In Grand Theft Auto 6, the Criminal Profile monitors criminal behavior alongside the returning Wanted system. It quietly evaluates how Jason and Lucia commit their crimes: whether they operate neatly or leave victims behind, rather than measuring kindness like Red Dead Redemption 2’s Honor meter. That assessment influences how the world responds to them during a playthrough that may exceed 80 hours.
Quick answer: The Criminal Profile is an unseen rating that tracks only crimes witnessed or reported by others. Keeping a low profile preserves it, while pointless violence lowers it; reaching the bottom can permanently break the rating.
What the Criminal Profile measures
The system keeps a continuous account of how Jason and Lucia conduct their crime sprees, with context at its center. A quick store robbery followed by a harmless getaway receives very different treatment from spraying bullets through a room of bystanders. Rob Nelson, co-studio head at Rockstar North, tied the mechanic to the narrative of a couple fleeing together, saying your choices reinforce that story.
Nelson presents the main decision as choosing between a more professional criminal and one who is completely unpredictable, with your approach affecting certain outcomes. Commit the crime, leave before the police arrive, avoid shooting or escalation, and, as he puts it, you will usually be fine. The rating changes when you exceed the needs of the moment or repeatedly cause needless harm.
The game still centers on two criminals. Its reward is for effective criminal work, not compassion, so it does not steer you toward respectable citizenship.
The Criminal Profile states
The Criminal Profile is not a continuously moving bar. Instead, each protagonist receives a named state determined by conduct. Four states are known so far, spanning controlled behavior through chaos, while a fifth applies solely when the system has suffered permanent failure.
| State | What it reflects |
|---|---|
| Professional | The cleanest tier, reached by completing crimes without unnecessary casualties |
| Aggressive | A more destructive approach that starts escalating encounters |
| Violent | Heavier, more frequent violence |
| Psycho | The most chaotic tier of criminal behavior |
Beyond Psycho, the profile can go one step further. Keep committing particularly bad acts and the Criminal Profile icon begins to crack, then eventually shatters completely. The states are not meant to tell you the correct way to play; they simply mark what kind of criminal you have chosen to be.
Only crimes you get caught for count
The Criminal Profile is more selective than the system in Red Dead Redemption 2, which recorded almost every deed. Here, an offense enters the record only after someone witnesses it or reports it. An unseen act that raises no alarm leaves no mark, and police do not simply appear without a crime first being noticed or activated.
Witnesses affect the system directly. NPCs may publish accounts of you through the game’s social media, and those reports influence the rating. As a result, an unnoticed, orderly job has no effect, whereas a public spree can continue causing trouble afterward.
What worsens and what improves your rating
| Pushes the profile toward Psycho | Keeps or restores a cleaner profile |
|---|---|
| Being witnessed committing crimes | Laying low and staying out of trouble for a while |
| Unnecessary escalation and excessive violence | Pulling off crimes without collateral damage |
| Mindless or needlessly cruel killings | Helping others and doing good deeds |
| NPC social media posts reporting your actions | Small acts of kindness, such as feeding stray animals |
The system does not punish straightforward self-defense. Returning fire against pursuers or resisting someone during a fight will not reduce the profile. Trouble begins when you prolong the situation beyond necessity and make that behavior habitual. To remain Professional, deal with the immediate threat and stop before the scene becomes a massacre.
Jason and Lucia track separate profiles
Jason and Lucia maintain separate Criminal Profiles, meaning their states can diverge. Both may remain controlled Professionals, both may become Psychos, or Jason can stay disciplined while Lucia repeatedly turns to violence. That difference encourages role-players to manage each encounter carefully and gives a second playthrough its own character.
The shattered state is permanent
The system has a definite bottom limit. When a character’s Criminal Profile reaches it, the badge for that state breaks and cannot be restored during that playthrough. Showing restraint afterward will not return the character to a previous state.
That design comes directly from a quirk of Red Dead Redemption 2, where a player could behave terribly for most of the game and then rush their Honor back up by greeting strangers and petting dogs. It worked mechanically but made little sense as role-play, so a permanent floor removes the easy reset. The shattered state is meant to be considerably hard to reach, and it is treated as a consequence rather than a punishment.
How the world reacts to a low profile
A sufficiently damaged rating changes how the street treats you. Regular NPCs begin responding to Jason and Lucia in ways that resemble a reputation mechanic more than a basic morality gauge. Places you have terrorized become hotspots, and entering the worst-hit location without a disguise may provoke an instant response from its residents.
Nelson emphasized that events in the world can turn unexpectedly. As he observed, Jason and Lucia are not the only people carrying weapons or capable of violence, and their responses to those flare-ups determine what sort of criminals they become. No universal approach is required, but repeated habits affect the world’s reaction and the story’s direction.
Non-lethal options that protect your profile
Since restraint benefits the profile, the game provides several ways to finish confrontations without killing. For the first time in the series, firing beside an enemy can intimidate them, while warning shots may drive them into cover; some NPCs will run as soon as they see a gun. The new Focus Ability also lets you aim for arms or legs to disable a target, and a precise shot can knock the weapon from someone’s hands.
Robberies can be finished without hurting anyone. With careful planning, such as shooting out security cameras and picking locks, you can enter a shop and complete a robbery without triggering any alarms. Even when a job goes wrong and a chase begins, non-lethal tactics still apply: you can shoot out a police car’s tires to escape without killing the officers, or take out only the driver of a pursuing vehicle instead of everyone inside.
How it connects to the Wanted system
The Criminal Profile operates with the returning classic Wanted system, including its complete six-star scale. Police descriptions now account for details such as your clothing, your vehicle, and whether officers saw you with your partner. Those details create practical options for escaping pursuit without adding unnecessary violence.
- Use another vehicle to invalidate the description that was reported.
- Put on different clothes so you no longer fit the police description.
- Leave the vehicle and walk into a crowded place, where the crowd can conceal you.
- If police are seeking two people, separate from your partner.
Where to check it and how to turn off alerts
There is no permanent on-screen meter for the Criminal Profile. Notifications can appear at the edge of the screen during play, but the full rating lives in the dedicated Jason and Lucia stat menu, which shows each character’s current state alongside their model and other details. If you would rather not see the alerts at all, you can turn Criminal Profile notifications off and customize what appears.
Disabling the notifications does not switch off the system. The profile still tracks your behavior and still influences the world and story, so switching off alerts only hides the readout, not the underlying effects.
The Criminal Profile makes restraint a strategic decision, not an ethical one. You can escalate at any point, but an unseen tally still tracks your actions; to preserve your standing, strike decisively and precisely, then leave before anyone can report the incident. Grand Theft Auto 6 arrives November 19 for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S.
