Creative Ways People Are Cheating In GTA 5
Despite releasing more than half a decade ago, Rockstar's crime-based open-world game Grand Theft Auto 5 continues to thrive. In 2018, it ranked 11th on the list of best-selling games, according to The NPD Group. The engaging story told across three perspectives can keep you busy for dozens of hours, and the practically endless list of activities that await in the open world could easily bring your play time into the hundreds of hours. We're not even factoring in the enormous online component!
Since the year it released, players have been coming up with unique ways to break GTA 5, ways that Rockstar probably didn't intend. Like most other titles in the franchise, the game came with some typical cheat codes pre-baked into the game. These would only work in the single-player story mode, and they did basic things, like make you invincible or jump higher. But such paltry options didn't cut it for some hackers out there.
As of the time of writing, cheating and modding the story mode component of GTA 5 is fair game, but the online mode is a different story. Take Two, the game's publisher, tends to move swiftly, shutting down one hacker after another. Nonetheless, people are breaking this game in crazy, sometimes frightening ways. Join us as we recount some of the most creative ways people cheat in GTA 5.
Some walls are optional
Whether you've spent a couple minutes or a hundred hours with GTA 5, you probably take one thing for granted: walls. Oftentimes, these structures are the only thing that stand between you and a flurry of bullets. When you're under attack, you always look for the nearest one to hide behind because they're reliable and dependable. But what if we told you that some walls aren't so faithful?
You can easily walk right through some structures around Los Santos, clipping into spaces you probably shouldn't be in. The integrity of these areas can be described as shaky at best, and taking the wrong step can cause you to fall right through the map into oblivion. When you find your footing, though, you can exploit these interiors pretty easily. For one, they make the perfect hideout from cops or opposing players in a GTA Online server.
If you want to be diabolical, you can find certain walls that give you the advantage in a gunfight. Some of them have a weird concept of collision. From the inside, you'll be able to see the outside world. Furthermore, you can fire through the wall, turning the game into a shooting gallery. Meanwhile, your foes can't hit you back. It's unfair, but no one said you had to play fair in the world of GTA Online.
An unfair way to die
This hack may be one of the most heinous on this list. Imagine that you're playing around in single-player mode, minding your own business. You drive your car down the busy streets of Los Santos, weaving through traffic. Then all of a sudden, your car comes to a stop, and you haven't touched the brakes. Your character gets out of the car, then collapses. The harrowing word "WASTED" appears on the screen. What happened?
Well, believe it or not, someone playing GTA Online hacked into your single-player experience and killed you. It sounds baffling, but that's the truth of the matter. This can't happen anymore, so you don't need to worry about it. Back when it did happen though, it involved hackers taking control of Rockstar's own administrative tools.
Rockstar built these tools to manage their own livestreams or other events. Whenever they wanted someone kicked out of an online lobby, these tools could facilitate that, among other things. However, once hackers got ahold of it, things didn't look good. By using another mod to find other players' Social Club ID numbers, they could point the business end of the tool at anyone, as long as they were logged into Rockstar's Social Club. This meant that even if you were playing the story mode, these hackers could kill your character just because you were logged in.
How to freeze your money
In GTA Online, lots of people constantly look for ways to have more money. Forums are rife with all sorts of strategies to make and save lots of cash, which makes sense, considering it's one of the most important resources in the game. Well, some players found a way to freeze their in-game bank account, letting them purchase whatever they want without losing any money.
This exploit can only be done on the PlayStation 4 version, and it requires you to share your PSN login credentials with a friend. So be sure that whoever you do this exploit with is someone you can trust. Essentially, this exploit tricks the servers of GTA Online. Your friend will log in first, depositing however much money they want into your account. Then they'll save, return to story mode, and then get ready to start a closed, friends-only online session.
Before starting it, you'll log in through your PS4, regaining control of your account. Buy whatever you want, then save and go to story mode. Your friend then picks up where they left off, starting that closed session. They'll still register having all of your money from before you bought anything. We'd recommend reading the thread linked above to get the precise directions so you don't miss anything.
