GTA Online’s new Money Fronts update is a solo-friendly Breaking Bad fantasy, and it’s the most fun I’ve had in the game’s 12-year run
GTA Online is all about setting up criminal organizations and making cash hand over fist. But, if you’ve ever watched Breaking Bad or any number of other crime shows, you’ll know you can’t be too flashy and enjoy your ill-gotten gains without the feds catching on. That’s where the latest Money Fronts update comes into play. It unlocks a car wash that makes your dirty money clean, and it’s by far the best way to make quick cash if you’re playing solo.
I remember the start of GTA Online, back in 2013. The glory days these were not. If you think the connectivity is bad now, you should have seen it on a PS3. And, you could only sell your goods in public lobbies, meaning griefers would always put a stop to your hard work. A few years back, Rockstar realized everyone was finding ways to get into solo public lobbies and just let us do it officially.
So, we don’t need to worry about Oppressors blowing our drug shipments up, but you still need people to help you shift those goods. I don’t know about you, but getting more than one friend to play online with me is a nightmare, especially with no cross-play.
At the car wash!
Enter Martin Madrazzo, everyone’s favorite slick-talking cartel owner. He helps you set up the money laundering operation – a car wash, just like Walter White’s. It only costs $1 million, which is relatively cheap for GTA Online, meaning you can start getting into this new update pretty quickly, even if you’re a new player.
It gives you access to three new kinds of missions. You can help your new boss, Mr Faber, launder money with his associate, Raf, or do some actual work like washing cars so that the cops don’t get suspicious.
The car wash on its own makes about $10,000 per day passively, which isn’t too shabby, but it’s nothing to write home about. The kicker is the money laundering missions. You can do these in invite-only lobbies and they only take one person.
I spent 90 minutes stealing cars that had dirty cash in them, went to other money laundering operations, robbed them blind, and then blew them up. The whole thing netted me half a million dollars.
That’s because each money laundering mission gives you $35,000 or $70,000, and they take 10 minutes or fewer to complete. They don’t put you into a matchmaking screen like a job either, so you just stay in your session and rinse and repeat without wasting time on loading screens.
Once you’ve earned a bit of dosh, you can buy Smoke on the Water and Higgins Heliotours for $850,000 and $900,000 respectively. These open up new kinds of missions, like getting back your impounded helicopters or torching rival weed farms that add a gnarly intoxicated effect when you stand too close to the fumes.
Eventually, you’ll have to do some real work like get to some rich schmucks house, drive their car back to your wash, and then return it. Fortunately, you don’t need to do these often as the heat builds on these businesses very slowly, and it was only after I got that half a million I had to do the legit stuff.
I normally play with a buddy, but when he’s offline it just doesn’t make sense for me to sell from those other businesses. That can require four vehicles, which is doable with two of us making two runs each, but it’s impossible alone. If I’m just doing Money Fronts missions, I can play for a bit, sell when my other businesses are 25% full, and then carry on with the car wash while I wait for them to fill up again.
When does solo become too solo?
Getting more than one friend to play online with me is a nightmare, especially with no cross-play.
My main criticism of Money Fronts is that there isn’t much to do with anyone else – it’s maybe too solo-focused.
The Mr Faber missions work like other jobs which take you to a set up screen and can be played by up to four people, but they don’t pay very much, so the solo missions are more worth your time. They are fun though. One had me scour a scrapyard for buried whiskey bottles without the aid of the map markers most jobs use. It was like a treasure hunt, only I was being attacked by gangsters and dogs while trying to decipher clues like “two wheels couch” and “military.”
But, for all of you who like PvP, there’s something on offer too. Because all three new businesses are in static locations, there are now more players there than ever before. I should know, one shot me while I was trying to wash a car. Bastard cost me my tip. It doesn’t matter if you die doing these missions though. You simply respawn and keep going, so griefers can’t punish you too much.
If you’re so inclined, you can just wait by one of the three new businesses and pick players off as they return to finish missions. I don’t know what you’ll say to Saint Peter when your Oppressor reaches the pearly gates if you do go down this road, but the choice, and consequence, is yours.
Because this is so solo-friendly and completely doable in an invite-only session, I’d highly recommend this as a starting point for new players. All the businesses in the Money Fronts update require a lot more active involvement so you feel like you’re properly playing, and the money adds up quickly enough that you can move onto the more passive businesses fairly quickly.
After a solid week of playing, I’m incredibly happy with the Money Fronts update. It shows Rockstar is committed to making GTA Online bearable for solo players and it’s a real cash-earner that you can do rather than twiddling your thumbs and waiting for your cocaine lockup and arms dealership to produce sellable goods in the background. Pop on a podcast or Twitch stream, get to work, and you’ll have millions before you know it.
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