Wasted — gta

Wasted is the term used for when a player "dies" or is seriously injured and collapses in a Grand Theft Auto game by losing all of their health. In Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodes, the term "Wasted" is not used, but the same effect takes place.

Causes

There are many ways a protagonist can be wasted. The most common examples include being shot at until the protagonist's health is depleted, being injured in explosions, or drowning. Since Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the player will die if they fall from a great height. In Grand Theft Auto V, stalking another protagonist or attacking them may anger them and they will retaliate by punching (Franklin or Michael) or headbutting (Trevor) the player in the temple, instantly wasting them.

Selected examples

Getting beaten up.
Diving for too long (GTA San Andreas and GTA V).
Standing in water that is too deep (Grand Theft Auto, Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, Grand Theft Auto Advance, and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories).
Being in water for too long (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories).
Sitting in a vehicle which is underwater for too long (GTA San Andreas, GTA Advance, GTA Vice City Stories, GTA IV, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and GTA V).
Explosions from Grenades, RPGs, Satchel Charges, and vehicles.
Being inside a vehicle when it explodes.
Being inside a vehicle when it despawns due to an oversight, such as entering a replay when controlling the stolen AI Police Maverick from the police in GTA San Andreas.
Standing on the railway tracks for too long (GTA and GTA 2).
Getting run over (cars, bikes, trains, etc.).
Starving to death (GTA San Andreas).
Being exposed to fire for too long (running through flames or getting hit by a molotov cocktail).
Getting hit by the blades of a helicopter or plane (GTA Vice City, GTA San Andreas, GTA IV, and GTA V).
Entering the car crusher (GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories).
Venturing too far into the second building of the conveyor belt (GTA 2).
Getting attacked by an animal (GTA V).
A player committing suicide (either by ingesting a lethal pill or self-inflicted gunshot), which results in a "You took the easy way out." message (GTA Online).
Overexertion within a mansion's various exercise activities (GTA Online).

Unique Wasted Screens

Knocked Out

Knocked Out is a unique Wasted screen exclusive to Grand Theft Auto Online in the Sumo Adversary Mode, and the Most Wanted VIP challenge, part of Organizations. Once the player is knocked off the area (Sumo), or is killed by the police (Most Wanted), they will die with a "Knocked Out" text instead of "Wasted".

Obliterated

Obliterated is another unique Wasted screen exclusive to Grand Theft Auto Online, which was added as part of the Doomsday Heist. The Obliterated screen only appears whenever the player is killed by another player using the Orbital Cannon.

Liquid Assets Variants

Multiple unique Wasted variants appear in the Liquid Assets Fooligan Job from the Los Santos Drug Wars update. During this mission, the player experiences an acid trip that includes an army of killer clowns. If these clowns successfully defeat the player, one of seven^[^{ref?ref?may not be the whole list}^] unique Wasted screens may show:

Gone
Blasted
Ripped
Fried
Tripped Out
Melted
Smacked

Effects

Being wasted in the 3D Universe while on a mission will result in immediate mission failure, and the player will respawn at the nearest hospital. They will be stripped of their weapons and be charged $100 ($1,000 in Grand Theft Auto III). There are some exceptions however:

In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, if Carl is dating nurse Katie Zhan, he will be able to keep his weapons upon death. However, this is different in the sixth and seventh-generation console versions, along with the mobile release, as Carl can keep his weapons upon getting wasted even if he does not date Katie Zhan.
In Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the player can keep their weapons by paying a bribe of $2,000 to the hospital staff.
In the mobile versions of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, the player's weapons won't be removed from the player's inventory.

In Grand Theft Auto IV, the player is deducted 10% of their money (up to a maximum of $10,000), but gets to keep their weapons. In Grand Theft Auto V, the player is deducted 5% of their money (up to a maximum of $5,000), but keeps their weapons too. In Grand Theft Auto V, getting wasted on a mission gives the player the option to retry from a certain checkpoint, though some gold medal objectives (such as time or accuracy) will be disabled, preventing 100% completion. If the player declines the option to retry, they will respawn outside the nearest hospital and lose up to $5,000.

In Grand Theft Auto Online, if a player is killed by another player and they are carrying at least $5,000, some of that money will be dropped and can be stolen by other players since the killed player did not yet deposit their money to their Maze Bank account. Furthermore, if the player is killed by cops and their Personal Vehicle is parked nearby, it will be impounded at the LSPD Auto Impound. In whatever manner the player dies, revival costs $500 each time, paid out from their bank account as a 'healthcare and bail' expense.

Gallery

Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto: London

Grand Theft Auto 2

Grand Theft Auto III

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

Grand Theft Auto Advance

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

Grand Theft Auto IV and Episodes from Liberty City

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto Online

Trivia

General

"Wasted" is a term most often used for being highly intoxicated from the use of alcohol or drugs. It is also a slang word for "murdered", which is the reason why this message appears if a player dies in any Grand Theft Auto game (except for Grand Theft Auto IV and its episodes).
The term is known as "You're brown bread" in Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and Grand Theft Auto: London 1961, which is Cockney rhyming slang for "you're dead".
In the Game Boy Color version of Grand Theft Auto 2, the term "Killed" is used rather than "Wasted".
In GTA 2, the special term "toasted" is used to indicate that the player has died due to catching on fire (particularly by the effects of a flamethrower), or "shocking" to indicate that the player has died by electricity – by walking too long on electrified rails, or by being hit by an ElectroGun or ElectroFingers, though no NPC will ever use those weapons against the player. The results are, however, the same as if they were wasted in any other way.
In all GTA games, a pool of blood will most likely appear under the player (with a few exceptions, like the flames in GTA IV; this sometimes does not happen in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).

