This is our guide to the 'Apartment Heists' in GTA Online, the original "OG" five high-stakes cooperative missions that originally set the standard for multiplayer crime sprees in Los Santos. From the introductory two-player Fleeca Job to the massive Pacific Standard Job, these heists demand teamwork, communication, and careful planning for success and maximum profit.
The hub covers everything you need to know, including how to get started, general tips, payout information, and links to detailed walkthroughs for each heist in the series.
Heists are the ultimate cooperative multiplayer experience in GTA Online, allowing you and your crew to plan and execute elaborate, multi-part robbery missions for major payouts. Successfully completing heists requires teamwork, communication, and careful planning.
This guide is for the GTA Online heist series (the The Fleeca Job through to The Pacific Standard Job ). Don't miss our story mode GTA 5 heist guide either ( The Big Score ).
We'll cover everything you need to know to tackle heists in GTA Online, including:
- An overview of how heists work, from the initial setup to the finale.
- Detailed walkthroughs for each heist, explaining the objectives and best strategies for each setup mission and finale.
- Tips for assembling a reliable crew, choosing the optimal roles and loadouts, and maximizing your take.
- How to unlock special vehicles and other rewards by completing heist challenges.
- The best ways to divide up the final payout to ensure everyone is fairly compensated for their efforts.
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:
Heist #1 – The Fleeca Job
A two-player tutorial heist targeting a local Fleeca Bank branch.
Heist #2 – The Prison Break
A four-player heist to break a high-value inmate out of Bolingbroke Penitentiary.
Heist #3 – Humane Labs Raid
Infiltrate a research facility to steal sensitive data.
Heist #4 – Series A Funding
Help Trevor Philips consolidate various drug stashes for a big sale.
Heist #5 – The Pacific Standard Job
The original grand finale, robbing the main branch of the Pacific Standard Bank.
One-Time Extra Payouts
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.
