The story of Payday 2 might be complete, but there are still plenty of reasons to check the game out. Even with the existence of its successor, this classic crime-focused shooter is packed to the brim with content. But trying to dive in as a new player can be fairly daunting with the massive amount of DLC. Those starting their time in Payday 2 should learn about all free and DLC heists in the game — and which ones might be more important than the rest.

Recommended Videos

All Free Heists Available in Payday 2

There are a number of heists available to anyone who owns Payday 2, with many of them having been added through free updates. Keep in mind that the PC version has access to more heists than console versions, so you might be out of luck if you want to get the game’s full picture on PlayStation, Xbox, or Switch. As such, this article will only cover all heists available to PC players, including the ones that still require a DLC purchase.

Here are the most basic free heists in the game:

• Flash Drive and Get the Coke — Tutorial heists for new players to get used to stealth and loud gameplay, respectively.
• Bank Heist — The simplest Payday 2 heist in which players drill open a vault for cash.
• Jewelry Store — Another simple heist that involves smashing display cases and stealing jewelry.
• Diamond Store — A variation of Jewelry Store with a bigger building and higher stakes.
• GO Bank — A more difficult bank heist with multiple objectives. The map for this heist is based off of a locale for Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.
• Car Shop — A stealth-only heist that has players stealing and driving highly valuable cars.
• Watchdogs — A two-day, loud-only heist where players survive ambushes from cops while smuggling cocaine.
• Firestarter — A three-day heist that has players raiding a cartel’s weapons hangar, sneaking into FBI offices, and breaking into a bank to set fire to its money.
• Rats — A three-day heist where players must cook meth, collect information, and clear a bus of rival cartel members.
• Big Oil — A two-day heist where players must kill bikers to find information before breaking into a house and stealing a fusion reactor.
• Framing Frame — A three-day heist where players steal paintings, trade the stolen paintings for money, and break into a house to plant coke and steal valuables.
• Mallcrasher — A “heist” where players must destroy $50,000 worth of valuables in a mall. This is technically a loud-only heist, but it can be performed stealthily.
• Four Stores — A simple heist where players must steal a combined total of $15,000 from four stores found on the same street.
• Ukrainian Job — A more direct variation of Jewelry Store that must be completed by stealing a tiara from the back of the store.
• Nightclub — A heist where players sneak into a Nightclub and steal valuables from a safe within.
• Shadow Raid — A stealth-only heist where players must raid a PMC compound and steal valuables.
• Cook Off and Art Gallery — Single-day variations of Rats and Framing Frame, respectively.
• Meltdown — A loud-only heist where players must steal nukes from the compound found in Shadow Raid.
• Aftershock — A loud-only heist where players must recover safes from a van after an earthquake.
• Murky Station and Boiling Point — Stealth-only and loud-only heists, respectively. Players must steal an EMP in the former and raid a secret lab in Russia in the latter. These are crossover heists promoting the Hardcore Henry movie from 2015.
• Santa’s Workshop, Stealing Xmas, and White Xmas — Christmas-based, loud-only heists that usually involve securing multiple bags of drugs for huge payouts.
• Safe House Nightmare, Prison Nightmare, and Cursed Kill Room — Halloween-based, loud-only heists where players must survive waves of foes in nightmarish conditions while securing loot.
• Safe House Raid — A special “heist” where players must defend their safe house from waves of cops.

There are also classic heists returning from the first Payday, with all but two available for free. These include:

• First World Bank — A redo of the Payday gang’s very first score. This heist contains a secret involving Mayan gold, which ends up being vital to the overarching Payday 2 story.
• Panic Room — A loud-only heist building off of the DLC-exclusive Biker Heist involving players breaking into an apartment building and stealing an entire panic room from it.
• Slaughterhouse — A loud-only heist where players attack an armored car to steal gold.
• Diamond Heist — A heist where players break into a massive building to steal valuable diamonds. There’s a chance for an extra-valuable red diamond to spawn in this heist.

There are more classic heists, but they’re led up to by story-important heists that cover the game’s mysteries and stranger plot points. The free story-important heists are:

• Hoxton Breakout — A two-day heist where the Payday gang rescues an old friend before helping him raid the FBI offices to find out who framed him.
• Hoxton Revenge — A follow-up to Hoxton Breakout where players raid a safe house to assassinate someone who’s been setting up the Payday gang.
• Heat Street — Another classic loud-only heist. Players must track down an accomplice of an organization making moves against the Payday gang. This is the first free heist involving Locke, a contractor introduced in the Point Break DLC heists.
• Green Bridge — Yet another classic loud-only heist. Players must escort a prisoner across a destroyed bridge. This heist focuses on information about the DLC heister Jiro and his missing son, Kento.
• Alaskan Deal — A loud-only heist involving Locke and another DLC contractor, the Butcher. Players must defend themselves against a police raid before escaping via boat.
• Reservoir Dogs — A two-day, loud-only heist. Players must survive multiple attempts on their life orchestrated by the police. This heist is done starting with day 2 rather than day 1. Starting here, nearly all heists following this one are narrated by Locke rather than Bain.
• Brooklyn Bank — A loud-only bank heist where players must recover a special item outside of the normal valuables they usually take.
• Breakin’ Feds — A stealth-only heist where players must sneak through the FBI headquarters and recover a special item found within.
• Henry’s Rock — A loud-only heist where players must steal valuable items from the Murkywater PMC.
• Shacklethorne Auction — A heist focused around a special auction holding a valuable item. This item must be found to help solve a massive secret about the Payday world.
• Hell’s Island — A loud-only heist allowing players to rescue an important character from a Murkywater prison.
• No Mercy — Another classic heist, though it comes with options for stealth despite being loud-only. Players must recover blood samples from a hospital while fending off cops. This is a crossover heist with references to the Left 4 Dead franchise.
• The White House — The final major story heist where players steal pardons from the White House itself. After completing certain prerequisite challenges, they can instead take on a massive secret objective that leads them to the game’s true ending.

