Hello There, with the Cayo Perico Heist being some days old already, I feel like I've gained enough experience to share my method of doing it as fast as I can with you. I'll only cover the missions neccessary for this method and approach, as covering every mission would turn this into a novel. With this approach, you're looking at $~1,3m every 1:00-1:30hrs, depending on how well the finale goes. Ironically, you get a higher payout when playing solo. Some pretty effective solo grinding.
1. Preperations
Right, so what do you need to grind the Cayo Perico Heist? Not a lot, surprisingly. Obviously you'll need a Kosatka, however, all the extra additions like sonar or missiles are not needed. However, the onboard Sparrow is insanely useful, it's easily worth spending the $2,1m to buy it and upgrade it with homing rockets, you'll get the money back in 1-2 heists anyway. If you get the Sparrow, you can forget about all other vehicles like other Helis, Oppressors or jets, the Sparrow is all you'll ever need. About the position of the Kosatka, I'd try to leave it at Vespucci Beach, however, you can and probably will use it to fast travel to far away locations for missions. After starting a mission, turn around from the heist screen and hop directly into your Sparrow (except if you want to fast travel first). When returning from a mission, feel free to jump out of the Sparrow and parachute to the sub, you won't have to pay any insurance and the Sparrow will instantly be returned to the Kosatka, ready to be used for the next mission. Additionally, a saved outfit with a scuba suit is also useful for some prep missions.
2. Prep missions
2.1 Gather Intel The most lengthy mission. If you've already completed the heist as a leader, you'll have to steal a Velum to fly directly to Cayo Perico. This is where the fast travel of the Kosatka comes in useful. After flying off with the Velum, don't forget to return your Kosatka to storage so you can call it back later when returning. Now, what do you actually need to find? Luckily, all the random POI are not needed at all (Uniforms, Grappling Hooks, Bolt Cutters). I'm sure you've seen this post with the map of all the intel. Surprisingly, all you need to photograph is these fours spots, one of them being the sewage tunnel underwater, which only has to be scouted once, you won't have to scout it every heist. For the mission itself, just grab the nearest bike and jump over the hill on the left side of the checkpoint next to the party and drive to the comms tower. There, hack the security box (box can spawn on ground floor or on one of the 3 tower levels). The hack is fairly complicated, however you can use your training keypad in your Arcade to get familiar with it, you'll have more than enough time at the tower to figure it out anyway. If playing solo, just scope out the main reward and move on to scouting the main docks for additional loot to fill you bags, as you will not be able to open the houses inside the compound for the loot there as they require 2 keycards simultaneously. At the main docks, scope out the 2 places for additional loot and then let yourself be caught by the guards to be thrown back to the airport instantly and leave. Thats it, no more intel neccessary, only takes you about 15 minutes. 2.2 Kosatka For the approach vehicle, you'll want to use your Kosatka, so start the mission, fast travel to the mission and use your Sparrow to deal with the Heli + 3 boats. You can then just dump your heli in the water and request a Dinghy to drive back to the Kosatka to save you the hassle of landing the heli and swimming to the sub. Inside the sub, go right down the hatch and fight through the lower deck until you find the device, leave up throught the hatch ladder and leave the sub. Outside, hop into a Dinghy and drive back to your Kosatka and the mission is done. 2.3 Cutting torch Only 3 of the 4 equipment preps are mandatory, you can completely ignore the explosives as you will be using the cutting torch for any locks you encounter. The mission is very simple, fast travel back to Vespucci beach, fly to the construction site, either kill everyone and grab the drill or do it sneaky and fly back to the Kosatka, nothing huge here. 2.4 Fingerprint cloner Another pretty simple mission, fly to the warehouse, go in and be prepared to fight instantly, its unneccessary to cut the power, the guards will spot you insantly anyways. Then hack the computer, fly to the Archives, shoot the 2 cameras, get the cloner, fly back to the sub, done. 2.5 Safe codes / plasma cutter This mission depends on the main loot, you either have to go to the casino, kill a lot of people and greab some codes off the head of security, no major ways to improve here other than to shoot, as this can't be done in stealth reliably either, and fly back to the sub. For the plasma cutters, (Actually can't remember the mission right now, must not have been hard then, just do the usual Sparrow, pewpew, grab, Sparrow stuff) 2.6 Weapons FOr weapon loadouts, you have multiple choices, I suggest either going for the Conspirator or AP Pistol loadouts, they are both very viable and neither has a distinct advantage, use whichever you prefer. This mission has 2 variants, you either just do the usual "Land on office, enter office, shoot guys, hack computer, get weapons, return to sub" stuff, or you'll have to follow a Merryweather heli, kill some goons, enter an Avenger, get the weapons, jump out of the Avenger and fly back to the sub. Both aren't that hard or complicated, just some standard "get this stuff" missions. Do not forget to buy supressors for your weapons, they're only $5k 2.7 Armor For the 3 optional preps, you only need to do the armor, as the other 2 are only beneficial for going loud, which we won't do. Again, pretty simple stuff, fly to a warehouse, blow up stuff, blow up more stuff inside the warehouse, blow up a boat, done. The Sparrow is absolutely your best friend for these kind of missions, just beware that is lacks any sort of armor, so when taking off you may get shot a bit too much at times.
3. Finale
Right, finale ,big money. Here's how the planning screen should look Haven't tested other times of day, but night is the obvious choice for stealth WHen the mission starts, you'll be instantly thrown underwater, right next to the compound. Just dive to the sewage tunnel, cuzt the grate and boom, you're in. Inside, try to deal with all the guards before going upstairs to the office elevator. Standard stealth rules apply, kill guards outside of camera view, kill facing guards in quick succession with well placed headshots (not headshotting can cause the alarm to go off ~3s after bodyshotting them to death). Chances are, you will fail the first couple of tries until you get a feel for it. Here's the path I use: Looks complicated, but you'll get used to it When reaching the vault room, you cutting torch can make quick work of the lock, then grab the main loot and get out via the exit to the right of the main vault, turn right again and you're basically next to the compound gate. Just confirm that route and you're out. Once you're out, there will be 4 guards to deal with, not a huge issue, kill them and move on. There are bikes by the checkpoint, grab one and leave. Once you are outside the compound, a heli will be sent to search you. Have a look at what direction it flies, it will always fly straight until reaching the end of the island. Evade him once and you're good for 5-10 minutes, plenty of time to leave. Path outside the compound, at green circle, evade helicopter Drive to the docks, careful of the guards that only appear on the map once you're close to them, luckily at this point you're free to kill anyone you meet, so blast away. Grab the 2 warehouses worth of secondary loot, kill the guards by the docks and leave, even if you get spotted now, just make a dash for the open sea and get as far away from the island as possible until the mission finishes and you're done, $1,3m reward. And that's it, pretty simple heist, finale is made super easy by the sewage tunnel and the prep missions are already easy as piss
Please, whenever possible, link this post to help out your fellow players. This is best with 2 players, if possible, to maximize profits. You'll need an Arcade, here's a list of all of them. I prefer the Eight Bit Arcade because of its location and accessibility to the Garage, as well as the fact that it makes most preps spawn in the same locations for easier completion of preps.
Here's a list if guides that'll help with getting started with the Diamond Casino Heist:
While doing Casino Heist preps, you can make Lester shut up and show the mission objective faster by giving one of your contacts (Mechanic, Assistant, hell even Brucie) a call, as long as you know the contact you call will pick up the phone and not just leave you ringing.
Tip 2:
[Make sure to call Simeon or Martin and request a job before you start a prep, as you cannot request a job while doing Casino Preps] In some missions you are unable to call Lester and call the cops off of you. During these missions, you can get the cops off of you for free by calling Simeon or Martin and request a job. Once you get the job, join it. AS SOON AS YOU JOIN THE JOB, LEAVE AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you don't quit, you run the risk of the Host starting the job and therefore cancelling the heist prep. Once you leave the job, you'll be back in Freemode with no cops on you, and you'll still have your heist prep equipment.
Note:
There are two Access Points that are required for the way I run the heist, in Aggressive and The Big Con (Gruupe Sechs), being the sewer entrance on the right side wall in the first opening, and the tunnel entrance leading into the center of the track.
Scope out the Casino
Look for Artwork and Gold, as they are the best (unless Diamonds are available in the vault. In that case, Diamonds are the best)
Changing vault contents
If you've completed all three approaches (Silent & Sneaky, Aggressive & The Big Con), you'll have unlocked the ability to cancel the Casino Heist by calling Lester. You can use this to cancel the heist if you get Cash, or any Vault Content item you don't want. If you find the Vault contents and get something you don't want, like Cash, you can call Lester while still in the Casino and cancel the heist. Go back to the Arcade and pay the 25k to start the heist again, and you should have a different item for your Vault Contents. This will essentially allow you to get a second Vault Content item by trading 25k to start the heist a second time with about 8 minutes of finding and hacking / killing the Casino Security guy and going to the Casino. If, once again, you get a Vault Content item you don't want, exit the arcade, call Lester & cancel the heist, enter your Arcade, rinse and repeat.
Personally, I cycle between Aggressive and The Big Con (Gruupe Sechs).
Now, because I prefer doing the heist through the Aggressive and The Big Con (Gruupe Sechs) approaches, I have little to no experience doing the Silent & Sneaky approach, and thus will be basing this post off of my personal experience in the other two approaches. Note I'm not going to go into every single prep mission, mandatory or optional as that would take too much time for me. You can look up the rest of the preps on YouTube or Google. I'm only going over my preferred Gunman, Driver, Hacker, the preps that I prefer to do / prefer not to complete, and how I complete the heist.
Aggressive
Gunman: I prefer Patrick MacReary, 8%. I can't remember the other weapon available, but I know he allows you to choose an LMG with 100 round mags. I prefer to use the LMG. You can unlock by finding him in the back of a police van. Take the van to the objective area by following the yellow marker and you'll unlock him. Driver: I prefer Karim Denz, 5%, which has decent vehicles. I prefer the Sentinel Classic. Hacker: I prefer Paige Harris, 9%, which you can unlock by owning a Terrorbyte (which you can unlock by owning a Nightclub).
The preps I prefer to do are:
Unmarked Weapons, Getaway Vehicles, Hacking Device, Thermal Charges, Vault Explosives (I prefer to use a Stromberg while doing this mission), Reinforced Armor, Vault Keycards, Patrol Routes, Duggan Shipments, Security Intel (unlock by owning a penthouse and completing the penthouse missions), and Security Pass. For the Reinforced Armor, I only do this if I have Gold or Diamonds as it slows you down. I also only do this if I am a low level or if I have low level teammates, because low level = low health. If I have Artwork or Cash I don't do this. As for the Boring Machine prep, you don't need to have the Boring Machine to access the sewer. All you need to do is have took a picture of it and sent it to Lester during the Scope Out prep.
The Big Con
Gunman: I prefer Karl Abolaji, 5%. He has access to the Mini Uzi (I forget the in-game name) and the double barrel shotgun. I prefer the Mini Uzi. *You're going to be mostly going up to people and meleeing them / knocking them out instead of shooting them, unless you get caught, then you'll be shooting them. Driver: I prefer Karim Denz, 5%, which has decent vehicles. I prefer the Sentinel Classic. Hacker: I prefer Paige Harris, 9%, which you can unlock by owning a Terrorbyte (which you can unlock by owning a Nightclub).
The preps I prefer to do are:
Unmarked Weapons, Getaway vehicles, Hacking Device, Entry Disguises (2 preps), Vault Drills, Exit Disguise, Vault Keycards, Patrol Routes, Security Intel, and Security Pass. I don't do Duggan Shipments as usually use my weapon to melee / knock out the security guards at the Casino, and since a melee is a one hit one kill, regardless of level of armor they're wearing, I don't usually do this mission. Completing the Yung Ancestor missions allow you to have the Grotti Furia, a supercar, as an extra getaway vehicle, although it spawns in the parking lot which is surrounded by cops. I would not recommend doing this. Again, 2 players are recommended. Start the Heist, get to the Vault. One of you work on the first main room with the big circle table in the centre while the other one will start hacking whichever doors lead to 2 or 3 Artwork or Gold / Diamond / Cash tables. Always go for the rooms that have more than one cart. Tip: With Gold / Diamonds, you cannot sprint / run, you can however trot. If you go into First Person and tap / press and hold whatever your sprint / run button is, you'll see your character's weapon / screen shake, indicating that you're trotting. Doing this in First Person is actually faster than Third Person.
There are two was I like to lose the cops
1, through the sewer, and 2, by helicopter (Helicopter Route) [Disclaimer: This strategy is not recommended if you're trying to get the Elite Challenge, as this will most likely take more than 15 minutes, or however long the given time is.] Once you are out of the Casino, make it to the road. Drive to the sewer opening by the Casino, and if you don't have a car, just run to said sewer opening.
Note:
If you go back the way you came, or anywhere close to the Casino after you lose the cops, you will gain a wanted level again. Proceed through the tunnel. You'll find a metal gate that you have to pass under, a small vent on the right side, and another vent on the left. You'll come across 2 paths. Go up the metal ramp on the left. Proceed all the way down the tunnel and down the escalators and ramp downwards. Cross diagonally over the 2 train tracks into the next tunnel with a dirt floor. You'll find 2 tunnels, left and right. Take either one. You'll find construction, go straight. After this, you'll see a big room. Go straight, take the immediate right and go up the ramps leading to the opening to the highway. If you dont have a car, get one or two and drive to the Buyer. Links to my other posts, which consist of guides, and other useful things I've found & posted.
So some people on this sub seem to think you need to do all the optional preps when doing the casino heist, but this is actually a HUGE waste of time when trying to grind. You would make much more money for your time if you just skipped these preps, ran the heist, and then started a new one. TheProfessional on youtube explains it in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1QcKrudZoc For aggressive approach, you only need duggan shipments and boring machine. Don't bother with patrol routes, you don't need to sneak around anyone. If guards are within a certain range they will show on your map even without patrol routes. Keycards only if you can't hack, or if you think you might fail while exiting casino, but theres only 1 door that uses it so if you're experienced you don't need them. EDIT: you don't need boring machine to access sewers, it is always available. Not sure why rockstar made that mission. For Big Con, as long as you have the 54 playing cards, YOU DON'T NEED ANY OPTIONAL PREPS. I can't believe there are people here that think you need duggan shipments for big con, when you literally don't shoot anybody while inside the casino. Whats the point of taking their armor and weapons if you don't shoot them, or get shot by them? You shouldn't be getting detected on gruppe sechs, and if you're not doing gruppe sechs then you're not being time efficient anyway.. You don't need patrol routes because when escaping there are only 2 guards that you need to take out, then 1 to avoid, and they are always in the same hallways. Also only 1 door to hack while escaping, don't need keycard. SnS is the method that benefits the most from optionals. Keycards are actually useful because there are multiple doors, and duggan shipments can be handy as well so you can take out guards from afar with your gun. Patrol routes are good if you don't know the guards' usual spots, same with security intel for cameras, but they're not necessary once you learn where they are. Also don't do power drills, you shouldn't have that much time if you choose the minimal amount of people and the appropriate hacker. For example, for art you should always run as a group of 2, with a cheap hacker like Yohan (5%). You have enough time to clear the vault, and save money since the hacker takes a smaller cut. For gold, you can run with 2 people if you hack fast/get lucky with the layout, but if running with 3 you can use a cheap hacker as well. If you get cash on scope out, just call lester and cancel heist. It takes the longest to loot and is worth the least. The extra profit you get from art/gold is worth paying startup cost multiple times over. This week also has diamonds. You need 3 people to clear the vault, and paige gives more than enough time. I haven't tested it with cheaper hackers but it might work.
