[2024] Essential mods, resources and game configuration

Essential mods, information and game configurations tested and working as of the latest update to the game, 240.3 (2024). Payday 2 has reached EOL and you're expected to be running mods to get the game to a functional state, even before it reached this EOL state.

Introduction

Hello from Brazil!

If you are playing payday 2 in 2024 and beyond without mods... what the hell are you doing?

If you were playing without mods prior to that point, I would have advised you to play modded as well.

Payday 2 is a great game however constant crashes and annoyances will make you want to take your head off. With literally just a few mods your game will become very stable and not crash when you least want it.

This guide doesn't include cheats and includes minor if no gameplay alterations for just a enhanced vanilla experience. It also has sections talking about the essential configurations and only the first section with the mods themselves is what I would call "required mods".

This guide also doesn't include extra settings that you might want to use if you want to use payday 2 on lower end systems. Surely a lot here helps your game runs better, but not at the cost of visual quality. I did include guides for that in the extra resources section.

It will take some work setting your game up, but your journey has been already trivialized by a digested guide like this and all the work people put into making the mods. Putting in the effort now will be worthy, trust me.

Here's an overview of the sections. If you are interested in just the mods, skip to "The essential mods" section.

The basics - Basic logistics of how the game functions.

Gameplay basics - Everything you need to know if you're a new player related to game mechanics.

Game configuration - How to configure your game.

How to mod - Explaining how to mod your game, since you will do it on this guide.

The essential mods - The absolute bare minimum mods you need if you want to play.

Mods that are also great to have - Mods that I think you should have even if they are not absolutely necessary unlike the essential mods.

Nice mods - Mods that you won't need at all but are still nice to have.

Miscellaneous information - Stuff that didn't fit the other sections, but probably still important.

Changelog - Documented changes to the guide.

Troubleshooting - What to do if you come across an issue.

The basics

• Game requirements: The game requirements are a straight lie (aside from the gigantic 83gb's). I would recommend a GTX 970, 16gb of ram and a ryzen 5 3600 minimum or intel equivalent.
  
  If you are on linux, the game works fine on proton. If you are a linux user and something here is different to your system, please make a note in the comments.
  
  
• Game purchase: Treat the base payday 2 game as a demo. If you want to play the game, I recommend getting the "legacy collection" DLC. It gets on a pretty good price on sale and gives you a TON of content to play around with. You can still have a lot of fun on the base game and you will get a lot of leverage for it as there is a ton of content in the base game... I just wouldn't recommend it.
  
  The infamous collection is a "ultimate pack" type of deal that gives all the DLC's ever released for the game. It also goes on sale but for a chonkier price. The only drawback is when you buy that bundle you also purchase the h3h3 pack, therefore giving money to h3h3. Overkill receives no money from h3h3 pack purchases.
  
  Alternatively if you want just some essential DLC's (maybe you want to play the game right now and wait for a sale on the legacy/infamous bundles?) here's a list:
  Gage Mod Courier;
  Gage Assault Pack;
  The john wick heists;
  The point break heists;
  The Butcher's AK/CAR Mod Pack;
  The Wolf Pack;
  Sydney character pack;
  Gage Spec Ops Pack;
  
  
• Game content: Payday 2 has heists, weapons, weapon modifications, and character DLC's. Heists and character packs sometimes comes with weapons and weapon modifications as well. Late in the life of the game they also started selling cosmetic packs which include weapon colors and suit options for the heisters.
  
  Only the host needs to own a heist to host it. Everyone else can join it even if they don't have the DLC.
  
  There has been certain content avaible outside of the game and some only avaible for a limited time. You can check all of them here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=933765298
  
  The most important to note are:
  
  Scarface Character Pack: Allows you to play scarface and use the kingpin perk deck. Removed due to licensing. The only way to obtain this is buying a key (hard) or using the DLC unlocker mod. Do not use the the DLC unlocker mod for this! It is evil, immoral, big nonono! Do not use DLC unlocker to play a DLC you can't purchase anymore!
  
  Jacket character pack: Allows you to play Jacket (the guy with the tape recorder) and use the Sociopath perk deck. You need to own "Hotline miami 2: Digital special edition" on steam. You cannot upgrade from base to digital special edition, you need to purchase digital special edition even if you own the base game hotline miami 2 and can't upgrade to it. Australians cannot get this because they cannot buy hotline miami in their country.
  
  
• Anticheat, bans and other modded players: People that use piracy DLC unlockers, cheats, and other mods can play your game even if you disable the option to play with unmodded users since they can hide their mod list. Oh yeah, if you play with mods some people won't join your game. There's a filter on the game to avoid modded players. Although there's also people that only player with other modded players.
  
