Updated at: 19-04-2023 - By: Leo Hall
Check out this comprehensive guide if you want to know everything there is to know about playing GTA Online (Grand Theft Auto).

In 2022, the online mode of Grand Theft Auto is vastly different from its 2013 debut. Rockstar has maintained and improved GTA Online over the years with numerous patches, additions, and fixes.

It’s easy to see why newcomers to the massive, player-inhabited open world of Los Santos might feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of options available to them.

Whether you’re new to GTA Online or have been playing for a while, you’ll find helpful hints and information here about getting started, advancing your character, and expanding your criminal empire.

Don’t let the complexity of GTA Online’s tutorial deter you; with practice, you’ll be robbing casinos, smuggling drugs, joining gangs, and wreaking havoc with other players in no time.

Character Creator

Making a persona is the first step in GTA Online. Your character’s statistics and appearance will be based on the lifestyle choices you make. Since these have minimal to no impact on gameplay, you can concentrate on customizing your character’s appearance.

GTA Online Tutorial: How to Complete, How Long It Takes & More

Changing your character’s appearance after the fact is possible, but it will cost you time and money. Once you’re satisfied with your character’s appearance, you can move on to the GTA Online tutorial.

Completing The Tutorial

If this isn’t your first time at the proverbial bat, you might be tempted to skip the tutorial. There are, however, significant differences between the single-player and GTA Online experiences, particularly in terms of gameplay. The tutorial is the best way to learn about these features, so please take the time to complete it.

Lamar will pick you up from the Los Santos airport and drive you around while explaining the fundamentals of the game’s many activities, such as completing missions and contracts, racing, robbing, and shopping. When you’re done, you’ll have a firmer grasp of the game’s controls and a general idea of how GTA Online functions.

How To Make Money And Level Up

Money and RP (Reputation Points) are crucial for advancement in GTA Online. Purchase new weapons, ammunition, clothing, vehicles, and real estate with cash, and level up with experience points. When you level up, you gain access to more features. There aren’t a lot of ways to make money or level up at the beginning of the game.

Jobs come into play here, and you can initiate one by driving to the location shown on your map, by using your phone by pressing up on the D-pad, or by choosing jobs from the pause menu. There are always dozens of jobs up for grabs, from simple side quests to challenging bank heists and everything in between.

Some jobs pay better than others, so it pays to shop around and see what suits you best. If you’re a low-level player and ever find yourself stuck, here are some suggestions for making money and experience points:

  • Avoid stealing expensive cars that are difficult to resell, but you can make a lot of money by selling stolen cars to Los Santos Customs or bringing wanted cars to Simeon.
  • You can accept missions from the job menu or by calling up NPCs like Lamar, Gerald, or Simeon, and completing them is exactly like it was in Grand Theft Auto 5. The rewards for promoted missions are doubled and they rotate every week.
  • You will receive texts from Maude asking you to help her with various bounties, and it is your job to see that they are carried out. She promises a bonus payment if you bring the target in alive.

You can try your luck at the Diamond Casino by clicking on the button once a day. You can gamble with or cash out your chips for cash at any time. Use your GPS to locate the Diamond Casino.

How To Get Health And Weapons

Your character’s health (represented by the green meter) is finite, like in Grand Theft Auto 5, but it can be increased by wearing protective gear (represented by the blue meter). Snacks, available from vending machines and convenience stores, can be used to restore health in GTA Online. The Interaction Menu also allows users to save snacks for later consumption.

Numerous AmmuNation stores sell weapons, ammunition, and protective gear out in the open world. However, if you prefer, you can pay extra and buy ammo straight from the Inventory screen. You can buy additional weapons at AmmuNation as you gain levels.

How To Buy Clothes

Visit any of Los Santos’ many shops and browse the racks and shelves of clothing to find something new for your character to wear. You can save a lot of time by buying complete outfits instead of the over four thousand separate pieces of clothing that are available in the game. Once you have your own apartment, you can buy clothes and keep them there until you need to change.

