GTA ONLINE - ULTIMATE Cayo Perico Heist Guide

WELCOME TO The Island! - What you need to do and what you need to know to get to the Cayo Perico island in GTA Online and so much more. This guide may be updated regularly with all the basic & important information you need to know about conducting the heist and finding all the new content available.

Introduction:

Cayo Perico (commonly referred to as just The Island) is a private island in the Caribbean, off the coast of Colombia, that appears in Grand Theft Auto Online as part of The Cayo Perico Heist update.

Cayo Perico is considered one of the most secure private islands in the entire world, and the location of the remote island compound of the world’s most notorious drug dealer, Juan Strickler (also known as El Rubio). It also contains an untold fortune in art, gold and drug money, scattered across the island.

Cayo Perico is not only the nerve center of El Rubio’s drug empire, but also plays host to his other great love: marathon beach dance parties, where everyone from jetsetters and heiresses to legendary music producers gather to rave until the sun comes up.

The island first appeared in the "El Rubio Dossier" teaser released during the Los Santos Summer Special update, which contained views of three locations on the island, including a sprawling clifftop Spanish-style estate, a security tower and a farm.

Cayo Perico is first visited when the Online protagonist accompanies English Dave to a party hosted by Juan Strickler under the guise of a management member. The player then sneaks off to scope out the island, by hacking into a communication tower to gain access to Strickler's compound's CCTV in order to find out where Martin Madrazo's files are being kept.

Afterward, Pavel directs the player to scope out the North Dock and some secondary targets, before instructing them to continue scoping for infiltration, escape points, point of interests or return to Los Santos to prepare for the heist. Once all preparation works are done, the crew executes the heist, recover Madrazo's files and escapes.

Pavel later informs the player that they can return to Cayo Perico to pull off more heists once Strickler stocked up more goodies to be robbed. The party was over, so the player must pose as smugglers in order to access the island again.

At any point during the heist setup, players can return to Cayo Perico to scope out additional information. After completing the heist as host, players can return to Cayo Perico and attend the party in free roam. It's not possible to explore the island while the party's going on.

Missions:

⭐ The Cayo Perico Heist
⭐ Heist Prep: Gather Intel
⭐ The Cayo Perico Heist
⭐ DJ Requests: Keinemusik - Collect the skate merchandise, Collect the pizza & Recover the chakra stones.

Setting Up:

There are a few things you're going to need before you think of starting the Cayo Perico Heist. First thing's first, you're going to need to have a good amount of cash available to start.

When you first log in to GTA following the update, you should receive a text from Miguel Madrazo who will ask you to meet him at The Music Locker in GTA Online, a new nightclub in Los Santos located beneath the Diamond Casino and Resort in East Vinewood. Head there first and meet with Miguel for a cutscene.

Once the meeting is concluded, you'll need to splash out $2.2 million on the GTA Kosatka submarine which will act as your headquarters while you plan out the Heist. I highly recommend investing in the Sparrow, this will allow you to exit and do all your prep missions and then fly back to your sub, saving you tons of time. Do not bother purchasing any other upgrades to the sub as it won't help you with anything to do with the heist itself.

You can locate your newly purchased submarine HQ on the map and the Services Menu will allow you to call a dinghy to transport you to it if needed. Once you reach the Kosatka and step aboard, you'll be greeted with another cutscene.

Once that's done, there's one more requirement before you can start the Heist - you'll need to be either a CEO, President, or a VIP. The first two require you to own property, while the VIP option can be toggled on via the Interaction Menu.

You're now free to start making your plans and get started on the preparation missions, such as searching out the required intel from the GTA Cayo Perico scope locations.

Gathering Intel:

⭐ ​As you’re undercover, you won’t have access to your weapons while scoping Cayo Perico. So, avoid El Rubio’s guards and security cameras at all costs.

⭐ Scoping out the bare minimum on Cayo Perico might seem tempting at first but stick around to see what else you can find. Climb to the top of structures, check inside warehouses and photograph anything that looks useful. If you’re paying attention, you’ll discover ways to cut power to the island’s CCTV cameras, chemicals that could poison the water supply and much more to assist you during the Finale.

⭐ ​You can return and scope the Island as many times as you need to before launching the Prep Work or the Finale.

⭐ There are multiple ways into El Rubio’s compound. Some are stealthier than others – try snooping around his compound and be thorough when looking at the security feeds.

⭐ El Rubio and his men have a lot of storage lockups throughout Cayo Perico. It may be risky but explore and scope out the more heavily guarded areas for more potential loot when executing The Cayo Perico Heist.

