Combat Guide, Kind Of
I have been playing GTA Online since 2014 and have a great deal of experience when it comes to combat. I very rarely ever end up with more deaths by the enemy than kills on them. I have found that GTA Online PVP requires little raw skill and mostly only requires that you be the smartest in the session. As a disclaimer, a lot of my strategies require that you have the vehicles, weapons, or properties to do as I do.
I don't know how exactly to start this without making it just a list so I will discuss what I do in no particular order. First off, probably my most common strat that I use is shooting jets down with an explosive sniper. This may seem obvious and you may think people do this a lot already but they don't. I rarely see others shooting down jets or shooting at my jets with explosive rounds and most people I have encountered that snipe use normal rounds on their Heavy Sniper. I have taken down countless jets with explosive rounds and anyone that needs to counter a jet should use them. When sniping a jet that is trying to kill you, you want to make sure you are by something like a building that you can run around each time the jet tries to strafe you otherwise the jet will probably kill you if you keep missing.
Everyone has problems with people on the Oppressor MK. II. What I have found to be the most effective way to kill people on Oppressors is to use another Oppressor with a chaff. Almost everyone puts flares on their Oppressor because they don't know what the chaff does or don't know how to use it properly; this is a huge mistake on their part as this is the main reason I win about 80-90% of Oppressor fights. The chaff if activated before the enemy locks onto you prevents anyone from locking onto you for a few seconds. Every time I encounter an Oppressor that I am fighting that uses flares, my barrage of missile spamming always gets past their flares. Almost all Oppressor fights that I lose is by an Oppressor that also uses the chaff. You should also activate your chaff when passing any aircraft or people on the ground even when you don't want to fight. And regarding my use of the Oppressor MK. II, I do not use it against civilian vehicles. If I am on an Oppressor and want to kill someone on the ground or in a civilian vehicle, I get off the Oppressor, usually on a roof and use whatever is in my weapon wheel to kill them, usually my explosive sniper.
The Akula is one of the best aircraft in the game because of its off the radar ability and as long as you aren't an idiot, it is a very effective vehicle to use against other helicopters, Oppressors, and ground vehicles. Although the Akula can go off the radar, don't expect to just be able to sneak up on anybody and win the fight. The Akula still sounds like a helicopter and has flashing lights even when in stealth mode. A lot of the time, I can hear when an Akula is approaching or predict when someone is in an Akula. Because of this I can quickly prepare to fight the Akula with of course, my jet killing explosive sniper rifle. If I don't manage to kill the Akula, usually they just run away and I can still see the flashing lights of the Akula from far away and chase it down. This is why when I'm in an Akula, I fly low between buildings if I'm going to engage someone. You must also have patience when using an Akula. Just going straight into a fight with other vehicles that can lock onto you can easily end up with you in defeat. Always look at the mini-map and strike when you can get them from behind and fly off inbetween buildings again afterwards if you must escape.
Besides using vehicles that shoot missiles and lock onto stuff, there are also very tanky vehicles that while providing little to no offensive value, can provide great defense when used correctly and win you fights. The MOC cab is great vehicle and is near unstoppable if used well. It can take something like 20 missiles before it kicks you out and doesn't even blow up, so Oppressors shooting at you will usually either run out of missiles, end up blowing themselves up, or just give up before they can kill you. It is also very effective against people on foot as you can shoot at them with the back of the MOC cab facing them so it's impossible for them to shoot you and extremely hard to blow you up. You can also just run people over as it's very fast for a semi-truck and is a great drifting vehicle if you have the smaller cab.
The Avenger is also a great vehicle to use solo if you want to mess with people or a deadly beast if you have someone else to man the turrets on it. If solo, the fun thing to do with the Avenger is try to swat Oppressors out of the sky with its rotor blades. If they start firing missiles at you, just evade them the same way you evade missiles if in a jet. I also like to swat people on the ground, usually in the mountains with the Avenger's blades. It's just so fun. If you want to cause serious damage, get someone to man the turrets and you will be a flying tank. You will easily take down anyone on the ground or sky and even jets will be easy to destroy if you keep steady enough for the gunner and far away enough that the jet can't hit you with its cannons.
The RC Tank is an effective weapon against people in armored vehicles and even godmode vehicles. Due to its high rate of fire, defense, and being off the radar, if someone is in a vehicle that you can't blow up or easily shoot someone out off, you can use an RC tank to try to shoot them out with little or no risk of them getting a kill on you. If your RC tank is about to be destroyed, just exit it and you will spawn where you deployed it. The RC tank is my best weapon against people in godmode vehicles and I've killed many cheaters with it. I almost never use actual tanks since any vehicle with lock-on missiles can easily destroy any tank.
Another great tanky vehicle is the Fully Loaded Ruiner 2000. This vehicle can take maybe 10-20 missiles before it blows up. Its jump ability is also useful during combat as you can jump and point your car towards someone in a higher or lower area and fire a missile at them. If however you are fighting a Fully Loaded Ruiner 2000, my strategy is to get somewhere high, pretty high as to there being no chance it can jump to you or accurately fire missiles at you then use a minigun to shoot out the driver.
If you are fighting someone, you must always be looking at the map and look out for whenever their blip disappears. If no notification pops up within a few seconds saying they went off the radar or ghost org, it means they either entered an RC vehicle or used a Lester warp, most likely to their facility to possibly use the orbital cannon on you. Due to this, my mind has been trained as to make me instinctually open the map and check the facilities every time I see a blip disappear. If someone did warp to their facility, you want to get somewhere safe as quickly as possible. The safest place is an interior like an apartment or business. Preferably you will also have a Lester warp to either your apartment or facility in case you are in this situation. If you can't get to an interior, hide under something like a bridge or parking garage as I believe these could keep you safe from an orbital strike.
Some miscellaneous strategies, tactics, and shenanigans I do. For close combat and against unarmored vehicles, I use the pump-action shotgun with explosive slugs. If an oppressor is chasing you in a vehicle they can't lock onto, try to throw sticky bombs at them and detonate them in the air. You can also do this to helicopters. To troll someone that's after you in aircraft, go to your yacht and turn yacht defenses on. If they're dumb enough, they'll get blown out of the sky when they approach your yacht. If you are in your arcade and someone is waiting outside to attack you, use a drone and blow them up with it.
Post-publication strategies as of The Criminal Enterprises: Using a remote control personal vehicle is very effective at killing with almost no risk. You don't appear on the radar when using it and if the car gets destroyed, it doesn't count as a kill on you unlike the RC tank. It is excellent for revenge. Wait 5-10 minutes after someone kills you to let your heat die down then use the remote control personal vehicle to wait near them or outside one of their properties and when the time is right, run them over and detonate the car. If they are occupied with combat with another player, this is also a good opportunity to attack. It is also hilarious when people shoot at the front window trying to kill the driver but there isn't one.
Written 2021-6-24 Published 2021-8-1 Updated 2022-10-1