CS2 practice server config: one file, and two commands most guides get wrong
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 7 days ago
A CS2 practice config is one file you write once and run with a single command. Below is a set that has been checked line by line against the game’s own command list, which matters because the block copied around most guides contains at least one command that no longer exists.
What a CS2 practice config actually does
It turns a normal local server into a training environment: no bots in the way, no round timer, no money limit, unlimited utility, and visible feedback for shots and grenades.
Without it you spend the first minute of every session typing commands, and the round ends before you finish. With it you type one word.
The config, line by line
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
sv_cheats 1 | unlocks everything else here |
bot_kick | clears the bots so you can set up your own |
mp_warmup_end | skips warmup immediately |
mp_freezetime 0 | no waiting at round start |
mp_roundtime 60 and mp_roundtime_defuse 60 | rounds long enough to practise in |
mp_maxmoney 60000, mp_startmoney 60000 | buy anything, any time |
mp_buytime 9999, mp_buy_anywhere 1 | buy menu everywhere, permanently |
sv_infinite_ammo 1 | no reloading, unlimited utility |
ammo_grenade_limit_total 5 | carry a full set of grenades |
sv_showimpacts 1, sv_showimpacts_time 10 | see exactly where shots land |
sv_grenade_trajectory_prac_pipreview 1 | grenade preview while practising lineups |
mp_respawn_on_death_ct 1, mp_respawn_on_death_t 1 | keep going after dying |
mp_limitteams 0, mp_autoteambalance 0 | stop the server rearranging teams |
mp_restartgame 1 | applies everything above |
Every one of those exists in the current game. That is not a claim you can make about the blocks circulating in most guides.
The command that no longer exists
Plenty of practice configs still include a grenade trajectory duration setting carried over from the previous game. It is not in CS2. Paste it and the console ignores that line, which is why people report that trajectories vanish too quickly and cannot work out why nothing they change helps.
What the game does have are three related settings with different names:
- a practice trail duration, accepting values from zero to eight,
- a spectator trajectory duration, also zero to eight,
- a client side trajectory simulation command.
So the behaviour people want is available, just under names that no guide seems to have updated. If your trails disappear too fast, that is the setting to change rather than the one every article lists.
Two lines worth adding that nobody lists
Beyond the standard block, two settings make a noticeable difference and rarely appear in published configs.
A longer impact display. The default duration for bullet impacts is short enough that you turn away before reading the pattern. Raising it lets you shoot a spray, then walk up to the wall and study where every round went.
A practice trail duration you set deliberately. Since the command most guides name does not exist, the trail length is whatever the game defaults to, which is usually too short for lineup work. Setting the correct one explicitly is the difference between seeing the arc and seeing a flash of it.
Neither is exotic. They are simply the two settings that decide whether the visual feedback is long enough to learn from, which is the entire reason to enable it.
How to install it
- Create a text file called
practice.cfg. - Paste the commands into it, one per line.
- Put it in the game’s config folder, alongside your other configs.
- Open a local server with any map.
- Type
exec practicein the console.
That last step is the whole payoff. One command, everything applied, and it survives updates because it lives in your own file rather than in the game’s settings.
If the console will not open in the first place, that is a separate and very common problem, covered over at the CS2 console not opening.
Why sv_cheats has to be first
Most of the useful lines here are cheat protected, which means they do nothing until cheats are enabled on that server.
Put sv_cheats 1 at the top of the file. If it sits in the middle, everything above it runs and everything below it fails silently, which produces a config that half works and is extremely annoying to debug.
The boundaries of what that setting allows, and where it will not work at all, are covered in our write up on what sv_cheats 1 does in CS2.
Adding bots properly
Clearing the bots and then placing your own is what makes this useful for aim work rather than just for grenades.
The pattern is straightforward: remove them all, add them where you want them, and stop them moving. A stationary bot in a common angle is a target you can pre aim at repeatedly, which is exactly what matchmaking never gives you.
For learning where those angles are, the skeleton display makes them obvious, and we covered it in the CS2 wallhack command for practice.
Practising with a friend
Everything above works in a private lobby as well, with one difference that catches people out: only the host can change server settings.
That means the config has to be executed by whoever opened the lobby. A second player running the same file locally changes nothing, because those commands are server side.
Once it is running, two people make several exercises far better. One plants a smoke while the other watches where it lands from the defending side. One holds an angle while the other practises the entry. Neither of those works alone.
The one thing to agree in advance is who is host, because switching means setting everything up again from scratch.
What to actually do in a session
A config is not a training plan. Three routines cover most of what a solo player needs.
Grenades. Pick two lineups per map, repeat each ten times, and only then move on. Trajectory display turns this from guessing into repetition.
Pre aim. Walk one route with bots placed at the usual angles. Aim where they are before you can see them.
Spray control. Impacts visible, one wall, one weapon, fifty bullets. The pattern becomes obvious in a way it never does in a match.
Fifteen minutes of any one of those beats an hour of wandering an empty map shooting at nothing.
Common mistakes with a CS2 practice config
- Copying a config from CS:GO. A meaningful part of it silently does nothing.
- Putting sv_cheats anywhere but the first line. Half the file fails without warning.
- Never restarting the round. Some settings only take effect on a fresh round.
- Practising with everything visible permanently. Turn the aids off periodically and test what you remember.
