How to Beat Safe House Nightmare in 2018 [DLC Required]

After perfecting the build for this daring heist which is now available year-round instead of just halloween like it used to be, and throughly testing it by helping other people with their own heists that they are struggling with themselves, I will now share my method of beating this vicious heist on any difficulty including having the one down modifier active as well.

Disclaimer

While I do drum up this build and loadout being the quintessential way of doing this heist, there are certain limitations to how the heist will actually be played out in each person's seperate experience.
Just a few of these deviations include:

• Different varieties of curses, the most annoying and heist-ruining being the constant blinking curse and the randomly spawning pumpkin bombs
  
• Whether the game decides to give you more cloakers to worry about then Titan-dozers
  
• Being rushed by cloakers to the point where no one can help anyone else up

Of course, there is still the matter of owning the appropriate DLC:

Required as they give you the bread and butter for this build:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/259380/PAYDAY_2_Gage_Sniper_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/548421/PAYDAY_2_Scarface_Heist/

Optional, provides meeles and throwables for this build that give you a slight edge:

https://store.steampowered.com/app/384021/PAYDAY_2_Gage_Ninja_Pack/

https://store.steampowered.com/app/401650/PAYDAY_2_Gage_Chivalry_Pack/

The build

The specifics of the weapons and equipment and why I chose them

Thanatos .50 Cal - Modded with Tank Buster Barrel (Far, Far Away achievement required), LED Combo (For that juicy +8 stability), Stability Boost (Because Total Ammo only gives you one single bullet and it's already accurate enough), Pro Grip / Rubber Grip (concealment doesn't matter if you choose Pro Grip), Theia Magnified Scope / Box Buddy Sight (These scopes auto-tag enemies which are very handy, and if you want the Theia, you need the Didn't See That Coming Did You? achievement).

I picked the Thanatos because not only did they buff the damage some time ago to a whopping 3,675*, making it lethal on bodyshot against cloakers (*with the added Fast and Furious damage bonus from any perk deck with at least 9/10 cards done)

Commando 101 - Modded with Team Boost because I'm a team player

I picked the Commando 101 because although this build will contain no ammo skills, it is still a wonder to clear out an entire room full of skull dozers with an efficient rocket launcher that does a staggering 6,200 damage. Splash damage according to the wiki goes up to 5 meters so make it rain on the cloakers and dozers in the heist. Also Bulldozers are vulnerable to explosions as they have a 1.1 damage multiplier exclusively for them. Therefore, you will be doing 6,820 damage to a dozer if you directly hit them, and 3,410 damage for any dozers that are up to 5 meters away from the blast of the rockets.

Kunai Knife - You can also use the electrical brass knuckles if you feel like it

I picked the kunai in case a cloaker is rushing me and I don't have enough time to aim my javelin and throw it at his big head. Also the Kunai has a 70% chance to make him puke so now that I think about it, you are pretty much gambling that the cloaker will be stunned or not. Run Electrical Brass Knuckles if you are not confident in your kunai's RNG.

Javelin - You can substitute this for the throwing stars if you want guaranteed poison stuns on cloakers

I picked the Javelin because you can do 3,250 damage which is just a bit under the lethal threshold for a cloaker unless you do a headshot with them or even better, mark them before you execute the throw since this build does have High Value Target basic, which will make them take 15% more damage which is just enough for you to not have to hit their face with the mighty Javelin.

Medic Bags - Double charges and Double Bags

I picked these to bring because anything else will spell failure for you. Ammo bags are cool but you know what's great? Spamming Commando 101 rockets in swan song and not having to worry about them for the duration of the heist. C4 is limited and can only do so much for you in this heist, it can serve as a door guard but it is not as efficient as user-guided rockets. First aid kits are nice to heal boo-boos, but they don't reset downs like big beefy medic bags do. Sentries will be destroyed in a matter of seconds by KSP-wielding Titan-dozers. ECMs aren't worth it for just stunning dozers only since cloakers in the heist are going to be immune to it. As for body bags, the only one who will be using them is the cops after they beat you up. And leave your Armor Bag in the van, you'll want to dress for success.

