GTA Online Career Builder Guide with Best Choices for Faster Money

GTA Online Career Builder is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC Enhanced. It gives new players, and returning players starting a new character, a head start in GTA Online.

What is GTA Online Career Builder?

Career Builder essentially allows players to choose from different criminal career paths. You also get GTA$4 million to spend on buying the properties, vehicles, and weapons for your selected career path.

Unfortunately, you must spend a minimum amount of that money before you can actually start playing — you need to spend at least GTA$3 million of the GTA$4 million that you're given. You can carry a maximum of GTA$1 million into GTA Online after these purchases.

Another important thing to note is that the Career Builder can only be experienced once. You cannot repeat it even if you create a new character, and you certainly won't receive the GTA$4 million cash bonus again! Career Builder is available on PS5, Xbox Series X|S and PC Enhanced, but not on PS4, Xbox One or PC Legacy.

Career Paths

Returning players should already be familiar with these career paths, but here's a quick rundown of what each path offers for new players in terms of progress. GTA Online career paths are as follows:

Executive

If you choose the Executive route, you will get an office and a warehouse for Special Cargo. Vehicle cargo uses a separate Vehicle Warehouse. You will buy and sell the cargo as the CEO of the company. While it may sound like a very beneficial career path, it is not lucrative for new players. We will discuss what career path to choose below.

Nightclub Owner

The Nightclub has two separate income streams, as explained in Rockstar’s Nightclub guide. Popularity generates income for the office safe. Warehouse technicians accrue separate goods from linked businesses such as Gunrunning and Biker businesses. Those businesses must be set up and active, but their supplies and manufacturing upgrades are separate from Nightclub production.

For a beginner, building the warehouse side means establishing that business network. Popularity falls over time, so keep the club popular to maintain its safe income.

Biker

In the Biker career path, you become the president of a biker gang involved in several illicit businesses including selling drugs, meth labs, and counterfeiting money. The Biker business is good, but not as good as the Gunrunner career path.

Gunrunner

Gunrunning is one of the most profitable businesses. As a Gunrunner, you manufacture and sell weapons. You can either buy supplies or steal them through resupply missions.

Best Choices

We understand that choosing a career path can be very confusing. Below, we've listed our choices for working toward the Kosatka submarine. This step-by-step route uses Career Builder purchases and early activities to help you build the funds for it.

The Kosatka submarine is the goal of this route because it opens up the Cayo Perico heist. You still need to complete the preparation missions and finale. Solo finale replays have a cooldown of three in-game days. The Diamond Casino Heist is another heist option.

So, you've got GTA$4 million to begin with at the start of your new character creation. Here's how you should spend it in order to have around GTA$1 million by the time you load into the world of GTA Online. The Kosatka costs GTA$2.2 million. So once you load into the game, your goal is to earn an additional GTA$1.2 million to reach that $2.2 million mark.

Here's our cheat sheet to the best career path for solo players:

• Career: Gunrunner
• Bunker: Chumash Bunker ($1,650,000)
• Upgrade: Bunker Upgrade Pack D ($1,214,500)
• Vehicle: Vapid Bobcat XL ($23,000)
• Weapons: Vom Feuer Special Carbine ($14,750), Vom Feuer Marksman Rifle ($15,750), Hawk & Little Mini SMG ($8,900), and Hawk & Little Homing Launcher ($75,000)

We've chosen the Chumash Bunker due to its location. It is the most cost-effective Bunker for its location, which is one of the best in the game as it is near all the key locations where you will be delivering your weapons as part of your Gunrunning business.

Bunker Upgrade Pack D is the most useful one as it provides you with upgraded staff members, better security, and personal quarters. Better security means fewer raids.

For the vehicle, our first choice, without a doubt, is the Armored Kuruma. However, we're ultimately trying to maximize our money to buy the Kosatka submarine and the Armored Kuruma costs $698,250. That will set you back a lot.

The Armored Kuruma is useful when you are doing missions that include PvE situations, as enemies in GTA Online are notorious for their highly accurate aim, and being inside the Armored Kuruma provides a lot of protection. The mini-SMG lets you return fire from inside the car.

