Beginner's Guide
This is the approved revision of this page, as well as being the most recent.
This guide will teach you the most efficient ways to go from your basic starter jeep to a fully-upgraded Canopy Ural so that you can get a good start to making money on the islands.
It can be used by anyone but is aimed at new players who are just starting out on the islands.
UAZ-469 Off-Road (FREE/$10,000)
Everyone joins the island at the same location with $50,000 in their bank.
DO THE TUTORIAL to learn how to use the ATM, buy clothes and a backpack, and how to gather and process resources.
You’ll get a FREE UAZ-469 Off-Road when you complete it which you can park out from any Garage.
If you skipped the tutorial, you should go back and complete it. Otherwise, you can buy what you need in Montignac.
NOTE - Prices will vary based on your Reputation. Avoid killing people to keep your reputation positive and get the cheapest prices possible.
| Willi’s Clothing Store | General Store | Car Shop |
| M88 Jacket ($1750) | Map ($500) | UAZ-469 Off-Road ($10,000) |
| M88 Trousers ($1750) | Smartphone ($1,000) | |
| ALICE Medium Backpack ($14,500) | ||
| TOTAL COST - $29,500 | ||
Worst-Case Scenario
So you skipped the tutorial and didn’t get your free vehicle, spent all your money, then died and lost everything you were carrying.
If you don’t want to beg for money, here’s what you can do:
- Select Montignac as your spawn location.
- Walk east from the market, past the church, across the street to the hotel, and look for an apple tree in the backyard.
- Gather five apples from the tree (takes about a minute)
- Walk back down to the market to the Apple Trader and sell all five apples for $650
- Do this two more times, then buy a shirt. Now you can hold ten apples!
- Go back and gather 10 apples this time, then sell them all to the trader
- Do this a few more times and buy a backpack. Now you can hold a lot more apples!
In less than 30 minutes you will have enough to buy everything listed in the first section and get to work!
UAZ-452 Off-Road ($100,000)
Your first new vehicle after the starter jeep should be the van. With more than double the cargo space and a similar driving profile, you’ll make your first million in no time!
To reach this goal, you’ll be doing one of the fastest and easiest resource loops available - Copper!
- Head north from Montignac to the Copper Mine
- Gather 26 copper ore (13 in your jeep, 13 in your backpack)
- Once you’re full, head south to Copper Processing in Gravette
- Talk to the Smelter and turn the ore into 26 Copper Ingots
- Take the ingots up to the Metal Trader in Tyrone and sell them all
- Copper usually goes for at least $2,000
- Even if it’s below that, the loop is short enough to still be worth it.
- You should usually make at least $45k per run with your starter jeep
When you’re just starting, this loop will take about 12-15 minutes. As you gain mining and smelting levels and learn the route better, this can go as fast as 8-10 minutes!
Do this loop 2 or 3 times and you’ll have enough to buy the van from a Car Shop in any of the three main towns! (Montignac is closest)
What if I get robbed?
Unfortunately, it’s not a matter of if you get robbed, but when. It’s very likely that you will get robbed at some point, possibly even in your first few hours on the island! However, this doesn’t need to ruin your experience.
Robbers can only demand you give up what you’re carrying; they cannot force you to withdraw money from your bank or demand that you unlock your vehicle. If you don’t carry high value items (guns, vests, helmets) then you don’t have much to lose, and most robbers will move on without much hassle. Plus, only the Ural trucks can be lock picked, so your items will be safe in the trunk of your other vehicles.
When you get robbed you have three basic choices:
- Fight. If you’ve chosen to carry a weapon, you can try to shoot the robbers. Since they probably already have their guns pointed at you, this usually won’t end well.
- Flee. If you’re being chased in your vehicle, you can try to out-maneuver the robbers. If they’ve already stopped you or if you’re on foot, you probably won’t escape.
- Comply. Go prone, drop your backpack and your clothing, and let the robbers take your things. In most cases this is your best option for both time and profit.
If you hate the idea of complying (even for the sake of profit) you’ll want to find a group to farm with. There’s strength in numbers, but groups often expect you to fight for them as well.
Ultimately, your main goal in a robbery should be to survive and get back to work! Just remember that killing people, even in self-defense, will negatively affect your Reputation and thus reduce your discounts and sell value on trade Goods.
M923A1 Transport Truck ($800,000)
Your first truck should be the cheapest one, the American Transport Truck. While notably slower than the starter jeep and the van, it boasts a much larger cargo space, allowing for even more profitable trade runs!
To reach this goal, you now have a couple options:
- Continue doing Copper runs in your van
- You’ll need roughly ten loops depending on market value
- This option will take about two hours, again depending on market value
- This is still one of the most reliable options, but it can get tedious.
- Try one of the other Trade Goods.
- Iron is a longer loop but usually more profitable than Copper. Use the Metal Trader in Entre-Deux if you do Iron, not the one in Figari.
- Sand/Glass can be good, but it takes longer since it’s more of a line than a loop so there’s a bit of backtracking needed.
- Gold and Silver are much longer runs, but have higher market potential.
- Cotton can be quite profitable, but you need a bit of cash to buy the seeds and you have to wait for the plants to grow.
- Wood products (including charcoal) are very long runs and are almost always more valuable on the Auction House, which you may not be able to afford the fees for yet.
- Honey requires a decent amount of map knowledge and isn’t reliable, since the beehives aren’t guaranteed to always have honeycomb
- Parcels also require good map knowledge, and there’s no guarantee which stations you’ll be sent to.
- Polyester and Petrol require a fuel truck which you probably don’t have yet.
