Best Payday 3 stealth build: weapons, skills & equipment

❘ Updated: 2023-10-17T15:02:50

Starbreeze Studios

A good stealth build is ideal for Payday 3 players who prefer to take the quiet approach to heists, so here are the ideal skills to acquire for the best stealth build in the game.

The flexibility that Payday 3 allows players is one of the most beloved aspects of the game and wider franchise. You can either go in all guns blazing for an action-packed experience or take the silent approach and get the goods without alerting a single person.

Succeeding in a stealthy fashion will largely depend on your build however, and the more stealth-based skills you have, the higher your chances of clearing the mission without being noticed will be.

So, if you’re looking to tackle Payday 3 heists silently, here’s the best stealth build in the game, including the skills and weapons you should use.

Best Payday 3 stealth weapons

In terms of weapons and equipment, you’ll likely want to bring something light to help you move around quickly. That means taking the Standard Lining vest (unlocks at level 18) which reduces your armor but increases mobility.

For weapons, concealment isn’t a factor in this game like it was in Payday 2 so it doesn’t necessarily matter what we take as long as it’s suppressed. We’d suggest taking the starter weapons CAR-4 and Signature 40 pistol. Be sure to also unlock and attach silencers to them so you can shoot at things without alerting the entire map. Don’t bother with selecting an Overkill Weapon, these aren’t useful in stealth.

For your other slots, you’ll want to bring an Ammo Bag in your deployable slot and a Throwing Knife (unlocks at level 16) in your throwable.

In your tool slot, most of these items are very useful for your stealth builds. If you’re doing most of the objectives, we’d recommend taking an ECM Jammer (unlocks at level 20) which slows down cameras and radios for when you need to move about quickly. If you’re staying back and performing reconnaissance, however, then a MicroCam or Motion Sensor (unlocks at level 30) may be more preferable.

Best Payday 3 stealth skills

Now we can move on to skills. In total, you’ll get 21 skill points once you hit the level cap.

If you’re looking for the best all-around stealth build that will help you pull off your big score, here are the skills we’d recommend investing your points in:

Infiltrator (basic): Whenever you successfully pick a lock, or kill an enemy with a throwing knife, gain or refresh RUSH.
Manipulator (basic): You tie up and trade hostages 50% faster.
Grifter (basic): As long as you are masked off, if you are within 1 meter of a civilian or employee, gain RUSH.
Walk The Walk: As long as you’re unmasked and have RUSH, cameras can’t detect you trespassing in private areas.
Social Engineering: As long as you’re unmasked and have RUSH, employees will ignore you performing illegal actions.
Slippery: After getting cuffed by a guard, you can break free by lockpicking the cuffs.
Hacker (basic): You can hack cameras to gain access to the area’s CCTV system. This functions as though you accessed the heist’s security room. You gain one Runtime.
Secure Loop: You can use one Runtime to make the security camera you’re controlling loop its footage. Cameras looping their footage cannot detect you or anything out of the ordinary. If the camera is destroyed, you regain your Runtime use. If you apply a new Runtime when you’re at max Runtimes, your oldest active one is removed.
Routed Ping: You can spend a Runtime to make the hacked camera automatically mark any guards or law enforcement within its range. Targets stay marked for 5 seconds after leaving the camera’s view and do not count towards your maximum number of marked targets.
Glitch Protocol: You can hack a guard’s radio to cause a disturbance, stopping and distracting them, pausing any action they are doing. You must have a line of sight to the guard to hack them. The guard is distracted for 5 seconds, after which they will go back to their previous action. If the guard was escorting a player, the guard will go back to patrolling. If the guard was about to detain a player, the guard will go into Search mode instead. Using this ability has a cooldown of 60 seconds.
Strategist (Basic): You can mark 1 additional target. Your marks last 20% longer.
Strategist (Aced): You can mark 1 additional target. Your marks last 20% longer.
CQC Specialist (Basic): Whenever you perform a takedown, gain or refresh RUSH.
Groundskeeper: You perform takedowns 20% faster.
Cover-Up: Taking down a guard will immediately also answer the radio.
Signal Catch: You can answer radios remotely if you have a line of sight to the guard’s body.

There are also two skills you may want to pick up depending on your playstyle, both found in the CQC Specialist deck: Savage Takedown, which intimidates any civilian within 5 meters of a takedown. You may only want to take this skill if you’re also doing crowd control, but if you’re avoiding alerting as many people as possible this isn’t worth taking.

The other optional skill is Pressure Points, where corpses need to be examined by civilians and guards before they realize they are dead. Sure, taking this skill will add a few seconds before someone tries calling the cops. However, if you’re already hiding the bodies to begin with this might become a wasted skill point.

And that’s the best stealth build we’d recommend for you in Payday 3. Check out our other Payday 3 stealth guides here: