GTA 5 – Criminal Mastermind / Everything You Need to Know

This guide will show you a few tips and tricks to help you complete the Criminal Mastermind Challenge in classic GTA Online Heists.

Introduction

Note: Credit goes to Neazzy

• First of all you need to know that “Criminal Mastermind”, “All in Order” and “Loyalty” are all in-game awards that can be compleeted only ONCE per account. So it means that once you have achieved these awards and got your reward, you will NOT be able to complete them again – even on your new GTA Online character.
• You need to complete all 5 Heists on Hard difficulty, played in order (including Setups), with the same team of players and without losing any lives.
• You WILL NOT reset your progress on these three awards if you fail the mission (without anyone dying) or if someone leaves in the middle of the job.
• Tip: If someone is about to die on the job you can use this little trick, just make someone leave the job or destroy a required vehicle / alarm someone to fail the mission.
• Restarting the job from a checkpoint WILL NOT effect your statistics for the Criminal Mastermind challenge.

Rewards

• The “Criminal Mastermind” challenge will reward you with $10.000.000 GTA$, while the other 2 awards “All in Order” and “Loyalty” will give you $1.000.000 each
• The total reward that you will get at the end of the final heist will be $12.000.000.

Requirements / Preparation

• It is advised to be at least rank 135 to complete this challenge. After reaching this rank you can carry 10 armors and have the maximum amount of snacks in your inventory.
• When you are inside a vehicle, leave your inventory menu open so you can use heavy armors and snacks when needed.
• Buy a Heavy Utility Vest and Bulletproof Helmet from any clothing store and save them in “Saved Outfits” inventory. Note that before starting any Setup mission or Heist finale, the host must select the Heist Clothing as “Player Saved Outfits” so that all team members can equip their heavy utility vests. This outfit will offer you an increased protection but it will slow you down. Tip: You can jump while moving to run slightly faster.
• Make sure that at least one of your team members have an Armored Kuruma or an Insurgent in their garages. It is advised that all members of the team enter in the same vehicle in every single mission.

Additional Tips

• Stay away from vehicles that are about to explode.
• Don’t use RPG or any kind of explosives to decrease the chances of killing your self accidentally.
• Always get in cover to decrease the chances of getting killed by enemies.

The Fleeca Job

• If all players of your team want to achieve the Criminal Mastermind award you can split up in two separate groups to complete the first three missions of this heist and then join up for the first mission of the second heist. So for example, Player 1 & Player 2 complete the Fleeca Job and Player 3 & Player 4 complete the fleeca job. After that, all 4 players start the Prison Break heist.
• This heist is easy, just wear the Heavy Utility Vest from “Player Selected Outfits” and follow the mission objectives.

The Prison Break Heist

• For the first setup “Prison Break -Plane”, you just need a single armored kuruma. All players get in a kuruma and shoot all the enemies at the McKenzie field. After that, one player has to deliver the plane to the location and that’s it.
• For the second setup “Prison Break – Bus”, again all you need is a single armored kuruma. Use the AP pistol or any gun to blow up the car and the helicopter. After that one member should deliver the bus while other players lose the cops to complete the mission.
• For the third setup “Prison Break – Station”, The Station Team must steal a Police Cruiser and lose the cops. The easiest way to lose the cops is using the subway construction tunnel (the one from The Jewel Store Job). For The Cargo Ship Team, just make sure players are using their Heavy Utility Vests. NOTE: Don’t shoot while you’re escaping with the car, otherwise you will get a wanted level and it will just be more difficult to lose them. Also, don’t forget to leave your inventory open to use snacks and armors if needed.
• For the fourth setup “Prison Break – Wet Work” it is pretty easy. You just need to use a heavy utility vests. The mansion Team just need to kill Popov. The City Hall Team needs an Armored Kuruma parked in front of the city hall. After killing the lawyers they need to get down, kill all the cops and collect the package. After collecting the package just get in the kuruma and lose your wanted level.

Now for the Heist Finale:

• Before getting inside the bus, the Prisoner can stop by Ammu-Nation and buy a gun and ammo or the other player “Prison Officer” can drop some weapons or ammo to him and let the Prisoner collect them.
• Be careful and always use armors and snacks from your inventory.
• The Pilot and the Demolition tasks are pretty easy. The Pilot needs to stay behind the Lazer and follow it to avoid getting shot. The demolition just needs to give air support to the Prisoner and Prison Officer when they leave the prison and destroy as many enemies as possible.
• After that, The Pilot needs to land on the airstrip and let Rashkowsky and the ground team get in the plane. Lose the cops and follow other objectives.
• Note: The Demolition with the buzzard MUST be careful to NOT land on the marked spot and let the rest of the team parachute onto the beach first because they can get killed by the chopper.

