Unlock Explosive Ammo in GTA Online

Wanting to unlock explosive ammo along with the other MK2 ammo types? Read on.

In terms of upgrades, unlocking MK2 ammo is one of the harder things to achieve in GTA Online. Not necessarily due to difficulty, but the effort and cost involved. But as you would hear in the GTA community, they are well worth it at the end. While Explosive Ammo is certainly the most powerful and popular MK2 ammo type, all ammo variants have their own advantages and quirks.

If you are not familiar with the different MK2 ammo types yet, this guide will explain each one.

This guide assumes you have already upgraded your existing eligible weapons to MK2 variants. If you haven’t yet, see our detailed guide on weapon upgrading here.

What is Explosive Ammo?

The most popular MK2 ammo type deserves an intro.

Explosive rounds do exactly what is mentioned on the box; they explode on impact. With some guns (e.g. the Pump Action Shotgun), they can one-shot most passenger vehicles and players! It can be really devastating in PVP if your opponent has no MK2 ammo.

Putting it on the Heavy Sniper MK2 is probably the more popular use – allowing you to even blow up aircraft with 1-2 shots. If you are going all out with your MK2 Ammo, this is a great guide on which ammo is best for which weapon (best loadout).

Pre-requisite: Buy a Bunker

Bunkers can be customized with a range of modifications such as Personal Quarters, a Shooting Range, a Gun Locker even small transportation caddies. They also allow to store the Mobile Operations Center, and to research Weaponized Vehicles and Mk II Weapons.

Convert your desired (and eligible) weapons to MK2

This step can be done at any Weapons Workshop. So technically, you can do this step without a bunker, if you already have a Weapons Workshop in your MOC, Avenger or Terrorbyte.

Start running through the Bunker Research items

As a Bunker owner you can make weapons, and also conduct research. The research unlocks different game upgrades like vehicle upgrades, unique liveries and most importantly, the MK2 ammo types. Depending on how well developed (and upgraded – e.g. Bunker Staff and Equipment) the player’s base is, upgrading an item takes about 4 – 6 hours. If your Bunker is fully upgraded, this will take 3.5hours.

The kicker is that the Research item is random (some say ‘fixed’ to not give you the good stuff early on). You don’t get to pick what to Research, the items will be researched in a random order. So you have to keep researching till you get the item you want. If you want to know more about how Bunker Research works, and tactics to speed this up, read the Research Guide here.

Much like manufacturing weapons, the Research also requires Supplies. You can either buy them or steal them.

Once you have unlocked the MK2 ammo, you simply need to go to a Weapon Workshop (e.g. MOC) to equip them on your weapons.

It is worth noting that not all ammo types work well with each MK2 weapon. And it is also worth making your choices based on your playing style. So if you want to optimise your weapon load-out with MK2 ammunition to suit your playing style with each gun, see this guide.