Payday 3: Tips For Stealth Builds (2024)

Stealth is not a necessity in Payday 3, but it sure does add a fun challenge where players could gain more rewards during their heists. Payday 3 recommends stealth for many aspects of their heists, and there’s a good reason for that. Stealth has unique objectives for going in loud, and it also requires a lot of thinking, patience, and a different build for players to commit to.

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When making a stealth build in Payday 3, there are some things that players are going to need to look out for. These aspects add a greater layer of fun and challenge to Payday 3, and players can create some of the best stealth builds as long as they know what to look for, and provided they have the experience and the cash to do so.

5 Use Suppressors

The first essential for a stealth build in Payday 3 is the use of suppressors. These silencers are attachments that can be placed on almost any weapon in Payday 3 under the Barrel Extension tab. It’s usually the first unlock for this section, and it will grant a silenced perk to the weapon which means no one can hear when the gun is fired.

There are rarely any disadvantages to using a suppressor, and players should always use them for their stealth build. However, players should be aware that some guns cannot have a silencer equipped, so it’s best to play it safe with some of the best guns in Payday 3 that will benefit stealth.

4 Light Ballistic Lining

Armor is a great attribute to builds, and players have a selection of four armors in their loadouts. The first one is unlocked by default, and the best for stealth due to the fact that it is the lightest. Although it offers limited protection against gunshots, the fact that players are not going to get shot is exactly why they should use the Light Ballistic Lining.

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This Kevlar armor has a lower overall weight than the other armor and allows for players to increase their mobility at the cost of protection. Wearing other armor will decrease the player's speed, and maybe make them stand out like a sore thumb with a shotgun.

3 Throwing Knife

Among the throwable items in Payday 3, players will have the choice between four. All of these except for the Throwing Knife are useless in Payday 3, due to the fact that they are loud and explosive, ensuring that everyone will hear the player throw them when they detonate. The Throwing Knife is silent, and extremely deadly when thrown into an enemy, just try not to hit a civilian that can be shouted at.

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Players can commit to quick and quiet kills with the Throwing Knife, and they can also pick it up, ensuring the death of their foes, and the fact that they can basically use it infinitely warranted that they do not end up losing it from missing their shots, so maybe it's best to take a pistol as a backup.

Players don’t just have equipment in the shape of Armor Bags, Ammo Bags, and the rest, now, players have access to Tools. These Tools are greatly useful to players who know how to use them, but out of the four of them, only three can benefit players in stealth. Each of them has its own uses, so playing as a team of heisters might benefit everyone due to the different abilities they can have.

Here is every stealth Tool in Payday 3 and what they do:

• Microcam – Drop this spy camera anywhere, access it any time. Good for marking enemies and stalking crushes.
• ECM Jammer – Pump up the jam! While active, all cameras and radios work stupid slow. Stack for stronger effects.
• Motion Sensor – Marks up to 15 enemies in a 3-meter range. If someone’s voguing, you’ll be the first to know.

1 Combine Hacker, Grifter, CQC Specialist, and Infiltrator Skill Trees

Skills work differently to what they did in previous games. Payday 3 combines skills and perk decks into solid trees, and with 17 of them, players might be overwhelmed on which ones to use. Players should find the best stealth tree in Payday 3, and combine each of them for the desired effects on stealth. Players can have 5 active skills at once, and make the choice of these 5 from different trees.

The recommended trees that players follow for stealth are the Hacker deck, CQC Specialist, Grifter, and Infiltrator, and here’s why:

• Hacker – Allows players to use equipment from far away, such as answering guard radios from afar, using lures, and looping cameras.
• CQC Specialist – Ensures that players can takedown enemies faster if they are behind them, and also allows them to instantly use guard radios once they have successfully used a takedown on a guard.
• Infiltrator – Great for fast looting, ensuring that players can use the lockpick skill almost instantly, as well as pick up loot bags much faster than before.
• Grifter – Players can use Casing Mode to better hide among the masses and confuse cameras and employees in private areas without the violence of an assault rifle.

Payday 3

Platform(s)

PC , PS5 , Xbox Series X , Xbox Series S

Released

September 21, 2023

Developer(s)

Overkill Software