The Great Heist - How To Get Started, Solo Newbie Version
Everything on here is a direct quote from the forum post. Please see the button for Forum ID. Credit belongs to Storm Rossi (ID: 3106009) and Ethan Forrester (ID: 2356651) for creation.
(I only added the character IDs in the quotes)
(I only added the character IDs in the quotes)
After reading reoccurring questions in the forum and observing the fact that sometimes starting to the game doesn’t go as smooth as expected and might leave some of the newbies frustrated, I have teamed up with Ethan's ppm (ID: 2356651) to provide the new players with one good strategy to start playing. This is by no means the only way to approach things but after a heated discussion, what we agreed upon.
It all boils down to the fact that you would like to start heisting hotels as soon as possible because those are the easiest type of heists that give you marbles. With marbles you can get memory plants, thus you can skill up much faster than when you do that with regular updates by “improve skill” focus.
Always start by going to the Black Market and draw cards. You can do so once a week. Select hotel heist since this is what you are aiming now, only for a few weeks though because after that you can do hotels without cards. After this point drawing for Museum might be the best thing to gain gear from Blind Man.
Option A: Fastest Way to Start
You are willing to spend 100 Credits for a Gold Doubloon (can be found under Special Quest Items) and sail to Seven Seas
The details about this quest can be found here: (Forum ID) 2307225.1
You can gain a blue print (Davy Jones Treasure, N20, W12), cleaner card and blind man’s hand to give you one card every 24 hours (Isla del Ciego) and a Bag of Marbles (Abismo Hambriento Treasure, N23 E18).
You are mostly interested in the latter that gives you 200 marbles. Upon getting the Bag of Marbles, don’t add it directly on your marble count.
At this point you have 30 marbles the game has given you as a start and 200 of them in the bag. Go find Blind Man (find where he is here: (Forum ID: 2259946.1) and buy one of the items he offers for 5 or 10 marbles, the priority of the tools are like this
Surveillance Console > Stethoscope > Lock Pick > Crow Bar > Tabi Boots > Rope > Baseball Bat
Now you have 20 marbles left. Use the Bag for 3 times that will give you 60 marbles and you will have 80 in total. Go to Black Market and buy 4 stars of Criminal Reconnaissance skill as memory implant. You can bring this skill during the next St. Kobe Quest (details here: (Forum ID:) 2004784.1) to 5 stars.
Start scouting a hotel.
Now you have 0 marbles. Start two guides under “Guide” menu. Learning and Improving Skills and Advancing your Career.
As the second Step of Advancing your Career, it is required that you get something from Ma Baker. Now you have no marbles but this is perfect because you can get the tool of your choice and a duffel bag for free. Duffel Bag is necessary for the Guide called Your Criminal Career that doesn’t give any marbles but still worth a read. While selecting your tool, get one that is higher on the list above and you haven’t gotten from Blind Man yet.
After getting Ma Baker’s tool you can finish Advancing your career guide that gives you 20 marbles. Draw 80 marbles from the bag and buy “Basic Electronics” skill from the Black Market, 5 stars.
Time to visit jail once to complete Learning and Improving Skills Guide. Try a hotel heist. If you got lucky, wonderful, if not you are in jail. Set priority to “study in prison” and select e.g. Basic Driving. After you learn this, you can complete Learning and Improving Skills Guide and gain 20 marbles and a skill booster (3 uses).
After you are out of prison, draw the last 60 marbles from the bag and get an implant of Video Surveillance Systems, 4 stars. Boost it to 5 stars with your skill booster. (Don't forget to select improving this skill first before using the skill booster).
Option B: Slower way to start without Seven Seas Ques
Surveillance Console > Stethoscope > Lock Pick > Crow Bar > Tabi Boots > Rope > Baseball Bat
You can start by learning Criminal Reconnaissance from the book you received (or St Kobe Quest) and skilling it up while hunting for tools from Blind man with your 30 marbles If you are out of them, get Ma Baker tools instead in the priority provided above. After you have skilled up your Criminal Reconnaissance to 3-4 stars, you can try a hotel and visit prison, learn Basic Electronics from Bubba by selecting “study in prison”. Skill this one up in regular way or by skill booster from the Guide as explained above. After getting at least Surveillance Console and Stethoscope and three skills that as mentioned below, you can start heisting hotels and gain more marbles
Where they Come Together
By following either option, you came to a point of having the following skills:
Criminal Reconnaissance (4 stars)
Basic Electronics (5 stars)
Video Surveillance Systems (5 stars)
If you also have Surveillance Console and Stethoscope, you can try heisting hotels already.
Until you get crowbar and lock pick, try smashing casement windows (crowbar) or burst wooden doors (lock pick) but never do both of these in a single heist. Be nice to the other people, don’t knock or get rude. Going as a safe cracker to the hotel is a good start.
It might be that you get unlucky and get into prison. Since now you have Video Surveillance Systems skill, you have a good chance of breaking out of prison. You have to start scouting and after 1-2 updates, start heist with the role of a hacker. You can mostly knock everyone, feed a dog or two, hack the camera then burst the wooden door and you are out.
Go on repeating until you get more marbles and spend on skills or tools from Blind Man. The skills you should prioritize according to us are: Basic Crime, Burglary, Lock Picking, IR Security Systems, Dual Tech Motion Detectors. If you also have gotten some other tools, you are ready to try Museum Heist that will give you a chance to earn more and better tools.
An overview of which tools and skills are needed for each heist is in the next message. As soon as you fullfil the requirements for a heist, make sure to try that out to gain more marbles.
Examples of newbie hotel heist with only 2 tools and 3 skills are such as:
Example 1:
Example 2:
Example 3: