The GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update has gone live, which means you can now get involved in a new storyline revolving around the narcotics trade. Head outside and you'll soon receive a phone call from Nervous Ron, looking for help in trying to protect Trevor's old business from being taken over. Head up to meet Ron in Sandy Shores and kick things off, opening up a new criminal enterprise to add to your portfolio in GTA Online. As well as this story mission strand, there are plenty of other additions and improvements arriving with this update, including a number of fresh vehicles, a better way to organise your phone contacts, and fancy ray-traced reflections on new-gen consoles. If you want to know what's been added, then here's everything that's new with the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update.
Is the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update on PS4 and Xbox One
Yes, the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update launched on December 13 for PS4 and Xbox One, as well as PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X, as Rockstar are committed to support across all of those platforms. As always, there will be certain elements of the update that are only available to players on new-gen consoles, but these shouldn't significantly detriment to your overall experience.
A new and expansive story is beginning
The GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars kicks off a new storyline in the online mode, where you'll work with Nervous Ron to try and dominate the psychedelics trade in Los Santos. You'll be battling with biker gangs and rich hippies as you grow your business, while cooking up drugs in fancy laboratories or "your own massive rolling chemistry set" – which sounds a lot like Breaking Bad to us. Complete the six First Dose missions and the mobile GTA Online Acid Lab can be yours, taking your drug business on the road. This is billed as "the opening chapter of an expansive new two-part story update", so expect plenty more action to come in the future.
New vehicles have arrived
We've already been promised the upcoming addition of the Declasse Tahoma Coupe as one of the GTA Online New Cars, to reward the successful completion of The Heists Challenge by the community, so it appears this will be added soon, and a new Classique Taxi model has also been spotted. There have been five fresh vehicles initially launched with the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update, including the Annis 300R, BF Surfer Custom, Declasse Tulip M-100, Overflod Entity MT, and Zirconium Journey II, with more promised in the future.
There are plenty of general improvements coming too
Following extensive player feedback, the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update will be bringing a whole host of improvements to the game. You can manage your iFruit Contacts through the Interaction Menu, choosing who to display or hide so you can find your main contacts more quickly. Casino Story Missions can finally be tackled solo, so you no longer need at least one partner to get started on any of them. There will be a much shorter delay between purchasing vehicles and them appearing in your garage, and you can even get the Mechanic to deliver a bicycle if you have it stored in one of your garages.
It'll look even better on PS5 and Xbox Series X
If you're playing on PlayStation 5 or Xbox Series X, then the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update will add the option to turn on ray-traced reflections, which renders real-time reflections on a number of surfaces to make things look extra nice. You'll be able to toggle this option by accessing the Fidelity Mode graphics setting.
Shark Cards are now more valuable
This part of the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update goes live early on December 8, and boosts the denomination of all GTA Online Shark Card purchases by 20-25% when bought directly through the game or official platform stores. The smallest Red Shark card has now been discontinued, but the others have all increased in value, from the Tiger Shark Card going from GTA$200,000 to GTA$250,000 all the way through to the Megalodon Shark Card shooting up from GTA$8,000,000 to a whopping GTA$10,000,000!
A holiday treat is also coming soon
At the end of the GTA Online Los Santos Drug Wars update announcement, there was also a mention of "some jolly holiday hijinks" on the way, which all but confirms there will be another Festive Surprise event in 2022. No further details are known at this stage, but those events normally supply festive outfits, vehicle liveries, and holiday-themed items, along with a limited period of snowfall across Los Santos and Blaine County.
