Heists in GTA 5‘s story mode are story missions, not something you start on demand. There are five of them, and each one asks you to make two decisions before it begins: which approach you take, and which crew you hire. Those two choices decide how the heist plays and how much money you walk away with.
The Five Heists
In story order, they are the Jewel Store Job, the Merryweather Heist, the Paleto Score, the Bureau Raid, and the Big Score. They arrive as the plot reaches them, so there is no way to run one early or repeat one later.
The Big Score is the finale and the largest payout in the game by a wide margin.
Choosing an Approach
Most heists offer two routes, broadly a quiet one and a loud one:
- The Jewel Store Job gives you a smart entry using smoke grenades, or a loud entry straight through the front.
- The Bureau Raid lets you fly onto the roof, or walk in disguised as a fire crew.
- The Big Score offers a subtle approach built around an EMP, or an obvious one with an attack helicopter.
Neither option is a trap. They change the preparation missions you run and the shape of the heist itself, and players tend to have strong preferences in both directions.
Hiring the Crew
This is the decision that moves the money. Each crew slot offers several candidates, and each one asks for a percentage of the take. Cheaper crew members are less skilled, and on some heists that costs you directly: a weak driver or a weak gunman can lose you more of the score than their lower cut saves.
There is one detail that makes the early heists worth thinking about. Crew who survive a heist gain experience and come back more skilled, while still asking for the same percentage. Hiring a cheap, low-skill specialist early and reusing them later is a genuine strategy, because you are effectively training them at a discount.
Community heist guides go deep on the exact optimal crew for each job. We would treat the specific payout tables on those sites as approximate rather than exact, since they are not published by Rockstar.
Before You Start One
Heists have preparation missions attached, and they move you around the map. Make sure you have a save you are happy with, using our guide on how to save your game, and know how to switch characters, because several preparation missions are assigned to a specific protagonist.
If you need funds before the story reaches the Big Score, our guide on making money fast covers the options that do not involve waiting for a heist.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you replay heists in story mode? No. Story mode heists happen once, in story order.
Does the approach change the payout? It changes the heist and its preparation, and the take varies with it, but crew skill has the larger effect on what you keep.
What happens if a crew member dies? They do not gain experience and are not available for later heists.
Which heist pays the most? The Big Score, by a very wide margin.