How the Impound Heist Works

A contract runs in two phases: preparation and the job. The crew shares one objective board at the top right of the screen, rebuilt by the server every two seconds, so everyone sees the same progress. There are no fixed roles: any crew member can tick any row.

The crew

The crew is formed the moment somebody accepts a contract. Whoever takes it, plus every player standing within 12 m of them (Config.Crew.reach), up to 4 people in total (Config.Crew.max), is swept in. There is no minimum, so a solo run works. A fixer who trusts the person taking the job allows a bigger crew: +1 at Trusted, +2 at Made.

• The person who took the job is the starter. Only the starter can tell the fixer the crew is ready.
• If the starter disconnects, the next crew member is promoted ("You are running this one now."). If the whole crew leaves, the contract ends.
• A crew member who reconnects on the same character is put back on the contract with their board.

Stage 1: The fixer

The fixer stands at one spot on the map (Config.Fixer). Choose Talk about work on him. Under his name, the dialogue box shows his organisation and your tier with it.

If there is work, he names a car and a yard by name ("There is a Karin Sultan sitting in" the yard he picked, "Get it out and take it to my man..."). The options are:

The offer you were shown is held for two minutes, so accepting gives you the car and yard he just named rather than a fresh roll.

If there is no work, he says why:

When the contract is signed, every crew member who is not already carrying one is handed a microcamera_impound.

Stage 2: Preparation

The board title reads PREPARATION with a countdown: 30 minutes by default (Config.Timing.prepMinutes), longer at higher standing. Every row must be ticked before the clock runs out.

The cars in the yard

When the contract is signed, the server plans a line of cars in the yard's own empty parking bays: the mark and up to 3 decoys (Config.Yard.decoys, one fewer at Made). The decoys are always different models from the mark, the mark's position in the line is random, and a yard with few free bays gets fewer decoys. The cars are created once a crew member is within 250 m of the yard. They are locked, switched off and frozen in place.

The microcamera

Use the microcamera_impound item to raise your phone. The view switches to first person with a viewfinder.

Frame one car in the centre box and shoot. The server checks that the car is part of the job, that you are within 45 m of it, and whether it is the mark. It also needs a clear line of sight from your head, so a car behind a wall does not count. The zoom helps tell cars apart across a yard, but it does not extend the 45 m limit. The camera works from inside a vehicle too.

• Wrong car: "That is not the one he described." Try another one; it costs nothing.
• Right car: "That is the one. You know what you are looking at now." The camera puts itself away.

The supplier

The supplier is the only place the crew can buy a signal box (unless your server sells signalbox elsewhere). He sits in the open back of a van and only appears for a crew in preparation, on their screens only. A red circle on the map (60 m by default) shows the area to search, with no icon and no route. It disappears once the crew holds every required item, but he stays for the rest of his stock.

Choose Talk on him (or on his van), then Show me what you have. His shop is a row of cards: click a card to buy one, scroll to browse, Esc or Backspace to leave. Everything is paid in cash, and the price is read by the server at the moment of the sale.

Stage 3: The green light

When every row is ticked, the board collapses to the countdown and a single line: Go back to the fixer. The scouting marks come off and a route leads back to him.

Only the starter can commit. Talk to the fixer and choose Say the word. He makes the crew wait for the yard to go quiet: about 2 minutes (Config.Timing.goMinutes, 0 to start at once). The board shows Green light in with a timer, and the preparation clock stops while you wait. When the time is up he calls: "It is quiet. Go."

The job is now live, and the delivery clock starts: 20 minutes by default (Config.Timing.deliverMinutes), longer at higher standing. The red drop-off circle appears on the map.

Stage 4: The gates

The board now reads:

• Use the signal box near a gate
• Break into the car
• Start the engine
• Find the safe code (optional, only if the yard has a safe in the job)
• Empty the safe (optional)
• Take the car to the buyer

Any crew member holding a signal box uses it from their inventory within 25 m of any of the yard's gates (Config.Signal.range): down the side street, behind the wall, or in a car. This opens vs-minigames' frequency tuner:

• Turn the knob through the band (425 to 445 MHz by default) and find the carrier the gates answer to.
• Hold it within the window (±60 kHz) for 1.5 seconds until it locks.
• There are 2 false carriers on the band that tempt but never lock, and a 50-second clock.

The server picks a fresh frequency for every attempt and checks the one you locked. The box is only used up when it works. Running out of time or closing the tuner costs nothing but the attempt; use the box again to retry.

When the lock lands, every yard gate, plus the lot's entrance gate if it has one, is released: unfrozen and given its physics back, for every player. Nothing slides or teleports. From then on a gate is something in the way: push it, ram it, or squeeze past. By default this is also the moment the police alarm goes off.

Stage 5: The car

Walk up to the mark. A prompt appears at the bottom of the screen.

1. [E] force the door. Plays vs-minigames' Impact Control, a timed-strike minigame. Win it and your character breaks the window, unlocks the door and climbs in.
2. [E] get the wires out. Plays the cable-cut minigame (8 wires). Win it and the engine starts and the car is free to drive: "It runs. Take it to the buyer."

The decoys stay locked and frozen for the whole job. Once the engine is running, the yellow route switches from the yard to the buyer.

Stage 6: The safe (optional)

Only when the yard has a safe in the job (see Setup). Both rows are optional and never block the delivery.

1. Find the code. Once the gates are open, a post-it appears at one of the hiding places set for that yard, picked at random per contract. With no hiding places set, it lies on the yard's boss terminal. Choose Read the note on it to see the combination full-screen.
2. Crack the safe. Stand at the safe and press [E] work the safe. This is the code dial: four numbers on a 0 to 99 dial. A wrong combination ("Wrong combination.") can be retried.

When it opens, the safe door swings open for everyone (on a picked safe prop, such as the WXMAPS Los Santos Impound's), and every crew member is paid 25% of the car's category price (more at higher standing). Any item loot you configured goes to the player who opened it. See Payouts.

Stage 7: The buyer

One of the configured drop-offs is picked at random per contract. The buyer stands at the centre of the red circle (30 m radius by default) and only spawns while a contract is at the delivery stage.

Park the car in front of him and choose Hand the car over on him. He checks three things: the engine has been started, you are inside the circle, and the car is within a few metres of you.

• "That it? Leave it running and step away from it." Choose It is yours.
• The crew is put out of the car, the buyer gets in and drives off, and car and buyer leave the world once they are 50 m from the player who handed it over (or after 60 seconds). With Config.Handover.driveAway = false, the car simply goes the moment it is paid for.
• "Delivered. $X each." The payout is split evenly across the crew, and every crew member earns standing with the fixer.

The yard then goes quiet for 6 hours (Config.Timing.cooldownHours, 3 hours less at Made), and the next contract can be taken a few seconds later.

Minigames overview

Every minigame result is checked by the server: it needs a one-shot token issued when the minigame legitimately started (right phase, right place, a crew member), and a result that comes back impossibly fast is refused.

How a contract fails

A destroyed car is not an instant failure, but it cannot be handed over, so the contract runs out of time. A damaged car that arrives still sells, for less.