How to Increase Strength in GTA 5 Online

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Beginning his gaming journey in 1993 SNES as an avid Super Mario World fan, his passion for games led him into journalism in 2019. When he's not cranking 90s in Pleasant Park, he can often be found playing the latest releases including Resident Evil, The Legend of Zelda, and Grand Theft Auto.

Introduction

Although GTA 5 isn’t an RPG, it has taken inspiration from the genre by giving its protagonists upgradeable stats to improve their ability to perform various tasks in the game, such as driving, shooting, and movement speed. This is reminiscent of games such as Skyrim. It has become an essential part of the game that we’re sure will carry over into GTA 6 and become a key part of future titles after it was first introduced in GTA San Andreas.

The Strength stat is one of the most important stats in GTA 5. It increases the damage you deal, lessens the damage you receive, and increases your agility in Sports tasks. Increasing the Strength stat is easy as it can be done by punching NPCs or participating in Sports. Here is everything you need to know about the Strength stat, including some useful hints and tips on increasing it quickly in both GTA 5 and GTA Online.

What Does Strength Do in GTA 5?

The Strength stat is among the most important in GTA 5 and GTA Online, especially in combat. But combat isn’t its only benefit, as a person’s Strength can affect numerous abilities and activities.

As expected, the Strength stat will increase the damage you deal in melee combat, either with your fists or a weapon such as a bat. However, it isn’t just the damage you deal that increases, the damage you take is decreased too. Whether shot or attacked with a melee weapon, you won’t take as much damage, and your body armor will become more durable.

In addition to its combat benefits, an increased Strength stat will improve your climbing speed for ladders and your agility in sports activities such as cycling and swimming. Overall, this is one of the most important stats in GTA 5 and one of the first that you should focus on maxing out.

How to Increase Strength in GTA 5

There are 2 main ways to increase the Strength stat in GTA 5. These are either by fighting or playing the numerous sports available in the game, such as Tennis, Arm Wrestling, and Golf. Although playing Sports is an excellent change of pace from the chaos of Los Santos, the easiest way to increase the Strength stat is by fighting.

Every 20 punches that connect will increase your Strength stat by 1%. Of course, this means that the police will be on your case a lot for fighting the public. If you don’t want to deal with them, you can punch cows at Grapeseed Farms. The punches will still count towards the stat, but the police won’t come after you for it.

Michael also has a unique perk to quickly increase his Strength stat, which isn’t available to Trevor or Franklin. To increase his Strength stat, you just need to play Tennis and win the matches. This can be done by playing against Amanda at Michael’s home or facing Trevor, Franklin, and Jimmy while doing a friend activity. There are 8 Tennis courts found throughout Los Santos. Here are the locations:

Chumash Hotel Courts, Great Ocean Highway
Michael’s House
Richman Hotel Courts, West Eclipse Boulevard
USLA Campus Courts, Picture Perfect Drive
Vespucci Apartments Courts, Palomino Avenue
Vespucci Courts, Vespucci Beach
Vinewood Apartments Courts, Elgin Avenue
Weazel Courts, Dorset Drive

Easy Way to Increase Strength in GTA Online

Like GTA 5, GTA Online has stats for your character too. They can be increased in the same ways that they are in GTA 5, but there are even easier ways that are exclusive to GTA Online. One requires a friend and is the quickest way to max your Strength stat, and the other can be done solo.

To do the method that requires a friend, you need to join a session and have your friend enter a vehicle and drive to your location. Once you’re close to them, have your friend sit in the vehicle, punch and kick it to increase the stat. Maxing your Strength stat will take approximately 15-20 minutes of non-stop punching.

The method you can do solo will take the same amount of time but requires a little more time to set up. You must find an NPC driving a Scrap Truck with a flatbed. Once you do, jump on the back, where you won’t lose balance or fall off as the NPC drives.

Then shoot your gun to trigger the NPC into becoming interactive with you, allowing the vehicle to count towards the stat. Similar to the method with your friend, start punching and kicking the Scrap Truck for 15-20 minutes while the NPC is driving, and your Strength stat should be maxed out.

Finally, you can utilize the “Cops Turn Blind Eye” option when contacting Lester, which gives you three minutes to do anything you want without fear of gaining Wanted Stars. Find somewhere heavily populated for this, activate “Cops Turn Blind Eye,” and get punching as many NPCs as you can in the three minutes. This costs $5,000 each time, so it is costly. But do this enough times, and your stat will eventually be maxed out.

Other Stats You Can Increase In GTA 5

In total, there are seven stats that determine how good and well-rounded your character in GTA 5 and GTA Online is. These stats are:

Strength
Shooting
Stamina
Stealth
Driving
Flying
Lung Capacity

Most of these will increase naturally as you play the game, as most of the activities and actions that you do in the game will count towards them without you going out of your way to do so.

FAQ

Question: Which is the most important stat to increase in GTA 5?

Answer: Although everyone’s play style is different, the game is still played the same in terms of missions and activities, so the stats matter the same for everyone. Here is the importance of each star in GTA 5 from the most to least important.

• Strength
• Driving
• Shooting
• Stamina
• Lung Capacity
• Flying
• Stealth

Question: Which is the most difficult stat to increase in GTA 5?

Answer: The most difficult stats to increase are, thankfully, the least important ones. This could be why they’re more difficult to increase because you don’t need to actively work on them.
Flying is difficult to increase due to there only being a few instances where you fly in the game during missions, so if you want to increase the stat, you need to spend a lot of time outside of missions flying in a plane or helicopter.

Stealth is another difficult stat to increase because there are almost no situations in the game where stealth mode is the most optimal approach. Of course, if you prefer a more low-key play style and enjoy games such as Hitman, then playing stealthy could be a good approach. But, most players will be more into the run-and-gun style, so this becomes a stat that doesn’t increase very fast.

Question: Is it important to max out all of the stats?

Answer: If you want a well-rounded character, it can be good to max out all the stats, but it isn’t necessary. Maxing out none of the stats is fine too, but it can never hurt to have a better character. If you focus on Strength, Stamina, Driving, and Shooting, you should have an easier time playing the game.

Conclusion

Increasing your stats is incredibly important while playing GTA 5 as it provides many benefits and makes your overall experience while playing the GTA 5 story much easier, whether that is taking more damage or steering a vehicle better. The Strength stat is one of the most important and one you should be focused on increasing from the very beginning of the game.

Be mindful that if you’re playing GTA 5, you will need to do this three times, once for each of the protagonists. And in GTA Online, you will need to do it again for your created character.