Diamond Casino Guide: So you decided that you wanna rob a casino, great! The Diamond Casino Heist is one of the best ways to earn money, but you're wondering, how do I get started? Well you're in luck! This guide is going to teach you the ways to get the best out of the Diamond Casino Heist! Step 1: Arcade Alright to get started, you’re going to have to own an arcade. Now, it may seem better to go for the arcades on the top of the map to save yourself some cash, however this will make all the preps much harder, as most of them take place in LS or Sandy Shores. The best arcade locations are 8-bit ($2,530,000, located in Vinewood) and Videogeddon ($1,875,000, La Mesa). When buying your arcade, none of the upgrades are necessary, as most of them are cosmetic. You’ll have to complete a quick arcade setup mission to access the basement where the diamond casino heist planning board is located. Step 1.5: Arcade Income While this isn’t related to the diamond casino heist, I thought I would put this in there. The arcade generates income based on how many games you have, going up to 5k per in-game day (48 min). The game doesn't matter, so you can just buy the cheapest one (Monkey’s Paradise, $90,000) and fill up your arcade with it. Step 2: Scope out casino After you’ve finished watching Lester scribble a big mess over the whiteboard, you’ll be able to start the casino heist. Normally, you’ll have to pay a setup cost of 25k, but since it’s your first time doing it, it’ll be free. After you’ve confirmed that you want to start the casino heist, you’ll need to finish the scope out mission. For the scope out mission, you’ll need to take a variety of pictures for lester in order to unlock entrances for the heist. A full guide is linked here but I’ll sum up the most important ones.
Staff Lobby: This entrance is arguably the best entrance for the Silent and Sneaky approach. It gives you easy access to the control room where you can get the daily vault easily. It is also the best exit for most approaches as not many guards patrol it. The staff lobby should be around the back of the casino, and should look like a white door behind some yellow bollards.
Security Tunnel: By scoping out this entrance, it gives you the ability to enter the casino as a Gruppe Sechs team for the Big Con. This entrance is the best if not one of the best approaches to the casino heist. The disguise will allow you to go straight to the vault undetected and back up, however you will be detected when going back out of the casino on the casino access floor, so I would suggest getting some exit disguises to make your escape easier. The security tunnel should look like a big metal garage door with a security camera watching over it under the racetrack.
Sewers: The sewers allow you to burrow down right into the vault access floor giving you easy access as you are right next to the vault mantrap. The sewer exit, however, is only available in the aggressive approach.
Roof Terrace: At first glance, the roof terrace may seem like a horrible entrance/exit, however as it turns out, the roof terrace is actually a contender for one of the best aggressive exits. By taking the roof terrace, you can shoot down the guards at the racetrack while them not being able to shoot back and then parachute down.
You’ll only need to do this mission once, and it will be completed for all future casino heists. Step 3: Vault Contents The vault contents mission is pretty easy. You’ll be given the rough location of a duggan security guard, once you find him, you can either hack him, which can take some time but you won’t get the cops on you if you do it right, or you can kill him and grab the phone, which will save you some time but you’ll need to lose the cops before you can enter the casino. After you’ve entered the casino, you’ll need to bring out the sightseer app on your phone to find a wifi signal. After you’ve located the wifi signal, you’ll need to figure out the vault contents. Beware that you only have a limited time to do this (2 min). Since it’s probably your first time, I would recommend that you go through every camera to scope out each POI. The target will be cash since it’s your first time, which has a payout of 2.1 mil on normal. The first time will always be cash (payout of $2,115,000 on normal), but if it’s not your first time, the targets can be either cash, artwork (payout of $2,350,000 on normal) or gold (payout of $2,585,000 on normal). There is a 4th target, which is diamonds (payout of $3,257,100 on normal) however this vault content is only available for special occasions and has been removed from the vault contents. If you do the heist on hard by doing the same approach after you’ve done another one, the payout will be 10% larger. If you’ve completed all 3 approaches to the heist, you can cancel the heist which can be helpful if you’ve got a bad target. Link to this is here. Step 4: Selecting your approach Once you’ve finished the vault contents mission, you’ll be able to select your approach. There are 3 approaches to the diamond casino heist. Silent and Sneaky, The Big Con and Aggressive. For beginners, I would recommend alternating between Big Con and Aggressive, because those are the easiest ones. For Big Con, choose the Gruppe Sechs disguise for the easiest entry. Aggressive is good for newer players however it does end up in a lot of money loss. After you’ve got the gist of it, alternate to doing Silent and Sneaky in place of aggressive for a bigger payout. Step 5: Selecting your support crew After you’ve selected your approach, you’ll need to select your support crew before you can do any of the prep missions. Selecting your support crew is very simple. You’ll need a gunman to source guns, a driver to source cars and a hacker to delay the nerve agent inside the vault. Selecting your support crew depends on the approach and target in the vault. For Big Con, SnS, any any target EXCEPT for art, you’ll want the worst gunman (Karl Abolaji, take his Micro SMG on big con, heavy revolver on aggressive and on SnS the choice is up to you), the worst driver (Karim Denz, take his sentinel classic) and the best hacker available to you, for most people, this will be Paige Harris (unlocked when the terrorbyte is purchased, gives 3:25 in the vault when undetected and 2:23 detected). For aggressive, you’ll still want to have the worst driver and best hacker, however the gunman is up to you since you’ll be using guns a lot. I normally go with Charlie Reed (unlocked when purchasing a hangar), he takes a 7% cut (2% more than Karl) and gives you an assault smg, however you can get by with Karl, as every gunman gives you a SMG to go along with another weapon, which is still a perfectly fine weapon. For Big Con, SnS and the target is Art, if you and your heist partner can both hack very well, you can get by with Yohan Blair (takes a 5% cut and gives you 2:51 in the vault if you are undetected and 2:01 if you are). Step 5.5: Secret heist crew members There are 2 hidden heist crew members that can’t be unlocked by purchasing a business like most heist crew members. There 2 are Patrick McReary and Avi Schwartzman. Patrick McReary is a gunman who takes an 8% cut and gives the choice a Combat MG or an Assault Shotgun in aggressive. Avi Schwartzman is a hacker that takes a 10% cut and gives 3:30 undetected in the vault and gives 2:22 if you are detected. To unlock Patrick, he spawns as a random event around the map. He spawns in a police car that you will need to hijack. A guide is linked here. To unlock Avi, you’ll need to destroy 50 signal jammers that are located around the map. A guide is linked here. Step 6: Prep Missions Now that you’ve selected your support crew, you’ll be presented with a plethora of prep missions. Some mandatory and some optional. To complete these missions, I suggest that you use a Kuruma, Buzzard or Oppressor Mk2 to make your life easier. In some prep missions, you will not be able to call lester, so be prepared. All of the missions can be done solo but it makes it easier if you have a friend with you to help you out. Now onto the optional prep missions. Optional prep missions, are, as the name suggests, optional. The optional prep you should do depends on the approach. If you own a penthouse and have completed all of the missions, you will gain access to the security intel mission. It’s very easy to complete and you will only need to do it once. A nice trick is that the gauntlet actually spawns when you start the mission, not when the cutscene is triggered, so you can just shoot the driver and take the gauntlet. A guide will be linked below. Let’s start with Silent and Sneaky. For Silent and Sneaky, the optional prep missions depend on your skill level. If you’re an experienced player, you don’t need to do much, only level 2 security passes. Power drills you can do if you think you have enough time. However if you are a very new player, I’d recommend that you do patrol routes, duggan shipments (you only need to destroy 3 to get rid of their bulletproof helmets), level 2 security passes, emp device and infiltration suits and power drills if you think you have enough time. If you do all these, the heist should be a breeze. Going onto the Big Con, if you’re doing Gruppe Sechs, you don't need to do much. You only need to go through one door if you exit out the staff door, so you can decide if you want to do level 2 security passes or not. Patrol routes do make things easier, however are not necessary. Again, only do power drills if you think you have enough time. Make sure you do exit disguises. Noose and firefighter are exactly the same, so do firefighters since it has the easier mission. For aggressive, again, patrol routes make it easier, but are never necessary. Make sure to do duggan shipments. You can solo it, but it will be much easier with another person. If you don’t get them all you can just close the game and you’ll be able to do the mission again. Reinforced armour allows you to take more damage, so I would recommend it even if it makes you slower. Be sure to also do boring machine as it allows you to enter through the sewers. Make sure to also do level 2 security passes unless you really like hacking doors. Step 7: Finding people to play with Now that you’ve completed all your required prep missions, you need some people to play with. If you don’t have any friends to play with, I recommend checking out HeistTeams or the GTAO Discord LFG Channels to find people to play with. Make sure to have good communication between your teammates otherwise the heist will be in chaos. Step 8: Completing the heist Now that you’ve got a solid heist crew waiting to grab all of that sweet loot out of the casino’s vault, you’ll be able to start the heist. If you're doing aggressive, the plan is pretty simple, shoot your way in, grab the loot, then shoot your way out. The easiest entry for aggressive is sewers, and the easiest exit is the eastern roof terrace. If you exit through the staff lobby, you’ll get shot a ton when going over the racetrack, however if you exit through the roof terrace, you can shoot the guys behind the stones on the racetrack then safely parachute down. For The Big Con, I’m going to assume you’re doing the Gruppe Sechs approach. By doing the Gruppe Sechs approach, you can pretty much waltz into the vault and back out of it, just be careful that this has some limitations. When going back up the stairwell/elevator to the casino access floor, the guards will have checked the vault and know it’s been robbed, so you disguise ain't gonna work anymore. I strongly suggest getting exit disguises, as they will greatly help your escape. The easiest exit for this is the staff lobby. For SnS, I’m not really going to go into too much detail here because there’s a full video linked below. What I will talk about is when to use the emp (If you did the prep mission). I recommend emp’ing when you’re at the vault access floor, allowing you to waltz into the mantrap, or when you're coming back up to the casino access floor and are in the mantrap.. Be warned that if you decide to get the daily vault when you trigger the emp, the emp’s timer will run out before you can get to your exit, so plan ahead. The easiest entrance for this is the staff lobby and the easiest exit is also the staff lobby. Tips and tricks to complete the heist
If you are disguised, do not bump into any of the guards. They will detect you and start shooting.
In the control room there is a button that you can press to open the door to the daily vault. One person has to hold the button while the other goes in and grabs the cash. This can be done with any approach.
Running and jumping is faster than just running normally, use this to your advantage while inside the vault.
Running in first person is actually faster than 3rd, so use this to your advantage when trying to knock out guards.
Don’t bother trying to escape the cops by hiding in an alley or something, either take your car into the sewers down by the LS river or take the heli that usually spawns on top of the police station. The sewers will result in you losing less money, however will be much slower. I will link both of these methods below in the useful media section.
Normally when exiting the casino from the staff lobby without any disguise, you’ll need to knock out a guard to the left of the swat fan to your right, before hugging the race track wall and then dropping down. I have found that sometimes if you run, the guard will hear you and detect you, causing you to get shot at. To prevent this, walk up to him making sure you stay out of his FOV then knock him out.
You walk much faster in the casino if you are in first person, making the vault contents mission much easier.
In prep missions, you can change any accessory (glasses, hat, ect.) to lose 1 star which is useful on missions where you can’t call Lester to remove your wanted level.
On some missions, you can lose the cops by entering your Terrorbyte/MOC/Avenger.
On some missions, you can lose the cops if you accept Lester’s apartment heist invite. This only works if you have a heist active.
In the hacking device mission where you have to infiltrate the FIB building, you walk a lot faster if you aim down sights on any gun, however if you go into any agent’s LOS you will get detected instantly, so be careful when using this trick.
You can upgrade your getaway vehicles in the arcade by getting in them and pressing the button showed on the prompt that appears on the top left.
Credits Special thanks to: u/Pepperooney_ for adding a bunch of info on the tips and tricks section u/what_it_dooo for suggesting the roof terrace and the hacking device trick
How many keys can we find in random places? I've found one on the passed-out security guard, and I got 7000$. I've come across several other random guards, and only get 7000$ when I search them. I assumed that once we found one, the subsequent ones would just give us the 7K because we already found a key. Is it like Casino where once you do something like Security Intel, you don't have to do it again or do you have to find random keycard everytime you start a new heist I did the heist twice on my own and both times I get the message in some places "something something need a key to access ..." Also, I'll randomnly get messages while I'm playing anything unrelated to Cayo Perico "You have found a key that is useful for ..."And, no, I'm not referring to the dual-lock cages or the keys for the main gates that you get from the guards in the compound Thanks
A Big list of Adventure Ideas - Heroes'/Antagonist's Goals, High Concept Premises, and a list of ways to generate dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal.
Hi! I have compiled a list of ideas you can use to brainstorm your adventures.
Heroes'/Antagonist's Goals
Stories are fundamentally about problem solving. The problems usually come from the mix of two sources:
The Heroes strive to achieve a goal, and struggle to overcome challenges and obstacles on their path (often created by the Villain).
Villain wants something, and players are trying to disrupt their evil plan.
Whatever goal the Heroes have - the Villain will have the opposite one (and vice versa). You can start from the either side. Give the goal to the Players ("Obtain a valuable item"), and the Villain will want the opposite ("Obtain the item first"). Give the goal to the Villain ("Perform an Evil Ritual") and the players will want the opposite ("Stop the Evil Ritual"). The only difference is the motivation, Heroes want things for noble reasons, Villains want them for evil ones. If you'll be using the goal for the villain - just put an evil spin on it. List of goals you can use for either Heroes or Villains:
Obtain McGuffin/Information.
Players and antagonist compete for the same item (be the first to the pirate treasure.) Players are trying to prevent antagonist from getting an item (Prevent a villain from getting a powerful dark artifact.) Get the pirate treasure, the lost crystal of Atlantis, your stolen belongings. Obtain a treasure map, secret codes, powerful spell, find Villain's only weakness.
Win a competition / prevent the other side from winning.
Win the race around the world. Win a mock-war between adventuring parties. Win a Quidditch game.
Seize power.
Evil Vizier wants to replace the king and players need to prevent that. Evil King is in charge and players need to overthrow him. The King has died and both sides want to be the next King.
Kill a Person.
Heroes: Kill the villain, a vampire/werewolf/basilisk, all the baddies in the area. Stop a serial killer. Villain: Kill the heroes, kill people to drink their blood or to satisfy violent urges.
Kill a Creature.
Heroes: Kill a monster. Villain: Kill an innocent creature.
