Basics, Heists and Equipment.

Something about the game basics as well as mechanics with a focus on the weapons and rewards you can get.
There is a small class section to check out and an overview of the heists.

I took this over from the beta but polished it up. Will be some days to finish the new content.

Introduction

Hi there.

This guide should give you some info on the heists and some basic game mechanics as well as weapons/equipment you can use. I think you might enjoy the weapons and modifications part as well as the information concerning enemys, waves and rewards most. The guide to the heists do not contain vids but i made sure to cover the assets for your conveniance.
I made this to give you a chance to get to know some things before you do the heists (or just to laugh at my bad english).

I added some obvious and totaly logical tips in the end, so this won´t feel like a waste of your time ;P

I converted this from the PR-beta so it is not complete but should help you at start. I will update this regularly.

Totaly new here ... What to do oO

I will add this section because i saw a lot of forum posts about the gameplay itself and ppl beeing new to it (not even knowing the first.
Let me start with this: you missed out if you never played the first go get it around 4 bucks if its on sale ;P
What is Payday 2?
Payday 2 is a coop, tactic, horde, fp-shooter with RPG elements.
Singleplayer is possible in this game and so far you will have 2 A.I.s for this with you (what is kind of strange since all the heists are 4 ppl jobs but maybe this is "a beta thing"). You will notice that the A.I. is not only not realy smart but will get you loose your stelth due to the fact that they stand back but do not respond to patroling NPCs. You can turn of the A.I. if you like but sadly it will be back on "on" if you do another heist (bug?).
Although singleplayer is possible here i would recomand not doing it unless you are going for certain achievments (not added yet), special solo runs or getting to know the basics. If you are new you will most likely think the singleplayer is impossible (with or without bots). Even if you are not totaly new you will find this challenging. The best game experience you will have is when you play with 3 friends. Use the beta to get to know some ppl and start playing with them. The game gets a lot easier if you communicate, so use TS/Mumble/whatever (i know there is an ingame voice but well ... meh).
Yeah well its a first-person shooter. You get a lot of guns (so below somewhere) and soem gimmicks (also below) and shoot stuff. Keep in mind that this is a tactic shooter. You will not be able to withstand much damage and it is not nessesary or healthy to try to shoot every enemy (also i mentioned it is a horde game, right? ^^). The police will spawn all the time and float you in waves when it comes to an assault. Unlike in payday: the heist, there will be swat spawns in between the waves (mostly groups of 3). Tactics are important and range from plain shooting out of cover (while you sadly can not cower behind some and have to run around or stand up/duck), over mines and sentry guns, suppressive fire, armor, etc. to full stealth (no shooting what so ever).
The RPG elements are all about your character. You gain cash and esperience rewards from heists and level up from 0 to 100 (or maybe 125 or some other number; not clear yet - beta max level so far is 25). You will get 1 skillpoint per level and several extra stillpoints in between, that are used to skill the 4 skill trees. Each skill tree has 3 branches, if you look below you will find more information on that. Your (hard earned) cash goes into your equipment (mainly weapons). Weapons are capped by characterlevel and unlock in pairs (e.g on level 12 you get to by an assault rife and/or a shotgun). Your character can carry 2 weapons, 1 armor and 1 piece of equpiment (also a mask). Your inventory can hold up to 9 pieces of each type (mor e info below). The weapons are all modifiable with things like barrel extentions, scopes, and what not. There are weapons for suppressiv fire, weapons with silencers and low visibility and weapons with high accuracy as well as certain shotguns and submashine guns for close combat. You will hae to pick 2 in every game lobby.
The game features a lootsystem where you get 1 out of 3 loot items every time you finish a heist. This loot can be new masks (cosmatic only) or modifications for weapons or masks (e.g. color patterns for masks). More can be read about below.

What is my goal in Payday 2?
First of all i would say: Try to level up to the max level and have as much fun on the way as possible. Reaching the max level will take its good time and you will have the chance to buy and try out some weapons and equipment on the way. While collecting the experience in the heists you will also get a card (loot system) each time and slowly advance your inventory. There are a lot complains about this beeing to grindy and depending on hous and hours of farm, but i would say lets see when it is finished. You will have to do so many heists to get the level 100 (125) that you might not even notice how much loot you already got. Ofc. if you want a fully modded LP36 with level 16 you are out of luck here (and i for one feel not sad about that).
Next thing on the list should be more fun and some ingame cash. You will notice that you only gain cash when you complete a mission or a heist (missions beeing parts of the heist; meaning a heist can be 1 or more missions) succsessfull (the experience you get after a mission fails is also very low). So by leveling up you already get your cash ... but you should try to get more. When you do your missions you can always stay a little longer e.g. if your contractor tells you to get 4 bags of loot you can just stay and get 8 (or whatever is available). Keep in mind that this will take more time and also more waves of cops will come to get you. The waves will be harder each time a new one starts and your ammo and health will run low. The fun in this is to try to get more and more each time you do the heists. Try getting better and more efficient.

How do i complete a heist succsessfull?
You need to get the amount of items (e.g. money bags) your contractor tells you to get inside your escape vehicle (or sometime just run away or kill somebody) and then escape yourself. Only 1 of the 4 needs to get out (but it will cost you some bonus money and bonus experience if someone is in jain or even hurt). Keep in mind that you can only leave after you completed your objectives and only if all not imprisoned guys are in the escape zone. You can and will be guned down in the escape zome if your team is not with you.
Try to do heists/missions that you feel cabable of doing. There is a 2-way-difficulty system. White stars will show you the paygrade and yellow stars will show you the difficulty (0 yellow stars means "normal"). I explain this further below but let me tell you this: 3 yellow stars mean "overkill" and that gives 9 times the exp and cash ... aslo i don´t think it is 9 times harder i would recomand not starting out with these kind of jobs ;P.
Get better at what you do. Try joining partys or letting random player join yours. They might know something you don´t.
Do what you do best. If you suck at stealthing a mission go do it without stealth or even better let a group show you.
Watching stream and reading this might help but with all the random factors you will need to practice and learn about the certain things in a mission yourself.
Escape if you feel like the next wave will be too much.
Take some advice from this or other guides and work with the provided tips.

How do these heists work? There is so much you can do.
The missions are created by Overkill but have a certain amount of random events. There can be walls where you never saw them, door will be open or closed, the number of loot and safes will always be different and even the swats, cops and waves will not be the same each time. Try to get an overview of the mission and what is important (e.g. a certain runway or hideing place) and check if that is effected. Try to stay hidden but always have an eye on the cop-spawns to see special comeing. Listen to what Bain (the radio voice) says and take his hints.
Thinks you should know:
Your ammo will run out fast but the enemys drop some if they die. Be sure to use this by killing them where you can reach the dropped ammo. Do not be fooled into thinking the drops will let you have infinite ammo and make your shots count.
Since it is a horde-shooter it might be best to stay hidden and suppress enemys at times or lureing them into another part of the map when its time to escape.

I end this Guide with some basics and tips, right in the end i say this game is about completing heists and looting cash. It is not about killing enemys or good time for the heists/missions. Keep that always in

Heists and Crime.net

The crime.net

The crimenet allows you to pick up your heists and therefor mission. If you look at the citymap and wait a bit you will see the heists spawn in different difficulties (with different risk level; see in the section below). The location on the map has no direct indication so far on the heist or mission. The map will show you all available heists for several seconds, pausing if you click on the details for one.
You can set the filters so the map will show you all the heists nearby/far/worldwide that are beeing done by other not-full-groups. So basicly you will see a city map and about one gazillian heists. If you mousover the heists you will be able to see if the group is in the gamelobby or already playing the hesit. Green host names indicate steam-friends, blue host names are random unknown paople. Pro-Jobs will be shown in red.

Try setting the filter to "friend-games only" and the game will not only show you the games your
friends opened (green host) or are participating in (blue, unknown host) in atm but also all heists that are not picked by anyone atm. This should be your standart if you are looking for a specific heist.

Map with the "friends-only-filter" on. Only "empty and friend heists show up.

If you are wondering about the heist names, there is always a contracter and its always the same for the same mission, you just can not read the contractors name if the title is right from the icon and have to mousover first.

Unlike Payday: The Heist, Payday 2 now offers Heists that last more then one day and will need you to finish multiple missions in a row. There is also an option for continuing a heist if a days opjective failed and Excape missions in between.

Ok here is how this works: You need to complete the days missions and maybe the escape to get the next day mission to start. You will have to do the escape missions if you fail objectives or escape while an assault is running (depending on the mission; there might not even be an escape mission sometimes). This is obviously not possible at the last day so makeing it a total of 5 missions in a "not-so-good-run", 3 missions if you ace it, when we are lokking at a 3 Day Heist.

In theory: The game offers 7 Days in the overview, so every number between 1 and 7 should be possible in multimission heists, comeing down to 13 missions in a row if its a 7 day heist that goes terribly wrong each day and offers enough escape missions.

The heists are also diverded in Paygrades (white stars), the heist difficulty and Risk (yellow skulls) the mission difficulty. The paygrade has to be at least 1, the risk can be 0:

• 0: normal,
• 1: hard,
• 2: very hard and
• 3:overkill.

There is room for 10 stars on a mission so the max would be a paygrade 7 heist on risk 3 (overkill). Do not be lured by the cash and/or experience, hard means hard and you prolly won´t make it if you don´t know how. See more abot this in the section below.

So far we got:

• 1 day heists: these will be your standart 1 day heists and end after 1 mission.
  
• 2 day heists:These heists will feature 2 missions in a row and payment/payday in the end of the last. If you fail one of those you will be able to restart it. Meaning the day not the whole heist.
  
• 3 day heists: Unlike the 2 day heists the 3 day heists consists of up to 5 missions (1 mission on the last day and 2 possible each other day).

Maybe we will see 4,5,6 and 7 day Heists in the future.

Game Mechanics - Things to know

Game Mechanics

• Here is what you also should know:
  
• Visibility determins how likely you will be spotted, even inside a firefight.
  
• You can suppress enemys by shooting at or near them, takeing their ability to shoot.
  
• Your melee won´t kill enemys but stop them from shooting.
  
• You can shoot around and lure police to your if they are not focused on someone.
  
• If the police knows you are dug in deep they will siege and use smoke granates when they have gathered up more troup.
  
• The focus of the enemy A.I. will hardly break. They stick to their target for a long time.
  
• Special enemys will stay back if they loose their spawn-squat and go in later with other.
  
• Before the wave ends the police will fall back and gather at a siege position.
  
• You can mark special enemys and be able to see them through walls after that.
  
• There are special events and most likely secrets to be found.
  
• SWATs and cops will spawn in between the wave and scout the area.
  
• You can find planks in the missions (not in all) to plank-shut windows or fences.
  
• You can not close doors, so do not open them just because you can.
  
• You can shoot open door (not the grey/white ones or stronger).
  
• You can be cuffed by guards/cops/etc. if you get to close.
  
• Your intimidate button does all the other stuff you want to do, too.
  
• If you crouch and do not move your accuracy will be better.
  
• Low recoil and high accuracy do not nessesarily mean low spread. Recoil will give you high spread if you don´t burst and accuracy will be lost when you do auto-fire but a weapons basic spread is not shown only mentioned and depends on mods as well as your position.
  
• If the cops do something like turn of the lights, that does not mean you have to turn them back on.
  
• Police will open doors sometimes but they need to literaly shoot or lockpick them.
  
• The more hostages you hold, the less likely is an advance on the police side.
  
• You can shoot mines.
  
• You r sentry gun will shoot lik ethe cops (not very well).
  
• Most cops will try to shoot you if they can and only get closer if you are behind some cover.
  
• Swats (not the turtleswats luckily) will try to get closer and closer to you, so they can storm around your cover and blast/melee you.
  
• Tazer will always be in groups of 2 and go around if possible to melee range.
  
• (Bull)Dozer will try go run into melee range whatever happens and prolly oneshot you fom there.
  
• Cops and swats will stop to rescue hostages.
  
• If you shot a hostage or civilian you will have to pay for the "cleaner". This cost will be stripped from your spendable cash right at the moment you shoot them. Meaning if y mission fails and you run around killing civs you might end up with 0 Cach.
  
• Cameras won´t show the cops your position if you controle the security room.
  
• You can use the cameras to mark enemys.
  
• EMC Jammer got a timelimit you can not see.
  
• Ammo and Medi Bags will have an ammount of ammo/health and not a number of uses.
  
• Armor will make you more visable, slow you down and loose your stamina faster.
  
• Silencers will always reduce your damage.
  
• Weapon modifications can be taken away from the weapon but you will have to pay again to reinstall them.
  
• If you customize a mask it will be forever customized that way.
  
• You can use object (even teammates) through walls.
  
• Drills make a sound and so does melee and breaking glass and intimidation and ... ... ...
  
• If you are doing stealth runs and someone notices something you can see a red (bad case) or blue (close but ok) mark over their head. These makrs tend to bug so watch the NPC and see what they are going to do.
  
• The "level limit" in the end of a mission shows you how good your job was. Everything you missed, did in another way then planed, screwed up bad, etc. will be "awarded" here.
  
• There is an aggrometer and visibility check on enemys for you. They will shoot whatever they see first (best to have low visibility and hide) and take in account what is more dangerous (shoot to kill not to get attention).
  
• There is a stealth-mechanic for the mission starts when you do not wear your mask yet. I will go over this in the next section.
  

Stealth

Stealth

Whenever you do a mission that does not start with an ongoing assault-wave you have the chance to get some things done in stealth. If an alarm is triggered and the enemy is activly searching for you the stealth part is not completly over just yet, but we should speak of visibility tactics in this case. We need to distinguish between two kinds of stealth and the visibility tactics in this mechanics part:

• Not wearing a mask - clandestine
• Wearing a mask but no-alarm yet
• Beeing detected and in an ongoing firefight visibility tactics (we will talk about that later).

Things to know for the stealth-mechanics in the game:

• You can switch from clandestine into no-alarm at any time by putting on your mask and recieving a slow-motion for several seconds (even after the mask is on).
• You will switch from clandestine or no-alarm to visibility tactics by everything e.g. dancing in front of a camera.
  
  
• If you get spotted or someone hears you you will hear a sound and see a circle fill up in the middle of your screen.
• Questionmarks or exclamationmarks are shown over the NPCs/Cameras that spot/hear you.
• The sound (beeping) will get louder and faster the longer you are spotted.
• The circle will fill up blue on the first half and red on the last.
• If this circle fills up completly you are detected (it will say "detected" in the middle).
• If you retreat or stop doing what you were doing at the time you might avoid NPCs going to detected.
• Civilians, cops and guards as well as cameras will show a blue question mark over their heads if the hear or see something suspicious. The blue question mark will disapear in most cases if e.g. you go into hiding again.
• Questionmarks mean unsure and will not nessesarily lead to exclamationmarks meaning suspitiously detected.
• There is the chance that the suspicous act was "too much" and the blue question mark turns into a red exclamation mark. Note that this can also happen with a lag of time e.g. after you have hidden again so keep an eye out.
  
  
• If you are detected you will automaticly put on the masks without getting the slow-motion.
• If someone is detected and the rest is near potential enemys they will also be detected.
• Putting on the mask without slow motion makes you valnurable for a time.
• Armed NPCs that go into "detected mode" will start shooting and/or try to cuff you when they reach the detected state and use this valnurability.
• Detection will not trigger an alarm, if you deal with the situation fast and in the right way.
  
  
• Armed NPCs that go into "detected mode" will send of an alarm and alarm all other armed NPCs of their faction in the mission if not dealt with fast.
• Alarms will be set off when somebody is left alone with his/her exclamation mark to long.
• Armed NPCs will often be connected by pagers. If you kill them you will have to answer those.
• Normaly your group can answer 2-3 pagers per mission without beeing detected but a skilled mastermind might give you a third/forth chance.
• If you intimidate armed NPCs with pagers you do not have to answer them and it won´t count as one of your 3 (4) for the mission.
• If you shoot (without a silencer) in open space e.g. a street, there is a high chance that (without any question or exclamation marks or even NPCs) your action will start an alarm.
• Killed and tied down NPCs can be seen by others and will raise suspicion fast.
  