- Building an enormous config. Fifteen lines you understand beat two hundred you inherited.
Keeping a second config for aim only
One file for everything sounds tidy and works badly in practice.
Grenade practice wants long trails, generous round time and utility everywhere. Aim practice wants none of that: no visual clutter, bots placed and still, impacts on, everything else out of the way.
Two small files, executed by name, switch between those setups in a second. Trying to serve both from one config produces a session where half the settings are fighting what you are doing.
Name them plainly, keep each under twenty lines, and the whole thing stays maintainable when the game changes something.
Checking whether a command still exists
Since the useful skill here is verification rather than collection, the method is worth stating.
Type the command on its own in the console. If the game reports a value or a description, it exists. If the console says nothing at all, it does not, and no amount of retyping will change that.
That single test would remove most of the outdated advice circulating about this game, and it takes two seconds per command.
One habit that makes practice stick
Write down what you worked on, in one line, after each session. Two lineups on one map, or fifty bullets on one weapon.
It sounds like overhead and it solves the thing that ruins solo practice: doing something slightly different every time and therefore never repeating anything enough for it to land.
Frequently asked questions about the CS2 practice config
Where do I put practice.cfg?
In the game’s config folder, alongside your other configuration files. Then run exec practice in the console.
Why do my commands do nothing?
Usually because cheats are not enabled, or because sv_cheats 1 is not the first line of the file.
Does the config work in matchmaking?
No. Cheat protected commands are blocked outside local servers and community servers that allow them.
Why do grenade trails disappear so quickly?
Because the duration command in most guides no longer exists in CS2. The game uses differently named settings for practice and spectator trails.
How do I keep bots still?
Clear them first, place the ones you want, then stop them moving. A stationary bot is the useful kind for pre aim work.
Do I need to restart the round?
Yes, for some settings. That is what the restart line at the end of the config is for.
Will this config break after an update?
Rarely, and when it does the fix is to test each line in the console and remove whatever the game no longer recognises.
Last updated: September 2026
CS2 wallhack command for practice: what ent_skeleton actually shows you
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 1 week ago
The CS2 wallhack command people are looking for is ent_skeleton, it works only with cheats enabled on a server you control, and it is genuinely useful for training. Here is what it draws, why the skeleton is better than a full outline, and the places it will never run.
What it does
The command draws a skeleton wireframe through walls for every player entity in the world, bots included. Head, spine, hips, limbs, visible through geometry.
It is a toggle. Run it once to switch it on, run it again to switch it off, which is worth knowing before you go looking for a separate disable command.
To use it you need cheats enabled first, and you need to be on a server that allows them. That combination is the entire story of this command.
Why a skeleton beats a full outline
Here is the part that makes this a training tool rather than a novelty.
A full model outline tells you where a player is. The skeleton tells you where the hitboxes are, because the bones line up with what the server actually checks when you shoot.
That difference matters when you are learning pre aim. Aiming at the middle of a visible silhouette is not the same as aiming where the head will be, and the skeleton makes the distinction obvious.
It is also less visually noisy. A wireframe through a wall reads clearly, where a solid outline at distance often does not.
How to turn it on
- Open a local server with bots or an empty map.
- Enable the developer console in the game settings if you have not already.
- Run
sv_cheats 1. Without this nothing below works. - Run
ent_skeleton playerto draw skeletons for every player entity. - Run it again to switch the display off.
If nothing appears, the cause is almost always the same: cheats are not enabled, or you are on a server that will not allow them.
The argument list, taken from the game files
Guides in different languages give different syntax for this command, so here is what the game itself documents. The description is identical for both versions of the command, and the accepted arguments are:
- an entity name, for one specific object
- a class name, which is how
playerdraws all of them - an entity index, the numeric identifier
- no argument at all, which targets whatever you are currently looking at
That last one is missing from every guide we checked in either language, and it is the most convenient version for practice: look at a bot, run the command, get its skeleton.
There is also a second command useful to know. Alongside ent_skeleton, which runs on the server side, the game has cl_ent_skeleton, the client side equivalent with the same description and the same arguments. Neither Polish nor English guides mention it, and it is useful when the server side version behaves unexpectedly on a community server.
Where it will not work
| Where | Does it work |
|---|---|
| your own local server | yes |
| a private lobby with friends | yes, with cheats enabled |
| community servers that allow cheats | yes |
| official matchmaking and Premier | no |
| third party platforms such as FACEIT and ESEA | no |
This is not a loophole waiting to be found. The restriction is enforced by the server, not by your client, so there is no setting on your machine that changes it.
Anything advertising itself as a way to run these commands in a real match is not a console command. It is software that will get the account banned, and it has nothing to do with what is described here.
What to actually practise with it
Turning it on and admiring the effect wears off in about a minute. The value is in three specific exercises.
Pre aim. Walk a common route with skeletons visible and note where opponents will be. Then turn it off and walk the same route aiming at those spots.
Wall penetration. Place bots behind soft surfaces and learn which walls give damage and which do not. Seeing the target makes the feedback immediate.
Utility timing. Watch where bots stand when a smoke lands, and where the skeleton is when a flash goes off around a corner.
The pattern is the same in all three: use it to learn the answer, then turn it off and test whether you remember. Practice with it permanently on teaches you nothing.
