Analysis of Mission Payouts 1.31

[JustSomeBunny]

Analysis of Mission Payouts – RP and Money

 

By "TheBunnyGirl" formerly known on GTAF as "KatyPerry"

 

Thanks to my crew member Milk n' Cookies who helped me gather the data!

 

Part I – Which missions are most lucrative?

 

In order to determine what missions give the most RP and money upon completion, 8 randomly selected missions were completed in just over 4 minutes each (i.e. 4:05). Test conditions were held constant; in other words, the only variable that changed was the mission. Each mission was completed on hard difficulty, auto aim, 2 players (my friend and I, in the same crew). Table 1 and figure 1 show the RP and money received.

 

Table 1 and Figure 1

 

 

Figure 1

 

 

 

 

We made the observation that mission rewards increase as the level required to unlock the mission increases. For example, Deal Breaker unlocks at level 6 and gives 1808 RP and $10100, while Trash Talk unlocks at level 81 and gives 2466 RP and $12570.

 

In order to characterize this relationship further, level requirement was used as the independent variable, plotted on the x-axis, and RP and money were used as the dependent variable, plotted on the y-axis. The relationship between mission level and payout appears to be linear, as shown in figures 2 and 3.

 

Figures 2 and 3

 

 

Figure 2

Figure 3

Please note you see only 7 points instead of 8 because two missions overlap - Cleaning the Cat House and Mixed Up with Coke (they are identical)

 

 

 

 

Using these 8 data points, the slope of each line was determined. The slope for money was approximately 33, and the slope for RP was approximately 9. This means that for every 1 unit increase in level required to unlock the mission, the mission pays an additional 33 dollars and 9 RP. As an example, a mission that unlocks at level 60 would pay $1650 and 450 RP more than a mission that unlocks at level 10, assuming the same conditions were used. Here are the actual equations:

 

y=26/3x + 1756 (RP)

 

y=100/3x + 9900 (Money)

 

Please note, if you are playing by yourself, the numbers are a little different. In this instance, the slope of the line is 6.8 for RP and 30 for money. Thus, in a solo session, you will receive an additional 6.8 RP and $30 for each 1 unit increase in level required to unlock the mission. If you are trying to maximize profits, higher tier missions such as Rooftop Rumble and Trash Talk are better bets than Deal Breaker or All in the Game. However, the differences are relatively small. If you really want to grind for money and RP, you have to consider other factors, such as time to complete the mission.

 

 

Part II – How long should I take to complete a mission in order to maximize RP and money?

 

Perhaps you have encountered a player in a mission who grabs a briefcase or package and proceeds to wait at the marker before delivering the item. They may say they are waiting to get more money or RP, but is this really an effective and efficient strategy? The answers may surprise you. In order to test this concept, we played one mission (Deal Breaker) over and over, finishing at different times but holding all other variables constant. Mission pay does not increase after 15 minutes, and the money/RP received after 15 minutes was construed to represent the maximum possible take. Thus, % max RP and % max money refer to the % of 3615 RP and % of $20200 earned. Thus, $10100 represents 50% max money. Results are shown in table 2.

 

Table 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the relationship between mission duration, in seconds, and RP and money received. Next, let's apply a best fit line (logarithmic). Unlike before, the line is now curved – it starts out relatively steep and then flattens as time increases. Thus, the amount of RP and money you receive per second decreases over time – waiting starts to get less and less profitable.

 

Figures 4 and 5

 

 

Figure 4

 

Figure 5

 

 

 

 

 

We have determined that pay out increases after a fixed interval of time. 2:01, 3:01, 4:01, 6:01, 8:01, 10:01, 12:01, and 15:01 to be exact. If you use a timer while playing missions, and you are about to finish just prior to the next interval, waiting a few seconds to reach the next threshold seems to make sense. The question is, does it make sense from the rewards standpoint to sit and wait just to get higher pay? In order to answer this question, we must look at RP and money per second (see table 3).

 

Table 3

 

 

 

 

 

These findings are shown graphically in figures 6 and 7. The highest return in terms of dollars per second occurs when beating the mission at either 1:01, 2:01, 3:01, or 4:01, and anything longer than 4:01 gives you less return. The return falls to approximately half as much per second if you take the full time to do the mission (15+ minutes). The best result for RP comes with a finish in 1:01. If you take longer than 15 minutes, you will only receive about 1/3 as much RP per second. However, I have not accounted for the time spent between missions in terms of setting up and launching the next mission, which is definitely worth consideration.

