GTA Online Beginner Guide 2025 — Step-by-Step Guide & Transcript

[00:02] kicking despite Rockstar's best efforts to the contrary. The base game is things for everyone. And whether you're a motorhead, someone who just likes to shoot at stuff, or a management game enjoyer, there are now literally dozens

[00:15] activities to keep you occupied for months on end, or at the very least until GTA 6 releases. However, what if you're new to the game? Well, in that case, GTA Online goes from being a fun experience to one of the most confusing

[00:28] openw world games because Rockstar makes zero effort to tell you which activities you should do or what to buy. So, that's why I'm making an updated beginner's guide for 2025 to tell you how as a beginner, you too can earn lots of cash

[00:40] from absolutely nothing and build your very own criminal empire in one of the created. And I'll also teach you how to play without getting griefed in public lobbies. Since it's 2025, we no longer have to sit through a tutorial where

[00:53] Lamar picks us up at the airport and walks us through the basics. Instead, now you get a streamlined career builder and $4 million worth of starter cash This upgrade is free for anyone who previously had the legacy version on PC.

[01:06] created over there, all that progress will carry over here as well. But if you do create a new character, make sure to go with either the bunker or the nightclub as your very first business. Now, personally, I recommend the bunker

[01:19] as the nightclub requires you to own a few other businesses for the max payout bunker is also good to go right from the start and it's going to generate the max background while you do other tasks. As for the location, go with Chumosh.

[01:33] Farmhouse would be better as it's closer to the city, but unfortunately, we don't get that option in the career builder as a choice. So, Chumosh it is for now. And also, you should go with the upgrade pack A, which will give you a personal

[01:45] quarters plus equipment upgrade. So product is generated much faster. One business is check if it allows you to install a personal quarters. This is to fast travel to that business because you can simply open the options menu,

[01:59] business if you have a personal quarters installed and join a new lobby to skip the driving and spawn right inside of the business itself. This is a massive timesaver and it will easily take 15 to 20 minutes off your daily grind, if not

[02:12] more. That 15 to 20 minutes you can spend doing interesting stuff like photographing cows or skydiving or stealing money from rival gangs or facilities instead of just measily driving around in your starter vehicle.

[02:25] you've selected upgrade pack A, you have two more choices to make before Rockstar throws you into the chaotic world of GTA Online. And you must first choose wisely here as these all have a big impact on your experience for at least the next

[02:38] few days. First, you need a vehicle. And for this, you're given a bunch of sleek supercars. But you should select either the armored Karuma or the Grati Turismo Karuma to brand new players because it's a better all-rounder and it's completely

[02:51] directions while also allowing you to see a crew of four. But if you're more fascinated by the racing scene in GTA Online and just want to go really fast, do time trials, all that kind of stuff, the Turismo Classic costs about the same

[03:04] and it will be a better choice for you. It also supports HSW upgrades, and it's one of the best cheap HSW cars in the game. So, you can't really go wrong with take the Karuma for the protection during heists and contact missions.

[03:17] from the career builder, you'll want to take a homing launcher, special carbine, mini SMG, marksman rifle, and some proximity mines. Later on, though, you as well as a heavy sniper once you have some starter cash. Heavy sniper for

[03:32] those aerial threats and long-distance takedowns. combat MG for pretty much you have your first business, vehicle, and starter weapons, let's talk about make money at the early stage of the game. You have three big money makers.

[03:46] The Cluck and Bell Farm Raid, the Los Santos Drug Wars DLC missions, as well as junk energy time trials. You don't need to own any properties, although I recommend buying an agency as your first business. And you'll understand why once

[03:58] shouldn't be too hard since we're getting 500k an hour just from Cluck and Bell and a further $150,000 from doing all 10 junk energy skydives. If you do the junk energy bicycle time trial, that's another $50,000 in your pocket.

