PAYDAY 2 is not known for its story, having gone through most of its life without much of an overarching plot, and relying on the No Plot? No Problem! way of storytelling; Don't do one. Nevertheless, there have been heists with more story and tropes than others that go beyond "steal gold from this Bank".
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Miscellaneous
Heists that are in an Ambiguous Time Period, or otherwise do not contribute to any main story arc.
Bank Heist
Bain and the crew go on a bank heist. Comes in five variants in-game; Vanilla (Cash and Deposit boxes), Cash (Cash only), Gold (Gold and Deposit Boxes), Random (any of the above) and Deposit (Deposit Boxes only).
- Bank Robbery: As basic as it gets when it comes to heists; a local branch bank in D.C the crew hit, and the canonically one of the first the crew do.
- Noob Cave: This is one of the easiest heists in the game, even in stealth, in part because of how small the map is and the low guard population.
- Random Event: The bank vault is the only large-scale random element in the map, though keycards and money bundles also change places.
- Violation of Common Sense: The goal of the heist is to drill into the vault, this includes in stealth, where the drill is silenced, and can oftentimes be in plain view of people.
Armored Transport (Park, Downtown, Underpass, Crossroad, Harbor)
Gensec are moving valuables around in specialised armoured trucks; the PAYDAY Gang are hell bent on hitting them.
The final Armored Transport Heist; Train, has its own folder, due to its unique gameplay setups.
The final Armored Transport Heist; Train, has its own folder, due to its unique gameplay setups.
- Armed Blag: Armoured Transport lets you pull these on GenSec convoys, albeit with more violence than the original trope. Each convoy has between 2-4 trucks, with each truck having several boxes you'll need to crack open to get at the goods. You need at least two bags of loot (gold, jewels, or plain old cash) to complete the heist - each van has at least two, though the exact quantity per van depends on difficulty and van count, plus the risk of some of the rarer loot being destroyed if you use C4 to blow the doors off.
- The Artifact: Finding the blueprints still has Bain mention that he'll look into it for a future job. Since Update 57, Transport: Train is it's own heist and this used to be a secret second day. You do get an achievement for finding it though; "But Wait - There's More!".
- Homage: These heists are based on a similar action sequence in Heat, specifically the armored car hit on the street. Another heisting film, Point Break (1991) also gets referenced as the four masks released in the DLC pack are in reference to the presidential masks used by the "Ex-Presidents" crew in that film. The Hockey Mask from the former sequence is also a mask unlockable in-game.
- Random Event: The loot in each truck is randomly decided before the heist starts; however even if you use shaped charges on all the trucks to get into them, there will always be enough to exit the level to prevent Unwinnable by Design. Similarly, the amount of trucks to break into is usually between 3-4 (except on Normal, where only one spawns), and the escape van will spawn in different places, depending on the variation.
- Recurring Boss Template: Each level is functionally identical gameplay-wise to each other (even the Payday wiki and the in-universe FBI Files just groups these up as a co-ordinated hit by Bain, as they're so similar to one another), the key differences here is the location and number of transports, what cover you have to work with, and what loot spawns in each one. Judging by the Lost Tape "Bad For Business", all five heists occurred on the same day, to GenSec's dismay.
Armored Transport: Train
The crew rob a train at a secret military train station to rob an infantry turret, RC1, as well as its ammo.
Originally a secret level in the other Armored Transport heists, this was made standalone in Update 57.
Originally a secret level in the other Armored Transport heists, this was made standalone in Update 57.
- The Artifact: Bain will still mention the heists you found in the other transport heists. Of course, now it works as Call-Back to those missions, rather than something that recently happened to the gang.
- Locomotive Level: As the heist name suggests, you steal from a train that has stopped due to a glitch in the railway network.
- Marathon Level: Not only is it pretty lengthy in itself (players must open several train cars, resorting to drilling when abilities and keycards run out, and then use thermal lances to open a few vaults), but before Update #57 rolled around and turned it into a separate contract, unlocking it required grinding the Armored Transport missions for military blueprints, which could take upwards of ten minutes each time.
- Random Event: Where the turret and the ammo carriages are depends on this, as it's randomised on each restart. It is possible to see what is in each vault as there is security cameras in each one, but these get shut off the moment you go loud.
- Shout-Out: The turret you steal is a level one sentry taken directly from Team Fortress 2; the ammo boxes you steal also bear the "Team Fortress" logo on them.
- Train Job: One of five in the game, and indeed, the train does contain valuable loot; the Engineers' turret from TF2 and some ammo to go along with it.
Meltdown
Vlad contracts the Payday gang to deliver special...er..."packages" to a trainyard nearby.
- Call-Back: In Bain's rant to Vlad about securing the loot, he mentions "smashing malls", and "stealing tiara's", referring to Mallcrasher and Ukrainian Job respectively.
- Cool Car: The crew can find The Longfellow, a muscle car from The 60's, supposedly originally owned by Muammar Gaddafi.
- Continuity Nod: Meltdown takes place in the same Murkywater warehouse the players infiltrated in Shadow Raid. Vlad will even mention the gang's work on that when picking the heist from Crime.net.
- Even Evil Has Standards: An uncharacteristically angry Bain will chastise Vlad for the contract when it's revealed mid-heist that what they're actually stealing are nuclear warheads, the implication being that Bain wouldn't have accepted the assignment if he knew what the objective was ahead of time. The only reason the heist actually continues is because Vlad's planned escape by train is simply the best way for them to get out with the amount of heat the gang has on them, so Bain reluctantly tells you to continue on with the heist while being very gentle with the... packages.Bain: Vlad, smashing Malls is one thing, stealing Tiara's is one thing, but NUKES?!?
- Forklift Fu: The heist marks the first appearance of forklifts; handy for moving about the loot when the Longfellow is out of reach.
- The Little Detecto: Vlad's nukes have one attached to the side.
- Oh, Crap!: Literally Bains' reaction over the intercom when realising what Vlad has sent you to retrieve halfway through the heist.
