🌴 Your first week in Leonida: what to do first

How to read this guide

GTA 6 isn't out, so nobody on Earth has tested its opening hours — including us. What follows is pattern analysis: GTA 4, GTA 5, and both Red Dead Redemptions opened the same way (a guided story ramp that unlocks systems piece by piece), and every trailer suggests GTA 6 follows suit. The day the game drops, this becomes a tested walkthrough with specifics.

Run the story first — it's the tutorial and the paycheck

In every modern Rockstar game, early story missions are the fastest safe money in the opening hours and the way core systems unlock. Resist the urge to immediately wander: play the first story arc until the game visibly opens up (in GTA 5 that was roughly the first heist). You'll come out with cash, unlocked mechanics, and a feel for Jason and Lucia's dual-protagonist structure.

Don't buy the shiny thing

The classic first-week mistake in GTA 5 was blowing every dollar on a car or apartment before owning anything that generates income. Vehicles in GTA games are everywhere and effectively free; income sources are not. If GTA 6 follows the series' economy, the priority order is: story progress → income property/business → toys. Our Money guide covers the full expected progression.

Learn the map on purpose

The players who look brilliant in week two are the ones who learned geography in week one. Drive between missions instead of fast-traveling where possible, and pay attention to highway on-ramps, bridges between the Keys, and how downtown Vice City connects to the beach strip — you will eventually need to escape through all of it with stars on your tail.

• Learn one 'home route' between your safehouse and downtown cold.
• Note water: Leonida is full of it, and boats/swimming change escapes.
• Open our interactive map alongside — every confirmed district is on it.

Side content: taste it, don't clear it

Rockstar front-loads side activities to show breadth, but hoovering up every icon in week one burns players out before the story's midpoint. A better rhythm: one or two side activities per session, chosen because they're near where the story sent you. Completionism is what the post-story endgame (and our 100% tracker) is for.

Collectibles can wait for the tracker

Every GTA hides collectible sets, and hunting them blind in week one is the lowest-value use of your time. They're designed to be endgame cleanup. When our map's 100% tracker goes live at launch, every verified collectible will be pinned with a checkbox — hunt them with a map, not by luck.