This guide is very long, so use of Ctrl + F is recommended.

Thanks a lot to everyone for using this guide. This took countless hours of work to put together and requires even more work to keep it up to date. I hope you can spare 3 seconds to give it a rating if you found it useful, because it really helps!

~KarmicChaos


In order for this guide to not alienate new players, the following list will break down all the terminology and abbreviations used frequently in this guide or by the community.

• Root Skill: The leftmost skill on a skill line (the one that can be aced by spending 2 skill points).
  
• Mastery Skill: The rightmost skill on a skill line (the one that can be bought without buying the basic root skill).
  
• Recovery Armor: After taking damage, your armor bar will have a red flashing portion of armor which we refer to as "recovery armor." This is the chunk of armor that can be recovered via skills or by not taking damage for a few seconds.
  
• Assault Intensity / Assault Tier: Refers to a particular game mechanic that makes assaults more difficult as you progress throughout a heist. See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers
  
  
• Meta: Short for "meta-game." The meta is a strategy, loadout, or playstyle that is considered by the larger community to be the most optimal and efficient way to achieve victory in a game, but is not always necessarily the most fun. For example, something "being meta for loud" would mean that it is part of "the meta" for loud gameplay.
  
• Proc: Short for "process" or "procedure." When some item, effect, or event "procs" or "is proccing," that means it has occurred/activated or is occurring/activating respectively.
  
• Anti-Synergy: Two things have a synergy if they interact to produce a combined effect that is better than the sum of their separate effects. An anti-synergy is the opposite of this concept, where two things interact to produce a combined effect that is worse than either of their separate effects alone. In other words, you would be better off using one or the other, because using both makes their effects cancel out.
  
• Stacking: When effects "stack," it means they can both be applied or active at the same time. This is usually used to clarify whether or not the same effect can be applied to the same target multiple times.
  
  
• "~": Short for "about / approximately." Numbers with this symbol might not be exact, and could be slightly off.
  
• NPC: Short for "Non-Player Character." This refers to cops, guards, civilians, and employees. This does NOT refer to the bots that take the role of other heisters if you are playing alone.
  
• RNG: Short for "Random Number Generation." RNG is used by video games to make things unpredictable, such as what enemies will do, or where items will spawn. Gamers will frequently use "RNG" to refer to this process in a way that is similar to the word "Luck," such as referring to something beneficial as "having good RNG."
  
• HUD: Short for "Heads Up Display." This is the name for the overlay in a video game that tells the player things like health, ammo, and armor.
  
• UI: Short for "User Interface." Similar to the HUD, but also includes menus and other things the player interacts with outside of regular gameplay.
  
  
• NRFTW: Short for the heist "No Rest For The Wicked."
  
• Civ: Short for "Civilian."
  
• Cam: Short for "Camera."
  
• kc: Short for "Keycard."
  
• ADS: Short for "Aim Down Sights / Aiming Down Sights."
  
• AoE: Short for "Area of Effect."
  
• FoV: Short for "Field of View."
  
• LoS: Short for "Line of Sight."
  
• HP: Short for "Health Points."
  
• DMG: Short for "Damage."
  
• AP: Short for "Armor Penetration."
  
• RPM: Short for "Rounds per Minute."
  
• AR: Short for "Assault Rifle."
  
• SMG: Short for "Submachine Gun."
  
• 2p: Short for "2 player(s)."
  
• P1 / P2: Short for "Player 1" / "Player 2."

This guide will be regularly updated with new information for the foreseeable future. Below are a list of major changes that have been made as well as a to-do list of planned changes for the future. Small changes are not listed in the changelog. Please only leave a comment suggesting topics to cover in the guide if you've checked to see if it's in the guide, as we probably already covered (or are planning to cover) the topic.

Changelog:

• 10/19/23 - Guide published
  
• 10/20/23 - Add base reload times, thermal lance, breaching equipment pics.
  
• 10/21/23 - Add AP formulas, armor hardness, custody times/penalties/respawn supplies.
  
• 10/24/23 - Add weapon mods with numerical stats, stat descriptions.
  
• 10/25/23 - Add corpse carry mechanics, weapon recoil patterns, section on recoil/gunkick/spread.
  
• 10/26/23 - Add NRFTW (stealth) walkthrough.
  
• 10/27/23 - Add Dirty Ice (stealth), Rock the Cradle (stealth) walkthroughs, weapon mod pics.
  
• 10/28/23 - Add "Hack & Smack" exploit.
  
• 11/2/23 - Add Under The Surphaze (stealth) walkthrough, new 1.0.1 enemy behaviors; Remove patched exploits.
  
• 11/3/23 - Add Gold & Sharke (stealth) walkthrough, Strategist synergies, sections on favors, weapon EXP.
  
• 11/5/23 - Add Dirty Ice (loud), Touch The Sky (loud) walkthroughs.
  
• 11/6/23 - Add new 1.0.1 favors.
  
• 11/7/23 - Add Under The Surphaze (loud) walkthrough, Blast Shield synergy.
  
• 11/12/23 - Add 99 Boxes (stealth), Touch The Sky (stealth), NRFTW (loud) walkthroughs.
  
• 11/13/23 - Add Rock The Cradle (loud) walkthrough.
  
• 11/14/23 - Reorganized exploits into their own new sections. Add "Infinite Marking" exploit, Gold & Sharke (loud), 99 Boxes (loud) walkthroughs.
  
• 11/30/23 - Add new 1.0.2 skills/heists/balance changes. Remove patched exploits.
  
• 12/2/23 - Add armor lining recovery speeds, table of heist IP rewards, Turbid Station walkthrough.
  
• 12/3/23 - Updated walkthroughs except for Touch The Sky. Add Cook Off walkthrough.
  
• 12/6/23 - Updated Touch The Sky walkthroughs. Add Camera Drone section.
  
• 12/8/23 - Add sections on "How to Cook Meth" & armor chunks.
  
• 12/12/23 - Add new 1.1.0 skills/weapons/heist/balance changes/enemies, section on Consumables, missing pics for enemies.
  
• 12/13/23 - Add Syntax Error walkthroughs.
  
• 12/15/23 - Add ammo pickup for mag mods, new DLC weapon mods.
  
• 12/20/23 - Add enemy respawn timers.
  
• 3/28/24 - Add new 1.1.2 skills/armor and skill/weapon changes. Updated Security Modifiers.
  
• 3/29/24 - Remove patched exploits.
  
• 3/30/24 - Add section on Adrenaline. Updated enemy spawn mechanics.
  
• 5/31/24 - Add sections on Shock Grenade, Tactical Drone, new 1.1.4 security modifiers/skills. Updated Techie and Drones. Re-added missing pics.
  
• 6/1/24 - Add drone HP/armor values, Tactical Drone pic, sentry hacking. Updated Heists IP section for 1.1.4.
  
• 6/2/24 - Add C-Stack cost-efficiency table, stealth exploit. Updated walkthroughs.
  
• 8/25/24 - Add sections on Cops, Donuts, Trip Laser. Updated armor, consumable carrying, and health/adrenaline mechanics. Remove some patched exploits.
  
• 8/26/24 - Add missing weapons. Update all skills & weapons for 1.3.0.
  
• 8/27/24 - Add triggers & IP rewards for Houston Breakout.
  
• 8/28/24 - Add stealth walkthroughs for Houston Breakout, Diamond District.
  
• 8/29/24 - Add magazine table, missing weapon pics.
  
• 8/31/24 - Add basic heist info & stealth walkthroughs for Diamond District, Houston Breakout, Boys in Blue.
  
• 9/1/24 - Add loud walkthrough for Diamond District.
  
• 9/3/24 - Add loot bag list to each heist.
  
• 9/9/24 - Add missing recoil patterns, fix major error (recoil & gunkick were swapped).
  
• 9/14/24 - Add common & uncommon enemy damage stats. Reorganize the guide.
  
• 9/15/24 - Add most special enemy damage stats. Fix broken images.
  
• 9/16/24 - Update for 1.4.0 balance changes & fixes mentioned in blog.
  
• 9/20/24 - Add new weapons, more weapon stats.
  
• 9/21/24 - Add M135, section on critical health.
  
• 9/22/24 - Add basic heist info & stealth walkthrough for Fear & Greed.
  
• 10/1/24 - Add missing assault mechanics across multiple sections.

To-Do:

• Test & add section on stun/stagger mechanics.
  
• Test & add section on movement speed.
  
• Create walkthroughs for Boys in Blue, Houston Breakout, & Fear and Greed.
  
• Rewrite NRFTW stealth walkthrough.
  
• Rewrite weapon attachment sections.
  
• Investigate which heists reward which heist-specifc favors (it may not be as random as previously thought).
  
• Section on bot behavior (low priority)
  
• Test & update unconfirmed bits of guide, missing numbers, percentages
  
• Per-heist diagram of guard patrols, item/loot spawn locations, etc. (can't be done until we have a map or freecam)

In stealth, the main threats to blowing your cover are cameras, guards, and civilians. Each of these are described in more detail below.

1 HP // 0 Armor
~20m detection range

Civs are split into two types: civilians (pictured on the left) and employees (pictured on the right). The only way to visually distinguish between them is how formal their clothes are, with civilians typically wearing casual clothes and employees typically wearing formal clothes or construction vests. When this guide refers to "civs", it generally means both civilians and employees (unless employees are explicitly mentioned, in which case we are referring to them separately).

Employees will call security if they see something amiss, which takes them a full 10s, after which they will return to what they were doing. Civs are harmless to the player, but will panic at the sight of a masked heister. If a scared civ can make it outside of the map, they will call the cops, which instantly sounds the alarm.

Civs can be taken as hostages, traded for supplies, and used as human shields to deter cops from shooting at you. When holding a hostage as a human shield, you move slower, can only use your secondary weapon, and take longer to reload, but cops will only shoot at you if they are sure they won't hit the civ, leading to you taking a lot less damage from the front. Common enemies who are close enough will run up to you and attempt to stun you with a melee attack, making you drop the civ you were holding as shield.

Killing a civilian (or other enemy that is taken as a hostage) incurs a cleaning cost to the person who killed them. This is a decent amount of money that is deducted from your payout at the end of the heist, and can pile up fast if you kill a lot of hostages. Killing a hostage will also increase the amount of time you spend in custody. You can pick up and relocate a civilian's dead body to hide it in a better spot, but while carrying a body you cannot crouch or sprint.

100 HP // 0 Armor
~20m detection range



There are a certain number of guards in each heist, each with their own unique patrol pattern. Higher difficulties may add more guards and change up certain patrol patterns to be less forgiving. Guards will regularly walk between certain spots on their patrol route, stopping for several dozen seconds at each spot. They will sometimes stand still, wander in circles, go on their phone, or smoke a cigarette while they wait at these spots, but each behavior is tied to each specific spot; If a guard smokes when he reaches a certain spot in his patrol, he will always stop to smoke there. Learning these waiting animations can give you a heads up to know when a guard is about to move on to the next spot in his patrol.

If a guard is unaware of you, you can sneak up behind him and grab him as a human shield, just like you can with a civ. Doing this will allow you to choke him for a silent kill, known as a "takedown." If you kill or takedown a guard, hold one as a shield for long enough, or force a guard to surrender, their radio will go off after 10s. If a heister then interacts with the guard's body, they will take several seconds to answer the pager. You can answer a guard's pager while you are carrying his body.

You are only allowed to answer a limited number of radios in a heist. If you use up all your radios, the next radio you answer will instantly sound the alarm. If you instead let the next radio go unanswered, the heist will enter search mode, or if the heist was already in search mode the alarm will sound.

Failing to answer a radio, or starting to answer a radio but releasing F before you finish, will reduce the amount of radios you can answer by 2. It will also cause the closest guard to come investigate the spot where the pager was when you failed to answer it. If you move the body before the next guard arrives, he will simply look around before returning to his regular patrol.

If a guard spots something, it will only take him 3s to radio in to sound the alarm or initiate search mode.

After the alarm sounds, guards will continue to fire at the heisters until the assault indicator says "First Responders Incoming", at which point all guards will surrender, obeying all the same rules as a civilian hostage for the rest of the heist (including the penalties for killing them).


Has identical stats to regular guards.


The lead guard is an extra troublesome guard that only spawns on a heist with the "Lead Guard" security modifier. Only one lead guard will spawn. The lead guard is identical to a regular guard in almost every way, having only two differences: An infinite radio & an extremely unforgiving patrol path.

If the lead guard is killed, his radio will go off after a short delay like a normal guard, but once it is answered or ignored, a new timer will start for 70s, after which his radio will go off again. This process repeats infinitely, draining your radio uses the longer the lead guard is dead. For this reason, it is generally recommended to leave the lead guard alive if attempting to stealth.

In addition, the lead guard has a carefully crafted patrol path that is designed to screw over the player much more than a regular guard. He patrols across important areas across the heist, and will regularly enter rooms and paths that heisters are likely to hide in. Many of his patrol spots exist in rooms that no other guard ever visits, turning rooms that are usually safe into unsafe hiding spots. His patrol route will frequently update to include new patrol spots when certain objectives are completed or new areas are unlocked.

A common way to deal with the lead guard is to stick a micro cam or a motion detector on his butt. The micro cam can be used to mark him at any time, and the motion detector will keep him marked permanently. This will let you know where he is at all times, helping you to avoid getting caught by his unusual patrol path.


100 HP /// 0 Armor
~20m detection range


Cops (not to be confused with first responders) are currently exclusive to the Boys in Blue heist. Cops act almost identically to guards in stealth, but have identical combat stats to that of a first responder. The main difference in stealth is that cops will not put the heist into search mode if they find something suspicious - They will immediately call to sound the alarm if they cuff a player or see a sabotaged object/bag. A red scope icon with a skull will appear above them when they are calling for the alarm, notifying heisters to eliminate them before their call goes through.

Unlike guards, cops will not surrender once the heist goes loud, instead continuing to pursue the players. Just like with first responders, damaging or approaching a cop will still skip negotiations, but since cops will continue to pursue you during this time, negotiations will usually be accidentally skipped unless you manage to kill all cops before negotiations begin.

First Responders (not to be confused with the "Cop" enemies) are the police that pull up in police cars when you initially go loud. The negotiation period starts when they arrive, but will be skipped if anyone in your crew takes certain actions (See "Negotiations" in the section Loud - Hostage Mechanics). The first responders will advance to attack with the first assault wave, but are very weak, and no more will spawn once they are killed.

Common SWAT enemies are simply the cannon fodder that you will find yourself up against for most of the heist. There is a limit to how many common enemies can be on the map at once (unconfirmed amount, but it seems to scale with difficulty?).

150 HP // 70 Armor
Armor Hardness: 1.5



SWAT units are the armored cops that you will be fighting most of the time. They have set locations on each heist where they can spawn, but will always choose to spawn from spots that are nearby to the players. Some SWAT units wield an SMG (pictured on the left), others wield an AR, and others wield a shotgun. SWAT with different weapons can be differentiated by what is on their chestpiece and the badge on their shoulder; A white badge & red shotgun shells mean they have a shotgun, a white badge & smaller chestpiece with large magazines means they have an AR, and a yellow badge & larger black chestpiece with small magazines means they wield an SMG. Shotgun SWAT will switch to a much weaker pistol if there is a hostage nearby to their target.


150 HP // 170 Armor
Armor Hardness: 1.5


Heavy SWAT units will spawn instead of regular SWAT units once the heist reaches assault tier 3 (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers). They deal the same damage and have the same health as a regular SWAT, but have increased armor and are notably more accurate. Despite having more armor, they still have the same armor hardness as a regular SWAT. Heavy SWAT can spawn with an SMG (pictured on the left), an AR, or a shotgun, just like regular SWAT. Note that Sabotage Specialists and Hostage Rescue Units are also replaced by their Heavy SWAT counterparts once the assault reaches tier 3.


Has identical stats to regular/heavy SWAT.


Hostage Rescue Units (HRUs) periodically spawn in groups of up to 3, and only 3 hostage rescue units can be on the map at once. They spawn as long as there are hostages on the map that are tied down, and Shade will announce when they spawn in, giving you time to react. Just like regular SWAT, they can spawn with an AR, SMG, or shotgun, and have Heavy SWAT variants for tier 3.

Instead of pursuing the heisters, they will seek out cowering or tied up hostages on the map and set them free. When a hostage is being targeted by a hostage rescue unit, the hostage's outline will be visible through walls. Upon reaching the hostage, they will begin to help them up, at which point the hostage rescue unit will also be visible through walls. If they are killed before they can finish freeing the hostage, the hostage will remain tied up/cowering, but if they are successfully freed, the hostage will be immune to damage and will flee while ignoring all attempts from heisters to intimidate them.


Has identical stats to regular/heavy SWAT.


Sabotage Specialists periodically spawn in groups of up to 3, and only 3 sabotage specialists can be on the map at once for most heists (more can spawn on certain heists like Cook Off). They spawn as long as the heisters are performing an objective that can be sabotaged, and Shade will announce when they spawn in, giving you time to react. Just like regular SWAT, they can spawn with an AR, SMG, or shotgun, and have Heavy SWAT variants for tier 3.

Instead of pursuing the heisters, they will go out of their way to sabotage objectives by doing things like pulling fire alarms or disabling power boxes. When a sabotage specialist is mid-sabotage, they will have a glowing outline that can be seen through walls, and a waypoint is placed on the object that they are sabotaging. If they are killed quickly after this happens, their sabotage attempt will fail. Note that normal and Heavy SWAT units can also sabotage some objectives that use basic equipment like drills, but they are less likely to do so.

Uncommon enemies spawn alongside common enemies, but spawn much less frequently and have specific roles to give the common enemies an easier time filling you full of lead. Each type of uncommon enemy can spawn in groups of up to 2 copies of that enemy. Uncommon enemies can be marked just like specials, but do not count as specials as far as skills are concerned, and will not count towards the max specials cap (they have their own spawn caps).


160 HP // 180 Armor
Armor Hardness: 2.0
Respawn Time: ~30s (?)

Shield Stats:
Visor HP: 250
Visor Hardness: 1.75
Shield Hardness: 3.0



Shields spawn in groups of 2 alongside common SWAT, but only 2 Shields can be on the map at once (this cap increases along with the max special cap). Their primary role is to use their Shield to protect common enemies from oncoming gunfire, but they do come equipped with a pistol to deal damage. Common enemies and some specials will line up behind the Shield as he advances in order to take advantage of the mobile cover he provides. Shields will use a melee bash if you get too close, which deals no damage but stuns you for 3.5s. Shields are completely immune to the light stagger inflicted by heister melee attacks. A flashbang or grenade will cause the Shield to face the explosion to block it, giving you an easy opportunity to kill him.

They have a small visor on their shield that can be shot out in order to fire at the enemy directly, but this visor also has its own HP and hardness value. The literal shield (not the enemy, the object) also has a hardness value, but unlike armor hardness, shots that manage to pierce the shield or visor do not deal reduced damage. This means a shot only needs to be over 0.75 AP to ignore the visor completely, and over 2.0 AP to ignore the shield completely.


40 HP // 0 Armor
Respawn Time: 45s



Snipers spawn in groups of 2 outside of the playable area, but only 2 Snipers can be on the map at once (this cap increases along with the max special cap). They will pick a heister to aim at and point their laser at them, firing after a small delay to take out a massive chunk of armor or health. Unlike most sources of damage, a single Sniper shot can destroy multiple armor chunks at the same time!

Snipers will not miss unless you are sprinting laterally, but by breaking LoS just before they fire, the bullet can be blocked by the environment. Their shots don't follow the same path as the laser, so if the laser is blocked by the environment, the bullet can still hit you if you have LoS to them. If they lose sight of their target for too long, they will switch targets or simply stop aiming if they can't find anyone to shoot. Snipers do not drop ammo when killed. If you manage to get close enough to a Sniper, they may switch to their weaker pistol while you are close.

When a sniper shoots, the bullet will hit the first player it comes into contact with, even if it wasn't their intended target. Note that they can shoot through human shields; Their bullets will pass right through your hostage.

While a Techie is hidden in the heist, techie drones will begin to spawn alongside regular SWAT units (See "Techie" in the section Special Enemies - Tier 2). They can also spawn from the same spots as a Cloaker, letting them do things like burst out of a vent in the ceiling! A mix of up to 2 techie drones can spawn at a time, and only 2 can exist in the heist at a given time. They can be shot and killed like any other enemy, can be marked like a special enemy, and will count as a "kill" for skills. Techie drones can't attack/hack while moving; they will hover in place.

If a techie drone comes within ~10m of a sentry turret and is not already targeting a heister, the drone will shoot a continuous arc of electricity at the sentry to hack it. Hacked sentries will be completely inactive until the drone is destroyed, and the hack will rapidly build up heat on the sentry, putting it in danger of overheating. Drones cannot attack and hack at the same time. It is unconfirmed whether 2 sentries can be hacked simultaneously by 2 different drones.

Activating an ECM Jammer will destroy all techie drones on the map, and will prevent more drones from spawning until the ECM is finished. Drones can also be hacked and sabotaged with skills such as Scrambler Basic.

