Since its release GTA V Online has had a ton of missions and locations added to it. Some like the Diamond Casino have added a ton of new content enjoyed by fans old and new. Others like the Taxi update are a total waste of time. Yet one of the more elusive locations is Record A studios. A location that whilst added in the Contracts update needs to be unlocked after a long series of missions. Something I didn’t know thanks to some other guides on this topic just boiling down to “Well, you just do it”, or “Just go there”.
This guide will feature a quickfire summary of how to unlock Record A in GTA V Online. Which you will find just below. It is light on detail. But if you just want a quick “How do I do that?” or want to know how without spoilers then it is there for you. Below that, you will find details on each set of missions and what you need to do to complete them. Some mission sets are far easier than others. As such they have been combined into single entries. Whereas others, due to their difficulty or complexity, are more detailed and spread out. With all that out of the way, let’s get to it.
In a Nutshell
Alright, so in full fairness dear reader there is little point in me keeping the exact method to show you how to unlock Record A in GTA V Online a secret in this guide. It was a pain in the butt for me to find help online so I had to do it myself. So, to unlock Record A you need to complete all the VIP Contracts at the Agency and then complete the Short Trip mission once you are invited to visit. This will allow you to visit the location as often as you like without needing to complete any further missions.
Work hard on and you too can unlock a selection of crummy clothes.
All these missions aside the Short Trip mission can be completed solo. And can be completed in an invite-only lobby. That is it in a nutshell. The remainder of this guide will tell you the details of each stage of the contract so that you can be ready for what is going to come. These mission sets aren’t especially difficult. However, some levels can catch you out. And can be difficult if you are doing this solo. But I managed all of these solo aside from the Short Trip mission. And if a knucklehead like Ol’ Chris can do it solo, you can do it too.
Initial Steps
First off in this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide, you need to buy an Agency. These can be found on the Dynasty8 Executive site on your phone. It doesn’t matter which of them that you pick, as they are all identical. And at this stage, the only thing different about them is the view that they give you. For what that is worth. Once you’ve bought the Agency you need to make your way over to check the place out. Once there you need to do a couple of client missions there whilst you wait for Franklin to tell you about a VIP client he has found. It doesn’t matter which ones you pick. Everyone that you complete will allow the business to generate more passive income per in-game day.
The caddies are hard to control, so try striking the rear corners and get them to spin out.
Once you get a call from Franklin you will given your first VIP contract mission. Of all the missions in this guide, this is the easiest. And possibly the most annoying. You just need to chase down two guys hassling Dre in a golf caddy and ram into them until they take enough damage to surrender. The first time I did this I just focused down on Caddy A and didn’t need to bother with Caddy B. Not sure if that is a skip but worth bearing in mind. But once Caddy A has taken enough damage you need to follow them and “Convince” them to be cool. Once this is done you need to wait till your next call from Franklin to unlock the next set of missions. The quickest way to pass the time is to do another client mission.
Into the FIB
Your next stop on this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online will see you return to the FIB building from GTA V’s story. However, unlike the last time you were there, this is a far easier mission. Fly over to the building and try to land your helicopter somewhere you can easily take off from for later. Once you make your way into the FIB building you need to blast the door to the server room. A remote explosive can do this. However, be careful as sometimes the door can glitch and get trapped and block your way in. If it does try and blast it till it lays flat on the ground like in the image below or restart the mission. Once inside you need to guard the room whilst you acquire the information you need.
I’m not sure if sticky bomb placement has anything to do with the glitch. But more explosions can help.
This isn’t too hard as the FIB agents that are sent to you aren’t too tough. And the time limit isn’t too long. Once you get what you need you need to escape. Exit the building. Take down any helicopters that are nearby and get back into your own. Then escape from the police. Sure, you can just parachute down and drive off if you want. However, it’s easier to lose them by flying off than on the ground in my experience.
Return to the Agency and then wait to get called for the next set of missions. When you return you will have to select which of the three sets of missions you want to do. It doesn’t matter which set you start with. But bear in mind you can’t switch to another set once you’ve started one. I recommend starting with the South Central set as it is the easiest, then do Nightlife, and finish with High Society which I found the hardest.
South Central Leak
This set of missions is fairly easy. In your first mission, you have to take down a deal and capture the “crystal” making equipment. There aren’t many gangsters to deal with, and truth be told you can just shoot from the car you arrive in. Or just hop around cover and take down the handful of gangsters there. Get in the van and drive to the target location. On the way back you’ll be followed by members of the Lost but they are easy to deal with. Mission two is harder and requires you to take down swarms of Ballas whilst defending local Grove Street members. You’re going to have to take down a lot of them. So make sure that you stock up on body armour, snacks, and the best weapons you have. And find good cover to take them down from.
Just take cover and shoot until the next stage triggers.
