The Big Score

Mission start places Lucia & Jason in or near Downtown Vice. Before you touch the first objective marker, open the full map and note police stations, hospitals, garages, and any water routes - The Big Score punishes players who improvise without geography.

Read every line of the phone, corkboard, or in-person brief. Rockstar-style Leonida missions often hide soft fail conditions in dialogue: do not kill a contact, do not leave the district, keep a vehicle intact, or protect a VIP. The campaign's crowning vault heist - gold, chaos, and a getaway that defines the ending. Remapped The Big Score.

Recommended opening routine: repair or replace your vehicle, buy armor and snacks if a shop is available, set a waypoint to the primary pin, and approach without sideswiping traffic. Early wanted stars almost never help a gold medal run.

Vertical cover, construction sites, and one-way traps. Motorcycle alleys beat SUVs. Expect air units earlier than in the Keys.

Quick reference walkthrough: Subtle: tunnels, drill, quiet vans. Obvious: street war, Gauntlets, stingers, helicopters. Drop leads into ending choices.

Rewards on completion: $20M–$40M+ potential crew take · Finale unlock. Unlocks tied to this mission: Ending missions.

Approach options: Subtle, Obvious. Prep missions and enemy fantasy change with your selection - do not start the finale until the planning board shows every required asset checked off.

Objective 1 of 4: Execute Subtle or Obvious approach.

This opens The Big Score. Travel to the marker without farming wanted stars. Use the approach roads around Downtown Vice that keep you off camera clusters and police stations. If a cutscene plays on arrival, your loadout and vehicle state carry through - arrive prepared.

Stay oriented on the mini-map. Heists missions in Act III often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Vertical cover, construction sites, and one-way traps. Motorcycle alleys beat SUVs. Expect air units earlier than in the Keys.

Objective 2 of 4: Secure the gold.

Mid-mission objective in Downtown Vice. Expect the resistance level to rise compared to the previous pin. Clear the immediate area, complete the interaction or combat beat, then reassess ammo and armor before moving on.

Gameplay tip: this is often where The Big Score teaches or stresses a mechanic - hacking, trailing, intimidation, boat handling, or protagonist switching. Failures commonly restart at a mid-checkpoint rather than the mission start.

Vertical cover, construction sites, and one-way traps. Motorcycle alleys beat SUVs. Expect air units earlier than in the Keys.

Objective 3 of 4: Survive the city response.

Mid-mission objective in Downtown Vice. Expect the resistance level to rise compared to the previous pin. Clear the immediate area, complete the interaction or combat beat, then reassess ammo and armor before moving on.

Complication tip: plans break here on purpose. Prioritize the objective over perfect cleanup. Civilians and side enemies only matter if a gold criterion calls them out.

Vertical cover, construction sites, and one-way traps. Motorcycle alleys beat SUVs. Expect air units earlier than in the Keys.

Objective 4 of 4: Reach the drop with the take intact.

This is the closing beat. Subtle: tunnels, drill, quiet vans. Obvious: street war, Gauntlets, stingers, helicopters. Drop leads into ending choices. Confirm gold-sensitive conditions before you trigger the end marker: vehicle health, VIP health, wanted level, and any cargo integrity. Once the final cutscene starts, you usually cannot reverse a failed criterion.

Stay oriented on the mini-map. Heists missions in Act III often spawn secondary markers (escape vehicles, allies, or optional loot) that are easy to miss under fire.

Vertical cover, construction sites, and one-way traps. Motorcycle alleys beat SUVs. Expect air units earlier than in the Keys.

When the last combat or interaction objective clears, The Big Score still requires a clean handoff. Lose heat with tunnels, public garages, mangrove blinds, district borders, or chop shops depending on where Downtown Vice sits in Leonida.

Deliver cargo, intel, cash, or VIPs to the final marker with integrity intact. Damaged vehicles and bleeding allies can fail gold after an otherwise perfect shootout.

Do not skip the debrief cutscene on a first playthrough - Ending missions often appear as map icons or phone contacts immediately afterward. Save manually if you are about to chain heist prep.

Common fail states in The Big Score include death of a required character, destruction of a mission-critical vehicle, abandoning the mission area for too long, or killing a contact the brief told you to keep alive.

Wanted-level soft fails appear on stealth-leaning medals even when the story continues. If you are hunting gold, treat stars as a fail and checkpoint-restart rather than fighting the whole district.

On dual-character missions, letting the idle partner die in the world while you play the other can still fail the mission - watch both health bars when the UI shows them.

Gold medal checklist for The Big Score:

• 1. Max take path
• 2. No crew lost
• 3. Drop secured

Strategy: run a learning attempt to memorize routes, spawn points, and fail triggers. Then replay specifically for medals with cutscenes skipped and a pre-staged loadout.

If a criterion conflicts with another (speed vs stealth, for example), prioritize the harder one on a dedicated replay - many players unlock gold across two focused attempts rather than one perfect run.

After gold pops, you can freely replay for fun or collectibles without worrying about medal state.