50 HP // 50 Armor
Armor Hardness: 2.0


Combat drones are the only flying enemy in the game that can shoot, and thus can find new and unexpected angles to fire at the heisters from. They come equipped with a small machine gun that deals low damage, but shoots at the fastest ROF of any enemy in the game, making them a much deadlier threat than any common SWAT unit, especially on higher difficulties where they are much more accurate. Keep a close eye and ear out for them, and try to shoot them down quickly before they become a problem. Combat drones can sometimes blend into their environment when in front of dark-colored walls and ceilings or bright skies, so try to make it a habit to mark combat drones so your team can see them.


50 HP // 50 Armor
Armor Hardness: 2.0

Tactical Drones are flying enemies that will get close and use an AOE flash attack to debuff heisters. The flash attack hits everyone with LOS to the drone in a 10m radius. This flash attack removes your RUSH, GRIT, and EDGE buffs, and prevents you from gaining the buffs back for the next 20s. This can be extremely crippling to many builds, so watch out for them! They will make a loud beeping noise that gets faster and faster for 3s before each flash attack, so use that sound as your cue and either quickly eliminate the drone or get behind cover.

Tactical Drones hacked with Scrambler Basic will shock enemies with their attack instead of debuffing them, similar to an exploding Zapper battery.

300 HP

The FBI van is a unique type of special enemy. It can only spawn once per heist, and will usually spawn at the start of an assault wave (it might be tied to an objective trigger like other specials?). It can also rarely spawn in the middle of an assault wave instead, but when this happens, Shade will give you a heads-up before it spawns.

It can spawn on any difficulty, and has a higher chance to spawn the higher the difficulty is. It is incapable of spawning on certain heists, even on Overkill. It will spawn in one of a few set locations near the outskirts of the playable area. Shade will announce when it arrives, and will regularly remind you to take out its antenna.

While the FBI van is on the map, the police assault indicator will read "FBI Assault", and the assault will never end unless you destroy the antenna on top of the van. If the FBI assault lasts for longer than a regular assault, destroying the antenna will immediately end the wave.

During an FBI Assault, all Uncommon and Special enemy respawn cooldowns are reduced by 50s. This effectively means that while the FBI Assault is active, all Special and Uncommon enemies (except the Dozer & Techie) will be allowed to respawn as soon as they are killed. The special spawn cap is also increased by 1 during an FBI Assault (unconfirmed).

Special enemies spawn one at a time, and only one of each type can exist on the map at once. Only up to 2 specials can exist on the map at a given time (this is known as the special spawn cap), so it can be beneficial to leave weaker specials like the Zapper alive. On Overkill difficulty, this spawn cap is increased to 3, and the Combat Duo security modifier and FBI van can further increase this limit by 1 each, thus the highest possible special spawn cap is 5.

Any special (except the FBI van) can be marked by looking at them and clicking middle mouse.

As you progress throughout the heist, completing certain objectives will progress the assault's "intensity" to the next tier, which makes more types of special enemies start to spawn (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers).


The following special enemies spawn as part of assault tier 0, meaning they can start spawning as soon as the first assault wave starts. (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers).

150 HP, 140 Armor
Armor Hardness: 1.5
Respawn Time: 15s





When a Zapper gets within 12m of a player they are targeting, they will switch weapons to their yellow taser. If a Zapper has LoS to their target while within 12m, the taser will make a high-pitched windup noise to warn the player. If the windup sound plays for 1s uninterrupted, the Zapper will tase the player, which will apply an electric stun to that player for as long as they remain tased. You can interrupt the windup by breaking LoS or shooting, stunning, or staggering the Zapper. Note that Zappers will never target bots.

Being tased makes the player unable to move, reload, interact, use throwables, or switch weapons, and will restrict your ability to aim while making you fire your weapon at random. Tased players will repeatedly take damage directly to their adrenaline/health, completely ignoring armor.

If not in combat, Zappers will sometimes lay down up to 2 shock mines (pictured on the right). A player shooting or touching a mine will electric stun everyone within a 3m radius, stunning them for 3s. Zappers also have a yellow battery pack on their hip which can be shot to electric stun everyone in a 4m radius of him, along with the Zapper himself, for 6s. Unlike his taser, the Zapper's battery and shock mines do not deal any damage.

The following special enemies spawn as part of assault tier 1, meaning they start spawning after the heist's assault intensity reaches tier 1 (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers).

Since tier 1 objectives are usually very early in the heist, they are usually completed before the start of the first assault wave. In some rare cases, it can be wise to delay doing this objective until the first assault has started, in which case tier 1 specials will not spawn for the entire first assault wave. Note that this will not work on Overkill difficulty.


150 HP // 140 Armor
Armor Hardness: 1.5
Respawn Time: ~25s (?)


Naders can throw a grenade at the heisters every 13s. They will default to throwing gas grenades, but if there is a hostage where they are aiming the Nader will instead switch to throwing flashbangs in order to avoid harming the bystander. The gas grenades explode into an ~8m radius gas cloud that lasts for 10s. While inside a gas cloud you will not be able to sprint and will take constant damage directly to your health/adrenaline, ignoring armor.

Naders carry a belt of grenades on their chest, which can be shot to cause a ~5m radius explosion that staggers both enemies & allies, and can only be done once per Nader.

The following special enemies spawn as part of assault tier 2, meaning they start spawning after the heist's assault intensity reaches tier 2 (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers).

150 HP // 0 Armor
Respawn Time: 30s



Note that Cloakers will never target bots. Unlike in PAYDAY 2, Cloakers can still target players if they are the last one alive.

Cloakers are unique in that they are the only special enemy that does not spawn in the same locations as regular SWAT; They can spawn basically anywhere, even busting out of the ceiling. Cloakers are agile, run across walls, can quickly grapple up impossibly high jumps, and will frequently dodge your gunfire by sliding and doing flips as they charge at you. Cloakers will attempt to ambush a player by getting close without being seen, then charging at them at full speed. When a Cloaker initiates a charge at you, you will hear their iconic "wulululu" noise, which will get louder as they approach.

If a Cloaker reaches their target they will kick them in the face, instantly knocking the player to the ground. At this point the Cloaker will proceed to practice police butality on the subdued player, damaging the player's health/adrenaline directly, ignoring armor. If a Cloaker downs a player or comes across an already-downed player, they will cuff the player, which reduces the amount of time their team has to revive them to just 15s.

Both the charge and beatdown can be interrupted by staggering, stunning, or killing the Cloaker, making flashbangs helpful to unpin teammates if you can't get LOS. If they are subduing a player, that player will immediately get back up, but the Cloaker will immediately kick them back down once they recover, so act fast! Stunning a Cloaker with a flashbang will make them flail their batons around in panic, which not only looks hilarious, but it will actually still deal melee damage to a player's health and stun them if they get too close! They swing 5 times, with each hit dealing 15 HP damage, regardless of difficulty.

Cloakers also have the ability to pour acid on any deployable bags that were placed by players or bots, destroying them if he finishes the process. He will usually only do this when he finds an unattended deployable while far away from the heisters, so it can be difficult or unsafe to close the distance in time. The process of pouring the acid takes 7s, and while it is happening the Cloaker will be marked through walls, giving you an opportunity to react.


150 HP // 140 Armor
Armor Hardness: 1.5
Respawn Time: ~60s (?)

Refractor Shield Stats:
HP: ??
Hardness: 2.3 (?)




Note that Techies will spawn more frequently on the Syntax Error heist than on any other heist. (needs exact testing)

When a Techie spawns, she will behave like a regular SWAT if approached by a heister. She will try to make her way to the closest "hiding spot" in the heist, at which point she will set up a refractor shield to obscure her location (shown on the right). If you learn all of the Techie's hiding spots in a heist, you can quickly narrow down where she is hiding to kill her much faster. Note that she will always hide within 30m of a player, so she won't ever end up camping in a far corner of the map. The refractor shield can stop a few bullets before collapsing, but shots with at least 1.3(?) AP will pierce straight through it with no damage reduction (unconfirmed). Bots and turrets will still mark & shoot at hidden Techies, and on Normal/Hard difficulty Shade will also try to assist by permanently keeping Techies marked whenever they are hiding.

While hidden, the Techie will not move or attack, but a mix of up to 2 drones at a time will start to spawn alongside other SWAT units (See the section Enemies - Techie Drones). This will put pressure on the heisters to seek her out to stop the drones from spawning. Activating an ECM Jammer can buy you time to look for her, since it will destroy all drones and prevent more from spawning. Note that you can use the thermal scope on the Red Fox to locate her through walls.

Killing a Techie will destroy all techie drones that are currently alive, and like Dozers, she will drop an armor repair kit upon death. She can be stunned with flashbangs or sonic mines while hidden, but her drones will be unaffected. If a heister hurts her or gets too close to her while she is hiding, she will come out of hiding and attempt to reposition to a different hiding spot. This stops her from spawning more drones until she hides again, but all existing drones will still continue to attack as she flees. If the assault wave ends, the Techie will stop hiding and retreat with the other SWAT, but her drones will stick around.

If a player is within a 20m radius of a hidden Techie, their HUD will begin to visually glitch. This effect becomes more intense the closer the heister gets to the Techie. This can be leveraged to roughly locate her hiding spot if you are not sure where she is.

The following special enemies spawn as part of assault tier 3 meaning they (along with heavy SWAT) will start spawning after the heist's assault intensity reaches tier 3 (See the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers).

200 HP // 3500 Armor
Armor Hardness: 4.0
Respawn Time: 75s

Visor Stats:
Visor HP: 850
Visor Hardness: Impenetrable


Bulldozers (AKA "Dozers") will start spawning along with Heavy SWAT after a certain late-heist objective is completed. Dozers will spawn in much less frequently than other specials.

Dozers walk very slowly, but will start shredding you with their auto-shotgun once within 15m. If a Dozer has a clear path to a player he's targeting and is ~15m away (or he can't shoot because of hostages), he will perform a charge attack to quickly close the distance. This will deal significant damage and stun his target for 3s, which will give him plenty of time to unload tons of additional damage into the helpless heister. If he misses a charge, he will stumble forward for a bit before he can recover. (needs research?)

Dozers can also kick players that get too close, which deals the same damage and has the same 3s stun effect as the charge attack. This is especially brutal since in PAYDAY 2, the most effective way to kill a Dozer was to get up close and shoot him in his faceplate. Therefore, the most reliable way to safely eliminate a Dozer in PAYDAY 3 is to use the Red Fox to pick him off from a distance (which can kill him in just 2 bodyshots), or smoke grenades if he gets too close. Note that dozers will avoid firing their shotgun and instead stick to melee attacks if there are hostages in their line of fire. Use this to your advantage!

A Dozer's 3500 armor protects his body, while the faceplate protects his head. Shooting a dozer in the body can penetrate his armor if the shot has more than 3.0 AP, but shots can never penetrate his visor; It absorbs all damage regardless of AP. Shooting him in the body will damage his 3500 armor, but shooting him in the faceplate will deal full damage to both his faceplate's 850 HP and his 3500 Armor. Therefore it's best to focus fire entirely on his weaker faceplate until it breaks. Upon breaking the visor, you can headshot the dozer from the front. Each Dozer will drop 1 armor repair kit on death.

Dozers are completely immune to all forms of stuns and staggers. Sometimes he will taunt the heisters by pounding his chest, during which he won't retaliate and you can get some free hits on his faceplate.

~10m detection range

Cameras are operated by a central CCTV system in each heist; Hacking into one camera will give you access to all other cameras. Cams will rotate between looking to either side every 10s, and have a fairly big blind spot underneath them.

Most heists have a security room somewhere on the map that requires a blue keycard to enter. Inside you will find a stationary security guard at a computer which monitors the entire CCTV system for that heist. Interacting with this computer will give you to access the cameras, which can even be done while the guard is still at the computer by sneaking up behind him.

If the security room guard is killed or temporarily lured away from his computer, all cameras on the CCTV system will no longer detect anything for the rest of the heist. When this happens, the red camera LED lights will go dark and they will stop rotating from side to side. Cameras can still be hacked even after cams have been disabled.

For heists that do not have a security room, there will be some other method to access the CCTV system in the heist, such as the laptop in Turbid Station. Due to the lack of a security room, it is impossible to permanently disable cams on these heists. When paired with the Cerberus Core security modifier, this can make cameras extremely tricky to deal with.

Regular cams (pictured on the left) can be destroyed by a gunshot, throwing knife, explosion, the overload from the Hacker Aced skill, or even a melee attack. Titan cams (pictured on the right) are completely indestructible. If a security cam is destroyed, it can no longer detect anything or be hacked by heisters, and will be treated as a sabotaged object (see "Sabotaged Objects" in the section Stealth - What Counts as Illegal?).


Spotlight detection

A Camera Drone (AKA "Stealth Drone") is a special type of camera that only appears in certain heists. They will fly in a patrol pattern above a secure area, acting like a camera that can only spot things in the red spotlight beneath them. Their reactions to spotting things are identical to that of a normal cam, but they are not part of the heist's central CCTV system; They cannot be accessed via the CCTV computer, and are not disabled if the security room guard is killed.

Cam drones can be shot and destroyed like a regular camera, and are still destructible even with the Titan Cams security modifier. A destroyed cam drone is treated as a sabotaged object, just like a regular destroyed cam. Be careful, because unlike a regular destroyed cam, destroyed cam drones have physics when they initially fall out of the sky, and thus can sometimes bounce around and land in an unfavorable position.

When an NPC or cam sees something out of the ordinary, they will begin to "detect" it, which will make a "?" appear above their head. If you are the thing being detected, the "?" above the NPC will only be visible to you (not to other players), you will hear a sound effect, and a detection indicator will appear on your screen. The longer you are being detected, the more this indicator will fill up, until it is completely full.

Once an NPC has fully detected (AKA "spotted") something, the "?" will change to a "!", which can be seen by all players. The NPC will then react in some way depending on several variables, such as the type of NPC or security level. All of these reactions and what causes them are covered in the other parts of the Stealth sections of this guide.

NPCs and cameras will only be able to detect players if their head has Los to your head. Basically, if you can't see their head, they can't see you. If LoS is broken while you are being detected, the detection indicator will disappear from your screen, and will (invisibly) start to deplete for as long as you stay out of sight. If you are detected by the same NPC after breaking LoS, the indicator will appear and resume filling up from however full it was. Note that NPCs and cameras have a separate detection indicator for each player and object, so if an ally almost gets caught, you can sneak by right after without worrying about the NPC immediately spotting you.

Both NPCs and cameras can only detect things that are within a certain range of them, and only when they are actually looking in that direction. Cameras have a detection range of ~10m, and NPCs have a detection range of ~20m. Several things impact the rate at which you get detected (in other words, the speed at which the detection indicator will fill up). You will be detected slower if you do the following:

• Walk instead of running.
  
• Stand still instead of walking or running.
  
• Crouch instead of standing.
  
• Be as far as you can from the NPC or cam that is detecting you.

These all stack, meaning the best way to not get caught by someone looking in your direction is to get as far away as you can and crouch walk past them. You can even just crouch in a corner as an NPC walks right past said corner, then slip past them once they walk past you.

In stealth, the map is categorized into 3 types of areas: Public, Private, and Secure. Each of these 3 security levels has different rules for how guards, cameras, and civilians will act in response to spotting you trespassing. All of the responses listed below assume you have not masked up, since NPCs act the same regardless of security level once you are masked.

• Civilians will NOT detect you, even if you do something illegal. For some reason, they can still detect you picking up a zipline bag.
  
• Employees, guards, & cams will detect you performing illegal actions.

• Civilians will usually not be in private areas, and won't detect you trespassing.
  
• Employees will NOT detect you trespassing.
  
• Guards & cams will detect you for trespassing.
  
• If spotted by a guard, that guard will attempt to escort you back to a public area.
  
• If spotted by a cam, the closest guard will be notified to come investigate where you were spotted. If you escape before being spotted by the guard, once he finishes investigating the area he will radio to put the heist into search mode. Therefore it is best to let the guard catch & escort you (or a teammate) when a cam spots you.

• Civilians will never be in secure areas, but will detect you for trespassing.
  
• Employees, guards, & cams will detect you for trespassing.
  
• Employees will NOT detect you for trespassing or performing illegal actions if the Social Engineering skill is active.
  
• If a camera spots you, it will instantly sound the alarm.
  
• If a guard spots you, he will run over to cuff you, then radio to put the heist into search mode.
  
• If an employee spots you, they will radio for a guard to come investigate.
  
• If you sprint while in a secure area, one guard who can hear your footsteps will come over to investigate. They will follow your path up until you stopped sprinting and investigate where it sounded like you ended up. This can lead to a guard walking through a door even though you stopped sprinting just outside of the door.

If a guard hears a suspicious noise, they will break their patrol to go investigate. Guards can only hear noises made within ~13m of them, but cannot hear noises made in a sealed room (with all doors shut). Open vents & windows always count as "shut" when it comes to these sound mechanics, so a sealed room is still sealed even if you open all of the windows.

While a guard walks and investigates, they will have a triangular "!" above their head. If a guard hears multiple suspicious sounds, even if they were already investigating a suspicious sound, they will completely investigate each sound before returning to their patrol. The things that cause guard suspicion are:

• The impact sound of a throwing knife.
  
• A heister running in a secure area.
  
• An activated audio lure.
  
• The sound of a door lock being shot off.
  
• A heister opening a door by sprinting through it (even if the door is unlocked).
  
• The sound of glass breaking.

Note that destroying a camera with a throwing knife will not make a noise.

Guards will also investigate other, non-sound things that give them the same triangular "!" icon, but these are covered in separate parts of this guide, and they usually result in the guard taking some further action afterward.

Questionable actions/objects that are NOT ILLEGAL, SUSPICIOUS, OR SABOTAGED include:

• Grabbing/carrying a loot bag (while unmasked).
  
• Tossing a loot bag to a bot or teammate.
  
• Marking a guard, civ, or camera.
  
• Hacking a camera.
  
• Looking through your already-placed microcams.
  
• Closing window shutters.
  
• Unlocking doors (NOT the same as lockpicking, which IS illegal).
  
  
• Any placed tool, deployable, or favor.
  
• A Zipline Bag that has not yet been picked up by a player.
  
• A computer that has finished a hack (both before and after confirming the hack).
  
• A QR phone or kc left on the ground from a dead NPC.

Civs, employees, & cams cannot detect sabotaged objects.

Sabotaged objects (some of which are referred to as suspicious objects) include:

• Destroyed cameras
  
• Shot-off door locks
  
• Intact throwing knife (only possible with Retriever skill)
  
• A bag of loot or equipment on the ground (Zipline Bags only count once they have been picked up by a player).
  
• A computer mid-hack
  
• A broken or cracked window

If a guard sees a sabotaged object, they will run over to investigate, stopping the sabotage if possible (such as stopping a hack). They will then radio to put the heist into search mode. If the heist is already in search mode, the guard will investigate the sabotaged object, then go back to searching at no further penalty. This means players are free to sabotage as much as they like while in search mode.


Civs cannot detect illegal actions (but employees can).

Illegal actions include:

• Any action prompt marked with a red "!"
  
• Lockpicking
  
• Holding out a tool (preparing to place it).
  
• Being in a secure area.

Certain actions are illegal, and getting spotted while performing these actions will result in a guard coming to cuff you. The first time any player is cuffed, the guard who cuffed them will also radio to put the heist into search mode. Refusing to cooperate with a guard trying to escort you will also result in you getting cuffed.

Most illegal actions are specific to each heist, but you can tell which actions are illegal when unmasked due to the red "!" next to the button prompt. These will also say "(Observed)" if an NPC or cam is currently capable of detecting you if you performed said action.

If a guard, camera, or employee sees you performing an illegal action, they will start detecting you. Fully completing an illegal action prompt (the ones with the red "!") will cause any NPC or cam that was already detecting you to immediately spot you, regardless of how little the detection meter was filled. This instant detection mechanic still applies to some actions once masked, and these actions will still show a red "!" and "(Observed)" even while masked. Actions that lose the red "!" once masked do not have this mechanic for masked players.

Since lockpicking does not have a red "!", you can actually finish lockpicking while detected without triggering this instant detection mechanic. Similarly, if you are detected doing any illegal action AT ALL while you are being escorted, even holding out a tool for just a moment, you will be instantly spotted and cuffed the moment you start getting detected.

Once spotted, the NPC who spotted you will do the following:

• Cameras will instantly signal the closest guard to cuff you.
  
• Guards will run over to cuff you.
  
• Employees will take 10s to call security, which will signal the nearest guard to cuff you. They will then return to their previous behavior.

Illegal objects include:

• Cowering civs.
  
• Tied up hostages.
  
• Corpses

Corpses of guards & civs are functionally identical. When you carry a corpse, it is carried over your left shoulder, so upon dropping a corpse, it will drop on your left, face down, feet forward. Corpses are dropped parallel to the direction you are aiming, so looking straight down would spawn the corpse ragdoll standing upright, for example. Momentum does not transfer to dropped corpses like it does for loot bags. Try to use this knowledge to place corpses out of sight, and avoid placing corpses in ways that they clip through objects, as this can cause unexpected NPC behavior.