  
• You can destroy cameras or windows as long as you do it in a way that nobody can hear it or see you doing it.
• An unsilenced shot will like useing the OVE9000 most likely be haerd EVERYWHERE.
• Destroying a camera e.g. with melee does not help you if the camera itself sees you doing it.
• Destroyed objects like cameras will alarm the suspicion level of any NPC.
  
  
• Your mission equpiment e.g. EMC Jammer or a drill can be seen by NPCs and will raise suspicion.
  
  
• If you break your cover the game will tell you how you broke it.
  
  
• You overall visibility determins how fast you are spotted. You can see that in your inventory. Note that every visibility on weapons, armor, etc. adds up on this even if you do not hold the weapon in your hand (see weapons and mods section).
  
  
• There are several skills to help you be more sneaky and faster(see classes section).

Keep hidden, scout and bring patients!

Tactics and Visibility

Tactics and Visibility or Visibility Tactics

When the stealthing goes wrong it doesn´t mean you are supposed to run around, guns blazeing and shoot whatever you encounter (can still be fun but will not prove very helpfull).

Tactics is al about location, location location. Use cover, work as a team and do not waste ammunition. Try to kill only what you realy have to kill and kill it where you can get its ammo-packs.

That is all good and known but you might ask: "What has that got to do with visibility?" and its a fair question.
Visibility determins how fast you can be spotted while stealthing. BUT:It also determins how fast you are spotted when you are not stealthing!
You might say: "Well with mask on and alarm running they spot me everywhere from everywhere." and that is kind of true (just try the Bank Heist, put on your mask on the strett and walk by the bank). BUT if they can not see or hear you they need to search for you. In the enemy section i explain the scouting and also a bit about this visibility problem but keep with me here.

Next to your visibility you will have noticed an aggro-mechanic. Enemys stick to the target they first spot and will only change if they are more threatened by another. This aggro is determined by the damageoutput both potential and in real DPS.
Bottomline: If you shoot a lot and/or hit a lot you will get more aggro.
Keep in mind that shooting a lot will also make a lot of noise, growing your visibility even more.

Visibility Tactics means this:

• Try to be behind cover all the time unless you are shooting.
• If you are shooting, shoot to kill. A downed enemy can have as much aggro on you as he likes.
• If you are useing a silenced weapon you will pull less aggro.
• If you have a low visibility and do not produce a lot of noice, you will pull less aggro.
  
  
• These values are all seen in comparison with visble allies. So they won´t help you if:
  • You are alone.
  • Your team does the same but better then you do.
  
  
• You need a team to do this with.
  • You need to learn to move with the team and dodge when they do / come out to shoot when they do.
  • You need to be a good shot to kill the enemys before your "tanking" team gets hurt too much.
  • You team needs to be willing to "tank" for you.
  
  
• Your team does not need more then 2 people (better even 1) doing this.
• You can either stick to visibility tactics or suppress the enemy.

Low visibility and fast killing weapons
Good weapons for this tactic are the AMCAR, the CAR-4, all the SMGs, all the pistoles as well as the shotguns because those weapons bring a low visibility right from the start. They can all be modified to give even less visibility (the others can too but the base stats are worse).
The Bronco, the M308, the IZHMA, all the other shotguns, the SMGs, the AKs and the CAR-4 are your fastest killers on their own range. The SMGs and AKs will spray more bullets and the shotguns are noisy but effective all the way. The bronco does not have a silencer option.
The Compact-5 and the IZHMA got pretty good stats with silencer on them, go for them if you like.
All the clip-pistoles come with silencers giveing them low visibility and low noice.

Experiment with those weapons and their mods to find a middleground when it comes to visibility, noice and damage, but stick to one you like to use. Going for visibility tactics means you are the killer in the back makein accurate and dealy shots, thinning the lines while the others hold.

Difficulty, Paygrades and Rewards

Difficulty and Risk
In Payday 2 as well as in the first one we get 4 diffuculties (at first): normal, hard, very hard and overkill. This is indicated by the number of yellow skulls (0-3) a heist got on crime.net. Payday 2 seems harder then the first one (what i for one like best about this simply because i want to spend 100+ hours on this: meaning not grinding maps but getting everything done) and the crime.net gives you the impression of a bonus cash/exp chance by sending you high risk heists. Be sure to bring higher level gear and weapon you got modded or at least try not to complain if you don´t and fail there.

Paygrades
We need to be carefull here. Heist-Paygrade is shown by white stars but the reward will be calculated by the overall-Paygrade. E.g. Bains: Jewelry Store Heist has a heist-paygrade of 1 (1 white star) and on normal it will have an overall-paygrade of 1 (1 white star + 0 yellow skulls). If you choose the same heist on overkill it will still have its heist-paygrade of 1 but 3 (yellow) skulls for the difficulty, makeing the overall-paygrade 4.
The heist-Paygrade shows how much you can earn in this heist and how difficult it is overall. The second part here doesn´t have to be true for your team or yourself since the map/mission difficulty is based on tactics and playstyle. E.g.: watchdogs and rats are kind of straight forward shootings and if you like your sentry(s) and shooting you will fel at home here more then in a jewelry heist (when it comes to stealth).

Breakdown for the rewards:
When talking about rewards we have several things to look at:

• Experience
  
• Dayly rate income
  
• contract payment and
  
• the overall payday

Experience lets you gain level for your character.
The dayly income rate is a cash reward with a multiplier for the day a heist takes e.g. 1x in The Bank Heists and 3x in the Rats Heist.
The contract payment is a flat amount of cash reward based on the number of white stars.
The overall payday is the sum of the other two cash rewards and will be shown on the map if you select a heist.
These rewards have base stats (that i couldn´t break down so far) and multipliers for the difficulty (yellow stars). Odly, this leads to a 1 white star heist with 2 risk stars (overall-Paygrade 3) giveing more rewards then a 3 white star heist with 0 risk (also overall-paygrade 3), but i guess that is just "fair" considering the difficulty.

For Experience it goes like this:

• Heist-Paygrade 1 (1 white star): 950 Exp
  
• Heist-Paygrade 2 (2 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 3 (3 white stars): 1800 Exp
  
• Heist-Paygrade 4 (4 white stars): 2918 Exp
  
• Heist-Paygrade 5 (5 white stars): 4360 Exp
  
• Heist-Paygrade 6 (6 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 7 (7 white stars): n/a atm
  
  
• Risk level 0 (normal): no bonus rewards (overall Exp x1)
  
• Risk level 1 (hard): + Exp x2 (overall Exp x3)
  
• Risk level 2 (very hard): + Exp x4 (overall Exp x 5)
  
• Risk level 3 (overkill): + Exp x 8 (overall Exp x9)

For the dayly rate income cash reward it goes like this (keep in mind these number also get a multiplier per das the heis takes):

• Heist-Paygrade 1 (1 white star): 27.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 2 (2 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 3 (3 white stars): 80.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 4 (4 white stars): 107.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 5 (5 white stars): 134.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 6 (6 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 7 (7 white stars): n/a atm
  
  
• Risk level 0 (normal): no bonus rewards (overall dayly rate income x1)
  
• Risk level 1 (hard): + dayly rate income x2,5 (overall dayly rate income x3,5)
  
• Risk level 2 (very hard): + dayly rate income x5,25 (overall Exp x 6,25)
  
• Risk level 3 (overkill): + dayly rate income x 8 (overall dayly rate income x9)

For the contract payment cash reward it goes like this:

• Heist-Paygrade 1 (1 white star): 11.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 2 (2 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 3 (3 white stars): 32.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 4 (4 white stars): 42.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 5 (5 white stars): 52.000 $
  
• Heist-Paygrade 6 (6 white stars): n/a atm
  
• Heist-Paygrade 7 (7 white stars): n/a atm
  
  
• Risk level 0 (normal): no bonus rewards (overall contract payment x1)
  
• Risk level 1 (hard): + dayly rate income x2,5 (overall contract payment x3,5)
  
• Risk level 2 (very hard): + dayly rate income x5,25 (overall contract payment x 6,25)
  
• Risk level 3 (overkill): + dayly rate income x 8 (overall contract payment x9)

The overall payday is just the sum of the other two so it will also be x9 for overkill.

For finishing a heist (not a mission) you also get 1 out of 3 cards with some loot (see below in the weapon and loot part).

Risk and the standart Enemy

Risk and the Enemy

Ok, i already talked about Risk above this but i feel i need to explain something more on the enemy forces and difficulty.
Basicly we have 4 difficulties:

On the pictures (wich btw. you can find under "Assets" in your mission lobby) you already see some of the enemys but lets go in somewhat deeper.

normal - low risk (0 yellow skulls / normal rewards)

Cops
Starting at low risk and basicly on every difficulty you will face "normal" or blue cops (see the picture for normal). These gus can spot you fast if you are not wearing your mask and will cuff you down (as long as there is no shooting) if you get to close (or they get to close from behind). It is possible that they wear hats and/or jackets but well ... that won´t help them. They wear pistoles, shotguns and submashineguns (mostly pistoles) and only in some cases armor (much like your balistic vest if not the same but for the color). They will die fast and mostly do not bring any defenses like helmets or armor. Their aiming is fair but their weaponry does not pack a punch, only in numbers strong. They will try to roll/dodge when they see you (no need to shoot for that) and hide behind cover. If the way is clear they will advance but take their time before they do. If they know where they can find hostages they will go for them first. They will hardly spawn in the later waves (assaults), only seen in the first assault (and only if its on normal) and between the waves. They count as the you-have-been-seen-force and will show you that the time for sneaking around is passed. They also come in as hostage-rescue-team-spawns.
Much like the bluw cops you will encounter FBI member. They wear a green/olive and beige/bridgewater tan (light brown for men) suits as well as skimasks and nearly always come with a balistic vest (also greenish). Helmets are so rare on these guys i think they might never bring any. They are somewhat more agressive (e.g.: they advance faster) then their police-buddies and do more damage. But their behaivior is much the same. If you are not on "normal" you will have these in between waves and as a rescue unit.

hard - risk (1 yellow skulls / 2,5 time rewards)

SWATs
Now here it gets interesting. The SWATs come with a new behavior(s), helmets and better weapons as well as armor. Smoke granates will be used by them to cover advances as well as cover fire.They also bring the first special units with them.

very hard - large risk (2 yellow skulls / 6,25 time rewards)

The low risk version (they will be in your normal games aswell, only cops would be boring) of those guys is the blue SWAT (see the picture for hard) the higher tier (more aggressive and dangerous) wears more armor, better weapons, yellow bandeges and white helmets. They will always wear helmets that are open at their faces (but hard to spot the first time since the helmets are dark blue as well as their skimasks) and body armor (balistic vests). Consider these guys as your standart enemy (for the first assaults) if you are not playing on very hard or above. They die fast (not as fast as cops) and should soon be seen as "easy". The blue SWATs will hardly be seen with pistole but carry submashineguns, shotguns and assault rifles. They will do pretty good damage and aim better then the cops. If they melee you you will go down and be hurt bad (you are not cuffed or anthing much like crouching). When it comes to move patterns these guys will always try shooting you (with or without cover) if they spot you. If they however can not get a clear shot they will advance fast. Unlike the cops and FBI guys these units will also show a better group-behavior and very likely suppress you with fire when you try to cover up, so the rest of them can advance. For about 2-3 of them shooting at you you can bet on 1 guy (mostly one with a shotgun) to advance on your position. If you are covering inside a building or a similar position with a small entrance they will use smoke granats to cover their advance. If there is smoke there is fire are a lot of them incomeing (note that they have clear side in the smoke; much unlike you). Cover is not as important for these as it is for the cops and they will hardly dodge/roll but if they work as a team you will have a harder time getting their high range member, dug in deep. Their main goal is to get you down and get the hostages out. On higher assault waves and/or difficulties these will coem as hostage-rescue-teams and spawn in groups of 3-4 in between waves.

overkill - very large risk (3 yellow skulls / 9 time rewards)

As well as with the cops, there is also a "better version" of the SWATs: the olive/green and tan FBI-SWAT (seen in the picture for very hard - i know it is black/white but look closely :P). These guys are easy to spot/notice because their green/tan uniform with all the flashbangs and shotgun ammo will color your day as well as their bullets will color your screen not long after you run into them. Actually because of the colorpattern they look as if they are carriing even more armor (and well they do, most of the time). The FBI SWATs will always wear armor, (white) helmets and the full range of weaponry (all but the "fun things" like the Magnum or the MPs). Unlike their blue comrates, the FBI will often come with better helmets that have an armored plate in font of their face and often times even better armor (e.g. flak jackets). Thanks to their colorpattern you will be able to spot what kind of tier you got if you face them. Shoot for the head (like always) and the helmet plate will drop off. There is also a full-armored version of these guys FBI-fullarmor-SWATs (turtles) but they will get their onw section. The behavioral pattern for the FBI SWATs is the same as with the blue SWATs but the differense in hostality will be very clear to you when you encounter them. Basicly the shoot better, run faster and advance/suppress fire in smaller groups. It is not unlikely to encounter one of these guys - face-to-face - after reloading behind cover for 2 seconds and their damage output is substancial (on harder difficulties they will break your flak jackeet in one shot/burst and even damage your health). They will advance in bigger number, mostly 2 guys when only 1 give suppressive fire (counting way waaaaaaay up when there are more that 3 :) ). Their melee is kind of a death sentense (aka even worse then a burst of their weapon) so avoid that. Because of their aggressive and fast advances even in small numbers it might even seem to you they are just triing to rush you down (and well they kind of are because their damage is so high you won´t even notice their backup fire also comeing in on you). They mostly do not bother to use smoke granates but they can if they have to. If you are in or above assault wave 2 or playing on hard or above, these are your standart enemys. They come to kill you.They also spawn in between waves in groups of 3-4 and will be droped by helicopters to do certain events e.g.: install a gas-tank on the roof of the bank to render a room unuseable.

Special Enemys and Waves

Special Enemys

Starting of with a "special unit" that is no special unit at all but feels like on :>
The trutles or FBI-fullarmored-SWATs (seen in the overkill picture above). They look like the FBI-SWATs but will always have a helmet with an armored plate and wear the full body armor (much darker then the armor of the other FBI SWATs). This armor (brow) is the main problem on those guys. It will shield them completly, meaning you can not hit them at all (no, not even with an AK). The hitboxes are a bit cluncky (and the game is kind of fast anayway) but in theory you can hit these guys only where there is pace in their armor. try shooting them in the face (breaking the armored plate) or in the back or in the neck or (if you have to for some reason) in the legs. High caliber will suppress them if you shoot their armor too and you can melee them to get some space. If you melee then be carefull their melee is even more powerfull then the melee of the "normal" SWATs. These guys will go in and get you down. Their behavior is so aggressive that they seem to behave more like Bulldozer then SWATs. They (like others) mostly come in groups of 3 (yes, even between waves) and will have 1 cover fire and 2 advance. Due to their heavy armor they are unlikely to crouch and move a little slower then their comrates in armes but if you see them crouching, go away because they will hit you. These guy are mainly what will lead you to not camp with 4 people on one spot. A smoke granate and 1 or 2 of these to block your shots and it is most likely over. Their aggresive behavior is what will bring them down easily. If you spot them and stick to your cover they will prolly arrive first and alone behind it. If you are ready they will die fast. If you get a helping hand you can even mow them down from behind in groups.
These will spawn a lot, consider them to be "just SWATs" and not restricted in numbers/spawns by beeing a special unit.

