Completing the Kortz Center Heist solo is one thing. Completing it while hitting all four Elite Challenge requirements is another entirely, and there is very little room for error.
For this guide, we completed the Elite Challenge solo on normal difficulty, recorded the full walkthrough video embedded below, and captured the accompanying screenshots. The prep selections, route, and written instructions are all based on that completed run.
This walkthrough covers normal difficulty only. Hard mode features tougher laser patterns and tighter hacking windows and is outside the scope of this guide - we have a specific hard mode guide in the works.
Elite Challenge Requirements
The following are the Elite Challenge requirements:
Solo Elite Checklist
Requirement | Target |
|---|---|
Time Limit | Complete in under 17 mins |
Loot Bag Value Loss | Stay under GTA$15,000 |
Shooting Accuracy | Over 90% |
Buyer's Request List | Collect every listed item |
All four have to be met in the same run. The accuracy requirement is the one people usually lose, since stray shots add up faster than you would think.
The RNG Problem
Before anything else, understand that a solo Elite Challenge partly depends on luck.
When you scope your secondary targets, you need your buyer's list items to spawn either inside the vault, or inside the exhibition room but outside the Crisp Gallery on the upper floor.
The Crisp Gallery is a small hallway full of display cases, and it can only be accessed with two players during the finale. If one of your buyer's list items spawns in there, the Elite Challenge is impossible as a solo player. There is no workaround.
If that happens, you have two options:
- Run the heist anyway without completing the Elite Challenge.
- Call Raf, cancel the heist, and set it up again for a fresh roll on target placement.
The issue with rerolling is the GTA$100,000 setup fee every single time. Our recommendation is to reroll only if you have money to spare, and only until you land one clean Elite Challenge completion. After that, just run whatever you get, because repeatedly paying GTA$100,000 is not worth it.
Also, when you're scoping for the Elite Challenge completion, you do not need to scope every single target for this run.
Wait for Raf to send you the buyer's list, then scope those specific items to save time. It is still worth scoping a few extras so you know where they are during the finale, since that helps you fill your loot bag efficiently once your buyer's items are secured.
For the full scope out process, see our Kortz Center Heist Scope Out Guide.
Recommended Prep Setup
The following is the recommended prep setup for this run.
Recommended Prep Setup
Prep | Recommendation | Reason |
|---|---|---|
Infiltration Gear | Staff Key Card | Fastest and most direct route given the strategy we're using |
Unmarked Weapons | Security Loadout | Includes the stun gun for disabling cameras |
Getaway Vehicle | Annihilator Stealth | Required for the escape route in this run. Easy escape since you don't have to do it yourself |
Extras | Advanced Avionics | Stops your pilot crashing on the way to the drop-off |
Optional Preps | Guard Shipments, Guard Routes, Glass Cutter | Guard Shipments make guards weaker, Guard Routes shows their location on the minimap, and Glass Cutter allows you to cut through display cases. |
The prep setup used for this solo Elite Challenge completion.
Unmarked Weapons
You can choose either the Street or Security Loadout, but we lean toward Security because it includes the stun gun, which is useful for temporarily disabling CCTV cameras. It also lets you one-shot a fully armored guard if you skip the Guard Shipments prep.
One important note on the stun gun. Normally in GTA Online, stunned guards get back up. In this heist they appear to stay down permanently, which is likely a bug and could be patched. Do not build your run around it. Use a regular weapon on guards regardless, and you will see exactly why later in this guide!
Advanced Avionics
This costs GTA$1,200,000 and is a one-time purchase, but it is worth every dollar. Without it, your pilot has a high chance of crashing the Annihilator on the way to the drop-off point, which throws away the entire run at the final stage.
Optional Preps
The Guard Shipments mission allows you to weaken the guards during the finale. It will remove their head protection, armor and give them weaker weapons. This directly helps you with your accuracy since you will be able to one shot them with a headshot.
The Guard Routes prep mission will make it so you can see the location and cone of vision of all the guards on your minimap during the finale.
And finally, the Glass Cutter is an important prep mission only if one of your secondary targets is inside a display case. Either way, it's worth doing because there will always be some secondary targets in display cases, and even if it isn't a buyer's list item, you could still end up grabbing the display case piece just to fill up your bag.
Heist Settings
When you launch the heist, make sure you select your getaway vehicle and weapon loadout in the settings. You don't select it on the board itself. Some players get confused and launch the heist with the wrong getaway vehicle and weapon loadout.