Related commands worth having on
The skeleton is more useful alongside a few other cheat protected commands, all of which run under the same conditions.
Bullet impact display shows where your shots actually land, which pairs naturally with learning penetration. Grenade trajectory drawing turns utility practice from guesswork into repetition. Infinite ammunition removes reloading from the loop.
Together those turn a local server into a proper training environment, and we walked through the full setup in our notes on the CS2 practice server config.
The command that gates all of them is covered separately in our rundown of what sv_cheats 1 does in CS2.
Why guides disagree about the syntax
Search for this command in two languages and you get two different instructions, which is worth explaining because it tells you something about guide quality generally.
English guides tend to show a class name argument. Polish ones commonly show a wildcard character instead. Both produce skeletons in practice, which is why both keep getting copied forward.
The game files list the accepted arguments explicitly, and that list is what this article follows. When a guide contradicts the game’s own documentation, the documentation wins.
It is the same pattern as the commands that no longer exist at all. A syntax gets copied between articles for years after the thing it describes stopped being accurate, because nobody goes back to the source.
Commands that no longer exist
A lot of English guides still list commands carried over from CS:GO that do nothing in CS2.
If a command produces no response in the console, the usual reason is that it was removed rather than that you typed it wrong. The game changed engine, and a meaningful part of the old command set went with it.
That is worth remembering when following any older guide. The reliable test is simple: type it, and if the console does not acknowledge it, it is gone.
What to do when nothing draws
Three checks, in order, solve almost every case where the command appears to do nothing.
Is the console actually accepting commands? Type sv_cheats on its own. If the console reports a value, you are connected to something that recognises it. If it reports nothing at all, the console is the problem rather than the command.
Are there entities to draw? On an empty map with no bots there are no player skeletons, and the command is doing exactly what it was asked. Add bots first.
Is anything actually behind that wall? Sounds obvious, and it accounts for a fair share of confused forum posts. The skeleton is only visible where a player entity exists.
If all three pass and it still does nothing, try the client side variant. That is the situation it exists for.
Is using this cheating
No, and the distinction is clean.
These commands are built into the game by the developer, gated behind a server setting, and unavailable anywhere competitive. Using them on your own server is exactly as legitimate as using a training map.
The line is the server. On your own machine you are practising. In a match you would be cheating, and the game does not give you the option in the first place.
A short practice routine
Fifteen minutes, three times a week, does more than an hour of aimless bot shooting.
- Five minutes of pre aim with skeletons on, walking one route.
- Five minutes on the same route with skeletons off.
- Five minutes of penetration testing on the walls you actually shoot through in matches.
The second block is where the learning happens. The first one just gives you something to be wrong about.
To make any of that repeatable you want the server settings saved rather than typed each time, which is covered in the practice config guide linked above. And when the aim work is done, the callouts you shout while doing it matter too, which we covered in our guide to Mirage callouts.
Frequently asked questions about the CS2 wallhack command
What is the CS2 wallhack command?
ent_skeleton, which draws player skeletons through walls. It requires cheats to be enabled.
Do I need sv_cheats?
Yes. Without sv_cheats 1 the command does nothing.
How do I turn it off?
Run the same command again. It is a toggle rather than a value you set.
Can I use it in matchmaking?
No. Cheat protected commands are blocked in official matchmaking, Premier and on third party platforms.
Will I get banned for using it?
Not for using the built in command on your own server. Software that fakes the same effect in real matches is a different matter entirely.
Why does the skeleton help more than an outline?
Because the bones match the hitboxes the server checks, so it teaches you where to aim rather than just where someone is.
Why does the command do nothing on my server?
Either cheats are off, or the server does not permit them. Those two cover almost every case.
Last updated: September 2026
How to make money in GTA 5 story mode: one decision separates millions from billions
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 1 week ago
There is exactly one method in GTA 5 story mode that produces serious money, and it is not heists, businesses or robbing shops. It is Lester’s assassination missions combined with the stock market. Do them at the wrong time and you make a few hundred thousand. Do them at the right time and each character ends with more than they can spend.
Why the timing decides everything
The mechanism is simple. Each assassination moves the price of a company on the in game exchange, in a direction the game decides in advance. You buy before the mission, the price moves, you sell.
The critical detail is that the return is a percentage, not a fixed sum. A rise of forty percent on two hundred thousand is eighty thousand. The same rise on eighty million is thirty two million.
So the missions are worth whatever your bank balance happens to be when you do them. That single fact is the whole guide.
The practical rule: do the first one when the story forces it, then leave the rest alone until after the final heist. That is when all three characters are holding the largest amounts they will ever have.
The order and what each one moves
| Mission | When to do it | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Hotel | during the story, it is forced | the tutorial for the mechanic |
| Multi Target | after the final heist | the strongest single play, involving Redwood |
| Vice | after the final heist | follow the buy and sell instructions exactly |
| Bus | after the final heist | same pattern |
| Construction | after the final heist | last in the sequence |
Do them in that order. The sequence is not arbitrary, it is the order in which the game expects them and the order the price movements are scripted around.
The four rules that make it work
- Invest with all three characters. Their money is separate, so three portfolios means three times the return on the same mission.
- Put in everything. Half measures produce half results, and there is no risk here because the movement is scripted.
- Sell completely before the next mission unless a specific step tells you to hold.
