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During your time with Volition’s latest Saints Row reboot, you’ll need a lot of money to make your mark on the rough streets of Santo Ileso.
As gang leader, keeping the Saints topped up with fresh cash is your responsibility, more so than in previous games in the series.
From buying snazzy threads, bombing down palm tree-lined avenues in the flashiest whips, to gearing up with the best weapons, and expanding your reach through criminal ventures, money talks in Saints Row.
Fortunately, money comes easily in Saints Row, handed out liberally for doing virtually everything in the game, from story missions to gunning down rival gang members. But there are ways to maximize your returns to rake in passive income to put you in a position where you’ll have more money than you can spend.
This guide explains the best way to make money in Saints Row.
READ MORE: Saints Row Review: Cheap Thrills and Plenty of Sins
Criminal Ventures
Criminal ventures are by far the most lucrative source of income in Saints Row. Once built, a venture earns passive income hourly, giving you a steady flow of cash. To make the most of these ventures, complete venture-specific missions along with the Threats in the local vicinity to increase the hourly rate of return.
Buying a venture at the Empire Table in the Church requires a hefty initial investment (and progressing past the Networking main mission), but this short-term hit is well worth it for the passive income that follows. Once you’ve established and completed 2-3 ventures, the money rolls in.
Money earned from ventures is routed to the banking app on your phone. There’s a hard limit to how much money you can have sitting in the app. It’s relatively high, but if you reach it, any earned cash disappears into the ether, so remember to transfer your earnings to your personal account every few hours.
Threats
Aside from boosting your criminal venture income, Threats also grant a decent payout upon completion. They are quick, bite-sized activities that should take no more than a few minutes while still netting you a few thousand dollars.
Each district of Santo Ileso has five threats, though you’ll need to establish a criminal venture in the area to unlock them on the map. They come in several varieties – defeat enemies, destroy police vans, destroy drones, and steal a stash from a rival gang.
Make Money By Completing Saints Row Story Missions
An easy way to pad out your coffers in the early game is to complete story missions. Each one comes with a chunky cash reward, usually in the tens of thousands and much higher as you progress through the game.
Many of Saints Row’s more advanced activities and money-making schemes only unlock after completing certain story missions, so it’s worth powering through a good chunk of these for your first few hours in Santo Ileso. Make money and set yourself up for making even more.
Even when you’ve established a steady source of passive income through ventures, story missions are a great way to quickly top up your account ahead of a big purchase. Completing story missions also unlocks some of Saints Row’s wackier vehicles, weapons, and gadgets.
Side Hustles
Another early game money maker is Side Hustles. A classic Saints Row feature, these make a welcome return and have you take on various quick, lucrative activities like stealing contraband via helicopter, riding shotgun during heists, dropping a scathing review at a local eatery then fending off a wave of enemies, and more.
Side Hustles appear as blue icons on the map and are scattered across Santo Ileso. There’s never one too far away. Better yet, Side Hustles are replayable, meaning you can effectively farm them for quick cash.
Other Ways to Make Money in Saints Row
Ventures, threats, story missions, and side hustles are the best and more efficient ways to make money in Saints Row, but if you want to pepper your money-making with a bit of variety, here are a few other ways to pull in cash.
- Wanted App – Fire up the Wanted app on your phone and channel your inner bounty hunter as you track down and kill a designated target. It’s Uber for assassins and rewards a cool $5,000 for each bounty. It’s available fairly early on, so it’s a solid option when you first start out in Santo Ileso.
- Crimes of Opportunity – Represented by money bag icons on your map, these appear across Santo Ileso, usually down dark alleys and the like. Typically, you’ll have to kill a handful of enemies, then collect their stash for an easy cash top-up.
- Armored Trucks Carrying Cash – A randomly occurring event in Santo Ileso, armored trucks carrying cash will flash up on your map. Destroy the truck, get some cash; simple.
- Go on a Rampage – Pull out your favorite weapon and get killing in true Saints Row style. The cops, Marshall, or the local gang will turn up soon enough, and dispatching them leaves glowing mounds of cash where these goons once stood. Sweep it up for an easy – and fun – injection of money.
That’s a wrap on our guide to making money in Saints Row. Need help getting across Santo Ileso? Check out our guide to Saints Row Fast Travel locations.