- The Reveal: Part of why there's so many spoiler tags in this folder is because the game itself doesn't really give the player many hints as to what Vlad wants you to steal (and Vlad is being quite cagey about what he's asking you to get); the player only finds outnote what Vlad's loot is at the same time Bain does mid-heist; Live (but not armed, thankfully) Nuclear warheads!
- Took a Level in Badass: Vlad, of all people, is this in Meltdown, when he asks you to steal live (but mercifully not armed) nuclear warheads. The crew itself also took a level in the mission as Bain initially deemed an all-out assault on the Murkywater compound to be too dangerous, but now has you assaulting the facility in broad daylight. Talk about not caring about the Nuclear Weapons Taboo!
Boiling Point
Jimmy contracts the PAYDAY Gang to go to a secret Russian lumbermill that's doing some strange experiments on super soldiers, all commanded by a man named Akan. The crew is to break into the underground lab, scan all the bodies and exit, before Akan can do the tests himself.
Released as one of two heists as some cross-promotion with Hardcore Henry.
Released as one of two heists as some cross-promotion with Hardcore Henry.
- Adaptational Heroism: The gang - cop and civilian murderers extraordinaire - are recruited by Jimmy to impede Akan's plans for world domination (in this case, wiping out an evil agency's facility and destroying its research on super-soldiers, which is heavily implied to trigger the plot of the film). Bain even lampshades it in the intro and the outro, commenting that it feels really weird to do outright good for once, and get paid for it.
- Borrowed Biometric Bypass: To access the scanner, you need to cut off the head scientists' right hand.Bain: "You guys are cold. Technology can be cruel."
- Bilingual Bonus: Akan's mercenaries all speak fluent Russian, and the various signage around the lab is also all written in genuine Russian.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: While Bain does mention the comms being down after the EMP goes off, his chatter will still come through, albeit distorted, if someone gets downed.
- Logical Weakness: The EMP bomb serves two purposes: 1. To let the crew into the lab, and 2. to knockout the super soldiers in the lab. Given the super soldiers all have mechanical implants to varying degrees, it makes sense that it'd knock them out. The game never directly states it, but Akan also never tries to replicate the tests, so the EMP bomb seems to actually kill the test subjects.
- Mad Scientist Laboratory: One situated underneath a lumbermill, where Akan does his initial experiments into super soldiers.
- Mythology Gag: A sub-objective has Bain require the crew to find a briefcase before they leave. This is likely in reference to the "Bad Motherfucker" music video, which served as the basis for the film that would become Hardcore Henry.
- Private Military Contractors: Akans' Russian Mercenaries are PMC's not affiliated with other law enforcement, merely hired by Akan to stop the gang.
Brooklyn 10 - 10
The Badass Bureaucrat of the New York Continental, Charon, has been kidnapped by some low-level street gang while trying to find a briefcase in a nearby rundown building.
Released as one of two heists as some cross-promotion with John Wick: Chapter 2.
Released as one of two heists as some cross-promotion with John Wick: Chapter 2.
- Adaptational Badass: The moment the Payday gang distracts his captors, Charon starts to fight alongside the gang on street-level. That said, he does get wounded later on, as he's not nearly as proficient as Wick is with guns.
- Badass in Distress: How this level starts out. You have to kill the three captors holding Charon hostage, and then kill the sniper aimed at him.
- Bullying a Dragon: Basically how the contract gets submitted. A street gang picked on Charon, and Winston, the head of the New York Continental, gets the Payday Gang to get him out of New York.
- Gameplay Ally Immortality: Being a rescue mission and all that, but Charon does join in on the fight when you distract his captors. Despite Bains' please, Charon will never be harmed by snipers, or any other Mook you kill. Played with later, as he does get injured mid-level, but will not be a problem otherwise.
- It's Personal: In the missions' briefing, Wick insists that rescuing Charon is personal for him, so Wick is extra-focused at getting Charon out of harms way.
- MacGuffin: The briefcase Charon needs in Brooklyn 10-10 is never elaborated on, other than he needs it in order to make the trip worth his time.
- Suspicious Videogame Generosity: The cages you find in the second building have ammo reserves; very helpful for the swat teams that swarm the place, but it makes very little sense in the context of the level.
- Wretched Hive: There are bags of refuse everywhere, dumpsters overflowing with trash, and the first half of the heist has you traverse a half built building that isn't getting finished anytime soon. Even at street level, the fact that Charon got picked on by some thugs suggests it's not the best neighbourhood to live in, let-alone walk through.
- You Have No Idea Who You're Dealing With: A street gang decides to pick on Charon. Safe to say, they met their end really quickly.
The Yacht Heist
After Charon is saved from gangsters in Brooklyn 10-10, he repays the gang by informing Wick of where he can find Bob McKendrik, and informs them of money that's stashed on his boat for his re-election campaign. Released as the second of two heists as some cross-promotion with John Wick: Chapter 2.
- Could Say It, But...: Charon provides information to the gang about the money and the yacht, but at the end, maintains that he never did this.
- Continuity Nod: The contract exists due to Charon (and The Continental) wanting to reward the gang for getting them out of Brooklyn in Brooklyn 10-10. The briefing has Charon and Wick talking to one another about McKendrick and his yacht filled with his own money for his re-election campaign that the gang can steal.
- Foreshadowing: A few months prior to its release, the Yacht Heist could be seen as an image on the projector in the New Safehouse. Said image is a grayscale version of this image
◊, which itself is from Payday: The Heist. - Priceless Ming Vase: Many of the side loot in the heist are artefacts and valuables of this nature, and can be found and stolen by throwing them overboard.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Yacht Heist is a stealth-only affair, much like Shadow Raid was. Much of the gameplay here is finding the spots where the money is hidden that corresponds to a colored sticker next to the laptop you hack to reveal these locations.
- Surveillance as the Plot Demands: ..which is to say, none. This is the only level so far where there are no cameras on the map due to where they are. To counter this, there are more guards patrolling the Yacht on all the floors, and part of the gameplay is navigating around them.
- Violation of Common Sense: To secure the loot, you have to throw it into the ocean, the Hand Wave being that Twitch is on a boat circling the Yacht.
