Payday 3 Update 1.02 Brings Long-Awaited Changes and Much-Needed Content

Payday 3 has had a rough go since it launched in a poor state in September. Following multiple delays to its first patch, which seemed little more than a long-overdue Day One patch packing 200+ fixes, the highly anticipated sequel began struggling to maintain player engagement. In fact, Steam Charts paints an incredibly grim picture, with the player count over the past month averaging a mere 1,000 players. Of course, this only accounts for Payday 3 copies played on Steam, leaving out the Windows Store and console versions.

Starbreeze is finally ready to debut the second update for Payday 3, and it’s a big one. Another wave of fixes join alongside many quality of life changes demanded from the community. Additionally, two legacy heists have made the transition from Payday 2 to Payday 3, reimagined and reformed for the latest installment’s new mechanics. It’s a lengthy read, so get comfortable before you begin down the list.

Here’s everything that’s been fixed, changed and added to Payday 3 with Update 1.02.

Payday 3 Update 1.02

ADDITIONS

HEISTS

There are 2 brand new (old) heists in this update! Each painstakingly remade and slightly reimagined from their original PAYDAY 2 counterparts. Both of these heists tend to rank fairly high in popularity, we’ve seen a lot of people asking for both, we hope you enjoy it!

TURBID STATION, FORMERLY MURKY STATION

The private military contractor Murkywater had some “troubled times” in the past couple of years. As such, this heist has gotten a new name alongside its facelift when brought into PAYDAY 3. Turbid Station is the first ‘stealth only’ heist in PAYDAY 3 so far. In order to facilitate the new stealth systems introduced in PAYDAY 3, the team have made a few minor changes to the how it plays as compared to PAYDAY 2. The sense of familiarity is strong however, any veteran will feel right at home.

COOK OFF

How do you turn a crack house into a crack home? While ‘meth home’ would probably be more appropriate, someone tried turning this once disgusting den of debauchery into something livable. As such, the Cook Off house has gotten a few well needed renovations over the years. But once a drug den, always a drug den it seems.

The Cook Off house is the second ‘loud only’ heist in PAYDAY 3, following the footsteps of its predecessor. One difference in the new Cook Off is that it is not endless, the maximum number of bags possible is now capped at 19. The visuals of this heist have seen even more obvious changes over Turbid Station, though it’s still hauntingly recognizable to experienced heisters.

FIRST PERSON ANIMATIONS

Our animation team has outdone themselves and put together some fine looking first person animations for a lot of the player actions. It really makes it feel better to swipe money when you see it getting taken.

As part of this, you can now inspect both your gloves and weapons by using the corresponding option in the context wheel.

TRANSPORTER SKILL LINE

This skill line is all about carrying, be that bodies, loot or equipment. With this skill line you’ll do so faster and more efficiently, even letting you carry two bags at once.

NEW MASK & PRESET WEAPON

Added the Under Wraps mask and the Compact7 Lycan preset weapons.

LEVEL CAP REWARDS

While we did expect you guys to outdo our expectations, you guys have crushed our predictions. As such this is the first addition of items exclusively available to those who have hit the level cap. We will call the levels passed the infamy cap “Renown”. When hitting a new renown level, you’ll be rewarded with consumable items that will be dropped for each renown level. We hope to expand this in the future, for all of you unstoppable heisters.

INFAMY FOR EACH HEIST COMPLETED

Our game designer Mio has written a blog-style post about the changes, and how they work just below.

RECOMMENDED CHALLENGES

Lastly on this list, we’ve added recommended challenges. Recommendations will show both on the main menu with general challenges you are close to, or could complete, and also in the heist selection when hovering over each heist.

Together with the Infamy per heist completion, we hope this will provide a good starting point for addressing your concerns about the challenges.

ADDED LOBBY CHAT FOR PC

We’ve added the much requested lobby chat for PC. We are still looking into how to best implement a text chat for console players.

