Am I The Only One That Can't Do Cayo Perico?

[Hamr]

Cayo Perico seems to be impossible to complete for me.

 

After wasting stupid hours trying and failing to get any of the scope-out locations to spawn (guard uniforms, clippers, secondary targets), I tried to do the mission solo because I've never seen a heist team that didn't just waste its time blowing itself up.

 

First problem is that the primary target of the heist for some reason is not Madrazo's data, but instead a bottle worth $900,000

 

Second was that it took me some thing like 8 hours of attempts to learn how to reliably get out of the compound with the loot

 

Now I'm on the third problem which is that my exit route is through the Main Dock, which I'm told is supposedly the easiest way out, and I just cannot even get to the boat to leave. No matter what I do, which angle of approach I use, no matter how many enemies I kill, whenever I get near the boat a half-dozen enemies come out of cover and instantly kill me.

 

Between the time investment and the waste of body armours, this mission has been a total monetary loss even ignoring the cost of the submarine.

 

I've also tried doing the thing stealthily, but I have never gotten near the compound without being detected. Doesn't matter how well I avoid detection, I'm just instantly found.

Edited December 23, 2020 by Hamr

[NeoLedah]

Don't even do that. Just, when you leave the compound, pick a car or a bike, go to the cliffs near the compound and go in the water and swim away.

[Konata Inoue]

Just get out of there soon as possible. 
Head for a cliff and swim away.

[Volatollotalov]

 

It's a rushed and carelessly-crafted "heist". Don't feel bad for not completing it. I'd even go as far as to say, just give up. Why bother? There are far better gaming things to do with your time and other resources.

 

After way too many hours I eventually managed it (solo) but it was a hell of a chore and one I never ever want to repeat. The whole thing is a tedious drudge into the most mechanical, laggy and formulaic format of the near decade-outdated Rockstar combat style, of those ghastly red circles that spawn and disappear on the map and end your session time after time at any random moment. I lost count of the instances when I had good health and was a good way into the heist, well-concealed, making cautious progress then suddenly a single shot from nowhere restarted it all.

 

It's not a heist game, it's not an immersive plunge into a tropical druglord island raid, it's some sort of abstract circle-killer anticipation lottery where all sense of immersion has to fly out the window to have any chance of success. No refunds.

 

It's a joyless, boring and dry as dust experience that has to be repeated time and time and time again to finish the damn thing for the sake of it by fluke of chance, not because of any skill and certainly not for any entertainment value. The stealth route, with the huge potential to be the most nuanced and enjoyable long-burner option, is singularly impossible. As you, me and many others have found.

 

When I saw that some reviewers were calling this "the worst heist ever", I intially thought they were being too harsh. Now I think that they're being too charitable.

 

Edited December 24, 2020 by Volatollotalov

[Jamwes]

My group had a terrible time the first time through and pretty much swore off ever doing it again. Then, after reading some advice on here, we tried again and it actually went easy. Few pieces of advice.

 

Poison the water supply. This helps A LOT! The guards won't kill you so easily. It turned our stressful death filled escape into an easy stroll in the park.

 

Get the guard clothes. This will help you get into the compound and will give you some room to make some mistakes while you learn how this heist works. You can freely walk around and anyone with blue vision cones won't react to you. Just be careful of the red vision cones, they will still get angry. 

 

Take your time and make sure your weapons have silencers. Your first time through just slowly kill guards in the compound one by one. Watch and learn how they move. They are all on a patrol route, except for the heavy. You can punch out all of the guards and heavy with a single hit if you are holding a gun, or can kill the regular guards with head shots.

 

Don't be afraid of dying and restarting if you do mess up and the guards are alerted. You won't lose anything if you haven't picked up any loot yet. Just learn from what you did wrong and don't do it again.

 

I haven't tried this yet, but swimming from the south west corner of the island is supposed to be the easiest way out. Just grab a vehicle and launch yourself over the cliff and it's an easy short swim after that.

 

Good luck! You can do it!

[NChabb]

I had the same feelings as you at first. The whole thing felt long and tedious, with too many long loading screens (on PS4). Going back'n'forth between the island, the preparations, the submarine... 

 

Needless to say, just like you I struggled. A lot. To a point I almost broke my controller in half. GTA 5's combat is old, outdated and not stealth oriented. So to see numerous cones stacked on each other you had to avoid was annoyingly painful.

 

I finally made it through. I considered doing it again but then I found out I had to steal a plane everytime I wanted to scout the island. This was a kill joy.