Destroy an Item.
Destroy a doomsday device, the ring of power, a piece of blackmail.
Destroy a Target.
An enemy base, a castle, a ship, close a portal.
Protect a Person.
Save the person being targeted for an assassination. Save the family being harassed by criminals.
Protect a Creature.
Save the endangered creature from the hunter.
Guard an Item.
Someone is planning to steal the priceless diamonds during the party, stop them.
Kidnap a Person.
Heroes: Capture an enemy general to gain strategic information. Antagonist: Abduct a person for ransom or sacrificial ritual.
Rescue a Person.
Heroes: Rescue hostages, save the kidnapped princess. Recover a soldier behind enemy lines during a war. Break someone out of jail, or liberate a prisoner en route to prison.
Steal an Item/Information/Creature.
Rob a train/zeppelin/caravan with the treasure. Intercept a valuable message passed to the enemy.
Invade a Location.
Overtake a city, a castle, ship. Plan for an attack on the evil citadel. Compete for control of the territory. You have conquered a kingdom, defeat the remaining groups running guerrilla warfare against you.
Defend a Location.
Prepare the city to repel the enemies/monsters. Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies, survive under siege, and liberate it.
Escort a Person/Creature.
Deliver a prisoner to jail. Escort a bratty princess to the boarding school. Escort a caravan with the treasure.
Deliver an Item/Information.
Transport valuable treasure. Deliver a valuable intel to the central command before the enemy strikes. Deliver the ring of power to Mount Doom.
Track down, chase and capture a Person.
Capture the criminal/runaway. Bounty-hunters. Find a missing person. Find out what happened to the lost expedition. Find the only wizard who knows how to lift a curse.
Track down, chase and capture a Creature.
Capture a zombie to prove they exist. Capture a unique creature for research.
Escape.
Escape the pursuit of the law. Help a wrongly convicted to escape. Escape an ambush. Hide a person from danger. A massive assassins guild is trying to kill you, stay alive until dawn. Break out of prison.
Resolve conflict.
Broker peace between warring nations, families, factions of nobles, King and Queen, fighting giants.
Cause conflict.
Start a war, pit people/factions against each other.
Investigate a Mystery.
Solve a murder or a theft. Uncover a mysterious plot and understand who is behind it. Supernatural mystery. Understand what is causing the strange/weird events. Understand what happened in the abandoned/deserted city. Find out someone's dark secret, expose a corrupt official, find evidence to convict someone.
Uncover a conspiracy.
Find a spy/mole, prevent a convert mission from taking place.
Commit a stealthy Heist and don't get caught.
A covert crime, a ninja mission, a terrorist act. Enter and leave a heavily-guarded building without getting noticed.
Frame someone for a crime.
A business competitor, a nation.
Infiltrate and Spy.
Go undercover in the criminal gang. Blend in with the nobles to poison the King.
Enforce.
Enforce the law, collect debts, force a person to do something they don't want.
Clear the name.
Prove your or someone else's innocence. Convince the angry mob that the woman they're planning to execute is not a witch.
Perform a task.
Complete a ritual/experiment, build a weapon, open portal, resurrect/summon/awaken something.
Sabotage a task.
Prevent a ritual from taking place, prevent weapon from being built, prevent a terrorist act.
Diplomacy, Influence, and Negotiations.
Compete for the lady's heart, compete to convince the King to take a different course of action. Bribe/manipulate/intimidate a corrupt official into doing what you want. Try to close a business deal or prevent it from being closed. Play cupid. Make two quarreling people fall in love with each other. Find a lonely person/creature a girlfriend.
Persuade groups of people.
Brainwash and manipulate groups of people into doing your bidding, liberate brainwashed people. Free the town from the mind control spell. Convince enemy soldiers to defect to your side. Free a person from the influence of a sinister cult.
Run and improve a society/group/organization.
Run a kingdom, village, sports team, team of agents, organization, business. Raise morale, lower the crime, stop witch hunts, deal with corruption.
Explore a dangerous location. Survive/avoid environmental dangers, overcome environmental obstacles.
Think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc. Climb a mountain, get through a swamp, quick sand,thin ice, wild magic area. Open an ancient gate. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.
Survive wilderness or a hazardous environment and find a way back home.
Get stranded in the desert, an island, an alien land, becalmed or in a storm. Help other people survive a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor), a war zone.
Scavenger hunt. Collect several items from scattered locations.
Potion ingredients for a witch, parts of an engine that were scattered during crash landing.
Win a war.
Lead an army against enemy general, against rival mob boss or a cowboy gang.
Defeat a horde or a swarm, clear out an infestation.
Rats in the basement, wolves in the forest, Zombies, Aliens. Could be impossible to kill them one by one, and must be done with a ritual, destroying the mothership, smashing the necromancer's amulet, lifting an ancient curse, placating the restless spirits, activating the ancient defense mechanisms.
Incite rebellion/mutiny.
Put down rebellion/mutiny.
Prepare an ambush, set up traps to make the location impossible to pass.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard.
Creating multiple unique adventures from the same goal
Here's the list of ways to create dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal:
Switch players/antagonist sides.
Players try to get away with a crime instead of investigating it.
Reverse the goal.
Smuggle/Plant an item instead of stealing it. Close the portal instead of opening it. Banish the creature instead of summoning it.
Use a different target - person, creature, item, information, location/base.
Destroy an item instead of killing a person. Abduct a person instead of stealing the treasure. Protect a secret instead of the location. Chase a lost pet instead of the criminal.
Change "do it for yourself" to "help other people".
Don't get murdered - prevent a murder. Steal an item - create a distraction while someone else steals it. Get away with the crime - help someone else to get away with the crime.
Add restrictions/complications.
Make it stealthy (commit a heist instead of robbery). Avoid violence (capture a person alive instead of killing them). Achieve the goal by social means (ruin the person's reputation instead of killing them). Do it before the rivals do it first. See the list of complications for more ideas.
Combine multiple goals.
Deliver an item while on the run from the law. Sabotage a ritual to rescue a person. Infiltrate a group to steal an item. Solve a mystery to be able to find a lost person.
Add different subgoals, put different challenges/obstacles in the way.
Get through the dangerous location instead of an elaborate security system. Obtain information about the villain's weakness instead of the only weapon that can kill them. Convince a witness to talk instead of following the trail of footsteps. The object is difficult to deliver because it's being hunted by bandits, or because the terrain is dangerous and inhospitable, or because it's large and fragile, or because it's a criminal trying to escape, or because it's cattle you need to keep alive, or because it's a bratty princess who doesn't want to go to school. See the List of Challenges and List of Villain's Moves for more ideas.
Use different concrete details - High Concept Premise, Settings, NPCs, McGuffins, etc.
Steal the Elixir of Youth from the unicorn instead of stealing the Aztec gold from the Spanish Galleon. Steal an item from a dream instead of casino. Escort a dragon instead of a prisoner. Escape from Jurassic Park instead of the prison. Fight a self righteous paladin instead of the bandit gang leader.
Use different motivations.
Kill a person out of revenge instead of for money. Resurrect your loved one instead of summoning a demon. Compete for the heart of the lady instead of the treasure.
High Concept Premises
"High Concept" ideas are creative premises, interesting "What if?" scenarios. They will put your players into fantastical and unusual situations. You can use them as a starting point for your adventure - pick a High Concept idea, and see which interesting problems/goals it can generate, or just combine it with one of the goals from the list above.
Being shrunk to a tiny size, maybe put into a person's/creature's body. (Honey I shrunk the Kids, Ant Man, Anatomy Park).
Switching bodies (Freaky Friday).
Time Travel. Time loop (Groundhog Day).
Adventure taking place in a dream, illusion, virtual reality, computer game, a TV show (Inception, Ready Player One, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, The Matrix, Jumanji).
Deal with the Devil.
Animals/creatures gain sentience/intelligence.
Open portal to another world, a parallel dimension, an alternate timeline (Mist, Stargate, Another Earth).
A baby monster. An alien/dragon egg. A boy and his robot.
Body Snatchers, Brain Slugs - parasites that control your mind.
Shapeshifter - person/monster that can assume any form.
Evil Twins of the Heroes.
Hive mind. Creatures telepathically united into one consciousness. Assimilating other creatures.
Traditionally evil guys are good and vice versa (Shrek, Descendants, Megamind, Suicide Squad).
Possession / Mind Control (RoboCop, Captain America: Civil War.)
A mysterious magic force has created a zone where the laws of physics and magic have been warped (Annihilation, Stalker)
Befriend a creature (ET, How to Train your Dragon, Ratatouille, Astro Kid, Pokemon).
Post-apocalypse, aftermath of a disaster (Fallout, The Day After Tomorrow, Resident Evil).
Artificial Intelligence, sentient construct (Terminator, Wall-E, Avengers:The Age of Ultron).
An accident causes captive dinosaurs/monsters/demons/zombies escape (Jurassic Park).
Love Potion. Succubus.
Don't go below the speed limit - if you stop moving a person dies or a bomb explodes (Speed, Crank, The X-Files "Drive" episode).
A plague/disease/epidemic with unusual effects (fear of open spaces, rage, horniness, loss of one of the senses, wild magic / people to lose magic). It can be transmitted by magic, when infected casters target other casters with a spell.
Dangerous/violent plants.
An inanimate object comes to life.
Raising undead to return a loved one back to life.
You become God to race of tiny creatures.
Change age - turn into kids or old people.
Covert stealthy alien invasion.
A person turned into an animal.
A threat you forget about once you stop looking at it.
Infohazards.
Common animals are being turned savage (and giant) by a rogue magical effect (maybe an evil druid), and the party has to contain the destruction that they cause while trying to find a solution.
Magic is fading / going wild and unpredictable.
Superman goes genocidal. Defeat a being of incredible power, without it finding out that you're after it.
An ancient civilization is long gone, only a single robot/golem/computeweapon is still functioning.
Heroes are isolated in a confined environment with a monster.(Alien)
A location is occupied by enemies/monsters/terrorists, heroes are the only ones who escaped from being taken hostage. (Die Hard in a village, on a ship, on a zeppelin, on a train, in a magic school, in a King's castle).
A powerful monster begins killing people in the area (Tremors: Jaws in a desert).
Set in a world where the evil overlord has won.
The evil adventuring party.
Deadly game show / competition.
A location (small town, building, ship) is suddenly trapped underneath an impenetrable dome.
Someone from our world is stuck in fantasy.
A dangerous child (has faulty psychic powers, prophesied to be a devil, youngling of a dangerous monster)
Two huge powers (monsters, giants, powerful mages, armies) fight each other, causing a lot of collateral damage.
A large number of cursed or dangerous magical items have been sold or distributed to an unsuspecting populace (Friday the 13th series, Warehouse 13)
First Contact with a sentient race (Arrival, Alien Nation, Contact, District 9, Star Trek, V series)
Magic is fading / going wild and unpredictable.
Space ship crashing in middle ages.
Magic items (or maybe just some magic items) become secretly sentient and drive around their owners while they are asleep.
An ancient evil is very slowly rising out of the ground and waking up. People need to hurry to figure out how to make it go away or else assemble a team strong enough to kill it when it awakes.
The entire population of a town seemingly disappeared but in fact dug underground secret caves and is reverting to animal tendencies.
The party comes across a mysterious artifact, it melds with/into the first party member to touch it, granting them incredible powers but also changes their consciousness.
A long lost civilization is rising back up from the sea.
The local ruler may have been replaced by a doppelganger, but nobody wants to risk their neck to find out for sure.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard.
Creatures from video games, stories, paintings, come to life.
Spell/artifact/curse that prevents the whole town from being able to lie.
Space ship / UFO crashing in middle ages.
Duplication powers, making clones.
Ancient/Lost Civilization. Atlantis.
Gigantic Monster (Godzilla, Cloverfield, King Kong, Kaiju).
Superheroes/Supervillains.
Ghosts, haunted house/village. Restless spirits that need to be placated.
Zombies.
Vampires.
Ninjas.
Secret society/cult.
Underground civilization.
Underwater adventure. Merefolk.
Adventure set in a world where the forces of good won a little too well. Where the people in charge are all Lawful Good and have no tolerance for anything else. Tyranny of the traditionally good creatures like celestials, paladins, etc. The slightest misstep can cause a person to be 'disappeared'.
Take the personality from a TV/Movie character that you like, but make them evil. Adapt them to fantasy (Evil Steampunk Iron Man). Combine the traits from several characters (Legolas with the personality of Spider Man, John Snow with the personality of Jack Sparrow), or reverse their gender or a key personality trait (female Dr. Octavius, cheerful Batman).
For their appearance - find an illustration on ArtStation, Pinterest, or /ImaginaryCharacters. If the appearance is very different from the movie character you have based their personality on - even better.
I have created the "Adventure Prompts Tool" that will pick the random Goals, High Concepts, Complications, Settings, and Challenges for you. If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here. Please contribute to this project! Share more ideas for the Heroes'/Antagonist's goals and High Concept premises in the comments!
[A Beginner Friendly Casino Heist Guide] I decide to convert some of pain with randoms into this shareable
It is my first time composing a guide like this for GTA Online. So any criticism or suggestion is welcome! I really wish this can be helpful. There is a ton of wiki about it but I am just going to refine them into my own words. Btw, this guide is not for people who is already a veteran. Casino heist is the easiest way to make a quick fortune so far because you can join a finale through your phone (although there is a cool down time between each). And you probably won't find any extreme method to maximize payout such as glitch. The main purpose of this article is help people have fun. Scope Out This is something you do once and for all. So there is no reason why you don't scope out all access points and P.O.I.. You can launch this mission every time when you are hosting the heist, but can only be done before selecting approach. There is plenty of Youtube videos about where to find them such as this. Vault Content Just to to the observatory and find 2 guys chatting. Sometimes they are at the front door but most of the time they are on the left side of building. One guy with a baseball cap and the other "bigger" guy with a cowboy hat. Start hacking through securoserv app while walk along with the guard while he takes a phone call. Don't run into or kill him cuz that will get cops on you. Hacking into security camera is easy so let's skip that (sometimes the Wi-Fi spot is in the restroom). Casino Model & Door Security & Vault Door All of them are complete waste of money. Casino model is purely decorative. If you want to practice hacking, just ask teammates or friends nicely to give you a shot in the vault or watch Youtube. And there is no need to practice drilling vault door because you are not on a time limit. Before we jump into approaches, there is a prep mission called "Security Intel". It gives you all the camera vision without having to getting close to a camera. You will need to complete all Diamond Casino & Resort story missions as the host in order to unlock this mission. Once it's done, you don't have to do it again. The camera intel stays with you. JUST DO IT FOR VINCENT'S SAKE. Prep Board Next, I'm gonna tell you what each prep mission means and which optional missions are actually worth doing imo.
Silent & Sneaky
Gunner: Hire the cheapest guy because you are not supposed to exchange fire anyway. There are two loadouts to choose from and both works great.
Driver: Hire the cheapest guy because you don't need his help at all. This role is a fucking free rider and you will see why later. I always source Übermacht Sentinel Classic because it goes fast and handles the best. It matters in setup mission.