Corpses count as illegal objects, but will cause harsher reactions that will sound the alarm faster. Using the skill Pressure Points can partially mitigate this.

Upon spotting a hostage (cowering/tied up), NPCs will do the following:

• Cameras will immediately signal the closest guard to come investigate. If the called guard never finds the hostage, the heist will enter search mode (unconfirmed).
  
• Guards will run over to free the hostage, then will take 3s to radio to sound the alarm.
  
• Employees will take 10s to call for a guard to investigate, then return to their previous behavior as if they saw nothing.
  
• Civilians will become uncool, attempting to flee if there is no masked heister within 15m of them. If they escape, they will immediately call the cops.

Upon spotting a corpse, NPCs will do the following:

• Cameras will immediately sound the alarm.
  
• Guards will take 3s to radio to sound the alarm.
  
• Employees will become uncool, attempting to push a nearby panic button or call security.
  
• Civilians will become uncool, attempting to flee if there is no masked heister within 15m of them. If they escape, they will immediately call the cops.

Cams cannot detect uncool civs; Sentries can only be detected by guards.

Hostiles include:

• Uncool civs (NOT cowering civs, which are treated the same as tied up hostages)
  
• Masked heisters/bots
  
• Sentries

Since uncool civs do not get detected by cams until you shout at them, this means that you should hold off on shouting at civs that spot you until you are sure that no cams can see them.

Upon spotting a hostile:

• Cams will instantly sound the alarm.
  
• Guards will open fire if they have LoS to a sentry or masked heister. If they don't have LoS (or LoS is broken) they will radio to sound the alarm.
  
• Employees will become uncool, attempting to push a nearby panic button or call security.
  
• Civilians will become uncool, attempting to flee if there is no masked heister within 15m of them. If they escape, they will immediately call the cops.

If a guard cuffs a player, spots a sabotaged object, is hit by an infrasonic mine, is hacked when about to cuff a player, or fails to find a trespassing player that was spotted by a cam, that guard will take 3s to call on the radio in order to put the heist into search mode.

If you use up all of your radios and kill another guard, either answering his radio or leaving it unanswered will put the heist into search mode. This allows you to get away with 1 additional guard kill per heist, at the cost of entering search mode. If the heist is already in search mode, the radio will instead sound the alarm.

While a heist is in search mode, guards & cams will be on high alert. All guards will break from their regular patrols, instead searching through most of the map, never staying in one place for too long. Private areas will be treated like secure areas by guards and cameras (except guards still won't investigate if they hear you running). This means getting spotted by a cam will instantly sound the alarm, and guards will cuff you if you are caught trespassing. If the heist enters search mode while a player is already being escorted, that player will be immediately cuffed.

While in search mode, guards will still investigate suspicious noises and sabotaged items, although they will not take any further action once they are done investigating. This means it is safe for guards to spot things like loot bags or doors that have been shot open once the heist is in search mode.

This section contains currently known exploits that are useful in stealth, listed roughly from most to least useful. Note that any exploits that are specific to certain heists are instead listed in the respective section for that heist at the end of the guide. For loud exploits, see the section Loud - Exploits.

Exploits that might actually be intended gameplay features will also be labelled as such.

If you run out of HP you will be incapacitated, falling to the floor and being unable to move while only being able to fire your secondary weapon and throw throwables. This is known as "going down", or being "downed." When downed, enemies will ignore you until you fire a weapon or use a throwable, after which they will attack you. If you take too much damage when downed, you will lose your ability to shoot and use throwables. Note that remaining armor will "protect" you from taking damage while downed, but since armor is so valuable, it is better to save this armor by not shooting or throwing.

At any point when you are down, a teammate or bot can interact with you to "revive" you, getting you back on your feet. Reviving a teammate also gives them invincibility for 3s. If you are down for 30s without being revived, you are taken into police custody, at which point you will spectate your teammates and be unable to participate in any meaningful way. Depending on your armor lining, you can only go down a certain number of times before you are taken into police custody. These are referred to as "downs." If you have 0 downs left and go down again, you will be immediately put into custody. If you leave the game at any point while you are down, you will be put straight into custody upon rejoining.

Once in custody, you must wait out a "custody timer", after which you will automatically respawn on one of your teammates. The custody timer starts at 60/60/90/90s (depends on difficulty) but is extended by another 10/10/10/20s (depends on difficulty) for every hostage you killed before going into custody. Custody timers cannot exceed 150s, regardless of the amount of hostages you kill. If the assault wave ends while you are still in custody, a teammate can trade a hostage between assault waves to release you from custody immediately.

Upon being released from custody, your custody penalties from killing hostages are reset, & you respawn with:

• 50 HP
  
• Up to 2 downs
  
• Up to 2 mags worth of ammo for both guns
  
• Up to 1 throwable
  
• Half of your armor chunks, rounded up.

Based on the Armor Lining you have equipped, you will start each heist with some number of "Armor Chunks." Taking damage from any source except Cloaker melee, gas grenades, Zapper tasers, and fall damage will deal damage to your "current" armor chunk (unless you have Adrenaline).

Each armor chunk has 75 HP, but since damage taken to non-adaptive armor is reduced by 25%, each chunk has 100 effective HP (79 effective HP if using Adaptive Armor Lining). GRIT & other damage reduction buffs stack multiplicatively with armor damage reduction.

If not using Adaptive Armor Lining, ~35% of the damage you take will be "trauma damage," which is damage dealt directly to your armor (the blue part of your armor bar) with no opportunity to regenerate it. The rest of the damage is converted into "recovery armor", and is represented by the red, flashing portion of your armor bar. For all intents and purposes, this recovery armor does not exist; Any further trauma damage will reduce the blue part of your armor bar, and any additional recovery armor will be added to the recovery armor you currently have. If you take enough trauma damage for the blue part of your armor bar to fall outside of your current chunk, that chunk will break, and all recovery armor will be lost. Broken armor chunks can only be repaired by using an Armor Bag or the Clean Slate skill. Using an Armor Repair kit will fully repair any trauma damage in your current armor chunk.

Recovery armor can be converted back into armor by not taking any damage for a few seconds (based on the armor lining you have equipped), or through the use of certain skills. This encourages the player to seek cover after taking damage to preserve their recovery armor and not lose their current armor chunk. If your last armor chunk breaks, excess damage is ignored, meaning the shot that breaks your armor won't also deal damage to your health. Without armor, all damage you take is dealt directly to your health bar (or Adrenaline).

Adrenaline (AKA "Overheal") is a temporary type of health obtained by healing yourself above your maximum HP. First Aid Kits convert 50% of excess healing to Adrenaline, while Medic Bags convert 100% of excess healing to Adrenaline.

Adrenaline is represented by a green bar overlayed on top of your health bar, and taking any damage while you have Adrenaline will deal damage to your Adrenaline first; This includes damage from special enemies that ignore armor, which must also deplete your Adrenaline before dealing direct damage to your HP. Overhealing for Adrenaline can therefore not only be a great safety net to use before making aggressive plays, but it can be a great way to protect your armor for a while, such as if your current armor chunk is about to break before it can regenerate.

Adrenaline will slowly decay at a rate of 1 Adrenaline per 2s, but taking any amount of damage will pause Adrenaline decay for 10s (unconfirmed). Adrenaline decay can further be slowed by using Walking Tall.

With the exception of Medic Bags, all healing done to players is by a flat amount of HP, meaning that having a higher max HP does not result in more healing or adrenaline from any source of health except for medic bags. This logic also applies to Adrenaline; since it is easier to heal damage than to build up adrenaline, if given the option, use Medic Bags for adrenaline and First Aid Kits for health.


No matter what your max HP is, your last 30 HP is considered "critical health." Almost any form of damage taken to your critical health will be cut in half. Only Cloaker melee and sniper shots (unconfirmed) can ignore this critical health resistance. This resistance is calculated separately from other resistances, so it is multiplicative with all other resistances.

Critical health resistance will always be applied only to damage that reduces your final 30 HP. For example, if you were at 40 HP and took 20 damage, you would first take 10 damage, putting you at 30 HP, and then the remaining 10 damage would be cut in half, leaving you with 25 HP after taking the hit.

Consumables are small packs of resources you can find throughout a heist, obtain via skills, or obtain by trading. Using these consumables will restore some resource you have, similarly to using a charge from deployable bag, but will provide less benefits than a deployable bag (See the section Loadout - Deployables).

First Aid Kits or Armor Repair Kits can be picked up and carried with the player and dropped by holding Y, or consumed directly by tapping Y. Players can carry up to 3 (5 w/ skills) of one type of consumable at a time, so they can't carry first aid kits and armor repair kits simultaneously. Note that since consuming an item directly happens immediately, they can be used mid-fight with ease, unlike deployable bags which take time to deploy and use.


Restores exactly 50 health. Healing above your max HP will convert 50% of the excess healing done into Adrenaline.

Unlike Medic Bags, these heal for a flat amount instead of a % of your maximum HP. They also give less adrenaline.


Repairs trauma damage to your current armor chunk (fully refills it). Does nothing if all armor chunks are broken.

Unlike Armor Bags, these will not repair any broken armor chunks unless the player has the Clean Slate skill.


Restores ~15% of the player's max reserve ammo capacity for each weapon. Cannot be carried.

Unlike Ammo Bags, these restore less ammo and will not restore any throwables.


Donuts are a joke consumable that can't be carried, and can only be found lying on desks in certain heists. Consuming a donut will give/refresh EDGE, GRIT, and RUSH simultaneously. Individual donuts can be found and consumed while unmasked for a fun first person animation, but only have 1 use. Donut Boxes have 6 uses, but must be found somewhere in the heist and then deployed at a heist-specific location. Donut Boxes cannot be used by players until the heist goes loud. Currently (1.4.0) the only heist to have a donut box usable by players is Boys in Blue.

Police Assaults are divided into several phases, some of which have their own subdivisions. When a heist first goes loud, you will go through the negotiations phase (see the section Loud - Hostage Mechanics), after which the Anticipation phase will start, and the assault phases listed below will cycle on repeat (in the listed order) until the final charge starts. Final charge is essentially an endless Sustain phase (any differences between the two are unconfirmed).

• Anticipation
  "Assault Incoming"
  
  Lasts ~20s (?). You cannot trade during this phase, but the assault hasn't yet started. This is to give players a chance to get ready for the incoming assault.
  
  No enemies will spawn during the first anticipation after going loud, but any subsequent anticipation phases will allow cloakers to spawn. (unconfirmed)
  
  
• Assault
  "Police Assault"
  
  This is when most of the combat takes place. The assault phase is split into 3 parts: Build, Sustain, & Fade. In total, the assault phase can drastically vary in length.
  
  • Build
    Lasts ~35s (?). Enemies will begin spawning, with the amount of spawns ramping up as build progresses. By the end of the build phase, the cops will be spawning in at full force.
    
    Specials will not spawn during the first build phase, but any subsequent build phases will spawn specials & uncommon enemies.
    
    
  • Sustain
    WIP
    
    
  • Fade
    WIP
  
  
• Break
  "Police Regrouping"
  
  This is when you can trade for supplies & have an opportunity to get some objectives done before the cops come back. The break phase is split into 2 parts: Regroup & Wait, although they are functionally identical.
  • Regroup
    Regroup lasts ~15s(?). Enemies will stop spawning, and any enemies currently on the map will retreat back outside of the map and despawn. Getting close to or shooting at retreating enemies will still make them retaliate. Dozers, who are incredibly slow, take a long time to retreat, and as such may still remain a threat during the break phase if you get close to them.
    
    If you have Menacing, you can use the regroup phase to immediately trade your surrendered SWAT hostage before attempting to get another SWAT to surrender before they can escape the map, letting you get an extra hostage to trade.
    
    Cloakers can still spawn during this phase (unconfirmed).
    
    
  • Wait
    This phase varies in length based on the assault tier (unconfirmed), and gives you some time to get objectives done and trade hostages. Enemies will not spawn.
    
    Hostages traded during a Break phase (either Regroup or Wait) will spawn consumables or release teammates from custody (see the section Loud - Hostage Mechanics), but will also extend the Wait phase by a small amount. Each hostage traded will extend the Wait phase by 1s(?), but only up to 10 (?) hostages (unconfirmed). Any hostages you trade beyond that will only add 0.5s (?) each (unconfirmed).
    
    Cloakers can still spawn during this phase (unconfirmed).
    
    Once wait ends, anticipation will start again, repeating the cycle each assault wave.

Killing a Shield, Sniper, or special enemy will start that enemy's "respawn timer," during which that enemy cannot respawn. Only after the timer runs out is that enemy allowed to spawn back into the heist. More powerful enemies like the Dozer have longer respawn timers, while weaker ones can respawn frequently. Note that enemies are not guaranteed to respawn as soon as their respawn timer expires; Other conditions such as the specials spawn cap may delay them from spawning in. Note that in the case of uncommon enemies (Shields & Snipers), each copy of the enemy has a separate respawn timer.


All heists have a list of objectives that must be completed to finish the heist. Many of these objectives can be done out of order, well before the game tells you to do them, but they still maintain the same triggers. Therefore it is important to know which objectives can be done when, and what progress can be made without triggering events that will put the crew at risk.

Additionally, PAYDAY 3 uses a fixed-RNG system, so any information that you learn in one attempt will act as permanent progress that carries over to subsequent attempts. This means it can be beneficial to go loud when attempting stealth, such as to learn the code in Touch the Sky, or it can be a good idea to stealth when attempting loud to bypass objectives, such as to learn the keycard location and code in Gold & Sharke. This can sometimes be used to bypass certain event triggers entirely, though this is usually an unintentional oversight by the game developers.

The nuances of which objectives should be avoided and which have event triggers are covered in the "Heists" sections of the guide on a per-heist basis. Be sure to also read the section Loud - Assault Intensity & Tiers to learn about objectives that make special enemies spawn.

At the start of a heist, the only special enemies that will spawn are Zappers. As you progress throughout the heist, completing certain objectives will make more types of special enemies start to spawn. In this guide, we refer to this game mechanic as "Assault Intensity," refer to the parts of the heist where assault intensity increases as "Assault Tiers," and refer to the objectives that increase the assault tier as "Tiered Objectives." So when we say a "tier 3 objective," we specifically mean the objective that starts assault tier 3 after it is completed.

When the assault tier increases, new enemies do not begin spawning immediately; The special enemies only begin spawning at the start of the next police assault after the assault tier increases. This does not apply to the final charge (which starts immediately), or to Overkill difficulty - on Overkill, specials will start spawning as soon as the assault tier increases. On some heists, Overkill also has tiered objectives earlier in the heist. Research into this is ongoing, but for now the heist triggers listed in later sections of the guide may be inaccurate on Overkill for this reason.

This means, for example, if you are playing on Very Hard and complete the tier 3 objective right at the start of a police assault, you will not actually see any Bulldozers until that assault has ended and the next assault has started.

Note that since many heists allow you to do objectives out of order, it is possible to complete a tiered objective from later in the mission and skip tiers, which will also cause all specials from lower tiers to start spawning at the same time. This also applies to the final charge - starting the final charge will cause all specials & Heavy SWAT to start spawning immediately.

• Tier 0
  This is the tier that is active if no tiered objectives have been completed yet.
  • Zappers start spawning
    
  • Assaults last ?:??
    
  • Breaks last 40s (unconfirmed)
• Tier 1
  • Naders start spawning
    
  • Assaults last ?:??
    
  • Breaks last 40s (unconfirmed)
• Tier 2
  • Cloakers & Techies start spawning
    
  • Assaults last ?:??
    
  • Breaks last 30s (unconfirmed)
• Tier 3
  • Dozers & Heavy SWAT start spawning
    
  • Assaults last ?:??
    
  • Breaks last 20s (unconfirmed)
• Tier 4 / Final Charge
  • Starts the endless assault.

Note that when it comes to intimidation, bots do not count as other heisters.

Civilians and other hostages have two distinct behaviors in loud. If a hostage is standing, kneeling, running, holding their hands up, or crouching, this state is known as "scared" or "uncool." All hostages will be scared by default when the heist goes loud.

When scared, the hostage will attempt to flee as long as there are no heisters within 15m of them. As long as there is any non-bot heister within 15m, even through walls & floors, they will stop running away and simply freeze in place. If a heister or law enforcer fires a weapon near a scared hostage, they will crouch to get out of the line of fire.

If a heister looks at any scared hostage up to 30m away and middle-mouse clicks, they will shout at the hostage to get down, which intimidates them and any other scared hostages within 30m of the heister. All hostages that were shouted down will immediately curl up on the ground and remain still, which is known as the "cowering" state. Hostages can only be tied up when cowering, and tied hostages will remain on the ground until they are traded or rescued by law enforcement.

Once a hostage has been intimidated, if they are more than 15m away from the closest masked heister, they will remain cowering for only 5s before they stand up and return to their scared behavior. If any masked heister stands within 15m of a cowering hostage, they will remain cowering forever. If a cowering hostage had a masked heister nearby, the 5s cower duration gets extended to 20s; Once they no longer sense a heister within 15m, they will wait 20s before they stand up. This 20s timer can be reset by getting within 15m of them once again.

You can also melee attack any civilian to immediately intimidate them, even if they weren't scared and didn't know you were there. This is useful for quickly tying up civilians in stealth without needing to get spotted first.

On every heist (except stealth-only or loud-only heists), first responders will arrive shortly after the alarm sounds. Once the cops arrive, the heist will enter the "negotiations phase", during which you can trade hostages to delay the first police assault. Each delay gives you an additional 15s before the first assault starts. On most heists you start with 1:00 to negotiate, but this starting time can vary between heists.

Certain actions will immediately end negotiations, skip the rest of the timer, and start the first police assault. Doing any of these actions on harder difficulties is very frowned upon, as skipping negotiations provides no benefit and just serves to make the heist harder. Avoid doing the following actions during negotiations:

• Getting within ~5m of a cop or first responder.
  
• Dealing any damage to a cop, first responder, or hostage.
  
• Firing an unsilenced gun.
  
• Causing an explosion.
  
• Igniting a thermite rig.
  
• Entering one of a few heist-specific areas, usually just outside of the front door.

Each time you successfully delay the assault, you must wait between 5-10s before any more hostages can be traded, and the number of trades needed to delay again is increased by a fixed amount, depending on the heist. Heists with higher numbers of civilians will require more hostages to delay the assault multiple times.

For example, in No Rest For The Wicked, you must trade 1 hostage to delay the assault. Then you must trade 3 hostages for the next delay, then 5 for the next, and so on, with each delay costing 2 more hostages than the last.

After negotiations have ended, hostages can be traded between assault waves, during break phases. Trading a hostage between assault waves will provide the team with some benefit, all of which scale with Manipulator skills. This means, for example, if you have Manipulator Aced & trade 1 hostage to release a teammate from custody, that hostage will release up to 2 teammates from custody. Hostages will only provide 1 type of benefit, so it is not possible to release a teammate from custody and get a first aid kit from the same hostage. Below is a list of all possible trading benefits, in order of priority:

• (If a teammate is in custody) Release 1 teammate from custody.
  
• (If the last non-custody trade gave a first aid kit) Drop an armor repair kit.
  
• Drop a first aid kit.

Ignoring custody trades, each trade will alternate between giving some number of armor repair kits and some number of first aid kits. These trades are counted team-wide, meaning if your teammate just traded for a first aid kit, your next trade will be for an armor repair kit.

Additionally, trading hostages will very slightly extend the amount of time until the next assault wave (unconfirmed whether manipulator skills have an impact on this). (See the wait phase in the section Loud - Assault Mechanics)

The amount of damage each shot deals is based on your distance to the enemy and the weapon's stats. In PAYDAY 3, damage falloff does not occur linearly or exponentially, but instead the damage decreases in steps.

For each weapon in the Weapons sections of the guide, several ranges are listed for both the damage and headshot multiplier values. These listed ranges are distinct "steps", and can be thought of like distance thresholds for that weapon, with the amount of damage the shot deals only ever decreasing when your distance from the enemy crosses a new threshold.

For example, imagine a weapon with three listed steps:


If you were to shoot an enemy that was anywhere from 0-10m away using this weapon, you would deal 40 damage. If they were anywhere from 11-35m away, you would deal 30 damage, and if they were anywhere from 36-100m away, you would deal 10 damage. Damage only changes at specific range thresholds, which are the ones listed for each step.

Damage distance thresholds can be changed by weapon attachments, but the amount said thresholds change by are practically inconsequential (it would take multiple weapon attachments to change thresholds by just 1m).

Each shot you fire deals its full damage to the armor of any enemy it hits; A 100 damage shot will reduce the enemy's armor by 100. If a shot breaks an enemy's armor, all extra damage the shot would have dealt to their armor is ignored. If the enemy has no armor, the shot will just deal its full damage to the enemy's HP instead.

If a shot hits an enemy that still has armor, even if that shot breaks said armor, the shot also has the capability of dealing some percentage of the shot's damage directly to the enemy's HP while still dealing full damage to the armor. The amount of damage that is dealt to the enemy's HP is determined by the damage and AP of the shot, and the armor hardness of the enemy.

