Last-minute GTA 6 Halloween costumes: ten looks from Rockstar's official screenshots, graded by how fast you can pull them off

My thesis, up front: the best Halloween costume is the one people recognise from across the room, and GTA 6 has spent three years putting its characters' clothes in front of hundreds of millions of people. You do not need the game to dress as it. You need a thrift shop, an hour, and Rockstar's official screenshots, which is exactly where every look below comes from.

I'm Ruby. Every item here is checked against our Oracle, the catalogue of everything visible in the official screenshots. Each costume gets Seen in the screenshots (fact), Build it (what you need), and Ruby's verdict (me), with a time rating: Ten minutes, An hour, or Commit.

One rule before we start: leave anything that looks like a real weapon at home. Jason and Lucia carry plenty in the screenshots. You do not need to. Nobody at a party has ever said the costume needed more gun.

1. Lucia, Leonida Penitentiary · Ten minutes

Seen in the screenshots. An orange inmate top and trousers, worn by Lucia in handcuffs, with long cornrow braids. It is the first thing anyone saw of GTA 6, in the opening shot of Trailer 1.

Build it. Orange scrubs or an orange top and trousers, braids or a braided wig, toy handcuffs on one wrist.

Ruby's verdict. The most recognisable costume on this list, and the cheapest. Add the attitude of a woman who blames all of this on bad luck and you have won the room.

2. Cal Hampton · Ten minutes

Seen in the screenshots. A tan bucket hat, Cal's trademark. A green shirt printed with alien heads among jungle leaves, worn open. Teal palm-print board shorts. Dark round sunglasses.

Build it. Bucket hat, the loudest tropical shirt you own, board shorts, round shades. Extra credit: carry a handheld radio all night.

Ruby's verdict. I wrote this week that Cal wears his hat indoors like a man who never takes his coat off at a party. Do exactly that. Do not take the hat off. That is the costume.

3. Raul Bautista · Ten minutes

Seen in the screenshots. An off-white suit jacket over a black shirt outside a neon-lit bar. Half-rim reading glasses, hair pulled back, stacked leather cord bracelets, black leather driving gloves.

Build it. Any pale jacket, a black shirt, cheap reading glasses, slick your hair back, gloves on.

Ruby's verdict. The most expensive-looking costume for the least effort. Raul dresses like the legitimate businessman he is not. Keep the gloves on while you hold your drink and you will look like you are planning something.

4. The Ambrosia biker · Ten minutes

Seen in the screenshots. A black leather vest with club patches, worn by a column of bearded riders. A black and gold Liberty City Cycles cap. A red skull-print bandana and a rose tattoo on the back of a woman's hand.

Build it. Black vest, plain tee, skull bandana, a cap, and a rose drawn on your hand in eyeliner.

Ruby's verdict. Last-minute gold. In Ambrosia the patch is a membership card, so make one out of felt. Nobody will check your paperwork.

5. Jason and Lucia, the vault job · An hour (couples)

Seen in the screenshots. Both in black, with matching black tactical vests with pouches, cash flying in a steel strongroom. Jason wears a black gaiter printed with a skull jaw and dark sunglasses.

Build it. Black tops and trousers for both, any black utility or fishing vest, a skull-print face gaiter for him, a duffel bag stuffed with play money.

Ruby's verdict. The couples costume for people who hate couples costumes. It reads as a heist from across the room, and the bag of fake cash does all the explaining. Remember: in Leonida, the police treat a pair as one description. At a party, that just means everyone knows who you came with.

6. Jason, Vintage Vice City Pack · An hour

Seen in the screenshots. A pale grey linen blazer with the sleeves pushed up over a pink polo, pink trousers and espadrilles, with long feathered hair and slim pink-lens glasses. It is part of the Vintage Vice City Pack, the pre-order bonus.

Build it. Grey or pale blazer, sleeves shoved to the elbow, pink polo, any pink or pale trousers, canvas shoes with no socks, rose-tinted glasses.

Ruby's verdict. The most 1986 thing in GTA 6, and a gift for any man who has never been allowed to wear pink trousers. Push those sleeves up like your life depends on it.

7. Lucia, Vintage Vice City Pack · Commit

Seen in the screenshots. A plunging red sequin halter mini dress, a big 1980s curly perm, winged eyeliner and gold hoops.

Build it. Any red sequin dress, the biggest curls your hair or a wig can manage, sharp winged liner, gold hoops.

Ruby's verdict. Pair it with number 6 and you are the best-dressed couple at the party. This is the look Rockstar chose to sell its pre-order bonus, and it is the one I would wear. Commit to the hair. Half a perm is just a bad day.

8. The Real Dimez · Commit (duo)

Seen in the screenshots. Roxy in a shaggy yellow fur coat with a diamond-set ROXY nameplate chain over layered chains. Bae-Luxe in a purple and green satin bomber embroidered with flowers, worn open over fishnet tights, with a BL nameplate chain and oversized clear shield glasses with a rhinestone brow bar.

Build it. One yellow faux-fur coat, one embroidered or satin bomber, two nameplate necklaces (letter beads on a chain work), big shades, and two phones.

Ruby's verdict. The hardest costume here and the best one. The secret ingredient is behaviour: film each other all night. Eve wrote today that everyone in Leonida is filming, and the Real Dimez are the proof. If you are not posting it, it is not the costume.

9. Dre'Quan Priest · An hour

Seen in the screenshots. A shiny royal blue satin suit with black lapels over a white tee, a gold chain and a cocktail in hand. Or, off duty, a teal and pink Manatees basketball jersey, number 15, with a black cap.

Build it. The suit if you can find it. The easy version is any teal jersey with a 15 taped on the back and a black cap.

Ruby's verdict. The suit is the move. Dre'Quan dresses like the middleman who wants to be the boss, and electric blue satin is exactly how you would announce it. Hold a drink. Introduce yourself as a label owner.

10. The woman on the police car · Ten minutes (if it is warm)

Seen in the screenshots. A neon yellow fishnet mini dress over a bikini, pink sunglasses and a phone in hand, on top of a police car in Vice City.

Build it. A yellow mesh cover-up, pink shades, phone permanently raised.

Ruby's verdict. For anyone in a warm climate, this is Leonida in one outfit: loud, fearless and filming. For anyone in a cold one, wear a coat over it and tell people you are her in December.

Bonus: the eleventh costume

Ruby's pick. After this went up, the Fan Vault handed me one more: Lucia off duty, at a VIP resort pool. Gold aviators, a high top-knot, gold hoops and a blood-red drink. Ten minutes, and maybe the best of the lot.

Lucia Caminos at a VIP ResortThe Fan Vault film that inspired the eleventh costume.Watch on SixStarsWanted →

The quick picker

• Ten minutes: Lucia in prison orange, Cal, Raul, the Ambrosia biker, the woman on the police car.
• An hour: the vault couple, Vintage Jason, Dre'Quan.
• Commit: Vintage Lucia, the Real Dimez.
• Best couple: Vintage Jason and Vintage Lucia.
• Best duo: the Real Dimez.
• Bonus: Lucia off duty, ten minutes.

If you want a regional look instead of a character, my Leonida dress code from earlier today has six of them. Happy Halloween. Nineteen days to go, and then we all get to do this properly.