Scarface Mansion
The Sosa Cartel are attempting to push The Butcher out of business, and decide to raid one of her ships for her merchandise. When the Sosa Cartel send her pictures of her crew being dismembered, The Butcher contacts Bain to setup a contract to kill Ernesto Sosa, who is holed up in...well...Scarface's former Mansion.
This heist released at the tail-end of 2016, alongside the now-delisted Scarface Character Pack, as some (still in development) cross-promotion for a remake of the Scarface (1983) film.
This heist released at the tail-end of 2016, alongside the now-delisted Scarface Character Pack, as some (still in development) cross-promotion for a remake of the Scarface (1983) film.
- Burn Baby Burn: To rile up Ernesto, you have to burn his paintings by placing them in a pile and finding some gasoline.
- Car Porn: One particular convertible is modelled after the one seen in the film, and, in a rare showing of levity, the Butcher openly questions why men like cars to begin with.
- Continuity Cavalcade: There are many references in the level that references the film:
- The Lobby is based on the same room Tony meets his end in, complete with pool and staircase. It's only missing the balconies on the sides of the room, likely changed for balance purposes.
- One of the side rooms contains a hot tub that has been modelled on the one Tony and his girlfriend bathe in.
- Sosa's room is a perfect recreation of the one seen in the film, complete with 80's-style chairs, a security system with six CRT's, a table and chair for Getting High on Their Own Supply, and decor from the film.
- The car Bile asks you to drop into the lobby is based on the one Tony drives in Miami, complete with garish leopard print seats. Judging by the mural in the lobby, Ernesto really likes that car.
- Crossover: With Scarface (1983), the titular mansion being largely based on the one seen in the film. This crossover only existed to promote a remake of a film that's been sitting in
Development Hell since 2016. - You Do Not Want To Know: Bile is, understandably, a bit confused as to why he's airlifting cars to throw into the ocean. He catches on soon enough, but it does leave his audibly perplexed for a good minute:Bile: "Cars... o-okay? Yeah, I can do that."
- Revenge: What the heist is motivated by for The Butcher. The Sosa's really shouldn't have messed with them.
- Scenery Porn: There's a lot of fauna and plants everywhere, the interior of the mansion also looks appropriately 80's.
- Stating the Simple Solution: Bile will suggest dropping the third car he picks up into the main lobby, which gets the desired angry reaction from Sosa.
- Trust Password: In Stealth, the only way to access Sosa's room is by finding a voice recorder The Butcher had planted into some Cocaine beforehand. Much like Tony, he's paranoid that someone is out to kill him.
- Truer to the Text: The Scarface Mansion is a fairly faithful recreation of the one seen in the film, not the one that exists in reality. Changes made include filling the driveway leading to the house with flowers, the removal of a balcony in the main lobby, with everything else being created from scratch simply because we never see the rest of it on-camera. Though amusingly, the Mansion in-game is near the ocean, yet the real-life mansion is surrounded by trees on all sides.
Panic Room
Bain gets a tipoff of a drug dealers panic room filled with cash in a rundown suburb, and decides to hit it.
- Adaptational Badass: In this iteration of the heist, Chavez is wearing armor and fights, instead of acting like a civilian.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's unclear if the heist is a retelling of events from the first game (as Sydney implies in the housewarming party), or if this hit is new and outright replaces the old heist.
- Embedded Precursor: The fourth heist to be remade in Payday 2, after First World Bank, Slaughterhouse, and Heat Street. The level is otherwise identical in premise and gameplay, the only notable alterations being Alex being replaced by Bile and Chavez gaining armor.
2014 - 2015
The Dentist Trailer
Dallas runs into "The Dentist" on his way to his check-up, who offers various jobs to Dallas. In return, he'll help free one of his old partners in crime; James "Hoxton" Hoxworth.
- Armor-Piercing Question: Delivers one to Dallas in regards to James Hoxworth, which is the only time in the short where he stops him dead in his tracks when he was about to leave:
The Dentist: How did it feel, leaving him behind?
- Call-Back:
- The Dentist mentions the First World Bank, a place the gang hit back in Payday: The Heist.
- The Dentist keeps tabs on Dallas' activities, and correctly guesses the PAYDAY Gang rigged the elections back in "Election Day".
- Creator Cameo: Dr. Andersson borrows his name with that of Bo Andersson, Wolf's VA, and former founder and boss at Overkill Software.
- The Cameo: Bob McKendrick, the In-game Mayor of DC is on the cover of the cops' magazine.
- Foreshadowing: This short sets up many of the later heists contracted by The Dentist; The Benevolent Bank, The Diamond, Hoxton Breakout and the Golden Grin Casino. The Dentist notably does not mention Hotline Miami, despite being the contractor, and is the most instrumental heist when it comes to freeing Hoxton (as The Commissar has leverage over the District Attorney).
- In the Style of: The short is stylized as if it were a mini-episode of Breaking Bad, with lots of lingering shots, character pauses, and also introduces a Special Guest known for being on the show.
- Oh, Crap!: Dallas has this reaction when The Dentist calls him by his codename. He tries to get up and run, but then the Dentist's assistant holds him down with a scalpel to his throat.
- Scary Black Man: Fits the trope in a rather different way. Instead of using brute force or violence, The Dentist calmly holds Dallas hostage through blackmail and has the tools in his office to kill him should Dallas try anything funny at the meeting. He doesn't even raise his voice during the meetup.
- Special Guest: Giancarlo Esposito as "The Dentist", an Expy of his role in Breaking Bad.
Big Bank
To test the mettle of the Gang, The Dentist sends the crew to the Benevolent Bank in Washington D.C, wherein they are to steal as much as they can from this supposedly un-robbable bank.
- Bring It: The reason this is a heist to begin with; The Dentist wants you to rob it, to show that you are as capable as you claim. It hasn't been robbed in 200 years, so no pressure.
