GTA Online Gunrunning Guide

Gunrunning is a passive business in GTA Online that allows you to manufacture and sell weapons from an underground bunker. While it can provide a steady income stream, it shouldn't be your primary money-making method. Expect to make between $39K-$78K per hour from Gunrunning, assuming you steal supplies. For maximum profits, continue running crates or vehicle import/export missions alongside your Gunrunning business.

Gunrunning Is A Passive Business

Gunrunning has added a bevy of ways to spend your hard earned GTA$, as well as a new mechanic to earn some more, and the first thing to understand is that a Gunrunning business isn't something you should be pursuing exclusively. It shouldn't be your primary source of in-game cash and isn't a replacement for money making activities like running crates or vehicle import/export.

The most you can expect to make from Gunrunning is between $GTA 39K to $GTA 78K per hour (including expenses). That is assuming that all supplies are stolen instead of paid for too. You can see a comparison between money making methods here.

If you feel you're short of time, switching your Bikers business for Gunrunning is a good choice though. In essence, Gunrunning's gameplay mechanic is most similar to the Bikers businesses, but operates with larger numbers, both in terms of investment and returns. That said, don't expect to get a lot of profit from this business early on, since the best thing to do is immediately spend Gunrunning profits on fast-tracking research.

Buy A Bunker

Before you even get into GTA Online's Gunrunning business, you'll need a bunker. And to be able to buy a bunker, you'll need to be either a VIP, CEO or Biker Club President. Being a VIP requires you to have at least GTA$ 1 million.

Back to the bunkers though... much like in the case of warehouses, they are expensive investments, so you'll want the best value for your cash... which isn't always the most expensive option.

Your bunker will be your base of operations for all Gunrunning related activities and it's from here you'll launch on your Gunrunning missions. There is a garage bay for your Mobile Operations Center (MOC), an HQ section, a weapon workshop and areas for research and production. When buying you'll have the chance to upgrade your bunker with accommodations, a shooting range and a gun locker, as well as choose from a few different styles of interior style.

Depending on what your preferences are, three bunkers jump out as the best choices: Raton Canyon, Chumash and Route 68.

Raton Canyon

At GTA$ 1.45M Raton Canyon is the second cheapest bunker out of the 11 available, but offers security and seclusion. It's surrounded by mountains meaning you'll be protected when lifting off with aerial vehicles, your MOC spawns right outside, it isn't too far away from resupply missions and while it has access to a highway, a dirt road sits in between meaning it's far away from any potential griefers. It's also one of the less popular choices, meaning you'll be left on your own a fair amount of the time.

Chumash

Chumash (GTA$ 1.65M) loses out on the privacy and safety features, as it's both exposed and popular. However, the close proximity to the city makes it a good choice for people who need to hop between their businesses and other activities often. Do expect to bump into more rowdy folks around here though.

Route 68

Fewer players swear by this one as the other choices, however Route 68 (1.95m GTA$) has its advantages. Its location puts it closer to where the action is than either Chumash or Raton Canyon, however the downside of that is that you'll be harried by other players far more often. The Sandy Shores area has four bunkers close to one another, turning it into a hot zone for PvP. You're more than likely to get griefed every time you exit your bunker here.

Bonus Tip: Avoid the Farmhouse

If you have the cash saved up, it might be easy to fall into the knee-jerk reaction of immediately buying the most expensive bunker, at the Farmhouse. Don't. Not only will you be paying significantly more — GTA$ 2,375,000 to be exact — for practically no advantages, you'll also be crowded by aggressive players all the time. If Sandy Shores is a PvP hot zone, then the proximity of the Farmhouse bunker is an actual battlefield.

Bunker Upgrades

When buying a bunker, you'll have the chance to add some bonuses and upgrades much like in the case of the Executive Offices.

Cosmetic

You can select from three décor options, the default of which doesn't cost extra. The other two variants cost GTA$ 215,000 and GTA$ 290,000 respectively. In terms of functionality, you can add personal accommodations for GTA$ 265,000, a shooting range in two color variants (black: GTA$ 740,000, white: GTA$ 845,000), a gun locker for GTA$ 175,000 and caddies for either GTA$ 80,000 or GTA$ 120,000.

Performance

Further upgrades are available once you've actually bought the bunker, and these are reminiscent of the upgrades you can buy for the warehouses of other businesses, as they increase production efficiency and sell price among others.

The staff upgrade, which costs GTA$ 598,500 and the equipment upgrade which costs a hefty GTA$ 1,155,000, both contribute to this efficiency. In numbers, without upgrades, one unit of supplies is used up in 60 seconds. With both upgrades, that time is extended to 84 seconds. If you have a full bar of supplies and full upgrades, it will deplete in 140 minutes. This means that you'll need significantly less supplies to produce the same amount of product, which will also be sold at a higher price, giving you a bigger profit margin. The Security Upgrade is also key, and costs GTA$ 351,000.

We absolutely recommend that you buy these upgrades, as the combined cost of GTA$ 2,104,500 will almost break even after a single full product unit run and return profit on the second.

