The Humane Labs Raid is the third of GTA Online’s original apartment heists and the first that feels like a proper military operation: a strict 4-player crew, five setups, and a finale that splits you into a night-vision ground team and a Valkyrie gunship crew. The pot is $945,000 on normal ($1,181,250 on hard), split however the leader sets the cuts — run your split through the heist payout planner before you launch. For where it sits against the other heists, see the full heist ranking.
What you need
- Exactly four players. Unlike the Doomsday acts, there is no 2- or 3-player option, and one weak link can sink the finale.
- A high-end apartment with a heist planning room for the host.
- Mics, or at least a crew that follows markers. The finale’s two halves barely see each other.
The heist leader needs a high-end apartment’s planning room to run any of the original heists. The cheapest ones pay for themselves within a heist or two — see the property buying guide for which to pick.
The five setups
- Key Codes. A buyer and bodyguard meet a contact downtown while the other two cover the meet from rooftops as lookouts. The deal is an ambush — fight through the agents, grab the key codes, and lose the heat.
- Insurgents. Steal two armored Insurgents from a Merryweather site out at the quarry and deliver them. Put a player on each turret; Merryweather chases hard on the way back.
- EMP. Raid a naval aircraft carrier and fly out the Hydra jet carrying the EMP device while the rest of the crew flies escort. The carrier fight is the toughest setup — clear deck defenses methodically before the pilot boards.
- Valkyrie. Hit Merryweather at the Los Santos naval port and take their Valkyrie gunship, then use its guns to shoot down the pursuing choppers on the way to the drop-off.
- Deliver EMP. A stealth run: drive the EMP-loaded Insurgent into Humane Labs and park it inside without alerting the guards. Getting spotted compromises the delivery, so move slowly and follow the patrol timings.
The Insurgent debuted with this heist and is still one of the best armored trucks in the game — completing the setups unlocks it for purchase at Warstock. If your crew runs contact missions or sell goods together, it earns its keep long after the raid.
The finale: ground team vs air team
After the EMP kills the lab’s power, the crew splits:
- Ground team (2 players) go in with night vision goggles and rebreathers. Drop into the facility, breach through the garage, and fight through the darkened corridors — night vision makes interior guards easy pickings. Swipe the keycards simultaneously to open the lab, grab the research data, then escape through the cooling tunnels: an underwater swim out to the beach, where you fire a flare for pickup.
- Air team (pilot + gunner) hold the Valkyrie over the labs, fighting off waves of Merryweather Buzzards and ground vehicles while the ground team works. The pilot’s job is mostly discipline: keep moving, give the gunner clean angles, and above all don’t take hits — the chopper has to survive to extract everyone.
Once the flare goes up, the Valkyrie collects the ground team from the beach and the crew flies to the drop-off to finish.
The Valkyrie is the finale’s air support and getaway in one — a door-gunner gunship you also unlock for purchase by playing the heist. In the finale, treat it as fragile: elite challenge rules give you almost no room for damage.
Elite challenge
The elite challenge asks for all three in one run:
- Finish in under 11:00
- Keep vehicle damage under 2% (that’s the Valkyrie — one careless hit can end it)
- Nobody dies
Clearing it pays an extra $100,000 on top of the heist. The usual approach: a practiced ground duo that never stops moving indoors, and a pilot who orbits wide and lets the gunner do the work instead of trading fire.
Payout and what’s next
The $945,000 pot lands after the leader’s cut split — even a fair four-way split gives every crew member six figures, and hard mode pushes the pot to $1,181,250 if your crew can handle it. The raid also counts toward the Criminal Mastermind challenge if you’re running all the original heists in order on hard difficulty, with the same crew and no deaths.
Done with Humane Labs? The natural next steps are Series A Funding and then the big one, The Pacific Standard Job. If your crew keeps flaking on 4-player content, Cayo Perico solo remains the reliable fallback.