Until Grand Theft Auto VI releases sometime next year, players will continue to get their crime-committing chaos fix by playing Grand Theft Auto Online. It’s been ten years since that game dropped from developer Rockstar North and publisher Rockstar Games. Don’t tell that to the players still jumping on regularly to earn money and cause mayhem. While Grand Theft Auto V was released in 2013, one of the major aspects still relevant today didn’t drop until 2015.
Heists are a method of earning money in GTA Online by committing crimes that involve collaboration. Heists require 2-4 players to cooperate to complete a series of small missions leading to a big one. The heists in Grand Theft Auto V are similar but don’t require a Heist Leader to set them up or pay for them upfront. The Online version requires there be a Heist Leader who will not only provide the money to finance the job up front but also portion out the money earned at the end of the Heist.
How To Heist
To start the Heist process, you’ll need to reach level 12. Then, you must earn enough money to purchase a high-end apartment with a Heist planning room. After you do this, Lester Crest, a familiar character from GTA V, will contact you on the phone. He will set up a meeting with you, and once there, you will begin the tutorial Heist, The Fleeca Job.
Crest will be the Heist Leader for the first mission, so you won’t have to put any money up. Crest will organize and lead the Heist, which consists of two small missions to get gear and preparations ready for the big job. The job itself is robbing The Fleeca Bank, which will require each character to play a role for it to be successful. Roles during Heists may include driving, grabbing the money, controlling the crowd, and more.
During the Heist, things can go wrong, leading to it failing. Tellers setting off alarms, NPCs getting killed, or players leaving the job, for example, will all cause the Heist to fail and must be retried. If successful, the Heist will have a payout of about $100,000 on easy, with each progressive level of difficulty providing a higher amount. Once you complete a Heist, you’ll receive your payout from Lester. After completing The Fleeca Heist tutorial, another character called Agent 14 will contact you when the next Heist is available.
How Heists Work
At this point, you can be the Heist Leader and set up heists. There are eight Heists total which must be completed in order. The Doomsday Heist, Diamond Casino Heist, and Cayo Perico Heist are newer additions not included in the major Elite Challenge Bonuses and don’t require more than two players. Each progressive Heist will increase payout but also require more pay upfront from the Heist Leader. For these Heists, you’ll need to gather the required number of players, which is usually four. Part of the Heist Leader’s money will pay these players for participating in the setup jobs before the big one in each Heist. The Heist Leader can only earn money from completing the Heist itself, not the setup jobs. It will be up to them to determine how much they and the other players get paid at the end of the job, though.
Heist Bonuses
On top of the money earned from the repeatable Heist itself, there are also bonuses. The bonuses can only be earned once by a player per copy of GTA V. These one-time possible bonuses include:
- Complete each heist finale for the first time: $50,000 bonus for The Fleeca Job, and $100,000 bonus for all other Heists
- Supporting Role: Complete all 26 Heist setup and finale jobs as a team member: $100,000 bonus.
- All in Order Challenge: Complete all Heist setups and finales with one team: $1,000,000 bonus
- Loyalty Challenge: Complete all Heist setups and finales with one same team $1,000,000 bonus
- Criminal Mastermind Challenge: Complete all Heist setups and finales on Hard, in order with the same team without losing any lives $10,000,000 bonus
- Another Perspective Challenge: Complete all Heist setups and finales in a locked first-person perspective $100,000 bonus
Elite Challenges
Aside from those one-time bonuses, there are also the Elite Challenges. These challenges require the player to complete a finale Heist under certain circumstances. If you complete all the Elite Challenges during a single final Heist you earn $100,000 as a bonus, except for Fleeca which earns you $50,000. You will earn an exclusive t-shirt if you complete all Elite Challenges in the following five Heists:
- The Prison Break
- The Fleeca Job
- Series A Funding
- The Humane Lab Raid
- The Pacific Standard Job
Elite Challenges for Major Heists
The Fleeca Job
- Complete in under 5:20
- Vehicle damage is under 6%
- Nobody gets killed
The Prison Break
- Damage to Rashkovsky is 1% or less
- Extraction in under 4:40
- Nobody gets killed
The Humane Labs Raid
- Complete in under 11:00 minutes
- Vehicle damage is under 2%
- Nobody gets killed
Series A Funding
- Complete in under 6:30 minutes
- Kill 75 enemies
- Nobody gets killed
The Pacific Standard Job
- Complete in under 10:15 Minutes
- NOOSE(National Office Of Security Enforcement) is not called
- Nobody gets killed
Elite Challenges for Additional Heists
Diamond Casino Heist
- Silent & Sneaky
- Complete in under 15:00 minutes
- Nobody gets killed
- 0 failed hacks
- Don’t get detected
- The Big Con
- Complete in under 15:00 minutes
- Nobody gets killed
- Don’t get detected
- Aggressive
- Complete in under 15:00 minutes
- Nobody gets killed
- Get 80 headshots
Cayo Perico Heist
- Complete in under 15:00 minutes
- 0 failed hacks
- Loot bags are all full
- Nobody gets killed
- No detection inside the compound
The Doomsday Heist
The Doomsday Heist is a later update and complex addition to GTA Online Heists. It doesn’t follow the same rules as the other Heists and consists of 29 missions over 3 Acts. You will only need two players to execute the Heist instead of four. The Heist Leader will have to become an organization VIP or CEO or Motorcycle Club President and purchase a facility to access the Doomsday Heist. These Heists are only completable on Normal or Hard and provide higher payouts, especially if only split between two players.