  Some people say you can't get banned from this game... that's not exactly true. It's true your actions have no consequences here, if you cheat progression, grief other players and be a general ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ inside the game nothing can happen to your account (altough these are not necessarely things you should be doing). But still: If you are banned from a host from their game you are put on a blacklist and won't be able to join their lobby anymore. Get banned on enough lobbies and you will barely find any games. People filter others that use silent assassin or Gab's mods and people won't join your games if you use these. However some people only join silent assassin lobbies as well. You can also get banned from the steam forums (which is pretty easy in the modern times) and the official payday 2 discord alongside unofficial payday 2 communities and loose access to them.
  
  If you cheat in some specific ways you won't be able to join any lobbies because you will be auto kicked from them due to the in-game anticheat. This "anticheat" (if you can even call it that) mainly detects piracy and rebalance mods (which the game triggers as cheating). For a proper anti-cheat, search for "no mutants allowed" in this guide. But besides that, should you alter your gameplay? It's hard to say wether some mods are really cheats. A mod like silent assassin most people don't consider a cheat but at least for me it trivializes the game so much I refuse to play with anyone that uses it... but it's not enough reason to ban a silent assassin user from my lobby, since that mod especifically doesn't affect my lobby.
  
  A good rule of thumb is keeping our mods to a minimum. Even purists are willing to play with a modded player, but if you have a filled mod list they will outright avoid you. PS: "mod_overrides" mods won't appear on your modlist.
  
  
• Community content: Some content on the game requires you to join the payday 2 community group. To do that, go to the payday 2 community hub and click "follow" (it's near the player counter).
  
  
• Payday: the heist content: You can play all the content from the payday the heist game in payday 2 for free, with the exception of the wolf pack DLC content which includes the hosting privileges for undercover and counterfeit. Buying the wolfpack DLC in payday the heist will give the wolfpack DLC in payday 2, otherwise you will have to buy the wolfpack payday 2 DLC. Buying the wolfpack DLC in payday 2 won't give you that DLC in payday the heist.
  
  
• Payday: the heist soundtrack: Buying the payday: the heist soundtrack DLC will allow you to use the payday the heist songs in payday 2 as long as you have that installed alongside payday 2 on the same hard drive.
  
  
• Epic games crossplay: Payday 2 by default allows you to play with epic games users on the default game because of Epic Online Services. Epic games have access to all the updates and can purchase all the DLC's and most mods work there. If you are playing on Epic however do note that some people will avoid the lobbies you host or in rare cases even kick you because of the terrible reputation of Epic Games alongside the damage it did to payday 2.

Gameplay basics

If you are just starting, I would recommend this video: it talks a lot about what a new player should know on the game. Skimp over the information that you don't need, such as modding, since this guide covers most of the mods mentioned there. But do go over the other parts because there's very useful information.

Game configuration

• Game properties: Right click on your game and click "properties"
  
  
  • Choose your language. I use english.
    
    
  • Enable steam cloud if it isn't already. It allows you to sync saves between different computes.
    
    
  • On launch options, select "play payday 2 with modern CPU support" I recommend choosing that and if your game refuses to work selecting the other option. You most likely are using a modern CPU.
    
    
  • On DLC, filter by size. This gives you 3 or 4 DLCs that you can optionally download compared to everything that is mandatory to download, because you can play with other people that own that content. I recommend having everything installed because the soundtracks allows you to choose those soundtracks on menu. Otherwise you can delete all of them if you don't want that.
    
    
  • Add "-skip_intro" to launch options to skip the intro videos if you got tired of them.
    
    
  • If you want to use steamworks matchmaking, which is a better system than epic online services, you can add "-steam -steamMM" to your launch options.
    
    Only other people using steamMM will be able to play with you.
    
    This can solve a few issues like the game not opening for some people, but you will be able to play with less people because most people play on the default epic online services matchmaking.
  
  
• Renderer settings: Located on C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\PAYDAY 2\renderer_settings.xml
  
  These allow you to manually set your render settings in case it doesn't work in the game. If your game doesn't detect your ultrawide settings, you can manually set them here as well.
  
  If they keep getting reset, open the properties of this file and set it to "read only".
  
  PS: Setting it to read-only means if you change the setting inside the game it won't be saved as well.
  
  If you are playing on anything other than 16:9, divide your aspect ratio and place its value on aspect_ratio. For instance, 21:9 is 2.33333. PS: Try it in the game first.
  
  
• Inside the game: Open payday 2 and go to "options"
  
  You should familiarize yourself with the controls and go through every option to make sure the game is to your desires.
  
  Make sure to enable workshop on advanced.
  
  Privacy is on advanced.
  
  When you have mods installed, you will have "Mod options" and "mod keybinds". Make sure to go through over them after installing the mods.
  