NOTABLE FIXES

• Added Infamy Point (IP) rewards for every level successfully completed.
• A number of graphical and technical fixes.
• Closed the XP exploit on 99 Boxes.
• AI crew mates got a 300% HP boost so they can better assist you without taking so many naps.
• Enemies won’t try to dodge shots that weren’t directly aimed at them as much.
• Adjusted some text that wasn’t wrapping in its box properly.
• Generally fixed most out of bounds issues of bags and players.
• Rebalanced a number of skills.
• Added the option to mute the contact in heist selection.
• Added recommended challenges to the main menu as well as per heist in the heist selection screen.
• Added an outline to the sentry gun for its owner.

GENERAL

• Fixed an issue with AI not being able to revive after being cuffed by a cloaker
• Included optimization to improve performance on Xbox S
• Added a 30 second custody timers for players who reconnect after being downed/taken into custody
• Added measures to prevent bags getting thrown out of the playable area
• Increased the crew AI health by 300%
• Container door opening rate increased by 3 times
• Players can no longer lockpick while holding a human shield
• Fixed an issue where joining players wouldn’t see CCTV cameras as “off” if the guard was killed before they joined
• Fixed an XP exploit on 99 Boxes
• Fixed an issue causing some masks, suits and gloves to appear in the wrong inventory space, causing confusion when equipping
• Micro camera now triggers shutterstock challenge when placed (PS5)
• Fixed an issue where the player could disable cameras by throwing a bag in front of the security room guard
• Fix issue with players crouching while doing the safe cracking interaction
• Fixed an issue were cops wouldn’t see players inside the dumpster on Art Gallery
• Adjusted a border between private and secure area in Touch the Sky
• Fixed a crash related to weapon customization
• Fixed an issue with CCTV cameras would beep in high alert for extended times when seeing scared civilians
• Added a fix so players cannot walk on doors
• Added a fix to make the spectrophotometer respawn on the roof if thrown into the helicopter on Under the Surphaze
• Fixed the transition between sprinting and interacting with a lockpicking puzzle
• Fixed an issue causing motion sensors to stop working if entering the range of another motion sensor
• Fixed an issue skipping the negotiation phase if player goes loud towards the end
• Fixed not being able to use ammo bags dropped in the alley of No Rest for the Wicked
• Fixed sprint not working if something blocked the player from standing up during the first moments of movement
• Fixed so that bots no longer warn the player about the presence of the nearby camera, after the camera has been hacked to loop its footage
• Fixed crouched player’s character stands up after canceling the safecracking/lockpick interaction
• Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to invite players to friends only lobbies
• Fixed an issue causing a crash for PS5 players if invited to a lobby by a PC player (PS5)
• Fixed an issue where an user was unable to join a party after matchmaking into a different lobby (XboxS/X)
• Fixed an issue where only one civilian could react to each dead AI
• Improved the crew AI behavior, they should run around less randomly in assault breaks and similarly
• Fixed a performance issue on Dirty Ice (XboxS)
• Fixed an issue enabling players to have multiple hostages following them
• Fixed an exploit allowing players to spam purchase c-stacks, skipping the payment (PC/PS5)
• Fixed a bug where sliding under an object with hold to crouch would let the player walk too fast in crouch
• Translation added on a PC screen in the tutorial
• Fixed a bug where the controller would keep vibrating when turning vibrations off in the menu when a vibration was active in the controller
• Fixed an issue with matchmaking between players on different platforms
• Fixed an issue causing players to be unable to rejoin a previously left lobby
• Fixed a crash that occurred when the player tried to leave the tutorial while holding human shield on the Crowd Tutorial
• Fixed an issue preventing the player from receiving a favor upon heist completion
• Fixed an issue where the player could shoot from the vents during stealth without guards reacting to the gunfire properly
• Fixed a crash related to the taser mine
• Civilians will no longer run away while tied up if a player had tied them up just after a guard saved them
• Fixed an issue causing the weapon would wiggle when aiming down sight after sprinting
• Changed the mask when inspecting patterns to a blank mask so the pattern is easier to see
• Fixed a crash caused by attempting to climb the escape van on the Crowd Control Tutorial level whilst escaping
• Added teleportation back into the map for players who were pushed out of the playable area
• Fixed culling issue on Rock the Cradle causing a box to appear and disappear
• You can now see your ping marker when watching through a hacked camera
• Fixed an issue where vault wouldn’t work after using the crouch button to uncrouch
• Fixed a crash that could happen when spamming shout at a guard
• Added descriptive text to interactable control panels, such as in Gold & Sharke
• Fixed an issue where the player was able to send a friend request to someone they were already friends with.
• Fixed an issue where directional inputs stop working after blocking another player
• Fixed an issue where players couldn’t join through xbox shell after a couple of invites
• Fixed an issue in the challenges menu showing wrong progress values
• Fixed an issue where players could restart a tutorial level and when the timer for restart level has gone to zero

