Is Payday 2 Worth Buying Without DLC?

[someone]

Hello everyone, I'm thinking about buying Payday 2, but I’m not sure if it’s worth it without all the DLC. Does the base game have enough content to keep things fun, or is it too limiting without the extra heists, weapons, and character packs?

Would love to hear your thoughts and experiences

[SP33DEM0N]

it is a bit limiting when it comes to weapons and characters so i would recommend going for weapon packs you like or charactter packs
heists is just for fun and even for bigger payday

[Blockhead]

As a quick note, you can play any heist in the game, you just can't host the heists you don't own the DLC for.

[SP33DEM0N]

but heists can also give u masks and tailor packs give outfits so primarily weapon packs ad character packs if you dont care about style

[SP33DEM0N]

Originally posted by Blockhead:

As a quick note, you can play any heist in the game, you just can't host the heists you don't own the DLC for.

exactly

[tupperwEri]

Completely nothing? No. The heists don't matter, you can grind the ♥♥♥♥ out of Shadow Raid and all of that or join someone with said heist, but oh my god, without weapon and attachment packs you are genuinely better of playing Payday 3

[† hanako :3c ♡]

i have no clue, i've been playing with a good chunk of the dlc since i first bought it so i have no clue how the dlc-less experience is. if i'm not mistaken though, a good chunk of the better/meta weapons and attachments ARE locked behind dlc, so at the VERY least buy the legacy collection, that should set you on an at the very least less treacherous path then you would be on and you can get it for quite cheap when it's on sale - and if you buy a key it even includes some (most?) of the now delisted dlc

[9Nox]

It's not necessarily to buy dlcs even the weapon packs, you can try make something out dlc-less build, because so far in the end most of my down in hardest difficulty is stem from me being clueless about the objective, how accurate the AI is, how to prevent them from spawning like ever, etc

Personally though? I'd buy PD2 Legacy from Humble Bundle because it has Scarface DLC which is good for the perk deck that really enables you to push objective when needed. Idk if it'll cover John Wick DLCs, Bodhi's and the rest of unannounced removed from store DLC but hey, maybe their character suits you.

[Vitalius]

TL;DR: Absolutely worth it.

Started with the base game myself (got it for free during a Steam giveaway, then later on bought the ultimate pack on a sale).

You'll still get a ton of "free" (unlockable ingame) weapons and skins.
Good thing is (if you consider coop, and don't mainly play solo) - you can still play those "locked" heists by joining other players, as only the host is required to own the DLC.

You can still get "beefy" (in terms of a build), even w/o any DLC whatsoever, and getting to "full power" won't require DLC's as well. Especially considering that now you can use (with minor setbacks, but still) any perkdeck via the new free Copycat deck.
Same goes for skill points - you'll get the full amount. PD2 is not Vermintide 2, where the devs locked 5 extra lvls of behind a DLC, which makes some paid players quite literally beefier than others. =)

As for weapons - the game isn't p2w, so most "free" weapons are beefy as well. You won't lose much not being able to use the DLC ones. It's not one of those games where only the DLC guns are usable per se, and "free" ones are trash filler instead.
Good thing is - weapons are spread out in damage tiers. I.e. a "strong per bullet" ones, "medium" ones, and "weak" ones. But there's a catch - all of them are good, and that separation was done intentionally. Because the weaker the gun is (in the same category, ofc) per bullet - the more ammo pickup (per enemy defeated) you'll get, so basically you'll get roughly the same "usability" across most weapons.

A lot of playable characters are free as well.
Again, you won't get an advantage of any kind with one character over an another one. It's purely cosmetic.
And if you're fancy for those, you can buy weapon skins on the Steam marketplace - most of them are dirt cheap (because of daily drops).

In addition to that - there are "free" DLC stuff, like the community items, and various Steam codes. That'll add a bit of "juice" to the stock game.