  On video and advanced:
  
  Disable "Use HQ Weapons"
  Set "texture quality" and "shadow quality" to medium or below. This will avoid most crashes and yes it's a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ compromise.
  Set "streaming chunk kb" to the maximum.
  If you have a monitor without freesync or gsync, enable vsync to remove screen tearing. This will make so your game always tries to get the framerate of your monitor though so your system needs to be capable of running that.
  
  The other settings you can use as you see fit for your system. I set everything else to maximum except corpse limit to medium.
  
  
• Outside the game:
  
  • If you're playing on a windows machine, be sure to enable gaming mode
    
    
  • If you're playing on a laptop, it might be a good idea to set payday 2 to performance mode. Some modern laptops have a BIOS setting that allows you to run off the power of cable without recharing the battery and using the battery while it's on cable. While playing on cable that severely increases the performance of games and reduces the drain on the lifespan of your battery.
    
    
  • If you see "____________" inside payday 2 that refers to people that are playing on a language like korean or russian. Install windows language packs to be able to see those languages.
• Known issues:
  A good thread by overkill on known issues you can have on your game. I would recommend giving it a check in particular to "reported software conflicts": https://steamcommunity.com/app/218620/discussions/14/412446292758934434/

How to mod

First, find where your game files are. You will be visiting this folder a lot so maybe save it on quick access. The easiest way is on your steam library: right click your game and click "browse game files".

Now let's install the 2 pre-requisites libraries that most other mods use:

SuperBLT
Download and install SuperBLT here:
https://superblt.znix.xyz/
Just follow the instructions.

Folders
After installing SuperBLT make sure you have the following folders on your game files. If not, create them:

mods
Maps
assets/mod_overrides

(Yes Maps with capital M)

Beardlib
Download it here:
https://modworkshop.net/mod/14924

Just click the download button and install the folder inside the zip to the mods folder
Make sure to launch your game to confirm that beardlib was installed correctly.

Other software
Sofware that you might also need (besides the ones SuperBLT required on its page):

• 7zip for unpacking zip files.

How to install other mods

You should be good to go!

You can find other mods on modworkshop since that's the website most people use. There's also some mods on https://pd2mods.z77.fr that aren't avaible on modworkshop and a lot of them are essential as well.

A mod will go either into the "mods" folder or "mod_overrides" folder. A map will go into "Maps". A mod page normally has the instructions on which folder the mod goes, but a good rule of thumb is: if the mod has a "mod.txt" file, it goes to mods otherwise it goes to mod_overrides. On rare cases a mod has a "mods" and/or "assets" folder, and in that case it goes to the payday 2 game files folder.

The essential mods

If you only wanted to install so many mods, this section has you covered.

Here are the most absolute and necessary mods. In most situations you don't even need to do any configuration or play your game differently, just install them and you should be good to go. They are listed in order of importance.
PS: Remember to check notes section for a few details.

The Fixes
This mod fixes a lot of base game bugs and crashes. It is a must have.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/23732
Install to /mods

Tased Domination Crash Bandaid
Fixes a crash caused by a cop's weapon getting destroyed when dominated during their tase animation while their weapon is firing.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/46649
Install to /mods

Simple Mod Updater
The update system for TLDQ's mods.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/simple_mod_updater.html
Install to /mods

Clear Texture Cache
Frees memory resources once heist is loaded. It helps avoid crashes related to "access violation".
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/clear_texture_cache.html
Install to /mods

Advance Anti Crash
Protects against most crashes due to network lag or malicious players. Yes, other players can intentionally crash your game.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/33294
Install to /mods

Detect Skill Point Cheaters
Will detect players with more than 120 skill points and mark them as a cheater on the payday 2 cheater system. If you have "kick cheaters" lobby option enabled (as the host) then it auto kicks them as well.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39903
Install to /mods

Fix Community Items Lock
Fix an issue that makes the game think you aren't following the community group, making all community content (such as the judge shotgun and the hoxton breakout heist) unavaible
https://modworkshop.net/mod/47476
Install to /mods

CRIME . NET Performance Improvement
Fixes certain crime . net (the payday 2 matchmaking system) issues and improves its performance.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42769
Install to /mods

Stop Lobby Lag
Stops the lag you get in lobby when other players are changing stuff in inventory. Works only as host. Clients do not need the mod installed for it to work.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/47435
Install to /mods

Multiple Weapon Mod Rows
Makes modding guns way better. I recommend setting to 2 rows and 8 columns in mod options.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39375
Install to /mods

Enhanced and Improved Vanilla Hud
Adds additional and essential information to your game that the vanilla HUD doesn't show, such as all the deployables your team is carrying, the loot left on the heist (a feature even added to payday 3) and the timer on your ecm.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/43776
Install to /mods
PS: Uninstall this if you later install another HUD mod.

