Make Money On Gta 5 Story Mode

Introduction

The objective of this guide is to describe the tactics that I use to accomplish the strategic goal of having fun while farming for money; or how to beat the game with the most money available on each character while squeezing everything there is to offer out of the main game and being able to enjoy every minute of it.

Personally, I find that storming through the main missions and leaving the assassinations missions for last to be boring which incidentally robs the fun out of the game for at least me. While the main missions and assassinations accrue the most wealth, there's nothing like beating the game and making all that money to pointlessly buy properties with not much else to do besides race or go parachuting.

So, this guide will attempt to describe how players, new or old, can make lemonade out of the lemons we are given, by stopping to smell what roses GTA V has to offer, without beating all the context and meaning out of the single-player campaign.

Please bear in mind that at this point the guide is a work in progress, which I will be filling out as I play-through and document my progress.

(Note 4/22) The analysis of the LCN is, and has been a long and lengthy process, but I have found it to be somewhat fruitful.

Chapter 1 - Before Franklin Becomes a Rent-Boi

Take control of Franklin, complete the first, second and third mission. The first mission being the one in which Franklin and Lamar are repossessing the cars, the second being the mission for Simeon in which the player repossesses the motorcycle from the Vagos and the third being the mission in which Chop is introduced and the Balla member is hunted down.

This second mission earns the player the pistol which will allow Franklin to rob convenience stores and heist Gruppe Sech trucks. The third mission blocks off the availability of the save point at Franklins' house so the player is forced to complete the mission if they want to hard save.

In between these missions complete the first Tanya mission to start Pulling Favors.

During the day rob stores and heist Gruppe Sech trucks while looking for all the available Leonora Johnson (LJ) scraps.

Go to this guide for my Convenience Store Stick Up quick reference guide, like and favorite for faster indexing:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466967587

Go to this guide for the various Gruppe Sech spawn locations, feel free to like and favorite for quick referencing:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2466945162

Go to this guide for all the way point locations for the LJ letter scraps, please like and favorite for faster search results:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2464800742

By night race consecutively through the night. After winning a race, drive a few blocks away then do a U-turn back when it reappears on the mini-map after zooming out.

Haos will become available overnight between 20:00 - 05:00. Beat the first race to start unlocking the rest of the races. After beating a race, it takes a good 2-3 days/nights for Haos to contact Franklin about the other races, so make sure to continually beat each newly available race as they come out for an easy 10-20k per night.

Rinse and repeat this pattern until all the available Leonora Johnson scraps have been found.

Avoid dying, or being arrested since there is no way to bank the money being earned and any investments into the stock market will result in immediate losses and a breakage of the current stock market.

Also, avoid completing any of the Blue Dot missions related to gaining money through the LCN, such as the ARK side quest reward which is located just a few blocks south of Franklin's house, or the TNK side quest. Completing these quests at this point will, reduce the available reward and result in permanent stock market crashes. (As of my latest play through the best time to receive the ARK reward is during Chapter 5 after the trio unites.)

However, a good Blue Dot side quest to do though, is the one involving Patty McCreary. To the block immediately south of Franklin's cul-de-sac is a pharmacy that's being held up by McCreary. Pull up in the Buffalo or any sporty 4 door vehicle option then escort McCreary away from the scene of the crime. I believe heading south towards Cherry puts the player close to the drop off location, or go south west towards the scrapyard and the surrounding hills to hide out. Completing the mission earns the player a new heist member and an easy $1,000. Avoid going north east however since that is the nearest police station.

Once all the available scraps have been found and Franklin has a satisfactory cash reserve (I had around $100,000-$250,000 and it was well worth it), advance the story up to gaining control over Michael, which should just be the next Simeon mission.

Chapter 2 - A Burgeoning Partnership

Continue avoiding investment into the LCN or completing the quests that reward the player with LCN/BAWSAQ investments.

After the player gains control of Michael, open the phone browser and check out the Epsilon program website www (.) epsilonprogram (.) com (Apparently, in it's original state it sends people to a legitimate website). Complete the survey and head to the newly marked quest '?' on the map.

It's very much worth the players time to start this side quest now, as compared to later because following through with and finishing the quest, will eat up a lot of time and put an extra $1,000,000 into the players pocket for speculative market investment later.

Previously, I thought that Franklin had the lowest cash gains, but it turns out that it's Michael who has the lowest early game cash gains, because aside from robbing stores and heisting bank trucks, he has no alternative methods of gaining cash.

