Short Guide

The long guide breaks everything down in greater detail, this is meant to be an accessible Short Guide.

How To Not Die

The first question you should ask and answer when designing a Payday 2 loud build is "How will I not die when I get shot?" Below are the 6 best options:

1. Heavy Armor

- Ace Iron Man in the middle Enforcer tree and wear ICTV, the heaviest possible armor. The biggest downside to heavy armor is the penalty to movement speed associated with it.

Perk Deck: Any besides Rogue, Burglar, Crook, Ex-President, Grinder
Armor: ICTV

Pros: Durable, works well with a variety of perk decks, no DLC required
Cons: Slow, requires Acing a top skill in a tree

2. Medium Armor

- Ace Die Hard and take Basic Iron Man in the middle Enforcer tree and wear HBV, the heaviest of the Ballistic Vests that gain benefit from Die Hard. This offers around half the armor of ICTV, but at nearly half again the foot speed. Using the added speed to stay out of trouble is very important.

Perk Deck: Any besides Rogue, Burglar, Ex-President, Grinder
Armor: HBV

Pros: Combo of durability and speed, works well with a variety of perk decks, no DLC required.
Cons: Less armor than ICTV and still no dodge, only 4 points worth of skill savings vs. ICTV for much weaker armor.

3. Armor Regen

- Anarchist, Sociopath and Biker feature various means of continuous armor regen. All three methods stack well with Aced Bullseye (middle Enforcer tree.) Because armor will be constantly regenerating, lighter armor can be viable with these perk decks.

Perk Deck: Anarchist, Sociopath, Biker
Armor: LBV, HBV

Pros: Fast, high effective armor, synergizes extremely well with Berzerker and Frenzy skills
Cons: Requires DLC-locked perk deck, requires specific perk deck

4. Health Regen

- Very similar to armor regen, this setup uses stored health/health regen to tank damage via health rather than armor. Ex-President supplements its health regen with dodging, and as a result works best with a suit, Aced Duck & Cover and Sneaky B_stard. Grinder supplements its health regen with bonuses to LBV and thus works best with LBV, Aced Die Hard and Basic Iron Man.

Perk Deck: Ex-President, Grinder
Armor: Suit (Ex-President) or LBV (Grinder)

Pros: Fast, stored health is predictable, can trigger Second Wind regularly for added speed.
Cons: Does not work well with Berzerker and Frenzy skills, Ex-Pres relies on dodge and thus is RNG-dependent for effectiveness, overall durability moderate at best. Requires specific perk deck.

5. Crook/Burglar/Sicario Hybrid

- Crook, Burglar and Sicario can use a combo of dodging and light armor. The middle Enforcer tree's various boosts to ballistic vest (Aced Die Hard) and all armor (Basic Iron Man) are good skill picks for a Crook/Burglar/Sicario, as is the middle Ghost tree's Aced Duck & Cover and Sneaky B_stard. High concealment weapons are required for Sneaky B_stard (middle Ghost tree) usage, but as this deck is a hybrid of armor and dodging it is not necessarily required to go all-in on dodging as a strategy.

Perk Deck: Crook, Burglar, Sicario
Armor: LBV (with added dodge) or HBV (no added dodging)

Pros: Fast, moderate armor, some dodging, synergizes with Low Blow for critical hits
Cons: Compromise of armor & dodge means excellent at neither, requires specific perk deck, maximizing dodge requires high concealment weapons, skillpoint intensive

6. Rogue/Sicario Dodge

- Wearing a suit with the Rogue or Sicario deck, high-concealment weapons and the Sneaky B_stard skill in the middle Ghost tree, you avoid getting shot. Note that with Aced Sneaky B_stard this is most effective at 25 or less detection, and with Basic Sneaky B_stard this is most effective at 5 or less detection.

Perk Deck: Rogue, Sicario
Armor: Suit

Pros: Fast, dodge scales well to all difficulties including One Down, synergizes with critical hits, no DLC required
Cons: RNG based durability, requires specialized weapons, requires specific perk deck, requires a top skill in a tree

How To Help Teammates Not Die

Of secondary importance only to not dying yourself is helping your teammates not die. Below are the two main things you should almost certainly be doing at least one of in this area:

1. Aced Inspire.

The left Mastermind tree is full of ways to help your teammates not die. Pick either First Aid Kits(FAKs) or Doctor Bags to specialize in on your way to Aced Inspire. Aced Inspire will let you revive teammates instantly from a distance, note however that there is a cooldown on usage of this skill. Maxed FAKs are capable of instantly reviving players who fall near them, and granting damage reduction to anyone who uses them. Doctor Bags are important for restoring downs. FAKs do not restore downs.

2. Ammo Bags.

If you don't have Aced Inspire and good FAKs or Doctor Bags, the right Enforcer tree has skills to improve Ammo Bags. Generally for loud play you should be bringing the maximum complement of fully upgraded FAKs, Doctor Bags or Ammo Bags.

Have A Plan To Kill Everyone You Meet, Part 1

Be prepared to deal with any special. They all have weaknesses and it is not difficult to select weapons capable of addressing the entire range of possible threats.

Note: Russian enemies

The Boiling Point heist takes place in Russia, and has a different-looking police force. That said, all enemies work exactly the same as the ones in America, except that their health and damage values are screwed up and slightly higher on some difficulties. Don't worry about it, click them.

