Building Your Criminal Enterprise: A Payday 2 Strategy Guide

Sure, you could just waltz into that bank guns blazing, but why go Leroy Jenkins during a heist when a calculated plan could buy you more precious time to loot the security deposit boxes in the vault? Overkill's Payday 2 gives you the freedom to go about your illicit business any way you want, but smart (and rich) criminals make calculated plans to maximize their profit. We asked game director David Goldfarb to share some of his strategies to making it out alive (and rich). 

Practice Your Knots, Or How You Oughta Manage Civilians
Any self-respecting bank robber has to know what to do with civilians. Civilians have great value in a takedown but you don't want them roaming around and causing trouble. They'll run to the cops. They'll make phone calls. They'll scream at any little thing. All bad. Use those cable ties and tie 'em up. That way, they're nice and  out of the way so a stray bullet won't make your life complicated or expensive.  Plus the cops will have to delay their assaults to deal with the wrench you just threw into their plans. Now if you just have to cap a civilian, be prepared for intensified police response and the attendant cleaner cost.

Thou Shalt Remember Thine Deployables
Only a rookie forgets he or she is carrying a medic bag that could save your buddy from bleeding out. Don't be that rookie. Make sure you deploy your kit - it ain't doing you any good on your shoulder. Also, if you've got a sharp eye, you can see the type of deployable your crew's carrying. And prepare for the job you want to have. It's like dressing for success, only with guns. If you know you're going into a high-combat/no-civilian area, unless you have picked up ECM feedback, you probably don't need Jammers. Probably...

Stealth Is Hard
Starting out, everyone thinks they can just waltz into a bank and get everyone on the ground and no one's going to get hurt. This is highly unlikely. Expect to fail, and expect to learn. Doing a real takedown takes professional coordination and timing. Think about the composition of your team, their skillsets and their personalities. You don't want some fool to go all Waingro on a room you've exhaustively checked and rechecked. Rome wasn't robbed in a day.

Greed is Good, Until It Kills You
When you go in on a job, you're there for one thing: loot. Whether it's drugs, cash, gold, jewels, or, you know, outsider art, getting the minimum amount of loot back to your escape vehicle is, as you might expect, the very minimum you need to do to get paid. A good criminal goes above and beyond the call. Sure you could take three paintings and complete the job - but why not stay behind and get a couple more? There's the rub. The longer you stick around, the fiercer the heat gets. And the fiercer the heat, the more likely you won't make it out of there alive. A pro knows when to hold 'em and when to fold 'em. Know when to walk away, is our advice, and you'll get that payday. That said, there's always loose cash and other valuables secreted around a place. Keep your eyes open and maybe you walk away with a lot more than a less eagle-eyed crook would.

Do Your Homework!
The casing mode, before you mask up, is there so you can suss out the place you're hitting before the defecation hits the oscillation. It might not seem like it's useful since you can't interact with anything - but it provides you with the key to any successful heist: information. You can identify guards, camera and vault placement, civilian spawns, and any scenario-specific items that might give you an advantage or be necessary to leverage when you mask up. The best jobs are jobs you prepare for. Use that case wisely. You might just get away with everything.