GTA Online Doomsday Heist: The Complete Guide

The Doomsday Heist is one of the most ambitious and most replayable heists in GTA Online. Three acts, an end-of-the-world plot, a sci-fi arsenal and a payout north of 4 million. Here’s the complete guide: unlocking the job through a Facility, understanding the three acts, knowing the real payouts and learning how to run it.

The most over-the-top heist in GTA Online

Released on December 12, 2017, the Doomsday Heist marked the return of heists to GTA Online, nearly three years after the very first Heists back in 2015. Rockstar spins out a doomsday plot: a shadowy collective threatens San Andreas with total annihilation, and an unlikely trio, a tech mogul, an idealistic IAA agent and a paranoid conspiracy theorist, teams up to stop it.

Beyond the tone, it’s the sheer scale that lands. The update introduced an underground Facility, the Orbital Cannon you fire from a satellite, and an arsenal that became iconic: the Avenger (mobile HQ aircraft), the TM-02 Khanjali tank, the Thruster jetpack and the flying Deluxo. A lot of the weaponized vehicles in the current meta trace back to here.

What you need before you start

Unlike the Diamond Casino Heist that runs out of an arcade, the Doomsday Heist is planned from a Facility. To buy one, you first need to hold a leadership role: CEO or VIP (via an office), or motorcycle club president. The planning board then sits in the Facility’s operations room.

There are nine Facilities. The cheapest is listed at GTA$1,250,000 near Paleto Bay, the priciest climbs to GTA$2,950,000 at Land Act Reservoir, through Maze Bank Foreclosures. Location doesn’t change the run, so grab the most affordable one if you’re starting out: it gives you access to the whole heist and the Orbital Cannon. To pull the money together, our guides on getting started in GTA Online and making money fast get straight to the point.

The three acts of the Doomsday Heist

The heist breaks down into three acts, played in order the first time. Once all three are cleared, you can rerun them in any order you like, for the farm or just for fun.

Act 1: The Data Breaches. The opener. You trace a hacker and recover stolen data, between chases and infiltration. It’s the shortest, most approachable act to get a feel for the prep, setup, finale loop.

Act 2: The Bogdan Problem. The heart of the story, with a submarine, an aircraft carrier and the double agent Bogdan. The setups get tougher and introduce a good chunk of the update’s arsenal.

Act 3: The Doomsday Scenario. The grand finale. A race against the clock to stop the launch, with the Avenger, the Khanjali and a spectacular finale. Clearing this act unlocks the trade price on the Khanjali tank for the heist leader.

How much it really pays

This is where the Doomsday shines. Since The Criminal Enterprises update in July 2022, the finale payouts were bumped up and the setup costs lowered. Here are the current amounts per finale, before the split between players.

Hard mode adds 25 percent on top of each act’s base payout. On the side, setup costs stay modest (on the order of 25,000 GTA$ per act): the heist is very profitable once the Facility is paid off. Watch the split, though: on the finale, each teammate takes at least 15 percent of the take, a share to negotiate from the planning board.

Solo, duo, or four-player?

The question comes up constantly. The prep missions can be launched solo, which lets you handle the groundwork alone. The setup missions and the three finales, however, need at least 2 players. So there’s no clearing a full act on your own, unlike the solo-playable Cayo Perico heist.

The sweet spot stays 2 players to maximize each person’s share while keeping the run challenging. With four, the action flows better but the take splits further. To place the Doomsday against the game’s other big scores, see our ranking of the best GTA Online heists.

Our tips to maximize the payout

• Switch to hard as soon as you can. The 25 percent bonus per act adds up fast, and the extra difficulty stays manageable with two coordinated players.
• Limit setup retries. Every setup has a cost: better to nail it on the first try than to stack failures that eat into your margin.
• Chase the Elite challenges. Each act has an Elite challenge (for example a 50,000 GTA$ bonus on act 1 under time and no-death kill conditions).
• Go for Criminal Mastermind. Clearing the three acts in order, on hard, without dying and with the same crew unlocks the heist’s most prestigious challenge and its hefty prize.

The Doomsday Heist may date back to 2017, but it’s still a reliable pillar of GTA Online’s money loop, alongside the Diamond Casino and the brand-new Kortz Center heist. An excellent way to pad out your Maze Bank account before turning the page.

And in GTA 6?

Rockstar hasn’t spelled out the future of the multiplayer, but the company has confirmed that GTA 6’s online experience will build on GTA Online’s legacy. Co-op heists, which the Doomsday pushed to a new level, are part of that DNA. In the meantime, it’s still playable and profitable today. For what’s next, see our take on the GTA 6 release date.