that identifies you; changing clothes or discarding a weapon removes identifying traits.

Edge #430 expands the Wanted 2.0 system: “Heat” tracks what the police know about you — appearance, clothing, weapons, whether you have an accomplice, and CCTV footage that has recorded you. Changing clothes or dropping the weapon removes identifying traits from the profile the police keep — separate from the Criminal Profile (Professional/Irredeemable, c-055), which affects the narrative. Description without a named quote — ceiling Solid.