 

Figures 6 and 7

 

 

 

Figure 7

 

 

 

 

 

Does it make sense to wait 15 minutes to complete a mission? Clearly, the answer is “no.”

 

There are other ways you can increase your mission rewards.

 

*Difficulty: make sure to set to “hard” for a 50% increase in RP and $ compared to “easy”

 

*Play free-aim: I don’t do this myself, but if you do, you will get 25% more RP

 

*Play with a full team: Each additional participant, up to three, will increase RP and money by 10%

 

*Play with a friend/crew member: I think it’s a 10% RP bonus but I’m not sure

 

*Wait, but only if you’re close to the next bump in pay scale: if you are about to finish in 3:55 seconds, wait five seconds and finish. If you finish the mission in 4:05, do not wait for 6:05. If you are in the middle of an interval, you can decide whether it’s worth waiting or not, but I personally think it’s boring!

 

*Use Pegasus vehicles to save money: buzzard, savage, etc cost $200 to call but they have unlimited ammo. If you have to blow stuff up, such as the trucks in “Mixed up with Coke,” a buzzard will save you much money versus using stickies or grenades

 

*Play missions that unlock later in the game: you will make more! Not a huge difference, but if you’re one of those every dollar counts sort of people…

Recommended “farm” missions: Trash Talk with buzzard, Rooftop Rumble with Kuruma

 

*Play Los Santos Connection solo to pick up an additional $8000 in drug money

 

*Deliver packages and kill enemies (that grant RP) whenever possible

 

Conclusion: Play as many missions as you can in a given time period: more short missions will generally be better than fewer long missions! Don’t wait to deliver the objective, except in the instance you are very close to the next time interval. I recommend the 4:01 "sweet spot" in terms of finishing a mission given the loading time between subsequent missions.

 

If you just want money, Pacific Standard is still the king!

 

By the way, I am playing the game for fun! This is just an informative exercise, not a set of rules to follow. Remember that in your comments please.

 

I apologize if this information is redundant, or you did not find it helpful. Also, I apologize if any inaccurate information is presented due to calculation errors.

 

Thanks for reading guys!

 

 

Update: Based on feedback, I have added a third part to this analysis

 

Part III – How do wait times and loading times affect payout?

 

Thank you to those who pointed out wait times between starting missions may influence overall payout while playing multiple missions. The amount of time spent between missions may vary on a number of factors, such as how long loading screens last, how long people take to vote at the end, how long people take to join if not playing solo, etc. In order to test the effects of this down time on payout, I assumed a one minute wait period between subsequent missions. One minute might be a bit optimistic, but for the sake of this exercise, let’s just go with one minute. If you decide to play 4 missions, each taking 14 minutes, you would spend four minutes of downtime per hour while setting things up. If you play 12 missions, each taking 4 minutes, you would spend 12 minutes of downtime in a given hour. Which scenario is optimal in terms of RP and money earned? Let’s find out…

 

As you can see from Table 2, various times were tested to determine RP and money per second using the mission Deal Breaker (same settings as before - hard difficulty, 2 players in the same crew, auto aim). In order to account for load time, I have kept payout the same, but added one minute to each time. Thus, while previously completing the mission in 1:55 results in 723 RP, in this chart, 2:55 now receives 723 RP to account for load times. The mission duration was converted to seconds. Given that each hour lasts 3600 seconds, dividing 3600 seconds by the duration of the mission, now including 1 extra minute for load times, gives the number of runs per hour, or number of times the mission can be completed per hour at a certain speed. Knowing the number of runs per hour and the RP and money given for each run, one can calculate the RP and money received per hour (Tables 4 and 5). The most profitable time strategy is indicated by an orange box.

 

 

Tables 4 and 5

 

 

 

Table 4 - RP per hour, including 1 minute wait time between runs

 

Table 5 - Money per hour, including 1 minute wait time between runs

 

 

 

For both money and RP, finishing in just over 4 minutes remains the optimal strategy, even including the 12 or so minutes spent on load screens. The best alternative for RP is to finish in just over 2 minutes, while the best alternative for money is to finish in just over 6 minutes. Clearly, finishing very early (under 2 minutes) or very slowly (over 14 minutes) is much less desirable if you want the best haul. These data suggest that failure to manage time efficiently could lead to 25% or more less RP and money per hour. Figure 6 gives a graphical representation of RP and money earned factoring in load times.