A higher AP means a higher percentage of the shot's damage will hit the enemy's HP, while higher shot damage simply means the shot does more damage (so the same AP on a higher damage shot will still do more damage to the HP). Therefore even with a lot of AP, the most damage that a single (non-headshot) shot can do is 100% of its full damage to HP and armor simultaneously.

To calculate how much of a shot's damage is reduced by armor, use the following formula:

(Armor Hardness - AP) * Damage of Shot = Damage Reduction

For example, lets calculate a point-blank bodyshot from the VF-7S against a Shield. That would be a 36.4 damage shot with 1.25 AP, and the Shield has 2.0 armor hardness.

(2.0 - 1.25) * 36.4 = 27.3 Damage Reduction

Thus the shot would deal 36.4 - 27.3 = 9.1 damage to the HP of the Shield. If it were a headshot, this 9.1 would be the number that gets multiplied.

When you shoot an enemy in the head, the amount of damage you deal to their HP is multiplied, so landing your headshots is incredibly important.

Headshot multipliers vary based on the weapon you fired and your distance to the target. Like damage distance, headshot multipliers are calculated in steps, with certain distance thresholds reducing the multiplier to the next amount listed in the Weapons sections of the guide. Headshot multipliers are only applied to HP damage, so they will not increase the damage of a headshot if it only dealt armor damage.

Headshot multipliers are applied after AP calculations, and only apply to the part of the shot that pierced the armor and did damage to the enemy's HP. For example, if you fired a 100 damage headshot with a headshot multiplier of x3.0, and 20% of the shot's damage pierced the armor, that shot would deal exactly 100 armor damage and 60 HP damage.

Reloading in PAYDAY 3 is much more complex than in other video games, as it has a "staged reloading" process. Every single weapon has several stages of reloading that can be interrupted to perform some other action, after which reloading will resume from the stage where it left off.

For example, if you were to start a reload, remove the magazine, then switch to another weapon, when you switch back the magazine would still be removed; You wouldn't need to start the reload again from the beginning. You'd then pick up where you left off in the reload process.

Most weapons also require the first bullet to be chambered before the weapon can be fired. This chambering action is done automatically as an extra stage or two as part of a reload, but makes the reload take longer to complete. This can especially be a problem on weapons like the KU-59, where just the stage of chambering the first round takes ~0.65s (A lot of time for an AR). The solution to this issue is what is known as "tactical reloading", which is the act of reloading before your magazine is empty. Since the chambered bullet does not count as a bullet in your magazine, this lets you refill your magazine while keeping a bullet in the chamber, letting you skip the reload stages for chambering a shot.

Note that by performing a tactical reload, your weapon will have an "extra" bullet counted in the magazine (i.e. If your gun uses a 20-round mag, a tactical reload will make you have 21 bullets in the gun). In the Weapons sections of this guide, this is listed as a "+1" next to the magazine size (so our example would have a 20+1 magazine size). Any weapons that do not list a +1 in their magazine size are incapable of a tactical reload. Weapons capable of a tactical reload also have their reload times split in a similar way, with the first number representing the base reload time, and the second representing the added time needed to chamber the first round (i.e. a weapon with a 2s reload and a 0.5s chambering speed would have a reload speed of 2s+0.5s).

Each batch of meth requires 1 of each ingredient:

• Muriatic Acid (Mu)
  
• Caustic Soda (Cs)
  
• Hydrogen Chloride (HCl)

Multiple of these can be found scattered around the map, and you can carry 1 of each ingredient at a time. It is best practice to collect the ingredients furthest from the meth lab first, as the closer ones are much safer to obtain later.

Cooking meth is a delicate process. Too bad you don't know how to do it, and neither does Shade. Once you find the meth lab, Shade will consult Bain's notes and attempt to tell you which ingredients to add next. She will sometimes tell you to add the wrong ingredient, so it is important to not immediately add ingredients until you are sure that they are correct. Adding the wrong ingredient will cause the meth lab to explode. This will deal considerable damage to nearby heisters & NPCs, and will prevent you from cooking any more meth, and in some cases will fail the heist. Ingredients cannot be added while the power is out.

No matter what, each batch of meth only takes 1 of each ingredient to cook. This means that you can always know ahead of time which ingredient should be added last, and can add it immediately without waiting for Shade to tell you the next ingredient. A common practice to take advantage of this is to have each player pick up a set of ingredients and take turns cooking each batch of meth, with the player that cooks not picking up any new ingredients until the batch is done. This allows the player cooking to know which ingredients still need to be added by looking at their inventory, and the final ingredient left in their inventory can be added as soon as the game lets them.

Each ingredient Shade tells you to add will pull from a pool of possible voicelines. In general, you can be sure that an ingredient is always correct unless she immediately second guesses herself.

Here are the possible voiceline "variations" to keep an eye out for:

• (Correct) Shade gives a long winded explanation of which ingredient to add.
  
• (Correct) Shade states something like "Checking the notes..." or "Hold on a second...", then pauses for a few seconds, then lists an ingredient.
  
• (Correct) Shade lists an ingredient, then pauses for a few seconds, then says something to confirm it like "Yeah..." or "I think that's right..."
  
• (Incorrect) Shade lists an ingredient, then immediately second guesses herself with something like "Hold on a second!" or "That wasn't right," then pauses for a few seconds, then lists the correct ingredient.

Note that the incorrect ingredient is randomly chosen, and can actually be correct sometimes, leading to Shade saying something like "Add Caustic Soda- Wait! ... Add Caustic Soda instead."

Also note that the variations where Shade pauses can be interrupted by other triggers and voicelines, leading to instances of her saying things like "Go ahead and add that." without ever listing a new ingredient. If this happens, just wait for her to list the ingredient again.

Once the final ingredient is added to a batch of meth, the meth will appear on a tray from which it can be bagged. Instead of bagging it, the heisters can choose to wait 16-20s for the meth to purify, which increases its value. Once meth purifies, it will make a loud crackling noise and turn blue, after which it must be bagged within 15s or it will burn, which decreases its value.

The purification process will pause while the power is out, which also means that already-purified meth will not get any closer to burning.

Since purification takes a while and the margin for error is a substantial 15s, it is considered rude on higher difficulties to simply stare at the meth and wait for it to finish purifying. It is better to help your team defend against the cops until you hear the crackling noise, after which you will have plenty of time to bag the meth. It only takes a glance to check if the meth is done purifying, and again, you have a full 15s to notice.

Purification adds a noticeable amount of time to the cooking process, which can make a huge difference over multiple bags. For instance, on Overkill difficulty, you can finish Cook Off with 3 bags before the 2nd assault wave starts, but only if you immediately bag all meth instead of letting it purify. If you bag unpure meth fast enough, Shade will actually skip straight to immediately listing the first ingredient for the next batch, saving even more time. Keep this in mind when trying to cook meth fast.

Note that if you are playing in a public lobby, it is best practice to say something like "3 bags & go" in the pre-heist lobby chat to inform other players ahead of time that you intend to speedrun the mission. Some people prefer purifying and cooking for as long as possible, and will get annoyed if you suddenly bag unpure meth and wait at the escape van.

This section contains currently known exploits that are useful in loud, listed roughly from most to least useful. Note that any exploits that are specific to certain heists are instead listed in the respective section for that heist at the end of the guide. For stealth exploits, see the section Stealth - Exploits.

Exploits that might actually be intended gameplay features have also been labelled as such.

In the main menu you can access the "Vendors" tab, where you can buy various things from vendors using cash or C-Stacks.

Gage's vendor tab is where you will be able to purchase weapons, preset weapons, weapon charms, paint schemes, stickers, and favors.

Preset Weapons are special variants of standard weapons, and come pre-equipped with set modifications, as well as a unique skin. Preset Weapons cannot be modified in any capacity. They can be useful for leveling up weapon levels without owning the standard version, but can be incredibly costly, often requiring tens of millions of dollars or hundreds of C-Stacks.

Weapon charms only need to be purchased once, and can be applied to any weapon an infinite number of times. These all cost C-Stacks, ranging from 20 to 300.

Gage also sells the medic, armor, ammo, and zipline bag favors for $10k apiece, which can be deployed in a heist by selecting them in the pre-heist lobby (see the section Heists - Favors).


C-Stacks are a special currency you must accumulate over time, and are used to buy inventory slots, some weapon attachments, special cosmetics, weapon presets, and more. You can obtain C-stacks by completing daily challenges for 30 C-stacks per challenge, or you can convert cash into C-Stacks via the vendor Setaggi.

You can buy C-Stacks in bundles of 1, 5, and 10. The exchange rate for any given bundle of Stacks gets worse the more stacks of that bundle you buy. The exchange rate of C-Stacks resets at the end of the timer, which happens at the start of every Monday at 12:00am UTC.


By doing some math, we can then get the following table to show how cost-efficient and time-efficient it is to stop buying each bundle at a certain amount every week. The optimal cutoff appears to be buying somewhere around 6-7 of each bundle per week, depending on how frequently you play (and how immediately you want more C-Stacks).

Your armor lining dictates how many armor chunks you have, how many times you can go down before being put into custody, how fast your armor recovers, and how fast you move. Each armor chunk can take 75 damage, but also provides some damage reduction depending on your lining, increasing the effective health of armor chunks to 100 (~79 for Adaptive Armor Lining). Armor damage reduction stacks multiplicatively with other sources of damage reduction.

• Light Ballistic Lining
  • 2 Armor chunks
    
  • 3 Downs
    
  • Recovers after 6s (4.8s with Tank Basic).
    
  • You run at ~6.5m/s
    
  • Damage taken to armor reduced by 25%.
• Medium Ballistic Lining
  • 3 Armor chunks
    
  • 3 Downs
    
  • Recovers after 8s (6.4s with Tank Basic).
    
  • You run at ~6m/s
    
  • Damage taken to armor reduced by 25%.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 8.
• Standard Lining
  • 1 Armor chunk
    
  • 4 Downs
    
  • Recovers after 4s (3.2s with Tank Basic).
    
  • You run at ~6.5m/s
    
  • Contrary to popular belief, this armor lining does not make you any faster than normal.
    
  • Damage taken to armor reduced by 25%.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 18.
• Adaptive Armor Lining
  • 2 Armor chunks
    
  • 2 Downs
    
  • Recovers after 6s (4.8s with Tank Basic).
    
  • You run at ~6.5m/s
    
  • Takes no trauma (permanent) damage until chunk breaks. Fully refills your current chunk each time it recovers.
    
  • Entire chunk counts as recovery armor.
    
  • Your armor bar appears purple instead of blue when using this lining.
    
  • Damage taken to armor reduced by 5%.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 26.
• Heavy Ballistic Lining
  • 4 Armor chunks
    
  • 2 Downs
    
  • Recovers after 10s (8s with Tank Basic).
    
  • You run at ~5.5m/s.
    
  • Damage taken to armor reduced by 25%.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 34.

You get to bring one deployable per heist, which can restock you and your teammates on supplies like health, ammo, or armor, or provide defense via the sentry turret. Deployable bags will restore supplies similarly to consumables found in a heist, but provide an extra benefit that cannot be obtained from consumables (See the section Loud - Consumables).

• Ammo Bag
  • Comes with 2 charges by default, which can be increased up to 8 with skills.
    
  • Without skills, each charge restores up to 2 throwables and 45% of the player's base max reserve ammo for each weapon.
• Medic Bag
  • Comes with 2 charges by default, which can be increased up to 8 with skills.
    
  • Without skills, each charge restores 1 down and up to ~40% of the player's max HP.
    
  • Healing above your max HP with a Medic Bag will convert 100% of the excess healing done into Adrenaline.
    
  • Medic Bags are the only source of healing in the game that scales with the player's maximum HP, instead of healing for a flat amount.
    
  • Medic Bags are the only way to restore downs without going into custody.
• Sentry Turret
  • Automatically targets and shoots any non-civ NPCs within 15m, in an arc of ~110 degrees in front of the sentry.
    
  • Deals 15 damage per shot.
    
  • The sentry is capable of aiming straight up or down, so long as the target is able to be spotted by the sentry and is within 15m.
    
  • The sentry will build up heat each time it shoots, takes damage, is electrocuted (by a shock mine/Zapper battery), or is hacked by a Techie until it eventually reaches max heat.
    
  • At max heat, the sentry will stop functioning.
    
  • Sentries can be picked back up and redeployed at any point, even after it overheats. Doing this will reset the heat back to 0.
    
  • Note that picking up an overheated sentry takes 2.5s, while picking it up before it overheats only takes 1s.
    
  • Unlocks by researching the root skill of the Engineer skill line.
• Armor Bag
  • Comes with 2 charges by default, which can be increased up to 8 with skills.
    
  • Without skills, each charge fully recovers all of the player's recovery armor, then restores up to 1 armor chunk's worth of trauma damage.
    
  • Armor bags are one of the few ways in the game to recover a broken armor chunk.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 2.

You get 3 of your selected throwable per heist, and can get more with certain skills or by interacting with ammo bags. All throwables except the throwing knife will cause an explosion loud enough to be heard by every NPC on the map.

• Frag Grenade
  • Explodes 3s after you press G, dealing 150/125/100 damage with 2 AP to you and any NPCs in a 4/5/8m radius.
    
  • Can explode before thrown.
    
  • The explosion can be blocked by Shields or walls.
• Flashbang
  • Explodes 3s after thrown, stunning non-civ NPCs in an 8m radius for 5s.
    
  • NPCs must have LoS to the flashbang to be stunned, but don't need to be looking at it.
    
  • This throwable excels in situations where you are fighting around hostages, as it doesn't run the risk of killing them.
    
  • The explosion can be blocked by Shields or walls.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 7.
• Throwing Knife
  • Throws a silent knife that deals 150 damage with 2.5 AP to a single target.
    
  • Makes a noise upon impact with the environment (See the section Stealth - Suspicious Noises). Can only lure 1 guard per knife.
    
  • Guards must investigate each noise, so throwing multiple knives will distract a guard for longer.
    
  • If the knife survives the impact via the Retriever skill, the guard who investigates will see the knife and radio to put the heist into search mode.
    
  • Using knives as throwable lures is considered a stealth meta, and thus this is the recommended throwable for stealth.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 16.
• Smoke Grenade
  • Explodes 3s after thrown, creating a smoke cloud that slowly grows to a 5m-radius, lasting for a total of 14s after detonation.
    
  • Any enemy attempting to shoot through the smoke - that is, if the smoke cloud breaks the enemy's LOS - will have a ~70% chance to miss and deal no damage. This stacks multiplicatively with other sources of inaccuracy, making it incredibly effective.
    
  • Enemies standing in the smoke cloud will not sprint until they leave the smoke.
    
  • Excellent for fighting Dozers, doing dangerous objectives mid-assault, holding a chokepoint, reviving teammates, and helping teammates revive you.
    
  • Smoke clouds are not blocked by walls, meaning that throwing a smoke grenade on one side of a thin wall will create a usable smoke cloud area on the other side of the wall. (needs testing)
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 27.
• Shock Grenade
  • Explodes ~1.5s after you press G, electrifying all enemies, players, and bots in a 2m radius with LOS to the grenade. Has no effect on civs.
    
  • Explodes 2 more times for a total of 3 explosions, each after another ~1.5s delay.
    
  • Each time any player/enemy is electrified, they chain electricity to all enemies/players within 2m of themselves (so long as they have LOS). This causes a chain reaction, effectively extending the range of the grenade's effects for each person it electrifies. Each chain of electrification can jump up to 7 times, and won't jump to someone already being electrified. This entire chain reaction happens instantaneously.
    
  • Enemies (and the player who threw it) are stunned for ~1.5s each time they are electrified. Allies can also be electrified, but will not be stunned.
    
  • Enemies (and the player who threw it) will are considered disabled when electrified, similar to being disabled by an exploding Zapper battery, meaning skills like Disengage and Code Blue can be used with Shock Grenades.
    
  • Shields, Techies, and Zappers (even after their battery is destroyed) are extremely conductive and will be instantly killed if shocked by a shock grenade. They will still perform the electrocution animation, so you may mistakenly think they are still alive when this happens.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 39.

Tools are a separate type of deployable that are centered around stealth gameplay. You have a limited amount per heist, and cannot get more (with few exceptions). They can be placed anywhere, and will stick to any surface.

• Microcam
  • You get 2 microcams per heist.
    
  • Once placed, you can tap E to access them through your phone to view their surroundings.
    
  • Viewing microcams on your phone is not a suspicious or illegal action, but placing a microcam is an illegal action.
    
  • Just like looking through CCTV, you can mark guards and ping locations through microcams.
    
  • Taking any damage will force you to stop looking through the microcams.
    
  • Can be used to track particularly annoying guards by placing a cam on their butt, then looking straight up/down and marking the guard through the microcam.
• Infrasonic Mine
  • You get 5 infrasonic mines per heist.
    
  • You can activate all of your placed mines simultaneously by tapping E.
    
  • When activated, silently stuns all NPCs in a 5m radius for 6s, even through walls.
    
  • If in stealth, when a stunned NPC becomes unstunned, civs will attempt to flee, employees will attempt to push a panic button or flee, and guards will radio to put the heist into search mode (or will do nothing if already in search mode). Shut them up fast.
    
  • A decent choice for loud, as they can be used like placeable flashbangs in a pinch.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 10.
• ECM Jammer
  • You get 1 ECM jammer per heist.
    
  • When activated, lasts for 15s, during which all cameras take 150% longer to detect things, and all guards take 66.6% longer to radio for the alarm or search mode.
    
  • In loud, all combat drones will be destroyed and no more will be able to spawn for the duration of the ECM.
    
  • Civs are unaffected by the ECM, and can still instantly sound the alarm by escaping or pressing a panic button.
    
  • The slowing effects stack with multiple active ECMs.
    
  • ECMs have unlimited range.
    
  • Dye packs will not detonate while an ECM is active.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 20.
• Motion Sensor
  • You get 2 motion sensors per heist.
    
  • When placed, automatically marks all NPCs in a 5m radius.
    
  • Can only mark 15 NPCs. Once all 15 have been marked, it stops functioning.
    
  • Can mark the same NPC multiple times if they leave the radius and re-enter. This counts multiple times toward the 15 mark limit.
    
  • NPCs that were marked by the motion sensor will stay marked as long as they are within its radius, even after the tool stops functioning.
    
  • Can be used to track particularly annoying guards by placing a sensor on their butt. This is less versatile than a microcam, but will make that guard always stay marked.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy 30.
• Trip Laser
  • You get 1 trip laser per heist.
    
  • When placed, produces a laser tripwire that extends up to 3m in front of the tool.
    
  • Enemies that pass through the laser will be marked. This mark lasts for 10s after they leave the laser. Enemies and allies will block the laser, meaning only 1 person can be hit by the laser at a given time; it does not "pierce" targets.
    
  • The mark duration can be increased with skills.
    
  • Can be retrieved at any time with Full Recall, even after it has marked enemies.
    
  • The Trip Laser can mark an infinite amount of enemies, and thus is recommended for loud since you can just place it in a chokepoint or in front of an enemy spawnpoint to reap its benefits for minimal effort.
    
  • Unlocks at infamy ??.

When you first start playing PAYDAY 3, you will only have access to a single weapon attachment for each weapon you unlock. Upon completing a heist, your equipped weapons get some "Weapon EXP" for each objective your team completed while you were in the heist. This means joining a heist at the very end gives you very little weapon EXP, but failing a heist will still give all weapon EXP you earned.

This means that heists that are dense with lots of quick and easy objectives in just the first few minutes, such as Turbid Station and Dirty Ice, are the best choices for grinding weapon EXP.

Accumulating enough weapon EXP on a weapon will increase the level of that weapon. Each time you level up a weapon, you unlock a new weapon attachment for all copies of that weapon you will own in the future. The amount of EXP needed for each level increases with higher levels, and the attachments are unlocked in a predetermined order for each weapon.

Unlocked attachments must be purchased for each copy of that weapon you own, costing $100k each. The final few attachments you unlock for each weapon will instead cost 50 C-Stacks per purchase, which drastically increases their cost.

Weapon presets come equipped with specific attachments that cannot be changed, but allow the player to use a weapon with attachments they may not have unlocked yet while still earning weapon EXP for that weapon.

Every weapon has what is called a recoil pattern. Every time you fire a shot, your crosshair will be "pushed" in a certain direction. This direction is not random - it follows the recoil pattern for that weapon. This recoil pattern is what the game refers to as "Recoil." Improving recoil will shrink the size of the recoil pattern, making your crosshair move less drastically with each shot.

If you stop firing your weapon, your crosshair will begin to drift back to where it was when you fired the first shot in the volley. If you allow the crosshair to fully return to it's starting position (some low-ROF weapons require waiting longer than this), the recoil pattern will "reset," meaning that the next time you fire from that weapon, the recoil pattern starts from the beginning again. If you instead continue shooting before your crosshair gets back to where it started, the recoil pattern will continue from where it left off, so tap-firing won't help to mitigate recoil. Hip-firing applies a multiplier (dependent on the weapon) to your recoil, so ADSing will help reduce recoil.

