Cheats For Grand Theft Auto 3

How to Use Cheats in Grand Theft Auto 3

Grand Theft Auto 3 came out back in 2001 and even though it is old, people still look up Cheats For Grand Theft Auto 3 when they want to skip the grind or just mess around. I played through this game like ten years ago on my PS2 and I remember trying to get the jetpack cheat to work during a mission. It would not go off no matter what I pressed. Turns out I had missed a button. Here is the full breakdown of how these cheats actually work, what you need to know before using them, and a couple of things that trip people up. The cheats in GTA 3 are entered by pressing specific button combinations while you are playing. They are not typed into a menu or saved in a settings file. You hold them down in sequence and something happens immediately. There is no pause screen required. I found this out the hard way when I kept trying to enter a cheat during a cutscene and wondering why nothing happened. The game has to be in active gameplay mode, not during a movie sequence or loading screen. Each cheat has its own combination. Some give you weapons, some change your wanted level, some spawn vehicles, and a few just make the game more chaotic. You can chain multiple cheats together, which is where things get interesting but also a bit broken. I once entered a money cheat followed by a super jump cheat and my character launched halfway across the island with two million dollars. It was funny for about thirty seconds before I realized I could not complete the story missions properly.

How to Enter Cheats on Different Platforms

On PlayStation 2, you press the buttons in order. No holding them down at the same time. Just tap each one sequentially. For example, the infinite health cheat is Up, Left, Triangle, Right, Right, Circle, Circle. You have to do it while moving or driving or doing literally anything in the game world. The cheat code takes effect the moment you press the final button. There is no confirmation message or popup. You just notice the difference. I used to enter cheats blind because I could not remember all the combos. I would just mash buttons until something weird happened. On PC, the cheats work differently. You press F4 to open the console and type in the cheat codes. The codes are words, not button presses. Things like "HESOYAM" gives you health and money. "IOJUFUZ" gives you six-star wanted level. It is much faster on PC if you know the codes already. But typing them in slows down your gameplay because you have to stop what you are doing. On console, you can enter them on the fly without pausing. On Xbox, the button layout is slightly different from PS2. The shoulder buttons and triggers map to different inputs. I recommend looking up a chart if you are playing on original Xbox hardware because the PS2 cheat codes will not work as written.

Common Cheats and What They Do

I am going to list the ones people actually use instead of every single code in the game. Most people only use maybe six or seven cheats regularly. The rest are novelty codes that nobody really needs. The weapon set 1 cheat gives you a full loadout of pistols, shotguns, and melee weapons. It is useful when you are low on ammo and in the middle of a firefight. Weapon set 2 gives you heavier stuff like the rocket launcher and the flame thrower. I used weapon set 2 when I was stuck on a mission that required blowing up a car and I did not want to waste real ammunition. The infinite ammo cheat stops your weapons from running out. This one is probably the most practical cheat in the entire game. Every other cheat is fun for a minute. Infinite ammo lasts you the whole playthrough. The super jump cheat lets you leap much higher than normal. It sounds useless until you realize you can reach rooftops that are otherwise inaccessible. I used it to explore corners of the map I missed on my first run.

Fast run cheat makes you move significantly faster on foot. It cuts down on the walking segments between missions. Super punch cheat makes every punch hit like a sledgehammer. You take down enemies in one or two hits instead of five or six. Hot money cheat gives you a large sum of cash. It is handy if you are struggling to afford weapons or vehicles. The all missions available cheat unlocks every mission on the map marker. Normally you have to progress through the story to unlock side content. This skips that requirement entirely. Super bullet cheat makes your bullets penetrate through objects and enemies. A single rocket launcher round can take out three or four cars in a row.

Edge Cases and Things That Break

Here is something most guides do not mention. When you enter a wanted level cheat, the stars do not disappear instantly if you already have them. The game has to process the change. Sometimes there is a delay of a few seconds before the wanted level updates. I thought the cheat was not working the first time I tried this and kept re-entering it. You just have to wait. Another thing that catches people off guard: entering too many cheats at once can cause visual glitches. The game engine in GTA 3 is not designed to handle simultaneous cheat states. I once had the sky turn completely black and a NPC got stuck in a permanent t pose. It lasted about twenty seconds and then the game reset itself. Nothing permanent was broken, but it was unsettling. The jetpack cheat is one of the most requested cheats and it actually works fine. But there is a problem. When you have the jetpack active, you cannot enter any other cheats while flying. The controls lock up. You have to land first, then enter the next cheat. I spent probably ten minutes hovering over the airport trying to remember whether I had the infinite health cheat active or not.

Limitations of Using Cheats

Cheats disable your ability to unlock certain achievements or trophies. If you are playing on a console that tracks them, using cheats means you will not get the full completion reward. I did not care about this when I was younger, but looking back it was kind of a missed opportunity. The game is long enough that spending extra hours without cheats is not a big deal. Cheats also make the game less challenging, which is kind of the point, but it ruins the experience for story-focused players. Some missions become trivial with god mode and infinite ammo. The intended difficulty curve goes away completely. You lose the tension that makes the later missions feel earned. There is also a save file issue. If you enter cheats and then load an earlier save, the cheat codes carry over into the loaded game. I accidentally loaded a save from before I had entered the hot money cheat and suddenly I had zero cash again. The cheats are not tied to your save slot. They are tied to your current play session.

If you want to try GTA 3 today, the definitive edition on modern platforms may have updated controls or different cheat systems. The original PS2 and PC versions use the methods described above. There is no official download link for the cheats themselves because they are built into the game. You only need to know the codes. No third party software is required, which is one reason this game still does not need a patch or mod to access them.