The Complete Edition bundles Grand Theft Auto IV with both episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, into one Steam entry. The March 2020 update stripped out Games for Windows Live and the original multiplayer, added Steam achievements and moved DRM onto the Rockstar Games Launcher. Three campaigns overlap in the same Liberty City: Niko Bellic's 88 missions, Johnny Klebitz's 22 and Luis Lopez's 26, and all three converge on the same diamond deal from different sides.
Starting Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition can feel overwhelming. This guide tells you exactly what to focus on during your first hours so you don't waste time on things that don't matter yet. For the full progression path, see our walkthrough.
What Kind of Game Is This?
Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition is a action game built around Euphoria ragdoll physics and Friend like percentage and favours. The core loop involves mastering these systems to progress through increasingly challenging content.
What to expect: Time investment in learning mechanics, experimentation, and gradual mastery. The game rewards patience and knowledge.
Choosing Your First Role
| Role | Beginner Rating | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Niko Bellic | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Johnny Klebitz | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Luis Lopez | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| The Lost MC gang wars | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
| Drug wars and club management | Excellent for beginners | Balanced approach |
Our recommendation: Start with Johnny Klebitz. It offers the most forgiving experience while teaching core mechanics.
Avoid Drug wars and club management as your first pick. It requires deep knowledge of game systems to use effectively. Once you're ready, check our classes guide for all options.
First Session Step-by-Step
Step 1: Learn Euphoria ragdoll physics
The RAGE engine runs Rockstar's Euphoria physics package, so pedestrians and Niko react to hits procedurally rather than playing a fixed animation. It is why no two motorcycle crashes look the same and why the driving feels weighted compared with later entries in the series.
This is the foundation. Spend your first 15-30 minutes getting comfortable with how Euphoria ragdoll physics works before worrying about anything else. Our combat guide breaks this down further.
Step 2: Head to Broker
Where Niko arrives and where Roman's apartment and taxi depot sit, modelled on Brooklyn. The early missions rarely leave it, so it is where you learn the driving model and the cover system.
Clear the main content here before moving on. Everything teaches fundamentals you'll need later. See our maps guide for all locations.
Step 3: Get Your First Upgrade
Look for Carbine Rifle: it's the most accessible early upgrade. The M4 style rifle and the best all purpose weapon in Niko's campaign, accurate enough for headshots at range and controllable in bursts. Little Jacob sells it at a discount once his friendship is high enough.
Step 4: Understand Friend like percentage and favours
Roman, Little Jacob, Brucie, Packie, Dwayne and each girlfriend track a like percentage that rises when you take them out and falls when you ignore their calls. Push one high enough and it unlocks a favour: Little Jacob delivers cheap weapons to your car, Packie builds car bombs, Dwayne sends backup, Kiki clears your wanted level and Carmen boosts your health.
This is the system most new players overlook. Invest time here early. It pays off throughout the entire game.
Step 5: Push to Dukes
The Queens equivalent, connected to Broker and holding Francis International Airport at its edge. Wide roads make it the easiest borough to lose police in during the early game.
Essential Mechanics Explained
Euphoria ragdoll physics
The RAGE engine runs Rockstar's Euphoria physics package, so pedestrians and Niko react to hits procedurally rather than playing a fixed animation. It is why no two motorcycle crashes look the same and why the driving feels weighted compared with later entries in the series.
Friend like percentage and favours
Roman, Little Jacob, Brucie, Packie, Dwayne and each girlfriend track a like percentage that rises when you take them out and falls when you ignore their calls. Push one high enough and it unlocks a favour: Little Jacob delivers cheap weapons to your car, Packie builds car bombs, Dwayne sends backup, Kiki clears your wanted level and Carmen boosts your health.
Branching story choices
Several missions ask you to kill a character or spare them, with no indication of which pays better, and the finale splits between Deal and Revenge. Both endings cost you someone close to Niko, which is the point rather than a bug in the design.
Cover shooting and free aim
Cover is contextual, taken by pressing against geometry rather than entering a stance, and the default aiming snaps onto targets. Free aim removes the snap and is the only reliable way to land headshots, which matters because enemies absorb several body shots.
Wanted level search circle
Police search inside a circle drawn on the minimap that grows with each star, and individual officer view cones show where they are actually looking. Breaking line of sight and leaving the circle drops the stars, which is why alleys, subway tunnels and underpasses beat trying to outrun a helicopter.