- Marijuana and mushrooms are both very long runs and generally not worth the time and risk of violence or police intervention.
- Plus, Nature Weed requires a significantly higher initial investment for the seeds and takes hours to grow.
Once you’ve saved up the cash, head to any Truck Shop and buy your very first truck!
Workshop Upgrades
At most gas stations you can find a Workshop that offers several upgrades to improve your vehicle's performance and add some convenience. You also need to keep your vehicle’s inspection current, which is another service provided at these Workshops.
For your starter jeep and van you can ignore upgrades on these until later. However, your first truck will greatly benefit from a few of them:
- Chip Tuning 1 ($100,000) - Increases power and torque by 10%
- Chip Tuning 2 ($250,000) - Increases power and torque by an additional 10%
- Auto Lock ($80,000) - Automatically locks the vehicle after 10 seconds
The extra torque helps a lot, especially when going uphill in the American truck. The Auto Lock helps keep your vehicle secure if you forget to lock it. The remaining upgrades are still useful, but not quite worth the price when you’re first starting out.
- Chip Tuning 3 ($750,000) - Another 10% boost, but is considered illegal
- Airbag ($375,000) - Drastically reduces chance of fatal damage in accidents
- False Bottom ($450,000) - Reduces the chance of illegal items being found when searched by police.
The last chip tuning upgrade is good, but very expensive and can get your vehicle impounded if it’s discovered by police. The airbag is also useful, as accidents will happen no matter how well you drive. Finally, the false bottom is really only useful if you’re running drugs.
It costs $15,000 to do an inspection which is good for another 500km. Police may impound your vehicle if your inspection is overdue, so keep it current!
Ural-4320 Fuel Truck ($2,800,000)
Once you’ve done a good bit of work with your American Transport truck, it’s time to upgrade to a Ural Fuel Truck. The Fuel trucks are unique in that they’re the only vehicles that can hold unrefined Oil; however, they can still hold any other items as well!
We’re going to skip the American Fuel truck and American Canopy Truck for now, since the Ural Fuel truck is already quite a chunk of cash. You are free to buy them if you wish, but I generally recommend saving up for the Ural Fuel Truck.
To reach this goal, there's a few more options now.
- Continue doing your trade runs of choice.
- Copper remains quick and reliable, but you may want to experiment with other goods now that you can haul larger amounts of raw materials.
- Generally speaking, you want to avoid any resource that’s selling for less than $2,000 at the time. You can check the current market prices on your smartphone.
- Sell goods on the Auction house.
- These are available in each of the three main towns and can be one of the best ways to earn some extra cash.
- Most processed goods are useful to crafters and will sell for higher prices than what the traders will give you.
- There’s no single item that’s always the best, so check the listings and see where the demand is. Fill up your listings, then sell the rest to traders.
- Try out Crafting yourself.
- You can create a variety of basic crafting components even if you haven’t learned any useful recipes yet. Some of these sell decently on the Auction House.
- You’ve also likely found some Blueprints during your work. If you haven’t learned them, you can sell them on the Auction House as well.
What about all those other vehicles?
There’s a variety of vehicles you can find on the islands, from cars to pickup trucks to humvees. However, when you’re just starting out, your goal should be to maximize profit from your trade runs. These vehicles do have their purpose, but don’t have much cargo space and are therefore less useful if your goal is to make money.
Cars
The S105 car and van are relatively cheap and can be fun to use as a daily driver. It can take some time to get used to their handling, but if you’re looking for a simple A to B car these can do the job. The VW Rolf has a similar profile but is notably more expensive. The American M151A2 Jeep also fits this role, but has much better handling and acceleration as a trade-off for its lower top speed.
Pickup Trucks
Pickup trucks are commonly used as getaway vehicles, as they are one of the fastest and most maneuverable vehicles available to civilians on the islands. They’re also quite sturdy, but are somewhat expensive for their purpose.
Humvees
Of the three humvee variants, only the Armored version is worth using. With slower top speed and acceleration plus tougher handling than most vehicles, it’s most commonly used by gangs and criminals looking for a safer transportation method that can protect them from gunfire.
Helicopters
Helicopters cannot be purchased anywhere on the island. Instead, they can only be crafted and require a huge amount of resources, including extremely rare crafting items. If you’re lucky enough to get a helicopter blueprint or special rotor while you’re working, sell it on the Auction House and skip the rest of this guide!
Ural-4320 Transport Truck - Canopy ($4,000,000)
The final step in your money-making journey - the Canopy Ural. Boasting a massive 350kg of cargo space and, once upgraded, a top speed of 120km, there is no better vehicle currently available for making money!
To reach this goal, you can continue doing resource grinds like you did for your other trucks, but now that you have a Fuel Truck you can do Polyester and Petrol.
- Of the two, Polyester is generally more reliable, since you can sell your entire stock at the same location (Tailoring).
- Petrol can be sold at gas stations throughout the island, but they all have different needs and you usually won’t be able to sell your entire stock at a single station.
If you want to run a different trade good, the Ural Fuel Truck’s cargo capacity is a significant upgrade from your American Truck (150kg up to 250kg). This increased capacity opens up many other trade routes for profitable margins, since the extra time is balanced out by the higher volume of goods. You can also continue playing the Auction House or get more experience as a Crafter.
Lastly, remember how I mentioned Reputation earlier? This is where it really gets important. If you’ve worked hard and avoided killing anyone up until this point, you can expect a discount of almost $600,000 when you purchase the Canopy Ural from a Truck Shop!
Conclusion
Congratulations on making it to the end!
Enjoy your new truck and all the money you will make!
Videos
There exists a couple of video tutorials on the official youtube channel.