How To Make A Car Yours

You can pass off a stolen car as your own by adding your own touches to it, but you probably shouldn’t try this with a high-end model. Take something more reasonable like a Felon or F620 to your neighborhood mod shop after you’ve accumulated enough money for a tracker and insurance.

GTA Online Guide - How to Make Money in Finance & Felony - YouTube

The next time you log into a GTA Online session, the car will appear in close proximity to you. Contact Mor’s Mutual Insurance via telephone to file an insurance claim for a replacement item in the event of its destruction. You can also buy cars directly through your phone, but given that you’re surrounded by vehicles that are literally just a broken window away from becoming yours, we advise you to save up for a down payment on a house first.

How To Buy Properties

Unit 124 on Popular Street is a great affordable option for a first home. Two-car garage, Mechanic access, and prime spawn spot in the heart of East Los Santos for only $25,000! Using your mobile device’s internet browser, navigate to Dynasty 8 Real Estate and do a search for “low-end properties.”

You’ll be able to afford fancier upgrades as your business expands. Various properties offer various conveniences, so it’s useful to compare them.

  • Some houses and apartments include garages, which residents can use to park their cars out of the way.
  • A regular apartment can serve as a home base and provide the convenience of a place to change clothes.
  • Luxury apartments are just like regular apartments, except they might have extras like a garage or a special room set aside for plotting heists.
  • Places of business let you dispatch vehicles and cargo.
  • For the purpose of storing airplanes.
  • Bicycles are kept in the clubhouse.
  • Bunkers and other underground facilities are frequently used for planning heists.
  • Money can be made in discos and arcades.

You can also buy houses through the Maze Bank Foreclosure website, which is similar to Dynasty 8. Hangars, clubhouses, and nightclubs are just some of the more interesting properties you’ll find here. You won’t have to stress about them for a while because of the time and money they demand.

How To Save Money

Speaking of finances, be sure to put away enough cash to cover the cost of whatever it is you’re planning to buy next. This can be challenging when navigating the dangerous streets of Los Santos, where murder is commonplace.

As a result, it is advised that you visit the ATM frequently to avoid having your cash stolen by hostile players. Use the GPS tool accessible via the “Interaction” menu to find the closest ATM. You can also add funds to your bank account by using your mobile device to access the Maze Bank website.

How To Avoid Griefing

The majority of other players you’ll meet in GTA Online will either be friendly or, at worst, indifferent to you. This isn’t always the case, though, and you may face a player whose sole goal is to make things as chaotic as possible. When you’re just trying to get from A to B at your own pace, this can be very annoying.

You can take a few different approaches if you’re in a situation where you’re being harassed on a regular basis. The first option is to select Passive Mode from the Interaction menu’s submenu. You will be safe from harm from other players, but you will be unable to use weapons or close-range attacks.

The alternative is to suggest that the player be removed from the current session. To do this, press the pause button, navigate to “Online,” then “Players,” select the offending player, and click “Kick.” If a critical mass of players joins in, they will be removed from the game. Finally, if you want to be the bigger person and end the session yourself, you can do so by pausing it, then going to the “Online” menu and selecting “Find New Session.”

How To Take On Heists

Until you reach the late game of GTA Online, you won’t be able to join forces with other players for Heists. Successful Heists pay off in spades, but only if the planning and execution have been carefully coordinated. It’s best to organize a Heist with a group of friends via voice chat, but it’s not impossible to pull off with a random group of players.

To get you ready for the climactic showdown where everything comes together, each heist is broken down into smaller missions. Level 12 and the purchase of a luxury apartment are prerequisites for access to Heists. Your team must first choose who will be the “Heist leader,” or the person in charge of fronting all the money and recruiting everyone who will be needed to pull off the heist.

It is also possible to participate in Heists organized by other players, albeit at a reduced payout. While it may be challenging to find experienced players willing to take you on at first, you can find friendly opponents by joining a community like GTA Online LFH or r/HeistTeams.