⭐ The locations of everything you scope out will be displayed on your Kosatka’s planning screen. Some of these will remain scoped after completing the Heist, but others will need to be found again.

⭐ Don’t expect the things you scope to be in the same locations each time you play through the Heist as the locations will change.

Points of Interest:

If you're familiar with heists in GTA, you'll know they take some preparation. These are big jobs, and you'll need to gather as much information as you possibly can before you commit to a plan. Below you'll find a list of the points of interest we've discovered - just don't forget to grab a photo to have each point count as intel.

⭐ The Control Tower:

This is the first point of interest you'll find as it's located at the airport and is part of the story mission. This control tower will enable you to stop any air defense that may be called against you as well as allowing your own aircraft in.

⭐ The Power Station:

The power station is located a short distance from the airport. It's found at the end of a minor road that leads off from the south of the airstrip. This point of interest will allow you to disable lights and cameras.

⭐ The Supply Truck:

The supply truck you're looking for is also nearby. It's slightly north-west of the power station and if you can get hold of guard clothing, you can use it to drive straight through the main gate of the compound without being detected.

⭐ The Bolt Cutters:

There are four to find and are random spawns for each player, so their exact locations might differ each time, though they generally seem to be found near a red toolbox. They're also quite difficult to see, so you'll need to look quite closely to locate them. These will allow you to open storage containers quietly.

We found one near the Supply Truck, another to the west of the central part of the island, sitting on top of a box. The third was found in the northeastern area of the map and the fourth was close to a tower at the far-eastern point of the island near some wheat fields.

⭐ Guard Clothing:

Like the bolt cutters, you'll need to locate four of these and, again, they are in random locations, though you may be lucky enough to find a couple of them when you're searching for your bolt cutters.

You'll need to have scoped out the supply truck in order for these to show up. They're hard to miss as they appear as brightly colored clothing inside a green box. These, paired with the supply truck, will allow you to drive through the main gate unnoticed and they'll make it harder for guards to detect you in general.

⭐ The Grappling Equipment:

You'll need four of these and they are perhaps the hardest to find as they're so difficult to spot. They'll allow you to traverse broken walls within the compound but again, they are random spawns so you may need to hunt around if you don't find them at the following locations.

One located on in the north-east corner of the map near a sniper tower there and another can be found under the stairs inside a lighthouse.

Another is located near the crane to the north of the bottom section of the island, and the last is found on the coast, directly south of the airport, close to some small boats.

Heist Missions & All Secondary Targets:

Rockstar has detailed some heist bonuses that are only available for a limited time. Here is a listing of each of the missions and what type of mission it is so that you can get the most from the heist.

There are three main Cayo Perico missions in total:

⭐ Intel - Find the Madrazo Files on Cayo Perico

⭐ Prep - Grab the equipment you need for the heist

⭐ Finale - Steal the Madrazo Files and escape Cayo Perico

Heist Intel:

For the Heist Intel mission, you’ll need to meet English Dave and Keinemusik at the Los Santos International Airport’s private terminal. After touching down on the island, you’ll be greeted by Rubio and his entourage. He’ll ask you to drive his jeep while the band gets set up.

Follow Rubio’s directions to the private beach. Eventually the party will get started and you can sneak past the guards to explore the rest of the island. You don’t have to explore everything on the island, but there is a maximum number of intel targets you can scan, including all the points of interest in the GTA Cayo Perico Heist

⭐ Primary Target: Madrazo Files
⭐ Secondary Targets: 1x painting and 2x gold stash. There’s also cash and weed.
⭐ Infiltration Points: 8
⭐ Escape Points: 4
⭐ Compound Entry Points: 6
⭐ Points of Interest: 6


Your first issue is trying to sneak past the checkpoint. Make sure the coast is clear, then head for the right side of the checkpoint, weaving past the boxes. There are no cameras there but move fast and into the shrubbery close by. Pavel will then explain that the roads on the east side of the island are safer to navigate. Use these to head for the compound in the south.

When you arrive at the compound, wait for Pavel to tell you where you can hack the compound’s CCTV system, then head there. You are looking for the communications tower up the mountains to the north of the compound (there is a lookout tower between the compound and the communications tower, so try not to be seen). Climb up and find the signal box to hack the CCTV.

To hack the circuits, Match the numbers to the symbols to increase the result number at the bottom of the screen. It needs to match the target at the top of the screen. After hacking the system, use the Sightseer app to look through the cameras. Cycle through until you see the basement and turn the camera to find the files. Use the cameras to then find other points of interest, secondary targets, infiltration and escape points, and compound entry points.