1. Regular/Heavy SWAT

- The basic cops. On most difficulties, come in a light and heavy version that are about equally dangerous. On Overkill and above Heavy SWAT (the "tan") wear torso armor will protect them from body shots. Be sure you either have the ability to shoot through such armor (Aced Surefire in the right Technician Tree or a sniper rifle) or have at least one weapon accurate enough you are comfortable making consistent headshots on them.

On the highest difficulties, SWATs are much, much more threatening than any special unit due to inflated damage and accuracy. Make them your top priority.

1A. Cops, criminals, guards and FBI agents - many heists have beat police, criminal enemies, security guards, or FBI agents wearing suits or balaclavas. These enemies have relatively little health, but they can also pack a major punch. Criminal enemies cannot be intimidated or converted.

2. Snipers

- Snipers are fragile but hit hard, especially at close range. Be sure you have at least one weapon accurate enough you are comfortable counter-sniping them with. The Arbiter grenade launcher is surprisingly good for counter-sniping due to the extremely flat arc of its launched grenades. Note that the longer a sniper aims at you, the more accurate they become.

3. Shields

- Shields are protected in one direction by the big shield they carry. They tend to spawn in large groups on the higher difficulties. Shotgun slugs, sniper rifle rounds, and any kind of explosive can penetrate these shields. Note that a slug-equipped shotgun can also be made accurate enough to address Snipers, and sniper rifles obviously are valid counters to Snipers as well. Aced Shock And Awe (middle Enforcer tree) causes Shields to be staggered by your fire, such that you can spin them and attack them from an angle the shield won't protect against. This is often very ammo-inefficient, however.

4. Tazers

- Tazers have a lot of health, deal a lot of damage, and can taze players. They're a very binary threat in that Aced Shockproof allows a player to push the F key to simply escape being tazed immediately. You do not have to aim at the Tazer to trigger this counter, contrary to the skill description. On higher difficulties the brief stun may still cause a player to take an unacceptable amount of damage from other nearby units even with Aced Shockproof. The other option for dealing with Tazers is to shoot them to disrupt the tazing. If you choose this option rather than Aced Shockproof, be sure you have a weapon accurate enough and with enough ammo capacity that you are comfortable shooting your way out of being tazed.

5. Cloakers

- Cloakers have a lot of HP and the ability to instantly down a player by running at and kicking them. They will sometimes hide in the environment, waiting to attack. While attacking, they make a recognizeable loud feedback sound, but note that even when not attacking, they will make a quieter feedback sound, letting the player know where they are. Cloakers are extremely vulnerable to headshots- if one is charging you, a good headshot will often put them away. As a result, Aced Body Expertise is one option for easily dispatching Cloakers. Otherwise, much like Heavy SWAT, be sure you have a weapon accurate enough that you are comfortable making headshots on a Cloaker during their attack animation. Note their various flip and spin kicks can and will complicate this approach. Explosive weapons generally will not do enough damage to a Cloaker to stop them during a kick animation or charge and are similarly not recommended. The Buzzer and Electrical Brass Knuckles melee weapons will stun a Cloaker and stop them during a kick or charge animation...but we do not recommend Aced Counterstrike as a method of dealing with Cloakers.

6. Dozers

- Dozers have extremely high HP and heavy armor bodysuits that are really resistant to most attacks. Be sure to bring a weapon capable of dealing enough damage fast enough to a Dozer's faceplates & face to kill the Dozer quickly. You have to break the outer and inner visor to hit its head for massive damage. Low-medium damage rapid fire weapons and high damage single shot weapons can both be used effectively against the Dozer.

Have a Plan to Kill Everyone You Meet, Part 2

Some enemies are especially rare. They are discussed in this section.

6A. Headless Dozers - Headless Dozers appear on some halloween maps. They are just like normal Dozers in most ways, except they have even more health, do more damage, and cannot run. Headless Dozers do not have a head hitbox.

7. Captain Winters

- Captain Winters has a chance of appearing on some heists, announced by a police loudspeaker. When Winters is coming, the assault wave is locked, and will not end until he retreats. When he arrives, it will be with a formation of special shield-equipped buddies. These 4-sided shields protect his men from multiple angles of fire at once, and their formation around their Captain makes it difficult to engage him. When he reaches his intended position, a shield appears next to the Assault indicator and Winters begins rapidly raising the health of enemies on the map, eventually doubling it. And the assault won't end! Making him leave fast is a priority, and can be done by hurting him enough or by wiping out his buddies.

Explosive or fire weapons are the preferred method of dealing with Captain Winters. Grenade launchers, rocket launchers, thrown grenades (including molotovs) and the flamethrower are all excellent ways of sending him packing at once. Much like regular Shields, sniper rifles and shotgun slugs can penetrate the special shields he and his men carry, and delivering headshots to them through their shields is also valid, if more time consuming than simply bathing the formation in explosions and/or fire.

8. SWAT Turrets

- Some heists have a chance to spawn one or more giant mechanical turrets from SWAT vans and helicopters. The turret will aggressively track and suppress players with laser-guided automatic fire, except when it pauses to reload (the laser turns yellow). Getting near the turret will let it hit much, much harder. It will also emit a cloud of tear gas to drive the player away.