The Heist Walkthrough
Once you spawn in, you will be told to travel to the Kortz Center. Here is a trick that saves a significant chunk of your 17 minutes. As soon as you spawn, blow yourself up with a grenade. You will respawn directly at the Kortz Center in a convenient starting position. Dying does not count against your Elite Challenge, so there is no downside.
Getting Inside
From your spawn point, hug the left side and run straight until you reach a guard at the end. Take him out, then head up the stairs to your left. There are sometimes two additional guards waiting at the top of these stairs, so clear them if they are there.
Stay to the right as you approach the Staff Entrance. Take out the guard by the fountain, then wait for the guard near the Staff Entrance to move away from the camera before eliminating him.
Once both are down, run straight through the camera's field of vision. Detection here is fairly forgiving if you move quickly, but do not linger. Interact with the keypad to unlock the staff door and head inside.
Clearing the Exhibition Room
Go through the double doors ahead of you, turn left, and step out onto the ground floor of the exhibition area. Head all the way left and eliminate the guard you find there.
Next, move back while the camera above you is facing the door you came through, and take out the guard leaning on the railing at the far end of the room. Take this shot from behind rather than head-on. Shooting him from the front can knock him over the railing, and if he lands next to the camera on the bottom floor, your run is finished.
Return to the left side, wait for the next guard to move out of the moving camera's view, and eliminate him too.
The Exhibition Room Exit Key
One of the guards in this area drops the exhibition room exit key, which you need for your escape at the end.
The drop is random, but it will always come from one of the guards inside the exhibition room area. This is part of the reason we clear them. Keep an eye out and pick it up as soon as you spot it.
Disabling the Display Case Alarm
The buyer's list secondary targets in the exhibition room sit inside display cases, so you need to disable the case alarm before you can take them.
Head downstairs while avoiding the camera, turn right, and eliminate the guard behind the security desk. Interact with the alarm to disable it, and you are clear to start looting.
Before you start looting, the looting order matters as a solo player since you can only carry so much. Always take your buyer's list items first.
Your third buyer's list item can spawn inside the vault, or all three can be in the exhibition room. It is completely random. If you fill your loot bag with regular secondaries before securing the buyer's items, you will not have space left for them, and the Elite Challenge is gone.
Start with the exhibition room items. Watch the camera above you, which moves horizontally, and wait for it to swing away before looting anything sitting in its path. We had one buyer's list item here.
The Upper Floor
Head up the exhibition stairs. You will be going this way regardless, since it is part of your escape route and also your way to the basement.
A useful movement tip on the way up: enter stealth stance, aim, then tap your sprint button once. This moves you faster while keeping tight control of your character and staying quiet, which matters because there are two guards at the top.
You only need to eliminate those two guards if you are heading through the double doors next to them for a secondary target, such as the Cooked painting. If you have nothing up there, leave them alone. The exception is if you still have not found the exhibition room exit key, in which case take them out.
If one of your buyer's list items is up here and sits inside a camera's field of vision, use the stun gun to temporarily disable the camera, then loot it. Like ours was here. Remember there would be another guard at the end of this floor and there is a possibility of another spawning right next to the exit door of the upper floor.
Heading to the Basement
Once you've acquired your buyer's list secondary loot items from the exhibition room, you're ready to go to the basement. Go through the staff only door and hack the elevator. This hack is simple: press the prompted button whenever the red line passes through the highlighted block.
Take the elevator down to the basement.
When you step out, there is a guard at the end of the hallway. He patrols, moving right and returning to his original position, so watch his movement before taking the shot.
Next, eliminate the guard on the right. Guard placement down here is somewhat random, but always in a similar set of positions, so use this as a general template rather than an exact map.
In our run, after the second guard, turning left showed another guard standing at a keypad. Take him out, but check that the guard inside the server room is not looking your way first.
The glass here is not bulletproof, so you can shoot straight through it. Take that guard out, then wait for the second one to leave the security control room and eliminate him as well. The order does not particularly matter.
You will notice the server room guard drops a key card. This is the loading bay key card, used for escaping through the loading bay. You can ignore it on this run, since we are escaping through the exhibition room instead.
Come around from the left and take out the leaning guard. There is sometimes another guard at the keypad beside him, but that is the same patrolling guard from earlier, who rotates between the three keypads around the CCTV server room.
Accessing the Server Room
Go around to the CCTV server rooms. One of them will be lit with a green light, and that is the keypad you can hack.
