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09 JUL 15 ~~~ v1.0 creation of guide
16 JUL 15 ~~~ v1.1 based on feedback

There are select a handful of useful skills to max in GTA V.

Skills to max:

Stamina
Shooting
Strength
Flying
Driving
Health

Skills to ignore:
Stealth
Lung Capacity

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Stamina:

Gives you infinite sprint and you never "run out of breath".

Running out of breath causes your character to lose health and sprint slower.

Increased through running, biking, swimming, and banging hookers in your vehicle.

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Shooting:

Increases your maximum ammo capacity.

i.e. you can carry more bullets and explosives. Hands down the most useful benefit of max shooting.

Decreases recoil, increases accuracy.

Recoil is the amout of kick that your gun produces. This is visual result of the crosshair moving up after firing a round, and the recoil effect stacks when firing fully automatic.

Accuracy is how closely to the center of the crosshair your round will land.

For example, if you have a target that is very far away, the head looks like the size of a strawberry. If you have a target that is very close, the head looks like the size of a large watermelon. A gun with low accuracy will be able to hit the watermelon, but will have trouble hitting the strawberry. A gun with high accuracy will be able to hit both the strawberry and watermelon much more reliably.

The fastest way to level this up is the shooting gallery inside Ammunation. Otherwise, by playing normally, you will max this out at around level 40.

DISCLAIMER: in GTA, bullets that are NOT FIRED from a sniper rifle DISAPPEAR after traveling rougly 300 in-game meters. shotguns have an even SHORTER range before the bullets disappear.
The WEAPON STATISTICS BAR is a lie. HOWEVER the higher the level unlock requirement, the better the weapon.
Weapon ATTACHMENTS function as intended unless noted in the following:

• Attaching a SILENCER to a weapon WILL STILL ALLOW headshots to be one-hit-kills.
  
• Scopes do not increase accuracy. They only increase the magnification (zoom) level of the weapon, allowing for increased precision when aiming down the sight only.
  
• Silenced weapons DO NOT WORK when used from cars, boats, and helicopters. Silenced weapons DO work when used on MOTORCYCLES and in SPECIFIC helicopter seats (side facing seats) and SPECIFIC vans (Declasse Burrito rear seats).

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Strength:

Decreases damage taken from falls.
Increases ladder climbing speed (only when maxed).
Increases melee damage.
Improves "sporting ability" for Tennis, Golf, Arm Wrestling.
Quickest way to level up is to play the mission "Death Metal", drive to vespucci beach, and punch everybody walking along the strip. WARNING: Using a melee weapon other than your fists will NOT give you exp in strength.

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Flying:

Increases flying stability and responsiveness.
Quickest way to level up is to fly under bridges or complete flight school challenges.

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Driving:

Increases control of vehicle when airborne and when performing wheelies.
Fastest way to level up: get a Bati 801 or any motorbike that can pop a wheelie, and practice wheelies and drive offroad and perform clean landings. PROTIP: Popping a wheelie before you drive onto a curb will give you airtime. Easiest skill to level up.

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Health:

Increases health. Sadly this is the slowest skill to level up, as health is equivalent to your player level. This claim however is inconclusive, because some of the GTA community suggests that Health is increased through "healing". Healing can be accomplished in 2 ways: by letting your health bar automatically recharge after being damaged to less than half of your maximum health; and by eating snacks.
PROTIP: wearing a HEAVY TACTICAL VEST that can be purchased at any clothing store will increase your health and armor by an additional 50%, giving you effectively 150% health. (unconfirmed. hvy tac vest may provide up to 100% additional health, effectively halving the damage you take from all sources- fire, bullets, explosions, fall damage, impact damage from cars etc.)

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USLESS SKILLS

Stealth:

Increases movement speed when in "stealth mode".
Gives "silent" footsteps, ie Ninja pro for you COD fans. Utility outside PvP is highly questionable/trivial.

This is completely usless in PvAI (player versus AI). Why? ALL KILLS with SILENCED weapons ARE steath kills, therefore there is no reason to use stealth mode to sneak up point blankfor stealth kills. HOWEVER, the game does not calculate experience for the stealth skill.
Slap a silencer your weapon of choice and pick off the targets one by one.

Additional info on PvP Utility from The Cat Of Tens: "I wouldn't say Steath is useless. In fact, it's absolutely crucial in deathmatches where radar blips are turned off. In those scenarios, the only way you can find out where someone is located is if they run, fire an unsilenced weapon, or get into a vehucle (You'll see little circles appear on the minimap). Stealth is your best friend in those kinds of games, because they'll allow you to traverse the map quickly without leaving a mark."

Lung Capacity:

Do yourself a favor, go to any ammunation store, activate the buy menu from the center in-store-display, and buy yourself the maximum amount of rebreathers. Happy diving.
Otherwise, have fun diving off a pier and flailing around underwater for 2 real life hours just to max out a laugahble 45 second oxygen capacity.

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JUL 16___Thanks to feedback from Jacks4eva (lung capacity), poutis (stealth), and evan (health), I have made appropriate edits and credited the contributors to the guide.

JUL 19 ____The Cat Of Tens for stealth PvP utility.