Hacker: Hire Paige because she gives you more time in the vault. It's worth the investment. If you have Avi unlocked you can try him to. He takes 1% more cut but gives you 5 seconds more time in the vault when exposed and 3 more seconds when undetected. It's up to you whether he is worth it. To unlock Avi as hacker, you need to destroy all 50 signal jammers around the map in free mode. Youtube video guide is here.
Patrol routes: It makes more enemies visible on mini map. I always do it but if you feel comfortable to skip it, I respect that.
Duggan shipments: MUST DO! Because you are supposed to get head shot and without Duggan shipments gone, guards will wear bullet proof helmet. You want to have some kind of flying vehicle because targets are all over the map.
Power drills: You wanna get it if you think there is enough time to hit deposit boxes AFTER grabbing all the main stuff.
Security pass: ALWAYS GET LEVEL 2 SECURITY PASS! This saves you a ton of time from hacking key pads. You can cycle through this option to a picture with a valet and a dealer.
Acquire masks: A complete waste of time.
EMP device and infiltrate suits: The former cuts power out and the latter gives you nigh vision in dark as well as the ability to rappel down the elevator well when entering casino if you choose some doors near helipad as entrance. If you want to sneaky in or out more easily, go ahead and do both. I think it's not worth it. Gun is your best friend.
Planning Board I usually chose staff lobby or waste disposal as entrance. But you must choose staff lobby as exit and select high level buyer. Staff lobby door is close to both sewer and nearby police station, and high level buyer gives you most pay. And DO NOT ever buy decoy or clean vehicle. They are total waste of money. Finale The general rule is DO NOT kill guards if they are not in your way, or patrolling to a dead body. Also watch out for cameras. You can only shoot down 1 camera. So just stun them. It can be difficult if teammates are not on mic cuz you might need to take down some guards in pairs. What I usually do is typing "Can someone please aim with me? You aim at right guy and I aim at left guy, then I fire right after you." in chat box. I found it works well as long as teammates read English. Probably many of you already knew this but you can hit daily vault twice both on your way in and out. The gate control is in security room. Another important note is that the guards will be able to see you though glass on doors, but they will not be able to see you through bullet proof glass around security room. As far as after getting into the vault, just make sure get your ass outta there before times counts down to 0. And also, elevator is for suicide only. TAKE THE STAIRS. Then it's much easier. At this time you have not alerted anyone yet so turn to your right after getting out of casino. Check out the map below where I drew a route to a safe spot to jack a ride from NPC. You just need to make sure to knock out the first NOOSE on the left side of van, and knock out the second one patrolling the Lost club house. Don't shoot because that will alert them. After jacking a ride now you have 2 option. First is to go down the sewer where I marked with black circle, or steal a chopper on the helipad of nearby police station where I marked with red H. You can practice both in free mode in terms of where to go in the sewer and how to get to the helipad, but please bear in mind that sometimes the helicopter doesn't spawn. And ALWAYS turn left onto the highway from sewer exit because turning right will take you near to casino and that will get heat back on you. Escape Route
Big Con
From easy to hard: Gruppe Sechs, Bug Star, LS Water & Power, Young Ancestor. Prep Board
Gunner: Hire the cheapest guy because you can't fire a bullet in casino. That will attract attention no matter where you are. The only way to kill anyone inside is knocking him out.
Driver: Hire the cheapest guy, period.
Hacker: Hire Paige or Avi.
Entry disguise: Gruppe Sechs gives you a clean run without alerting anyone until you get back to stair well. But I personally find other disguise more exciting. You just need to watch some Youtube videos before try them out. Young Ancestor takes longest time and most challenging imo.
Exit disguise: JUST DO IT. Without it, you will be hunted right after getting out of casino. Go get NOOSE or firefighter outfits. Firefighter mission is easier because you can call Lester to clear wanted level.
Patrol routes: I would say this is not necessary if you are playing Gruppe Sechs, but highly recommended if you are using other entry disguise because you are dealing with more enemies.
Duggan shipments: Not necessary at all! Since no shots will be fired, their protective gear doesn't do any use against knocking out.
Power drills: Same as other approaches.
Security passes: LEVEL 2!
Masks: Nobody cares.
Planning Board This is the same as silent and sneaky approach. Finale There is nothing complicated about big con especially Gruppe Sechs. Just check your map for guards that are hostile. Guards and cameras marked in red circles are hostile while white color indicates "friendly". After making up to the ground level, you will want to circle to the back area and knock 1 guy out. Then make your way to laundry room and change your outfit. After that you can walk outta there like a boss. Once you are out of casino, it's the same deal as silent & sneaky.
Aggressive
Unarguably the only approach to play with randoms lmao. But you do get less time in vault and will lose take from getting shot at. Prep Board
Gunner: This can be flexible depending on your shooting skill. The cheapest guy already have automatic weapon so that's good enough for me. Go for better gunners if you enjoy shootout.
Driver: Do I need to say that again?
Hacker: Yeah one of those two.
Patrol routes: Nobody cares because it will be loud.
Duggan shipments: Let me say this, if you don't do it, it will take a full clip of mags with headshot to take down 1 guard. GET IT DONE!
Power drills: There is less time in vault so I usually skip this unless it's a crew of 4.
Security passes: If you don't get a level 2 pass then you are out of your mind.
Acquire masks: Literally no one cares.
Reinforced armor: It works like heavy heist suits in OG heists. It gives you more health but makes you run slower. If you have Duggan shipments wiped out then this is totally unnecessary. If there are rookie in your team then you might wanna get it.
Boring machine: This is a super effective prep mission as it allows you to enter vault level through sewer directly. But you have to have this particular access point scouted first.
Planning Board To get in and out faster, you would still want to choose staff lobby. But entering through main entrance is more dramatic and funny. And for the last time I have to say, DON'T WASTE MONEY ON DECOY OR CLEAN VEHICLE!. Finale There is really no need to explain anything here. But some people do take a different route after getting out of casino, which is around the inside of race track. You can still stick the the route I provided earlier but you might encounter 2 or 3 more cops on your way to jacking an NPC ride. Ok guys, go watch some Youtube videos and read some other guides if you have not done this before. I really wish you have fun out there and not waste other players' time by reading my beginner friendly guide. Casino heist is definitely worth playing because R* created this based on all the lessons learned from previous guides. It will be likely to be the template of next generation of GTA Online, which is just 20 years away!
Diamond Casino Heist Guide + TIPS - Written by /u/DatCamaroGuy
Diamond Casino Guide: So you decided that you wanna rob a casino, great! The Diamond Casino Heist is one of the best ways to earn money, but you're wondering, how do I get started? Well, you're in luck! This guide is going to teach you the ways to get the best out of the Diamond Casino Heist! Step 1: Arcade Alright to get started, you’re going to have to own an arcade. Now, it may seem better to go for the arcades on the top of the map to save yourself some cash, however, this will make all the preps much harder, as most of them take place in LS or Sandy Shores. The best arcade locations are 8-bit ($2,530,000, located in Vinewood) and Videogeddon ($1,875,000, La Mesa). When buying your arcade, none of the upgrades are necessary, as most of them are cosmetic. You’ll have to complete a quick arcade setup mission to access the basement where the diamond casino heist planning board is located. Step 1.5: Arcade Income While this isn’t related to the diamond casino heist, I thought I would put this in there. The arcade generates income based on how many games you have, going up to 5k per in-game day (48 min). The game doesn't matter, so you can just buy the cheapest one (Monkey’s Paradise, $90,000) and fill up your arcade with it. Step 2: Scope out casino After you’ve finished watching Lester scribble a big mess over the whiteboard, you’ll be able to start the casino heist. Normally, you’ll have to pay a setup cost of 25k, but since it’s your first time doing it, it’ll be free. After you’ve confirmed that you want to start the casino heist, you’ll need to finish the scope out mission. For the scope out mission, you’ll need to take a variety of pictures for Lester in order to unlock entrances for the heist. A full guide is linked here but I’ll sum up the most important ones.
Staff Lobby: This entrance is arguably the best entrance for the Silent and Sneaky approach. It gives you easy access to the control room where you can get the daily vault easily. It is also the best exit for most approaches as not many guards patrol it. The staff lobby should be around the back of the casino and should look like a white door behind some yellow bollards.
Security Tunnel: By scoping out this entrance, it gives you the ability to enter the casino as a Gruppe Sechs team for the Big Con. This entrance is the best if not one of the best approaches to the casino heist. The disguise will allow you to go straight to the vault undetected and back up, however, you will be detected when going back out of the casino on the casino access floor, so I would suggest getting some exit disguises to make your escape easier. The security tunnel should look like a big metal garage door with a security camera watching over it under the racetrack.
Sewers: The sewers allow you to burrow down right into the vault access floor giving you easy access as you are right next to the vault mantrap. The sewer exit, however, is only available in the aggressive approach.
Roof Terrace: At first glance, the roof terrace may seem like a horrible entrance/exit, however as it turns out, the roof terrace is actually a contender for one of the best aggressive exits. By taking the roof terrace, you can shoot down the guards at the racetrack while they're not being able to shoot back and then parachute down.
You’ll only need to do this mission once, and it will be completed for all future casino heists. Step 3: Vault Contents The vault contents mission is pretty easy. You’ll be given the rough location of a Duggan security guard, once you find him, you can either hack him, which can take some time but you won’t get the cops on you if you do it right, or you can kill him and grab the phone, which will save you some time but you’ll need to lose the cops before you can enter the casino. After you’ve entered the casino, you’ll need to bring out the sightseer app on your phone to find a wifi signal. After you’ve located the wifi signal, you’ll need to figure out the vault contents. Beware that you only have a limited time to do this (2 min). Since it’s probably your first time, I would recommend that you go through every camera to scope out each POI. The target will be cash since it’s your first time, which has a payout of 2.1 mil on normal. The first time will always be cash (payout of $2,115,000 on normal), but if it’s not your first time, the targets can be either cash, artwork (payout of $2,350,000 on normal) or gold (payout of $2,585,000 on normal). There is a 4th target, which is diamonds (payout of $3,257,100 on normal) however this vault content is only available for special occasions and has been removed from the vault contents. If you do the heist on hard by doing the same approach after you’ve done another one, the payout will be 10% larger. If you’ve completed all 3 approaches to the heist, you can cancel the heist which can be helpful if you’ve got a bad target. Link to this is here. Step 4: Selecting your approach Once you’ve finished the vault contents mission, you’ll be able to select your approach. There are 3 approaches to the diamond casino heist. Silent and Sneaky, The Big Con and Aggressive. For beginners, I would recommend alternating between Big Con and Aggressive, because those are the easiest ones. For Big Con, choose the Gruppe Sechs disguise for the easiest entry. Aggressive is good for newer players however it does end up in a lot of money loss. After you’ve got the gist of it, alternate to doing Silent and Sneaky in place of aggressive for a bigger payout. Step 5: Selecting your support crew After you’ve selected your approach, you’ll need to select your support crew before you can do any of the prep missions. Selecting your support crew is very simple. You’ll need a gunman to source guns, a driver to source cars, and a hacker to delay the nerve agent inside the vault. Selecting your support crew depends on the approach and target in the vault. For Big Con, SnS, any target EXCEPT for art, you’ll want the worst gunman (Karl Abolaji, take his Micro SMG on big con, heavy revolver on aggressive and on SnS the choice is up to you), the worst driver (Karim Denz, take his sentinel classic) and the best hacker available to you, for most people, this will be Paige Harris (unlocked when the Terrorbyte is purchased, gives 3:25 in the vault when undetected and 2:23 detected). For aggressive, you’ll still want to have the worst driver and best hacker, however, the gunman is up to you since you’ll be using guns a lot. I normally go with Charlie Reed (unlocked when purchasing a hangar), he takes a 7% cut (2% more than Karl) and gives you an assault SMG, however, you can get by with Karl, as every gunman gives you an SMG to go along with another weapon, which is still a perfectly fine weapon. For Big Con, SnS and the target is Art, if you and your heist partner can both hack very well, you can get by with Yohan Blair (takes a 5% cut and gives you 2:51 in the vault if you are undetected and 2:01 if you are). Step 5.5: Secret heist crew members There are 2 hidden heist crew members that can’t be unlocked by purchasing a business like most heist crew members. There 2 are Patrick McReary and Avi Schwartzman. Patrick McReary is a gunman who takes an 8% cut and gives the choice a Combat MG or an Assault Shotgun in aggressive. Avi Schwartzman is a hacker that takes a 10% cut and gives 3:30 undetected in the vault and gives 2:22 if you are detected. To unlock Patrick, he spawns as a random event around the map. He spawns in a police car that you will need to hijack. A guide is linked here. To unlock Avi, you’ll need to destroy 50 signal jammers that are located around the map. A guide is linked here. Step 6: Prep Missions Now that you’ve selected your support crew, you’ll be presented with a plethora of prep missions. Some mandatory and some optional. To complete these missions, I suggest that you use a Kuruma, Buzzard, or Oppressor Mk2 to make your life easier. In some prep missions, you will not be able to call Lester, so be prepared. All of the missions can be done solo but it makes it easier if you have a friend with you to help you out. Now onto the optional prep missions. Optional prep missions, are, as the name suggests, optional. The optional prep you should do depends on the approach. If you own a penthouse and have completed all of the missions, you will gain access to the security intel mission. It’s very easy to complete and you will only need to do it once. A nice trick is that the gauntlet actually spawns when you start the mission, not when the cutscene is triggered, so you can just shoot the driver and take the gauntlet. A guide will be linked below. Let’s start with Silent and Sneaky. For Silent and Sneaky, the optional prep missions depend on your skill level. If you’re an experienced player, you don’t need to do much, only level 2 security passes. Power drills you can do if you think you have enough time. However, if you are a very new player, I’d recommend that you do patrol routes, Duggan shipments (you only need to destroy 3 to get rid of their bulletproof helmets), level 2 security passes, emp device and infiltration suits and power drills if you think you have enough time. If you do all these, the heist should be a breeze. Going onto the Big Con, if you’re doing Gruppe Sechs, you don't need to do much. You only need to go through one door if you exit out the staff door, so you can decide if you want to do level 2 security passes or not. Patrol routes do make things easier, however are not necessary. Again, only do power drills if you think you have enough time. Make sure you do exit disguises. Noose and firefighter are exactly the same, so do firefighters since it has an easier mission. For aggressive, again, patrol routes make it easier but are never necessary. Make sure to do Duggan shipments. You can solo it, but it will be much easier with another person. If you don’t get them all you can just close the game and you’ll be able to do the mission again. Reinforced armor allows you to take more damage, so I would recommend it even if it makes you slower. Be sure to also do boring machine as it allows you to enter through the sewers. Make sure to also do level 2 security passes unless you really like hacking doors. Step 7: Finding people to play with Now that you’ve completed all your required prep missions, you need some people to play with. If you don’t have any friends to play with, I recommend checking out HeistTeams or the GTAO Discord LFG Channels to find people to play with. Make sure to have good communication between your teammates otherwise the heist will be in chaos. Step 8: Completing the heist Now that you’ve got a solid heist crew waiting to grab all of that sweet loot out of the casino’s vault, you’ll be able to start the heist. If you're doing aggressive, the plan is pretty simple, shoot your way in, grab the loot, then shoot your way out. The easiest entry for aggressive is sewers, and the easiest exit is the eastern roof terrace. If you exit through the staff lobby, you’ll get shot a ton when going over the racetrack, however, if you exit through the roof terrace, you can shoot the guys behind the stones on the racetrack then safely parachute down. For The Big Con, I’m going to assume you’re doing the Gruppe Sechs approach. By doing the Gruppe Sechs approach, you can pretty much waltz into the vault and back out of it, just be careful that this has some limitations. When going back up the stairwell/elevator to the casino access floor, the guards will have checked the vault and know it’s been robbed, so you disguise ain't gonna work anymore. I strongly suggest getting exit disguises, as they will greatly help your escape. The easiest exit for this is the staff lobby. For SnS, I’m not really going to go into too much detail here because there’s a full video linked below. What I will talk about is when to use the emp (If you did the prep mission). I recommend emp’ing when you’re at the vault access floor, allowing you to waltz into the mantrap, or when you're coming back up to the casino access floor and are in the mantrap. Be warned that if you decide to get the daily vault when you trigger the emp, the emp’s timer will run out before you can get to your exit, so plan ahead. The easiest entrance for this is the staff lobby and the easiest exit is also the staff lobby. Tips and tricks to complete the heist
If you are disguised, do not bump into any of the guards. They will detect you and start shooting.