Ok, now the real deal --> special units.
The first to mention is the Sniper. Bain will announce (not always but in most cases) them and you will be able to spot their laser targeting sight. They are light armored, mostly wear no helmet and will sit in buildings or on roof as well as hill (or whatnot). They are not as good at shooting as you might think but the targeting laser will have you moveing away anyway since their damage is quiet much. If you look closely you will see that there are tiers of snipers aswell as in the "normal units". You get cops or FBI doing the sniping with better results on the FBI side. As special unit you can mark them or just kill them by shooting in the direction of their targeting laser.
The second special unit you will see (and hate later on) is the Shield (seen in the picture for hard above). Much like the name says they carry around a big shield and will "go in" first to block your shots. Luckily the enemy A.I. got better but is still not great (maybe that is intended) and they will end up alone in corners and do nothing for a time. I think they are somehow bound to their spawning-squat and if that dies off first, they are unable to "communicate" with the rest of the police forces. They carry a handgun (semi- or full automatic) and will use apowerfull melee as well as kind of lift you of the ground by running into you and pushing you upside. You can not break the shield and need to shot them from the side or back. If you are fast you might do this alone but keep in mind that other police forces will fire on you while you "jump around" the shield. Like all the other special units, shield come in cop and FBI variants. The FBI Shields will carry shields that are extended on the side and better weapons as well as armor. Also they will be more aggressive. The part where you will hate these things more then anything is later on. Because of their A.I. and your unability to kill them if they stay back and shield themself, they will "stack up" (if they are not already spawing in number of 4-5 already; beeing slow on the job? :> ) and come in a big pile of shields to get you whenever they feel like it. If you are useing sentry guns or mine these guys will deplete the ammunition or survive the explosion and smile dirty behind their shield (be sure to jump around to see that!).
The Taser or better know as Tazoooor (add more "o") got realy realy ugly in Payday 2 (yeah sorry, but wtf?). These futuristic looking guys with their "significant theme song" (buzzing up their tasers) will now come in pairs of 2 and go straight at you. They are good shots as well but will try to get close and taser up. The range of the taser is about 2 peoples length but will sometimes hit you behind cover or walls if you have moved away just a little too late. Like in the first game you can no longer move and will shoot all the time while beeing tasered. Try to aim at the taser to get free and be sure to reload before you get tasered. Since there are now 2 of these at a time (or more if more pairs spawn) it is vital to stay in your team and kill the fast if possible. Their lack of armor and (stupid) helmets will not help them to survive much, use that. If you are a high level Technician (and have the skill) you can just "taser back" if hit. Not as dangerous as in the first (imho) but quiet a pain.
Our good old friend the Bulldozer aka Dozer aka oh-no-not-again (seen in the picture for overkill above), is back to bring us down. Equipt with a crafty big shotgun and a full suit of bodyarmor these guys will pick out one of you and run straight at him/her, 2-shotting them. Unlike the turtle-armor this one got no complete weak spots but is (luckily) not able to stop bullets at all. This means you can hurt a dozer from anywhere but only the face will proof to be sufficiant to kill it quick. In front of the breakable glass front of its helmet, the dozer now has an armored plate as well as an armored neckpiece. You can (and should) shoot these of to kill it. Since the dozer will run to you it is best to fall back and mow it down when you are save from the rest of the police. Mines will kill it in one hit but there will be a lot of them around (remember the hospital from Payday: the heist? Yes, that many).
The Cloaker or Spook is not yet to be seen ingame only on the overkill asset picture (see above).

Waves (Assaults)
First off: these waves will take about 4-5ish minutes to end and will always be announced by Bain. Anew feature is that, the police forces will actually retreat if the wave stops and gather some way back. You will be able to see this before the assault ends. The first wave should hit you right at the start of the mission or some time after you failed you stealth attempt and will be the "easy wave". Considering it will take about 5 minutes it is the "only wave" for most missions if you know what you are doing and be quick about it. Every following assault will be harder then the first (considering tiers of units, maybe you will think the assault wave is easier because you "like" the main force type later on) and more special units will be send in.

• The special unit spawn can be considered an event. You might see a helicopter bring them in or another SWAT car advancing. This does not have to happen in an assault.
• Along with putting special units against you it is possible that certain events take place and the police force will do something e.g. turn the lights out.

In between assaults you will also face some enemys e.g.:

• The enemys still alive will not advance on you but scout and guard.
• Every assault is followed by a hostage-rescue-team spawn. This is like a mini-assault with lower armored forces to get your hostages out.
• There are certain spawns of SWATs (even higher tiers) to scout the area.
• It is possible for specials to spawn in larger groups in between waves.

List of Heists <--- under construction

The Heists, divided per days so far are:

The Safehouse
Considered as a 1-day Heist but somewhat special so i gets this extra category.

1 Day Heists

• Bain: Bank Heist: Cash
  
• Bain: BankHeist: Deposit
  
• Bain: Jewelery Store
  
• Vlad: Four Stores
  
• Vlad: Nightclub

2 Day Heists

• Hector: Watchdogs

3 Day Heists

• Hector: Rats
  
• The Elephant: Frameing Frame

Counting the safehouse you have 9 heists atm in the beta, with 18 missions over 14 Days.


This only contains the beta Heists! I will add the rest soon but need to level up to get them all.
Also i did not add the pro-jobs just yet.

The Safehouse (1 Day Heist; kind of)

The Safehouse

The Safehouse is your playable intro to the game and also the place where you can look at your spendable cash on a neat little pile and a big coputerscreen telling you just how big your offshore bankaccount is.
At the moment you can just run around in there but do no customizations. This will surely be added later on so you can burn through your bankaccount fast ;P.

The safehouse give you rooms to explore, secrets to find, an idea about the DLCs and some rooms to "practice". You get

• a door-open-practice
  
• a safe-open practice
  
• and a shooting range

You can see several brickwalled doorways with boxes in front of them, labled with the DLC 1-5 notes on them ... sooooo ... yeah well there will be new rooms soon, prolly when the DLC hits release.

The first time you are in here and open the cellar you will be awarded 950 Experience and get from level 0 to 1.
Also if you open the safes you will find 1.000 $ cash (1.300 with aced Dead President perk) every time in one of them.

Bain: Bank Heist: Cash (1 Day Heist)

Bain: Bank Heist: Cash
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 1800 Payday 112.000
  
• hard: Exp 5400 Payday 392.000
  
• very hard: Exp 9000 Payday 700.000
  
• overkill: Exp 16.200 Payday 1.008.000

Objectives:

• Locate the bank
  
• Find the thermal drill
  
• Drill the vault
  
• Keep the civilians in check
  
• Escape with the money

One of the two Bank jobs so far. You will have the mainsafe to open up and maybe 2 extra small safes, next too some money bundles. There is a high chance that there will be a security room with a camera feed. On the street you will encounter 2-3 civilians running around (and telling on you if you are not carefull). The two bigger bank rooms will host a bunch of civilians, the bank manager and at least 3 guards (more like 5). There is a chance the bank manager will get out to smoke as well as the guards patroling the outside and/or roof. When it comes to cameras you will have 2-3 outside, 1 on the roof and 2 in the main rooms or the money counter. There are four alarm buttons: 3 behind the money counter and 1 next to the back exit. Exits are on the other side of the streets so be ready to cross them later on (multiple times for the bags). The keycard to open the security room is either in the bank managers office or on him. You can see all this in the asset page of your game lobby and even buy an inside man info asset to give you more information. I recommand looking at the blueprint but scouting the rest yourself.
Speaking of assets ... there is also the possibility to get into the cameras from outside and check for guards as well as civilians the safe way. I would not recommand this either because you will be able to scout it and need to get inside anyway.




I would say this job is the better of the two versions, since you can grab the cash instead of haveing to open the depositboxes. Ofcause you can always go and open them up too. Keep in mind that it will take about 50 min for a single person (without a saw or lockpicking skilled) to open up all deposite boxes in the safe.
When it comes to tactics i´d say you all saw the stealth vid already (if not do so it will take 18 min of your time). To sum it up: You will wnat an emc jammer, a team that does not fall over their own feet, patients (e.g. for the civilians to come around) and some cablets. If you bring weapons with surpressors you will have an easy time. But be sure to go for low visibility. You will want to get the keycard and into the security room, diasabeling the cameras up first. Have 1 guy ready at the counter, 1 guy near the alarm button in the back and scout the area for open doors. Do not open doors if you don´t have to (you won´t have to anyway). You can tie down the backroom of the bank without beeing noticed from the front room, do that. At last tie down the front room and have 2 guys ready at the exits to go for civilians on the streets if nessesary. If you tied down ppl on the streets have the 2 be outside in two an alleys and wait for more to come. Silenced weapons allow you to kill civilians outside the maps border if nessesary. If the safe is in the back and you got a silent drill this will be very easy. Have at least 1 guy carry the backs in the end and all guys that are secureing untied NPCs or areas stay there untill everything is loaded.

When violence hit you will be happy for ammo and/or med bags . Also sensor mines help out a lot if you are fighting your way through this. As an important side note: there is a chance of cops landing on the roof (Bain will tell you this) and you need to gun them down fast or will have a room full of gas for the rest of the heist. Scout the alleys around the bank with 2 guys and get all the planks you can while the other 2 tie down hostages and get the drill going. More hostages means less advances of the police, more closed door and windows means more time before they enter and also cover. Use as may planks in the backroom of the bank, starting with the 2 windows at the edges to give you cover. If you scout for the planks outside and get the ones in the bank, on the parking deck and on the roof you will prolly be able to plank up all the windows in the backroom.
The lobby room as exelnt to defend. If you planked the backroom all you need to do now is defend the backside door and will have 2 more guys at the ready for the parking lot entrance and the roof. Haveing 1 on the roof is helpfull to spot specials early, shot the snipers and get the attention away from the doors. The guy should be carefull and fast reacting. As soon as the mainsafe opens move inside and get the cash into bags. Have a maximum of 2 guys open deposit boxes and the other 2 defend the area. If everything fails go inside the mainsafe and shoot through the bars (the A.I. will horribly fail on that; as will your sentry if you bring one). Leave when there is no assault but be ready to go in 2 runs because of the ammount of bags.

Bain: Bank Heist: Deposit (1 Day Heist)

Bain: Bank Heist: Deposit
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 1800 Payday 112.000
  
• hard: Exp 5400 Payday 392.000
  
• very hard: Exp 9000 Payday 700.000
  
• overkill: Exp 16.200 Payday 1.008000

Objectives:

• Locate the bank
  
• Find the thermal drill
  
• Drill the vault
  
• Keep the civilians in check
  
• Open the deposit boxes
  
• Escape with the money

The second bank job - variant. The level design is completly the same and you will have to do all the things you did in the cash bank job. The only difference is the loot. Instead of grabing the cash stacks and have the depositboxes as an extra source of money, you will need to open them and get your "rewards" there. You will be able to find greater bagable amounts of goldbars to make up for the cash reward.

I would not recomand this, i personaly think the "cash version" is much better and much more rewarding. If you do this, do it completly silently or be sure 1 of you got a OVE900 Saw and 2 skilled ammo-bags.

Tactics and layout stay the same as in the first, so do random events. Have a look above.

Bain: Jewlry Heist (1 Day Heist)

Bain: Jewelery Heist
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 950 Payday 38.000
  
• hard: Exp 2850 Payday 133.000
  
• very hard: Exp 4750 Payday 237.000
  
• overkill: Exp 8550 Payday 342.000

Objectives:

• Locate the jewelry store
  
• Check the back office for a safe
  
• Bag and get the jewelry to the escape car
  
• steal any other valuables in the store

This one you might know from the preview videos of the overkill team. Title says it all: Jewlery heist. The store is a single building with a front/store room, 2 minor halls and 2 bureaus. One of the bureaus might host a save to drill/lockpick/blow up, the other holds some cases of random jewlery to loot. The main store room will have all the good stuff: money money money (or better to say soon-to-be-sold-for-money-hopefully-stolen-jewlery). There are random bits to take and some to "bag-up".
This one is nice but i would say not as easy as it looks. Stealth is the key and if not possible you will need to fight on 2-3 spots to draw out attention and be realy fast for the escape. Sadly there are no interesting assets on this one.
Tactics in here are quiet simple but hard to accomplish. Fist thing you need to do is check the store for guards. There should be at least 3 guards around the place. The hard part starts now: the guards can be either behind the building (thast is good), in the main room (not so good but managable) and in the bureaus (very bad). Knock them out or shot them with silenced weapons and be sure you answer their pagers. Keep in mind that you should not be seens doing this. In the front and sometimes in the back of the building you will encounter up to 4 civilians; tie those down. There are no Cameras here but the store is well rigged with alarms, so be sure to bring 1 emc jammer. You will need at least 1 person to stand in the stores (without the mask ofc) and wait for things go bad. He/she will have to get all the civilians down and prolly shoot the last guard (silenced). If you jam the alarm system you can enter the back rooms via windows but your front room guy (or better 2 guys) should get all the civilians down fast. If you also bound all the roaming civilians and answerd the pagers you are safe (to jam the alarm system up front and quickly steal the stuff). Be aware that outside will be up to two guards in the back of the stores, as well as a hooker (random) that walks around in the back.





As a random event there can also be 2 cops outside the front at a hotdogstand. Be sure to tie down the hooker and deal with the cops if they are there. This means you will have to deal with the whole street. If you tied down the civilians on the street it is important to have a lookout there for civilians reentering the map from outside the borders. Carry a silenced weapon because you won´t be able to tie or intimidate civilians that are behind the border of the map.

When it comes to shooting, good luck ;P. The exits are very hard to reach (imho) because they are not only on the street but also right in the spawn-zones of the police. If you are unlucky the police will just spawn behind the vehicle while you are loading it. I recommand 1 emc jammer, that will leave you with 3 more slot for whatever you like (ammo bags prolly when things go down fast). Sadly you won´t find any planks on this map so you will have to defand the front store and the back with its 2 offices and overall 4 windows.





In the preview the crew shut down the windows in the store but this seems not to work as for now.

1 min (or less runs)
It is possible to do this in 40ish sec on normal and about 1 min 30 sec on overkill. You basicly just go in, put your masks on, intimidate around, shoot a guard (if one is there) and grab a bag with each person. The van will wait at the startingposition untill the alarm goes off. If you are fast and bring enough bags before the alarm starts you are already done with the level.
Kind of boring but if you want 1-2 cards fast this is an option.

Vlad: Four Stores (1 Day Heist)

Vlad: Four Stores
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 950 Payday 38.000
  
• hard: Exp 2850 Payday 133.000
  
• very hard: Exp 4750 Payday 237.000
  
• overkill: Exp 8550 Payday 342.000

Objectives:

• Locate the four stores
  
• Steal all their money
  
• See if you can find safes to crack

Vlad is kind of a brutal straight forward criminal. So should be his employees (that means you). We want to take on four stores (you guessed that, right?) at the same time: a chinese resturante, a cofee shop, a grocery store and an apple ... oh sorry pear store. There is a crowded street in the middle of the map and 2 stores on each side. The stores all have windows to the side streets so you can go in and out 2 of them without crossing the street. All the stores host cash registers (small, flat and black boxes; not nessesarily behind the sale desk only) and 1-2 safes to drill. There should be 4 safes in most cases. All teh stores host cameras too but there won´t be a camera feed for you to check on, so open your eyes a bit. The police will get in over the street and in some lesser fortuante cases from side streets.
When it comes to tactics i would´t recommand: none. Ok, maybe some minor standarts. Split up at start and get things going in each of the stores. The 2 guys on one side of the street are now a team and will help each other out. Try not to cross the street for any reasons. Tie down civilians, open boxes (or loot them if you don´t have a "money monkey") and start the drills. No matter where the drills are stay in your store and defend it. You don´t want the police to hold a store and you also don´t want them to swarm around 1 or 2 stores where you all or your two teams hide. If the exit is revealed try to secure a way to it for all four criminals but do not gather up there for a last stand (for the above reasons). Take ammo bags, if you like medi bags and/or mines/sentry guns. Real not much to say here, just look at the tips below and keep to them (like you always do, right?).
There are cameras (but no room with a feat) and guards in the stores as well as a lot of random factors and civilians. Since this heist does normaly not hold much cash i recommand not trying it stealthy. You would need 1 guy for every store and do them 1 after another, way too much work for this.
You won´t find any planks but can use the stores as defensible position. And there are no important assets to speak of.
The china store is a nice spot with only 2 windows to the street next to the only door up front.





The grocery store features a good exit through windows as well as a back room. And holds some ATMs that you can saw open (there are more on the street).





The pear stores has a nice office where you can hide in and also 2 windows to escape in the back. Be sure to have 1 of the guys in the grocery or pear store check their back alley regularly.





The coffee shop is kind fo open to 2 sides but has a bar and a backroom what makes it my favorite store to defend. The alley between th china store and coffee shop is also no spawning area and good to seal up.