HEIST COMPLETION INFAMY POINTS

“With this update, we are adding Infamy Points to heist payouts. Points are awarded for three accomplishments:

• Completing the heist successfully
• Completing the heist entirely without raising the alarm (aka “in Stealth”)
• Completing the heist by securing all bags

These payouts are added up together and aren’t mutually exclusive, which means that if you complete a heist without raising the alarm, you’ll get points for completion and for finishing it in stealth.

The amount of Infamy Points you get for each of these three factors depends on which heist you are playing and on which difficulty. Heists that are generally harder to stealth will have the majority of their points in the stealth payout. Heists that have low minimal loot (like Dirty Ice), will have a low completion payout, but a high “all bags” payout. And so on… To clear up any confusion, the “all bags” payout only cares about you extracting all the baggable loot, it doesn’t care about loose cash or the quality of the loot (for example, it doesn’t matter whether it’s a cleaned jewelry bag or not in Dirty Ice).

With this change, we’ve introduced an infinite source of Infamy Points to the game, so that required that we make some other changes. Once you reach the level cap (Infamy Level 150), instead of earning additional levels, all your Infamy Points will go towards a new system called “Renown.” Every time you earn 2000 Infamy Points, regardless of whether it’s from challenges or heist payouts, you will get a level of Renown and a random reward. The rewards can be a stack of C-Stacks, consumable weapon stickers and consumable mask patterns. We also plan to expand this system with more consumable cosmetics in future updates. Any cosmetics earned through Renown are exclusive to Renown and won’t be earnable through other methods. Please keep in mind that these rewards are consumable, so use them wisely, otherwise you’ll have to wait until they drop again for you to use them.

For this update, we have 1188 Renown levels, which will be visible to you in the main menu through a combination of icon and number next to your name. Once you reach the Renown cap, you will still be able to earn Renown rewards, but the number counter will no longer go up until we raise the Renown cap.

How does this affect any future Infamy Level cap increases? While we can’t say when we plan to raise the Infamy Level cap, once we do, all your Infamy Points will go towards your level instead of towards Renown. Once you reach the new Infamy Level cap, you’ll start earning Renown again instead, back from where you left off. And no need to worry about “wasting” challenges on Renown in the meantime; any Infamy Level cap increase will come with a set of new challenges worth as much as the new infamy levels require.

We plan to monitor this system and we’ll further tune it and update it based on stats and player feedback.” -Mio

BALANCE

There’s a lot to parse through, but our friendly neighborhood designer Mio has been kind enough to provide some additional information on most of the balance changes. Thanks Mio!

“While we are happy with how armor works as a mechanic right now, we wanted to address some armor-related skills that were overperforming. We also understand that players want more ways to restore armor without relying on the Armor Bag deployable. To help with this, a future update will introduce Armor Repair Kits that players will be able to get from hostage trading to repair damaged armor chunks (but not restore lost ones). We don’t have an estimated time for the Armor Repair Kit, but we’ll try to get it in as soon as we can.” -Mio

SKILLS

• Armor Up (Tank): Interacting with any armor bag will also repair your current armor chunk.
  
