The 6 Player Types We All Meet in GTA Online

The Police Officer

These players definitely deserve to be the first into the fray of this list because they’re perhaps the most memorable. The explosive loons and speed demons have their own real estate in our memories, but it’s the wannabe cops whose siren call endears us to them the most. Los Santos’ authorities already do a good job of policing the streets and (trying) to keep the peace. Yet, their dedication doesn’t even come close to that of a player, who chose to eschew the criminal life of GTA Online‘s majority and instead does their utmost to prosecute felons in their own personal way.

The journey of a roleplaying cop in GTA Online doesn’t always start out as a completely legal one. While it is possible to create a police officer’s uniform of some description from purchased clothing or via Heists, police cars themselves are not as easy to find. If you see a player driving around in one roleplaying as the long arm of the law, then they probably stole it from an officer responding to their crimes or took it with a five finger discount from the parking lot outside of the Los Santos Police Station.

They’re normal players, just like you and I. They enjoy the same things everyone does and engage in the same activities. The difference is that they want to engage with GTA Online‘s world on a deeper level. Customization is available, but you’re still going to be a criminal no matter what. The roleplaying police community of GTA Online is much larger than you may think. Don’t be surprised when someone on a headset is screaming at you to pull over or calling in 487 after you steal a car from under their noses. Los Santos’ police department doesn’t recognize their authority. Engage in the fun and indulge a roleplaying police officer though, and you’ve opened a gateway to a great time for all involved parties.

The Bounty Hunter

Predators in the world’s jungles are gifted in their role; viciously slaughtering their prey for personal gain. For an animal in the Amazon, that gain comes from food and perhaps territory. In the urban jungle of Los Santos, it is the bounty hunters who fulfill this role. Now to be fair, everyone in GTA Online can be a Bounty Hunter. Spot a player with a bounty on their head and you’ve got a little cash. What we’re talking about here are the ones that everyone has seen. The devoted few who will stop at nothing to claim the price on your head with enough weaponry to put Boba Fett to shame.

You know who these people are. After the rigmarole of joining a server, looking around your apartment for a couple of minutes, and then bouncing into every door until you escape, a familiar name starts to pop up in the bottom-left of your screen just above the map. That’s your server’s Bounty Hunter doing their duty. They walk the streets of Los Santos with enough firepower to put down even the greatest of foes and often use a helicopter to gain enough height for a snipe on unsuspecting marks.

To be a true Bounty Hunter in GTA Online it takes guts. It takes courage to know that someone who did enough to warrant a bounty rather than a spot on the naughty step will soon hate you. It takes skill to pick up bounties before anyone else can steal them from under your nose. It also takes a big gun to blow them to kingdom come. When you join a game always make sure to work out who will be out there stalking the rooftops, then get your Danny Glover from Predator 2 on and hide behind as many ne’er-do-wells as possible.

The One Man Army

Warstock Cache & Carry only gave out one loyalty card, and this player’s got it. Their preferred mode of transport is a Rhino tank and the airfield’s Titan spot is reserved just for them. This player doesn’t just go to Ammunation to stock up on rounds, they’ve got a stake in the company and enough artillery at home to make sure any competition is blown off the map. The one man army is a term often attributed to a player in any video game who’s able to change the flow of battle single-handedly. In GTA Online though, the one man army literally has enough hardware to show Merryweather how it’s done.

Everyone’s seen this sort of player. They’ve got a tricked out Crusader for generally driving around, an attack chopper for cross country flight or womp rat shooting, and a tank launching depleted uranium shells into whatever moves. There’s no way to really deal with them when they’ve got a few thousand horsepower and two caterpillar tracks on either side of their head, just stay out of the way while hoping for another to join the fight. That’s when you get the hell out of Los Santos for a few minutes while both heavily-armed hustlers blow a small crater in the road until one stands victorious.

Each player has their own way of enjoying GTA Online. For some it’s the joy of stealing vehicles, for others the majesty of all-out pleasure of racing. The One Man Army’s not only all about the ranged weaponry either. They’ve usually got a massively high strength stat and have spent hours honing their craft to pull off headshots from half a map away using whatever weapon they can muster. If you can, get in their good books because there’s nothing worse to have facing you down than someone with enough guns tucked into their jacket to give Los Santos a whole new crater.

