Skills (GTA V)

Skills work as the unique stats of each playable character. Just as in GTA San Andreas, they are adjustable, however less variable and specific. There are eight categories of these skills and are listed as follows:

Special Ability: How long a Special Ability can remain active while fully charged. Store more charge for a greater maximum duration. Increasing is specific to each character.


 * Michael: Increase by scoring headshots, executing stealth takedowns, doing yoga sessions, letting his health drop down to 25% and maintaining high speeds in vehicles as Michael.


 * Franklin: Increase by driving against the flow of traffic, narrowly avoiding collisions, and maintaining high speeds in vehicles as Franklin.


 * Trevor: Increase by performing things that will make him furious like taking damage, falling over, running into pedestrians, getting hit by vehicles on the road, killing enemies, scoring headshots, and maintaining high speeds in vehicles as Trevor.

Stamina: How long you can run, swim, or cycle at full speed before losing health due to overexertion. Increase this skill by practicing any of these disciplines. Every 17 yards you run or minute you swim, the stamina skill will raise by 1%. This skill is extremely useful as you have unlimited stamina after you maxed out this skill.

Shooting: Your skill in handling firearms. Dampens recoil, reduces reload time, hightens accuracy, and increases ammo capacity. Increase this skill by landing hits on enemies, scoring headshots, and successfully completing Shooting Range challenges. You can raise your shooting skill with the gun challenges. It will raise at 3% for gold medals, 2% for silver medals and 1% for bronze medals.

Strength: Your physical power and resilience. Boosts melee damage, speeds up ladder climbing, improves sporting agility, and reduces damage taken from various sources. Increase by scoring hits in melee combat and practicing sports. For every 20 punches you land, the strength skill will raise by 1%. Killing cows on the grapeseed farms gives you almost the same amount of percent for every 20 punches. Playing sports such as Golf or Tennis will assist in enhancing this skill.

Stealth: Your skill at remaining undetected. Move quickly and quietly when in stealth mode. Increase this skill by remaining undetected and performing silent takedowns when in stealth mode. You can raise this skill by performing stealth takedowns and walking while in stealth mode. For every two stealth takedown you land, the stealth skill will heighten by 1.5%, while every forty-yards you walk in stealth will heighten it by 1%.

In GTA Online, stealthing will remove your blip on the radar in deathmatches (the blips are determined by noise and line of sight). [This is not the case in Freemode or Last Team Standing (unconfirmed).]

Flying: Your skill in the cockpit of various aircrafts. Take off, land, and manage turbulence more easily. Increase this skill by flying for sustained periods and succeeding at flight school challenges. You'll receive a 3% to 5% increase of the Flying skill for every gold medal you get in flight school. For those who do not wish to participate in this activity, for every 10 minutes spent flying, the Flying skill will raise by 1%. Flying under a bridge will increase the Flying skills by 1%.

Driving: Your skill behind the wheel or handlebars. Pop wheelies more easily and retain more control while airborne. Increase this skill by holding wheelies and landing squarely out of big jumps. Every second spent in the air while driving the Driving skill will raise by 1%. Also every successful Stunt Jump gives you around of 2 or 3%. It can also be increased simply by driving vehicles without hitting anything. Driving head-on into oncoming traffic going the opposite way of you, without hitting any cars raises this as well.

Lung Capacity: How long you can hold your breath underwater before losing health. Remain submerged for longer. Increase this skill by diving and swimming underwater, and practicing yoga. Every minute spent swimming underwater the Lung Capacity skill will raise by 1%. Diving can help raise this stat too.

Online Skills
Save for the Special Skill, your character can build their seven main skills through the same methods. Your online stats are measured through your customizable character's Lifestyle. Stats are determined indirectly through choosing your character's allocation of hours spent on daily activities. These allocations have direct stat analogy relationships as listed bellow.

A starting character has 24 Hours to distribute among twelve activities. A minimum of 4 hours must be spent on sleep.



These selections determine the stats of your character, as well as affecting his or her physique. As you lower some times and raise others, you will notice that your stats adjust accordingly. For instance, doing a lot of legal work will boost up your flying skills. It should be noted that hourly selections also affect starting clothing.

Five of the seven skill levels, which are displayed on the mission screen, have their own unique designation depending on what percentage each one is at as listed below:

Stamina

0-19%: Lethargic

20-39%: Out of Shape

40-59%: Healthy

60-79%: Athlete

80-100%: Tri-Athlete

Shooting

0-19%: Untrained

20-39%: Spray-and-Pray

40-59%: Police Training

60-79%: Military Training

80-100%: Dead-Eye

Stealth

0-19%: Clumsy

20-39%: Loud

40-59%: Sneaky

60-79%: Hunter

80-100%: Ninja

Flying

0-19%: Dangerous

20-39%: RC Pilot

40-59%: Commercial Pilot

60-79%: Fighter Pilot

80-100%: Ace

Driving

0-19%: Unlicenced

20-39%: Sunday Driver

40-59%: Commuter

60-79%: Street Racer

80-100%: Pro-Racer

Trivia

 * The skills will not affect minigames. This means that specific protagonists cannot get better at golf, tennis or darts. It's only a matter of the player's own skills how they perform in these activities.