Guide To The Doomsday Heists And Criminal Mastermind
This guide was created by Ezekeil2Ofive17, if you spot any errors or want to provide feedback, please use this thread.
Introduction
Welcome to The EZ Guide to the Doomsday Heists and the Criminal Mastermind challenges, here you will find "ez" methods for each of the Doomsday set ups and heists.
Each method will be explained using custom screenshots, gifs, and brief text descriptions. Below you will find some general tips for the Doomsday heists, then each set up and heist in order. While the Doomsday Heists are tougher than the classic heists, and often rely on brute force rather than tactics, there are still plenty of tips and tricks to keep you a step ahead and help rake in the significant profit to be had. Each of these strategies are based on two players, with instructions for third and fourth players when needed. If there are no third or fourth players mentioned work in teams of two. Tips for the criminal mastermind can be found at the bottom of the set up, under "Mastermind tip". As always, please feel free to post any questions, comments or suggestions, and enjoy!
- Doomsday
These heists are tougher, and as the heavy vests no longer do anything, they are geared more towards higher level players, level 60 for normal and level 100 for hard.
- Doomsday Preps
Each setup requires a small mission to be done before hand, called a Prep. These can range from very to quick to quite long, and while they can be bought to skip them this is not recommend as the preps for act 1 alone cost over $400k, the equivalent of a 40% cut in the final. Deaths on preps do not affect the cm challenge and their order does not affect the all in order challenge. These must also be done in a public (but not necessarily populated) session. You will find some tips about preps at the start of each section. Once they are done, take your team to an invite only session and launch the jobs from there (from the single player > press start > online > play gta online > invite only).
- The Criminal Mastermind
As before, completing all heists in order, on hard, without dying, with the same team will get you a bonus, but this time it's much more risk, for much less of a reward. Completing it with 2 players gets you a kick in the teeth of £750k, with 3 players an insulting £1.75 mill, and with 4 (the easiest possible option) gets you a still not really worth it, £3.75 mill. Only consider a cm run if you are a top level player with access to the bunker upgrades.
- The "Minigun Npc" Bug
Remember that time you had full health and armour and yet you were taken out in half a blink of an eye, it's a bug. Connection issues can causes npc's to fire more bullets than they ought to be able to do, resulting in your instant death. On an everyday heist it's a minor annoyance, but on a cm run it's devastating. The only real solution is to stay in cover as much as possible.
General Tips
- Tools of the Trade: Time for an Upgrade
An armoured vehicle is a must, so invest in a kuruma asap. Certain weaponized vehicles can also be used so a fully armoured Custom Insurgent Pick Up will serve you well. If you own a Vigilante (Batmobile) it too can be useful, but don't buy it for the heists specifically. The Mk2 weapons will also help, the mk2 combat mg, the heavy sniper with a thermal scope, the mk2 pump shotgun with explosive shells, the mk2 heavy revolver with incendiary rounds, the mk2 marksman rifle without a zoom scope, as well as the classic assault shotgun and rpg will all help (if you don't have rpgs then the explosive shotguns will help).
- Snacks are back and are more important than body armour
Make sure everyone refills their snacks and armour wherever possible. The easiest way to do this is for the host to invite players to their facility not the setup, so that they can get snacks from the facility assistant too.
- Leave your menus open
If you are driving, or in cover, you can leave your menus open and have your snacks highlighted, pressing a/x as needed to eat them without the animation taking place. Don't use p and q's while under fire, use them to heal in safety This is a vital trick to learn. Remember once you use them, they're gone, so use the passive ceo healing when possible.
- When the going gets tough, the tough stay put
Cover is more important than ever during doomsday heists, even on normal the enemies will have more health and deal more damage. Move cover to cover, use blind fire, cover each other when moving and most important of all don't rush. Having said that......
- Sometimes the best defense is a good offence
Most of the time the idea is to go slow, but on more than a few occasions you will be dealing with respawning enemies, so sometimes speed and aggression are the way to go.
- Shoot them in the head
The enemies you will face are tougher and deal more damage so take head shots when ever possible.
- CEO is the way to go
Playing as a CEO, instead of an MC or VIP, will grant your team healing while they are near you. This can be invaluable during tougher jobs, such as Salvage HDD and the act 3 hack
- Two's company, three's a crowd, four is right out
Most of the time two players can get things done, more players means more risk of death
- You will need a mic
The more you can communicate during the tougher jobs, the easier it will be.