After your crosshair moves to follow the recoil pattern, there are 2 more attributes that make your shots less accurate. Next is the one that the game refers to as "Gunkick." Each time you shoot, your gun will move, and will no longer be aiming directly at your crosshair. This is hard to see when hipfiring, but is more noticeable when you ADS with very high gunkick. Improving gunkick with weapon attachments will make your gun follow your crosshair, and thus the weapon's recoil pattern, more accurately. Gunkick resets extremely fast - much faster than recoil - so if you're using an automatic weapon, tap-firing can help mitigate gunkick.

The final attribute that impacts your accuracy is referred to as "Spread." Recoil and gunkick impact where your crosshair and gun aim respectively. Spread, on the other hand, deals with the accuracy of the shot, or in other words how tightly around your crosshair the cone of possible bullet angles is. We will refer to this cone as "weapon bloom", and it is visualized (not to scale) by your crosshair expanding as the cone gets wider.

The stats like "Overall Spread" listed on weapon attachments do not actually change your weapon bloom. They actually just impact how quickly the weapon bloom expands as you fire shots. Improved spread stats just make your weapon bloom stay tighter for longer, and do not change the maximum or minimum bloom of the weapon.

Note that your weapon's maximum and minimum weapon bloom are decreased when crouched, and increased while moving or jumping. Crouch in place for less spread.

Left - Example of a recoil pattern that goes straight up.
Middle - Example of where the bullets might land after applying gunkick.
Right - Example of where the bullets might land after also applying spread. Note that spread gets worse as you fire for longer.

The white arrow represents the path that your crosshair would follow, while the black dots represent where the bullets land.


Weapon Attachments, AKA weapon mods, can be unlocked by leveling up your weapons. An unlocked weapon attachment is permanently unlocked for all copies of that gun that you own, but you are required to re-purchase them for each copy of the gun you want to equip them on.

Weapon mods list various upsides (denoted with a "+") and downsides (denoted with a "-") for equipping them.

+ is ALWAYS an upside, and - is ALWAYS a downside! So if an attachment lists "+ Recoil," that means it has less recoil, not more of it.

Below is a list of all existing stats for weapon mods:

• Recoil - Determines the scale of the gun's recoil pattern. Improved recoil shrinks the size of the pattern.
  
• Vertical/Horizontal Recoil - Determines the scale of the recoil pattern, but only on the given axis. Given that most recoil patterns are primarily vertical, improving vertical gunkick is much more valuable.
  
• Initial Recoil - Further scales the gun's recoil pattern, but only for the first few shots in the pattern. Number of shots affected depends on the weapon; Some weapons have 0 initial recoil shots!
  
• Recoil Recovery Speed - Determines how quickly your crosshair returns to where you were initially aiming when you stop firing.
  
  
• Gunkick - Determines the max distance your gun can deviate from the crosshair when experiencing gunkick. Improved gunkick makes your shots follow the recoil pattern more accurately.
  
• Vertical/Horizontal Gunkick - Determines max gun deviation from crosshair, but only on the given axis.
  
• Screen Shake Amplitude - Determines how much your screen visually shakes when you fire. This doesn't actually impact your accuracy, but may make it harder for you to tell where you are aiming.
  
  
• Spread - Determines how quickly your weapon bloom (the width of your crosshair) grows as you fire.
  
• Hipfire Spread - Determines spread, but only while hipfiring.
  
• Targeting Spread - Determines spread, but only while ADS.
  
• Pellet Accuracy - Determines how tight the spread of your pellets is for each shotgun shot.
• Vertical/Horizontal Spread Radius - Determines pellet accuracy, but only on the given axis.
  
  
• Targeting Speed - Determines how quickly you can go from hipfiring to ADS and vice-versa.
  
• Sprint to Fire Speed - Determines how quickly you can start firing after you stop sprinting.
  
• Swap Speed - Determines how quickly the game plays this weapon's equip & unequip animations.
  
• Reload Speed - Determines how quickly the game plays your reload animations.
  
• Cycle Speed - Determines how quickly you "pump" the shotgun after each shot, getting it ready to fire again.
  
  
• Damage Distance - Slightly increases/decreases the distance thresholds listed for your gun's damage. Has no effect on headshot multiplier distances. These changes are small enough to have little practical impact on gameplay (unless you rely on a 5m close-range damage threshold, in which case it makes a noticeable impact). To give you an idea, the first +/- 5 Damage Distance has the biggest impact:
  +5 Damage distance = +1.22m
  -5 Damage Distance = -0.92m
  
• Silenced - Makes firing your gun silent.
  
• Magazine Capacity - Determines how many bullets fit into each magazine. Can also impact the weapon's maximum ammo capacity and ammo pickup rate. Varies from weapon to weapon. See the magazine section for details.

Note that the values listed next to attachments for weapon stat changes are the internal values used used by the game. The resulting changes to each stat are not linear; the more you invest into the same stat, the less improvement each attachment gives.

For exact weapon attachment & stat calculations, I highly recommend using this interactive weapon bench.[puppy-girl.github.io]

Overkill weapons are extremely powerful guns with very limited ammo. They do not have ammo pickup, and cannot get more ammo from ammo bags. The only way to obtain more ammo is to call in another overkill weapon and switch to the new one.

As you complete objectives, sub-objectives, and kill enemies (even in stealth), your "Overkill" bar in the bottom right of your HUD will fill up. It takes 35 kills/objectives to fill the bar. Once full, a sound will play to notify you, and you can press Z to call for Bile (the helicopter pilot) to come by and drop off your loadout's "overkill weapon", which resets your Overkill bar. It takes him 15s to arrive and drop the weapon. Calling for an overkill weapon while in stealth will not work, and Shade will mock you for it.

Once Bile is called, nobody will be able to call for another overkill weapon until Bile delivers the first one. If you attempt to call in an overkill weapon while Bile is on his way, your overkill bar will remain full, and Shade will inform you that Bile is too busy to drop you a weapon.

There are a few set locations on each heist where Bile can drop an overkill weapon, and he will pick one to deliver to based on which section of the heist you were standing in when you called for the weapon. These locations are usually out in wide open areas, so it can be wise to wait until an assault wave ends before running out to grab your overkill weapon.

Any player can pick up a dropped overkill weapon, regardless of who called it. While holding an overkill weapon, attempting to switch weapons or pressing F will drop the overkill weapon on the ground, after which any teammate can pick it up and continue using it. Dropped overkill weapons retain their ammo pool when dropped.


The Mamba deals massive area damage to you and any enemy caught in the blast. This weapon deals no damage to teammates, and deals 80% reduced self-damage, so it won't completely shred your armor at close range. Despite this, it is still advisable to only use it with Demolitionist skills.

The grenades fired from the Mamba will bounce off surfaces, exploding 4s after being fired. If a grenade hits an NPC directly, it will explode immediately, and since enemies closer to the center of the blast take 4 times as much damage, precision is key. Alternatively, you can equip the skill Overcooked to make grenades explode on impact.

AP: 1.0
RPM: 800
Reload Spd: ~2s / grenade +0.4s per reload

Mag Size: 6
Ammo: 12




The Red Fox is by far the better choice for higher difficulties. It has a thermal scope capable of seeing enemies through walls, making it great for finding Techies. It is capable of shooting through thin walls & Shields, piercing multiple enemies, and deals enough damage to kill everything except a Dozer in just a single bodyshot (though it can kill a Dozer in just 2 bodyshots). It also has the highest AP in the game and does not have damage falloff, so it is just as effective at close range as it is at long range. This weapon is the safest and most reliable way to kill Dozers on the highest difficulties, and can help you find and kill Techies from a safe position.

AP: 3.5
RPM: 150
Reload Spd: ~3.3s+0.7s

Mag Size: 5+1
Ammo: 15




This beast shreds everything standing in its way - it even has enough AP to deal with Dozers, but this can be dangerous as it requires you to get close to them. Despite having less utility and range than the Red Fox, the M135 makes up for it where the Red Fox struggles: this thing can delete entire crowds of cops in mere seconds. Skills like Recoil Handling, From The Hip, Heavy Hipfire, & Beast of Burden benefit the M135 greatly.

Holding down right click spins up the barrel, and left click fires. The barrel must be spun for 2s(?) before it can start shooting. Unlike other weapons, the M135 starts with the worst possible spread, but gets more accurate the longer you fire without stopping. Picking up the M135 makes you "encumbered," which slows you down and prevents you from interacting, crouching, sprinting, or ziplining while holding it. You can still use carried consumables while holding it.

AP: 3.4
RPM: 1300

Ammo: 750

Primary weapons are the bread and butter of your builds, and typically your primary source of damage; I would recommend trying a loadout with each type of primary.


Assault Rifles (ARs) usually have middle-of-the-road stats, and thus no glaring weaknesses. This makes them incredibly reliable at dealing with enemies of all types, including large groups, rather quickly. Just aim for the head!

Note: The arrows on the right represent approximate recoil patterns.

AP: 0.92
RPM: 720 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x2.2
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 8-10
Reload: 2.333s+0.333s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



AP: 0.75
RPM: 750 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x2.2
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 10-12
Reload: 1.833s+0.333s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.433s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



AP: 0.9
RPM: 600 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.7
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 6-8
Reload: 2.333s+0.5s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



AP: 1.25
RPM: 550 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x2.1
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 20+1
Max Ammo: 200
Ammo Pickup: 5-7
Reload: 2.833s+0.333s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Boys in Blue Weapons Pack")

This weapon's recoil pattern becomes much more drastic after the first 10 shots.
AP: 1.2
RPM: 600 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 20+1
Max Ammo: 200
Ammo Pickup: 5-7
Reload: 2.667s+0.167s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Houston Breakout Weapons Pack")

This weapon's recoil pattern only starts on the 3rd volley. The first two bursts have no recoil.
AP: 0.9
RPM: 1000 (Burst x3, 0.3s)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 7-9
Reload: ~2.667s+0.167s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s

All shotguns fire 7 pellets per shot, with each pellet dealing the listed damage of the weapon. It is best to fire as close to a target as you can manage, since this makes more pellets connect, dealing more damage overall. Doing this is known as a "meatshot."

Each pellet is calculated one after another, so if enough pellets hit an enemy to break their armor, the remaining pellets from the same shot can still deal direct damage to their HP.

In exchange for the extreme damage shotguns can deal up close, they have very low AP, slow reloads, and deal poor damage at mid-to-long range.

Pump action; Must be "pumped" between each shot.

AP: 0
RPM: 75 (Pump)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.0
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 7+1
Max Ammo: 70
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 1.367s / shell +0.466s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



Despite having only 2 shells per "mag", reloading is still faster with 1 shell left in the gun, hence why the reload speed is listed as if it could tactical reload.

AP: 0.5
RPM: 200 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.8
Initial Recoil Shots: 1

Mag Size: 2
Max Ammo: 40
Ammo Pickup: 1-3
Reload: 1.333s+0.666s
Equip: 0.417s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Syntax Error Weapons Pack")

This weapon's recoil pattern is bugged and won't reset. This means after firing your 4th shot, every shot for the rest of the heist will recoil to the top-right!
AP: 0
RPM: 300 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.2
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 10+1
Max Ammo: 100
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 2s+0.333s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Houston Breakout Weapons Pack")

This weapon's recoil pattern is bugged, and does not impact aim at all. It effectively has no recoil pattern.
AP: 0
RPM: 450 (Burst x3, 0.5s)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.8
Initial Recoil Shots: 1

Mag Size: 12+1
Max Ammo: 120
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 2.4s+0.267s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Fear & Greed Weapons Pack")

Pump action; Must be "pumped" between each shot.
AP: 1
RPM: 65 (Pump)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.0
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 7+1
Max Ammo: 70
Ammo Pickup: 2-4
Reload: 1.5s / shell +0.833s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s

Marksman rifles have a long range for their max damage and max headshot multiplier, as well as high damage, high AP, and access to high magnification scopes. In exchange, they generally have low ammo capacity, magazine size, and reload speeds.

AP: 1.3
RPM: 450 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 12+1
Max Ammo: 120
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 2.333s+0.333s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



Has a x5.0 zoom scope by default.
AP: 2
RPM: 50 (Bolt Action)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.6
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 5+1
Max Ammo: 50
Ammo Pickup: 1-2
Reload: 2.5s+0.5s
Equip: 0.417s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Syntax Error Weapons Pack")
AP: 1.3
RPM: 900 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 25+1
Max Ammo: 125
Ammo Pickup: 5-8
Reload: 2.333s+0.333s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.433s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s

SMGs have a high rate of fire, clip size, max ammo, ammo pickup, and chambering speed in exchange for low headshot multipliers and extremely bad spread. They are best fired in bursts in order to frequently reset the spread.

AP: 0.75
RPM: 860 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 9-11
Reload: 1.833s+0.333s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.433s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



AP: 0.5
RPM: 1100 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.7
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 25+1
Max Ammo: 250
Ammo Pickup: 8-10
Reload: 1.5s+0.333s
Equip: 0.167s
Unequip: 0.333s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



AP: 1.25
RPM: 960 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 8-10
Reload: 1.9s+0.1s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.433s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Syntax Error Weapons Pack")
AP: 1.25
RPM: 650 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 2

Mag Size: 25+1
Max Ammo: 175
Ammo Pickup: 5-8
Reload: 2.167s+0.333s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Boys in Blue Weapons Pack")
AP: 1.1
RPM: 800 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 2

Mag Size: 30+1
Max Ammo: 300
Ammo Pickup: 7-9
Reload: 2.167s+0.166s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.533s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s

LMGs have a high rate of fire, lots of ammo, and a massive clip size in exchange for low damage and slow reload times. These are your best choice for sustained fire over long periods of time.

AP: 1.0
RPM: 720 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 100+1
Max Ammo: 500
Ammo Pickup: 8-10
Reload: 4.5s+0.667s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s

All secondary weapons are sidearms, and are generally weaker than a primary weapon, but are still a reliable source of damage. Secondary weapons can still be fired and reloaded while you are holding a human shield or are downed.


Most pistols deal max damage up to a range of 10m, and have x5.0 headshot multipliers up to a range of 10m. Their small magazines and low range are offset by their high headshot multipliers and swift reload speed.

AP: 0
RPM: 450 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 12+1
Max Ammo: 120
Ammo Pickup: 6-8
Reload: 1.333s+0.5s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.4s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



AP: 0
RPM: 450 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 17+1
Max Ammo: 170
Ammo Pickup: 7-9
Reload: 1.333s+0.2s
Equip: 0.167s
Unequip: 0.3s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



AP: 0.5
RPM: 300 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.3
Initial Recoil Shots: 2

Mag Size: 10+1
Max Ammo: 100
Ammo Pickup: 4-6
Reload: 1.667s+0.5s
Equip: 0.4s
Unequip: 0.567s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



AP: 0
RPM: 375 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 2

Mag Size: 17+1
Max Ammo: 170
Ammo Pickup: 6-8
Reload: 1.333s+0.5s
Equip: 0.267s
Unequip: 0.4s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



AP: 0
RPM: 900 (Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x2.1
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 33+1
Max Ammo: 330
Ammo Pickup: 12-14
Reload: 1.467s+0.533s
Equip: ?s
Unequip: ?s
Sprint-To-Fire: ?s



(DLC "Houston Breakout Weapons Pack")
AP: 0
RPM: 800 (Burst x3, 0.2s)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 15+1
Max Ammo: 150
Ammo Pickup: 7-9
Reload: 1.5s+0.333s
Equip: 0.167s
Unequip: 0.333s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.333s



(DLC "Fear & Greed Weapons Pack")
AP: 2
RPM: 275 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 7+1
Max Ammo: 70
Ammo Pickup: 1-3
Reload: 2.1s+0.4s
Equip: 0.5s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



(DLC "Fear & Greed Weapons Pack")
AP: 0
RPM: 400 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.3
Initial Recoil Shots: 2

Mag Size: 10+1
Max Ammo: 100
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 1.4s+0.3s
Equip: 0.333s
Unequip: 0.467s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s

Revolvers deal max damage up to a range further than pistols, and have x3.0 headshot multipliers up to a longer range to boot. This drastic difference in headshot multiplier range makes the Long Shot skill less important for revolvers, making them much more viable for a hipfire build than pistols.

Revolvers use a revolving cylinder instead of a magazine, thus they are the only gun type (aside from the Mamba) that cannot perform a tactical reload. Revolvers also cannot be silenced.

AP: 1.0
RPM: 300 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 3

Mag Size: 6
Max Ammo: 60
Ammo Pickup per Box: 2-4
Reload: 2.5s
Equip: 0.467s
Unequip: 0.567s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



AP: 1.25
RPM: 400 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.5
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 6
Max Ammo: 60
Ammo Pickup: 3-5
Reload: 3.167s
Equip: 0.5s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s



(DLC "Boys in Blue Weapons Pack")
AP: 2.0
RPM: 75 (Semi-Auto)
Hipfire Recoil: x1.1
Initial Recoil Shots: 0

Mag Size: 5
Max Ammo: 50
Ammo Pickup: 1-2
Reload: 2.833s
Equip: 0.5s
Unequip: 0.667s
Sprint-To-Fire: 0.3s

The mod slot for magazines is available on almost all primary and secondary weapons.

There are only 3 types of magazine mods:

+ 15 Reload Speed

- 10 Reload Speed
+ Increases Mag Size
- Decreases Max Ammo

+ 5 Reload Speed
- Decreases Mag Size
+ Increases Max Ammo
+ Increases Ammo Pickup


Despite there only being 3 types of magazine mods, their effects on your mag size, max ammo capacity, and ammo pickup vary drastically from weapon to weapon. Some mags don't even follow the increase/decrease rules listed above! Below is a massive table to show these changes. Note that all mag mods change reload speed by the amounts listed above, regardless of the weapon.

Legend:
Mag Size
Max Ammo
Ammo Pickup

The mod slot for sights is available on all weapons in the game. The zoom level is listed along with each sight below.

These sights can only be equipped on shotguns.

Tagged Iron Sight
(1.15x Zoom)
+ 10 Targeting Speed
- 5 Swap Speed




These sights can be equipped on any AR and on the Reinfeld 880. The Mosconi 12 Classic can also equip the Classic RDS & Compact RDS.

Classic RDS
(1.15x Zoom)
+ 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Swap Speed



Compact RDS
(1.15x Zoom)
+ 5 Gunkick
- 5 Targeting Speed



Projection RDS
(1.2x Zoom)
+ 5 Initial Recoil
+ 5 Recoil
- 5 Sprint to Fire Speed


Sheath RDS
(1.15x Zoom)
+ 5 Gunkick
- 5 Swap Speed




These sights can be equipped on any AR, and all of them except the Tactical Sight can be equipped on marksman rifles.

Viewpoint Sight
(1.3x Zoom)
+ 10 Gunkick
+ 5 Screen Shake
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Swap Speed

Lined Sight
(1.8x Zoom)
+ 5 Screen Shake
+ 5 Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed


Tactical Sight
(2.0x Zoom)
+ 5 Screen Shake
+ 10 Recoil
- 10 Targeting Speed
- 5 Sprint to Fire Speed


There is currently only 1 holographic sight in the game, and it is exclusive to the FIK 22 TLR.

Light Holographic Sight
(?.?x Zoom)
+ ? Initial Recoil
+ ? Recoil
- ? Sprint to Fire Speed


These sights can only be equipped on marksman rifles. Note that these are the only sights which the game considers "scopes" in the context of the Precision Shot skill.

Fluted Marksman Scope
(5.0x Zoom)
+ 10 Gunkick
+ 5 Recoil
- 10 Swap Speed


Primed Marksman Scope
(6.0x Zoom)
+ 5 Gunkick
+ 10 Recoil
- 10 Targeting Speed



These sights can be equipped on any secondary weapon or SMG.

LED RDS
(1.1x Zoom)
+ 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Sprint to Fire Speed



Slate RDS
(1.1x Zoom)
+ 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Swap Speed



Box RDS
(1.15x Zoom)
+ 5 Gunkick
+ 5 Vertical Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed

The mod slot for barrel extensions is available on all weapons except the Mosconi 12 Classic. Note that SMGs use the same barrel extensions as secondary weapons, and that revolvers cannot equip silencers.

These extensions can be equipped on all primary weapons except for SMGs and shotguns.

Express Muzzle Break
+ 5 Horizontal Gunkick
+ 5 Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed



Hybrid Muzzle Break
+ 5 Vertical Recoil
+ 10 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed



Indent Compensator
+ 15 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Vertical Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed




These silencers can be equipped on all assault rifles.

Beveled Silencer
(Silent)
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Swap Speed



Piped Silencer
(Silent)
+ 5 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Damage Distance
- 5 Hipfire Spread


Cylindric Silencer
(Silent)
+ 5 Spread
- 5 Damage Distance




These silencers can be equipped on all marksman rifles.

Torque Silencer
(Silent)
- 5 Gunkick
- 5 Swap Speed



Edge Ridged Silencer
(Silent)
- 5 Swap Speed
- 5 Targeting Speed




These extensions & silencers can be equipped on all shotguns except the Mosconi 12 Classic.

12G Jaw Choke
+ 15 Vertical Spread Radius
- 10 Horizontal Spread Radius




12G Vent Compensator
+ 10 Horizontal Recoil
+ 5 Vertical Gunkick
- 10 Spread



12G Sediment Choke
+ 5 Pellet Accuracy
+ 5 Spread
- 5 Gunkick



12G Obelisk Silencer
(Silent)
+ 5 Recoil
- 5 Damage Distance




These extensions can be equipped on all secondary weapons & SMGs.

