Casino Heist Repeat Glitch
Recently I’ve returned to GTA Online as a way to experience some psuedo-reality during this COVID unpleasantness. Somehow, that one whim turned into a nigh addiction. In it, I’ve had a blast with the Diamond Casino Heist, a flexible, multi-approach heist on GTAO’s newest DLC addition. Below is a number of tips and tricks I’ve learned from doing the heist dozens of times, both for the heist in general and for each specific approach.
General tips:
Change the vault contents to your liking. Apart from scoping the place out, the first task is to identify what the vault holds. The contents, in increasing value and decreasing occurrence, are cash, art, gold, and diamonds. When Lester has you hack into the casino’s security cameras and identify the contents, if you are dissatisfied with them you can reroll the contents without having to repeat the mission. Simply call Lester to cancel the heist while still in the casino, then return to your arcade and start prep work for the heist again. Note that you could also simply cancel the heist at any time; cancelling while still in the casino essentially tricks the game into thinking you have completed the mission (which you have), so that the next time you pay the setup cost you will have identified your vault contents without having to repeat the mission. It costs 25k to do the setup for each new heist; this amounts to 8 or so rerolls to get the next best vault contents.
Perfectly executing silent and sneaky or the big con nets you the most money, and are the easiest to get the elite challenge for. Throw in the 10% extra for hard-difficulty heists and you basically only play aggressive for fun.
Always grab the level 2 security pass. Yes, it’s an extra setup, but the missions are only about 5 minutes long and will a) save you the trouble during the finale, and b) make it easier to hit the elite challenge. The security pass isn’t really necessary for the aggressive approach, but I suppose it’s nice to be able to swipe a card and not have to worry about being shot while hacking.
You don’t need to kill all of the Duggan shipments. All you have to do is to remove the guards’ helmets (provided you aren’t spotted) and that doesn’t take many.
You can have Lester call off the cops in some prep missions. As a general rule of thumb, if you don’t directly interact with the police or the government as part of the mission, he can remove your wanted level.
Mind the cap. Depending on your contents, you will have a cap on how much money you will actually take from the vault. For instance, I happen to know that with gold the maximum amount you will earn is roughly 3.7 million dollars. While in the vault this number may be higher; indeed, my team and I broke 4 million just for the vanity of doing so. However, on the final “Heist Complete” screen it will show your take as capped out. Knowing how long it takes to grab this amount of money can allow you to choose cheaper hackers for better cuts.
Choose your crew wisely. There is almost no reason to choose anyone other than the cheapest gunman, and the only reason not to choose the cheapest driver is if you want cheaper prices for some of the vehicles on the two vehicle websites. The hacker is a little more difficult. The better the hacker, the longer you have to steal from the vault, but the bigger cut they take. When you throw in the money caps from above, worse hackers don’t seem like a bad idea. To put it in perspective, two players on hard can easily steal all artwork with Feltz as the hacker, bringing each individual take to just over 1 million.
When prepping with two players, always have the hired player be the away team. This shaves off a few minutes if the host is closer to the arcade to start the next mission. You should be able to complete the entire heist with two players, start to finish in just over an hour with Oppressors and just under 90 minutes in cars.
Many heist prep items can be collected by running them over with a vehicle. The handheld drills are small enough that one person can collect two (if not given the van mission).
Entry and exit points on the finale board are just suggestions. You can choose any entry and any exit point on the heist board, and the only difference is where the game suggests you go. As long as you approach any entrance/exit the game will proceed as normal.
Know your movement speeds. When indoors, jumping is faster than just running. Jumping in first person is not faster than jumping in third person, even though you jump more frequently in first person. Also note that you cannot jump with a full bag of gold; furthermore, gold will slow you down when outdoors, and you run at the same speed regardless of whatever weapon you’re holding or if you’re unarmed. Lastly, note that dying often makes the game forget you’re supposed to be encumbered, and therefore returns full movement speed to you.
Fingerprints are just an exercise in memorization. There are only four fingerprints that the game generates, and each fingerprint has the same four partial components. Hacking the fingerprint scanner, then, is just a matter of memorizing which partial prints match the offered full print.
You don’t have to stun cameras. You will not be detected by cameras if you pass their line of sight within 3 seconds. This shaves of a few seconds here and there, but even that can mean hitting the elite challenge or not. This is also especially useful on certain big con approaches where you don’t even have a stun gun.
On the topic of cameras, their blind spots are generally the walls/ceilings that they are attached to. If you “take cover” against these walls, you should be able to simply wait for the camera to move (thus reducing its vision cone) before you move.
