GTA Online: Cayo Perico - Solo Guide for Quick Millions

With our solo guide for the Cayo Perico Heist in GTA Online, you can rock the finale and secure valuable loot. The approach is even easy on “Hard” and suitable for beginners. We also give you tips about the heist.

GTA 5 Online

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What is this guide about? The Cayo Perico Heist has been in the game since December 2020 and is still the best way to earn a lot of money quickly even in 2026. There are various approaches that affect the time required.

In this guide, we show you a method to rob the main target, steal a few additional valuables, and complete the finale in 7 minutes. This will earn you about 1.4 million GTA dollars and is one of the easiest tasks for solo players. This way, you can easily earn a lot of money solo.

Keep in mind that there are many ways to rob El Rubio. We will show you one that has worked very well for us and that we have successfully executed more than 100 times. It works without triggering any alarms.

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Update from May 13, 2026: We have reviewed the post and made some structural adjustments.

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Preparations – Which missions are necessary?

Before you can start the heist, you need to go to the planning screen in your Kosatka and make various preparations. The planning screen is divided into “Information”, “Equipment”, and “Finale”.

Information: If you are playing the heist for the first time, it is advisable to familiarize yourself with the island as a whole and to find the various infiltration points. However, only the sewer channel is important as an infiltration point for our guide.

We have also spied out the escape points, but here only one is important in the guide. We choose the main dock. We know all access points to the estate as well – in the guide we rely on the sewer channels. There is a trick for scouting Cayo Perico. Keep in mind that you only need to scout the various points once and then use them again in future heists.

You can scout interesting things as you like. For this approach, it is not important.

Equipment: The Kosatka and the Longfin are good as approach vehicles. The Longfin is more suitable if you want to pick up secondary loot like cash or cocaine at the docks or the runway. We describe the approach with the Kosatka in our guide, so we recommend you take this one as well. Ultimately, it’s a matter of personal taste.

You will definitely need the oxy-acetylene torch to cut through the grate of the sewer tunnel and small locks in El Rubio’s vault. The fingerprint scanner is necessary for you to quickly get in and out of the basement. You will also need the plasma cutter to steal the main target. The cutting charge is optional and not necessary.

For the arsenal, we choose Aggressor. But that also depends on your taste. Usually, you will shoot down two to four guards. It’s important that you can draw the guns quickly and that they work with silencers.

Tip: You don’t have to buy the silencers. If you choose the approach at night, you will receive them automatically and save the 5,000 GTA dollars.

No sabotage missions are needed for this approach.

Summary of the preparations:

Approach vehicle: Kosatka
Equipment: Plasma cutter, fingerprint scanner, oxy-acetylene torch
Weapon arsenal: Aggressor
Sabotage: None necessary

Cayo Perico Finale – Make your choice and start

After the preparations, you can start the job alone at the planning screen. Buying armor for $500 is not necessary. However, it can be taken if you are unsure.

Choice:

Approach vehicle: Kosatka
Infiltration point: Sewer tunnel
Access to the estate: Sewer tunnel
Escape point: Main dock
Time of day: Night
Weapon arsenal: Aggressor (purchase of silencers not necessary)
Hire support crew? No

Now you can start the job.

Start the heist – Easy route for a quick finale

Here’s how it continues: After starting the heist, your loyal Pavel will bring you close to the sewer tunnel with the submarine. You need to swim straight for about 30 seconds and then you will reach the grate that is marked in yellow. Head directly to the grate and then choose the option to cut it open with the oxy-acetylene torch. Cut all the green-marked rods and you’re in the tunnel.

Swim through the tunnel until the end and then surface. Confirm the prompt to enter El Rubio’s estate. For the optimal route, you must not lose any time now.

The route to the loot: After you surface from the tunnel, a short cutscene runs. Right after that, turn around, run up the stairs, and as shown in the graphic, go across the grounds. If you don’t dawdle, you can sprint completely to the next point without being disturbed by guards.

Before the large stairs, stay for a moment and wait for the guard to go right (first red X on the route graphic). Then run up the stairs and left around the building. Once at the back, sneak up and shoot the guard standing there (second red X on the route graphic). With a little luck, the guard will drop a gate key that will be important later.

After the kill, continue running up the stairs. You will encounter a guard coming down the stairs. Take him out quietly on the top stair, preferably with a blow to his face with your weapon (third red X on the route graphic). There is also a chance that the guard will drop a gate key. Be sure to pick it up.

Now you have quietly arrived in El Rubio’s office and have already passed the most stressful part of the heist finale. In the office, you will find a keycard on his desk, which is uninteresting for solo players. Next to the desk is a wall with many pictures – that’s his hidden safe. Open it and grab the cash (and a pistol) from it.

Now look around the office. Up to two paintings can hang on the walls that you can steal. Grab them if available.

Office looted? Good. Now follows one of the easiest tasks: The fingerprint scanner. You will find it next to the elevator that leads down to the basement.

Easy trick for the fingerprint scanner at Cayo Perico

The scanner appears confusing at first glance, but can be solved in less than a minute with a trick.

First, look for the upper end of the fingerprint in the top row – this is very easy to recognize in any pattern. We call it “0”
In the second row, again look for the same upper part 0, and press once to the right. So 0 + 1 (once to the right)
In the third row, look for the upper part 0 again and press twice to the right. So 0 + 2
In the fourth row, look for 0 again and press three times to the right, 0 + 3
In the fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth rows, as in the examples above, another press to the right is added
Once you memorize the system, you will solve the codes in seconds

Rob the main target

Once you arrive at the basement via the elevator, run straight ahead and cut the chains blocking the door with the oxy-acetylene torch.

Now use the plasma cutter to free the main target from the display case. Be careful not to overheat the device, or it will cost you more time.

Escape from Cayo Perico in the heist – The easiest escape

You now have two escape options:

Through the gates in the basement after another fingerprint scanner (but only two tests)
Back through the office

Option 1: The escape through the basement is only advisable if you have picked up a gate key from one of the two guards you took down on the way to the office (or you found the key in Los Santos). Go to the fingerprint sensor in the basement, solve the two puzzles using the method mentioned above in the article, and after the scanner, turn right. Open the gate.

Now climb up the wall on the right and then directly left over the small stairs. Now slowly approach the exit gate and either shoot the patrol there or wait a moment in the garden until they walk away. Then go to the gate and confirm that you want to get out.

Option 2: Without a gate key, go back up in El Rubio’s office with the elevator. Go out through the entrance door and run back down the stairs you ran up before. At the corner where you shot the stationary guard (below), turn right. Wait for the patrol that enters the corridor on the left in front of the building. Shoot them or wait until they are standing in the corridor.

Then jump straight over the railing, then go left into the garden and you can already see the exit gate. Now slowly approach the exit gate and either shoot the patrol there or wait a moment in the garden until they walk away. Then go to the gate and confirm that you want to get out.

The last meters in the finale: Since we were able to solve everything in stealth, there is hardly any resistance in the last meters. Run straight ahead from the gate and take care of the guard waiting by the motorcycle. Grab the motorcycle and drive close to the wall to El Rubio’s quarters or follow the path and take down the guard by the helicopter as well.

Now jump with the motorcycle, as marked in the screenshot, from the island into the water. From now on, the helicopter will follow you, but it poses no threat if you dive.

Just keep swimming south and ignore the yellow marker by the main docks. After about half a minute of swimming, you will have made your escape and the cutscene will start where you are handed the money.

Depending on what the main target was and how many paintings and cash you managed to steal from the office, you should receive between 630,000 GTA dollars and 2 million GTA dollars through the heist.

If you spend more time and go to the docks or the runway after stealing the main target to grab valuable goods like cocaine, you can further increase the maximum yield. However, this takes more time and is riskier.