The Definitive Crimespree Leveling Guide

This guide is aimed specifically at aiding all players who want to level as fast as possible. It breaks down the leveling math into specifics. I hope this helps out the community and saves everyone valuable time!

Disclaimer

Hey everyone reading! this Guide is still in progress, DamontaeKxng here im going to be adding video gameplay. Also much more video and written info. Hope everyone can understand and there will be updated info in here, Thank you enjoy!

This guide will prove useful to players and hosts alike. However, if you are a NEW player and wish to properly learn the game, I highly recommend leveling "the old-fashioned way". That is, doing heists at whatever difficulty you or your team are comfortable running and gradually working your way up. You will become a much better player for it. Experiment with builds, blaze your own trail, make mistakes along the way, and learn from them. But above all, have fun!

PS: This guide is still under construction as Damon and I continue to consult each other as well as get feedback from your comments - Thanks guys!

WARNING:

Crime sprees by their very nature, are modified versions of the heists you encounter. If you are a new player, you are not learning the actual versions of those heists and consequently, your view of the game will be warped. This effect becomes more and more severe as the rank and difficulty of the spree increases (mobs will have ridiculously high health and damage, gage boosts will buff players, and modifiers will count against players).

If you decide to level via epic crime sprees (host rank in the thousands) especially, all sense of natural game progression will be ruined because you will earn all the XP and currency (cash, offshore money, and continental coins) you will ever need upfront.


Having said all that, I understand that people will level rapidly via crime sprees for various reasons which I respect. Maybe you are a returning player and want to skip the grind of leveling? Maybe you don't have the hours to dedicate to the game and want to unlock the end game experiences quicker? Maybe you want a mask at a certain infamy level? Maybe you just HATE grinding? XD

To give you an idea, by heisting alone on Overkill difficulty, it took me roughly 254 hours of gameplay to level from 0 to Infamy V-100

Why This Guide Exists

I noticed there were tons of guides out there talking about specific crime spree builds but whenever someone asked about the leveling aspects, there were no definitive answers. This guide will answer longtime questions regarding the leveling math, requirements, and other useful knowledge passed down from experienced players who run epic crime sprees regularly.

The Basics

Crime sprees are an endless random series of heists ever increasing in difficulty due to game modifiers which are added every so often as the host's crime spree's rank increases. The game will force the host to choose the next modifier from a set and they should discuss this with the team. There are 25 modifiers which affect loud missions and 8 modifiers which affect stealth missions.

In addition to these modifiers, as the host's crime spree ranks up, the game will continue to add a forced modifier every so often which increases enemies' health by 20% and their damage by 15%. This is why they become insanely difficult to kill on high crime sprees and impossible to kill on epic crime sprees.

The host also chooses the next mission from a random set of three - If they do not like their choices, they can re-roll for a new set. The first two re-rolls cost the host 6 continental coins and the cost DOUBLES for every re-reroll after.

You do not get extra bonuses for extra loot and other things outside of the mission objectives, so most teams will do the bare minimum requirements to complete a mission.

Level Requirement:

• Non-infamous players must be level 60 or higher to do crime sprees
  
• If you are at least Infamy I, you can be any level

DamontaeKxng: Some hosts will require you to have certain builds but might not allow certain mods. so feel free to always ask the host when entering game. Crime Spree game mode requires TEAM WORK. The whole game is team based. As a host, do not tolerate players not helping the team. Objectives should be ran by the whole team - The drill breaks, one should fix it and the others around them should cover that person so they can fix drill or any objective. Your own survival is important but keeping the whole team alive is much better.

Leveling and Rewards

Leveling via epic crime sprees is without a doubt the fastest way to level in Payday 2. It is also an excellent source of continental coins which can be used to purchase in-game assets like weapon modifications, safe house improvements, and gage boosts (purchasable on the mission prep screen) to benefit players in crime sprees. One gage boost can be purchased by each player, once per mission.

Ranking Up:

• You MUST be on an active crime spree to rank up
  AND
  
• The host must have a higher ranked crime spree than you
  
  
• Your crime spree rank increases after every successful mission

The Catch-Up Bonus:

The catch-up bonus is the primary mechanism which allows players to rank up rapidly and thus claim high/epic crime sprees for tons of rewards including experience. It exists to help reduce the disparity between the host's crime spree rank and their team members' ranks.


The Catch-Up Bonus is calculated as exactly 3.5% of the difference between your rank and the host's rank. For example, if your rank is 0 and the host's rank is 1000, your rank will increase by +35 catch-up bonus + whatever the mission gives.

