Framing Frame DW/OD - A simple way to (Solo)Stealth

A simple but kinda lengthy way of stealthing the Framing Frame Heist.

Foreword...

Yay, rating is being displayed! And it seems like some people didnt like it. You know, I dont have a problem with disliking something you dont like I truly dont. But id love it if you could leave a comment on why you disliked it/liked it. I want to improve after all and simply disliking is not really helping me. Thank you.


So, since youre reading this guide youre either tired of trying to get this Heist done solo, with youre friends, or in the worst case, with a lobby full of randoms OR youre just someone who likes to read guides for additional tips OR just to correct other peoples mistakes. (Yes, I am looking at you over there! ;D)
Ive had a look at the Crimefest Challenge that involves Framing Frame and was surprised that it was progressing very slowly and I thought maybe its because people just dont know how to do it properly.
Anyway, this guide will focus on what assets to buy, on how to approach each day and most importantly: How to get that gold on the last day which makes this heist the nice Stealth-Cash- Generator it is. (As seen in the Screenshot below)




Please dont be too harsh with the critics in the comments when i ♥♥♥♥ up. Im german, writing this without any help of translation programs or dictionaries and its my first guide ever.... :P

Necessary Skills...

Since the Skilltree Update it has been very easy to create multipurpose stealth builds. These are the skill necessary for this guide to work. You can skill whatever else you want:

Enforcer:


Yes, only 2 skills. Youll need transporter for throwing the bags further.

Ghost:


Bodybag-Cases, 30sec Jammers, faster lockpicking as well as concealment bouses for supressed weapons as well as silencers. Great for stealth.

Optional:


Jack of all trades enables you to pick a secondary deployable. This will reduce its amount by 50%. You can now bring 2 ECMs AND 1 Bodybag case. Since you can only kill 4 guards youll never need more than one Bodybag Case anyway so this will be enough. ^^


Perk Deck:

- Burglar

The Burglar Perk Deck is the perfect choice for this Heist: bagging bodies, answering pagers and picking locks faster?! This was made for Framing Frame!

OR

- Rogue

This is the way to go for all of you who dont own the DLC. This one is only useful because of its 80% weapon switch speed increasement.



Weapons and Equipment:


- Primary


The CAR-4 Rifle. One of my favourites! Its versatility is unmatched making it an excellent choice for stealth as well as loud heists. Ok, ok its efficiency in stealth is.... well.... ♥♥♥♥. BUT! Its concealment is high enough to make up for that!

- Secondary


Ah, yes... The Judge. A beautiful shotgun thats a neat pocket surprise for any security guard in a stealth mission. Sharing the concealment of a pistol and the damage of a shotgun, this weapon is the secondary of choice for this job!

- Throwable (optional)


Wanna play ninja? Sure why not? Shurikens are an instant, silent kill... as long as you know how to use them ooor have bought the DLC in the first place. If you havent dont worry, they are not needed at all. They just add to the fun factor.


NOTE: Again, these weapons are recommendations. You can still bring a pistol or another AR but remember, you want to keep your profile low!

A variation for a different approach...

So, if youre not a beginner at stealth you will know that especially Day 3 will take longer than it should. If you know what youre doing that is. So if you dont feel like waiting for ages or want a "challenge" you can do something like this:



Sensor Tripmines and Jack of All Trades. Now you can bring jammers and Sensormines/Bodybags at the same time. Id recommend equipping them as the secondary deployable. Unless you think that 7 are not going to be enough. For some reason...?

Day 1 - The Art Gallery

Alright lets get started. Day one is, in my opinion, just as "hard" as the last day, simply because there are a lot of guards roaming around. This first day also determines how many hidden cameras you have on the third day, each painting being one camera. but lets have a look at the most basic Objectives first:

Objectives:

- Get in the gallery
- Find 4 Paintings
- Get out

Easier said than done? Of course. But you will hopefully be able to get it done with not that much effort if you follow my guide and use my tips. But lets start with....

The Pre-Planning:


As you can see in the Screenshot, you want to place a body bag case and the keycard in the bathroom stalls, the roof access in the parking lot and the additional entry point on the roof of hall "C" More on why you place them that way later.

Next Step

Entry:

The safest way into the building is around the right side through the white door.

Pick the lock, get in, pick up the keycard and, in case you skilled Winston Wolfe, a third body bag.

Inside the Gallery:


See those hand-driers? You can activate them by crouching under them. It will lure nearby guards inside the bathroom. You can use this to easily reduce the amount of guards on the map. Id recommend doing it twice max.

