GTA 5 – How to Deal with Griefers / Tryhards on GTA Online

We’ve all been there, driving peacefully on LS when suddenly an Oppressor MK2 comes in and kills you multiple times till you leave/go passive.

The thing is, what can we do to prevent them doing this? How to defend yourself? And how to use various ways the game gives us to kill other players? It’s (mostly) all here. Come take a look!

First of All, Why Do They Do It?

Note: Credit goes to FACKIA

To starts things off, I need to explain to you why would someone like destroying cargo or killing other players for no reason at all. To this I present you a few possible answers:

• It’s their way of having fun
• They like to see people rage and be mad at them
• They may want to start a pvp by being the first attack

Whatever the reason may be, you shouldn’t be wasting your time trying to convince someone like this why destroying cargo or supplies is wrong, it’s just their way of playing and the game encourages this, it’s designed like that so whining or trying to change the system will not happen.

Another thing to note is that they have a lot of money most of the time, so they’ll not hesitate to use orbital cannon a few times a day if they want to. How did they get all the money? Maybe they bought an account, used glitches who knows, just keep this in mind.

Most Used Vehicles for Killing

These are the most used by these kind of players, as they’re really fast, and can destroy anything really fast with these vehicles. Some of these are:

Pegassi Oppressor Mk II

Probably the reason you may be reading this guide, this bike is literally the best vehicle in the game as it is fast, flies, homing missiles and it even has countermeasures, so yeah a really powerful vehicle all around. Even more in free-aim sessions which is where most PC players play in.

Weapons: MG, Explosive MG or homing missiles (20)

MG users are probably people who just bought the oppressor and don’t know where to add homing missiles to it, just shoot them while they try to kill you with these weak weapons.

The Explosive MG might seem intimidating at first but they’re weaker than the ones used by planes, so things like cars will take 2/3 rounds to explode, they may only be dangerous in the hands of an experienced player

How to fight against it

Probably the best counter against an oppressor it’s literally itself, if you manage to do it right you can kill another mk2 user if you do this:

1. Start heading towards the enemy oppressor
2. When you’re close enough activate the chaff countermeasure
3. As soon as you’re able to shoot a homing missile, spam the fire button
4. If you did it right an explosion should follow a few seconds later

If you do use this strategy the other player may also use countermeasures (such as flares or another chaff), if he uses flares just keep shooting, they’re not that good. And in case he uses chaff try getting out of his line of sight till yours recharges and try again.

Of course there are the people that won’t be able to use this strategy so i show you a few more:

• Using Up-N-Atomizer to throw the player off the bike
• Shoot him with a minigun/widowmaker till you kill
• Use homing missiles (either from the weapon or a vehicle that has them)
• Explosive ammo Pump Shotgun
• Throwing stickybombs at it (imagine it being a police chopper just smaller)

That’s pretty much it for this overpowered bike, just try to avoid player riding these on lobbies as they’ll most likely kill you if you/they come too close

Hydra / P996 LAZER (and Probably Most Planes)

Personally i think these are the most powerful device in the whole game (apart from the orbital cannon) as their explosive mg cannons can obliterate anything in just a few seconds, the two most used of these are the hydra and the LAZER, the two are very similar, the difference is that the first one has VTOL mode and it’s a bit bigger than the LAZER.

Weapons: Homing missiles, Explosive MG, Bombs (other planes)

Most, if not all of the plane users know the only real weapon they have is the Explosive MG, so you’ll rarely see someone using the other two weapons.

How to fight against it

The best counter these planes have is an Explosive ammo Heavy Sniper Rifle, this weapon will destroy most planes with 2 shoots (except the b11 strikeforce who takes 4 shots), it has an insane range and will most likely make the plane user jump out ot the plane to save himself, leaving him vunerable. So yeah if you want to defend against these this is your best choice

While maybe not as effective, there are a few more ways to deal with planes

• Shoot the pilot
• Shoot the plane enough to make the motor turn off
• Use the Chernobog
• Use another plane to dogfight

In case you’re considering the last one, i would recommend watching some videos about how to dogfight and how to fly jets, you’ll probably need a controller if you can’t adapt to keyboard’s weird controls, i’ll leave a video by Hummer Guy about the topic. Moving on.