 

All that said, like the posters above pointed out, there are things that make the heist extremely easier. Should I want to attempt it again, I would do the following:

 

- Find guard clothes.

 

- Poison the water

 

- Destroy the enemy's air support and weapons.

 

- Find a welder torch and enter through the underwater tunnel

 

All of the above allows you to get in, get out silently.

Edited December 24, 2020 by NChabb

[Dusannn95]

I kind of felt the same way the very first time I tried to do it solo, now I'm able to complete the Elite challenge. I can tell you how I do it now, had to repeat this couple times to feel comfortable:

 

Preparation: 

- Approach vehicle: Kosatka 

- Equipment: Fingerprint cloner, Plasma Cutter (or Safe Code, depending on the target, but these are mandatory anyways) and Cutting Torch 

- Weapon loadout: choose any, really, but make sure to buy suppressors 

And that's basically it. I found that there's no need to do the Disruption ones because it's not hard to stay undetected, bear with me 

 

Starting the heist:

- Infiltration point: Drainage tunnel  

- Escape point: Main Dock (it is the easiest one, the North Dock is much harder) 

 

Actual heist:

After cutting the gate or whatever it's called in the tunnel, once you get in the compound, you go left towards the stairs.

You turn left again and kill two guys standing by the pool, and shoot down the camera.

There are at least 3 more guys you have to kill to reach the Rubio's office located in the center of the Compound, but I can't tell you their exact position, you have to watch your map and figure out who could detect you (it will be obvious)

Watch out for the guard coming down the stairs once you start to go up to the office 

Collect what you need in the basement 

If you have a key from the gate (it can be dropped by some of the guards), use it to open the basement gate and then follow the yellow-black gate icon on the map, it will be close (you'd have to hack one door in the basement before that)

If you don't have the key, return with the elevator in the office and follow the same icon 

Either way you'll have to watch out for 2 guards in front of the main gate, one will stand still, the other one will walk, I always kill them just in case 

 

Escaping the island:

Kill the guard besides the bike in front of you

Kill 3 guards in front of the checkpoint and shoot down the camera (or avoid it)

Take the bike, start following the road but then turn right and go through trees and bushes to the main dock 

Park besides the "center" building that will be on your right side when you get out from trees/bushes - you will be close to the guards but they will not detect you that way 

Shoot the one guard that's walking in front of that building and shoot down the camera 

You can collect the loot on your left if there is any, it's simple, you have to kill only 1 guard and shoot down 1 camera (watch out for Rubio's chopper) 

Kill all the guards on the actual dock besides water: there is 3 of them 

 

From here you can escape undetected if you eliminate the last guard watching over the dock. Beware of the patrol boat once you start driving towards the ocean. 

 

It might seem complicated but it really isn't, I think I'll do this heist again today and I might come back to edit this post with some screenshot to make this easier for you. 

But this is definitely the best solo money-grind strategy! It would be a shame not to take the advantage of it, you can complete preps + heist in one hour, more or less.

 

[Black-Dragon96]

I dont understand how so many people are having a problem with an imo pretty easy heist.

Enter with the kosatka through the drainage tunnel and you are in the compound already. You can avoid 99% of the guards.

When the cutscene ends go up the stairs, make a left, run past the double guards outside their cone of vision and make your way to the marked building.

One of the redcones will walk towards you but he is on another level.

Wait till he turns away, run after him and kill him. The redcone on the left of the guy you just killed is above you so you can run trough his cone without being spotted. The third red cone is facing away from you so just get close and knock him down. Up the stairs and wait till redcone number two walks down, then shoot him too. Make your way up the stairs and you are in the office. Dont forget to loot the safe to the right of the fireplace.

The exit depends if you have the gate key (not the card) or not. From my experience one of the red cones should have it.

If you do, dont go back to the elevator. Insteeead go out through the bar door (you have to hack that one) and make a right. Open the mext bar door with the key and go up the stairs so you are facing towards the main gate. Be carefull sometimes there are guards patrolling so let them pass. Make your way to the gate, headshoting the guards in your way.

 

Out of the gate you have two options:

1. Leave the island.

2. Get more loot.

 

For 1. Run to the shore on the left. Carefully slide down the cliff and swim away with the scuba you have.

 

For 2 shoot the guy near the bike facing away, turn right, shoot the other solo guy. If you are a crappy shot like me move back a bit and face the 2 remaining ones so that they are standing behind each other so you can kill them with 2 quick shots.

Go to the checkpoint, destroy the cam, grab the bike.

