Wanted level and heat

Only civilians carry stars; officers, medics and firefighters never do.

Stars

1 to 3 stars: you’re a Suspect, shown in yellow. An officer can only write you a ticket.
4 to 6 stars: you’re a Criminal, shown in orange. An officer can arrest you, or kill you for a takedown.

What you did	Stars	Shown as
A shop hold-up, noticed	1	Robbery
A shop hold-up that took nothing, noticed	1	Attempted Robbery
An ATM	2	Robbery
Holding up a pedestrian	2	Robbery
Pickpocketing, when they notice and the call gets through	1	Robbery
Shaking down a dealer who pays / who refuses	4 / 2	Robbery
Robbing a player with an officer within 60 m	5 (4 if you took nothing)	Robbery
Killing a player	4, or 5 with an officer nearby	Murder
Driving off in a police or emergency vehicle	2	Theft
Aiming at an officer within 60 m on foot	2	Domestic Violence
Firing a gun, with no stars, where an officer can see	2	Disturbing The Peace
Ignoring a megaphone stop order	1	Evading Police
Pulling away from a search, or failing to break cuffs	1	Escape
Not paying a ticket within 30 seconds	4	Unpaid Ticket
Three reported incidents in an hour	1	Disturbing The Peace

Reports. When somebody phones a crime in, or an officer sees it, it’s worth one more star, never past 6.

The red circle: your crime scene

Every crime that gives stars drops a circle where you were seen. Inside it your stars never drop. A mask halves its size; a new crime close to it joins it, moves it to where you just were and grows it; you never have more than three. A circle closes after 10 minutes with no new crime in it, and they all go when your stars reach zero.

Crime	Circle	Masked
Robbery (shops, stick-ups)	250 m	125 m
A bank	400 m	200 m
An ATM	150 m	75 m
Murder, Disturbing The Peace	300 m	150 m
Theft, Domestic Violence, Escape	150 m	75 m
Evading Police	200 m	100 m
Unpaid Ticket	100 m	50 m

The police only see a circle once it’s been reported.

How stars fade

Stars drop one at a time, and only while all of these are true:

you’re outside all your circles and not in a chase;
you’re not masked in the open (on foot, on a bike, or in a car with the roof down);
no officer has had you in sight for 2 minutes;
no officer is near you: 120 m by day, 80 m at night, 50 m more for one in the air.

Stars now	Time to drop one, near your circle
6	6 min 48 s
5	5 min 40 s
4	4 min 32 s
3	3 min 24 s
2	2 min 16 s
1	1 min 8 s

Distance shortens it: right beside your nearest circle it runs at full time, and far from it, or with no circle left, at half time. F1 (or Z) shows a heat bar: green LOWERING, or red HOLDING with the reason.

Witnesses

Passers-by nearby may phone it in, less often if you’re masked. The call takes 12 seconds; aim at them or shoot them and it never gets through. Driving away doesn’t hang up their phone. Somebody on the phone shows as a red dot on the map to robbers and wanted players only (“Witness on the phone”), with a red marker over their head when you’re near and a countdown once you’re close.
The clerk phones once every gun is off him and the robbers have left, if nobody else did. Aiming at him doesn’t stop a call already running; shooting him, killing him, gassing the building or a blast near him does.
Customers may call after a hold-up: 45% if they saw your face, 30% if you were masked. The ones who ran out call a quarter of the time, and you can’t reach them. Regulars of the shop are likelier to call. After a bank or jeweller job every customer calls, masked or not.
Gas stops a call already running, refuses new ones, and nobody who is down in it can call; the customers’ calls die with the clerk’s.

Being named

The police get your name, and your blip and nametag show your stars, when you commit a crime unmasked, an officer has you in sight, a camera sees your bare face, a customer who saw your face phones it in, a plate reader reads a car reported at your scene, or an officer takes statements at the shop and somebody saw your face. Masked with nobody watching, they know a crime happened, and what you drove, but not who you are. Once you’re named at 4 stars or more, a report puts your name in the news. A statement from a room that only saw a mask gives the officer a description of the mask, not a name; and a robbery done masked, or in a building gassed so nobody saw, leaves nothing to take a statement about.

Masks

Tap Right Alt to put your mask on or take it off; hold it for a wheel of every mask you carry. Your nametag reads Masked. Any mask that covers the face counts, Ammu-Nation’s gas masks included: it always stocks the plain Gas Mask and rotates the rest (a rebreather, a gray gas mask, visor respirators, the Cerberus mask). The masks you can find include a balaclava, a scruffy and a loose blue mask, a bandit knit, a knit balaclava in many colours, two tape looks, two bandanas, a ski mask and a stocking mask. The wheel opens when you hold Right Alt, and lists every mask you carry, the mask you own as clothing, and a bare face. Balaclavas turn up in parked cars, in dumpsters and off gang members; no shop sells them. The clothing store won’t sell you a mask, and won’t change your mask slot while you wear a mask item (take it off first). Wanted and masked outside your own circle, a passer-by nearby may phone you in now and then.

Cameras

A camera sees a short way ahead, and only watches during a robbery or while you’re wanted. Then every camera nearby wears a marker: yellow, red when it has you, grey when shot out. The screen reads “ON CAMERA” with how many cameras have you. Your bare face names you; masked, it only gives a description. Shooting a camera out is a gunshot indoors, which sets off the alarm unless your gun is suppressed.

Chases

A chase starts when an officer takes visual contact. You see “PURSUIT” and how many officers are on you, then “out of sight” with the seconds left to lose them. Losing and regaining contact show as on-screen alerts for both sides. After a few minutes dispatch keeps announcing your street, with the officers on you and your car. When the last officer loses sight of you, a clock runs, 20 seconds at 1 star up to 90 at 6: a helicopter halves its speed, hiding indoors with no officer around doubles it, switching cars out of sight takes 10 seconds off, and a shot near a chasing officer restarts it. Five officers on you at once puts an all-points bulletin (APB) on you.

Shaking them isn’t a clean escape. When every officer has lost you, they lose your live blip and keep a faded ghost where they last had you, in your blip’s colour (what the officers see is on Police), for a few minutes, less the more stars you have. Anything that finds you again ends it early; when it runs out, dispatch announces a fresh sighting and your blip returns. You see the same clock.

Incidents and strikes

Speeding past a camera, driving against traffic, carrying a gun openly for 10 seconds in someone’s sight and shoplifting give no stars: they leave an orange 100 m circle for 5 minutes. One that’s reported is a strike, and three strikes in an hour give you a star. Strikes survive a relog.

Against traffic: driving on the wrong side at speed for a few seconds, then a passer-by may phone it in. Only a call that gets through counts.
Carrying a gun openly: on foot, outdoors, in somebody’s sight. A passer-by may reach for the phone. Melee weapons, the stun gun and tools don’t count.

Tips

Mask on before the door, off once you’re clear and out of sight.
Leave the circle: distance is what speeds the fade.
A closed car hides your mask from the fade, but not from being identified.