- Bilingual Bonus: The Big Bank trailer has a pair of vocalists singing in Italian, which also appears in-game as a rare theme that plays when going loud (it otherwise uses an instrumental version). Provided you can speak Italian and have a good ear for opera, you'll find the song (rather appropriately) talks about greed, power, and wealth. In essence, the male singer is filled with avarice, the female singer warns him of it, and he discards her advice only to die and lose it all.
- Borrowed Biometric By Pass: Part of the way into the vault in stealth has the crew place a severed thumb on the pad for a fingerprint. Bain tells the crew not to ask where he got it from.
- Concealing Canvas: There's a safe hidden behind a painting in the manager's office. There may be a keycard inside, but there is usually just a partially-eaten cheese toast sandwich.
- Don't Ask: Bain "acquires" a thumb to access the vault. He doesn't explain how or why, just that it was gruesome.
- Harder Than Hard: The level was advertised as making the original game's First World Bank heist "look like a toy store", players must either go to extreme lengths to avoid an alarm (i.e. navigate a huge, very busy bank and jump through several hoops to simply reach the vault inside) or hold off massive, swarming waves of cops and move an enormous drill through two huge areas a mere half minute after the alarm, before fleeing through one of four very dangerous (yet theatrical) means. It does, however, have a pretty big payday if you come prepared.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: In the trailer, a random bystander, Bob, is trying to sell bobbleheads of the bulldozer, and when the crew robs the bank, Bob assists the crew by reviving Dallas when he's shot by the cops. Dallas rewards him by tossing him a wad of cash when escaping. However, when Bob attempts to catch the money, he falls off the roof of the bank.
- Suspicious Missed Messages: The bank has phones that need to be answered after the time locks are triggered in stealth, in order to persuade their security providers that everything's fine, with Bain impersonating a member of the staff to try to avoid arousing suspicion. Missing a call results in the police being called.
The Diamond
With the help of a former apprentice of Hoxton, Clover, the gang steal The Diamond from the McKendrick museum, an item with a history of killing its owners...
- Artistic License – History: In the trailer for The Diamond, it is shown that Adolf Hitler was one of the owners of the cursed gem, being shown about to commit suicide while a bespeckled Nazi officer looks on. The issue comes from the gun Hitler is shown to be using, which appears to be a Luger P08. Historical records have shown that Hitler actually took his life with a Walther PPK. Of course, this trope also applies to Hitler owning any cursed diamond.
- Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Bain is quite chatty during this heist, and has a habit of doing this:Bain: Come on, stay on task guys and fin- ooooh, is that the third triuumvirate?
- Call-Back: This is one of the first heists The Dentist mentions in his teaser trailer, one that Dallas responds to with information that a previous crew failed to retrieve the titular diamond.
- Creator Cameo: Signs for the "Andersonian Institute" can also be seen in the map, the name made up of the name of Bo Andersson (former CEO of Overkill) and the end of the name for the real-life Smithsonian Institute.
- Curse: The Diamond, according to the narration given by Clover in the trailer, is supposedly cursed due to every owner meeting their end in some brutal way (suicide, beheading, etc) and the trailer shows Dallas possibly being shot in the back of the head by an unknown assailant. It is possible that The Diamond brings misfortune to those who claim it for their greedy ends, but in actual gameplay, nothing comes of it, not immediately at least.
- Hollywood Hacking: Hacking into places on the map is very prevalent here (four electricity grid boxes, and a separate, fifth one in the room where The Diamond is kept to produce a safe path across, with an extra two hacks to breach doors that need keycards if you go Loud).
- Insistent Terminology: How The Dentist describes the artefact in Crime.net; "Not just a diamond...The Diamond."
- Mythology Gag: This heist is one big nod to the heist of the same name in PAYDAY: The Heist; both escapades have you messing with circuit board wiring to disable the lasers where the main prize is located, and if the heist goes loud, you'll have to hack the security systems to proceed. While the glass cutter in the first game was used only to extract the rare blood diamond, the tool returns in the sequel to be used to steal optional loot without setting off the alarms. Another nod to the first game comes in the form of a puzzle you need to solve to obtain the diamond by carefully stepping on the correct tiles, and stepping on the wrong one releases gas into the room, which is a reference to the secret vault found in the First World Bank that has a similar puzzle.
- No Swastikas: In the trailer for the diamond heist that shows the history of its owners, the part in Nazi Germany has flags that just have featureless circles instead.
- Scary Shiny Glasses: The man with the glasses in the trailer, who is present when Marie Antoinette gets beheaded, when Hitler shoots himself, and when Dallas is about to take the diamond. Interestingly, the trailer attempts to imply that it's The Dentist or one of his ancestors, which at the time of the trailers' release, was quite out there. Without going into too many spoilers, it's safe to say one of these ideas did get used in the end.
- Stealth-Based Mission: While there have been stealth missions before this one, this one is a deliberate homage to The Diamond Heist from the first game, even sharing the same music, but remixed. There's the requisite camera room, keycard hunting, artifacts to steal, you name it.
Hotline Miami
The Dentist contracts the crew to go after "The Commissar", someone with leverage over the D.A office, which will help lower the security around Hoxton.
- Anything but That!: The teaser features Wolf trying to interrogate an unseen mobster for the location of the Commissar, who refuses to budge. The moment Jacket walks in to take over interrogation, though, he freaks out, knowing of his vendetta against Russians.
- Cut His Heart Out with a Spoon: Throughout Day 1, the Commissar makes constant threats against the crew for destroying his motel. However, all his threats are more annoying and childish then threatening.
- Expy: The Commissar is a rather clear one to The Father.
- Shout-Out: Multiple NPC's in the second level are designed to resemble Hotline Miami characters.
- Whole-Plot Reference: To Hotline Miami, as one might expect. A group of masked criminals is assigned by a mysterious party to destroy a Russian mafia based in Miami. Funnily enough, Jacket himself can be played in this level.
Hoxton Breakout
Hoxton is being moved to a lower security prison via a courthouse, but this is simply cover for the crew to hijack the transfer and break Hoxton out of the courthouse and ride out into the streets.