Drive down the road until it makes a left, pass the barrier on the right amd go straight through the woods until you reach the houses of the dock. Watch the helis path and avoid if needed.

Grab the loot from the storages kill the guards you have to kill, grab a boat and leg it.

 

Here is a video that I found quite usefull:

[SPOILER]

[/SPOILER]

 

Edit: Ninjaed

Edit 2: Spoilers are broken.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Black-Dragon96

[HopalongCasidy]

I’ve only tried three loadouts, but you don’t have to buy suppressors, at least not right now.

 

As far as challenge goes, I personally rank the heists DDay, OG, Casino, CP. 

 

Like all of them, this one has stealth elements that require timing and, yes, practice. Once you’ve got it, you’re good.

 

If OP had opened virtually any thread for advice instead of penning his b&m screed, he’d have another 1.4 mil in the bank already.

 

I’d say it sounds like some of you should stick to Fleeca Job, but you’d probably quit because you can’t hack, drill, drive without hitting every gd thing on the road, etc.

 

Lulz at decades old combat system.

 

 

[whywontyoulisten]

How in God's name do you fail to get any scope out locations? I ran around taking random pictures and not even knowing what the subject was to see if I got the "send to Pavel" option and managed to get loads. There's even one mission where you find secondary targets and points of interest just by swinging security cameras from side to side.

[PretendWereDead]

11 hours ago, Hamr said:

Cayo Perico seems to be impossible to complete for me.

 

After wasting stupid hours trying and failing to get any of the scope-out locations to spawn (guard uniforms, clippers, secondary targets), I tried to do the mission solo because I've never seen a heist team that didn't just waste its time blowing itself up.

 

First problem is that the primary target of the heist for some reason is not Madrazo's data, but instead a bottle worth $900,000

 

Second was that it took me some thing like 8 hours of attempts to learn how to reliably get out of the compound with the loot

 

Now I'm on the third problem which is that my exit route is through the Main Dock, which I'm told is supposedly the easiest way out, and I just cannot even get to the boat to leave. No matter what I do, which angle of approach I use, no matter how many enemies I kill, whenever I get near the boat a half-dozen enemies come out of cover and instantly kill me.

 

Between the time investment and the waste of body armours, this mission has been a total monetary loss even ignoring the cost of the submarine.

 

I've also tried doing the thing stealthily, but I have never gotten near the compound without being detected. Doesn't matter how well I avoid detection, I'm just instantly found.

I’d suggest you find someone to do the heist together with, to learn the routes or watch some YouTube vids. 
 

regarding your exit route; just jump in the sea and swim away. 

[White Shark]

My first play through, I somehow alerted the guards. Not sure if they spotted a body or something, but I still managed to complete the heist first time. Doing the 3x disruption prep missions and poisoning the water was a god send. Always make sure you do that and even if you alert the guards, you stand a chance.

[cybapete]

11 hours ago, NeoLedah said:

Don't even do that. Just, when you leave the compound, pick a car or a bike, go to the cliffs near the compound and go in the water and swim away.

 

this is what i did when i got out of the compound clean then immediately got pinged by the guards at the checkpoint

i just turned right, walked around the side of the wall and went for a swim (make sure you have scuba gear or rebreather so you can swim along the bottom without drowning)

[SummerFreeze]

 

[Jimbatron]

47 minutes ago, SummerFreeze said:

 

@Hamr just to show you don’t have to be a pro speed runner like @madebyWITT to do this easily, heres how to do the Elite stealthily solo in under 10 minutes, nothing fancy and no insane skills required:

 

 

This will work if you just want to complete the heist, if you want to complete the elite as well you just need to think about how you are going to fill you loot bag. What loot types you get at each location are random, just keep in mind how much space each take up. Coke or a painting takes up 50% of your bag, there may be a painting in the office as shown in my video, if not the rest will be behind doors that require two players to swipe a keycard. If you only have one painting or coke, then two of either weed or cash will make up the difference. Otherwise you need 4 cash, 3 weed, or 2 weed and 1 cash.

Edited December 24, 2020 by Jimbatron

[SummerFreeze]

@Jimbatron I only posted the video to show a very quick way of finishing the heist. Of course I'm not implying every player player should be able to replicate it. You can take your time killing the guards while following a similar route to the video (it's dependent on key drops anyway), and should probably still finish in under 10 minutes without major difficulties.

[Jimbatron]

48 minutes ago, SummerFreeze said:

@Jimbatron I only posted the video to show a very quick way of finishing the heist. Of course I'm not implying every player player should be able to replicate it. You can take your time killing the guards while following a similar route to the video (it's dependent on key drops anyway), and should probably still finish in under 10 minutes without major difficulties.