Avenger

This flying meatshield is an underrated killing machine, as it has a really high defense and really powerful weapons to go with it, it’s even more powerful with 2 people in it as while one is flying the other one is killing everything on it’s sight.

Weapons: Bombs, Turrets

The avenger has an auto-pilot option so a player can just stay flying in the air and kill everything with the turrets, as their high power can destroy most vehicles in less than a second, and it also has a high range of fire so be careful even if you’re not close to it

How to fight against it

The weak spot of the avenger is the propellers, if you manage to shoot enough missiles they will stop working, making the avenger fall eventually, even with this, trying to bring one down is really hard. Specially if it’s moving.

Other than that i don’t really have that many options, as i said this vehicle is really dangerous and hard to play around, but there still are a few other ways to stop it.

• Shoot the pilot
• Explosive ammo
• If you have a jet, going from the top will make them unable to shoot back

Basically if you see one and it’s targeting you, it’ll be really hard to counter it without the right tools, other than trying to bring a propeller down there aren’t any other ways to deal with these.

Akula and Other Helicopters (Hunter, Savage, etc)

Helicopters are a bit more rare to see, but they can still make a lot of damage in the right hands, I’ll try to make a general way on how to destroy these as they’re all destroyed the same way.

Weapons: Missiles (homing and barrage), bombs, explosive MG

Basically barrage is a lot of missiles fired at once, most helicopter users will use the bombs in combination with these, and if they’re using a Savage or a Hunter they have an explosive MG at their disposal.

Another thing to note is the Akula, this has an ability that can make the people on board off the radar, so keep this in mind.

How to fight against it

The most effective way to deal with these is probably a homing missile/RPG, as even the most resistant helicopter can just take 3 missiles at most before exploding, and even then if you shoot them for a bit their motors will start malfunctioning leading them to a destroyed helicopter.

Helicopters, in good hands though can still be a pain to deal with as some can dodge missiles if the user is skilled with them, so here are a few more ways to destroy helicopters.

• Shoot the pilot
• Shoot the propeller on the back (if it’s destroyed it’ll bring the heli down immediately)
• Use an Up-n-Atomizer to destabilize it
• Explosive ammo (this is good against anything tbh)

So yeah these are the most used vehicles by these kinds of players, but there are some other, more obscure choices.

Other Vehicles

While not as used some of these vehicles still can be used to kill players just in the same power as the ones listed above, some of these are:

TM-02 Khanjali: This tank is a better version of the rhino, it has mines and a cannon from which can fires rockets at a really fast rate, the way to destroy these is simply shooting rockets at it, as they can take 6 missiles before being destroyed.

Insurgent & Insurgent Pick-up Custom: I’ll just talk about the second one as the normal insurgent is just a worst version overall, you’ll see the Pick-Up custom being used with multiple players, the most simple way to deal with it is by shooting the driver/shooter, as even with the best armor it doesn’t really protect them that much. They take 12 and 14 missiles before exploding respectively.

Stromberg: A really fast car with the ability to go underwater, it’s homing missiles are really accurate so they’ll rarely miss a shoot, as with most cars the best way to kill them is shooting the driver, it can take 6 missiles.

Nightshark: The second best defensive land vehicle (i think) just next to the hauler custom, it can take 27 missiles before blowing up, which makes it a really hard to break car. Same as before, to deal with these just shoot the driver.

APC: Basically a Khanjali just a bit faster and it needs 2 people to be able to shoot while moving. The SAM Battery has 60 missiles in total so keep that in mind. As with most cars, just shoot the driver/shooter as trying to destroy it with missiles is a bit tricky while it’s shooting at you. It takes 8 missiles.

Weaponized Tampa: A decently fast cat with Minigun, missiles, a rear grenade launcher and mines, it’s all controlled by one player so it’ll just use one at a time, most of the time it’ll be the minigun. To destroy these it just takes 1 rocket so just shoot and watch them explode.

To summarize, most of these are ground vehicles can be dealt with if you just shoot the driver, another way i didn’t mention you could deal with these is with a plane, go from above and they won’t be able to hit you back while you mow them down with missiles/an explosive mg. Also keep in mind that if you have an RPG this will deal more damage, so for example an empty Nightshark will instead take 5 RPGs to destroy (9 with people inside).