Name Label Fading
The name of a player will fade when your crosshair is aiming at it. It helps not distract your vision without removing the information altogether.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/35185
Install to /mods

Avoid cheater tag when using OWNED legendary skins
Removes the cheater tag from players using legendary skins they own.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/45482
Install to /mods

DX11 Shaders
Makes use of DX11 shaders, improving framerates and graphics in a few areas (it can make a few areas look worse though)
WORKS ONLY ON CARDS WITH DIRECTX 11 SUPPORT, OTHERWISE YOUR GAME WILL CRASH
https://modworkshop.net/mod/14938
Install to /mods

No Duplicated Bullets
Fixes a few synchronization issues experienced when playing as a client.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/no_duplicated_bullets.html
Install to /mods

Lobby Settings
Adds various limiters to your lobby and remembers its permission settings. Most importantly, it has an underrated feature that stops your lobby from staying on crime . net if it's not joinable avoiding the infamous "failed to joined game" error so many people get.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/lobby_settings.html
Install to /mods

Drag and Drop Inventory
Adds the ability to drag and drop items and pages in your inventory.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/drag_and_drop_inventory.html
Install to /mods

Always Show Weapon Mod Stats
Shows the stats of the currently selected weapon mod when they belong to DLC you don't own. You still need to purchase the DLC to use it.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39328
Install to /mods

That's everything! It's mainly "the fixes" and "anticrash" doing a lot of the work to make your game more stable, but the other mods are useful in their own way as well.

NOTES:

• The black screen flickering you have on the mission briefing screen is due to the clear texture cache mod. I say it's a worthy trade off for whatever can keep your game from crashing less
  
  
• On mission briefing screen if you go to the soundtrack screen and back into the loadout sometimes the soundtrack text will keep behind it. This is an issue with enhanced vanilla hud and I don't know how to fix it.
  
  
• The enhanced vanilla hud gets messed up if the resolution is changed while in-game when the hud scale is set below 1.
  
  
• By default, enhanced vanilla hud ECM timer does not take into account ECM's that don't delay pager delays.
  
  
• The overly bright Green Bridge is caused by DX11 Shaders mod. Some areas being darker than usual could also be the DX11 Shaders mod.
  
  
• Detect skill point cheaters is an extremely basic system and it's very easy to bypass these days. I noticed skill point cheaters actually trigger the skill effects without buying the skills, so if you have this mod the game still thinks they're a legit player. For an actual anti cheat, check "no mutants allowed" on the "great mods" section. That one requires a bit more work than this one so I know some people won't install that but if you want to keep to a few simple mods just having the detect skill point cheaters is more than enough.

Mods that are also great to have

This section covers mods that aren't absolutely necessary, but are still a great idea to have.

Note that you might need to change the way you play the game in regards to somethings and tinker with it a bit if you're installing these mods. If you're a new player and are just eager to play the game, I would suggest doing that and coming back here later, you already have all the mods you need from the prior section.

So let's get to it! The mods aren't listed in order of importance.

Use Ability While Shooting or Driving
Allows using perk deck abilities while shooting or driving.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39591
Install to /mods

Lobby Player Info
This mod displays information about players in lobby and loadout screens.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/lobby_player_info.html
Install to /mods
PS: I recommend going over the settings because the default might not be to your liking. In particular I like turning off "player skills" because it's very ugly.

Iter
This mod improves navigation of all NPCs and fixes their pathing on most maps.
It technically gives you an advantage because the teammate AI is very powerful, however dying because a AI can't get to you is extremely annoying so this is one of those "technically advantage" mods I allow a pass.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/iter.html
Install to /mods
PS: This is not one of the cheese AI mods TLDQ has. Those came before the henchman update (the one that gave AI bonuses) and they makes AI even more powerful than they already have. I would prefer if you avoided them alongside better bots mods.

Less Inaccurate Weapon Laser
This mod makes laser to point closer to where bullets go.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/less_inaccurate_weapon_laser.html
Install to /mods
PS: The laser on the Holt pistol is glitched

Inventory Chat & Player States
Enables accessing chat and viewing the states of other players in the lobby while in the inventory, blackmarket, preplanning, Crime․net, skills and perk deck selection screens.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/46793
Install to /mods

Enhanced Glass Cutting
Replaces the glass cutting sound in the game for a more realistic one that also doesn't destroy your ears.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/33593
Install to /mod_overrides

Change Lobby Name Anytime
This mod allows you to change the name with which your lobby will show up in crime.NET, so you can let people know before they join that you're doing a certain achievement, or it's a stealth heist, or you aren't a english speaker etc.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/47413
Install to /mods
Usage: "/lobbydesc <message>" on chat

No Confirm Dialogs
Removes various confirmation dialog boxes. No need to install them if you are still new, but for me they got annoying after playing this game for a while.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/12805
Install to /mods
Notes: This doesn't remove all the confirmation dialog boxes.
Conflicts with Ext. Continental Coin Shop.
Removes infamy confirmation dialog box, which might be a bad thing for some.

