Does making a new character in GTA delete your old one?

No, absolutely not. When creating a new Grand Theft Auto Online character, your existing main character remains completely intact along with all their progression and unlocks.

As confirmed directly by Rockstar Games, while certain items remain separated between characters, you do not lose anything from your original one.

An Overview of GTA Characters and Progression

Grand Theft Auto Online offers players the ability to create a second customizable character slot in addition to their main one. This grants you an entirely new avatar and story experience within Los Santos and Blaine County.

According to Rockstar‘s March 2022 GTA Online Newswire, all progression systems and unlocks are kept separate between your characters. However, your characters share the same overall bank account balance accrued from jobs, heists, and other money-making endeavors.

This unique system provides the enjoyment of restarting your criminal journey from nothing while retaining your cumulative wealth. Your new character acts as an alternate protagonist in GTA Online‘s immersive world.

The Benefits of Creating Additional Characters

Here are some of the biggest incentives pursued by players when making extra characters:

Enjoying a New Playing Experience

• Replay early-game missions and progression system
• Develop entirely different skills and specialties
• Roleplay alternate backgrounds and personality types

Specializing Characters into Roles

• Make one for heists, another for racing/cars, one for aircraft, etc.
• Tailor abilities, properties, vehicles, and weapons to niche focuses
• Switch quickly to an optimal character for current activity

Transferring Cash and Rank Between Characters

• Withdraw cash from shared bank account to transfer funds
• Share overall Reputation (RP) level and crew experience
• Move expensive vehicles or weapons to low-rank characters

As you can see, the ability to own multiple character saves offers increased versatility in how you enjoy GTA Online. You‘re never permanently locked into choices made on your first playthrough.

What Gets Lost or Separated with Extra Characters

However, not everything neatly carries over when making another character in GTA Online. These items stay associated only with the character that earned or purchased them:

• Vehicles – Cars, bikes, aerial craft, watercraft, weaponized vehicles
• Properties – Apartments, garages, offices, business locations
• Weapons – Firearms, explosives, melee weapons, attachments/upgrades
• Cash On Hand – Only banked money is shared, characters hold separate cash
• Character Rank – Separate rank progression for each, but shared RP crew rank
• Clothing & Style – Hairstyles, tattoos, and clothing stays equipped per character

This means that your new criminal starts from scratch gathering their own arsenal, assets, and toys around San Andreas. They must rank up doing jobs to unlock weapon loadout slots just like early gameplay.

What New GTA Characters Keep Compared to What Gets Lost

Fig. 1 – Comparison of progression kept shared vs. separated with extra GTA Online characters

As you can see, only your overall wealth and a few cumulative stats carry between criminals. This makes for a balanced design – you enjoy continuity without invalidating the core gameplay loops and incentives by boosting a fresh face.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can You Switch Characters Freely in GTA Online?

Yes! Once created, you can swap between your characters nearly anytime while playing GTA Online. The game saves your exact location and situation when changing personas.

Simply bring up the Character Switch interface by pressing down on your controller‘s directional pad or the default hotkey. Then choose the avatar you wish to control.

What Happens When Deleting a GTA Online Character?

Deleting a GTA character erases all their separate progression irreversibly. That includes assets like vehicles and property along with their rank, equipment, and cash wallets.

However, the money held in your shared bank account remains across characters. So you can use deletion to penalize an undesirable alt while retaining your total legitimate earnings.

Are There Limits to What You Can Transfer Between Characters?

While Rockstar has left the bank account open, they have clamped down on those exploiting other creative "transfer glitches" over the years. Their position aims to keep progression systems compartmentalized.

For example, you cannot directly trade individual vehicles or weapons between personas. Players have lost access to illegitimately duplicated cars or had bonus cash removed after abusing transfers.

Cheating to boost fresh characters goes against Rockstar‘s intended compartmentalized design. You must rank up and earn everything legitimately per character – only the bank persists intact.

Should I Create More Than Two GTA Online Characters?

Rockstar Games imposes a limit of just two playable avatar saves per Social Club account in GTA Online.

While some story mode glitches allegedly let you make more, they cause issues. For example, any over the standard limit risk resetting or other progress loss. Also, only 2 characters slots display on the switching interface.

I advise staying at the supported cap of dual character saves to avoid potential problems. Consider deleting an unused one if you wish to create another concept instead.

The Bottom Line – New Characters Don‘t Affect Existing Ones

To summarize clearly again – making new GTA Online characters does not delete, erase, remove, or cause you to lose anything from your main character or their progression.

Your original criminal‘s rank, equipment, properties, vehicles, skills, and cash stay completely intact. Only the bank account balance carries across to additional personas.

I hope this detailed guide gives you confidence around the effects of building more characters. Let me know if you have any other questions in the comments!