 
Yeah I get that. I was just posting something slower as madebywitt has probably done that as fast as anyone, for someone who’s struggling to complete it at all that might be a bit fast to follow. Let’s face it I can do the elite without sweating but there’s no way I can match that 4 minute time.

[cybapete]

in this video at 18.30 the guy shows how you can drive the dirt bike along the edge of the cliff to get around the fence

 

 

[The Jungz]

Strange, this heist is ridiculously easy to pull off for me.

 

What I like about it is that you can take your sweet ass time if you want. There's no countdown timer or nerve gas that you've got to worry about. You can just kinda hang around the island and very easily remember the pattern of so many enemies and locations. I've only done the heist three times but I feel like I've memorized almost every threat that stands in my way, during the preps AND the heist.

 

The only part of this entire heist and island that's REALLY badly designed imo is the checkpoint. I don't know what the f*ck Rockstar was thinking making this bottleneck area where the only way to cross from one part of the island to the other is to perform an easily screwable jump on a cliff with a dirt bike. Ironically the most difficult part of the process and its in the damn scope out.

[Jamwes]

18 hours ago, The Jungz said:

The only part of this entire heist and island that's REALLY badly designed imo is the checkpoint. I don't know what the f*ck Rockstar was thinking making this bottleneck area where the only way to cross from one part of the island to the other is to perform an easily screwable jump on a cliff with a dirt bike. Ironically the most difficult part of the process and its in the damn scope out.

 

Walking through the gate is actually really easy. There is a lot of cover from most of the vision cones. It just looks a lot harder than it is. As long as there isn't a jeep or the one patrol guy on foot looking at the gate, you can sneak through.

[Between3and22char]

3 hours ago, Jamwes said:

 

Walking through the gate is actually really easy. There is a lot of cover from most of the vision cones. It just looks a lot harder than it is. As long as there isn't a jeep or the one patrol guy on foot looking at the gate, you can sneak through.

It is easy indeed, here is a video on how I normally do it, you can get through the checkpoint without getting off the bike:

 

[JamesTKirk]

I haven't completed it yet either, i'm 0-for-20 or so...  I use the drainage grate entry but i have no shooting skills nor am i good at keeping stealth even tho it seems like the easiest stealth mechanic I've ever seen in any game.  I am horrible at fighting games.

 

One try, I did keep stealth, got the Madrazo files from the safe, and exited the compound, but I lost stealth and the helicopters got me even tho i shot one down with my pistol.  LOL  I was close, I'll complete the heist someday soon, I have no doubt... but its been so frustrating that I doubt I'll keep repeating the heist over and over.  Just chalk it up as a 9M loss and move on.  It's nothing to fret over, this is why I grinded for so many boring hours filling my large special cargo warehouses over and over and over and over again... so when DLC comes out I can just buy it and not worry about the price.

 

It's a good DLC, don't misinterpret my words.  They done well.    It's me that sux, but I'm okay with that.  I'm just not motivated to git gud at fighting games, they've never appealed to me very much.  This game has SO much more than violence, that's why I put up with it and played it for as many thousands of hours as I have...

[JamesTKirk]

On 12/24/2020 at 4:48 AM, whywontyoulisten said:

How in God's name do you fail to get any scope out locations? I ran around taking random pictures and not even knowing what the subject was to see if I got the "send to Pavel" option and managed to get loads. There's even one mission where you find secondary targets and points of interest just by swinging security cameras from side to side.

 

LOL I probably spent four hours doing nothing but going to the island and taking photos of every location, and of course multiple photos since I can turn 4 times and get 4 different photos without moving...  I became quite amazed at just how far away a bolt cutter could be from my camera location and I'd still get that "X to Send Photo to Pavel" prompt...  once I realized this, boy did that slow me down cause I took photos from everywhere, most of them useless photos obviously...  a real grind.

 

Naturally it was totally unnecessary, I recently found and downloaded a massive JPG showing every potential location for every heist item on the island.  But I did this in the first day or two of the release, before all the hints and tips were created by the player base.  Now, all I'll have to do is pull up that JPG and just go point-to-point.

 

The first heist is always the best, once it becomes nothing but a connect-the-dots routine you follow each time, it's gonna be boring... but it seems most agree the payout is worth being bored.    Not for me, but most players do seem happy about this DLC, so that's nice.