Compact Compensator
+ 10 Vertical Recoil
+ 5 Vertical Gunkick
- 10 Horizontal Recoil



Skeletonized Compensator
+ 15 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Vertical Recoil




Parted Compensator
+ 5 Gunkick
+ 5 Spread
- 10 Targeting Speed




These silencers can be equipped on all pistols & SMGs.

Snub Silencer
(Silent)
- 5 Gunkick




Obelisk Silencer
(Silent)
+ 5 Spread
- 5 Damage Distance

The mod slot for barrels is available on all revolvers and on all primary weapons except for SMGs and the Northwest B-9. Note despite many barrels sharing names with each other, they often have different stats for different weapons, so they have been categorized by stat differences, not by name. All barrels look different depending on the gun they are equipped on. Also note that all marksman rifles except the SA-A144 share their barrel selection with revolvers.

These barrels can only be equipped on the CAR-4 and VF-7S.

CQC Barrel
+ 5 Targeting Speed
+ 10 Gunkick
- 5 Damage Distance
- 5 Recoil


Ranged Barrel
+ 10 Damage Distance
+ 5 Recoil
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Gunkick



These barrels can only be equipped on the KU-59.

Trad Grip Barrel
+ 10 Swap Speed
+ 10 Gunkick
- 5 Damage Distance
- 5 Spread


Rail Barrel
+ 10 Damage Distance
+ 5 Spread
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Gunkick



These barrels can only be equipped on shotguns. The Comp Barrel can only be equipped on the Reinfeld 880.

CQC Barrel
+ 5 Reload Speed
+ 10 Recoil Recovery Speed
- 5 Recoil
- 5 Spread


Ranged Barrel
+ 5 Damage Distance
+ 5 Spread
- 10 Gunkick



Comp Barrel
+ 10 Vertical Recoil
- 5 Horizontal Recoil





These barrels can only be equipped by revolvers & marksman rifles (except the SA-A144). The Tac Barrel can only be equipped by the J&M Castigo 44.

CQC Barrel
+ 5 Targeting Speed
+ 10 Gunkick
- 5 Damage Distance
- 5 Recoil


Ranged Barrel
+ 10 Damage Distance
+ 5 Recoil
- 10 Targeting Speed
- 5 Gunkick


Tac Barrel
+ 5 Damage Distance
- 5 Gunkick

The mod slot for vertical grips is available on all primary weapons except the Reinfeld 880 & Reinfeld 900S.

These grips can be equipped on all primary weapons with a vertical grip slot.

Cylinder Grip
+ 10 Hipfire Spread
+ 10 Vertical Recoil
- 10 Swap Speed
- 10 Targeting Speed


Angled Ghost Grip
+ 5 Spread
+ 5 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Vertical Recoil



Stub Grip
+ 5 Hipfire Spread
+ 5 Vertical Recoil
- 5 Horizontal Recoil



Quick Hold Grip
+ 5 Spread
+ 10 Horizontal Recoil
- 5 Vertical Recoil
- 5 Initial Recoil



The mod slot for grips is available on most primary weapons and on all secondary weapons.

These grips can be equipped on all primary weapons with a grip slot. They look different on some weapons, but are functionally identical. Note that the Biofit Grip & Tac Grip can also be equipped on some secondaries, and are listed twice because of this.

Biofit Grip
+ 10 Vertical Recoil
+ 5 Vertical Gunkick
- 5 Horizontal Recoil



Tac Grip
+ 5 Recoil
+ 5 Swap Speed
- 5 Hipfire Spread



Perforated Grip
+ 5 Targeting Speed
+ 5 Sprint to Fire Speed
- 5 Gunkick




These grips can be equipped on various secondaries. Note that some grips have different names for different weapons, but are functionally identical, and thus have been listed together. Note that the Biofit Grip & Tac Grip have identical stats to those listed in under "Primary Grips."

Biofit Grip / Ribbed Grip
+ 10 Vertical Recoil
+ 5 Vertical Gunkick
- 5 Horizontal Recoil



Tac Grip / Friction Grip
+ 5 Recoil
+ 5 Swap Speed
- 5 Hipfire Spread



Hardwood Grip / Checkered Grip
+ 5 Gunkick
+ 5 Spread
- 5 Vertical Recoil



Grained Grip / Embossed Grip
+ 10 Gunkick
- 5 Targeting Speed

The mod slot for foreends is only available on pump action shotguns.

Foreends can only be equipped on pump action shotguns, which currently is just the Reinfeld 880.

Tactical Fore-End
+ 10 Cycle Speed
- 5 Swap Speed




Biofit Fore-End
+ 5 Vertical Recoil
+ 5 Cycle Speed
- 5 Targeting Speed




The mod slot for stocks is available on all primary weapons.

These stocks can be equipped on any primary weapon except shotguns and the Reinfeld 900S.

TQ
+ 10 Recoil
+ 10 Gunkick
- 10 Sprint to Fire Speed
- 10 Targeting Speed


HQ
+ 5 Recoil
+ 5 Gunkick
- 5 Spread



Padded Tube
+ 15 Sprint to Fire Speed
+ 10 Swap Speed
- 10 Recoil
- 10 Gunkick


Light Frame
+ 10 Targeting Speed
+ 10 Sprint to Fire Speed
- 10 Hipfire Spread
- 5 Recoil



These stocks can only be equipped on shotguns. They look different on some weapons, but are functionally identical.

CQC
+ 15 Sprint to Fire Speed
+ 10 Swap Speed
- 10 Recoil
- 10 Gunkick


Padded
+ 5 Recoil
+ 10 Gunkick
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 5 Recoil Recovery Speed


Fortified
+ 10 Recoil
+ 5 Recoil Recovery Speed
- 5 Gunkick
- 5 Sprint to Fire Speed



These stocks can only be equipped on bolt action marksman rifles, which currently is just the Reinfeld 900S.

Lightweight
+ 5 Targeting Speed
+ 10 Sprint to Fire Speed
- 5 Recoil
- 10 Hipfire Spread


Hardwood
+ 15 Recoil
+ 10 Spread
- 5 Targeting Speed
- 10 Sprint to Fire Speed

As of right now (update 1.3.0), no skills are truly considered "mandatory," although the loud meta does require heavy use of armor repair kits, thus some players may consider Clean Slate to be mandatory, as well as having at least 1 player running Negotiator.

Many other skills are considered meta, such as Stockpile, Ammo Funnel, and Replenish, but these can be highly dependent on the build that you are running. All skills that are considered "mandatory" or "meta" are noted as such in the following guide sections.

When you first start playing PAYDAY 3, most skill lines will be completely locked, with the option to "Research" one locked line at a time. Upon completing a heist, you are awarded with an amount of skill exp, which is a separate reward from both weapon exp and infamy points. This skill exp is equally rewarded to the line you are currently researching, as well as every researched line that you have a skill point invested into.

Your skill exp is not divided among each line; All of the exp is rewarded to all of the lines. Therefore, the fastest way to unlock all skills is to put 1 skill point into all researched lines you have not fully unlocked. To speed this up even further, you should research and invest a skill point into the largest skill lines first, such as Manipulator and Engineer, as they take more exp (and thus more time) to fully unlock.

Once a skill line has been researched, you have the option to invest 1 or 2 skill points into the leftmost skill on that line, which we will refer to as the "root skill" for that line. Investing 1 skill point into a root skill gets you the "basic" verison, while investing 2 skill points will get you the "aced" version, which provides additional benefits while still giving you the benefits of the basic version. These root skills share their name with the name of their respective skill line, so if you were to invest 2 skill points into the root skill of the Manipulator line, we would call that "buying Manipulator Aced." Note that only root skills can be aced; All other skills only require 1 skill point.

With the exception of the skill to the far right of each line (which we will call the "mastery skill" for that line), you cannot buy any skill in a line unless you have already bought the basic root skill for that line. Therefore if you only want one specific skill from a given line, you still need to spend 2 skill points to get it, so it can be beneficial to focus your builds into fewer skill lines.

Each line also has a mastery skill, which is unlocked once all other skills in that line have been fully researched/unlocked. Mastery skills usually provide some generic buff related to that skill line that can benefit a wide variety of builds. Buying a mastery skill only costs 1 skill point, and can be purchased without buying the basic root skill for that line.

In the following sections of the guide, each skill line lists the basic and aced root skills first, and lists the mastery skill for that line last. Mastery skills are also labelled as such to minimize confusion.

Many skills in PAYDAY 3 revolve around three buffs:

• EDGE, which makes you deal 10% extra damage for 20s.
  
• GRIT, which makes you take 10% less damage for 20s.
  
• RUSH, which makes you move 10% faster for 20s.

There are a few ways that skills can interact with these buffs, each of which is listed below:

• If a skill makes you "gain" a buff, and you do not already have that buff, you will be given that buff for the next 20s. If you gain a buff while you already have said buff active, nothing happens.
  
• If a skill makes you "refresh" a buff, and you already have that buff, the duration of that buff will be reset to 20s, extending the effect. If you refresh a buff while you do not have said buff, nothing happens.
  
• If a skill does something "if you have" a buff, that skill will provide some additional benefit so long as you have the buff it requires. If you do not have said buff, the skill in question will not provide its listed benefit(s).
  
• When a skill "consumes" an available buff, if you already have that buff, the buff will immediately end regardless of duration. This will proc whatever skill that consumed the buff. If you consume a buff while you do not have said buff, nothing happens.
  
• When a skill "ends" or says "you lose" a buff, it consumes the buff without providing any additional benefit.

The Medic skill line contains Medic Bag skills, as well as support-focused skills for reviving teammates and providing/using medical supplies.

• Medic Basic
  • You revive teammates 20% faster.
    
  • Any medic bag you deploy has 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Extra Charge, Stockpile, and additively with Code Blue.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Medic Aced
  • When you start to revive a teammate, gain GRIT.
    
  • You take 40% less damage while reviving a teammate if you have GRIT.
    
  • Stacks additively with GRIT & other damage reduction skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Combat Medic.
• Steady Hands
  • You or your teammates heal for 20 extra HP when interacting with a Medic Bag.
    
  • For each crew member who also has this skill equipped, the bonus healing is increased by 5 HP for all players. This means that having 2 players with this skill would provide a 25 extra health to anyone who interacts with a Medic Bag.
    
  • This effect does not work on first aid kits.
    
  • Stacks with Triage.
    
  • Synergizes with Health Siphon.
• Extra Charge
  • Medic bags you deploy have 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Medic Basic and Stockpile.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Combat Medic
  • If you have GRIT, successfully reviving your teammate will give both you and that teammate damage immunity for 5s.
    
  • Does not stack with the 3s of invincibility someone gets when they are revived normally.
    
  • You also cannot be stunned while this effect is active (unlike Last Man Standing).
    
  • Synergizes well with Medic Aced.
• Code Blue
  • Whenever a teammate is downed, subdued by a Cloaker, tased by a Zapper, or electrified by their own shock grenade, you will gain or refresh RUSH.
    
  • As long as you have RUSH, you revive teammates 30% faster.
    
  • Stacks additively with Medic Basic.
• Triage
  • Interacting with a Medic Bag when you have EDGE, GRIT, or RUSH will heal you an additional 15 HP for each of the 3 active buffs (up to a 45 HP increase).
    
  • You interact 50% faster with medic bags and first aid kits.
    
  • Stacks with Steady Hands.
• Walking Pharmacy (Mastery)
  • Increases the max amount of consumables you can carry at once from 3 to 5.
    
  • The current (1.3.0) loud meta is to have 1 teammate with trading skills like Negotiator trade for armor repair kits, then have everyone carry as many armor repair kits as they can. This skill increases the effectiveness of that strategy, but the skill isn't truly part of the meta, as the strategy works just fine without it.

The Ammo Specialist skill line contains Ammo Bag skills, as well as ammo-focused skills that benefit you and your team upon picking up ammo or using an ammo bag.

• Ammo Specialist Basic
  • Your reserve ammo capacity is increased by 20%.
    
  • Ammo bags you deploy have 2 additional charges.
    
  • The reserve ammo increase ignores clip size (any ammo in your clip is not counted as part of your reserve).
    
  • Stacks with Fully Loaded and Stockpile.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Ammo Specialist Aced
  • Whenever you pick up ammo, if your current weapon's magazine is full, gain EDGE.
    
  • This effect cannot be activated if your ammo reserves are full, since you cannot pick up ammo.
    
  • This effect can only be activated by ammo dropped by enemies; Ammo Bags will not proc this effect.
• Scrounger
  • As long as you have EDGE, picking up an ammo drop has a 10% chance of replenishing one of your throwables.
    
  • This effect cannot be activated if your ammo reserves are full, since you cannot pick up ammo.
    
  • This effect cannot be activated if you are full on throwables.
    
  • Excellent skill for any build that makes heavy use of throwables, as it makes throwables a completely renewable resource.
    
  • Synergizes with Replenish.
• Fully Loaded
  • Ammo bags you deploy have 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Ammo Specialist Basic and Stockpile.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Plate Up
  • If you have GRIT, picking up an ammo drop will instantly regenerate your current chunk of recovery armor.
    
  • This effect cannot occur more than once every 2 seconds.
    
  • Works best with heavier armors due to their longer regen times.
    
  • Synergizes with Replenish.
• High Grain
  • After you or any teammates interact with any ammo bag (not just the ones you place), Your entire team gets 30 seconds of a +0.2 increase to armor penetration.
    
  • For each crew member who also has this skill equipped, the crew also gets a +5% weapon damage bonus on top of the AP for the 30s duration of the effect. This means that having 3 players with this skill would provide the team with 30s of +0.2 AP and +10% damage whenever anyone uses an Ammo Bag.
    
  • Stacks additively with EDGE & other damage-increasing skills.
• Mag Throw
  • As long as you have RUSH, any ammo drops you pick up are also given to all crew members within 10m.
    
  • Ammo can be shared through walls.
    
  • Sharing ammo won't trigger the Mag Throw skill of other players, but can proc their other skills for picking up ammo.
    
  • Synergizes with Replenish.
    
  • Benefits allies with Plate Up, Ammo Funnel, or Scrounger.
• Top Up (Mastery)
  • Interacting with any ammo bag will restore an additional 20% of your max ammo and fully restock your throwables.
    
  • Synergizes with Extra Munitions.

The Mower skill line contains skills using EDGE that benefit weapons that fire a lot of bullets, as well as skills to help keep said bullets flowing.

• Mower Basic
  • Every 35 bullets you shoot, gain EDGE.
    
  • This skill works best with automatic weapons and large magazines.
    
  • The effect can be proced on demand by shooting 34 bullets and waiting to shoot your 35th bullet.
• Mower Aced
  • Whenever you reload a weapon with an empty magazine, refresh EDGE.
    
  • You must fully finish reloading to proc the effect.
• Recoil Handling
  • As long as you have EDGE, your weapon recoil is reduced.
    
  • Adds +20 to your weapons' recoil stat while active. The impact of this change varies based on your weapon attachments. With none equipped, this skill amounts to a 15% recoil reduction.
• Suppressive Fire
  • As long as you have EDGE, if you were to inflict a light stagger on an enemy, inflict a heavy stagger instead.
    
  • This effect is best observed when you melee an enemy. This normally causes a light stagger, but with this skill active it will heavily stagger them instead.
    
  • Contrary to the ingame description, this skill does not increase your chances of inflicting stagger when firing weapons.
• Ammo Funnel
  • As long as you have EDGE, ammo you pick up is directly added to your equipped weapon's magazine.
    
  • If your magazine is full, it's added to your reserve ammo instead.
    
  • This effect still works for weapons without a mag, like the Mosconi 12 Classic shotgun.
    
  • Synergizes with Locked And Loaded, and synergizes extremely well with Replenish & Combat Reload.
    
  • Considered a "meta skill" for loud play with most automatic weapons.
• Replenish
  • As long as you have EDGE, you automatically pick up ammo dropped by enemies you have killed.
    
  • This effect works on enemies killed at any range.
    
  • This effect will not work on enemies that don't drop ammo, like Snipers.
    
  • Synergizes with Ammo Funnel, Plate Up, and Scrounger.
    
  • Does not synergize with Mag Throw (unconfirmed).
    
  • Considered a "meta skill" for loud play.
• Sprint Loaded (Mastery)
  • You can reload while sprinting.
    
  • Also allows you to do other actions like sliding without interrupting your reload.
    
  • Excellent skill for speedrunning and for weapons with long reloads.

The Infiltrator skill line contains throwing knife skills, as well as skills using RUSH that help you lockpick & loot quicker.

• Infiltrator Basic
  • Whenever you successfully pick a lock, pick up loose cash/jewelry, or kill an enemy with a throwing knife, gain or refresh RUSH.
    
  • Synergizes very well with Quick Fingers and Bagger, as with all three you can lockpick a ton of locks and bag the loot behind them in much less time.
• Infiltrator Aced
  • Whenever a guard begins to detect you, gain RUSH.
    
  • Synergizes with Quick Fingers, Bagger, Walk The Walk, and Social Engineering.
    
  • Considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Quick Fingers
  • As long as you have RUSH, successfully jiggling in a lockpick minigame will immediately finish picking the lock.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Transporter Basic.
    
  • Synergizes very well with Infiltrator Basic, as with both skills you can lockpick an entire wall of lockboxes extremely fast.
    
  • The synergy listed above is excellent both for stealth and loud speedrunning.
    
  • Considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Retriever
  • Your throwing knives won't break on impact with the environment.
    
  • Unbroken knives may be retrieved by getting close, but they can be spotted by guards.
    
  • This skill makes knives practically unusable as stealth lures, but is still useful for loud builds that involve getting knife kills.
• Bagger
  • As long as you have RUSH, the time it takes you to bag loot is decreased by 50%.
    
  • The game incorrectly states that this skill makes you "bag loot 50% faster." In actuality, it decreases the amount of time it takes to bag loot by 50%, meaning you actually bag loot twice as fast (it takes half as long as it normally does).
    
  • This effect only applies to the first time you bag a piece of loot. After loot has been put into a bag, it can be picked up much faster even without this skill, so picking up the already-bagged loot will not trigger this effect.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Transporter Basic.
• Blade Bouncer
  • Your throwing knives will ricochet off the environment up to two times.
    
  • The throwing knife will do an additional +200% damage for each time it bounces. This is enough damage to kill any non-Dozer enemy after a single bounce.
    
  • The ricochets allow you to use a single throwing knife as 3 stealth lures, assuming you don't hit the guard(s) you are luring in the process.
• Frugal Thrower (Mastery)
  • Throwables you use have a 20% chance to be replenished after they are destroyed.

The Tank skill line contains Armor Bag skills, as well as armor-focused skills that make you harder to kill and your armor more plentiful.

• Tank Basic
  • Increase the regeneration speed of your recovery armor by 20%.
    
  • Your armor bag has 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Extra Plates and Stockpile.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Tank Aced
  • Whenever one of your armor chunks breaks, gain or refresh GRIT.
    
  • Synergizes with Last Man Standing.
• Hardy
  • When one of your armor chunks breaks, you gain immunity to all damage for 2 seconds.
    
  • You can still be stunned & staggered while the effect is active.
• Extra Plates
  • Your armor bag has 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Tank Basic and Stockpile.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
• Armor Up
  • Interacting with any armor bag will fully repair trauma damage in your current armor chunk AND repair 1 broken armor chunk.
    
  • Using an armor bag with no armor remaining will only repair 1 broken chunk.
    
  • Using an armor bag just before your current armor chunk breaks will let you recover nearly 2 armor chunks in a single use.
    
  • Since the Adaptive Armor Lining already counts the entire current chunk as recovery armor, this skill provides no additional benefit when equipped with Adaptive Armor Lining.
• Last Man Standing
  • If damage would normally down you, you can instead consume your current GRIT to stay on your feet and become immune to damage for 4s.
    
  • The duration of this effect is increased by 2s for every teammate or bot that is either downed or in custody when the effect procs.
    
  • After this effect consumes your GRIT, you cannot gain GRIT until you heal with a medic bag or first aid kit, or until you are downed. (Note: due to a bug First Aid Kits do not currently reset this skill).
    
  • You can still be stunned and staggered while invincible.
    
  • Synergizes with Tank Aced.
• Clean Slate (Mastery)
  • If you have no armor, using an Armor Repair Kit restores 1 chunk of armor.
    
  • This skill adds incredible long-term survivability to builds, as it is the only way to get more armor chunks after all armor bags have been depleted. It is highly recommended for long holdouts, such as in Cook-Off, or in heists with many hostages to trade for resources, like Gold & Sharke.
    
  • Since multiple armor repair kits may be carried and used at a moment's notice (such as just when your last armor chunk breaks), this skill can effectively give you more armor chunks to work with so long as you press Y each time your last armor chunk breaks. This is currently the loud meta.
    
  • Synergizes extremely well with a teammate who has Negotiator, Silver Tongue, Menacing, and Manipulator Aced. This synergy is so powerful it can allow teams to hold out indefinitely without running out of supplies.
    