 

Figure 6

 

 

 

Figure 6 - Payouts per hour including a 1 minute wait time between missions

 

 

 

I hope this additional analysis was useful. Thanks for reading and thanks again to everyone for the positive comments.

Edited January 11, 2016 by KatyPerry

[Hunter]

"An error occurred

You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day"

Oh for f**k's sake ...

On topic, I think it's great when people take the time to test things out and tell everyone. Good job giving everyone info.

[Cavot]

I see you were attentive in math class. Very good observations.

[JustSomeBunny]

I see you were attentive in math class. Very good observations.

I work in the field of statistics. Thanks for your support.

[Arrows to Athens]

Your mathematical and statistical skills are very astounding. Broughy will be impressed.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Fearx--

[Uncle Sikee Atric]

Useful info, and proof that waiting to finish is not always best....

[Rockstar Vienna]

Thank you Katy! That is very impressive! Much appreciated

[Milk_n__Cookies-]

Great job. Excellent information. Very well done. Glad I could help with all the testing

[The Lone Wanderer]

so it has come to this

 

I'll just be selling a few low riders

 

interesting read but meh

Edited January 10, 2016 by The Lone Wanderer

[MrMadMike]

Nice work

[GAUNTLET HELLFIRE]

I find doing Rooftop Rumble with a tank the best way. Park your PV in front of the police station and steal a car to go up the road to get your tank then blow some people up in the garage and a few second later a car will spawn in blow that up and the finish off everyone in the garage and blow up the 2 cars that spawn in then grab your PV chase the guy with the documents kill him and then all done with spending just $200 on the tank and about $100 on bullets. With the Kuruma way it takes a while to shoot everyone and you can still get shot which then cost $500 for another body armor and all the money for a crap load of ammo.

[TheNarrative]

 

I have always been a Katy Perry fan great stuff

Edited January 11, 2016 by Kim Jong-Meme

[Stephen]

Chopper Tail I do in 6:45 - 7 minutes with just my Carbine. Start from the entrance work my way up to the meth lab. Head shots as quick as you can, gives you roughly 106K in an hour and five minutes. $13,320 a round + 3207 RP the max RP if you kill everyone, including the NOOSE, and pursuing bike cop. Key to the quick times is good driving with the buggy, and being quick with the shots. Usually I'll have everyone dead just before the helicopter touches down. No explosives no Buzzard.

 

With these times you can run the mission 8 times in a hour or 56 minutes, I added the extra 9 minutes in total for exit and re-entry into the mission.

 

Either way, nicely done OP

Edited January 10, 2016 by SteveNYC

[*Lola]

Analysis of Mission Payouts – RP and Money

 

By "TheBunnyGirl" formerly known on GTAF as "KatyPerry"

 

Thanks to my crew member Milk n' Cookies who helped me gather the data!

 

Part I – Which missions are most lucrative?

 

In order to determine what missions give the most RP and money upon completion, 8 randomly selected missions were completed in just over 4 minutes each (i.e. 4:05). Test conditions were held constant; in other words, the only variable that changed was the mission. Each mission was completed on hard difficulty, auto aim, 2 players (my friend and I, in the same crew). Table 1 and figure 1 show the RP and money received.

 

Table 1 and Figure 1

 

 

Figure 1

 

 

 

 

We made the observation that mission rewards increase as the level required to unlock the mission increases. For example, Deal Breaker unlocks at level 6 and gives 1808 RP and $10100, while Trash Talk unlocks at level 81 and gives 2466 RP and $12570.

 

In order to characterize this relationship further, level requirement was used as the dependent variable, plotted on the x-axis, and RP and money were used as the dependent variable, plotted on the y-axis. The relationship between mission level and payout appears to be linear, as shown in figures 2 and 3.

