Stealth Missions, with Full Team (FIRESTARTER, BIG OIL, FRAMING JOB, ETC)

A guide to Stealthing in PayDay 2, when NOT Soloing.
This includes missions such as Firestarter (Day 2, Day 3), Framing Frame (Day 1, Day 3), Big Oil (Day 2), Bank (Pick a day, any day) and so on.

The Bare Essentials

You will need:

• a GHOST who is at least level 42.
  
• and it would be nice to have GHOST/MASTERMIND Hybrid who is at least level 26
  
• Both need to be equiped with Low Visibility levels after equipping weapons and armor
  
• Common sense and calm under pressure
  
• a supporting teamate or two who is/are willing to watch your back, and have at least a little patience.
  
• a LOT of practice and trial and error
  
• Some map awareness and memory skills.

Being a higher level is highly recommended, as participants can have a more wide assortment of skills to make it easier to pull off.

The primary ghost has to be capable of using ECM Jammers to open Keycard doors. This is so they can get into Security Rooms and other closed off areas.

Both stealthing members, or just the one if you only have one, should be able to together or alone,

• DOMINATE guards to handcuffing themselves
  
• Silently kill guards without raising the alarm
  
• Be able to pick up and move dead bodies
  
• Answer at least 4 pagers without making people suspicious
  
• Lure guards away from each other, and/or navigate around cameras and guards without raising suspicion.

At least one team member should be able to throw bags far, and being able to carry stuff without being encumbered would really help too.
Having high stamina, fast sneaking and general speed bonuses will also make it much easier to complete stealth missions successfully.

Classes/Skills

You will need at least ONE GHOST, and ONE MASTERMIND. People with DUAL SKILL TREES of a high enough level who can accomplish both these tasks would be even more useful. Particularly if you have 2 of them.

(Images of all the skill trees are taken from PD2 Skill Tree Calculator[www.pd2skills.info] which is approved by the Overkill team.)

Mandatory Skills for Ghost

Skills highlited in GREEN are extremely helpful (I would go so far as to say mandatory) for success in stealth missions.

• Cleaner - ACED
  
• Chameleon - ACED is helpful, if stealth fails
  
• Sprinter - ACED This will get you past guards and cameras quickly. If you get spotted, you will take less damage when running past guards etc.
  
• Shinobi - ACED. Knocking down guards with Melee is very useful if they happen to get in your face, and they will not make any noise either shot or meleed to death. You also move much quicker in crouched mode. A MUST.
  
• Cat Burglar - 1 point. Some stealth missions can benefit from DEATH FROM ABOVE or hopping down high ledges without taking damage. No need to ace it, as you should be smart enough not to hop down insane heights. Unless... in NON PRO jobs, you want to try again. Being able to die from falling can give you a quick out so you can try again.

Recommended Skills for Ghosts

Skills highlited in ORANGE are useful but not mandatory for success in stealth missions.

• Lockpicking Expert - 4 points (being able to open doors very quickly will help you navigate maps, with ease. An extra 8 points will give you the ability to open ANY SAFE in 45 seconds. Silently, and without failing, faster than drilling any day of the week, and slower than Shaped Charges, but you're a ghost, you don't need anything that loud. That is, unless you have an itchy finger or lack stamina in holding down the F key for that long.)
  
• ECM Overdive- ACED You will be able to highjack a single electronic keycard door. For some missions, this could be the difference between getting in fast, getting in very slow (ie, with a drill/saw/etc) or not getting in at all. More in follow sections.
  
• ECM Specialist - 4 points. You can hack not ONE but TWO keycard doors. More in guide.

Mandatory Skills for Mastermind

Skills highlited in GREEN are almost MANDATORY for success in stealth missions. Unless you are very very good at avoiding guards/cameras. This will make your missions much easier to stealth.