Two-Piece Suit - Gotta rob your dream vault in style

I picked the Two-Piece Suit for speed when you go to smack the drill with your lovely kickstarter skill which has a 50/50 chance of working. Also if you go heavy you will get shredded anyway, so matrix it up with your Two-Piece Suit.

Perk Deck - Rogue

This is actually the last thing I picked out, I just found that grinder isn't that great in the long run, especially how this build is made to work. Stoic isn't amazing either since you will be constantly taking damage and with no hostage taker, you will have no opportunity for regen. Gambler is also a niche that could work but ultimately I went with Rogue because of the +45% dodge bonus chance you get and the 80% time reduction for swapping between weapons is very complimentary to how this build is with your Thanatos being the weapon you use before going into Swan Song. Once you do go into Swan Song, you will want to use every second to spam Commando 101 rockets at the dozers and cloakers that are clumped together. Rogue's switch time reduction helps you squeeze out an extra rocket or two before the Swan Song expires should you have the Thanatos out before it begins.

Mastermind Section

Since you cannot take anyone hostage, including the hazmat suit cooks that will run away and won't care if you tell them to get down on the ground, we can throw all hostage-related skills out the window. You will want to get the double med bags to properly utilize your downs and keep you in the fight, since you won't have any means to be freed from custody legitimately you need to prevent yourself from being downed too much. Also aggressive reload because the Thanatos takes a long time to reload and I didn't have anything else reasonable in my opinion to spend these points on.

Enforcer Section

I got transporter basic because of the bags at the end, you won't have much issue moving them but every little bit helps when you are rushing to those stairs. Recovering from flashbangs is good too if you don't want to see white for so long.

Technician Section

Acing every drill skill makes the big thermal drill go by faster, and gives you a 50% chance for you to meele the drill to restart. Acing Kickstarter on top of Hardware Expert gives you a 30% chance for your drill to automatically restart without needing you to intervene. The way this works is the 30% chance determines if your drill will restart on it's own or not, which is contrary to what some people believe that the drill restarts on a case-by-case basis. Also get Lock N' Load in case you need to shoot a cloaker while you sprint to the drill if you need to roll the drill repairing dice.

Ghost Section

Acing Duck And Cover gives you a total of 60% dodge while sprinting. This can be a make or break when you make a beeline for that thermal drill and you can use every second you have to restart it in time and maybe give yourself more precious seconds to spam rockets if you do end up going into Swan Song while making the trip. Parkour basic is bread and butter for any build really as well, so that's another notable thing to throw in. Now you might be wondering why on earth I have Optical Illusions and High Value Target basic. The answer for Optical Illusions is that the "You are 35% less likely to be targeted by enemies." description actually refers to how much time the enemy takes to notice you and fire at you. This stacks with the Rogue card that adds 15% on top of this effect, so you will have more of a time frame to react to cloakers before they start sprinting at you. As for High Value Target, you will be marking cloakers and dozers alike to maximize the power of your Thanatos bullets hitting them, and while cloakers don't need this boost as much, it does help to tag dozers in case you do end up having to waste them. Also you can tag them pretty fast with the Theia Magnified Scope, and you don't even need to complete the scoping animation for them to be marked, just initiate it while aiming at them and they will be highlighted. This lets you get part of the bonus of acing High Value Target without actually having to.

Fugitive Section

This skill tree is what ties this entire build together. Nine Lives aced enables you to efficiently use Medic Bags with your extra down. Up You Go basic gives you a little leeaway when you do get revived, basically letting you take an extra bullet which can mean the difference between popping Swan Song or not too early. Swan Song aced allows you to shower your enemies with a barrage of Commando 101 rockets that do 6,200 damage apiece on direct impact. Feign Death gives you a 45% chance of being instantly revived, which can be a real second wind when you do have no one to revive you. And if Feign Death doesn't save you, you can always count on Messiah, since a kill which can be easily achieved by sniping a cloaker or using one of your 8 rockets (try not to use those too much though) grants you an activateable self-revive that is limited to one charge until you use a doctor bag, which you luckily have 2 of with 2 more charges. Also Martial Arts basic because why not?

