Getting Started with Classic Heists
If you reach Rank 12 and have a high-end apartment, you will be able to play 4-player cooperative heists online (The Fleeca Job is 2-player). Lester will call you, and you'll need to go see him. After that, Lester will call whenever you can play a new heist, and you can call him to replay a heist.
The time you must wait in between heists is roughly 15 minutes. The OG Heists can be played on three difficulty levels. Playing on Normal earns you twice as much as playing on Easy, and playing on Hard earns you 25% more than playing on Normal.
Once you accept or request a heist, you become the Heist Leader. The Heist Leader can invite any player who has played the GTA Online tutorial through the first LTS job from Gerald. The Leader must front the costs, but also determines how the total payout will be divided.
The ability to split the payout means the Heist Leader can earn a lot of money. If you're hoping to make a lot of money through Heists, work out a plan with your team about how you want to divide the payouts. This is covered later on in the guide.
In addition to the payout division, you'll want to work out in advance the role each player will perform, as explained later on when we get to the set-up missions. Communicating with your teammates will make Heists a lot easier, as will understanding their strengths and weaknesses and being prepared with good equipment such as silencers and body armor.
The Apartment Heists involve multiple missions. The Heist Leader will earn 10% additional RP from setup missions, but only the other participants will earn money. Setup missions usually earn you around 15k−20k. Once you finish a single setup mission, all the players will be returned to Freemode. The Heist Leader can then start the next part of the heist.
Back when GTA Online launched, you unlocked Adversary Modes by completing heists. Back then, there were only 3 modes available. Today, there are 66 types of Adversary Modes with hundreds of missions, and they are no longer tied to heist completion.
Every heist has its own Elite Challenges.
The Classic Heists in Order
Click on each heist for a detailed walkthrough of its setup missions and finale, including payouts and elite challenges:
A two-player tutorial heist targeting a local Fleeca Bank branch.
A four-player heist to break a high-value inmate out of Bolingbroke Penitentiary.
Infiltrate a research facility to steal sensitive data.
Help Trevor Philips consolidate various drug stashes for a big sale.
The original grand finale, robbing the main branch of the Pacific Standard Bank.
There are number of extra challenges that you can complete (one time per character) in order to receive extra payouts as below:
- First Time — Finish each Heist for the first time for a $100,000 bonus.
- First Person — Complete all the Heist setups and finales in first person mode to get a bonus of $100,000. (Host must set camera to First Person)
- All in Order — Play all of the Heists and their setup missions in order for a $1,000,000 bonus.
- Loyalty — Play all of the Heists and their setup missions with the same team for a $1,000,000 bonus.
- Criminal Mastermind — Play all of the Heists and their setup missions on Hard, in order, with the same team, without any players dying for a massive $10,000,000 bonus.
General Tips For Heists
Get A Vest
As the host of the heist, you have quite a few settings open for you. Before you begin the first set-up, you should select "player saved outfits". Beforehand, it is handy to pick up a heist vest, with is either the black or grey combat vests, as these will significantly boost survivability.
They halve all damage received, regardless where it's coming from, and this effect does not degrade or run out. Use these vests in a heist whenever possible. Granted, they do make you run a tad slower, but you can make up for it with the good old run'n'jump technique. Just keep sprinting and hammer that jump button like there is no tomorrow (be mindful of ledges though, or there really won't be a tomorrow for your character).
Refill Your Supplies
Three things you'll need for a successful heist run is ammo (duh), snacks and armor. What many, many players seem to forget, thus ending up as bloody splats on a wall, is that you can refill and use these from the interaction menu even while in a heist.
Now, we're not suggesting you stand around mid-gunfight to fiddle with a menu. While in cover (or if you're the kind of guy that tears toilet paper with one hand, while driving), you can pull up the menu to munch some health back into your system, equip more armor, and to buy more ammunition.
An added bonus is that while you're in cover, running, or driving, you can spam snacks without waiting for the eating animation to play.
In fact, if you don't dally too much, cover is something of a safe haven. Many players aren't mindful of their current status (despite, you know, the bloody red rave show the screen turns into when you're near death...). You should always keep track of your health and armor levels, and if you're running low, get into cover and do what we outlined in the previous paragraph.