In the control room, there is a button that you can press to open the door to the daily vault. One person has to hold the button while the other goes in and grabs the cash. This can be done with any approach.
Running and jumping is faster than just running normally, use this to your advantage while inside the vault.
Running in first person is actually faster than 3rd, so use this to your advantage when trying to knock out guards.
Don’t bother trying to escape the cops by hiding in an alley or something, either take your car into the sewers down by the LS river or take the heli that usually spawns on top of the police station. The sewers will result in you losing less money, however will be much slower. I will link both of these methods below in the useful media section.
Normally when exiting the casino from the staff lobby without any disguise, you’ll need to knock out a guard to the left of the swat fan to your right, before hugging the race track wall and then dropping down. I have found that sometimes if you run, the guard will hear you and detect you, causing you to get shot at. To prevent this, walk up to him making sure you stay out of his FOV then knock him out.
You walk much faster in the casino if you are in first person, making the vault contents mission much easier.
In prep missions, you can change any accessory (glasses, hat, ect.) to lose 1 star which is useful on missions where you can’t call Lester to remove your wanted level.
On some missions, you can lose the cops by entering your Terrorbyte/MOC/Avenger.
On some missions, you can lose the cops if you accept Lester’s apartment heist invite. This only works if you have a heist active.
In the hacking device mission where you have to infiltrate the FIB building, you walk a lot faster if you aim down sights on any gun, however, if you go into any agent’s LOS you will get detected instantly, so be careful when using this trick.
You can upgrade your getaway vehicles in the arcade by getting in them and pressing the button shown on the prompt that appears on the top left.
Diamond Casino Heist FAQ Welcome to the Diamond Casino Heist FAQ! This thread is going to go through all of the new changes and content added to the Casino Heist DLC. The information in this thread is up to date as of 28/7/2020. Release Date Announced on December 5th and released on December 12th, 2019, the Diamond Casino Heist is the latest DLC to come to GTA Online as of July 25th, 2020. This DLC adds a bunch of new content, including new vehicles, properties, vehicles, and a brand new heist! New Content Vehicles: Maxwell Asbo (SSASA): $306,000 - $408,000 Karin Everon (SSASA): $1,106,250 - $1,475,000 Lampadati Komoda (Legendary): $1,275,000 - $1,700,000 Vapid Retinue Mk II (SSASA): $1,215,000 - $1,615,000 Ubermacht Rebla GTS (Legendary): $1,175,000 Maxwell Vagrant (SSASA): $1,660,500 - $2,214,600 Grotti Furia (Legendary): $2,055,000 - $2,740,000 RUNE Zhaba (Warstock): $1,800,000 - $2,400,000 Karin Sultan Classic (SSASA): $1,288,500 - $1,718,000 Nagasaki Outlaw (SSASA): $951,000 - $1,268,000 Declasse Drift Yosemite (SSASA): $981,000 - $1,308,000 Dinka Sugoi (SSASA): $918,000 - $1,224,000 Dinka Blista Kanjo (SSASA): $435,000 - $580,000 Nagasaki Strider (Legendary): $502,000 - $670,000 Dewbauchee JB 700W (Warstock): $1,470,000 Overflod Imorgon (Legendary): $2,165,500 Albany V-STR (Legendary): $1,285,000 Progen PR4 (Legendary): $3,515,000 Ocelot R88 (Legendary): $3,115,000 Nagasaki Blazer Lifeguard (Warstock): $62,000 Brute Boxville (Warstock): $298,500 - $398,000 Declasse Bugstars Burrito (Warstock): $450,000 - $598,000 MTL Fire Truck (Warstock): $2,471,250 - $3,295,000 Declasse Lifeguard (Warstock): $865,000 Brute Stockade (Warstock): $1,680,000 - $2,240,000 Weapons Ceramic Pistol (Ammunation): $20,000 Navy Revolver (Unlocked after finishing the Los Santos Slasher treasure hunt): Free Properties The release of the Diamond Casino Heist DLC introduces a new property: arcades. Arcades are a passive business that allows you to host the diamond casino heist. The maximum daily income of the arcade is $5,000. They are purchasable from Mmazebankforclosures at 6 different locations. The cheapest is at $1,235,000 (Pixel Pete’s, Paleto Bay) and the most expensive being at $2,530,000 (8-bit, Vinewood Hills). Customization options on offer are 2 arcade styles, $290,000 - $470,000, 8 mural options, $50,500 - $107,500, 8 floor options, $78,000 - $165,000, 8 neon art styles, $107,500 - $320,000, personal quarters, $150,000, high score screens, $295,000 and a garage $215,000. 2 extra options are available to purchase from the arcade computer, which are the master control terminal, $1,740,000 and the drone station, $1,460,000. A variety of arcade games are also available to purchase, ranging from $90,000 to $420,000. Credits u/Pepperooney_ for adding a bunch of info on the tips and tricks section u/what_it_dooo for suggesting the roof terrace and the hacking device trick
I haven't seen a good comprehensive guide for this, despite it being the best money making method in the game, so I thought I'd write a guide about it.
What is the Casino Heist and why should I do it?
The Casino Heist is semi-challenging PvE content for 2-4 players. As of August 2020 it's the best paying grind in the game, paying out $1.5-$2 million split between heist members every hour and a half. If you're doing setups with one friend, you're both effectively earning ~$80k per setup mission. If you have no friends who play GTA:O, try to find a buddy in game or on HeistTeams It's possible to get even higher payouts, but discussing glitches is against the rules of this subreddit; go to gtaglitches for that stuff.
Getting Started
To do the Casino Heist you need an Arcade, preferably Eight-Bit (Vinewood) or Videogeddon (La Mesa) as they're the closest to the Casino and setup missions. Not required, but strongly recommended as they'll make setup missions much easier:
A good gun, such as Special Carbine
A bulletproof car for gunfights, such as Armored Kuruma
An aircraft with homing missiles, such as Buzzard Attack Chopper or Oppressor Mk2
Scoping and Vault Contents
All Points of Interest All Access Points Cash has the worst payout (up to $2.1 mil). You will always get cash the first time you host the Casino Heist. Art has middling payout (up to $2.3 mil) but is very fast to steal, which means you can get detected, or hit the vault with fewer players, and still get the maximum take. Gold is like cash but gives much better payout (up to $2.6 mil), with the disadvantage of making you run slightly slower when you leave the vault. Diamonds only appear during special events, but have the highest payout for vault contents (up to $3.6 mil).
Choosing Approaches
The Big Con is the best approach, since the security tunnel entrance + Gruppe Sechs disguise takes you straight to the vault. Always choose it when possible. Silent & Sneaky is like The Big Con, but is more difficult and takes longer. Aggressive is relatively fast, but gives less time in the vault, making it much harder to get the maximum take for any target except Art. In general, you should choose Aggressive for Art, The Big Con for other targets, and Silent & Sneaky only as a last resort. You should also choose Hard mode whenever possible as it gives you a 25% higher take.
Support Crew
Your Hacker is the most important support crew member, as they determine how long you have in the vault, and therefore your maximum take. My go-to is Paige Harris, who you unlock by owning a Terrorbyte. Avi Schwartzman is equally good and can be unlocked by destroying all Signal Jammers. If you don't have either of them, Christian Feltz is a decent stopgap measure; just be aware you'll have a good chance of missing out on profits. The Driver determines your getaway vehicles, and is largely irrelevant since most people ignore the getaway vehicles and jack a car or a helicopter for their escape. I always go with Karim Denz and source the Sentinel Classic. It's only worth getting a more expensive driver if you want to unlock a car's trade price. The Gunman determines the weapons you'll be using in the run. Again, mostly irrelevant, since Karl Abolaji's weapon loadouts are good enough even for a Hard Aggressive approach. Only get a more expensive gunman if you're going Aggressive and aren't confident in your headshotting skills or those of your crew.
Optional Preps
I don't recommend paying to skip any of the preps, because it eats significantly into your profits, and unlike MC/bunker missions, you can't easily make back the cost by doing other missions in that time.
Security Passes
Mandatory for every approach. Remember to get level 2 security passes, not level 1. The mission is very easy and saves you from having to do lots of annoying hacking minigames during the final heist.
Duggan Shipments
This is mandatory for Aggressive and Silent and Sneaky, as destroying at least 3 shipments will remove the bulletproof helmets from guards and allow them to be headshotted. Most people also do this for Big Con just to be safe. Having at least one other player in your organization, as well as a Buzzard or Oppressor Mk2, makes this mission very easy.
Security Intel
Unlocked after completing all Casino Penthouse missions, this is a once-off mission that reveals security cameras on the radar on all future casino heists. Do it when you unlock it.
Patrol Routes
Reveals guards on your radar. Not required, but useful on every approach, especially Silent & Sneaky. Do this if you have time.
EMP (Silent & Sneaky only)
This mission is relatively easy and the EMP saves a lot of headaches in a Silent & Sneaky run. Not required, but worth taking the time to do.
Boring Machine (Aggressive only)
This unlocks the best entry route for the Aggressive approach where you tunnel straight to the vault. Not required (Staff Lobby is almost as fast) but it makes the approach to the vault very easy.
Power Drills
Don't bother with this mission, other than to play through it once or twice for fun. The money from the deposit boxes isn't worth your time.
Exit Disguise (Big Con only)
These missions are annoying and the disguises aren't that helpful. Collecting all playing cards gives you a permanent exit disguise you can use; I recommend doing that instead and never having to worry about this prep.
Infiltration Suits (Silent & Sneaky only)
This mission gives you night vision. Basically, it's only useful if you plan on using the EMP but don't know the casino floor layout. Do it the first time you do a Silent & Sneaky run; by the second time, you should be experienced enough that you don't need it.
Reinforced Armor (Aggressive only)
This unlocks new outfits that reduce the damage you take during the heist finale. Personally, I hate this prep, because a) the mission is annoying, b) the finale is easy enough without it, and c) the armored outfits are ugly. Do it if you aren't confident in your shooting skills, or if you plan to do the heist with only two players.
Finale Screen
Buyer: Always choose the High Level buyer for the best payout. The only difference is that you have to drive or fly a few more miles after you lose the cops -- more than worth the extra percentage of the cut. Decoy: This makes the helicopter getaway slightly easier on the Aggressive approach, or if you screw up either of the other two approaches. I don't think it's worth the extra cost, but it could be worth it if you find yourself constantly having trouble getting to the helicopter. Clean Vehicle: Completely useless. Don't bother.
The Big Con
Entrance: Security Tunnel Exit: Staff Lobby
Go straight to the vault. Take your sweet time plundering it.
Take the stairs on the way up. You want to take the long corridor looping around the back, pass by the laundry room and pick up your exit disguises if they're there, then make a run for the staff lobby exit.
You will be busted if guards or cameras see you. The guards in the security office can't see you through the bulletproof glass, but you can be seen through the glass panels in the doors.
Melee kill the patrolling guards from behind and run through the cameras without staying in their cone of vision for too long.
Once you're out of the staff lobby exit, there will be a NOOSE van to your right. Head past it, melee killing the guards, and make your way to the main road. From there, you can run to your getaway vehicles or jack a random car off the road.
Silent & Sneaky
Entrance: Staff Lobby Exit: Staff Lobby
Take your time and have one person go ahead at a time. You want to make sure that you're headshotting guards with your silenced machine pistol, and using the stun gun on all cameras you pass by. If there are two guards next to each other, shoot them both in quick succession.
You will be busted if guards or cameras see you. The guards in the security office can't see you through the bulletproof glass, but you can be seen through the glass panels in the doors.
The daily take is worth getting if you have time.
You can use the Nano Drone in your inventory to shoot a tranquilizer dart. This is most useful on the guard patrolling the stairwell. Have your teammate wedge the door open, then fly the drone through the gap and down the stairs to knock the guard out.
If you got the EMP, you can use the SecuroServ app on your phone to activate it. This gives you 1 minute to book it and run past all guards, security doors, and cameras on a floor.
Once you're out of the staff lobby exit, there will be a NOOSE van to your right. Head past it, killing the guards, and make your way to the main road. From there, you can run to your getaway vehicles or jack a random car off the road.
Aggressive
Entrance: Sewer or Staff Lobby Exit: Staff Lobby
This is a straightforward gunfight. Just move from cover to cover and shoot everything that moves.
As always, use headshots to get instant kills. Even if you did all Duggan shipments and got an expensive gunman, the guards can take a ridiculous number of bullets to center of mass, so it's faster to aim for the head and take them out instantly.
The guards respawn continually, so it isn't possible to completely clear a floor out. Just keep moving.
The daily take is worth getting if you have time.
When exiting through the staff lobby, don't go straight through the security office or you'll be shot to pieces. Take the long way around instead.
Once you're out of the staff lobby exit, jump the fence to the racetrack and run straight across. If there are any cars in the parking lot to your left, jack them and drive out. Otherwise, keep going and jump the fence to the main road. From there, you can run to your getaway vehicles or jack a random car off the road.
The Getaway
No matter which approach you take, you'll eventually end up outside the casino, on the main road, with a 5 star wanted level. There are two main strategies people use here.
Sewer Tunnel: Directly south of the racetrack, in the storm drain, is the entrance of the sewer tunnel that Michael and Franklin escape through in story mode. If you drive in here and keep going, you'll eventually start losing your wanted level. Get out of the car and wait in the sewer until you're all clean. From there, it's an easy drive to the buyer -- just don't drive near the casino or you'll be wanted by the cops again. This is a safe but slow getaway.
