Beginner / Solo friendly?

[Flo]

Hey,
does it make sense to start this in 2021? And do you need friends or can you
play it solo? Or does it have some kind of matchmaking with randoms.

And how about all the 10000000000 dlcs, is there a top list maybe?

[Sniper677™]

You can play solo with bots, but more fun with friends or other human players.

Get the Legacy edition which gives you must content. Missing heists you can play from public lobbies.

Definitely not too late to start this game (my opinion).

[Accky Sotona]

Solo works on lower difficulties.

[ktulu84]

solo loud goes great with bots

higher difficulties requires actual good players

stealt solo is better than crew stealth


buy the legacy bundle it contains every good dlc

[Junior]

You can do solo on all difficulty it just get annoying on max difficulty

[I Like Trousers]

To answer the first question, yeah its cool to start in 2021, not missing out on much besides a very strong Skillset (the perk deck called Kingpin), and 2 strong but not needed weapons (A quad barreled rocket launcher called the Commando 101 and a HK417 with a underbarrel grenade launcher thats called the Little Friend 7.62)

Second question's answer is a little complicated; you will need friends or atleast some people from public games or these discussions to get some achievements and some attachments for guns from said achievements, putting those aside for general gameplay, not really no you don't really need 3 other players but they really do help since the game is all about doing objectives, and keeping cops away from said objectives, and doing all of this is much more easy with 3 other players that do more than get shot (for real the bots in this game are bullet sponges that take aggro away from you), leaving you to do all the 4 player objectives, and killing all the enemies your self.

Third the game does have some matchmaking with randoms, the game has peer to peer matchmaking, and barely any anti cheat, so you could join a randoms game, have them either A: nuke you with friendly fire explosives/crash your game, B: cheat the heist to end it instantly and give you insane amounts of cash for a new player and level 100, or C: cheat for them selves and them selves only, god mode, unlimited ammo, the usual cheats. the banning system for this game is also pretty underwhelming, since an estimate of 99% or more games have it to where only the host can kick/ban other players from the lobby, they will ban and kick you for no reason at all sometimes, other times they will ban you for being too low level, too high level, b/c you play as a certain character.

Finally for the dlcs, just get the legacy edition when its on sale, it happens often enough, here https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/6303323545004459743/ its a discussion about the sale of the legacy edition, the price of it, and when it goes on sale i think, it has pretty much everything you will ever need for payday 2, and a little more as well, all but like 2 weapons, 2 characters, and a perk deck in a bundle seperate from the legacy edition called the H3H3 pack, pretty much no one uses the H3H3 pack though unless they are meme'ing.

Would I recommend this game? kind of, if you play for the horde shooter aspect and just want to hold left click and w all the time, sure go play on some low difficulties, anything but 6 skulls (also known as dsod, and Death Sentence One Down, or just Death Sentence), but if you want a challenge, if you want something to test your skills, this game is a buggy mess and desync/lag will make it inconsistent and you WILL die below 0.35s, i say that number b/c it is the grace period, how often things can damage you, but the grace period can be bypassed if you get hit by something with higher damage than before, so you could get hit for 225 (the most common enemy's damage on DS) and then hit for 230 (Sniper damage on death wish - death sentence) thus killing you from at most 0.35s, to figuratively instantly, btw you have 230 health by default, 221 with the heaviest armor in the game with some exceptions. the hardest difficulty is unbalanced, the devs dont go by it often, so casual players are welcome as long as they stay in their difficulty, but it will be filled with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you try to go into loud dsod.

[dzoni]

Originally posted by .Eccentric.Entertainer.:

To answer the first question, yeah its cool to start in 2021, not missing out on much besides a very strong Skillset (the perk deck called Kingpin), and 2 strong but not needed weapons (A quad barreled rocket launcher called the Commando 101 and a HK417 with a underbarrel grenade launcher thats called the Little Friend 7.62)

Second question's answer is a little complicated; you will need friends or atleast some people from public games or these discussions to get some achievements and some attachments for guns from said achievements, putting those aside for general gameplay, not really no you don't really need 3 other players but they really do help since the game is all about doing objectives, and keeping cops away from said objectives, and doing all of this is much more easy with 3 other players that do more than get shot (for real the bots in this game are bullet sponges that take aggro away from you), leaving you to do all the 4 player objectives, and killing all the enemies your self.

