If you're grinding for cash on GTA V Online, the Cayo Perico Heist is one of the best ways to do it. Each time you complete the heist solo you're guaranteed at least GTA$ 1,000,000 payout and there's a possibility for even more than that.
The best part is you can complete the entire heist in under an hour if you know how. GTA$ 1,000,000+ per hour is pretty sweet pay.
Read on to learn exactly what you need to do in order to complete the entire heist in under an hour and receive the maximum payout.
Firt Steps
1. Get the Kosatka
Before you can even access the Cayo Perico Heist, you'll need to own the Kosatka submarine. If you need help with this, check out our article on Everything You Need to Know About the Kosatka Submarine.
2. Stock Up
It's never a bad idea to stock up on armor and snacks before starting each mission. Luckily you can get free snacks on your Kosatka Submarine in the cafeteria area. Armor can be found at your local Ammu-Nation.
3. Prepare Your Transportation
For the prep missions you'll need to get to various points around the map from your Kosatka. The best two options for this are either to use the Kosatka fast travel option, especially because if you've completed the Cayo Perico Heist at least once this will only cost you GTA$ 2,000 each time, and from there you can use the Sparrow Moon Pool helicopter if you have it. If not, a Dinghy and whatever other transportation you have will do.
4. Don't Play in a Public Server
For several of the prep missions your location will become public once you've stolen the goods. There will usually be griefers in public servers slowing you down. Who has time for that?
You are now ready to begin Part 1 of the Cayo Perico Heist, which you can do from the Planning Screen in your Kosatka control room.
5. Initiate Mission
Once you're ready to start, go to the mission control screen in the Kosatka main bridge and interact with it. You'll have to be a CEO in order to do this.
Part 1: Intel
Note: If this is your first time playing the Cayo Perico Heist there will be some additional steps that we didn't list below.
- Complete the initial mission stealing the plane to fly to Cayo Perico, or if this is your first time, go to Los Santos International Airport and watch all of the long cutscenes.
- Once on the island, find a vehicle, preferably a motorcycle, and head straight to the Communications Tower (circled in the picture above).
- Find the large signal box at the Communications Tower and interact with it.
- Complete the hack mini game by matching the number at the bottom to the one at the top. Symbols on the right will multiply each number by a certain amount but you can often get this quickly with a bit of trial and error and without too much thought.
- Once you've hacked into the CCTV, switch the cameras to the right until you find the basement. Pan the camera until you've located your primary target (either in the glass case or in the safe).
- If you've played the Cayo Perico Heist before and have already scoped the Drainage Tunnel infiltration point, you're good to go. Otherwise, head to a dock, steal a boat, and drive around to the back of the compound where you'll need to dive down to scope out the Drainage Tunnel.
- Once you're done scoping, get caught by a gaurd to be teleported back to the airport (unless this is your first time playing the heist in which case you'll appear back outside the party).
That's it, you're done with Part 1. If you want even more detail on this section check out our article on Everything You Need to Know About the Cayo Perico Heist Part 1: Intel.
Part 2: Prep
This section is what's going to take up the bulk of the time. That's because you'll have to complete several missions in order to properly prepare. Below are the missions we recommend completing and under that we'll recommend a time-efficient order.
- Approach Vehicle: Kosatka
- Equipment: Fingerprint Cloner, Cutting Torch, and either the Plasma Cutter or the Safe Code
- Weapon Loadouts: Different players have their preferences; Agressor and Conspirator are safe bets, but others will work as well. Just make sure you also purchase the suppressors.
- Disruption: These are completely unnecessary as the fastest way to complete the finale is in stealth.
Here's our suggested order to minimize commuting to and from the Kosatka while completing these missions:
- Fast travel the Kosatka somewhere near Los Santos. If you don't have the Sea Sparrow Moon Pool vehicle, request a helicopter you do own easy travel to and from the city. At the end of the missions you can even land it right on the Kosatka submarine. If you don't even have a helicopter you'll just have to make do with the Dinghy. Don't worry, after this heist your ship will come in.