Civilian ! Marker for Drop-ins
Fixes exclamation marks on alerted civilians. It properly initializes ! markers when you join a stealth game in progress.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/civilian_marker_for_dropins.html
Install to /mods

Platform Detector
View each player's platform in the Player List
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42604
Install to /mods

Proving Grounds
A map that allows you to test weapons, builds and other stuff.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/29905
Install to /Maps

Stop the crimespree loss on crash
If you crash your game during a crimespree, you won't loose your crime spree streak.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/19568
Install to /mods

Auto Card Picker
The card in the rewards screen is chosen and picked automatically.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/33306
Install to /mods
PS: Conflicts with mods that do "offshore payday" automatically.

MOTD/Greeting In chat
Sends greetings in chat when you join someone or when someone join you, it will also ask if it's safe to join on stealth heists.
Messages are picked randomly from the three .ini files included, which can be modified.
Use this if you are using gameplay altering or rebalance mods to make sure everyone joining your lobby consents to that (lobby description might also be a good idea)
https://modworkshop.net/mod/37280
Install to /mods
PS: do modify the .ini files as some messages can be annoying. These days most people have prompt on stealth heists so the "safe to join" isn't necessary.

Team Stats Announcer
Sends all team stats in chat when the heist ends. Host only.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/26134
Install to /mods

More Weapon Stats
Displays more weapon stats. A library for other TLDQ's mods as well.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/more_weapon_stats.html
Install to /mods
Usage: Check the mod page for usage, this is one of those mods that becomes more useful the more you play the game. The kicker part of this mod is definitely the breakpoints tab, but it's a bit confusing. Basically, the numbers on the left are all the damage near the damage of your weapon. The number in yellow is the current damage of your weapon. So if a damage a tier above it can kill a enemy in one less headshot, a minor damage boost could matter in your build.

No Mutants Allowed
This mods monitors other players and warns you if their actions aren't what they are supposed to be doing by comparing it to your game. For instance, if a player has a deagle with 80 ammo and your game deagle has 70 ammo, it gives a warning on chat. If the player dodges 20 bullets in a row it also gives a warning, because that's very unlikely mathematically speaking.

It's the only effective sort of anticheat existent in the game because it sees everything a player is doing instead of doing a bunch of "if else" checks the base game anticheat has.

There are some things to note however:
Rebalance mods triggers warnings.
There can be false positives, so don't go around banning anyone that gives a warning, use it as further proof of a cheater instead.
If you use something that alter the game values on your end (such as if you're cheating or using a rebalance mod), everyone will be marked since they have a value different than yours.
I use this to ban people that hide their mod lists. If there are warnings on a player and he has no mod lists, he has probably a hidden mod list. These are the worst kind of players for me, worse than cheaters.
The only effective warnings this gave me was in regards to player's skill trees, nothing much else. The dodge one was pretty rare and "short interaction time" was the most common false positive.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/no_mutants_allowed.html
Install to /mods

QuickKeyboardInput
Adds components to get text input from player. It simply acts as a library for other mods that need such a tool.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/quick_keyboard_input.html
Install to /mods

Search Inventory
Highlights inventory items matching your keywords.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/search_inventory.html
Install to /mods

BuilDB
This mod is a build manager that uses pd2builder and pd2skills URL format.
Check the mod page for usage.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/buildb.html
Install to /mods

Blacklist Difficulty from Crime Net
On mod options, you can now select all the difficulties you want to see. On crime net, select the option "any" and all the difficulties not on the blacklist will appear.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39832
Install to /mods

Remove Contour on Death
Removes enemy outlines (marked enemies, hostages etc) immediately when they die instead after a delay or when the corpse despawns.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/32519
Install to /mods

Mods that are also great to have (part 2)

Save My EXP!
Remembers all the EXP you made so far in a heist and gives it back to you if you reconnect after a crash or disconnect. Works only as client.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/32685
Install to /mods

ReLUA
This mod allows you to refresh all the lua scripts (the game logic and your mods that alter this game logic). This allows you to do things such as disabling or installing mods without having to restart your game, just press the ReLUA button.
I added it here because if you buy a skin from the steam market it won't immediately show in your game, you have to go to the main menu screen and ReLUA.
You can also use this on your mission briefing screen even with other people inside to fix issues. I don't know which type of issues though.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/20842
PS: You will need to set a keybind in the mod options to be able to ReLUA. I set mine to num0.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/20842
Install to /mods