- Wait for the peak. The price keeps climbing for a while after the mission. Selling immediately leaves a large part of the gain behind.
Rule one is the one people skip, usually because they do the missions as whichever character happens to be active. That mistake costs two thirds of the total.
How to watch the price without guessing
The exchange is on the in game phone, and the price moves over game time rather than real time.
Two habits make this painless. Sleep to advance the clock rather than waiting around, and check the price twice before selling. When two consecutive checks show the same number, the climb is over.
Save the game before selling. If a check suggests you misjudged the peak, reloading costs nothing and gives you the decision back.
The one number worth writing down
Before starting the sequence, note what each character has in the bank. That figure is what the whole plan multiplies.
If the three of them are holding tens of millions each after the final heist, four missions turn that into a balance nobody in the game has a use for. If they are holding a few hundred thousand, the same four missions produce pocket change and are then gone forever.
This is also the answer to the question people ask afterwards, which is whether they ruined their save by doing the missions early. Nothing is ruined. You simply took a smaller version of the payout, and the only way to see the larger one is a fresh playthrough.
So the checklist before mission two is short: story finished, all three alive, all three rich, nothing spent.
Heists, the other real source
Before any of this works you need starting capital, and that comes from the story heists.
The total across the campaign runs into the tens of millions, and the amount depends on two choices: which crew you hire and which approach you take.
Cheap crew members take a smaller cut and are more likely to lose part of the take or die. On the early jobs that hardly matters. On the last one it matters a great deal, so pay for competence when the sums get large.
The final heist is what funds the assassination sequence, which is exactly why the sequence waits for it.
What does not work
| Method | Why it is a waste of time |
|---|---|
| robbing shops | a few hundred per attempt, plus a wanted level |
| armoured vans | slightly better, still trivial next to one trade |
| street races | prize money too small for the time involved |
| the exchange without missions | prices drift slowly and unpredictably |
| underwater collectibles | the search costs more time than the contents are worth |
All of these produce money. None of them produce enough to matter, and every hour spent on them is an hour not spent finishing the story that unlocks the method that does.
Why the exchange behaves the way it does
It helps to know that there are two markets in the game and only one of them is useful.
The first reacts to what you do in the story. Kill the head of one company and its rival climbs, on a script, every time. That is the one the assassination sequence uses, and it is entirely predictable.
The second was tied to the behaviour of other players through online services. Its movements have nothing to do with your actions, which makes it useless for planning.
Every guide promising huge returns is describing the first one. If you find yourself watching prices drift with no mission attached, you are on the wrong market and nothing you do will move it.
Properties, and when they are worth it
Businesses generate a weekly income that arrives without any effort from you, which sounds ideal and mostly is not.
They only pay off across a long stretch of play. Buying them late in the campaign, when you are about to have more money than you need anyway, is the worst possible timing.
If you intend to keep playing after the credits, buy them early and let them run. If you intend to finish the story and stop, skip them entirely and put everything into the assassination sequence.
What to do with the money afterwards
Here is the honest part that guides tend to skip: once the sequence is done, the game runs out of things to sell you.
Property, vehicles, weapons and upgrades together cost a fraction of what four well timed assassinations produce. There is no money sink at the top end of this game.
So the practical answer is to buy whatever you wanted during the campaign and stop worrying about the balance. That includes the vehicles you passed on earlier, and if you want to know which are worth owning, we ranked them over in our rundown of the fastest car in GTA 5 story mode.
It also covers aircraft and the hangars needed to keep them, which we laid out in our notes on airports in GTA 5.
Common mistakes that cost the most
- Doing the assassinations during the story. The single most expensive error available, and it cannot be undone.
- Investing with one character. Loses two thirds of the total.
- Selling immediately after the mission. The price is still climbing.
- Spending before the sequence. Every purchase is capital that is not working.
- Ignoring the buy and sell instructions. The movements are scripted, so following them is not optional.
The first one is worth repeating because it is permanent. Once a mission is completed at a small balance, that opportunity is spent, and there is no way to replay it with more money.
A short version of the whole plan
Finish the story, including the final heist, taking the option that keeps all three characters alive. Then, with full bank balances on each of them, work through the remaining four assassinations in order, investing everything, selling at each peak, and moving to the next one only after selling.
That is it. Everything else in this game is spending money rather than making it, and the rest of the map is more enjoyable once the balance stops being a constraint, whether that means chasing collectibles or the trips described in our guide to GTA 5 UFO locations.
Frequently asked questions about making money in GTA 5 story mode
What is the fastest way to make money in GTA 5 story mode?
Lester’s assassination missions combined with stock investments, done after the final heist when your balances are at their highest.
Why should I wait until after the story?
Because the return is a percentage. The same mission pays out proportionally to whatever you invest.
Should I invest with all three characters?
Yes. Their money is separate, so investing with all three triples the return on every mission.
Is there a money cheat?
No. GTA 5 has cheats for vehicles, weapons and abilities, but none for money.
How much can you actually end up with?
Done in the right order with full investments, each character ends with a balance in the billions.
When should I sell after a mission?
When the price stops climbing. Check twice, and if both checks match, sell.
Are properties worth buying?
Only if you plan to keep playing after the story. Bought late they never pay for themselves.