The Humane Labs Raid

• For the first setup “Humane Raid – Key Codes” as always you just need to use the Heavy Utility Vest.
• For the second setup “Humane Raid – Insurgent” you just need to use the Heavy Utility vests and the kuruma to take down all the enemies. As soon as all players get in the insurgent open your inventory to use snacks and armors if needed. Also, one player should use the turret to take down the helicopters.
• For the third setup “Humane Raid – EMP”, as always just use the Heavy Utility Vests and DO NOT use RPGs or any kind of explosives to avoid getting killed by an accident.
• For the fourth setup “Humane Raid – Valkyrie”, just use the HEavy Utility Vests and an Armored Kuruma as always. One player should get out of the car and get rid of the buzzard. After that every player should get in a helicopter and use miniguns.
• For the fifth setup “Humane Raid – Deliver EMP” there are no actual shootouts. This is a stealth mission. This mission requires a bit of co-ordination with your teammates, so try using a discord or some kind of voice chat to communicate with other members.

Now for the Heist Finale:

• As always, everyone should wear a Heavy Utility Vest. The Ground Team has to make its way to the facility. Just shoot them and use armors and snacks if needed. The Gunner and the Pilot can simply wait outside aand take down all the enemy choppers. Also be careful with the rotor blades of the Valkyrie and as soon as the Ground Team joins up, take down the remaining Buzzards with the miniguns or RPGs.

Series a Funding

• For the first setup “Series A – Coke” just use the Heavy Utility Vests. The chopper team should get in a helicopter and kill as many enemies as possible around the yacht. The Boat Team, instead, should go inside the ship and collect the coke. After that just lose the cops.
• For the second setup “Series A – Trash Truck” you have to be careful because you can’t use the Heavy Utility Vests. Always park the trashmaster near the trash bags so the collectors will be less exposed to enemies. Also do not let the enemy cars get close to you and as always leave your inventory open just in case you need snacks and armors.
• For the third setup “Series A – Bikers” just use the Heavy Utility Vests. You can easily kill all enemies with a suppressed weapon. After that split up your team into two groups and take the vans. As always, leave the inventory open just in case. The passenger should use weapons to take down the incoming enemies while the driver must avoid them and get to the checkpoint safe.
• For the fourth setup “Series A – Weed” use the heavy utility vests and an Armored Kuruma. Just kill everyone from inside your car. Collect the vans and the Technical. The guys in the Technical should protect the vans from the incoming enemies with the minigun.
• For the fifth setup “Series A – Meth” use the heavy utility vests and an Armored Kuruma and kill everyone from inside your car. Once you’ve collected the tanker simply follow the waypoint.

Now for the Heist Finale:

• As always set “Player Saved Outfits” to select the Heavy Utility Vest and go to Trevor’s place. kill all the enemies from inside the warehouse and use the RPG for the incoming vehicles. After that take the vans and the Technical and as always leave your inventory open just in case. This mission is pretty easy if you use Heavy Utility Vest and the armors from your inventory.

The Pacific Standard

• For the first setup “Pacific Standard – Vans” just follow the instructions and that’s it.
• For the second setup “Pacific Standard – Signal” just use the Heavy Utility Vests and leave your inventory open. When you get to the beach you should leave your armored kuruma there. Get to the island and take down the enemies and the police helicopter. After that take Avi to the beach in your parked kuruma and lose the cops.
• For the third setup “Pacific Standard – Hack” as always use the Heavy Utility Vests and kill everyone who gets in your way and take the white van. The Decoys team on the black van should leave their inventory open while they’re taking care of the incoming enemies.
• For the fourth setup “Pacific Standard – Convoy” as always use the heavy utility vests. As soon as the Savage helicopter appears use the heavy sniper to take it down from there. As soon as the convoy is close enough, detonate the sticky bombs and kill all the remaining enemies. One teammate should steal the Barracks, while the other three take the Insurgent pick-up. Three guys should protect the Barracks with the Insurgent and as always just leave your inventory open just in case.
• For the fifth setup “Pacific Standard – Bikes” simply use the heavy utility vests and an armored kuruma to take down all the enemies. After that take the Lectro Bikes and leave your inventory open. Also, try to avoid the incoming enemies driving on the sidewalks.

Now for the Heist Finale:

• Select the Heist Clothing as Player Saved Outfits and every player should use Heavy Utility Vests. Go to the bank and just make sure to not kill any hostages, otherwise the NOOSE will arrive making the escape much more difficult. One member of the Crowd Control should stay ready to kill the guards coming from upstairs. If the team wants to save the highest possible take in this heist, then let only one person – the Demolition or the Hacker take all the money. The team member with the money will have to stay back and let his friends clear the streets before moving forward. Kill everyone in the alleyway and get to the bikes.
• Now for some tips and tricks here. Note that YOU DO NOT need to use the Lectro Bikes.

Tips:

• Steal the Police Cruiser parked in front of the nearest Ammu-Nation. This is not the safest method but you can complete the mission this way.
• Also a similar example is to use the bikes, find a Police Riot in a roadblock and steal it. This van is bullet-proof and will let you safely get past the other roadblocks.
• Follow the GPS route, stay off the streets as much as possible and go directly to the Dinghy in the Raton Canyon.
• The person that collected the money should duck in the car (HOLD X BY DEFAULT) to avoid getting hit by the police.

After that just get in the dinghy and take it out to sea.