I’ve spent a fair amount of time playing GTA V since it came out. I intended to play more of the single player, but found the Online multiplayer to be highly addictive. it is also very easy to just jump in and play for short periods at a time, and still feel like you are accomplishing something. I expected to really like the Online element, but it is surprisingly good, a fun way to relax and play in many different ways.
GTA is the classic sandbox or open world game, where you are free to do whatever you want, to go wherever you want, and have loads of choices for activities to perform. There are a lot of structured Jobs and Activities, which give game rewards, plus the ability to interact with other players anywhere throughout the huge game world in GTA Online. This interaction can be friendly or hostile, and there is room for doing all sorts of random exploration, stunts, and experiments, for no reason other than to see what can happen and have fun. And possibly record them for others to watch.
Getting Started
When you start out in GTA Online at Rank 1, you get a series of quick intro missions to get you acquainted with the game world, and help you settle in. You will only have a basic Pistol as a weapon to start, but you can quickly get more. You will rank up fast for the early levels, and quickly reach the point where you are both familiar with the game world and have the resources to really start to take advantage of it.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/gta-5/List_of_GTA_Online_Rank_Unlocks
You get to customize your character at the start. Appearance is really up to you, but there is — so far — no way to really change your appearance once you start play, so try to pick something you’ll be happy with. Your stats can also be optimized. I’ll go over the stats in terms of which are most useful to have boosted up at the start of play.
http://www.ign.com/wikis/gta-5/Character_Creation
http://www.ign.com/wikis/gta-5/Increasing_Stats_in_GTA_5
#!:: Shooting. Your weapon fire accuracy will be improved by having this at a higher rank, so I would recommend making this a priority. It is also takes a relatively long time to rank it up, even if you engage in combat frequently in the game.
#2: Flying. Being able to fly well will be a definite edge whenever you get a chance to fly in the game, especially in missions. It can take a long time to rank this up during the game, so starting out with some skill can help.
#3: Strength. Climb faster, hit harder in melee combat. This one isn’t that hard to advance in game but it still takes a bit of special effort.
#4/#5: Stamina and Driving. These skills are both very useful, but they are advanced by running and driving. Both are things you will do constantly while playing the game, making them the easiest skills to improve over time.
#6: Lung Capacity. This is very nice to have increased if you must spend time swimming, but since that isn’t necessary most of the time, you can skip it until later. It is improved by time spent swimming, which isn’t hard to do. It does have a special use in evading the cops, as they will not chase you under water.
#7: Stealth. This is only occasionally useful, and it is also fairly easy to improve simply by engaging stealth whenever you are walking around, especially in combat (like death matches).
Once you get into the game, you are going to want to improve your rank — to increase the choices you have for equipment and jobs — and gain money. You are going to want to purchase property once you gain the option at rank 5. That gives you a garage to keep your vehicles in. You get a “free” car during this time, and can gain more. The best, coolest cars are only available for purchase from one of the online vendors. All of the high value cars cannot be stolen off the street and kept in your garage — you will be told that they are “too hot” to keep.
The Ammunation stores will let you buy weapons, once you have the rank to unlock them. A bunch of very good weapons (shown on the right wall in the store) do not have rank requirements, and these make good choices for your early purchases.
http://www.vg247.com/2014/11/25/gta-5-guide-best-weapons-load-out-gta-online-ps4-xbox-one-pc/
You get the Micro SMG at Rank 5, and it will do for that role for the entire game. It is the only SMG you can fire from a vehicle, and that is the best use of the SMGs in general. You are better off using a rifle in open combat. Either the Bullpup or Special Carbine are excellent choices. You will want a shotgun as well — good for close range and intimidation in robberies — and the Marksman Rifle until you get the Sniper (Rank 21).
Jobs are the main way you will make money early in the game, as well as gain RP (Reputation Points) to rank up. There are a huge range of jobs available, in many different types.
http://gta.wikia.com/Jobs_in_GTA_Online
I group the jobs into four basic categories.
Combat: These involve fighting, mostly players vs players, some are players vs NPC enemies. Death Match, Last Team Standing, Versus Missions, Survival. Most of these pit the players against each other, but Survival puts the players up against waves of NPC enemies, and they must try to eliminate all of them in each wave.