Wannabe Rockstars
For players on the PS3, Xbox 360, and PC, some hackers pulled a huge hoax across many servers. At various times, a message would appear above players' minimaps. That's usually the place for official messages directly from Rockstar, so this isn't anything surprising. However, the messages themselves said something peculiar, alleging that Grand Theft Auto 6 was on the horizon.
Some would read, "Pre order GTA 6 now!" or "GTA V: Coming Soon." These messages eerily looked official, but people quickly caught onto the prank. Others weren't so lucky, and those who fell for the con got excited. The hoax reached a critical point, which led to Rockstar tweeting out an official statement: "This is a hoax made with the use of mods, and not an official message or statement from Rockstar Games." It just goes to show, people are chomping at the bit for more GTA action.
Kick the competition to the curb
Of the many ways to make money in GTA Online, racing feels like one of the less criminal ones. Sure, street racing is illegal, but at least you won't have blood on your hands, hopefully. Winning requires a perfect mixture of your honed skills and top-of-the-line car modifications. A little bit of luck can't hurt, either. However, there's another technique worth learning if you want to be the first one at the finish line.
If the track has a curb along the side of it, try continuously driving on and off it, weaving back and forth. For some reason or another, this manipulates the physics of the game, increasing your car's top speed. This technique is known as "curb boosting" and "kerb boosting," and it's even more effective on PC, where you can get higher framerates.
No one knows exactly how it works. Some believe that the constant change in elevation lets the tires spin faster. Alternatively, others believe the bouncing messes with the car's suspension. Nonetheless, it's a popular technique that results in higher speeds. Some players find this technique bothersome, and they often ask Rockstar to patch it out of the game. On the other hand, some players see it as another tool to be used to claim victory. How you use it is up to you.
Insurance fraud is a serious crime
People who frequent GTA Online have likely either encountered hackers or know someone who has. Hackers tend to find ways to steal other players' money, but this next method sounds as sleazy as it is creative. Through a mod menu, these cheaters manipulated the server to steal money from other players.
In essence, the hacker would trigger an explosion that destroys their own car. However, that explosion would be attributed to another player on the server. Said player then gets charged an insurance fine because they are "responsible" for "destroying" another player's car. Thus, that money goes directly to the hacker's pocket. Furthermore, that unfairly blamed player gets "bad sport" points, increasing their chances of getting into worse servers with even more hackers.
To put it simply, hackers could both steal your money and ruin your account's reputation at the same time. Even worse, you couldn't do much to fight against this. Once the hacker presses the button, none of your actions can change anything. Luckily, this hack was swiftly patched by Rockstar, so you won't have to worry about it now.
Grand Theft Auto: Rapture City Stories
Los Santos is a city that keeps giving. Something new waits around every corner, and so many hidden secrets lay scattered around the city, waiting to be found. Although, after so many hours of driving and walking those familiar streets, the city and its grand outskirts can lose their luster. Why not take a look at the sprawling urban center through a different perspective?
Thanks to the modding community, you can change the landscape of Los Santos to keep things interesting. A modder named Bushigan submerged the city deep into the sea thanks to their Tsunami mod. Playing with this mod makes the game seem like a forgotten BioShock spinoff. Instead of cruising through the streets of the city, you can swim between the tall skyscrapers, giving the game a new vibe. It's worth noting that this mod only works in the single-player story mode and can't be done online. So save it for a play session when you just want to have some fun on your own.
Cars on parade
By the time you've put in a couple dozen hours into the story, your three protagonists will carry an inconceivable number of weapons. With the tap of a few buttons, you can switch from a knife to a shotgun to a minigun. No matter where you went or who you fought, GTA V gave you enough toys to plow through any encounter in various ways. But if, for whatever reason, you felt like your guns needed to pack some more horsepower, there's a mod to fulfill your desires.
Called the Vehicle Cannon mod, this script changes all of your weapons. Instead of shooting bullets, they'll launch a ruthless parade of cars. Everything from motorbikes to industrial vehicles can come out of your weapon. All of a sudden, the stun gun doesn't seem so awful. The cars are all launched at a velocity so fast that they'll likely explode when they hit the environment. This mod gives the concept of "road rage" a whole new meaning, so naturally you can only use it in the story mode.