 

Figures 2 and 3

 

 

Figure 3

Please note you see only 7 points instead of 8 because two missions overlap - Cleaning the Cat House and Mixed Up with Coke (they are identical)

 

 

 

 

Using these 8 data points, the slope of each line was determined. The slope for money was approximately 33, and the slope for RP was approximately 9. This means that for every 1 unit increase in level required to unlock the mission, the mission pays an additional 33 dollars and 9 RP. As an example, a mission that unlocks at level 60 would pay $1650 and 450 RP more than a mission that unlocks at level 10, assuming the same conditions were used. Here are the actual equations:

 

y=26/3x + 1756 (RP)

 

y=100/3x + 9900 (Money)

 

Please note, if you are playing by yourself, the numbers are a little different. In this instance, the slope of the line is 6.8 for RP and 30 for money. Thus, in a solo session, you will receive an additional 6.8 RP and $30 for each 1 unit increase in level required to unlock the mission. If you are trying to maximize profits, higher tier missions such as Rooftop Rumble and Trash Talk are better bets than Deal Breaker or All in the Game. However, the differences are relatively small. If you really want to grind for money and RP, you have to consider other factors, such as time to complete the mission.

 

 

Part II – How long should I take to complete a mission in order to maximize RP and money?

 

Perhaps you have encountered a player in a mission who grabs a briefcase or package and proceeds to wait at the marker before delivering the item. They may say they are waiting to get more money or RP, but is this really an effective and efficient strategy? The answers may surprise you. In order to test this concept, we played one mission (Deal Breaker) over and over, finishing at different times but holding all other variables constant. Mission pay does not increase after 15 minutes, and the money/RP received after 15 minutes was construed to represent the maximum possible take. Thus, % max RP and % max money refer to the % of 3615 RP and % of $20200 earned. Thus, $10100 represents 50% max money. Results are shown in table 2.

 

Table 2

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figures 4 and 5 illustrate the relationship between mission duration, in seconds, and RP and money received. Next, let's apply a best fit line (logarithmic). Unlike before, the line is now curved – it starts out relatively steep and then flattens as time increases. Thus, the amount of RP and money you receive per second decreases over time – waiting starts to get less and less profitable.

 

Figures 4 and 5

 

 

Figure 4

 

Figure 5

 

 

 

 

 

We have determined that pay out increases after a fixed interval of time. 2:01, 3:01, 4:01, 6:01, 8:01, 10:01, 12:01, and 15:01 to be exact. If you use a timer while playing missions, and you are about to finish just prior to the next interval, waiting a few seconds to reach the next threshold seems to make sense. The question is, does it make sense from the rewards standpoint to sit and wait just to get higher pay? In order to answer this question, we must look at RP and money per second (see table 3).

 

Table 3

 

 

 

 

 

These findings are shown graphically in figures 6 and 7. The highest return in terms of dollars per second occurs when beating the mission at either 1:01, 2:01, 3:01, or 4:01, and anything longer than 4:01 gives you less return. The return falls to approximately half as much per second if you take the full time to do the mission (15+ minutes). The best result for RP comes with a finish in 1:01. If you take longer than 15 minutes, you will only receive about 1/3 as much RP per second. However, I have not accounted for the time spent between missions in terms of setting up and launching the next mission, which is definitely worth consideration.

 

Figures 6 and 7

 

 

 

Figure 7

 

 

 

 

 

Does it make sense to wait 15 minutes to complete a mission? Clearly, the answer is “no.”

 

There are other ways you can increase your mission rewards.

 

*Difficulty: make sure to set to “hard” for a 50% increase in RP and $ compared to “easy”

 

*Play free-aim: I don’t do this myself, but if you do, you will get 25% more RP

 

*Play with a full team: Each additional participant, up to three, will increase RP and money by 10%

 

*Play with a friend/crew member: I think it’s a 10% RP bonus but I’m not sure

 

*Wait, but only if you’re close to the next bump in pay scale: if you are about to finish in 3:55 seconds, wait five seconds and finish. If you finish the mission in 4:05, do not wait for 6:05. If you are in the middle of an interval, you can decide whether it’s worth waiting or not, but I personally think it’s boring!