[04:12] If you went with the armored Karuma in the career builder, grab yourself a Baty 801RR for $15,000 and that will help you complete the regular time trial super easily for an additional $100,000 every week. These are on that weekly cool

[04:25] part-time, you can't make that $100,000 again until the next real life week. But daily activities to keep us busy, like which you'll find right here at the Los Santos Tourist Board. And all you have

[04:39] to do is check which three animals are listed. Then you open up the GTA online interactive map at GTA web.eu and drive to the spawn zones for each one. Take three photos and you'll get $20,000 each for the first two and a $60,000 bonus

[04:53] for the last photo. That's $100,000 just for pulling out your phone and snapping about driving around, you'll also come across G's cashes. Find the beeping package and you'll get $15 to $20,000 plus a free refill of ammo and snacks.

[05:07] You also have daily stash houses that are marked by these purple icons with a five guards, and find the safe code to get your reward. This will either be $30,000 as a cash bonus or a free resupply for a random business that you

[05:21] activities is cycling between them efficiently so we can reach our first $10 million as fast as possible. Of course, don't fixate on any single with the cluck and bell farm raid, you will have a 1-hour cool down. During

[05:35] Liquors in Sandy Shores. If you ever receive the phone call from Ron in free on your map. And once you get there, you'll be introduced to Dax and the Fooligans, a drug gang who sells all kinds of funny illegal stuff. But first,

[05:48] you have to help them deal with a rival biker gang, the Lost MC. And once that's mission. Keep doing these while your Cluck and Bell comes off cooldown. Maybe time trials and wildlife photography challenges or maybe even a few races of

[06:02] your own if you bought the Grati Turismo classic instead of the armored Karuma. Then go back and do another Cluck and Bell Farm raid. Or you can do other ones that you do for various contacts on your cell phone. People keep calling you

[06:14] worthwhile work, but you should at least try each one once before moving on because there's only one first playthrough of GTA Online. And right minmaxing absolutely everything, which would just make the game boring right

[06:27] away for you. All right, now that we have our starter activities and missions planned out, it's finally time to make loads of money. For this, I suggest protect yourself from the griefers. Some public lobbies can be pretty chill, but

[06:40] once you get your bunker or acid lab cell vehicle blown up by some dude on a mean. You do get a slight bonus to your cell amount based on the number of is called the high demand bonus. But after doing this for years, I can tell

[06:53] you that I'd rather have the guaranteed base income than take a chance in a bad public lobby. Not all public lobbies will be bad, but the ones that are will And I'm assuming you don't have anyone to play with who can protect you while

[07:06] to be safe than sorry, especially while you're new and learning the game. Your up and running, which you can do by playing through the first dose and last in total, and by the end, you'll have

[07:20] these missions, and the first time money bonuses you get from them. Plus, you'll get a $3 million electric hypercar for free, the Ocelot Virtue, which has some of the most insane acceleration in the game, and it can tank up to 12 RPGs with

[07:33] full armor. You can use the money from the first and last dose missions to install the acid lab equipment in your briade 6x6 which you also get for free. And now you have an S tier business for solo players without spending a single

[07:45] right? But wait, don't start selling acid just yet because we still need to install those equipment upgrades inside our briade 6x6. So for these, you have to do a minimum of 10 fool jobs first. Basically, they're contact missions for

[07:58] DAX, and you can request one by calling them up on your phone whenever you're in the free room. Each Fooligan mission pays you $50,000. They'll take anywhere they have a 48minute cool down. So, start doing these ASAP. In a few days,

[08:11] upgrade. And by doing 10 missions, you'll also have $500,000 in your bank, which is twice the amount you need to install the upgraded equipment. So, once lab stuff for free just by doing missions, but you're also making a

[08:25] I highly recommend both the Los Santos Rug Wars DLC as well as Cluck and Belt better way to make money early on. And you have zero property or level prerequisites, so you can start after your first hour in the game as soon as

