GTA 5 mods
Here is a complete list of the best GTA 5 mods which will reinvigorate Los Santos, and add a little wackiness into the mix.
We have literally hundreds of GTA 5 mods to choose from which do everything from adding new GTA 5 vehicles, recreating GTA 6 characters in GTA 5, and even adding survival mechanics. With such a vast database of mods to choose from, we’ve decided to round up the eight best GTA 5 mods that you should try out ASAP.
Best GTA 5 mods
Our top eight GTA 5 mods add features or functions we simply can’t live without, or bring an incredible amount of content to GTA 5.
Vice Cry: Remastered
The Vice Cry mod remasters and ports the entirety of the Vice City map into GTA 5. While it isn’t quite like the GTA 6 map, this mod gives you a ton to explore and comes with custom scenarios, full path and navmesh support, and more.
Crime and Police Rebalance and Enhancement
If you’ve ever bumped into a civilian or just stared at a police officer for too long in Grand Theft Auto V, you’ll know how shockingly quick the police are to respond with deadly force. This doesn’t make a whole lot of sense mechanically or narratively, so the Crime and Police Rebalance and Enhancement makes the police slower to respond. Civilians will actually need to report a crime before the police become aware of it, giving you ample time to clear up any witnesses. In many ways, this mod emulates the crime reporting system found in Rockstar’s other major franchise: Red Dead Redemption.
Gang and Turf
If you’re a seasoned GTA San Andreas player, you’ll be familiar with the gang war mechanic which allowed NPCs to take over various territories and spread their influence. Luckily, you can now do the same in GTA 5 at the helm of your very own faction with the Gang and Turf mod.
Character Menu
Trevor, Franklin, and Michael are all really great characters, but being unable to create your very own avatar in GTA 5 is a bit of a disappointment. Fortunately, the Character Menu mod gives you access to 500 NPC skins, of which 350 have customization options! This is a great mod for roleplaying your very own character in the chaos of Los Santos, especially if you have decided to take up the Gang and Turf mod.
Open All Interiors
Los Santos can feel a little small at times, not because of the size of the GTA 5 map (which is huge) but because most of the buildings in the city are completely inaccessible. Some of these buildings were meant to be accessible, but were cut when the game released in 2013. Fortunately, the Open All Interiors mod not only restores some of this cut content, but it also opens up more than 60 interiors for you to explore, thus making GTA 5 even bigger.
Basic Needs
As the name might imply, Basic Needs turns GTA 5 into a survival game, requiring you to eat, sleep, and have fun! This mod doesn’t just add some new health meters, sprinkling fully functional restaurants, motels, and more across Los Santos to ensure your survival isn’t a chore, but does force you to make sensible choices.
Vehicles Jetpack
If you’ve played GTA Online, you’ll know that a ton of wacky and super high-tech vehicles are available mid to late-game of the multiplayer mode. Unfortunately, the coolest of these vehicles are not available in singleplayer mode (it wouldn’t make much narrative sense for Michael, Franklin or Trevor to be rocking tech more advanced than the military afterall). Luckily the Vehicles Jetpack mod allows you to attach rockets to your favorite cars and vehicles, and then fly them across Los Santos.
Zombies
It’s about time that Grand Theft Auto V had its own version of the Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare. While the Zombies mod won’t introduce a vast storyline, it will turn most NPCs into brain-hungry monsters that you’ll need to defend yourself against. Zombies will spawn in increasingly large and deadly waves, and makes for quite the challenge in later waves!
One Billion Dollars
If you don’t want to waste your time robbing gas stations or playing the stock market, this mod can give your finances a pretty serious injection. It’s not the most inventive mod we’ve seen, but it can be one of the most useful, giving you access to more properties, cars, and luxury accessories right from an early part of the game. Trevor might not be the sort of guy you should trust with that sort of money, but it makes for an entertaining time.
All Multiplayer Vehicles in Singleplayer
While Rockstar has steadily introduced countless cars, bikes, helicopters, and more, to GTA 5 online over the years, the single-player game mode has far fewer options in terms of transportation. The All Multiplayer Vehicles in Singleplayer mod changes that, introducing some fantastic new additions to the base game, like the Mammoth F-160 Raiju fighter jet and Nagasaki Shotaro motorbike.
