Away from your personal rank and growing fortune, your in-game skills are an important part of the process and you'll overlook them at your own peril. Just like in the story mode, your capacity to do things like run, shoot, hold your breath and sneak around will start off fairly modest, but increase with practice and ultimately make utilising these skills much easier. However, how you improve them differs in GTA V Online. For example your shooting skill will now only increase when you're competing in gun challenges with another player, and driving will only improve in online races. The trickiest area to improve is going to be your strength as it's only going to go up 1 point for every 20 punches you land. That's a lot of swinging at random passers-by, and almost impossible to improve on other players, but if you've got a friend who's willing to sit in a car while you beat away at it you can hone that still reasonably quickly. Flying and swimming remain the same as the original game - just take to the sky and dive underwater and your bar will slowly rise - while purchasing a bike and whizzing around the map will increase your stamina much quicker than simply running around. None of this is as fun as blowing off bank doors granted, but increasing your skills will make your life considerably easier in the long run.
WhatCulture's Managing Editor and Chief Reporter | Previously seen in Vice, Esquire, FourFourTwo, Sabotage Times, Loaded, The Set Pieces, and Mundial Magazine