  • With this change, Armor Up should still be able to get you “two chunks” of armor, but you need to use it at the correct time, before the chunk you want to repair breaks. We’re hoping that this timing requirement makes it less of a mandatory pick for all players and rewards more careful play.
    
• Last Man Standing (Tank): base duration has been decreased from 10 to 4 seconds, but the duration increases by 2 seconds for each player who is downed, or in custody when the skill activates.
  
  • This change will make stacking Last Man Standing in the entire crew less powerful, but it will still be as effective in those dire situations when you are, in fact, the last man standing.
    
• Blade Bouncer (Infiltrator): Increased the damage from the Blade Bouncer skill to 200% (from 100%) per bounce.
  
  • Blade Bouncer was already difficult to use, so we made sure that one bounce was enough to kill a Shield. We recommend going for two bounces if you want to make the Dozer a pin-cushion.
    
• Cooker (Demolitionist): Lowered the cooking requirement for Cooker from 1.5 to 1.0 second.
  
• Coup De Grace (Tactician): Increased Coup De Grace bonus damage from 5% to 10%.
  
  • The ease of activating Coup De Grace with certain automatic weapons made us more conservative with the initial balance. We are hoping the new 10% damage bonus makes it more appealing.
    
• Master Trader (Manipulator): Lowered the time reduction from Master Trader from 20 to 10 seconds per hostage.
  
  • We feel that even with this nerf, Master Trader is a very desirable skill to have, and players who specialize in trading will get the most benefit out of it.
    
• Combat Marking (Strategist): Increased the damage bonus from Combat Marking from 10% to 20%
  
• Detonation (Engineer): Increased the damage of the Sentry turret with the Detonate skill to 300/200/100 across 2.5/4/8 meters.
  
  • The damage turrets did when detonating didn’t seem worth the skill point investment. This way there’s a much higher chance that the enemies nearest to it will die.
    
• The skills “Steady Hands” and “Field Surgery” no longer work with first aid kits
  
  • This was an unintended bug with first aid kit interactions.
    
• Fixed the skill Cover-Up in the CQC Specialist tree preventing the Lead Guard radio’s functioning as intended. They should now repeatedly check in as intended.
  
  • This was an unintended bug. We hope this fix makes the Lead Guard appropriately challenging (and annoying) to play around again.
    
• Fixed an issue where the skill, Plate Up, wouldn’t trigger reliably
  
• Fixed an issue where the Cover-Up skill would stop the lead guards radio from calling more than once.
  
• Fixed so that the skill ‘Routed Ping’ no longer marks enemies through cameras permanently
  
• Changed the immunity duration of the skill “Last Man Standing” from the Tank skill line to a base of 4 seconds, adding 2 seconds for each player or AI downed or in custody
  
• Armor Up no longer restores two plates flat, interacting with an armor bag will now instead also repair your damaged armor chunk and add one full plate

WEAPONS

• Recoil updated for Mosconi12 FP to prevent clipping with the camera
  
• Updated hand position when using the Signature 40 pistol (Steam)
  
• Reduced self-damage from the Mamba OVERKILL weapon by 80%
  
  • The self damage of the OVK Mamba was working against the usage of the weapon, this is now greatly reduced to increase the viability of the weapon in tighter spaces. – Weapons Designer Jimmy
    
• Increased ammo pickup for all SMG’s by roughly 20%
  
  • The SMG weapons were generally underperforming with their ammo usage in the game, therefore we increased the pickup ratio given from ammo resources – Weapons Designer Jimmy
    
• Fixed an issue causing reload animations to play when leaving ADS if using Ammo Funnel and Replenish skills
  
• Fixed an issue with Northwest B-9 preventing it from passing level 26

ENEMIES

“For this update, enemy changes are primarily bug fixes and other minor improvements. For the next update, we plan to make some balance changes to increase the challenge on OVERKILL difficulty.” -Mio

