GTA 6 Edge: K9 Units, Scooter Bros, Cash Gates

REPORTED. Edge magazine's 16-page GTA 6 cover story is out today, built on a visit to Rockstar North in Edinburgh and roughly 90 minutes of live gameplay on PlayStation 5. It confirms police K9 units, near-invisible spike strips, a story that sometimes stops until Jason and Lucia raise enough cash to continue, and Scooter Bros, a service that delivers your car with your weapons stored in the boot.

Edge writer Simon Parkin visited Rockstar North's Edinburgh headquarters for issue 430, on sale October 29 with the full feature free to read on GamesRadar+ the same day. He spoke on the record with co-studio heads Rob Nelson and Aaron Garbut and head of development Phil Hooker, and watched Nelson play the current build live on PS5 for about 90 minutes.

The feature carries 12 new screenshots covering Vice City, underwater areas, robberies, motorcycles and rural Leonida. Edge's own announcement confirms the 16-page cover story and the studio access behind it. Nothing in the session was a trailer or a scripted showcase. It was the real game, played in front of a journalist, three weeks before launch.

Edge reports the demo opens at Jason and Lucia's apartment before moving into a botched robbery and a motorcycle escape. Nelson stole a motorcycle to flee the police and hit spike strips that were "almost invisible" at high speed at night, according to Beebom's breakdown of the feature. The strip threw both riders from the bike.

Limping away from the scene on foot, Jason was chased down and pinned to the ground by a police K9 unit. That is the moment the whole demo turns on. Nelson then had to choose: shoot the dog, or let it hold him there. Beebom reports the sequence was unscripted, which means the systems produced that standoff on their own.

Edge watched roughly 90 minutes of GTA 6 gameplay played live on PS5 at Rockstar North, and the police systems created the demo's biggest moment without a script.

Shooting the dog hurts your Criminal Profile, whether you are playing as Jason or Lucia. The profile runs on a scale from "Professional" to "Irredeemable" and feeds into how the story plays out, so one panicked shot follows you. Beebom notes the parallel with Red Dead Redemption 2, where bounty hunters tracked Arthur with bloodhounds once his bounty passed $170, and killing those dogs dropped his Honor as animal cruelty. GTA 6 runs the same moral math through the Criminal Profile instead, and Edge reports you can often intimidate or incapacitate people instead of killing them.

The dog is also not just a threat. It is a tracker. Edge's reporting describes escape as an information problem: the police heat system builds a picture of you from your clothes, your weapons, your partner, witnesses and even CCTV footage, and K9 units can work from body odor, so the smell system cuts both ways. Changing clothes on the fly using the car trunk system helps you break identification, but a dog that already has your scent is a different problem. We track how the profile follows your record in our GTA 6 Criminal Profile guide.

Yes, sometimes. TweakTown's reporting on the Edge feature says GTA 6 adds pauses between story missions, and at times Jason and Lucia must raise cash before the next job unlocks. Big jobs need specific equipment, hush money or bail, and the game makes you fund them instead of handing you the next cutscene.

Nelson told Edge the team tested GTA 6 with GTA 5's mission timings and "everything felt too fast" for a world built at this level of detail. So the downtime is deliberate. Story players still get a focused path, but earning is now part of the story's structure, not a side activity you do between missions.

The gaps between missions are filled with work, and the most detailed system Edge revealed is WAINK, an in-game phone app that lists the vehicles fences want. Each listing shows the car's security information, including whether it carries a tracker. You find a target from the list, steal it, and deliver it to the drop-off, where fences can run signal-blocking equipment to kill a tracker signal. Higher-end cars can ping their location to the police the whole way in, so you have to lose your tail before you arrive.

Part of your payment depends on the car's condition when it arrives. A clean delivery pays better than a wrecked one, which turns every WAINK run into a driving test with money on the line. TweakTown also names gas station and jewelry store holdups as the other ways to raise cash between story missions, and stealing is riskier across the board now: some drivers flee, others are armed and fight back, and bystanders can intervene in a robbery.

WAINK payouts depend in part on the condition of the car when it reaches the drop-off, so the drive is part of the pay.