It's the end of the world
When it comes to roaming the open world of GTA 5, you'll always find one antagonizing force at every moment: the police. In a game all about committing crime, it only makes sense that the fuzz would be a major enemy. Anyone who's played a GTA game has probably challenged themselves by seeing how long they could survive at higher wanted levels, either out of boredom or to prove themselves. But there are other, more creative ways to challenge yourself in the single-player mode, thanks to mods.
A modder who goes by the handle onsby uploaded a script called Angry Planes. When it's activated, you'll notice far more planes in the sky than usual. If you don't see them, the planes will blatantly make their presence known. These aircraft are out to kill you. The ones with guns or missiles will rain fire down upon you. The ones that don't have weapons will try to crash into you. When the police aren't enough of a challenge for you, flip on this mod and see what happens. If you were looking for a way to kickstart the apocalypse in Los Santos, Angry Planes would be a good place to start.
Los Santos, the other Windy City
To the northeast of Los Santos lies a large wind farm. You'll find wind turbines across these rolling hills, all of them turning and producing green energy. Fortunately, all the moving parts are suspended way up in the air, so you don't need to worry about them unless you're flying an aircraft. For your average ground-dwelling citizen, those lumbering turbines pose no threat, obviously.
"But what if they did?" asked a diabolical GTA 5 modder. Thus, some hackers got to work, putting spinning turbines in more innocuous places. It all started with some custom-built race tracks, which made the turbines mere obstacles to avoid, reminiscent of a putt-putt golf course. They would get in the way of your races, but not to the point where reaching the finish line was impossible. If only it had stopped there.
The hackers' work kept escalating, to the point where turbines could be placed practically anywhere on the map, even in online servers. They would block entrances to vital buildings, such as garages or hideouts. Some even built a machine of nightmares by attaching some turbines to a moving train. These once proud symbols of renewable energy now stand for inconvenience, fear, and possible death, all thanks to the work of some GTA 5 hackers.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is super hot
Rockstar has developed some of the more impressive AAA titles in the past few console generations. Games like GTA 5 and Red Dead Redemption 2 go for a sense of realism and depth beyond other major releases. However, that doesn't mean indie games don't deserve their chance in the spotlight. Every year, innovative hits come from the indie scene, such as Superhot, the first-person shooter where time moves only when you move.
Luckily, with the help of a few mods, you can have the best of both worlds. The Superhot mod implements the same time-bending mechanic into Rockstar's open-world game. When you active the mod, the world comes to a complete standstill. When you start moving, whether it's a slow walk or a full sprint, the rest of the world starts moving, too. Even pulling the trigger on your gun moves time forward.
The mechanic completely changes the way you could play through the game's story, and you could feasibly use it until you reach the end. Suddenly, Michael, Franklin, and Trevor aren't just run-of-the-mill criminals: they're superpowered gunslingers. It provides a new way to spice up the gameplay without drastically altering the environment with tsunamis or raining aircraft.
The ultimate troll(s)
Now this creative hack makes for a great story. This baffling tale (and that's putting it mildly) was documented by Nick Breckon of Idle Thumbs. In a GTA Online server, all sorts of weird events started happening to him. He'd die seemingly out of nowhere, and sometimes the death was accompanied by an explosion. When he respawned, he'd occasionally have every gun in his inventory with maximum ammo. Other respawns took away his entire inventory, leaving only his fists.
As he played, he found bags of money would start spawning around him, as if they came from nowhere. But he very quickly found the source of all these weird events: a hacker. This hacker made himself obvious by spawning a copy of Nick's character onto Nick's back. This green-haired doppelganger would ride piggyback, and nothing Nick did would get him off. Furthermore, the hacker started spawning more green-haired clones of Nick, all of whom were hostile.
Any time Nick tried fighting back, he would end up dead, often at the mysterious hands of the hacker. There was no escape, either. Jets of steam would come from the ground, knocking his character down. This let the hacker do as he pleased, completely trolling Nick. These unexplainable events make for a great story, but they probably would ruin any chance of the victim having fun with GTA Online that day.