The Prison Break is the second of GTA Online’s original heists and the first that demands a full crew of exactly 4 players — no more, no less. The job: break Professor Rashkovsky out of Bolingbroke Penitentiary for Agent 14. The pot is $700,000 on normal difficulty, split however the host sets the cuts — run your split through the heist payout planner before you lock it in. For where it sits against the other heists, see the full heist ranking.
What you need
You unlock The Prison Break after finishing The Fleeca Job. The host must be rank 12 and own a heist planning room; the original heists cost the host nothing to launch, and crew members get paid for each setup.
Any high-end apartment with a planning room works. If you’re only buying one property for heists, this is it — it hosts everything from Fleeca through Pacific Standard.
Not required, but the armored Kuruma trivializes the shootout-heavy setups. Four seats, bulletproof glass, and the whole crew arrives at McKenzie Field or the Terminal firefight intact.
The four setups
Plane. The Vagos are running drugs out of McKenzie Field in a Velum 5-Seater. Three players clear the airfield while the pilot steals the plane and delivers it to a hangar at Los Santos International — that’s your finale escape aircraft. Roll in together; the Vagos hit hard if you trickle in solo.
Bus. A prison bus is being transferred from Bolingbroke toward Paleto Bay under escort. Take out the escort and the driver (he’ll try to run), steal the bus, lose the three-star wanted level, and deliver it near Sandy Shores.
Station. The crew splits. Two players dress as cops, steal a police cruiser, walk into Mission Row station for the prison transfer schedule, then torch the cruiser. The other two hit a guarded cargo ship at the Terminal to recover Rashkovsky’s Casco from a container and drive it out to Sandy Shores while enemies give chase. The Casco can take some knocks, but drive it like it’s the mission — because it is.
Wet Work. Another split. One pair snipes two prosecutors outside City Hall — both targets have to drop before either escapes, so call the shot — grabs their deposition, and fights out through the police response. The other pair quietly assassinates Dima Popov at his Richman Glen mansion with suppressed weapons, ideally without alerting his bodyguards.
The finale: four roles
- Prison Officer + Prisoner are the ground team. The officer drives the stolen bus into Bolingbroke with the prisoner aboard — the schedule you stole makes the cover hold. Inside, find Rashkovsky in the yard, arm him, and fight back out through guards and NOOSE. Escape the grounds in the Police Riot van and head for the pickup.
- Pilot collects the Velum from LSIA and flies to Blaine County while dodging pursuing Lazer jets — the plane is unarmed, so fly low and evasive. Once the ground team is out, land, pick up all three plus Rashkovsky, and make for the drop zone off the coast.
- Demolition intercepts the real inbound prison bus, deals with the driver, and destroys the bus so the cover story survives — then takes a Buzzard and flies escort, keeping police pursuit off the Velum.
At the drop zone the crew parachutes out over the water while Rashkovsky flies on. Regroup, and the pot lands.
Where crews fail
- The Casco run (Station). Flipping or burning the Casco mid-escort is the classic setup restart. Put your calmest driver in it and run interference with the other car.
- The pickup landing. More finales die to a botched Velum landing than to any firefight. Pilots: practice landing the Velum in freemode first, touch down early, and don’t taxi into the ground team.
- Rashkovsky. If he dies, the heist fails — and for elite he can barely be scratched. Body-block for him and clear rooms before he walks into them.
- The Lazers. An unarmed Velum versus jets feels unfair because it is. Stay low, keep turning, and let the Buzzard do its job.
Elite challenge
Complete the finale with extraction in under 4:40, Rashkovsky taking 1% damage or less, and nobody dying for a bonus of about $100,000 on top of your cut. It’s very doable with a practiced ground team that pushes through the prison without hero moments.
Payout and next steps
The pot is $700,000 on normal; hard difficulty raises it 25% to $875,000, and easy halves it to $350,000. The host fronts a $25,000 fee to start the strand — most crews give the host a larger cut for covering it, supplying the apartment and the lobby patience. Once your team can clear it cleanly, step up to The Humane Labs Raid and start working toward Pacific Standard, the original-heist payday.