 

*Use Pegasus vehicles to save money: buzzard, savage, etc cost $200 to call but they have unlimited ammo. If you have to blow stuff up, such as the trucks in “Mixed up with Coke,” a buzzard will save you much money versus using stickies or grenades

 

*Play missions that unlock later in the game: you will make more! Not a huge difference, but if you’re one of those every dollar counts sort of people…

Recommended “farm” missions: Trash Talk with buzzard, Rooftop Rumble with Kuruma

 

*Play Los Santos Connection solo to pick up an additional $8000 in drug money

 

Conclusion: Play as many missions as you can in a given time period: more short missions will generally be better than fewer long missions! Don’t wait to deliver the objective, except in the instance you are very close to the next time interval. I recommend the 4:01 "sweet spot" in terms of finishing a mission given the loading time between subsequent missions.

 

If you just want money, Pacific Standard is still the king!

 

By the way, I am playing the game for fun! This is just an informative exercise, not a set of rules to follow. Remember that in your comments please.

 

I apologize if this information is redundant, or you did not find it helpful. Also, I apologize if any inaccurate information is presented due to calculation errors.

 

Thanks for reading guys!

 

Try getting the retard that holds the package for thirty minutes to understand any of your post.LOL

[BlaringFiddle]

so... perhaps a good grind strategy:

 

1) join invite only session

2) become vip

3) run siteseer

4) run los santos connection solo

5) return to freemode and run siteseer

6) repeat steps 4 and 5 for awhile to make some serious bank with little frustration

 

Once you're bored , you can join everyone else and have other sorts of fun!

 

oh and run dailys with both character slots for some long term bank.

Edited January 10, 2016 by BlaringFiddle

[Soran Is On]

This was all hashed out multiple times over when the time based payouts hit and heists didn't exist yet.

 

Tons of work. I'm sure it was mostly just for fun.

 

Good on ya.

[BamaGoodfella]

so... perhaps a good grind strategy:

 

1) join invite only session

2) become vip

3) run siteseer

4) run los santos connection solo

5) return to freemode and run siteseer

6) repeat steps 4 and 5 for awhile to make some serious bank with little frustration

 

Once you're bored , you can join everyone else and have other sorts of fun!

 

oh and run dailys with both character slots for some long term bank.

 

Good strategy, but I would offer one tip that will save you time. Set your spawn point for your yacht. If you end up in Paleto Bay, for example, after the siteseer work is completed then open up the creator mode and immediately go back to an invite only session. Loading times will be minimal and if you start the Los Santos Connection (or any other mission for that matter) from your yacht, it will put you right at the starting point for the mission unlike starting them from your apartments. Doing this will save you several minutes between money making jobs.

[Der Süden]

I play contact missions, CCO3 to be clear, only when I have to wait 10 mins to play Sightseer again. I have 7 mins time for CCO3, almost 3 minutes are loading and menues. I play a 3 min CCO3 and a 4 min CCO3 which both net me $ 17,850 (3 mins = 7,650 and 4 mins = 10,200). I use a Buzzard which makes the mission super easy. But it's boring as f*ck after a while. When I'm back in invite only I have about 20 secs left until I can play Sightseer again.

Edited January 10, 2016 by Nordniedersachse

[BlaringFiddle]

 

so... perhaps a good grind strategy:

 

1) join invite only session

2) become vip

3) run siteseer

4) run los santos connection solo

5) return to freemode and run siteseer

6) repeat steps 4 and 5 for awhile to make some serious bank with little frustration

 

Once you're bored , you can join everyone else and have other sorts of fun!

 

oh and run dailys with both character slots for some long term bank.

 

Good strategy, but I would offer one tip that will save you time. Set your spawn point for your yacht. If you end up in Paleto Bay, for example, after the siteseer work is completed then open up the creator mode and immediately go back to an invite only session. Loading times will be minimal and if you start the Los Santos Connection (or any other mission for that matter) from your yacht, it will put you right at the starting point for the mission unlike starting them from your apartments. Doing this will save you several minutes between money making jobs.

 

OMG - you can go to invite only without going back to single player? Or are you saying that exiting the creater mode puts you back to invite only like you were in before but on your yacht? Was wondering for those times when a hacker is encountered for the 14th time that night and you just want to go invite only as you are sick of it

[KiwikindUK]

I love analysis like this, good job.

 

Just keep in mind the 75 second down time between finishing one mission and being able to start the next, and that's a best case scenario of speeding through the various menus to start the next one. You have to spend that time whether you do the mission in 2 minutes or 15. I can't crunch the numbers but hope it helps.

