I've seen a lot of back and forth between veteran players, casuals & newcomers alike about this update, Rockstar and the game in general. Some are against thier actions, some defend them and some are neutral. Personally I love the game I played during BETA and now on PC, but I also despise it for it's issues. This latest update feeling like one big warning to stop playing altogether. For now, I'm taking a break from playing. So I've compiled and left a list of issues, general facts and lack-of for people to better judge & talk about the current situation of the game below:
•Online was first released in BETA November 2018, during BETA they introduced Microtransactions with a very scarce amount of content.
•Online later came out of BETA in May 2019 still scarce in content, and then in September it's first major update introducing 3 core roles.
•As a comparison to GTA Online, RDO lacks the Rockstar Editor, Creator Mode, Private Free Roam, aim locked Free Roam/PVP Modes (Free Aim or Auto Aim) & even text chat on PC.
•There was a 7 month period with no news or any information about an update alongside the community protesting as clowns to garner some communication from Rockstar to no avail.
•The collector role was nerfed/randomized due to how rockstar underestimated the ingenuity of the community, one of the main reasons being it was the best paying and easiest to do with a player guided map. Rather than also balancing other roles to make them equal. Such as bounty targets/target rewarding a measly $2
•Naturalist update releases, a sort of rehash of the collector role that lacks in useful content such as re-skins of the exact same legendary coat, being punished for killing animals despite a separate role & dailies that depend on it, pumping animals full of 20 rounds of sedative ammo just to take a sample, overpriced tonics & gold pamphlets that allow you to become an animal in a limited area for a limited amount of time for seemingly no purpose.
•We get outlaw passes, limited time content that relies solely on purchased or earned Gold along with XP or gold rank ups. This taking up a decent portion of content that people tend to get fixated on. This tactic alongside limited time stock clothing is just to put pressure on the purchase of Gold Bars (If you're running low) and to keep player numbers afloat for a longer period. (Fallout 76 has a similar tactic with Atomic Shop Items only being available for a limited time and the Legendary Run) We even have/had legendary bounties, emotes and legendary animals drip fed to us to drag out the update.
•Most of the new content that is added is either locked behind a Role or the Outlaw pass, hair styles, clothing, skills, horses, weapon styles, even emotes and walking styles. So essentially, we have to pay to unlock content so we can then buy or earn said content in game. Sounds a lot like buying a DLC pack with extra steps (As a comparison to GTA Online they can get 200+ new clothing options, hair styles, multiple vehicles, emotes, weapons, walking styles and tattoos immediately available to purchase or are free such as emotes and walking styles)
•There was a period after a botched update for about 1 to 2 days where the game was utterly broken and couldn't actually be played on consoles, they eventually reverted to a previous patch. People lost hard earned streaks and got no compensation for their screw up unless directly reported on an individual basis.
•There is often rampant hacking with modders even being able to stop themselves from being reported and being able to crash your system or boot you from a session, alongside bad Peer to Peer connection rather than dedicated servers. Hackers have even gotten players banned for tricking people into opening nearby illegitimate spawned treasure chests.
•There are many bugs and glitches that still haven't been patched to this day. Not to mention new bugs that come with new updates. For instance: (Not being rewarded XP & money, gold bar coupons not being rewarded, the infamous hanging gun bug, black screens, crashing, not being rewarded money for sales, NPC's suddenly firing their whole clip at you within less than a second, cloth wraps reverting to a different colour, gun belts floating, UI Errors such as not being able to use coupons or browse the full selection of bar decor and much more)
•Next to no advertising or info about this latest update before it released besides a small paragraph at the end of a social club post about the $5 Sale Of RDO. GTA Online on the other hand getting 3 in-game teases and 2 separate video teasers and a main post introducing a new island to a game that has been around for 7 years and 3 console generations now.
•We now have the daily challenge nerf that not only resets your streak automatically but is also rewarding half as much gold. As an example, with the old system if you did 5 daily challenges a day for 4 weeks you'd end up with 49 gold. If you did the same with the new system you'll get 24 gold. If you were to stay at the same pace and do 5 challenges a day with the new system you'd have to do it for 8 weeks straight or alternatively 10 challenges a day for 4 weeks to earn the same as the old system.
•With this latest update, technically they've added time limited pay-to-win skills/benefits behind an outlaw pass. Standard Ammo Capacity Upgrades, multiple meat cooking and wilderness camp fast travel (Outlaw Pass 5 has also leaked and is in the game files and has further ammo skill upgrades included such as arrows and varmint ammo) That's a slippery slope that could potentially lead to bigger and better things being P2W.
•We have to pay an extra 15 Gold towards the "Prestigious Bounty Hunter License" despite having already bought a license for the role.
This update alongside the standalone sale of RDO is nothing but a way to draw in and nickel & dime new unaware players of thier money. All the new players lured in by a cheap game will most likely know nothing of what the game was previously like. I saw one post of someone on here who bought it and spent £45 on gold bars to get the pass, roles and also advance the pass. And he didn't yet receive his free gold bar benefit tokens back from it. Don't forget that everyone before this had paid upwards of £45 or £89 for the base game or ultimate edition which includes Online benefits.
"It's free content bro, quit complaining" Just because it's technically free does not mean it's exempt from criticism. Especially being a live service game & the way they market and dish out their content. Might as well BE a paid DLC pack.
"You're just entitled gamers who want everything free and easy" At the end of the day it's a game, we play it because we want to have fun or to escape from the realities of day to day life. Not to feel like we're working a minimum wage job to survive. Why would you defend a nerf that makes the game harder not just for veterans but newcomers alike and sucks the general enjoyment out of the experience?
"They need money to give us free content bro" If that's the case, then the online content and live service they're currently providing people is pretty lacking and crap, plain and simple. If anything spending money towards the game in it's current state is only going to encourage them to stick with their new strategy. That being said, not everything they do is terrible. Some changes are good, such as the new $$$ bounties.
At the end of the day, we shouldn't be FORCED into a harder grind experience just to HOPE for some good future content. You can clearly see what title Rockstar & Take Two favor most, GTA Online their cash cow. If the content they put out for RDO was actually decent and bug free there wouldn't be this much uproar from everyone. People might actually be more inclined to buy gold bars if the content was good and consistent. If we're expected to further fund the content online they should at the very least listen and communicate with the community. They're a multi million/billion dollar studio, not a small indie dev team. I'm sure they can afford to produce better content and live services than what's currently available for a AAA experience.
The game is a bit like a slot machine, you can pay little for lesser reward but loose less cash (Grind) or double down for improved reward but bigger loss (Pay for gold) Either way when the wheels stop (Content Update) You're gunna get something, but it doesn't mean it's going to be what you wanted or what you were hoping for no matter what option you choose.

I will be reviewing these mod menu's as a normal user, so things such as protection testing, kicking, or crashing will not be covered too much as I do not encounter those situations too much.
If you would like me to talk about a feature about a certain mod menu that I own, feel free to leave a message at the comments and I will review it for you. I have tried to be as unbiased as I can when reviewing these mod menus so that it can help you guys make a decision about which mod menu you may get.
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Disturbed: (Basic costs around $10, VIP costs another $20)
By far the mod menu with the best support, extremely professional and quick to respond to your issues. The mod menu itself is kind of unstable at times, but is one of the best budget mod menu’s priced at around $10 for a lot of features that improves your gameplay experience along with powerful recovery features which has a lot of recovery options, as far as I know, I think the unlocks are unrivalled, with the most unlocks options I have seen in a mod menu. Disturbed has very quick updates, normally releasing a public beta testing version within a few days and finish the beta testing in around a week for normal access to be restored for the basic users. The mod menu has options for just about anything in the game, some are implemented kind of poorly such as ‘drift mode’ which instantly activates upon activation, which is kind of difficult to use practically and the vehicle boost function which increases or decreases in increments of 1 instead of 10, making it quite difficult to change the speed quickly. I would say the protections are quite good from what I have heard, but not as good as some other mod menu’s such as Luna. Not too sure about that as I have never really used Disturbed’s protections before. Overall, I would recommend this mod menu as it is quite cheap to get the basic version and the support team is extremely quick and professional. A new update is coming to Disturbed which should address the crashing issues that some people are going through with the mod menu.
Luna: (Price locked at $27)
Luna is a very good mod menu which packs many features for its price. It has some of the best kicks and crashes (aside from Cherax) and some of the best protections for a public mod menu. Priced at $27, it has features for trolling, recoveries, and generally having fun as this is one of the most stable mod menus I have ever used. Using this mod menu in missions is easy and provides little to no issues with the protections off. The report blocking feature also makes sure that you can maintain a good account reputation ( not that it really matters too much anymore ). It also includes features such as loading story mode mods with a ScriptHookV loader and load in custom vehicles. I would say that the custom vehicles do cause instability for the mod menu, but it still functions well enough. Updates are kind of regular, which each update adding new features that improves the user’s experience or expands on its already large list of options to choose from. For $27, it is one of the best mod menu’s to get for the average player either trying to protect themselves or have more fun with the game. However, Luna’s community has recently gone through quite the change, but I think everything should be going more or less smoothly from now, the community seems friendly enough, and the staff seems to be active to help out as well whenever a user requires some help or is running into an uncommon issue with the mod menu.
Impulse:
Essentials: (Around $10, price varies from reseller to reseller)
Impulse Essentials is often compared with Disturbed Basic due to their similar prices, however, Impulse Essentials does not offer the same kind of experience compared to Disturbed. I would say that Impulse Essentials is more catered towards trolling other players and providing a fun experience for when you play GTA V or GTA Online, but not so much for recoveries. All versions of Impulse has kind of a slow recovery option, maximum at GTA$500,000 every few seconds, it is much slower compared to Disturbed’s GTA$6,000,000 per tick and Luna’s 2,500,000 chips per tick. However, Impulse does offer a more stable mod menu for the price even though the protection options are lesser compared to the VIP version. As the name says, Impulse Essentials is meant to provide you with the tools for having the basic modding experience in GTA Online. I think Impulse Essentials does not have a ScriptHookV loader and you cannot change the banner, but those should not really be too much of an issue as many fun features are already included in the Impulse Essentials mod menu. However, Impulse’s support is rarely online depending on your time zone. Impulse’s Discord server has quite a lot of resources on it, but I have heard people getting banned from there from doing seemingly nothing. Fortunately, from what I could see, unless you are being annoying or asking / doing what they would consider to be stupid things, you should be fine.
Standard: Never owned the standard version of Impulse, so cannot really do a review of it.
VIP: (Apparently it should be around $55 from most resellers)
The VIP version of Impulse provides an extremely large number of features that is so large that it would be impractical to cover them here, a list of the features should be able to be found online. Impulse VIP has features that, as far as I know, are incomparable with other mod menu’s as Impulse VIP seriously has the largest list of features that I have ever seen. The features are extremely fun to use and has provided me with one of the most fun freemode experience that I have ever had with a mod menu. From vehicle weapons to spawning vehicles with custom parameters which allowed for control over freemode that I have never experienced before. The Impulse Overseer’s function allows for you to track players’ status and also you can lock lobbies to stop people from joining, which is a nice feature to have. The recovery features are still not that great, but everything else is very fun to use. Most of the features are quite stable and function as intended. If you have the budget for it and you want one of the most fun experiences in GTA Online freemode, Impulse VIP is a good option for you. However, Impulse has always had some issues with missions as their protections are kind of difficult to manage sometimes. Some solutions that I have seen online is to disable every single protection and join missions, however, I do not have too much experience playing missions with Impulse, but as far as I have tried it, it works well enough. I use the Impulse auto injector to use the mod menu, but the time it takes to authorize the current session is very long and sometimes makes the experience feel less polished.
The user interface in Impulse VIP is one of the best designs I have ever seen in a GTA V mod menu aside from Disturbed’s user interface, which is also designed quite nicely. What I enjoy about Impulse VIP’s user interface is the information box at the bottom of the screen which talks more about the selected option and if there is a hotkey bound to the function and which key it is bound to if there is a hotkey set. It allows the user to quickly go through the information without guessing which key it is set to. Impulse VIP also has a search function for the mod menu which allows you to quickly look for a specific function in the mod menu as there are a lot of options to go through. Overall, I feel like Impulse VIP is quite good if you are planning to do a whole lot of things such as trolling or giving other players a funny experience with the various options in the mod menu.
2Take1:
VIP: ( 2Take1 VIP Lifetime costs around $120 either with PayPal or from most resellers, 2Take1 also provides a standard edition, and a subscription license for both variants at varying prices. )
2Take1 is by far the most stable mod menu (other than Kiddions mod menu) that I have ever used. It comes with most of the major features in the larger mod menu’s such as recovery with the ability to unlock most of the things in the game. There are options unique to this mod menu such as the chaos options which provides quite the experience for players in the lobby. My game does not really have any performance issues with 2Take1 and at times, I feel like my game is more stable with the mod menu.
One of the features that I enjoy using with 2Take1 is the aimbot and triggerbot options as it causes your aim to move towards the target instead of having just the bullet hit the target, giving the user a more natural experience. 2Take1 comes with an editor that allows you to modify GTA V to your liking, removing or repositioning just about anything in the game. One of the other unique options is the LUA executor for the game, which allows the users to add functions to the mod menu, making it as simple or as powerful as they want it to be. 2Take1’s Discord server provides many LUA scripts to use with the mod menu and other configs for protections or for stat editing in order to provide the user with just about anything they would want to do with a mod menu if they can use LUA. A nice feature about 2Take1 is a business manager where you can enable an overlay that shows the status of all of your in-game businesses and manages them automatically for you, purchasing supplies, production, selling, etc.. With the ability to change license plates as well, it makes itself to be one of the most unique mod menus that is famous for its safety as it has been undetected for over a year and updates for the latest version of the game within hours. If you have the budget for it, 2Take1 is a very good mod menu that you know you can rely on for its reliability and function.
However, the user interface of 2Take1 is not that nice in comparison to mod menus such as Disturbed and Impulse VIP. It looks quite basic and plain, but you can customize the fonts, the colours, and the headers to your liking, which can really transform how the mod menu looks if you put some time into customizing it. Overall, I can recommend this as one of the most stable mod menus for GTA V as I think I have never crashed with this mod menu by itself.
Over mod menu: ( Priced at around $3 for now, price will apparently increase to $20 when Over V2 comes out. I would recommend purchasing from Protein, PringleMan or Elechugas from their Discord as they provide cheap prices with the best user support out of the majority of the other resellers in their Discord server. )
The mod menu itself is decent at best. Many of the options do not work, clicking on IP information instantly crashes your game, but I would say that it is a good entry level mod menu. Costing only around $3 for now, the resellers there such as Protein, PringleMan, and Elechugas has distinguished themselves from the majority of the other members of the staff by displaying friendliness and concern for the customers and quick response times. A warning for the people that are considering this option, their Discord server is quite toxic, with members of the staff saying this such as “Oh, the ScriptHookV loader doesn’t work? Well, nobody cares.” “Oh, the Fortnite cheat no longer works? Hm, really does not matter to me.” and banning people who are being kind of annoying with the way they describe their problems while being quite insulting to the people of colour. However, Over V2 is coming out soon, so the mod menu issues should be addressed by then. Unfortunately, the staff will likely continue to remain the same, but I think they are kind of toxic in a joking type of way? Not really sure how to explain it anymore. Over is a good entry level mod menu to get into modding as it also includes other cheats such as cheats for Fortnite, Among Us, and also includes a VPN as well. It is a good value for money license as far as I know.
Kiddions mod menu (suggested by user):
Kiddions is a free external mod menu for GTA V that you can download from UnknownCheats. Kiddions provides a lot of features for a free mod menu such as becoming invincible, teleporting, healing, spawning vehicles, repairing vehicles, anti-idle kick, and some basic protections. Kiddions also has quite a powerful unlocks sections, able to unlock many of the unlockables from past events. It also provides some fun features such as ammo modification, money dropping, and infinite vehicle boost or rockets. Unfortunately, being an external mod menu, Kiddions does not provide a smooth teleportation experience. Sometimes, using the teleportation function can result in your going into the ground, where you have to accelerate to get out of. Kiddions also cannot perform some features that people consider fun or for trolling since the capabilities of a mod menu that is external becomes more limited. Overall, Kiddions is a very good mod menu for beginners looking to get into GTA V modding as it also provides some recovery features such as changing levels, unlocking things in the game, and it also provides some money-making options such as doing bunker selling missions instantly or rigging the slot machines. I would recommend using Kiddions along with GTAHaxUI for general stat editing to make it a more complete experience. DiaModz website provides a download for Kiddions with GTAHaxUI along with the files for the various stats that you can edit inside the game.
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Phantom-X: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Ilusion Engine: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
X-Force: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
XCheats: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Fragment: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Tactical: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Lightning-X: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Robust: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Cherax: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything much about it now, but I have heard that it has the best kicks for a public mod menu.
Paragon: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
Ephemeral mod menu: I do not own this mod menu, so I cannot write anything about it as of now.
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I would also be willing to review any mod menus that any team or mod menu staff sends me, of course, I will still be unbiased but I will try to be more detailed in any parts that you want me to specify on.
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Hopefully this has helped you in making a decision with which mod menu you want to purchase, again, if you have anything you want to know about a mod menu that I have access to, feel free to let me know in the comments. If I have made a mistake in a part of my review, let me know and I will check through it again to make sure.