• Added additional VFX to Dozer while shooting
  
• The distance required to trigger the “dodge” animation has been reduced. Enemies should dodge less if not directly fired at
  
• Fixed some guards taken as hostage not being tradable
  
• Fixed an issue with rooftop snipers not playing sounds on 99 Boxes
  
• Fixed tied up hostages sometimes running away when unattended
  
• Fixed players being able to “spawn camp” swats from atop the fence on Dirty Ice
  
• Fixed so that the cloaker only swaps to secondary when it can’t get to the player in melee
  
• The taser mine and battery now puts the player in full tased state directly
  
• Fixed an issue causing guards to be alerted if throwing knives near tied-up hostages
  
• Fixed an issue causing cloakers to be able to down players through the vault door of No Rest for the Wicked
  
• Improved some of the Grenadiers animations
  
• Non-threatening noises (like throwing knives) will now only attract one guard instead of multiple guards.
  
• Fixed an issue where guards would stay still after being traded when standing on props that they climbed up on while being in combat
  
• Fixed an exploit in where meleeing a guard would make him freeze instead of going into combat

TECHNICAL

UI

• Added ping and server region to the pause menu
  
• Options for buying weapon slots and new weapons in a lobby should now be hidden
  
• Fixed the tooltip to revive crew AI sometimes not appearing
  
• Fixed an issue where the player would display as “revived” in the chat on leaving the game
  
• Adjusted estimated payouts for each heist in the heist selection screen
  
• Updated thumbnail image for a number of weapons & weapon mods
  
• Fixed missing localizations for waypoints showing distance
  
• Fixed so settings on “You can see and upload community creations” work properly (WinStore)
  
• Fixing lobby chat not working (PC)
  
• Added so players in lobby can open player profiles if on the same platform
  
• Fixed so that the chat would open on pressing the enter-key once, instead of having to do so twice (PC)
  
• Added UI elements to better display server status and ping
  
• Improved radial menu navigation when using controllers
  
• Added recommended challenges to the main menu as well as per heist in the heist selection screen
  
• Fixed players being unable to browse incoming friends requests (PS5/Xbox)
  
• Adjusted so the correct platform icon appears in the tutorial
  
• Updated the ECM jammer buff icon
  
• Clarified the description of a number of challenges or adjusted how the counted to better fit the description
  
• Fixed an issue on XSX where the UI would stop working after blocking a user
  
• Updated buff icons for the ECM jammer
  
• Fixed an issue on the end of heist screen where the infamy rank would be shown as level 1 regardless of the player’s actual infamy rank
  
• Fixed an issue where the UI would stack on top of each other on the main menu

AUDIO

• Fixed an issue with two door frames that didn’t allow sound to pass through on Gold & Sharke
  
• Fixed issues with VOs not always playing when killing specials
  
• Fixed a few VO issues on No Rest for the Wicked
  
• Metallic footstep sounds can no longer be heard in the manager’s office in Gold & Sharke
  
• Fixed the Janitor missing voice lines outside Gold & Sharke
  
• A sound effect for when the overkill weapon is ready has been added
  
• Fixed so that the audio for “follow me” is played at the end of the hostage interaction instead of at the start
  
• Added the option to mute the contact in heist selection
  
• Made it easier for controller users to navigate radial menu
  
• Minor noises such as throwing knifes can now only attract one guard per instance
  
• Added missing SFX when another player is using heist tools

VISUALS

• Removed shadow persisting after paper piles were searched
  
• Prevented the sentry gun turret from falling through the ground when placed near the first floor windows on ‘No Rest For The Wicked’
  
• Nvidia DLSS graphics setting is now available in the Video Settings for Windows Store players (WS)
  
• Fixed an issue with tires on the escape van looking broken
  
• Fixed an issue with micro cameras being able to see though walls if FOV was set high enough
  
• Removed a gap in the model of the manager’s office/booth in Gold and Sharke
  
• Fixed an issue causing bags to appear as if floating if thrown on a zipline
  
• Fixed two misaligned vents on the roof of the Gold & Sharke heist
  
• Fixed the stapler clipping with the magazines in the lobby of the Gold & Sharke heist
  