- Complete the Equipment missions, which all take place somewhere in Los Santos.
- Do the weapons loadout of your choice. You will either have another mission in Los Santos or one in which you have to follow a helicopter from Los Santos up North. If you have that mission, return your Kosatka to storage as you fly so you can quickly request it nearby when the mission is complete.
- Complete the Kosatka approach vehicle mission, fast traveling to wherever you're supposed to be at that point.
Part 3: Finale
It's now time to complete the finale. There's no need to stock back up on snacks and armor because you will be remaining in stealth the entire time.
To recap, when you start the finale these should be your selections:
- Approach Vehicle: Kosatka
- Infiltration Point: Drainage Tunnel
- Compound Entry Point: Drainage Tunnel
- Escape Point: Kosatka
- Time of Day: Night
You can complete the finale in under 10 minutes if you stay in Stealth and go the correct way. You can actually run straight through to the center building if you time it right, just follow the path of the green line in the picture above. Be ready to run right when you start. If you wait, the timing with the guards will be off and it will take much longer to stealthily make your way to the office.
Something else to note: You do not need to sneak. You can run at full speed, full volume, and as long as you don't run right past a guard you will not be caught.
The only guards you need to kill at this point are the ones with the red cones of vision. Kill each one as you make your way into the center building.
Once inside the office, check whether there are any paintings you can steal. Then go up to the safe, which is to the right of the desk when facing it, to get a little more cash. Take the key from the desk, and if you want you can also walk around to the other side and take the pistol from the drawer.
Unlock the safe by completing the fingerprint hack minigame. The pictures are in order so for each section find the top picture first, then count how many down from the top you are and press to the right that many times.
Downstairs you can't steal anything solo other than the primary target. Go into the caged area and either open the safe or start cutting into the glass case. Pavel will text you the safe code. The glass cutter will overheat if you run it too hot so keep an eye on the gauge in the bottom right corner.
Once you have the primary target make your way to the main gate without being seen, killing as needed.
The easiest way to escape the island is to turn to your right outside the gate and run around the outside of the compound toward the water. Go to the left side of the road on the grass between the road and the fence and you'll find a part of the cliff that is low enough to fall down without dying. From there all you have to do is swim away and you'll eventually complete the heist.
However, you will not necessarily get maximum payout this way. If you're lucky and there are a couple of paintings in the compound office then you could leave with a full bag, but if not you'll have to get secondary targets elsewhere.
Note: In our opinion it's not necessarily worth the extra trouble to find secondary targets. Just farming the heist for the primary target itself will get you much more cash for your time. The only reason you might want to fill your secondary target bag is to complete The Elite Challenge.
How to Complete the Elite Challenge
For the Elite Challenge you need to remain in stealth and finish in under 10 minutes with a full loot bag. It's worth it to complete at least once for the badge and the cash that comes with it, so if you're still in stealth and you've got several minutes to spare when you leave the compound, you might as well try for it.
Once you leave the compound if you still need loot to fill your bag you'll want to run straight ahead instead of to the right as mentioned above.
Kill the guard on your left by his motorcycle. Run a little farther and kill the gaurd who's facing you. Then next to the outer gate there will be two guards right next to each other. You'll need to kill them both quickly so that neither sounds the alarm. Lastly, destroy the camera in the gateway.
Then you can hop on the nearby motorcycle and head toward the main dock. There are several buildings in that area that are potential spawn points for secondary targets. If you're unable to find anything within the alotted time, you could always go back to the Intel stage and scout this area ahead of time, thus saving you some time now.
As a solo player cocaine and weed will be your main secondary targets, other than the paintings in the compound office. Cash is less valuable and it will take longer to find enough to fill your bag. Gold is only found in double locked areas, which you can only enter with at least one other player.
Once you've filled your bag, just steal a boat from the dock and drive off into the horizon.
And there you have it. If you follow the instructions above, with practice you'll get to a point where you can complete the entire heist in under an hour. You're welcome!