3D Universe

In Grand Theft Auto III, a lot of alternate death obituaries were originally going to be used instead of the usual "Wasted!" text. These leftovers remain in the game's text files in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories.^[1]
In Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, when the player is wasted during a mission, the word "Wasted!" will still appear on the bottom right, while also displaying Mission Failed! in the middle.
In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, when Carl fails some missions by dying, the "Mission Failed" sign will appear first, and then the word "Wasted" shows up, which is somewhat strange. This also happens in the same way when CJ gets busted.
In Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, sometimes if Carl dies on the streets, random pedestrians will rush over and look at Carl's body, similarly to how they would react when a pedestrian is killed.
The camera angle when dying is the same as when getting busted after the player is killed by any member of law enforcement in GTA Vice City.
- Additionally, the officers will still point their weapons at the player even though they are dead. This is also the same fashion as in GTA III when the aforementioned situation happens.
- In GTA San Andreas, they will stop attacking Carl once he is dead, regardless of whether a member of law enforcement killed him or not. However, Police Mavericks will still continue to shoot intermittently while in range, while also focusing their spotlight on CJ's corpse or exploded vehicle.
  - Some members of law enforcement may point their weapons at CJ even if he is dead like in GTA III and GTA Vice City, although the camera angle is now different, where the screen pans upwards from the player when they are dead. The screen also fades to black when respawning at the nearest hospital.
  - When dying inside an aircraft, law enforcement vehicles will still drive towards the protagonist, potentially leading to their vehicles getting caught in the blast and getting the officers killed as a result. Otherwise if not affected by the blast, they will stop and exit their vehicle at the player's crash site and walk around away from it afterwards.
  - Police officers will still say busted quotes to the player during the wasted screen if they are nearby, despite already being dead. CJ may also answer back to them under these conditions.
During certain missions and side missions, getting killed will not display the "Mission Failed!" text, which is odd. This can also happen if the player is arrested during a certain mission.
In GTA San Andreas, CJ's corpse will be seen in a bowing position after he is killed by an explosion while inside a vehicle.

HD Universe

In GTA IV and its episodes, the term "Wasted" never appears on the screen. Instead, the screen turns grey, everything moves in slow motion, and the player is transported to the nearest hospital. However, if they die in a certain way (the player's body is still falling, etc.), the game will continue showing the slow-mo scene until they press the continue button, which skips the scene. Skipping with the button also works when the player simply doesn't want to watch the whole "blackout". This is the only game not to have the words "Busted" and "Wasted".
- Once killed, the camera will usually lock onto the killer and the player can zoom in to get a closer look of that person.
In GTA IV and its episodes, if police officers are attacking the player and kill them, the only officer who stops shooting is the one that fired the fatal shot. In GTA V, all officers stop shooting the player, unless there is an officer lying on the ground and shooting. Such officers will keep shooting at the player's corpse until they get up.
In Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, the words "Wasted" and "Busted" have returned for the first time. An ambulance siren will be heard lighting up if Huang is "wasted".
The words "Wasted" and "Busted" have returned in Grand Theft Auto V (for the second time), albeit darker in tone. The screen flashes and a sound effect reminiscent of a steel rod being struck right as the words appear plays (albeit with minor visual differences and no steel rod sound in the enhanced version).
In GTA V, when the player dies during a mission, the term Wasted isn't used, but instead it'll show "Trevor died" ("T died" in the Prologue), "Michael died" ("M died" in the Prologue), or "Franklin died" as a failure reason (along with the "Mission Failed" message, as if it were the normal mission failure, or simply as "Failed" on some missions such as towing missions, triathlons, Flight School lessons (showing as "Killed in action." or "The vehicle was destroyed." when dying by crashing) and rampages.
Trevor Philips' special ability will avoid most of the damage, including some lethal forms, like being shot by the Rhino and other explosions.
In Grand Theft Auto Online, different reasons appear under the "WASTED" sign, including the player committing suicide, getting run over by another player's car, being shot by another player's sniper rifle, being caught in a man-made explosion, getting hit by the blade of another player's helicopter, and so on.
- If the player dies in a certain way (e.g. killed by any member of law enforcement or NPCs), only a "WASTED" sign shown up, with text on the left-bottom of the screen affirming that the player died.
In Grand Theft Auto Online, as part of The Diamond Casino & Resort update, the player can buy two paintings for the Master Penthouse that reference the "Wasted" screen.

References

↑
Text data

american.gxt > [KABOOM] KABOOOM!
american.gxt > [SPLAT] SPLAT!
american.gxt > [PANCAK] PANCAKED!
american.gxt > [SOAKED] SOAKED!

[alternatedeath-1] 
Text data

american.gxt > [KABOOM] KABOOOM!
american.gxt > [SPLAT] SPLAT!
american.gxt > [PANCAK] PANCAKED!
american.gxt > [SOAKED] SOAKED!

[1]