Infamy Every Mission via Epic Crime Sprees:

A player may infamy every 100 levels.

• To level from 0 to 100 requires exactly 23,336,300 experience (XP)
  Claiming a crime spree with anything less will come up short
  
  
• This requires claiming a crime spree of at least 484 rank (which yields 23,420,000 XP)
  
  
• The cheapest mission awards 3 rank, thus requiring a catch-up bonus of at least 481 rank
  
  
• The host's crime spree rank must be at least 13,743 or higher in order to "infamy" all players after EVERY mission when they claim their crime sprees (yielding 481 catch-up bonus)
  
  
• When doing multiple runs, to ensure you are level 100 again for the next run, you must infamy first and THEN cash-in (claim) your crime spree.
  
  
• Infamy XP bonuses have no bearing on XP gains from crime sprees

Crime Sprees and Game Limitations

Epic crime sprees can have hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands of modifiers and the game is terribly inefficient at loading them all. This is why players often crash when they try to join epic crime sprees of 10,000+ rank or more depending on how powerful their computer is.

If you are joining epic crime sprees, it is recommended to run mods which suppress the modifier list upon joining to avoid crashes.

When hosting, it is often easier for players to join on the mission prep screen instead of the lobby.

Since the game is unstable during epic crime sprees (the developers never intended players to go that high in crime spree rank), it is also recommended to run mods which prevent the automatic failure of your crime spree upon game crashes.

In legendary crime sprees (with ranks in the millions), the host as well as players may require mods which reduce/eliminate the amount of modifiers to avoid crashing.

Lastly, cashing in an epic crime spree will result in an incredibly long progress bar tallying up your rewards, but you can press ESC to exit it.

Essential Mods for Epic Crime Sprees

Here is a list of the most common mods needed for running epic crime sprees - Depending on how powerful your computer is, most people start to notice they need to suppress the modifier list when joining epic crime sprees of 10,000+ host rank or higher....

• Stop the Crimespree Loss on Crash:
  https://modworkshop.net/mydownloads.php?action=view_down&did=19568
  
  
• Stop the Crimespree Crash on Join:
  https://modworkshop.net/mydownloads.php?action=view_down&did=21026

General Build Guidelines for Epic Crime Sprees

Because epic crime sprees have enemies which have many, many times the health and damage of mobs under normal conditions, killing enemies becomes unrealistic if not impossible. If you can't kill the enemies, then damage skills are also a waste. Therefore, crime spree builds focus more on stunning and/or converting these enemies while laying low and letting your converted cops do the fighting.

LOUD:

Bring Aced Inspire, Upgraded Jokers, deep Revenant tree skills, and weapons which can repeatedly stun (with fire or poison) and suppress enemies
Swan Song Aced from a great source is a time saver, meaning you can finish a objective, fix drill, heal a team mate, and lastly get your self into a better spot before death.

Deployables:

• ECM Jammer used for stunning cops with FeedBack and to stop turrets from shooting your team helping you keep alive. The Feedback does re charge.
  
• Ammo bags with Bulletstorm great with Anarchist builds to keep you dealing damage.
  
• Doctor bag to regen your lifes. Where as First Aid Kits heal just HP and not useful in crime spree when you die from 1 HP shot
  
• Tripmines with the fire bomb skill, this is way more powerful than most players know. Also can be used to open doors.
  
• Throwables: Concussion Grenades to stun rooms of cops.
  Fire Bombs to catch a group on fire.
  Molotov bomb to catch a spot on fire.

DamontaeKxng:
Anarchist Perk Deck, this is a DLC item, it has one of the best ability out of the other decks. With how Crime Spree is played having 1 shot to your Armor and 1 shot to your HP that makes builds, teams and strats pretty solid. Anarchist base Armor regen is 2 seconds, Perk Deck ability gives 10 Armor if you deal damage and happens every 1.5 seconds. The value of Armor doesn't matter when it is 1 shot. Mix the skill called Bullseye (Hit a head shot gain 5 Armor every 2 seconds) and you can regen as fast as they are shooting you. as a Anarchist you need to be aggresive and deal damage to the cops making fire weapons very useful.
https://pd2builder.netlify.com/?s=1Ifg1000b01k389200005050004p00&k=0&p=e&a=0&t=4&d=03
Skills for a Anarchist