Tropes specific to the Short
- Ax-Crazy: Wolf gets a little too joyful when he stabs a bulldozer with a drill.
- Butter Face: Oh My Hoxton. Hoxton has bleach scars all over the left side of his face from an incident back in prison.
- The Cameo: By Bobblehead Bob, seen in a lot of bandages after helping out the crew in the Big Bank trailer.
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Hoxton somehow making his own warped version of his original mask while in prison, hiding it in his prisonwear just in case someone took over his place in the crew.
- The Bulldozer in the security room. The fact he can see anything out of those eyeholes is an achievement in of itself.
- Curse Cut Short: Hoxton saying "I said it's fuckin' PAYDAY Motherfu-!", with the last part being cut off by the explosion.
- Eye Scream: Wolf drills directly into a Bulldozer's eye for funsies.
- Foreshadowing: Hoxton tells Dallas to divert their plan to make a left, not a right. We don't find out why until the heist releases in the game, and it's because he wants to raid the FBI Headquarters! to find out who put him into prison.
- It Makes Sense in Context: The only reason a Bulldozer is watching the security feed in the garage is because in the in-game iteration of this heist, he's doing exactly that. In live-action, it comes off as extremely out of place, especially since the other SWAT units the gang shoots aren't seen to have Bulldozers.
- Missing Mission Control: Bain is very quiet in this short, only chiming up to Dallas to save Wolf from custody.
- One-Steve Limit: Between Payday: The Heist and Payday 2, Hoxton was put in prison and his place taken by Dallas's brother, who picked up the Hoxton name and mask. During the breakout, old Hoxton makes a point to berate soon-to-be-Houston at the first opportunity he gets.
- Parking Garage: The truck holding Hoxton is forced to make a detour through a parking garage, tailed by SWAT, when its forward progress is halted by security bollards. A firefight ensues as the crew (Dallas and Wolf) searches for a security room, to lower the bollards and continue the escape.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Hoxton uses various swears throughout the short, mostly to cope with pain when limping to the truck, although ironically when Dallas tears rebar out of his leg, his response is a loud scream and a very angry "Bloody Hell!", something he's uncharacteristically calm about.
- Taking the Bullet: Houston dives in front of Chains in order to shield him from gunfire (which ends up flooring Houston) - granted, he has a bulletproof vest and so can take the hits, but still, that's a level of loyalty that money can't buy.
Tropes specific to the Heist
- Acceptable Breaks from Reality:
- You can complete Hoxton Breakout with 3 members of your crew in custody (and thus, in jail) with no penalty beyond the norm, despite the whole mission being to break one member of the crew out of custody. If they were to make it realistic, this would mean that not a single person can be downed and in custody during the entire firefight, which would be a daunting prospect indeed (considering the heist can only be done in Loud).
- You are able to rescue Hoxton while playing as Hoxton. This is even a safehouse side-job, appropriately named "Spacetime Paradox".
- Adaptational Deviation: The heist in-game is a recreation of the trailer, albeit with more gameplay elements for the sakes of Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- All the crew members need to go looking for the security room in the heist, as waiting at the truck is simply a bad idea (as soon-to-be Houston and Hoxton find out in the trailer, no less!), and in order to escape the parking garage.
- The shootout in the streets is much longer than in the trailer, taking up almost three-quarters of the heist's runtime. Moreover, you're not riding around in the truck either.
- The SWAT teams have special units (Bulldozers, Tasers etc.), whereas the trailer only has the former in the security room.
- The layout of the garage is loosely based on that of the trailer, although obviously modified for gameplay purposes. Notably, there isn't a staircase in the parking garage to go from the first floor to the second (and the one staircase that does exist on the map only goes to the third floor).
- In the short, Bain is only heard once. In the heist, he is heard far more.
- All Your Base Are Belong to Us: A player-initiated version. The second day of the heist has the gang invade and occupy the FBI's headquarters long enough to steal some top secret information about Hoxton and the man who sold him out.
- Chair Reveal: The Bulldozer that appears in the security room on Day 1 of the "Hoxton Breakout" heist has a random chance of revealing themselves in this way.
- Continuity Nod: There is a unique blue-shirted female FBI agent encountered in Operations during Day 2. She is the same agent who was in charge of investigating the Payday gang in the web series, and was last seen interrogating Dallas in said series. Her corrupt partner is nearby too.
- Escort Mission: Hoxton is being escorted by you in Day 1, and in day 2, you're tasked with protecting him and doing his odd jobs to gather evidence to work out who ratted him out. He will later join in on the fight when you escape.
- Government Conspiracy: It is implied that this was behind Hoxtons imprisonment, as during the events of Hoxton Breakout, you need the clearance of the FBI Director to gather information, causing Hoxton to note that his case goes way up to the top of the foodchain, higher than you would expect a mere heister's case to go. Somewhat accurate, in that Hector was picked up by the FBI and ratted out the gang in exchange for a shorter sentence or something.
- Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: Hoxton overrules Bain when it comes to what to do after escaping. Bain and the crew want him to go back to the safehouse to lay low while the heat dies down. Hoxton meanwhile amps up the heat, and convinces everyone to raid FBI Headquarters as he suspects someone put him in prison. Bain, curiously, goes along with this plan without objection. It's one of the few times Bain has been sidelined.
Hoxton's Revenge
With the help of the stolen server taken from FBI Headquarters, as well as trading a spot in the gang for Bonnie's information about The Rat's location she got while information bartering in jail, the crew go to stamp out The Rat once and for all.
- The Reveal: The mole inside Crimenet turns out to be Hector. They set up the Watchdogs contract to trap the gang, and when that failed, he went into hiding.
- String Theory: The evidence boards littered around the house are loaded with photos and sticky notes of the jobs that came before it, including Election Day, Hoxton Breakout, and Big Bank.
- Tempting Fate: On one of the interview tapes scattered around the house in Hoxton Revenge, the FBI are interrogating Hector about a contract they want him to submit to Crimenet in an attempt to surround the Payday Gang. That contract being Watchdogs. The FBI Handler simply remarks "What are they gonna do? Fight their way out?", which is precisely what happens at the start.
