Everything you need to about starting a CEO empire.
This guide provides comprehensive tips and tricks on how to come out top in the content of one of GTA Online's major DLC releases, Further Adventures in Finance and Felony. This was the biggest and deepest update at the time of its release, not to mention the most divisive among the community — all this, in addition to providing effective new ways to earn GTA$.
There has always been animosity... well, actually, there has always been seething hatred and disgust between the griefer and non-griefers among the GTA Online playerbase, but never has it been as pronounced as during the heyday of this update, which forced players to transport destructible cargo of great value in public sessions with passive mode off.
We'll cover how to navigate those particularly risky missions, as well as all the other new content added to GTA Online with Further Adventures in Finance and Felony.
Finance and Felony has players make investments of several million GTA $ in the form of crates that need to be taken to warehouses and later delivered to buyers. Thing is, these crates have the tendency to burn or blow up when shot repeatedly with high velocity projectiles.
You can imagine the moist squeeing this realization spawned from those handful of pre-pubescent players who love flying around in Hydras and repeatedly killing other players who are minding their own business. On the other hand, those GTA fans who wanted to immerse themselves in the new black market mechanic saw this as more than a nuisance.
While we've covered anti-griefer techniques in the past, put together a quick tutorial on how to get into your own empty public lobby whenever you want as well as a guide of our own regarding Finance and Felony, Rockstar's own guide has some pretty handy tips.
Since you unfortunately cannot do any black market missions in private lobbies — which, we admit, is a fault of the DLC — you can hop through lobbies until you encounter one with no asshole players around. Trust us, these are more frequent than most online forums would have you believe. Alternatively, have one of your associates hop into a Hydra of their own and grief the assholes right back.
Further Adventures in Finance and Felony builds upon what was possibly the best received DLC since Heists. Executives and Other Criminals was added to GTA Online back in December 2015 and brought with it a new level of gameplay with the VIP and Bodyguard system.
While more than enough words have been written about being a great VIP and a reliable Bodyguard, it never hurts to re-iterate how influential that DLC was. After all, it is SecuroServe which provides CEOs with associates in this update too.
The crux of becoming the biggest shark in the pool (which in this case is Los Santos) is getting the right office. There are four offices on offer, each with a different price tag. Functionally, they are all identical — the players with the cheapest offices have the same chances at success as the ones with the most expensive offices.
With the pricier HQs, you really just paying for the location, size and bragging rights. In this sense, being a CEO in GTA Online is much like being a CEO in real life — tossing money out the window for some flashy luxuries is in direct relation to your social standing.
Each office also gives players access to the same optional bonuses — if you pay extra, of course. These include a gun locker, a safe and accommodations.
The accommodations turn the office into a proper apartment, allowing characters to sleep and change outfits in the office, while the gun locker finally brings weapon loadout customization to GTA Online, allowing players to dump unused guns in order to make weapon selection quicker.
All stock offices come with boardrooms with a cool 3D map of Los Santos that has both purchased and available warehouses marked, a home cinema with a gaming system (and hence a mini-game) and your handy SecuroServe desktop which will be used to coordinate your corporate activities.
Another bonus that all CEOs in GTA Online will get with their office is a personal assistant, the gender of which can be freely chosen by the player. The assistant does all kinds of nifty things, like keeping you notified of the happenings regarding your business; they call in Pegasus vehicles to your office's landing pad; they recover impounded rides and enable fast travel back to the office.
However, undoubtedly their most useful feature is refilling your snacks.
For free.
That alone earns them a raise, no.
Once you have the office, you should simply access that SecuroServe terminal we talked about and register yourself as a GTA Online CEO (if only it were so easy in real life). There are fewer restrictions in place for CEO-hood than there were for being a VIP — there is no required minimum bank balance, there is no time limit nor is there a cooldown period after un-CEOing yourself.
Next up, in order to become a black market kingpin you need stuff to sell — but before you acquire said stuff, you need someplace that stuff goes. That someplace happens to be a warehouse — or, actually, up to five warehouses. These come in small, medium and large flavors, but buying one isn't final as you can always upgrade.
These warehouses all come stocked with a workbench which can be used to apply special upgrades to delivery vehicles. These upgrades are particularly useful against socially insecure players who live out their fantasies in GTA Online as they include the likes of armor plating and homing missile jammers.