Some of these are very creative — not just a simple arena where the players fight to the death, but with interesting terrain and features, including the use of vehicles — both regular cars and military.
Races: These are their own category, but there are a lot of types of races, with all sorts of vehicles and environments. The GTA race mode allows players to engage in combat while racing. Land vehicle races will unlock customization upgrades for cars and bikes in the Mod Shop, which gives an added bonus for winning those races. Air, water, and bicycle races have no unlocks, but are interesting challenges and can be great fun. Some races offer wild stunt challenges, far beyond simply trying to run a race course through varied roads, terrain, and traffic.
Missions: I include both the contact missions and the Capture games for the way each team — or the entire cooperative team — works to achieve the objectives to win. Some have multiple objectives. Most Missions have a limited number of team lives, and once they are lost, no one can respawn. This makes staying alive very important. Many of these are among the highest paying Jobs in the game, besides the new Heists. They also make good practice for the teamwork needed to be successful in Heists.
Activities: Parachuting is its own category, but it shares some elements in style to the Sports activities, and the Shooting Range. Some are two players only, others offer more, but all give you something very different to do from racing and fighting.
Heists are like Missions on steroids. Rather than a single job, a Heist consists of several Setup missions, and once those are complete, a Finale where the goal of the Heist — and its big payout — is accomplished. Heists are strongly structured, with a heist Leader — who puts up money to begin the mission, and usually gets the biggest cut of the final take — and one to three (the first Heist only takes two people normally) others. The additional team members can change between each stage of the operation, but there are nice benefits to keeping the same group together throughout the Heist.
Heists have a secondary benefit: you unlock new vehicles to purchase by completing them. These include some pretty powerful military vehicles, but my favorite is the Kuruma (Armored) available from the first heist. It isn’t entirely immune to bullets, but it is very tough and can make a lot of missions — and engagements against other players — much easier.
Making money and ranking up tend to go together, but some things pay better in money than others. Heists pay very well, if you succeed. There are one time bonuses to earn from the Heists, if you can pull them off, which will give you a huge amount of money. Once you’ve done that, they still pay very well and are worth doing, but you can’t get the huge bonuses ever again — except for the Elite Challenges, which you can, if good enough, can earn every time.
One easy way to make money is to steal cars off the street and sell them. The rare, NPC custom cars you can find are worth the most, but it can be a lot of work to find them. You can steal cars and keep them in your garage, so that every time you start a game you can just take a car out and sell it. Los Santos Customs (and Beaker’s Garage in Paleto Bay) pays 10% of the list price of the car for common cars, but you get 50% of the value of any custom modifications added to a car. This pattern applies to any car you steal off the street. Vehicles purchased from the in game web sites are legitimate, legally owned vehicles, and will sell for about 50% of what you paid for them, including any modifications.
One car can be sold every game day — 48 minutes of real time. You can take advantage of this timing while playing by going to your garage, or near a Mod Shop, about once every hour of play. You can also log on and play just to sell or find cars. Simeon will, once you unlock it, offer extra money for specific cars, tend to be available once per real day.
Any car you put in your garage will become one of your personal vehicles, with a free Tracker installed. You can purchase insurance in any of the Mod Shops. All cars purchased from the websites automatically come with insurance. Insurance will replace your lost vehicle at a cost of about 1.25% of its list purchase price. For example, the $1000000 Adder will set you back $12,500 if you get it destroyed. But if another player deliberately destroys your vehicle, they will be charged this cost and you will get it back for free.
Insurance brings the car back at the Mors lot by default, but if you are in another of your own vehicles when you call for replacement, it will reappear in your garage. That is usually more convenient.
http://gtaforums.com/topic/766408-npc-modified-rare-vehicle-bicycle-mega-thread/
Not all the rare cars are worth extra money, but some are not available any other way, and they can be cool to possess.
http://gta.wikia.com/Los_Santos_Customs_Vehicle_Prices
The best “ordinary” cars you will find for selling are:
$9500-9000: Lampadati Felon GT, Ubermacht Sentinel (this is the convertible version, not the Sentinel XS), Gallivanter Baller SUV, and the Felon.
$8500-8000: Obey Rocoto (I rarely see these), Umbermacht Oracle XS and regular Oracle, Benefactor Schwartzer, and Ocelot F620.
