GTA 5 Friend Activities Guide: Bar, Cinema, Strip Club and Darts Explained

GTA 5 has six activities you can only do with another character tagging along: Cinema, Bar, Strip Club, Darts, Golf and Tennis. Only four of them - Cinema, Bar, Strip Club and Darts - actually count toward 100% completion, and not every character will hang out with every other character. Here is exactly how friend activities work, how to trigger one, and which pairings are off-limits.

The essentials:

• GTA 5 has 6 friend activities: Cinema, Bar, Strip Club, Darts, Golf and Tennis.
• Only Cinema, Bar, Strip Club and Darts count toward 100% completion.
• You start one by calling a friend on the in-game phone, then driving to pick them up.
• Franklin is the only protagonist who can take Jimmy to the Bar or the Strip Club.
• Trevor and Franklin cannot hang out with Amanda. Michael cannot hang out with Lamar.

What Are Friend Activities in GTA 5?

Friend activities are optional hangouts that Michael, Franklin and Trevor can do with each other or with a handful of supporting characters (Jimmy, Amanda, Lamar). You call the friend from your cell phone, agree on an activity, then drive to a marked pickup point to collect them before heading to the venue together. Once there, a short cutscene plays out with some banter, and the game logs the activity in the stats menu under Miscellaneous.

Unlike GTA 4's friendship system, GTA 5 does not track a percentage "like" meter that decays if you ignore calls. It is a much lighter system: show up, do the activity, move on. The only progress that matters is whether the game has recorded each activity type at least once.

The 6 Friend Activities, and Which Ones Count for 100%

Activity	Where	Counts toward 100%?
Cinema	Any of the movie theaters (e.g. Vinewood or Rancho)	Yes
Bar	Any bar (Bahama Mamas, Tequi-la-la, The Yellow Jack)	Yes
Strip Club	Vanilla Unicorn, Strawberry	Yes
Darts	Any bar with a dartboard	Yes
Golf	Los Santos Golf Club	No
Tennis	Vinewood Hills tennis court	No

Golf and Tennis are still worth playing - see our GTA 5 mini-games guide for how the swing and serve mechanics work - but the game does not require them for the friend-activity portion of 100% completion. You only need one Cinema trip, one Bar visit, one Strip Club visit and one game of Darts, each with any eligible friend, to tick those boxes.

How to Start a Friend Activity

1. Open your phone and call the friend you want to hang out with (Franklin, Michael, Trevor, Jimmy, Amanda or Lamar, depending on who you are playing as).
2. If they agree, a blip appears on the map showing where to pick them up.
3. Drive there, and an activity icon appears over the friend once you approach - interact with them to see the venue options available for that pairing.
4. Choose the activity (Cinema, Bar, Strip Club or Darts) and drive to the marked location together.
5. Watch the short scene play out. The game automatically records the completed activity.

Friends are not always available. If a friend declines, try again after finishing a story mission or two, or call someone else - most activities can be done with more than one companion.

You can check how many friend activities you have logged from the pause menu under Stats > Miscellaneous. It will not tell you which specific activity types are still missing, just a raw count, so it helps to keep a mental note of which of the four (Cinema, Bar, Strip Club, Darts) you still owe yourself.

Who Can Hang Out With Whom? Character Restrictions Explained

Not every pairing is possible, and Rockstar built in a few restrictions that reflect each character's story:

Character calling	Can hang out with	Restriction
Franklin	Michael, Trevor, Jimmy, Lamar	Only Franklin can take Jimmy to the Bar or Strip Club
Michael	Franklin, Trevor, Jimmy, Amanda	Michael cannot hang out with Lamar
Trevor	Franklin, Michael, Lamar, Jimmy	Trevor cannot hang out with Amanda

Michael and Trevor will not take Jimmy to a bar or a strip club - only Franklin does, which fits Jimmy's role as the young, aimless family member Franklin ends up babysitting through much of the story. All three protagonists can still meet up for a Bar visit or a game of Darts with each other, which is the easiest way to knock out those two activities early if you have already unlocked Trevor.

If you want a refresher on why Trevor behaves the way he does around Michael's family, our breakdown of Trevor Philips as a character covers his backstory and his falling-out with Michael. For the mechanical side of switching between the three leads mid-activity, see our guide to their special abilities.

Strip Club Tips: The Private Dance and Taking a Dancer Home

Visiting the Vanilla Unicorn or Strawberry with a friend satisfies the friend-activity requirement on its own, but the strip club has a second, separate layer worth knowing about. Pay for a private dance ($40) and keep interacting with the dancer to fill the meter in the bottom-right corner - it usually takes about two dances. Once it is full, you can ask her to come home with you or bring a friend for a double dance.

Only a handful of dancers will actually agree: Juliet, Infernus and Sapphire are the three who will ride home with you and hand over a phone number, which unlocks the photo opportunity some players chase for a completionist checklist item. This is unrelated to the four core friend activities above, but it is the kind of detail that trips people up when they are chasing 100%.

Golf and Tennis: Fun, but Not Required

Golf and Tennis are technically friend activities too - you can invite a companion to either the Los Santos Golf Club or the Vinewood Hills tennis court - but neither one is counted toward the 100% completion total. Play them for the mini-game itself (both have real swing timing and shot shaping) rather than as a checklist item. If Chop is more your speed than golf clubs, our Chop the dog guide covers every activity Franklin's German Shepherd is involved in, including his own version of a "friend activity" around the safehouse.

Quick Answers

Do I need to do every activity with every friend? No. One Cinema trip, one Bar visit, one Strip Club visit and one game of Darts, each with any eligible companion, is enough for the 100% tracker.

Can I do friend activities in GTA Online? No, friend activities as described here (Cinema, Bar, Strip Club, Darts, Golf, Tennis with Michael, Franklin, Trevor and their circle) are exclusive to the GTA 5 story mode.

Why won't a friend answer my call? Story progress and cooldowns both matter. Some friends only unlock after certain missions, and you generally cannot spam the same friend back-to-back - move the story forward or try a different companion.

Does it matter which character I am controlling? Yes. The list of friends available to call changes depending on whether you are playing as Michael, Franklin or Trevor, since each protagonist has a different social circle in the story.