Police Station Helicopter: Over the overpass to the west, directly across the highway from the casino, is the Vinewood Hills police station. It's possible to drive to the back of the building and climb from the grass patch up to the roof. There, you can climb the roof fixtures to get to the helipad, where a police helicopter usually spawns. Once everyone is in the helicopter, you can use it to evade the cops. This is a quick but more risky getaway, since the helicopter occasionally doesn't spawn, and you can get shot during the drive or fall off the roof if you're unlucky.
Bugs
Permanent Wanted Level
Bug: You're in a getaway vehicle far from any cops, but your wanted level won't go away. This happens because one of your heist teammates has high ping and the game is having trouble syncing your wanted levels. Fix: Have everyone get out of the vehicle and wait until the bug goes away. If you're in a helicopter with no safe place to land, the offending teammate(s) may have to parachute out.
Guards Spawning Late
Bug: On Silent & Sneaky, guards take a few moments to spawn in after you disable the metal detector. Fix: Don't go through the metal detector or shoot anyone until the guards finish spawning in.
Frozen Guard Patrols / Bugged Camera Movement
Bug: The guards in the casino aren't moving, and the cameras have weird movement patterns or are facing towards walls. Fix: Just keep going; this bug actually makes Silent & Sneaky / Big Con easier most of the time. If there's a frozen guard you can't get past, use the Nano Drone.
Disappearing Vision Cones During Getaway
Bug: You're getting away from the casino undetected when the vision cones suddenly disappear from your radar. Despite this, the police aren't coming after you. Fix: This is a visual glitch and you haven't actually been discovered. Just keep going.
Spectator Leaving
Bug: Someone joins as a spectator, then leaves. You screw up the heist and have to restart. Then you fail the heist because "Your heist team quit." Fix: Suck it up and reset.
Silent & Sneaky Body Found
Bug: You're suddenly busted because a body was found... even if you haven't killed anyone yet. Fix: Suck it up and reset.
Uncollectable Heist Prep Equipment
Bug: You're doing heist prep mission with a friend, and you can't pick up the equipment because "you can't steal heist prep while on a heist prep mission." Fix: Suck it up and reset.
Heist Prep Vehicle Not Registering
Bug: You collect a heist prep vehicle and drive to your arcade, but it doesn't trigger the end of the mission. Fix: Suck it up and reset. --- Hope someone out there finds this guide helpful. Comments and suggestions appreciated.
Casino Heist Guide, what you need to know and other features
AS OF NOW I WILL NO LONGER BE UPDATING THIS GUIDE I’ll start by going in order of missions and adding extras as needed by editing the TBA (to be added) as soon as I can review the information Leave any information you can in the comments fill in and I’ll add it in when I can ——The Scope Out—— Difficulty: Very Easy Time: About 10 minutes Description: the player must scope out as many points of interest if the can for the most options Miscellaneous: Vallet Security guard Purple keypad Inside (dome) camera Outside (box) camera Vault Blueprints (in mrs bakers office)(requires casino penthouse, or a friend with said penthouse) Access points: Ground (3) Main entrance (west) Waste disposal (north) Staff lobby (east) Roof terrace (4) 2 doors on the north side 2 doors on the east side Roof (2) North helipad South helipad Underground (2) Security tunnel (under dirt track) Sewer (the drainage ditch by the casino, there’s an entrance at the beginning of it, head down until you see some metal bars that would lead under the casino) -important notes- Once you have discovered every point of interest available in this setup, you won’t be able to do this setup for other heist because all poi’s are now permanently unlocked ——Vault contents —— Difficulty: Very Easy Time: about 5 minutes Description: You are trying to find your target, the valuables you’ll be stealing during the heist To start this setup, you hack a guards phone to get into the casino’s system and then enter the casino to walk around and find a strong enough signal for Lester to hack into the cameras BE SURE YOU FULLY ROTATE ALL 6 CAMERAS TO THE TO UNLOCK THE REST OF THE POI’S, if already unlocked all poi’s just skip to the vault camera. When scouting out the target it is completely random chance what you will be stealing from the casino Cash is the basic takes and take a while to grab, but it can still pay about 2.1million Normal and 2.4million Hard total (minus crew cuts) Paintings have better value and are the quickest to grab, to get them you must cut out the paintings but again this is really fast so you might be able to get a cheaper hacker or spend the extra time grabbing lock boxes, with this take you can make about ??million Normal and 2.7million Hard (minus crew cuts) Gold has great value, it takes time to grab just like cash but is also a lot heavier, this means you can no longer jump but the reward is worth it because it can pay about ??million Normal and 2.8million Hard (minus crew cuts) There’s also a glitch to get a lot more gold off one tray so abuse it before it gets patched Diamonds have the greatest value and have just been officially added to the loot pool, you grab trays of diamonds like you would cash or gold and they are worth about ??million Normal and ??million Hard (minus crew cuts) ———Crew members and Characters——— These are free mode missions and secrets that can affect the casino heist by giving access to new characters and crew There is also the standard crew for comparison ——Optional Characters—— Yung Ancestor Difficulty: Very Easy Time: 2 minutes Effect: adds another route to “The Big Con” Description: Head to the casino and go up to the roof terrace to enter a cutscene with the celebrity, afterwards Lester will contact him to ask if he would like to be involved with the job, a few minutes later you will get a call from Yung Ancestor saying he will help but needs a few favors to trust you Find the rest of this missions details at the “Setups” section ——Hackers—— —Rickie Lukens— Cut: 3% Skill: Poor Requirements: None Vault time when undetected: TBA Vault time when detected: about 1 minute 30 seconds Notes: Please do not even consider using rickie —Yohan Blair— Cut: 5% Skill: Good Requirements: None Vault time when undetected: TBA Vault time when detected: TBA Notes: TBA —Christian Feltz— Cut: 7% Skill: Good Requirements: None Vault time when undetected: TBA Vault time when detected: TBA Notes: Use this character if you don’t have access to the next two —Paige (Unlockable)— Cut: 9% Skill: Expert Requirements: own a terrorbyte Vault time when undetected: TBA Vault time when detected: TBA Notes: this is the best character to use since she is slightly cheaper then Avi —Avi (Unlockable)— Cut: 10% Skill: Expert + Requirements: “Destroy Signal Jammers” Free mode mission Difficulty: Easy Time: 20-40 minutes Description: destroy all 50 signal jammers hidden across San Andreas for money and Avi’s services (guides available on YouTube) Vault time when undetected: TBA Vault time when detected: TBA Notes: This character is great but if you have Paige use her since she’s slightly cheaper, the difference in time is minuscule ——Drivers—— (Unknown: unlockable) TBA this character has not been found yet —Karim— Cut: 5% Skill: TBA Requirements: None Vehicle selection: Sentinel Classic (best choice) Weeni Issi Classic Asbo (worst choice) Kanjo Notes: This driver is the best to pick, they always leave the cars as close to the staff lobby as they can —TBA— Cut: TBA Skill: TBA Requirements: None Vehicle selection: TBA Notes: TBA —TBA— Cut: TBA Skill: TBA Requirements: None Vehicle selection: TBA Notes: TBA —Chester McCoy— Cut: 10% Skill: Expert Requirements: None Vehicle selection: Vagrant Everon Zhaba Outlaw Notes: TBA ——Gunners—— —Karl Abolaji— Cut: 5% Skill: Poor Requirements: None Weapon selection: TBA Smg and molotovs (aggressive) Micro smg (Big Con) Double barrel shotgun (Big Con) Notes: TBA —Charlie Reed— Cut: 7% Skill: Good Requirements: None Weapon selection: TBA Machine Pistol (Big Con) Sweeper Shotgun (Big Con) Notes: TBA —Patrick “Packie” McReary (unlockable)— Cut: 8% Skill: Expert Weapon selection: TBA Compact rifle (Big con) Sawed off shotgun (Big con) Combat MG MKII (Aggressive) Difficulty: Easy-Medium Time: Random Chance Requirements: “Rescue Patrick” Free mode mission Description: find a police van blaring it’s siren driving around Los Santos and Blaine county, when close enough a blue arrow will appear over the van and a blue dot will show up on your map indicating the vans location, by getting even closer Packie will ask you to help him and another person to “give us a hand?” The implication here is he wants you to steal the van and drive it the way to go about this is just to shoot the van enough and it will eventually stop, allowing you to steal it and bring it to Packie’s safe house at Vespucci beach, Notes: there is a 5 minute time limit that begins when you enter the van Packie has the best weapon selection in aggressive but this does not outweigh how much he cost this is player choice —Gustavo Mota— Cut: 9% Skill: Expert Requirements: None Weapon selection: Carbine rifle (Big Con) Assault shotgun (Big Con) Notes: TBA —Chester McCoy— Cut: 10% Skill: Expert Requirements: None Weapon selection: TBA SMG MKII (Big Con) Bullpup Rifle MKII (Big Con) Notes: not recommended because of cost ——Approaches—— It’s recommended to have 3 or 4 players for the best take —SILENT AND SNEAKY— Stealth difficulty: Hard Loud Difficulty: Medium-Hard Time: 15-20 minutes (minus restarts) Description: Silent and sneaky is one of the stealth approaches, you go inside with tactical gear, night vision, suppressed weapons, tasers, and an emp bomb (if the setup is complete) that the host can activate (explained below) This hiest allows you to slip in undetected and you can still slip out undetected. -Things to note- When you enter the vault you will have a certain amount of time depending on your hacker and whether or not you are detected by the time you arrive to the vault, if you fail to leave the vault before the timer hits “0” gas will fill the vault and the alarm will trigger Guards will be alerted to the following: seeing you, shooting a guard without a headshot (they yell), killing a guard next to another, a dead body, a bullet flying past them, a bullet hitting a wall, a guard watching you destroy a camera, and hearing unsuppressed gunfire The casino will raise the alarm for the following: a guard being alerted, a camera spotting you, a camera spotting a dead body destroying more then one camera, and not leaving the vault before the clock hits “0” Guards are oblivious to the following: getting a headshot or stealth melee even if the guard yells, destroyed cameras, the sound of broken glass, and the sight of broken glass You can disable cameras with the taser, but they will come back online, you can also shoot and destroy one camera but destroy any more and the alarm will sound If the host completed the EMP setup, they will have access to a phone app named “Detonate EMP” this will set off the EMP of course knocking out all electricity for about 1-2 minutes, this includes: cameras, locked doors, elevators, and lights (this will make guards have a really small cone of vision) -Important notes- Triggering the EMP does not raise the alarm (credit goes to u/Aleapp2556 for discovering this) Not breaking stealth until outside will give an award You can restart the heist at anytime by running out of lives -Best plan of attack- Enter the south helipad Exit the staff lobby High level buyer Decoy driver (optional, lowers how many stars you have) -Steps- Enter the cargobob Parachute to the casino Rappel down the elevator shaft (You are now in the staff lobby) Take out everyone quietly Proceed to elevator (You are now at vault security) Take out the remaining guards quietly Enter the mantrap Drill open the vault (You are now in the vault and the timer has started) Grab as much loot as possible, Dedicate one person to hacking Leave before the timer ends Exit the mantrap Take the elevator or stairs up (Alarm is now raised, but you are still undetected) Take out the remaining guards and exit through the staff lobby Get in the getaway car Race to Paleto Bay Escape the cops Finish the heist -Overall- the hiest is slow and very difficult so this may not be the best option for grinding —AGGRESSIVE— Difficulty: Medium Time: 8-11 minutes (minus restarts) Aggressive is loud and violent, you shoot your way to the vault, blow it open, melt open the gates and steal the loot -Things to note- This heist is extremely fast compared to the other two approaches, it can be and has been done in under 9 minutes with high level buyers there are no drills or hack in the vault itself, just explosives and thermal charges You can restart the heist at anytime by running out of lives -Best plan of attack- Enter sewer(you blow a hole right into the security-room just before the mantrap leading to the vault) Exit staff lobby High level buyers Gunner decoy (optional, but lowers your stars) -Steps- Blow into the vault security room from the sewers (You are now in the vault security room) Enter the man trap Blow open the vault (You are now in the vault) Set off a thermal before you start grabbing and try to just get everything you can Exit the vault Exit the mantrap Go to the staff lobby via elevator Exit staff lobby (At this point stealth no longer matters) Enter getaway cars Race to paleto bay Escape police Finish heist -Overall- this heist is fast and effective and I recommend cycling between both this and the big con —THE BIG CON— Stealth Difficulty: Easy or Medium-Hard (depends on route) Loud difficultly: Hard Time: 10-13 minutes (minus restarts) The Big Con is the another stealth approach, but it’s less stealth and more lies and deceit, you use disguises to get your way into the casino with all your tools and equipment needed for the job -Important things to note- You only have a ceramic pistol unless you pick up your stashed weapons, but if you pick up those weapons you can no longer pass through metal detectors Your weapons are not suppressed Gruppe sechs can get inside the vault no problem You unlock the ceramic pistol after you are done HOSTING The Big Con Not breaking disguise until outside will give an award You can restart the heist at anytime by running out of lives -Best plan of attack- Enter Gruppe sechs disguises Exit noose disguises Enter security tunnel Exit staff lobby High level buyer Gunner decoy (lowers stars, only helpful if you are actually caught) -steps- Enter the security tunnel as gruppe sechs Park the van Get into the elevator (You are now in the vault security room) Walk on by the guards Enter the man trap A lone guard lets you into the vault, you knock him out (You are now in the vault) Grab the loot, mind the hacking, one mess up and the alarm goes off Exit the vault exit the mantrap Take the stairs (Alarm is raised but no one knows where you are) Take the route to the laundry room Change outfits Exit staff lobby NOT MAIN ENTRANCE (At this point stealth no longer matters) Get to getaway vehicles Race to paleto bay Escape cops Finish heist -Overall- this heist is very clean and quick if you do it right, id recommend doing this and aggressive if you really want to grind it ——About undetected—— When you sneak into the vault undetected you gain bonus time to grab even more loot then you would if the alarm was raised, failure to leave the vault before the gas is released will raise the alarm; but you still received the bonus time to grab the loot anyhow, so it’s all up to you to either get the extra few lootables or make a clean getaway ——Hard Mode—— Hard mode (just like in normal heist) gives bigger cut with less lives, but this also buffs the security of the place The way you access hard mode is by playing through a heist (we’ll say aggressive) and then the next (the big con), after playing aggressive it will become locked and unplayable so you have to pick another approach like big con, after that heist is done aggressive will unlock but it will still be “too hot” this is hard mode and will give a bigger cut for a harder heist that’s why it’s best to cycle between both aggressive and big con ——Heist crew—— For the best take each time you need to select the perfect members for the job -Gunner- Cheapest gunner all the way avoid shotguns -Drivers- If you want more money chose the cheapest driver and pick the sentinel classic, but if you want the trade prices for all the new vehicles you’ll need to use them during a heist -Hacker- Now unlike the other two, an expensive hacker is necessary for this job, this person will provide you with more time in the vault, this is where Paige and Avi come in handy ——Setups—— Setups are needed to find the materials necessary to pull off this job, some are mandatory and you cannot start the job with out them, some are optional and can be avoided but also can be the difference between dealing with a few enemies or a few mini-juggernauts -Weapons-  Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy Time: 5-8 minutes Description: The player needs to steal untraceable weapons for the job, a pistol, a main weapon, and a piece of equipment depending on the approach -Getaway vehicles- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy Time: 3-8 minutes Description: The player needs to steal 2 vehicles that have just been imported into the US and bring them back to the arcade, if the cars are badly damaged you will have to pay a small fee to repair then on delivery Important notes The vehicles can be upgraded with Level 1: bulletproof tires 10k (recommended) Level 2: max brakes and transmission