Hello.

This guide will explain You the basics one need to know about both the skill trees menu and the basics of almost every build. This means it's a great lecture for every new player.

As I couldn't find the guide I found the most useful when it comes to basics of the build and the other ones I found didn't satisfy me, I finally snapped and decided to create one.

There's few things one should know before trying to set up a character "build". These include:

• Visiting the Safe House (by choosing the Safe House option in the main menu) for the first time, finishing Bain's (Bain is the guy who gives you the instructions) "tutorial" and leaving it via the Laptop situated by the basement stairs grants You an extra experience level and small amount of starting cash. IT IS STRONGLY RECOMMENDED YOU COMPLETE IT FIRST.
  
  
• You can (and should) unlock more than just 1 skill tree, in fact every successful "build" requires skills from few of skill trees.
  
  
• To further support the point, basic skills every player need for starters is spread across 4 trees, as mentioned above & below.
  
  
• You can change your Skills setup at any time, yet you will loose some cash invested in it. You do that for every tree separately by clicking "RESPEC THIS SKILL TREE" option on the lower right side of the skill tree. That lets respecialize every now and then, giving you back all of the points invested in the active tree and (only) HALF of the cash invested in getting those skills.
  
  
• The "Skills & Perk Decks" menu includes 3 main parts \ options you should know about. These are also explained below.
  
  
• You can have up to 4 different Build Setups (Skill-Sets) you can switch between during Lobby stage (before planning stage) to better fit the task at hand. Problem is, first alternative setup becomes available after player hits level 50, so before that, You need a universal build, as mentioned below. (I know there's option for 5 different setups, but that's after Tabula Rasa, which is obviously not reachable when you're starting)
  
  
• As you probably know, in PAYDAY 2 you can approach the jobs in at least 2 different ways: Loud assault or sneaky Stealth one. For the most part, builds (including skills, weapons and gear) for those vary heavily, yet at the beginning you need a universal build that will let you not get kicked out of the stealth mission and will let you not die during a loud one.
  
  
• You get 120 points total for Your build setup. These are 100 points for every level + 2 extra points for every 10 levels You get.
  
  
• There's two numbers on the right side of the skill tree. Like 2 | 5, 3 | 10 etc. The number of the left is the "Tier" level of the tree while the number on the right tells player how many skill points he needs to spend to unlock a higher part of the tree (remember you spend 1 point to unlock the tree). Also, starting from Tier 4, skills get more expensive both cash-wise and Skill-Point-wise.
  
  
• You can easily check on how many Skill Points you need to get to higher tier of the tree by hovering your mouse over one of the locked-tree-level skills (it displays it in red on the right of the skill tree - "You need X points to unlock blah blah".
  
  
• Infamy prestige points lets you lower the required amount of used skill points needed to unlock higher tiers of the trees. So for example instead of 10 used points for Tier 3, You need only 9 used points, 18 instead of 20 for Tier 4, 27 instead of 30 for Tier 5 and 36 instead of 40 for Tier 6. You will need to worry about that later, after hitting level 100.
  

The skills that are an ABSOLUTE MUST for everybody, for almost every build.

MASTERMIND:

• Endurance (ACE)

ENFORCER:

• Transporter (ACE)

GHOST:

• Sprinter (ACE)
  
• Cat Burglar (BASIC)

FUGITIVE:

• Hidden Blade (ACE)

The skills that are STRONGLY RECOMMENDED for every new player, for a universal build.

These should be the addition to the required ones that I listed above.

MASTERMIND:

• Leadership (ACE)
  
• Control Freak (BASIC)
  
• Equilibrium (BASIC)

Why? ACE'd Leadership removes the Stability cap on weapons, making them much easier to spray-fire and double tap. Control Freak lets You scare civilians easily by shooting into the air or ceiling with an unsilenced pistol (very useful in stealth) and Equilibrium lets You change between weapons way faster. CF and EQ both have smaller priority than any of the other skills listed here.

ENFORCER:

• Underdog (ACE)
  
• Die Hard (ACE)
  
• Stun Resistance (ACE)

Why? Underdog and Die Hard makes You harder to kill, giving both defensive and offensive buffs, while Stun Resistance makes random flashbangs a lot less painful.

GHOST:

• Fast Hands (ACE)
  
• Chameleon (BASIC)

Why? Fast Hands makes life a little easier when You gotta move few bags under fire, while Chameleon lets You warn other players about dangers (guards, cams) in stealth.
Both of this skills have lower priority compared to others in this topic, but are very useful.

FUGITIVE:

• Sixth Sense (ACE)

Why? If you stand still for few seconds, you act like a sonar, highlighting people. On BASIC, it's a total game-changer in stealth, while ACE'd version lets you pick up keycards in casing mode.

As it was mentioned before, there's more to the "Skills & Perk Decks" menu than just Skill Trees, mainly because the said menu contains a link to another menu - a "Perk Decks" one. It's implemented in such non-intuitive way, many people simply overlook it, making their "first times" (and often not only the first times...) even harder. But why would You need it? Well...