Doomsday Heist Bonuses
- Complete each Heist finale to earn a $50,000 bonus for each of the Acts
- Supporting Role II: Complete all 29 Heist setup and finale jobs as a team member to earn $50,000
- Criminal Mastermind 3 Challenges: Complete all 29 setup and finale jobs on Hard, in order with a single crew without any of your team dying
- 2 players earn $750,00
- 3 players earn $1,750,00
- 4 players earn $3,750,000
- All in Order II: Complete all 29 setups and finals in order to earn $500,000
- Loyalty 3 Challenges: Complete all 29 setups and finals with a single crew
- 2 players earn $75,000
- 3 players earn $175,000
- 4 players earn $375,000
- Criminal Mastermind 3 Challenges: Complete all 29 setup and finale jobs on Hard, with one crew with no deaths
- 2 players earn $750,000
- 3 players earn $1,750,000
- 4 players earn $3,750,000
Doomsday Heist Elite Challenges
- The Data Breaches
- Complete in under 5:30 minutes
- Achieve 78 kills
- Nobody gets killed
- The Bogdan Problem
- Complete in under 15:00 minutes
- Vehicle damage total is 5% or less
- Nobody gets killed
- The Doomsday Scenario
- Complete in under 30:00 minutes
- 0 failed hacks
- Get 150 headshots
- Nobody gets killed
You will receive an additional $50,000 for completing all the Elite Challenges.
All Heists and Possible Payouts in Grand Theft Auto Online
| Heist | Number of Players | Setup cost | Potential take (easy) | Potential take (normal) | Potential take (hard) |
| The Fleeca Heist | 2 | $11,500 | $100,625 | $201,250 | $250,250 |
| The Prison Break | 4 | $25,000 | $350,000 | $700,000 | $875,000 |
| The Humane Labs Raid | 4 | $25,000 | $472,500 | $945,000 | $1,181,500 |
| Series A Funding | 4 | $25,000 | $353,500 | $707,000 | $883,750 |
| The Pacific Standard | 4 | $25,000 | $750,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,875,000 |
| Doomsday Heist | |||||
| The Data Breaches | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $975,000 | $1,218,750 |
| The Bogdan Problem | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,425,000 | $1,781,250 |
| The Doomsday Scenario | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,800,000 | $2,250,000 |
| Diamond Casino Heist | |||||
| Cash | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $2,115,000 | $2,326,500 |
| Artwork | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $2,350,000 | $2,585,000 |
| Gold | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $2,585,000 | $2,843,500 |
| Diamond | 2-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $3,290,000 | $3,619,000 |
| Cayo Perico Heist | |||||
| Sinsimito Tequila | 1-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $900,000 | $990,000 |
| Ruby Necklace | 1-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,000,000 | $1,100,000 |
| Bearer Bonds | 1-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,100,000 | $1,210,000 |
| Madrazo Files | 1-4 | N/A | N/A | $1,100,000 | N/A |
| Pink Diamond | 1-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,300,000 | $1,430,000 |
| Panther Statue | 1-4 | $25,000 | N/A | $1,900,000 | $2,090,000 |