The Big Score (GTA V)

"The big one."

- Michael

The Big Score is a mission in Grand Theft Auto V. It is the sixth and final heist mission and the penultimate mission in the game.

The player steals a total of $201,600,000 for the Obvious, or $201,300,000 for Subtle.

Overview
Michael, Franklin, and Trevor work together to pull the biggest heist of their lives, which is to steal 201 million dollars worth of gold from the Union Depository.

Obvious
Franklin uses a cutter underground to drill the building vault, planting explosives on the vault after drilling. Trevor uses a helicopter to fly the stolen gold to the county to a train while under attack by the Merryweather. Michael distracts the cops. It can be seen here.

Subtle
They steal two Securicars; they took the occupants hostage and were forced to support and pose as Gruppe 6 officers. They peacefully get the gold without blowing cover. Franklin hacks the traffic lights against the Merryweather, which might disturb the transport to the destination. However, they were spotted by the Merryweather Security, and was drawn to a shootout. Afterwards, they use modified Gauntlets as escape vehicles.

Obvious
Drive the Tailgater to the Union Depository with the gunman assigned. Then you will take control of Franklin, in a HVY Cutter, underground. Use the drills by pressing a button to create a huge opening on the bank vault. When the hole is created, park the cutter an ample distance away. Plant explosive charges on the vault doors, then stand back and detonate them. Approach the cart, but a NOOSE team has been sent to stop you. Defend the gunman assigned against the NOOSE team by shooting at them while the gunman pushes the gold carts. Focus on the officers, and use a good gun like an Advanced Rifle with extended ammo to eliminate the enemies faster. A minigun may be helpful as well due to its rapid-fire damage and no need for reloading. After the gunman pushes the 2nd cart, you will take control of Trevor. Fly north of Los Santos to Blaine County, and the game will command you to switch to Michael. Michael is in a heavy shootout against the cops. Focus on health and ammo, as there are too many officers to fight, and may take 10 minutes of gunfighting. Keep on killing them, and you can soon switch to Franklin. While advancing, a Buzzard will appear. Destroy it quickly and wisely, as it will use the rockets to kill your team. After destroying it, advance to the underground parking lot while fending off the cops. At the parking lot, an FIB team will appear, in their Grangers. Kill them faster, the best choice would be with grenades/sticky bombs. After killing them, get in the car and lose the cops. A 5-star wanted level may take about 1-2 minutes of cooling down, so hiding underground in places such as the sewers or subways would probably work best.

After their Wanted Level is cleared, you will then switch to Trevor in a helicopter. Follow the driver assigned. However, the Merryweather Security appears in helicopters, and Lester must destroy the helicopters. Keep the helicopter steady for a clean shot, but be careful not to let both gold carts under the helicopters detach, or have Trevor wasted, or else the mission will fail. Destroy the choppers too late, and the pilot of the other one could crash and make you lose half your take. After destroying the helicopters, locate a train in your radar and detach the gold cart in the train car. Finally, fly to the airstrip in Sandy Shores. Mission complete. Seen here

If the other pilot(If lacking in skill) crashes, the mission can still be completed, the mission only fails if Trevor is wasted or if his own gold cart is also dropped on accident or if he crashes, making them lose everything.

Subtle
Get in the car after the cutscenes. Drive to the tunnel before 8:00 am. The time is shown on the lower right corner of the screen. After getting to the tunnel, wait for 2 Securicars to enter the tunnel. Drop a spike strip or Stinger before the vans leave, then drive away and wait for them to hit the spikes.

The vans' tires have deflated and stopped. Get out of the car and start pointing your gun at the windows of the vans. The occupants will be forced to get out of their vans as hostages. Another van will appear, and requested to change the tires. They will be forced to ride in the vans in order to support them. Drive to the Union Depository building's underground garage, and they will park the Securicars in reverse. A cutscene will show the manager requesting an authorization ID. It was successful, now follow the manager to an elevator going down to the carts containing gold. Trevor and a Gruppe 6 officer will push the carts back to the Securicars.

Get in the second van and follow Trevor as he gets out of the Depository. However, when Michael calls Franklin, it turns out that Merryweather Security had seen you stealing the gold of the Union Depository. Now switch to Franklin using a laptop to control the traffic lights of the city to help Michael & Trevor escape from the Merryweather troops. Control the traffic lights using the assigned buttons and stop Merryweather from spotting them by turning the lights to red. The mission will fail if the Merryweather vans catch them. Depending on the hacker skill, there either won't be lag on the changes or there'll be a second or so of lag. Change them less than 10 times to get closer to a gold medal.

Now they have parked the Securicars. They will open the doors to transfer the packs of gold to four modified Gauntlets. However, the Merryweather troops show up. This engages a large shootout. Defend the crew transferring the gold. Keep focused on cover and try switching characters in order for a better shootout. Choose the best weapons, because there are many of them. Keep in mind that the security outfits that Michael and Trevor have on from the beginning will have a full body armor bar, making it somewhat easier. Be careful if switching to Franklin, for he'll have no armor unless you bought one for him ahead of time and haven't done anything to damage it.

