Wanted System

1:35 Grand Theft Auto 6's wanted system has six stars and adds heat: the police of Leonida track what they know about you (your face, clothes, car, weapon, partner and camera sightings), and you lose them by changing it and leaving the search area. The stars are back to six: Grand Theft Auto V dropped a star, partly to match the five in its title, and the full six return to the screen for the first time since Chinatown Wars in 2009. Underneath them is something new, which Rockstar North's Rob Nelson explained to IGN as a heat system: the police do not just know that you are wanted, but what they are looking for.

Quick facts

What the police know

2:42 A row of red icons sits under the stars, each for something the police have on you: a silhouette for a physical description, a clothes hanger for what you are wearing, a camera for a sighting on CCTV, and icons for your vehicle and for who you are with. The police can know that Jason and Lucia are a couple, so splitting up is a way to throw them off.

20:23 In the Extended Look's store robbery, TGG counts five of them at once: a camera, the two-person couple icon, the outfits, facial recognition and the weapons in use. Each is something to fix: wipe the camera footage, split up, change clothes, change your look, change your guns. "The police are a lot smarter", he says, and the game wants you to act "like a criminal would".

5:08 In IGN's demo, Jason bought a baseball cap in a convenience store and put it on: the description icon went away, but the clothing icon stayed, because he was still in the same clothes. A full change of outfit, from a shop or from a spare set in the boot of your car, goes further.

Losing them

13:07 The police are no longer on the minimap. Nelson made a point of it to TGG: in Grand Theft Auto V players stared at the minimap and hid in an alley while the dots went by. Instead, the map shows a dark red circle where the crime happened and a lighter, larger search area around it, and getting outside it is the way out. Reach six stars, which TGG heard is hard, and the police search the whole map.

31:44 There is still a clue on screen: red and blue light at the bottom edge shows which direction police are coming from.

14:25 Police cars all carry trackers, and so do many other cars, so escaping in a stolen cruiser is close to impossible. Swap to an older car without one, or have a fence remove the tracker, a service you unlock later. Pay 'n' Spray garages return too, but they also have to be unlocked. See Cars and Driving.

4:29 As in Red Dead Redemption 2, you are wanted in a particular region, and the map shows where you have heat. Police linger after a crime, so going back to the scene is a bad idea.

The colors of the stars

25:15 Nelson told TGG there are several wanted states. Solid white stars mean the police can see you. Blinking stars mean you are out of their sight and close to losing them. Red stars mean you have lost them and only have heat: deal with the icons, change clothes or split up, and they should not spot you unless you walk right up to them. A red area on the minimap marks the neighborhood they are patrolling, and leaving it is enough.

6:25 Hollow stars mean the police are responding to a crime but have no idea who did it. That makes stealth worth having: IGN saw Jason crouch to stay out of a police officer's line of sight, and suggests building a whole approach around staying unseen by cameras and witnesses so that you only ever trigger hollow stars.

30:55 The Extended Look shows it after a bank job: with hollow stars, the police do not know who they are after, and Lucia gives them the finger as she drives away.

How you commit the crime

7:18 Masks are back, from a tied bandana to a rubber face, and limit what witnesses can report.

7:58 The response depends on how violent the crime was. When Jason pointed a gun at a group of aggressors without firing, they fled; the crime was reported and the police came, but not for a violent crime, so the wanted level stayed low.

Edge, which watched Nelson play for 90 minutes (Oct 29, 2026), adds that how you carry a gun matters: slung on your back is one thing, held in your hands another, and crowds edge away or scatter while some people challenge you. The game gives some latitude before that becomes a wanted level, and dropping the weapon removes it from the police's description. In the same session the police laid a stinger strip across the road at night, which blew the motorcycle's front tire, and a K9 unit's dog caught Jason. "In previous GTAs, the player could often feel almost godlike," Edge writes; in Grand Theft Auto 6 it "deliberately makes criminality feel precarious". How the game remembers your violence is on Criminal Profile.

Frequently asked questions

How many wanted stars are in GTA 6? Grand Theft Auto 6 has six wanted stars, the first game since Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009) to show six; Grand Theft Auto V had five.

What is heat in GTA 6? Heat in Grand Theft Auto 6 is what the police know about you, shown as red icons under the stars: a physical description, your clothes, a camera sighting, your vehicle, your partner and your weapon. Rockstar North's Rob Nelson described it to IGN as a heat system.

How do you lose the cops in GTA 6? In Grand Theft Auto 6 you lose the police by leaving the red search area on the map and clearing what they know: change clothes, put on a hat or a mask, split up Jason and Lucia, swap guns, wipe camera footage, or switch to a car without a tracker.

Are police shown on the minimap in GTA 6? No: Grand Theft Auto 6 does not show police on the minimap. A red and blue light at the bottom edge of the screen shows which direction they are coming from, and the map shows the search area instead.

What do hollow and red stars mean in GTA 6? In Grand Theft Auto 6, hollow stars mean the police are responding to a crime but do not know who did it; blinking stars mean you are out of sight and close to losing them; red stars mean you have lost them but still have heat in the area.

Is Pay 'n' Spray in GTA 6? Yes: Pay 'n' Spray returns in Grand Theft Auto 6, but it has to be unlocked, as does a fence who removes trackers from cars, TGG reported after seeing the game at Rockstar North.

What happens at six stars in GTA 6? At six stars in Grand Theft Auto 6 the police search the whole state rather than one area, and reaching it is hard, TGG heard from Rockstar North.

Sources

• Grand Theft Auto VI exclusive - The state that never sleeps, Simon Parkin, Edge (GamesRadar+), Oct 29, 2026
• In GTA 6 You're Not Just Wanted, You're Hunted - Rockstar Explains, IGN, Aug 27, 2026 (video)
• I Saw 3 Hours of GTA 6 at Rockstar North - First Impressions (Exclusive Info), TGG, Aug 27, 2026 (video)
• GTA 6: Every New Gameplay Feature & Mechanic YOU MISSED, TGG, Aug 28, 2026 (video)
• GTA 6 - Biggest Gameplay Changes From Grand Theft Auto 5, IGN, Aug 28, 2026 (video)