First starting out with GTA Online is really confusing and the level caps for buying anything don't help it, so I thought about doing my own personal guide for the grind
Humble Beginnings
Starting out you should have a few goals, a decent garage, and some free (and fast) vehicles
If you are unaware, any vehicle you purchase can be teleporter to you via a phone call to your Mechanic (available when you have a garage) or through your 'm' menu, you can also get back destroyed cars through Mors Mutual Insurance (You can insure any uninsured car through LS Customs).
But, you may lack the levels at the beginning to even get a garage, my recommendation is to fuck around with some of the popular minigames available through quick join on your phone, street races are the most popular.
For easy money, at the very beginning it would be the Daily Quests, G's Crates and stealing cars for Simeon. Some weekly missions have a modifier that allow you to gain the triple of what you usually could, also making them very lucrative, for example, Taxi Missions. You can check them from the Weekly Updates.
Every activity in this game in some way provides money and RP, continue this till you get 200k to 250k
Starting Heists
If you have the money, get a high-end Apartment, if you haven't gotten a garage yet, do that too.
By this point, you'll be doing lethal missions, if you are unaware Snacks can heal you, and Armor can replenish your armor, with them up to 50 and 10 maximum, fill them up before any mission.
Check out your options, as a start the Fleeca Job introduces you to the basics, but you won't be finding much people to take part in your heist because of the low pay, if you have a friend this would be a good time to introduce them to GTA Online
Other heists available to you aren't that worth it, do Series A Heists, which would net you around a million if it is on Hard Mode and you give yourself a 40% cut
Buy yourself an Armored Kuruma with the money you get, customize it so that it is faster, once you get it you can get fast money with Last Play - Bad Companies and Last Play - Fast Peddling, available from the Rockstar Jobs in Online tab within the Escape/Pause Menu, netting you about 30k per 7 minutes
Starting CEO Businesses
Once you get around a million, you should buy an Office to get access to the benefits being a CEO provides, the quick and easy SecuroServ VIP Jobs and Warehouse businesses that give you money as you play the game
This will also give you access to Invite-Only Sessions from Online tab in the Pause Menu.
The cheapest warehouse is the Convenience Store Lockup ($250k), buy 3 crates at a time, don't waste your time with others, sell at 9 crates to guarantee one delivery vehicle unless you like pain (avoids chaos with 2+ trucks/planes), guarantee yourself a 120k profit for 10 minutes of work. You can also run VIP Jobs in between the cooldowns, making the best use for your time.
If you have garnered enough money (roughly a million) you can get a medium warehouse (Derriere Lingerie Backlot), which fills to 42 crates and sells for $735k. Do the same for a Large Warehouse (Grind to $1.9M for West Wholesale Furniture) and that fills to 111 crates and sells for $2.2M
Again, sell when it is less full to guarantee that you get only 1 vehicle, unless you want pain
Beyond a Million
By this point you should have 1.5 to 2 million dollars, what you do is up to you, but a few options include
- Agency Works (Don't fuck w/ Dre for 1 Million, can be done alone, 30-80k Contracts that take 10-20m)
- Casino Heist (Easy & Profitable Heist for 800k to 1.4 Million, do with a Friend)
- Nightclub (Passive Income, can pay itself off in 3-4 days at max popularity)
Some tips include:
- Feel free to do Heists or Missions that interest you
- Buy some fast cars, check out gtacars.net for some decent lap times
- You can also get weekly free race vehicles by checking out LS Car Meet
- You can do Heist Preps with friends by hiring them as your Associate for your Company (as CEO)
- MC (Motorcylce Club) Illegal Businesses are high-risk and take 3-4 days to pay for itself, again, deliver when they're half full
- Never buy in Paleto Bay, you'll thank me later
- Agency has a free and fast helicopter if you buy it, really good for long distance transportation
- Calling your assistant can get your impounded cars out, and can send you a helicopter than can teleport you back to your Office
- Bunker is free. Buy it.
- Don't mess with MK2 Weapons until you are sure you have enough money, sometimes they are a direct downgrade if you prefer more ammo
If you keep at it, you'll basically be ready to do anything in GTA Online in 4-5 days, with a friend it is rather fun, and for a game that people mock for being too sharkcard positive, it is actually kind of decent in terms of allowing people who don't wish to pay for extra to play as they like.
