How to start the Cayo Perico heist & can you get the Panther Statue in GTA Online?
The Panther Statue in the Cayo Perico heist is one of the most desirable items players can get in GTA Online, as Rockstar cycles this main target in and out of the lucrative heist on a fairly regular basis with its weekly updates.
Heists are a lucrative, albeit risky, way to make an enviable amount of cash in GTA 5 Online that can then be put towards buying everything from a shiny new motorbike or car to some new clothing for your character.
The Cayo Perico heist's Panther Statue has been one of the best ways to line your pockets in the game for quite some time now, so knowing exactly how to start the heist to get your hands on it is vital.
How to start Cayo Perico heist in GTA Online
If you have not yet done the Cayo Perico heist, or have only done so as part of someone else's crew, here are the steps you need to take in order to start the heist yourself:
- First, go to Diamond Casino and enter The Music Locker
- Speak to Miguel Madrazzo, then purchase the Kasatka submarine (over $2 million)
- Enter your sub and meet Pavel
- Complete the mission in which you travel to Cayo Perico for a party to gather intel on the island
- Once you have all the intel you need, return to Los Santos
This completes the first-time setup for the heist, which you will not need to do on subsequent attempts. Once you return to Los Santos, you can begin preparation missions on the submarine. These include sourcing weapons, vehicles, and tools for the heist.
After completing the heist once, you can start it again from your submarine. You will need to complete some preparation missions, then you can head to Cayo Perico to rob the place of all of its valuables once again.
Click to enlargeCan you get the Panther Statue in GTA Online Cayo Perico heist
Unfortunately, the Pather Statue is not currently available in GTA Online at the time of writing, as it cycles in and out of the available loot for the heist.
That said, even when the Panther Statue is available, it's not guaranteed to appear. When it is available, you get one guaranteed shot at it, but beyond that, it is random whether it appears or not. As such, players will likely need to make multiple attempts in order to get the statue.
The quickest way to do this is to play through the Cayo Perico heist until you access the cameras, at which point you will be able to see if the Panther Statue is the target. If it is not, you can abandon the heist and start again for another chance.
Recently, however, this process of setting up the heist has become much more expensive, as due to recent Cayo Perico heist nerfs, the cost of setting up the heist has climbed to $100,000.
Click to enlargeHow much does the Cayo Perico heist Panther Statue payout?
The Panther Statue in the Cayo Perico heist for GTA Online will payout under $2 million in the Hard difficulty and around $1.7 million in the Normal difficulty.
Heists tend to have big payouts in general, but the Panther Statue is one of the larger rewards you can expect in the game. Given the value of this particular statue, it wouldn’t be a shock to see it return in the near future.
That's it for our GTA Online Panther Statue guide. For more, head to our GTA homepage for guides like the gun van location today, how to make money fast, and all the heists in the game.
