How to Lose Your Wanted Level in GTA 6: Clear Every Evidence Icon

GTA 6 has six wanted stars, one more than GTA V. GTA IV (2008) also went up to six. What each star state and icon means is covered in our wanted level explainer; this page is the checklist for getting rid of them.

Step by step

1. Break line of sight. Get round a corner, into a garage or into heavy traffic. Police are not marked on the minimap, so use Focus to see officers through walls. On foot, sprint is reportedly a click of the left stick (L3), not tapping X (Push Square, citing previewer MikeShowSha).
2. Read the icons next to the stars. There can be six: your face, your clothes, CCTV footage, the two of you together, your vehicle and your weapon. Each one is something the police know.
3. Fix the car first. It is usually the fastest icon to clear. Switch cars, or drive through a Pay ‘n’ Spray, which previews say repairs the car, changes its basic color and removes vehicle heat. Do not escape in a police car: every one has a tracker. Our car theft guide covers quick ways into another vehicle.
4. Change how you look. Vice reports that changing clothes deals with the clothing evidence, and KeenGamer’s recap, which draws on IGN’s preview, lists masks alongside clothes and car swaps as escape tools, so a mask is cheap insurance. GTABase, a fan database, adds that a new hairstyle at a salon breaks the description of your face; treat that as rumor until an outlet repeats it.
5. Hide the gun. Holster it or ditch the one they saw. Police may warn you before escalating if you are carrying a weapon, so do not wave it around.
6. Split up. If the duo icon is lit, separate Jason and Lucia. Vice reports that splitting up during an escape can remove a whole star. Use the character switch to take whoever is in the safer spot.
7. Deal with the camera. Destroy the CCTV footage if you can reach it. If you cannot, stay well away from the scene.
8. Do not go back. Previews say police can set up a perimeter around a store you just robbed in case you return.

What Rockstar has shown

• Six stars on the HUD in the Extended Look.
• Evidence icons next to the stars. Postmode counts six and lists a person silhouette, a clothes hanger and a camera, alongside vehicle and weapon icons.
• Hollow stars during the footage (KeenGamer).
• Big chases. Highway pursuits in the Extended Look and an official screenshot of police cars and a helicopter chasing a pickup through the Grassrivers swamp.

What a six-star response looks like has not been shown.

What previews reported

All of this comes from press and creators who watched Rob Nelson play at Rockstar North in July 2026. Rockstar has not published a manual.

• A crime needs a report. An NPC calls it in, an alarm goes off, or a stolen car’s tracker reports it (Vice). An empty back street is safer than a busy one.
• The icons have counters. Vice lists destroying CCTV footage, changing clothes, hiding weapons, switching vehicles and separating Jason and Lucia, and adds that a Pay ‘n’ Spray clears vehicle heat. KeenGamer’s recap of IGN’s preview adds masks. GTABase, a fan database, adds a salon visit and the idea that splitting up makes the police divide their attention; no outlet has repeated those two details, so treat them as rumor.
• Star colors. Vice’s report reads solid white as line of sight, flashing as broken line of sight, red as out of sight but inside the search area, and hollow as a reported crime with no description. Beebom reads some of these differently.
• Top level. At the highest wanted level the police search the whole map instead of a smaller radius (Vice).
• Driving. On PS5 the handbrake reportedly moves to X, because L1 and R1 fire while driving (Vice).

What we expect

• Carry a spare outfit. With clothes and face tracked separately, a change of clothes will be worth more than in GTA V. That is our reading.
• Short chases for small crimes. One or two stars with no CCTV should clear with a car swap and a change of clothes.
• No surrender button until shown. It has only come up in leak coverage.

Keep the Criminal Profile clean

How you escape also shapes each character’s Criminal Profile. Vice’s preview report says staying Professional takes restraint: avoid needless deaths and injuries and get away without escalating. Focus highlights a vehicle’s tires, gas tank and engine block (Vice), so shooting tires is the low-body-count option, though nobody has shown whether it ends a pursuit.

Bank your cash before a job. Rob Nelson told Famitsu that if the police or civilians take you down, you lose all the cash you are carrying; money in the bank is safe. What else an arrest costs is on our jail page, and the forces chasing you are on the police page.

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