The Big Score #49

3.49. The Big Score

This is the last heist, and you rob the gold from the Union Depository vault. All three protagonists take part, and Lester is in on the plan too. You pick Subtle, where you intercept the cash trucks and walk in disguised as guards, or Obvious, where you cut through the vault wall and fly the gold out by helicopter.

3.49.1. Overview

  • Planning the job
  • After you finish Meltdown, go to the Vanilla Unicorn and the four of them meet to plan the job. It is effectively a mission made of choice scenes, and here you pick the approach and the crew.
  • Lester takes 12% either way. The cut comes in after you finish the last mission, not right after the heist.
  • Comparing the two approaches
  • Obvious needs no hacker, so the crew is one person smaller, and the $300,000 for Casey does not go out either. Each protagonist is paid about $6,000,000 more for that, but you have to lose a five-star wanted level after a long shootout.
  • The total take is $201,600,000. Subtle leaves $201,300,000 after Casey's cut. One protagonist's biggest cut is $35,563,000 on Subtle and $41,664,000 on Obvious.
  • Shared by both approaches
  • Using an inexperienced Karim as driver 1 is a heavy loss either way. Put Karim in the driver 2 seat.
  • You have to meet Packie and Taliana in random events before you can pick them.
  • Finishing the heist lets you buy the advanced rifle at Ammu-Nation.

3.49.2. Subtle

In this approach you disguise yourselves as Gruppe Sechs guards, intercept two cash trucks, take the gold from the bank, and leave the city in modified Gauntlets. You need two gunmen, two drivers, and one hacker.

  • Setup: Stingers
  • Right after planning, Lester texts you the location of a Police Transporter loaded with spike strips. Climb the wall, quietly knock out the police patrolling around the van, and take the van.
  • Park the van at the hideout under the Olympic Freeway behind the strip club, get out, and it is complete. You fail if the van is wrecked.
  • Gold medal
  • Steal the Police Transporter and get away within 2 minutes: drive it out unseen and there is no chase at all. As Michael or Trevor, the police will not stop you if you go in a highway patrol outfit.
  • Deliver the Police Transporter without a scratch
  • Setup: Gauntlet
  • Lester emails you the locations of three Gauntlets. They are the top of the parking garage in Pillbox Hill, behind Vangelico in Rockford Hills, and in front of the Templar Hotel southeast of Legion Square in Mission Row. The car in front of the Templar Hotel is dirty and costs $54 to repair.
  • Take them to Los Santos Customs one at a time, buy the modifications shown on screen, and put each one in a nearby garage. There is no time limit, and a Gauntlet other than the marked cars is accepted too.
  • You fail if a Gauntlet is wrecked or stuck, and the same if you abandon one. You also fail if you cannot afford the modifications.
  • Gold medal
  • Bring the Gauntlets from the photos in the email
  • Deliver them without a scratch: a scratch from the drive before the modifications also breaks the goal. Use the Los Santos Customs nearest the garage, on the airport side.
  • Spend at least $17,000 on modifications: buying every modification you are told to buy costs $20,000.
  • Crew
  • Gunman 1 helps load the gold. Anyone other than Gustavo, Packie, or Chef drops some of the gold. Gunman 2 can be anyone.
