GTA 6 combat and gunplay: what changes from GTA 5

Each change below is checked against An Extended Look, the 26-minute gameplay video Rockstar released on August 27, 2026. We went through it frame by frame on October 25, 2026; every screenshot here comes from it. Nelson's words are marked as his. What TGG saw, or reads into the footage, is marked as TGG's. Nobody outside Rockstar has played the game yet.

Is auto-aim gone in GTA 6?

No. It is just not the default any more. Here is how Nelson put it to TGG, 1:00 into the video:

A little bit of stickiness on the aiming, but leaning more towards a free aim feel. All tunable in options, but definitely less of a default lock on aim than previous games.

Rob Nelson to TGG · 1:00

So aim assist stays, as a light pull rather than GTA 5's snap to the nearest chest. You can turn that pull up or down in the settings. Out of the box, though, you put the reticle on the target yourself. Can the options bring back GTA 5's full lock-on? Nelson did not say, and TGG admits he does not know.

The footage fits. In the motel raid that opens its combat, Jason clears corridors with a shotgun, and his reticle is a pair of thin brackets parked in the middle of the screen. No target box snaps onto the man behind the door.

Focus, hit markers and an empty minimap

Nelson ties free aim to two other changes, and the second one is easy to miss.

With the combat focus, where you can slow it down, it's very controllable, but without having enemies on the radar and the mini map, and without having the auto aim as default, you can balance the combat a lot in a way that feels better.

Rob Nelson to TGG · 1:09

Enemies do not show up as red dots on the minimap. Police had already been reported missing from the map during the preview week; TGG points out that Nelson's wording covers every enemy. You find people by looking and listening, or you slow the fight down.

That slowdown is Focus, GTA 6's answer to Dead Eye in Red Dead Redemption 2. TGG's reading of the Extended Look is that it slows time without firing for you and marks lethal spots in red, weak points in yellow; a yellow hit leaves the enemy alive but down. He reads the hit markers the same way: white for a plain hit, yellow for incapacitated, red for a kill.

The non-lethal side matters beyond style. Rockstar's wanted system keeps track of what witnesses saw, and a fight that ends with nobody dead reads differently from a massacre. Our weapon wheel guide covers what drawing a gun without firing it does to your wanted level.

Two handguns, two long guns

Nelson gave TGG the carry limit in one breath. Two concealed handguns, always. Up to two long guns, but only one of them fits on your back, so a second rifle stays in your hands the whole time and everyone around you can see it.

Where the rest of your arsenal goes, and why the wheel looks this empty, is the subject of our weapon wheel and loadout guide. It has Nelson's full answer, the vehicle storage rule and every garage with a weapon locker.

People and police react to the gun in your hand

This is the change Nelson defends hardest. TGG asked him why GTA 6 breaks with GTA 5 here.

We don't feel that works any longer at this resolution, with the behavioral sophistication we need from our population now. In GTA 5, you can pull out from nowhere in front of people and they don't react. That doesn't work here.

Rob Nelson to TGG · 6:05

The response is graded, not a switch. A long gun on your back passes. One in your hand and people start moving away from you. Police who spot it give a warning first. Hold a long gun in both hands as if about to fire, and Nelson says things begin to escalate.

Moving away is not running away. TGG points to a clip of Lucia entering a store where people simply walk off; he expects panic only once you aim at someone. The practical upshot is a habit: keep one long gun slung, and draw a handgun only when you need it. Handguns are the class you can hide, and the handguns aisle lists every pistol and revolver seen so far.

Recoil, fire rate and the ammo counter

TGG saw more gunplay at Rockstar than the Extended Look shows. He watched Nelson fight police on Shore Drive with an assault rifle and came away describing "a lot more kick" and "a lot more thud". Nelson tap-fired. In GTA 5 you could hold the trigger and stay on target; here, by TGG's account, you cannot.

Treat that as an impression from a hands-off demo. No damage or recoil value has been published for any GTA 6 weapon. TGG also reads the Extended Look as showing a much faster pistol, with Jason firing as quickly as he can pull the trigger, where GTA 5 capped the pistol's rate. That one rests on a short clip, so we rate it low until someone can time it in the game.

The HUD is visible in every fight. The weapon's icon sits at the top right with two numbers: 6 and 94 for the motel shotgun, 34 and 221 for the drive-by rifle. Which number is the magazine and which the reserve is not written on screen. Kill cams are back and can be switched off. Quick weapon swapping returns too. And in the demo TGG saw, Jason and Lucia could physically hand guns to each other, so the one who runs dry is not stuck.

Throwables use the same HUD. During the getaway, Lucia stands in a parking garage with a bottle stuffed with a rag, the HUD shows a Molotov with a count of 1, and the next shot has the car in flames. That sighting is why the Molotov moved from leak to confirmed in our database.

Every other throwable found so far, official or leaked, is in the throwables aisle.

Melee: block and parry

Hand-to-hand is the one topic TGG did not raise with Nelson. Instead he relays Kinda Funny Games, who say Nelson told them melee has a hold block and a timed parry. That reaches us second-hand twice. It is the weakest Nelson claim on this page.

The footage does show close combat inside a robbery. In the jewelry store Lucia grapples a man and puts him on the floor. TGG noticed the screen border turning yellow when she did, the same color as an incapacitating hit with a gun. These are the melee weapons Rockstar has shown so far:

Cover, crouch and sprint

Cover is still on R1, but the crouch is pretty effective as well. I like crouch because you can still strafe.

Rob Nelson to TGG · 8:53

TGG adds that crouch is back, prone does not appear to be, and shoulder switching returns from Red Dead Redemption 2. The office fight shows the strafing crouch Nelson likes: Jason works his way between desks, low, pistol up.

Two controller changes come from other attendees, relayed by TGG. Sprint moves to L3 instead of tapping X, which frees your right thumb to aim and look around while running. Kinda Funny Games also quote Nelson saying you can set walking or jogging as your default speed in the options. Slow walking will not be forced on you.

Weapon customization: what is known

Less than the screenshots suggest. TGG says he never saw a customization menu at the preview. What the official material shows is finish: engravings, paint jobs and gold-plated guns, in the Extended Look and the screenshots alike.

Rockstar has named three customized guns itself, all part of the Ultimate Edition: Jason's engraved Girardi ES9, Lucia's Klose K17, and the pair of Morgan revolvers.

Attachments, prices and a gunsmith menu are not confirmed. Our Ultimate Edition weapons page quotes Rockstar's descriptions, and the real-life guns page matches every weapon to its firearm.

How firm each point is