• Mastermind
  

• Medic Tree

• Combat Doctor, Inspire Aced
  

• Controller Tree

• Partners in Crime basic, Stockholm Syndrome Aced
  
• Enforcer
  

• Tank Tree

• Transporter, Bullseye basic
  

• Ammo Specialist Tree

• Bulletstorm, Extra Lead Aced
  
• Technician
  
• Jack of all trades Aced, Drill skills
  
• Ghost
  

• Artful Dodger, and Slient Killer tree

• Parkor, Duck n Cover, Second Wind, Optical Illusions
  
• Fugitive
  

• Revenant Tree

• Nine Lives , Swan Song Feign Death Aced, Running From Death Basic

Rogue Perk Deck, if you choose to use dodge with the Rogue. It is extremely helpful for the person playing the rogue role to stay passive. Reason for this is, you are Dodge if your shooting cops they will start targeting you. you have 50 dodge per shot, having lots of cops shooting at you thats is still tons of bullets hitting you. As a Rogue I normally support the team with doing the objectives and stuns cops even in some of the harsh situations. This build can be used in loud or stealth.
https://pd2builder.netlify.com/?s=1Ifg00003000381200gF415000g900&k=0&p=3&a=0&t=4&d=43
Skills for a Rogue

• Mastermind
  

• Medic Tree

• Combat Doctor, Inspire Aced
  

• Controller Tree

• Partners in Crime basic, Stockholm Syndrome Aced
  
• Enforcer
  
• These can differ on the player
  
• Transporter basic
  
• Technician
  
• Jack of all trades Aced, Drill skills
  
• Ghost
  

• Shinobi Tree

• ECM skills Feedback is very usefull to stun a whole area and turrets
  

• Artful Dodger, and Slient Killer tree

• Parkor, Duck n Cover, Second Wind, Optical Illusions
  
• Fugitive
  

• Revenant Tree

• Nine Lives, Feign Death Aced, Swan Song basic

Hacker Perk Deck, this deck uses Dodge with pocket ECM. This can prove to be very useful with team play. While you do have a decent amount of dodge, your Pocket ECM will be of great use to you. You still need to play passive if using Dodge because your armor Regen is not as fast. leaving your HP exposed. This Deck is should be used by a player with a decent amount of skill. The decks ability helps teams move through the map.
Skills for a Hacker

• Mastermind
  

• Medic Tree

• Combat Doctor, Inspire Aced
  

• Controller Tree

• Partners in Crime basic, Stockholm Syndrome Aced
  
• Enforcer
  
• Transporter, Bullseye basic
  
• Technician
  
• Jack of all trades Aced, Drill skills
  
• Ghost
  

• Shinobi Tree

• ECM skills Feedback is very usefull to stun a whole area and turrets
  

• Artful Dodger, and Slient Killer tree

• Parkor Basic, Duck n Cover Aced, Second Wind, Optical Illusions
  
• Fugitive
  

• Revenant Tree

• Nine Lives, Feign Death, Swan Song Aced
  
  

  Guns

  Shotguns with the Dragons Breath ammo.
  Flamethrowers
  Grenade Launchers with fire bomb
  Bows and Crossbows equip with Poison
  

  Melee

  Electric Brass Knuckles (Taser)
  Buzzer (Taser)
  Kunai Knife (Poison tipped knife)
  Stainless Steel Syringe (Poison)
  

  Throwable

  Concussion Grenade (stun area)
  Molotov cocktail (to set an area on fire)
  Incendiary Grenade (for setting cops that are grouped on fire) (doesn't set ground on fire)
  
  

  STEALTH:

  Since there are no pagers allowed due to modifiers, killing guards after they are alerted isn't an option. You will want to damage them and shout them down if they get in your way.
  
  Bring fully upgraded (ECM Specialist Aced + ECM Overdrive Aced) ECMs to chain multiple overlapping ECM buffs across your team until the mission objectives are completed. Other than that, Aced Inspire, utility skills (drills / C4 / saws) are useful.
  
  DamontaeKxng:
  Few things I want to add to the Stealth build is, bring Inspire skill because if the stealth gets messed up you can heal your team. From 4k hour player this saves the mission many times. Stockholm Syndrome should always be in your build. Even the best players will mess up and go into custody.

Recommended Heists for Speed-Runs

Not limited to this list but some of the common runs would be....