  • Driver 1 drives one of the Gauntlets loaded with gold. An inexperienced Karim spills gold and is caught by the police during the escape, and you lose a quarter of it. Driver 2 changes the tires and drives the truck.
  • The hacker sets the delay when the lights change. Paige has no delay, Christian has 2 seconds, and Rickie has 4 seconds. It shrinks as heist experience adds up, and even Rickie has no delay if he has been through both The Jewel Store Job and The Bureau Raid.
  • The combination that pays the most is hacker Rickie, drivers Karim and Taliana, and gunmen Packie or Chef, and Daryl.
  • Taking the trucks
  • When the cutscene ends, drive to the tunnel entrance before 8 in the morning. The current time is at the bottom right of the screen.
  • When the two cash trucks enter the tunnel, lay the spike strips before they leave and wait off to the side. When the tires blow and they stop, aim at the windows and pull the guards out, and a crew member from the van that followed changes the tires.
  • Pick up guard Casey and go to the underground garage of the Union Depository. Follow the branch manager down in the elevator, where the gold carts are, and Trevor and Casey wheel the carts out. Get in the second truck and follow Trevor out.
  • You fail if you hurt a guard or a bank employee, or if you raise suspicion. You also fail if a truck is too badly damaged to pass the checkpoint.
  • Hacking the lights
  • Merryweather notices the gold is gone and gives chase. Switch to Franklin and use the laptop to work the lights, turning the signal in front of the Merryweather vehicles red. You fail if Merryweather spots the trucks.
  • Moving the gold
  • At the hideout, Merryweather troops hit while you move the gold into four Gauntlets. Protect the crew and take them all out.
  • Michael and Trevor fight with full body armor thanks to the guard outfits. Franklin is unprotected unless you bought body armor ahead of time, so be careful when you switch to him.
  • Gauntlet escape
  • As Franklin, drive one Gauntlet and follow the group. Ignore the police and stay on the route. You fail if you fall so far behind that you lose the group.
  • After the scene at Rockford Plaza where a police car rams a tanker and it explodes, you get onto the freeway. If an inexperienced Karim is driver 1, the police block him around here, and if Franklin takes out the police in the way, Karim gets away on his own and you recover the cut you were about to lose.
  • You have to drive onto the trailer waiting inside the tunnel before the tunnel ends. If driver 2 is clumsy, the trailer sways from side to side, so use Franklin's special ability.
  • Once you are hidden in the trailer, the police lose the group. Switch to the Cavalcade and reach Michael's house, and it is complete.
  • Gold medal
  • 20 headshots, and accuracy of at least 60%
  • Aim for the head, or use a shotgun, and you can fill both goals.
  • Change the lights fewer than 10 times
  • Stop only enemies that get close to the trucks. The count keeps adding up if you retry.
  • Reasons for failure
  • A protagonist dies or is busted, Lester, a crew member, or the truck driver dies, or you leave the group behind
  • You reach the tunnel late, you fail to lay the spike strips in time, or the trucks avoid them
  • You raise a guard's or a bank employee's suspicion, a guard or a bank employee dies or is hurt, or a truck is too badly damaged or reaches the bank late
  • Merryweather spots you, a Gauntlet or a truck is destroyed, Franklin loses the group, or you fail to load onto the truck in time