• Fixed a pillar near the bank assistant’s office on Gold & Sharke missing collision
  
• Added the appropriate texture to one of the helmet prop in the vault of Touch the Sky
  
• The US flag in 99 boxes has been rotated to hang in the proper orientation
  
• Updated the heist image for 99 Boxes (PS5)
  
• Prevented the spawning of a black wall near one of the AI spawns of the first floor vault area on Gold & Sharke
  
• Prevented the “No Thru Truck Traffic” sign partially clipping through a wall
  
• Fixed vent being misaligned on Under the Surphaze (Xbox)
  
• Fixed the floating computer mouse on 99 Boxes
  
• Fixed being able to see “through the world” between the wall and the pavement near the hotel on Dirty Ice
  
• Fixed a big wooden crate on the roof of the bank on the No Rest for the Wicked heist popping
  
• Fixed a floating paper cup in the Stealth tutorial
  
• Fixed two vents missing collision, cloakers should now open the vents before crawling through
  
• Fixed the collision on Pearl’s arm from clipping through her jacket
  
• Fixed an issue caused by placing sentry guns on movable surfaces
  
• Fixed guards going into the “lean against wall”-animation when not near a wall on Rock the Cradle
  
• Added an outline to the sentry gun for its owner
  
• Fixed an animation issue with the phone when interacting with lures when the player have tried accessing the tools previously
  
• Fixed the ‘mask on’ animation being interrupted by the interaction wheel such as weapon inspect
  
• Fixed eyelashes on a guard
  
• Fixed an issue with reload animations causing issues entering security camera hack

HEIST

• Prevented players from getting trapped inside the panic room in Touch the Sky
  
• Added a fix on escape van leaving the playable area in No Rest for the Wicked
  
• A bunch of smaller level fixes to 99 boxes
  
• Fixed an issue with armor bags not being usable if placed in the bathtub on Touch the Sky
  
• Fixed not being able to complete the heist in stealth if a deployable is covering the button on Mason’s desk in the Touch the Sky heist
  
• Fixed a collision when trying to crouch-walk up the stairs on No Rest of the Wicked
  
• Fixed an issue which could cause players to get stuck near the red double doors on Gold & Sharke
  
• Fixed an issue with a wall missing collision on Gold & Shark (Steam)
  
• Removed floating stickers in Gold & Sharke (PC)
  
• Fixed the thermite sometimes being delivered before the thermite cage was built on No Rest for the Wicked
  
• Multiple graphical glitches fixed on 99 Boxes
  
• Fix an issue where it was possible to throw loot outside of the playable area in multiple heists
  
• Fixed so that players can no longer instantly escape if going from stealth to loud after securing the main objective in Touch the Sky
  
• Fixed an issue with AI heisters using the zipline on Rock the Cradle
  
• Fixed an issue on 99 Boxes where a glass door would block enemy vision as well as bullets
  
• Fixed the navigation around the thermite hole so that enemies don’t fall down in No Rest for the Wicked.
  
• Fixed a cloaker spawning vent having a solid wall behind it
  
• Fixed a visual glitch in 99 Boxes through which players could defeat the camera guard without needing to obtain the blue keycard
  
• Removed a placeholder object visible from behind the fence on Under the Surphaze
  
• Fixed throwables being able to pass through the ceiling of the Dirty Ice kitchen and a curb on 99 Boxes
  
• Fixed an issue where player could get stuck between a couch and a lamp on Gold & Sharke
  
• Fixed a texture issue when standing on the roof entrance on No Rest for the Wicked
  
• Fixed an issue where optional loot couldn’t be secured after having secured the mandatory loot on 99 Boxes

KNOWN ISSUES

Completing Turbid Station when “point of no return timer” has been activated, will not reward any cash rewards. You will still earn Infamy and Experience.

Official Site