Now that youre in you have to find the security room. Taking out the cameras makes this day a lot easier.

The security room door can be in three halls:
- Hall A
- Hall C
- Hall E

Should the door be in hall C you can now make use of the additional entry point you placed earlier. The entry point also provides access to at least one of the 2 back halls, B and D.
There are ALWAYS laser beams between two of the halls. Walking through them triggers the alarm so watch your step! If you want to be safe while looking for the security room go on the roof and peek through the skylights until you find it. If its in Hall C you can use the entry point to get in, quickly open the door and then kill the guard inside. But why waste a body bag when you can do it like this:

Dominate him by looking at him and pressing "F" as soon as the exclamation mark appears on his head(!). Then get in Position with your Judge and blast him away like this:

Now just answer the pager and leave him there. Noone will see him. (Assuming he flew out of sight of the doorway) Now you can check the cams just by spamming the left mouse button and most guards should be marked.

Now, onto the paintings!

When moving around the gallery youll notice that the guards pathways are very annoying and you cant hide anywhere. Oh wait! You CAN!
Have a look at this screenshot:

See the bench back there? Or the pedestals on the left? You can actually hide behind these! Try it out in some test runs until you get the hang of it. These benches and pedestals are scattered all over the art gallery, creating brilliant hiding spots everywhere.

But how do I get the paintings out without running a marathon you ask? Why through the windows on the roof of course! No not the skylights. Through those windows:

You will have to figure out how to throw them yourself since i cant explain that here but it isnt too hard, i promise. Since you have bought the additional roof access and can use the staircase outside near the bathroom door, you can just go up and secure the paintings in the van.
NOTE: This only works with the windows in Hall A, C and E

Additional things worth knowing:
There are ALWAYS between 6 and 9 paintings
After killing four guards thus using up your pagers, 1-2 more guards will spawn. These guys also check on the roof so watch out!

Tip: Be patient! Dont try to rush it unless youre at least 2 people and you have ecms. Take your time and be cautious. Slow and steady wins the race. And gets you the gold on day 3.... Hopefully...

Day 2 - The Train Trade

The Train trade is pretty straight forward:
Get the paintings on the table in the train, wait for the guy to finish his speech and throw the paintings into the chopper. Get the cash through the Train-hall-thing:
and secure them in the van. Watch out for the workers and be done with the day.

Additional Info:
When stealth on day 1 fails there CAN be a Swat ambush, so be prepared to run as soon as the train doors open when you failed stealth on the first day....
On Deathwish theres also a small chance that there will be a swat ambush even when the first day was completed in stealth.

Day 3 - The Framing

The Framing...

Or "The Fun part" as I like to call it.
Lets get straight to it, shall we?

Objectives:

- Find 5 electronic devices: 2 Hard Drives, 1 Smartphone, 1 Tablet, 1 Laptop
- Set up everything on the roof and wait for Bain to get the password
- Access the senators Computer
- Find the hidden Vault
- Get back on the roof and get the coke
- Plant the coke in front of the vault
- Open the vault
- Escape or
- Disable the lasers in the vault
- Get the gold to the roof and secure it
- Escape

The Preplanning

Okay, now you want to place 3 Spy cameras as shown in the screenshot. These will give you a pretty good coverage and should keep half of the guards marked at all times. Place the body bag case in the apartment office and start the day.

How to start:
I like starting by opening all the doors on the roof so that you can quickly zip around without having to worry about closed doors blocking your way. Guards will open them eventually but that can take a bit of time. Now you want to kill 4 guards. Be careful, take your time doing it and keep an eye on your body bag count. You can hide body bags on the roof where you spawned or in two very handy places inside the house, one being near the east staircase in a wall-closet:

Another one being behind a chair in the bedroom:

Make sure the body bag is behind the chair like in the screenshot and not sticking out! Otherwise guards will see it!
After killing four guards (theres a total of 6 on the map) A seventh, or in this case, third guard will spawn one floor below the lowest floor of the map and walk up the stairs into the map:

This guy has a patrol route that covers more spaces then the routes of normal guards but as long as youve hidden the body bags on the roof or in one of the spots, havent shot any kind of glass on the map or opened one of the security doors, he will not see anything suspicious. (Broken Instrument-Showcases can be detected too!) After about 5-7 minutes he will leave again and youre left with 2 guards. The heist should now definetly be doable dont you think? So lets get started with the first objective.