ECM Rushing:

• FBI Server
  
• Swing Vote
  
• Bank Heist
  
• Shadow Raid
  
• Hoxton Revenge
  
• Framing
  
• First World Bank
  
• The Diamond
  
• Go Bank (needs 4 players with ECM)
  
• The Big Bank

Loud:

• Interception (Biker Heist Day 2)
  
• Airport (Firestarter Day 1)
  
• Truck Load
  
• White Xmas
  
• Stealing Xmas
  
• Counterfeit
  
• Breakout
  
• Four Floors
  
• Transport Heists

Other Recommended Heists

Normal Style missions:

Stealth Possible

• Transport Train Heist
  
• Framing
  
• First Word Bank
  
• The Diamond
  
• The Big Bank

Loud heists that are challenging but can be done

• The Search
  
• Birth of Sky
  
• Slaugterhouse
  
• Beneath the Mountain
  
• Panic Room
  
• Lions Den

Worth noting the missions that require you to move/escort an AI character. A method we have used to move the AI is not bringing hostages or converts so they do not interfere with this process when you shout at them.

• Reservoir Dogs Day 1
  
• Heat Street
  
• Green Bridge
  
• Undercover

Crime Spree Strats

Forgive me this Section will be messy, still in progress.

The Basics

How the difficultly of Crime Spree is, buffing the cops that requires the players to find a different way to do the mission. Cops will "chase" "pursuit" you where your located.. Knowing this you want to place your team in a spot where the cops can't hoard the objective. A good host will speak/type to there team, will be going into more detail strats like that after the basics. A common method used to not be targeted and or shot at by cops is do not look at them. May sound dumb but how the cops are program are to aim at your head/face. Can go into a nice hidden corner and look down into it and hide your head in a wall to hide if there is not cover. Useful if you do not have a Rogue on the team and you have to do a objective without Dodge. Drill breaks down, or the objective has popped up one of your first moves should be a stun. That can be a grenade, shooting them with fire. This will ensure you will be able to move out of the spot you are in. Common problem is getting stuck from cops, how to get out of this and or evade this is fire will make the cops move around possible clearing the door. Or you place your self in a spot where you can escape if over run. Staying ahead of the cops will keep you alive. The Captain can be the one who joins and ruins the heist, your team needs to effectively move to the captain and focus fire onto him. Flamethrower and focusing a head shot will give you a critical damage. Grenade launchers can deal a fair bit of damage, Trip mines seem to be the most effective but requires the player using them to give up deployable spot for them. Moving around the map quickly will be done by sprinting, jump then crouch this uses your momentum to get around very quickly. Also when crouching you are less detected can help you not be shot. Using a Shield as cover by using one of the Taser melee weapons. You run behind them and melee them they become your cover. Pay attention to what Bain says, for objectives and downed teammates. Try to look at your teammates deployables, do not want to start a mission with everyone have 3 meds or a bunch of ammo, trip mines, ECMs. Gage boost a good team should get the following : More to deploy, More to Throw, Rapid Reloader, Stamina Boost. One more Down can be used but is not needed, because you can have 3 doctor bags your self that's 12 times you can restore 4 lifes. That means you can have 48 downs with all the Doctor bags that one person can bring. With that in mind do you need one more down? Personal opinion its a waste of gage boost. But others may have to have that extra down. The types of heists will require you to use certain guns with shotguns you can stun cops from quite the distance but they are very good in close quarter. Shotguns will aid you with quickly stunning the cops. The heists will be the ones with open areas and constantly moving. The Flamethrowers very good at close range, and have the potiental to kill and are used in missions that require you to kill a "boss" or close quarter battle. With a flamethrower just one click will stun the enemy saving you ammo. The Headshot crit should be focused with the flamethrowers. Grenade Launchers are very interesting and take some skill to use, with the time it take to reload them to the amount of ammo it gives. Makes them harder to use. Grenade Launchers are used mainly to defend a area with the ability to shoot a fire bomb to stop the cops from getting close enough to you. Now the fire bombs can be shot at any distance giving you the chance to lock down spots of the map to become save. I like to shoot the fire bombs on the ground as im moving across the map favors the Anarchist reason be is ill be able to regen armor without having to keep shooting, I am able to hit a group of cops then make my run. Tripmines can be use in the same manner, placing them in spots to help lock down an area to become save for the team. Tripmines can also open doors for the team while giving you the gear you keep your self defended with the fire traps. ECM should be placed in spots that help you, for instant Bank Heist. If you choose to ECM rush at some point the heist will turn loud once ECMS are out. With having placed your ECM in places that surround the vault, By the windows by the doors. this will help you stay out if the battle by stunning any cops that come close with your Feedback. ECM Feedback is rechargeable every 4 minutes. This helps in heists like Breakout when you can place ECM on the moving truck, use it at the start when needing to move the truck. Then at the end when removing the armor off truck. Concussion Grenades are one of the best ways to stun the cops. You get 6 from the start form the Gage boost you will have 10. Should be used in times to heal a teammate. Doing an objective, fixing the drill. While the Grenade will stun most the room its best to make your move as its blowing up so you have few extra seconds. Staying stationary wouldn't end well, the cops will soon have whenever your standing covered with cops. Having exit routes, objective routes, they can help you run the map and escape the cops moving them around. The whole team should move as one when this happens, having cops switch back and forth from targeting players results in many less shots being fired/hit on the players. Rogue perk deck will benefit greatly from staying with teammates by having them not targeted when by teammates. Keeping a low detection as in stealth works the same as in loud. My builds focus having Optical illusions and low detection, grabbing converts to have the targeting off of you. Lower Detection will have longer times it takes for the cops to spot you, then aim and target you. Breakout the start of the mission there is 3 guards, threw many games this is the strat that has became. You take them all as hostages then take 1 as a convert leaving the other 2 guards as Stockholm sydrome hostages, since its a Endless assault until the Garage. Many players can die on the moving of Hoxton. The 2 hostage at the start will never get touched, due to the cops not having a path inside the building. Making those Hostages safe if you are to die. You should have knowledge of every map and placed out routes to use. Establishing strats and specific ways of playing will result in fast easy wins. Each RNG of every map being prepared for each everytime you play the heist will help you speed up the time it takes to complete the heist. Each player should bring gear best to suit the mission and meet needs for the team. Each team should have at least 1 Anarchist, 1 Rogue having one Rogue will be able to keep that player alive while your Anarchist are tank the damage. Having a Hacker Perk Deck in the team can prove benefits in certain missions. Also having a Armorer for the Rogues regen can prove worth. But running a whole team as one perk deck such as Rogues you will get over ran. Running full team of Anarchist will work fine but its very useful to have a Rogue who can do the objectives while the Anarchists fight the cops back. Survey the area to know where the cops are and when they are going to move on you.