[BamaGoodfella]

 

 

so... perhaps a good grind strategy:

 

1) join invite only session

2) become vip

3) run siteseer

4) run los santos connection solo

5) return to freemode and run siteseer

6) repeat steps 4 and 5 for awhile to make some serious bank with little frustration

 

Once you're bored , you can join everyone else and have other sorts of fun!

 

oh and run dailys with both character slots for some long term bank.

 

Good strategy, but I would offer one tip that will save you time. Set your spawn point for your yacht. If you end up in Paleto Bay, for example, after the siteseer work is completed then open up the creator mode and immediately go back to an invite only session. Loading times will be minimal and if you start the Los Santos Connection (or any other mission for that matter) from your yacht, it will put you right at the starting point for the mission unlike starting them from your apartments. Doing this will save you several minutes between money making jobs.

 

OMG - you can go to invite only without going back to single player? Or are you saying that exiting the creater mode puts you back to invite only like you were in before but on your yacht? Was wondering for those times when a hacker is encountered for the 14th time that night and you just want to go invite only as you are sick of it

 

 

When you go to the creator mode from invite only and it finishes loading, hit your start button and then select invite only session like you would in single player. Trust me, it's MUCH quicker than dropping back to single player and then going back to invite only.

[DarkSavageDeathlyCloud]

Not suprised at the results that much

I knew the diference between mission gains in general was tiny and i knew timegrinding to the complete maximum was less profitable in the end then just finishing the mission fast

Also the pacific standard paying best...i know since a looong time

Still...about time someone confirms this stuff...great job

[555FRESH]

I love posts like this. Especially when none of my friends play this anymore

[KiwikindUK]

I love analysis like this, good job.

 

Just keep in mind the 75 second down time between finishing one mission and being able to start the next, and that's a best case scenario of speeding through the various menus to start the next one. You have to spend that time whether you do the mission in 2 minutes or 15. I can't crunch the numbers but hope it helps.

[Fireboy769]

I got lost as soon as i reached the 2nd sentence. But this is impressive.

[Arrows to Athens]

Just waiting for Above_Omnipotence to bombard this thread with the ''test it for yourself'', ''stop relying on others to do the testing for you and do your own research'', and ''your testing and results are false because I said do!'' comments.

[Nutduster]

I'm pretty sure all of this was already known, though maybe the conclusions were arrived at differently. Not to be overly negative but it feels like you put a lot of work into establishing information that was already readily available. Also, your testing is compromised right from the get-go by your methodology - specifically by always having two players on each mission. Missions have a player bonus for each player above minimum (so a 2-4 player mission gets a bonus for 3 players, and another bonus for 4 players; but a 1-4 player mission gets the same bonuses at 2 and 3 players as the first mission got for 3 and 4).

 

It's also obvious without doing as much testing that maximum time taken is not the best way to make money. All you need to do is finish the same mission in 4 minutes and then again in 15 minutes to note that you make half the money in far less than half the time. 4 minutes-ish is the optimal pay-per-minute time to do any mission that can actually be done that quickly (so, not The Los Santos Connection).

Edited January 10, 2016 by Nutduster

[henryborked]

The differences are minimal.

 

Just play the game.

[saintsrow]

OP, you've done a wonderful analysis. Only trouble is (as I see you mentioned at the end), for the calcs of $$$/second the long wasted time in summary screens, voting and loading screens is not factored in. I also try to optimize my earning, and these big wastes are like Rockstar's tax on my earnings. I resent those mofos mightily for this.

 

So I play a bit different, to try to minimize the Rockstar loading screen marginal tax and to simultaneously maximize my free time, while making money from Rockstar while the controller is rubberbanded. I often / mostly do the super fast missions like Deal Breaker and Death Metal, get back to Gerald's in less than 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and then wait for my 15 minute mission timer to tell me when to cash out. The other 13 minutes are mine, doing useful work on the computer (right next to my game screen), like writing this post.

 

TL;DR: Rockstar's rotten loading and join screen delays screw things up.

Edited January 10, 2016 by saintsrow

[Jobbo]

Has it changed since I worked out the payout formula in August 2014? http://gtaforums.com/topic/614195-job-reward-database-rp-cash/?p=1066085697