Many of these heists can be completed whenever the player wishes, though Payday 2’s career mode does attempt to consolidate them into a more reasonable order. Career mode also requires completion of certain DLC heists, but these can be completed for free by joining other players’ lobbies.

Related: Payday 2 Update 238 Patch Notes

All DLC Heists and Which Ones are the Most Important

The DLC heists of Payday 2 all have some form of importance, whether through direct story relations or prerequisites for the true ending. Players should mostly be fine if they simply get the Legacy Collection bundle, as practically every heist in that bundle relates to the true ending in some way. These are all the heists included in that bundle:

• Transport and Transport: Train Heist — A collection of heists that has players hitting armored cars and eventually a massive train holding a special weapon. The Transport heists are loud-only but the Train heist is not. The Train heist also contains notable references to Team Fortress 2.
• The Big Bank — A heist that introduces the Dentist contractor, an extremely important character in Payday 2’s story. Players must steal valuables from a massive bank with impressive security measures.
• Hotline Miami — A two-day, loud-only crossover heist based on the game Hotline Miami. Players must kill a gang of mobsters and eventually assassinate a Russian criminal known as The Commissar.
• The Diamond — A heist where players must steal a mythical diamond from a museum.
• Golden Grin Casino — A heist where players must break into a casino and steal a strange artifact for the Dentist.
• The Bomb — A pair of heists where players must steal a valuable bomb for a new contractor known as the Butcher. The “Forest” variation is notably loud-only.
• The Alesso Heist — A promotional heist featuring musical artist Alesso. Players must time C4 explosions to the music of a nearby concert so they can successfully steal valuable loot.
• Goat Simulator — A two-day, loud-only crossover heist based on the game Goat Simulator. Players must transport and defend goats that have cocaine hidden inside them.
• Beneath the Mountain and Birth of Sky — Loud-only crossover heists based on the Point Break movie. These heists introduce the contractor Locke. In the former heist, players must steal loot from a secret Murkywater base. In the latter heist, players are tasked with skydiving out of a Murkywater plane along with massive pallets of cash.
• Counterfeit and Undercover — Classic, loud-only heists available as part of the Wolf Pack DLC. Players must get their hands on a money printer in the former and hack into the IRS with the help of a corrupt employee in the latter.
• The Biker Heist — A two-day, loud-only heist. Players must recover the bike of a new allied heister before breaking into a train and stealing sensitive, high-tech equipment.
• Scarface Mansion — A crossover heist based on the Scarface movie. Players must break into an iconic mansion and kill a mob boss.
• Brooklyn 10-10 and The Yacht Heist — Crossover heists based on the John Wick movies. The former heist is loud-only while the latter is stealth-only. In Brooklyn 10-10, players must defend an ally from a rival gang. In The Yacht Heist, players must steal equipment and valuables from a politician’s fundraiser occurring on a yacht.

These are all of the major story-related DLC heists in Payday 2. However, a few more DLC heists were added after these, taking place around or during the final few story heists such as Hell’s Island. Many of these heists also include non-liner objectives, letting players complete their missions in more varied ways. These are all of the “bonus” heists introduced as DLC in Payday 2:

• Border Crossing and Border Crystals — A pair of heists kicking off the “Silk Road” storyline. These heists involve players disrupting Mexican cartel operations by stealing valuables and cooking meth. Border Crystals is a loud-only heist.
• San Martín Bank — A heist where players must break into a Mexican bank to steal valuable treasures from the aforementioned cartel.
• Breakfast in Tijuana — A heist where players must rescue a prisoner from a police station in Tijuana.
• Buluc’s Mansion — A heist where players must assassinate the head of the Mexican cartel.
• Dragon Heist — A heist that kicks off the “City of Gold” storyline. Players must infiltrate Chinatown in San Francisco to steal a valuable jade dragon statue from the Golden Dagger Triad.
• Ukrainian Prisoner — A heist where the Golden Dagger Triad seeks vengeance after the Dragon Heist, kidnapping a familiar character and forcing players to help him escape.
• Black Cat — A heist where players must raid a casino ship owned by the aforementioned triad.
• Mountain Master — A heist where players must kill an important member of the Triad while also securing valuables.
• Midland Ranch — The first of the final four heists from Payday 2’s updates and DLC. Players must secure equipment and weapons from a special farm in Texas.
• Lost in Transit — A heist where players must raid an army-controlled train yard to steal special printing plates.
• Hostile Takeover — A heist where players must raid a corporate lab to steal research and destroy equipment.
• Crude Awakening — The final heist added to Payday 2. Players must raid an oil rig in a job involving theft, assassination, and destruction, ending with the crew blowing the entire rig to pieces.

These are all of the heists that have been added to Payday 2. If you don’t want to drown in the game’s massive selection of DLC while still getting a better idea of its story, consider getting your hands on heists involving the Dentist, the Butcher, and Locke. These are the best heists if you want to keep full track of the game’s story without worrying too much about crossover content.

ncG1vNJzZmiZpKmupLfOn6uhnZaWu6O72GeaqKVfnMKqsMSsZpqknGKzs7HEZpinnF2ZuaR5x56grKyjYravec%2BasJ2ZqWJ%2FcA%3D%3D