The Mission Masher

You’ve never actually see a Mission Masher out in the wild. They’ve got the fancy apartment and the souped-up cars, but you’d never witness their wares in Los Santos as such. That apartment is nothing more than a save point (or a way to access Heists) and their cars only cough into life when lining up for a race or starting a job. You see, the world of Los Santos doesn’t interest this type of GTA Online player. Their hearts are totally won over by the art of blasting through jobs or charging around the streets in races.

While for some of us jobs are not the draw of GTA Online, this kind of player enjoys nothing more than hammering through them all night until the cows come home. Who can blame them too? After all, there’s an absolute treasure trove of activities just waiting to be enjoyed in GTA Online. That’s before you even get to the fact that ranking up with RP and amassing huge amounts of cash is probably easier in the game’s instanced areas than out in the wild.

Finding out if you’ve got a Mission Masher in your GTA Online server isn’t exactly difficult. Just take a quick look at the player list and they’ll be there with a JP total longer than most phone numbers — a feat made even more impressive by the fact this resets after you change servers or log out. If you’re driving around and one of these players sends out an invite to get in on a job then it’s usually a good idea to join in. They’re in it for the long haul and will offer you a consistent way to enjoy GTA Online‘s activities without having to wait around for people to join.

The Explorer

In stark contrast to the Mission Masher we have the Explorer. The aforementioned player spends the majority of their time in an instanced arena while the Explorer is never happier than when they’re out seeing the world. This isn’t the sort of person who you’ll likely find running around the city of Los Santos though. That’s always on show for the world to see, providing the majority of the single player content’s backdrop. The Explorer looks out there, beyond the fence. They want to climb Mount Chiliad and leap off it rather than drive around the city with a slightly rusty ride.

They’re often found hanging out in Sandy Shores or on the very outer roads ofGTA Online‘s map. An Explorer isn’t hiding from the masses. Rather, they’re taking in the sights that not many others have seen. With a world so vast as that laid before us in GTA Online, it can at times be hard to comprehend just how much could be out there. That’s what drives the Explorer forward. They’re not looking to shoot other players or steal from convenience stores, they’re walking through the forests looking for that which no one else has seen.

Of all the player types you’ll find in GTA Online, it is the Explorer’s unique experience that will more than likely tempt many. You’ve no need to go through hundreds of jobs; no expensive tanks to buy; no police cars to steal. All that you’ve got to do is start moving north and you’ll witness little pieces of the world that are rarely seen by the greater proportion of players. It’s also a fairly safe pastime because all of the people with guns are down in the concrete jungle while you stand miles away in the real one.

The Small-Time Crook

We’ve all been there. Don’t say you haven’t, because you have. Those first few hours in GTA Online‘s world can be daunting for anyone. Chucked out onto the streets with nothing more than a handful of cash and a two star wanted level. Most people fight their way to get above this or put that tasty preorder cash to work as we leap into the world of high-end apartments. Not the Small-Time Crook though. They’re more than happy to stick to a little petty theft, and they have loads of fun doing it.

How do I know this? Well because this is how I play GTA Online. I’ve got a few hundred thousand dollars in the bank but I’ve got no use for them. Why go off into the horizon on a high reward sting when there’s a small store just waiting to be robbed on the corner. GTA Online is a game that applauds you when you commit a crime, so commit a crime. There’s so many cars rolling around on the streets of Los Santos that are just waiting to be stolen. Buying one is never a bad idea, but stealing one can be a tonne more fun.

The Small-Time Crook is very rarely a poor or inexperienced player though. They enjoy the simpler delights of GTA Online without always going to do all of the more impressive content that everyone else looks to. A good day for a Small-Time Crook consists of robbing a few stores and not getting caught by the police, not sitting around in a fancy apartment all day and deciding for 3 hours which finish to have on your new Pegassi Infernus.

What type of GTA Online player are you? Let us know down below if you fit into any of these categories or stand in a section all of your own.