Finding the devices:

When you have done this heist as many times as i have you know the spots in and out. For those who are struggling with this infamous last day I will link an image [imgur.com] showing you every possible spot for every item.
Once you have found all the items place them on the roof, right where you started:


Next, access the senators computer:

Finding the Vault:

The vault can be in three spots on the map, one being in the bedroom:


Another one on the first floor near the east staircase:


And last but not least, the most annoying spot: in the living room:


NOTE: If you move bookshelves and the vault isnt behind them, make sure to slide them back. Guards will (for some odd reason) see the moved bookshelf!

Once you found the vault get back on the roof and retrieve the coke. If the vault is in the bedroom you can throw all the coke behind the right chair (or just open the vault, toss it in and close it but this will take longer)
No guard who walks into the bedroom will notice.

If the vault is on the first floor (near the east staircase) you can throw the coke into a corner as shown here:

VERY RARELY a guard walks into that room and sees the bags so be prepared, however so far I havent seen the 7th guard walking there.
When this camera:

is there, you have to be careful! It can see the open vault, not the closed one though. That means that getting out the gold is, unless youve got camera loop, pretty hard if not impossible.
UPDATE: As of a Patch in April 2016 this camera can no longer spawn in that position.
You can place the gold bags in the same corner as the coke bags by the way.


If the vault is in the living room and you want to get the gold id recommend restarting. Not that it wouldnt be possible but its just a pain in the ass and it can be very frustrating. If someone has a nice method for this vault location please leave a comment. Id like to know how you handle it.


After you placed all the coke in front of the vault youll have to open the vault via the senators computer. Once you do this you get the option to escape and the abillity to disable the lasers in the vault via the computer. The lasers are disabled for 50 seconds so you should have some time to get in and get the gold.

THE GOLD:

Once youve done everything mentioned above you shouldnt really have a problem getting it out.
unless the camera on the first floor ist there of course...
Heres an example of what a vaults interior, in this case the bedroom vault, looks like:


Okay, what I like to do is just leaving the bookshelf open and throwing the gold in the pre-vault room. Like this:


Now you can place the gold bags behind the chair just like the coke bags i mentioned above and close the bookshelf behind you.

If the vault is on the first floor do the same but place the gold in the corner in which you put the coke before.

Now get the gold to the roof and zip it to safety:

Not the most neccessary screenshot... just like some others in this guide but... Yeah...

Day 3 - Tripmine version

If you want to do it this way you dont necessarily have to kill 4 guards. Not that youd have to do that in the first place but itll make it easier for beginners.

Now you can use the skill variant mentioned before.

The Idea is simple:
Place Tripmines in doorframes, infront of staircases, etc...
(remember to set them to sensor mode though!)

Guards will now be frequently be marked and your life gets easier.

You can obviously still follow the steps mentioned in the section above.

Additional Info...

NOTE:Everytime i find something new worth knowing I will update this Section of the guide.
ALSO:For your information, this is not the way i stealth this heist most of the time i just thought itd be easier for less experienced people. ;)

Variations:

Since this guide is technically not only a how-to-solo guide, Ill add some options for playing with your friends or, for whatever reason, with randoms. I will also give you tips on how to do it as quickly as possible if you dont want the money and just want to get some exp.

Day 1

As soon as youre 2 players you can rush this day as long as both of you have max. or at least decent ECMs. Id recommend getting out 1 painting without alerting anyone and to start an ecm-chain. This works best if you only want the neccessary paintings. With 4 players you should be able to get out every painting in the gallery. Just watch the lasers... I had some cases where people would just ignore them.


Day 2

As i already mentioned, there is not much to say about this day. But if youre doing a pro job, there is a swat ambush and youve got your stealth gear on , youre kinda ♥♥♥♥♥♥ dont you think? Now, a lot of people are going to know about this but for those that dont, Ill show a relatively safe way to get to the other side of the train hall:

There is this hole thats locked with a metal gate. You can saw open the locks on either side of it

to get into sewer tunnels. If you follow them youll reach the other end of the train hall without any cops getting to you. You will still have to make it to the car but hey, its definetly a good step closer isnt it?
So if youre doing the pro job it can be useful to have somebody with a saw in your crew. This can be combined with my variation of doing...

Day 3

This day gets a lot easier as soon as youre 2 players. You can now change the assets you buy in the preplanning menu:

Instead of having that spy cam in the lounge on the top floor, you can now place the "Bag Shortcut" asset. This will open this vent:

on the roof near your starting point and will deliver bags that you throw into it....

in front of the bedroom. This is an easy way to get the bags downstairs quickly.
As I said at the end of my day 2 tips it can be useful to have someone who has got a saw. On this day the saw is utterly useless but the same person can pick up the "Undertaker" Skill in the Fugitive tree. This will allow him to bring body bag cases. You can then remove the body bag case asset and instead place the bag shortcut or another spy cam.

