What the Tutorial Is, In One Pass
The Introduction is GTA Online's built-in tutorial: a short chain of guided missions that takes a brand-new character from the arrivals hall at Los Santos International Airport to their first paying work. Lamar Davis picks you up, puts a pistol in your hand, and walks you into your first race and your first gunfight.
The whole run takes roughly 30 to 60 minutes, and it does not have to be finished in one sitting. It teaches movement, driving, combat, jobs and the phone, and it introduces the first contacts who will feed you work afterwards.
One big version difference matters before anything else. The Introduction is not in the Expanded & Enhanced version on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, where the Career Builder replaces it. It does still exist in the PC Enhanced version, where you can choose to skip it after character creation.
Key Takeaways
- The tutorial is a guided mission chain: character creation, an airport pickup by Lamar, a first race called Mall or Nothing, and a first combat job for Gerald called Learning the Ropes.
- It takes about 30 to 60 minutes in total, can be done across more than one sitting, and usually finishes around Rank 3 or 4.
- Friend and crew sessions stay locked until the tutorial is finished, even though Freemode opens up partway through it.
- You can skip it where the game offers the prompt, and a second character is always asked — but it can never be replayed on a character who has already done or skipped it.
- On PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S there is no tutorial at all: the Career Builder stands in its place.
1. Character Creation Comes First
Everything starts with building your character. The creator asks for a gender, builds a face from heritage — the parents your character inherits their look from — and then lets you adjust appearance and pick starting clothes.
Take your time here if you care how your character looks, because the early game gives you limited chances to change it. Our character creation guide covers the settings that matter and the ones you can fix later.
You can also let the game randomise a character and get moving quickly. Either way, creation is the one part of the Introduction nobody skips — the skip choice, where it exists, only appears once your character exists.
2. Arrival: Lamar, a Pistol and a Drive Across Town
Your character lands at Los Santos International Airport, and Lamar Davis pulls up in his Emperor to collect them. The two already know each other from Lifeinvader, which is the game's quick explanation for why a stranger is meeting you at arrivals.
Lamar hands over an untraceable pistol during the drive and talks you through the city — the people in it, the Families, and names like Simeon Yetarian that will matter within the hour. It is a story scene as much as a tutorial step, and it opens the earliest strands of the game's loose narrative, which our story and timeline explainer maps out in full.
Listen to what Lamar actually names on that drive. Hao and his tuning work, G and The Families, Simeon and his dealership — the monologue is a quiet table of contents for your first weeks in Los Santos, delivered before you have a phone full of contacts to make sense of it.
The drive ends on Eclipse Boulevard, where Lamar has a race waiting.
3. Mall or Nothing: The Racing Lesson
Mall or Nothing is the driving tutorial, dressed up as a street race. You pick a sedan from the cars on offer, then race Lamar and up to six other new players who are starting the game at the same time.
The detail worth knowing before you choose: you keep the car you race. Guides consistently suggest picking something with a future, such as a Dominator, Gauntlet or Sultan, rather than whatever is nearest the front.
You start the race at Rank 1 and typically come out of it at about Rank 2. Win or lose, the game has now taught you checkpoints, slipstreaming and how a job lobby works — which is the real point of the exercise.
4. Learning the Ropes: The Combat Lesson
Next comes a cutscene introducing Gerald, Lamar's associate, and then Learning the Ropes, the combat and co-op tutorial. The job is a drug deal ambush: fight through it, take the product, and deliver it back to Gerald.
Players from your race lobby can join, up to four in total, and the game uses the job to teach its teamwork bonuses directly: jobs pay 20 percent more RP when completed as part of a team, and 10 percent more again if you finish with a crew member.
It also quietly completes your contact list's opening set. Lamar and Gerald now feed you work, and Simeon Yetarian has been introduced as the third mission-giver waiting in your phone.
5. The Guided Steps After Freemode Opens
Finishing Learning the Ropes drops you into normal Freemode, and it is easy to assume the tutorial is over. It is not. Friend sessions and crew sessions stay locked until the remaining guided steps are done.