Free tools & menus
Although the majority of free menus ARE viruses, scams, detected etc. As far as I know there is 1 decent free menu, decent as in safe to use any paid menu can easily out-class it and can probably crash there game.
The free tools/menu that I would recommend are
Kiddons Modest Menu - https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/grand-theft-auto-v/433685-kiddions-modest-external-menu.html
This is the one and only free mod menu out there. Its recovery options and tools are lacking however you can set your own experience level with it. It also has a god mode option and a basic vehicle spawner. You can make a decent amount of cash with this menu by going into Online Services/Casino/Rig Slot Machines and remove the limit. With this play the Egyptian themed slot machine and always bet max. You will win every time and you’ll make around 2.5mil per loop, you can cash out the chips to cash. It’s a slow method but the most effective one with kiddons and it still beats dropping yourself or grinding.
GTAHaX - https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/grand-theft-auto-v/275597-gtahax-1-52-external.html
This is a stat editor for GTA 5, it’s only really useful for setting your character stats, unlocking locked items and skipping heist preps. You cannot modify your xp or cash with this although there might be a way to modify your health, which would be pointless as all menus include a god option. This is also free, Its not a menu but I still include it as it is a cheating tool.
GTA 5 Online Mechanics to know for modding
GTA 5 is a P2P, or Peer to Peer game for online. There are two special types of players used for this, Host and Script Host. Hosts will be hosting the lobby and most menus, except for kiddons ofc, have an option to use a host kick that will kick ANY player in the game, regardless of what protections they have enabled. This is basically an UNBLOCKABLE kick, this is why becoming host is so valued, some people will even kick ½ the lobby in order to gain host. As a host your game can still be crashed or kicked by other modders though, it depends on whether or not your menu is good enough to withstand the kick. Some mod menu’s. You then only need to kick one person. After host there is script host, you can take this away from any player WITHOUT kicking them, although kicking them also works, Script host has a stronger kick than normal but it can still be blocked, so even though it’s nice to be script host it isn’t required or even super helpful.
Paid Menus and what they are good at
I’ll be listing menu’s then talking about them and what they have pros/cons at. There isn’t an exact tier-list however as it mainly depends on what you want
Luna – This is the mod menu I personally usually use, its quick to update and has pretty good recovery options, kicks and protections. As far as I know it’s got the best protections from other menu’s as well as kicks/crashes. It’s not the most stable menu however and I’ve noticed that I crash more with it than normal, although not an extremely high amount. It costs $25 and can be got from https://lunacheats.org/welcome/ Not taking sides, menu was either taken down by a C&D or it was an exitscam. There is no proof of a C&D, articles use Luna as source and Luna use Articles as source but there is also no proof of an exitscam as menu was doing pretty well at the time they got rid of it.
Impulse – Impulse has a few tiers, I’m not too familiar with the individual tiers however Impulse is usually known for its good trolling options, last I checked its recovery options were not that good however it’s still a good menu if you’re looking to troll. It can cost $15 - $50 depending on what tier you get. You can get Impulse from https://impulse.one/
Disturbed – Disturbed is a medium tier menu in my opinion, its not good at crashing other people or protecting against other menu’s however it has great recoveries and it is cheap. It costs around $10-$15. I would not recommend buying Disturbed VIP as your better off getting a different menu. You can get it from https://www.w1tch.pro/
Phantom-X – Phantom-X is also a cheaper menu, It compares to Impulse in the sense that it’s good for trolling and I’ve even seen some people say its better for trolling. However Phantom-X doesn’t seem to be good at that much else. From what I’ve heard its pretty stable. It can be brought from https://recoverygods.xyz/ there main website is pretty hard to find and after 30 minutes of searching I could not find it’s official website as I’ve not personally used Phantom-X.
Paragon – Paragon is one of the more expensive menus. It’s very stable and has a pretty nice looking menu in my opinion. I’ve used it for a while during the free weekend and liked it. It used to be known for its great protections but recently it’s been lacking in protections. However it has decent trolling options, more recently it seems like an all-around menu. You can get it from https://paragoncheats.com/
Ozark – I haven’t tried Ozark much, it’s a cheaper menu but its also in beta. It looks promising and has some unique features. Apparently it has a WIP Lua Injector which is great news for people who are in special groups or know how to code Lua. You can get it from https://ozark.gg/
2Take1 – 2Take1 is usually considered to be the best menu out there, especially if you know Lua as it is the only menu with a working Lua injector. However it is also the most expensive menu and it also partially uses a subscription model, the menu costs $140 to permanently keep and it can be brought from https://2take1.menu/
Menu’s that you should NEVER get
I’ll just list these off without much elaboration as they are usually stolen code, have poor support or are viruses.
Free Youtube/Ebay/Discord Menus – 99% of these are going to be viruses and the other 1% is going to be detected. Don’t install Kiddons from a youtube video go to the unknowncheats link I posted, make an account and get it from there if you want it.
Kingpin – Pretty bad over-all, usually considered to be the worst menu out there.
Never get any mod menu’s that are new, they can be exit-scams and will usually take the cash
and bail after a month. Examples of these exit scam menu’s are
- Over
- Hypno
- Indara
A lot of these exit scam menu’s are also using stolen code.
Resellers
Since most mod menu’s use bitcoin only there are resellers which can sometimes charge at a slightly higher price but will deliver the menu and accept payment forms like PayPal. These are resellers that I know of/am aware of. If you know of a reseller comment it below and I'll add it.
realdudesync
radiantcheats
recoverygods
freshkeys
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Disturbed keys can only be brought through there discord. You can find a link through there site (W1tch.pro)
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Updates: V1.1 Added more Resellers, Crossed out Luna

Last updated 2:00 EST, 27 July
^{RIP my inbox}
All new posts asking about information already provided here will be removed and redirected here to reduce redundancy.

Release

As of 5:15 EST, the update has released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

• 3.4GB on PS4
• 3.2GB on Xbox One
• 2.9GB on Steam
• 2.6GB on Social Club.

On the note of releases... Some countries will not be able to access certain content from this update due to gambling laws. Thankfully though, players from these countries will still be allowed to download the update in general.

Money for Diamond Casino

For ways to make money to afford the new DLC content, along with methods to make an empty lobby to do CEO/MC work, check the Mega Guide.
Tips

• You only need $50,000 to register as a VIP! If you have at least that much, you can register as a VIP for 4 hours and get access to VIP missions (which can be done in an invite only session), giving you a lucrative way to save up.
• If you own both a crate warehouse and vehicle warehouse, you could use them together to make more money overtime than you could by using either exclusively. Use your sourcing/exports between crate pickups and sales, and you'll be getting the best of both worlds, gaining from the postive money-making aspects of both.

Content and Prices

Content that has initially released with the update.

Southern San Andreas Super Autos

• Weeny Issi Sport - $897,000
• Vapid Caracara 4x4 - $875,000

Legendary Motorsport

• Annis S80RR: $2.6million
• Enus Paragon R: $905,000
• Obey 8F Drafter: $718,000
• Truffade Thrax: $2.3million

Penthouses

• Cash Pad: $1.5million
• Party Penthouse: $3.78million
• High Roller: $6.5million
• "Design Your Own": $1.5million

Penthouse Customizations

• Colour options: $215,000 or $258,500
• Pattern options: $92,000 - $210,000

Penthouse Addons

• Lounge Area: $400,000
• Media Room: $500,000
• Spa: $800,000
• Bar and Party Hub: $700,000
• Private Dealer: $1.1million
• Office: $200,000
• Extra Bedroom: $200,000
• Garage: $800,000

Gambling

As this is a Casino-centric update, there's plenty of ways to gamble away your hard-grinded money.
The gambling in this game centers around a new form of currency, called Chips. These chips are pretty much like real-world gambling chips, with a one-to-one dollar value, except you keep your chips when you leave the casino. Chips are an actual currency in GTA Online, as they can be used to purchase exclusive items from a shop inside the casino, along with being used to bet with when playing the Gambling Games, listed below

• Slot Machines: There's plenty of options to choose from, but they all perform the same way. Spend some chips, and let the RNG decide whether or not you earn anything from it.
• Blackjack: Casino style blackjack with up to four simultaneous players, all of which play against the dealer. Anyone who beats the dealer individually wins, anyone who the dealer beats individually loses, and if the dealer gets Blackjack (an Ace and 10/face-card), everyone immediately loses. Assuming your initial hand isn't a Blackjack, you have the option of doubling-down, which doubles your initial bet with the caveat of only being able to hit once.
• Poker: Three-card poker. You make your bets, check your hand, and similar to Blackjack, each player wins if their hand is better than the dealer's, and the dealer beats whoever has a worse hand than him. While there is no option to double-down, how much you win does depend on how good of a hand you have. The better your hand, the more you win. Also, while you can fold your hand, you lose your initial bet anyway.
• Horse Racing: Pretty much standard horse racing bettering. You choose a horse, you put your money down, and if you bet correctly, you get double the amount you bet in return. Otherwise, you just lose the amount you bet.

To gain more chips, there is a counter inside the casino where you can buy them, however you are limited in how many you can buy per day (real-world 24 hours). As standard, you can buy a maximum of 20,000 chips per day, but if you own a penthouse of any tier, you can buy up to 50,000 chips per day. Chips can also be traded in for money, but there does not appear to be a limit on this. No matter how many chips you win from gambling, it appears that you can trade them all in at once for the equivalent dollar value.
Lastly, there is the Wheel. It's a roulette wheel that you can only spin once per day, which costs $500 per spin. There are twenty reward slots, and since some rewards are in multiple slots, they have greater chances of being selected. The biggest note about this wheel however is that there is one slot in which you can win a free car! What makes this so significant is that since the car takes a 1/20 slot on the wheel, that means you still have a 5% chance of winning a free high-value vehicle! Compared to most online games, that's pretty much the most generous RNG you can get.

Business and Missions

coming soon

FAQ

Are there any differences between the penthouses
For once, yes! Well, technically... they're the same basic property layout, but each option gives you different addon options.

• The Cash Pad: The basic Penthouse with no property addons available . You cannot purchase a garage, extra bedroom, lounge, etc. with the Cash Pad. You can, however, purchase penthouse customizations (colour and wall patterns).
• The Party Penthouse: Gives you certain of the addon options: the main Penthouse, the Extra Bedroom, the Lounge Area, the Spa, and the Bar and Party Hub. You are locked to these options, no more, no less.
• The High Roller: Gives you all of the property addons as standard, and the most expensive penthouse customization options... this means that you cannot choose your own colour and wall patterns with this version.
• The "Design Your Own": ...What should be the standard option. It gives you the basic penthouse and allows you to choose which addons and customizations you want, with an extra cost for each one, of course. Just get this one. You can also renovate this option later, allowing you to purchase more addons and change your customizations later.

What do the Penthouse Addons do?

• Lounge Area: Allows you to purchase the other Penthouse Addons (except for the Extra Bedroom and Garage, which are the only items addons that can be purchased without a Lounge).
• Media Room: You know the cinemas around Los Santos? The ones that play a few 5 minute animated films on repeat? That, but in a Penthouse.
• Spa: Gives you access to a hot tub and a Personal Stylist. The Stylist's services are the same as the ones spread around Los Santos (hair, contacts, and make up), but they're all free.
• Bar and Party Hub: Allows you to consume drinks that instantly intoxicate your character, along with access to special arcade games that aren't available anywhere else in the game.
• Private Dealer: Allows you to play gambling games in your penthouse.
• Office: Adds a standard computer, a Gun Locker, and a money vault (don't get excited, it's just aesthetic).
• Extra Bedroom: Bedrooms in owned properties in GTA Online are used as spawn points, so why can you pay to have an extra one? Because you can now allow a friend of yours to claim it! The Extra Bedroom allows a friend of yours to use your penthouse as a spawn apparently, though the exact implementation of this is not completely clear.
• Garage: Access to the Penthouse's garage bay.