Third the game does have some matchmaking with randoms, the game has peer to peer matchmaking, and barely any anti cheat, so you could join a randoms game, have them either A: nuke you with friendly fire explosives/crash your game, B: cheat the heist to end it instantly and give you insane amounts of cash for a new player and level 100, or C: cheat for them selves and them selves only, god mode, unlimited ammo, the usual cheats. the banning system for this game is also pretty underwhelming, since an estimate of 99% or more games have it to where only the host can kick/ban other players from the lobby, they will ban and kick you for no reason at all sometimes, other times they will ban you for being too low level, too high level, b/c you play as a certain character.

Finally for the dlcs, just get the legacy edition when its on sale, it happens often enough, here https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/6303323545004459743/ its a discussion about the sale of the legacy edition, the price of it, and when it goes on sale i think, it has pretty much everything you will ever need for payday 2, and a little more as well, all but like 2 weapons, 2 characters, and a perk deck in a bundle seperate from the legacy edition called the H3H3 pack, pretty much no one uses the H3H3 pack though unless they are meme'ing.

Would I recommend this game? kind of, if you play for the horde shooter aspect and just want to hold left click and w all the time, sure go play on some low difficulties, anything but 6 skulls (also known as dsod, and Death Sentence One Down, or just Death Sentence), but if you want a challenge, if you want something to test your skills, this game is a buggy mess and desync/lag will make it inconsistent and you WILL die below 0.35s, i say that number b/c it is the grace period, how often things can damage you, but the grace period can be bypassed if you get hit by something with higher damage than before, so you could get hit for 225 (the most common enemy's damage on DS) and then hit for 230 (Sniper damage on death wish - death sentence) thus killing you from at most 0.35s, to figuratively instantly, btw you have 230 health by default, 221 with the heaviest armor in the game with some exceptions. the hardest difficulty is unbalanced, the devs dont go by it often, so casual players are welcome as long as they stay in their difficulty, but it will be filled with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you try to go into loud dsod.

tldr?

[I Like Trousers]

Originally posted by Joe:

tldr?

You can totally start this game in 2021, you wont miss out on anything besides 1 dlc character+weapons, no friends needed unless you want exclusive achievements/a few weapon attachments, to play with randoms you can join their lobbies or host your own, peer to peer connection isnt a great idea so expect to get kicked for no reason, and dlcs, get the legacy edition when its on sale, its cheap and often enough to be worth it. https://store.steampowered.com/bundle/3756/PAYDAY_2_Legacy_Collection/ its 75% off rn, now is the best time to get it I think. I advise against getting single dlcs and anything new like the Silk Road Collection/newest weapon & map dlcs, imo the weapons are useless gimmicks that are replaced by weapons in the legacy bundle and the new maps have something wrong with them in one way or another.

[Flo]

thanks for the info guys :)

[Readraid]

the initial difficulties of this game are easier than ever, youll be fine.

[Sunday Driver]

It is thankfully not the kind of game where if you didn't start years ago you're left lagging behind forever. You can jump in any time and the Legacy Collection is a good suggestion if you like the look of the game to solve the DLC concerns as it bundles so much up together.

[Lammah]

yes very, especially if you start on normal and slowly experiment with higher difficulties.