Things to do in the heist

First things first, set up your thermal drill, it should be right in front of you when you spawn in so I don't think a picture is necessary for anyone.

What you want to do next is immediately set up these drills on the right side relative to where you spawn in, the room should contain these 3 safes and you should only worry about putting them on. These are only for a distraction since the cops will automatically path to any active drill, including the thermal drill. This picture is what you should be doing after you set up the thermal drill.


After you have finished the drilliing business it is time to holdout for the duration of the drill which will be covered in the next section.

Where to wait out the drill and what to do if enemies start piling in

This little corner is going to be your own personal safe space for the duration of the heist since there is only one entry point for the dozers that will spawn outside of this room. There are still cloakers that spawn in this room, but they are further to the right and easy for you to pick off if you are dilligent enough to keep up on their spawns. The beauty of this build shines in clearing out enemies as they come in the area as the commando 101's barrage of missles can be used in conjunction with the effects of aced swan song to empty a bit over a clip's worth without depleting any of your precious ammo.

What to do when the thermal drill is done

After the safe opens, make sure everyone has a bag and run upstairs to put the money in the van. Depending on what difficulty you chose, for mayhem+ you will simply only need to put the money inside the van and wake up at the bed that was close to the stairs. For normal to overkill, you need to find the correct mask which you know is the right one when it does not produce smoke or down the player that tried to take it.

When the heist is done, give yourself and anyone who helped you a pat on the back since this is not an easy one, especially if you have the one down modifier active on death sentence.

Tips for making the most out of your skills in this heist

As you might already tell, this build does have many skills that revolve around being downed or going down. If you want to use your Commando 101 powers efficiently, you should:

• ONLY use your Commando 101 if you have gone into Swan Song or if you can't get a Messiah kill with your Thanatos
  
• Be careful when you fire your rockets towards the end, firing one as you go down can eat a rocket but as long as you have at least one, you have an infinite amount for the duration of swan song.
  
• Use your Messiah skill only if you cannot be saved or if your Feign Death (45% chance) does not get you up within the next few seconds
  
• If you do this heist with AI, you can end up not having to worry about friendly fire from the Commando 101 since they are practically bullet sponges.

A video of me doing it

[briocheman21]

Even with this build its impossible on death wish

[Gwen_Berry]

thank you thank you thank you thank you

[Castle]

great build

[♦Yung Jaxx ♦]

I just made it! Thanks for the guide, btw i just wanted to comment that i believe that the Arbiter Grenade Launcher would be better, due to the fact that me and my friend went out of the commando's ammo pretty fast, only being saved by a third friend which gave us ammo bags.

[pieroe]

Cheers, G1ffy

[Astron0]

I know this is pretty old, but it helped me so much with this. Just did it on Death Wish. Thanks so much :)

[NoctisTheH]

If you wanna play with me some missions on DW and sometimes on DS, you can add me.

[NoctisTheH]

pieroe, i beat couple of times this heist on OD with friends and on solo with bots, i never surrender. Sometimes you have badluck, sometimes you have luck. Dozers are very weak to survive a bullets from Judge shotgun with AP shells.

[pieroe]

Thanks for input, this guide is one of the many ways to beat the safehouse nightmare heists, and if your method worked for you then I'm happy you crossed this off your OD bucket list.

[NoctisTheH]

I completed this heist on OD without drill skills. All what you need is: Luck, good build on Hacker or Anarchist perk deck and LMG as primary, secondary: Judge shotgun with AP shells with headshots only. Score: Furious and quick killing.