The best strategy for new players to gather wealth keeps evolving in GTA Online. There was a time 8-9 years ago when there weren’t a lot of ways to make big bank. People held up stores or the early heists (Fleeca Job or Prison Break).
As new updates landed over the years (Motorcycle Clubs ->Doomsday -> Casino -> Cayo Perico -> LS Tuners), the best money making methods also changed.
What heists & businesses are worth the time now?
Heists
Purely in terms of ease and earnings per hour, the Cayo Perico is the best out there. Till this update came around, the Casino Heist was the best money maker.
Realistically, in 1-1.5 hours you can complete the entire heist including setups. No other business or mission can get close to Cayo Perico earnings. The Kosatka submarine is the pre-requisite for this heist. So purchasing this first becomes key in any strategy for new players.
If you have a group of friends to play with, the Casino Heist is probably still the most fun (setting off alarms and restarting all over staring at a loading screen most of the time can get old quickly with Cayo Perico).
The older heists like Prison Break, Fleeca Job can still be fun but the payouts are pathetic. So new players should focus on the newer heist to make their first few millions! Doomsday on the other hand is widely accepted to be the hardest heist in the game. While the payouts are somewhere in the middle, it’s not for new players.
Businesses
Similar to the heists, the business properties in the game have different payouts. The older businesses like Motor Cycle club businesses are no longer efficient ($ per hour). The Bunker and Crate warehouses are better money makers, and you need to spend less time on them – it’s hard to say which is better, it can come to personal preference. Rockstar occasionally offers double money rewards on these as well.
The Nightclub remains the best business overall, once you have the technicians properly set up. At that point this becomes the only real passive income earning business in GTA Online. This can be slightly complicated to set up, a full guide is available here.
Conclusion
Basically, buy the Kosatka submarine first. Saving up for this will be the hardest, and will have to be supplemented by missions, CEO work, VIP jobs or simply selling a few cars each day to LS Customs. Once the Kosatka is acquired, next up is completing the Cayo Perico heist. The first time you do Cayo Perico, the heist fee will be $0 (it’ll be $25k after that).
You now have the means to make money as fast as possible. Use your Cayo money to buy a nightclub and start working towards connecting your technicians (this will take time, you need to buy other businesses to achieve this). Parallel to that, investing in some vehicles to make your life easier will be next – a few suggestions are the Oppressor MK2, Armoured Kuruma and the Nightshark. All of this can be achieved once your Cayo earnings slowly reach $10-15mil. By this time, you’ll be fully and optimally settled in game!