What is the Cargo Ship heist?
The Cargo Ship Takeover is a Freemode heist in GTA 6 Online, unlocked at Reputation Level 15. It runs on a moving container vessel off the South Leonida coast and supports solo play or up to four players. Three distinct approach options exist โ stealth, aggressive, and the crew infiltration route almost nobody knows about.
Base take is $1.8M, scaling with difficulty modifier, crew cut split, and whether you collect the secondary cargo crates. Most players skip the crates and leave $400K per run on the table. This guide doesn't.
Approach comparison
Choose your approach before starting any prep missions โ they're locked in once you begin. Here's how each approach compares on take, difficulty, and crew requirements:
Run this Thursday between 10pmโ2am in-game time. Guard density drops 30% during shift change โ a 4-minute window to clear the engine room completely undetected. Don't skip this.
Prep missions (in order)
Three prep missions are required. Do them in this exact order โ the third mission drops a keycard that's used in the second, so rushing out of order wastes 20 minutes of backtracking.
- Steal the Security Pass from the Valence Hotel valet. Approach as a civilian guest. Wearing business attire reduces suspicion โ change at any clothing store before arrival. Do not trigger combat here.
- Acquire the Vault Keycard from Merryweather Security. Three guards are posted. Two can be bypassed entirely by entering through the loading dock on the east side โ only one guard covers this entrance and he faces away from the door on a 90-second cycle.
- Scout the vessel using the drone purchased from the Maze Bank foreclosure listing ($8,400). This is non-optional for this guide โ the drone reveal unlocks the secondary vault route covered in Section 5.
Do not complete Prep Mission 2 on a wanted level. The keycard NPC will despawn and the mission will require a full restart. Clear your wanted level first at a Pay & Spray.
Stealth walkthrough โ step by step
This is the full stealth approach for the Silent & Sneaky route. Follow every step precisely โ one noise alert on this approach adds two guard waves and cuts your time window for the secondary vault to zero.
- Approach from the south using dive gear purchased from Ammu-Nation ($350). Surface at marker B on your minimap โ not the default marker A the game highlights. Marker A triggers a radar sweep on surfacing.
- Eliminate the two guards on the port side before climbing the boarding ladder. Use a suppressed pistol only. Any unsuppressed weapon or explosion instantly triggers Hard Mode for the remainder of the heist.
- Disable the deck-level camera using the EMP device from your prep inventory. You have a 3-second window between the camera sweep left and sweep right. Time it by watching the red light โ it blinks twice before reversing direction.
- Move to Deck 2 and hack the cargo manifest terminal within 90 seconds of boarding. Use the Vice Vault code generator (in the Cheat Vault section) for today's rotating access code โ it changes every 24 hours.
- Descend to the engine room via the port stairwell only. The starboard stairwell has a pressure sensor added in the latest patch that the game doesn't document anywhere.
The hidden vault route โญ
Most players take the main stairwell to the vault, which triggers three additional guard spawns and cuts 8 minutes from your window. The hidden maintenance shaft route bypasses all of them and leads directly to sub-level 2 โ where both the main vault and the secondary cargo hold are located on the same floor.
Here is exactly how to find the maintenance hatch, what item unlocks the secondary door, the fastest path through the shaft, the cargo crate locations on sub-level 2, and the crew positioning that lets two players clear both vaults simultaneously...
- After clearing Deck 2, drop to the waterline on the starboard side. The maintenance hatch is marked with a rust streak โ it looks non-interactive but responds to a crouch+interact input.
- The shaft requires the keycard from Prep Mission 2. Without it you're back to the main stairwell and three guard spawns.
Secondary cargo is located in three crates on sub-level 2. Each crate takes 22 seconds to load if you're solo, 11 seconds with a second player. With a crew of four using this route you can complete both vaults with 6 minutes to spare before the coast guard response timer triggers.
Get the full hidden vault walkthrough, secondary cargo map, crew positioning guide, and max take calculator โ plus 320+ more guides.
Cheat codes for this mission
Using cheat codes disables trophies and achievements for this session but doesn't affect your heist cut or reputation. Useful for practice runs and learning the layout.
โ X โ โ โ R1 โ โ X โณR1 R2 L1 โณ โ โ โ โR1 R1 โ R2 โ โ โ โ โ โ