Your First Day in the City

Fresh off the character creator and blinking in the sunlight? This is the golden path from spawn point to settled resident — a job, a room, a phone, and your first set of wheels.

You’ve named your character, set their look, and the screen has just faded in. You’re standing in the middle of Los Santos with a few hundred pounds to your name and no idea where to start. Good news: the city eases you in. This page is the short version of everything a brand-new arrival should do on day one, with links out to the full guides for each system.

If you haven’t made a character yet, start at Creating Your Character and come back here once you’re in the world.

Waking Up in the City

New characters fade in on foot at Legion Square, in the heart of downtown. There’s no cutscene and nothing to sit through — you’re simply in the world, free to move. Standing right next to you is Sam, the city’s new-arrivals officer, and a “Welcome to the City” job has already been added to your journal with a nudge to go and talk to him.

Sam is the single best first stop. He walks you through the essentials in the right order and pays you a little cash and a couple of food and drink items for your trouble.

Look for Sam’s name-tag and interact prompt when you spawn. Approaching him and choosing the work option starts you down his onboarding ladder.

Your Journal and Sam’s Welcome Quests

Press J at any time (or pick Journal from your character radial menu) to open your quest journal. It lists your active quests with tick-box objectives, plus a completed list. A small on-screen tracker also keeps your current objectives visible without opening the full panel.

Sam hands out a short ladder of onboarding tasks, one after another, each unlocking the next:

• Orientation — learning the journal and map.
• Earning a living — getting yourself a job (see below).
• Keeping fed — eating and drinking to manage your survival meters.
• Dressing the part — buying an outfit from a clothing store.
• Getting on the road — passing your driving theory, getting a vehicle, and parking it in a garage.
• The basics of making things — a first taste of cooking and crafting.

You never play a separate “quest minigame” — objectives complete automatically as you do the underlying activity (eat something, buy clothes, pass a test). Sam is only the front door; once you’ve got your feet under you, the city has around a dozen other quest-givers offering ongoing and repeatable work. See Quests & the Journal for the full roster.

A Roof Over Your Head

Every new character gets a free, permanent motel room — either auto-assigned to you, or picked from a short camera browser during character creation. That room is yours for as long as you keep the character; there’s no rent on it and nothing to renew. It gives you a private stash to store things and a wardrobe for your outfits.

When you want to upgrade, you can rent a nicer motel room at its reception desk, or rent and buy proper houses and flats out in the world. That’s all covered in Property & Housing — no rush on day one.

Your Phone, Tablet and ID

Your starter kit includes basic survival supplies plus a phone and a tablet — check your inventory and you’ll find both. These are your gateway to most of the city’s services: banking, the Job Centre, property management, and much more.

Some apps come pre-installed; others you install yourself from the device’s app store. The Job Centre app in particular isn’t on the home screen by default — you’ll need to install it (from either the phone or the tablet) before your first shift. For a full tour of the devices and their apps, see Phones, Tablets & Radios.

You’re also issued a Government ID automatically the moment your character is created — it lives in your inventory as a card. You can “use” it to flash it to anyone standing near you, and it never expires. It’s the first of several licences you’ll pick up; the rest, including your driving licence, are explained in Identity, Licences & ID Cards.

Getting a Job and Your First Wage

The fastest way to a steady income is the Job Centre app. Open it and you’ll see three sections:

Tap Take Job on anything in Find Work and you’re hired immediately — most jobs also give you a GPS route to the work site. You can only be clocked into one employer at a time, so starting a new shift clocks you off the last one automatically.

There are 14 civilian jobs live, from bin rounds and bus routes to fishing, mining and haulage, each paying out as you work. Pick whatever appeals — you can switch freely. The full breakdown is in Civilian Jobs, and the wider picture of employment, crews and business work is in Businesses & Jobs.

Not ready to commit? Being unemployed still pays a small welfare trickle as a safety net — but it’s well below any real job’s rate, so it’s a floor, not a living.

Getting on the Road

Owning and driving legally is a two-step process, and Sam nudges you through the start of it:

1. Pass your driving theory. Head to the Driving School, apply for a Driving Licence, pay the sitting fee and sit a multiple-choice theory test. Passing issues a provisional licence.
2. Take the car practical. Book the car test at the same school. An examiner rides along while you drive an authored route, watching for faults. Pass, and your provisional is upgraded to a full licence with the car endorsement.

Only the car test is available right now; motorcycle and truck tests are coming later. With a licence in hand you can buy a vehicle from a dealership and store it in a garage — see Buying a Vehicle and Garages, Storage & Impound. The licence itself, points and renewals are covered in Identity, Licences & ID Cards.

Money, and Your Fresh Start

You start with a little cash in your pocket and a larger “welcome” balance already in the bank. Manage it all from the Banking app on your phone or tablet, or in person at any ATM or bank branch — the full guide is Money & Banking.

Two things worth knowing early. First, your earnings taper over a day: the first slice of money you make each day pays full rate, and grinding past that pays a little less but never stops. Second — and this is the good part — new characters get a boosted “Fresh Start” window for roughly your first week, so early earning is more generous than it’ll be later. Make the most of it.

Keep an eye on the Bills section of your banking app too. Rent, fines and finance payments all land there, and ignoring them has real consequences down the line — see Bills, Fines & Debt.

Where to Go Next

Once you’ve got a job, a room and some wheels, you’re a proper resident. From here, the city is yours to explore:

• Learn the Controls & Interface — the HUD, radial menu and 3rd-eye targeting you’ll use constantly.
• Sort out Hunger, Thirst & Stress and Health, Injuries & First Aid so the basics don’t catch you out.
• Start building Skills & Progression — almost everything you do levels something up.
• Or, if you’d rather take the other road, read up on Crime & Consequences before you do anything you can’t take back.