So, if you are confident and have patience, feel free to go with the Armored Kuruma. But, we advise against it. You can always buy it after you start making money from the Cayo Perico heist. So, you should buy the cheapest vehicle for now, which is the Vapid Bobcat XL.

Finally, we recommend the mini-SMG, marksman rifle, and the special carbine for your weapons. You can also buy the homing launcher to make up for the rest of your required expenditure and get just below the GTA$1 million mark (remember, you can carry at most GTA$1 million into GTA Online). Now, you should be left with GTA$998,100.

Once you're all set, you can go to the summary page and start your career. Go through the tutorial phase, and once you reach free roam, you need to do a couple of things to earn significant cash.

Making Money Early

There are plenty of methods you can use to earn money in GTA Online and we've got a plethora of guides on how to do so.

However, many of these guides do not provide a lot of cash in a very short amount of time — some are more long-term investments, and some are just heaps of fun. So, if you start doing them right now, it will take forever for you to earn the GTA$2.2 million you need for the Kosatka submarine.

Instead, what we are going to do, is some in-game hunts. If you are a brand new character these hunts will be available for you. Sadly, if you are a returning character and have done them already, you won't be able to complete them a second time.

Los Santos Slasher Hunt

The first hunt you need to complete is the Los Santos Slasher Hunt. In this, you need to hunt down a serial killer and eliminate him to obtain a Navy Revolver. You can follow five different clues to reach the killer. The fifth clue is always in a random location.

Follow the five clues to track down the killer and claim the Navy Revolver. Once you get it, you need to get 50 kills with it as a challenge. Completing the challenge also earns a cash reward.

Find all clue locations in the Los Santos Slasher hunt guide.

Double-Action Revolver

The next hunt is for the Double-Action Revolver. You can find this exclusive revolver by completing a small treasure hunt. You find clues around the map, but the clues only start appearing once you receive a special message on your phone while in free-roam.

The locations are random. You can check out this guide on finding the revolver. Once you get the revolver, you need to complete its associated challenge — 50 headshots. Upon getting the headshots, you will be rewarded with GTA$250,000.

Stone Hatchet

Finally, there is another weapon you can get by completing five bounties for Maude. She will email you a picture and a general location of the bounty. You can either kill or bring back alive the target. If you bring them back alive, you get an additional GTA$5,000 bonus for each bounty. You must first visit Maude at least once for her to email you.

Once you've completed the five bounties, Maude will send you the location of the Stone Hatchet. You can go to the designated area and pick it up. You will earn GTA$250,000 for getting 25 kills with it.

See how to get the Stone Hatchet in GTA Online.

The two GTA$250,000 weapon challenges listed above total GTA$500,000. Added to the GTA$998,100 carryover, that would put you at GTA$1,498,100, leaving GTA$701,900 for the Kosatka before counting your Slasher reward, bounty payments or other earnings. After completing the one-time activities available to you, check your actual GTA$ balance.

If you still need funds to reach the Kosatka’s GTA$2.2 million purchase price, we suggest completing some VIP work and Contact missions to make up the difference. You can also complete the Flight School at the airport to earn approximately GTA$220,000. The amount can vary slightly.

Cayo Perico Heist

Once you've amassed over $2.2 million, head over to the greyed-out 'H' icon on the map, representing the Cayo Perico Heist. The 'H' will also have a tropical tree icon on it.

When you reach the location, you will get a message from Miguel Madrazo, Martin Madrazo's son.

Make your way to the Music Locker by the Diamond Casino. You do not need a penthouse for this. You can pay the receptionist approximately GTA$150 to go inside.

When you're inside, a cutscene will start and you will meet Miguel Madrazo. Miguel Madrazo is sitting at the bottom floor where the dance floor is. You will find him on the couch in the VIP area.

Once the cutscene ends, go to Warstock Cache & Carry from your phone and purchase the Kosatka submarine to start the Cayo Perico Heist. You see the 'renovate' option since we've already bought the submarine.

We have a complete collection of guides for starting the Cayo Perico Heist, the prep missions, scope out locations, and even FAQs.

Use those guides to plan the preparation missions and finale, and allow for the cooldown between solo completions.