How do I get the armored car?

• To recieve the Enus Paragon R (Armoured), you have to complete the Diamond Casino's mission series, which you must own a penthouse to access. Once of the missions are complete, you'll be given the vehicle for free! But remember, it's uninsured and you only get it once, so immediately go into passive mode and take it to the nearest Los Santos Customs to insure it, or else you could lose the vehicle permanently.

Passive Mode

Good news, passive mode has been fixed!

• Passive Mode can now no longer be active when using a weaponized vehicle
• A Passive Mode cooldown of 2 minutes is now in place for players who have just killed another player
• Players now must wait 5 minutes before they can activate Passive Mode again after disabling it
• Players now must wait 30 seconds before they can disable Passive Mode after activating it

These changes make is so that grievers can no longer abuse passive mode, or at least no where near as easily. If you start to get the upper-hand on a griefer and destroy whatever death-machine they're using to troll you, or if you confront them in a death-machine of your own, they can't abuse Passive Mode to try to get the upper-hand on you!

Solo Session

Check the Mega Guide for ways to push yourself into a public Online session with no one else in it. Keep in mind that some missions and abilities are unavailable if there's no one else with you though!

Bugs and Glitches

• Apparently on PS4 and Xbox One, you must have full size of GTA V available to download the update, so if you have less than ~60GB free, you may have trouble downloading the update. This does not mean that the entire game is re-downloaded, it just means that the update may not download if you don't have that much space available.

Credits

Special Thanks: u/Rebored_Warrior - Sent me the official patch notes link!

• u/LordMcze - Information on countries that restrict players from gambling functions.

PISTOLS⚠️
The AP Pistol is, pound for pound, the best-in-class weapon, purely based on its full-auto firing mode. Don’t underestimate this gun: with the extended clip it carries 36 rounds, and can produce a real mess against weaker AI. If you’re down on ammo and in a clinch, you could do far worse.
It would be great if you watch my video about this: https://youtu.be/pJZBI9siz50
MACHINE GUNS⚠️
This category contains both SMGs and LMGs, but the SMGs are, unfortunately, a useless class. You’re almost always better off using an assault rifle. The only exception is the Micro SMG, which can be fired from cars. Apart from the AP pistol, it’s the only full-auto weapon capable of doing so. That aside, the best machine gun to have equipped in this slot is the Combat MG. It features slightly higher damage than the MG (3.2/10 compared to 3/10), but the real benefit comes from increased fire-rate (6.5/10 compared to 6/10), accuracy and clip-size (200 rounds compared to 100 rounds, both extended). Both guns have the same range at 6/10, but the Combat MG is a fine choice when attacking vehicles, and especially helicopters. There’s a reason the game gifts you one in the fourth round of a Survival. But, assuming you aren’t level 80, go for the normal MG. It doesn’t unlock until rank 50, unfortunately, so until then you’re going to be stuck with the Assault SMG and it’s 2.2/10 damage. Really, though, the only circumstances you should be using a machine gun over an assault rifle against human targets is either because you need full stopping power at the longer end of mid-range or you have an ammo problem.
There is an oddity in this class. The Gusenberg Sweeper came free with the Valentine’s Day Massacre Special DLC, and hasn’t been carried over into the new-gen versions, presumably because it’s so OP. It features a very high rate of fire (600 RPM) with significantly higher damage than the basic, AK-47-based assault rifle (5/10 compared to 3/10). It also has a slightly greater range. Did you get it? Lucky you.
ASSAULT GUNS⚠️
The assault rifle will likely be your default weapon for most combat situations, as they’re more powerful than SMGs and more accurate than machine guns. The Special Carbine is my go-to assault rifle. It was part of The Business Update DLC, and it’s unlocked from rank 1 in GTA Online. Fully tricked out it’s a devastating gun, a truly multi-role weapon capable of the toughest jobs that has no problem scoring head-shots at range. If you’re looking for an alternative, the Bullpup Rifle has exactly the same stats. Some higher level players prefer the Advanced Rifle because it has an increased fire-rate over the standard Carbine, but it’s less accurate and the extra rounds-per-minute don’t compensate for the drop-off in damage. The Advanced Rifle debate is an odd one, because many, illogically, see it as the preferred option. The Advanced Rifle was one of the original assault rifles in GTA 5 before DLC added more, so its relatively high fire-rate over the standard Carbine Rifle put it at the top of older tests. Now, though, the stats make the Special Carbine or Bullpup an easy choice, as they beat the Advanced Rifle on damage (5.7/10 over 3.4/10), accuracy (6/10 over 5/10) and fire-rate (7.3/10 over 7/10). Straight up: they’re better guns.
SNIPER GUNS⚠️
There isn’t much of a choice here. The basic Sniper Rifle unlocks at rank 21, but the Heavy Sniper doesn’t appear until a far distant rank 90. The Heavy is the superior weapon, with better range, damage and accuracy. More than one long-time player has claimed the Heavy is the best gun in the entire game, but you’re a long way off owning one if you only started with the new-gen GTA 5 release. The only alternative is the Marksman Rifle, a recent addition from the Last Man Standing Update. I actually use this a fair amount. It has the best fire-rate of any of the three sniper rifles (4/10 compared to the Heavy’s 2/10), the pay-off being a relatively short scope with no zoom. I don’t have the Heavy yet as I’m rank 65-ish, but I tend to find I use both the Marksman and Sniper Rifle in equal measure, depending on the distance to the target.
SHOTGUN⚠️
There are a two schools of thought in the shotgun class. The first is based on one-shot kills. This is normally used for a situation in which you’re looking to deliver as much damage as possible to a hard target (probably another player) at very close range. The second is willing to sacrifice the immediate take-down for an increased fire-rate and longer range. This is better for a more open scenario with mixed distances, such as a Deathmatch. The gun you’ll pick will depend on your play style and the situation in which you find yourself. GTA Online definitely has a “thing” for shotguns; whichever way you decide to go, there’s hardware to suit your needs. The obvious, correct overall choice in this category is the Assault Shotgun. This beast of a gun has a 32-round extended clip and fires full-auto, making it pretty difficult to argue with. Its fire-rate is off the chart at 5/10 compared to the Sawed Off, Bullpup and Pump, which all stand at 2/10. The Assault’s extremely powerful, but it’s not the only option. It’s fire-rate and range come at the expense of damage. The two hardest hitting shotguns in the game are the Bullpup Shotgun and the Sawed-Off Shotgun. Both suffer from glacial fire-rates but are seriously powerful, the Sawed-Off being the most potent. The Bullpup causes less damage, but is more accurate, has a higher range and carries more shells. I prefer the Bullpup: you really do have to be standing close to get the most from the Sawed-Off, and in a situation in which you need to take down more than two enemies there’s going to be a reload issue. As a final note, I’d count the Heavy Shotgun out. It was added with the Last Man Standing Update and looks good on paper as it causes more damage than the Assault Shotgun, but it suffers from significant damage drop-off at range and the mag only extends to 12 rounds. So yeah: Assault in general, Bullpup for “personal” work.
HEAVY GUNS⚠️
You won’t even get a heavy weapon until you buy the grenade launcher at rank 60. The only other two weapons in the same class are the RPG at rank 100 and the Minigun at rank 120. Even when you hit 100, you’re probably going to keep the grenade launcher equipped. The RPG’s only advantage is its ability to fire an explosive in a straight line, and is therefore useful for taking out choppers, but the grenade launcher carries ten rounds and fires semi-auto. It’s capable of turning even the most desperate situation into a total bloodbath (although it’ll cost you: Ammu-nation charges nearly $4,000 for a full clip), and even a single, well-placed shot can save any day. When you get to 120, it’ll be Minigun all the way. It’s the most powerful weapon in the game by so many miles, a gun in front of which police choppers turn into immediate matchsticks. All others transmute to pieces of exploding meat when you finally get your hands on one of these. That’s life, I guess.
That's all for today see you guys later. Oh wait forgot to mention Sticky bomb best C4 replacement