• Dominator - ACED Every person who has this skill can convince guards to put their hands up, and tie themselves up. ONE GUARD ONLY (in the PC version of the game, ie. patched.) And has a higher rate of success with the skill ACED.
  
• Smooth Talker - 1 point. With this skill, you are able to answer at LEAST four pagers, without the guards sounding the alarm. More on this later.

in most of my playthroughts, I was primarily skilled in ghost abilities, while my co-stealther was primarily skilled in mastermind abilities. We worked well as a team, but are both building to have all of the necessary skills to make ourselves even more successful. In the mean time we complement each other, without making one another obsolete.

Stealth Basics - Guns, Loadout, Visibility

First and foremost, no more than 2 people should be attempting "stealth" at one time.

OBJECTIVE

Ghost missions are about patience, timing, and keeping your cool. Not about rushing it. If you wish to rush in, you will most likely fail, shouldn't be reading this guide, and should be focusing on the Enforcer or Technician skill trees, instead.

It's not likely you will have a surplus of ghost or masterminds in any one full team. And a Master-Ghost (a ghost/mastermind hybrid who posesses all the mandatory skills of both) will be able to solo these maps on their own, while the rest of their team waits or idles in the sidelines. Though 2 Master-Ghosts together could make easy work of stealth missions.

The more people attempting to navigate the maze of guards and cameras will simply have a higher likelyhood of raising an alarm if they mess up. Have a leader, who is experienced at stealth, directing no more than one other person in how to kill people without being seen, avoiding line of sight, and disposing of the bodies.

DUMPING BODIES

Most maps have areas where it is safe to dump bodies. Use them, or have non-active teammates move the bodies off the patroled area, so they will never be found.

MINIMUM POSSIBLE ACTIONS

With the necessary skills, listed above, you will be able to disable at least 4 security guards merely by killing them, and answering the pager without raising the alarm. As well as forcing one guard to surrender, without raising the alarm and shooting off their guns. For every person with the Smooth Talker base skill, The Dominator skill, ACED, and Cleaner ACED, the better.

SKILL USABILITY IN DETAIL

Every SMOOTH TALKER has a better chance at answering pagers without problems, if for some reason the pair splits up and one of them gets into a hairy situation. They will be able to resolve it easily, on their own.

It is best if there is a delay between pager calls, because that will increase their chance of success.

Every DOMINATOR can force one guard to surrender. It's based on luck and timing, but having the ability to dominate TWO guards, instead of ONE, can make a near miss into a successful attempt. And if for some reason, one person gets cuffed, the other can tell that guard to give up without further problems.

The CLEANER skill allows a body to be picked up, so it doesn't trigger other guards when they see it, at least one person should have this, but again, the more the merrier!

VISIBILITY

Low visibility is the best way to make sure you aren't spotted too quickly.

Someone running around with huge guns in full armor will be both SLOW, and will have a higher likely hood of being spotted, EVEN IF THEY ARE HIDING BEHIND SOMETHING. And the alarm radar will increase faster, as well.

So, if you are stealthing, always have at least one primary and secondary weapon that has very low visibility in your inventory. Silenced? Even better!

LOADOUT

Primary Gun of Choice

The CAR-4, with the right mods, has a very very low visibility.

• The "Short Barrel" drops the visibility quite a lot.
  
• The "Low Profile Suppressor" will make it slightly weaker, but just as silenced as any of the other silencers without affecting visibility.
  
• The "Vintage" magazine will add further reduced visibility to the gun. You lose a few rounds, but you should not even be using this gun, except to better aid your chances of intimidation/domination. So that should cease to matter.
  
• The "Folding Stock" will drop the visibility even further.
  
• The "Exotique" Upper Receiver will aid in accuracy a smidge, without hurting visibility.

Secondary Gun of Choice

The CROSSKILL is the perfect gun for a stealthing heister.

• a "Size doesn't matter" silencer will maintain it's already low visibility, with the added bonus of silencing your shots. This is a must.
  
