Spending Money in Grand Theft Auto Online

            With GTA Online heading into its 8th year, it might be a bit of a surprise to see its still going strong. Not a huge surprise if you play it, that is, but if you didn’t know any better it would be a big surprise. Ignoring the wide range of gameplay experiences in the base content alone and not to mention the massive amount of fan-made content or content that is provided by players creating their own experience through role-play and group gameplay.

            With the massively establish player base, getting into GTA online, thriving instead of just thriving, can prove very difficult. Success in GTA online is measured in two primary ways: cash and rank. You need both to get both. The more rank you have the best equipment and resources you can have access to, and then obtain using cash. Higher rank also means more types of jobs you can access in order to get more cash. I think you can see what we are getting at here.

            But there is a lot of stuff that you can buy in GTA and price does not equal quality, in the real world of the game world. Cost can be a status symbol, but not a representation of efficiency. So what should you spend your cash on?

            Let’s talk about non-essentials. It’s easy for people in these guides to say that cosmetics are not a high priority. Mechanically, that is true. If you are trying to establish a consistent cash flow, better equipment is always a better investment. But here is the thing, it’s not a job, it’s a game. It’s supposed to be a fantasy of playing in this world. It’s supposed to be fun. Dress your character the way you think they should dress, if it’s fun to you, it’s not a waste of cash. The same goes for everything else we recommend or don’t recommend here. Take it with a grain of salt.

            Next, we have guns. Guns are important in GTA, they keep you alive and your enemies dead. And wherever you stand on killing other players in GTA, guns are essential to navigating a world where killing each other isn’t necessarily a discouraged option. There are a handful of guns that are must-haves for essential gameplay.

            The special carbine, worth around $12K, is your well-rounded go-to gun. It will simply serve as the gun you need whenever you need it. The assault shotgun, a steal at $1500, is very powerful and can keep people out of your personal bubble with lethal efficiency. And last and far from least we have the heavy sniper at $9.5K. Really effective only at long range it makes up for it by being extremely effective. One-shot kills are the heavy sniper’s bread and butter, so as long as you know you’ll have the distance for it, you should pack this one for the trip.

            The thing you will likely be spending the most money on in-game, and arguably equally important as guns are cars. When buying cars, firstly make sure you have already purchased an apartment so that you have access to a garage to store them in. Secondly, you’ll want to make sure and own at least one of each class of car. Some races are specialized with specific prerequisites, and if you want the opportunity to race all around GTA online’s world, then you are going to need a well-established car collection.

            Are any cars specifically essential? There is a couple we recommend above others. For missions and combat-heavy gameplay we suggest either the Armored Kuruma, worth a fat $525K, or the Insurgent Pickup, valued at $1.3 million. These vehicles armor may not help with speed but it makes sure you are going to stay on the road and going the direction you need to. On the other end of the spectrum is the X80. The X80 is one of the fastest, if not the fastest, cars in the game and worth its high price tag of $2.5 million. It’s designed and optimized as a racing vehicle and that’s exactly what you are going to use it for. Specialized races may take some specific choices and customization, but speed is always the most essential factor in any race and having access to the fastest car in the game is simply a sound investment.

            Speaking of sound investments let’s talk about businesses, CEO offices, and Warehouses. While the initial investment to an almost nonexistent payoff definitely soured these gameplay elements to players when they first launched, we strongly suggest giving them a look over. When your assets are properly managed and utilized, the passive income they can generate is actually quite high, completely justifying their base investment. Investing in these options early, essentially as soon as you can, means you can splurge on more of the big-ticket items later.

            Last but not least we have some options that look tempting, but we are actually going to suggest avoiding, at least until you have money to straight-up burn. The Luxor Delux jet is very fancy, don’t get us wrong we can see the aesthetic appeal. But the jet itself does nothing better than other items in-game to justify the cost. We know we said that playing for fun is important, but we also don’t want players to spend $10 million on this jet and expect to get more than what you see on the surface, because that’s all the Luxor Delux is. The honorable mention in this category is the Aquarius yacht. While some players argue that yachts as a whole are useless, they do give you access to certain missions. The catch here is that while the Aquarius is the most expensive yacht at $8 million, it isn’t the best. The Pisces yacht costs a million less but has way more potential in its customization, so save yourself a little money.

            And there you have some of the best in-game objects money can buy in GTA Online. The good news about all these things is about 90% of them are investments, with the potential to return their cost. Think of it as an investment, an investment that lets you blow things up. Or a “cool” investment, as we would put it.  Speaking of investments, some players may choose to buy GTA Online accounts to jump straight into the game with a decked out account.