The Turret has a main gun body and a shield that protects it. Destroying the shield will cause the turret to immediately retract for a long period and repair its shield (the main body's health will also refill). It can do this twice before it will stop repairing itself. Destroying the third shield will leave the body open to damage and permanent destruction. The turret shield is extremely vulnerable to explosives. The turret body is very vulnerable to bullets, especially if shot in the lens that the laser comes out of. Bullets hitting the lens get a x1000 multiplier!

Sometimes turrets are buggy and don't reactivate properly after repairing. You can usually force them to reemerge by getting close. Use your judgement as to whether to do this- sometimes it's better to reactivate a turret and take it down early, rather than have it reactivate and surprise you later on!

Turrets have a ton of HP and take a while to destroy. In many heists it's faster and safer to just avoid them.

8A. Ceiling Turrets - Some heists have turrets mounted in the ceiling. Do destroy these- they often cover crucial areas, and unlike SWAT van turrets, these ones will only have one shield, cannot repair themselves, and may have less HP.

8B. Helicopter Turrets - A couple heists have helicopter turrets. Helicopter turrets can repair twice like SWAT van turrets, but don't retract while doing so. An aggressive team can destroy the turret during the repair process, which will speed things up a lot.

9. Unique Targets

- A few heists have unique criminal enemies that you need to assassinate. These enemies will have a lot of HP and will do more damage, but do not have any special tricks. They will often have a limit on how much damage they take from a single shot (and take relatively little extra damage from headshots), so rapid fire from the team is usually the best way to eliminate them.

10. Medics

- Medics have the HP of Tasers, making them more durable than a heavy SWAT, but in lieu of a special attack they canheal a nearby enemy (including each other or other specials) when that enemy receives an otherwise-mortal blow. This effect, when triggered, heals the target back to full HP, but is limited by a cool-down timer. Medics healing Dozers or Snipers can be particularly problematic and should be eliminated with extreme prejudice when near other, more dangerous, specials.

Skill Synergies With Weapons

To get the most out of your skills and your weapons, you should choose skills and weapons that complement each other well, while fulfilling the requirements outlined in the previous chapter. Some example options are below, these are by no means the only effective weapon/skill combos but are some of the more popular options.

1. Shotguns, Overkill and You.

Basic Overkill in the left Enforcer tree gives a +75% boost to shotgun damage for 20 seconds, activated/refreshed every time you score a kill with a shotgun. It should not be difficult to keep this effect active at nearly all times, thus providing a large damage boost to shotguns. Some weapon combos that take advantage of this to good effect:

A. Two shotguns. Bring one shotgun loaded with Buckshot (00, or 000 if you have access to it) or Dragon's Breath rounds, load the other shotgun with Dragon's Breath, Flechette or Slug ammo. This gives you a lot of flexibility and options for dealing with various threats. Fire from Dragon's Breath rounds is valid against nearly all foes, slugs penetrate shields and are accurate enough to press a shotgun into counter-sniping duties. Flechettes greatly increase a shotguns range and similarly allow for counter-sniping with a shotgun, although they do not penetrate shields.

B. Shotgun and an Explosive weapon. A shotgun loaded with Buckshot (00 or 000 if you have access to it) or Dragon's Breath pairs well with any explosive weapon. A shotgun loaded with Explosive shells is also an option. A Buckshot-equipped shotgun will deal with anything but hardened or distant targets, and explosives or Dragon's Breath can be used against Shields and Snipers.

2. Heavy Automatic Fire.

Aced Body Expertise is a good skill that pairs best with a heavy automatic weapon like a minigun or LMG. Many assault rifles and SMGs can also be set up to benefit greatly from Aced Body Expertise. Even without Body Expertise, LMGs/miniguns are currently extremely strong. An explosive secondary or Aced Shock And Awe will allow engagement of Shields and/or Captain Winters.

3. DMRs.

Many Assault Rifles can be equipped with DMR kits, greatly increasing their damage and accuracy at the cost of stability and ammo pool. DMR kits pair well with single-shot modifications or using the V-key in game to switch the weapon to single shot. DMRs are extremely accurate and reliably deliver high-damage headshots. A DMR kit does not, however, allow assault rifles to penetrate shields like a proper sniping rifle. Good secondary pairings for a DMR are explosive weapons or shotguns equipped with specialty ammunition like slugs or Dragon's Breath.

4. Silent Killer.

The rightmost Ghost tree has a variety of skills that make silencer-equipped weapons better. These bonuses stack with Technician and Mastermind skills that similarly improve weapon stats. Shotguns, LMGs, Assault Rifles, SMGs, DMRs, Sniping Rifles and Pistols can all benefit greatly from Silent Killer skills that increase accuracy and stability. Also notable is Aced Optical Illusions in the Silent Killer tree, which reduces the concealability penalty of silencers by 2, which can often be essential for use of silenced weapons to gain these bonuses in conjunction with a Rogue Dodge build.

5. Graze.

Sniper rifles got a big buff with Graze that allows them to do some crowd-control. Previously a very niche weapon, Sniper Rifles can now handle the high number of enemy spawns. Note ammo is still limited and thus a sniper rifle should be paired with something very ammo-efficient like an UZI.