If you dont want the gold on this day and youre more than one person, you can stealth until you have to plant the coke and then just ecm-chain your way through. Not getting the gold reduces the exp a little bit but youll still get a lot for it.

Mods used: HoxHud, Hotline Miami Mod (Background Only)

This was my first PAYDAY 2 guide. If I couldnt help you complete the heist or maybe youve already completed it and are here to correct my mistakes, I hope you could at least learn something about framing frame that helps you in a way. because that is what I want this guide to do: Help other players! :3

~Thanks for reading~

[Minty-Snep]

Holy shit, time flies thanks for your comment haha ^^
Yeah, not much has changed on Framing Frame in the past 8 years (fuck me i wrote this guide 8 years ago).

The only thing that got updated a couple years back is the item locations, they added new ones for more variety. I suppose i could update the perkeck recommendation to Hacker, since that makes it even easier, especially solo but eh... I feel this guide is a nice reminder of past times.

Have a good day!

[EtherealChinchilla]

i thought they would make the guard that comes in later permanent. im glad that even in 2023 its still pretty accurate. thank you. i was sitting in a corner for like 15 minutes waiting for the freaking guards to move where i wanted them to.

[Minty-Snep]

Oh hey, cool to see that at least the general info is still helping ppl out. ^^

[Bugs 4 Teeth]

the parts of this that helped me the most was that the book case had to be moved back or the guards would be alerted, and that killing 4 guards is encouraged. i always thought that the guards that replaced the ones you killed were numerous and never went away.

[Dugi]

thanks for making this guide

[Minty-Snep]

FINALLY! Some good feedback!
Regarding Day One:
I agree that you could place the entry point in D but I dont see the the point in it since D is easily reachable from Hall E. Id rather have a guaranteed easy entry in C (also easier for more inexperienced players) The additional roof access is placed so you can secure paintings mid-heist without having to walk all around the building again just to get back on the roof. With the bodybag-tripmine skill variant the bodybag asset is obviously obsolete. There are more efficient and faster ways of doing this day but again, this guide is for players who are new/not used to stealth. Ill comment on your other feedback later since im on my phone and writing this takes forever. Again, i appreciate your feedback. :)

[JeanneOskoure]

And Pager delay isn't required at all, it will just make Jack of all trades and trip mines harder to get.
Anarchist is a good deck for this map too, because with Transporter aced and Iron man basic, the speed reduction from the gold bags will be reduced by ~40%.
Yakuza + molotov/Frenzy makes you faster too.

[JeanneOskoure]

FEEDBACK ON DAY 3: Actually the living room vault is not that hard, but you'll wait for a long time if all guards are here, so I recommand killing 3 guards or 4 if you think you won't get spotted. Once there is no one nearby (use tripmines to be sure), then move coke bags from the bedroom to the living room and the gold from the living room to the bedroom. Once all bags are in the bedroom then you just have to move them to the roof. The living room vault is a bedroom vault with 10 more meters to travel (don't bother checking, the 10 meters is just a random number). When you're 2 then you'd better remove the Spycam in the corridor and not the one in the lounge, because you can place more efficient trip mines in the corridor than in the lounge. You could remove the body bags too if you have it in secondary (you won't need more than 4 body bags anyway).
I'll give you some screenshots of the trip mines position I recommand too if you want.

[JeanneOskoure]

FEEDBACK ON DAY 1:For the preplanning of day 1, you should place the entry point in hall D because you can jump on walls/pillars in all hall except D. However it may require some practice before mastering the jumps. The roof acces, too, is not required as you can get on the roof again with the staircase, and it'll make your way to the roof 5s faster. You can use the favors of the roof acces on a spycam. If you take Jack of all trades ace then you can remove the body bag case asset too and buy another Spycam, just make sure to take Body bags as secondary. And there is always 9 paintings now.
(Double post cuz character limit, sorry).

[Aeon Naranek]

I am always killing 4 guards on day 1 and 3. because there will be only 2 left, that will be less complicated to avoid. I don't uderstand why people are trying to do this job with guards crawling like roaches all around you. But even with team i am always bringing sensor mines instead of jammers. With help of senor mines you can mark place all around vault area, and passages in art gallery between halls. And it is always better to bring body bags to van(day1)\roof(day3) because additional guard, who comes after 4th pager, will notice it in any other place.

Oh, only thing i don't do, is kill camera dude at day 1.