You will be switched to Franklin once all the Merryweather troops have been killed. Drive one of the Gauntlets and follow the rest of the crew. Focus on the route and ignore the LSPD. The mission will fail if Franklin lags too far behind and loses the others. After jumping into Rockford Plaza, the scene will slow down, showing a tanker truck in the verge of explosion after a Vapid Interceptor rolls over and crashes the tank (at this very point if you took Karim as your driver for the fourth Gauntlet, depending on his driving experience, he ends up crashing his gauntlet thus pulled out by the police and ending up incarcerated plus losing a quarter of the gold. This doesn't matter other than take amount unless Franklin is caught or wasted, so you can keep going without Karim, just with a lesser take.). After going to the freeway, a LSPD Maverick shows up. Don't worry on the gunners, they will just shoot when you will enter the tunnel. Drive to two trailers waiting for the four Gauntlets, including you. Depending on the driver for Franklin's trailer, it could swerve side to side, making it harder to get in if their skill is poor, thus causing a greater risk of failure if you don't get in before the end of the tunnel. The LSPD failed to arrest them thanks to the two trailers.

The three will enter a Cavalcade. Drive to Michael's House. Mission complete.

After this, Franklin heads home, and is suddenly visited by Devin Weston, who task him to kill Michael due to his failed attempt before, but Franklin refuses, telling him Steve Haines tasked him to kill Trevor and cannot kill both, Devin bluffs this and gives him three options in his words, "A. listen to some 50 grand a year pension hunter?" Which mean kill Trevor. "Or B. a billionare? Who even the president lets finger his wife." Which means kill Michael. "Or C. Try and be really stupid and save those two idiot mentors of yours and have everybody in the Goddamn state crawling up your ass." Which means Deathwish. Franklin has the option to choose which can begin the final missions, Something Sensible, The Time's Come or The Third Way.

Subtle Aproach

 * Headshots - Kill 20 enemies with a headshot
 * Signal Man - Perform less than 10 traffic light changes
 * Accuracy - Finish with a shooting accuracy of at least 60%

Obvious Aproach

 * Headshots - Kill 20 enemies with a headshot
 * Time - Complete within 16:00
 * Cha-Ching - Drop the gold onto the train within 30 seconds
 * Accuracy - Finish with a shooting accuracy of at least 60%

Trivia

 * Depending on which route you take will changes how much money each character ends the game with.
 * There is a mission in GTA Advance that shares the same name as this mission.
 * Choosing the obvious approach will yield around $31,000,000 per character, as long as you choose a good driver to pilot the helicopter, otherwise half the score will be lost. Taking this approach is far more difficult.
 * Choosing the subtle approach will yield around $24,000,000 per character. It is important to have a good hacker; lesser skilled hackers will cause lag in the traffic lights making this part of the heist more difficult.
 * The cut of each character cannot be collected until the mission The Third Way (Option C) is completed. If Something Sensible (Option A) is completed instead, Trevor's cut is split between Michael and Franklin in addition to their initial cuts from the job, making it the most profitable option for them. If The Time's Come (Option B) is selected, Trevor and Franklin receive their respective takes but Michael's cut is given to his family rather than his accomplices, making it the least profitable ending.
 * The takes of the two approaches have a difference of $300,000, because during the transferring of gold, Casey (the Gruppe 6 man) was given one bar of gold before Merryweather came.
 * The subtle approach has quite a few references to "The Italian Job", both the 1969 original and the 2003 remake. As part of the mission, you have to manipulate traffic lights to prevent Merryweather reaching Michael and the armored convoy. Another part is a high speed chase in four Gauntlets, in the end loading them at the back of two trucks, as opposed to the three Mini Coopers and loading them onto a coach from the films.
 * The post-mission cutscene features Franklin, Michael, and Trevor in their default outfits from the beginning of the game; Franklin in his repo outfit, Michael in his grey suit, and Trevor in his white shirt and sweatpants.
 * This mission could be a reference to the 1983 movie The Big Score, as there is also a police chase, a big take of money, and there is also a character named Frank.
 * The trio manage to steal exactly 672 gold bricks, since when you pay off Casey (Subtle) you lose $300,000 indicating that each brick is worth $300,000. 201,600,000 divide 300,000 = 672
 * If you want to maximize the take per character then pick the obvious approach and have the 2 cheapest gunman, prefereably Daryl Johns and Norm Richards, Taliana on the helicopter and Karim driving the train. This way you should land with about 41 million for each character.
 * During the obvious approach, after you get the getaway car and you're trying to lose the police, if you go back to the subway construction you will see that the hole that the crew opened in the vaunt is closed again.
 * The idea of the obvious approach is taken from Die Hard With a Vengeance where Simon Peter Gruber, the main antagonist, does by getting a Cutter in the subway which is near the Federal Reserve Bank of New York and cutting a hole which leads to the gold storage. In the movie he destroys the subway so that the cutter and dump trucks can get in but in this mission the subway is under construction and helicopters are used to steal.
 * It is unknown why Trevor's Bodhi is parked by the underpass in the Subtle approach.

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