Last updated: September 2026
Fastest car in GTA 5 story mode: the winner costs 10 million and nobody drives it
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 1 week ago
The fastest car in GTA 5 story mode is the Truffade Z-Type at 127 mph. The second fastest is the Adder at 126.25 mph. That is a gap of three quarters of a mile per hour, and a gap of nine million in price. Here is what the speed charts leave out.
The numbers at the top
| Car | Top speed | Price | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truffade Z-Type | 127.00 mph | 10 000 000 | in game internet only |
| Truffade Adder | 126.25 mph | 1 000 000 | bought, or found on the street |
| Overflod Entity XF | 122.25 mph | lower | bought or found |
Read the first two rows together. The winner is 0.75 mph faster and costs ten times more, which makes the ranking technically correct and practically meaningless.
Worse, the Z-Type is a purchase only vehicle. It never turns up on the street, so the ten million is the only route to it.
Why the Adder is the real answer
The Adder does three things the Z-Type does not.
It spawns for free. It appears parked outside the luxury shop in Rockford Hills, and it turns up in traffic in the wealthy districts. Plenty of players never pay for one.
It costs a tenth of the price if you do buy it. One million against ten.
It is fast enough that the difference never shows up. Three quarters of a mile per hour is invisible on a map with this much traffic and this few long straights.
So the community answer and the chart answer differ, and the community is right. The Adder is what people actually drive.
Why top speed is the wrong metric
Here is the part the rankings never address: the map barely lets you use top speed.
There are a handful of places long enough to reach the maximum. The coastal highway, the desert stretch, the airport runway. Everywhere else is corners, traffic and junctions.
On roads like that, the car that wins is the one that gets back up to speed after a corner, not the one with the higher ceiling. Acceleration and grip decide more races than the number in the chart.
This is why players who race each other keep choosing cars that sit below the top of the list. They are not ignoring the data, they are measuring something the data does not include.
What the rest of the top ten looks like
Below the two leaders the list flattens out fast, and that flatness is more useful than the ranking itself.
The Entity XF sits around ninth at roughly 122 mph, which is about four miles per hour off the leader. In a straight line that is a car length or two over a very long run. In a corner it is nothing at all.
Everything between second and tenth is separated by margins of that size. Once you are inside the top ten, the choice stops being about speed and starts being about handling, availability and whether you happen to like the car.
That is worth saying plainly because the ranking format implies otherwise. A numbered list suggests each step down is a real loss, and in this game the steps are tiny until you leave the supercar class entirely.
What upgrades do to the ranking
A car from the street is not the same car after a visit to a garage, and the difference is bigger than the gap between the top two vehicles.
Engine and transmission improve acceleration, which is what actually matters on this map.
Turbo is the single largest step and should be the first thing bought.
Brakes are the most underrated. Better braking means later braking, which means a faster corner entry and a faster exit.
Suspension keeps the car stable on the uneven ground north of the city.
The practical consequence: an upgraded Entity XF beats a stock Adder in almost every real situation. If the choice is a more expensive car or upgrades for a cheaper one, buy the upgrades.
Where the fast cars spawn
Expensive vehicles do not appear randomly across the map. The game matches traffic to the district you are in.
- Rockford Hills. The most reliable area, and where the Adder sits outside the luxury shop.
- Vinewood Hills. Sports cars parked at the houses along the hillside roads.
- Downtown at night. Better traffic than during the day.
- Airport car parks. Mixed, occasionally something worth taking.
There is also a feedback effect worth knowing: driving an expensive car raises the quality of the traffic around you. Turn up in a supercar and you will meet more supercars.
Keeping what you find
- Drive it into a character’s garage. Nothing else counts as ownership.
- Save the game afterwards. Without that it can vanish.
- Insure it at a garage. Insured cars come back after a crash, uninsured ones are gone.
- Watch the garage capacity. Driving a new car in can push an old one out.
- Do not leave it on the street. Switching character is enough to lose it.
Insurance is the step people skip, and it is the one that decides whether a found Adder is yours for the rest of the game or for one evening.
The one place the chart is right
There is a scenario where raw top speed genuinely decides the outcome, and it is useful to know because it is the exception to everything above.
Running from the police on the coastal highway is a straight line contest. No corners, no traffic to speak of, and a pursuit that only ends when you are far enough ahead. There the faster car wins, and the margin, however small, works in your favour.
The same applies to any long open stretch in the north of the map, where the roads run for a long time without turning.
Outside those situations, the ranking describes a condition the game rarely gives you.
Bikes, which break the comparison
Motorcycles do not appear on car speed lists and they are often the faster choice in the city.
They accelerate hard, fit between traffic and turn tighter than anything on four wheels. Over a short cross town run, a bike usually wins.
The cost is fragility. Any solid impact throws you off, and in a game where you are constantly meeting oncoming traffic, that happens.
So the sensible loadout is one of each: something fast for open roads, something on two wheels for the city, and something with ground clearance for the hills. That last category matters more than people expect, given how much of the map is not tarmac, as you notice on the trips described over in our short guide to the Mount Gordo ghost.
Testing it yourself in fifteen minutes
Rankings are someone else’s measurement. Yours takes a quarter of an hour and answers the question for the way you actually drive.
Pick one long straight and one twisting mountain road. Drive both, twice, in each car you are comparing, starting from the same point at the same speed.
You will almost certainly find that different cars win on the two routes, which is the entire point. The chart measures one of those roads and the map is mostly the other one.