Use combat stances when you need to. You can “sprint” while aiming, allowing you to strafe faster and check corners more easily. However, not as many people know you can sprint-sneak while aiming. Simply enter sneak mode, aim your weapon, and hold the sprint button as you move around.
Sometimes guards bug out and don’t move. This shouldn’t necessarily be a problem on the silent approach, but it is a real headache for the big con.
Escape from the staff lobby. In my opinion the staff lobby is the easiest exit. One option is to hop the fence onto the race track and always hug the outer railing. There will be a cop that approaches you, but for some reason often does not see you despite you being clearly in his line of sight. This approach is far less effective when stealing gold, as you are slow and heavy. The alternative is to make an immediate right, and hug the outside of the racetrack. Note that there will be two NOOSE agents next to a police van. You will have to knock out the left one to get past. When doing silent and sneaky, do NOT shoot him; for some reason his buddy will always turn around and notice you. Also note that because of Rockstar’s weird spawning mechanics, sometimes the van will spawn on top of the left NOOSE agent, allowing you to run past. If you stay hugged right on the outside of the racetrack all the way to the racetrack’s loading area, You will remain unseen, regardless of what the map seems to say.
The placement of the getaway cars informs you of the location of the buyer. Knowing what locations correspond to what car locations can help you decide how you want to approach the escape.
On the topic of escape, the safest method is to head into the sewers, hence why I prefer the staff lobby exit. When you reach the subway tracks, there are three places to go (excluding the path you just came from): left into downtown LS, forward/right onto the freeway, and right into a series of tunnels. Ignore the right path. Choose forward (you might recognize this from the jewelry store heist or the UD heist from GTAV), and if you are still being hunted stop right before you get into the construction zone. Sometimes cops will enter the freeway entrance, so you don’t want to be too close, and above the construction zone is an open grate that you can sometimes be spotted through (or so we think), so you want to be under cover. I also suspect that cops are coded a little differently for this heist; it’s not that uncommon for them to suddenly spot you even though you supposedly got away free. In that case, immediately turn back into the sewers and either wait to be unspotted again or take the alternate route from above.
Downed is fine. If you’re compromised when escaping, aim for NOOSE heads, but keep moving. If you can’t kill NOOSE, downing them is fine as you make your getaway. On a similar note, if you can’t kill chopper pilots, aim for the tail rotors.
The sewers are the safest route, but not the fastest route. If you are going for the elite challenge, you may not necessarily want to go into the sewers. Going into the sewers is a valid plan if the getaway cars are right across the street (and the buyers are on a northwest beach). On the other hand, if the buyer is in Paleto Bay or the lumberyard, you will have to try to lose the cops as you traverse the freeway. Don’t bother looking for the getaway cars; any car will do. Head roughly in the same direction as the waypoint, but take a lot of offroad routes. Note that you shouldn’t head directly towards the NW beach buyer, because the western highway has far fewer places to hide than the middle highway that the casino is located on.
Use the duplication glitch on gold. There is a glitch when taking gold that essentially allows certain carts of gold to be maxed out in capacity. To execute this glitch, your take must first be under 100k. This means no stealing from the daily vault; besides, with this glitch, you won’t have to. First, identify five carts of gold. There are two or three in the center, so quickly figure out which other ones to go for. Next, steal one bar of gold from each of the five carts you have identified. Note that any hacking must be done before that player steals gold; in other words, if person A sets up the carts for the glitch in the middle, they are not allowed to hack. Person B should hack only as many doors as they need before moving on to set up the glitch. Once all of the five carts are emptied, all players can hack as normal, but at this point you should be maxed out anyway. Upon setting up the final cart, exit the stealing animation. Each of the five carts are now set up to be duplicated. Re-enter any of the five carts, and you will notice the gold has been maxed out. Steal as normal. This glitch might work with cash or diamonds, but I always reroll when I see cash anyway and I’ve never gotten diamonds to test it.
Silent and sneaky
There are two types of glass: the transparent door glass, and the sort of black crisscrossed security glass. Enemies will not see you in through the latter, and you can shoot through the former without making noise. It doesn’t make sense, I know, but those are the mechanics.
Grabbing the infiltration suits allows you to rappel down the elevator shaft. It’s pretty cool.
