The elusive sixth wanted star. All Grand Theft Auto games have had six stars in the past, however, regardless of how much mayhem they caused, players of Grand Theft Auto V have only ever achieved five. Naturally, the fans were not satisfied by this. The sixth star has to be in the game, and the players have to find it.
The mystery of the sixth star is much like that of the ninth chevron in StarGate. While GTA can be crazy enough with easter eggs to send players to another universe, that outcome is doubtful. However, the discovery of the sixth star, much like the study of the ninth chevron, required unorthodox means. In the end, it wasn't an impressive show of criminal genius that angered the authorities enough to send six stars worth of law enforcement after a player. Rather, it was more tech-savvy players digging around in the game's code.
This following piece of code is what triggers the five star wanted level, is activated in 261 instances.
"PLAYER::SET_MAX_WANTED_LEVEL(5);"
However, there are also instances of the same line with a 6 in place of a 5.
"PLAYER::SET_MAX_WANTED_LEVEL(6);"
This occurs 58 time in the code, meaning that there are indeed ways to trigger this wanted level. But how? In previous games, the sixth wanted level usually brought with it the involvement of the military, sending tanks and other heavy weaponry against the player. With the fifth wanted level in GTA V only sending a posse of FIB after the player, it can be assumed that there is indeed a military-laden sixth level.
To find out what the sixth star summons against the mischievous player, Reddit user ClicheUsername, made use of the cheat engine to buff up their wanted level to six, and recorded the results, which are... underwhelming to say the least.
Did the use of the cheat engine alter the results? Were there originally six wanted levels, but reduced to five by time of release with a stray bit of code left in? What do you guys think?