Better Handling
One of the biggest complaints surrounding GTA 5 is to do with how cars handle, with many users preferring the way driving feels in GTA 4. This simple mod changes the way corners and turns feel by lowering the wheel traction, softening suspension, and other minor tweaks. If you’re looking for a more engaging driving experience, though perhaps not a more realistic one, this might be the mod for you.
Drought of Los Santos
The Drought of Los Santos mod is one of the weirder ones, but there’s no underselling how fun it can be driving across the bed of a lake, especially if you’re looking for opportunities to pull off some dazzling stunts. It’s a bit off-putting the first time you pull up by the coast and realize all the water is gone, but once you get used to it, it gives you plenty of scope to drive to your heart’s content without worrying about any other cars on the road.
King Kong Script Mod
We love a fun mod, and they don’t get much more entertaining than the King Kong Script Mod. Yes, this one allows you to go on a big ape rampage across Los Santos, climbing buildings, smashing cars out of your way, and unleashing general havoc. You won’t be able to get in your car or use any weapons, but you’re probably not going to need them. Kong has it covered.
Improved Law Enforcement – V
If you’re looking for more of a challenge while you’re on the run from the law, the Improved Law Enforcement – V mod has you covered. This enhancement brings in everything from country rangers to the FIB to try and take you down when you’re wanted level is high, making it more difficult to evade the law or take them on in a Bonnie and Clyde-style shootout. If you get to the max wanted level of five stars, things get really tricky, so you might want to think about also using a weapons mod to give you a chance of surviving the onslaught.
North Yankton DLC
North Yankton is one of the most important locations in GTA 5, but you barely spend any time there at all. This mod changes that, allowing you to properly explore where it all went wrong for Michael and Trevor. There are over 50 buildings to check out here, including seven safehouses, six garages, and more. There’s no story content here, but it’s worth checking out for anyone sick of the sight of Los Santos.
Fishing Mod
This is one for those who have had their fill of all the auto theft and pine for the quiet life. Yes, it’s a GTA 5 fishing mod. If you install this one, you can cast a line from Del Perro Pier, or any boat, and land one of the many available fish. Once you’ve got your fish, you can sell them on the pier for a tidy profit, turning this game into something more akin to Stardew Valley or Animal Crossing than you ever could have anticipated.
Please note that GTA 5 mods are intended for singleplayer only and will not work in GTA Online.
How to install GTA 5 mods
First, you’ll need to install a couple utilities to make your game compatible with GTA 5 mods. Namely, you will need:
- ScriptHookV, a tool which enables scripts.
- OpenIV, a tool which enables the modification and addition of archive files.
Once you have these installed, you’ll be ready to install some GTA 5 mods.
The easiest way to install GTA 5 mods is to use the Vortex launcher, which is the native installer for Nexus mods. The Vortex launcher does everything for you, though you may be asked to select a few mod options depending on what you are installing.
However, most GTA 5 mods aren’t available on Nexus mods, and can instead be found on the aptly named “gta5-mods.com” website. These mods require a bit more manual effort on your part to install, but they usually come with fully fleshed-out instructions, including where you need to save files to, and what edits you need to make to various documents and “.ini” files.
GTA 5 mods for PS4 and consoles
GTA 5 mods can be installed on the PS4 and other PlayStation consoles, but doing so violates Sony’s terms of service. For this reason, we recommend sticking to the PC if you want to mod the game.
If, however, you are dead-set on installing a GTA 5 mod for PS4, the only known method is to jailbreak your console. We don’t recommend doing this because of the consequences that could arise from violating Sony’s terms of service. Should you ever connect a PS4 to the internet following a jailbreak, you could be hit with various account bans, game bans, and legal action.
Those who do decide to jailbreak their console will discover mods compatible with PlayStation consoles are few and far between. Internet forums and YouTube videos have numerous tutorials for loading GTA 5 mods, but users have reported mixed results when trying to get mods to work, and it’s impossible to guarantee that these mods are safe to use.
For this reason, it is highly recommended that you only mod GTA 5 via the PC. In fairness, the GTA 5 system requirements are not exactly high by modern standards, and the game itself is fairly cheap given that it originally launched in 2013.
Excited for the GTA 6 release date? Once you’ve got your selection of GTA 5 mods installed, see if your PC can handle our predicted GTA 6 system requirements, and see if there’s a GTA 6 preorder available yet.