• The "Vented Slide" will allow for slightly improved damage, greater mobility and less recoil, and it doesn't affect visibility.
  
• The "Marksman Sight" will allow for better accuracy. Doesn't affect visibility.

With both of these guns, modded in this way, your visibility will remain in the LOW section, even if you equip the Lightweight Ballistic Vest (for a little protection in case things go south).

Since you will have the sneaking about quickly, and the super speed, (particularly if you take the improved stamina from the mastermind tree at the 1 point level), you will be able to run quickly between cameras, rooms, and away from guards etc. Highly recommended.

THE REST OF THE TEAM

Making sure the non stealth members of the team who are spotting for you are also as low visibility as possible will make them less likely to raise the alarm by mistake. Try to encourage that.

Normal Job Planning

In NON PRO jobs you will usually have heights that your team can fall from to end the mission, allowing you to restart again from the beginning. So them being loaded for the worst is usually unnecessary.

Inform the team ahead of time, communicate, and if things go wrong, everyone jump down, and die, if possible, so the mission can restart. Worse come to worse, and you are pinned away from a high area, just wait for the cops to kill you, and try again!

Pro Job Planning

If you are doing a Pro Job though, you may want to have sturdy team members to deal with the cross fire, just so you can do the "fail" options of these missions, and get out alive.

Having the Chameleon skill ACED, will also make you a less important target, so you shouldn't get shot at by cops, if you stay with your bulkier team mates.

Have the non stealth team mates spot cameras and guards for you from a safe location.

Mission Specific Details

In FRAMING FRAME Day 1, they can loiter on the roof, one in the area you are going to and one in the area you are in. AT ALL COSTS, do not RUN or WALK past the lobby, you will get spotted almost instantly by the lobby guard. Always sneak past that window, and stay close to the wall away from it, to avoid suspicion.

In FRAMING FRAME Day 3, there is a desk where these team mates can use the paintings to spy on the mansion. Multiple members can do so at the same time, and check out different rooms, this will keep them involved, and part of the overall success of the mission. Yes, it's a little boring, but the pay off is usually worth it, for them.

If you get pinned down in Framing Frame, and cannot get past a laser door, or the lobby, without the guard seeing the paintings, it is possible to toss the paintings up to a team mate waiting at an open ceiling window. Toss the paintings up (with the Enforcer skill TRANSPORTER ACED if you can manage it) and they will be able to catch them and move them to the van.

By this point the guards and cameras should be out of commission, so you can try multiple times until all the paintings have been moved out of the gallery.

A DEFINITE NO-NO

Lastly, NEVER USE AI MEMBERS if you do not have a full team. They will often stumble into areas that will cause alarm, and ruin the mission. Go full team, or toggle off "play with AI TEAM", to make sure this doesn't happen. The AI can be a bit hard to control. Better safe than sorry.

Bypassing, Eliminating and Dominating Guards

You will have a minimum total of 5 guards you will be to kill or dominate when playing with my recommended skill set, and most normal OVERKILL levels, and most stealth maps have this number, some have more or less depending on the difficulty or location.

Number of Guards in various missions/days at high difficulties.

• Firestarter, Day 2 - 5+ guards (I think, its a bit random)
  
• Framing Frame, Day 1 Normal Overkill - Have seen 5-6 guards (including Security Room). In this case, ignore the lobby guard if possible, he is fairly easy to bypass in MOST cases, unless there are lasers. Security Room guard is more helpful in overall success, in my opinion. If you have a second Dominator, either of the extra guards can be handled with that skill.
  
• Framing Frame, Day 3 Normal Overkill - 5 guards (No Security Room)
  
• Bank, (In any difficulty, I think) - 4 guards, (including Security Room)

Will update this information as I play PRO versions or notice different counts.
In easier versions, it is likely there will be fewer guards, so they will be easier to dispose of.