[Doctor Diabeetus]

Just get the legacy collection and you'll have most of the DLC and pretty much all the DLC you need to have good guns. The game's still got a faithful community so it's not too late to start. I'd definitely start with lower difficulties and slowly work your way up to OK/Mayhem where most people are settled at, overkill being basically the "Default" difficulty. Make sure to play the tutorial, and try following the career mode heists since those are actually a decent ramp up in difficulty/complexity. Your starting goals should be to get accustomed to the game, find a playstyle (Or a few) you like and get to infamy 1 and get at LEAST one extra build slot as soon as possible. If you read build guides, pretty much all of them assume infamy 1 or higher since at that level you need to invest fewer skill points into a tree to get higher tier things in that tree, and you want a second build so you can have a loud and a stealth option.

[qxlf]

Originally posted by Flo:

Hey,
does it make sense to start this in 2021? And do you need friends or can you
play it solo? Or does it have some kind of matchmaking with randoms.

And how about all the 10000000000 dlcs, is there a top list maybe?

you can do it solo / with randoms or with friends and if you want good starting advice: start on normal and slowely work youre way up. try to do the "story mode" for a good tutorial

[RuntyFlame]

Originally posted by .Eccentric.Entertainer.:

To answer the first question, yeah its cool to start in 2021, not missing out on much besides a very strong Skillset (the perk deck called Kingpin), and 2 strong but not needed weapons (A quad barreled rocket launcher called the Commando 101 and a HK417 with a underbarrel grenade launcher thats called the Little Friend 7.62)

Second question's answer is a little complicated; you will need friends or atleast some people from public games or these discussions to get some achievements and some attachments for guns from said achievements, putting those aside for general gameplay, not really no you don't really need 3 other players but they really do help since the game is all about doing objectives, and keeping cops away from said objectives, and doing all of this is much more easy with 3 other players that do more than get shot (for real the bots in this game are bullet sponges that take aggro away from you), leaving you to do all the 4 player objectives, and killing all the enemies your self.

Third the game does have some matchmaking with randoms, the game has peer to peer matchmaking, and barely any anti cheat, so you could join a randoms game, have them either A: nuke you with friendly fire explosives/crash your game, B: cheat the heist to end it instantly and give you insane amounts of cash for a new player and level 100, or C: cheat for them selves and them selves only, god mode, unlimited ammo, the usual cheats. the banning system for this game is also pretty underwhelming, since an estimate of 99% or more games have it to where only the host can kick/ban other players from the lobby, they will ban and kick you for no reason at all sometimes, other times they will ban you for being too low level, too high level, b/c you play as a certain character.

Finally for the dlcs, just get the legacy edition when its on sale, it happens often enough, here https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/8/6303323545004459743/ its a discussion about the sale of the legacy edition, the price of it, and when it goes on sale i think, it has pretty much everything you will ever need for payday 2, and a little more as well, all but like 2 weapons, 2 characters, and a perk deck in a bundle seperate from the legacy edition called the H3H3 pack, pretty much no one uses the H3H3 pack though unless they are meme'ing.

Would I recommend this game? kind of, if you play for the horde shooter aspect and just want to hold left click and w all the time, sure go play on some low difficulties, anything but 6 skulls (also known as dsod, and Death Sentence One Down, or just Death Sentence), but if you want a challenge, if you want something to test your skills, this game is a buggy mess and desync/lag will make it inconsistent and you WILL die below 0.35s, i say that number b/c it is the grace period, how often things can damage you, but the grace period can be bypassed if you get hit by something with higher damage than before, so you could get hit for 225 (the most common enemy's damage on DS) and then hit for 230 (Sniper damage on death wish - death sentence) thus killing you from at most 0.35s, to figuratively instantly, btw you have 230 health by default, 221 with the heaviest armor in the game with some exceptions. the hardest difficulty is unbalanced, the devs dont go by it often, so casual players are welcome as long as they stay in their difficulty, but it will be filled with ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ if you try to go into loud dsod.

commando 101 is not locked at all

[I Like Trousers]

Originally posted by RuntyFlame:

commando 101 is not locked at all

oh derp, i thought the commando 101 was a part of the removed Scarface Character pack, but its actually a part of the Scarface Heist instead woops.