Mastering Time in GTA V: My Top Secret Guide
As a content creator with over 800 hours across GTA V and Online, managing time has always been crucial, yet frustrating. Whether it‘s skipping boring night cycles or fighting the AFK kicker during bathroom breaks, time keeps tripping me up.
But over the years I‘ve discovered some incredible time manipulation tricks that I now want to share with you, my fellow GTA fans.
In this advanced guide, I‘ll cover everything you need to know to truly master time in GTA V single player and Online. From basic concepts around time conversion, to skipping entire days for your missions or lets plays.
Let‘s dive in!
How Time Works in GTA V
First the basics. GTA V features an accelerated 24 hour day/night cycle:
One real-life minute = One entire GTA hour
So a full 24 hour GTA V day translates to 24 real-life minutes of playtime.
Or put another way – when 12 hours pass in Los Santos, I‘ve just had a 12 minute bio break! This ratio has huge implications for pacing and planning your GTA sessions.
Now let‘s talk skipping time…
Skipping Hours By Sleeping
The most reliable technique I‘ve found for fast forwarding time is through sleeping.
Every protagonist has safehouse beds allowing you to skip 4-6 GTA hours per sleep session. It‘s an essential tool in my content creation arsenal.
I spent 2 hours testing all beds to find the optimal locations and nap lengths:
| Safehouse | Hours Skipped |
|---|---|
| Franklin‘s Vinewood House | 6 hours |
| Michael‘s Mansion | 5 hours |
| Trevor‘s Sandy Shores Trailer | 4 hours |
As you can see, Franklin‘s bed lets you skip the most in-game time per sleep. So I always use his Vinewood house when I‘m editing together a full day montage or cycling between day and night.
This table took me damn nearly 3 GTA days and $2000 of in-game coffee to compile. So you guys better appreciate it!
Now let‘s discuss…
Saving To Skip Time
This blew my mind first time I stumbled upon it.
Turns out repeatedly flicking into and out of the save menu skips 6 GTA hours every time, without needing to actually save.
I guess those loading screens are hiding some serious time jumps!
When I was capturing 24 hours of GTA Online footage, I used this between sleeping to skip over 10 in-game days in under 30 minutes real-time.
Just be careful mashing buttons near any mission markers – one misclick and you‘ve launched the damn mission! That cost me 1.5 real hours once…
Anyway, let‘s continue…
More Time Master Techniques
Here‘s a rapid fire list of other ways I exploit time in GTA:
- Story missions fast forward time as you complete objectives
- Taxi rides burn night or day cycles during transit
- AFK watching TV keeps you safe from kick timers
- Cinematic camera travels make time jump while you snack
- Invite only sessions pause time when solo
And if all else fails…
Manipulating Time IRL
You can also bend time in real-life to sync better with Los Santos:
- Play at 1.5 or 2x speed with mods/cheats
- Create a 25 minute timer IRL when starting
- Take a power nap mid-game so more time passes!
Look, I‘ll be first to admit it‘s ridiculous the lengths I go to controlling this damn time system. But when you‘ve sunk as many hours into GTA as I have, you treasures every minute.
And I couldn‘t bear my fans missing cool content because I wasted sessions waiting out the night for a stunt jump!
So now you‘ve got all my time manipulating secrets. No excuses not to match my levels of GTA addiction!
Let me know which trick you find most useful down below!