DOMINATING GUARDS

Each team member with the DOMINATOR skill at minimum, will only be able to DOMINATE 1 Guard, without killing them, and then dominating another (since the patch).

If you kill a dominated guard, you will have to answer a pager, as per usual, using one possible pager count. Dominating guards is tricky, so do not attempt to dominate guards in open areas, as you will not be able to move them afterwards. It is best to find out of way guards outside of normal patrol areas, for this reason. It's a bit random, so this can be a very slippery slope if you choose a bad guard to dominate.

NEVER APROACH A GUARD YOU WANT TO DOMINATE FROM BEHIND! It is possible he will not see you when you attempt this, and will instead capture you if you are too close to him, when he notices you are close to him. Getting out of handcuffs takes 60 seconds, and by then he will have sounded the alarm.

To increase your chances of success, you want to come at him from in front, and make him go into ALERT MODE. Once he draws his gun, close the distance, and MELEE HIM ONE TIME, quickly. This will bewilder him. Then use the F key (or your action key) to scream at him until he surrenders.

If you melee him twice, he will die, and you will have to answer a pager.

According to another guide, there are a few things to make your domination attempt better:

• Equip your primary weapon.
  
• Wear bigger armor.
  
• More than one person should scream at him to help in the attempt.

NEVER!

If you have the "JOKER" Skill, NEVER EVER BEFRIEND YOUR SURRENDERED COP! He will follow you around, and cause everyone who sees him to go into ALERT mode. THIS IS VERY BAD. Don't do it, period! Save that for open combat, not for stealth missions. (This has happened more times than I care to talk about...)

BYPASSING GUARDS

If you are reading this guide, and following it's advice, your loadout will be very minimal. So when a guard gets curious, after spotting you, simply move away from his line of sight, until he fails to see you any longer.

Wait for them to be turning a corner or to be facing away from you to sneak to cover beyond their line of vision. If it seems risky, don't do it. Remember, you don't really need to sneak these missions, you just have to get rid of the guards. Shoot them before they use their radios, or make them give up before they shoot their loud bullets and let everyone know something is wrong.

So bypassing a guard is only useful to get someplace safer, or to kill someone out of line of sight. If there are too many guards, move around them in a wide berth, use cover, or avoid them all together. Wait for them to split up.

DISPOSING OF GUARDS

Once you kill a guard, you have a little time to answer their pager. Not very long at all, so it's best to not take chances about the wait before the alarm goes off. Kill guards when you know you will have time to deal with the aftermath. You will want to be able to have someone with the SMOOTH TALKER skill to answer, and for someone to pick the body up and move it someplace quiet, or if need be to carry it for a short while until you can dispose of it cleanly.

Most of these missions do not have dumpsters, so use rooms you know will probably remain empty, or take them out of the patroled area/building all together.

If someone without the SMOOTH TALKER skill answers a pager, it is less likely further pager calls will succeed.

If you wait long enough between pager calls, the chance of success will increase.

Once there are no more guards to deal with, feel free to move about pretty freely. Walk carefully, if you haven't disabled the cameras, so you can spot them before you get into their range, and then just shoot them with your silenced gun, and keep on your merry way.

Bypassing Cameras

The easiest way to bypass the security camera system, is to disable it entirely. To disable the security system, you will need to (in the appropriate missions), find the Security Office. It should look like this.

If you have the ability to hack Keycard doors with the ECM, this is the easiest and quietest method to do so. Simply disable any guards before this point, or sneak past them, and use your ECM on the highlited area above the keycard slot, which I've pointed out with arrows in the pictures above.

Not every stealth map offers this fool proof method of disabling the camera system, but the ones that do become much easier if you take care of these as soon as possible.

Once you open it, there is always one guard inside who is monitoring the cameras. With the skills mentioned above, disable the guard by forcing them to surrender, or simply kill them and answer the pager, and cameras will no longer be a problem in moving through the rest of the map.

