Everything you need to know about the most ambitious heist in GTA Online history, so far!
The Cayo Perico Heists update builds on the foundations laid by the original Heists update, released over five and a half years prior.
The stakes have been appropriately raised during The Doomsday Heist and The Diamond Casino Heist twice already, but never have you been faced with a challenge as ambitious as knocking over El Rubio, the notorious and legendary drug lord.
For the first time in the history of the game, you can face the perils of a heist solo, if that's your thing. The team approach is still available for a classic heist experience, but players who don't have a regular heisting crew no longer need to rely on randoms — even though that isn't as bad as it's made out to be.
Before you can leap into the thick of the new content, a stop by the newest and hottest club in Los Santos is in order. The Music Locker, a fancy venue that just opened below the Diamond and will host a cadre of real-life resident DJs starting with Moodymann, is the usual haunt of Miguel Madrazo. Yes, that Madrazo.
Son of occasional business partner, occasional enemy Martin Madrazo, Miguel is set to be the heir of the criminal enterprise and is privy to some of the comings, goings and in this case, issues surrounding it. Apparently, regional drug king El Rubio and Martin Madrazo have something of a disagreement. It falls to you or your team to infiltrate the heavily fortified island of Cayo Perico and steal some of El Rubio's... files.
Yeah, it's a bit anticlimactic for a few files to be the big score when raiding what is essentially the island lair of a ridiculously wealthy drug lord who likely keeps obscene amounts of cash and product in the headquarters, but Rockstar had to make it believable that a single person can pull off the heist.
Cayo Perico is El Rubio's own private party paradise, where the crime is rivalled only by the raves. El Rubio likes to enjoy the fruits of his labor, inviting some of the world's best known DJs to his highly exclusive beach parties. One such party is conveniently happening soon, with a plane taking some of the hottest artists to the island from Los Santos — and you're going to be on it.
The island seems like the picture perfect tourist trap during music festival season, only the armed patrols and guard towers give it away. Once ashore, it's time for the fun to begin. The Cayo Perico Heist has multiple phases (intel, prep and finale), and several optional set-up missions to do beforehand. Unlike with other heists, these aren't mandatory this time around, however doing them will change the way the finale mission unfolds.
Completing the setups (prep missions) will make the main show easier, giving you much needed intel on how to best overcome some of the hurdles that'll inevitably be rolled in your way. A setup will give you access to a very valuable airstrike call, while another will give you the chance to use a blowtorch to cut through some bars leading into an underwater sewer system for easy access.
You need a reliable location for all the planning work a heist of these proportions requires, and what better than a decommissioned nuclear submarine? Filling the role of the Mobile Operations Center and the Avenger this time around is the Kosatka submarine, your new home patrolling the waters between Cayo Perico and Los Santos.
Decked out with complete living amenities, a heist planning room and everything else a master criminal of your caliber needs, the Kosatka can further be expanded with a MK-II Weapons Workshop and a Moon Pool for quick deployment of your smaller submersibles.
During the planning stages of the heist you get to decide a number of factors that, alongside the setup missions, will greatly impact the way the mission plays out. Things like what kind of air support you can rely on, what time of day you conduct the raid, entry and exit points and mode. With all of these options at your fingertips, no two runs of the heist will be the same — that is, until the community figures out which configuration is the most "efficient" and that's the one absolutely everyone will choose.
There is also a bit of randomized procedural generation thrown into the mix, because when you finally choose to hit Cayo Perico, there will be a bunch of extra cash pickups scattered throughout the island. Some of these won't be simple to get to, and their locations as well as the locations of the tools you need to access them will change every time.
As is inevitable with an update this big, there are a bunch of other tidbits not necessarily related to the big caper itself. Music is in the forefront, and not just because a new club has opened — GTA Online is getting two new radio stations alongside the weekly addition of resident DJs, all of whom come with their own missions.
Interestingly enough, one of the new radio stations will be tied to a community challenge of sorts — Still Slipping is one of the two new stations, and will be pretty elusive initially. Whenever you manage to tune in, make sure to keep an eye out for broken radio antennae nearby, and fix them up. The more antennae are fixed, the more places Still Slipping will be available.
Civilist and MISBHV are two brand-new clothing brands, with entire collections of never before seen clothing items available across Los Santos and Blaine County, just waiting for droves of players to try out the freshest threads. If you want to look like you fit in at The Music Locker, your style had better be on point.
The Cayo Perico Heist also brings a wealth of new vehicles to GTA Online, because you can never have enough vehicles. These include the Sparrow helicopter and Kraken Avisa submersible which can be launched from the moon pool of the Kosatka, alongside a selection of other vehicles, both mundane and extraordinary.