[08:39] you get that call from Vincent or Ron. Oh, and here's a really cool bonus as well. The freak shop also comes with a free Mark 2 weapons workshop, so you don't have to buy a business just to upgrade your weapons. So, we have

[08:51] bunker, which can generate a million dollars with a full bar of product. Another passive business in the acid lab which pumps out $351,000 every 3 hours with a production speed boost. And how about we add some active

[09:04] you're going to purchase business number three in my guide, which is the agency. ways of making money. Security contracts, pay phone hits, and the Dr. Dre VIP contract. The pay phone hits will give you $45,000 if you do the

[09:19] exactly how Franklin specifies it. And these only take about five minutes max. different tiers, but you'll also be making around $45 to $50,000 on average also how long it takes to do one of these. Both security contracts as well

[09:35] as paid phone hits can be accessed via your cell phone. So you don't even need don't want to. But the real money maker is the Dr. Dre VIP contract, which only became better in 2025 thanks to the Money Fronts DLC. Now you can skip those

[09:49] take up a good 12 minutes of your time and you can earn a million dollars guaranteed in just over one hour, maybe even less if you have an Oppressor M2 or missions inside and out. Then once you have your agency, you also unlock the

[10:04] Vehicle Workshop, which allows you to install a missile lock on jammer. This comfortable engaging in public lobbies since you finally have your core anti- business, we'll go with the Kasaka submarine. Yes, it's technically a

[10:19] vehicle, but it does unlock the Kaio Heist, which is the most timeefficient And people have made hundreds of millions of dollars just by combining Kaio with Dr. Dre. So, you should grab yourself a Cassaca as well as a Sparrow

[10:32] be way better than any car or bike for money grinding. The Sparrow is the fastest helicopter in the game with a top speed above 168 mph, and it will speed up your Kaio Prep significantly here. Then if you want to optimize your

[10:45] grind, do a Kaio run first. This does have a 2hour and 24-minute cooldown if you're solo. After that, do a Dr. Dre VIP contract, then a Cluck and Bell Farm Kaio will be back off cooldown, and

[10:58] gives you an extra 10% on the primary target. You don't actually have to complete it at that moment. You can just pay the setup fee and lock in hard mode for tomorrow. And just like that, you made $2.5 million a day without even

[11:10] trying. That's $75 million a month from just three heists. And using that money you've made, you can now purchase other businesses like a nightclub, vehicle warehouse, auto shop, salvage art, etc. I recommend the auto shop, Darnell Bros

[11:22] Garment Factory, as well as the hands-on car wash for your next three businesses. Maybe a salvage yard, too, if you want to claim some cool cars when we get the related heists. But honestly, you can save it towards the end. All of these

[11:35] will generate around $400,000 an hour, with the exception of the nightclub, which generates about $100 to $110,000 per hour. But remember, with the nightclub, that's 100% passive income in the background, while the others will

[11:47] require you to grind heists and missions to make that $400,000. And I don't So, I usually do an auto shop contract like Union Depository or the ECU job or the Prison Break. Then, I do a vehicle

[12:00] vehicle delivery for a client in the auto shop. Then, I'll source a few sell those, and so on. When it comes to this game, just mix and match different interesting. And before you know it, you'll have $100 million in your bank

[12:15] buy every single business, as well as a bunch of cool vehicles. If you're serious about grinding, I also recommend an oppressor Mark II. It may have earned grinders, this is still the single best weapon and vehicle inside of the game

[12:29] this guide was helpful to you new players out there. Now, get out there, get filthy rich, and don't forget, have fun while doing it. Thank you so much drop a like on it if you guys enjoyed and you found the information helpful.

[12:41] new and you want to see more GTA online content like this. And as always, make Twitter, and Instagram, specifically twitch.tv/hazardoushdtv streams. With that being said, I will see you guys in the next GTA 5 online

[12:56] see you guys in the next GTA 5 online video. Adios, amigos.