So you want to be able to get some quick levels and experience on PayDay 2? Well, here is a quick guide to help new players and give some hints and tips of how to pull of heist faster and with less issues. Most of these will become obviously necessary through playing however this guide is to speed that process for you.
Scout The Area
Metal detectors, wandering guards, CCTV cameras and many more potential traps move from one attempt to another. Even where safes and the escape vans are located change. This all means taking a minute at the start of a mission to scout the place is time well spent. Finding out where the safe or vault is located before properly going in can drastically change the best entrance point to a building. Try peering through windows to locate things but if it still isn’t possible try sneaking in and locating locations of guards, key cards, etc. Another potential advantage is if the alarms are raised players will occasionally have located planks while searching the area. Planks slow down the police assaults and if placed opposite vault doors, give some great additional cover.
Up-to-date Information
Communication is vital for many aspects of PayDay 2. Keeping the rest of your team in the know can be the difference between a smooth heist and a messy fail. You may have just scouted the area but your teammates need to know what has been spotted or your time was wasted. Numerous times a player has complained after somebody else has set off an alarm from being spotted by a guard or camera. Most of the time this is because despite spotting the guard or camera they haven’t informed the team about thus players thinking the route is clear. Whilst it doesn’t work for cameras one way to alert your team to locations or guards is to ping them. Pinging Guard is done by pressing ‘F’ while looking directly at them at a short range. This puts a red outline on the unit for all players to see for a limited amount of time. It can result in players changing routes or camping in a corner until the guard moves on and stops you being caught.
Stealth In The Front Door
It is possible to roughly stealth through some sections with heavy armour on but on a hard difficulty guards will comfortably spot that body armour from a mile off. Also having a lot of the basic weapons will see your visibility rise to the next visibility rating up. Most weapons have an upgrade piece that lowers the visibility of them. Wearing no armour or the under jacket light armour also reduces your visibility. Doing this will allow you to walk straight into the banks and shops with almost no worry, blending into the crowd. The ability to enter places without alerting anyone enables you to gain further insight into locations of important items such as key cards or security cameras. One bonus tip is to pick up a silence for your pistol if possible early on. On most levels your stealth will not be broken if you silently take out a guard or two and answer their pager.
Pick A Class At The Start
Getting a team of four friends together to play PayDay 2 is a perfect idea. Each of you can choose a class and level it up and saving those points and move and overly leveling one class up is the way forward. The later skills available at the top of the class tiers are where they truly shine with items unlocked to change the way you play. Shaped charges, saws and even just the ability to place two medic kits all mean the play styles can be tweaked. Early on with the rate players rank up it is easy to think the skill points are expendable but later on when perks cost 12 skill points a pop and leveling takes a lot longer wasting point sin other tiers becomes costly. If you have already spread points around you can get them back by respecting classes but this will lose you cash. Thus if it can be avoided by choosing a class at the start try to.
Pesky Pedestrians
Many early heists I attempted were scuppered by pedestrians wandering outside of heists and witnessing guys in masks robbing a store or bank. The Jewellery Store robbery is probably the mission you will find most annoying when it comes to pedestrians with some happily strolling the sidewalks even taking phone calls just opposite the store. Leaving a man behind isn’t normally a good approach but in this case it is. Someone outside that can cable tie the pedestrians outside swiftly stops the problem and can allow for and easy in and out, snatch and grab style, heist that is perfect for quick money, experience and cards.
Hopefully these five hints and tricks will enable new players to skip the calamities I and many other gamers have experienced. Good luck and I hope you earn a lot of money robbing banks, smashing stalls and throwing coke onto speedboats!