It takes a true artist to master the sneaky requirements needed for stealth. In Payday 2 especially, stealth is no easy task, and players will want to bring their all if they are to get through every stealth heist in Payday 2 without anyone knowing they were there in the first place. Leaving the building unalerted, and the precious loot, gone without a trace. That’s precisely what players can do in Payday 2 if they master stealth.
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However, stealth is not an easy mechanic to master. Random guard rotations, limited kills, and a whole lot of noise can make things go south fast, and players might find themselves with the cops on their tail. Yet, there are a few Payday 2 tips that can help make those stealth runs all the easier, so players can feel like a ghost with a gun.
8 Keep Guards Tagged
In Stealth, there are always a certain number of Guards that will patrol the area, protecting the goods that the Payday gang is desperate to steal. Guards and their AI can be a nuisance in Payday 2. It’s best to keep them tagged. This way, players will always be able to see where the guards are moving thanks to the red highlight around the enemy.
Players can’t just run around and kill every Guard. Detection will be too high, and there’s a limit of 4 Pagers. So, it’s best to keep the Guards tagged and highlighted, so the team can carefully navigate through the area without running into a Guard who the player is surprised to see.
7 Importance Of Crouching
Not many players may know, but crouching in Payday 2 will increase the concealment of the player. If players are to crouch around sneakily, then they will have more of a safety line when it comes to being detected. Crouching may be slower than sprinting, but it’s a safe way to check corners and get around Guards.
The detection rate in Payday 2 can be a little bit buggy sometimes. Guards and civilians are sometimes able to detect players literally through the back of their heads. However, crouching does allow some leeway when it comes to these situations.
6 Use Hacker Perk Decks
Not many Perk Derks are useful when it comes to a Stealth only playthrough. Most Perk Decks reward players through a different array of movements and kills, but the Hacker Perk Deck is by far the most useful, and almost essential Perk Deck in Payday 2 for Stealth.
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With the Hacker Perk Deck, players will be able to press 3 to activate a mini ECM. This ECM only lasts for around 8 seconds, but it is vital considering players can carry 2 of these, and they refresh from around 30 seconds to a minute. This means the player will have constant ECMs if they play it right, meaning they can kill a Guard at a camera to use a Pocket ECM to get that body away from the camera.
5 Kill When Necessary
In terms of killing, Stealth should be a rather clean time. Players can’t jump into a bank, kill everyone with a silencer and expect the police not to arrive. Each Guard has a Pager, and what this means, is that players have to stand still and answer the Pager to let the operator know that everything is fine, and the Guard who sounded the Pager hasn’t just been shot and killed.
However, in every stealth heist, there are only 4 Pagers. Some maps have 4 Guards or less, but most of them have over 4 Guards, meaning players need to choose wisely who they kill, because after 4 Pagers have been used, the alarm will sound, and the Heist goes Loud.
4 Watch Out For Corners
Corners can be a big enemy to Payday 2 players due to the inevitability of a Guard’s presence, and the unknown of what lurks behind it. When facing a corner in Payday 2, Stealth players should edge towards it, or quickly peak and retreat. There have been countless instances where a Guard is turning the corner at the same time as a player.
If Guards bump into a player, Casing Mode or otherwise, the Guard will immediately be alerted. This means the Guard could arrest the player and call for help, or immediately fire a shot that alerts everyone in the building. It’s best to check corners quickly and safely to avoid this.
3 Bring Silencers
The most essential tool in a heister’s arsenal for a Stealth run in Payday 2 is a silencer. If players want to try Stealth, it is near enough essential that they bring a silencer. The best-silenced weapon players can bring is a silenced shotgun, as this means players can blast civilians and Guards into corners and off the map so they don’t need to use a body bag to clean up the mess.
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However, failing that, a silencer is still the best thing to have. If the player shoots with a silencer, no one can hear it. Guards and civilians will be blind to the fact that the player has just shot a bullet, meaning they are free to use their weapons as they please, even if that’s just to shoot paintings and plant pots.
2 Lower Concealment
Concealment is part of the Stealth mechanics in Payday 2. The higher the number, the more likely that the player will be detected by guards and civilians. The lower the concealment, the more time it takes to be detected, and the faster the player can run. It’s best to bring just the suit and some pistols to keep concealment at its lowest possible number.
The lowest concealment can be in Payday 2 is 3, and this is a number that should be essential to heisters in Stealth. The lowest concealment possible means players can sometimes, although risky, run past Guards and civilians without them even knowing what just rushed past them.
1 Check For Cameras
Guards can be a burden to Stealth players, but perhaps the biggest threat is the camera system. In different corners of the map, players might hear a scary beep. This means that they, or something suspicious, is within the detection range of the camera. If a Guard or civilian goes down near a camera, the camera will pick it up as suspicious.
If a Guard catches a player, they can just be shot, with the Pager being dealt with. However, if a camera catches a player, then it is game over, as there is no way to stop a camera that has detected the player. It’s best to keep cameras tagged and prioritize the camera operator Guard, wherever he may be.
Payday 2 is available for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
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