Since the Diamond Casino update, I have seen a large number of 12-year-olds posting Blackjack memes on this sub. As a parent, this has me very worried.
On top of that, I have seen some of the most trustworthy GTA Youtubers giving flawed gambling advice, which can have damaging impact on their gullible audiences.
So that's why I decided to write this up, to educate everyone on the subject, so there will be no more misunderstandings.
(2020 Update down at the bottom.)
If you're one of those Youtubers that wants to use this information in a video, feel free to do so. The more people (especially kids) that become educated about gambling, the better.
But then also please go back and review your own work, and delete or edit the videos that are giving out the wrong advice, like where you're saying you have "a good strategy for making money with roulette", or some other nonsense that I've heard this week. Delete that please.
Before I get into the individual games, I need to discuss a few concepts first, that will make understanding the rest a lot easier.
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Expected return and variance
A game like Roulette or Slots has a fixed expected return on your bets. This is a percentage that you have no way of influencing. Say you are flipping a coin against a friend, and you both put up $1. The winner gets the pot. Since the odds are even at 50%, in the long run, you will expect to break even. Your expected return is 100% of your bet.
But imagine if you would play this coin flipping game in a casino against the house. On the "house rules" listed at the table they would probably say that you would only get 95 cents back for every win, while you are forfeiting a dollar on every loss. Would you still play?
Sounds stupid to do so, but still, everybody does it. Every bet they place on Roulette, every coin they put into a Slot machine, is based on the same concept.
Those few cents they take on every bet are their profit margin, and has paid for all the Vegas lights, the Mirage volcanoes, and the Bellagio fountains. Make no mistake - casino gambling games are not designed to make you lose, because sure, you can get lucky on a single night, but they are designed to make them win. That's the beauty of it. They can both exist at the same time.
Too many people that don't see how this works, are just destined for disaster. Just because you went on a lucky streak and won 8 games out of 10, does not mean that flipping coins is a profitable game, or that choosing tails is a winning strategy. Always be aware of the house edge, your true chances of winning, and just realize that you got lucky. There is no such thing as a strategy in flipping a coin that will give you a higher expected return, so it's just pure gambling, just like Slots and Roulette.
Most casino games are made in such a way, that your expected return is a little under 100%. This means that from every dollar bet at the tables, the casino expects to keep a few cents. For individual players, results may vary. Some will win, most will lose. But for the house, it doesn't matter. They take millions of bets each day, so for them, the expected average works out a lot sooner. In short: the house always wins.
When looking at the house edge, we're talking about the expected long-term result, based on the game's house rules. But for a player, it can take literally tens of thousands of hands or spins before you also reach this average number. Until that time, you can experience huge upswings and downswings, that are the result of nothing but short-term luck, which is called variance.
Some games and some bets have a much higher variance than others, which means your actual results will differ enormously from what you're expected to be at.
Take for example betting on red/black at the Roulette table. This is a low-variance proposition, because it has a high percentage chance of occurring, and a low payout.
Contrast this with betting single numbers in Roulette, which only win once every 38 spins on average. This bet has a much higher variance, meaning you can easily hit a dry spell, and not hit anything for 200 bets in a row, or you can see a single number hit three times in five consecutive spins. This is not a freak occurrence in high-variance bets.
Even though the expected return in both these bets is exactly the same, there's a huge difference in variance, causing massive differences in short-term results, which can go both ways. You need to be aware of this, before you decide what types of bets you are comfortable with placing.
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Gamblers' Fallacy
Another thing to realize, is that each individual game, hand, or spin, is completely independent from the one(s) before it, and after it.
Gamblers tend to believe, that the chance of a certain outcome is increased, based on previous results.
The most famous example comes from the Casino de Monte Carlo, where the Roulette wheel managed to land on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost many millions during that streak, all frantically betting on red, believing that the odds were in favor of the wheel coming out on red, after producing so many blacks. This is not true. Each round is completely independent, and the odds are exactly the same.
You will hear people say things like a Blackjack table being "hot" or "cold", which is completely superstitious, and should be ignored. The exception was when Blackjack was being dealt from a shoe. It made card counting possible. But with the introduction of shuffle machines, and continuous shuffling like is being used in GTA, this no longer exists.
This is also why "chasing your losses" is a very bad idea. After being on a losing streak for some time, many gamblers believe that now it's their turn to start winning. So they will often increase their bet size, believing that when their predicted winning streak comes around, they will win back their losses, and more.
The reality of it, more often than not, is that people will indeed start playing higher and higher limits, until they are completely broke. Nobody is ever "due for a win". There is never a guarantee that you're about to start winning. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. You are, after all, in a casino.
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Betting systems
Some people like to think that they have a fool-proof betting system, like the Martingale system. Simply increase or even double your bet when you lose, and keep doing that until you win. In theory, this system will always win. So that's why table limits were introduced, and where the system fails.
If you start at the Roulette table, playing red/black, with a small 750 chip wager, and just double your bet every time you lose, you only have to lose 6 times in a row, before you will be betting the table limit of 48,000, just to get that 750 chip profit.
Sure, you can go on all evening without this happening, winning 750 chips each time, but this losing streak only has to happen once, and you're bust. Any betting system like this is ill-advised, because you are hugely increasing your so-called "risk of ruin", and that's what we were trying to avoid.
And even if your starting bet is only 100 chips, after only nine straight losses, and nine doubled bets, you are betting the table limit at 50,000 chips. If you lose that bet, you're 100,000 chips in the hole, with no way to recover that with your 100 chip base wager.
So don't believe anyone that says this is the perfect system to always win in the casino. Sooner or later they will understand why they were wrong, when they're asking you for a loan.
​
Set your limits BEFORE you start playing
One final point before we get into the games, a general tip for people that head out to play: money management.
Just like in real life, before you go to the casino, decide on a maximum amount that you are WILLING TO LOSE.
Bet small enough, so that amount can last you through the entire evening, and you will not be tempted to run to the ATM to continue playing.
Considering GTA money, some people will be comfortable losing 1% of their GTA bank balance, some people will be comfortable with gambling away 5% of their total GTA savings. It's up to you what you can handle. Decide for yourself where it will start to hurt, and don't cross that line.
But whatever number you decide on, as soon as you lost that amount, get up and walk away. Don't chase your losses, stick to your limits, and accept that this has not been your day. There is always another game tomorrow. Always agree with yourself on a simple stop-loss rule, how much you would want to lose at most, and simply stop playing when you get there.
Same goes for winning. You can decide on a number, how much profit you would like to take away from the casino. You can go on a hot streak and be up half a million in a short period of time, but if you would continue to play longer, looking for more, chances are that you're going to lose it all back.
Most people are happy with doubling their daily casino budget, for example. Others are looking for 10 bets profit in Blackjack. Whatever you choose, when you hit that number, you can stop playing and bank your profits, or you can continue playing if you're still enjoying the games, but then only just play minimum bet sizes. Then you're just playing for fun, not for money. You've already made your profit, so simply keep it in your pocket, and don't risk losing it again.
Either way, decide on what your money management strategy will be, and STICK TO IT.
​
Casino games in GTA Online
Now, I'm going to dive into the games that you can find at the Diamond casino, ordered from worst to best.
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6) Slots
Generally the rule is this: the less strategy a game has, the worse it is for the player. And with slots, this is definitely the case.
The only influence you have, is choosing what type of machine you're going to play. Basically, there are two types of slot machines:
-high frequency, low payout slots
-low frequency, high payout slots
In the first type, there is no huge (progressive) jackpot on offer, just your average selection of prizes that don't go up to crazy amounts.
This will result in a player having many more spins resulting in a win. The amounts that you win on the bigger prizes, will be smaller, but they do come around more often. This type of slot machine has a lower variance, which means that your money should last you longer, winning many smaller prizes along the way to keep you going.
The second type of slot machine lures you in with the temptation of a huge jackpot prize. Even though the long-term expected return on these machines is the same as the previous type, the prize distribution is hugely different. The large jackpot prize weighs heavily on the scale of expected return, but the chance of it hitting is extremely small. This results in a much higher variance on this type of machine. Usually your money will go down very fast, because the smaller prizes are less rewarding than on the other type of machine.
At the Diamond, the info screen says the player return at slots is set at 98.7%. This means that, on average, for every maximum bet of 2,500 chips, you expect to lose 32.5 chips.
This might not seem like a lot, but the danger of slots is that the game is extremely fast. You can spin about once every 6 seconds, which would result in an expected LOSS of about 20,000 chips per hour of playing.
But again, in this long-term expected number, the large jackpot awards are also factored in, and as long as you don't hit those big prizes, you'll see your money go down a lot faster.
In any case, thank heavens the max bet is only set at 2,500, or else we would see more players go bankrupt at alarming rates.
Optimal strategy for slots:
There is none. Because after betting, you have no more influence over the outcome. The only choices you have, is what type of machine you want to play at, and how much money you are going to risk. And those are all personal preference. As long as you stick to your loss limits, as discussed above, there's no harm in having a go every once in a while, hoping to get a lucky hit. Just realize that you don't have a high chance of scoring a big win, so as soon as you do, get up and walk away.
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5) Roulette
Roulette is also a game where you have no influence over the outcome. There is zero skill involved. You place your bet, and that's it.
In traditional French roulette, a table has only the single-zero, but of course, for American casinos that wasn't enough of a house edge, so they simply doubled their profits by adding a second zero. The house edge was increased from 1/37 to 1/19, which is huge.
This makes playing on a double-zero roulette table by definition a sucker's play.
The payouts scale evenly, which means that a bet on a single number, and a bet on half of the numbers, and everything in between, yields the same expected return. The only difference, again, being the variance that you are willing to subject yourself to.
The player return for double-zero Roulette for all bets is 94.74%.
Except for the 5-number bet, which can only be made by placing a bet on the two top rows that contain 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The expected return on this bet is lower: 92.1%. This is because it only pays out 6-1. Why? Well, the number 36 isn't divisible by 5, so the greedy people that came up with double-zero Roulette had to round it off someway, and as expected, it wasn't going to be in the players' favor.Just remember that that 5-number bet is the worst bet at the table, and should be avoided. All other possible bets have the same expected return.
So it really doesn't matter how you spread your bets, if you bet only one chip, or if you litter the entire table with a bucketload of chips. Each chip you put out there, has the same expected return, so there is no strategy that will improve your long-term results.
Assuming that you're betting the maximum table amount of 50,000 chips, you will be looking at an expected loss of about 2,630 chips per spin. Considering that a round takes about 45 seconds to complete, your expected LOSS at the GTA Roulette tables will be around 200,000 chips per hour of playing.
Optimal strategy for double-zero roulette:
Stay away. Stay far away.
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4) Three Card Poker
With Three Card Poker, we come across the first game where there is actually some strategy involved. You get to look at your cards, and then decide if you want to fold, and surrender your ante, or double your bet.
Additionally, you can choose to place a side bet on "Pair Plus", which offers progressive payouts.
There are some websites out there that ran all the numbers with computer simulations, and even though I would like to quote the source here, these websites are understandably littered to the max with online casino ads, so that's why I have decided against doing that.
Optimal strategy for Three Card Poker:
For this game you only have to remember one strategy rule: Always bet on any high card queen-six-four or better, and fold any high card queen-six-three or lower. That's it. Just don't forget to double check if you're not folding a straight or a flush, and you'll be fine.
This strategy will result in an expected return of 96.63%.
The Pair Plus sidebet, with the payout table that is used at the Diamond casino, gives you an expected return of 97.68%, which is actually a bit better than the main ante bet.
So by playing both wagers, you're reducing your expected losses per bet, but since you're betting more, you're also increasing your expected loss per hour.
My advice would obviously be to not play this game at all, but if you do, put as much of your bet as possible on the Pair Plus, while making our Ante bet as small as you can.