The leftover steps cover the personal vehicle and customisation basics. A job corona waits on Orchardville Avenue, and visiting it is required rather than optional — completing that job is what typically wraps the tutorial up, leaving most players at Rank 4, or Rank 3 on a leaner run.
The final step points you to a Last Team Standing marker. Stepping into the marker completes the tutorial; actually playing the mode is up to you. Once that is done, every session type is open and the game is fully yours.
This locked-door design explains the tutorial's reputation. Returning players starting a fresh character often rush it or skip it precisely because of those locked sessions, while first-time players barely notice — they are still being shown new systems either way.
6. Skipping It, and the Second-Character Difference
On versions that still carry the Introduction, the game offers a skip prompt after character creation. Experienced players starting fresh often take it — but the common advice is not to, because some contact introductions and follow-up calls are tied to playing the sequence through.
If you dig in and repeatedly fail a tutorial mission, the game eventually offers to skip that mission rather than leaving you stuck. That safety net applies per mission, not just at the start.
A second character gets the clearest version of the choice: a direct prompt to skip the tutorial or play it again. What no character can do is replay it once it is finished or skipped — the Introduction runs once per character, and only a new character ever sees it again.
7. Current-Gen Consoles: The Career Builder Instead
If you start GTA Online on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X|S, none of the above happens. The Expanded & Enhanced version removed the Introduction entirely and replaced it with the Career Builder, which hands you a business path, properties, vehicles and weapons as a starting package.
That trade — a story-led first hour swapped for a funded head start — is covered properly in our Career Builder guide. Whichever version you are on, our beginner guide picks up where the opening leaves off, and the starting from zero roadmap turns those first hours into a plan for your first weeks.
The tutorial's real legacy is how much of the game it explains in under an hour. If your version still offers it, it remains the smoothest first hour GTA Online has.
Frequently Asked Questions
How long does the GTA Online tutorial take?
The full Introduction takes roughly 30 to 60 minutes. It does not need to be finished in one sitting, so you can spread it across sessions.
Can you skip the GTA Online tutorial?
Yes, on versions that include it. The game offers a skip prompt after character creation, and repeatedly failing a tutorial mission eventually offers a skip for that mission. PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S versions have no tutorial to skip.
Can you replay the tutorial?
No. The Introduction can only be played once per character. The only way to see it again is to start a new character.
Why is there no tutorial on PlayStation 5?
The Expanded & Enhanced version replaced the Introduction with the Career Builder, which gives new characters a business, properties, vehicles and weapons instead of the guided mission chain.
What is Mall or Nothing?
Mall or Nothing is the tutorial's first mission: a street race on Eclipse Boulevard against Lamar and other new players. You pick a sedan for the race and keep the car afterwards.
Which car should you pick in the first race?
Pick a sedan you actually want to own, because you keep it. The Dominator, Gauntlet and Sultan are the picks guides most often suggest.
What is Learning the Ropes?
Learning the Ropes is the combat and co-op tutorial. You ambush a drug deal and deliver the product to Gerald, learning combat, jobs and the team RP bonuses along the way.
Why are friend sessions locked at the start?
Because the tutorial is not finished yet. Friend and crew sessions unlock once you complete the remaining guided steps after Freemode opens, including the Orchardville Avenue job and the Last Team Standing marker.
What rank are you when the tutorial ends?
Most players finish the tutorial at around Rank 3 or 4. The race alone usually takes you from Rank 1 to about Rank 2.
Does a second character have to do the tutorial?
No. A second character is given a direct choice to skip the tutorial or play it through again, so the decision is yours rather than automatic.
Closing Thoughts
The Introduction is a small piece of game design that does a lot of work: a race, a gunfight and a handful of errands that quietly teach you almost every system GTA Online runs on. If your version of the game still has it, play it once — you will earn the contacts, the car and the confidence either way, and you can never play it twice.
