When you become a criminal
A civilian explores the city safely: no loot is lost on death and healing is free. The moment you put the mask on, you are a criminal: everyone treats you as an enemy and whatever you steal has to leave the city. The status lasts until you drive out — taking the mask off does not help.
Every police officer is a real player. One will chase you across the map, another will take a bribe, a third will shoot first. Plan for the worst of the three.
Wanted level
| What happens | Effect |
|---|---|
| You kill a civilian NPC | +1 wanted point |
| Three points | “Most wanted” status: your position is visible to everyone in the city |
| You hold the clerk at gunpoint | The clerk does not trigger the alarm |
| You kill the clerk | No alarm from him, but the wanted level grows faster |
The scale is short on purpose: three careless kills and the robbery turns into a hunt. Quiet play is not about style, it is about staying invisible.
Alarms and fuse boxes
An alarm puts a marker on the police map. It can be prevented in two ways: keep the staff at gunpoint, or switch the alarm off at the fuse box outside the building before you go in. There are 19 fuse boxes in the city, and each is marked on the Looty Bay map (group “Services & exits”).
The big heists cannot be done quietly: breaching the bank vault, the police arsenal, the gallery exhibit or the show car sends an alert to the whole city. For those, the escape route matters more than stealth.
Getting out: two bridges
There are two ways out of Looty Bay: the west exit in Sunny Beach and the east exit in Downtown. You leave the city — and stop being a criminal — when you reach the dotted exit zone on the bridge.
- Before the robbery, decide which bridge is closer and drive the route once as a civilian.
- No car of your own? Take the free rental at any of the 21 parking terminals.
- Park with the hood facing the exit, as close to the door as you can.
- Lock the bag in the trunk — but remember that any trunk can be opened with a lockpick.
- Do not stop to fight on the bridge: police respawn and call backup, you do not.
Caught: surrender, arrest or bribe
| Outcome | Bag | Equipped gear | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| You surrender | Lost | Kept | Raise your hands before you are knocked down |
| You are arrested | Lost | Kept | An officer arrests a player who surrendered or is knocked out |
| The officer takes a bribe | Kept | Kept | Paid from the bank account: 10 000 $ steps, up to 200 000 $ |
| You die as a criminal | Lost | Lost | The worst outcome in the city |
The officer has a reason to arrest rather than kill: an arrest pays him more, and killing someone who has surrendered pays nothing. That makes surrender a real option. A bribe works only if you have laundered money on the account — one more reason not to carry everything in cash.
Other criminals can break up an arrest — and gain notoriety for it. If you play in a group, the one who was not caught should come back, not run.
Things that kill the escape
- Logging out: a criminal dies if he leaves the game. Finish the run first.
- Greed: a second shop with a full bag doubles the time in the city, not the profit.
- The desert: there is no police outside the city, but any death there costs the whole inventory.
- Leaving a foreign settlement: you stay vulnerable longer than usual after you exit.
The full table of what is lost in each case is in the loot-loss guide; how the police side works is in Playing police.