Wasted

Wasted is the term used for when a player is severely injured and collapses in a Grand Theft Auto game by losing all their health. In Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodes, the terms Wasted and Busted are not used, but the same effects take place for each.

Causes
There are many ways a protagonist can be wasted. The most common examples include being shot at until the protagonist's health is depleted, being injured in explosions, or drowning. Since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the player will die if they fall from a great height. In Grand Theft Auto V, stalking another protagonist may anger them and they will retaliate by punching the player in the temple, instantly killing them.

Knocked Out
Knocked Out is a unique Wasted screen exclusive to the Sumo Adversary Mode, and the Most Wanted VIP challenge, part of Organizations. Once the player is knocked off the area (Sumo), or is killed by the police (Most Wanted), they will die with a "Knocked Out" text instead of "Wasted".

Effects
Being wasted in the 3D Universe while in a mission will result in immediate mission failure, and the player will respawn at the nearest hospital. They will be stripped of their weapons and be charged $100 ($1,000 in Grand Theft Auto III). There are some exceptions however:
 * In GTA San Andreas, if Carl is dating nurse Katie Zhan, he will be able to keep his weapons upon death (this was fixed in the sixth and seventh-gen consoles, allowing Carl to keep his weapons upon death).
 * In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the player can keep their weapons by paying a bribe of $2,000 to the hospital staff.

In the mobile versions of the game, the player will automatically keep all of their weapons.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, the player is fined 10% of their money (up to a maximum of $10,000) but gets to keep their weapons. In Grand Theft Auto V, the player loses a maximum of $5000, but keeps their weapons too.

In Grand Theft Auto V, getting wasted on a mission gives the player the option to retry from a certain checkpoint, though some Gold medal objectives (such as time or accuracy) will be disabled, preventing 100% completion. If the player declines the option to retry, they will respawn outside the nearest hospital and lose $5,000.

In Grand Theft Auto Online if a player is killed by another player, their money will be dropped and stolen by other players if the killed player has not yet deposited their money to their Maze Bank account. Furthermore, if the player is killed by cops and their Personal Vehicle is parked nearby, it will be impounded at the LSPD Auto Impound.

Trivia

 * Wasted is a term most often used for being highly intoxicated from the use of alcohol or drugs. It is also a slang word for murdered which is the reason why this message appears if a player dies on any Grand Theft Auto games except GTA IV and its episodes.
 * The term is known as "You're brown bread" in GTA London 1969 and 1961, which is Cockney rhyming slang for "you're dead".
 * In the Gameboy Color version of GTA 2, a term "Killed" is used rather than "Wasted" in the PS1, PC and Dreamcast versions.
 * In GTA 2 a special term "toasted" is used to indicate, that the player has died due to catching on fire (particularly by the effects of Flamethrower), or "shocking" to indicate, that the player has died by electricity – by walking too long on electrified rails. Maybe even by being hit by ElectroGun or ElectroFingers, but no NPC will ever use it against the player. The results are, however, perfectly the same as if they were wasted in any other way.
 * In all GTA games, a pool of blood will most likely appear under the player (With a few exceptions like the flames in GTA IV; sometimes does not happen in GTA SA).
 * In  GTA 3 and GTA VC, when the player is wasted during a mission, the word "Wasted!" will still appear on the bottom right, while also displaying Mission Failed! in the middle.
 * In GTA IV, the term "Wasted" doesn't appear in the screen. Instead, the screen turns grey, everything moves in slow motion, and the player is transported to the nearest hospital. However, if they die in a certain way, (the player's body is still falling, etc.) the game will continue showing the slow-mo scene until they press the continue button, which skips the scene. Skipping with the button also works when the player simply doesn't want to watch the whole "blackout". This is the only game not to have the words "Busted" and "Wasted".
 * The words "Wasted" and "Busted" have returned in Grand Theft Auto V, albeit darker in tone. The screen flashes and a sound effect reminiscent of a steel rod being struck right as the words appear (albeit with minor visual differences and missing steel rod sound in the enhanced version). This has become a minor internet meme in its own right.
 * In GTA V, when the player dies in a mission, the term Wasted isn't used, but instead it'll show "Trevor died" ("T died" in the Prologue), "Franklin died", or "Michael died" ("M died" in the Prologue) as a failure reason. (Along with the "Mission Failed" message, as if it was the normal mission failure.)
 * Trevor Philips' Special Ability will avoid most of the damage, including some lethal forms, like being shot by the Rhino and other explosions.
 * In GTA Online, there are different reasons appear under the "WASTED" sign, including the player committed suicide, got run over by another player's car, shot from another player's sniper rifle, caught in a man-made explosion, got mowed by another player, and so on.
 * However, sometimes the player died in the way they didn't want to, the game occasionally still states that the player "committed suicide". This is probably an oversight from the game developers or a scripted glitch. This even happens in the enhanced version, and it is unknown why it didn't get fixed without explanations.
 * If the player dies in a certain way (etc. killed by any member of law enforcement), there will be only a WASTED sign shown up.
 * When the player gets a cutscene that a plane is destroyed during the mission Stowaway in GTA San Andreas, the same case as GTA IV will happen but without the slow motion during the wasted scene.
 * When the health cheat is entered if a "Wasted" text appears on all 3D Universe games, their health and body armor will recover but not revive on the site from where they died. It was programmed to do so because when the player was wasted, they die and not get up/regain control and will respawn to the nearest hospital.
 * Also in 3D Universe games, if the player types a health cheat when protagonist's health is depleted while the protagonist is still in his death animation (before the text "Wasted" is displayed), the health is recovered. But, after the death animation, the protagonist is still wasted and the health bar is instantly depleted. An example of this is when the player has a jetpack in GTA San Andreas and their health becomes empty, it decreases its height. A said cheat can still be entered by the player when this situation happens but once they land, he/she will die.