To be able to compare it to the other games at the Diamond, let's stay on that 50,000 maximum wager, meaning making your ante bet 35,000, and your pair plus bet 15,000, if the table would allow it.
This results in an expected loss of about 1,525 chips per hand, and with a round taking about 45 seconds, this adds up to an expected LOSS of around 120,000 chips per hour of playing. In comparison, if you would only play the ante bet for 50,000 per hand, you expect to lose 1,685 chips per hand, which means an expected LOSS of about 135,000 chips per hour. So the more out of that 50,000 wager you can put on the "Pair Plus" sidebet, the better.
Even though it may be fun to try out this game for a bit, since there's only one simple strategy rule to follow, you'll soon find yourself robotically grinding down your bankroll until it has vaporized. You're not missing out on anything if you skip these tables, there is no real challenge.
Just like with Roulette and Slots, if you want to try it out nonetheless, you can just bet the minimum amounts and only play for fun, so it won't matter if you win or lose.
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3) Blackjack
Blackjack is the most complicated game by far. Simply because the player has to make a series of decisions, which will largely decide the outcome. Luckily, there is such a thing as an optimal strategy, which will be outlined below.
However, the strategy is also dependent on the house rules. These not only affect your expected return, but in some places also your decisions.
Here are the house rules at the Diamond casino:
-The game uses 4 standard decks, and a continuous shuffle.
-Blackjack pays 3 to 2, dealer checks for early blackjack.
-No insurance offered, no surrender.
-Dealer stands on soft 17.
-Double down on any two cards.
-Player can split only once, but doubling after split is allowed.
-Seven-Card Charlie.
Under these rules, and following the "basic strategy" chart, your expected return at Blackjack is a shade under 99.6%, which is extremely good for a casino game, that's why Blackjack should be your table game of choice.
But it comes at a price: you are going to have to memorize the relatively complicated strategy chart, or at least stick it to your monitor until you have it in your head. But in case you ever stumble into a real-life casino, you won't regret having this table memorized, so I would definitely advise you to work on that.
The strategy chart might look complicated at first, but you will be able to notice certain patterns. Your decisions are mainly based on the dealer's upcard, which is basically divided into a weak card (2 to 6), and a strong card (7 to ace).
When a dealer shows a strong card, you will be hitting more often with the risk of going bust, but when a dealer shows a weak card, you're not taking that risk, and you will be standing more, but also doubling and splitting more. You want to increase your bets when the odds are in your favor, and get out cheap when they're not.
But it also helps to take some time to think about why a certain advice is given. For example, why does it say that you always have to split two eights, even against an ace. Well, that's because two eights equals 16, which is the worst total you can have. It's better to split them up, and give yourself a chance of finding a 17, 18 or 19 with the next card. Once you see the logic in that, you'll have one less thing to memorize.
The playing advice in the basic strategy chart is a result of computer simulations that ran all possible outcomes against each other, and produced the most profitable decision for each situation. So you can't go wrong following it.
Optimal strategy for Blackjack with Seven-Card Charlie
The added house rule of Seven-Card Charlie, adds a small advantage for the player, and it does influence a few strategy decisions. For example, you might have a 14 with 6 cards, against the dealer's 5 upcard.
Normally this would be an automatic stand, but if you're only one card away from the Seven-Card Charlie, meaning an instant win for the player, regardless of the dealer's hand, it turns it into a hit.
Here's the most optimal strategy chart to follow for the Diamond Casino house rules: https://prnt.sc/olct6g
You'll see that two fives are missing from the chart, and that's because you never split them. You treat them as a regular 10. You also never split tens. Just stand on 20.
If you follow this strategy religiously, even with a maximum wager of 50,000 chips, you only expect to lose about 215 chips per hand, and with rounds taking about 30 seconds, that amounts to an expected LOSS of 26,000 chips per hour, which is only half a bet. A small price to pay for an hour of entertainment.
But since the expected return is so extremely close to 100%, you will see more positive short-term results than with other games. But obviously it can also swing the other way. Again, this is supposed to be the game where your money lasts you the longest, but always set your loss and win limits before you sit down. That rule simply always applies.
​
Still, even with optimal strategies applied, all these games are expected to lose you money in the long run. So betting any kind of large amounts is not advised. If you simply want to enjoy playing these games, there's nothing wrong with betting a minimal amount. Playing these games for a longer period of time will already cost you money anyway, since your daily property fees will still be charged while you're playing in the GTA casino. As long as you can play for fun, there's nothing wrong, but when you see yourself betting insane chunks of your entire bank balance to try to recoup some unfortunate losses, you're doing it wrong.
As the commercials in Britain all correctly say: when the fun stops, stop.
​
2) Virtual Horse Racing
Now onto the good stuff. I ran some numbers, and I believe Rockstar has made a mistake with the horse racing game. Because as it stands, and if I read the numbers correctly, this game is actually profitable for the player. You can actually make money with this, at least, until Rockstar figures out their mistake and patches it.
If anyone wants to jump into the math and double check this to make sure, please do so. I will add any corrections to this post. This is one of those "to good to be true" things, so I keep thinking that I might have overlooked something. So please verify it if you can.
The setup is this. There is a pool of 100 horses, each with their own attached payout. These are divided into 3 groups, ranked by their odds. From each group, 2 horses are randomly selected to provide a pool of six runners for you to bet on.
Now it's not an actual race you're looking at. You are looking at a raffle. This is important to realize.
Each horse gets awarded a certain number of raffle tickets. The favorites get awarded more tickets than the underdogs, and therefore, have a higher chance of winning.
If this distribution works like it does in the real-life casinos, then the raffle tickets are awarded according to the betting odds.
Example 1: imagine a race with 3 runners, all have 2/1 odds, representing a 33.3% chance of winning. (Because 2/1 means 2 AGAINST 1, so 3 total.) In this case, each horse gets one third of the raffle tickets, giving them an equal chance to win.
Example 2: imagine a race with 3 runners, one has 1/1 odds (or EVENS), representing a 50% chance of winning, and the other two horses are marked up as 3/1, with a 25% chance of winning. The favorite gets half the tickets, the other two get a quarter of the tickets each.
A ticket is drawn, and you'll have a winner.
It doesn't matter in this game which horse you bet on, because the expected return is always the same: 100% or break-even, for the above examples.
Now, what happens if the percentages don't exactly add up to 100%?
They must add up to 100%, because there will always be a winner. And only one winner.
So when this is the case, the actual winning chances of the horses are adjusted to meet the 100% requirement, using their payout odds to determine the scale.
So, if the represented percentages add up to more than 100%, the actual winning chances of the runners will be DECREASED, resulting in all bets becoming losing propositions for the players.
Example: In a 6-horse race, all runners are listed at 4/1, representing a 20% chance. Only with six runners that amounts to 120%. So all chances are scaled down by 1/6th, to end up at 100%.
This means your horse's chances are reduced from 20% to 16.67%, turning it into a losing bet: 5 times you will lose your bet, and 1 time you will win, but only get 4 bets back in this instance, instead of 5. A losing bet in the long run.
This is the type of odds that you find in regular casinos, with fields as large as 15 runners to bet on, where the assumed winning chances always add up to more than 100%, therefore are decreased for all runners, resulting in a house edge.
​
But in GTA Online's Inside Track, there are other scenarios, because of the small field, and the way that they are put together.
In some cases, the represented percentages when added up, are LESS than 100%, meaning that the actual winning chances of all runners, are INCREASED.
This creates profitable bets for the players, because in the long run, you're expecting to win more money than you lose. This is a gambler's dream, pure and simple.
So, according to the in-game information, the three groups of horses are divided as follows:
-Favorites: EVENS to 5-1
-Outsiders: 6-1 to 15-1
-Underdogs: 16-1 to 30-1
​
Let's take the two most extreme examples to show what's happening.
The worst possible field to bet on: two runners at EVENS, two runners at 6-1, and two runners at 16-1.
EVENS represents a 50% chance, 6-1 is 14.29%, and 16-1 is 5.88%. Add those up and you land on a total of 140.34%.
This means that the actual winning chances of the horses are decreased by 28.75% (to get that 140% down to 100%), which makes betting on this field extremely unwise.
A horse at EVENS will only come in as a winner 35.63% of the time, instead of 50%,
a horse at 6-1 will only win 10.18% of the time,
and an underdog at 16-1 will only win 4.19% of the time.
​
The expected return on a bet on any of the horses in this field is only 71.26%, so a maximum bet of 10,000 chips on any of these horses holds an expected LOSS of 2,875 chips.
These returns are the same, because the winning chances are scaled equally, according to the payout numbers. So it really doesn't matter which horse you bet on, in the long run, you expect the same results.
But as explained before, it does influence variance, and therefore your short-term result, which can swing both ways.
​
But now, the best possible field to bet on: two runners at 5-1, two runners at 15-1, and two runners at 30-1.
Odds at 5-1 represents a winning chance of 16.67%, 15-1 odds means 6.25% chance, and 30-1 odds means a 3.23% chance of winning. Add these six horses together, and you only get 52.285%.
This means that, to get from 52% to 100%, the actual winning chances of these horses will be almost doubled! Multiplied by 1.91 to be exact.
So the 5-1 favorites will now win 31.88% of the time, instead of 16.67%,
the 15-1 runners will win 11.95% of the time,
and the underdogs at 30-1 odds will still win 6.17% of the time.
When betting on this field, the expected return on your bet is 191.25%!
This means that a max bet of 10,000 chips will result in an expected PROFIT of 9,125 chips.
This is printing money, if there ever was such a thing.
Optimal strategy for Virtual Horse racing
So all you have to do, is only bet high on the games where you have an expected positive return, and bet the absolute minimum on the games where your expected return is negative. Or back out of the racing game to refresh the field.
If you don't have a way to quickly add up all the percentages, and until somebody shows up here with a neatly formatted table, just use a few general rules of thumb:
-Always bet the maximum on a race with favorites at 2/1 and 3/1 or higher in it.
-Simply skip all races with two favorites at EVENS in it, and at EVENS and 2/1. Or bet the minimum, if you can't skip or refresh the field.
-To decide if you should play races with other favorite combinations EVENS and 3/1, EVENS and 4/1, EVENS and 5/1, or two favorites at 2/1, the payouts on the other four runners determine whether or not it's profitable to play them. The results of betting on these fields vary from an expected 1,330 chip loss (worst-case) to an expected 1,680 chip win (best-case), with a max bet of 10,000 chips.
But if you're not looking for another strategy chart, you might just want to skip these borderline cases, and just cherry pick the best ones, which are easy to recognize, and with which you can never go wrong.
It's difficult to put a number on an expected win-rate, because it all depends on which fields you get presented with, but it's not unreasonable to state that you can maintain a steady win-rate of around 200,000 chips per hour, with about 50 seconds per race.
Remember, you're not trying to win every race. You're trying to win the most money per hour. So don't sweat it when you bet on a 4/1 favorite, and lose a couple of races in a row. It will still be more profitable in the long run. You have the math on your side.
To reduce negative variance, always bet on the favorite, when betting on profitable fields. We're not gambling anymore, we're grinding out a steady profit. We want to keep the swings to a minimum.
I contacted Rockstar support to verify if this is indeed how it works, but the only reply I got after 6 weeks is that they were "looking into it".
User u/Garsant made a useful Excel-worksheet, available for you to download, where you can quickly type in the payouts on the horses, to see if it produces a profitable bet or not. You can find it in his post here: https://www.reddit.com/gtaonline/comments/ekp8na/gta_online_inside_track_odd_calculato
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1) Wheel of Fortune
The number one profitable casino game in GTA Online is obviously the Wheel of Fortune, because it costs you nothing to play.
Unfortunately, you only get one free spin per day, but it holds great value, so make sure you do it.
With a chance to win a super car, vehicle discounts, expensive mystery prizes (which also can be vehicles), and a lot of cash and chips, the expected return on a single spin is around $100,000 in value.
So don't forget your daily spin, it's definitely worth your time.
​
2020 Update:
As of the Diamond Casino Heist update, the Inside Track horse racing is confirmed to still be as profitable as outlined above.The only thing that seems to be changed, is that you can't refresh the field anymore by backing out of the screen. This does affect your hourly rate in a negative way, but does not change the fact that this game has a huge positive expected return, and should be your go-to when you're trying to take money from the house, without having Lester's nagging voice in your ear. That should also be worth something.
​
And with that, I conclude my 5,000 word essay on gambling in GTA. Questions, comments, feel free to add your input to this guide.
​
Cliffs:
-Gambling games should only be played for fun, not for big money. You should expect to lose in the long run. The house always wins.
-A casino game doesn't have a memory, and betting systems don't work.
-Set your limits before you start, how much you are willing to lose or win, and then walk away when you get there.
-Don't play slots, roulette, or three card poker.
-Only play blackjack following a basic strategy chart (https://prnt.sc/olct6g).
-Inside Track betting can be played profitably, if you only bet on fields WITHOUT a heavy favorite.
-Wheel of Fortune is always your best bet, because it's a free bet.