Not too long ago, during the course of the Heist Challenge, the GTA Online community absolutely demolished the set goal, earning everyone a free Dinka Veto Classic go-kart which you can claim by logging in anytime this week. Alongside the free ride, players will also unlock a Still Slipping tee for their character too.
New weapons are on the books as well — the Military Rifle is a versatile new bullpup gun available right off the bat, while completing the Cayo Perico Heist Finale and using the fearsome Combat Shotgun will unlock it for purchase and use in Los Santos too. While you're in the thick of heisting, keep an eye out for El Rubio's prized custom pistol — nobody knows where it may be, but it is a one of a kind hand cannon with a serious punch.
Although it states you need to buy the Casino Penthouse to start the Cayo Perico heist, you do not actually need to do it. You can simply make your way to the Casino's north entrance and enter the new exclusive nightclub called the Music Locker via the Casino elevator.
This helps you save GTA$1.5 Million that can be easily spent on buying a submarine necessary to start the Cayo Perico heist. To start the main sequence, you must first speak with Miguel Madrazo, who is inside the Music Locker nightclub.
Enter the casino via the main entrance (northern entrance) and take a left towards the reception. Access the elevator, and you will get an option to go to the Music Locker.
You will need to pay a small fee of $150, but that's much better than spending up to a million just for the penthouse. Another thing to note here is that the overall entrance fee of $150 reduces depending on your outfit. The more expensive and brand-oriented your outfits are, the more the fee reduces.
Once inside the club, make your way to Miguel to talk to him and start an introductory cutscene to the Cayo Perico heist.
The DLC is named after the daring raid on the island fortress of El Rubio, which is the most ambitious caper we've had the chance to attempt in GTA Online so far. While it is definitely the centerpiece of the update, it isn't the only new piece of content vying for your attention.
The Cayo Perico Heist introduced:
Since it brings a whole new landmass to the game alongside a quantity of content that we would consider ample for a major DLC on its own, we expected The Cayo Perico Heist to be a little larger than the average GTA Online update we've grown accustomed to. That said, the update sizes still aren't egregious, unlike in the case of some other popular multiplayer games.
As usual, the bulk of your expenditures with the new DLC will be vehicular, though the new guns are definitely worth buying as well.
GTA Online's funky video game economy strikes again wherein a pretty basic patrol boat costs more than an entire refurbished and modernized nuclear submarine, but nobody plays GTA Online for the realism.
As in previous heists, your performance during the course of the mission will affect the final take. For the first time, setup missions are optional and players have the choice to play through the entire heist completely alone as opposed to with a team, which removed the need to divide the take, further altering how much money you'll actually be walking away with.
As per current estimates, the maximum payout that can be earned from a run of The Cayo Perico Heist is GTA$ 4,570,600. Keep in mind that this is assuming a perfect run with the extra cash pickups and other secondary targets accounted for, and since those are randomized during each attempt there is no way to plan ahead.
It's just as well, since buying the Kotsatka submarine is mandatory for even attempting the heist, so getting the best possible outcome still leaves you with less than half of the take as profits.
There are five possible primary targets (besides the Madrazo Files) that you can get, each holding a different value. The value of the primary target is increased by 10% in Hard Mode. If you complete the elite challenge, the reward is GTA$100,000 instead of the standard GTA$50,000. The primary targets change every time you do the heist after your first ever heist, where you are tasked to retrieve the Madrazo Files.
| Primary Targets | Value (Normal) | Value (Hard Mode) |
|---|---|---|
| Sinsimito Tequila | $630,000 | GTA$693,000 |
| Ruby Necklace | $700,000 | GTA$770,000 |
| Bearer Bonds | $770,000 | GTA$847,000 |
| Pink Diamond | $1,300,000 | GTA$1,430,000 |
| Panther Statue | $1,900,000 | GTA$2,090,000 |
Other than the elite challenge bonus mentioned above, you also have other bonuses totaling up to around $1.3 Million (including the elite challenge bonus).
Yes, the Cayo Perico heist can be done solo. In fact, it was previously the mainstream money-earning heist preferred by every solo player in GTA Online due to its fast prep and finale when compared to other money-making options in the game at the time. However, in July 2022, Rockstar Games decided to nerf the heist by increasing the cooldown to three in-game days for solo players.
Additionally, if a solo player gets a high-value primary target during the heist, they won't get another high-value primary target for the next 72 hours (real-world time). This is to encourage players to explore more around Los Santos and find different ways of making money, rather than grinding the Cayo Perico heist.
Even with these nerfs, Cayo Perico remains the top choice for solo players, thanks to its high earning potential and solo-friendly nature. However, more nerfs in September 2023, including a 30% reduction in payouts for primary targets and a steep increase in setup costs from $25k to $100k, are causing Cayo Perico to lose its appeal as a go-to money-making method.