  • This skill is considered "meta" for loud, especially on higher difficulties.

The Sharpshooter skill line contains skills that benefit players who know how to aim by rewarding precision and buffing long-range weapons.

• Sharpshooter Basic
  • Stand still for 1.5s while ADSing to gain EDGE.
    
  • If you are already ADSing and standing still when you run out of EDGE, you will gain EDGE again after 1.5s of standing still.
    
  • Can be used to mitigate the downside of Gunslinger Basic.
• Sharpshooter Aced
  • Landing a headshot while ADS refreshes your EDGE.
    
  • The headshot doesn't need to be lethal to proc this effect.
• Collateral Control
  • If you destroy an environmental explosive, a Zapper's battery, or a Nader's belt, the explosion will only affect enemies. Both you and allies are immune.
    
  • If allies cause the explosion, you will still be affected by them.
• Long Shot
  • As long as you have EDGE and are ADSing, headshots apply the highest headshot multiplier for that weapon, regardless of distance.
• Precision Shot
  • If you perform 2 headshots in a row without missing or swapping weapons, your next body shot deals extra damage based on the magnification of your scope.
    
  • The bonus damage only applies if using a scope with a x4 zoom or greater. (Note the Reinfeld 900S uses a x5 zoom scope by default).
    
  • The actual damage bonus applied to your body shot is treated as if you had landed a head shot; it applies a multiplier to the damage dealt to enemy health. This multiplier is equivalent to your scope zoom. For example, if you landed a body shot that dealt 20 damage to the enemy's HP with a x4 zoom scope, that body shot would instead deal 80 damage.
    
  • Despite using a scope, this effect does not apply to the HET-5 Red Fox.
    
  • Synergizes with Cutting Shot.
• Cutting Shot
  • If you have EDGE and shoot while aiming down a scope, your shots will pierce through one additional target.
    
  • This effect guarantees each shot is always capable of hitting at least 2 enemies regardless of their armor hardness.
    
  • This effect only applies to scopes, which are gun attachments that list "Scope Sight" next to their zoom level. "Optic Sights" do not count.
    
  • Despite using a scope, this effect does not apply to the HET-5 Red Fox.
    
  • Synergizes with Precision Shot.
• Headhunter
  • If you have EDGE and are ADS, headshot kills with your primary or secondary weapon will restore 1 ammo to your weapon's magazine.
    
  • This effect can only proc once every 1.5s.
    
  • This skill is a solid side-grade to Ammo Funnel, as it is better tailored to builds using marksman rifles than Ammo Funnel, and also doesn't require the player to equip Replenish to use this skill at a range.
• Speed Aim (Mastery)
  • Decreases the amount of time it takes for you to ADS and stop ADSing.
    
  • Adds +20 to your weapons' targeting speed stat. The impact of this change varies based on your weapon attachments. With none equipped, this skill amounts to a ~40% reduction in the time it takes to ADS.

The Escapist skill line contains masked-up movement-focused skills that help you run faster and keep running right through obstacles, as well as swap between RUSH, GRIT, and EDGE as you move.

• Escapist Basic
  • Sprint uninterrupted for 3s while masked up to gain RUSH.
    
  • If you are already sprinting when you run out of RUSH, you must first stop sprinting before activating the effect again.
    
  • Excellent skill for speedrunning.
• Escapist Aced
  • If you have RUSH and slide, your RUSH is consumed, and you gain or refresh EDGE.
    
  • Synergizes with Move & Cover to allow the player to pick which buffs they want at any given time.
• Balanced
  • As long as you have RUSH, any attempt to stun or stagger you will consume RUSH and ignore the stagger.
    
  • This effect can only be proced once every 2s.
    
  • Currently bugged; This skill will make you take no melee damage from dozers when it procs.
• Move & Cover
  • If you have EDGE and vault or mantle, your EDGE is consumed, and you gain or refresh GRIT.
    
  • Synergizes with Escapist Aced or Gunslinger Basic to allow the player to pick which buffs they want at any given time.
• Slide Tackle
  • If you have GRIT and slide into any non-special enemies, your GRIT is consumed and you will stagger those enemies.
    
  • This effect can stagger groups of enemies at once, as long as you hit them all with the same slide.
• Battering Ram
  • As long as you have EDGE, GRIT, or RUSH, you can sprint through locked doors to breach them.
    
  • Doors breached with this skill will count as sabotaged objects in stealth.
    
  • This effect only works on doors with locks that can be picked or shot.
    
  • Synergizes with any skill that gains EDGE, GRIT, or RUSH.
• Swift
  • Your base sprint speed is 10% faster while masked up.
    
  • Stacks additively with RUSH.
    
  • Note that since movement speed has a hard cap, you can reach the maximum movement speed just by having RUSH and using one of the lightest armors. Therefore this skill only actually stacks with rush to make you faster if you are using heavier armor or are carrying loot without the Beast of Burden skill.
• Disengage (Mastery)
  • Nader gas grenades no longer prevent you from sprinting. This effect is always active, even after you use Disengage to free yourself.
    
  • Once per heist, you can press F to free yourself from a Cloaker, Zapper, shock mine, or self-inflicted shock grenade (unconfirmed), after which you can't be disabled by them again for 5s.
    
  • You can opt to save Disengage for later by not pressing F.

The Demolitionist skill line contains skills that help you blow things up more effectively... and hurt yourself less in the process.

• Demolitionist Basic
  • Explosions caused by your shots or throwables have a 20% larger AoE.
    
  • This includes non-damaging explosions (like from flashbangs), but excludes shock mines and Zapper batteries.
    
  • This includes environmental explosions (unconfirmed) and shooting a Nader's belt (unconfirmed).
    
  • Stacks additively with Tactician Aced.
• Demolitionist Aced
  • Whenever you cause an explosion, gain or refresh RUSH.
    
  • This effect is proced by any explosion directly caused by you, but only if it can deal damage. This means it excludes flashbang explosions and Zapper batteries.
    
  • The explosion from the Detonation skill does not proc this skill, despite dealing damage.
    
  • The effect also procs from environmental explosions (like fire extinguishers) and shooting a Nader's belt.
    
  • Synergizes with Blowback.
• Cooker
  • Hold a throwable for at least 1s before throwing it to gain GRIT.
    
  • The buff will only be gained when the throwable is actually thrown.
    
  • Synergizes with Retriever to allow the player to gain GRIT on command using throwing knives.
    
  • Synergizes with Blast Shield.
• Shell Shock
  • Non-special enemies damaged by your explosions get a permanent penalty of 20% to their accuracy.
    
  • Does not work on Shields.
    
  • This debuff can only be applied once per enemy.
• Blowback
  • As long as you have RUSH, non-special enemies damaged by your explosions lose all armor.
    
  • Affected enemies will take regular damage from the explosion first, then shed any remaining armor if they survive the explosion.
    
  • Does not work on Shields.
    
  • Synergizes with Demolitionist Aced.
• Blast Shield
  • Available GRIT is consumed to negate any self-damage from your explosions.
    
  • Very useful with the Mamba due to its high amount of self-damage.
    
  • Synergizes with Cooker.
    
  • Synergizes extremely well with Enforcer Basic & Overcooked, as getting 2 kills with an explosive at point blank range will first consume GRIT to negate self-damage, then you'll immediately gain more GRIT.
• Overcooked
  • Any throwable or weapon you use that has an explosive component will no longer run on a timer but will immediately explode on impact with the environment or an NPC.
    
  • This includes explosives that do not deal damage, like the smoke grenade and flashbang.
    
  • Synergizes extremely well with Enforcer Basic & Blast Shield, as getting 2 kills with an explosive at point blank range will first consume GRIT to negate self-damage, then you'll immediately gain more GRIT.
• Extra Munitions (Mastery)
  • Your throwable capacity is increased by 2.
    
  • Excellent skill for any build that makes heavy use of throwables.
    
  • Synergizes with Top Up.

The Enforcer skill line contains skills using EDGE and GRIT make you a force to be reckoned with at close range and give you reloading buffs, both of which are great for shotguns.
• Enforcer Basic
  • Whenever you kill 2 enemies within 4s that are within 5m of you, gain GRIT.
    
  • Synergizes extremely well with Blast Shield & Overcooked, as getting 2 kills with an explosive at point blank range will first consume GRIT to negate self-damage, then you'll immediately gain more GRIT.
• Enforcer Aced
  • If you have GRIT, whenever you kill 1 enemy within 5m of you, gain EDGE.
• Quick Reload
  • As long as you have both GRIT and EDGE, decreases the time it takes for you to reload.
    
  • Adds +20 to your weapons' reload speed stat while active. The impact of this change varies based on your weapon attachments. With none equipped, this skill amounts to a 18.75% reduction in reload duration.
    
  • Synergizes extremely well with Combat Reload.
• Face To Face
  • As long as you have both GRIT and EDGE, you deal an additional 10% damage to targets within 5m of you.
    
  • This buff stacks additively with EDGE & other damage buff skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Combat Reload.
• Solid
  • As long as you have both EDGE and GRIT, you're immune to stagger effects.
    
  • Extremely effective for dealing with Dozers or Shields, as this allows you to get close without getting stunned.
    
  • Note that even if the stun is blocked by this effect, Dozer kicks will still deal a lot of damage and you will still lose buffs from melee attacks due to the Crippling Tactics security modifier.
    
  • Synergizes with Combat Reload.
• Combat Reload
  • Whenever you reload a weapon while the magazine still has ammo, refresh EDGE and GRIT.
    
  • Synergizes with Quick Reload, Face To Face, and Solid.
    
  • Synergizes with Ammo Funnel and Replenish extremely well, unless you also have Finisher.
• Shock & Awe (Mastery)
  • Killing an enemy less than 8m away has a ~20% chance to stagger all non-special enemies within 5m of you.
    
  • Does not affect shields. (unconfirmed)

The Manipulator skill line contains hostage-focused skills that make your trades & negotiations much more beneficial, as well as making hostages easier to manage. Many of these skills are meta for 1 player on the team to have.

• Manipulator Basic
  • Decreases the amount of time it takes for you to tie up or trade a hostage by 50%.
    
  • The game incorrectly states that this skill makes you "tie up and trade hostages 50% faster." In actuality, it decreases the amount of time it takes to do these interactions by 50%, meaning you actually do these interactions twice as fast (it takes half as long as it normally does).
• Manipulator Aced
  • Whenever you trade a hostage, they count as one extra hostage.
    
  • This effect doesn't just apply to negotiations; It also applies to trades between assault waves, meaning hostages will drop 1 extra consumable or release 1 extra teammate from custody.
    
  • Stacks additively with Silver Tongue and Negotiator.
    
  • Synergizes with Master Trader.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for 1 teammate in loud play (1 player per team should have these skills).
• Overbearing
  • Extends your 30m intimidation range by 20% (increased to 36m).
    
  • This only increases the 30m radius for the initial shout, meaning you can shout at civs up to 36m away, and a successful shout will intimidate every civ within 36m of you. It does not increase the 15m radius of passive intimidation around you (see "Intimidation" in the section Loud - Hostage Mechanics).
    
  • Civilians stay down for 50% longer when you intimidate them. This extends both the 5s and 20s intimidation timers to 7.5s and 30s respectively.
    
  • You can now order up to 3 tied hostages to follow you at the same time.
• Silver Tongue
  • Trading employees, guards, or law enforcement counts as trading one extra hostage.
    
  • This effect doesn't just apply to negotiations; It also applies to trades between assault waves, meaning hostages will drop 1 extra consumable or release 1 extra teammate from custody.
    
  • Stacks additively with Manipulator Aced and Negotiator.
    
  • Synergizes with Master Trader and Menacing.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for 1 teammate in loud play (1 player per team should have these skills).
• Negotiator
  • Trading a hostage for a consumable now yields two extra consumables of that type.
    
  • Stacks additively with Silver Tongue and Manipulator Aced.
    
  • Synergizes with Soft Assets and Pin Puller.
    
  • This is considered by some to be a "mandatory skill" for 1 teammate in loud play (1 player per team should have these skills, but this one is the most important).
• Menacing
  • You can shout at law enforcement within 5m to force them to surrender, turning them into a hostage that obeys all the rules of a civilian (including penalties for killing them).
    
  • You must hold them at gunpoint until they fully surrender, which takes 4s. Any damage dealt to them or taking your aim off them interrupts this process.
    
  • You may only have one surrendered enemy as a hostage at any given time. This limit is per player, so each player with the skill may have their own hostage.
    
  • Surrendered guards, cops, and first responders do NOT count towards this limit, so using this skill to force guards to surrender instead of killing them before the first responders arrive can net you more hostages to trade with.
    
  • Synergizes with Silver Tongue.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for 1 teammate in loud play (1 player per team should have these skills).
• Stockholm Syndrome
  • When downed, shouting at any tied down or cowering hostage within ~15m(?) will cause them to stand up and attempt to reach you.
    
  • If the hostage successfully reaches you, they will revive you and return to cowering.
    
  • The same hostage can be used to revive you multiple times in a row.
    
  • You cannot yell at a hostage to help you once you have been fully downed (can no longer shoot your secondary weapon).
    
  • If you yelled at a hostage before you fully went down, they will still attempt to revive you.
    
  • If at least one person on the team has this skill and is not yet in custody, the heist failure screen will be delayed by 20s if all players go down.
    
  • The heist failure delay applies even if there are no hostages or enemies remaining on the map to make use of this skill with.
    
  • The heist failure delay can be useful to give teammates in custody time to respawn before the heist fails.
• Master Trader (Mastery)
  • Every hostage you trade between assault waves (for consumables) also reduces the next player's time spent in custody by 10s, down to a minimum custody time of 10s.
    
  • This effect does not proc from hostages traded during negotiations.
    
  • Time reduction resets after any player is taken into custody.
    
  • This effect does not apply to bots, nor does the reduction reset when they go into custody.
    
  • Synergizes with Manipulator Aced and Silver Tongue.

The Engineer skill line contains Sentry Turret skills to make them more effective and reliable killing machines.

• Engineer Basic
  • Researching this skill unlocks the "Sentry Turret" deployable.
    
  • Equipping this skill increases the max heat capacity of your sentries by 20%.
    
  • Stacks with Engineer Aced.
• Engineer Aced
  • Increases the max heat capacity of your sentries by 20%.
    
  • Stacks with Engineer Basic.
• AP Turret
  • Increases the AP of your sentries by 1.
• Cooling System
  • Sentries build heat 30% slower from taking damage, electrical explosions, or getting hacked by a Techie.
• Detonation
  • When one of your sentries overheats, it will cause an explosion that deals 300/200/100 damage to all NPCs within 2.5/4/8m of the sentry.
    
  • The explosion can be blocked by walls, but not by Shields.
    
  • Does not synergize with any skills from the Demolitionist skill line.
• Spin Cycle
  • Your sentries can now rotate 360 degrees, letting them aim in any direction.
• Dual Sentries
  • You can now deploy 2 sentries.
    
  • Your sentries build heat 50% faster from shooting.
• Targeted Fire (Mastery)
  • Your sentries will prioritize shooting at the enemy you have manually marked most recently.
    
  • "Manually marking" refers only to looking at an enemy and pressing middle mouse.
    
  • The limited 15m range of the sentry still applies to marked targets.
    
  • If your sentries don't have LoS to any targets you have manually marked, they will follow their regular targeting behavior.
    
  • Does not synergize with Combat Marking.

The Gunslinger skill line contains hipfire-focused skills that give buffs for swapping weapons and firing from the hip.

• Gunslinger Basic
  • Switch between your primary, secondary, or overkill weapons to gain EDGE.
    
  • Pulling out a deployable also counts as switching weapons and will give you EDGE.
    
  • ADSing will end any EDGE you have active.
    
  • Synergizes with Quick Draw.
    
  • Anti-synergy with ADS playstyles. Avoid using this skill unless you are using a hipfire build.
• Gunslinger Aced
  • Performing headshots while hipfiring will refresh EDGE.
    
  • The headshot does not need to be lethal to proc this effect.
• From The Hip
  • If you have EDGE, your hipfire spread is decreased by ~30%.
    
  • This effect stacks multiplicatively with weapon attachments that also reduce hipfire spread.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for hipfire builds in high difficulties.
• Heavy Hipfire
  • If you have EDGE, all hipfire shots will inflict a heavy stagger on hit enemies.
    
  • Due to an oversight, this also applies to melee attacks, allowing you to use melee to inflict heavy stagger on many enemies, including shields.
• Finisher
  • If you have EDGE, the last shot of your magazine will consume EDGE and deal an additional 200% more damage.
    
  • The EDGE is consumed before the shot even connects with the enemy, so this skill has anti-synergies with lots of on-kill skills that require you to have EDGE.
    
  • This effect also now procs on Overkill weapons, meaning you can use a Red Fox to kill a Dozer in one body shot with this skill.
    
  • The 200% damage bonus stacks additively with EDGE and other damage buffs.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Gunslinger Aced, Quick Reload, Sharpshooter Aced, Precision Shot, Cutting Shot, Mower Aced, Suppressive Fire, Ammo Funnel, and Replenish.
• Locked And Loaded
  • As long as you have EDGE, ammo you pick up for your unequipped weapons is added directly to their magazines.
    
  • If their magazine is full, it's added to that weapon's reserve ammo instead.
    
  • This effect still works for weapons without a mag, like the Mosconi 12 Classic shotgun.
    
  • This skill is a counterpart to Ammo Funnel, but since it applies to your unequipped weapons it differs in a major way: since holding out a deployable/overkill weapon counts as unequipping your weapon, you can hold out a deployable while collecting ammo to refill the magazines of both of your weapons simultaneously.
    
  • Synergizes with Ammo Funnel, and synergizes extremely well with Replenish.
• Quick Draw (Mastery)
  • Adds +30 to your weapons' equip speed stats. The impact of this change varies based on your weapon attachments. With none equipped, this skill amounts to a ~10% reduction in equip speed.
    
  • This skill only affects your equip speed (the speed at which you take out a weapon), and does not have any impact on your unequip speed (the speed at which you put away a weapon).
    
  • Synergizes with Gunslinger Basic.

• Grifter Basic
  • When unmasked, if you are within 1m of a civilian, gain RUSH.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Grifter Aced
  • When you put your mask on, any civilians in a 10m radius that can see you will be automatically intimidated.
    
  • Does not synergize with Overbearing.
• Walk The Walk
  • When unmasked and you have RUSH, cameras won't detect you trespassing in private areas.
    
  • Cameras can still detect you performing an illegal action while the effect is active.
    
  • This is an excellent counter to the Threat Detection System security modifier.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Social Engineering
  • When unmasked and you have RUSH, employees will ignore you performing illegal actions.
    
  • Since trespassing in secure areas counts as an illegal action, this skill also makes employees ignore said trespassing.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Open Mic
  • The time it takes you to answer radios is decreased by 50%.
    
  • The game incorrectly states that this skill makes you "answer radios 50% faster." In actuality, it decreases the amount of time it takes to answer radios by 50%, meaning you actually answer radios twice as fast (it takes half as long as it normally does).
• Slippery (Mastery)
  • After getting cuffed by a guard, you can break free by lockpicking the cuffs.
    
  • Lockpicking your cuffs does not count as an illegal action, and can be done while being watched by guards. The guards will, however, still spot you once you break out of the cuffs.
    
  • You cannot lockpick cuffs from Cloakers.

• Hacker Basic
  • You can hack cameras to gain access to the CCTV system. This gives you access to all cameras, as if you had accessed the security room's computer.
    
  • Hacking a cam takes 1.5s (0.75s with Speed Hack).
    
  • You gain one "Runtime."
    
  • The additional "Runtime" stacks with Hacker Aced & Scrambler Basic.
    
  • Synergizes with Speed Hack.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Hacker Aced
  • You can overload a looped camera to cause an electrical explosion, stunning NPCs in a 15m radius with LoS and destroying the camera as if you had shot it.
    
  • In stealth, when this stun wears off, NPCs react as if they had been hit with an infrasonic mine.
    
  • The electrical explosion part of this skill is completely useless on heists with indestructible titan cams.
    
  • The electrical explosion can also be triggered on camera drones. (unconfirmed)
    
  • You must own the skill Secure Loop to use the explosion effect.
    
  • You gain one additional "Runtime".
    
  • The additional "Runtime" stacks with Hacker Basic & Scrambler Basic.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth to get the extra "Runtime," but only if the heist does not have the Cerberus Core modifier.
• Secure Loop
  • After hacking a camera, you can spend one "Runtime" to loop the current camera you are viewing.
    
  • Looped cameras cannot detect you or anything out of the ordinary.
    
  • If the camera is destroyed, you regain your "Runtime."
    
  • If you use another "Runtime" when you have none left, your oldest active "Runtime" is automatically removed.
    
  • Looped cams will emit a blue light instead of red, and are marked on the CCTV system UI with a blue circle.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth, but only if the heist does not have the Cerberus Core modifier.
• Appliance Breach
  • You can activate lures from a distance of up to 10m, as long as you have a clear LoS.
    
