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GTA V Codex · Weapon

RPG

GTA V's standard rocket-propelled grenade launcher — the franchise's enduring anti-vehicle weapon, available at Ammu-Nation late-tier and central to V's chaos-play register and most of GTA Online's vehicular dogfights.

First seen · September 17, 2013Confidence · confirmedStatus · skeleton

Skeleton entryQualitative description only — specific stats, locations, and customization paths are added when verifiable against community-measurement archives or Rockstar Newswire posts.

RPG

The RPG is Grand Theft Auto V's rocket-propelled grenade launcher — the heavy-class shoulder-fired explosive weapon that has been a recurring entry in mainline GTA since at least GTA III (2001). In V it sits in the heavy-weapons tier at Ammu-Nation, available to the player as a late-acquisition purchase, and it's one of the two or three weapons most associated with the franchise's chaos-play register (the other being explosives like the Grenade Launcher and, in Online, the Homing Launcher and Rocket-class vehicle armaments).

What's confirmed

  • Class: Heavy / explosive (shoulder-fired rocket launcher)
  • Game: Grand Theft Auto V (2013 original, 2014 PS4/Xbox One re-release, 2022 PS5/Xbox Series X|S "Expanded and Enhanced") and GTA Online
  • Primary use case: Anti-vehicle (cars, helicopters, light aircraft) and area-denial / building-destruction
  • Acquisition path: Available at Ammu-Nation as a heavy-tier purchase
  • Franchise lineage: RPG-class weapons appear across most mainline modern GTAs (III, Vice City, San Andreas, IV, V) — V's RPG is the modern-engine iteration

What this entry doesn't yet include

Deferred until verifiable:

  • Exact damage radius / damage values (community measurements vary by patch)
  • Max ammo capacity / reload speed
  • Specific Ammu-Nation price tier and unlock progression
  • Specific mission appearances (the RPG appears across many V missions and Online activities; specific catalog deferred)
  • Variants in GTA Online (Homing Launcher, Up-n-Atomizer, Compact Grenade Launcher, etc. are sibling heavy weapons — each is its own catalog candidate)
  • Comparison to the Grenade Launcher and other heavy explosives in V's catalog

Why it's catalog-worthy

The RPG is the V weapon that most often appears in the franchise's most-shared moments — the chaotic free-roam clips, the helicopter-takedown highlights, the "this is why GTA exists" sequences. Recognition value is universal across V's player base. Even players who never touched it know the silhouette of an RPG-toting NPC.

For mission utility specifically, the RPG is the explicit answer to V's helicopter-pursuit scenarios: when the player is being pursued by police air support, the RPG is the legible tool the game's combat system points to. Whether GTA VI iterates this scenario forward — given the Leonida hurricane and storm-as-cinematography register — is a question worth tracking.

What's connected

  • Sticky Bombs — V's other most-recognizable explosive, focused on utility rather than damage
  • Trevor Philips — Trevor's combat register makes him V's most natural RPG operator narratively

Sources

  • Grand Theft Auto V (2013) — base game, primary source for V's RPG
  • Rockstar Newswire archive — V launch context and Online updates
  • Mainline GTA franchise weapon history — used to anchor the RPG's lineage across III / Vice City / San Andreas / IV / V

Skeleton entry. Specific damage stats, price tier, ammo capacity, and mission-by-mission appearances land when sourced.