Welcome to Steelport, boss! This handy guide will turn you from a common thug into the badass gangster boss you want to be. But before you go out there to kill hordes of your enemies, check this guide out.

Here are some basics:
Your primary source of cash is laundered money. Every 15 minutes (one in-game hour) you can transfer your cash from your offshore account to spendable cash. Do this often!

You will need cash to upgrade abilities and weapons, as well as ammo and "various health costs" - aka. dying. We'll come to those in a second, just know you want lots of cash for lots of guns and such.

As said before, you'll get the most income from the so-called hourly income. In order to get hourly income, you'll need to buy property and stores.

Property, maked dark red on your map, only generates income per hour and does nothing else. Property costs between 1.000 $ and 50.000 $ and generally generates 1/10th of the initial price. (e.g. buying the "Olde Steel Factory" for 8.000 $ generates 800 $ per hour).

Stores, maked green on your map, generate income per hour once bought and additionally give you a discount in all stores of that kind you own. Stores generally cost 5.000 $ and generate 500 $ per hour (with a few excerptions: Leather & Lace and Let's Pretend cost 10.000 $ and generate 1.000 $)

A good technique is to buy anything for 1.000 $ as soon as you can. Within 2.5 hours of gameplay you'll have all your costs covered and it's going upwards from there. This is a very easy way to get a steady income.

Note: The property "Havemayer Estates" costs 100 $, but returns 100 $ per hour. It's a great way to get some easy cash. Also, the "Friendly Fire" in Loren Square costs 100 $, but gives 500 $ per hour. (I guess the owner needed some cash REALLY quick)

Almost every weapon you can buy can be upgraded to be more deadly. However, these upgrades become incredibly expensive soon, so be mindful what you buy.

Let's go over an example:
The .45 Shepherd - The handgun of choice for any Saint.

• On Level 1, it has decent firepower and accuracy, but not a great rate of fire.
  
• At level 2 for just 200 $, you'll get an increased rate of fire.
  
• However, level 3, which increases the size of your clips, costs 10.000 $. You should wait with this upgrade until you can easily afford it.
  
• On level 4, your Shepherd gets explosive ammo, which is just as awesome as it sounds. However, the price of 20.000 $ also blasts a huge hole into the spendable cash of newer players, so you should wait until you get this.

Here's an overview of all Level 4 upgrades:
Pistols:

• .45 Shepherd - Explosive bullets
  
• KA-1 Kobra - Increased accuracy, Armor-piercing bullets

SMGs:

• D4TH Blossom - Armor-piercing bullets, more damage
  
• TEK Z-10 - KA-1 Kobra - Increased accuracy, sets enemies on fire

Shotguns:

• AS3 Ultimax - Increased accuracy, rate of fire and clip size
  
• Grave Digger - Increased clip size, sets enemies on fire
  
• S3X Hammer - Increased rate of fire, more damage

Rifles:

• K-8 Krukov - 120 bullets per clip, attached a grenade launcher (this is aweome)
  
• AR-55 - Increased damage, less recoil and a sniper-scope
  
• Viper Laser Rifle - Increased rate of fire, less recoil

Explosive:

• Annihilator - Rockets follow your aim or your lock-on

Special:

• McManus 2015 - More ammo and damage, less recoil.
  
• RC Possessor - Control military vehicles
  
• Reaper Drone - Lots of ammo
  
• SA-3 Airstrike - Target very fast and hold lots of ammo

Depending on your Respect, you can buy several abilities with cash. Some are passive bonuses, such as more health, more ammo and the likes, others are abilities which can be activated, such as vehicle deliveries and police forgiveness.

In general, you should focus on abilities which give you a clear advantage, such as

• being able to dual-wield pistols and SMGs,
  
• having more health,
  
• being more resistant to different kinds of damage,
  
• carrying more ammo,
  
• reloading faster, etc...

It's also wise to invest in some convenience abilities, such as "Vehicle Delivery". You can phone one of your buddies to deliver you any kind of vehicle you want. This is especially convenient if you just got rekt and need a quick car to get back to the action.

Note that some abilities start with bonuses unworthy of a true gangster boss, like +5 % bullet resistance, and end up with complete resistance to bullets. Yes, go back and read that again! COMPLETE RESISTANCE TO BULLETS. Get shot all day long and laugh at them!
Is it unfair? Perhaps! Is it awesome! HELL YEAH!

Now that you got some weapons and abilities, it's time for you to explore Steelport yourself. There's nothing you can do wrong. Just explore, run some people over and enjoy the game. Don't take it so seriously - this isn't EVE Online.

But before you go, let me give you a few last tips:

• Once a vehicle is in your garage, you can spawn it as often as you want
  
• Shoot the driver of a pursuing car to quickly make them reconsider their desire to follow you
  
• The Level 4 .45 Shepherd has insane damage output. Learn to handle it.
  
• Entering a store you own resets all notoriety.
  
• You can also upgrade grenades

Now, make the Saints proud!