  • Useful on a few heists where you remain unmasked, but you can just use throwing knives instead if you are masked up.
• Routed Ping
  • You can spend a second "Runtime" on a looped camera to make the camera automatically mark any guards or law enforcement within 10m that it can see.
    
  • Targets marked by this effect stay marked for 5s after being marked.
    
  • Targets marked by this effect do not count towards your maximum number of marked targets.
    
  • Note that cameras have an extremely narrow FoV (~20 degrees), so enemies will frequently not be marked due to the massive blind spots that cams have.
    
  • Routed Ping cameras are marked on the CCTV system UI with a red circle.
    
  • This skill requires you to apply 2 "Runtimes" to the same camera, so to use it you must have either Hacker Aced or Scrambler Basic.
    
  • If you attempt to apply Routed Ping to a looped cam when you only have 1 "Runtime," the camera will simply stop looping.
    
  • This skill is significantly more useful in loud if the heist has the Titan Cams security modifier.
    
  • Synergizes with Combat Marking, Threat Assessment, and Misdirect.
• Glitch Protocol
  • You can hack a guard's radio to completely distract them for 5s, after which they will resume their previous action.
    
  • You must have LoS to a guard and be within 10m to hack them.
    
  • Hacking a radio takes 2s.
    
  • Using this ability has a cooldown of 60s.
    
  • If you hack a guard while they are escorting a player, the guard will forget about the player and go back to their regular patrolling behavior.
    
  • If you hack a guard who was about to cuff a player, the guard will forget about the player, but the heist will still be put into search mode.
    
  • If you hack a guard who is escorting you, be sure that the escort circle disappears before you run off. If you leave too quickly or the guard walks too far away before the hack is finished, the guard may not stop the escort when you hack him, meaning that he will act as though you ran away when his radio is fixed. To avoid this, simply stay in the circle if the escort circle does not disappear when you hack him.
    
  • Bumping into a guard while they are distracted will cause them to turn and face you when their radio is fixed.
    
  • Hacked guards can still see you perform illegal interactions; Such interactions will still show "(Observed)" to tell you they are not safe.
    
  • Does not synergize with Speed Hack.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth.
• Signal Catch (Mastery)
  • You can answer radios from up to 8m away if you have LoS to the guard's body.

• Tactician Basic
  • Whenever you stun or stagger an enemy, gain EDGE.
    
  • Meleeing basic enemies is an easy way to stagger enemies in order to proc this skill.
    
  • Synergizes with Coup De Grace.
• Tactician Aced
  • Your flashbang, smoke grenade, and shock grenade AoE is increased by 20%.
    
  • Stacks additively with Demolitionist Basic.
• Crowd Control
  • Effects of this skill on flashbangs is currently unknown. It may be bugged, as it does not appear to produce any effect. (?)
    
  • Scared civs will stop moving if they enter a smoke cloud from your smoke grenades. This does not affect a civ if you order them to follow you.
    
  • Does not synergize with Overbearing.
• Coup De Grace
  • If you have EDGE, deal 10% more damage to staggered or stunned enemies.
    
  • Stacks additively with EDGE & other damage increasing skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Tactitian Basic.
• Discombobulate
  • Enemies affected by your flashbangs deal 40% less damage for the duration of the stun and for 5s after it wears off.
    
  • Enemies affected by your smoke grenades deal 40% less damage while in the smoke and for 5s after they escape the smoke.
    
  • Since this changes the amount of damage the enemy deals instead of how much you resist damage, stacks multiplicatively with GRIT and damage reduction skills.
• Expose
  • Shots fired at enemies stunned by your flashbangs or shock grenades will completely ignore armor while they are stunned.
    
  • This effect causes all shots to deal full damage directly to the enemy's health, regardless of the shot's AP.
    
  • This effect also applies to shots fired by teammates and sentries.
• Scramble (Mastery)
  • Any stun effects you apply last 20% longer.
    
  • This skill only actually applies to stuns from your flashbangs & shock grenades. It does not apply to staggers or infrasonic mines (unconfirmed).

• Strategist Basic
  • You can mark 1 additional target (2 total).
    
  • Your marks last 20% longer (increased from 15s to 18s).
    
  • Does not extend marks for marked cameras.
    
  • Stacks with Strategist Aced.
    
  • Synergizes with Routed Ping (unconfirmed), Combat Marking, Threat Assessment, Misdirect, Death Knell, Assassin's Mettle, Killer Kinesthetics, motion sensors (unconfirmed), & trip lasers (unconfirmed).
• Strategist Aced
  • You can mark 1 additional target (3 total).
    
  • Your marks last 20% longer (increased from 18s to 21s).
    
  • Does not extend marks for marked cameras.
    
  • Stacks with Strategist Basic.
    
  • Synergizes with Routed Ping (unconfirmed), Combat Marking, Threat Assessment, Misdirect, Death Knell, Assassin's Mettle, Killer Kinesthetics, motion sensors (unconfirmed), & trip lasers (unconfirmed).
• Combat Marking
  • If you have EDGE, deal 20% extra damage against any marked target.
    
  • This effect does not apply to targets marked by bots.
    
  • Stacks additively with EDGE & other damage increasing skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Routed Ping, Marked For Death, Death Knell, Killer Kinesthetics, motion sensors, & trip lasers.
• Threat Assessment
  • If you have GRIT, take 20% less damage from any marked target.
    
  • This effect does not apply to targets marked by bots.
    
  • Stacks additively with GRIT & other damage resistance skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Routed Ping, Marked For Death, Death Knell, Killer Kinesthetics, motion sensors, & trip lasers.
• Misdirect
  • As long as you have RUSH, shots from any marked target have a 20% chance to deal no damage to you.
    
  • This effect does not apply to targets marked by bots.
    
  • Stacks multiplicatively with other effects that reduce enemy accuracy, such as from Shell Shock.
    
  • Synergizes with Routed Ping, Assassin Aced, Death Knell, Killer Kinesthetics, motion sensors, & trip lasers.
• Marked For Death (Mastery)
  • If you are downed or disabled (tased/subdued) by an enemy, that enemy and up to 5 other enemies within 5m of you are automatically marked.
    
  • The enemy that downed or disabled you is marked regardless of distance, and even works when being downed by a Nader's gas grenade.
    
  • Synergizes with Combat Marking and Threat Assessment.

• CQC Specialist Basic
  • Whenever you grab a human shield, gain or refresh RUSH.
    
  • Lets you permanently have RUSH active so long as you have a hostage, since you can gain or refresh RUSH by just shoving them and then immediately grabbing them as a human shield again.
    
  • Synergizes with Soft Assets.
• CQC Specialist Aced
  • Whenever you finish performing a takedown, gain or refresh GRIT.
    
  • This skill currently has little to no use cases in stealth, and is practically useless in loud unless you also have Groundskeeper.
• Soft Assets
  • If you have RUSH, shoving away a SWAT, Heavy SWAT, Sabotage Specialist, or Hostage Rescue unit you were using as a human shield will consume RUSH and repair any trauma damage in your current armor chunk.
    
  • This effect can only be triggered once per enemy.
    
  • This effect can also be triggered on enemies who surrendered via the Menacing skill.
    
  • This effect doesn't proc if your current armor chunk is full or if you have no armor (even if you have Clean Slate).
    
  • Move 5% faster while holding a human shield.
    
  • Movement speed buff stacks additively with RUSH, Pin Puller, and other movement speed buffs.
    
  • Synergizes with CQC Specialist Basic and Menacing.
• Groundskeeper
  • The time it takes you to perform a takedown is decreased by 60% (decreased from 5s to 2s).
    
  • The game incorrectly states that this skill makes you "perform takedowns 60% faster." In actuality, it decreases the amount of time it takes to perform takedowns by 60%.
• Pin Puller
  • If you have GRIT, shoving a SWAT, Heavy SWAT, Sabotage Specialist, or Hostage Rescue unit you were using as a human shield will consume GRIT and set off their smoke grenade.
    
  • This effect can only be triggered once per enemy.
    
  • This effect can also be triggered on enemies who surrendered via the Menacing skill.
    
  • Move 5% faster while holding a human shield.
    
  • Movement speed buff stacks additively with RUSH, Soft Assets, and other movement speed buffs.
    
  • Synergizes with Menacing, Death Knell, and all smoke grenade skills.
• Savage Takedown
  • Whenever you grab a human shield, all civs within 5m will immediately become intimidated.
    
  • The civs do not need to be observing the takedown to become intimidated, but they do need LoS.
• Pressure Points
  • After you perform a takedown, the resulting body will cause NPCs that see it to go through a lengthy inspection process before the alarm is sounded, giving you a lot of time to react.
    
  • If a civ sees an affected body, they will run over to it to inspect it (with a red "!" above their head). Upon reaching the body, the icon above their head will change to a radio, and they will spend ~10s calling for a guard. This will cause a nearby guard to come inspect the body, after which the civ will resume their previous behavior as if they had never seen the body.
    
  • If a guard sees an affected body (he must actually see it, even if called over by a civ), he will run over to inspect it (with a red "!" above his head). He will then take ~10s to inspect the body, after which he will radio to sound the alarm.
    
  • Cameras will still react the same to these bodies and instantly sound the alarm.
    
  • Once the body is spotted, if the body is moved before the inspection is complete, the NPC will instead react as though they had just seen a regular dead body, so be sure to leave the body until the NPC is safe to eliminate.
    
  • If the body is spotted and inspected by a civ, it can be quickly moved while the civ leaves and the guard is on his way (while neither NPC has a red "!" or radio above them). This will cause the guard to simply return to his patrol at no penalty.
    
  • Picking up or moving the body does not cancel this skill's effects on said body, allowing it to be relocated.
• Cover-Up (Mastery)
  • Performing a takedown on a guard will prevent his radio from ever going off, instead acting as though you had already answered the radio.
    
  • This effect will still reduce your number of remaining radio uses by one, as if you had answered the radio normally.
    
  • Performing a takedown on a guard with this skill when you have no radios left will put the heist into search mode.
    
  • Performing a takedown on the lead guard will only answer his pager once; You must still come back to answer his pager again later.

• Transporter Basic
  • Whenever you pick up a bag or body, gain or refresh RUSH.
    
  • Whenever you throw a bag or body, you lose RUSH.
    
  • Losing RUSH will make Walk The Walk & Social Engineering less reliable when moving bags unmasked.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Bagger & Catapult.
    
  • Synergizes with Beast of Burden.
• Aced
  • Whenever you pick up a bag or body, gain or refresh GRIT.
    
  • Whenever you throw a bag or body, you lose GRIT.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Catapult.
    
  • Synergizes with Brutal Carry.
• Beast of Burden
  • As long as you have RUSH, carrying objects or bodies doesn't incur a movement speed penalty.
    
  • This effect only affects movement speed; You will still not be able to jump, sprint, or crouch when carrying bodies, and still cannot sprint with heavy loot items.
    
  • Does not remove the movement speed penalty when holding a human shield.
    
  • Synergizes with Transporter Basic & Power Lifter.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" in heists with lots of bags, as well as in solo play.
• Brutal Carry
  • As long as you have GRIT, civs who fully spot you while you are carrying a body will immediately become intimidated.
    
  • Synergizes with Transporter Aced.
• Deep Pockets
  • You start each heist with 2 of your equipped deployable bag instead of 1.
    
  • Your deployables now have 2 less charges (uses) each (with a minimum of 1).
    
  • This effect only works with deployable bags (not sentries).
    
  • Synergizes with all skills that increase the number of charges your deployable bag has. This allows you to increase the number of charges you bring to a heist from 8 to 12 (2 bags with 6 charges each).
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for loud play on higher difficulties.
• Power Lifter
  • You can carry up to two loot bags at once. This incurs a ~30% movement speed penalty. (unconfirmed, needs testing)
    
  • Synergizes with Transporter Basic & Beast of Burden.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" in heists with lots of bags, as well as in solo play.
• Catapult (Mastery)
  • You throw bags 30% further.
    
  • Does not affect thrown bodies.
    
  • Anti-synergy with Transporter Basic and Transporter Aced, as making use of this skill requires procing the negative effects of those other skills.

• Scrambler Basic
  • You can hack drones by spending one "Runtime."
    
  • Hacked cam drones stop moving for 7s, during which it cannot detect anything. After 7s, it will continue working as normal and your runtime will be refunded.
    
  • Hacked combat/tactical drones will become indestructible for 6s, during which it will fight on your side. After 6s, it will self-destruct and your runtime will be refunded.
    
  • Hacked tactical drones will shock enemies with its attack instead of debuffing.
    
  • You gain one "Runtime."
    
  • The additional "Runtime" stacks with Hacker Basic & Hacker Aced.
• Scrambler Aced
  • Whenever you place a tool, gain RUSH.
    
  • Synergizes with Speed Hack, Kinetic Short-Circuit, & Full Recall.
• Speed Hack
  • As long as you have RUSH and an ECM Jammer is active:
    • The time it takes for you to perform interactions for hacking a cam, hacking a QR code phone, or using a QR code are decreased by 50%.
      
    • Radios of guards you kill are answered instantly (this functions identically to the radio-answering effect of Cover-Up).
  • The game incorrectly states that this skill makes the listed interactions "50% faster." In actuality, it decreases the amount of time it takes to do the interactions by 50%, meaning you actually perform the actions twice as fast (it takes half as long as it normally does).
    
  • These effects can proc from ECMs activated by teammates. (unconfirmed)
    
  • These effects do not stack with multiple active ECMs.
    
  • The radio-answering effect only applies to guards killed by the player who has this skill active. (unconfirmed)
    
  • Does not speed up "stand in the circle" phone hacks.
    
  • Does not synergize with Glitch Protocol (radio hacks are not sped up).
    
  • Synergizes with Hacker Basic.
• Signal Scan
  • While your ECM Jammer is active, all cameras, Snipers, Techies, and the FBI van are marked for you and your crew.
    
  • This effect does not proc from ECMs activated by teammates. (unconfirmed)
• Extra Pockets
  • You start the heist with 50% more of your equipped tool, rounded up (minimum of 1 extra tool).
    
  • Synergizes with Extra Pockets & Full Recall.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth OR if you are using ECM Jammers in loud.
• Kinetic Short-Circuit
  • As long as you have RUSH and an ECM Jammer is active, Guards, First Responders, and SWAT will become stunned for 5s whenever you shoot them.
    
  • This effect can proc from ECMs activated by teammates. (unconfirmed)
    
  • Destroying a Zapper's battery will replenish one of your used ECMs (this does not require RUSH).
    
  • You will not replenish an ECM if you are already full on ECMs, however if you equip Full Recall, you can place your ECMs, get more by shooting batteries, then pick up the ECMs you placed to go above your maximum ECM count.
• Cam Distortion
  • Any ECM Jammers placed by you will passively disable all cams within 0.5m of them.
    
  • This effect ends when you pick up or use the ECM.
    
  • Disabled cams can't be hacked and all active runtimes on them are refunded.
    
  • Extremely useful for countering the effects of the Cerberus Core security modifier.
    
  • Synergizes with Extra Pockets & Full Recall.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for stealth when the Cerberus Core modifier is active.
• Full Recall (Mastery)
  • You can interact with tools you have placed to pick them back up.
    
  • Consumable tools can only be picked back up if they haven't been used or triggered.
    
  • Infinitely reusable tools like the micro-cam and trip laser can always be picked back up, even after being used.
    
  • Can be used to quickly complete daily challenges to "Place a tool x times."
    
  • Synergizes with Scrambler Aced, Extra Pockets, & Cam Distortion.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" if you are using ECM Jammers in stealth, especially if using Cam Distortion to counter the Cerberus Core modifier.

• Fortitude Basic
  • Increases your base maximum health by 50 (default base health is 100).
    
  • When you have no Adrenaline, if you get Adrenaline or heal to full health, gain or refresh GRIT.
    
  • Synergizes with Assassin's Mettle.
• Fortitude Aced
  • Increases your maximum number of downs by 1. You also start the heist with this 1 extra down.
    
  • Increases your bleedout time by 50% (the amount of time it takes for you to go into custody after being downed). (increased from 30s to 45s)
    
  • Synergizes with Unyielding, Fortitude Aced, and Walking Tall.
• Health Siphon
  • When a crewmate heals using one of your Medic Bags, you are also healed for 40% of the amount that they healed.
    
  • 100% of excess healing is still converted to Adrenaline from this effect.
    
  • Synergizes with teammates that have Field Surgery and with teammates that have Triage, Fortitude Basic, and Unyielding.
• Unyielding
  • Your maximum health is increased by 15 for each down you have left.
    
  • Each down you lose will reduce your maximum health by 15 until you restore your lost downs. This reduced maximum health is represented by a red section of your health bar.
    
  • Synergizes with Fortitude Aced.
• Supraphysiological
  • Whenever you gain Adrenaline, you gain an additional 10% more Adrenaline for each down you have left.
    
  • Stacks additively with more downs (i.e. 5 downs = 50% more adrenaline, meaning you effectively multiply all your adrenaline gain by x1.5)
    
  • Each down you lose will reduce this benefit by 10% until you restore your lost downs.
    
  • Synergizes with Fortitude Aced, Assassin's Mettle, and all sources of healing/adrenaline.
• Walking Tall
  • Adrenaline decays 25% slower for each down you have left.
    
  • Stacks additively with more downs (i.e. 4 downs = 100% slower, meaning it takes twice as long as normal to decay)
    
  • Each down you lose will reduce this benefit by 25% until you restore your lost downs.
    
  • If you have any Adrenaline, using a First Aid Kit will pause its decay for 15s.
    
  • Synergizes with Fortitude Aced.
• Pain Asymbolia
  • If you have Adrenaline and at least one buff (EDGE, GRIT, or RUSH), the 10% buffs provided by EDGE/GRIT/RUSH are doubled (increased to 20%).
    
  • If you have Adrenaline and at least one buff (EDGE, GRIT, or RUSH), you take 10% less damage to your Adrenaline.
    
  • The adrenaline damage resistance effect stacks additively with GRIT and other damage resistance skills.
• Stockpile (Mastery)
  • If you have a deployable bag equipped, it has 2 additional charges.
    
  • Stacks with Tank Basic, Extra Plates, Ammo Specialist Basic, Fully Loaded, Medic Basic, and Extra Charges.
    
  • Synergizes with Deep Pockets.
    
  • This is considered a "meta skill" for all loud builds that have a deployable bag equipped.

• Assassin Basic
  • Whenever you kill an enemy with a suppressed weapon, gain RUSH.
• Assassin Aced
  • Whenever you manually mark a guard or law enforcement, refresh RUSH.
    
  • "Manually marking" means by looking at them and pressing middle mouse.
    
  • This effect can still proc in loud gameplay by marking specials.
    
  • Synergizes with Misdirect.
    
  • Does NOT synergize with motion sensors or any skills that cause enemies to become marked, such as Killer Kinesthetics.
• Skimming the Ground
  • As long as you are wielding a suppressed weapon, your crouching movement speed is increased by 20%.
    
  • The weapon with the silencer must be the gun you are currently holding to proc the effects of this skill.
    
  • This skill can't let you move faster than your current armor's maximum movement speed would normally allow. (unconfirmed, needs testing)
    
  • Stacks additively with RUSH and other movement speed skills.
• Drop Cloth
  • When you kill a guard with a suppressed weapon, their body is completely undetectable by NPCs and cams (unconfirmed) for the first 10s after they die.
    
  • Radios from guards killed this way will also not go off until the 10s period has passed.
• Duck and Weave
  • If you have RUSH, you deal an additional 25% damage to enemies from behind (?). (needs testing)
    
  • This damage bonus is decreased by 5% for each armor chunk you currently have, excluding your first armor chunk (i.e. if your current armor chunk is your 2nd chunk, you get a 20% damage bonus)
    
  • Stacks additively with EDGE and other damage buff skills.
• Killer Kinesthetics
  • When you kill a marked enemy with a suppressed weapon, the nearest unmarked enemy to the killed enemy (within a 10m radius) will become marked for 5s.
    
  • While not too useful on its own, this skill enables powerful synergies by being one of very few ways to mark common enemies in loud gameplay. By marking a special enemy before killing it, you can start a chain of marking and killing common enemies while reaping benefits from other skills like Assassin's Mettle.
    
  • Synergizes with Assassin's Mettle, Death Knell, & all Strategist skills.
• Assassin's Mettle
  • If you have one armor chunk or less, killing a marked enemy with a suppressed weapon will restore 5 health.
    
  • If below 50% of your max health, this skill will instead restore 10 health.
    
  • If at or above full health, this skill will instead grant 5 adrenaline.
    
  • Extremely powerful skill for Adrenaline-centric builds, especially those that invest heavily into Fortitude skills.
    
  • Synergizes with Death Knell, Killer Kinesthetics, Supraphysiological, Fortitude Basic, & all Strategist skills.
• Death Knell (Mastery)
  • Any enemy damaged, stunned, staggered, shocked, or otherwise affected by your throwables becomes marked for the duration of the effect and ~2.5s after the effect ends.
    
  • Enemies that enter the smoke from your smoke grenade will be continuously marked until they leave.
    
  • Synergizes with Overcooked, Pin Puller, Assassin's Mettle, Killer Kinesthetics, & all Strategist skills.