Load Steam Inventory Once
This mod will make the game load the steam inventory once, instead of everytime you switch menus (from inventory to main menu, inventory to skills ect)
That means, it will fix the stuttering when you change menus if you have a lot of skins.
It will update when you boot up the game, reload the lua scripts, or open the steam inventory itself only. Opening safes works fine.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/24008
Install to /mods

Peer mod list highlighter
Allows you to highlight mod names with one of 3 colors and see this list in the player's mod list menu, Crime net mod screen, and while players are joining your lobby.
You will need to set aside some time to go on the worldwide filter of crime net and tag a bunch of mods for the lists. This will also help you find other mods that might interest you to the point of even including on your own mod list.
This helps a lot when a modded player joins your lobby so you don't have to read his whole mod list, just checking the colored lists is enough.
Note: A bad actor can easily change the name of their cheat to a commonly used mod.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/39250
Install to /mods

Compact Host Info
Streamlines the host info that appears when you select a lobby to join on crime net. It's especially useful if you use the "Peer mod list highlighter" mod.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/41106
Install to /mods

Anti Hidden Modlist
Tells you if someone is hiding their modlist. There are still ways to circumvent this though, so "no mutants detected" is a better approach.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/32422
Install to /mods

Remove Fake CrimeNet Blips
Removes all of the fake heist recommendation blips on CrimeNet, the ones that aren't actual lobbies and are just generated by the game to fill the map. This also removes it for offline.
Check the comment section on the mod page to make it show offline blips.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/30696
Install to /mods

Clientsided Uppers
With this mod FAKs are deployed clientsided, until they are synchronized, this means they are placed instantaneously with visuals, are interactable and trigger Uppers. Once a response from the host arrives the clientsided FAKs are replaced by their synchronized counterpart.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/29645
Install to /mods

Lobby Mod Filter
Enables you to filter out lobbies on Crime.net with specific mods installed, such as cheats and other unwelcome mods. It introduces a "Mod Filter" button to the Crime.net sidebar, which opens the options menu when clicked.
The blacklist is stored in file "mods/saves/Lobby Mod Filter Blacklist.txt" with one mod name per line. The name of a mod can be found in its respective mod.txt. You'll need to click the"Reload Blacklist" button to apply any changes after editing.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/23497
Install to /mods

Nice mods

Here are some mods that I wouldn't consider too necessary compared to the last section but still good to have as well. Mods aren't listed in order of importance.

Faster Bullet Impact Queues
Improves the response time of the effects that happens when you shoot cops.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/31932
Install to /mods

Stop Painting My Stuff
This mod fixes the parts of several weapons that shouldn't be painted at all, such as the screens on weapons that have screens. Check mod page for examples.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/36338
Install to /mod_overrides

Louder Enemies
Increases the volume of enemy voice lines. This makes it so the medic isn't the only guy you hear all the time.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/43794
Install to /mod_overrides

Green Bridge Screendrops
Adds again a raindrop effect that appears on your screen to act like you're getting rained on broken by a overkill update.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/31468
Install to /mod_overrides

All Custom Heists In The Custom Heists Tab
This mod puts all custom heists in the custom heists tab. No need for this if you barely play any custom maps.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/30027
Install to /mods

Fix Potential Experience
This mod makes changes to the hardcoded minimum/maximum experience values Overkill provides. It does not change XP received in any way.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/33760
Install to /mods
PS: Potential experience also includes cheeses that allow you to go over the intended experience on a given heist.

Immersive Dodge Sounds
Whenever a successful dodge occurs, there is a chance that you will hear the bullet fly by you. This is especially noticable with surround sound or a headset.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/35278
Install to /mods

Weapon Holsters
Displays your teammates currently not used weapon on their character model.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/29507
Install to /mods
PS: Don't use this if you have a weak system.

Auto Fire Sound Fix
Fixes an issue where two gunshot sounds play when firing one shot in auto-fire mode.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/20403
Install to /mods
PS: Check the mod page for known conflicts.

Precise Crew Stats Time
Displays the time in crew stats with 2 decimal places. Most importantly, it also selects the crew stats tab by default.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/41285
Install to /mods

Reduced Sicario Smoke
Changes Sicario smoke to be a heavy, low rolling smoke rather the normal thick cloud used by Police. Check image section on the mod page for comparison.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/22674
Install to /mod_overrides

No Annoying Pop-up Messages
Removes a bunch of pop-up messages.
Edit the "hints.lua" file to configure which messages should be disabled.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/43331
Install to /mods

Keep Sprinting After Bag Throw
With this mod: If you are sprinting while carrying a bag, and you throw the bag, you will immediately begin sprinting again afterward.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42674
Install to /mods

No Prints
Disables the print(), cat_print(), and other debug functions that are only used by ovk's devs.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/21549
Install to /mods
PS: Might conflict with other mods. Make sure everything works before installing this, and if you install and get errors uninstall it.

