I’m back and it is time for a return to the Doomsday Heist. I’ve talked about some of the new and updated ways to earn money in GTA 5 Online previously. Some things I’ve gone over for making money were Gunrunning, Smuggler’s Run, CEO Empire, and finally the Doomsday Heist.

My last article dealt with making money again from Gunrunning and I had to deal with a major failure of selling weapons, but also having a success from my second go round with it. You can read more about that here if you so choose. Well without further ado, here’s my experience with the Doomsday Heist Act 3 and the first setup mission.

Rescue Agent 14

Remember the Prep Mission I had to go to the dry docks and take reconnaissance photos and send them to Lester? Well this is the Setup Mission where all of that comes into play.

I have to rescue Agent 14 in this Setup Mission from Merryweather and the forces of Avon and his AI computer. If Agent 14 sounds familiar, that’s because he’s been in numerous other missions and side jobs which also includes Gunrunning. He’s the one that assigns the supply missions as well as certain vehicles to use for selling weapons around Blaine County or Los Santos.

As I mentioned earlier, he had gotten captured and Merryweather was originally going to sell him to the highest bidder, but as you’ll soon see, that actually doesn’t happen. Lester and the IAA woman want him back and all in one pieces and so that’s going to be my goal for this setup mission.

Heading to the Drydocks

Before I go any further, I will mention that I have done this mission multiple times and with different players. Sometimes there will be three other players with me and other times two. I’ll talk about why that is here shortly so stay with me on this.

After the other players as well as myself emerge from my underground facility, we all have to get to the dry docks in order to get to Agent 14. All of us have our custom or special vehicles waiting for us on the road and so we run towards them. My Oppressor is actually at my Maze Bank Headquarters and so I end up using the Corquette instead since it was one of the vehicles stored in my facility.

It’s a long ways to the docks and so we all get into our vehicles and head towards it. Believe it or not though I actually like the drive there as I’m going through hilly and mountainous areas and finally into the bustling metropolis. I’ve gotten so used to driving my heavily armed motorcycle though that I’ve nearly forgotten how to drive a regular car in the game. Not to worry though, I don’t run into to many things on the way there.

We all finally arrive at the docks and prepare for battle, but let me tell you, this is where things get REALLY difficult and this is not just your typical Merryweather resistance. When I was doing the Prep Missions for Act 3, I mentioned that the Prep missions seemed relatively easy, but I feared the Setup missions would be quite the challenge as this is the last Act of the Doomsday Heist. I was right, this is very challenging and this is only the first one! Read on to see what I come against.

Heavy Resistance

Once we arrive to the drydocks, Lester informs me that he’s able to use our previous footage and video of the drydocks to detect Merryweather guards in the area. It works like a charm and the area is full of them.

As soon as I get out of my Corquette, I switch to my heavy assault rifle and start going to town on the Merryweather guards. There are some outside the building that my team and I are able to take out and then we start making our into the interior of the building.

I have taken some hits already, but my armor is the only thing that has been reduced so far and there is a shipping container that contains more armor, healthy, and even some sticky bombs. I was kind of curious as to why the developers included sticky bombs here but I’ll soon see exactly why they are needed.

As we get further inside, we come across a lot more Merryweather guards, but we are resilient and we take out quite a few of them. I also see that Agent 14 is inside and taking cover while holding a gun out. He’s pretty much glad to see us and as we take out the final guard in the catwalk up above us, I become pretty happy as it looks like we’re going to make it out of there with Agent 14 safe and sound. Oh how WRONG I was! Lester informs me that there is some unusual activity happening and coming our way and it’s something he’s pretty much never seen before. He quickly mentions that he is working on something to send to our night vision goggles and tells us to get ready as things are about to get crazy.

All of a sudden, it goes to a cut scene and we see three MASSIVE figures walk in that are wearing some kind of super armored suits and have large mini-guns. They suddenly engage some kind of field and they disappear, but are now firing the mini-guns. Lester warns all of us to switch to our goggles now as it’s the only way to see them and take cover. He also states that they must be using some new technology that Avon came up with. This is where things start to go incredibly wrong!

Failures

I try to take cover as quickly as I can, but I’m getting pummeled by their relentless gun fire. It’s going through my armor like a hot knife through butter and then my health rapidly depletes. My teammates are getting hammered as well and eventually one of them gets killed and then I’m killed and that unfortunately uses up our one life to spare and we fail the mission.