This is not mine, the creator of this is u/enderpiet
​
Since the Diamond Casino update, I have seen a large number of 12-year-olds posting Blackjack memes on this sub. As a parent, this has me very worried.
On top of that, I have seen some of the most trustworthy GTA Youtubers giving flawed gambling advice, which can have damaging impact on their gullible audiences.
So that's why I decided to write this up, to educate everyone on the subject, so there will be no more misunderstandings.
(2020 Update down at the bottom.)
If you're one of those Youtubers that wants to use this information in a video, feel free to do so. The more people (especially kids) that become educated about gambling, the better.
But then also please go back and review your own work, and delete or edit the videos that are giving out the wrong advice, like where you're saying you have "a good strategy for making money with roulette", or some other nonsense that I've heard this week. Delete that please.
Before I get into the individual games, I need to discuss a few concepts first, that will make understanding the rest a lot easier.
Expected return and variance
A game like Roulette or Slots has a fixed expected return on your bets. This is a percentage that you have no way of influencing. Say you are flipping a coin against a friend, and you both put up $1. The winner gets the pot. Since the odds are even at 50%, in the long run, you will expect to break even. Your expected return is 100% of your bet.
But imagine if you would play this coin flipping game in a casino against the house. On the "house rules" listed at the table they would probably say that you would only get 95 cents back for every win, while you are forfeiting a dollar on every loss. Would you still play?
Sounds stupid to do so, but still, everybody does it. Every bet they place on Roulette, every coin they put into a Slot machine, is based on the same concept.
Those few cents they take on every bet are their profit margin, and has paid for all the Vegas lights, the Mirage volcanoes, and the Bellagio fountains. Make no mistake - casino gambling games are not designed to make you lose, because sure, you can get lucky on a single night, but they are designed to make them win. That's the beauty of it. They can both exist at the same time.
Too many people that don't see how this works, are just destined for disaster. Just because you went on a lucky streak and won 8 games out of 10, does not mean that flipping coins is a profitable game, or that choosing tails is a winning strategy. Always be aware of the house edge, your true chances of winning, and just realize that you got lucky. There is no such thing as a strategy in flipping a coin that will give you a higher expected return, so it's just pure gambling, just like Slots and Roulette.
Most casino games are made in such a way, that your expected return is a little under 100%. This means that from every dollar bet at the tables, the casino expects to keep a few cents. For individual players, results may vary. Some will win, most will lose. But for the house, it doesn't matter. They take millions of bets each day, so for them, the expected average works out a lot sooner. In short: the house always wins.
When looking at the house edge, we're talking about the expected long-term result, based on the game's house rules. But for a player, it can take literally tens of thousands of hands or spins before you also reach this average number. Until that time, you can experience huge upswings and downswings, that are the result of nothing but short-term luck, which is called variance.
Some games and some bets have a much higher variance than others, which means your actual results will differ enormously from what you're expected to be at.
Take for example betting on red/black at the Roulette table. This is a low-variance proposition, because it has a high percentage chance of occurring, and a low payout.
Contrast this with betting single numbers in Roulette, which only win once every 38 spins on average. This bet has a much higher variance, meaning you can easily hit a dry spell, and not hit anything for 200 bets in a row, or you can see a single number hit three times in five consecutive spins. This is not a freak occurrence in high-variance bets.
Even though the expected return in both these bets is exactly the same, there's a huge difference in variance, causing massive differences in short-term results, which can go both ways. You need to be aware of this, before you decide what types of bets you are comfortable with placing.
Gamblers' Fallacy
Another thing to realize, is that each individual game, hand, or spin, is completely independent from the one(s) before it, and after it.
Gamblers tend to believe, that the chance of a certain outcome is increased, based on previous results.
The most famous example comes from the Casino de Monte Carlo, where the Roulette wheel managed to land on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost many millions during that streak, all frantically betting on red, believing that the odds were in favor of the wheel coming out on red, after producing so many blacks. This is not true. Each round is completely independent, and the odds are exactly the same.
You will hear people say things like a Blackjack table being "hot" or "cold", which is completely superstitious, and should be ignored. The exception was when Blackjack was being dealt from a shoe. It made card counting possible. But with the introduction of shuffle machines, and continuous shuffling like is being used in GTA, this no longer exists.
This is also why "chasing your losses" is a very bad idea. After being on a losing streak for some time, many gamblers believe that now it's their turn to start winning. So they will often increase their bet size, believing that when their predicted winning streak comes around, they will win back their losses, and more.
The reality of it, more often than not, is that people will indeed start playing higher and higher limits, until they are completely broke. Nobody is ever "due for a win". There is never a guarantee that you're about to start winning. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. You are, after all, in a casino.
Betting systems
Some people like to think that they have a fool-proof betting system, like the Martingale system. Simply increase or even double your bet when you lose, and keep doing that until you win. In theory, this system will always win. So that's why table limits were introduced, and where the system fails.
If you start at the Roulette table, playing red/black, with a small 750 chip wager, and just double your bet every time you lose, you only have to lose 6 times in a row, before you will be betting the table limit of 48,000, just to get that 750 chip profit.
Sure, you can go on all evening without this happening, winning 750 chips each time, but this losing streak only has to happen once, and you're bust. Any betting system like this is ill-advised, because you are hugely increasing your so-called "risk of ruin", and that's what we were trying to avoid.
And even if your starting bet is only 100 chips, after only nine straight losses, and nine doubled bets, you are betting the table limit at 50,000 chips. If you lose that bet, you're 100,000 chips in the hole, with no way to recover that with your 100 chip base wager.
So don't believe anyone that says this is the perfect system to always win in the casino. Sooner or later they will understand why they were wrong, when they're asking you for a loan.
Set your limits BEFORE you start playing
One final point before we get into the games, a general tip for people that head out to play: money management.
Just like in real life, before you go to the casino, decide on a maximum amount that you are WILLING TO LOSE.
Bet small enough, so that amount can last you through the entire evening, and you will not be tempted to run to the ATM to continue playing.
Considering GTA money, some people will be comfortable losing 1% of their GTA bank balance, some people will be comfortable with gambling away 5% of their total GTA savings. It's up to you what you can handle. Decide for yourself where it will start to hurt, and don't cross that line.
But whatever number you decide on, as soon as you lost that amount, get up and walk away. Don't chase your losses, stick to your limits, and accept that this has not been your day. There is always another game tomorrow. Always agree with yourself on a simple stop-loss rule, how much you would want to lose at most, and simply stop playing when you get there.
Same goes for winning. You can decide on a number, how much profit you would like to take away from the casino. You can go on a hot streak and be up half a million in a short period of time, but if you would continue to play longer, looking for more, chances are that you're going to lose it all back.
Most people are happy with doubling their daily casino budget, for example. Others are looking for 10 bets profit in Blackjack. Whatever you choose, when you hit that number, you can stop playing and bank your profits, or you can continue playing if you're still enjoying the games, but then only just play minimum bet sizes. Then you're just playing for fun, not for money. You've already made your profit, so simply keep it in your pocket, and don't risk losing it again.
Either way, decide on what your money management strategy will be, and STICK TO IT.
Casino games in GTA Online
Now, I'm going to dive into the games that you can find at the Diamond casino, ordered from worst to best.
6) Slots
Generally the rule is this: the less strategy a game has, the worse it is for the player. And with slots, this is definitely the case.
The only influence you have, is choosing what type of machine you're going to play. Basically, there are two types of slot machines:
-high frequency, low payout slots
-low frequency, high payout slots
In the first type, there is no huge (progressive) jackpot on offer, just your average selection of prizes that don't go up to crazy amounts.
This will result in a player having many more spins resulting in a win. The amounts that you win on the bigger prizes, will be smaller, but they do come around more often. This type of slot machine has a lower variance, which means that your money should last you longer, winning many smaller prizes along the way to keep you going.
The second type of slot machine lures you in with the temptation of a huge jackpot prize. Even though the long-term expected return on these machines is the same as the previous type, the prize distribution is hugely different. The large jackpot prize weighs heavily on the scale of expected return, but the chance of it hitting is extremely small. This results in a much higher variance on this type of machine. Usually your money will go down very fast, because the smaller prizes are less rewarding than on the other type of machine.
At the Diamond, the info screen says the player return at slots is set at 98.7%. This means that, on average, for every maximum bet of 2,500 chips, you expect to lose 32.5 chips.
This might not seem like a lot, but the danger of slots is that the game is extremely fast. You can spin about once every 6 seconds, which would result in an expected LOSS of about 20,000 chips per hour of playing.
But again, in this long-term expected number, the large jackpot awards are also factored in, and as long as you don't hit those big prizes, you'll see your money go down a lot faster.
In any case, thank heavens the max bet is only set at 2,500, or else we would see more players go bankrupt at alarming rates.
Optimal strategy for slots:
There is none. Because after betting, you have no more influence over the outcome. The only choices you have, is what type of machine you want to play at, and how much money you are going to risk. And those are all personal preference. As long as you stick to your loss limits, as discussed above, there's no harm in having a go every once in a while, hoping to get a lucky hit. Just realize that you don't have a high chance of scoring a big win, so as soon as you do, get up and walk away.
5) Roulette
Roulette is also a game where you have no influence over the outcome. There is zero skill involved. You place your bet, and that's it.
In traditional French roulette, a table has only the single-zero, but of course, for American casinos that wasn't enough of a house edge, so they simply doubled their profits by adding a second zero. The house edge was increased from 1/37 to 1/19, which is huge.
This makes playing on a double-zero roulette table by definition a sucker's play.
The payouts scale evenly, which means that a bet on a single number, and a bet on half of the numbers, and everything in between, yields the same expected return. The only difference, again, being the variance that you are willing to subject yourself to.
The player return for double-zero Roulette for all bets is 94.74%.
Except for the 5-number bet, which can only be made by placing a bet on the two top rows that contain 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The expected return on this bet is lower: 92.1%. This is because it only pays out 6-1. Why? Well, the number 36 isn't divisible by 5, so the greedy people that came up with double-zero Roulette had to round it off someway, and as expected, it wasn't going to be in the players' favor.Just remember that that 5-number bet is the worst bet at the table, and should be avoided. All other possible bets have the same expected return.
So it really doesn't matter how you spread your bets, if you bet only one chip, or if you litter the entire table with a bucketload of chips. Each chip you put out there, has the same expected return, so there is no strategy that will improve your long-term results.
Assuming that you're betting the maximum table amount of 50,000 chips, you will be looking at an expected loss of about 2,630 chips per spin. Considering that a round takes about 45 seconds to complete, your expected LOSS at the GTA Roulette tables will be around 200,000 chips per hour of playing.
Optimal strategy for double-zero roulette:
Stay away. Stay far away.
4) Three Card Poker
With Three Card Poker, we come across the first game where there is actually some strategy involved. You get to look at your cards, and then decide if you want to fold, and surrender your ante, or double your bet.
Additionally, you can choose to place a side bet on "Pair Plus", which offers progressive payouts.
There are some websites out there that ran all the numbers with computer simulations, and even though I would like to quote the source here, these websites are understandably littered to the max with online casino ads, so that's why I have decided against doing that.
Optimal strategy for Three Card Poker:
For this game you only have to remember one strategy rule: Always bet on any high card queen-six-four or better, and fold any high card queen-six-three or lower. That's it. Just don't forget to double check if you're not folding a straight or a flush, and you'll be fine.
This strategy will result in an expected return of 96.63%.
The Pair Plus sidebet, with the payout table that is used at the Diamond casino, gives you an expected return of 97.68%, which is actually a bit better than the main ante bet.
So by playing both wagers, you're reducing your expected losses per bet, but since you're betting more, you're also increasing your expected loss per hour.
My advice would obviously be to not play this game at all, but if you do, put as much of your bet as possible on the Pair Plus, while making our Ante bet as small as you can.
To be able to compare it to the other games at the Diamond, let's stay on that 50,000 maximum wager, meaning making your ante bet 35,000, and your pair plus bet 15,000, if the table would allow it.
This results in an expected loss of about 1,525 chips per hand, and with a round taking about 45 seconds, this adds up to an expected LOSS of around 120,000 chips per hour of playing. In comparison, if you would only play the ante bet for 50,000 per hand, you expect to lose 1,685 chips per hand, which means an expected LOSS of about 135,000 chips per hour. So the more out of that 50,000 wager you can put on the "Pair Plus" sidebet, the better.
Even though it may be fun to try out this game for a bit, since there's only one simple strategy rule to follow, you'll soon find yourself robotically grinding down your bankroll until it has vaporized. You're not missing out on anything if you skip these tables, there is no real challenge.
Just like with Roulette and Slots, if you want to try it out nonetheless, you can just bet the minimum amounts and only play for fun, so it won't matter if you win or lose.
3) Blackjack
Blackjack is the most complicated game by far. Simply because the player has to make a series of decisions, which will largely decide the outcome. Luckily, there is such a thing as an optimal strategy, which will be outlined below.
However, the strategy is also dependent on the house rules. These not only affect your expected return, but in some places also your decisions.
Here are the house rules at the Diamond casino:
-The game uses 4 standard decks, and a continuous shuffle.
-Blackjack pays 3 to 2, dealer checks for early blackjack.
-No insurance offered, no surrender.
-Dealer stands on soft 17.
-Double down on any two cards.
-Player can split only once, but doubling after split is allowed.
-Seven-Card Charlie.
Under these rules, and following the "basic strategy" chart, your expected return at Blackjack is a shade under 99.6%, which is extremely good for a casino game, that's why Blackjack should be your table game of choice.
But it comes at a price: you are going to have to memorize the relatively complicated strategy chart, or at least stick it to your monitor until you have it in your head. But in case you ever stumble into a real-life casino, you won't regret having this table memorized, so I would definitely advise you to work on that.
The strategy chart might look complicated at first, but you will be able to notice certain patterns. Your decisions are mainly based on the dealer's upcard, which is basically divided into a weak card (2 to 6), and a strong card (7 to ace).
When a dealer shows a strong card, you will be hitting more often with the risk of going bust, but when a dealer shows a weak card, you're not taking that risk, and you will be standing more, but also doubling and splitting more. You want to increase your bets when the odds are in your favor, and get out cheap when they're not.
But it also helps to take some time to think about why a certain advice is given. For example, why does it say that you always have to split two eights, even against an ace. Well, that's because two eights equals 16, which is the worst total you can have. It's better to split them up, and give yourself a chance of finding a 17, 18 or 19 with the next card. Once you see the logic in that, you'll have one less thing to memorize.
The playing advice in the basic strategy chart is a result of computer simulations that ran all possible outcomes against each other, and produced the most profitable decision for each situation. So you can't go wrong following it.
Optimal strategy for Blackjack with Seven-Card Charlie
The added house rule of Seven-Card Charlie, adds a small advantage for the player, and it does influence a few strategy decisions. For example, you might have a 14 with 6 cards, against the dealer's 5 upcard.
Normally this would be an automatic stand, but if you're only one card away from the Seven-Card Charlie, meaning an instant win for the player, regardless of the dealer's hand, it turns it into a hit.
Here's the most optimal strategy chart to follow for the Diamond Casino house rules:https://prnt.sc/olct6g
You'll see that two fives are missing from the chart, and that's because you never split them. You treat them as a regular 10. You also never split tens. Just stand on 20.
If you follow this strategy religiously, even with a maximum wager of 50,000 chips, you only expect to lose about 215 chips per hand, and with rounds taking about 30 seconds, that amounts to an expected LOSS of 26,000 chips per hour, which is only half a bet. A small price to pay for an hour of entertainment.
But since the expected return is so extremely close to 100%, you will see more positive short-term results than with other games. But obviously it can also swing the other way. Again, this is supposed to be the game where your money lasts you the longest, but always set your loss and win limits before you sit down. That rule simply always applies.
Still, even with optimal strategies applied, all these games are expected to lose you money in the long run. So betting any kind of large amounts is not advised. If you simply want to enjoy playing these games, there's nothing wrong with betting a minimal amount. Playing these games for a longer period of time will already cost you money anyway, since your daily property fees will still be charged while you're playing in the GTA casino. As long as you can play for fun, there's nothing wrong, but when you see yourself betting insane chunks of your entire bank balance to try to recoup some unfortunate losses, you're doing it wrong.
As the commercials in Britain all correctly say: when the fun stops, stop.
2) Virtual Horse Racing
Now onto the good stuff. I ran some numbers, and I believe Rockstar has made a mistake with the horse racing game. Because as it stands, and if I read the numbers correctly, this game is actually profitable for the player. You can actually make money with this, at least, until Rockstar figures out their mistake and patches it.
If anyone wants to jump into the math and double check this to make sure, please do so. I will add any corrections to this post. This is one of those "to good to be true" things, so I keep thinking that I might have overlooked something. So please verify it if you can.
The setup is this. There is a pool of 100 horses, each with their own attached payout. These are divided into 3 groups, ranked by their odds. From each group, 2 horses are randomly selected to provide a pool of six runners for you to bet on.
Now it's not an actual race you're looking at. You are looking at a raffle. This is important to realize.
Each horse gets awarded a certain number of raffle tickets. The favorites get awarded more tickets than the underdogs, and therefore, have a higher chance of winning.
If this distribution works like it does in the real-life casinos, then the raffle tickets are awarded according to the betting odds.
Example 1: imagine a race with 3 runners, all have 2/1 odds, representing a 33.3% chance of winning. (Because 2/1 means 2 AGAINST 1, so 3 total.) In this case, each horse gets one third of the raffle tickets, giving them an equal chance to win.
Example 2: imagine a race with 3 runners, one has 1/1 odds (or EVENS), representing a 50% chance of winning, and the other two horses are marked up as 3/1, with a 25% chance of winning. The favorite gets half the tickets, the other two get a quarter of the tickets each.
A ticket is drawn, and you'll have a winner.
It doesn't matter in this game which horse you bet on, because the expected return is always the same: 100% or break-even, for the above examples.
Now, what happens if the percentages don't exactly add up to 100%?
They must add up to 100%, because there will always be a winner. And only one winner.
So when this is the case, the actual winning chances of the horses are adjusted to meet the 100% requirement, using their payout odds to determine the scale.
So, if the represented percentages add up to more than 100%, the actual winning chances of the runners will be DECREASED, resulting in all bets becoming losing propositions for the players.
Example: In a 6-horse race, all runners are listed at 4/1, representing a 20% chance. Only with six runners that amounts to 120%. So all chances are scaled down by 1/6th, to end up at 100%.
This means your horse's chances are reduced from 20% to 16.67%, turning it into a losing bet: 5 times you will lose your bet, and 1 time you will win, but only get 4 bets back in this instance, instead of 5. A losing bet in the long run.
This is the type of odds that you find in regular casinos, with fields as large as 15 runners to bet on, where the assumed winning chances always add up to more than 100%, therefore are decreased for all runners, resulting in a house edge.
But in GTA Online's Inside Track, there are other scenarios, because of the small field, and the way that they are put together.
In some cases, the represented percentages when added up, are LESS than 100%, meaning that the actual winning chances of all runners, are INCREASED.
This creates profitable bets for the players, because in the long run, you're expecting to win more money than you lose. This is a gambler's dream, pure and simple.
So, according to the in-game information, the three groups of horses are divided as follows:
-Favorites: EVENS to 5-1
-Outsiders: 6-1 to 15-1
-Underdogs: 16-1 to 30-1
Let's take the two most extreme examples to show what's happening.
The worst possible field to bet on: two runners at EVENS, two runners at 6-1, and two runners at 16-1.
EVENS represents a 50% chance, 6-1 is 14.29%, and 16-1 is 5.88%. Add those up and you land on a total of 140.34%.
This means that the actual winning chances of the horses are decreased by 28.75% (to get that 140% down to 100%), which makes betting on this field extremely unwise.
A horse at EVENS will only come in as a winner 35.63% of the time, instead of 50%,
a horse at 6-1 will only win 10.18% of the time,
and an underdog at 16-1 will only win 4.19% of the time.
The expected return on a bet on any of the horses in this field is only 71.26%, so a maximum bet of 10,000 chips on any of these horses holds an expected LOSS of 2,875 chips.
These returns are the same, because the winning chances are scaled equally, according to the payout numbers. So it really doesn't matter which horse you bet on, in the long run, you expect the same results.
But as explained before, it does influence variance, and therefore your short-term result, which can swing both ways.
But now, the best possible field to bet on: two runners at 5-1, two runners at 15-1, and two runners at 30-1.
Odds at 5-1 represents a winning chance of 16.67%, 15-1 odds means 6.25% chance, and 30-1 odds means a 3.23% chance of winning. Add these six horses together, and you only get 52.285%.
This means that, to get from 52% to 100%, the actual winning chances of these horses will be almost doubled! Multiplied by 1.91 to be exact.
So the 5-1 favorites will now win 31.88% of the time, instead of 16.67%,
the 15-1 runners will win 11.95% of the time,
and the underdogs at 30-1 odds will still win 6.17% of the time.
When betting on this field, the expected return on your bet is 191.25%!
This means that a max bet of 10,000 chips will result in an expected PROFIT of 9,125 chips.
This is printing money, if there ever was such a thing.
Optimal strategy for Virtual Horse racing
So all you have to do, is only bet high on the games where you have an expected positive return, and bet the absolute minimum on the games where your expected return is negative. Or back out of the racing game to refresh the field.
If you don't have a way to quickly add up all the percentages, and until somebody shows up here with a neatly formatted table, just use a few general rules of thumb:
-Always bet the maximum on a race with favorites at 2/1 and 3/1 or higher in it.
-Simply skip all races with two favorites at EVENS in it, and at EVENS and 2/1. Or bet the minimum, if you can't skip or refresh the field.
-To decide if you should play races with other favorite combinations EVENS and 3/1, EVENS and 4/1, EVENS and 5/1, or two favorites at 2/1, the payouts on the other four runners determine whether or not it's profitable to play them. The results of betting on these fields vary from an expected 1,330 chip loss (worst-case) to an expected 1,680 chip win (best-case), with a max bet of 10,000 chips.
But if you're not looking for another strategy chart, you might just want to skip these borderline cases, and just cherry pick the best ones, which are easy to recognize, and with which you can never go wrong.
It's difficult to put a number on an expected win-rate, because it all depends on which fields you get presented with, but it's not unreasonable to state that you can maintain a steady win-rate of around 200,000 chips per hour, with about 50 seconds per race.
Remember, you're not trying to win every race. You're trying to win the most money per hour. So don't sweat it when you bet on a 4/1 favorite, and lose a couple of races in a row. It will still be more profitable in the long run. You have the math on your side.
To reduce negative variance, always bet on the favorite, when betting on profitable fields. We're not gambling anymore, we're grinding out a steady profit. We want to keep the swings to a minimum.
I contacted Rockstar support to verify if this is indeed how it works, but the only reply I got after 6 weeks is that they were "looking into it".
User u/Garsant made a useful Excel-worksheet, available for you to download, where you can quickly type in the payouts on the horses, to see if it produces a profitable bet or not. You can find it in his post here: https://www.reddit.com/gtaonline/comments/ekp8na/gta_online_inside_track_odd_calculato
1) Wheel of Fortune
The number one profitable casino game in GTA Online is obviously the Wheel of Fortune, because it costs you nothing to play.
Unfortunately, you only get one free spin per day, but it holds great value, so make sure you do it.
With a chance to win a super car, vehicle discounts, expensive mystery prizes (which also can be vehicles), and a lot of cash and chips, the expected return on a single spin is around $100,000 in value.
So don't forget your daily spin, it's definitely worth your time.
2020 Update:
As of the Diamond Casino Heist update, the Inside Track horse racing is confirmed to still be as profitable as outlined above.The only thing that seems to be changed, is that you can't refresh the field anymore by backing out of the screen. This does affect your hourly rate in a negative way, but does not change the fact that this game has a huge positive expected return, and should be your go-to when you're trying to take money from the house, without having Lester's nagging voice in your ear. That should also be worth something.
And with that, I conclude my 5,000 word essay on gambling in GTA. Questions, comments, feel free to add your input to this guide.
Cliffs:
-Gambling games should only be played for fun, not for big money. You should expect to lose in the long run. The house always wins.
-A casino game doesn't have a memory, and betting systems don't work.
-Set your limits before you start, how much you are willing to lose or win, and then walk away when you get there.
-Don't play slots, roulette, or three card poker.
-Only play blackjack following a basic strategy chart (https://prnt.sc/olct6g).
-Inside Track betting can be played profitably, if you only bet on fields WITHOUT a heavy favorite.
-Wheel of Fortune is always your best bet, because it's a free bet.