Your own car works differently too. GTA Vice's breakdown of the Edge feature details Scooter Bros, a phone service that delivers your personal vehicle to wherever you are for a fee: a driver brings the car within seconds and leaves on the scooter they rode in on. The reason it matters is in the boot. Your weapons are stored in your car's trunk rather than carried as a full arsenal on your back, so the car is your gun locker, and having the right car delivered is part of preparing for a robbery.

Every vehicle also carries a fuel gauge and an engine-health indicator. Cars can travel considerable distances before they need fuel, and refuelling is a quick process, so fuel is a planning factor rather than a chore. It still bites at the worst moment: a car you steal in a hurry might be nearly empty, with a tracker on board and an armed owner, which is exactly the kind of unscripted problem Edge's demo kept producing.

In GTA 6 your car is your arsenal: your weapons live in its boot, and Scooter Bros brings the arsenal to you for a fee.

Rockstar told Edge that Leonida's total landmass approaches the combined playable map areas of GTA IV, GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, and the map plays at roughly twice the size of GTA V's. The size is not empty acreage, either. Garbut says the interiors are the real jump, and we map where that density matters in our GTA 6 map regions guide.

The detail level is systemic. Interiors reflect the people who live in them: Garbut described finding family photos of a dog in one house, then a next room trashed by that same dog, with Jason visibly recoiling from the smell. Characters react to smells and disgust across the game, with no scripted moment required.

The weather system factors in wind, humidity and cloud movement, per Techtroduce's interview summary. Storms change how boats and aircraft handle, prolonged exposure can damage aircraft, and pedestrians seek shelter when the weather turns. Buses and trains run on real schedules across Leonida, and Hooker says he checks personally that the buses arrive on time. The day and night cycle runs significantly longer than GTA 5's, and even how you carry a weapon changes the room: a shotgun slung over your back reads differently to pedestrians than one held in your hands. Rockstar built around 600,000 animations to make those reactions individual.

The partnership has a meter. Church of Nerds' read of the feature reports that Jason and Lucia's closeness sits on a four-point scale that grows with time spent together, through walks, bike rides, gym trips and drives. The two cannot split up and live separate lives, but how close they actually are is built by the player, and it sits alongside the Criminal Profile as one of the systems the story reads.

Does GTA 6 have police dogs?

REPORTED. Edge's cover story demo shows a police K9 unit chasing Jason down and pinning him to the ground as he limps away from a botched robbery on foot. Beebom reports the sequence was unscripted, and that K9 units likely join pursuits at higher wanted levels, especially when you try to escape on foot.

What happens if you shoot the police dog in GTA 6?

REPORTED. Beebom reports that shooting the dog negatively affects your Criminal Profile, whether you play as Jason or Lucia. The profile runs from "Professional" to "Irredeemable" and influences the story, and the choice lands in the demo itself, when Rob Nelson has to decide whether to shoot the dog holding Jason or let it keep him pinned.

Do you have to earn money to unlock story missions in GTA 6?

REPORTED. TweakTown reports that GTA 6 adds pauses between story missions and sometimes requires Jason and Lucia to raise cash before the next job unlocks. The money can come from robberies or from WAINK car theft jobs, and Rob Nelson told Edge that GTA 5's faster mission pacing "felt too fast" in testing.

What is WAINK in GTA 6?

REPORTED. WAINK is an in-game phone app that lists the vehicles fences want, along with each car's security and tracking information, according to Edge's feature. Higher-end cars can transmit their location to the police during delivery, and part of the payout depends on the car's condition when it reaches the drop-off.

What is Scooter Bros in GTA 6?

REPORTED. Scooter Bros is an in-game phone service that delivers your personal vehicle to you for a fee, with the driver leaving on a scooter, per GTA Vice's breakdown of the Edge feature. Your weapons are stored in the car's boot, so the vehicle doubles as your arsenal and getting it delivered is part of preparing for a job.

Do cars need fuel in GTA 6?

REPORTED. Yes. Edge reports that every vehicle has a fuel gauge and an engine-health indicator. Cars can travel considerable distances before needing fuel and refuelling is described as a quick process, so fuel is a planning factor on long drives and getaways rather than a constant chore.

• Every Confirmed GTA 6 Detail (Live Tracker)
• GTA 6 Criminal Profile: How Your Record Makes and Costs You Money

Join free and we'll send the Day-One Money Plan before November 19