This is the classic fingerprint matching hack, the same one used in the Cayo Perico Heist. You need to match four square grids to the fingerprint pattern shown on the right, and you have to do it twice.
The fastest approach is to look for the most obvious patterns first. Check the edges, then the middle and bottom, then the top right and bottom left. Those areas give you the clearest matches.
Once you are inside, head to the terminal and disable the CCTV cameras first. Only then is it safe to enter the security control room and use the computer.
Raf sends you the vault access code the moment you enter the server room. Write it down or make a firm mental note, because you need it to unlock the vault and it is easy to lose track of. Ours was 14-22-78.
The Laser Room
Head to the vault security doors and you will trigger a cutscene. This is the hardest part of the heist.
A single touch of a laser detects you and fails the run, and staying in contact for more than a few seconds kills you outright. There are six laser variants in total: three on normal difficulty, each with a hard mode version.
Here is the general approach on normal difficulty:
Move to the right side of the room, wait for an opening, and sprint straight toward the second switch to save time. As you approach the second set of lasers, wait for the horizontally spread lasers moving toward you. As soon as they start fading, run to the switch and disable it.
Wait for an opening and keep moving forward, staying roughly in the middle to avoid the vertical lasers closing in from both sides. There is a set that forces you to crouch in place, so crouch and move through as soon as a gap appears.
Never use the jump feature to clear these lasers. It is clunky, and it is far too easy to clip a laser and trigger the alarm. Wait for gaps instead.
Once you are through, disable the lasers so your exit is clear later.
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Hacking the Vault Door
To hack the vault door, it's all about memorizing. Watch the flashing positions of the signal nodes and repeat the pattern seen at the very end.
If you are struggling, particularly on hard mode, memorize the first three nodes, then use the AI scramble to run the sequence again and pick up the remaining two or three depending on difficulty.
Each use of the AI scramble costs you one access attempt, but you will still have enough attempts remaining to finish without being detected.
The Vault
When you're inside the vault, quickly go for the primary target. The moment you enter the vault, a thermal detection meter starts filling. If it fills completely while you are still inside, you trigger the alarm. Get in, take what you need, and get out quickly.
Head straight for the primary target. You will get a short minigame cutscene where you press the displayed prompts to remove the painting and swap in the forgery.
If one of your buyer's list items is in here, grab it as well. Like we had.
You may find you cannot take the remaining items in the vault, because your loot bag is nearly full and those pieces are worth more than the space remaining. If that happens, it is not a problem. You need to pass back through the exhibition room to escape anyway, so you can top up your bag with secondaries on the way out.
Wiping the Footage and Heading Back up
After looting the vault, sprint out toward the security doors.
And now you will realize that there are no guards outside. This is exactly why we used real weapons instead of the stun gun. Stunned guards would have respawned in this room. Because we eliminated them, they stay down, leaving you a clear path.
Go back into the server room, wipe the CCTV footage to protect the value of the take, and disable the cameras again. Then exit, turn right, and return to the elevator.
Take it back up to whichever floor gives you the best remaining loot options. With the cameras already disabled, you have time to move around freely.
If you need to get down to the ground floor quickly, you can simply jump down rather than taking the stairs. Losing health this way does not affect your loot bag at all.
The Escape
Whenever you're ready to leave, leave via the upper exhibition floor door. So if you're downstairs, head back upstairs. This is where the exhibition room exit key you picked up earlier comes in.
Once outside, you will get a cutscene. Turn left and make for the stairs.
As you round the corner, be extremely careful of the guard here. His field of vision looks further away than it actually is, and he detected us multiple times during testing. Take him out from a distance.
Continue to the set of stairs, keeping an eye on the CCTV camera at the base of the staircase. Jump up and sneak your way to the top, because there is one final guard waiting up there. Eliminate him and move to your Annihilator immediately.
The Annihilator & Drop-Off
Enter the Annihilator the same way you would any vehicle. There is no cutscene and nothing to interact with, so do not waste time looking for a prompt. Once you are in, the pilot takes off automatically.
The flight sequence takes roughly two minutes and fifteen seconds, but budget three minutes to be safe when planning your time.
When you reach the end of the flight, you will be prompted to rappel down. Watch for this prompt, because missing it costs you time you cannot afford.
Once you are on the ground, run to the drop-off point to complete the heist.
And that concludes our Kortz Center Heist finale guide.
For every other part of the job, including the full scope out, all the prep missions, and the payout breakdowns, head over to our Kortz Center Heist hub.