Stealth - That Thing Some People Do

Stealth Notes

- The exact mechanics of stealth heists are usually consistent. Do things, don't get seen. But getting really good at stealth requires learning the weird details of guard routes and behavior in individual maps, which is beyond the scope of this guide. Some general notes:

• Networking desync can really screw teams over in stealth. If you're having a lot of trouble, you may have to play solo, or with people who are closer to you.
  
• Civilians and criminals don't care about bags of loot, broken glass or broken cameras, but police and guards do. Everyone is alerted by bodybags, dead bodies, drills, and the sound of breaking glass. There are some other heist-specific alert triggers.
  
• Security Guards carry pagers. When they die or are intimidated, the pager goes off and has to be answered, or the alarm goes off. You can answer four pagers safely. After that, the guy on the other end gets suspicious and calls the police.
  
• Police and most criminals don't carry pagers. You can mostly kill them with impunity.
  
• Enemies die instantly if they're not alerted. Some guards and criminals can have a lot of health and be hard to take down quietly if they are alerted.
  
• Some maps have weird scripted events that punish the player for killing too many civilians or police in stealth. See other guides for details on those.
  
• Many heists have a camera control room. Kill the NPC monitoring cameras and they will all deactivate.
  
• Some maps have lasers. If the lasers move around, you can throw bags through them safely. If they're stationary, you can't.
  
• Lasers are tied to the players computer, they're not synced. Don't freak out if your teammate seems to walk through them safely!
  
• Some heists have white Titan cameras. These can't be broken, the camera operator can be taken out if there is one. Titan cameras can also be be looped or blocked by ECMs. More on that below.
  
• Many doors can be shot open. As long as you don't break glass while doing it, this is totally safe in stealth.

Stealth Builds

- For Stealth builds the most important skill tree is the left tree in Ghost, Shinobi. You basically want to have all of these skills aced. ECMs are the single most useful deployable in stealth, as they block 911 calls from alerted civilians, guards or cops. When fully upgraded with Aced ECM Specialist, an ECM also delays the pagers on slain guards. The tree also lets you lockpick things faster, pick up stuff in casing mode, and buy additional assets in planning.

The two next most useful things to bring to stealth are the drill skills in the middle Technician tree, and Aced Jack of All Trades in the left Technician tree (allows carrying a secondary deployable.) The Secondary Deployable of choice is a Body Bag Case. With 2 pager-blocking ECMs, drill skills and a Body Bag Case, you will be an asset to any stealth team.

The Burglar Perk Deck is the best perk deck for stealth. Use it if you have access to it. Otherwise, Rogue and Crook are second-tier options for those without Burglar.

ECM Chains

- Chaining ECMs, whereby each team member deploys their ECMs one after another, never allowing the effect to completely die, can give a team enough time to rush through heists without going loud. Fully upgraded ECMs last 30s each, and each team member can bring 2 for a total of nearly 4 minutes of combined alarm suppression. Completing a heist during an ECM chain counts as completing the heist "in stealth" for purposes of a Stealth Bonus to experience on the next heist, even if the entire map has actually been alerted, but was unable to raise an alarm due to active ECMs! Watch out though. Some later maps have objectives that can't be completed while an ECM is active-usually stuff involving computers. These maps can't be completed with an ECM chain.

Modularized Build Advice Part 1

I know this is gonna be a can of worms and people will disagree with some assumptions in steps, but I've been working on modularizing build elements, likely someone with more technical know-how than me can turn this into a cool webapp or something, but here's how I make builds with pd2tools modular pieces:

Step 1: Armor Suite

Choose an armor type below:
A. Suit[pd2tools.com]: 16 points
B. LBV or HBV[pd2tools.com]: 32 points
C. ICTV[pd2tools.com]: 36 points

Step 2: Movement/Dodge Suite

Choose a movement/dodge model below:
A. None (Valid for B w/ HBV or C in step 1): 0 additional points, total cost 32 points w/ HBV, 36 w/ ICTV
B. Detection 4 Dodge for Suit[pd2tools.com] (Valid for A in step 1): 13 additional points, total cost 29 points
C. Detection 23 Dodge for Suit[pd2tools.com] (Valid for A step 1): 21 additional points, total cost 37 points
D. Detection 4 Dodge for LBV[pd2tools.com] (Valid for B w/ LBV in step 1): 13 additional points, total cost 45 points
E. Detection 23 Dodge for LBV[pd2tools.com] (Valid for B w/ LBV in step 1): 21 additional points, total cost 53 points

Step 3: Conceal/Crit Suite

Choose a concealment/crit model below:
A. None (Valid for any choice in step 2): 0 additional points
B. Detection 4 Crits in Suit[pd2tools.com] (Valid for B step 2) 10 additional points, total cost 39 points
C. Detection 23 Crits in Suit[pd2tools.com] (Valid for C in step 2) 16 additional points, total cost 53 points
D. Detection 4 Crits in LBV [pd2tools.com] (Valid for D in step 2) 10 additional points, total cost 55 points
E. Detection 23 Crits in LBV [pd2tools.com] (Valid for E in step 2) 16 additional points, total cost 69 points

So we've spent between 32 and 69 points on armor/movement/conceal/crits, the next decision to make is weaponry, I'm assuming anyone messing around with dodge or crits will be able to adjust weapons to meet detection requirements.