- Wild Mass Guessing: In-Universe, during the Hoxton's Revenge heist, if one examines the evidence board, one can discover the FBI seems to be completely and utterly convinced that Vlad is an ordinary baker, and is possibly being used as a front by Bain without his knowledge, and his time in prison was only because Bain framed him.
Golden Grin Casino
The Dentist sends the crew to Golden Grin Casino in Las Vegas to get him an unusual box, and lots and lots of cash too.
- Concealing Canvas: Like in Big Bank, there's a safe hidden behind a painting in the manager's office, which always contains money bundles, and more crucially, a laptop with the code for the armory/ vault.
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: The Dentists' loot; a coffer with an Eye of Providence engraved into it, is only worth a measly $500. Even the side loot in Diamond Store is worth more than this thing. That said, this is averted for the vaults' other contents, which can be a sizeable payday if you're able to move all of it.
- Harder Than Hard: This is probably the most convoluted stealth heist in the game, even moreso than the Alesso Heist (itself criticised by players for being very unfriendly to navigate). This heist requires various double-backs between the back-rooms and the casino floor and bathrooms, sneaking round a dozen guards to ascertain the identity of someone playing slots, the player setting up sleeping gas to knockout security room guards, and the hunting down of numbers to form the keycode with hidden laptops to open the vault.
- Mundane Object Amazement: The Dentist's loot has Bain simply in awe and confusion.Bain: What the-?!?
- Non-Indicative Name: Surprisingly, despite the gold theme and the word "Golden" being in the title of the heist, only Money is in the vault. Lots of it, to be sure, but still not gold.
- Shout-Out:
- The heist was inspired by Ocean's Eleven, which is displayed by the complexity of the heist and it also being set in Las Vegas. A drink in the bar is also called "Oceans Ten", alluding to this film.
- The name of the casino is titled after the precursor studio to Overkill Software, GRIN.
- One of the drinks is named "Pinky Demon", a demon enemy from the Doom series.
Birth of Sky
Locke informs the gang that Murkywater are moving a lot of their money by plane, and smuggles the crew on-board to steal it by jettisoning it down to a nearby village for collection.
This is the first heist that is a part of the Point Break heists DLC, which is (nominally) themed after the 2015 heist film remake.
This is the first heist that is a part of the Point Break heists DLC, which is (nominally) themed after the 2015 heist film remake.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: If you jump out of the plane without a parachute, you go into custody once you... er... "land", which raises obvious problems, as instead of being a pile of goo and bodyparts permanently etched into the town's cement for the rest of the heist, as soon as your teammates can find a hostage to get you back for a trade (which is fairly easy to do if you have Stockholm Syndrome), you are seemingly resurrected by the police and SWAT teams to fight another day.
- Hollywood Skydiving: After the money is jettisoned, players skydive out of the Murkies plane. While they have some idea of where they'll land, the heisters can also open parachutes without using their arms.
- In Name Only: Asides from the heist name (which is taken from the second Ozaki trial Bodhi performs) and the money being thrown out the airlock (based on one of the scenes from the film), this has very little to do with the film it's based on.
- It's Raining Men: The first portion of the heist has the crew jumping out of an airplane after they jettisoned money pallets out of the plane, and use parachutes to land safely in a nearby town.
- Random Event: There are three pallets to secure, and only six possible places to find them, and one always breaks upon impact, and requires finding money bundles to put it back together.
Beneath the Mountain
After their first job goes well, new contractor Locke informs the PAYDAY Gang of the Black Ridge facility, a warehouse filled with various odds and ends to loot.
Released as the second heist part of the Point Break heists DLC, which is (nominally) themed after the 2015 heist film remake.
Released as the second heist part of the Point Break heists DLC, which is (nominally) themed after the 2015 heist film remake.
- Art Evolution: Locke's face got changed to reflect his VA Ian Russell in 2019, and this heist is one of three where he makes a physical appearance, rather than merely just being Mission Control (his old face prior to the update did however, bear a decent resemblance to him, sans moustache), and you get a good look at the new face here!
- Black Site: "Black Ridge" is a facility owned by Murkywater that houses loot stolen by the company. Given its location in being placed in the Nevada desert, it's likely in reference to Area 51.
- Malaproper: Locke may say "And Open the Sesame" instead of "Open Sesame!" when you blast down the door to the mountain compound.
- Random Event: This is arguably the most consistent loud heist in the game, especially back when it released in 2015. The heist features very little randomisation in the level layoutsnote , the vaults you need to open can be discerned by looking at the security feed within each vault (so your only enemy here is an uncoordinated team, not the game screwing you over), and said vaults do not swap places between runs. The only random elements that actually affects the player come from what loot spawns in the level (affecting payout and hauling speed), where the helicopter escape is (affecting where to secure loot) and where the dishes are placed (some dishes are easier to reach than others), so despite appearing complex in nature, it's remarkably simple and consistent to play in practice.
- Religious and Mythological Theme Naming: The names of the vaults in the main section are named after deities from Greek Mythology; Hades, Demeter, Ares, Zeus, Chronos, and Poseidon.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Locke mentions that, despite being a traitor to Murkywater, he can't simply open the doors to breach their facility on his end, otherwise that may compromise his position. However, he has left the necessary tools to get in within marked crates.
- There Was a Door: The gang have to use breaching charges to enter the facility, in part to maintain Locke's cover.
- Uncomfortable Elevator Moment: Played With. At the first of three stages of the heist, your crew is asked to get into an airlock, in which you're stuck in there for a good twenty seconds until the second door opens to let you into the facility proper. As such, an awkward situation occurs where nobody in the crew can really do anything, asides from jump about, stock up on ammo, and patch up wounds. Bear in mind that there are SWAT teams on both sides of the doors, so the game asking you to stand in the middle of a loud heist doing diddly squat is a bit of a surreal experience. Locke even provides some improvised Musak through the intercom:Locke: Any second now!... (hums to himself)... does anybody know any jokes?