Before heading back to the part, head to the northern dock, which is back past the checkpoint towards the party. When you arrive, use the Snapmatic app on the phone to grab some pictures of the dock. As soon as Pavel receives it, he’ll inform you of more stuff that you can take pictures of in the warehouse for intel.

There’s a whole bunch of other stuff to find on the island to nab pictures of in preparation for the heist, but this is the minimum you need. When you are done, head back to the airstrip, snap a photo of the control tower for Pavel, then talk to the pilot to head home.

Secondary Targets:

Some of the secondary targets, namely the bundles of cash and gold bars, have slightly randomised placement, there is also one painting to pilfer from the cartel and a couple of bags of weed. The painting is found in the compound by cycling through the CCTV until you find it. The weed can be found on the docks inside the warehouses.

Heist Preparations:

In order to execute the heist, you’ll need to satisfy the conditions on the checklist of required equipment to ensure the mission goes smoothly. The checklist for the heist prep is as follows:

⭐ Acquire and man five approach vehicles
⭐ Collect three pieces of equipment
⭐ Obtain one weapon loadout
⭐ Organize three disruptions

There are a whole bunch of optional objectives you will need to complete to fully plan the mission. If you just want to complete the heist as quickly as possible, you’ll only need the Kosatka submarine, all three pieces of equipment, and one of the five different loadouts (advise buying suppressors too). The rest are optional, but will make the heist go a lot more smoothly.

The compound on Cayo Perico is made up of a lot of moving parts. Completing Disruption Heist Prep Missions will weaken El Rubio’s security on Cayo Perico but be careful: these missions can only be attempted once, so make sure you’re prepared with a suitable vehicle and any desired backup before launching them.

Failing certain Heist Prep Missions can have negative repercussions down the line, which can put El Rubio’s guards on high alert. Prep Missions don’t carry over between Heists, so you can try out different combinations on subsequent replays.

NOTE: You do not have to do all these heist prep missions in the future. Dependent on your future appriachs to the heists for a more stealthier method, disruptions are not needed.

Heist Finale Tips:

The entire Heist can be played alone - but bringing a crew along can help maximize your take. Some areas require 2 players to gain access, and each player can only hold so much Loot in their bag but remember the more you have, the more you have to split.

Grab some Snacks and Body Armor before you set out and use them when you’re running low on health via the Inventory Menu. Your Kosatka’s mess hall will provide you with free Snacks.

Remaining undetected on the island can make your time there a lot easier – especially if you’re taking on the challenge solo. You can go in loud if you want, but if you’re trying to stay stealthy make sure you opt for Suppressors on the Heist Planning Screen.

⭐ Shooting all the CCTV camera's within the compound will automatically trigger the alarm, so make sure you take out the camera's leaving just one operating.

⭐ Inside the compound, try our best access the keys to unlock the basement doors, use them instead of visiting El Rubio's office. The fingerprint lock inside his office has 3 (normal) / 4 (hard mode) patterns to unlock whereas if you access the basement you will only have to deal with one fingerprint pad (normal) / 2 (hard mode) and this saves you time if the Elite Challenge bonus is what you are after.

⭐ Do the Cutting Torch prep to avoid Bolt Cutters. To unlock this prep, you need to scope out the drainage tunnel.

⭐ Guard clothing will not alert guards outside the mansion, Even after you have stolen the primary target without raising an alarm inside the compound. Do not bump into guards/equip any weapon in front of them while in disguise and try your best to remain out side of their cone of vision, the longer you are in it, the worse your day is going to be.

⭐ If stealth is your method, ignore support crews and disruption missions, this limits your preps down to four making your turn around time to make money quicker.

⭐ If you can afford it, invest in some support crew to damage the enemy’s defenses or give you supply drops if you plan on not doing it stealth.

⭐ Disabling the control tower & the power station hugely impacts your approach to completing the heist as it not only helps your support crew, if chosen do what they need to but also prevents the CCTV camera's from working and stops El Rubio and his people from dispatching more enemies to the island.

⭐ Keep low when swimming to the compound. This will ensure you avoid detection and the mines in the water.

⭐ You can take on this heist solo, but some items are locked behind doors that require two people to get in. Bring a friend with you on subsequent heists.

⭐ ​When you get to the vault, Pavel will text you the code.