Step 4: Weapon Suite

Choose a weapon loadout below:

A. None (No weapon skills; this is a rough life, but it's free, and the Little Friend + any high-pickup SMG secondary like an UZI can actually work surprisingly well, with or without a silencer skill suite later) - 0 additional points
B. Minimal Automatic[pd2tools.com] (Automatic weapons accurate enough to headshot, likely combined with a silencer skill suite later) - 9 additional points
C. Moderate Automatic[pd2tools.com] (Automatic weapons accurate enough to headshot, with the capability to pierce tan armor, likely combined with a silencer skill suite later) - 15 additional points
D. Heavy Shotguns[pd2tools.com] (SPAS, M1014, Street Sweeper with a Piglet, GL40, China Puff, Arbiter or slug/explosive/dragons-breath-equipped second non-removable magazine shotgun, may or may not be combined with a silencer skill suite later) - 20 additional points
E. Minimal Akimbo[pd2tools.com] (Akimbo handguns or SMGs, likely combined with a silencer skill suite later, a secondary GL or 5/7) - 20 additional points
F. Autoshotguns[pd2tools.com] (Steakout, Izhma or Goliath, with a Piglet, GL40, China Puff, Arbiter or slug/explosive/dragons-breath-equipped second autoshotgun, may or may not be combined with a silencer skill suite later) - 23 additional points
G. Handgun Akimbo[pd2tools.com] (Akimbo handguns, likely combined with a silencer skill suite later, a secondary GL or 5/7) - 28 additional points
H. Heavy Automatic[pd2tools.com] (Automatic weapons too inaccurate to headshot reliably, may or may not be combined with a silencer skill suite later) - 30 additional points


Step 5: Deployable

Choose a deployable suite (I'm leaving out ECMs, Tripmines/Breaching Charges and Turrets under the assumption that they are more advanced choices):
A. Ammo Bags[pd2tools.com] (Fully upgraded Ammo Bags) - 16 additional points
B. Doctor Bags[pd2tools.com] (Fully upgraded Doctor Bags with Aced Inspire) - 28 additional points
C. First Aid Kits[pd2tools.com] (Damage reduction-granting First Aid Kits with Aced Inspire) - 28 additional points
D. Ammo Bags with secondary Doctor Bag[pd2tools.com] (Fully upgraded Ammo Bags with an unupgraded Doctor Bag, no Inspire) - 28 additional points
E. First Aid Kits with secondary Doctor Bag[pd2tools.com] (Damage reduction-granting First Aid Kits with an unupgraded Doctor Bag and Aced Inspire) - 40 additional points
F. 2 +1 Option[pd2tools.com] (Two fully upgraded Doctor Bags OR Ammo Bags with a secondary fully upgraded Ammo Bag or Doctor Bag) - 56 additional points

continued in part 2...

Modularized Build Advice Part 2

Step 6: Extras

6A: Jokers
Choose one of the following:
A. No Jokers - 0 additional points
B. 2 Jokers 75% DR[pd2tools.com] (Two 75%-DR Jokers, +10% speed with jokers active) - 16 points
C. 2 Jokers 99% DR[pd2tools.com] (Two 99%-DR Jokers, +10% speed, +30% health with jokers active) - 18 points
D. 2 Slightly Better Jokers[pd2tools.com] (Two 99%-DR Jokers that convert faster and deal double damage) - 22 points

6B: Silencers
Choose one of the following:
A. No Silencer Skills (note that since silencers disable Muscle's terror procs, Muscle decks should always choose this) - 0 additional points
B. Minimal Silencer Skills[pd2tools.com] (Bonus stability and +15% damage for silenced weapons) - 6 additional points
C. Moderate Silencer Skills[pd2tools.com] (Bonus stability and accuracy and +15% damage for silenced weapons) - 10 additional points
D. Heavy Silencer Skills[pd2tools.com] (Bonus stability and accuracy and +30% damage for silenced weapons) - 16 additional points

6C: Drill Skills
Choose one of the following:
A. No Drill Skills - 0 additional points
B. Minimal Drills[pd2tools.com] (Faster setup/repair of drills, silent drills) - 1 additional point
C. Fast Drills[pd2tools.com] (Faster setup/repair of drills, silent drills, fastest drilling times) - 7 additional points
D. Fast Autorestarters[pd2tools.com] (Faster setup/repair of drills, silent drills, fastest drilling times, most-autorestarting chance) - 13 additional points
E. All Drill Skills[pd2tools.com] (Faster setup/repair of drills, silent drills, fastest drilling times, most auto-restarting chance, 50% chance to restart w/ melee) - 19 additional points

6D: Melee/Frenzerking
Choose one of the following:
A. No Melee/Frenzerking - 0 additional points.
B. Frenzerk with Pumping Iron[pd2tools.com] (Frenzerk + higher damage melee to all foes) - 28 additional points
C. Frenzerk with Bloodlust[pd2tools.com] (Frenzerk + Aced Bloodlust for storing charged high damage melee and faster reloads upon release) - 28 additional points


Step 7: Extra Survivability

Choose one of the following:
A. No Extra Survivability - 0 additional points
B. One Additional Down[pd2tools.com] (4 total downs before custody on non-OD difficulties, 2 downs before custody on OD) - 4 additional points
C. Swan Song[pd2tools.com] (Option B + Aced Swan Song) - 13 additional points
D. Feign Death[pd2tools.com] (Option B + Aced Feign Death) - 13 additional points
E. Swan Song + Feign Death[pd2tools.com] (Option C & D combined) - 22 additional points
F. Messiah[pd2tools.com] (Option E + Aced Messiah) - 32 additional points

Obviously this is leaving out some bits like High Value Target, Tripmines/Breaching Charges, Turrets and lots of other considerations, but it provides some nice tinkertoys to start with even for making builds like those, as they'll still need an Armor Suite, Movement Suite, Weapon Suite, etc.

