
The Schedule 1 Cartel update has arrived and your narcotics empire is facing its biggest challenge yet. To establish yourself as the number one drug dealer in Schedule 1, you’re going to need to decrease the influence the Cartel has over Hyland Point.
To unlock further regions in Schedule 1, you will have to reduce the amount of influence the Cartel has in prior regions. As you decrease the influence of the Cartel and establish enough presence in each region, you will progress the questline and get closer to toppling the Cartel.
More Schedule 1 guides
Schedule 1: How to Unlock the Cartel | Schedule 1: How to get the Pump Shotgun | Schedule 1: How to Transfer an Employee to a Different Property | Schedule 1: How to Assign Lockers to Employees | Schedule 1: How to get the Jukebox | Schedule 1: How to get the Storage Unit | Schedule 1: How to get all Cars and the Best Vehicles | Schedule 1: How to Restore Health | Schedule 1: How to Meet With Suppliers | Schedule 1: How to get Dealers | Schedule 1: How to List Products for Sale | Schedule 1: How to Play Co-op With Friends | Schedule 1: How to Collect and Sell Trash | Schedule 1: How to Pickpocket | Schedule 1: How to Launder Money | Schedule 1: How to Move Furniture | Schedule 1: All Cheats and Console Commands | Schedule 1: How to Change Clothes |
How to reduce Cartel influence in Schedule 1
The most natural way of decreasing the influence of the Cartel is to unlock new customers and build your relationship with them. To add new customers to your client list, offer them a free sample of your product. Open up your map using your phone to see the customers you can offer a free sample to. Giving them a sample of a product with their preferred effects will boost the chances of them liking the drug. Once they’re a customer, continue personally selling to them to form a better relationship.

Next, the influence of the Cartel can be reduced by defeating ambushes. While you’re on the streets of Hyland Point, the Benzies family will send NPCs to ambush you. Those NPCs will be dressed in green and black and they will be armed, so make sure you have a weapon on-hand, preferably a gun, as three will try and jump you at once. When you take out the attackers, Cartel influence will take a hit.
As you’d expect, the Cartel will be doing dealings of their own. Interrupting their deals and taking out a dealer will decrease Cartel influence. It appears that if you unlock all customers in a region, the Cartel dealers won’t have anyone to sell to. The Cartel dealers are based at:
- The boarded-up building next to the Tattoo Shop
- The Crimson Canary
- Billy’s house, by the police checkpoint near the purchasable Warehouse
- At the apartment opposite the Laundromat
- The building next to Jane’s camper van
Lastly, you can also shut down the Cartel’s influence in Schedule 1 by painting graffiti on the walls. Purchase spray paint from a gas station and equip it as you walk around town to see the walls that can be painted (they’ll be highlighted with a white outline.) When you approach a wall that can be spray painted, you can draw whatever you’d like and it will decrease the Cartel’s influence in the area.