Weapon Shadows
NPC and teammate shadows now show their guns.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/38712
Install to /mods
PS: Don't use this if you have a weak system.

Stoic Slurp
Adds a "slurp" effect when you use the hip flask from the stoic perk deck.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/21518
Install to /mods

Move Social Hub Button Down
Moves the social hub and side jobs buttons down so that the inventory button is at the top.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/43508
Install to /mods

Skin wears (quality) as percents
Skin wears (quality) as percents. Example: Mint-condition -> 0%
https://modworkshop.net/mod/35671
Install to /mods

No Mercy Wear Mask in Advance
You can choose to wear the mask at the start of No Mercy.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42817
Install to /mods

Alphasort Mods
This mod sorts BLT mods lists alphabetically.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/alphasort_mods.html
Install to /mods

Reload Then Run
Prevents the player from running when weapon reload is almost done.
Go to mod options to set the threshold (85% by default).
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/reload_then_run.html
Install to /mods

Chat Info
Will display a "is typing..." messages under the chat box whenever someone is typing something in chat. Both players need the mod for this to work.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/19181
Install to /mods

Filtered Camera Beeps
Makes so a player only hear a security camera beep if the camera detects them, not other players. Only works as host.
https://pd2mods.z77.fr/filtered_camera_beeps.html
Install to /mods

jokers outlines matches owner
Jokers outlines matches owner, example, if you are green, your joker will have green outlines.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/38073
Install to /mods

No Down
Allows you to host "no down" lobbies and filter them on crime . net. You can still join these lobbies without this mod.
"No down" is a extra difficulty for the game. If you go down, you will instantly go to custody. Nine lives is disabled. Cloackers do not count as a down.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/32586
Install to /mods
PS: Does not work alongside "crime.net performance improvement". However, the performance improvement is already included in the "no down" mod.

Microsoft Jacket
Replaces Jacket with Microsoft Sam. I found this to be less annoying and more entertaining than the default Jacket with his tape recorder.
NOTE: THIS MOD CONTAINS OFFENSIVE LANGUAGE.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/1541
Install to /mod_overrides

Commit Trivia Text
Replaces loading trivia with random text from http://whatthecommit.com/
This makes the loading screens more bearable
https://modworkshop.net/mod/32659
Install to /mods

Missed Shots Tracker
Allows you to see missed shots on personal stats and in-game.
PS: On mod options, I recommend setting the size to 0.0 so you only see the missed shots on the personal stats screen instead of in-game (which gets annoying)
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42748
Install to /mods

Steam and Epic Lobby Icon
Allows you to see if a lobby on crime . net is hosted by a epic games or steam user.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/42598
Install to /mods

Anti Blackscreen
Prevents blackscreen when loading into the game from the briefing by not allowing you to ready until everyone in the lobby has loaded in, also preventing others from getting a blackscreen when you host.
It will also automatically ready you up when not host, bain is done talking and you are not editing anything. This can be enabled on line 1 in the file. Since it can be buggy in some situations.
Spam ready button to force start;
https://modworkshop.net/mod/37308
Install to /mods
Notes: Like mentioned, you can't ready until everyone has loaded in. This can be annoying. Use this mod at your own discretion.

Less Confusing Intimidated Outlines
When you start the cop intimidation animation, they get outlined and stay like that until they become converted (then they get the converted outline). Plus, it syncs towards other teammates as well even if they don't have the mod installed.
This might be able to make your teammates stop killing your converts.
https://modworkshop.net/mod/18507
Install to /mods

Miscellaneous information

Known issues

• Marking or sometimes even looking at the helicopter in crude awakening heist during stealth crashes your game. Solution: Don't mark or look at the helicopter in crude awakening.
  
  
• "Access violation" crash:
  Most commonly, this happens when your game runs out of memory to use. Payday 2 can only use up to 4gb's of RAM at a time. This can happen on big maps, when there's a lot of action going on, or when you didn't set your textures and shadows to medium or below.
  
  Playing on 32:9 or above might require even lower textures and shadows.
  
  Your antivirus can also trigger this crash.
  
  Alternatively, this could be one of your mods, or even something completely unrelated to any of this and just ♥♥♥♥♥♥ payday 2 code.
  
  
• The one down skull mask does not required the DS:OD completion of Safe House Raid, Breakfast in Tijuana, Buluc's Mansion, and Dragon Heist.
  
  
• Potential fix if uninstalling soundtracks does not work correctly: https://archive.is/vlQEE
  
  
• Crew chief does not work correctly
  If you switch to crew chief from the briefing screen, you don't get all the benefits of the perk deck: https://youtu.be/D49kv6X4IYk

Is modding safe?

If you know programming, you can actually check the code of the mods you install. The mods use "lua" which is a interpreted language therefore the code is perfectly readable.

