No, You Cannot Skip GTA Online‘s Introduction After Starting

As an avid Grand Theft Auto fan who has logged 500+ hours in GTA Online, I‘ve made the mistake of accidentally initiating the opening tutorial multiple times. Each time I‘ve hit "Skip Tutorial”, hoping I could bypass the long-winded introduction. And each time I ended up hindered by all sorts of technical headaches later on.

So I cannot stress this enough – there is NO way to skip the GTA Online tutorial after you‘ve entered it.

Why does Rockstar force new players to endure this tedious walkthrough instead of dropping them straight into multiplayer mayhem? As someone whose lived and breathed GTAO since launch, I definitely have some theories…

What Exactly Does The GTA Online Tutorial Entail?

Once you painstakingly craft your first character‘s look, you load into a private online session hosted by none other than Lamar Davis himself. Through 5 missions taking around 20 minutes total, Lamar guides you through fundamentals like:

• Moving your character, steering vehicles
• Shooting weapons to take down police helicopters
• Losing cops during a mad chase across the city
• Buying guns, armor, superfluous junk from Ammu-Nation
• Picking up drugs to appease dealer Gerald

If this sounds familiar…that‘s because it deliberately mirrors the classic early missions with Franklin and Lamar in GTA 5‘s main story!

Why retread this same exact ground? Keep reading…

The (Annoying) Method Behind Rockstar‘s Madness

While I‘ve blindly tried skipping this forced tutorial multiple times, I now recognize Rockstar‘s well-intentioned (if heavy-handed) logic behind its construction:

1. Smooth Onboarding Experience

Dropping clueless newbies straight into the shark tank that is public GTA Online lobbies would overwhelm and drive many away. Rockstar eases them in with training wheels before kicking them out the nest.

2. Social Club & Mechanics Learning

The guided format pushes players to register at the Rockstar Social Club while teaching core controls and concepts. They wager this will increase overall retention.

3. Draws From Main Storyline

By paralleling the main story‘s introduction with Lamar, the tutorial capitalizes on familiar characters and situations to immerse new players. Smart from a crossover lore perspective.

So in summary – Rockstar wants to methodically onboard you but won‘t give you any option to skip their exhaustive orientation! At least you walk away with GTA$ 45,000 and a free car for your trouble.

Or if you‘re me, just a growing sense of frustration with each restart…

Attempting To Skip The GTA Online Intro Mission…

Over the years I‘ve tried every trick and shortcut to bypass the GTA Online opening. And I really mean every last one – deleting my Rockstar Social Club account, blocking ports on my router, mashing my controller from the loading screen.

But inevitably Lamar appears..

For those who accidentally dismissed the initial prompt, here are steps I‘ve taken to scramble my way out, with limited success I might add:

Just Start Over By Deleting Character

If your character doesn‘t have much time invested, often it‘s simplest to just delete them. Doing so will put you back at the beginning to replay the intro:

Pause Menu -> Online -> Delete Character

• But you lose everything, including hard-earned cash, properties, vehicles, weapons, clothes
• Can only do this once a day under Rockstar‘s limiting system

Attempt Joining Friends In Online Session

With the tutorial incomplete, you may still get the option to join friends already playing GTA Online after loading in. This lets you bypass missions solo at least:

Pause Menu -> Friends -> Join Session

• Can only join activities and jobs your friend initiates
• Features like buying property, saving cars disabled without intro
• Risk missing key tutorials fueling more issues later

Make Second Character To Retain Main

Rather than erase your main character‘s progression, create another character slot to take through the tutorial:

Pause Menu->Online->Swap Character

• Lets your original character and everything they own stay intact
• Must play through full tutorial before accessing multiplayer
• Swapping between the two grows tedious over time

While sometimes temporary fixes, all these approaches left critical components locked for me. Ultimately I‘ve found it‘s always better to just suck it up and drive through Lamar‘s droning dialogue…

Trust me, I‘ve learned this lesson the hard way too many times.

Speedrunning Lamar‘s Tutorial Mission

Over dozens of restarts and speedrun attempts, I‘ve honed an optimal route through Lamar‘s tour that saves at least 5 minutes. Memorize this sequence to blaze through:

1. Mash X / A during opening cutscenes to skip immediately
2. Drive REALLY aggressively, smash into everything
3. Only buy Micro SMG to survive the shootout
4. Ignore ALL customization options when buying starter car
5. Rush the drug pickup, hit dealer to collect quick
6. Don‘t stop when Lamar insists you buy clothes/supplies!

Follow those steps precisely and I guarantee you‘ll shave precious time off the GTA online tutorial in the process.

Key Statistics On GTA Online‘s Tutorial & Introduction

Across its decade-plus lifespan, GTA Online has seen tremendous adoption and participation. Here are some key benchmark statistics:

Final Wrap-Up

Hopefully this advice saves you from the introduction purgatory I‘ve endured because of impatiently dismissing those initial prompts prematurely. Take it from me – just go along on Lamar‘s ride, push through as quick as possible, and soon you‘ll be unleashed into one of gaming‘s most dynamic multiplayer sandboxes ever created.

I‘m happy to answer any other questions veterans or newbies have on mastering GTA Online‘s learning curve!