The temptation to go for the flashiest office and to stock up on large warehouses early on might be strong, but we suggest not to take that leap — it will set you back several million which you won't earn back quickly, but you can always upgrade later. Black market missions need time to get a move on, so you'll be doing a lot of work before turning a profit — however, once things start up, you'll be making tons of dough.
Once you're set up with a warehouse, its time to go on your first buy mission. These missions are where you acquire crates of cargo that you will later sell for a greater amount, hence profit. You can choose to carry one to three crates at a time, however the more you carry, the greater the risk.
These crates will attract the attention of other players and NPC enemies as well, so you need to make sure your team is ready for opposition. Sometimes it is worth doing multiple 1 crate missions instead of risking the three, however at other times the opposite is true.
After completing some buy missions, you will be offered the option to try your hand at a special cargo mission. Here, the cargo is worth a lot to the people you will sell it, however picking it up will broadcast your location to every player in the session while spawning tons of NPC enemies. This is a high risk, high reward scenario recommended only for skilled teams.
Now that your warehouses are loaded, it is time to turn those crates into profit. These are once more risk-reward scenarios, where the missions for those buyers willing to may more are also more dangerous.
You can manipulate the prices for which your goods go to some extent by stockpiling — if you don't sell off your merchandise, the demand and therefore the value will increase. However, the more valuable cargo is, the more likely NPC gangs will attack said warehouse, forcing you to protect your goods.
Being a CEO is a game of risk assessment. Will you take one, two or three crates? Will you risk saving time in the face of greater opposition? Will you stockpile your goods in spite of raiding parties? Will you sell to the highest bidder and brave the tougher missions?
In the end, both the safe and the quick routes will turn profits. The safe route is more time consuming, however the quick route will see you lose more often.
So why can CEO activities only be done in public GTA Online lobbies? Apparently because one must also accept the risks of other players spitting in their soup and whatnot. However, this is a bit unfair considering how many assholes inhabit GTA Online. In order to complete your CEO missions in peace, feel free to reference the solo public lobby guide we linked earlier on.
Sure, the main attraction in this DLC is the crate smuggling, but plenty of other features also fit into the update alongside that aspect. More VIP challenges and jobs were added to the joy of players, as these were among the most lucrative activities added in Executives.
The new VIP jobs, much like the old guard, offer greater rewards in the face of greater risk — the objectives are more difficult and other VIPs/Organisations can have at the same objective or hinder your progress for some cash of their own.
First up in the list of new VIP work is Headhunter, which takes "elimination of the competition" in the most literal way possible. You and your associates are tasked with killing some targets spread across the GTA Online map — however, you'll do well not to dally, as there is a time limit within which you must complete this activity.
Headhunter isn't no blue milk run, as the targets and their guards have greater-than-average armor and health going for them. Even if you're not soloing, going in on foot all-guns-blazing will waste you in no time. Either approach with a vehicle, or apply stealth — long distance kills will help you keep your blood inside your body and it comes in handy when you need to turn tail.
And turn tail you must, as upon the death of the target Los Santos' finest will be hot on your trail. Police in GTA 5 are notoriously tough, so you'll need an escape plan.
Speaking of escape plans, some of your targets will enact theirs before you make contact. Chasing a target in a vehicle will be tricky, as staying behind them will result in an oncoming hail of gunfire. Try to think ahead and out-manoeuvre your quarry.
Now, if you'll heed the first piece of advice, then soloing targets will be more than viable — it will be efficient. If your associates are up to snuff, one per stationary target and two per mobile target should do. This will save you time — and time is money.
We also suggested the use of vehicles — once the job is done, you'll get a relative sense of what you're up against if you've run it many times before. As such, it might be good to call in a few Pegasus drops with vehicles fit for various roles before initiating the job to shave of precious seconds.
Don't forget that Lester and VIP abilities are your friends. Since the police will be hounding you after the first target goes down, taking advantage of these abilities and services to lose the heat will assist in your endeavors.
Next up, we have the VIP Job Airfreight, featuring one of the most loved — or hated, depending on patch — aerial vehicle in the game: the Cargobob. Incidentally, some players have been getting free Cargobobs recently, seemingly at random.
Either way, this job helpfully supplies you with one such chopper so owning one isn't a prerequisite. You and your associates are tasked with liberating the vehicle and the cargo from their armed captors and deliver said cargo, unharmed, to a set destination.
Depending on your playstyle, when storming one of the fortified locations, you should commandeer or destroy the attack helicopter stationed there — if you leave it alone, it will come back to bit you in the ass. Literally and figuratively.