Vlad: Nightclub (1 Day Heist), Part I

Vlad: Nightclub
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 1800 Payday 162.400
  
• hard: Exp 5400 Payday 487.200
  
• very hard: Exp 9000 Payday 812.000
  
• overkill: Exp 16.200 Payday 1.461.500

Objectives:

• Locate the nightclub
  
• Break the safe in the office
  
• Bag Dimitri´s money and get it to the car

Ok, another Vlad-Heist but don´t worry this time it is goin to be a stealthy one. Your target is a single safe with up to 4 money bags in the offices of a nightclub called "tastefull".
The map is smaller then you might think. You basicly just have the nightclub with its front entrance (see above). The outside in front of the club consists of a street and three sidestreets (one next to the club, two on the other side of the street). The two sidestreets on the other side are potentialy your escape routes. There are fencedoors that will open later on if that is your way to the van. The sidestreet on the side of the nightclub will be your entrance/exit if you stealth (see on picture above on the far right). The interior of the nightclub is a small reception area (with the window for the sidestreet) makeing a L-turn into the clubs ground floor. Right in the reception area at the edge of the main rrom with the dancefloor is the first (of two) staircase to the L-shaped 1st floor. The mainroom with the dancefloor is basicly a square with a lot of stuff you might cover behind, a bunch of civilians and some guards as well as the DJ. In the back of the mainroom are the two entrances to the kitchen (one next to and one behind the bar) and one leading behind the DJ (and from there also to the kitchen/stores). The top-leftside of the room holds a small bathroom where you can kill/tie a guard to check for the codecard and the second stairway up to the 1st floor
The first floor is L-shaped and offers a good view on the dancefloor as well a another way outside the club via the roof-bar. You can see the street where you started up and will encounter some civilians as well as a guard up there.The people on the first floor are only interesting for your job if the are on the balcony like interior, if they stay at the roof-bar they won´t notice anthing that is not too loud.
The kitchen however is the interesting part of the club. There will be some civilians there and sometimes a particulary interesting, greasy, white male civilian that also holds a keycard. There will be guards in here or patrole the area as well as some (sometimes armed) people comeing in from the back where they play a cardgame (not poker, look at the cards ^^). The kitchen has two ways into the mainroom, one door leading to the small cardgame-backroom and a door to the adjustant hallway. The adjustant hallway will always have guards around and connects to the DJ and mainroom as well as to the backside storeroom where you find the door to the office. The backside storeroom and the cardgame room are connected via a backside area of the club that is closed to you by 1 door each side when you are not wearing your mask. This backside area is also the end of the map and won´t let you much room to explore but give guards and civilians a way of srewing with your stealth (because they can leave the area via the alley and later come back). Both entrances from this backside can be blocked with fire if you buy the 2 slow-burning-fuel assets (see pictures).








The office door (from where i took the left picture) will be locked and can be opend via c4/drill/keycard and leads straight up a stairway to the office above the dancefloor. It holds a glass front to the mainroom, 2 windows to the backalley (where you can not go to), the safe some cover and a glass roof. You can load the loot drop truck if you bought the asset from these windows (see below).

There are neither cameras nor planks in this mission but you can buy a lot of assets. The slow-burning-fuel assets (above in action) will give you 2 cans (each 1) of fuel on the street outside. You need to carry those (can not throw) to the backside meaning you will need to tie down the place first. I do not recomand this unless you want some shooting action in the club. If you want to shoot your way in and out you can also get the ammo and medi bag assets.

If you want to do stealth (what i highly recommand) you should get the bad music asset and the loot drop truck asset (you won´t need this on normal or hard but will be thankfull if you got it). The loot drop truck will let you loot the (heavy) moneybags right from the office window and the bad music will lower the number of civilians and therefor also guards in the whole place (you just have to buy it and not "activate it").
Tactics are simple. I recomand stelth because the map is small, pretty open and it is a paygrade 3 even on normal. You start off on the street infront of the club and need to get in. The bouncer will let you pass if you go to him 2 times. Be sure to pass him fast because he is still considered a guard. The streets hardy hold any civilians but can be seen from the roof-bar (so carefull). In the side street next to the club is a window that you will need to open. For this you need your mask, so let one guy stay outside and open this up later on. This will be your exit to the street but you could also just tie down the civilians and kill/tie the guard in front if you like and have the spare cablets (go with the window). Due to the loud (and hopefully bad) music you can do a lot of things inside without beeing noticed. Due to all the cover around, the general darkness, the small club interior, the light effects and the smoke you won´t see much and have to be very carefull (this is 1 point why you won´t want to fight). If you bring 16 cablets (one guys skilling it) you should be fine but won´t get all tied down.
Have your remaining 3 guys go inside, 1 checking upstairs for guards and civilians (outside in the roof-bar too) and 2 circleing the mainroom doing the same. Look how they move and if they move and have 1 guy try to get into the kitchen. The hallway next to the DJ is mostly heavily guarded avoid that and try the doors at the bar. Scout the kitchen while watching the 1st floor and mainroom and plan your moves. If e.g. the 1st floor is clear have the guy come down. Avoid takeing all the civilians and guards in the main room if you can manage that and start in the kitchen. Have your kitchen guy scout the cardgameroom and storerooms then get down as many guards and/or civilians as possible. Be sure to get them where they can not be seen from the mainroom. Have your team stay ready to intimidate, kill guards and tie down people. The guards don´t use pagers meaning you can kill them all if you do it silenced but remember this is not "Hitman" once you wear you mask you will be detected by everyone. Check the guards and civilians for the keycard. If it is not in the kitchen first up wait around and tie the patroles to check them (also in the kitchen/storeroom). If you do not get it by then go into the backalley and look for a guard there. Best have the kitchen-guy open the door and an unmask check outside or just bring a silencer. Worst case would be: there is still no card meaning one of the guards outside has it. Drill the door or take down the whole mainroom in that case.

Vlad: Nightclub (1Day Heist), Part II

You now have either opend the door to the office or tied down the whole place. Either way procede into the office. The office is empty (not all the time ... remeber it is random) and should hold the safe; drill that. Now it splits in what you did / did not do.

• If you bought the loot drop truck wait and load it from up there, if not carry the bags down to the kitchen/storeroom area.
  
• If you did not have tied down the place yet and you did not buy the loot truck you will have to tie down the civilians and guards in the mainroom now. You can try haveing your kitchen-guy carry a bag out but it will fail in 90+% cause of the visibility. If you tie all up it will still be stealth (but come on ... why have 3 guys waiting all the time when you wnat to tie all down anyway ...).
  
• If you did everything stealthy without tieing down the mainroom and bought the loot drop truck you can load it and try to get out the kitchen, through the mainroom (you bought the bad music hoepfully) and out of the window your street-guy opens for you (do not break that) and just leave in full-pro-stealth.
  
• If you have tied down the place you can roam freely (unless you ran out of cablets and some guys will have to watch untied civilians) and load the bags. Be sure not to be ssen from the roof-bar.
  

An important note: The full-pro-stealth will have 3 guys waiting to act and only 1 guy doing all the work. This is best done by a Ghost/Mastermind that is less suspicious, got more cablets and can itimidate guards. He/she will also want a silencer and go with the lowest possible visibility. That means no armor and 2 weapons constructed for low visibility all the way (no use in bringing your biggest assault rife with high visibility - if carried around even if not in hand - when you do not plan on useing it). You will need a very low visibility for the escape through the mainroom with mask on (very very low).

When it comes to shooting bring ammo bags and big weapons. This is a paygrade 3 job (6 on overkill) and the area won´t let you see much while beeing open on all sides. You prolly want to turtle-up in the office but better don´t. The windows will be targeted by snipers, the glass front can be shot through by cops on the 1st floor (and ground floor if you are to close to the edge), the cops comeing from the stairs will shoot first (because they know your position even if you are behind the stairway and they tend to shot through the railing) and last but not least there will be cops comeing in from above (glass roof ... that is the second point why you want to stealth). If everything fails be sure to hold of in the storerooms/kitchen. There are a lot of entriepoints but it is a better position then the office. You will need 1 guy to go and keep the office "clean" for the drill if it fails early (maybe you will be there anyway if it fails before you get the keycard and have to drill the officedoor). Let one guy go for the mainroom (behind the bar or DJ station) and 1 guy in the back looking for the backside entrance. If you bought the slow-burning-fuel it will help here if not have your 4th guy run around focus on the kitchen inside and the seconded entrance to the backside. You can still use the office for your bags if you like but be sure noone stays in there long.
The bags are heavy be sure to leave only when the assault ends and be very carefull on the streets (that is where the remaining forces will gather).

Hector: Watchdogs (2 Day Heist), Part I

Hector: Watchdogs
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 2918 Payday 256.000
  
• hard: Exp 8753 Payday 896.000
  
• very hard: Exp 14.588 Payday 1.600.000
  
• overkill: Exp 26.262 Payday 2.304.000

Objectives:

• Guard the cocain in the truck
  
• Adapt to new situation
  
• Reach the harbor
  
• Deliver the shipment to boat driver

Ok, this is the first (and atm only) 2 day heist. This menas it will be 2 days (missions) before you get your money and experience, so i am going to split this up.
Let me say it right here: You do not need any emc jammer and mines/sentrys are not as good as ammo bags.

Day 1:
You are transporting coke (not the liquid you drink all day) but things go wrong. Grab your weapon and shoot the cops. You can also grab your saw and get outside through the floor before the cops shot the door (this will be an achievment in the full game --> http://www.xbox360achievements.org/game/payday-2/achievements/ ). The map features several buildings on several hights but we will focus on 2. Getting out the truck you have a building to your right and one in your back. These 2 are important. The one in the back has a stair right behind the truck and a door next to the stair (first floor). The room features 3 windows and another door at the end (you want to open the 2 mentioned doors right away if they are closed). Behind the second door is a room with a backwindow and a door to the other building (do not open that). Ok, now the other building: 2 stairs leading up. One stair is in front of your truck to the right (not a good playe to be since there is a police spawn) and one on the other side of the building (prolly the worst plave to be on this map). The first floor is right in front of the 3 mentioned windows of the other building and connects to it via a bridge that leads to the door (you kept that shut, don´t you?). From th first floor you can access the second roof. There are some good hiding places there and a long bridge (over the police spawn) to another roof.
There are no cameras and there will be a lot of cops and special forces. The rewards will not be great but there will be a second mission ahead. Planks can be found in masses but are not as usefull as you might think. You can seal of some fences to make the first escape plan easier (middle on the picture below).


The only viable asset here (ok, if you want the bags get them) is the armored escape truck. This will give you a little more time for your first escape plan.

Now tactics. You start in a truck with 9 bags of coke and 5-6 cops right in front of you (maybe some shields too). The coke-bags do not block your movability but will make you less accurate, so do not carry them around with you if you don´t have to. Instead start by throwing them in the front of the truck so you can unload them later from outside (through the wall). Shoot the cops and throw the bags behind the truck (or as mentioned go below the truck with a OVE9000 and shoot thm early on). Have 1 guy go and set planks at the fences to your left and check the gate-door to the 1st floor of that building (see on the picture above). Drill it if it is closed or use the OVE9000. Have the rest throw the bags again and again up the stairs (build a chain for that with your team) and inside the second room with the backwindow. One guy will have to open the doors eventually for that. Get up there and defend. There is a neat little wooden box in the first rrom that will shield you when faceing the door. A second person can shoot from the second door to the other building and most importantly at the cops climbing the windows.
The other 2 can help out, set bags, whatever. This building is your retreat, go there when you wait for something and need to defend yourselfs. Shoot the specials out of the windows and thin the masses, while turteling in deep. When the coke-carrier shows up (in most cases at the end of the long bridge in normal and at the backwindow on hard/very hard) you can start loading the bags (just throw them when he is ready). -- Ofc, if he is at the end of the long bridge you will need to open that door (i told you not to open that before, didn´t i?) and cross the other building up to the roof. -- Make a bag-throw chain again and be sure to throw the bags on the long bridge in a way they land behind some cover. While climbing the roof have 2 guys shoot the cops comeing from the 2 stairs and 2 guys shooting the cops on the roof. It is vital to progress to the roof fast here. The position on the open 1st floor of that building is one of the worst in this mission. The harder version is, the carrier arriving at the far end of the building we did not talk about yet. If you had opend the gate-door (or it is just open) that i mentioned you can go over there and start loading the truck. This will be harder and need more coverfire because you are out in the open. On the railway of the 1st floor is a closed door, saw it open or just run around leaving the bags close to it so you can grab them through the wall. Throw the bags up the stairs on the top floor and defend with 2 guys in the area of the door and 2 up top.

Ok now, the truck is ready to be loaded with all 9 bags (hopefully) and your are still defending your building or the roof (depending on where the carrier spawned). You need to make you your minds now what kind of escape you want to use. As soon as you throw in 4 bags of coke the escape phase will start so be sure to wait till the assault-wave ends or you are already in a great position.

• The escape driver will always come in on the same spot of the main street. He won´t make it (unless you help him (which i would not recomand while in an assault). Go for its position right way because he will die even with no cops around after a period of time. If you bought the armored escape truck asset, this time period will be longer. This is the fast but harder way.
  
• If the driver did not make it (or more ylikely your team did not make it in time ;P), you need to wait for the helicopter (escape plan B) to show up. The helicopter has two landing spots:
  
  • #1 on the roof of one of the described buildings right before the long bridge
    
  • #2 on the far left side of the map where one of the coke drops is.

If its #1 for the helicopter you are either right there already or you now open the door (i told you not to open before) and just go there. If its on #2 you will have to fight your way to it. To do so be sure that the assault is over and that you move as a 4-guys-blob with full ammo and full health (or whatever you can manage). Get out, down the stairs back to your truck and then left. Stay close to the building and take cover (the planks and the drilled/sawed door from the start will now help). Be sure to ony run on ground that you can die on (wait what? Yes. Die on. Meaing: where you can be helped up again.).

Whatever escape plan you used and if you escaped in an assault-wave or not does not have any influence on getting into an escape mission now. There plain is no escape mission here.

Hector: Watchdogs (2 Day Heist), Part II

Day 2:
Ok, we are at the docks now.
You prolly heard that your coke-carrier did not make it either, so we are back in there to get the coke ... again.
The map is a dock area with 3 actual docks (7, 8 and 9). One of those will be blocked by a bigger ship (Frida), the other 2 are your random extracts for the coke. In the middle of the map we have a warehouse with 2 smaller bureaus and a railway floor with 2 stairs connecting partialy from outside. Around this warehouse is water (who would have gussed at a dock). There is also a large half-open-half-covered-in-boxes area in front of the building (you will only start and get the bags there; stay away from there after that).

Tactics are quiet easy now (just a big shoot-out). You start in front of the warehouse or at the street where the carrier is. The starting position depends on your escape plan. If you took the (armored) truck you will be on the streets, if you took the helicopter you will be at the warehouse. You will se your coke-bags in the distance, go there with 3 guys and get them. The cops need to be shot (ofc) and you will build another throw-line to the warehouse. The forth guy should go for the warehouse bereau when the mission starts. As soon as the shooting starts the warehouse-guy will be able to start the lights and call in the carrier; this will fasten the wait time. Whatever escape you used and how much noise you made getting th ebags back doe snot matter here. The first assault will even start a few seconds from the mission start if you do not move at all.
Get the bags in the warehouse and look where the ship is located. The ship normaly spawns at either 7 or 9 so you have 2 empty docks next to each other. If that is the case got in the middle of them with the bags and have 2 guys defend from there (see pictures below: the first shows the dock 9 camping spot, the second the one at dock 7). Place your ammo and medi bags around. The 2 other guys should defend from or in the warehouse. At each side is a higher ground to shoot from and a bureau to hide in use those.



