How to Complete the GTA Online Tutorial (And How to Skip It)

Every GTA Online career starts with the same short tutorial: a plane ride, a familiar face, a race and a small job for Gerald. It takes most players around twenty minutes, it teaches the basics you will use for hundreds of hours, and one choice inside it — your first car — follows you for a while. Here is the whole thing, step by step, plus the two legitimate ways to skip it.

Step 1: Create your character

The tutorial opens with the character creator. You start from a preset and then adjust facial features, eye colour, skin tone and even your character's parental heritage, which shapes their face more than any slider. Finish with a hairstyle, style and outfit, then choose Save and Continue. Nothing here is permanent — barbers, tattoo parlours and clothes shops can redo almost everything later — so do not agonise over it.

Step 2: Meet Lamar at the airport

Your character lands at Los Santos International and is collected by Lamar Davis, Franklin's friend from the story mode. The opening cutscenes cannot be skipped. Lamar talks you through the city and points you towards the contacts who will feed you work later. When the cutscene ends, walk into the large blue circle in front of you to start the first activity.

Step 3: The racing tutorial — and your first car

The blue circle starts an impromptu street race against other new characters, and this is the step to take seriously: the car you choose becomes your first personally owned vehicle. The strong picks from the offered selection are the Vapid Dominator, the Bravado Gauntlet and the Karin Sultan — all quick, upgradeable cars that stay useful well beyond the tutorial. The race itself follows a trail of blue markers and is deliberately forgiving; follow the checkpoints and you should finish first without much trouble.

Step 4: The combat tutorial for Gerald

After the race, Lamar hands you a pistol and sends you to a drug exchange between two gangs. Drive to the GPS marker, and be ready: a hostile gang member is waiting at the entrance. Clear out the enemies around the deal, then jump back in your car when one of them tries to escape with the merchandise — chase him down and take the drugs back. Finally, follow the GPS to Gerald's house. A last cutscene introduces Gerald, the Mission Passed screen appears, and the tutorial is complete: free roam, jobs, shops and the full map are now yours.

Can you skip the GTA Online tutorial?

You can, although finishing it is the better default — it pays, it teaches the job structure, and it gives you a free car. If you are determined to skip, there are two working methods:

• Make a second character. Once your main character exists, open the GTA Online menu in the settings and start a character in the second slot. Second characters skip the tutorial entirely.
• Fail it three times. Deliberately failing the tutorial activities three times makes the game give up and drop you into the open world anyway.

Whichever route you take, your criminal career officially starts at Mission Passed — what you buy first and which contacts you work for is entirely up to you from there.