Michael can hijack taxi's and run customers around while looking for stores to rob and bank trucks to heist, but this yields significantly low income rewards.

Now during the day, make money with Michael, then at at night switch to Franklin and run his races.

Rinse and repeat this until Michael has enough money to complete the Epsilon program rewarding him with a larger cash advantage. I think the cash advances were $500, $2,500, $5,000, $25,000, $50,000 or something like that (Doing this first, will yield significantly higher pay offs later on, by the time Michael has completed the program, Franklin should be nearing $100,000-$250,000 in race rewards)

After making enough money or getting incredibly bored (whichever comes first), gradually advance the story line until meeting Lester. Advance past the mission involving meeting Lester and assassinating the Zuckerberg stand in; then stop because the next Lester mission involves planning a heist and if Ricky Lukens the guy from LifeInvader hasn't called you yet, then you will not be able to include him in the heist and the player will not receive the highest available reward.

Also do not worry about investing in LifeInvader (LFI), at no point is there money to be made in this stock.

*However at this point monitoring the Vangelico (VAG) stock and buying in at a low point may be profitable, but this is speculative and unconfirmed, based on the evidence that there is no money to be made from LFI, however this is after the point in which the LCN is "unlocked" so there shouldn't be any stock market crashing effects which would negate the stock appreciating. My theory is that the VAG stock appreciates overall to it's highest value immediately before the heist takes place, since the heist causes the stock crashing effect. If I remember correctly, I was invested into VAG before going into the heist mission and during the very beginning of the heist mission I sold the stocks while controlling Michael as he drove to the mission site and while controling Franklin as he climbed to the roof and I did make some nominal profits.

Chapter 3 - The VAG Heist

Either continue making money or advance to planning the VAG Heist.

Do Not advance to the VAG Heist until Patrick McCreary and Ricky Lukens have been unlocked

Do Not make any significant monetary investments unless planning to liquidate during the mission, this is because completing the mission means losing temporary control of Franklin and Michael and based on the stock information I charted, Chapter 4-5 mark a low point in the LCN's investment span.

When planning the heist pick:
Ricky Lukens 4% cut
Patrick McCreary 12% cut
Karim Denz 4% cut (whichever is the cheapest driver)

Total Crew cut 20% (I think that's how it played out if I remember).

The method may not matter, but I choose the quiet approach since it offers the most time to break glass and the fewest number of flying bullets to pierce money bags.

During the heist the last available moment to liquidate stocks is while Michael is dropping Franklin off and while Franklin is heading to the roof in order to toss the sleeping gas

After completing the heist and regaining control, Franklin will be rewarded with around $230,000 and Michael with something like $1,000,000.

At this point the money pools should look something like:
Franklin $500,000-$600,000
Michael $1,000,000-$2,300,000

Chapter 4 - Trevor

After completing the VAG heist, the player will find themselves transitioned over to Trevor and the rest of the characters temporarily locked.

Continue the cycle of robbing and looting stores this time instead with Trevor, while looking for unsuspecting Hitchhikers to drop off with the Cult of Altruists.

Check the Northeast portion of the LS highway and the newest heist member should be available for rescuing and subsequent heisting, if not check back at later times.

After it's been decided that Trevor has had enough, slowly advance his mission sequences while stopping to smell the desert cacti and rob unsuspecting strangers.

A good set of side quests are finding the different bail bonds that become available shortly after completing the first or second Trevor mission. Bringing them back in alive, always yielding the higher reward, this can be difficult but shooting people in the leg with a silenced pistol usually makes them stop running without killing them.

Once further boredom has set in, continue the Trevor quests until he's rewarded with a large sum of money and then when it becomes available purchase the TP Industries hanger bay, which is then used to make or pickup illicit drops in the plane or dune-buggy. Completing both sets with the bonuses yields something like $12,500 per run, which racks up pretty quickly. The hanger pays for itself within the first 20 runs.

Purchasing the hanger marks the beginning of property availability, but this isn't really important until chapter 5.

After all these side events have been finished and the hanger paid off, continue advancing the Trevor story-line up until he meets Michael again.

Chapter 5 - The Gang's all Here

Trevor takes Wayne to Los Santos where they crash Wayne's cousins' house and more or less kidnap the cousin to investigate the shipping yard.

After completing the mission, control over all three characters should now be possible and the real fun begins.

All of, or mostly all of the purchasable properties will now be available and the time to start making some investment decisions has come.

However, the first choice should be to whom, should the ARK stock be rewarded?

