Welcome to the world of Payday 3! If you’re new to this thrilling game, you’re in for an unforgettable experience. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll walk you through all the essentials to help you become a confident and skilled player. From mastering the game mechanics to navigating the intense heists, we’ve got you covered.
Get ready to dive into the action, customize your gameplay, and conquer the challenges that await you in Payday 3. Let’s begin your journey to becoming an unstoppable force in this unforgiving world!
How is Payday 3’s Gameplay?
For the most part, especially when a match goes south, Payday 3 offers a fast-paced experience where players must make decisions on the move and adapt to specific and unexpected scenarios.
Payday 3 can also be played using only stealth, but it is very tricky, and only the most experienced players can pull it off, as it involves a lot of experience and map knowledge.
The gunplay of this game is as simple as it gets for a first-person shooter, but this doesn’t mean you shouldn’t know your weapons. Payday 3 offers beginners a wide variety of weapons for different playstyles and scenarios.
All the Basics You Need to Know about Payday 3
Singleplayer vs Multiplayer
Payday 3 is known for having a tremendous multiplayer game mode that allows players to do heists with their friends or even random players, coordinating their strategies and making complex playthroughs. Additionally, this game offers a single-player mode for lone wolves who prefer to play alone.
There are a few critical differences between a multiplayer match and a single-player one, which we will list for you:
- Single-player can be played with bots.
- Multiplayer can only be played with real players.
- In single-player, the user can coordinate bots’ loadouts and abilities.
- In multiplayer, every player has their own abilities and loadouts.
- Multiplayer matches can’t be paused like single-player games.
We recommend hopping on single-player whenever you don’t have an entire squad of friends to play with, as it allows you to learn the maps better and practice strategies. Multiplayer is a more rewarding experience when it comes to making plans and executing them by working as a team.
Whichever way you choose to play, it will be fun as both offer unique experiences. Many players of this franchise prefer playing single-player over multiplayer.
Settings
Especially if you are playing on a PC, adjusting your graphics and control settings is vital to improve your experience and effectiveness. For both the controller, mouse, and keyboard, we recommend binding crucial keys such as equipment deployment, shouting, and communication functions to easily accessible buttons.
Another highly recommended adjustment is setting the field of view to the maximum for better visibility and turning off motion blur, which can completely obstruct your vision while moving or rotating your character.
Related Article: Controller Support in Payday 3
Payday 3′ Difficulty Levels Explained
Payday 3 includes four fundamental difficulties: Normal, Hard, Very Hard, and Overkill. Even for experienced players, we recommend starting with the standard and complex difficulties. Once you become familiar with the loadout, maps, and enemies, you can advance to the next difficulty.
Payday 3 is a game that requires a lot of map knowledge and specific locations to execute certain actions. Learning this information can be challenging, especially with higher difficulties.
Loadouts, Builds, and Your Choice of Gear
Payday 3 offers an excellent loadout section where players can customize their skills, characters, equipment, and weapons before a heist. It’s important for Payday 3 beginners to be meticulous and mindful of how you want to approach a heist and build a loadout based on your plan.
Especially in multiplayer, you will want to coordinate the loadout with your teammates and decide what types of weapons and skills everyone wants to carry. For example, having a full stealth loadout in Payday 3 would be useless if your other teammates went guns blazing from the beginning.
Related: Can you play Payday 3 cross-platform with friends on other devices?
Skill Sets
The skill sets allow you to start shaping your character toward a specific playstyle. Choosing the proper skill set will benefit the way you want to play a heist by giving you passive and active abilities during a heist. You should only experiment with them to decide which skill sets better accompany your playstyle.
What are Deployables?
The Deployables in Payday 3 are support items that allow you and your teammates to resupply essential stuff such as armor, ammo, health, and more. It is important to coordinate all the deployments that everyone will carry out to balance the group’s capabilities and be ready for any situation during a match.
Tools
Tools are more advanced and deployable in specific situations, enabling you to perform actions like placing spy cameras, jammers, and mines. These tools are especially useful for stealth runs as they provide intel and jam security guards’ equipment, giving you a significant advantage. Additionally, mines and traps are great for direct combat.
Weapon Customization for Payday 3 Beginners
Payday 3 weapon customization is fantastic, allowing you to change the aesthetics of a gun and shape it to meet your needs. Beginners should know that customizing a gun in Payday 3 will make it more effective by boosting specific stats based on the modified attachment.
It is important to carefully examine the attachments to determine the pros and cons they will provide to your gun. For example, you wouldn’t want to put a drum magazine and a sniper scope on a gun if you desire fast movement speed.
There are a lot of weapon choices in this game, so we created a Payday 3 gun tier list to help you pick the best in your next loadout. It’s not always the highest-ranked unlock weapon that’s the best. Many of the starter or early unlocks are actually the best in the game.
Character Customization
Payday 3 character customization is cosmetic, and the only way it will benefit you is by making you look more fabulous in front of your pals. If you are really into cosmetics, this can be a great way to keep the experience fresh by having you work toward certain cosmetics.
Map Drops
During a match, especially in combat, there will be certain drops and items you can find while playing the game, either by finding them or eliminating enemy forces.
- Small Ammo Pack: Restocks a low amount of ammunition for any weapon.
- First Aid Kit: Restores a quarter of your health.
- Ammo drop: Dropped by enemies, ammo drops restore minimal ammo.
Throwables
Throwables are combat items that allow you to eliminate, stunt, or temporarily blind enemies, such as frag grenades, throwing sharp weapons, flashbangs, smoke grenades, and more. Most throwable items are great for crowd control and to hold choke points.
Hostages
The hostages are random civilians on the map that can be extremely useful to use as shields or even for trading captured teammates for civilians. In any match, you want to secure and control a certain number of hostages, as they can be a great way of giving captured friends a second chance.
Remember that security forces can capture hostages and take them to safety if you leave them unsecured.
Map Dynamism
Every map in Payday 3 will have interactable elements that allow you to perform specific actions such as vaulting, climbing, roping, and more. Be constantly aware of your surroundings to know what interactable objects are around you in case you need them in an emergency.
Final Thoughts and Next Steps for Payday 3 Beginners
In conclusion, playing Payday 3 entails much more than just diving into the action. It’s about understanding the different settings, difficulty levels, and intricacies of your loadout and skillsets. Tailoring your gear to suit your playstyle, coordinating with your team, utilizing deployables effectively, and harnessing the power of tools and customizations are all keys to mastering the game. Moreover, paying attention to map drops, managing throwables, and securing hostages are pivotal strategies to get ahead in a match.
The dynamic map features in Payday 3 further enhance the game, adding an extra layer of strategy and interaction. Remember that every element of the game, from weapon and character customization to map dynamics, plays a crucial role and can make the difference between a successful heist and a disappointing defeat.
We highly recommend beginners dive deeper into our other guides and tips for Payday 3, which can provide you with more detailed strategies and insights to enhance your gameplay. With the right knowledge and preparation, you’re well on your way to becoming a formidable player in the world of Payday 3.