If Frida is located at dock 8, just stay inside the warehouse at first and defend it on both floors, till you know where the carrier will arrive. Move over to the side and bring the coke-bags as soon as you know.
The cops will storm in over the sides and through the warehouse (so you got like 4-6 openings). Split up good and do not waste ammo. Listen to what Bain says and scout for the advances. Have the "better" 2 guys of your team do the "front-work" and let them do ammo-runs so the 2 "bag-guys" can fill up on the placed stuff. Be sure to also hold off the warehouse entrance if they use this to get to you.
When the boat shows up have 1 person load the 4 bags (carefull not to throw them into the water or they will respawn at the street). Since you have 9 bags you will have to wait 4 min for the carrier to come back and take another 4 bags. After the boat takes off the first time, your heli-escape will show up. Decide if you want to got or wait for the second boat. To get all 9 backs out you will have to wait 3 times (2 more then nessesary). I recomand not to wait a 3rd time unless it feels realy easy to hold out.
There is also a bug that will give you money for the bags you are carriing on your backs when entering the escape. This way it is possible to get all 9 bags "out" in just 2 boat-runs.

Aftermath:
God, i love this one! So much money and experience while beeing a walk in the park. It is realy that simple. And it realy gives that much rewards. To be true this was the first map in Payday 2 we actually finished on "very hard" (what gives about 3ish million chash).

Hector: Rats (3 Day Heist), Part I

Hecto: Rats
Rewards:

• normal: Exp 4360 Payday 454.000
  
• hard: Exp 13.080 Payday 1.589.000
  
• very hard: Exp 21.800 Payday 2.837.500
  
• overkill: Exp 39.240 Payday 4.086.000

Objectives:

• Retreibe meth from the Mendoza lab
  
• Trade meth for info with the cobras
  
• Eliminate the Mendoza cartel leaders

Ok here we go with our first 3 day heist. This one will give you lots of cash and since the level limt "bonus" for experience has been removed you will also recieve a vicious ammount of that. There are alot of people ou there doing this only for the last day to get money but i will go and explain the whole thing. There will be plenty of money in the first 2 days if done right too.
This multi-mission-heist also features escape missions if you fail your objectives or escape while an assault is running. These missions seem to be random but it always the two Escape: Garage and Escape: Overpass in this heist. I will explain how to do these but if you do the days good adn leave after an assault you won´t have to do those missions anyway.

Sidenote: This is the "Breaking Bad" related heist, if you don´t know what that is go on a streaming site right now and start watching.

Day 1:
You start in front of a run down 2 storage house. The plan is to get 3 batches of meth and get out. Problem: Another gang was here first, the meth is not ready and the cooks are dead. You will have to cook the meth yourself.
The house consists of 2 floors, a small balcony, a cellar and 2 small gardhouses. You got 2 entriepoints (not counting the windows that are to high up for you anyway and the balcony; same problem). The ground floor has a bigger kitchen with the front entrance, a stair to the first floor and 5 windows, a hallwayroom with 1 window as well as the backentrance with its small hallway and a windowless bathroom.
The first floor is only half a room with the lab (see above), lots of windows and the door to the balcony as well as a smaller storage room with 2 windows. You can only access the first floor over the stairs.
The cellardoor (need that in here) is below the front entrance of the building (aka kitchen). You get there via a staircase that is below ground. The cellar is just a plain room with windowslits that you will be sho through if you do not care to be on your toes. There are no cameras or anything alike but 4 fuseboxes that will be used to cut down your power by the police and kill your floodlight asset if you bought that. The surrounding has hillsides, a gargebunk and some stairs but will be considered dealy for you in any case. Your entrypoint is also the exit.
Talking about assets there is not much rather the floodlights. I can see how people like these to shoot the cops outside but i think it is better for your ammunition to kill them close by and getting the power back up is a pai in the ***. Buy the bag assets if you like, like always. There will be planks inside and around the building, look for them before the first assault starts and get them inside. There is a window behind the kitchendesk that should be always closed and one window faceing the lab from the storage room that should be second choice (If you look at the pictures above you see they are planked already).

Tactics suggest you go into the house and kill all the gang member first off. These guys will wear no armor but carry weapons with high firepower at close range so be carefull and shot first. On your way in have everybody loot the cooking materials (there are 3: acid -- dark green canister; hydrgen chloride -- lighter green gasbottle and soda -- white flask) as well as planks (see above). Scan the area for the planks and be quick about that. Have 2 guys open up the shacks if they are locked and get loot the stuff within. Do not loot the stuff inside the house you will want that later on. If you done this right everyone should have: 1 bottle of acid, hydrogen chloride and soda as well as places a lot of planks.
What to plank? Well windows ofc ... I recomand the single window in the kitchen behind the desk and the one next to the door. Another sweet spot is one of the windows in the storage room in the first floor. Do not plank the only window at the back entrance (see pictures above).
When it comes to positioning you can rely on Bain he will tell you where the police will hit hardest and you can handle that easy enough. I recomand placeing 2 mines (yes mines) or even a sentry in the cellar so the police will not be able to cut the power there (if you need the power for your lights). The reason for this is simple: The main police force and their sniper will be on and around the main entrance takeing all hopes from ppl stuck in the cellar. Another great spot for a mine would be the backentrance but put that mine on sensor mode and have it alert you if they come that way. Now 2 guys should hold the ground floor shooting from the non-plnked windows and out of the doors (keep that ammo and health save!), 1 should roam the place shooting some cops and especially specials from the windows and 1 should cook the meth.
The fuse boxes around the house (1 near each shack, 1 at the side behind the bathroom and 1 in the cellar) will be what makes this realy harder. You will need to have the cook from the first floor and one guy from the ground floor give some coverage for the roamer to go and switch the fuse back on. This will cost some health so maybe a medkit is a good idea. The fuseboxes can be turned on by hitting your usebutton 1 time, no need to linger around. Let me say it again: you do not need the power! The light is only a visual help but not nessesary, figure out what you will do in the lobby.
Cooking the meth is easy enough in reallife but will need your attention in Payday 2. If you carry all 3 components you can place all 3 of them in the lab. Wait for Bain to tell you what to add. This will change ever time so hear what he says (or better read the subtitles since he will change his mind often enough). The cook will have to add 1 component at a time but always all 3 before the batch is ready to be baged up. If the cook should fail the order of components mentioned by Bain the lab will catch fire and explode, leaveing the first floor on fire (just die and restart or run in this case). If the cook is done he/she won´t have any components left so another will be the new cook. 3 Times is the charm here, 4 is also good and more is more ...
You won´t need to be sneaky here or jam anything get the good stuff for this but stay mobile. If an assault is over feel free to get the bags into the van even if you only have 1,2,3, etc. it won´t slow you down in the end. Remember that when you leave in an assault wave you will have to do the escape mission.

Escape: Garage
You only need to worry about this if you failed to cook more then 1 batch of meth or left in an assault.
Its a simple run-from-the-cops-at-the-cops-and-from-them-again mission. You start in a parkinggarage and have to grab your meth so 1 or 2 or 3 or ... (or even none) since you failed the day 1 mission and get going upwards through the garage. You will encounter some cops on the way and a buttload of them when you get outside.
If you go upside, stick to the left, go for cover and shoot. Backtracking outside around a gab will bring you to your new car.If you do not feel like so much shooting and running go right into the stairwell of the parking garage and picklock the doors. The mission

Hector: Rats (3 Day Heist), Part II

Day 2:

I won´t bother with a tactics and general section here cause the entire place is randomly done (except the buildings and suroundings).
Ok, here you are ready to deliver that meth. If you now think: "meth what meth?" You can skip the drugdeal part.
The drugdeal will happen right in front of your starting location (wich is also your escape). If you brought 3 or more Bags of meth you are fine. Deliver the meth to the car (see below), collect the money and the codes/evidence (intel) and get out of there. If you do not have 3 Bags or more of the meth there will also be shooting. If you bring more than 3 bags and the deal goes well, you will not only find the intel but one bagable pile of cash per extra meth-bag in the apartment. And that is the whole drugdeal part (But remember you are criminal maybe just steal some more ... e.g. the meth you just sold).
Keep in mind that the drugdeal fails if:

• You run to close and penetrating to the gang meber.
  
• You sprint close by gang member.
  
• You go inside appartmenthouses you are not invited to.
  
• You shoot or melee or destroy or ....
  
• You aim at the gang member to long.
  
• You take the meth back.
  
• You did not bring enough methbags.
  
• It is a police-setup (random event).
  
• The gang wants to steal the meth from you (random event).

The intel is the most important part here. You will need those codes for the money in the Bus on your neext mission. If somehow the deal goes wrong the gang member will burn that intel. You have to be fast to get it in that case. There are no cameras, no planks and no interesting assets here.
Lets say it comes to shooting:
Your objective now is to get the intel for this lovely deal and get out. You find the evidence in a safe in one of the three apartment buildings around you.

Luckily two of the buildings (behind the drugdeal; see above) are always connected by a bridge from one apartment to another. The A.I. is not rely ggood so use this.
The buildings all host up to 2 flats with or without safes but with a supstancial amount of gang member. Shoot your way through and be fast, there will be an assault soon. Drill the safes and get what is inside. Split up in 2, two-peron-teams when you are done with the first building, so you can search the other two buildings at a time. As usual the gang member will carry big guns that are deadly close up and also have guys with broncos (and no laser sight but a real good aiming) on the rooftops. There will be 2 or 3 safes to drill see how you best defend those. This should not be hard but be ready to help others with special police if spotted. The apartmentbuildings all are connected oon the ground level with at least 2 exits/entrances so you can moce around without even fighting if you know where you are going.
You will now either be fast enough to get the evidence or only find ashes. Whatever the case you now need to escape fast (bring the money and the meth). Be ready for sniper fire and cops waiting at your van.
Keep in mind that without the intel you will not be able to get all the money on day 3, so maybe you want to restart this day if you do not get it. Just suicide and start over, no worries you won´t have to do day 1 or the escape again.
Also remember that when you leave in an assault wave you will have to do the escape mission.

Hector: Rats (3 Day Heist), Part III

Escape: Overpass

This is the easier one of the two escape missions here. Keep in mind that this does not have to happen after day 2 but also can be the garage escape and the overpass after day 1 (random, rember?). You will start either below a parking deck, on top of it or on the lower street of the overpass with 1 or 2 guys down and cops shooting you. Get the cops down and your fellow criminals up and get moveing.
If you started near the parking deck go up to it and over to the pikes, shooting everything in your way. You will see a building behind the parkdeck exit/entrance, go there. Take the right door (the one leading upwards) and mine/sentry the hallway leaveing one last mine as a sensor at the top.
If you started up on the lower street head for the door at the stairs. You will come to the same building but from below and get out at the left door (cellardoor). Go to the roof.

Whereever you start, if you make it to the roof you are fine. There is only one way up and that can be held good. The roof is open enough to kill whatever you desire but also long enough to go for full cover from below.
You will only have to defend (i think 3 min in total, 2 after the message) now. When the helicopter or truck arrives go for it. If it is the helicopter it will alnd on the roof or on the other side of the overpass. If it is the truck it will coem in at the parking deck.

Day 3:

Ok you made it! Either very poor and not richer of experience or quiet well stacked (or well, maybe you blew up the lab on purpose and ran throw everything just to grab the intel and get here ... lame). Anyway you are here now and it is time to get those pescy rat(s) that were sold out at the (theoretical) drugdeal.
You are on a highway and see a bus in front of you, go for it shooting everything in your way (yeah well not the civilians pls, tie those).
Inside the bus you find your rats and also shoot those (pretty easy, huh?). Now you are done but what would a mission be without loot... In the bus you will find 7 or more (record was 17 cases with 14 times loot for me) suitcases, some containing money to be baged and some empty. There is also C4 in the suitcases, either in the case directly or under the money.
Now you got 2 choices:
1) Have your team open all cases and at a command bag up 1 money bundle each (2 when for the guys that can bag up faster). This way you will end up with 4 (or 8 --> avievment btw.) bags when the C4 timer starts. RUN. Run now and run fast. Get outside the bus and behind the railway moveing back to your car. There will be explosions and you will get flashed ... just run. If you are not a high level Ghost do not turn around to much but have someone shoot the following police if nessesary. Stay low and make it back to where you started and finish this heist.
Go for this tactic if you did not get the intel on day 2. If your guys can bag money faster you will end up with more then 4 bags and need the ace pilot asset to load the money bags.
2) Have the host buy the ace pilot asset. This will give you a Loadable helicopter that arrives shorty after you killed the rats. If you got this have only 1 guy bag the money and then defuse the C4 under it. The 3 other can throw around the bags and defend the area. If the money/C4 fails you will still have 3 guys around this way. Load as many bags as you can manage and get to the excape heli.

Afthermath:

This heist has a lot of potential to go wrong and you will not get much out of it but done right it is a great and fun way to level up or stack up your cash.

Weapons and all the good stuff - Inventory

Weapons and Equipment or better to say your Inventory/Loadout
In Payday 2 you are able to carry

• one primary weapon,
• one secondary weapon,
• an armor,
• a mask and
• one piece of equipment

with you in your heists. This is your loadout. You can not choose to not carry any of this for movability or visibility; there are mods for this. The weapons can be modified if you fullfill two requirements:

• 1) find the mod and
• 2) have the money to pay for the installation.

You can change that loadout inbetween the missions in your pre-mission lobby by clicking on inventory. Changeing the modifications, masks or buying new items is only possible after a completed heist or if you are not in a mission lobby. You won´t see more options than just the loadout there.

Modifications and other Rewards - Card Game
You may have noticed this already: After a completed heist you get to pick 1 out of 3 cards (card game). This is your reward (aside from Exp and Cash) for the heist. There are normal/standart rewards as well as infamous rewards that are more unlikely to get. The items are also categorieced in DLC and non-DLC items.
The drop chances are baseed on quality but you can only get mods for weapons you could buy and will get more for weapons you actually own.
There are 4 3 possible outcomes:

• a Mask Card
• a Gun Card
• a Joker
• a money card

The Mask Card should give you either:

• a Mask
• a Pattern for a mask
• a Material for a mask
• or a Colorset for a mask

The Gun Card should give you a weapon mod that is either:

• Specific for a certain weapon or
• useable for all weapons of a type

The Joker will give you no reward.

Money card gives you money.

For more information on the weapon modifications look at that section.

Masks
You need one for all your criminal activities. Putting them on in a mission will allow you to interact with the word. If you do not wear them your "suspicous interaction" are restricted. Putting on your mask will have you to draw your weapon and make you much more noticable to any non-criminal. Keep in mind that you can not take the mask back off (see more under Stealth).
The chosen mask is purely cosmatic but the standart masks are bound to the 4 characters (unless you find the infamous XXX-begins masks).

In your Inventory you will find a category Masks. If you click that you see the 9 maskslots you got (minus standart masks --> 8). If you have the criminal edition or alienware hardware or just found a mask via a card you can choose an open spot and get the mask there.
If you have a mask in one of the slots you can choose to customize it. The customization will need you to add

• a collourset and
• a pattern and
• a material.

You will need to have a spare of that e.g. if you want 2 customized masks with a wood-pattern you need to find the wood-pattern 2 times ingame. Depending on the rareity of the chosen parts and the mask itself the customization will cost you a lot of money. You can not recustomize a mask. You can try out th customization without fear as long as you do not press "finalise mask".

Masks as well as all other items can be sold (for almost no value :/).

Armor
In Payday 2 you can (finaly!) choose your type of armor for the mission. The armor is unlocked by gaining a certain level and will not cost you anything. You can change it via loadout in the mission lobby, so any time you want.
Armor determins how much armor your character will have and how fast it will replenish. On the downside you will be detected (when you don´t wear your mask yet and when you try to doge the cops later) more easily the "bigger" your armor is. Also you movment will be limited by the armor, makeing you slower and run out of stamina faster.

The armor you can get:

Your "no-armor-armor". Free movment no special defense.









The "smallest" armor.









Standart balistic vest. Your medium chocie.









The medium-heavy choice.









The first heavy armor you will get.










Equipment (also have a look at the classes section for this)
Your equipment in Payday 2 will be whatever you unlock by skillpoints:

• Ammo Bag(s)
• Medi Bag(s)
• Sentry Gun(s)
• Mines
• EMC Jammer

The Bags are pretty much what you expect them to be. They give you the chance to get some ammo or health untill they run out of their amount. The medi bags have only 2 charges (4 if skilled) and will fill up your health regardlessly of how much you have lost. Be sure to use them only if you realy need. The ammo bags do not have charges but will have a certain amount of ammo and run out that way. This means beeing the last to use those you might not get full ammo out of them but you can use them if you are missing only a bit of ammo without takeing charges of them. Skillupgrades allow you to set up to 2 of those per mission and give a greater amount of ammo/health. There are also other skillboni for the Enforcer/Mastermind but they only work for the character themselfes.
Enforcer will have the ammo bag in their skilltree and Masterminds will unlock the medi bag.