So, if you like coop (to be able to get into DLC-locked heists) and don't care that much about skins - you'll have a great time in PD2.
If not - well, there's always a refund option. =)

[(FACB) Noble]

Got myself the Legacy collection through my go-to for deals on keys, here ( https://www.cdkeys.com/ ) Only $9.89 all in! I already dropped a solid eight hours in tonight, first time actually ever owning the title, and it instantly brings me joy from when I played the brakes off of the demo on 360 way back whenever. And they're right, you do have more fun with the extra content versus base game.

[Ɛ: ʎɥɔʇɐԀ]

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

Completely nothing? No. The heists don't matter, you can grind the ♥♥♥♥ out of Shadow Raid and all of that or join someone with said heist, but oh my god, without weapon and attachment packs you are genuinely better of playing Payday 3

Lack of speedpulls also forces you to have lock n load aced on your guns too... And oh wait, did I forgot that you can't even use the platypus sniper if you bought game before U240.6?

[someone]

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

Completely nothing? No. The heists don't matter, you can grind the ♥♥♥♥ out of Shadow Raid and all of that or join someone with said heist, but oh my god, without weapon and attachment packs you are genuinely better of playing Payday 3

Someone mentioned earlier that the base game already offers a lot of free unlockable weapons and skins. Does that mean the DLC weapons are just more specialized, or are they genuinely stronger, making the game feel pay-to-win?

[tupperwEri]

Originally posted by |<|><|>|<|>|:

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

Completely nothing? No. The heists don't matter, you can grind the ♥♥♥♥ out of Shadow Raid and all of that or join someone with said heist, but oh my god, without weapon and attachment packs you are genuinely better of playing Payday 3

Someone mentioned earlier that the base game already offers a lot of free unlockable weapons and skins. Does that mean the DLC weapons are just more specialized, or are they genuinely stronger, making the game feel pay-to-win?

give or take, some of them were OVK throwing darts at gimmicks and missing so you just get guns & melee that only have form factor, but then you have weapons like the Hailstorm, which are insane (https://payday.fandom.com/wiki/Hailstorm_Mk_5 seriously, this thing is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ busted). You don't need the weapon packs to be viable but they make it a lot easier. The basegame and 1 or 2 weapon packs is all you really need but I'd snag more

[Ɛ: ʎɥɔʇɐԀ]

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

Originally posted by |<|><|>|<|>|:

Someone mentioned earlier that the base game already offers a lot of free unlockable weapons and skins. Does that mean the DLC weapons are just more specialized, or are they genuinely stronger, making the game feel pay-to-win?

give or take, some of them were OVK throwing darts at gimmicks and missing so you just get guns & melee that only have form factor, but then you have weapons like the Hailstorm, which are insane (https://payday.fandom.com/wiki/Hailstorm_Mk_5 seriously, this thing is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ busted). You don't need the weapon packs to be viable but they make it a lot easier. The basegame and 1 or 2 weapon packs is all you really need but I'd snag more

Or, the Clarion/Micro Uzi combo which still can perform well, and actually feels great unlike these soulless akimbo SMGs

[tupperwEri]

Originally posted by 76561199364996193:

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

give or take, some of them were OVK throwing darts at gimmicks and missing so you just get guns & melee that only have form factor, but then you have weapons like the Hailstorm, which are insane (https://payday.fandom.com/wiki/Hailstorm_Mk_5 seriously, this thing is ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ busted). You don't need the weapon packs to be viable but they make it a lot easier. The basegame and 1 or 2 weapon packs is all you really need but I'd snag more

Or, the Clarion/Micro Uzi combo which still can perform well, and actually feels great unlike these soulless akimbo SMGs

love seeing shade still being thrown at the akimbo krinkovs

[Ɛ: ʎɥɔʇɐԀ]

Originally posted by TokItUp®:

Originally posted by 76561199364996193:

Or, the Clarion/Micro Uzi combo which still can perform well, and actually feels great unlike these soulless akimbo SMGs

love seeing shade still being thrown at the akimbo krinkovs

>:3