Affording any of this
Everything above assumes money, and for most of the campaign there is not much of it. The reliable route to serious cash is the assassination missions combined with the stock market, and the order in which you do them decides whether you end with millions or billions.
We laid the whole sequence out over in our write up on how to make money in GTA 5 story mode. Until that is done, the free Adder in Rockford Hills is the sensible car, and it is close enough to the top of the chart that nothing is lost.
If you want speed of a different kind, the aircraft options are covered over at airports in GTA 5.
Frequently asked questions about the fastest car in GTA 5
What is the fastest car in GTA 5 story mode?
The Truffade Z-Type, at 127 mph. It costs ten million and is only available through the in game internet.
What is the fastest car you can find for free?
The Adder, at 126.25 mph, which spawns outside the luxury shop in Rockford Hills.
Is the Z-Type worth ten million?
Only as a collection piece. It is three quarters of a mile per hour faster than a car you can find for nothing.
Do upgrades change which car is fastest?
They change which car is quicker in practice. An upgraded mid tier car beats a stock supercar on most roads.
Where do expensive cars spawn?
In wealthy districts, mainly Rockford Hills and Vinewood Hills. Driving an expensive car improves the traffic around you.
Why did my found car disappear?
It was not stored, saved or insured. All three steps are needed to keep it.
Are bikes faster than cars?
In the city, often yes. On open roads the fast cars win, and bikes throw you off at the first solid impact.
Last updated: September 2026
GTA 5 airports: where to take a plane and where to keep one
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 2 weeks ago
GTA 5 has more places to fly from than the one everybody knows, and they differ in the only way that matters: how much trouble it takes to get airborne. Here is every airport, which one hands you an aircraft with no consequences, and what it costs to own one properly.
Los Santos International, the big one
The main airport sits in the south of the city, on a peninsula facing the ocean. It has the longest runways, the widest selection of aircraft and the most security.
Walk onto the tarmac without clearance and you get a wanted level almost immediately. That is the entire reputation of the place, and it is why most players learn to avoid it.
The interesting part is that the clearance is purchasable. Two hangars sit south of the runways, and owning one removes the wanted level entirely, turning the airport from a heist into a car park.
Sandy Shores, the one with no security
The desert airfield next to Trevor’s town is the answer to the question people actually have, which is where to get an aircraft without being shot at.
There is no fence worth mentioning, no guards and usually a light aircraft or two sitting there. You walk up, get in and take off.
The strip is short, so it suits light aircraft rather than anything heavy. That is a fair trade for zero resistance.
It also unlocks as a property for free, for Trevor, after a specific story mission, which makes it the cheapest place in the game to store an aircraft.
McKenzie Field in Grapeseed
A dirt strip in the farming country in the north, with a hangar attached. It is quiet, unguarded and rarely visited.
Trevor can buy the hangar business here for a fraction of what the city one costs. It is the cheapest paid option and it comes with its own activity attached to the property.
As a place to practise flying it is arguably the best on the map. Nothing to crash into, nobody to annoy, and enough length for light aircraft.
Fort Zancudo, which is not really an airport
The military base has the longest runway and the best aircraft in the game, and taking anything from it means fighting your way out.
It belongs on this list because people go there looking for planes, but treat it as a challenge rather than transport. The routes in and the escape are covered in our walkthrough of the Fort Zancudo location, and the specific run for the jet in how to steal a fighter jet in GTA 5.
The four side by side
| Place | Security | What you find | Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Los Santos International | wanted level without clearance | airliners and light aircraft | two hangars, expensive |
| Sandy Shores | none | light aircraft, sometimes a helicopter | free for Trevor after a mission |
| McKenzie Field | none | occasional light aircraft | hangar for a modest price |
| Fort Zancudo | military response | jets and military helicopters | none in the story mode |
Read the security column and the whole subject resolves itself. Two of the four let you simply take an aircraft, and neither of them is the one on the map everybody looks at first.
Smaller places to land
Beyond the four main sites, the map has a scattering of places that work as landing spots even though nothing is parked there.
- Hospital helipads, the most useful of the lot, because they double as a reliable helicopter spawn.
- Rooftop pads downtown, awkward the first few times and extremely convenient afterwards.
- Private strips at the northern estates, usually empty and handy when flying around the top of the map.
- Straight sections of highway, not a landing site by design and entirely usable when the alternative is a field.
None of these give you an aircraft. They matter for the other half of flying, which is putting the thing down somewhere without destroying it.
Why buying beats stealing
A stolen aircraft is temporary. Save the game, switch character or crash it, and it is gone. There is nothing to recover.
A bought aircraft lives in a hangar. It survives saves, it comes back if destroyed, and it is waiting where you left it.
Buying happens through a website on the in game phone, under travel and transport, and the aircraft is delivered to the hangar you own. That is the whole process, and it costs money instead of health.
The order matters: buy the storage before the aircraft. Purchasing something expensive with nowhere to keep it is the most common way people waste money on this part of the game.