This isn't the time for fancy flying. All you need do is set a straight course to the drop off and go. Associates will need to cover you from the air as well as from the ground — the permanent 3 star wanted level will be calling a lot of cops on your tail. Remember, this is GTA 5 after all.
Make sure you've stocked up on parachutes. Once you deliver the cargo, a self-destruct mechanism will be triggered in the Cargobob to erase any and all evidence that could tie the operation back to you.
The third and last VIP job added to GTA Online with Finance and Felony is Haulage. It's pretty simple on paper. You need to deliver a trailer full of cargo to a destination with a semi. Only thing is, there is a whole host of mean people wanting you to not do just that.
Obviously the main thing you'll need to worry about here is escort — get something armored and armed, with wheels, to follow the trailer and fend off attackers. Said attackers will sometimes kamikaze into you frontally, so keep adjust your camera so you see what's right in front of the semi while still seeing far ahead — the skies are of no concern.
One of your associates should be following you with another semi sans trailer — if the one carrying the cargo takes too much damage, the driver should detach and allow the backup to take over. If you and your associates aren't entirely incompetent, two semis should last you the mission.
Of course, VIP work isn't the only new addition — VIP challenges are also on offer. The key difference is that VIP challenges are exclusively reserved for Bodyguards and Associates, giving them a chance to get some decent pay while their employers reap the big cash.
It also encourages healthy rivalry among the bodyguards, as they compete against each other during said challenges. The winner always gets the biggest reward, but all associates receive a participation reward.
This is probably Rockstar's satire at work here. In the real world, more often than not the bosses of companies — be they legal or otherwise — keep the winnings for themselves and only pay their employees pebbles. Unfortunately, players cannot alter the payment ratio for Associates.
The solution? Rotate who is the CEO at regular intervals, either defined by time or money earned. Your organisation will remain unchanged and you can always switch back. This will result in fair payouts.
First up in the new line-up is Cashing Out. The associates are tasked with hacking as many ATMs as possible before the timer hits zero — more importantly, they need to hack more ATMs than the other. Since the world of GTA Online is teeming with cash machines, this challenge will always be cutting it pretty close.
One way to prevent other players from surpassing you in this challenge is pretty simple — kill them. On the flip side, in order to prevent yourself being killed you should put some distance between yourself and your opponents instead of hitting the closest ATMs.
Being a chameleon would certainly benefit players during this challenge, as you should always keep an eye on your minimap, as planning which ATM to hit based on opponent movements is crucial. To prevent others from doing the same, you should call Lester to take you off the radar.
You'll need to be speedy if you want to succeed — you have 60 seconds after starting a hack before the cops latch on your tail, which is more than a slight nuisance. Some of the faster vehicles in GTA Online will benefit you here.
Finally you have Salvage, taking players to the seas around the GTA Online map. You'll be starting on the shore, but swimming isn't the fastest way to the target area — keep an eye out for Seasharks nearby.
Once again, offing your opponents to keep their score low is a good tactic — however you'll need to get close and personal, since knives are the only weapons you'll have. You can always leave your more rowdy rivals to duke it out while you swim over to a quieter bit of ocean.
Even with rebreathers, the number of checkpoints will deplete your supplies of life giving air soon enough. Luckily for you, this challenge also spawns crates of rebreathers along with checkpoints, so keep an eye out for those too.
This massive GTA Online DLC also occasionally offers you with the chance to deliver special cargo crates for a significantly larger reward — and larger risk. Upon accepting the delivery, your exact location will be continually telegraphed to all other CEOs in the lobby — and all other players.
You should hire as many associates as possible, but make sure they are skilled too — you'll need plenty of muscle to guard the crates. In GTA Online, having a few less savory individuals in a public session cannot be avoided, so they'll be sure to come after your crates.
In order to save time and keep your momentum, you can pick up crates by driving over them — at full speed, if necessary. Of course, this is risky, as missing the angle will cause you to miss it, and going back is guaranteed suicide.
Remember, Pegasus is your friend. Buzzards and other armed vehicles will make fending off attackers significantly less stressful. Even armed/armored land vehicles come in pretty handy. Also, don't forget to utilize CEO abilities to lessen your troubles along the way.
Stockpiling will drive up the price, but you stand to lose a whole lot more of your investment too. Gauge the skill of your associates and act accordingly.
Which aspect of Further Adventures in Finance and Felony do you find the most challenging?