⭐ ​To get past the fingerprint scanner in El Rubio's office quickly and without failure, match all pieces of the fingerprint grid with the first, drop down to the second and shift right once, drop to the third, shift right twice, drop to the forth and shift right three times, continue doing this until it matches. See image below:

Heist Loot Guide:

Effectively there is a Value ($) / Capacity (Loot Bag) ratio. With the loot bag being very limited it is key to not only try and fill it completely but also fill it with items of the highest value to maximize the most money looted through the heist.

This guide will briefly cover the primary and secondary targets available to loot including the percentage of space they take and their overall value.

As of this date, the three most valuable items as secondary targets seem to be, in order: Gold, Weed & Cocaine with the consideration of the weight of each stack. I will break it all down below starting first with the primary targets. Please note that these figures might not be to the exact dollar as the difficulty of the mission plays a role and what you decide to loot to fill your bag.

Mandatory Fees:

Once the heist is over, there are two additional fees that will be taken off your total score, first is the Fencing Fee which equates to - 10% of the primary & secondary takes combined, this goes to Minnie Madrazzo and lastly, there is Pavel's cut of - 2% of the primary & secondary take combined.

Primary Targets:

Tequila:

⭐ ​$630,000 (Normal)
⭐ ​$693,000 (Hard)

Ruby Necklace:

⭐ ​$700,000 (Normal)
⭐ ​$770,000 (Hard)

Bearer Bonds:

⭐ ​$770,000 (Normal)
⭐ ​$847,000 (Hard)

Pink Diamond:

⭐ ​$1,300,000 (Normal)
⭐ ​$1,430,000 (Hard)

Pink Panther Statue:

⭐ $1,900,000 (Normal)
⭐ $2,090,000 (Hard)

Madrazo Files:

⭐ ​$1,100,000 (Normal)

Secondary Targets:

Cash:

⭐ Value Per Stack: $78,480 > $89,420 (+/-)
⭐ Weight Per Stack: 25%
⭐ Total Lootable: Up to ($313,920 > $357,680 total) (+/-)

Weed:

⭐ Value Per Stack: $145,980 > $149,265 (+/-)
⭐ Weight Per Stack: 37.5%
⭐ Total Lootable: Up to $389,280 > $398,040 (+/-)

Cocaine:

⭐ Value Per Stack: $220,500 > $225,000 (+/-)
⭐ Weight Per Stack: 50%
⭐ Total Lootable: Up to $441,000 > $450,000 (+/-)

Paintings:

⭐ Value Per Stack: $176,200 > $199,700 (+/-)
⭐ Weight Per Stack: 50%
⭐ Total Lootable: Up to $352,4‬00 > $399,400 (+/-)

Gold:

⭐ Value Per Stack: $328,584 > $333,192 (+)
⭐ Weight Per Stack: 66.7%
⭐ Total Lootable: Up to $492,876 > $499,788 (+/-)

El Rubio's Office:

Personal Hidden Safe/Vault - Located next to the fireplace as you enter the office, right of the window behind El Rubio's desk.

Cash:

⭐ $20,000 to $99,000 (+/-)

Desk Drawer - The key is found with a guard who occasionally spawns outside of bars and clubs in GTA Online during Random Events. The guard will spawn differently for each player, so every player must visit a number of bars/clubs for the Random Event to occur.

The sleeping guard will spawn outside of the club, and players can interact with the Body to receive a "Small Key" in their inventory, this key unlocks the drawer at El Rubio's desk.

⭐ Perico Pistol

Treasure Chest Locations

Each treasure chest is worth $15,000, which isn't much in the grander scheme of things but is a nice little boost to have.

Players who were able to find five hidden caches before January 6, 2021 received an additional GTA gift of $100,000. The treasure chests spawn differently for each player in each session. Therefore, a trial and error method is useful for finding these Treasure Chests in GTA Online.

Final Thoughts:

Hey thanks for reading this, if you found it useful consider liking, sharing and commenting and if you are feeling extra generous consider an award. Happy Gaming!

If you would like to support me in the work I do, consider sending me whatever you would like via PayPal, check my profile for the link.

Extracts From:
⭐ GTA Playlist - GTA Playlist
⭐ Thanks to Space-Potatoes on Reddit, that put together the map for players to consult to when looking for treasure caches.
⭐ The map is based on the video by User ID: GTAMen on YouTube and is a handy guide for players looking to grab some extra cash during the Scoping Missions.
⭐ GTA ONLINE - ULTIMATE Cayo Perico Loot Guide: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2420229085

Thank you!

[McALEER GAMES]

@Eliminnatorz, fantastic, I hope my guide was helpful to your previous and future heists.

[Eliminnatorz]

me and my brother completed this heist on xbox