GTA Online Guide: Business and Management Walkthrough

One of the most popular questions in GTA Online is, “How do I make money quickly?” Running an underground business empire is one of the most rewarding things you can do in the game. In Los Santos, you can run one of 13 different businesses. They are:

  • Places That Fake Documents
  • Marijuana Plantations
  • Fake Currency Production Facilities
  • The Methamphetamine Industry
  • Drug Prisons
  • Containerized Goods Storage Facilities
  • Storage Facilities for Vehicles
  • Nightclubs
  • Bunkers
  • Hangars
  • Arcades
  • Repair Garages
  • Agencies

This section of our GTA Online guide will focus on the various businesses found in the city of Los Santos and how they can be used to amass a fortune. We’ll start with the fundamentals of management and work our way up to expanding and improving your criminal enterprise.

Beginner's Guide — GTA Guide

GTA Online Guide: Heists Walkthrough

One of GTA Online’s most popular features is heists, which are multi-stage missions that can be completed with both friends and strangers for massive rewards. Heists, the Doomsday Heist, the Diamond Casino Heist, and the Cayo Perico Heist are the four types of Heists that have been released by Rockstar for use in GTA Online so far.

This section of our GTA Online guide will cover some basic information necessary to begin and complete the various Heists that can be found in the game. Keep in mind that the Cayo Perico Heist is the only one on this list that can be done without a group of people.

GTA Online Guide: Tips and Tricks for Beginners

Our GTA Online guide should have given you a taste of the game’s more intricate mechanics and systems by now. New players, however, should also take the time to learn and internalize a set of fundamentals.

Familiarise Yourself with the Interaction Menu

Using the Interaction Menu is like Rockstar giving your DualSense or DualShock 4 controller hundreds of new buttons. Though not the most refined answer, mastery of this mechanic is essential for success in GTA Online. The Interaction Menu is where you’ll find the “How to Become a CEO” guide, as well as access your Daily Objectives, Request Personal Vehicles, and set Waypoints. The Interaction Menu can be accessed by holding down the touchpad, and you should take the time to get to know it before doing anything else in GTA Online.

Eat Snacks to Recover

During Heists, players of GTA Online almost universally lament teammates who don’t snack. However, credit where credit is due, this one goes to Rockstar: the game doesn’t do a great job of introducing the idea. You probably already know that if you get hurt in GTA 5, you’ll only recover to half health. Select Inventory > Snacks from the Interaction Menu (open it by holding the touchpad down) to restore all of your health. Snacks can be bought at various stores in Los Santos, but you can also get them for free at places like the Office and Auto Shop.

Don’t Get Caught in the Grind

It’s simple to get stuck in a rut, like the ones we detail in our “How to Make Money Fast” guide, and grow to despise GTA Online because of this. Making a lot of money in Los Santos is exciting, but don’t forget the game’s primary motivation: fun. If you find yourself growing tired of repeating the same actions over and over again, such as the Cayo Perico Heist or running your Businesses, try switching things up. Not everything in Los Santos will net you a fat paycheck, but perhaps there are some things you can check off your list in the GTA Online Weekly Update. Time is money, but that doesn’t mean you have to spend every waking minute of your play time thinking about how much you can win.

More Fun with Friends

It’s great that Rockstar seems to have noticed that a lot of GTA Online players prefer to go it alone. However, it’s beneficial to interact with others on occasion. The majority of the game’s content is meant for two or more players, and it’s a lot more fun to do Heists and other cooperative activities with friends from different parts of the map. While there are certainly some drawbacks to playing GTA Online with friends, the game’s continued popularity can be attributed to the fact that it’s unlike anything else out there.

Conclusion

Our GTA Online tutorial is now at an end. We hope you’ve found this guide helpful, but if you’re still having trouble navigating Rockstar’s social sandbox, please let us know what else we can do to help!