What the hangars cost and who can buy them
The three purchasable options are quite different, and character matters as much as price.
| Property | Who can buy it | What you are really paying for |
|---|---|---|
| Los Santos International hangar | Michael or Franklin, after a story mission | tarmac clearance, not storage |
| Sandy Shores Airfield | Trevor, free after the same mission | storage with nothing to pay |
| McKenzie Field hangar | Trevor, for a modest sum | storage plus a business attached |
So the honest recommendation depends on who you are playing. For Trevor the free airfield covers everything. For the other two, the city hangar is worth it only if you spend enough time at the main airport for the clearance to matter.
Learning to fly without wrecking anything
- Start at McKenzie Field or Sandy Shores. No traffic, no security, nothing to hit.
- Take off along the strip, not across it. Light aircraft need less room than people think, but not none.
- Do not pull back hard immediately. Climbing too steeply at low speed stalls the aircraft.
- Approach landings low and slow, lined up from a long way out.
- Practise with something you did not pay for. Crashing a stolen light aircraft costs nothing.
Most players who decide they cannot fly in this game learned in a stolen jet with the military shooting at them. Ten minutes on a quiet dirt strip fixes that impression permanently.
What actually spawns where
Aircraft availability is not fixed, and knowing the pattern saves pointless trips.
At the desert airfield, light aircraft appear regularly and a helicopter turns up often enough to be worth checking. At McKenzie Field the strip is sometimes empty, which is why it works better as a place to land than a place to shop.
At the main airport the aircraft on the tarmac are mostly large and mostly awkward to fly, which is another reason the clearance matters more than the selection.
The pragmatic habit is to check the nearest quiet strip first and only travel further if it is empty. Flying across the map to a specific airport for a specific aircraft usually ends in disappointment, because the spawns rotate regardless of your plans.
Helicopters, the practical alternative
For getting around the map, a helicopter beats a plane in almost every situation. It takes off vertically, lands anywhere flat and does not need a runway at either end.
They spawn on hospital roofs and at helipads around the city, which means you rarely have to travel to an airport to find one.
Planes win on speed over long distances and on nothing else. If the goal is reaching a specific point on the map quickly, take the helicopter, and if the goal is flying for its own sake, take the plane from the quiet airfield.
Either way, the aircraft is often the fastest route to the collectible hunts spread across the countryside, like the ones in our walkthrough of GTA 5 spaceship parts.
One habit that saves a lot of walking
Whichever airport you settle on, park a car there. It sounds trivial and it removes the most annoying part of flying in this game.
Every flight ends somewhere, and that somewhere is usually not where you started. Without a vehicle waiting at your home strip, each round trip finishes with a long walk or a stolen car and a fresh set of problems.
Leave something ordinary and forgettable at the airfield you use most. It costs nothing, it survives if you store it properly, and it turns flying from an expedition into transport.
Frequently asked questions about GTA 5 airports
How many airports are there in GTA 5?
Three civilian ones, plus the military base. Los Santos International, Sandy Shores Airfield and McKenzie Field, with Fort Zancudo as the fourth location holding aircraft.
Where can I take a plane without getting stars?
Sandy Shores Airfield in the desert, or McKenzie Field in Grapeseed. Neither has security.
How do I get onto the tarmac at the main airport?
By owning one of the hangars there, which grants clearance and removes the wanted level.
How much does the city hangar cost?
Well over a million in game, available to Michael or Franklin after a specific story mission.
Does Trevor need to buy a hangar?
No. Sandy Shores Airfield unlocks for him free after the same mission.
Why did my plane disappear?
Because it was not stored. Aircraft kept in a hangar persist, anything parked elsewhere does not.
What is the best place to learn to fly?
McKenzie Field. Empty, quiet, and nothing nearby to crash into.
Last updated: September 2026
GTA 5 letter scraps: 50 pieces of a confession from 1975
- By Bartlomiej Paluch
- 2 weeks ago
The GTA 5 letter scraps are fifty pieces of a confession to a murder committed in 1975. Put them together and the game hands you the killer’s name and a mission where you decide what happens to him. Here is how the hunt works and the two things that make it far less tedious than the location lists suggest.
The two things that make this hunt easier
Start here, because both are missing from most guides and both change the experience completely.
The scraps make a sound. Get close and you hear paper rustling. It is quiet, so the practical advice is to turn the music off while hunting, at which point you stop needing to look at the ground.
Chop can find them. Playing as Franklin with the dog along gives you a second detector that reacts to nearby pieces.
Together they turn the hunt from a visual search into an audio one. A player following the sound covers ground far faster than one squinting at every alley.
What the letter actually is
Leonora Johnson was murdered in 1975. Her body was found beside the Land Act Dam after an anonymous tip to the police.
The confession was written afterwards, addressed to a man named David Richards, and torn into fifty pieces scattered across Los Santos and Blaine County. Each scrap you collect adds a fragment of the text.
What makes this collectible different from the spaceship parts is that the pieces mean something. You can read the letter as it reassembles, and the tone of it changes as more of the confession comes together.
What you get for all fifty
Three things, and only one of them is a trophy.
The achievement. Called A Mystery, Solved, awarded on the final scrap.
Progress toward 100 percent completion, which matters because completion is what unlocks three of the four UFO sightings, listed in our walkthrough of GTA 5 UFO locations.
A mission. The final scrap reveals the killer’s location and unlocks a Strangers and Freaks mission for Franklin called A Starlet in Vinewood.
That last one is the actual reward. The collectible hunt is the setup, the mission is the payoff, and unlike most collectibles in this game it ends with a decision rather than a vehicle.
