GTA Online's New Heists Are Killer, If You Can Afford Them

GTA Online has become more outlandish over the years, and the newest Doomsday Heist only adds to the absurdity. Through this free update, you get to fly jet packs, drive submersible cars, and kill kill clone armies. It’s exciting enough that I’ve noticed a lot of players booting up the game again after being away for a long time, only to balk at the in-game price tags.

The basic setup for The Doomsday Heist is that Lester and you are working to save the world from total destruction. Surprisingly, all three of the available missions are narrative-focused, with each one moving the larger story forward. Considering how dull the previous missions in GTA Online were, Doomsday Heist is a great improvement. All told, it took me about nine hours to play through the new additions.

The planning room in the new underground facility
Before you can begin doing these new missions, you need to purchase a facility. The cheapest facility will still set you back over a million dollars, which can take a few hours of grinding old heists or missions to earn. GTA Online updates have long been filled with expensive properties and toys, but this new update is in many ways a follow up to the fan favorite “Heists” update. Back then it only took a $200k apartment to start heisting. These new heists, which involve jet packs and Mt. Chiliad mysteries, cost five times as much as much.

Anecdotally, I’ve had a number of friends come back to GTA Online since this update dropped, and on Steam, concurrent players are particularly high of late. People are coming back—except the GTA they know has changed. Everything is more expensive now, and these players don’t have the in-game cash to jump right into the cool new stuff. While players can rely on invites from others who can afford the new content, my friends who play GTA Online keep venting about how expensive the facility is and how they would rather spend their limited funds on fun toys and vehicles.

Since I play the game regularly and am frugal, I was able to buy the cheapest facility way up north for $1.25 million. While it’s affordable, the fact it’s nearly a 5 minute drive away from the city, where many of the prep missions happen, makes it feel like Rockstar is punishing players for being penny-pinchers. Facilities closer to the action cost nearly $3 million.