Are Shark Cards completely irrelevant in GTA Online after the Cayo Perico Heist?

Shark Cards have always been a hot topic for GTA Online players as they continue to open avenues for griefing and other undesirable activities. Yet, it could be argued that through Shark Cards, even new players have a shot at competing with the skilled veterans of GTA Online.

Many fans would also argue that the point of a competitive online multiplayer experience is to "get good" and cut one's teeth in the lower leagues first. Once they have enough money to afford the big guns, they can afford to rub shoulders with the giants.

Shark Cards, for many, feels like a "Pay to win" mechanic that incentivizes players to simply throw real-life currency into the game rather than play it. While that might sound very counter-intuitive, it is the lifeblood of online multiplayer games like GTA Online.

As December 2020 saw the release of the Cayo Perico Heist update, fans immediately saw it for what it was: the Shark Card killer.

Are Shark Cards completely irrelevant in GTA Online after the Cayo Perico Heist?

Previously, heists required players to either get their friends and crew online or simply roll the dice in matchmaking. Heists are truly the biggest money-makers in GTA Online, as repeated playthroughs will easily net the players millions.

But seeing how getting a crew together can be painfully difficult and slow at times, it isn't the most replayable activity in the game. At the very least, it wasn't until the arrival of the Cayo Perico Heist.

The Heist was the first in GTA Online to allow players to "solo" it, meaning they could play it all by themselves. This meant that players would no longer need to waste time in matchmaking or scramble friends to assemble a rag-tag crew with a 50% chance of success.

Image via u/HuntersLaptop, r/gtaonline

Instead, by relying on their wit and grit, GTA Online players could brave Cayo Perico all by themselves on repeat and come away with all the cash. This effectively meant that once players have enough scratch to afford a Kosatka Submarine, they potentially have millions on their hands.

To put that into perspective, the most expensive Shark Card that players can buy, the Megalodon Shark Cash Card worth GTA $ 8,000,000, costs players somewhere in the range of $99.

This is an obnoxiously large amount of money to spend on GTA Online. Completing an average run of the Cayo Perico Heist solo will net the player a decent chunk of change; somewhere in the half-a-million range.

Bonuses and Challenges in the Cayo Perico Heist

• Complete the Cayo Perico heist for the first time - $100k
• Complete with one player - $100k
• Complete with four players - $100k
• Approach the Cayo Perico heist using all different vehicles - $250k
• Steal all variations of the primary target during - $150k
• Complete the heist without alerting the guards - $200k
• Complete the elite challenge - $200k
• Complete the heist on hard and not lose a life - $200k

At the same time, if players can effectively complete all side objectives and challenges/bonuses, they can easily clear a million.

After the cooldown timer on the Heist runs out, players can repeat the process as many times as they like and easily cross the 8 million Shark Card value.