GTA 5 Online Heists guide: How to make the most money with Special Bonuses and Elite Challenges

Guide by Staff Contributor

Published on March 25, 2015

You're not hitting heists for the good of your health. Here's how to max cash rewards.

Head back to our GTA 5 Online Heists guide.

Money. GTA Online players love it. Greenbacks are the core of the entire experience, allowing you to buy the best weapons, vehicles and stupid haircuts. Heists, as promised, gives more opportunities than ever to earn serious cash, but once you've run through all the jobs on Normal difficulty you're going to want to max out the pay-back with special awards and tweaks.

Be sure to check out our complete GTA Online Heists guide for all the information you need to get through the jobs. Now. Before we tell you how to get rich quick, though, here's a couple of quick tips to make sure you're banking as hard as possible.

Quick tips to fast cash in GTA Online Heists

Be the host: Yes, we know this is easier said than done when everyone wants to be the host, but the best financial rewards are available in the finale to the heist leader. Hosts are able to set the percentage pay-out in the finale, meaning The Pacific Standard Job, with its potential final pay-out of $1.25 million, can be seriously lucrative. The best way to be able to host these heists is to get together with a strong group and take it in turns.
Play on Hard: Don't be scared of the Hard setting. You'll get 25% more cash and RP for bumping up the difficulty. The main challenge here isn't so much the toughness of the opponents, but rather the fact you're given no reserve lives. If anyone dies, you have to start again. Just be careful. You'll be better rewarded.

There. No here's how you bring in serious bank by completing Heists' Special Bonuses and Elite Challenges.

Special bonuses

Heists has five main special bonuses attached to its jobs. Some of them pay automatically and some of them are absurdly difficult. All pay well, but these are one-off payments for achieving specific goals. You can't repeat them, so be sure to grab the screenshot if you succeed.

First Time: You get a $100,000 bonus for completing any heist for the first time. Running through all the heists once will net you a cool $500,000 in bonuses, so don't pussy-out after the first couple.
All In Order Challenge: This one's harder. As the name suggests, you need to complete every set-up and heist in order, starting with The Fleeca Job. Your dedication to this cause will pull in $1 million. Not to be sniffed at, but you'll probably need to be tight with a dedicated group of players to be able to complete this.
Loyalty Challenge: You'll get the Loyalty award for finishing every set-up and finale with the same group of players. The order in which you finish them is irrelevant. The pay-out? $1 million.
Criminal Mastermind Challenge: This is the hardest award in the entire game. You'll receive an enormous $10 million bonus if you can complete every set-up and finale in order with the same group of players without any loss of life. Your progress will be completely reset if anyone dies on any of the jobs, regardless of how close you are to the end. Only for true brutalists.
Another Perspective:: You get this award for completing all set-ups and finales in first-person view. Another Perspective can only be achieved on PS4 or Xbox One, and it requires the host to lock the camera option to first-person when setting up each job. We don't know for definite how much this pays out, but Matt's seen an on-screen note saying it gives $100,000. Is the figure awarded per heist or for completing them all? Only one way to find out.

Elite challenges

While the Special Bonuses can only be completed once by each player, you're able to run Elite Challenges as many times as you like. The pay-outs are far lower than the one-off bonuses, but once you're in a good group of knowledgable players you should be able to rinse these easily, adding an extra $450,000 to any run-through. These challenges only apply to the finale of each heist.

The Fleeca Job