Executing heists requires a lot of preparation and planning, especially if you use Stealth in Payday 3. Moving in and out of buildings, unlocking vaults and locked doors, and making multiple trips back to the escape vehicle is not easy to do undercover.
You not only need a proper Stealth build with the best weapons and skills to escape and evade guards, but also ensure that you can actually execute your plans properly.
Before you venture into these target locations, we have compiled a few stealth tips that we wish we had known in Payday 3 before we learned the hard way.
Make the most of Casing Mode
Casing Mode in Payday 3 allows you to survey the premises before planning and executing your heist. You will still be able to loot most areas without civilians getting suspicious or guards marking you as a threat. We recommend making the most of it to make the actual heist more streamlined for yourself.
While Casing Mode is still active, guards will not penalize you for the duffle bags on your back. You can come up with any excuse to get them off your trail, which helped us a lot for covering more demanding missions.
Guards will also not hear you sprinting when they are not facing you during this mode. With a few exceptions, you can complete most heists without ever needing to mask up, so it is worth exploring Casing Mode, especially for Stealth in Payday 3.
Lastly, we recommend capitalizing on the escort mechanic in Payday 3 to avoid breaking stealth. As long as you are not caught doing something illegal, you will not be busted but escorted to a public area and set free while in Casing Mode.
During this, you can perform a variety of tasks as long as the guard is not looking at you, like grabbing the keycard on his back or hacking his phone for QR codes. You can also lead them away by deliberately running into them if they are guarding a task you need to perform.
Use doors to hide from guards and cameras
In Payday 3, the door mechanics are a new feature that was not present in the previous games of the franchise. With this new feature, you can hide in rooms by closing doors to avoid detection.
You can also use this to evade patrolling guards by choosing rooms in more convenient locations. This will help you plan your route more efficiently and directly.
You can actually see the shadow of people that pass on the other side, which is a convenient way of tracking their location if you don't have these patrolling guards marked. This method is also more reliable than audio cues like footsteps because you can see exactly where they are before you move out.
You can also open doors outwards to block the view of cameras and guards. This not only allows you to escape detection but also provides an additional barrier you can hide behind. We really recommend leaving doors open where security is tight to give yourself a little edge in these difficult areas.
Remember patrol routes
It's fortunate that the guards, map layout, cameras, and patrol routes remain consistent for every heist, so no heist is a waste of time.
One stealth tip in Payday 3 is to plan your heist by familiarizing yourself with the patrol routes and knowing which ones to eliminate and when.
In higher difficulties, you only get a limited amount of pagers so by learning early on, you can tackle the punishing content of Payday 3 more easily.
Hide the bodies
While on the topic of patrol routes, it is best to take out a guard in a more secluded place to hide their bodies.
This is an important stealth tip in Payday 3 because if a body is found, it can either trigger an alarm or start a search, which is more trouble than needed for both cases.
By taking out guards away from prying eyes, you can avoid the hassle of relocating the body in the first place. If you do want to move it, then either move them into empty rooms or vents nearby.
For vents, we highly suggest you drop the body near the opening, enter the vent, and then grab it to drag it inside since you cannot carry a body while crouching.
Disable cameras through the security room
While it is not always required, we heavily recommend disabling cameras through the security room for Stealth in Payday 3.
It may be difficult to get into the room like during "No Rest for the Wicked" or "Under the Surphaze" heist with a guard.
There is also a guard inside which will cost you a pager to deal with, but the deal is too good to pass up on. Without worrying about cameras, you will only need to plan your Stealth heist around guards and objectives.
Make use of AI crewmates
Though the AI is not the smartest, more so in the Stealth mode of Payday 3, you can actually use them as free inventory.
You can make them carry your bags while carrying out solo heists, making each trip worth 4 bags instead of moving each item individually.
It is especially useful in heists like "Golden & Shark" where the escape vehicle is pretty far away, saving you significant trips back.
Move two hostages at a time
Moving hostages can be a pain of its own in any mode in Payday 3. There is a way to speed things up by using one as a meat shield and instructing the other one to follow.
This way you can move two hostages at the same time, saving you time and effort that could be invested elsewhere.
We suggest this method because you can tell both of them to follow you, but as soon as one starts moving, the other one will sit back down.
Bring a Medic Bag
There aren't as many deployable items catering towards a Stealth build as there are with Loud ones where they can be paired up with some of the best skills in Payday 3.
Stealth in Payday 3 is all about how you route and plan your heist, and a medic bag will bring some innovation to these methods. With healing available, you can be a little risky with your routes as health lost during fall damage can be recovered easily.
Uncuff with caution
If you are aiming for a no-mask run, then uncuffing is something you may need to work around for Stealth in Payday 3.
If you uncuff someone or let a teammate bail you out, it will trigger masks automatically. If you are not cautious, things will go Loud as soon as you are uncuffed, soiling your Stealth run and with no way to remove the mask.
To counter this problem, we suggest either investing in the Slippery Skill under the Grifter Skill Tree to pick the cuffs off yourself or making a teammate do so where guards or cameras are not present.
We found out that opting for either of these methods will not break Stealth but will activate Masks in case of the teammate.
Utilize sprint the right way
Another Stealth tip in Payday 3 that we can give is to always walk or crouch. Running around the premises will quickly alert the guards, but there is a silver lining here.
You can use Sprint to your advantage if you are careful enough to make some noise to distract the guards. They will abandon their post to investigate the sound, giving you a window to do what you need to do before they return.
Avoid the Lead Guard
The Lead Guard shows up in higher difficulties like Overkill, where he has the ability to make infinite radio spawns. This means that even if you pager once or twice, you will still be reported back, making it impossible to maintain Stealth in Payday 3. This is why we advise you to avoid the Lead Guard at all times while planning and carrying out your heists.