The sentry gun is unlocked in the technician tree. It will shoot (or better to say try to shoot) at enemys untill it gets destroyed or runs out of ammo. It can turn 360° now but has the same A.I. as before (it will shoot shields happily and walls if cops cover behind them). Skillupdates let you place up to 2 of those things with more health, more ammo, better accuracy and faster aiming.

The mines are also unlocked in the technician tree and can be be upgraded so that you can carry more and turn them on/off or to sensor mode. In senor mode they will give out a sound when an enemy passes by, in the normal mode they will blow up. Mines can kill dozers and can also be used (turned off) as shootable exposives to deal with group.
Mines can also be upgraded to be used as shaped C4 charges to open safes.

The EMC Jammer will turn off alarm systems. This mostly means Cameras. It got a radius and a timer, meaning it will only effect what is in the radius and only for a limited amount of time. This makes the use dangerous but if used with a plan ahead realy realy awsome. Upgrades focus on time, radius and amount.
Skilled Ghosts can use the jammer to incapitate enemies in the radius (based on chance).

Now you might ask: "What about lockpick and the saw?". Well you all carry a lockpick but only a Ghost might skill beeing able to lockpick safes and saws are weapons.


Primary and Secondary Weapons (see more below)
Payday 2 will feature 13 different primary and 12 secondary weapons (before any DLCs). I will list these weapons in a section below.

Primary Weapons <-- under construction

Primary Weapons

The names of the weapons confuse me quiet well, so if you see me talking about a G36C instead of the JP36 just tell me :P.

The OVE9000
A saw that is only useable by Tier 5 Enforcer that have the right skill.
AS a saw this is a melee weapon but you should not use the precious sawblades for killing. Use the saw to open up ATMs and grab the 26000 $ inside (or even better let your money monkey do that makeing it 28500). Also bring this when you do the bank heist to open the deposite boxes. This will make even the not so good bank heist: deposite doable with a good ammount of cash in desent time. If you use the saw with presition and just tapping the button you will be able to open up to 6 deposite boxes with 1 blade. As a tier 5 Enforcer you should have aced the skill for not useing ammunition when placeing bags (tier 1) and the ammo-bags themselfs, giveing you a lot of blades and "free tries" to open up a lot fast. Practice with it a bit and you will get better and less wastefull with the blades.

The AMCAR
Your basic, fully automatic starter rifle.
Great ammount of ammo, damage and accuracy are ok but it is loud and not very stealth like. Another big problem is that it gives only a few options for modifications. But after the first patch i think it got better (or i just got better in Payday 2) and is a good rifle to carry to your criminal activities.
You can easily keep this for higher paygrade jobs and/or higher risk level. Be sure to shoot in bursts of maximum 3 bullets, go for the head and if you realy have to give a full auto-salva go for 10 bullets max becaus ethe recoil will just screw with you after that.

The CAR 4
A Carbiner rifle.
Mostly constructed for single shots, that can be done close after each other with a desent accuracy. You get a lot of possible modifications for this one and will love it if you are a friend of accurate singleshot rifles. It packs a good punch for your enemies and will provide you with a desent amount of ammunition.
One of my favorite weapons so far. Not so good if you are going to surpress enemy groups and i lures you to waste your ammo on far away targets (but it so much fun to shoot them :( ) but it will rely make adifference if you are not happy with your AMCAR at first.

The Ak
A fully automated rifle with lots of damage but a fairly high recoil and spread.
If you are looking for some more damage you might want to get this. The recoil and spread can be dealt with as soon as you get a scope and maybe a barrel for this one but if you burst 1-3 shoots at time you will be fine. The ammunition is quiet low on this rifle so be sure to hit the head and count how often you already did :P .
Surpression and stopping power are the main focus on this one. If you like to burst a lot of damage and can manage the low magazin size, go for it. Also its an AK what can be bad about this?

The Reinfeld
Here we go with the first shotgun (and th only primary so far).
I would like to have this more ammunition but well its a close quarter shotgun and it has a hell of a punsh. It is only good for close up fighting but then it is king. Aiming can be hard at first but the damage will make up for that. as an Enforcer with the right skills this will be your baby.
If you get a scope for this you will start to like it even more (prolly even love it). I recomand a fully automatic or at least a big-ammo-pool secondary weapon for this.

The UAR
A fully automated assault rifle with a desent ammount of ammunition and high accuracy.
This rifle will deal as much damage as the CAR 4 but is fully automated. The recoil will let hit planes and such if you think you can realy use this fully automated, however. Unlike the recoil the spread is realy nice if you burst just 1-2 shoots from this and the magazine is enough to stand out a long assault wave.
Beeing fully automated this can be used to surrpress quiet well and if you are lucky enough to get the long barrel you will have full accuracy on this baby. So far my favorite promatry gun even if the PL36 got more ammunition and way less recoil.

The JP36
The rifle with the best ammount of ammunition and a great recoil (great like in: not much).
This fully automated weapon will provide you with lots and lots of magazines. It is not as accurate as others but the spread is good and the recoil is heavenly low. You can use this to surpress enemy groups by just going full-auto all the way.
With the right modification you can make up for the slightly lower damage but with this kind of low spread and recoil you are more likely to hit the heads anyway. A realy good choice for a weapon, but i still like the UAR more (maybe because i got better mods for it at the time beeing). Good chance that this will be the "pro-weapon" choice, if they are not sticking with the second Ak (all so far, there are more to come).

The Ak 762
The second Ak and with that the second rifle that will pack the biggest punsh (rifle not shotgun:P).
The stats for this are all better then medium but the recoil and spread will remind you of the first Ak. Also the magazine size is not as great so you will have to make good use of the bullets you got. Going for modification should be done like on the other Ak. You have lots of dmg but want to controle the shots. No use in makeing it more silent or less visible so far.
If you want to kill enemys fast without going to close this is your best friend. If you liked the first one you are going to love this even more. Go for a scope and a barrel also try to get (yeah well its random ... "try" by grinding/farming) a magazine. Ge sure to hit when you burst and do not surrpress with this (too less ammo). I like to get a compact 5 as secondary with this rifle just for surpressin and ammo probs.

The M308
The only real sniper rifle in the game. Good accuracy and damage but very low ammunition.
The stats are great on this one ... all but the ammount of ammunition. If you like accurate shots with high damage this will be your main gun. Even with a silencer this is this viable. Be sure to make your shots count and bring ammo bags as well as a reliable secondary with some more ammunition. I like the modification to be damage and accuracy based with a good long range scope but the all silent built with a lot of movability works well too.

The IZHMA
A fully automated shotgun with 10, 7 shot magazines that will bring some close-mid range havok into the heists.
I like this one. it shoots fast and you are able to get 2 shots in on mid range before the recoil will let you only hit clouds. The spread will split the damage if you are far from your target but 70 shots is quiet a lot with this baby. The IZHMA will be modifiable with the AK modifications, so you are able to go for more damage or less recoil as well as a silence and accuracy built with some movability. I mayself use this in 2 modified versions: one for close combat, high damage in small missions and one silenced version with more accuracy (a lot of fun).

Secondary weapons <-- under construction

Secondary Weapons

The 88
Your starter Gun.
Great ammunition size, good accuracy (again i am not sure if the patch made it better here) and desent damaga (for a pistole). Like the AMCAR rifle this one can not be modified that much but maybe it could be the secondary weapon holding the first silencer you loot.
Not much to say here. Try to get headshots and don´t shoot more then 4 times in a row. Better shoot shot-after-shot with a small delay for the recoil. If you get a silencer on this the damage will be halfed but you can shoot with less recoil, makeing it ammo heavy but keeping it deadly.

The Crosskill
Anyone here who did not love this in Payday 1?
More damage, better handling but slightly less ammunition on this one. The stopping power doesn´t seem as good as in part 1 but from the pistoles we can use atm i think it is the swizz-knife.
You can easily use this to do soe killing and also surpress smaller groups. The modifications are vastly spread and usefull in many ways. I recomand going for damage on this one because i like the Bernetti better as my silenced gun (maybe you disagree but that is fine with me).

The Bernetti
Desnd damage and accuracy with a great ammount of ammunition.
The damage seems low on this one and if you attach a silencer you can barely see the line. Accuracy and ammo-capacity make up for that.
Go for the silenced version and get some mods for the handling and you will love this even more then tha crosskill. Great choice next to the crosskill if you plan on doing kills with it too.

The Mark 10
Your first submashine gun.
Fully automated, low spread and recoil if you are up close on mid to high ranage you might just don´t shoot at all. It has a desent spopping power but it will burn your (not so great) ammount of ammunition rely fast.
I would recomand a scope but that would be silly on a Mark 10; go for a magazine. Only use this up close and as last resort if you run into a bunch of cops unexpected. I did not like this in the first Payday and i do not realy like it here, but a friend of mine loves it. Go try it out and see it you can arrange yourself with it, maybe it is your favorite soon.

The Lockmotive
It is back too bring more pain!
This short-barrel shotgun will be your best friend if you want to get rid of pescy little special cops or smaller groups in close quarters. It is all about stopping power but that is realy great. Sadly low ammunition on this one (but also understandable).
I myself do not carry this around much and see it as more of a fun time weapon, but ..... when it comes to smaller missions with heavy cops running around like crazy i get this into my bag first off. Go for damage here and try to skill some magazine sizeses.

The Bronco
Yeah she is also back and ready for action.
Great stoppingpower, low magazine. If you get a scope on you got your sidearm sniper right there.
I like the Bronco for everything but the ammount of ammunition it carries. Great fun to shoot around with and a hell of a push. For me a fun weapon with only limited use in most heists but if i find one i will giggle like a shoolgirl shooting with it.

The Compact 5
(Nearly) As good as in the first one.
A good sibmashinegun with lots and lots of ammunition. The stoppingpower is good and the spread/recoil/accuracy are great even in ful-auto. It is modable be be even more effiective even if there is only one barrle i like on this one.
So far my favorite secondary weapon if i am not going for my silenced Bernetti. Get a scope on and a bigger magazine (via skills) and you are done, this will always stay your favorite :P.

The CMP
Fully automated submashinegun with adesent ammount of ammunition.
To be true i do not see the use of this right now. What i so far saw on modification i think the Compact 5 or Para are the better choices (so far). I guess this should be the "middle ground". Not as much ammo as the Compact 5 and not as much damage as the Para can also be seen as more dmaga then the Compact 5 and more ammo then the Para. But also it is a close range weapon with a very high firerate (like the Mark 10). If you realy like that go for it and who knows maybe there will be missions where this is helpfull.
Try if you like the recoil and spread and modify it towards damage and magazine. If you like it you are fine anyway.

The Para
Submashinegun with a bigger stoppingpower but smaller magazine.
The submashinegun with the best damage (so far) but ofcause less ammunition then the rest. The range of modification is vast as well as for the others.
I recomand going for more ammunition and better accuracy while keeping the damage up. If you like to bring more damage then ammunition, this is your secondary weapon. If not go for the CMP or the Compact 5. You want a scope on this one, the ironsight is not so good.

The STRYK
A fully automated pistole with a desent amount of ammunition, know from the DLC of the first game.
When it comes to me i loved this one in the first Payday. In this game i am undecided yet. Cause of the choices i do for my primary, this is not the optimal choice for me. The weapon will provide good kiling abilities up close and even mid range as well as letting you suppress smaller groups or get some kills mid-range. All in all quiet good but you should not use it with a shotgun, saw, silenced primary weapon or low-ammo rifle. I think with the right primary for this this weapon can be fun in smaller missions and the list of modifications holds potential to make this a killingmashine.

The Krinkov
The smallest AK in the game comes as a submashinegun with high damage and low ammount of ammunition.
Modifications are basicly the same as for every russian-base weapon in this game and so is the use of it. Pack a impressive punch but run out of ammunition fast. You will have to like this way of fighting to be able to use this. Make your shots count and kill enemys where you can get the ammo-drops without takeing damage. Modify it to your likeing and just for one time try the full damage build you will love it :).

Modifications

Modifications

Each and every of your primary as well as secondary weapons will have modification slot. You can attach things like a "laser pointer", change a magazine or even modify the barrel of a gun. The list of things you can modify is long and specific for each weapon e.g. your starter AMCAR Rifle has not much option for modifications while a CAR-4 will let you modify nearly everything.
You can choose only one modification out of each category (makes sense not to have a short and a long barrel on a gun) or plain not choose any in a category. The boni are based on realism (in a way) and also on the use of the weapon. You will find thing that lower the damage but also lower recoil, things for less visibility and noise that will drasticly lower the damage, others that adjust the damage of weapons for the cost of recoil and visibility and so on and so on....

The reasons why this part is so much in discussion are simple:

• you need to pay for modifiing your weapon
  
• you will first need to find the modification in the card game after a heist
  
• you need each modification in a greater number if you want to place it on several weapons
  
• if you detach a modification you will have to pay for a remodification again

As mentioned before these are RPG elements and they will have you grinding/farming like crazy, but imho this only spices up the gameplay and setting even more. Also keep in mind that you will have to get to level 100, so there is enough time to get rewards on your way.

There are rumors and discussions about trades and market even real money trades e.g. over the steam community market but so for nothing is set.

Choose your modifications wisely and plan ahead on what weapon you want to use in the future to not burn through your chash to fast.

Categorys of Modifications

• Gadgets
  
• Sights
  
• Stocks
  
• Barrel Extentions
  
• Barrels
  
• Magazines
  
• Foregrips
  
• Grip
  
• Upper Recievers
  
• Extra (not unlike Upper Recievers but more in a way like full modifications)

Before i go on explaining the mods let me tell you this. There are several stats for a weapon (also see above)

• Damage --> yeah well
  
• Accuracy --> also obvious but keep in mind that means for 1 bullet only in singlefire
  
• Mobility --> this counts with that weapon in hand/in the pack
  
• Visability --> this is also overall (carriing a big-rifle will make you more visible even with your pistole in hand)
  
• Noice --> pretty obvious
  
• Recoil --> this shows the amount for a short burst of the gun
  
• type of sight --> mostly ironsight but have a look
  
• The weapon spread --> not shown you will need to try this out (or read above).
  
• capability of suppression --> is either mentioned or you can figure it out by the caliber
  
• caliber --> tells you what bullets you use and gives you an impression of the impact
  
• ammount of ammunition --> read from weapon info text

All other extra stuff/perks a weapon has are mentioned in the infotexts, be sure to read them and not only look at the stats. Be also aware that the modifications and the impact on the weapon can only be looked at if you buy the weapon first. Some boni will not be mentioned so keep your eyes open and try stuff out e.g. the upper reciever for the shotguns will give you 2 more shots per magazine and faster reload.

Scopes/Sight
All scopes will let you use them and look slightly different. The names will not be realistic e.g. the "red dot" for preordering is more like a holo ACOC but well, whatever. Try as many as you can and pick your favorite. All scopes will give you more Mobility but also more Recoil. Two options (The professional´s choice and the Surgeon sight) however also lower the visibility. While those to are near ironsight with some red dot/scope feeling to it the other 4 represent an ACOC, a Red Dot, a Holo and a Sniper Scope.

Gadgets
We got two of those and you are able to turn them on/off. The flashlight will give you some light (very usefull sometimes but confusing if your second does not have one) the laser targeting system will help you aim. Both lower Mobility and heighten visibility a bit.

Barrel Extentions
These are different for some of the weapons but you will always end up with the same choices.

• There are silencers that reduce the noice and lower the visibility but also lower the damage and mobility. The better silencers will help to reduce your recoil too.
  
• There are suppressive fire muffles that will give you a better suppression of the enemy (carefull this is not shown in any stats but the info text will tell you this). These also lower the damage and highten the noise but will lower recoil and visibility.
  
• The last category are muffles that highten visibility and noice but lower the recoil and give you some extra damage.