Perk Decks Part 1

Crew Chief: Currently an under-rated deck, the big payoff with Crew Chief is 8% teamwide damage reduction, which double for the Crew Chief himself while below 50% health and another 8% damage reduction if the team has any hostages at all. The Crew Chief also grants bonus health and stamina teamwide, scaling (up to a cap of 4) based on the number of hostages currently held. A notable use of this deck is combining it with Frenzerking to ALWAYS be below 50% health, and thus always having the initial 8% teamwide damage reduction doubled for the Crew Chief. The combo of Aced Frenzy, Aced Underdog and a "Frenzy Chief" yields (in most situations) ~15% teamwide damage reduction and ~48% damage reduction for the Frenzy Chief himself.

Armor: HBV or ICTV
Pros: Teamwide Damage Reduction is powerful.
Cons: Maximizing the DR has conditions, and with no extra dodge or armor skills, this deck (Frenzied or not) is pretty well limited to HBV or ICTV usage (and is still fragile in either, Frenzied or not.) Skillpoint-intensive due to armor selection and potential Frenzying to maximize DR.

Muscle: The old workhorse, Muscle's still a solid deck and has a lot of build potential. The upside is bonus health and health regen, as well as drawing aggro from cops away from less beefy teammates, and terrorizing police with your (non-silenced) weaponry. Suit Muscle with jokers & hostage taker goes all-in on health tanking, and both HBV and ICTV Muscle setups can be effective on all difficulties.

Armor: Suit, HBV, ICTV
Pros: Bonus Health & Health Regen w/o preconditions. Cops stricken with terror don't fight back.
Cons: The terror ability doesn't work with silenced weapons.

Armorer: Another longstanding mainstay, Armorer focuses on having better armor and limited invulnerability when armor breaks. Armorer grants a teamwide 10% bonus to armor recovery, but this is a very minimal bonus. That's pretty much all it does, furthermore.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Bonus armor, armor regen, invulnerability frames when armor breaks.
Cons: Doesn't do anything else noteworthy, relies on HBV/ICTV armors and thus is skillpoint-intensive.

Rogue: The pure Suit Dodge deck, Rogue has recently been revitalized, gaining additional dodge. This is a strong deck for One Down as dodging scales extremely well to higher difficulties with more accurate, harder-hitting foes.

Armor: Suit
Pros: Most dodge available. Synergizes well with critical hits.
Cons: Has to health-tank when dodge fails and has no health regen, maximizing dodge is skillpoint intensive wiping away all skillpoint savings from wearing a suit rather than armor. Suit is weak armor.

Hitman: A strong contender for worst perk deck at present, Hitman's got bonuses to akimbo weapons (a mediocre weapon category) and fast armor refresh, including a guaranteed 1.5s refresh when broken regardless of suppression or even continued hits. Second Wind is a key ability for surviving said 1.5s duration.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: As long as you don't go down within 1.5s after armor breaking, armor will refresh in 1.5s regardless of suppression or continued hits.
Cons: Armor recovery rate is just about the worst overall plan for not dying, even worse than Dodge, and on higher difficulties the lack of any bonus health or health regen means surviving those crucial 1.5s after an armor break is very unlikely.

Crook: A top tier deck for sure, Crook is the hybrid armor/dodge deck, with lower dodge than rogue but more than most any other LBV/HBV build. Crook has a notable choice in whether to go LBV for slightly more dodge or HBV for more armor and slightly less dodge.

Armor: LBV, HBV
Pros: The combo of dodging AND having armor is reliable protection, crit builds are possible with the LBV option.
Cons: Very skillpoint intensive to invest in dodge/crit *and* armor skills, occasionally must health tank and has no built-in health regen.

Burglar: An obvious choice for a stealth build due to many stealth-specific advantages, Burglar also can work as a slight variation on Crook as a loud build that relies more on crouching and staying still rather than dashing around at high speed. Dodge-based and thus works well with crits.

Armor: Suit, LBV
Pros: The combo of dodging AND having armor is reliable protection, synergizes well with critical hits, bonus dodge while crouching. Definite best Stealth deck.
Cons: In many ways is slightly worse than Crook for loud usage. Hybrid stealth/loud builds where it can shine are of limited use with how stealth works in this game.

