The Honest Guide to GTA 3 Cheats
The cheat system in Grand Theft Auto 3 is built around button sequences you enter while playing. Each cheat has a specific input pattern. Enter it correctly and the effect triggers. Enter it wrong and nothing happens. That's the entire system. Here's the functional breakdown. These codes are for the original PlayStation 2 version, which is what most people mean when they ask about GTA 3 cheats. The PC keyboard equivalents are noted where relevant. Health: R1, R2, L1, R1, L1, R2, L1, R2, R1, R2, L1, R1 (PS2) / H, E, A, L, T, H (PC keyboard)
Armor: R2, R1, X, X, R2, R1, L1, R2, X, Square, Triangle, Circle (PS2) / A, R, M, O, R (PC keyboard) Weapons Set 1: Circle, Triangle, R2, R1, L1, R2, R1, R1, L1, X (PS2) / C, H, E, A, T, S, 1 (PC keyboard) Weapons Set 2: R1, R1, L1, X, R2, Circle, R1, R1, R1, L1, Circle (PS2) / C, H, E, A, T, S, 2 (PC keyboard)
Weapons Set 3: R1, R2, R1, R2, L1, R2, L1, X, R1, Circle, R2, Circle (PS2) / C, H, E, A, T, S, 3 (PC keyboard) Max Wanted Level: L1, L1, R2, R1, L1, R1, L1, R2, R1, L1, L1, L1 (PS2) / B, U, L, L, E, T, P, R, O, O, F (PC keyboard) Decrease Wanted Level: Circle, L1, X, L1, R2, R1, L1, R1, Circle, R1, R2, R1 (PS2) / P, E, A, C, E, M, O, K, E (PC keyboard)
Get the Full Details
Spawn Rhino Tank: R1, Triangle, R2, Circle, X, L1, L1, R2, R1, Circle (PS2) / T, I, G, E, R, R, A, H, O (PC keyboard) Spawn Hydra Jet: L1, L1, R1, L1, L1, R2, L1, R1, L1, R2, L2 (PS2) / H, Y, D, R, A (PC keyboard) Spawn Huntress Helicopter: L1, L1, R1, L1, L1, R2, L1, R1, L1, L1, R1 (PS2) / H, U, N, T, E, R (PC keyboard)
Infinite Health (2 minutes): X, X, R1, L1, L2, R1, R2, L1, L1, L1 (PS2) / I, N, V, E, R, C, T, O (PC keyboard) Faster Running: R1, L1, R1, L1, R2, R1, L1, L1, L2 (PS2) / R, U, N, 4, R, E, S, T (PC keyboard) Faster Driving: R2, R2, L1, L1, R1, R1, L2, R2, R1, R2 (PS2) / S, P, E, E, D, 2, M, E (PC keyboard)
All Reds: L2, X, R2, R2, R1, L1, L2, R2, L2, L2 (PS2) / P, I, G, T, A, I, L (PC keyboard) Low Rider Cars: X, R2, L1, R1, R2, R2, L1, L1, L2 (PS2) / L, O, W, R, I, D, E, R (PC keyboard) Big Cars: L1, R1, L1, L1, R2, L1, L2, R1, L1, L1 (PS2) / B, I, G, C, A, R, S (PC keyboard)
Truck Mode: L2, R1, L1, X, L1, R1, L1, L1, L1 (PS2) / T, R, U, C, K, M, O, D, E (PC keyboard) Sky High Traffic: Triangle, L1, X, R2, R2, Circle, Circle, L2 (PS2) / T, R, A, F, F, I, C, I, C (PC keyboard) Heavy Traffic: L1, R1, L1, R1, R2, L2, R2, L2 (PS2) / T, R, A, F, F, I, C (PC keyboard)
Police Choppers: X, X, L2, L1, R1, R2, R2, Circle, Circle (PS2) / C, H, O, P, P, E, R, S (PC keyboard) Night Vision: L1, R2, R1, X, L2, R1, R2, R1, L1, L1, L1 (PS2) / N, I, G, H, T, V, I, S (PC keyboard) Slow Motion: L1, L1, L2, R2, L1, L1, L1, R2 (PS2) / S, M, O, O, T, H, S, L, O (PC keyboard)
Slower Music: R1, R1, L2, R1, L1, R1, L1, L2 (PS2) / S, L, O, W, M, U, S, I (PC keyboard) Enter these by holding each button exactly as shown. If you press too fast or miss a direction, the code simply fails. There's no timer, no progress bar, no feedback at all. You just try again.
How It Actually Works In Practice
I spent way too long trying to get these to work on my original PS2 back in the day. The problem is that the sequences are long enough that your thumb slips. Especially on the dual-stick combos like the Hydra spawn or the infinite health code. I'd get seven buttons in and then realize I'd hit Square instead of Triangle on step eight, and the whole thing was wasted. The PC keyboard version is significantly easier because you just type words instead of memorizing directional patterns, but even then you have to know which cheat maps to which word. One edge case that caught me off guard: if you activate a cheat, then quick-save, then reload, the cheat is still active but your save file now has that cheat enabled permanently. When you boot back up from that save, the effect is already running. This matters because several cheats are mutually exclusive in practice. If you use the "Slow Motion" cheat and then reload a save where you'd also activated "Slower Music," both effects stack in weird ways that can make the game nearly unplayable until you restart the mission or reload a clean save. The counter-intuitive thing nobody tells you is that certain cheat combinations can soft-lock you out of missions. For example, activating "All Reds" while in a mission that requires a civilian car to blend in will cause the mission script to fail because your vehicle model becomes incompatible with the objective requirements. The mission doesn't give you any warning. It just ends with a brief cutscene that loops because the trigger conditions can never be met. I spent about twenty minutes before I figured out that the red car cosmetic was the culprit.
Platform Differences That Matter
The cheat list above covers the PS2 original. The PC version uses keyboard shortcuts exclusively. The mobile ports (iOS and Android) have their own touch-based cheat entry system that's completely separate. If you're playing the Steam or mobile version and looking for the old PS2 codes, they won't work. The Steam release added a built-in console that lets you type cheat names directly, which is much more reliable than mashing button sequences. There's also a critical limitation with the entire system: any cheat you activate disables your ability to save the game. This is a hard rule baked into the game's design. Once you type in a code or enter a button sequence, the save function is locked until you reload a previously saved game or start a new one. The game does not tell you this explicitly. It just doesn't let you save. I learned this the hard way after using the infinite health cheat, pushing through half of Portland, and then being unable to save before a boss mission I hadn't finished yet. Lost about forty minutes of progress. Another downside is that cheat-enabled games don't earn any trophies or achievements. If you're playing on a system with an achievement tracker, every cheat you activate will flag that save as ineligible. There's no way around it. The only workaround if you want both cheats and achievements is to keep two separate save files and never load a cheat-modified save when you're trying to earn something.
If you're playing on PC and find the button-sequence method impractical, the console command approach is the only sensible alternative. Open the console with the tilde key and type the cheat name followed by Enter. It's faster, more accurate, and doesn't require memorizing twelve-button sequences. The tradeoff is that it only works on PC versions, not on console releases where you're stuck with the original input method.