Why NieR:Automata matters; a story of emotions, animations, gods, freedom and Coca-Cola

Following the positive and constructive comments I've gotten on my Max Payne 2 review, here's a new one. This review is spoiler-free, includes a fair amount of context and history (honestly, my favorite part), sources as much as possible, gameplay videos and screenshots. I hope you'll enjoy it. More than anything, I hope it will pique your interest about this game and the minds behind it.

Introduction

Have you played it?

Most of you probably heard about NieR:Automata before, but have you played it? Maybe you thought that was just another weeaboo kusoge. Maybe you thought it was just a dumb beat 'em up game. Maybe you simply thought it looked bad. Or maybe you played it but didn't feel like it was anything special.
If so, you missed out on a very interesting, and quite important videogame. Think this is an overstatement? You're wrong, and hopefully this review will change your mind.

Before jumping into the review

As I mentioned, the main reason people haven't played this game is probably because they looked up a random review or video and thought 'Ok this is a cheap looking JRPG with a nude female character. Pass.' and honestly, I can't argue with that. It's true that most reviews simply overlooked the context, history and vision of this game. Without these key elements, the game does look like a cheap JRPG with an almost naked female character. And that's exactly why I'm reviewing it.
I'll start off by telling you more about Taro Yoko, Nier creator: his games and his ideas. Then I'll talk about the actual game, Nier: Automata, reviewing its story, gameplay, technical aspect, sounds and music, and the overall experience. I'll finish by talking about open-world games.

For the sake of clarity

The game is titled Nier: Automata but stylized as NieR:Automata. I'll randomly use both. I'll be calling Yokō Tarō using the English name order: Taro Yoko.

横尾太郎

The mind

Taro Yoko (Yokō Tarō in Japanese) is a 49 years old game director and writer. He initially was a 3D CG developer, but somehow was asked to be director for Cavia's Drakengard (2003). He also got involved with the sequel game (Drakengard 2, 2005). He then decided to work on a third entry in the Drakengard series, which ended up being a spin-off: Nier (2010). After making a 'true sequel' to Drakengard (Drakengard 3, 2013), Taro Yoko and Square Enix decided to continue the Nier series.
Taro Yoko's games are known for being dark, but also weird. As he says, weird games are made by and for weird people. And it's true that he has some really unique ideas and theories about games and how to make them.

Vision

When creating a game, Taro Yoko sets a goal, a vision. Elements like gameplay, story, or music are merely ways to reach that goal. His goal with Nier was to move the player. Back in the late 2000s, he realized new games weren't conveying emotions like older games used to and decided to create a game that would make players react. In order to do this, he used an interesting method of writing.

Emotions

Imagine a random character dying in a game, that's not very emotional, right? You kill a lot of NPCs in a game like Grand Theft Auto or Call of Duty. Now imagine a character dying after you've spent 30 hours with them. That's better, but what if you didn't really care about this character? Not really emotional. Ok, now imagine this character's a young innocent girl. And she can't walk, she's disabled. And she's abused by others. And she gets killed on the day she can finally walk again. Now that would be emotional.
Usually, games are written in a straight forward way. It means, they start off with a young innocent girl, then they add tragic events surrounding that girl, and then they realize the story needs emotions so they decide to have that girl killed.
But that's not how Taro Yoko writes his stories. He decides when the emotional peak will be first, then he goes backwards and build up to that peak, adding elements (i.e. young girl, disabled, abused, etc.) throughout the story at the right pace. He calls this 'backwards scriptwriting'. It makes your story much more exciting and your emotional peaks much more emotional because you've been building up towards these from the very beginning.

Potential of games

Characters dying is pretty common in videogames, though. Let's keep this example of the young disabled girl tragically dying. It would be emotional, but you wouldn't really react to it because you've experienced this in many games. What if you could save her by deleting your save data? What if the game gave you that choice? Now you would react to this, because it's emotional and it's uncommon.
You probably never ever faced a situation like this in a game, however you concur it's not impossible. i.e. it doesn't require a huge budget, or break any law, or anything like that. It's perfectly possible. Yet it's extremely uncommon.
Let's imagine a circle representing the potential of games. What can be done within a game. Everything outside of that circle can't be done (e.g. asking the player to kill someone in real life, or cut the power in the player's house, ...). Now let's imagine a circle within that circle. The inner circle is what's commonly done in games. The outer circle is what isn't done, or very rarely. (An interesting exercise would be to try and place curious design you encounter in games somewhere in that circle.)
Taro Yoko sees an invisible wall between these two circles, limiting the potential of games. He says he's been trying to break that wall for 20 years.

Breaking the wall

In 2013, Coca-Cola launched a campaign called 'Small World Machines'. Basically, they placed a Coca-Cola machine in a city in India, and another one in a city in Pakistan. As you may know, these two countries live in conflict. Both machine were connected and one could interact directly with the person using the other machine via a touch screen.
Taro Yoko was deeply influenced and impacted by that campaign (as he was by the 9/11 events, which are a major inspiration for the original Nier game) and wanted to do something similar with his game. Have players interact with each other and show them that there's something beyond that wall. That's his goal, his vision.
Ok, enough with theories, let's talk games, shall we?

NieR:Automata

More context

I swear I'll get to to Nier: Automata soon, but before that we need a little bit more context around the game.
The original Nier game received mixed reviews. Most people agreed it had a fantastic soundtrack, great combat gameplay and an interesting story. However, the game was criticized for its mix of gameplay systems which felt clunky, its boring quests and, mainly, its poor visuals. The game sold around 700,000 copies as of 2018.
Square Enix wanted to correct these flaws and contacted PlatinumGames to work on the sequel with Taro Yoko. Production started in 2014.

What PlatinumGames brought

PlatinumGames was founded in 2007 in Japan and became famous for their beat 'em up action games such as MadWorld (2009), Bayonetta (2009), Vanquish (2010) or Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance (2013). Most, if not all of their games have been critically acclaimed for their smooth and exciting gameplay. One thing they have in common with Taro Yoko is that they want to explore unconventional design and mechanics. The team has a lot of young (and talented) people and everyone's invited to give creative ideas during the production of their games. It's worth noting that they also have veteran developers, as the studio was partly founded by ex-Clover Studio (Viewtiful Joe, Ōkami, God Hand) developers.
Nier: Automata was their first A-RPG, as well as their first open world game, so it was an exciting challenge for them. According to game designer Takahisa Taura, you can tell a good or bad gameplay (in an action game) by the level of perfection of the animation, the connection between animations, the input response, the visual and sound effects, and some other parameters. These are the key parameters for Nier: Automata's gameplay, though.
They used a lot of flags for every animation in the game to ensure that it looks and feels good. Without going much into details, here's an example of an animation flag given by Takahisa, and how it improves the gameplay:

Setting a flag at the start of an attack animation to make the character automatically face the nearest enemy makes the gameplay look better, but also feel better. It would be very frustrating if you had to turn around and perfectly face an enemy before actually attacking him.

They also worked a lot on input response. Reducing input response means that the attack animation and the attack effect (dealing damage to the enemy) occur almost at the same time, and as shortly as possible after the player's input. Input response has also been reduced through game design: they placed no restriction on jumping or evading, which allows to cancel any other move. Once again, less frustration. Finally, they adjusted animations timing to actually 'feel good'; quicker animations aren't always smoother.

The result

NieR:Automata was released in February 2017. It received very positive reviews. The game was praised for its unique direction, interesting and engaging story, exciting combat, and stunning soundtrack (which won several awards). Negative comments were mainly aimed at the subpar textures and clunky PC port. The game sold over 4 millions copies as of today. Major improvement from the original Nier.

The review

Finally. As a reminder, I'm reviewing (in this order) the story, the gameplay, the technical aspect (graphics, visuals, performance), and the sounds and music. I played the game on PC, with a mod that only allows native resolution and a few bug fixes (cf. Technical part).

Story

I'm starting off with the story because it dictates a lot of other gameplay elements.
The story is set in the year 11945 AD. About five thousands years ago, aliens invaded Earth and killed almost everyone with an army of machines. Few survivors managed to escape to the Moon where they started creating androids to fight those machines and ultimately the aliens. You play as YoRHa No. 2 Type B ("2B"), a battle android, accompanied by her pod (basically an assistant AI) and 9S, a non-battle android. Androids are equipped with chips (system chips, combat chips, support chips, etc.) and have their data saved regularly. So if an android gets destroyed, there's a back-up data available to create a new one with the same name, persona and memories. Here's a cutscene introducing 2B and her pod. Interesting things to note: pod's voice and subtitles are not sped-up; it's just listing all the damage taken by whatever got destroyed in a very AI-like way. 2B says 「見ればわかるよ」 which would translate to «I can see that», even though she's wearing a blindfolds and isn't facing the enemies. Those blindfolds are actually a heads-up display and her dress is literally part of her 'body'.
I think this is a pretty important thing when building a world: does it make sense? In this case, it perfectly does. Everything's justified. Of course they didn't have to go for a big booty girl in high heels... Or maybe that's because the humans who created androids are just perverted men? But anyways, I think that's the most important thing about the story in this game: it all makes sense. Everything.
The story starts off as 2B is sent to Earth in order to work for the resistance against machines. There, she will find more about humankind and her creators. As 2B progresses on Earth and meets new 'people', she starts asking herself concrete questions. Who are gods? Are they really gods? Are machines really different from androids? She'll even befriend with some machines and learn more about this desolated world, and humanity, which will result in learning more about herself. Because not all machines are enemies, as a matter of fact machines weren't hostile at first. 2B will find a village full of friendly machines, led by Pascal, a machine who shares his knowledge of humankind with other machines.
Here's the first line from the opening scene, it doesn't make much sense until you've completed the game so it's spoiler-free.

We are perpetually trapped... in a never-ending spiral of life and death. Is this a curse? Or some kind of punishment? I often think about the god who blessed us with this cryptic puzzle... and wonder if we'll ever have the chance to kill him.

I won't comment on the line itself but I just wanted to say, it perfectly describes the story. It's a story about existentialism, humanism, and everything it implies. If you're into philosophy, you'll love the story. If you're not, you'll get into philosophy. And it's not just easter eggs about philosophy like that NPC named 'Jean-Paul' ('Sartre' in Japanese) who refuses gifts and awards. It goes actually pretty deep into these ideas. Simply put, it's a story of androids finding out who they are, why they exist, who are their gods, and many more. You learn new things about the story as 2B learns new things about her world. And even more; Taro Yoko really uses this game to interact with the players and eventually sending them a pretty interesting message about video games and their creators. Fun fact: the console version offers an interesting installation menu which sets the tone for the story. (Video is spoiler-free, however comments may contain SPOILERS.)
I think what makes the story so great is that it works on different layers. You can still enjoy the story of 2B learning about her purpose in this place as she explores the world without understanding any of the philosophy messages. Or you can enjoy the philosophy (which isn't abstract at all, it might actually pique your interest) without caring much about 2B's story. But both are tied, and the story gets even more exciting when you have all the key elements, it's just extremely well thought. Everything you do, everything you don't do, everything the characters say or don't say, has a purpose. It all makes sense.
Sidequests offer interesting pieces of lore which end up being related to the main story for most of them. The story shares some of its setting with the original Nier but it's not directly related. You can absolutely play it without having ever played the first game.

Gameplay

Combat is the foundation of NieR:Automata's gameplay. If you've played recent PlatinumGames games, you'll quickly find your mark. The most recent one I played is Bayonetta and I think they greatly improved since then. Combat is extremely dynamic, thanks to a collection of 4 different types of weapons, for a total of about 40 weapons. Of course, different weapons means different combos (and animations, we'll get to that in a second). But it gets even tastier when you can equip two weapons, unlocking more combos depending on your weapons combination. But there's even more to it: your pod also has various combat abilities. Add this to weapons and you have a pretty deep combo system. Here's an example of a crazy combo. And another one. Just to be clear, these two videos are made by a highly skilled player (cf. Sources); you don't have to go crazy like this to kill a basic enemy. But you can.
In case this couple of videos didn't make it obvious; the combat in this game feels absolutely fantastic. You can easily unleash a decent combination of attacks thanks to an easy, yet deep system mixed with smooth and stunning animations. You might not realize it because everything's going so fast, but the animations are really something else. It's like Platinum worked on every animation, not just the attack ones, to make sure they didn't look generic by giving them those few extra frames. At some point I simply equipped different weapons and tried all the attacks just to see all the different animations. Small details like this make the gameplay even more exciting. Here's an example, with slow motion in case you missed a detail. And another one. NSFW bonus. Yup, they really worked a lot on animations.
The game's world is open, as you can freely explore the different areas. From a desolated city to a forest or an amusement park, these areas are varied enough to make exploration interesting. Different items can be picked up; quest items, weapons or consumables. Some of them are well hidden. The world map isn't stupidly large, but it's large enough to be tedious going back and forth if the character's too slow or the controls are a bit clunky. Fortunately, PlatinumGames got you covered there.
Moving around is just as easy, smooth and exciting as fighting. Sure, you can walk slowly and enjoy your journey but you can also dash your way through the world. Dashing feels extremely statisfying. It's fast enough considering the map's size and it's super smooth. You can dash in any direction, you can even dash mid-air. Honestly, the controls in general are just a blast, Platinum absolutely nailed it. Here's a sample of me running around the city. And another one. More?
I'll talk about the difficulty soon but first I have to talk about the 'RPG' side of this Action-RPG. You'll understand why. As I mentioned, the game has quests. Nothing special here, you have a main quest to follow and several sidequests get unlocked (or locked) as you progress through the main one. Quests are varied enough so you don't feel like you're always doing the same thing. Some of them are extremely short, some others are meant to last a little bit longer as you move on with the story. Then there's the chips system. As I mentioned in the Story part, androids are equiped with chips. These give various abilities and effects such as higher attack, longer dash distance, etc. They come in different levels and, just like skills in other A-RPGs, cost a certain amount of resource depending on the level. Each chip takes a certain number of slots and better chips usually require more slots. That's how you build your character. Some of these chips are literally HUD elements. The gameplay blends in really well with the world. You can optimize chips cost via a system that minmaxers will love, allowing for even stronger builds.
Now, some of these chips are only available in easy mode as they allow for 'auto' abilities. e.g. with the 'Auto Attack' chip, your character will automatically attack enemies. If you equip all of these auto chips, the game basically plays itself. There's an interesting choice behind this. PlatinumGames thought, the same way you can skip cutscenes, you should be able to skip gameplay. So if you somehow absolutely hate the gameplay, but still want to play this game (huh), there's that. Of course you can also play on easy mode without these chips and then you'll have to attack and evade normally. The game comes with four different difficulty settings. I just mentioned about easy mode. I'd recommend normal or hard if you've played a similar game recently. Very hard is a whole other thing as any enemy will kill you in one hit. Which gets even crazier during the shmup sequences.
Yes, you read that right. The game has shmup sequences. They blend in and transition very well with the regular gameplay and are exciting too. I believe Square Enix asked PlatinumGames to have a mix of 2D and 3D gameplay.
One last thing about the gameplay. The game is split into multiple chapters. No spoilers so all I can say is don't just uninstall the game after you get to the credits. You've only barely scratched the surface.
Honestly there's a lot more I could say, but my goal here is to give you an idea of the type and quality of the gameplay, not a comprehensive list of all the features. Did I mention there's fishing in the game? Anyways, the gameplay is super effective, it's smooth and dynamic but not confusing, it's easy but not shallow, and it fits the game's story perfectly. For example, you don't simply 'adjust the voices volume option'. You perform a system check on 2B and adjust her settings. In fact, your HUD is actually 2B's. Even the menus. It might sounds stupid but it actually really adds to the immersion.