We are a determined bunch and we want to succeed, so we try it again. There’s no need to drive all the way back there as we start right outside the drydocks. Unfortunately, we have to take out all those Merryweather guards again. After some intense fire fights with them, we manage to take them all out. We have to face the invisible super androids or robots again and they take us out a 2nd time as well. This is really starting to get difficult.

After failing the Setup mission again, we still decide to give it another go. Once we take out the Merryweather guards, we come face to face with our powerful and deadly foes again, but this time we try a different tactic. Thanks to the cut scene, we know generally where they’re going to go and so we set a trap for them. We place sticky bombs in three separate places and so when they get into their positions, we detonate them. I will say that it has limited success.

The first time we tried it, it actually did kill one of them and fires started around them. We managed to take out a second one as well, but the third one was still able to kill me and another teammate and the mission ends in failure again. We’re not ready to call it quits so we give it another try.

This time we get a little further and actually take out all three of those robotic super commandos, however we are still not out of the woods because after they’re killed, Lester informs us that more are coming in and sure enough, 4 others appear behind us. I bring out the rocket launcher and start firing when I can, but one immediately targets me and kills me. As soon as I respawn however, another teammate is killed and that ends the mission.

I’ve grown pretty frustrated at this point and decide to call it quits, at least with this group of players. I do end up trying the mission again with another group of online players and we do get to the same part of the mission that gave me so much trouble earlier. All of us have trouble in this part of it as well and we get killed multiple times. There is a time though we actually manage to kill the next 4 super commandos, but as soon as we do, multiple helicopters come in and with Merryweather guards who try to propel down ropes to try to stop us.

Unfortunately, they are successful in stopping us as two other players get killed. Just like before, we try this mission over and over and we keep getting killed. I eventually decided to call it quits with this second batch of players and take a bit of a break. This is by far the toughest Setup mission I’ve ever done and it’s only the first one of Act 3! Will I ever get past this mission?

Success at Last

The answer to the above question is yes! I finally decide to give it another go with some other players and things go a lot better this time.

In this go round with the Setup mission, I only have 2 other players, but believe it or not that’s all that is needed this time. One of them has majorly high rank and upon driving to the drydocks, he ops to use a jet fighter to get there! Needless to say he gets there before everyone else and he even starts engaging Merryweather.

I’m the second one to arrive and I start opening fire on the Merryweather guards and we start taking them out quickly. Our third guy arrives and the private military contractor is pretty much wiped out in this initial round. We now have the issue of the super robotic commandos that has been such a major thorn in my side. This time however, we become a thorn in their side.

The high ranked player has probably played this before because he knew exactly where to place sticky bombs and so when they appeared, he detonated them and quickly fired on them and killed them pretty easily. I actually ended up killing the last one and then we turned our attention to the next 4 that appeared behind us.

These guys put up a little more resistance and I do take some hits which depletes my armor, but we are successful in taking out all four of them and preparing for the helicopters that are inbound. Once they arrive, they’re actually not a serious problem as they were before with the other group of online players. We’re able to make quick work of them as some of them are blown up and Merryweather guards fall to their death.

The head IAA Agent informs us that she’s sending us a location of an evac point and want her agent brought their alive. We make our way out of the dry dock building and head to the next one beside us and there are tons of Merryweather soldiers just waiting for us. We all take cover and return heavy gunfire taking out lots of them and pushing forward. As we make our way closer to the evac point and have to get through a third building, Lester says to keep our goggles on as there are more of those robotic commandos coming in.

They are seen by all of us and we take cover and return fire and after a short exchange, they’re taken out. We continue to push through more Merryweather guards until we finally make our way to the evac site that has multiple helicopters for us to use so we can get out of there. There’s one last group of super commandos and the private military guards that we manage to eliminate and we’re informed to get out of there and fly to the drop off point.

Once we get into the air, one of the players who’s flying the helicopter, engages stealth mode and we have a smooth flight to the drop off point well away from the city. After we land, Agent 14 is met with other IAA agents and the mission is a success. I’m just so happy that I was finally able to complete this Setup mission and I have to give thanks to both players who helped me especially the high ranked player.

I now pretty much have a good idea how the remaining Setup missions are going to be so I’ve really got to prepare myself for more difficult times ahead! Doomsday Heist Act 3 is shaping up to be one of the toughest of all Heist missions in GTA 5. Stay tuned for more updates when I try out the remaining Setup missions. In the meantime, you can check out the video below of my successful completion of Rescuing Agent 14.