Barrels
These are true weapon modifications. Depending on the weapon you can either get a shorter or longer Barrel. Longer barrels will give you accuracy and damage while hightening your visibility and recoil as well as lowering your movabliity. Shorter barrels will do the oposite. Some weapons got a 3rd choice offering less visibility and more movability for the cost of some accuracy but no change in damage.

Extras
Also true modifications like extra stabilising parts for the barrel. These wiill lower recoil at the cost of visibility and mobility. Very powerfull but not good for fast action or stealth.

Foregrips
Highly deferential with each weapon but basicly two categories:

• More movability and visibility at the cost of more recoil (stealth/fast).
  
• Less movablility and more visibility for some recoil reduction (shooting/suppressive fire).

Grip
Something you will find on pistoles and shotguns mostly. You will either get bonus moveability and/or less visibility but it will cost you more recoil and/or some accuracy. This goes vise versa for the other choice in grips.

Magazines
Not all magazines will change the magazine size, be sure to read the infotext. If you get more or less magazine size the total ammount of ammunition will change acordingly. The plain magazine mods will however only highten your movability and maybe even lower your visibility. There are no big tradeoffs here (in most cases).

Stocks
Different for weapon types but also follow a category system.

• More movablility and/or less visibility for more recoil and/or less accuracy.
  
• Or the other way around.

Shotgun will offer most of those with choices in between.

Upper Reciever
Not much around of those but the will chnage the looks of your weapon and give you some extra bonus e.g. better reloading time.

What weapon do i want now?
If you use your weapon on the best distance and know how to shoot you are fine. Some basics:

• do not bring 2 close range weapons
  
• do not bring 2 weapons with very small ammount of ammunition
  
• bring at least 1 weapon to first fast or kill fast in sticky situations
  
• keep your class/skilltree in mind e.g. if you skill shotguns as an enforcer use them
  
• make some more weapons/weapon stes of 2 for your inventory to change to
  
  • a stealth weapon set (low visibility, low noice maybe more movablility)
    
  • a fast run set (more movability)
    
  • a suppressive set (less recoil)
    
  • a shooting set (damage and/or accuracy)
• if you like a certain weapon buy it several times for the sets and just change the mods

Character/Classes - Skill Calculator

Classes and Characters

In Payday 2 (like in Payday: The Heist) we get 4 guys to be our avatar of justice crime. Wich one you choose (by selecting him in the character part of your inventory when you are not in a lobby) has no effect, what so ever. You will even notice that you will not be "your guy" if someone got him first in a lobby you join.
The main idea (not unlike in Payday: The Heist) is that Dallas is the Brain (Mastermind), Chains the mussle (Enforcer), Wolf the explosive guy (Technician) and Hoxton the Sneaky guy (Ghost). Yeah i know, in the first we did not have it mapped out like that but if you listen to them talk during the heists you get the picture quiet well.
As a side note: The guy standing modle for Hoxton in the first Payday stoped working at Overkill, so we got a "new" Hoxton for Payday 2 (I realy dislike that :( ).

A tool more powerful then anything i could write here is already out there. A grafical version of the skill tree calculator.
http://www.pd2skills.info/ I did not make this i just want you to notice it is there.

Things to know:

• Everytime you gain a level on your character you get 1 skillpoint.
  
• Every 10 charecterlevel you will get 2 additional skillpoints.
  
• So far you will need to spend 1 skillpoint to unlock a class and its equipment (tier 0).
  
• You can multiclass the way you like.
  
• You have to spend 1 skillpoint per skill on tier 1-3 and 3 additional skillpoints to "ace" a skill (makeing it a total of 4).
  
• In tier 4,5 and 6 you need 4 skillpoints for the basic skill and additional 8 to ace it (12 overall per skill).
  
• To unlock a tier you need to spend a certain amount of points in the character skilltree, but you do not need to connect the branches and can even "let out" a tier if you like.
  
• Skillpoints in other character-trees do not unlock your tiers for others.
  
• To unlock tier 1 you need to spend 1 skillpoint.
  
• To unlock tier 2 you need to spend 5 skillpoints (so the initial 1 and 4 more).
  
• To unlock ter 3 you need to spend 10 skillpoints (1 from tier 0, 9 in tier 1 and/or 2)
  
• To unlock ter 4 you need to spend 20 skillpoints (1 from tier 0, 19 in tier 1, 2 and/or 3)
  
• To unlock ter 5 you need to spend 30 skillpoints (1 from tier 0, 9 in tier 1, 2, 3 and/or 4)
  
• To unlock ter 6 you need to spend 40 skillpoints (1 from tier 0, 9 in tier 1, 2, 3, 4 and/or 5)
  
• Whenever you unlock a tier in a classtree you also unlock a tierbonus based on the class.
  
• If you want to respec your skillpoints you can either respec a certain tree (not branch) or just all 4 trees if you like.
  
• The number of cash shown at the respec button is not what you have to pay but what you will get back for respecing.
  
• The ammount is 50 % of the cash you used to spend on the skilltree(s).
  
• There are certain crewmember boni but they do not stack up.
  
• Different skillboni with the same boni-type e.g. stamina. do stack up.

When i will go into details on the skilltrees i will focus on the usefull skills, meaning usefull for your team of 4. Skills that are totaly great but only come in handy when you e.g.: get downed will not be given an insight (well they only work if you let yourself get shot ... nah better use for skillpoints). Same goes for skills that will lower your costs for weapons or masks, etc..

There are skills for more exp and paying less money, but keep in mind that with skills that actually help to finish the heist you can do more heists with more rewards, faster ...

Try to find your niche in the group and fullfill it. If you are playing alone mostly or with only 2 or 3 friends try to get all the stuff without haveing people loose the interest in the game while beeing forced to play/skill something they do not like.

Go for the goodies in the trees and also try hybrid builds e.g.:

• For silent runs a Matsermind/Ghost combination going for silent weapons and takedowns as well as the possibility to tie up civilians and get guards down without killing them.
  
• Too many guards/patroling civs or pager? The mastermind can answer more pager, bring 10 cablets and intimidate non-special enemys. The ghost can bag dead bodys
  
• For fast paced action runs (that stops beeing silent soon) an enforcer or ghost or technician with some more damageskills out of those trees, that is able to open up things fast (saw, charges, lockpicking).
  
• Want to do stealth runs and still do safes? The technician got the silent drilling, the ghost can lockpick saves.
  
• Want to shoot better and live longer? All classes feature boni on a weapon-type. The technician gets more armor and the enforcer more health.
  
• The mastermind gets more exp and pays less for everything, the technician also pays less cash and the ghost gets better loot/rewards.
  
• And there are way more options; look at the trees and branches.

Classes - The Mastermind

The Mastermind
He has the potential to control more civilians and even cops and brings a lot of crew boni for the team. weapon focus is on pistole and it can even let him get back up later on. The stronger, less noicy (i wonder how this works) intimidation shout gets more range and can revieve your teammates from afar. The medi-bags are the standart tool on this one.

Notable Skills:
Unlocking the mastermind --> gives Medi-Bag (1 skillpoint, tier 1) The starter skill always good to be able to have a medi-bag.
Combat Doctor --> gives you 2 Medi-bags / aced: gives 4 instead of 2 charges per Medi-bag (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4) The "half-way in" skill. Does not mean you are a full Mastermind but gives lot of medi-bags, very usefull.
Cable Guy --> gives you the ability to tie down people faster and if aced 10 instead of 2 cablets (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1) A very usefull tier 1 skill. For only 5 skilponts everyone can have that. Makes silent runs easier.
Dominator --> gives you the ability to shout down non-special cops and guards and makes your shout have more range and potency when aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3) If you skill this you wil have the tier 3 bonus of the mastermind too, giveing you mor range for your shout. A powerfull skill for stealth runs, since you won´t have to answer pagers if the guard/cop "gives up".
Smooth Talker --> Gives you the chance to answer 4 instead of 3 pagers in a mission. If aced the targets marked by you recieve additional damage. (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Also a very powerfull skill for stealth runs even if not aced.
Control Freak --> Noise created by your intimidated victims is reduced. When you ace this your intimidation will also last longer (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). An epic controling ability and it is even more silent than all you got before; must-have for silent builds.
Combat Medic --> Lets you revive crew member faster and gives them more health (75 %) if revived by you (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). The aced version is super sweet and helps a lot ind combat situations when you are going down slow.
Inspire --> Makes you revive crewmembers faster and lets you revive them from shout distance if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). Realy strong revive skill but only for tier 6 masterminds.
Endurence --> Increases your and if aced your crews stamina (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Even for people that are not masterminds but want to be fast a valid choice for only 2 skillpoints (4 if aced for your crew).
Leadership --> You and your crew´s weapon recoil with pistoles and aced with all weapons is lowered (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Very nice crew-bonus. Not great but nice, you team will love you for it.
[Inside man] --> Reduces the costs for assets and unlocks the special inside man asset if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Usefull if you are your partys host and a nice thing to have if you want to experiment with the heists a bit.

As an example i will show you this:
Keep in mind i only skilled the essential for controlling, cheap information/assets, crew boni and so on. My focus was on building a "true Mastermind" while keeping as much points to spend on other (or even the mastermind tree) as spare. I did this with a level cap of 100, giveing me 120 skillpoints.
This is endgame based so more esperience does not matter but i kept the money saveing skills to be more flexible with respecing.
As you see i still have 51 skillpoints left to spend as i like, while bringing all that i fell i should bring for the team.

Classes - The Enforcer

The Enforcer
The brutal, straight forward kind of guy but also a powerfull tool to get the job done faster and more save. When i carry the OVE9000 i mostly feel like the guy in the back smokeing, to cool to shoot cops but going to mow them down if the crew needs a hand. He has the capabilities for suppressing the enemy forces and packs a bigger punch while haveing less recoil and more ammunition. He starts with the ammo-bag(s) and can equip the very powerfull OVE9000 saw as a main weapon. The strongest suit of armor ingame is only accesable by tier 6 enforcer and their tier boni will stack up armor, armor-regeneration as well as total health. If you like shotguns, you will like him bringing them as his favorite weapon.

Notable skills:
Unlocking the enforcer --> gives ammo-bag (1 skillpoint, tier 0) Starter skill usefull in every situation.
Ammunition Specialist --> Gives you 2 ammo-bags and aced more ammount of ammunition in those 2 bags (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4). Medicore enforcer skill, very usefull since the ammo-bags are the most usefull item if you are not doing stealth.
Oppressor --> Makes your weapons suppress enemys better and even more if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Do not underestimate the power of suppressive fire against enemy groups. It buys time to kill them and keeps damage on you low.
Underdog --> You do more damage if surrounded by 3 enemys and take less if aced (2+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Strong skill if you are the one blocking the entrance of the enemy forces, runs great with the other skills in the tree.
Though Guy --> Reduces camerashake when hit and give more bleedout health if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3). Usefull even if not aced to control you controling/suppressive fire on the enemy.
Pumping Iron --> More melee damag if aced even more (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Interesting even for ghosts or ghost/mastermind if the focus on stealth takedowns but needs 9 skillpoints. If you are the front-guy stopping the enemy you will need this.
Berserker --> The lower your health gets the more damage you do in melee or if aced with all weapons (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4). Usefull to an extent but only if you are in trouble anyway.
Fully Loaded --> Increases magazine size and lets enemys drop more ammo if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). Very usefull skill even if not aced. The aced variant also helps your team.
Portable Saw --> Unlocks the OVE9000 saw and makes it better if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). Very powerfull tool to fasten up heists and go for loot you would miss out on otherwise. If you skill this, skill the ammount and the durability also (don´t go half way).
Carbon Blade --> Makes the OVE9000 waaaaay better aced even more so (4+8 skillpoints, requires "Portable Saw"-skill, tier 6). For the tier 6 enforcer that carries your groups OVE9000, makeing it more usefull and even fatser. I´d say the extra damage/less durability loss when you use it on enemys should not bother you, because you need the ammunition (unless for fun ;P).
Transporter --> Gives you the ability to run faster with loot-bags and lets you throw them farther if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Usefull for all classes for only 4 points available.
Iron man --> Gives you the ability the wear the improved combined tactical vest and lets you knock down shields if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). Powerfull armor but slow and visible. Shields are dangerous and nasty so usefull for tier 6 enforcer.

As an example i will show you this:
This is what i would call the "true enforcer". A guy keeping the masses of enemys suppressed and gives the team the time they need to kill them or do whatever needs to be done. Keep in mind i only skilled the essential for this. The focus is on liveing long and shooting a lot. I did this with a level cap of 100, giveing me 120 skillpoints.
There are no OVE9000 or shotgun skill in there because i feel useing a shotgun should be an option and not mendatory as well as i think not all enforcer should have a saw. Also you see i still have 50 skillpoints left to spend, so this might aswell be the second part of a hybridbuild and not the main.

Another example:
Going for the Saw this time but leaveing as much points to spend as possible while maxing its useability. I even aced "bullet storm" on tier 1 in the hope that they will fix it not working with the sawblades.

Classes - The Technician

The Technician
The Tech-expert bringing explosives and sentry-guns into the battle and going for some action with rifles. He will also be the guy that drills open the safes and doors silently as well as fast without the drills haveing to be resetted so often. Kind of looks like he got all skillideas that were left over from the others but made it out quiet good and is an interesting choice for an overall gameplay.

Notable skills:
Unlocking The Technician --> gives 2 Tripmines (1 skillpoint, tier 0). Starter skill and not quiet so usefull if ot skilled up more. YOu might want to invest 1 skillpoint in Masterminid and/or Enforcer too just to have something else then mines.
Demolition Man --> Gives you 3 mines and lets you place them faster if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Usefull for mines, the time to place is not very long anyway and you hardly do that under time pressure (like in the midle of a firefight).
Combat Engineer --> Allows you to toggle your mines on/off, if aced on/off/sensor mode (green laser) (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Usefull for the sensor mode to hear enemys approching and also for the off-function to use them as shotable explosives or plain do not wrack havok when a civilian runs through.
Shaped Charge --> Gives you waaaaaay more tripmines and lets you use them as shaped charges to open things when aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). Usefull to open up things fast but not as good as the OVE9000 because you will not refill your mines. On the positive end, it does not block you from bringing a primary weapon.
Neves of Steel --> You take less damage while interacting and can you steelsight in bleedout if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Very helpfull even not aced to get things done under fire. The bleedotsight is very powerfull with tier 6 mastermind and/or several enforcer skills. For 5 points overall a nice skill.
Hardware Expert --> Fixing the drill and deploying mines will be faster and gives a (good) chance that the drill will fix itself after breaking down / beeing broken down by enemys (1+3 akillpoints, tier 2). A musthave imho and the main reason you bring a technician (as well as for the next two skills ;P).
Drill Sargent --> Makeing your drills faster, even more if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3). Be sure to let the technician place the drills to profit fom this. Also a must-have in a crew.
Silent Drilling --> Makes your drill less noicy, even more so if aced. Enemys will have to see the drill if aced to notice it. (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4). And the 3rd must-have for drills. This also only works if the technician places the drill but will be a great help to further increase the rewards in silent runs.
Mag Plus --> Increase your magazine sizes and more so if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). The technicain also has some accuracy and recoil skills makeing him the guy sitting around the drills shooting stuff, this will help greatly in longer heists.
Bulletproof --> Improves your armor and when aced improves it even more giveing you and your crew a better armor-regeneration (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). The skill for high tier technicians ... eos. You want one in your team at all times (and more so when the same guy brings the majorly improved drills ;P).

There are also four skills for the sentry-gun (one in each tier from 3 to 6), makeing it more effective, faster, deadlier and let you place 2 instaed of 1. This all will cost you 40 skillpoints and kind of commits you to bring those things with you (i mean come on 40 skillpoints).
Same goes for mine not used to open things but as sensors and well mines/exposive charges to place around. You will need 24 skillpoints and be a tier 5 Technician to get the maximum ammount of mines you can use in every way (but opening things .. that will cost 8 more points).
Seeing these skills as very specific for pure and loud violance i did not bother to explain them here. If you like those things, go for it.