Infiltrator: A bit of an odd duck, Infiltrator has a variety of small conditional damage reduction bonuses and can restore health via melee hits (note: kill not required!) as well as having conditional bonus melee damage. Melee recently got a decided un-nerfing, but is still not necessarily a great choice for building around. Nominally this should synergize well with Frenzerk for additional melee and Damage Reduction, but in practice the health regen on melee hits limits such an approach.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Those conditional Damage Resistance bonuses add up, particularly when stacked with Aced Underdog and/or a Crew Chief buddy. If you want to be the best at melee, this is your deck! Health regen from melee hits (kills not required!) is very handy!
Cons: With all the DR bonuses being conditional, the durability can feel very uneven, particularly when health regen is also conditional on melee attacks. Melee's decidedly better than it was but still isn't great and this is very much the melee deck.

Sociopath: A bit of a mashup between Anarchist, Muscle and Infiltrator, Sociopath has health regen on melee kills (note mere hits won't suffice, a departure from Infiltrator!) together with armor regen on kills similar to Anarchist (but on seperate timers from each other and from Bullseye, meaning this can be quite a durable rig when combined with Aced Bullseye) and a variant on Muscle's terror that procs based on enemies seeing one of their own killed at medium range.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Health regen on melee kills, armor regen from several kill conditions AND terror procs is basically combining the best features from three different decks; Sociopath certainly has the full package of stuff heisters want. Unlike Muscle's terror procs, Sociopath's works fine with silencers!
Cons: Health regen does require melee kills rather than mere hits, armor regen procs require kills rather than dealing damage, terror procs require kills... On higher difficulties where kills become more difficult, all bonuses gated behind kills become more inaccessible

Perk Decks Part 2

Gambler: Conventional wisdom is that this is a Bad Deck but ♥♥♥♥ conventional wisdom. Gambler's big ability is that when the Gambler picks up ammo drops from dead enemies, not only does the gambler restore his own ammo, but the whole team gets 1/2 a pickup of ammo as well as health restore. The health restore and ammo share abilities have 4 and 5 second cooldowns, respectively. To make Gambler shine, combine it with Aced Fully Loaded so grenades are also replenished from ammo drops (and thus flashbangs can be used liberally to secure such drops in relative safety!) and use a HUD mod like Pocohud to be able to see the cooldown on health/ammo share procs and thus meter out grabbing the drops to maximize health and ammo for the crew. One odd feature of Gambler is that since the build incentivizes Aced Fully Loaded anyway, as well as always being able to pick up ammo drops, it is best when combined with slightly to moderately ammo-inefficient weaponry. Personally I'm a big fan of akimbo handguns like Interceptor .45s, Crosskills or Chimano Customs for a primary with a 5/7 secondary.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Crew-wide health restore from ammo pickups, crew gets 1/2 an ammo pickup from gambler's ammo pickups!
Cons: Cool-downs on those abilities require carefully timing grabbing those ammo pickups and with no armor regen or recovery abilities, this can feel a bit fragile. HBV's speed is very helpful for grabbing ammo pickups but leaves the gambler yet more fragile; ICTV's protection comes at the cost of low speed increasing the danger of grabbing pickups.

Grinder: The first of two decks that rely on health regen as a primary method of staying alive, Grinder restores health for dealing damage, pure and simple. I've heard a lot of grumbling that Grinder just ain't what it used to be, but it is still a very solid deck capable of surviving some ridiculously unfavorable situations. A top-tier deck regardless of comparison to its previous glory.

Armor: Suit, LBV
Pros: Restore health for dealing damage, it doesn't get any simpler than that! Synergizes well with crits and additional dodge. Much like with Maniac, turrets count for this ability.
Cons: On the very highest difficulties the health restore just doesn't scale up to how much damage enemies are dealing.

Yakuza: A heavy favorite for the title of worst perk deck. Yakuza's only two saving graces are bonus movement speed at low hp and bonus armor recovery at low hp. Basically requires Frenzerking to provide any benefit at all. One fun use for this deck is to wear HBV, take Joker and Partners In Crime for the speed bonus, and Aced Transporter to reduce bag movement penalties. Congrats, you are now faster while carrying a bag of gold than most dodge builds unencumbered.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Bonus movement speed. Very fast armor recovery.
Cons: Frenzerking obligatory, as discussed in Hitman, armor recovery rate is just about the worst defense to rely on.

Ex-President: Much like Grinder both in basing its defense on health regen and the often-lamented comparative weakness to its previous glory. Ex-Pres' big departure from Grinder is working with any armor, although it is best in a suit, and that the health regen mechanic for ex-pres procs on armor restore (and thus requires armor be broken entirely) and uses health stored from any kills from the entire crew.

Armor: Suit, LBV
Pros: Health regen from kills, much like Grinder, is a simple joy that works well.
Cons: Much like with Grinder, on higher difficulties kills become too rare and damage that needs to be regenned from too great.

Maniac: Another team-based mechanic deck, Maniac provides ablative damage resistance proportional to damage dealt by the Maniac. Notably a Maniac's turrets count for this, making this an excellent deck to combine with turrets. Maniac's teamwide ablative damage resistance is an excellent team skill, and in particular becomes amazing combined with a Crew Chief's durable damage resistance and a Gambler to grant health and ammo restore.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Deal damage to protect the entire team from damage is another simple formula that works out very well for the whole group. Turrets count towards damage dealt by the Maniac.
Cons: The resistance is ablative in nature and wears off over time, making it somewhat unreliable/uneven

Anarchist: Anarchist changes how armor works entirely; instead of full armor recovery subject to suppression, an anarchist regains SOME armor on a fixed timer regardless of suppression. Anarchists also have highly increased armor ratings at the cost of highly reduced health, and regen armor based on dealing damage to foes in addition to the fixed timer partial restore. One very big drawback is that moving to safety for several seconds does NOT restore full armor to an Anarchist as it does for every other deck in the entire game! On the other hand, the Anarchist is completely immune to suppression and has a much larger armor total, as well as armor regen procs from dealing damage. Anything with damage over time (fire, poison) can work extremely well with Anarchist, as this will allow the Anarchist to proc their armor-regen-for-dealing-damage ability while staying safely in cover.

