Pick up cash markers and get your wanted level as high as you dare, then bank. Your payout is the cash you are carrying multiplied by the highest star you reached while carrying it, so a small pile of money banked at four stars is worth far more than a big pile banked at one. Nothing counts until it is banked. Your wanted level climbs from being seen driving badly, from every marker you take, and from anyone you knock down on the pavement. Banking also hands you a choice for the next run: INSURANCE means a bust takes none of your cash, CLEAN PLATES makes every car you jack drop two stars instead of one, and FAT STACKS pays 50% more on every marker. One pick per bank, and it ends when you bank again.

Deliberately. Turn your headlights off with L, come to a stop, and make sure no patrol has eyes on you - the meter then falls quickly, and the moment it reaches zero the run banks and pays out. Driving around does almost nothing to it; being wanted is a state you have to actively leave. The electric Ghost cools twice as fast, and a city lockdown halves the rate.

It arrives at four stars, and its searchlight tracks you continuously - while it has you lit you are permanently spotted, so your wanted level keeps climbing and you cannot cool down at all. The covered parking deck is the one structure with a roof over it; getting under there is what breaks the light, and the moment the helicopter lifts off the GPS switches to a pink route to the nearest deck. Losing the helicopter means dropping back below four stars.

They take you three ways: wreck your car, corner it, or send an officer after you on foot - if you are stopped with a patrol car beside you, a SURROUNDED meter fills over a few seconds and pulling away is the only way out of it. The run does not end and there is no game over screen. They keep the car, you lose a little over half the cash you were carrying and one star off your payout multiplier, and then you are let out on foot somewhere else in the city with the heat cleared. On foot an officer who reaches you fills the same meter, so walking away from a wanted level does not work - you sprint, or you get into a car. Getting another car back is quick - flag one down out of traffic with E - so being busted is a setback you drive out of, not a restart.

Wrecking a patrol car. Ram one hard enough, or often enough, and it explodes, flips over and burns out where it lands, and you are paid a TAKEDOWN bonus that grows with your wanted level. It also starts a chain: every takedown, hard ram or near miss at speed inside a few seconds of the last one raises a multiplier on the next, up to five times, and the chip at the top of the screen shows the multiplier and how long you have left. The bonus goes into the cash you are carrying, so it is still multiplied by your star when you bank - and still at risk if you get busted first.

Yes, including cars that are still driving. Press E while you are alongside a parked one to jack it from the driver’s seat, or stop, press E to get out, and take anything on foot: a parked car, a car stopped at a red light, or moving traffic - press E near a moving car and its driver pulls over, then walk to the door and press E again. Switching plates drops your wanted level by a star, which makes it a genuine escape tool. You keep the shape of the car you took - saloon, coupe, pickup, SUV or van - but it handles like an ordinary street car, so your grand tourer or something unlocked from the garage is still worth going back for.

No. Six Stars runs directly in the browser on desktop and on phones - no download, no plugin, no account, and nothing is bought with real money. Your bank, best payout and unlocked cars are saved on your own device.

A lighthouse island at the north end of the map, past the beach. It is the one landmark you can see from the boulevard and drive to on purpose, and the drive out is exposed by design: the causeway is a single deck with sea on both sides, patrol cars appear on it behind you, and there is no side street to turn into. Going out there while you are hot is the most dangerous cash run in the game.

Yes. Come to a stop and press E and you step out of the driver’s door; your passenger gets out with you and follows you on foot. On foot it plays like a normal third-person game: the mouse looks around, W A S D move you relative to the camera, your character turns to face where he is running, and Space sprints. Holding the mouse button walks you forward if you would rather not use the keyboard, and on a phone the left stick moves you while dragging the right half of the screen looks - the gas and reverse pedals are gone until you are back behind a wheel. If you are wanted when you step out, expect company: patrol cars stop beside you and officers get out to chase you down the pavement. The car you left stays parked exactly where you left it, and you get back in - or into anything else on the street - by walking up to it and pressing E.

An amber diamond appears on the minimap between runs, and driving into it takes the contract. COURIER is a timed delivery across town. STORE HIT asks you to park outside a shop, step out and hold the door until the till is empty - it pays well and it puts a patrol on you the second it pays. REPO marks one specific parked car in the city and wants that car brought back, so you have to go and take it. Once you take one, the road to it is drawn under your wheels and the job chip tells you which way to turn next. Jobs pay on top of the cash markers, pay a bonus if the car finishes undamaged, and chain into a bigger reward if you start the next one immediately. Ignoring the diamond costs you nothing - it expires and another appears later.

It is the scanner strip under the minimap, and it reacts to you rather than to the clock. It speaks when a star goes up, when a unit gets eyes on you, when they lose you again, when a patrol car is wrecked, when a pedestrian is struck, or when the car you just took is reported - and each line names the district. It is the fastest way to read whether they still know where you are. The music radio is a separate thing: R cycles three procedural stations - Vice FM, Lo-Fi 88.1 and Nightdrive - generated live rather than streamed, and the menu turns it off.