Technical

Story? Deep and interesting. Gameplay? Fun and smooth. Now on to the not so good part of the game. As a reminder, I only played the PC (Steam) version and can't comment on the console version.
The PC version came out as a total mess. Resolution issues, graphics issues, framerate issues. The worst thing is, I'm playing the game again in late 2019 and it still has the same issues. I literally can't play in native resolution. This is unacceptable. Game comes out with bugs? A shame. Game still has these issues 2 years later, even though the whole community is yelling? Unacceptable. So, in order to decently play NieR:Automata on PC you have to install a third-party mod (link at the end of this review). Shame on whoever was in charge of this port, really. People let it slide because they're blinded by their love for the game but we have to be honest for a second: these games will keep on being released as total messes on PC until we, players, react and tell developers and publishers that releasing a broken game is unacceptable. For the record, I have a GTX 1070, i7-4790K and 16GB RAM which is well above recommended specs. I still get framerate drops, even with the third-party patch.
Besides this immense issue, the game is technically below 2017 standards. Framerate is capped at 60 fps without the patch and cutscenes are locked at 30 fps. World textures are bad. Characters are a little better but you rarely see them close-up. Visual effects kind of make it up as they're pretty good. Overall the game is saved by its artistic direction, although the color scheme tends a little bit too much towards grey. It's been mentioned numerous times that Square Enix didn't allow for a huge budget on this game. You can clearly see this on the world map. There are areas that feel like they were straight up cut from the game. The map also feels like it should have been more crowded but they simply couldn't do it. Honestly, it's hard to be critical on this aspect; it's obvious they did the best they could with the technology and budget they (allegedly) had. If we forget about the unbelievably bad port, the game is on par with J-RPG standards, and to be fair you can't expect a 'niche' game like this to lift the bar up.

Sounds & music

(I'm linking a few Youtube videos in this section so you can listen to the game's music. Beware, comments on these videos may contain spoilers.) As you may know, the game won the 'Best Score/Music' award at the 2017 Game Awards. Indeed, the music is top notch. It perfectly captures the gameplay experience and completes the visual experience. Exploring the city ruins wouldn't be the same without this thrilling music. Some of the songs have vocals in a language made up of different real languages, giving a great fantasy sound. Emotional songs for special occasions are high quality too and they'll forever remind you of the events of the game when you hear them.
The Japanese voice acting is excellent too, especially 2B. It perfectly captures her cold, determined personality slowly becoming more human. I haven't played the game with English voices but I've read positive comments about them. The machines voice acting is also very interesting and, once again, adds to the world. Unsure if this fits in this section or in 'Technical' but it's important to note that the English subtitles are made for the English voices and aren't accurate if you're playing with Japanese voices. It's not much, but you lose little details, as the androids (especially 2B) in English sound more human than in Japanese.

Overall

The game is extremely good. It's a lot of fun to play, the story is deep enough that it cannot be figured out until you've got all the key elements, and the world is very interesting. The game's technical issues (on PC) would make me hesitant on paying it at full price, though. However, you should absolutely play this game because it brings original ideas. It's a lot of fresh air in the saturated world of video games.
This game matters for its unique writing, its extremely interactive world and its engaging story. It points problems and actually tries and provides solutions. It does it on almost every aspect of its design. I think it's an excellent representation of 'artistic evolution'. Taro Yoko sends a pretty clever message to players about their relation to games and their gods. Finally, it shows a lot of games, especially open world games, where, why and how they were wrong.

Open world

Open world fatigue

'Open world fatigue' is a phenomenon where players get bored, or rather tired, of open world games. This is caused by many things but most people agree it's because they keep repeating the same meaningless tasks in open worlds. The most obvious example would be collectibles. It's a real thing and many people complain about it. Open world games today have larger maps, more items to collect, more quests to complete, etc. This could sound like a good thing but it turns out it's not. You can play hundreds of hours and still feel like you're not done, you haven't played enough. Taro Yoko saw this phenomenon and understood once tasks become ordinary, they become chores. He concluded players were tired of this high level of freedom. This might sound counterproductive but, as he explains, having a high level of freedom doesn't necessarily mean feeling free.

Having freedom vs. feeling free

In order to explain the difference between 'having freedom' and 'feeling free', Taro Yoko cites two examples: the original Super Mario Bros. game and GTA IV. When he discovered the warp zone for the first time in Super Mario Bros., he was shocked. It felt like the game contained an enormous world he wasn't aware of. He felt free. When he played GTA IV for the first, which is a game (and a series) famous for giving a lot of freedom to the player, he was surprised he couldn't talk to NPCs in the streets. But it makes sense, as you wouldn't go around randomly talking to strangers in real life. This is a case of removing some freedom to the player in order to add realism and sense.

The solution

Taro Yoko came to the conclusion that 'freedom' in video games isn't about volume; it's the expansion of the player's perception. Which means that 'freedom' is in a future that you weren't aware of in the past. In his games, Taro Yoko translates this by using a frame to limit freedom. Imagine a world. What's important isn't the size of this world but rather its frame because players believe the frame is the limit of this world. Now if you expand this frame, it gives a sense of freedom. This expansion may have many forms. I remember playing GTA III when I was younger and after spending many hours on the first island I finally unlocked the second one and I was stunned. It was a whole new map, with new vehicles and everything! But it wouldn't have worked if I hadn't spend all these hours trapped on that first island, giving me a false impression that GTA III's world was smaller than it actually is.

Ending

Now I've talked about gameplay and world expansion but this also applies to the story. What if you played through a story, but then you can play it again with a different point of view which will completely changes what you learned in your first playthrough? Or what if there was another story after the ending? Giving you a false impression that the game is ending, but actually the world is expanding right before your eyes. And now you have no idea what will happen next, yet you're excited. It's almost as if the video games gods blessed you with a cryptic puzzle...

Sources & annexes

• Taro Yoko's GDC 2014 video about scriptwriting: https://youtu.be/OO_d3fwTNPo (SPOILERS for the first Nier game)
• Takahisa Taura and Taro Yoko's GDC 2018 video about Nier: Automata's gameplay and open-world: https://youtu.be/jKbH9i5axxU (SPOILERS for NieR:Automata)
• Screenshots used for the context part (emotions, potential, open-world, etc.) come from these two GDC videos.
• Combo clip are from this video: https://youtu.be/9P6Y2L0UMqI (SPOILERS)
• Animations details are from this video: https://youtu.be/QAU_8GEgSwI (SPOILERS)
• Everything else was captured by yours truly.
  
• The third-party patch for the Steam version can be downloaded here: https://github.com/Kaldaien/FAR
  

Whew. I really got carried away. This game is just so interesting, it brings a lot of fresh ideas while also being fully aware of some of the issues with current video games. I think it matters a lot. Anyways, I hope you enjoyed the read, at least as much as I enjoyed writing it. I did my best to put in practice the suggestions people made on my previous review. Once again, please let me know what you liked, what you disliked, what you thought was unnecessary, what was missing, etc. Anything constructive is cool. I proof-read the whole thing but please keep in mind English isn't my native language. And, of course, feel free to discuss the game here, using spoiler tags when needed.

Based on Beginners guide: Properties ranked by Necessity by CretaceousFossil. Related: GTA Online property location guide, if you are wondering what the difference is between locations. For moneymaking specifics see /gtaonline's pinned weekly Mega Guide thread.

1. An Apartment, Stilthouse, or Penthouse: The #1 property every player should have by Level 30 is an apartment. While they may be less effective property for earning money, they definitely have advantages. You can spawn there safely, not having to worry about spawn killing by griefers. If another player is relentlessly chasing you down, even if you own no other properties, you can evade them. And finally, its nice to feel like an actual resident of Los Santos. Also its the only way to do the regular heists as a host.
   
2. CEO Office or Biker Clubhouse: It mainly comes down to what you like. You might like the clean, authoritative, high-rise feel of being a CEO, or you might like the gritty, street-level, rock'n'roll style of an MC president. However one or the other, is the second property you should invest in or at least prioritize. With the CEO Office, you won't need to make sure you have your 50,000 dollars every-time you join the game. Although the missions that come with the CEO are monotonous and underwhelming, so many of the other properties on this list require you to be a CEO or MC President to operate. As an MC president you have the ability to spawn in any bike you own, next to you with, no cooldown (except for the Oppressor Mk2); and as a CEO you have the ability to spawn in Organization vehicles (see #Organization_Vehicles on how to unlock them). You can also get free snacks at the Assistant in the Office.
   
3. Bunker: If you are beginner or someone who doesn't own a ton of Mk2 weapons or weaponized vehicles, the money is definitely the best part. The resupply missions are fairly easy (but once you have both production upgrades, you should buy supplies), and most of the sell missions without rival players are a breeze. Whenever you are online and you have supplies in the Bunker, it is passively producing. This allows you to do other activities in the meantime. However besides the money, if you wish to own a lot of Mk2 Weapons and maybe a weaponized vehicle, the research does pay off. Also this property allows you to buy an MOC. While the interior may seem like a bunch of gray, drab, ugly, concrete tunnels at first, once you get the golf carts, sleeping quarters, shooting range, upgrades, and the yellow paint job its gives a nice industrial/laboratory feel.
   
4. Vehicle Warehouse: Import/Export is one of the best solo money-making methods. There is no upfront cost as with Special Cargo but if done correctly it can still net a good $200k per hour (or more, combined with VIP jobs). The Specialized Vehicles stored in the basement are rather lackluster though, Rockstar introduced much more powerful weaponized vehicles since then, most of them even cheaper and customizable.
   
5. (Special Cargo) Warehouse or MC Business: The warehouse's drop-shipping style buy & sell formula makes it the most straightforward and it's a good way to introduce beginners to selling. However, there are definitely some flaws with this option. While the selling yields good profits, if you lose your cargo, your losing time and money. Open-Road Businesses are similar in idea to gunrunning. Steal or buy supplies and wait for your stock to build up. However they don't pay that well, and are obsolete compared to other businesses.
   
6. Nightclub: The nightclub definitely has some very good benefits. You get a free Speedo Custom right off the bat, which at first is a "so-so" vehicle, but once you have all the vehicle upgrades, the armor plating, the minigun, and mines, it's a very fun and effective vehicle. While the cargo accrues quite slowly, if you are patient and play the business battle missions, you will have some considerable stock. Plus you can purchase the Terrorbyte, more info on it below. For the Nightclub to be most effective you should own (and run, that is not have it shut down) other businesses, as the stock is generated from linked businesses. Keeping the Nightclub at higher levels of popularity will put more money every 24 ingame hours (48 minutes IRL) into your safe. Every ingame day decreases the popularity by 5% (1/4 of a popularity bar), changing DJs for $10k (once you unlocked them for $100k - this maxes out popularity) will up your popularity by 10% (half of a bar). Or you may wait a couple ingame days and do a popularity mission which increases popularity by 1.5 bar. You can see how much cash gets added into your safe (capacity: $70k) every day: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Nightclubs#Cash
   
7. Terrorbyte (requires Nightclub): The Terrorbyte is a really great vehicle. Besides having a literal base inside in a truck, which is sweet, it is incredibly functional. The missions have awesome pay considering the level of effort/hassle needed to complete them, plus you can remotely launch resupply missions for any of your businesses. If you decide to buy this truck, make sure you have over $1.2m extra, to get the drone station and missiles (though the latter is not very useful), and you if don't own a Mk2 weapon workshop, getting one with the terrorbyte is a good idea.
   
8. Arcade: The Arcade provides another passive income (max $5k per day) to the player while also giving the player the ability to host Casino Heists which pay really well if the player knows what they are doing. The passive income depends on how many games are placed, you may even just place the same games in every slot to achieve the highest possible payout, you don't have to buy all the machines. Owning a Terrorbyte makes you able to hire Paige as hacker, which is necessary for good Casino Heist runs to max out the time you can spend grabbing loot (or you may alternatively unlock Avi Schwartzman as a hacker).
   
9. Facility: The facility although one of the more expensive properties, can get you some serious cash and XP from the Doomsday Heists, plus the front desk has free snack. This is my favorite property just because of how expansive it is. With the wall designs, color scheme, fully upgraded quarters, and statues you get after the heists, its very aesthetically pleasing and is a good way to impress.
   
10. Garage (standalone property): If you are too broke to afford an apartment because you don't that much time to play or apartments are not your thing, put this at number 1 over the apartment as the first property to buy. However although being able to to store cars, garages are obsolete considering you can add garages and garage levels to nightclub, and apartments and the facilities include garages. Also you can't set your spawn location to standalone garages.
    
11. Mobile Operations Center (MOC) or Avenger): While both have a better bang for your buck than the warehouse, they aren't that crucial for beginning players. The MOC at first is very barebones and while there are missions that can be launched from it, they require multiple players and can't be launched in freemode. The Avenger can be a useful vehicle for freemode jobs (such as Hangar missions or Facility/Arcade preps) but it's definitely not necessary.
    
12. Hangar: If you love flying in GTA Online and want to spend all your money on planes, this is the property for you. However, if you want to make money, it's not a very good option. Crates are only worth $10k each and the missions require some flying skills, and only give 1 crate per player in the MC or Organization, with a maximum of 4. The sale missions also require flying skills, some even more than the sourcing missions and some of them can't really be done solo.
    
13. Arena Workshop: With the paint job, decals, and office, the Arena Workshop can be made to look very cool, and with the weapons workshop you can add weapons to vehicles and upgrade guns. You also have access to the Arena War career, which allows you to unlock discount prices for outfits and vehicle mods (albeit randomly, so it's not a very effective model), and the base prices for the upgardes are very steep. This property is over a million, so unless you are planning to buy a ton of discounted items or you just love Arena War, wait out on this one or skip it altogether.
    
14. Casino Master Penthouse: Basically a very expensive apartment, with very expensive modular upgrades and decorations. You can also add a 10-car garage for $900k. It also lets you do the Casino Missions (from Agatha Baker) as a host, which upon completion awards the player with the Paragon R (Armored)) car, which is exclusively available from here.
    
15. CEO Office Garage: Unless you are super rich and own more cars than you know what to do with, make this property dead last. It costs millions to add more levels. You can add a Custom Auto Shop (for even more money) with it to custom your cars straight from the garage though.
    
16. Yacht: Big floating apartment on water, gives you the option to play one extra type of VIP job. Not a priority.