3.49.3. Obvious

In this approach you cut through the vault wall from underground with a Cutter, then hang the gold from helicopters and move it to a train running outside the city. You bring two drivers and two gunmen, and you do not use a hacker.

  • Setup: Driller
  • Lester tells you a Cutter has come into a warehouse in East Los Santos. There are a lot of guards, so knock them all out in stealth mode and then get in the truck carrying the Cutter. If even one guard is left when you get in, you are spotted at once. Being spotted does not fail the mission, and you only miss the gold medal.
  • Drive the truck out and hand the Cutter over in the parking lot near the Union Depository, and it is complete. You fail if the Cutter or the truck is wrecked or stuck, and you also fail if you kill the parking-lot contact.
  • Gold medal
  • Steal the Cutter without being spotted
  • Finish within 5 minutes: bring a suppressed sniper rifle. Climb onto the roof by the ramp just south of the west entrance, and work from the workers on the east toward the middle, one at a time. Come down to the ground for the workers along the south edge and the guard at the west entrance, and save them for last, and the two workers who are talking have to be dropped together.
  • Setup: Sidetracked
  • One of you quietly knocks out two railway workers at Davis Quartz, switches the track from the cabin, and waits for the train. If you start as Michael or Franklin, Trevor flies the Skylift, and if you start as Trevor, Michael flies it.
  • When the train stops, use the Skylift to stick the locomotive and then the flatbed to the magnet, one after the other, and set them down on the truck at Sandy Shores Airfield. The magnet only grabs when you line the direction up directly above the car.
  • You fail if the police catch on or you miss the train. The same if the Skylift or the truck is wrecked, or you leave the mission area.
  • Gold medal
  • Finish within 4 minutes 30 seconds: take the workers out with the sniper rifle, and move by vehicle inside the quarry. When you move the cars, flying low is faster.
  • Steal the train without being spotted: take the workers out with a melee weapon, a sniper rifle, or a suppressed weapon.
  • Setup: Getaway Vehicle
  • Find a four-door car and call Lester, and he has you park it in the underground garage of the Arcadius Business Center, at a spot he chooses. You cannot use a protagonist's personal car or an emergency vehicle.
  • In the job itself you take a five-star wanted level plus gunfire from FIB Grangers and NOOSE, so bulletproof tires are worth fitting, and it is better to raise armor, engine, and brakes as far as they go. There is nothing to fail and no gold medal, and after the heist the car reappears in the same spot with the modifications intact.
  • Crew
  • Driver 1 flies the second gold helicopter. An inexperienced Karim crashes at the wind farm and you lose half the gold, so put him in the driver 2 seat, driving the train. Other drivers can crash too if they are late bringing down the Merryweather helicopters.
  • Gunman 1 helps Franklin in the vault, and whoever you pick, he does his share. Gunman 2 faces the police with Michael, and Karl, Norm, Hugh, and Daryl help less and may need protecting. Norm, Hugh, and Daryl are much better if they have Bureau Raid experience.
  • The combination that pays the most is drivers Taliana and Karim, and gunmen Daryl and Norm or Hugh.
  • Cutting into the vault
  • While Michael picks up gunman 2 and goes to the front of the bank to draw the police, drive the Cutter as Franklin and cut a large hole in the vault wall.
  • Park the Cutter off to the side of the wall, stick sticky bombs to both vault doors, then step back and detonate them. You fail if you run out of sticky bombs, or the Cutter is destroyed while it is blocking the way.
  • Hold off the NOOSE troops rappelling down and cover gunman 1 until he moves the gold carts. A rifle with an extended magazine, or a minigun that does not need a reload, is useful.
  • The shootout in front of the bank
  • When the second cart gets stuck, Trevor flies off toward Blaine County with the gold hanging under him, and gunman 1 gets out on his own. Switch to Michael and a long shootout with the police continues in front of the bank, so spend health and ammo carefully.
  • When a Buzzard shows up, it aims rockets at the group. Bring it down quickly with an RPG or a minigun. The police never stop coming, so do not try to get them all, and move forward when you hear your partner's lines.
  • NOOSE Grangers burst into the underground garage where the getaway car is. Break the vehicles with RPGs, grenades, or sticky bombs, but do not hit the getaway car.
  • Switch to Franklin before you get in the car, and you can use the special ability while driving. It takes about 1 to 2 minutes for the five-star wanted level to clear, so it is better to hide underground, such as in a sewer or the subway.
  • Helicopter escort
  • When the wanted level clears, switch to Trevor and follow the pilot ahead of you. When Merryweather helicopters show up, hold your helicopter steady so Lester can fire the RPG, and be especially careful as you pass the wind farm.
  • You fail if the hanging cargo drops, and you also fail if you are late dealing with the Merryweather helicopters and the other pilot crashes.
  • Once every helicopter is down, find the train on the radar, set the gold down on the flatbed, and land in the hangar at McKenzie Field to finish.
  • Gold medal
  • 20 headshots, and accuracy of at least 60%
  • Finish within 16 minutes
  • Skip every cutscene.
  • Set the gold down on the train within 30 seconds
  • Set it down before the train passes under the quarry bridge, or just after it has passed.
  • Reasons for failure
  • A protagonist dies or is busted, Lester or a crew member dies, or you leave the group behind
  • The bank catches on before the job, the Cutter gets stuck or is destroyed while blocking the way, or you run out of sticky bombs
  • A helicopter is destroyed while loading the gold, the cargo falls off a helicopter, or you leave the gold or a helicopter behind
  • The getaway car, Franklin's car, or Trevor's truck is destroyed, or Merryweather follows you to the rendezvous

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