and level 1 upgrades 15k Level 3: turbo and max engine plus level 1&2 upgrades 25k -Hacking device- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy Time: 5 minutes Description: the player(s) go to a location being investigated by the FIB, the player(s) need to kill the FIB agents Important notes You can be in a guards vision but not for too long Once you have the device and take the elevator down the guards will begin to shoot you -Vault key cards- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy Time: 3-7 minutes Description: the player(s) need to go to 2 separate locations and knock out or kill two security guards on their time off to steal their key cards -Patrol routes- Need: Optional Usefulness for Sneaky and Silent: Needed Usefulness for Aggressive: not necessary Usefulness for The Big Con: Helpful Difficulty: Easy Time: 2-5 minutes Description: the player(s) need to go to a parking lot where security guards have gathered, the player(s) will be looking for a car with a certain license plate that Lester will send, Once the player(s) find the car, they will need to open the trunk, take a picture, and send it to Lester Important notes This mission can be done by stealth The car is always a black or light brown Falon GT convertible -Dugan shipments- Need: Optional Usefulness for all heist: Absolutely Required Difficulty: Medium Time: less then 10 minutes Description: The player(s) go around all of San Andreas to destroy 10 security shipments for the casino’s guards (this includes vans, boats, and helicopters) Effect: for every couple of shipment destroyed, the guards armor will become weaker No shipments destroy: every guard will have the health of a Cliffford Cyborg juggernaut 7 shipments destroyed: Health of a NOOSE squad member 10 shipments destroyed: Heath of a cop with body armor (3 Star wanted level officer) Important notes It is recommended to have 2 players in weaponized vehicles to destroy all the shipments -Security Intel- Need: Optional Usefulness for Sneaky and Silent: Needed Usefulness for Aggressive: not necessary Usefulness for The Big Con: Helpful Difficulty: N/A Time: N/A Description: The player needs to own a casino penthouse and do all casino missions for mrs baker Effect: allows players to know the locations and vision of all cameras in the casino Important notes Once this setup is completed once it will be completed permanently -Power drills- Need: optional Usefulness for all heist: Player’s choice but not necessary Difficulty: Easy Time: 5-8 minutes Description: the player must steal power drills from a construction site by stealing a van and delivering it to the arcade Effect: Gives the ability to drill open safety deposit boxes for a little bonus money (does not outweigh the main target in value) Important notes These missions can be completed by using non lethal tactics -Security key cards- Need: optional Usefulness for all heist: absolutely required Difficulty: Easy Time: 5-8 minutes Description: the player must steal a security key card from a casino staff member Effect Card Level 1: has the ability to give you access to few doors and access points, but nothing else in the higher security areas, those points will need to be hacked Effect Card Level 2: gives player full access to all casino doors and elevators other then those in the vault (A level 2 keycard is highly recommend and should be used in every single heist) ——Approach specific setups—— Some setups are specific to certain approaches and can be mandatory or optional —Silent and Sneaky Setups— -Vault Laser Drills- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: TBA Time: TBA Description: the player(s) need to steal 2 military grade laser drills to drill open the vault door -TBA- -TBA- -EMP- Need: optional Usefulness: helpful The player uses a cargo bob to carefully steal a EMP bomb and deliver it to the power station just across the road from the casino Effect: give the host the ability to call the EMP to detonate it, this will shut down all electronics and lights for 1-2minutes, this mean cameras, locked doors, and metal detectors will be shut off during this time, and since the lights are off the guards have limited visibility, about 1 foot of vision in front of them Important notes Triggering the EMP does not raise the alarm (credit goes to u/Aleapp2556 for discovering this) —Aggressive Setups— -Vault explosives- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy-Medium Time: 8-18 minutes Description: the player(s) must travel to a part of the ocean to steal explosives from an underwater mining operation to blow open the vault door -Thermal Charges- Need: Mandatory Difficulty: Easy-Medium Time: 8-16 minutes Description: the player(s) must steal thermal charges to melt open the gates inside the vault -Reinforced armor- Need: Optional Usefulness: helpful Difficulty: Easy-Medium Time: TBA Description: The player(s) steals a few sets of experimental armor from a faction to use in the heist as an option of clothing Effect: unlocks the armor set to be used during the casino heist, the armor is like hiest heavy combat armor when used during the casino heist giving the players more Health but less Speed -Boaring machine- Need: Optional Usefulness: TBA Difficulty: Easy Time: TBA Description: The player steals a drilling machine from a driver hauling the machine Effect: TBA —The Big Con Setups— -Drills- -Disguises- -TBA- ——Phase 1 equipment—— On the phase 1 planning board you can buy equipment for finding points of interest or practice on mini-game type puzzle you need to complete while going to or when you reach the vault, you can buy equipment such as: a model of the casino for $130,000 (Which shows points of interest) A replica of the casinos security system for $425,000 (for practice with hacking) And a replica vault door for $900,000 (for practice with drilling) By taking photos of the security system and vault blueprints in the casino you unlock the option to buy the security system and vault door for practice Once the equipment is purchased, it will stay permanently in your arcades basement In order to practice you will need the vault drills (explosives do not count) and/or the hacking device These items will need to be sourced each time you start a new heist if you wish to practice My personal recommendation is to avoid this equipment as it’s price greatly outweighs its purpose, since everything can be learn relatively easy during the actual run ——Hacking—— Here’s a quick guide on the hacking during the casino heist First it should be noted that failing or aborting a hack while undetected will trigger the alarm There are two types of hacking Hack 1: Memory A 6x6 panel of dots will randomize in a pattern of 6 dots going left to right, the player’s job is to memorize this pattern and recreate it to pass the hack, they player may need to do this several times These hacks have been found really difficult and can be skipped entirely by having a level 2 keycard Hack 2: finger print The player is presented with a full image of a finger print and 8 fragmented images of a finger print, all the player must do is select 4 of the 8 fragments that match the full finger print and run the scan This isn’t as hard as the memory hack, but this can waste time, so be quick but be sure in your decision A tip for this is to go ahead and match the obvious ones and then study the smaller details of a fragment to try to find it on the full image ——Bugs, Exploits, and other Glitches—— PATCHED If the player leaves the session before finishing “Vault contents” the player can replay the setup for a chance at a better target such as paintings and gold instead of cash During the heist, a police maverick will spawn on the roof of a nearby police station, the players can grab it before it takes off, but once it’s gone from the helipad it won’t respawn during the same heist even after a quick restart PATCHED The player can duplicate the gold bar on a tray by leaving a single bar and leaving the tray, start collecting the tray again to spawn a new set of bars
A Big list of Adventure Ideas (Player's Goals and Villain's Plans), a list of ways to generate dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal, and some thoughts on Player-driven vs Villain-driven adventures.
Hi! My post about the Big List of Challenges really took off, and this is a followup - I have analyzed the challenges I've been researching, and compiled the list of challenges that will work well as the main goal for the adventure. I have also made a list of ways to generate dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal. Please help me to extend this list, to add more adventure ideas, examples, and ways to make them unique! Before the lists, here's a quick description of what I'm trying to create:
Player-driven vs Villain-driven adventures
There are two types of story ideas:
Players want something and struggle against the challenges to get it.
Villain wants something, and players are trying to disrupt/ruin his evil plan.
Both types have merits. In the first type players are the driving force of the adventure, actively leading the story, overcoming relatively passive obstacles. In the second, players are reacting to the villain, trying to disrupt his plans as he pursues his goals, making the adventure more active and interactive. You can also combine the two - antagonist can actively try to commit the crimes and players can be actively trying to catch him (or vice versa). To create an adventure of the first type, you come up with a goal for the players, then put obstacles on their path. For the second, you come up with a villain's goal/plan, figure out ways for players to learn about it and disrupt it, figure out how the villain will react and what resources he has to fight back and get his plan back on track. They are two sides of the same coin. Creating an opposition for the players gives the villain a goal. Creating a plan for the villain gives players the opposite goal to pursue. So many adventure ideas "mirror" each other, can be played from either side: Players can aim to obtain a McGuffin, or prevent the Antagonist from getting it, investigate the crime or try to commit the crime and avoid getting caught, try to complete a ritual or prevent a villain from completing it. Rescue/Kidnap, Protect/Kill, Guard/Steal, Invade/Defend, Complete/Prevent ritual, Chase/Escape. Which side players/villain are on depends on the motivation. Players want to complete the good ritual or prevent an evil one, try to prevent evil crimes and commit the noble ones, kill the bad guys and protect the good guys. Understanding this stuff makes it easier to come up with goals for the villains and challenges for the players, because they're just the opposite of each other. Figuring out one automatically gives you the other. It also doubles the number of adventure ideas you have - just "reverse" an adventure idea, get players and villains switch sides, and you have a new idea. The goals can be opposite (perform a task - prevent them from performing it), or they can be the same - both sides want to obtain the McGuffin, but theres only one, so they compete. So what I want is to compile a list of such goals:
They are "symmetrical" - they can be "played from the either side", they work well as a noble objective for the players, or the evil plan for the villains.
They are "abstract", one goal can generate dozens of unique adventures. There are hundreds of stories about two people pursuing the same object, there are hundreds of stories about people trying to commit crimes and people trying to stop them. One goal gives you many ideas.
They are easy to build an adventure around, it is obvious how you could create a fun game/story based on them. They have high stakes, create interesting conflict, and create clear and obvious objectives for players/villains to pursue.
d100 Goals that apply to both Heroes and Villains (Players and Antagonists)
Obtain McGuffin/Information (Players and antagonist compete for the same item, players are trying to prevent antagonist from getting an item. Obtain a treasure map and be the first to the treasure. Prevent a villain from getting a powerful dark artifact. Get back your stolen belongings.)
Win a competition / prevent the other side from winning. (Win the race around the world. Win a mock-war between adventuring parties. Win a quidditch game. Deliver a valuable intel to the central command the enemy strikes).
Seize power (Evil Vizier wants to replace the king and players need to prevent that. Evil King is in charge and players need to overthrow him. The King has died and both sides want to be the next King.)
Kill/Protect Person/Creature (Kill the villain/hero, avoid getting killed. Kill a vampire/werewolf/basilisk. Kill people to drink their blood or to satisfy violent urges. Unleash a giant monster onto the city. Save the endangered creature from the hunter. Kill all the baddies in the area. Stop a serial killer.).
Destroy/Protect Target (Item/Castle/Information). Destroy a doomsday device, unleash a natural disaster onto the city, help people survive a natural disaster, destroy a piece of blackmail, destroy the enemy's base.
Guard/Steal (robbery, stealthy heist, abduction).
Invade/Defend city, castle, ship. Compete for control of the territory. (Plan for an attack on the evil citadel. Prepare the city to repel the enemies/monsters. Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies, survive under siege, and liberate it. You have conquered a kingdom, defeat the remaining groups running guerilla warfare against you.)
Escort/Intercept (deliver a prisoner to jail or liberate a prisoner en route to prison. transport the treasure or rob a caravan with the treasure)
Rescue/Kidnap (abduct a person for ransom or sacrificial ritual, rescue hostages, save the princess, break someone out of jail).
Chase/Escape (capture the criminal. Escape the pursuit of the law. Help a wrongly convicted to escape. Set up an ambush or escape an ambush. Pursue a person in a car chase or get away from pursuers).
Cause/Resolve conflict (broker peace / start a war).
Investigate a crime / Don't get caught.
Discover information / hide information (find out someone's dark secret, protect the secret from getting out, expose a corrupt official).
Find/Hide (find a missing person, hide a person from danger. find the lost location, ensure that a sacred place can't be found).
Infiltrate and Spy / Find a mole. (Complete a covert ninja mission. Uncover a conspiracy and prevent a convert mission from taking place. Go under cover in the criminal gang. Blend in with the nobles to poison the King).
Enforce/Resist (enforce the law, resist unjust laws).
Frame someone for a crime / Clear the name (find evidence to convict someone / prove their innocence)
Incite rebellion/mutiny or put it down.
Perform/Sabotage a task (Complete ritual/experiment or prevent an evil ritual, build a weapon or prevent it from being built. Open portal, Resurrect/Summon/Awaken, or prevent that. Perform/prevent a terrorist act.)
Get through the dangerous location / set up traps to make the location impossible to pass. Enter and leave a guarded builging / secure the building.
Diplomacy, Influence, and Negotiations. Compete for the lady's heart, compete to convince the King to take a different course of action, bribe/manipulate/intimidate a corrupt official into doing what you want, try to close a business deal or prevent it from being closed.
Brainwash and manipulate groups of people into doing your bidding / liberate brainwashed people. (free the town from the min control spell, convince enemy soliders to defect to your side, free a person from the influence of a sinister cult).
Win a war. Lead an army against enemy general, against rival mob boss or a cowboy gang.
d100 Goals that apply only to Players
Explore a dangerous location. Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc). Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Solve a Mystery. Solve a murder or a theft. Understand who is behind a mysterious plot. Understand what happened in the abandoned/deserted city.
Survive in a hazardous environment and find a way back home. Get stranded in the desert, an island, an alien land, becalmed or in a storm.
Help people survive a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Scavenger hunt. Collect several items from scattered locations. Potion ingredients for a witch, parts of an engine that were scattered during crash landing.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Defeat a horde or a swarm, clear out an infestation. Rats in the basement, wolves in the forest, Zombies, Aliens. Could be impossible to kill them one by one, and must be done with a ritual, destroying the mothership, smashing the necromancer's amulet, lifting an ancient curse, placating the restless spirits, activating the ancient defense mechanisms.
d100 Goals that apply only to Villains
Kill/Hurt people (to satisfy urges or as a biological nessessity, drink blood for a vampire, rampage as a werewolf.)
Rule/Destroy the world.
Sow chaos.
Please share more ideas in the comments!
Ways of creating multiple unique adventures from the same goal
Here are some ways to create dozens of adventure ideas based on the same goal:
Switch players/antagonist sides (players try to get away with a crime instead of investigating it).
Use a different target - person, creature, item, information, location/base (destroy an item instead of killing a person, abduct a person instead of stealing the treasure, protect a secret instead of the location, chase a lost pet instead of the criminal, chase an object being passed around through different people).
Change "do it for yourself" to "help other people" (don't get murdered - prevent a murder, steal an item - create a distraction while someone else steals it, get away with the crime - help someone else to get away with the crime).