[ChiroVette]

I had similar experiences as many here, in that I thought the entire heist, from beginning scoping through the finale, was just a hot mess of wasted time. I still believe there are overall better ways to make money in this game, but I am noticing that the heists are getting easier the more I do them, and scoping at this point, is second nature to me now. I have a question, and then I want to offer some advice:

 

First, since you guys are talking about the Scuba Gear, specifically the re-breather, can this be equipped with other approaches beside the sub? In case it can, I created an entire Scuba Outfit, but I'm not certain you can equip a saved outfit on the Finale of this heist, nor if you can simply use the D-Pad to equip the re-breather on any approach, to leave the island.

 

Some tips I found, and bear in mind, I am NOT very good at this heist:

 

1. Scoping the various areas will become easier with just practice. You will begin to unintentionally memorize a lot of places that some of the gear may spawn. For instance, the airfield, where you first come to the island to scope, has several things right there for the taking. Secondary Loot in THREE places. Guard Outfit (S), 4 Bold-cutter Locations (S), 2 Grappling Hook (S), though one you have to go about 1/4 mile into the grass, south of where the guard outfit spawns, Supply Truck (S). S obviously means these things spawn sometimes.

 

2. Have a phone, tablet or laptop next to you while scoping. So you can have maps and Youtube videos to walk you into and out of places where stuff spawns. Look, at first this is very long and tedious, but it starts to get a lot easier to find stuff when scoping for the heist.

 

3. As other suggest, if all else fails, swim away! Also, often I have been able to steal boats without activating guards. The easiest way to steal a passing boat, is to swim to a small rock where you can stand on, shhot the boat driver, and take the boat.

 

4. Disable the Aerial Defense in the Airfield either before you go to the compound of after you leave, if you can get there. There is a puzzle of some sort, but it will make escape a lot easier.

 

5.  Do not leave the island when done scoping without poisoning the the water supply.

 

6. If you can swim or boat back to the airfield, there is a plane by the hangar that you can steal to fly away from the island. If you go this route, make sure to disable the air defenses while at the airfield.

[Cutter De Blanc]

I haven't really tried it yet. Only been there a couple of times.  Pavel is annoying as f*ck and he wont shut up. Also the island is kind of bleak and depressing

[Sentinel Driver]

Scouting the bastard is so f*cking annoying that I can't do it either. I just don't want to drive around on that stupid island getting stuck on bushes and getting detected when a guard sees you for a split second from a mile away.

Everything is recycled anyways. All prep missions use just recycled interiors from old updates and the prep missions are almost always the same. You want to destroy El Rubio's weapons? Always the same 3 arms dealers in the same 3 locations. For the biggest heist, biggest update to have ever come out. It's really nothing special.

[Jamwes]

2 hours ago, ChiroVette said:

First, since you guys are talking about the Scuba Gear, specifically the re-breather, can this be equipped with other approaches beside the sub? In case it can, I created an entire Scuba Outfit, but I'm not certain you can equip a saved outfit on the Finale of this heist, nor if you can simply use the D-Pad to equip the re-breather on any approach, to leave the island.

 

Yes. If you have re-breathers, you can use them in the heist by hitting left on the D-Pad while in water. Be sure to stock up at Ammunation before the heist. In my last one, I had my 20 re-breathers but my buddy just had 1.

 

You cannot use saved outfits.

[Nog]

2 hours ago, Jamwes said:

 

Yes. If you have re-breathers, you can use them in the heist by hitting left on the D-Pad while in water. Be sure to stock up at Ammunation before the heist. In my last one, I had my 20 re-breathers but my buddy just had 1.

 

You cannot use saved outfits.

I always had 20 rebreathers so far. I dont think you need to stock up, 20 seems to be the standard qty that will be given to you.

[ChiroVette]

Ammunations? I wasn't aware you could buy the re-breather refills there. I will check it out.

[Big Molio]

7 hours ago, Sentinel Driver said:

Scouting the bastard is so f*cking annoying that I can't do it either. I just don't want to drive around on that stupid island getting stuck on bushes and getting detected when a guard sees you for a split second from a mile away.

Everything is recycled anyways. All prep missions use just recycled interiors from old updates and the prep missions are almost always the same. You want to destroy El Rubio's weapons? Always the same 3 arms dealers in the same 3 locations. For the biggest heist, biggest update to have ever come out. It's really nothing special.

 

The setups are really dull. The only one I like is when you have to clear out the house full of loan sharks for the Alkonost pilot. I like this because it's fun to come up with new ways to kill those guys inside the house. Finding ways to burn them alive usually. Or beating them all to death with the pool cue.