Common Beginner Mistakes
1. Leaving auto aim on for the whole campaign, then complaining that enemies are bullet sponges when the game is simply aiming at their chest
2. Ignoring friend calls, which locks out Little Jacob's discounted weapons, Packie's car bombs and Kiki's wanted level removal for most of the story
3. Trying to outrun police in a straight line rather than breaking line of sight and slipping out of the search circle
4. Starting an episode before finishing Niko's story, which spoils the diamond deal crossover and drains the intended payoff
5. Skipping body armour before shootout missions and then losing thirty minutes of progress to a checkpoint restart
First 5 Hours Checklist
- Understand Euphoria ragdoll physics and Friend like percentage and favours
- Choose Johnny Klebitz as starting role
- Clear Broker main content
- Acquire Carbine Rifle or equivalent upgrade
- Reach Dukes
- Turn on free aim in the settings before the third mission. Auto aim locks onto the torso and most enemies take four or five body shots, whereas a free aimed headshot ends the fight immediately and saves the ammunition you would otherwise run dry on.
- Answer friend calls during the first act rather than treating them as a chore. Little Jacob at high friendship delivers weapons to your car at a discount, Packie makes car bombs, Kiki Jenkins clears wanted levels by phone and Carmen Ortiz restores health, and all four save real time later.
Tips for New Players
- Turn on free aim in the settings before the third mission. Auto aim locks onto the torso and most enemies take four or five body shots, whereas a free aimed headshot ends the fight immediately and saves the ammunition you would otherwise run dry on.
- Answer friend calls during the first act rather than treating them as a chore. Little Jacob at high friendship delivers weapons to your car at a discount, Packie makes car bombs, Kiki Jenkins clears wanted levels by phone and Carmen Ortiz restores health, and all four save real time later.
- Escape police by breaking line of sight and then leaving the search circle. The circle on the minimap is where they are looking, not where they are, so ducking into an alley and driving out the far side works far better than a high speed chase down an avenue.
- Buy body armour before every mission you expect to be a shootout. Armour absorbs damage before health does and there is no regeneration beyond a slow crawl, so arriving without it is the most common reason a mission has to be replayed.
- Use the subway when you have three stars or more in Algonquin. Helicopters cannot follow you underground and the tunnels move you across the borough while the search circle stays where you entered.
- Park a car you like in the marked space outside a safehouse. It persists between sessions, which matters because there is no vehicle spawning cheat progression and hunting for a decent car before every mission wastes minutes each time.
- Collect the 200 Flying Rats while driving between story missions rather than in dedicated runs. They sit on rooftops, under bridges and on piers throughout all five boroughs, and a sniper rifle lets you take most of them from street level.
- Play the episodes after finishing Niko's story. The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony both show events from Grand Theft Auto IV from other angles, including the diamond deal, and those scenes only pay off if you have already seen Niko's version.
- In The Lost and Damned, ride in formation with your gang between objectives. Staying in the group restores Johnny's health, which is the only healing available on the move and matters a great deal during long gang war chains.
- In The Ballad of Gay Tony, attach a sticky bomb to a target vehicle before the mission triggers the chase. It converts several long pursuit missions into a single detonation and it is the fastest route to the gold medal scoring on those missions.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does The Complete Edition include?
Grand Theft Auto IV plus both episodes, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony, in one purchase. That is 88 story missions for Niko, 22 for Johnny and 26 for Luis, all set in the same Liberty City.
Is multiplayer still playable?
No. The March 2020 update removed Games for Windows Live and the original online multiplayer along with it. The same update added Steam achievements and moved copy protection to the Rockstar Games Launcher, which the game now requires.
Why are some radio stations missing?
Music licences expire. RamJam FM, Self-Actualization FM and Vice City FM were removed from the Complete Edition, and a batch of licensed tracks was pulled from Vladivostok FM in 2018 before most of them were restored in 2019.
Do the three stories connect?
Yes. All three protagonists are present at the same diamond deal, and several missions show the same event from a different side. Playing Niko's story first makes the episode crossovers land, since they assume you already know what happened.
Which borough should I explore first?
Broker, since it is where Niko starts and where the bridges keep you until the story opens the rest of the map. Dukes follows, then Bohan, Algonquin and finally Alderney, which is roughly the order the campaign unlocks them anyway.
More Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Guides
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Overview
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Best Builds
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Tier List
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Walkthrough
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Tips & Tricks
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Weapons Guide
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Combat Guide
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Boss Guide
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Maps & Locations
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Crafting Guide
- Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition Classes & Characters
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