The second half of that mission sees you following Vernon to interrogate P. Which is a simple case of just following him into the garage. The final of the three missions sees you taking on the Vagos and reclaiming Dre’s music. Once again, you have to fight off waves of enemy foes to get to the next stage. Not too hard given that they all come from the same direction. Just take cover behind a car and get shooting. In the second half, you need to chase down the person driving off with the music. Given they are driving an open-topped car just shoot them as they’re driving and then take the car back to the agency.
Night Life Leak
This set of missions in the How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide sees you facing off against an influencer who has stolen Dre’s music for clout. So if you have any lingering resentment for when this kind of thing happens in real life you’re in for a good time. In your first mission, you need to retrieve a security tape from a nightclub. It has the same layout as the standard ones that players can buy so if you are familiar with them you’ll know where to go.
Try to avoid the other cleaners as they can detect you quickly.
There are two ways to deal with this. Guns blazing or semi-stealth. Guns blazing is simple to understand, go in, shoot the place up, get the tape, leave. Semi-stealth is where you steal a cleaner’s uniform from a van on the way there (it is marked on the world map when the mission starts). And try and blend in to avoid detection by the guards. However, like almost all disguises in this game, it won’t last for long. So you might as well get shooting. Get the tape, get out, drive back to the Agency. Job done.
The Marina
The second mission sees you stealing a boat from a Marina and then boarding a super yacht. Which, yet again, has an identical layout to a player-owned one. So if you have one yourself you should know your way around. Again you are given the choice of stealth or shooting. With stealth not being a real option. Sure, maybe with a buddy you can do that. But solo it is far harder. Shoot your way to the bridge to open the door to the cabins. In the bridge, you can also disable the Anti-Air on the yacht. This can come in useful later on when you make your escape. If you are so inclined to take to the air that is. The controls to unlock the cabin are on the left-hand computer. Once activated head and then down and find the evidence.
This is the computer where the anti-air controls are located.
The evidence can spawn in one of three locations however they’re all close to one another. And truth be told they are easy to find. Only a few enemies spawn here so whilst it may take a while to find it isn’t too hard. When you find it you need to take a picture of it on your phone. Once you’ve done that you need to escape. Your best bet is just grabbing a boat and sailing off, you’ll be under fire from helicopters but they aren’t too hard to avoid. And it isn’t too difficult to shoot out the pilots. Yes, if you took down the anti-air you can fly out. But given how long it can take to get airborne you will just end up a sitting duck. Once you get close to the shore the mission will end.
Final Nightlife Mission
The final mission of the Nightlife path takes you to the Diamond Casino. It reuses a lot of assets so finding your way around should be too hard if you’ve been there and own a penthouse there. Drive over there, head up to the party. Don’t draw your weapons or you’ll be shot on sight. Get into the party and try and steal the laptop. Once you do that you then need to “chase down” your target. I say “chase down” as in truth you’re just shooting up guards on your way down to the Music Locker where the target is. Use your cover well. There are a lot of guards to get through. And be sure to bring plenty of body armour and snacks to keep you in the game.
Some of the enemy guards can jump out from the rooms when you least expect it.
There is no good reason to rush this. The target can’t escape. The guards are better armed and are better shots than the gangsters you were fighting earlier. And with all the cover they have it is easy for them to hop out and ambush you. Especially in the nightclub when you get to it. The nightclub has the same layout as the one from earlier so you should know where to go. When you make it down to the target you get the option to either shoot him or spare him. It makes no difference either way as you can just take the laptop and flee. Get back to the Agency and then wait for the call so you can do the final set of missions. Which as I keep saying is probably the hardest set featured in this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide.
High Society Leak
Your first mission is a semi-stealth one. First half you need to sneak into the building by avoiding the CCTV cameras which isn’t too hard. And by now you’ll likely have done this before. Sneak past them by avoiding their cone of vision. Hack the door and head in. From here you take down the guards, no stealth needed, and hack the computer to get the location of the limo. Follow the limo to its final location, take a picture of the gate and then leave the area to end the mission. Then await the call for the next job. If you want to you can just blow the limo up and get what you need from there but that feels like too much of a gamble to me given how the item you need from that can spawn.
Another mission on the How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide where you just hide behind a thing and shoot.
Your next job is another mission with the illusion of stealth. Sure, you can sneak into the place to taser your target. But the moment you get too close to a guard or take the taser out you’ll get capped. So avoid the guards, find some cover and just take down all the guards. The location of this mission can vary. So take a moment or two to familiarise yourself with the layout before you begin. Once the guards are dealt with taser the lawyer and drive off with his car. You’ll be chased down but once you get back to the Agency you have nothing else to worry about.
High Society Leak Final Mission
Honestly, this might be the hardest mission on this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide, mostly due to it feeling needlessly dragged out. Drive over to the target’s mansion in the car you took earlier. Once at the party, you make your way to the DJ. There you will find that they are SHOCK HORROR only pretending to DJ! Your job then is to cause enough intimidation to get the target to flee to a helicopter. To do that, well, your options are limited to just shooting up the place and detonating the bomb in the car you brought. Don’t let the ‘intimidation’ bar fool you. The bigger and more violent you are won’t impact the speed the bar fills up. This is essentially a survival mission.