I would recommend saving the ARK stock reward for Franklin. This is because Michael should be the first character to reach a $1,000,000 for completing the Epsilon side quest and an extra $100,000 compared to his $2,300,000 is a relative drop in the bucket.

Trevor who we will unlock during the next chapter, makes decent income gains through his endeavors with TP Industries. Around $100,000-$250,000 a week depending on how hard the player grinds.

Franklin is the one who benefits the most from earning the ARK reward, because it helps recoup some of the losses from purchasing either the Taxi Company, the Tow Company, the Dispensary or the Auto Shop.

The second choice is whether to $1,000,000 on all three characters or to buy properties in between grinding to $1,000,000 and slowly advancing missions.

Here are two philosophies:

Grinding to $1,000,000 first allows for greater investment returns which begin to compound faster with each stock buy/sell cycle and the returns have the potential to outright pay for properties themselves.

Grinding to $1,000,000 takes quite a bit of time due to the income differences between Trevor and Michael. Trevor makes more per capita in trafficking rewards than Franklin does since the race times are limited. Therefore slowly purchasing properties in order to gain their income rewards, allows for them to pay themselves off while farming for more money.

The classic tortoise versus the hare dilemma.

I chose the tortoise method and this is the property order I would recommend:

Trevor
Grapevine Hanger
The Hen House (Paletto Bay Bar)
Strip Club (Story Mission Reward)
Pitchers
Tequi-La-La (Opens up after Trevor knocks the guys tooth out for Nigel)

Franklin
Smoke on the Water
Tow Company
Taxi Company
Auto Shop (North of LS somewhere near Sandy Shores, it costs 349,000 and only returns $1,600 per week but parts are free so if the player max upgrades enough cars it's more than worth it.
Biker bar (heading on the west LS highway going north to Paletto Bay, I forgot it's name as well)

Michael
Scrapyard (This property is mostly useless and broken but it gives the player something to do with Michael while he sits on his fat arse and waits on his millions to appreciate)
10-Cent Theater (I would not recommend purchasing this until Michael has made at least $20,000,000, since it costs $10,000,000. That way Michael still has a significant sum of money to invest with while the theater pays itself off)
Vinewood Cinema
The most expensive theater (I forgot its name)

Who buys the golf course is up to you, I've never been faced with this dilemma which is partially the purpose of this guide, but I'd say Franklin deserves it since he makes the least overall weekly income from all the properties he gets to purchase.

Given all this advice, it is notable to state that the player should not advance any major quest lines at this time unless they are absolutely certain that they are happy with doing so. This is because I observed several noticeable depreciation points in the LCN stock market after continuing with the Barry and FIB quests that are involved in advancing Michaels story line.

Freezing the story line and taking the time to grind for money while slowly purchasing some of the cheaper properties keeps the LCN frozen in a consistent state that the player can use to make guaranteed sums of money back. As of my most current and recent playthrough I have lost approximately $0 dollars due to loses in the LCN, so I know that this is and should be accurate investment information. Any loses that I have suffered have come from being Wasted or the one time I got Busted and have been minimal.

At some point the player will meet up with the Stranger and/or Freak that gives Franklin the Spaceship part mission, the following way point guide will assist in completing this task:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2468407188

Chapter 6 - The Great Depression

This is the newest and latest section to the guide, it's where I started to quit recording stock market information and just farm for money. The section is labeled the Great Depression because after advancing Michael's missions involving the FIB, the LCN gradually depreciates to what should be it's lowest values throughout the span of the game. According to the LCN stock values that I was previously recording and my latest observations, that is the pattern that is indicated.

That means that this should be section of the game in which the player needs to carefully observe the LCN values in accordance with their mission advancement and make sure that they are investing in the patterns that they want to be investing in.

What that means is simply making sure to have all stocks liquidated before advancing through a mission if after the mission the overall stock market depreciates, or making sure to go all in before a mission if the stock market appreciates afterwards.

This is the first major point in which separate saves should start to be made before and after completing each mission to make sure that the player can go back on a decision if necessary.

It's tedious and tiresome, which is partially why I quit recording my information and started going more with the flow of the game.

Notes on the LCN

Eventually, I'm going to do a statistic analysis of the LCN, hopefully doing so might provide better insight as to how it operates.

The effect I'm currently or will be investigating is what causes stocks to crash in the early game.

(If anything after this feels disjointed, it's because it is more or less a collection of previous observations and anything that I felt might be potentially useful information left over from the previous edit.)

These were my previous recommendations and observations about the initialization of the LCN upon a new game.

At this stage, the two most important stocks to watch but not invest in are ARK, LifeInvader, and VAG: why?

Because of the early game reward in ARK stocks and the early game disruption of the LifeInvader and VAG (The first Heist on the Jewelry store).

However, do not invest in any of these stocks until after Lester has told Michael that he should do some investing. This is because the LCN is effectively 'locked' until this point and any investments made will simply cause the given stock to continuously crash until it has nearly zero value. The following are anecdotal examples of this happening.

For example, on my latest play-through ARK started out around $54 per stock, after receiving the ARK reward the stock immediately fell to around $45 per share.

At the time I was under the impression that ARK was running stable somewhere around $50-$54 per share and would appreciate, so when I sold my stock reward at the initial $100,000 then reinvested when it dropped to $50, I was under the impression that it was at it's lowest point. Meaning that I lost money, until the stock price came back up, almost 1 in-game month later and having progressed many story missions.

I had watched the stock markets for a few weeks prior to investing, but because I continued to advance the story while trying to make a profit, ARK's stocks became more volatile until I reached the mid-game when ARK reached it's highest stock value of $60 per share, at that point I had been out of ARK for awhile and every time they reached a good investment point I was deep in some other company.

The moral of the story being that if I had measured my actions better, I should have sold the initial reward for the $100,000 watched and waited for a peak low at $42 per share to re-invest, then either sold when it appreciated to the mid-range $54+ per share or even potentially waited until it reached the peak $60 per share value, which would have yielded 1.25-1.5x my original investment. (This observation leading to the hypothesis that if the ARK reward is taken after the Lester 'opens' the LCN, that there are greater gains to be made by selling the stock, waiting for it to bottom out, then re-investing and waiting for a peak, it will have appreciated to a significantly higher value.)

The same goes for LifeInvader, on a recent new game I observed that LifeInvader was initially valued around $45 per share; so I sunk all my initial income into the stock thinking that it would appreciate as I progressed towards unlocking Michael and moving towards the Lester mission. Lo and behold, as I let time progress and the initialized stocks stabilize, LifeInvader sunk down to it's post-assassination levels of around $7 per share, creating immediate frustration. (This observation leading to the hypothesis that any investments into the LCN made prior to completion of the LifeInvader mission will crash the invested stock)

LCN Analysis

Hypothesis: Based on previous LCN observations, there should be greater opportunities for stock market gaming, due to changes in the LCN caused by the player wittingly or un-, advancing the storyline.

Working Conclusion: The stocks in the LCN appear to behave in a set manner allowing the player to potentially game stock values at certain points. Previously, I theorized that it might be possible to make money through early investments into LifeInvader(LFI) and Vangelico (VAG), what I learned was that no money can be made through investments into LFI, however it should still be possible to make money off the VAG stocks prior to the VAG heist.

Experiment: Every 5 hours of play time I opened the LCN, wrote down the various stock values that I felt were interesting, saved the game and remeasured the stock, then exited the game and reloaded to hard reset the LCN and took another stock reading. I repeated this pattern up to 25 hours while limiting the advancement of the story line.

Observational Note: Saving the game advances time (everyone should know this), but resetting the game by exiting then re-entering rewinds time. This can be seen by the dip in stock value, that reverses itself to the near original value of the stocks after taking each set of readings, or vice versa in the case of stock appreciation.

Time Period

5 Hour Check

10 Hour Check

15 Hour Check

Stock

5 Hour Mark

Save

Reset

10 Hour Mark

Save

Reset

15 Hour Mark

Save

Reset

ARK

47.88

44.24

46.14

39.59

38.95

39.54

BIL

135.88

127.69

132.6

180.53

173.67

180.01

DEB

131.44

130.63

131.79

177.83

177.16

178.16

EMU

124.25

126.73

124.82

110.79

110.47

110.54

FUS

20.45

19.95

20.36

17.36

17.12

17.34

GCD

71.69

69.45

70.37

60.02

59.36

60.01

GRU

85.73

89.09

88.4

82.69

87.83

83.47

LFI

230.36

236.36

232.25

196.58

197.8

194.19

MER

58.7

55.86

56.7

61.41

59.11

61.29

RWC

236.02

226.05

231.44

296.32

304.61

297.31

UNI

75.5

71.13

72.54

78.19

77.7

77.43

VAG

101.73

101.75

103.92

110.7

110.83

110.09

Conclusion

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Keep an eye out for my guides across other franchises such as Resident Evil, Grand Theft Auto, Final Fantasy and various other games like Sega's ultra horror survival game - Alien: Isolation.

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