What Happens If You Remove All Water From GTA 5?

TL;DR

Removing all water from GTA 5 breaks missions in ways the game never anticipated: drowning still triggers in areas where the water used to be, splash effects still appear on impact, and golf water hazards suddenly show water again. Despite this, missions like I Fought the Law, Eye in the Sky, Caida Libre, Minor Turbulence and the Paleto Score setup all remain completable. Bridges also stay in place even with nothing to cross.

Transcript

Can you complete GTA 5 when all water is removed from the game? It turns out it's actually quite difficult No! But despite these difficulties, thus far we've managed to get through half of the game, although I can assure you the most difficult parts of this challenge are still to come Can I beat I Fought the Law without water? Does supremacy over ... Read More

Key Insights

• Removing water from GTA 5 does not remove drowning. During triathlon 2 the runner and nearby NPCs still take drowning damage and die in areas where water was deleted, showing the drowning effect is handled separately from the water itself.
• Splash effects persist without water. During Minor Turbulence the plane and vehicles still produce the spray effect on impact with the empty seabed, which the runner identifies as a remnant left behind by the mod rather than actual water.
• Bridges in GTA 5 are not tied to water existing. The runner predicts the bridge at the end of I Fought the Law might not spawn without a river below it, but it appears anyway and the mission completes normally.
• Cars can survive falls of any height in GTA 5 as long as they do not hit water. The runner explains this is why driving the car out of the plane in Minor Turbulence normally kills you: the water is unavoidable, not the fall itself.
• The Minor Turbulence crosshair is misaligned. The runner notes the gun is not pointed where the crosshair indicates, calling it an oversight on Rockstar's part rather than a consequence of the no-water mod.
• Golf breaks the no-water rule entirely. When the runner plays a round, water appears in the water feature hazards despite the mod, and after going 4 over par he treats the course as having technical issues.
• The Paleto Score setup normally has an enemy hiding in water. With the water gone that character simply walks around on the ground and then runs, and the scouting section still completes without issue.
• A seashark race cannot work under this challenge. The runner states plainly that the race requires the sea, making it one of the activities the no-water mod makes impossible rather than merely awkward.

Questions & Answers

Q: Can you beat GTA 5 with all water removed?

Roughly half the game is completed by this point in the run, and every story mission attempted here finishes successfully, including I Fought the Law, Eye in the Sky, Caida Libre, Minor Turbulence and the Paleto Score setup. The runner states directly that despite the difficulties, the hardest parts of the challenge are still to come. So the answer so far is yes for the missions shown, with the outcome of the full run still undecided.

Q: Why do you still drown in GTA 5 when the water is removed?

The water is removed visually and physically, but the drowning effect remains active in those regions. During triathlon 2 the runner is running on the empty seabed and starts drowning anyway, and nearby NPCs drown too. He describes it as drowning in the illusion of water and says the mod removed the water but not the effect of drowning, adding that he will ask the mod creators to look at it and retry the section later.

Q: Does the bridge still appear in I Fought the Law without water?

Yes. The runner raises the possibility that the bridge at the end of the mission might not exist, reasoning that with no water there would be no reason for a bridge, and predicts a potential mission fail. When he reaches that point the bridge is still there and the mission proceeds normally, so the bridge geometry is not conditional on the presence of water underneath it.

Q: What happens if you drive a car out of the plane in Minor Turbulence with no water?

Normally the car hits water and the player dies. The runner explains that cars in GTA 5 can technically survive falling from any height as long as they do not hit water, and that the only reason this normally kills you is that hitting the water is unavoidable. With the water removed he takes the car out of the plane, struggles to stabilize, and survives the landing.

Q: What happens to golf water hazards in GTA 5 when water is removed?

Water appears in them anyway. A chat viewer asks what happens if a golf ball goes into a water pit, so the runner plays a round and finds the water feature still rendering water despite the no-water mod. He calls it broken and jokes about demanding a refund, and after finishing 4 over par he concludes the golf course is having technical issues and leaves.

Q: How does the Paleto Score setup change without water?

One of the targets in that section normally hides out in the water. With the water gone, the runner watches to see where the character will be and finds him simply walking around on the ground before running away. The runner still completes the scouting section without water, and notes the challenge continues through the following section as well.

Q: Can you do a seashark race in the no water challenge?

No. The runner is asked about it by chat and says he can guarantee a seashark race would not work, because the thing about a seashark race is that it requires the sea. It is treated as one of the activities the mod makes outright impossible, unlike missions that merely behave strangely or rely on leftover effects such as splash spray and drowning damage.

Q: Do vehicles still work in GTA 5 without water for engine cooling?

Yes. Responding to a chat comment that some engines require water to cool down, the runner says the engines in GTA 5 do not require that, joking that Rockstar invented waterless engines and should sell them in real life. Vehicles drive normally throughout the run, including a car chase in police vehicles and driving across the drained seabed, though the seabed route turns out to be much slower than the roads.

Q: What visual details change in GTA 5 when water is removed?

Rain still stops exactly where the water surface used to be, leaving a visible cutoff line. The drained areas are dark underwater and contain hazards other than water itself, which the runner points out while flying a helicopter along the seabed. Splash spray still plays on impact in some zones, and the run also gives an unobstructed view of underwater scenery that is not normally visible during normal play.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• The challenge is to complete GTA 5's story with all water removed from the game via a mod. By this point roughly half the game is done, though the runner warns that the most difficult parts of the challenge are still ahead. Missions covered here include I Fought the Law, Eye in the Sky, Caida Libre, Minor Turbulence and the Paleto Score setup.

• The water removal is not complete at the code level. In several places the game still applies drowning damage and still renders splash spray where water used to be, killing the player and NPCs in what looks like open air. The runner notes these leftover effects and says he will ask the mod creators to look at them and retry those sections later.

• Some game systems survive the change untouched. Vehicle engines keep running without water cooling, bridges still spawn at the end of I Fought the Law even with no river beneath, and rain still stops exactly at the old water line. Golf, however, renders water back into the hazards, and a seashark race is written off as impossible since it needs the sea.