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Useful Game Quirks

While making use of the cheat codes results in disabling Achievements and Trophies (which means you will NOT want to save your game with any cheats enabled) there are a number of game quirks -- basically unintended but useful effects that the player can cause to happen at will.

Some of these certainly qualify as cheats -- but without the attendant negative consequences of locking Achievements and Trophies, and lack the threat to remember not to save your game, so hey there mates, that's clearly a win-win!

The following Game Quirks have been identified by players, widely posted on the chat boards, and now, finally, made available here (for your convenience in case you don't have time to read the chat boards). To be clear we did not discover these - we do not know who did - but we still think they are very useful to know.

Before we get to the Quirks though -- did you know that the game has a built-in means for you to show your appreciation to other drivers? Well it does! See here:

You're Number One! (Flipping the Bird)

When you are out and about driving in a car and one of the plethora of drivers in the world of GTA V who makes turns from the wrong lane, randomly turns into you, or otherwise does something that really annoys, show them how they make you feel! Flip them the bird!

To do that all you need to do is assure that your “weapon” is set to your bare hand, and then press the Left Bumper on Xbox 360 or L1 on PS3 and let that birdie fly!

Now on to the Quirks:

(1) Duplicating Planes

The airport that is closest to Trevor's Safehouse has a hanger that you can store a plane at, so that whenever you return the plane is there and waiting for you... By default that will likely be the twin-engine civilian plane you brought back from the smuggling mission, but did you know that you can basically drive any plane into the back of that hanger and then save your game and reload to duplicate that plane?

What happens is you end up back in the cockpit of the plane while a identical plane now occupies the opening of the hanger, there for you to take any time you need it upon returning.

If you are going to go to all the trouble of stealing a jet fighter, you may as well dupe it so you have a spare, right?

(2) Free Health Care

You don't need Obamacare to keep your crew healthy -- all you need is a soda machine to replenish their health! But when those fine healing bubbles are not available or convenient and your boy is hurting you can get a fast instant heal by simply switching away to another character and then switching back.

Like many of the metered stats in the game, doing this will reset the health to full.

(3) Free Money from Armored Cars

One of the easiest ways to get money early on in the game is to rob armored cars. To do that generally requires you to blow open the back doors in order to gain access to the money stored there -- but that tends to destroy some of that money, leaving you with less than you might have had if you could get those pesky doors open some other way...

While having a bomb / grenade will work to get the doors open, did you know that parking the armored car next to the pumps at a petrol station and then shooting the pumps to cause them to explode will also open those doors?

Well, did you know that you can find armored cars ALREADY parked next to pumps at petrol stations? Yes, you can! We even had some success rolling up and blowing the pumps before the guards got back in to drive off, thus eliminating the need to steal the bugger first and evade the cops (well, not evade the cops since blowing up the pumps and robbing the car usually calls them to chase you anyway).

If you want ALL of the money from the back of that armored car, try stealing it, evading the cops, then driving it into a shallow pond in one of the parks -- immersion in water causes the doors to pop-open giving you access to all of the loot.

(4) Forced Briefcase Money Re-Spawn

While not exactly convenient or easy to find and get to, there are a number of wrecked planes and ships under the water off of the coast that have, scattered around them, a number of desirable loot items including weapons and armor, med kits and, best of all, Briefcases full of money!

Normally the way it is supposed to work, you find the site, you dive down (once you get a few points of lung capacity since these tend to be so deep that without that you will drown getting to it), you take the briefcase and that is that. It disappears from the game and you are $10K to 12K richer.

But some clever players discovered that if you get a character's lung capacity advanced enough so that they can reach the loot without dying, you can then send them down and have them collect it, then immediately switch away to a different character, then immediately switch back to the first character, and voila! The briefcase full of money is BACK -- you can collect it again, then rinse and repeat to your heart's content!

On the plus side, not only does the money come back but your character has its air supply replenished, so they won't drown while you do this.

In theory you could even find two sites with briefcases and then have your two characters placed one at each site, and double-dip, but keeping the characters in place while you move them can be a bit frustrating, so you may find just doing one is easier.

Not only does this allow you to generate as much money as you need, it will also eventually cap-out the character's lung capacity if you do it long enough, so hey, win-win!

(5) Instant Car Repair

One of the more frustrating events in the game is boosting a really sweet ride but then having it damaged by careless drivers -- or driving. Now you could take it to a Pay-and-Spray and get it repaired, but one, that costs money, and two, those are not really conveniently placed, you know, everywhere. It means taking time out of your game play...

Wouldn't it be great if there was some free way to quickly repair your ride?

Well, try switching away to a different character and then switching back and there you go! Free car repair.

(6) Losing Wanted Levels Faster

Getting pinched by the cops sucks while getting chased by them is just plain annoying. There are some quirks in the game that you can make use of.

Contrary to popular belief the Police cannot see through walls -- the standard advice to losing wanted levels is to make a few turns and then remain undetected, but this can take a lengthy amount of time for the wanted level to drop. You can speed it up.

The first way to do that is to change cars -- duck into a parking garage and change to a different car so that you are not driving the one that has the APB on it.

Another method to quickly lose the cops is to alter your altitude! Drive into a parking garage and to one of the upper levels out of sight of the cops and you will cut down the time that it takes to lose them.

Hiding under a highway overpass that is below the line-of-sight of the cops chasing you also works.

Making a few quick turns then entering a side street and pulling behind a house or building to break the line-of-sight from the street will work too, since the patrolling cops cannot see you when they drive past.