Mods hosted on modworkshop require that their mods are open source anyway. If a mod has malicious code it most likely will be taken down or there will be warnings on the comments. If you want to be more safe, you can wait for a newly released mod to get more popular because by then people probably already checked it.

Support modders

You can support modders by sharing their work, dropping a follow on github, dropping a like on their modworkshop page, or donating. It takes effort putting some mods together and anything benefitial to them goes a long way.

You can also contribute to mods that are hosted on github by contributing to their code with pull requests, if you know programming.

Extra Resources

If you want more useful information on the game, here are some other resources that might interest you:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=174677154

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1272106154

Run payday 2 on lower end systems (note: these have a few mods I already mentioned in my guide)

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2677373178

Payday 3

Should I still buy payday 2 even if payday 3 is avaible?

The answer is yes! Given that even now there are still people playing payday the heist, I have no doubt you will manage to find people to play with even after the game gets into the thousand of players. I seriously doubt the game will ever reach a point that there won't be enough people to play with. And even then if you are playing death wish and below it is kind of doable solo with AI if you are good enough.

Currently payday 3 is not in a good state, but assuming it gets to it at some point and you do purchase and play it... one can still play payday 2 from time to time. I see myself playing both games interchangeably because payday 2 still has different aspects that I prefer, even if I do want to play more payday 3 with its better engine, gameplay and graphics. Also my favorite mask is stuck on payday 2, so while I'm playing payday 3 I don't get to use it.

So that will be it! Just buy and play both! Haha.

Changelog

v1.0 April 30th
- Released the guide.
- This version does not include much advice for fps optimization if your system is crap, if anyone has suggestions for that it would be welcome.

v.1.0.1 April 30th
- Added Save My EXP to mods
- Added crew chief issues to known issues

v1.1.0 April 30th
- Changed guide name from "Essential mods, information and game configuration (2024 and beyond)" to "Essential mods, resources and game configuration (2024 and beyond)"
- Made a mental note to add youtubers to the resources section

v1.1.1 April 30th
- Removed marathon man crew man glitch from known issues

v1.1.2 May 3rd
- Replaced "Use Ability While Shooting or Driving" with an updated and improved version

v1.2.0 May 5th
- Added "Outside the game" section on game configuration
- Updated "Anticheat" with a better description
- Updated anti crash with another mod
- Added a detail about linux
- Added a lot of information regarding lower end systems
- Minor changes throughout the guide

v1.2.1 May 14th
- Added "Potential fix if uninstalling soundtracks does not work correctly" to miscellaneous section
- Slightly changed formatting on changelog
- Added "Hello from Brazil!"
- Added "Always Show Weapon Mod Stats" to essential mods

2025

1.2.2 May 17
- Renamed guide to "[2024] Essential mods, resources and game configuration"

Troubleshooting

You can use the steam forums, the modworkshop forums or the modworkshop discord for troubleshooting. For any issue you have, share your mods. If you crashed, said what you were doing alongside your crashlog.

You can access your crashlog on C:\Users\<User>\AppData\Local\PAYDAY 2

Right clicking on your game, installed files and "verify integrity of game files" after a game installation will make sure all the files have been downloaded correctly. If you mess your game files you can also use this to make sure they have their full integrity as well. Beware installing superBLT is technically messing with your files so you will have to redownload that if you want to mod again.

[solarsocks]

"Do not use the the DLC unlocker mod for this! It is evil, immoral, big nonono! Do not use DLC unlocker to play a DLC you can't purchase anymore!"

what in gods name were you smoking here LOL this might be one of the worst takes ive ever seen, especially since more licensed stuff got removed after this guide was made

[amera]

what were u cooking with this one brochacho

[_galaxy]

I also need to look into cpu limiters if I ever update this

[_galaxy]

if the issues are crashes, I'm not crashing at all

[im kirking it]

To add onto my comment below, It could also just be a person to person basis, and not because of the mod itself. Could be worth trying to install the mod and see if there are any issues. If there are issues with the mod, uninstall.

[im kirking it]

Apparently the developer of The Fixes updated his mod about 2 months ago, even though stating prior that they "... decided to stop fixing PAYDAY 2 and focus on something else." Maybe it's worth downloading? But from what I'm seeing in the comments, people are still crashing.

[_galaxy]

but the autoload loadout mod is so useful!

[_galaxy]

wow I trried playing this today and my game lags (idk if its the mod its known as a laggy game) and the simple hud became streamerslop HUD but I don't feel like updating this

also the other mentioned fixes is broken? oof

[Wax Trax!]

Hey thanks man i found a few mods that are really cool

[im kirking it]

I wouldn't suggest installing The Fixes mod anymore, people on modworkshop have been saying that it doesn't work anymore.