How to take cover in GTA 5 (consoles and PC)

One of the hallmarks of games out in the 2010s (especially third-person shooters) is the ability to take cover, and Grand Theft Auto V is no exception. When gunfire is coming in your direction, it’s important to keep your head down, and this is how you do it.

In order to take cover, you need to have a wall or obstacle that’s solid and of meaningful size. So, you can take cover behind a car or a crate, but not, say, a cardboard box that is barely taller than your ankle. If you’re not sure, you can simply press the cover button to test it, and your character will either stick to it or they won’t.

Simply approach a reasonably sized solid object, face it, and then hit the cover button. These are the default buttons depending on your platform:

• PC: Q
• PlayStation: R1
• Xbox: RB

Provided it’s valid cover, your character should stick their back to it, whether crouching or standing. You can then move left or fight freely. To exit cover, just hit the cover button again, and your character will return to moving freely.

How to attack from cover in GTA 5

If you want to fire from cover in GTA 5, you have two options. The first is to blind fire, which means your character will shoot from behind cover while not looking. You do this simply by pressing the fire button. This is extremely inaccurate, but your character will not leave cover. They will remain safe, from incoming gunfire, but you might waste a lot of ammo trying to hit anything.

If you want to fire more accurately, you can just press the aim button before firing. Your character will remain stuck to the cover, but they’ll pop out enough so that they can see what they’re shooting at. This means that enemies may be able to hit you easily, but inversely, you can hit them.

Effectively, you should use both methods depending on your situation. Blind firing might force an opponent to take cover and stop shooting at you, which will allow you to reposition and take aim safely. However, blind firing will rarely result in a kill, so eventually you’ll need to step out of cover.