Know The Map
Map awareness goes a long way. If you're playing the given heist for the first time, you might feel compelled to follow the path the GPS tells you to, helpfully highlighted with yellow navigation lines. While these certainly won't lead you astray, knowing the map, or simply pulling it up, will allow you to find better routes. Most experienced players have their own preferred routes to follow, and these often yield better results.
Your Team Is Critical
One of the biggest problems that heist teams face is coordination and the fact that one guy's inability will drag the other three down too. If the planets align, a blood moon rises and the tides reverse, you might find a heist team of randoms that actually have enough intelligence between the three of them for you pull off a setup successfully. And you can always invite the same trio back for more.
If you do this, remain patient and give them a few minutes as they might be stuck in a loading screen for a while. The way these invite notifications work, they'll see them even in the loading screen, as it arrives via the PS4 or Xbox interface, not the in-game phone.
Set Yourself To Passive
If the inevitable does happen, and someone bites the dust, you can always retry from the last checkpoint, no need to start the whole thing again. A good precaution is to set yourself to passive before the heist begins, because this way some random player, or god forbid, one of your teammates might gun you down after completion just for the laughs, meaning you lose a good portion of the cash you've worked so hard to steal earn.
The Armored Kuruma
One of the best "jolly jokers" of doing heists is the obscenely overpowered Armored Kuruma. Sitting in that thing is almost like having a bunker as it takes ages for its armor to be whittled down. If you have a Kuruma, bring it. If someone else has a Kuruma, get in. Seriously, if the Kuruma, pulls up, if it keeps honking, or knocking your feeble mortal vehicle that is anything other than a Kuruma, you get out, and get in the Kuruma.
Of course, no vehicle, no amount of armor, no outfit and no custom route will ever compare to having a group of friends, all with microphones set up, sufficient experience and a capability to cooperate. If you communicate, and know your team, you're likely to succeed.
Put On A Mask
A quick and easy way to lose the cops when you are in a pinch is to equip a mask when the line of sight is broken. The UI indicates whether police can actively see you with solid wanted stars, while flashing wanted stars show that though you are still being pursued, you are hidden. This is the time to conceal your face.
Payouts & Fair Distribution
Payouts from the original GTA Online Apartment Heists can offer significant rewards, but the distribution of the finale earnings often sparks debate. Understanding the financial structure of these heists is key to ensuring fairness for all participants.
The host of an original Apartment Heist pays an upfront setup fee and, unlike crew members, receives no direct payment for completing the prerequisite setup missions. Crew members, however, earn cash for each setup successfully finished. Consequently, a fair percentage allocation for the finale typically gives the host a larger share to compensate for their initial investment and lack of setup earnings, aiming for an equitable distribution of the heist's total profits (setups and finale combined). Occasionally, this calculation leaves a small 'excess' percentage, which the host can distribute as a bonus or keep.
While the table below provides a quick summary of suggested finale payout distributions for Normal difficulty, the overall earnings from these heists also include specific setup costs, individual setup mission payouts for crew, varying finale totals based on difficulty (Easy, Normal, Hard), and substantial bonuses from Elite Challenges.
For a complete and detailed breakdown of all these financial aspects, including updated and verified figures for all potential earnings, costs, and detailed cut calculations for each of the original five heists, please refer to our comprehensive GTA Online Heists Payout Guide **.
This summary, and the figures in the table, assume that the finale and all setup missions for each heist are played on the same difficulty.
Optimal OG Heist Payouts (Normal Difficulty Summary)
Ultimately, good etiquette is vital. Given the host's financial risk and effort, understanding the reasoning behind cut distributions (as detailed in our main payout guide) can lead to smoother and more enjoyable heisting experiences for everyone. These heists require teamwork, skill, and time, making them a significant investment for all involved.
If you still have any questions, check out the most commonly asked questions here.
Now that you know the fundamentals, gather your crew, pick a heist from the list above, and dive into its detailed guide to start your criminal career.
