In short
- 100 Hidden Packages in GTA III and Vice City
- Four sets in San Andreas: tags, snapshots, horseshoes and oysters
- 200 pigeons in GTA IV
- Eight story sets and five Online sets in GTA V
Almost every Grand Theft Auto game hides a set of objects around the map and rewards you for finding all of them. The idea started with the Hidden Packages of GTA III and grew into several different sets per game. This guide lists the collectibles in each game, how many there are and what finding them is for. All of them are on the interactive maps, where you can mark what you have found.
GTA III: 100 Hidden Packages
GTA III has 100 Hidden Packages spread across Portland, Staunton Island and Shoreside Vale. Many sit on rooftops, behind buildings or at the end of narrow alleys, and some can only be reached once the bridges between the islands open. Every ten packages add a new weapon at your safe houses, so collecting them early makes the rest of the game easier, and a cash bonus waits at the end.
Vice City: 100 Hidden Packages
Vice City kept the same idea with another 100 Hidden Packages, shaped like small statues. As in GTA III, every ten packages unlock a weapon at your safe houses. Finding all 100 is one of the best-known rewards of the series, because it also unlocks military vehicles at the army base. Vice City also has 35 rampages and 36 unique stunt jumps, which count toward full completion.
San Andreas: four sets of 50 and 100
San Andreas split the collectibles by city. Los Santos has 100 gang tags that you spray over with your own gang's tag. San Fierro has 50 snapshots that you take with the camera. Las Venturas has 50 horseshoes, and the whole state hides 50 oysters underwater. Each set has its own reward: weapons that appear at a safe house in that city, more luck in the casinos for the horseshoes, and better lung capacity and charm for the oysters.
GTA IV: 200 pigeons
GTA IV has 200 pigeons, called flying rats, across Liberty City. You do not pick them up, you shoot them, and the cooing sound helps when one is close. Clearing all 200 unlocks an attack helicopter. The two episodes added their own sets: 50 seagulls in The Lost and Damned and 50 in The Ballad of Gay Tony.
GTA V: the biggest list in the series
GTA V has the most collectibles of any game in the series. Story mode has 50 Spaceship Parts, 50 Letter Scraps, 50 Monkey Mosaics, 30 pieces of Nuclear Waste, 30 Submarine Parts, 27 Peyote Plants, 10 Epsilon Tracts and 11 Hidden Packages. Several of these belong to a side story: the Spaceship Parts are for a man who believes he is in contact with aliens, the Letter Scraps lead to the solution of an old murder, and the Epsilon Tracts are part of the Epsilon Program cult story. Many of the underwater sets need a submarine, which you unlock during the story.
GTA Online has its own sets: 100 Action Figures, 100 LD Organics products, 54 Playing Cards, 50 Signal Jammers and 10 Movie Props. Some of them pay out cash and unlock clothing or other rewards once a set is complete.
Tips for collecting
- Work through one set at a time and turn the other categories off on the map. Thousands of icons at once are harder to follow than fifty.
- In the older games, some collectibles can only be reached after a part of the map opens. Leave those for later instead of looking for a way around.
- For underwater sets in GTA V, a submarine or a diving suit saves a lot of time.
- Save often. Several collectibles sit in places where a single mistake can cost you a long drive back.
How the counts were checked
The numbers in this guide come from the GTADb map data, where every collectible was placed by hand and checked against the community wiki. If something is missing or misplaced, the contact page is the best way to let us know.