GTA Online Diamond Casino Heist Setup Guide: Approaches, Access Points of Interest, Support Crew
The Diamond Casino Heist is the biggest ever to hit GTA Online, and requires drawing up meticulous setup plans to walk away with the maximum payout. Here’s a run-down of the setup board for the Diamond Casino Heist in GTA Online so you can beat the house.
There are multiple different preparation options for you to choose from at nearly every stage of setup for the Diamond Casino Heist - from when you’re casing the joint to when you’re breaking into the vault.
The first time you successfully run the Heist is free. But you’ll have to pay to play thereafter.
GTA Online Diamond Casino Heist set up
Setup: Arcade Equipment
Next head over to your new digs and a cutscene will play and you’ll be able to begin the first set up missions by walking over to the laptop in the empty arcade basement.
Interacting with the laptop launches the first setup mission - Arcade Equipment - where you track down some initial kit for your hideout.
Make your way to the Post Op Depository and chase down the jacked truck. Take out the drivers and schlep back to your arcade.
On your return another cutscene plays where Lester runs through the prospective plan in three parts: scope, prepping, score. He also briefly goes over the three ways that you can play the heist: stealthy, aggressive, or “the big con”.
First on your list is scoping out the casino for opportunities.
Scoping out the Casino - Scope every entrance and POI
These are all optional objectives that give you more options when you’re infiltrating the casino. Scoping is split into two missions, scope out the casino and scope out the vault contents.
You can scope all of the access points in scoping the casino, but you can only get the first six points of interest. The others are gathered from the separate scout “vault contents” mission.
These are the six Access Points to the Diamond Casino :
- Main Door - at the front of the casino
- Side Doors - take pictures of the keypad doors on the sides of the casino, there’s one on the back and left-hand side
- Roof Terrace - four keypad doors, one next to the pool, one down the stairs behind the bar, two around the back jump off the ledge on the left-hand side of the pool and follow the path around
- Security Tunnel - in the tunnel under the racetrack at the back of the casino, take a picture of the garage door
- Roof - Take a picture of the two keypad doors either side of the helipad
- Sewer Tunnel - Across the street from the casino is a big storm drain, head down into the sewer here and take a picture of the grate.
Here’s a picture of the sewer grate you’re looking for:
These are all of the points of interest:
Main points of interest
- Security Guard - stood next to the elevator by the front desk
- Keypad - on the casino floor, next to restricted access doors
- 1st Security Camera - found on the ceiling of the main casino rooms
- 2nd Security Camera - found on the roof and roof terrace
- Valet - out the front door of the casino
- Vault Blueprints - on the desk in the management office (requires VIP membership, go through Inside Track towards the back of the casino and you’ll see the door down a side corridor).
Vault Contents points of interest
To find these you need to move between the different camera views in the time allotted.
- Carpeted room - POI pops as soon as you switch to this view
- Metal Detectors - In grey room
- Security Office door - doors in the room with the grey stripe running down the middle
- Staff elevator - In the purple diamond casino room, pan to the two elevators on the right
- Blue door - In the corridor with the elevator and blue door, pan to the door on the left
Finding these allows you to buy extras from your set up board, letting you find access points easier, or practise the skills you’ll need on the inside.
- Casino Model - $130,000 - highlights access points
- Door Security - $425,000 - practise hacking doors
- Vault Door - $900,000 - practise cracking vault
Diamond Casino Heist - Should you choose Aggressive, Silent and Sneaky, or the Big Con
Now that you’ve earmarked your possible points of entry, it’s time to choose your approach.
They’re pretty self explanatory: Aggressive means you hit the casino hard and violently, Silent relies on clandestine stealth, while the Big Con goes full Ocean’s Eleven with disguises and subterfuge.
All of the routes require a similar amount of prep, so choose whichever you like the look of most - you can always play the others later.
If you need more detail, here’s a rundown of each.
Aggressive Heist Approach
If you’re a fan of GTA Online’s combat, then this is the approach for you. It involves fighting the casino security all the way through the building and using thermal charges to blow the vault open as well as the locked doors inside.
It has six mandatory set up missions, and seven optional with a further locked objective.
The six which you have to do are:
- Get unmarked weapons
- Find getaway vehicles
- Acquire hacking device
- Acquire vault keycards
- Get thermal charges
- Get vault explosives
The optional missions are:
- Scout patrol routes
- Disrupt Duggan shipments
- Acquire security intel
- Get power drills
- Get security passes
- Acquire masks
- Find reinforced armor
The Big Con Approach
In this approach you don a disguise to get inside the casino, then sneak your way to the vault, drill it open, then grab as much as you can carry and fight your way out.
This is probably the most changeable approach, because you can find different entrance disguises and your plan changes quite a lot based on your entry point.
Through optional setup missions you can plan multiple disguises to get you out of the casino as well.
This approach has six mandatory set up missions which are:
- Get unmarked weapons
- Find getaway vehicles
- Find a hacking device
- Acquire vault keycards
- Get your entry disguise
- Get vault drills
There are seven optional set ups, which include:
- Scout patrol routes
- Disrupt Duggan shipments
- Acquire security intel
- Get power drills
- Get security passes
- Acquire masks
- Find an exit disguise
Silent and Sneaky Approach
This is probably the toughest of the three to pull off successfully. It involves sneaking into the building with silenced pistols without getting caught, before drilling open the vault with a laser and avoiding security cameras to ride off into the sunset.
As with the others, there are six setup missions you have to do, with eight optional ones.
The mandatory ones are:
- Get unmarked weapons
- Find getaway vehicles
- Acquire a hacking device
- Get vault keycards
- Acquire a nano drone
- Find Vault Laser
Your optional missions are the same as the Big Con, except that you can find an infiltration suit and steal an EMP instead of getting an exit disguise.
Once you’ve chosen your approach, it’s time to get to work. Remember you can pay to skip certain missions, but not all of them.
Completing all of the optional set up missions gives you the best chance of success, but is not 100% necessary. Their main purpose is to give you options for when things go sideways during the job - so if you're unsure of your plan, make up for it by being prepared.
Which support crew should you choose for the Diamond Casino Heist?
Your support crew for the Diamond Casino Heist consists of a gunman, driver, and hacker.
These basically determine the difficulty level of the heist itself.
A better gunman will equip you with better weaponry.
While a better driver will get you better cars once you make a break for it.
Finally, a better hacker will give you more time in the vault without being detected.
Better support crews come at a higher cut of the total take, and some are more worth it than others. For instance, you’ll definitely want as much time in the vault as possible, so picking an expert hacker is an easy choice. But if you’re not planning on being detected, then top tier guns are a waste.
Take into account your overall approach and choose what fits your style.
GTA Online Diamond Casino Heist payout rewards
It’s what you’re here for after all. The total potential take in cash for one run of the Diamond Casino Heist is $2,115,000.
However, you won’t get all of that. Lester takes a small cut, then your support crew all take their allotted piece. There are then optional extras you can buy to help take the heat off of you in the getaway.
Then you actually have to steal and make off with all the money. Any damage you take inside the casino also reduces your take as you drop notes. This means that the rough player take can be anywhere from $400,000 to $1,750,000.
According to @TezFunz2 on Twitter, who's a reliable source for GTA and RDR2 Online updates, there are four possible random rewards for the Heist in the game's files - each with their own cap. Diamonds however are not yet available.