Armor: LBV, HBV, ICTV
Pros: Extremely high armor, armor regens from damage dealt, synergizes extremely well with Frenzerk and Bullseye
Cons: Extremely low health even if not Frenzerk, armor does not recover fully from a mere few seconds in cover unlike every other perk deck in the game.

Biker: Another deck that much of the community (wrongly!) thinks is bad or underpowered. Biker restores health and armor based on any kills from the entire crew. A biker at low health restores more armor more often, and at low armor restores more health more often. Notably this means that a Frenzerk Biker, due to having permanently low health, has permanently increased armor regen amount and frequency. Synergizes extremely well with Bullseye, Frenzy, and any other method of health regen available.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Armor *and* health regen procs from kills by anyone on the team is an amazing combination, synergizes well with Frenzerk and Bullseye
Cons: Cooldowns on the armor and health regen procs being variable based on the opposite value can make the durability sometimes feel uneven

Kingpin: Kingpin's most notable feature is replacing the throwable with an "injector" that grants temporary healing of damage taken (a sort of limited invulnerability) as well as drawing aggro away from the rest of the team. Timed correctly, a Kingpin can turn the tide of a battle. Timed poorly, a Kingpin is but a limp gimmick. The Kingpin's ability is most useful when teammates are aware when it is active, as the Kingpin will be actively drawing all fire and thus allowing his/her teammates to open fire without fear of reprisal.

Armor: HBV, ICTV
Pros: Healing based on damage taken while under the injector's duration is effectively limited-term invulnerability. Draws fire away from other crew members. Cooldown is reduced based on amount of health restored from effect past full health
Cons: Throwable slot not otherwise available. Timing is everything for the injector's usefulness. Injector cooldown is 30s base and usage only lasts 6s

Perk Decks Part 3

Sicario: The new hotness, Sicario increases a heister's chance to dodge as they get hit and fully restores armor once a dodge is successful. Going all-in on dodging with a suit is viable for Sicario, as is wearing LBV and mixing strategies similar to a Crook or Grinder. Sicario's other big feature is replacing the throwable with a smoke grenade; heisters inside the smoke grenade's effect have a 50% chance of avoiding any attack and foes in the smoke grenade face a 50% reduction in accuracy. Allies will gain 10% dodge chance in the smoke screen, and all other Sicario effects are doubled while in the smoke screen. The Smoke Grenade's cooldown is reduced by 1s for each kill.

Armor: Suit, LBV
Pros: The cumulative chance to dodge from successive hits, a smoke screen, and a dodge skill build adds up very quickly to an extremely likely dodge; said dodge when proc'd will full restore armor
Cons: Throwable slot not otherwise available. Timing is very important for usefulness of the smoke screen. The smoke screen obstructs vision of friend and foe alike.

Stoic: Stoic, like Anarchist, changes up how damage works. Stoics have no armor, converting any armor worn into simply more health. Instead of taking health damage on a hit, Stoic converts most of the damage to a Damage over Time debuff. Stoic's throwable is replaced with a flask, which when used negates accumulated Damage over Time debuffs and heals the user. Like most other throwable-replacements, kills reduce cooldown time on the flask.

Armor: Any
Pros: A stoic who is properly managing flask use can be quite durable.
Cons: Requires active management much like with Kingpin.

Tag Team: Another throwable-replacement, Tag Team replaces the throwable with a vape. To use the vape it must be triggered while targeting a friendly; the vape effect applies to both the user and the targeted friendly. Kills by either while under the effect of the vape restore health and reduce the cooldown of the vape.

Armor: Any
Pros: This is basically the only targeted healing in the game, and if both members of the vaping tag team (only one needs to actually equip Tag Team and its vape) are scoring a lot of kills during the duration it can be quite powerful.
Cons: It can be fiddly to get the vape to trigger in a chaotic firefight and without a partner the whole thing is obviously worthless.

Hacker: Hacker replaces the throwable with mini-ecms. These are like renewable shorter duration versions of the deployable ecms. Hacker also has some other general passive bonuses, like bonus health and a dodge bonus when the ecms are active but the real payoff is the mini-ecms.

Armor: Any, although LBV/Suit is favored since one the passive abilities adds Dodge.
Pros: The mini-ecms both stun and confuse turrets like real ones, and without taking up a deployable slot. They're also reusable.
Cons: No particularly great bonuses besides the mini-ecm gimmick. Mini-ecms have limited duration and timing can be critical on their usage to move past turrets.

[TheBluesBand]

Instructions were unclear instead i built a shelf

[Redtreatrick]

i guess, heist tips turn short guide into long guide

[Su1phur]

Good Compact version of the long guide.
Maybe add in some heist tips?