Heist play-order? ("Campaign mode")

[Attylus]

Anyone paying attention will notice that for the most part, the contract givers on Crime.net are grouped by difficulty with Vlad being easiest, Hector being medium, and The Elephant being hard. Bain's stuff is miscellaneous, and The Dentist and The Butcher were added recently. The contract lists under each contact's name is arranged alphabetically, but I believe I rememebr them being ordered differently a long time ago. What was that original order?

Some of the contracts offered by a contact (ie. Vlad, Hector) imply a story arc that spans their offered contracts (Vlad's return to power; Hector's war with the Mendozas) and I wondered what the proper order of those missions is. I would assume the game, in a theoretical "Campaign Mode," would progress from easier to harder, starting out with (my guess) Bain or Vlad, moving through Hector, then The Elephant, and (pre-all-that-other-DLC) ending with Big Oil or Framing Frame.

Before, these story arcs were mostly self-enclosed to the contact, so contact-order didn't matter as much, but with a few more recent heists *(no spoilers)* and an over-arcing Payday 2 story line has started to become more established. (Pretty much set into motion by the return of Hoxton). A simple example would be Cook Off obviously taking place after Rats, but anyone's who's played through all of the heists, and especially the most recent ones, knows that there's a better example of some events clearly taking place after the older contracts.

Here's a rough guess of mine as to what the heist play order would be in a theoretical "Campaign Mode":


1. (Vlad) Four Stores
2. (Vlad) Mallcrashers (Difficult to confirm. Mallcrashers is either a continuation of Vlad's rise to power {most likey} OR, it occurs after he's back on top as a part of enforcement {putting it after Nightclub})
3. (Vlad) Ukrainian Job
4. (Vlad) Nightclub
5. (Hector) Watchdogs
6. (Hector) Firestarter
7. (Hector) Rats
8. (The Elephant) Framing Frame
9. (The Elephant) Big Oil

After this point, the heist progression is fairly obvious because it's dictated by The Dentist:

10. (The Elephant) Election Day
11. (The Dentist) The Big Bank
12. (The Dentist) Hotline Miami
13. (The Dentist) Hoxton Breakout
14. (The Dentist) The Diamond (Clover, an acquintance of Hoxton's, being associated with this is the only reason it would have to occur after Hoxton Breakout.)
15. (The Dentist) Hoxton Revenge

I excluded the Bain heists, and Vlad's "White Xmas" because largely, they could feasably occur anywhere at any point of the storyline, possibly peppered in between contacts or their heists. White Xmas would obviously occur sometime after the conclusion of Vlad's arc though. If I had to include them, I would try to put the less ambitious bain contracts (Jewelry Store) near or before Vlad's missions, then as the crew becomes more infamous, ballsier, and better-equipped via the contractor heists, I would escalate the Bain missions to keep pace. The space between Big Oil and Election Day would be a good place for the crew to be at their best just short of the VERY ambitious heists that include the big Bank and upwards. After the Hoxton missions, there'd be pretty much nothing the crew can't do.

So does anyone remember what the original heist order was before they were alphabetized, or have any thoughts/opinions about the order I proposed here?

[Vali Riversong]

I'm fairly positive the heists listed in the Contract Broker have always been the same, and only changing when a new heist gets added.

[Tempest]

I do think that Watchdogs would be last one from Hector jobs.

[The Reluctant Heterosexual]

cuck

[Attylus]

The heists themselves have always been the same, but the order they are listed in used to be different. Each contract giver has their own tab now. Early on, all the heists were on a single list, and were ordered differently.

There's a line of dialogue by Bain somewhere during either Watchdogs, or one of Hector's other missions that implies it came first. Plus, the premise beind Watchdogs is so simple... All Hector needed was some guns to ride along with his coke. It's likely at that point he didn't know what roberyy rock stars he was hiring. Firestarter and Rats is much more pro-active of a job, so I think the crew's ability to adapt and succeed during Watchdogs is what got them into Hector's good graces, and thus get hired for the other jobs.

"Hotline Miami." This ♥♥♥♥♥♥' guy...

[Fidanza]

Watchdogs
Firestarter
Rats
Hotline Miami
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton Revenge

rip

[Ashe]

Bain and Vlad's initial jobs and Diamond Store seem to be fairly simultaneous. There isn't much chronology there. Hector and The Elephant can be next in either order, neither needs to be before or after.

Election day after the initial heists. And then I'd suppose the release order of the new heists. Slide in Art Gallery after Framing Frame and Train with the initial heists and I'd suppose there's a working chronology.

[Forest Wife Olivia]

Nightclub has to be the last of the Vlad jobs. In all the others, you are getting back at Dimitri for Vlad. In Night Club, you can outright kill Dimitri.

I am all for the addition of a campaigny mode of some sort.

[Bindal]

Any heist added after the game (except Diamond Store and Armored Transport) are set roughly when they are released. There are a few minor exceptions in a few details.
None of the contractors are mutually exclusive and it is possible (with Bain, it's basically all but outright stated) to play parallel.

Diamond Store and Ukrainian Job: Only known to be set after Jewelery Store in both cases, can be set at any time after it, however.
Four Stores: The first job given by Vlad directly.
Armored Transport: Can be set at any time.
Hoxton Breakout: Clover was involved, according to Hoxton Revenge - but The Diamond is still set AFTER it.
Hectors Jobs: Rats is set after the other two. Watchdogs can be presumed to be the first one of the three.

Other than that, you can play them in basically any order as there is no set order, anyway.

[The Obsession]

Hotline Miami is before Hoxton Breakout.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by MF MaxiMillion:

Hotline Miami is before Hoxton Breakout.

Obviously, the Hoxton Trilogy is set in order of their release - as stated above, a heist released after the game came out is set around the time of its release. And because Hotline Miami came out roughly a month prior Hoxton Breakout, it is clearly set before Hoxton Breakout aswell.

[Vinyl Scratch]

Originally posted by Nicole:

Watchdogs
Firestarter
Rats
Hotline Miami
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton Revenge

rip

Firestarter should be first
Rats should be after firestarter (because that's when you kill 'ALL' the Mendozas
Watchdogs (Hector gained your 'trust' through the 1st two, and attempted to set you up here, he failed)

Big Bank (The dentist offers to help you free Hoxton, but first you need to prove yourself)
Hotline Miami (Gives dentist more power, allows him to get info on Hoxton)
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton revenge

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Vinyl Scratch:

Originally posted by Nicole:

Watchdogs
Firestarter
Rats
Hotline Miami
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton Revenge

rip

Firestarter should be first
Rats should be after firestarter (because that's when you kill 'ALL' the Mendozas
Watchdogs (Hector gained your 'trust' through the 1st two, and attempted to set you up here, he failed)

Big Bank (The dentist offers to help you free Hoxton, but first you need to prove yourself)
Hotline Miami (Gives dentist more power, allows him to get info on Hoxton)
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton revenge

Nope, Watchdogs is heavily hinted to be the first of Hectos Jobs during Hoxton Revenge.
Plus, it's an easier job than the rest on paper (transport some coke VS participate in a drug war)

[Flutterlove]

I'd assume The Bomb is after The Diamond, since Dragan most likely joined the crew after Clover did.

[Bindal]

Originally posted by Flutterlove:

I'd assume The Bomb is after The Diamond, since Dragan most likely joined the crew after Clover did.

As said - the default state is "A heist is set at the time is it released". Not the the exact date, but around that time. Meaning the Bomb is indeed set after Diamond.

[Attylus]

I added Hotline Miami to the list. I had forgotten it was a part of of the Hoxton breakout process.