The number and position of cameras in every map is random, I've not bothered to count how many there usually are, because I tend to focus on disabling the system entirely, making it a non-issue. Now that you can point them out, in casing mode, having the passive members of your team navigate about to point them out to you before you stumble upon them makes them very easy to avoid or sneak past without causing them to go into full alert.

Cameras are not instantaneous, and most of them give you enough time that you can simply skirt away from their line of sight before they raise the alarm.

NEVER THROW ANYTHING PAST THE LINE OF SIGHT OF A CAMERA OR GUARD, THIS WILL ALWAYS TRIGGER THE ALERT!

BE WARY OF CAMERAS OUTSIDE YOUR LINE OF VISION.

The easiest way to bungle up a stealth job is to shoot a guard who has noticed you, where a camera will see him get disabled. BE MINDFUL of the map, and try to learn the positions of cameras as soon as possible, before you start eliminating guards, to prevent problems arising from surprise cameras.

Even the TOE or HEAD of a dead guard, in their line of sight, will trigger the alarm!

A common method for disabling cameras is to shoot or melee them, so they break and are no longer operational. THIS CAN BE A CURSE OR A BOON, depending on how you utilize it.

When a camera is busted, guards will often get a "call" telling them that a camera is no longer working, and at least one of them will cycle around to check it out.

If he spots the camera, he will raise the alarm. So, how can we use this to our advantage? Well, you cannot toss objects or make noise to seduce the guards to a nice quiet location, where you can kill them without anyone noticing.

In FRAMING FRAME, there is an automatic hand dryer system in the bathroom on the first floor that will start to make noise, if you move near it. This will often allow you to lure guards in the vicinity into the bathroom, away from everyone else.

Here you can kill them, answer their pagers, and stash their bodies in a stall.

We've been able to get all 4 roving guards, using this method, in multiple attempts. This leaves only the cameras to deal with, which you can disable without reproach, since there will be no guards wandering about to check them or stumble upon them by mistake.

The same kind of thing can be used by disabling cameras before the system is disabled. Merely knock a camera out, and wait for a guard to come and check it out. Then, BOOM, one guard taken out of the equation. HOPEFULLY.

Not all camera locations are created equal though. Often, the placement of the cameras will be in the guards movement path, and other guards will spot you dealing with a dead guy. So do this at your own risk, it could end up very messy, very quickly, if you don't play smart.

Being as the camera locations are random, it is hard to give you exact details on how to best pick which cameras to use to lure guards to you, so use your best judgement. And not doing it is better than the opposite.

[Chef Rude]

It has been tested. Every person with the Dominator skill can EACH dominate 1 guard.
So, unless this has been patched, every Dominator gets their own unique domination target.

I've run Framing Frame on Overkill (Normal) about 50 times... and the MAX we ever saw was 6. It is possible PRO Overkill can have up to 7. I did not include that number because I have not played that version yet. Once I do, I will add that information.

I did say the bank probably had less guards, but I can amend that. We were able to complete that stealth, if we are lucky with the vault location, where we only had to intimidate ONE guard or TWO to make it work. You don't always have to go through the entire bank. And we only had to tie down 2 civs and the manager. So that is less relevant to this guide overall.

Once all the guards are eliminated, I do state that just running around shooting cameras is enough, without worrying about the security guard in the office. So that is also NOT wrong, it's in there.

[Damrider11]

There are a lot of mistakes in this guide.
First, even if two players have the dominator skill, you can only have 1 dominated guard at a time. What can you do, is convert him to be in your side (with the mastermind's joker skill) and then dominate the other one.
Also, there are only 4 guards at the bank, including the security room guard.

Due to the fact that on framing frame there are 6/7 guards (Because on rare occasions, a guard spawns at the bathroom when you're opening it), it's best to not even manage with the secruity room guard. Just destroy the cameras by hand.

Nice guide anyway, you did a good job :)