As an example i will show you this:
I would call this the "true technician" because i feel the drill is his main aspect. You can see i did not skill much but for the drill and even had to skill some weapon skills to even get there. For equipment i chose the tripmines going for more modes and more overall mines to use them mainly as charges.
I did this with a level cap of 100, giveing me 120 skillpoints and ended up with 64 skillpoints left to spend. Keep in mind i did not focus on th emines to be used as explosives and did not even concider the sentry gun. This is only what i would call the basics and leaves a lot of room to do something with the spare points.

Another example:
Here i go for the "gimmicks". Maxed out mines and sentry guns, giveing me the firepower and toys i need to have some reeeaaaal fun. I kept as much skillpoints free as possible for this as well as before.

Classes - The Ghost

The Ghost
The silent killer guy, cleaning up your (or his) mess and carriing bags around. Silenced weapons are his favorite, pistoles and SMGs even more than the rest. He will bring in more instant cash-loot and disable camera as well as alarmsystems for you with the ECM jammer. A skilled Ghost can also pick locks and even safes in no time. Useing this skilltree your chances for better loot in the cardgame go skyhigh and you will be the movability champ at all times.

Noteable skills:
Unlocking the Ghost --> Gives you the EMC Jammer (1 skillpoint, tier 0). Starter skill for the ghost with the usefull EMC Jammer. Be sure to unlock an ammo- or medi-bag too, since you will not need the EMC jammer all the time.
EMC Specialist --> Gives you 2 instead of 1 EMC jammer and lets them work longer if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4). Very usefull if going on heists with a lot of alarmsystems giveing you the extra time you need to do the silent stuff in unconventional ways. Also helps a lot if you use the jammer to open doors.
EMC Overdrive --> Duration of your jammer is increased and it will let you open certain doors if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). Very usefull skill and i am pretty sure this will be used in some way going for Baldwin again, soon ;).
EMC Feedback --> Gives an activatable option to incapitate enemys in the radius of the jammer. If aced it increases the duration (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). For high tier ghosts a must-have but unfortunatly the incapitation is only based on a chance makeing this unreliable at times.
Dead Presidents --> Increases the ammount of cash looted and even more if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). This will give you a 30 % cash bonus for the loose cash items makeing it one of the best skills ingame (imho). For only 5 points this can be used by everyone (or you just bring your own crews money monkey ;P).
Cleaner --> You deal more damage to special enemys and can bag dead boddies if aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 2). Very usefull for messy stealth runs but runs great with the other ghost abilities.
Lockpicking Expert --> Makes your lockpicking faster and aced gives you the ability to lockpick safes (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). Faster then a drill, not as fast as shaped charges but silent! Unbelievably usefull for stealth; must-have.
Silent Killer --> More damage with silenced weapons and even if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 4). The helps with the damageloss on silencers and works like a charm with "Chamelion". Especially in firefights you will be able to be less of a target and deal the killingblows silenced while your team suppresses. Do not underestimate visibility in firefights!
The Professinal --> Less recoil with silenced weapons and more accuracy if aced (4+8 skillpoints, tier 5). This is the silent-run must have if the mission gets bigger and the enemys more in numbers, giveing you the edge to shoot 3 or more guards fast and silent (If you are a god with your weapon anyway, you might not need it ;P).
Martial Arts --> Enemys are more likely to get knocked down by your melee. If you aced this you will aslo take less melee damage (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3). Usefull without aceing it, to get the enemys down faster if need be. Especially in silent runs. Also works wonder when combined with the enforcer melee skills.
Sprinter --> Your stamina-regeneration is increased and you will start regenerating it faster. If aced you will spring faster and have a dodge chance (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Nice skill for only 5 points, usefull for everyone.
Cat Burglar --> Less damage from falling and if aced only armor damage from falling (as long as there is armor left) (1+3 skillpoints, tier 1). Does not sound like much but as a movability oriantated character that goes for fast stealth it can be crusial.
Shinobi --> Faster when moveing crouched and less noice from victims if killed silently (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3). Very usefull for stealth takedown if aced and makeing you even more movable.
Chameleon --> Less suspicious and less inclined to be targeted by enemy fire if with your group when aced (1+3 skillpoints, tier 3). Less suspicious sounds great but the less inclined part .... Well it is realy realy good. Not only for you but also your team. Basicly your visibilty in firefights gets down and you can go for the killingshots while others suppress. Since you also do more damage to special enemys this is realy helpfull if working with the team.
Moveing Target --> You can spring while strafeing and if aced in all directions (4+8 skillpoints, tier 6). Even mor moveability for your stealthy runs, to get things done faster.

As an example i will show you this:
You can already see in my description of the skills that i value a lot of skills here. The worst part is ... they also fit good together if going for a fast moveing, stealth killer that will bag away the corpses .. aka my "true ghost".
You can see i only choose the silent stuff and nothing that would help in firefights or anything like that. This leaves me with 36 skillpoints to spend (going with 120 for level 100). That is not much but keep in mind that you might not need all of this at the same time, but overall this gives you a good chance to do most things stealthy and solo.

Secrets?!

Secrets!?

As mentioned before it is commen for Payday to provide some secrets or maybe better more tricky ways to finish a mission. I hope this will be as much fun as in the first one and going to open this section in hopes of stumbeling over some more material on the case.

I am not talking about random events here but real secrets or at least hints for those.

So far i am only aware of 2:

- The boxes in the safehouse carry notes with codes for your smartphones that descript to: "i like secrets". Sadly all the boxes carry the same code.

- In the rats heist on day 2 there is a possible apartment with a rug that should ring some bells for the fans of the first one.

I am very interested in those kind of thing so feel free to mention some i have missed out on.

Tips and Basics

Tips and Basics
Here we are. I hope you enjoyed this so far maybe you will like this even more.

- Stay in a team. Simple as that. This does not mean cuddle on 1 spot but rather be close to each other.
- Never camp in 1 spot for to long. Spread up and do not get surrounded.
- Never camp next to an objective you know will pop up, you will only get the cops over there.

- Plan the heist aka talk to the others. An build up strike teams.
- Stick to the plan and do not change your part if someone else faisl his/hers.
- Plan your movment. Look around corners, shoot stuff, look where you will find cover and if that cover is a good choice (before you run around).
- If you move around move in a way that will have you in spots with enough cover to be helped up.

- Turn of the A.I. realy just turn it off.
- Throw the bags!
- Do not shoot civilians. That also means: Do not start or keep on firefights where civilians are.
- Aim for the head and learn how many bullets you acctualy need to kill.
- If cops shoot at you, you do not need to kill them. Retreat is the better option.
- Look at your shield! If that is down you stay down and do nothing but waiting.
- Take the escape if you can not handle more, do not get greedy. This is also not a discussion --> if 1 or more leave for the escape, you do too end of the story.
- Do not shoot cops if you don´t have to. If they do not see you they won´t go for you.
- Spare your ammo and grab cop ammo if you can (without takeing dmg!). Keep in mind that this will be less then you spend.
- Try not to get hit. Yeah right ... see above. Stay hidden do what you have and do not run aroun like a bunny.
- Do not deplete all your secondary ammo, you might go down some time soon.

- Fight in doorway or alleys.
- Stay behind cover and only go out/up for shooting.
- Reload every time you shot, the gamemechanics do not waste magazines.
- If you weaponmagazine is empty but you need to fire just switch and reload both after that.
- Never pick a camping spot with more than 1 entry point to look at.
- Pick your spot where a teammate is near and covers your rear.
- Look for that teammate, if he/she goes away you go too.
- Shot in single shots, bursts of 3 max.
- Lurk behind doors or other entrances to kill and grab ammo fast.

- Spot specials!
- Gank up on special as soon as possible.
- Do not try to down the specials alone.
- If the cops stack up on a position, go somewhere else. Hell, even "exploid" this and lure them to places you will not have to visit again.

- ammo bag > medi bag
- Only use the medi bag if you will leave the position for good or have been downed so often your screen is black and white.
- emc jammer <3
- saw Oo epic
- You want to skill ammo bag, medi bag and emc jammer even if that does not belong to your class (at least 2 of the 3).
- If you use mines use them as sensors (i mean the skill not the explosion).
- Sentry guns are fun but not helpfull.
- For advanced groups it would be best to get 1 of each class but keep in mind all should be able to get another jammer or ammo bag (maybe even medi). Those do not need to be advanced just "there".

- Look at the weapon store before you buy stuff. It won´t take long to hit level 16 maybe you do not need another weapon at 12 and can wait for 31?
- Always consider skills before you buy weapons, especialy if the skills will let you get more cash faster.
- You will need a silencer and since those are random rewards you might have to buy a weapon you do not like just to have one with a silencer, do so.
- Building masks is expensive but awsome :P

- If one of you gets downed only help him/her if you can do that without getting hit yourself.
- If one of you is taken down, wait for him7her to respawn.
- If you are loading bags, have 1 guys wait at the extraction (just in case).
- If your team dies and you want to make a run for the extraction, wait till they are realy in custody.
- Do not go for escapes or loadings if you are in the middle of an assault.
- Well ... do not do anything movement reliant but defend and retreat if there is an assault.

- This game is not about kills or time. The things you should focus on are accuracy and rewards.

Climbing the ladder fast

Ok, now we will have a look at leveling and getting some money to buy stuff. We wil try to do this efficiantly so we have two goals:

• beeing usefull for the team, to get heists done faster
• getting boni and planing our build for efficiancy

We will use this skill calculator http://www.pd2skills.info/ and this guide http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=169443444 for this.

First things first ... we want

• cash for weapons,
• cash for mods and
• tons and tons of exp

Money will not be a problem later on, since you need to do a lot (A LOT) of heists to get levelups, but seeing how many people reskill and remod all the time i get that money comes in short so we will provide that, too.

Start of with your safehouse, so you will get level 1. Now you have 2 goals to achiev first off

• fast learner in the mastermind tree and
• dead president in the ghost tree

So skill the medi-bags in the mastermind tree and start doing some jobs.

Go for the mastermind tree and get to Fast Learner in tier 2. You will need to spend 5 points in the tree to reach that. The best option is to ace Endurance.
This should look like the picture shows. You will need to be level 6 to do this and it will cost you 41k cash.
We want this skill first because the 10 % Exp bonus will carry us faster through the tiers. The aced variant gives the same 10% bonus for the whole team (have one when your playing with 4 ppl, but only consider this after dead president if you play alone).
Do some more jobs until you hit level 10. You will get 2 bonus-skillpoints at level 10 and be able to ace Dead President. This is a tier 1 skill so overall you need 5 skillpoints in the ghost tree. It looks like this.
The dead president skill will give you 30 % more cash from instant loot, so the whole team benefits fom this as long as you pick up the drops and spawns. The great thing is you as the one with the skill will also get 30 % more in the end. So basicly you end up with 2 times 30 % more instant cash.

Beeing level 10 you should now have 1 skillpoint left while holding Fast Learner and Dead President. You can also bring a medi-bag or an emc jammer and have more stamina as well as provide more stamina for the team. This skillpint might be best for the ammo-bags (read on).
This is our startup.

Basic tips:

• The more loot you get the more money you will have in th end.
• If you fail the escape you will however have nothing at all.
• Plan the Heist in the lobby so all are clear on what and how to do.
• You get more exp and cash for everyone that made the escape.
• You get more money and exp the more life everyone has in the end.
• You do not get anthing for unused equipment in the end so use it.

Weapons
Skills > Weapons: Spend your money on level ups before you go into the inventory and buy weapons.
You do not want to sell your starter weapons (even if you hate them). Both the rifle and the pistole provide decent movability and give you very low visibility. Keep them for speed- and /or stealth-runs.
Since both starter weapons can not be modified very much try to get new ones as soon as possible. Nice weapon choices to replace the starter-weapons for stealth- and/or speed-runs are:

• The Bernetti Pistole, modified for stealth with a silencer and going for low visibility.
• The CAR-4 Rifle with modification for high movability and low visibility as well as a silencer.
• The Compact-5 for high movability

If you plan on useing e.g. the CAR-4 as your main damage weapon without a silencer, just buy it 2 ttimes and modify it.
For your main non-silent weapons use whatever you like. It is no problem to just keep the AMCAR till you can buy the UAR or even AK5 (or whatever you like). Be sure to bring 2 weapons that run good together e.g.: no 2 weapons with low ammuniton or only long range (see in the weapon or tips guide).

Skills
Not unlike in the skill-section here we will concentrate on "usefull skills".
So what is usefull to get jobs done faster and more safe?
1) Things that help the team.

• Beeing able to stealth (see stealth-section).
  • Weapons for stealth.
  • Skills to be more silent
• Beeing able to do fat runs.
  • A weapon-set for maximum movability
  • Things that speed up objectives (see 2)).
• Beeing able to adjust to the team
  • You have a medi-bag skilled already with 1 point.
  • You got the emc jammer skilled with 1 point.
  • Skill the ammo-bag with 1 point.
  • (You already have) a sthealth weapon-set.
  • A speed-run weapon-set.
  • A damage weapon-set.
  
  2) Things that speed up the objectives (Killing things and liveing longer does not do that).
  • A skill that marks your main class.
    • As a mastermind:
      • Skilled medi-bags.
      • Dominator.
      • Smooth Talker
    • As a deep mastermind:
      • Controle Freak.
      • Cable Guy.
    • As an Enforcer:
      • Skills for Suppression and takeing more damage.
      • Skilled ammo-bags.
    • As a deep Enforcer:
      • A skilled OVE9000.
    • As a technician:
      • Better and silent drills.
      • Shaped Charges.
    • As a deep technician:
      • Armorbonus for the team.
    • As a Ghost:
      • Stealth skills and movment.
      • Bagging bodies.
      • Silent takedowns.
      As a deep Ghost:
      • Skilled EMC jammers to open doors silently.
      • Lockpicking for safes.

Keep in mind that you can not have everything but need to build a character that fits a niche to be efficiant and usefull.

3) Every little boni you can get that works in the heists!(better loot at the card game does not).

• Everything that makes you faster (Mainly Ghost skills).
• Everything that lets you carry and pick up bags faster as well as throwing them better (Ghost and Enforcer skills).
• Crew-boni if available (e.g.Mastermind tree).
• Skills that fasten up interacting.

Finding your Niche
When you start at level 10 and go spend you 1 skillpoint you should have a plan in mind.
Want to be stealth expert? Go for Ghost and/or mastermind. But get Dominator and smoothtalker before you go and skill movment.

Keep your skillpoints as long as you need. Do not just spend them, wait for aceing a thing.

Keep your target e.g. Shaped Charges in your focus and do not waste any points till you get it.

Skill for one thing at a time and not all at ones.

If you found your Niche e.g. shaped charge-speed-runs, host a game and do the heists.

Do not host a game for a Niche you can not cover. Speak with your mates and find out what your crew can do if you are done with a heist.

What is there to do?

• Speed-runs.
  • With the saw: 4 Stores.
  • With shaped charges: all kinds of Jewlry Heist, 4 Stores.
  • With saw or lockpicking and shaped charges: Nightclub
• Stealth-runs:
  • Bank Heist (best with silent drilling or a deep mastermind)
  • With lockpicking safes: Nightclub and Jewlry Heists.
  • Frameing Frame.

Go for Overkill missions if you feel ready for them and do Pro Jobs (or better Overkill Pro Jobs!).

Do not forget about the other Heists, this should be fun not pure grinding. ;)

[Jet]

this is outdated

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

@L4NNOOB: When i find teh time and a game worth the time maybe ^^
but atm work takes a lot of my time ^^

[Стихийный]

@[HdF] Almut Grete: Anyway. That's actually great work. Will you do more guides?

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

@L4NNOOB: Thank you. It was actually quiet fun doing it. Especialy getting all the pictures made and in, although in my native language it would have been easier ^^
Still this is from beta time (what was that like 2-3 years ago?!?). I guess nothing in here is still of any value and since this whole microtransaction stuff and the "secret ark 2" never happening, i do njot see me updateing this ^^

[Стихийный]

GJ, M8! That a very big work.

[Lead]

hey
please update this :c
this seems like a real great guide
I can help with it if you want

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

Yeah, was fun after the beta to do all this but it got a lot of updates since then xD

[Runegod2.0]

Good guide, but painfully out of date.

[bnm1986]

nice guide! Thanx!

[[HdF] Almut Grete]

kkk