GTA 5 The Paleto Score: Best Crew, Gold Medal Objectives, and Why the Payout Is Small
A complete Paleto Score guide: which crew survives the escape, why cheaper gunmen get you killed, all four Gold Medal objectives, and why this heist pays less than you would expect.
The Paleto Score is the loudest heist in GTA 5, a smash-and-grab on the Blaine County branch of the Blaine County Savings Bank that ends with all three protagonists mowing down the National Guard in the street. It is also the heist where crew choice works differently from every other, because here your gunmen do not need to be good, they need to survive. This guide covers the crew that lives, the crew that gets you killed, all four Gold Medal objectives, and why the take is smaller than the chaos suggests.
How The Paleto Score works
Unlike the other heists, Paleto has no approach choice. It is a single, scripted blitz: Michael, Trevor and Franklin storm the bank in heavy armor with military-grade weapons, grab the cash, then fight their way out on foot down the main street of Paleto Bay against a wall of police and, eventually, the military. You only pick two gunmen as crew, no driver or hacker.
The crew rule that is unique to Paleto
Here is the twist that trips people up. In most heists you weigh a crew member's skill against their cut. In Paleto, the deciding factor is whether they survive the escape and provide covering fire.
- Expensive, competent gunmen survive. Gustavo Mota (14%), Packie McReary (12%), and Chef (12%) all make it out and lay down suppressing fire while the trio fights through the factory and street. Their higher cut buys a genuinely useful second shooter.
- Cheap gunmen get pinned and die. Norm Richards (10.5%) and Daryl Johns (9%) take smaller cuts, but they get pinned against a wall by a police cruiser during the escape, contribute nothing, and are logged as casualty expenses. Daryl's cut works out to about $158,717, Norm's to about $185,170.
The practical takeaway: on this heist, pay for a survivor. Chef or Packie at 12% is the value sweet spot, competent, cheap enough, and they live.
Why the payout is smaller than you expect
For all the carnage, the Paleto Score is the smallest of GTA 5's take-home heists. The bank is a rural branch, not a vault of gold, so the total is modest compared to The Big Score or even The Jewel Store Job. Do not go in expecting a fortune.
The real value of Paleto is not the cash, it is the crew experience. Gunmen who survive this job gain experience that makes them far more reliable, and cheaper relative to their skill, in the finale. Keeping a competent gunman alive here is an investment in a much larger payday later.
All four Gold Medal objectives
Paleto's Gold Medal is one of the more demanding in the game because it actively wants you to be reckless:
- Let It Rain: fire more than 4,000 bullets during the mission. This one rewards holding the trigger, so do not conserve ammo. Use the high-capacity weapons and keep firing.
- Accuracy: finish with at least 50% shooting accuracy. This tensions against Let It Rain, so aim at the dense clusters of enemies rather than spraying at nothing.
- Time: complete the mission in under 16:00. Keep moving through the escape rather than turtling behind cover.
- Collateral Damage: cause at least $1,000,000 in damage to Paleto Bay. Shoot up vehicles, storefronts, and property freely during the running battle.
The trick is balancing Let It Rain and Accuracy at the same time: fire constantly, but fire into groups so your hit percentage stays up.
The bottom line
The Paleto Score is a spectacle more than a payday. Pick Chef or Packie McReary as your gunmen so you get a surviving second shooter instead of a casualty, and treat the modest take as the price of leveling up crew for the finale. For the Gold Medal, lean into the chaos: over 4,000 bullets, 50% accuracy by targeting clusters, under 16 minutes, and a million in property damage. Our full GTA 5 heists crew guide shows how this heist's crew choices ripple into the rest of the game.