Abilities and Exploits

Apart from the vehicles, when they’re on foot they will probably use other methods to kill you/escape and respawn the car you just destroyed, let’s take a look at what they’ll probably do.

Off the radar / Ghost Organization

By calling Lester, you can hide your blip from the map for 1 minute, this gives players enough time to escape/get near a target while being invisible in the radar, ghost organization it’s the same but it also hides cargo, and it lasts 3 minutes.

The most simple way to deal with these is just going off the radar yourself, if they can’t see you their ability will wear off before yours will, so use this opportunity to escape/kill them back.

In case you can’t do it, just try to take cover in a tight space or go underground, that way you will see them before they start attacking you, giving you a bit more time to react.

Bullshark Testosterone

Mostly used in pvp, this boosts your damage and health, it can be purchased by calling Brucie on the phone or in the CEO abilities.

There really isn’t a way to counter it, but i would recommend using it in a pvp as it’ll guarantee you’ll one shoot the other person with a heavy sniper rifle/will make it easier to kill the attacker with a minigun.

RC Bandito / Invade and Persuade Tank

Well the player you’re killing just disappeared, where did he go? 15 seconds later a small tank kills you out of nowhere.

From the interaction menu if you have bought the Bandito or the Invade and Persuade Tank you can spawn them and be hidden from the radar till you decide to get out of them. Honestly it’s a really good way to “escape” the fight, they take 2 and 5 rpg respectively (haven’t confirmed this). One thing to keep in mind is that if you get out of them you spawn near from when you called them so remember that.

Orbital Cannon

The most powerful weapon in the game, it costs 500,000-750,000 to shoot and it’s a guarantee kill to whoever uses it.

The best way to avoid getting killed by these is going underground/under bridges or entering a property. Also if you go off the radar they can’t automatically aim at you, so also use this at your advantage. If you see a person in a facility, brace yourself for impact!

Heist Invite Teleport

If you haven’t finished a heist, in the job menu there will be an option to go to your apartment or facility to resume it, this can be used by players to teleport to a safe place in case they’re in a pickle, or if they need to go get their 9th oppressor off their garage to keep trying to kill you.

This is a mechanic that has been present for a while, unfortunately there aren’t any real counters to avoid them from teleporting to a safe place in a second, one thing i can say is that they may take time to load in their apartment an all, so use this time to get closer to them (only if you still want to keep fighting). Other than that just use this if you really don’t want to fight.

There may be other abilities I may be missing, but these are the most common.

However, there are other more dirty players that choose to use game exploits to their advantage. Some of these are:

God Mode Exploits

By glitching the game, one can manage to get an indestructible car or be immortal itself, being invulnerable to explosions and weapons, fighting against these kind of players can be frustrating to say the least.

A way i’ve found to deal with these is: If they’re on a vehicle try to shoot them in the head as it’s just the vehicle the one that’s invulnerable, not the player. Then it’s just a matter of not letting him enter the car again.
However, if they’re on foot there is no real way to kill them, one thing you can do is hit them with a car, and repeatedly running them over preventing them from standing up, it’s not very useful but it’s fun seeing them hopelessly trying to get up (would recommend a Nightshark for this).

Mission Teleport

Unlike the heist teleport (which is just 2 locations at most), with this glitch they can pretty much go to any part of the map in less than 15 seconds, there really is no way to deal with these as i know of, so i would just abandon session if I start fighting with someone that uses this to keep spawning their LAZER over and over again.

Other glitches

While i don’t mention other exploits specifically, there are a bunch that may give one player an unfair advantage over the other, like take for example having the juggernaut suit but being able to move just as fast as without it, or using the orbital cannon without cooldown, those kind of exploits, while not massive, it may still give them the edge of the fight by abusing them.

To end this section, i recommend reporting the people that abuse these exploits and moving on, as fighting them is just not fun, and it’s also not something that Rockstar allows, so if you see someone that uses any of these just report them and hope the system takes care of things (one can only hope).

How to Defend Yourself

Previously i left a few ways to fight against the vehicles used by these kinds of players. Now i’ll go a bit in-depth about some of these

Weapons

While on foot and in your car, you’ll fight players, Oppressors, Hydras, etc, so you’ll want to know how to use your weapons against these threats, some of the weapons you’ll be using the most:

Flare Gun: If someone shoots a homing missile at you, you can shoot a flare to misguide the missile and avoid getting hit. Only problem with it is that is pretty situational, and it’s fire rate isn’t that good but it’s still a good defensive weapon.