Perk Decks are passive bonuses that further buffs Your character. It often heavily changes how the gunplay looks, requiring different setups (both skill- and weapon-wise), making your character better at some things while usually making him weaker in other areas.

So, where would You find those? Look up over the skill tree, upper left corner. Neat header, eh?

You know, the SKILLS | PERK DECKS title text. The problem is, it's not only a header and that wasn't mentioned or hinted ANYWHERE or anyhow within' the game itself. Many people doesn't realize this thing is clickable and used to switch between equally important menues.



(image by Payday 2 Wiki until I'll get my own)

Ok, so now You know that it's out there, let me tell You how does it work.

HOW DO THE PERK DECKS WORK?

The vanilla game comes with few Perk Decks already. These are: Crew Chief, Muscle, Armorer, Rogue, Hitman, Crook, Gambler. New ones can be aquired by buying the DLCs.

To use (as in: gain bonuses from) the Perk Deck, You need to have it "equipped". Usually the double click on it works, You can always use the option on the lower right side.

You can have only 1 Perk Deck equipped at a time and You gain bonuses only from the unlocked cards. To unlock cards, press the little plus ("+") under the card to fill it with points.

The points are converted from EXP points gathered during the succesful heists.

WHICH PERK DECKS SHOULD I GET FIRST?

There's only one right answer to that: Armorer. Always. Always get it first.

Why? Answer is simple: most of the jobs in the game are "loud" (some are even loud-only) and even "Ghost" builds that happen to wander into missions like that need to be able to survive it, also most of the players use vest-equipped builds or setups. Fully filled Armorer grants You extra 30 % of protection without ANY draw-backs and that's enough to make a big difference (as in: surviving the meeting with Black Bulldozer while having "only" Combined Tactical Vest).

When You have finished it, feel free to think about the rest of the decks, but this should be Your first. Eventually, You could try Muscle, but from my experience it gives worse results.

OTHER PERK DECKS:
Muscle - bigger risk-reward alternative for armorer, ton of extra HP + ability to scare enemies
Gambler - supportive deck that gives the team extra HP & ammo
Crew Chief - supportive deck that gives the user HP and boosts team stats
Rogue - base for Dodge builds, aimed at experienced players
Crook - base for Dodge builds, aimed at experienced players
Hitman - useless deck; either you're a really experienced user or you will die a lot

DLC PERK DECKS:
Burglar - best perk deck for stealth builds; faster pager responses, faster picklocking.
Infiltrator - melee-oriented perk for heavies, healing for given melee hits.
Grinder - buffed, "vampire" alternative for Dodge\Crook builds, healing for hitting enemy.
Sociopath - melee-oriented alternative to Infiltrator, armor-restoring and panic spreading.

Sorted by usability \ popularity among people I've met during my playtime.

WHAT HAPPENS TO PERK DECK POINTS AFTER GOING INFAMOUS?

They are left intact, tho You might want to re-equip (change the perk deck to some other one and back to the one You used) the deck You used after going infamous, due to the fact that after going Infamous sometimes the Perk Deck bonuses did not activate, cutting the bonuses.

HoxHud users using Build Profiler need to do the same (unless they've already fixed it).

Apart from the mentioned Perk Decks, there's also the (also mentioned) ability to switch between few skill setups during the lobby sit-around, between the heists. It allows You to have a different builds for loud and stealth, ready setups for different roles, etc. Many people overlook it.

Sadly, the first alternative set (as in: second possible) gets unlocked only after reaching level 50.

The option for switching \ buying set slots is available straight from the Skills Menu, on the lower left side of the skill tree. You also have an option to change the "name" of the setup.

Here, have a screen of a ready one:




Few things to remember:

• You need to switch the set first and THEN edit the skills setup.
  
• Each set got it's own points to use, eg. if You're lvl 100, You have 120 points on each set.
  
• After You go infamous the skillsets are gone along with the skill points.

Getting next (3 and 4) slots requires both higher levels (consequently 75 and 100) and offshore money (consequently 1 mln $ and 10 mln $) with final level requiring lvl 100, 20 mln $ offshore and the Tabula Rasa achievement. Remember to farm and unlock extra slots before going infamous.

And that would be pretty much it. It's really intuitive, so I guess You won't be lost.

That's it. Skills-setup-wise this should prepare You pretty well for the upcoming fights.

Hope You liked it - if You did, feel free to rate & favourite. I'm happy if it helped. It's probably only the first of at least few guides I plan to write, so keep an eye out if You're interested.

And finally, have a good day.

Other, (great) guides You should have a look at (even if You're not a newbie):
- my guide about how not to suck and how not to get kicked, that I haven't written yet
- Enemy unit types shown & explained
- OVE9000 Saw setup & usage
- Useful shortcuts over the maps
- Save Game Backup and Restoration

W opracowaniu | Work in progress.