GTA6 Vice City Prep: Safely Pulling Verified Weapon & NPC Data from the New Browser Vice City Port to Build Day‑One GTA6 Loadouts

What’s new (Dec 18–23, 2025) — the short facts you need

Safety & legal checklist before you touch the port

• Do not download or run random executables from forum posts. Community threads reported malware links being shared under “required .exe” threads — use only your legally purchased original game files. ^[2]
• Verify files locally with SHA‑256 checksums before uploading to any web demo; the port uses checksum verification to confirm ownership. Keep a local copy of the verified file and never share your original installer with strangers. ^[3]
• Know the legal status: reVC and related fan projects have a fraught history with Take‑Two/ Rockstar DMCA actions; use fan engines for personal research only and respect IP. ^[4]
• Prefer local reVC builds for heavy data extraction (safer, reproducible). If you use the browser demo, limit uploads to checksums or hash‑validated files only. ^[5]

How to extract reliable gameplay numbers (weapon damage, fire rate, spawns) — reproducible workflow

1) Choose your environment (browser demo vs local reVC)

• Browser demo: fastest for spot checks and visual spawn verification; requires you to provide proof of ownership or will stop at the first story checkpoint. Use only for short experiments and visual confirmation. ^[7]
• Local reVC build (recommended): clone the reVC/re3 engine repo and build locally so you can open weapon.dat and model files in plaintext. This lets you export exact weapon.dat numbers, timings (ms), and spawn tables for analysis. ^[8]

2) Locate and extract the data files

• Key files: weapon.dat (damage, range, fire‑interval values), pickup spawn tables (item.dat / pickup.dat), and IMG archives (models/textures). Tools like IMGDesk / IMGTool let you dump contents. ^[9]
• Open weapon.dat — values are numeric and directly map to in‑game damage/fire intervals. Export to CSV for comparison (weapon, damage, fire_interval_ms, range_m, clip_size). ^[10]

3) Validate in‑game with timed tests

• Method: use a calm map zone (no traffic) and a friendly NPC with known HP. Fire 10‑round bursts and record time‑to‑kill (TTK) using an external stopwatch (or game frame counter). Repeat 5 times per weapon and average. Compare measured TTK to weapon.dat predictions. This reveals whether the port remaps any multipliers (e.g., vehicle fire rate increases).
• Log discrepancies ≥10% — these are the places where the engine or demo may differ from reVC local builds and you should prioritize the local build for extraction. ^[11]

Verified reference data (pulled & cross‑checked today)

Below are representative weapon numbers taken from GTABase/GTA Wiki (original Vice City) — these are excellent baselines for building GTA6 loadouts because GTA6 will likely borrow role archetypes (SMG, AR, shotgun, sniper) and encounter pacing similar to classic Vice City combat ranges. Use them to model DPS and TTK tradeoffs. ^[12]

Quick read‑outs: MP5 = 35 damage & 625 rpm (high close‑range DPS); Screwdriver = 45 single‑hit melee (best melee killing power per strike). Use these numbers to model expected TTK when assuming GTA6's enemies start at ~100–120 HP in early game (example: 3 MP5 hits + recoil dispersion ≈ lethal at close range). ^[13]

From numbers to tactics — three playable day‑one GTA6 Vice City builds (practice in the port)

Build A — The Entry Specialist (fast clear, team friendly)

Build B — Stealth/Knife Operative (low heat, speed run‑adjacent)

Build C — Vehicle‑First Runner (escape & asset grind)

Sample mission walkthrough (data‑driven): "Rub Out" — objectives, payout, and optimal approach

"Rub Out" is the story mission that unlocks the Vercetti Estate and pays $50,000 on completion. Use it as a practice template: it combines indoor clearing, boss damage thresholds, and multi‑vector escape planning (stairs, multiple exits). ^[17]

Money math: which Vice City assets give the best ROI for practice time?

Asset incomes (original Vice City) are concrete — you can use these to model early grind strategies and what to emulate for GTA6’s day‑one economy (expect similar passive asset design). Key assets and income per in‑game day (representative values):

• Print Works — $8,000 per day (best steady return for mid‑game ROI). ^[23]
• InterGlobal Studios — $7,000 per day. ^[24]
• Malibu Club — $10,000 per day (most expensive to buy; high yield). ^[25]
• Vercetti Estate — unlocks post "Rub Out"; passive income: $5,000/day and is a key strategic hub. ^[26]

Concrete ROI exercise: buy Print Works ($70–72k depending on edition), complete two asset missions, and collect $8k/day. That’s a ~9–10 day in‑game payback — ideal to model grinding cadence for GTA6 mission loops and early investments when day‑one servers reward asset ownership. ^[27]

Community discoveries & reproducibility notes (Dec 23, 2025)

Community threads show the demo had ~300k launches on day one, leading the devs to restrict free demo access; the community also pinned copies of required EXEs (dangerous — don't follow those links). Use the reVC GitHub and local builds for reproducible work rather than relying on ad‑hoc shared binaries. ^[28]

Common mistakes to avoid

• Relying on random shared EXEs to bypass ownership checks — high malware risk and legal exposure. Always use your own legally purchased files and verify hashes. ^[30]
• Assuming browser demo = final reVC/local engine values. The browser demo is a tech showcase and can have streaming/loading differences (stutters, missing mechanics). Use it for mapping and visual tests only; do heavy number extraction locally. ^[31]
• Not capturing repeated runs: weapon RNG and NPC AI can vary — average 5+ runs per data point for meaningful statistics.

Next steps: how to turn this into GTA6 domination practice

• Build a CSV of weapon.dat values from local reVC and simulate TTK against modeled enemy HP pools (e.g., 100, 150, 250 HP) to pick your day‑one primary weapons for GTA6.
• Map spawn hotzones in the browser demo (traffic/NPC clusters, causeway choke points) and convert those to training runs (10x repeat clear + escape loops) so your muscle memory specializes in likely GTA6 choke areas.
• Run asset ROI models from Vice City incomes to design early economy targets for GTA6: know how much cash you need to buy the “Print Works” equivalent on day‑one. Use the proven assets above as baseline. ^[32]

Summary — quick wins you can do today (Dec 23, 2025)

If you want, I can: (A) export a starter CSV of the weapon.dat values I referenced, (B) show a sample TTK calculator you can run on your machine, or (C) walk you through setting up a local reVC build step‑by‑step. Which would you like next?