Strats for Heists

Credits

Special thanks to damontaekxng, a fellow player in the '4000-Hour Club' who helped me thoroughly with in-game testing to ensure my math was correct. Damon also did the recommended heists section as he is very experienced in hosting epic sprees. He and our circle of Payday 2 masters are always willing to help the community. We had multiple people with us to verify XP gains to ensure they were spot on for this guide. It also involved a lot of trial and error so I thank everyone for their patience!

Author - CA$H THE GREAT

It is safe to say I am truly addicted to Payday 2 - It is the most fun I have ever had in a video game. Math and statistical probabilities are an interest of mine. I am always pushing my playing as well as the game to its limits. I am a longtime theorycrafter and despite 3,500 hours in the game, I am still finding new ways to play. You may see me playing with other pro's but I enjoy helping newer players and getting them excited about the game the same way I did. I am usually streaming but I also try to be active on the forums, contributing what I can.

Also wanna give a shoutout to KillClown777[www.twitch.tv] who helped me out a lot when I first started playing. He's probably up at 4,500+ hours by now and still helping out players any way he can. He really inspired me to build up this community and I hope you all do the same!

Twitch Stream:
PD2 MASTERS[www.twitch.tv]

YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/DuaLeaD

PS: This was my first attempt at a guide ever....hope we did a great job! Just trying to get good information out there to the folks.

[TheDamontaeKxngTTV]

Toxic

[red heifer]

even in deathwish :/

[red heifer]

ur comment section is closed so had to write it here




4 fucking thousand hours and the dumbest play wow.

[/// MDMA /// ||||||||]

"When doing multiple runs, to ensure you are level 100 again for the next run, you must infamy first and THEN cash-in (claim) your crime spree."
Unfortunately, with the introduction of the Infamy 3.0 update, this is no longer applicable. It also means you must join a high crime spree at level 0.

[TheDamontaeKxngTTV]

Thanks. Never was finished i never did

[409.]

Nice guide. Good work guys C:

[Matradz]

Damontae We've been arguing about nothing for so long, we need make a peace.

[TheDamontaeKxngTTV]

Crime Spree rewards dont change, they are base depended on the mission type. doing higher point heists will help you level faster if completing in a quick time.

[pzhda'tan]

say, by playing stealth missions which award less rank, I'll be playing more heists to reach a certain rank right? will that award more xp/cash rather than playing loud heists which award higher rank? I could play a 5 point missions 80 times but a loud one which give 10 points instead, 40 times. I basically played 2 times the missions as if it was loud, so I'm guessing I'll be getting higher bonuses that way.

[TheDamontaeKxngTTV]

If have questions if i didnt answer, please reword or message me personally