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The first thing that you are asked about when playingGrand Theft Auto Onlinefor the first time is to choose acriminal career,an utterly important decision to make that will determine the early-game experience, as you are about to spend a significant amount of gifted money on this career.
There are different factors to consider when choosing a criminal career, but regardless of what you choose,the game will not lock you out of other careers. Players can literally change their role in the game and own every business that each career has to offer, but only the first career choice will be funded for free with the $4 million that the game grants to newcomers.
Moreover, your criminal career choice also overshadows the choice of starter vehicle that you get. Each career offers adifferent pool of vehicles, but still, there are a few cars that are shared between all backgrounds. If you’re wondering aboutwhich criminal career to pick inGrand Theft Auto Online,or want to see each career outlined and compared, we’ve got you covered in this guide.
Executive
Hunt Down Crates And Sell Them
Being anExecutive, players will get topurchase an officein one of the Los Santos skyscrapers, along witha warehouseto store crates.
The gameplay loop for Executives is quite simple, but also lucrative. Unlike other criminal careers, the Executive requires the player to take an active role in completing business missions and is less passive.
Executives can simply earn money bybuying crates of stuff for a lower price and then selling them high. This requires the player to pick up the crates personally and deliver them to the warehouse. Once enough crates are collected, customers will offer a price, and then the Executive must deliver them to the drop point. There are different ways to locate crates, but they all involve paying some cash, between $2,000 and $18,000.
This is the only business that an Executive can run, but it’s not the only way to earn money. You can also accept various missions from the office secretary that pay a decent amount of money.
While available offices all provide the same services,warehouses vary depending on the amount of spacethey offer for crates. Larger warehouses can hold over 100 crates, while this number is less than 20 for a small warehouse.
Gunrunner
Manufacturing Military-Grade Stuff
Ever wanted to produce military stuff?Gunrunneris all aboutmanufacturing weapons and military-grade vehicles, and similar to Executive, it features only one business.
Unlike Executive,Gunrunner only requires one building, which will be both the base of operations and the manufacturing facility. Known as the Bunker, this facility specializes in manufacturing military equipment, butit also has an R&D department, which is where players unlock new products to manufacture.
The gameplay loop is pretty simple. Players will need to supply the Bunker with the required materials, which can be either purchased or stolen. Then, the bunker staff will begin manufacturing, and once there are enough products, the player can choose to sell and deliver them to customers.
This is mostly a passive income, especially if you can afford to purchase the supplies. The only unique aspect of Gunrunner ismaintaining a good balance between production and researchto unlock new stuff while earning a steady income.
The good thing about Gunrunner is that the player has the option toexpand and upgrade their delivery vessels. This is important for those who want to deliver the goods in a public lobby, where other players can raid them and literally nuke their profit. With more progression, players can purchase armored choppers for a safer approach to delivering cargo. This will also come with significant rewards, as the game offers extra income for delivering goods in the public lobby instead of invite-only sessions.
Nightclub Owner
A Layered Business With Lots Of Potential
Similar to Gunrunner,Nightclub Owner also starts with a single buildingthat serves as its base of operations, but it can also acquire a wide variety of businesses down the line to expand its operations and earn much more income.
Starting as a Nightclub Owner could be a bit overwhelming, but it’s definitely worth the headache to get the hang of this career. The Nightclub Owner actually manages two major businesses: the club itself and the mysterious storage underneath the club.
Running the club itself is quite easy, and it delivers a decent amount of passive income. After every in-game night, the players will receive that night’s income in their safe, butthis depends on a factor called Popularity.As Popularity grows, income will also increase. Thankfully, increasing Popularity only requires the player to hire a new DJ, which, of course, requires some cash. However, that’s the fastest way to increase Popularity. There are some other small missions and tasks to do in the nightclub that will also slightly boost its Popularity.
Moving over to the shady business of the Nightclub Owner, players can hire new staff to run secondary businesses for them. This will require you to pay an initial fee to the staff members and then purchase a business by branching into other careers.
The Nightclub Owner can benefit from every business that other careers have to offer, but to do so, the player will first need to establish the requirements for those businesses. For example, if you want to benefit from the weapons business as a Nightclub Owner, you will have to buy a bunker first.
Up to 5 businesses can be run by the staff members of the nightclub. Once the business is owned, the products will be delivered for storage in the nightclub, and from there, the player can sell the items to customers. As always, the delivery of the goods is on the player, and that’s the most challenging part of any career, including Nightclub Owner.
Biker
Running Underground Facilities Of Chemical Substances
Bikeris like an expanded version of Executive, with more businesses to run. Playing as a Biker, the player will need to get a Motorcycle Clubhouse first. Then, they should buy one business as well to make some cash.
The clubhouse serves as the base of operations, and, similar to the Executive’s office, it also offers some small missions that pay decently, such as tuning bikes for customers and delivering them.
The main source of a Biker’s income comes fromrunning a business. There are five different businesses that a clubhouse owner can benefit from, and unlike a Nightclub Owner, a Biker cannot assign staff members to control the businesses and earn a secondary income from them.
Most of the Biker businesses are eitherdrug productionor money laundering, and they are all managed almost in the same way. The player should provide the supplies to the workers and then sell the products to customers to make money.
Best Criminal Career
Taking profitability as the main factor,Nightclub Owner is the best criminal careerdue to its deep mechanics that enable layered income from a business. Being a Nightclub Owner, players will eventually experience all the other criminal careers as well.
Although a Nightclub Owner can assign staff members to control their businesses, they only take the responsibility of delivering cargo from those businesses to the club’s storage, and it’s still the player that needs to keep those businesses running. As such, the player will have to deal with the challenges of a Gunrunner, a Biker, and an Executive to have the most lucrative business.
The only downside for a Nightclub Owner is that it is a cash-hungry career, and players will need a lot of money to grow their primary business to its full potential.