Find better cover than this before you start shooting.
Find some cover then start blasting. Take down the waves of respawning guards and attack helicopters. Topping up your health when needed. Once the target flees to their helicopter you need to chase after them and damage the helicopter. But be warned, the gate is locked and can only be opened by shooting the control box. But you can do that from your car. It isn’t that hard to damage the target’s helicopter enough to trigger the final stage of the mission. Keep shooting, and once you’ve done enough follow it until it crashes. When it does, “deal with” the target, get the music and drive back to the Agency. The target’s guards will be following you but they are no tougher than anyone else you’ve faced thus far. You can find a small two-person helicopter close to the crash site to escape in if you want to save time.
Studio Time
Once the first three sets of missions are done you’ll get a call from Franklin telling you to take Dre’s car to Record A Studios. Note, doing this does not unlock Record A nor does it count to daily objectives related to it. Only completing everything on this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide will do that. When you arrive at Record A you’ll find it under siege from a small army of gunmen. Use what cover you have to take them down. There are plenty of cars to hide behind. Don’t rush and try to take them down at range. They can hide behind their own cover so don’t get caught out. With the goons outside dealt with you need to head inside.
You won’t have much cover, so use what you have effectively.
This half of the mission is similar to the second half of the final Nightlife mission. You are fighting inside, in narrow corridors. Against foes that don’t always appear on the map and are fond of hiding in closets and sneaking up at you. So take it slow. There is no time limit. And given how many places you can get jumped from it is worth it to take it easy and throw on armour and snacks when you need to. Once this is finished you get an overly long cutscene and need to wait for the final Agency mission.
Don’t F*** With Dre
It is time to end the Agency missions once and for all. Drive down to the target location and a cutscene will play. Once done you’ll start coming under enemy fire. Take cover from the nearby train carriage and fight off the waves of oncoming goons. They aren’t too hard and spawn from the same locations time and again. Goodness, you can even kill a lot of them with blind fire from your gun. Once this part is done you need to race to the airport for the second half. Where you’ll find that Johnny Guns has fled into a hangar.
Take it slow, Johnny Guns is stupidly tough so you need your health.
The layout of the hangar is very linear. So you won’t get lost. And Johnny Guns’s goons fall pretty easily. Take it slow, go from cover to cover. And heal when needed. You can snipe most of them and take them out at range quite easily. The big challenge here is taking down Johnny Guns. They are insanely durable and are in an awkward position which makes shooting them difficult. Seriously, they can tank a lot of damage. Even shotgun blasts to the face and still keep standing. However, as soon as they fall a cutscene plays and you need to drive Dre to his helicopter. And with that, the mission is over and the VIP work is done. However, you still haven’t unlocked Record A!
Short Trip
Eventually, you’ll get a call inviting you to Record A, who it comes from can vary, but when I got it it came from Franklin. And honestly waiting for it did delay the writing of this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide. Well, that and finding someone to do this mission with. This call will add the location to the map. Make your way over and enter the yellow circle. Unlike the previous missions you’ve dealt with this one is a co-op. And cannot be completed alone. So I hope you have a friend you can buddy up with otherwise you might be in for a long wait whilst you search for someone to join you. Luckily I was able to get a rando’ to join me to finish this off.
One taking the left and the other taking the right can help here.
In this mission, you take control of either Franklin or Lammar. You drive out to Lammar’s Organic Produce store to find it under attack by Vagos gangsters. The first thing you’ll notice is that you have no Body Armour, have none in your inventory, and will be lacking your entire gun loadout. Given how little firepower you have you need to be careful with this one as you are limited to whatever Franklin or Lamarr has on them at the start or whatever you can find during the mission.
Almost There
Once the store is secured you will find yourself trapped in the back of the van and having to take down waves of Vagos tailing you. This part isn’t too hard, as most of their vehicles are open-topped so it is easy to take down the drivers. Ideally with the Micro SMG if you picked one up earlier. Honestly, this is a mission that feels straight out of classic GTA or Saint’s Row (before it went bad). Don’t waste ammo shooting the cars, just shoot the drivers.
Sniping the driving can help here.
The final stage sees you tracking down the driver on foot. Advance slowly and hug cover as you go. The lack of body armour makes this tough so you need to be careful. And don’t get too trigger-happy as your ammo supplies are limited. Don’t go rushing in without being certain there is no one hiding around a corner. And have your buddy covering you. Well, if you’re lucky they will. My partner just stood back and did nothing meaning I had to do this part solo. But that is beside the point. Once this mission is done you will finally have unlocked Record A studios!
And so concludes this How To Unlock Record A in GTA V Online guide. I hope you found it useful. If you did be sure to share it with your friends. And be sure to check the other GTA V guides here at KeenGamer.