2017 - 2018: The Secret
Heat Street
Locke suspects there may be someone out to get the Gang, and gets information on an informant that will give them some answers... and a familiar enemy.
- Call-Back: Bain mentions several times that the situation feels "too familiar", and plenty lampshades the fact the same situation is playing out again.
- Artificial Stupidity: Unlike its predecessor, this iteration of Heat Street doesn't flood the first set of streets with waves of cops like in the original, and instead has pre-positioned cops and SWATs waiting for you to pass by. One of the easiest ways of beating the first portion of the heist on Mayhem or below is to simply leg it to Matt's crashed van, ignoring the litany of cops shooting at you, as it's not worth the time dealing with them, and subsequently getting stuck in the first assault wave in the street with very little cover. Armor builds make this difficult to do, but dodge/ anarchist builds should be fine.
- Chase Scene: The heist has you chase down Matt for information on foot.
- Nostalgia Level: This heist is essentially a remake of the same heist from the first game, with much the same assets and gameplay as before. That said, their motivation has changed from chasing Matt for money plates to Matt being an informant.
Diamond Heist
To force Locke out of hiding, the crew steal the Garnet Group diamonds from their main vault in a penthouse apartment, while their son has a party on one of the top floors.
- Death by Secret Identity: The CFO of Garnet Group dies by being thrown out the helicopter. The reason is because he had seen Bains' face, and he'd rather keep that a secret.
- Embedded Precursor: This is the fifth heist to be remade in Payday 2, and asides from the story change, the map layout and events play out largely the same as before.
- The Password Is Always "Swordfish": The vault combination is random each time, the one consistency is the order of those numbers you enter adhere to the RGB color spectrum when entered on the vaults' keypad.
- Stealth-Based Mission: Unlike the original heist, which was stealth-able until you smashed the glass to get at the diamonds, you can sneak through the whole thing as Bain packed glass cutters to get at the diamonds.
Henry's Rock
Locke and the PAYDAY Gang go to Henry's Rock, a Secret Government Warehouse owned by Murkywater to steal two coffers that can be found there.
- …But He Sounds Handsome: When insulting the tech crew when running hacks on their computers, Locke mentions that the I.T. Department were always bad and unreliable, except for him of course.
- Continuity Nod: The turret the crew boosted from Transport: Train is present here, which can be found in the weapons testing room, and the ammunition is close by.
- Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: Played for Laughs, as in the opening, as Chains and Duke mention several conspiracies, such as Amelia Earhearts' plane disappearance, the warehouse having ray guns, etc.
- Random Event: There are four rooms the game chooses from to get at the coffers:
- The Archives, which requires drilling a door open and finding symbols in piles of notebooks to open a large golden box.
- The Weapons Testing room, which requires charging and shooting a massive laser gun to open a nearby blast door to get at a coffer inside a crate (which itself requires a crowbar to open).
- The I.T Center, which has Locke ask you to find a computer that works with a hack to finds the coffer on the shelves in the main corridor, and then going back to the crane to get a box to open (again, with a crowbar).
- The Laboratory, which essentially has the player mix up a specific combination of marked chemicals to make a thermite compound to open a door to get at the coffer inside.
- Recurring Boss Template: This is Beneath the Mountain 2.0 essentially, even sharing a few of the assets from that heist too. It differs in that stealing the coffers for loot takes more effort than in the former, often requiring completing a logic puzzle.
- Shout-Out: The design of the heist is clearly inspired by Warehouse 13 and Raiders of the Lost Ark (note the massive corridor with shelves filled with boxes), as well as Half-Life (which is mostly set in a sci-fi lab underground).
- This Means War!: Locke mentions in the briefing that doing this contract means the PAYDAY Gang are essentially waging war on Maurkywater, given they are tied to The Conspiracy.
2019 - 2022: The Heists before the Greatest Heist of all:
Heists that take place during the Ambiguous Time Period before the PAYDAY Gang take on their greatest heist of all; The White House.
Midland Ranch
New contractor Gemma McShay tests the Payday gang's skills by asking them to retrieve weapons from a ranch in the middle of Texas, and destroying their workstations, as Esteban, the local gunrunning lord, is trying to sabotage her business.
- BFG: An LMG can be found on the back of a pickup truck and on top of the barn, both that can be constructed (though only one can be active at a time). It is A: very effective at killing cops in the short radius in front of you, and B: very, VERY loud (as in, anyone on the map can hear it's cannon-esque gunfire).
- Cowboy Episode: About as close as PAYDAY can get to one anyway. There are haybales, the map is drenched in orange lighting, mimicking that of a western, and several cosmetics were released that give appropriately western headwear, such as two variants of a ten-gallon hat, and a straw hat.
- Gimmick Level: You actually have to construct most of the weapons you find and loot, which means players have to keep tabs on who has what parts (barrels, stocks, and receivers), and the crates, by default are unmarked (the "Mark Weapon Crates" pre-planning option does mark them with symbols, however).
- Outlaw Town: Or, rather, Outlaw barnyard. There's a few civilians that are merely farmhands, but the great majority of the staff are guards.
- Recurring Boss Template: Of Scarface Mansion. While the level bears very little resemblance to the heist, it does however, share surprisingly similar motivations to that of The Butcher (contractor of that heist), in that Gemma asks you to wreck Esteban's operations as Revenge because they were trying to take her business out. You even steal his weapons, mirroring how you steal Yayo in Scarface Mansion.
Lost in Transit
Because of their impressive work in Texas, Gemma gives the gang first dibs on a new job for the gang; stealing money printing plates from a military trainyard. However, instead of merely taking the plates and running off, the gang steals a goddamn train to escape on (the justification being that the cops are watching the roads).
- BFG: As with Midland Ranch, an LMG can be found on the railings of the main warehouse. It's still loud and pretty effective, though.
- Handwave: Locke gives one as to why they simply can't just escape in the van they came in when stealing the money plates; the cops are watching the roads, and it'd be too risky to try and get past them.