Here’s my full run on hard. Some bits are easier on normal difficulty. Optional preps to complete are level 2 security passes and Duggan shipments. If the take is art, I might grab hand drills, especially with more than two players. Security intel and patrol routes are nice, but to be honest you don’t need them, especially if you really start learning the setup. Enter from the staff lobby. Remember that you don’t have to stun cameras; you can test this out by running past the external camera to the staff lobby entrance. Look through the metal detectors towards the front desk. There are anywhere between 1 and 3 guards; sometimes there is one behind the part that curves to the right, and there are up to two behind the part that faces the metal detectors. Take out any guards in this part facing the metal detectors. You should also be able to get an angle on the right bend guard from here. Stun the detectors, move through. There is a camera on the wall behind you, to your left. Stun the camera and check the bit of room next to the hallway. Sometimes there are two guards talking to each other. If they are there, you need to kill them. Go back to the metal detectors, and this time go right, hugging the front desk. There will be two guards up ahead talking to each other. Don’t kill them. Instead, look into the security room. There is usually one guard, sometimes two. Kill the guard(s) through the window. Swipe into the security room. Sometimes, the only unlocked door is the front one. If that is the case, remember to stun the camera first. If the take is gold, ignore the daily vault. There is a guard patrolling the elevator corridor. Either kill him as he is on the left side of the hallway, or wait until he is just about to pass through the right-side double doors and shoot him through the window (and therefore out of sight of the camera). Move to the stairs. Move down the stairs, pausing before the first landing. There will be a guard coming up the stairs. Shoot him before moving on. On the third landing, there will be a camera. Again, noting that cameras will not see you for 3 seconds, you can either run past it or jump down the stairs. When you reach the vault level, make an immediate right. The hallway splits into two “airlocks”, with a camera in between them. There will always be a guard coming through. Usually he comes through the right airlock, but sometimes he comes through the left. Stun the camera and kill him through the glass when he reaches the airlock. Go into the left airlock. There is a camera directly ahead next to the wall. Shoot it with a gun. Kill the two guards in the middle desk. Kill the guard directly to the right when you exit the airlock. Ignore the security room on this floor and go to the vault. On the way out, make sure the camera you shot is destroyed. If not, shoot it again. Wait for the two roaming guards to make it past the airlock; sometimes one of them bugs out and turns around weirdly. When they make it through, shoot the guard in the middle. Have one player go left and one player go right towards the elevator. Kill the two guards, then kill the one guard that’s next to the elevator. Go up the stairs. If you have stolen gold, you will need to stun the camera on the way up. When reaching the top, you can either take the faster option a) to get out of the staff lobby via the security room, or the safer option b) to get out via the laundry hallway. The faster option is pretty self-explanatory. For the safer option, before you leave the stairs, make sure there isn’t a roaming guard. If there is, take him out similarly to how you did upon entrance. Check the right doors. If they are blocked with cleaning supplies, make a left. Go around the entire elevator corridor, being careful of the camera. Go through the double doors. Check your left through the window to see if there is a guard there. Kill him. Go through, make a left and peek down the hallway. You will notice a sort of portal/doorway halfway down. If there is a guard, he must be killed on this side of the portal; the other side has a camera. Go through the laundry room on the right (bypassing the camera). Go to the door that is farthest along the hallway. You can shoot the door to open it. Remember the camera above you on the right. When guards are not looking, stun the camera, stun the metal detector, and leave. Take my advice regarding escape from above and you’re home free.
The big con
This GTA Online horse racing glitch was easy to carry out, but unfortunately it quickly became too good to be true, and as of Wednesday August 7, 2019, a hotfix was applied by Rockstar to remove. The danger in doing the repeat 'glitch' isn't in getting banned. This has been around since day one, and if Rockstar started to ban people for doing repeats they'd have to ban at least 90% of the player base. The danger is in getting bad sport points!
The only optional prep worth getting is level 2 security passes.
If you locate all 54 playing cards around the map, you unlock the high roller outfits for the heist. These are the least disguising disguises, but they keep you hidden while inside the casino (which is the most important part anyway), and more crucially this saves you from ever having to do another exit disguise prep. If you must do an exit disguise prep, the firefighter outfits are slightly easier to get. If you want NOOSE, breach the police station from the roof, otherwise you’re gonna have a really hard time getting out.
All exits are the same. When reaching the top of the stairs, wait for the guard to pass. He will be moving left to right. When he passes the door, knock him out. If the “airlock” to your right is blocked, you will have to go left. Go around the elevator corridor and through the double doors. Be careful about the windowed door on your left; there will be another guard. When he turns around, push up and knock him out. The laundry corridor goes to the left. There will be yet another guard. When the guard is moving away from you, push up. There will be no need to knock him out; simply take the door off to the right and get changed, following the t-shirt icons on your map. Put your gun away if you have it out, and you are free to just run to the staff lobby exit through the metal detectors. Use my above tip on escaping.
