Hello and welcome to part 3 of my Payday 2 Tips articles. A link to part 2 can be found here, which is aimed at those with a reputation of between 15 and 35. This is for the ‘high levels’, which I’m using to refer to people between 35 and 60. It’s worth noting that these 15 tips are grouped together for a reason, but helpful information for any level can be found in all 3 articles.
Tip #1: Aim for the head
This may seem painfully obvious, but you really need to think about your shots at higher levels. I suggest picking weapons with high accuracy and low recoil, and burst firing your gun (unless they’re one shot or semi-automatic weapons.) The damage isn’t important as long as you can hit them in the head.
Skeptical? Here’s an example from experience; I was playing Day 1 of Rats with friends and completely forgot to change my weapons. I ended up playing through a 15-20 minute holdout mission with two silenced, fully-auto weapons. Because I didn’t want to hog the one ammo bag we had, I started to pick my shots, and always aim for the head. Even when 5 cops flooded one doorway, and the temptation to spray was there, I still fired sparingly. By the end of the mission, I had the highest bodycount, accuracy and headshots of my team.
Whatever firing rate your weapon has, you should take an extra second or two to line up a headshot when you’re playing difficult missions. Not only will it save you valuable ammunition, but it will also make you better at killing enemies. This is especially true for the cops with white helmets, who often don’t take any damage unless you hit them in the head.
Tip #2: Get in, get out, level up
Again, this might sound like run-of-the-mill advice, but hear me out. By this stage, unless you get bored of your skills every few missions, or have bought and modified every weapon, you should have plenty of spending money. As a result, it’s not particularly important to stay and get those extra 2 jewelry bags, or to cook that extra bag of meth.
You should prioritize finishing missions as soon as possible to level up at a steady rate, rather than maximizing the amount of cash you get from the mission. If you don’t, your game will never evolve because you will take substantially longer to level up, and won’t be unlocking new skills.
Tip#3: Experiment with trees
Already started to branch out your skill trees as per Tip# 2 from my article for the ‘middle’ levels? Good, now respec your main tree. As I said in the previous tip, you will probably have quite a bit of spare cash lying about by now, so why not try out something new?
You may be getting tired of only busting safes and doors with C4 and spending the rest of the mission wasting ammo while your teammates convert enemies to your side, and saw open endless deposit boxes. So try out something new; if you’re really worried about this, make sure you have enough cash to level yourself back up if you aren’t happy with your new set of skills (you’ll probably have more than enough by now though and it shouldn’t take you too long to earn it if not.)
Tip#4: Be prepared to grind
Unfortunately, by the time you get to about level 45, there’s a significant jump in the amount of experience needed to rank up. Completing the same level multiple times as quickly as possible will become the only option to gain new skill points at a decent rate. Popular examples are Ukrainian Job and Bank Heist; with high-level skills like C4 of the OVE9000 saw these are easy to rinse.
By grinding one day levels, you also get more paydays. In turn, this means that you’re more likely to unlock attachments for weapons. If you follow Tip #1, it shouldn’t really matter what weapons you use, so pick weapons that you can add multiple attachments to.
Tip#5: Enjoy yourself
Might sound like a cop-out (excuse the pun), and even slightly contradictory to Tip #4, but this is one of the most important of the 15 tips I’ve written. Ultimately, if you aren’t enjoying your time with Payday 2, then you won’t want to continue playing it. I can’t really tell you how to enjoy yourself I’m afraid, but here are some suggestions:
- Aim for Achievements/Trophies; these can help lengthen the life of the game and pose a new challenge.
- Play with new people, and be vocal; sometimes the game can be boring if you play long sessions with the same people.
- If you’re stuck, play other missions; nothing kills fun quicker than the frustration of repeated failure.
- Don’t overplay; as soon you start getting bored or annoyed, then you know it’s time to try a new gun, mission or skill.
Play Payday 2
I’ll leave you with one final tip. Not particularly long or deep, just; Play Payday 2. It’s a great game, and it’s well worth playing (plus its cheap! I paid £22 for my copy, and it’s given me hours of enjoyment.)
Hopefully you’ve enjoyed my 15 tips for Payday 2 and found them helpful, if so please let me know. If not? Then by all means tell me that too, I can take it. Just know that I’ve played many hours of a game that simulates thievery and loose morals. I’m kidding, please don’t report me to the FBI, I have a feeling my real-life reactions aren’t nearly as keen as my level 50 Payday 2 Technician.
Stay tuned to Attack of the Fanboy as I’ll be posting tips for Call of Duty: Black Ops 2 Apocalypse Zombies next.