- Lampshade Hanging: Locke and Gemma get surprisingly meta in this heist. The starting intro has Gemma point out that both Dallas and Houston are not from Dallas or Houston, rather Locke reveals they're from Chicago. Locke also gets mildly annoyed at having to bypass RFID boxes to access the trains for the umpteenth time.
- Recurring Boss Template: This is essentially Armoured Transport: Train, but on a bigger scale. It once again involves a tip-off of a military trainyard holding valuable loot (Money plates in this case), but they do play differently (hacking the train vaults happens in loud and stealth; in the former, that was only possible in stealth).
- Train Job:
- Continuing the theme of the gang getting into cowboy-related escapades from Midland Ranch, this is another scenario often associated with a Cowboy Episode and the wild west. It differs in that the gang steals the loot first, then commandeers a second train to escape on, becoming a literal example of the trope.
- As TheKknowley noted, this is the fifth train-related heist in the game; Armored Transport: Train (stealing turret and ammo from a military train), Bomb Forest (stealing bomb parts from a wrecked train), Murky Station (stealthily stealing an EMP bomb from a secret Murkywater train yard), Biker Heist Day 2 (stealing a BCI helmet atop a moving train) and now this heist (stealing money plates and then a train to escape).
Hostile Takeover
After hearing about their escapades in the rest of Texas, Gemma hooks the crew up with Blaine Keegan, a former illicit goods broker trying to get into the oil game in Dallas, but to do so, requires some corporate espionage and teamwork.
- Brick Joke: In the previous heist's intro (Lost in Transit), Locke mentions to Gemma that Dallas has never been to Dallas, and Gemma notes how silly that sounds. In this heist, Dallas actually gets to go to Dallas as that's where the contract is set.
- Corporate Warfare: A starting-up oil company doing some corporate thievery and sabotage to screw over another.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive:
- Alice Rainey, in absolute spades. Laundering money, setting Keegan's trucks on fire, bribes, you name it.
- Blaine will be once he officially gets into the oil game considering how he gets the prototype.
- Harmless Electrocution: Once you flood the science labs, water will spill out and electric wires will make the water electrified, which you have to cut to make it safe to traverse again, making for a game of The Ground Is Lava. While this will still hurt you, it's not by much, and the game adds Mercy Invincibility so you only get shocked for a few seconds at a time if you repeatedly touch the water. Note that enemies caught in this situation also get electrified too, stunning them.
- Lampshade Hanging: Blaine will mention on Crime.net that the crew has a guy called Dallas, and it "just makes sense" to do this job for him as it takes place in Dallas, Texas.
- Recurring Boss Template: This contract is rather similar in setup to Big Oil, in that the crew steals a prototype energy device for the contractor, although in this case, Blaine is fully committing to using the prototype to get into the oil game, The Elephant wanted the prototype in Big Oil to quash clean energy alternatives.
- Slo-Mo Big Air: The intended way to destroy the turret involves making use of some suspiciously ramp-looking architecture outside the building and driving up and into it with a golf cart; it will even briefly go into slow motion to make the moment more awesome.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change: This heist is unusual among its peers in that almost any objective can be tackled in any order, even in loud where it's usually a linear objective cycle. It's entirely possible to split the team into two and just handle two objectives at once, meaning it's possible to finish the heist in less than 15 minutes.
Crude Awakening
The crew hits the SERA oil rig to assassinate SERA's chief of security, Gabriel Santiago, and steal pure petroleum to collapse the company and force Alice Rainey out of the oil industry so that Blaine, the contractor of the heist, can take their place.
- Continuity Nod:
- The monitors around the oil rig feature a news report about the aftermath of the Hostile Takeover heist, as well as mentioning Lost In Transit and Midland Ranch.
- The music track for this heist, "On The Road", alludes to several past events:
- The line "Through murky waters..." is referring to Murkywater, the PMC that the crew fight against in several heists, including some of the last in the timeline.
- The line "And Golden Grins..." refers to Golden Grin Casino — which is doubly meta, as the name and logo of that heist is taken from GRIN, the predecessor to Overkill Software, making for a nice Bookend of sorts.
- Deadly Gas: You kill Gabriel this way in stealth, by pouring some gas into his offices.
- Everything Explodes Ending: And how! The final moments has the game exploding the oil rig, so Alice cannot use the oil rig, and put her out of business. The game also does not end until the explosion happens, essentially forcing you to look at it.
- Grand Finale: This is the last heist to be released for the game (despite taking place before the storylines' actual final heist; The White House). To further emphasize the fact it's a finale, this is one of four heists to have music with lyrics (after Big Bank's "Ode to Greed", Scarface Mansions' "Break the Rules", and Diamond Heists "I Will Give You My All 2017"); in this case "On the Road".
- Fake Difficulty: The last section of the heist, where the Point of No Return activates, the game throws a large amount of officers your way, to the point that getting caught in any one section can doom the run. Even worse is that the enemy's body-block certain points due to the confined walkways and rooms, meaning brute force is the only way through.
- Meaningful Name: The name of the heist is a twofer:
- First "Crude Oil", the thing the gang is sent to steal.
- The second is a pun on "Rude Awakening", which Gabriel and Alice get when you kill them and shut their operation down respectively.
- Point of No Return: The game features one; as soon as you make the drill of the oil rig turn in on itself, you have three minutes to get off the oil rig before it explodes.
- Random Event: There really isn't much randomness in this heist, unlike other heists where it's a staple part of the game's appeal. That said, the pipe puzzle setup is different per run (but only has a set number of configurations, so it is learnable), and the gas pumps Locke asks you to turn on and off near the end are also random.
- Unexpected Gameplay Change:
- Like with Hostile Takeover, certain objectives can be completed before they are required by the player to be performed (getting the USB stick early, for example).
- The pipe puzzle is a considerable challenge as it requires someone to follow pipes from the fuel pump to the oil tank, while the other three players defend them, and there are several valves that need turning to make the oil to go the right direction.
- In loud, Gabriel is the only enemy in the entire game to require a specific set of actions to be temporarily made vulnerable to damage, in this case by setting him on fire using SERA's own oil. And only the oil, as he will not be ignited by any other means, even from the flamethrowers.