Gruppe Sechs full run: nothing to it. Don’t draw your gun for any reason, walk in, steal stuff, get out.
There is a bug (not sure if patched) where killing the guard at the staff lobby will automatically have you execute the Gruppe Sechs approach, even if it is not the one you selected. Look around for more details; it is not something I do but perhaps something you might be interested in.
Yung Ancestor full run: To unlock Yung Ancestor, there is a cutscene you need to trigger by going to the casino’s roof terrace. When prepping there will be two missions you need to complete. Complete those two missions and you will have YA entrance disguises. Note that you still have to complete an entrance disguise setup anyway; choose whichever you want. After the YA cutscene in the heist finale, head down the hallway towards the double doors. Through the doors, knock out the guy on the left (strictly speaking this isn’t necessary, but he’s turned around at inopportune times for me before). Head to the staircase. The stairs have a gap in the middle, jump down the gap. Make a left, and wait for a guard to come through. When he is out of view of the other guards, knock him out. Approach the curved desk in front of the security room. There are two guards that you have to knock out in quick succession; the second one will react to you knocking out the first, so move quickly. I’ve read that sometimes using the knife is quieter, but I’ve personally had better luck with a pistol whip. Wait for the camera to be in the right place, then go into the laundry hallway. Be careful, as there is a guard that patrols this hallway. Immediately cross the highway into the laundry room proper, moving up through the locker room. Wait for the guard to be walking down the way you came. Sneak out behind him and head towards the elevator corridor. There will be a guard patrolling the elevator corridor. If the doors directly next to the staircase are unblocked, ignore him. If they’re not, knock him out when walks out of the elevator corridor into the double doors. If there is a guard on the stairs, knock him out (you’ll want to be at his elevation for this). When you exit the staircase there will be two roaming guards whose patrol routes end in the area to your left (right outside of the elevator). Quickly knock them both out. Turn around and go to the left “airlock”. There is a roaming guard in the middle desk area and a camera in front of a pillar. Time your run with the guard, and when you move make sure you hug the pillar to stay out of sight of the guard; you can use this break room right next to you to collect your bearings. Again, doing this correctly means you should not be spotted on camera. Go to the vault. The way out is essentially the reverse of what you just did. When you reach the stairs, you’re home free.
Bugstars full run: after leaving Agatha’s office, knock out the one guard at the bottom of the elevator. Wait for the two roaming guards to go off to the left; you can either follow them and knock them out when they reach the elevator, or head across the room to the break room. Time your run with the guard, and when you move make sure you hug the pillar to stay out of sight of the guard; you can use this break room right next to you to collect your bearings. Again, doing this correctly means you should not be spotted on camera. Go to the vault. On the way out, hug the wall again to get to the break room. Go through the “airlock” and to the stairs, and you’re home free.
Maintenance gear full run: you essentially reverse the exit strategy. From the laundry room, head towards the elevator corridor. Knock out the guard out of view of the camera if need be, and head down the stairs. If there is a guard on the stairs, knock him out (you’ll want to be at his elevation for this). When you exit the staircase there will be two roaming guards whose patrol routes end in the area to your left (right outside of the elevator). Quickly knock them both out. Turn around and go to the left “airlock”. There is a roaming guard in the middle desk area and a camera in front of a pillar. Time your run with the guard, and when you move make sure you hug the pillar to stay out of sight of the guard; you can use this break room right next to you to collect your bearings. Again, doing this correctly means you should not be spotted on camera. Go to the vault. The way out is essentially the reverse of what you just did. When you reach the stairs, you’re home free.
Aggressive
Diamond Casino Heist Glitch
The easiest approach is from the sewers as this puts you on the vault level. However, you need 80 headshots for the elite challenge, so either choose another approach (like the main door) or just ignore the elite challenge.
Guards will spawn infinitely. With three players you can have one cover the other two while they swipe; otherwise, find a lull in the waves of guards.
You will always get an SMG with the cheapest gunman. Getting all ten Duggan shipments means that the guards are easy to kill, so there isn’t a need for a better gunman. I recommend the Micro SMG loadout, because you will want to shoot cops during your getaway.
Full run: Select sewer entrance. There are always two guards in the center area, two on the left next to the vault, and two on the right near the elevator. If you understand prefiring, do so. Get to the vault. Turn around and make sure the elevator areas are clear before turning around and swiping the cards. On the way out, prefire the door because there is always one guard on the other side. Prefire the left elevators because there are always two there. Run up the stairs and bust through to the exit.