Add restrictions - make it stealthy (commit a heist instead of robbery) , avoid violence (capture a person alive instead of killing them), achieve the goal by social means (ruin the person's reputation instead of killing them), do it before the rivals do it first.
Combine multiple goals (sabotage a ritual to rescue a person, infiltrate a group to steal an item, deliver an item while on the run from the law, solve a mystery to be able to find a lost person).
Add different subgoals, put different challenges/obstacles in the way (get throuh the dangerous location instead of an elaborate security system, obtain informatiom about the villain's weakness instead of the only weapon that can kill them, convince a witness to talk instead of following the trail of footsteps. The object is difficult to deliver because it's being hunted by bandits, or because the terrain is dangerous and inhospitable, or because it's large and fragile, or because it's a criminal trying to escape, or because it's cattle you need to keep alive, or because it's a bratty princess who doesn't want to go to school). See the Big List of Challenges for more ideas.
Use different concrete details - High Concept Premise, Settings, NPCs, McGuffins, etc. (steal an item from a dream instead of casino, escort a dragon instead of a prisoner, escape from jurrasic park instead of the prison, fight a self righteous paladin instead of a gang leader).
Use different motivations (kill a person out of revenge instead of for money, resurrect your loved one instead of summoning a demon, compete for the heart of the lady instead of the treasure).
Contribute to this project!
What goals did I miss? Can you think of a movie, TV episode, or an adventure that doesn't fit under one of these goals? Please leave a comment and share more ideas, I'm sure this list could be longer! Use Adventure Writing Template to help you develop these goals into a complete adventure. I have also made an Adventure Prompts Tool that will pick the random goals for you (it also contains some prompts for settings and villains). If you like this post, you will probably enjoy my other posts: Big List of Challenges, Adventure Writing Process, and Making Combat Awesome. If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here.
A Big list of Adventure Ideas (Player's Goals and Villain's Plans), a list of ways to generate dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal, and some thoughts on Player-driven vs Villain-driven adventures.
Hi! My post about the Big List of Challenges really took off, and this is a followup - I have analyzed the challenges I've been researching, and compiled the list of challenges that will work well as the main goal for the adventure. I have also made a list of ways to generate dozens of unique adventure ideas based on the same goal. And I've had an epiphany about Player-driven vs Villain-driven adventures that I think you will find interesting. The lists of goals and ways to generate unique ideas are at the end of this post, but do read my theory first, it will explain how this works, how it simplifies adventure creation, and leads to more ideas.
Player-driven vs Villain-driven adventures
There are two types of story ideas:
Players want something and struggle against the challenges to get it.
Villain wants something, and players are trying to disrupt/ruin his evil plan.
Both types have merits. In the first type players are the driving force of the adventure, actively leading the story, overcoming relatively passive obstacles. In the second, players are reacting to the villain, trying to disrupt his plans as he pursues his goals, making the adventure more active and interactive. You can also combine the two - antagonist can actively try to commit the crimes and players can be actively trying to catch him (or vice versa). To create an adventure of the first type, you come up with a goal for the players, then put obstacles on their path. For the second, you come up with a villain's goal/plan, figure out ways for players to learn about it and disrupt it, figure out how the villain will react and what resources he has to fight back and get his plan back on track. They are two sides of the same coin. Creating an opposition for the players gives the villain a goal. Creating a plan for the villain gives players the opposite goal to pursue. So many adventure ideas "mirror" each other, can be played from either side: Players can aim to obtain a McGuffin, or prevent the Antagonist from getting it, investigate the crime or try to commit the crime and avoid getting caught, try to complete a ritual or prevent a villain from completing it. Rescue/Kidnap, Protect/Kill, Guard/Steal, Invade/Defend, Complete/Prevent ritual, Chase/Escape. Which side players/villain are on depends on the motivation. Players want to complete the good ritual or prevent an evil one, try to prevent evil crimes and commit the noble ones, kill the bad guys and protect the good guys. Understanding this stuff makes it easier to come up with goals for the villains and challenges for the players, because they're just the opposite of each other. Figuring out one automatically gives you the other. It also doubles the number of adventure ideas you have - just "reverse" an adventure idea, get players and villains switch sides, and you have a new idea. The goals can be opposite (perform a task - prevent them from performing it), or they can be the same - both sides want to obtain the McGuffin, but theres only one, so they compete. So what I want is to compile a list of such goals:
They are "symmetrical" - they can be "played from the either side", they work well as a noble objective for the players, or the evil plan for the villains.
They are "abstract", one goal can generate dozens of unique adventures. There are hundreds of stories about two people pursuing the same object, there are hundreds of stories about people trying to commit crimes and people trying to stop them. One goal gives you many ideas.
They are easy to build an adventure around, it is obvious how you could create a fun game/story based on them. They have high stakes, create interesting conflict, and create clear and obvious objectives for players/villains to pursue.
List of the goals
Symmetrical goals (goals that apply to both Heroes and Villains, Players and Antagonists):
Obtain McGuffin/Information (Players and antagonist compete for the same item, players are trying to prevent antagonist from getting an item. Obtain a treasure map and be the first to the pirate treasure. Prevent a villain from getting a powerful dark artifact. Get back your stolen belongings. Get the heart of Davy Jones.)
Win a competition / prevent the other side from winning. (Win the race around the world. Win a mock-war between adventuring parties. Win a quidditch game. Deliver a valuable intel to the central command the enemy strikes).
Seize power (Evil Vizier wants to replace the king and players need to prevent that. Evil King is in charge and players need to overthrow him. The King has died and both sides want to be the next King.)
Kill/Protect Person/Creature (Kill the villain/hero, avoid getting killed. Kill a vampire/werewolf/basilisk. Kill people to drink their blood or to satisfy violent urges. Unleash a giant monster onto the city. Save the endangered creature from the hunter. Kill all the baddies in the area. Stop a serial killer.).
Destroy/Protect Target (Item/Castle/Information). Destroy a doomsday device, unleash a natural disaster onto the city, help people survive a natural disaster, destroy a piece of blackmail, destroy the enemy's base.
Guard/Steal (robbery, stealthy heist, abduction).
Invade/Defend city, castle, ship. Compete for control of the territory. (Plan for an attack on the evil citadel. Prepare the city to repel the enemies/monsters. Your town/building/ship has been captured and overtaken by enemies, survive under siege, and liberate it. You have conquered a kingdom, defeat the remaining groups running guerrilla warfare against you.)
Escort/Intercept (deliver a prisoner to jail or liberate a prisoner en route to prison. transport the treasure or rob a caravan with the treasure)
Rescue/Kidnap (abduct a person for ransom or sacrificial ritual, rescue hostages, save the princess, break someone out of jail).
Chase/Escape (Capture the criminal. Escape the pursuit of the law. Help a wrongly convicted to escape. Set up an ambush or escape an ambush. Pursue a person in a car chase or get away from pursuers. Capture a zombie to prove they exist. Capture a unique creature for research.).
Cause/Resolve conflict (broker peace / start a war).
Investigate a crime / Don't get caught.
Discover information / hide information (find out someone's dark secret, protect the secret from getting out, expose a corrupt official).
Find/Hide (find a missing person, hide a person from danger. find the lost location, ensure that a sacred place can't be found).
Infiltrate and Spy / Find a mole. (Complete a covert ninja mission. Uncover a conspiracy and prevent a convert mission from taking place. Go under cover in the criminal gang. Blend in with the nobles to poison the King).
Enforce/Resist (enforce the law, resist unjust laws).
Frame someone for a crime / Clear the name (find evidence to convict someone / prove their innocence)
Incite rebellion/mutiny or put it down.
Perform/Sabotage a task (Complete ritual/experiment or prevent an evil ritual, build a weapon or prevent it from being built. Open portal, Resurrect/Summon/Awaken, or prevent that. Perform/prevent a terrorist act.)
Get through the dangerous location / set up traps to make the location impossible to pass. Enter and leave a guarded builging / secure the building.
Diplomacy, Influence, and Negotiations. Compete for the lady's heart, compete to convince the King to take a different course of action, bribe/manipulate/intimidate a corrupt official into doing what you want, try to close a business deal or prevent it from being closed.
Brainwash and manipulate groups of people into doing your bidding / liberate brainwashed people. (free the town from the min control spell, convince enemy soliders to defect to your side, free a person from the influence of a sinister cult).
Win a war. Lead an army against enemy general, against rival mob boss or a cowboy gang.
Goals that apply only to Players:
Explore a dangerous location. Survive/avoid environmental dangers (think of the place itself as the “villain”, it is a monster without HP that "wants" to hurt players or drain their resources, and has certain powers to accomplish that. Traps, cave-ins, lava eruptions, rock-slides, avalanche, collapsing buildings, impenetrable mist, wild animals, dangerous/poisonous flora, falling into a pit, getting lost, etc). Overcome environmental obstacles (a river on your way, a closed gate, climbing a mountain, a swamp, quick sand, slipping hazard above the abyss, thin ice, wild magic area. Retrieve an item from the bottom of the lake.).
Solve a Mystery. Solve a murder or a theft. Understand who is behind a mysterious plot. Understand what happened in the abandoned/deserted city.
Survive wilderness or a hazardous environment and find a way back home. Get stranded in the desert, an island, an alien land, becalmed or in a storm.
Help people survive a natural disaster (storm, earthquake, flood, meteor).
Scavenger hunt. Collect several items from scattered locations. Potion ingredients for a witch, parts of an engine that were scattered during crash landing.
Train a novice, keep a noble person safe while they go on adventure.
Act as an experimental subject for a crazy scientist/wizard (for dangerous potions).
Defeat a horde or a swarm, clear out an infestation. Rats in the basement, wolves in the forest, Zombies, Aliens. Could be impossible to kill them one by one, and must be done with a ritual, destroying the mothership, smashing the necromancer's amulet, lifting an ancient curse, placating the restless spirits, activating the ancient defense mechanisms.
Goals that apply only to Villains:
Kill/Hurt people (to satisfy urges or as a biological necessity, drink blood for a vampire, rampage as a werewolf.)
Rule/Destroy the world.
Sow chaos.
Please share more ideas in the comments!
Creating multiple unique adventures from the same goal
Here are some ways to create dozens of adventure ideas based on the same goal:
Switch players/antagonist sides (players try to get away with a crime instead of investigating it).
Reverse the goal (Smuggle/Plant an item instead of stealing it, close the portal instead of opening it, banish the creature instead of summoning it).
Use a different target - person, creature, item, information, location/base (destroy an item instead of killing a person, abduct a person instead of stealing the treasure, protect a secret instead of the location, chase a lost pet instead of the criminal, chase an object being passed around through different people).
Change "do it for yourself" to "help other people" (don't get murdered - prevent a murder, steal an item - create a distraction while someone else steals it, get away with the crime - help someone else to get away with the crime).
Add restrictions - make it stealthy (commit a heist instead of robbery) , avoid violence (capture a person alive instead of killing them), achieve the goal by social means (ruin the person's reputation instead of killing them), do it before the rivals do it first.
Combine multiple goals (sabotage a ritual to rescue a person, infiltrate a group to steal an item, deliver an item while on the run from the law, solve a mystery to be able to find a lost person).
Add different subgoals, put different challenges/obstacles in the way (get throuh the dangerous location instead of an elaborate security system, obtain informatiom about the villain's weakness instead of the only weapon that can kill them, convince a witness to talk instead of following the trail of footsteps. The object is difficult to deliver because it's being hunted by bandits, or because the terrain is dangerous and inhospitable, or because it's large and fragile, or because it's a criminal trying to escape, or because it's cattle you need to keep alive, or because it's a bratty princess who doesn't want to go to school). See the Big List of Challenges for more ideas.
Use different concrete details - High Concept Premise, Settings, NPCs, McGuffins, etc. (steal an item from a dream instead of casino, escort a dragon instead of a prisoner, escape from jurrasic park instead of the prison, fight a self righteous paladin instead of a gang leader).
Use different motivations (kill a person out of revenge instead of for money, resurrect your loved one instead of summoning a demon, compete for the heart of the lady instead of the treasure).
Contribute to this project!
What goals did I miss? Can you think of a movie, TV episode, or an adventure that doesn't fit under one of these goals? Please leave a comment and share more ideas, I'm sure this list could be longer! Use Adventure Writing Template to help you develop these goals into a complete adventure. I have also made an Adventure Prompts Tool that will pick the random goals for you (it also contains some prompts for settings and villains). If you like this post, you will probably enjoy my other posts: Big List of Challenges, Adventure Writing Process, and Making Combat Awesome. If you want updates on my future posts - follow me here.
This Guide covers the Missions of the Diamond Casino Heist and our experience with it. First Board - Scoping Out Starting Costs The first time to do the heist, it will be free of charge. Every other time you want to complete the heist, it'll cost you 25.000$. Scoping Out the Casino To unlock all different options, take a photo and send it to Security Intel is an optional prep mission featured in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of the The Diamond Casino Heist update. It is a freeroam mission needed to progress The Diamond Casino Heist. To play this mission, the player must have completed all six Casino missions as a host. Completing this mission allows players to see all locations and cones of vision for all security cameras during the heist. The Diamond Casino Heist is the biggest ever to hit GTA Online, and requires drawing up meticulous setup plans to walk away with the maximum payout. Here’s a run-down of the setup board for the The Diamond Casino Heist is a content update for Grand Theft Auto Online, released on December 12th, 2019. 1 Description 2 Content 2.1 The Diamond Casino Heist 2.2 Properties 2.3 Jobs 2.4 Characters added to GTA Online in this update 2.5 Character Customization 2.6 Collectibles 2.7 Weapons 2.8 Vehicles 2.9 Radio 3 Changes 4 Discounts & Bonuses 5 Gallery 5.1 Official Screenshots 5.2 GIFs 5.3 How do I access the security Intel (optional) heist prep mission? QUESTION I’m currently working on the prep missions for the Casino Heist, and one of the setups are locked because I haven’t helped (I don’t remember the name) transfer ownership of the Casino. Need: optional. Usefulness for all heist: absolutely required. Difficulty: Easy. Time: 5-8 minutes. Description: the player must steal a security key card from a casino staff member. Effect Card Level 1: has the ability to give you access to few doors and access points, but nothing else in the higher security areas, those points will need to be Security Pass. You need to acquire a Level 2 Security Pass or else you won't be able to do the mission properly. It'll basically impossible to do the heist silently if you do not have Level 2 Security Pass. The Security Pass mission is also one of the most essential optional missions. If the basic GTA Casino Heist arcade property isn’t where you want to plot your heist, there are a few fancier criminal clubhouses you can buy, with a total of six arcade properties on the map You have to go to Maze Bank and purchase the Casino, then do all the casino mission then buy the arcade from moto club computer, Then go to Lester and complete that mission. You may need to purchase a MK2 to pass the 4th heist on the Casino or Lester. Make sure you add another player to the Heist prep and Prison Bus. It does say on the info page help AB to hand over ownership of the casino to unlock this prep lol. No complete the casino missions then the chengs still own the casino and Vincent hasn't been sacked. Wouldn't make much sense for him to talk about where he used to work if he still worked there would it.
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