GTA Online Doomsday Heist Act 1 Guide: The Data Breaches
A complete GTA Online Doomsday Heist Act 1 guide to The Data Breaches: every setup, the finale walkthrough, the payout, and the Elite Challenge bonus.
The GTA Online Doomsday Heist Act 1, subtitled The Data Breaches, is the opening chapter of the three-act Doomsday Heist that launched in December 2017. It runs out of a player-owned Facility, pairs you with Lester, IAA handler Agent 14, and hacker Avon Hertz, and ends with a desert assault on an IAA bunker. This guide breaks down the prep, the setups, the finale, and the payout for the data breaches.
What You Need to Start Act 1
Act 1 cannot begin until you own a Facility, the underground property added by the Doomsday Heist update. There are nine Facility locations across San Andreas. The cheapest sits near Paleto Bay at $1,250,000, and the priciest is at Land Act Reservoir for $2,950,000. Any Facility unlocks the heist, so the cheaper option works fine if you just want to play the missions.
Key starting facts:
- You must be a CEO, VIP, or MC president, and at least rank 1, to launch the heist board.
- Act 1 requires a minimum of 2 players for the setups and finale.
- The host pays an upfront setup fee to begin the first board mission.
- You plan everything from the planning screen inside the Facility.
Once the Facility is yours, Lester and Agent 14 walk you through the briefing and the storyline kicks off.
Act 1 Prep Missions
Before the three named setups, you run free-roam prep missions that hand you the vehicles and gear you'll lean on for the rest of the heist. These are open-lobby jobs, not instanced setups, so expect other players to interfere.
The Act 1 preps are:
- Paramedic Equipment (steal a medical kit used to revive teammates)
- Deluxos (recover the weaponized, rocket-boosting DeLorean homage)
- Akula (steal the stealth attack helicopter)
The Deluxo and Akula are the standout rewards here. Both become permanently purchasable for your own use afterward, and the Deluxo's hover-and-fly mode makes the rest of the Doomsday content far smoother.
Act 1 Setup Missions
After the preps, three instanced setup missions feed directly into the finale. Each must be completed before the next unlocks:
- Dead Courier (raid the coroner's office for a data stick, then extract the intel by air)
- Signal Intercepts (use the Deluxos to hack a string of moving vans, boats, and a plane)
- Server Farm (infiltrate N.O.O.S.E. headquarters and hack its servers)
These setups build toward Cliffford, the rogue AI built by Avon Hertz that drives the entire Doomsday storyline. Bring solid weapons and body armor, and keep your Akula handy for the airborne segments.
The Data Breaches Finale Walkthrough
The Act 1 finale sends the crew into an IAA base hidden beneath a satellite relay station in the desert. Foreign operatives are trying to compromise government servers, and your job is to breach the bunker, fight through it, and stop the intrusion.
How to approach the finale:
- Expect heavy enemy resistance inside the facility, so prioritize body armor and a strong assault rifle before you launch.
- The mission funnels you through corridors and server rooms; clear rooms methodically rather than rushing.
- Coordinate roles with your team. With only two players, one can hold a choke point while the other pushes objectives.
- The briefing has Avon Hertz calling Agent 14, who is unhappy Avon ever came out of retirement, setting up the tension that pays off across Acts 2 and 3.
Finishing the finale completes Act 1 and unlocks Act 2 (The Bogdan Problem).
The Data Breaches Payout
The Act 1 finale carries the smallest base reward of the three acts, which makes sense since it's the entry point. The verified base payouts are:
- Normal difficulty: $975,000
- Hard difficulty: $1,218,750
That total is split among the crew based on the percentage shares the host sets on the planning board. On top of the base, you can earn the Elite Challenge bonus of $50,000 for the finale.
To claim the Act 1 Elite Challenge, the whole crew must:
- Complete the finale in under 5:30
- Score a combined 78 kills
- Finish with nobody getting wasted
There is also a one-time completion bonus for finishing all three acts in order for the first time, paid out after Act 3, so playing through the full Doomsday Heist is worth more than any single act in isolation.
Is Act 1 Worth Doing
For the time invested, The Data Breaches is a reliable earner, especially on hard mode with the Elite Challenge cleared. The Facility is a steep upfront cost, but it's a one-time purchase that unlocks all three acts plus the Orbital Cannon and other Facility features. If you're stacking GTA Online income sources, the Doomsday Heist remains one of the better cooperative payouts in the game. For more GTA Online guides and reference material, see our GTA Online hub, and you can browse GTA Online screenshots for a look at the Facility and finale settings.