Stickybombs and Prox. Mines: I put both here because the situations you’ll use them are pretty similar, use stickybombs to explode someone using a helicopter/oppressor following you, or leave one of the two on the ground to kill the person following you. Their use has a really wide-range so don’t hesitate and use them.

Up-N-Atomizer: This alien pistol has a pretty short range, but it’s incredibly useful even outside of combat, as it gives a little push to cars and if it hits someone it sends them flying for a bit. If you hit someone riding a bike with this thing, it’ll knock him down from it.

Minigun / Widowmaker: I put these two here because they’re basically the same weapon, use them to mow down enemies on foot or on vehicles, as it’s high firerate will make any player die in less than a second.

Marksman Sniper / Heavy Sniper: These two are used for pvp, to use the Marksman Rifle effectively you’ll need to practice a bit with it, try doing missions with it, it’s a really good pvp weapon, as for the Heavy Sniper, it can 1 shoot players if they’re low rank or if you’re using bst, apart from pvp you can also snipe people on jets or cars with this thing if you’re skillful enough.

Explosive ammo If you have a weapon workshop and have researched this ammo, i would recommend putting it on the Pump Action Shotgun and the Heavy Sniper Rifle, it decreases max ammo to 40, but it’s so worth it because the shotgun can explode any car with 1 shot (keep in mind it has a low range), and the heavy sniper rifle can 2 shoot any vehicle with it, making it perfect to destroy planes and helicopters, as well as players.

Other type of ammo: Personally i don’t think the other ammo types are useful, except for the incendiary rounds, which can help finish off a target, but other than that the only one you’ll almost always be using is explosive so yeah, don’t waste money on them.

Vehicles

The transport you’ll want to be using if you want the best protection is, of course, the Nightshark, with this it’s impossible for a single oppressor to destroy you (20 vs 27) so if one is attacking you just laugh at their pathetic attempt at destroying you (do keep in mind that if vehicles explode near you they also make damage so avoid getting near to npc cars). You don’t want to add the reinforced windows to it, as they aren’t really useful and they prevent you from using weapons, so if you have them added, i would recommend removing them. Another thing that’s great about it is that it shows in the radar as just a normal vehicle, so they won’t know you have one till it’s too late.

Another great car is the Stromberg, why? Because some Oppressor users don’t know your vehicle can take 6 missiles, just turn around and explode them with 1 simple click, it’s really simple.

Other recommendations: Hauler Custom, Insurgent Pick-Up, Krieger, Buzzard.

Note: Sadly there aren’t any other good all around vehicles that i can think of right now, so if you have a recommendation please tell me to add it!

Abilities

If you’re having trouble dealing with someone killing you, just use the abilities i mentioned earlier to escape/fight in a better position.

If you are gonna use the RCs keep in mind that when you exit them you’ll spawn in the same place you started using them.

General Tips

We’re approaching the end of this guide, in this section I’ll give you some tips & tricks to help you defend, or even counter-attack your attackers.

• You should always check who’s near you, and who’s approaching you, press Z two times to make the map bigger and see if someone’s going to attack you.
• If someone’s off the radar, it’s always better to go somewhere safe till it ends.
• If a plane is attacking you go to a place with a lot of cover to prevent them from hitting you with their cannons.
• Do not and i mean DO NOT SELL ON PUBLIC LOBBIES, like i get you get that sweet 1% for each other player that’s on the session but it’s still too risky, even if you have 10 people defending the cargo, it just takes 1 button to make all your effort go to waste. Instead sell on public solo lobbies.
• Get off the car to prevent players from locking onto you.
• If you just don’t want to fight, switch sessions or do a public solo session, don’t stress yourself just because someone killed you, it’s all part of the game.
• Always refill ammo when you can.
• Using a thermal scope may help you find your targets easier.
• When using the Oppressor Mk II, if you hover on the ground you go a bit faster.
• If you have a fast enough jet, doing loops can help you evade most homing missiles.
• Going above the first height line while flying makes you go faster on most planes.