Manufacturing

Research Versus Production

Once you've got your bunker and done your first setup mission to get some supplies (setup missions are free and can be started from the Disruption Logistics terminal in your bunker), there are two things to get your employees working on: research and production. Research will unlock new kinds of upgrades that are not available through other means, while production is exactly what it sounds like — actually producing your guns to sell.

You can immediately jump into production, or try to get both balls rolling. However our suggestion is to focus fully on research first before repurposing yourself for production. This guide will assume you take that path.

Research Projects

So, now that you've bought your bunker/massive underground supervillain lair, the next step is to start researching the new weapons upgrades the game has to offer. Research projects in Gunrunning give you access to the unlockable new upgrades added in this DLC, including new loadouts for weaponized vehicles, customization options for your Mobile Operations Center and attachments for the revamped gun upgrade system.

Based on how much you've upgraded your bunker, researching upgrades will take around 4 to 6 hours each, real time. Now, since there are 45 research projects, and they're set up in branches (meaning not all are immediately available but have prerequisite research projects that need to be unlocked first), chances are you'll want to make use of the fast-tracking feature, but note its 3-minute cooldown. It will set you back GTA$ 225,000 to speed up an individual research project.

If you've fully upgraded both your staff and equipment, 100 units of arms that you've manufactured can be sold for over a million outside of Blaine County, GTA$ $1,050,000 to be precise. Provided you buy all of your supplies for those 100 units for GTA$ 375,000, instead of doing supply missions, you'll profit GTA$ 675,000 which can be spent on 3 research fast-tracks. Keep in mind that the production of 100 units takes the same time required for 2 or 3 (depending on how much you've upgraded your bunker) non-fast-tracked research projects, meaning this way you "win" one project at the expense of Gunrunning profits.

Provided you have enough excess kicking around from Export missions, you can blow through all research relatively quickly and start making actual profits. In total, fast-tracking all projects will set you back a little over GTA$ 10 million. If you've saved up prior to Gunrunning like you should have, this might not be too big an investment.

Supply Choices: Steal Or Buy

When supplying your business, you have two options: stealing supplies and buying them. Resupply missions are randomized ways to acquire supplies without having to buy them, however these take up a lot of time and are usually designed around you having a team. You can buy supplies for convenience, however this will reduce your profit margin.

We suggest buying supplies in the long run. You might want to steal them the first few times to work up enough income to get the research projects off your to-do list and to experience the missions themselves since, you know, this is still a game that you play for fun. You'll pick up 20 units of supplies per supply missions that you run, and if you have an Associate helping, there is a random chance you'll get multiple 20 unit bundles of supplies.

However, once the business is chugging along nicely, buying supplies is actually more profitable in the grand scheme of things, since that way you can spend the time you'd otherwise spend on resupply missions doing Export missions, for example, which yield more cash.

Your supply bar is equal to 100 units and to buy the supplies it is $GTA 15K per 20 units. So you'll need to spend GTA$ 75K to get a full bar of supplies ready for manufacturing.

Using Supplies & Producing Stock

Note that research, supply usage and producing stock to sell are all based are time, not around units. So 100 units in does not really mean 100 units out... You need to use the timings in this guide to estimate how much supplies you'll need to get the amount of stock you want to sell. Also note that when you are doing a Gunrunning mission (either a supply or sell mission) then the whole process is put on pause. So factor that into all your calculations.

Using Supplies

If you've completed all the research projects as we've suggested then you'll be free to focus 100% of your staff on production. You'll use up supplies during manufacturing at the following rates depending on whether you've upgraded your bunker or not (see performance under Bunker Upgrades above):

• No upgrades: 1 unit / 60 seconds
• Partial upgrades: 1 unit / approximate 72 seconds
• Full upgrades: 1 unit / 84 seconds

This means that you'll need to resupply every 1 hour 40 mins with no upgrades (100 minutes) or every 2 hours 20 minutes (140 minutes) with full upgrades.

Producing Stock

In terms of actually producing stock to sell, you bunker can hold 100 units of stock which will be created over time (while you are in GTA Online only, ie NOT if you are playing story mode) at the following rates:

• Non-upgraded Bunker: 1 unit every 10 minutes. Each stock unit is worth GTA$ 5K in Blaine County and 7.5K outside Blaine County (without upgrades). Just under 17 hours for a full bunker.
• Partially upgraded Bunker: 1 unit every 8.5 minutes. Each stock unit is roughly worth GTA$ 6K in Blaine County and 8.5K elsewhere.
• Fully upgraded Bunker:1 unit every 7 minutes. Each stock unit is worth GTA$ 7K in Blaine County and 10.5K beyond. Just under 12 hours for a full bunker.

Selling Your Product

The basic rundown of the Gunrunning business is identical to those in Bikers. You buy or steal supplies, let your business use the supplies to create units of product over time, then sell the units. Selling missions involve a number of delivery cars, a drop-off point and a whole lot of Merryweather mercs in between the two. To facilitate selling, joining SecuroServe and the Open Road is the Disruption Logistics Network, the new in-game system used to access Gunrunning missions.