The mission at the end
Once the letter is complete, you know who wrote it, and the game sends Franklin to find him.
There is a decision at the end of that encounter, and if you care about the rating, the requirement for gold is straightforward: the killer has to die.
Worth knowing in advance, because players who let him go for story reasons often discover afterwards that they closed the mission at a lower rating and have to replay it.
What the confession says as it builds
The text arrives out of order, which is part of what makes the hunt work as a story rather than a checklist.
Early on you get fragments that could mean anything: half sentences, a name, a reference to a night in 1975. Nothing connects.
Somewhere past the halfway point the tone shifts. Enough of the letter exists for the sequence of events to emerge, and the writer stops sounding evasive and starts sounding like someone explaining himself.
By the last few pieces you already know roughly what happened, and the remaining scraps fill in the details you would rather not have. That is the reason to read as you go instead of collecting fifty and opening it once at the end.
Running the hunt efficiently
- Turn the radio off. The rustling cue is useless under music.
- Play as Franklin, bring Chop. Two detectors beat one.
- Work district by district rather than following a numbered list across the map.
- Do it alongside the other collectible hunt. The routes overlap heavily.
- Check the stats menu for your count instead of guessing.
The overlap in point four is worth taking seriously. Both sets cover the same map, so collecting one while ignoring the other means driving every road twice. The other set is covered in our guide to GTA 5 spaceship parts.
Where they hide
| Type of place | Why it is awkward |
|---|---|
| alleys and back lots | the paper blends into rubbish and debris |
| rooftops | need a route up, sometimes a helicopter |
| beaches and coastline | large open areas with few landmarks |
| farm buildings and sheds | easy to walk past the entrance entirely |
| under bridges and overpasses | dark, and the sound is your only clue |
Compared with the glowing spaceship parts, these are genuinely hard to see. A scrap of paper on the ground looks like scenery, which is exactly why the audio cue matters so much.
Why this hunt is better than it sounds
Fifty collectibles is a lot of walking, and on paper this is the same chore as any other collectible set. In practice it is the best one in the game for one reason: it tells a story while you do it.
Each piece adds text. The confession becomes gradually more specific, more uncomfortable and more revealing, and by the time you are in the thirties you actually want to know how it ends.
That is a rare thing in open world collectibles. Most of them are counters. This one is a slow reveal, and the mission at the end gives the whole exercise a conclusion.
The dam, and why the location matters
The body was found beside the Land Act Dam, which is a real place on the map you can drive to at any point in the game.
Going there is not required and unlocks nothing. It is worth doing anyway, because the collectible hunt is otherwise abstract: fifty pieces of paper and a name. Standing at the location gives the story a place.
It also fits neatly into the hunt itself. The dam sits in the north of the map, close to several scrap locations and to the route people take through the countryside, so the detour costs almost nothing.
Common mistakes
- Hunting with music on. Removes the single most useful tool you have.
- Playing as the wrong character. Without Franklin you lose Chop’s help entirely.
- Following a list in order. Guarantees crossing the map repeatedly.
- Ignoring the letter text. Reading it is most of the reward.
- Rushing the final mission. The decision at the end affects your rating.
Doing it on a second playthrough
Collectibles do not carry over between save files, so anyone starting again faces the same fifty pieces.
The difference is that you already know how the letter ends, which removes the one thing that made the first hunt interesting. On a replay the honest advice is to treat it purely as a completion task and run it as efficiently as possible.
That means district by district, radio off, Chop along, and both collectible sets at once. Done that way it is a couple of focused sessions rather than a slow reveal spread across a playthrough.
How long it takes
Realistically two or three sessions if you work by district, longer if you follow a list across the whole map.
Nothing expires and nothing is missable, so the hunt can sit half finished for as long as you like. The only thing waiting at the end is the mission, and it will still be there.
If you are moving around the map anyway, a helicopter shortens the countryside sections considerably, and where to find one is covered in our walkthrough of airports in GTA 5.
Where this sits among the game’s collectibles
GTA 5 has several collectible sets and they are not equally worth your time.
The letter scraps and the spaceship parts are the two large ones, fifty pieces each, and both are required for full completion. The letters are harder to spot and better written. The parts are easier to see and end in a vehicle.
Everything else is smaller, easier and less interesting. If you only intend to finish one large set, this is the one to do, because it is the only collectible in the game that ends with a story rather than a number going up.
Frequently asked questions about GTA 5 letter scraps
How many letter scraps are in GTA 5?
Fifty, scattered across Los Santos and Blaine County.
What do the letter scraps unlock?
The achievement A Mystery, Solved, progress toward 100 percent completion, and the Strangers and Freaks mission A Starlet in Vinewood.
Who was Leonora Johnson?
A woman murdered in 1975, whose body was found beside the Land Act Dam after an anonymous tip to the police.
How do I find scraps more easily?
Turn the radio off and listen for rustling paper, and play as Franklin with Chop, who reacts to nearby pieces.
Are any of them missable?
No. They stay where they are until collected, so the hunt can be paused indefinitely.
What happens in the final mission?
Franklin confronts the person who wrote the confession, and there is a decision at the end. Killing him is what the gold rating requires.
Should I collect these or the spaceship parts first?
Do both at once. The routes overlap, and doing them separately means covering the same map twice.
Last updated: September 2026