$7000: Albany Cavalcade, Benefactor Dubsta SUVs.
$6500-6000: Benefactor Schafter, Ubermacht Zion Cabrio, Zion, Benefactor Serrano, Ocelot Jackal, Ubermacht Sentinel XS (hardtop)
$5000-4500: Fathom FQ2 SUV, Mammoth Patriot (hummer), Vapid Sandking SWB or XL.
Below this, it isn’t worth making a special effort to find and sell those cars, with a possible exception when Simeon is looking for a specific model of car.
One thing that can help you is to ride in a car similar to the type you are looking for. The spawn system for traffic and parked vehicles is neither completely random nor is it set purely by the area you are in. GTA has always used the type of car you are driving as a key factor in what vehicles will spawn. So if you are looking to get the top dollar cars like the Felon GT or Baller, one way is to already own one — keep it in your garage — and drive around looking for another as you head out to make a sale.
A nice series on tips and tricks for GTA 5. One I’ll point out because I i didn’t realize it. The Snapmatic gallery includes GPS coordinates. You can use this to ‘bookmark’ locations you want to find again which do not have markers on the map.
A Feeling Of Accomplishment
I’ve made it to rank 45 in about a month, playing often but not excessively. Increased rank brings more options for weapons, vehicles, clothing, and other equipment. Many items require things other than just rank.
I was very happy to finally unlock the Turbo Tuning upgrade on my cars, which requires winning races. Placing 2nd many times doesn’t count, you actually have to win to get many of the land vehicle customization options. The more races you win, the better options are available. Many are tied to rank.
Customizing cars is a mini-game in itself. While I try to keep a set of cars tuned up for racing, I also have cars which are just for me to drive around and have fun. Your garage space is limited. You can own three locations (for now), a possible 30 car spaces. I chose to get a place in Blaine County, which has no 10 car homes or garages, so that I’d have a spawn and base option there, but even so, that gives me 26 slots for keeping cars, which is pretty good.
One thing which surprised me a little was Bounties. At Rank 10, you unlock the ability to call for a bounty, an offer for all players to go after and kill a specific player in the game. Not so obvious to me is that it also makes NPCs place a bounty on you, if you steal their cars. Not all NPCs will do so, but those that do will set a bounty of $1000-$9000 — showing as from Unknown. The type and value of their car doesn’t seem to relate to the amount. Now, you can try to run and hide and avoid other players for one game day (48 minutes real time) of actual game play time. If you succeed, you will collect the bounty. But unless you were already planning actions to stay clear of other players, this can be hard to pull off. A better solution is to just get it over with — find a “friendly” player to shoot you. Ideally, an actual Friend in the game, who won’t treat the whole thing as an impromptu vendetta.h
Free Roam play is a big part of the fun of the game. You can go around and just explore the world and fight with any player on the map. Rob NPCs — off the street or from stores, steal almost any car you see (Player-owned cars can be locked by the owner and become unstealable, I usually leave mine unlocked. First, because that way I can have someone get in as a passenger (though you can unlock just the passenger seat). Second, I don’t; mind if someone else wants to take a responsible joy ride. As long as I get my car back (and it will reappear in my garage automatically when I use a different personal vehicle), it’s just fine. If they blow it up, they pay the insurance cost, and I still get the car back, if it is insured. I always use insurance on any customized car, it is cheap and worth it).
It can be a lot of fun when you have friends — even ones just met — run around with you on the map doing things. The game offers an impromptu race feature, where you can challenge players near you on the map to an instant race, based on your current location. I’ve found that most players don’t want to join in, so you may need friends to get this. But you can just drive around together and cause trouble, and have loads of fun. If you have an air vehicle, you can all get in and do things.
At Rank 15, Daily Assignments kick in. You get three activities which you can perform during that real day, and if you do them you’ll get bonus money and RP ($25000 and 3000 RP). If you can do them every day, you get even bigger bonuses, but it can be hard to find the time to do that. Also, some of the assignments are easier than others, and many require cooperative players to do them with you. Even so, it offers a nice and often quick and easy way to get a bit of bonus money, just for doing things you’d already be doing.
I haven’t done every job yet, and many offer multiple options which change how they play. Add in player created jobs, and you have a nearly endless supply of fun and profitable activities to do. I can’t; see getting bored with this game anytime soon.
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