Starting on research first and only then focusing on actually earning a profit (as we suggest above) is a good idea due to the fact that research uses the same supply pool as production, and also requires the attention of your employees. Naturally, if 100% of your supplies and employees focus is on production and nothing is spent on research, you'll be selling more product in less time.

Maximum Units & Maximum Profits

The maximum unit capacity of the bunker is 100. When selling, delivery vehicles are able to handle 25 units each, meaning 1-25 units will require one vehicle, 26-50 will require two, 51-76 need three and 76-100 need four.

While technically it would be viable to deliver one vehicle, go back, deliver another, and repeat until you've delivered all four, there are usually timers on sell mission which would make this impossible solo. Also, enemy NPCs have trackers targeting the delivery vehicles (not you or other player characters) so while you're delivering one car the others will likely be destroyed, leaving you with a massive net loss.

There is no advantage to delivering more units at once, so if you're playing solo, we suggest sticking to lots of 25, but we'll discuss solo play more extensively later on.

Selling units of product will net different amounts of profit based on where you're selling, check out the table below for specifics. Out in Blaine County, you'll be selling for GTA$ 5,000 per unit with no upgrades and GTA$ 7,000 per unit with full upgrades, whereas in Los Santos those numbers grow to GTA$ 7,500 and GTA$ 10,500, respectively.

Blaine County Sale Prices

Los Santos Sale Prices

Do You Need A Group For Gunrunning?

If you're asking the question whether Gunrunning is viable solo, the answer is yes, but you'll need to invest more time and money.

While in the long run, buying supplies is the better option compared to stealing them, this might not always be viable. However, resupply missions were designed specifically with multiple players in mind. All are difficult solo, with some being outright impossible. As a solo player, you'll be forced to buy supplies 100% of the time.

That said, there is a solo-friendly aspect here. Selling more units doesn't give you a percentage bonus like CEO crates. This means that selling 100 units in one go or 25 units four times will net you the same amount of profit. 1-25 unit sales have only one delivery vehicle, meaning 25 is the optimal number of units to sell solo, you'll just have to do the missions several times for the same amount of profit.

Weaponized Vehicles

Gunrunning added 6 new weaponized vehicles to the game, some of which are new, while others are militarized versions of existing vehicles. You can get acquainted with these vehicles without having to drop the money through the mobile operations missions, upon which we'll expand further when touching upon the Mobile Operations Center below. Weaponized vehicles can be bought without owning a bunker beforehand, if you want, via Warstock Cache & Carry.

• Weaponized Tampa (GTA$ 2,108,050/1,585,000 Trade price) — This version of the fan favorite muscle car adds a whole lot of armor and quite the suite of weapons to the vehicle. In the end, that armor doesn't stack up to much, with full upgrades only offering the same protection as other regular armored vehicles plus a little extra in explosive protection from frontal attacks. But where the Weaponized Tampa shines is offense. You should definitely upgrade the turret to dual miniguns since this will actually allow it to be aimed, as opposed to the fixed single-gun variant. Frontal missiles and rear mortars can be added as well alongside a proximity mine laying feature, making this the single most heavily armed vehicle in GTA Online. You'll need to keep in mind that it's quite fragile, though. The Weaponized Tampa can be stored in your garage.
• Half-Track (GTA$ 2,254,350/ 1,695,000 Trade price) — The Half-Track is a variant of the Duneloader with the rear wheels replaced by treads and an anti-aircraft turret stuck on the rear. This vehicle is heavily armored, taking as many rounds as an Insurgent Pickup and upgrades can completely bulletproof the windows. The turret fires non-explosive ammo and the upgrade to it doesn't change its mechanics, you're just getting a straight upgrade of the same weapon type. However, the Half-Track is a bit of an enigma. Even though it's billed as an anti-aircraft vehicle, since the turret position isn't armored explosives can kill the turret operator while leaving the vehicle itself unharmed, making this somewhat ineffective agains aerial vehicles equipped with missiles. The weapon is, however, effective against enemies on foot and unarmored cars. But here you run into the issue of aiming, since the gun can't be angled downwards. Of course, if both turret operator and driver are skilled, this can still tear up a Hydra before it gets in a good shot to kill the operator. The Half-Track can be stored in your garage.
• Oppressor (GTA$ 3,524,500/ 2,650,000 Trade price) — This has to be the single most fun addition to the game this DLC yielded. The Oppressor is a flying, jet-powered bike. It has no armor, but good luck to anything other than another Oppressor actually hitting you. You should definitely upgrade the machine guns to missiles, since the latter are homing and do massive damage. This thing is a fantastic Hydra deterrent, and will make short work of just about anything else — it's absolutely worth the asking price. The Oppressor can be stored in your garage or MC Clubhouse
• APC (GTA$ 3,092,250/ 2,325,000 Trade price) — The APC is another vehicle which, though geared against aircraft, is most effective against ground vehicles. The default tank turret does more damage out of the two configurations but has a much lower rate of fire, meaning the SAM turret is the better damage dealer overall. That said, the APC isn't too well armored even with upgrades, meaning that aircraft missiles will likely kill it before it kills the attacking aircraft. Not to mention that the SAM turret can't aim steeply upwards. Proximity mines are available for this vehicle as well. The APC can be stored in your garage.