PAYDAY 2 – How to Crime Spree 10000+ (DLC and Non-DLC Builds and Tips)

Intro

The game has gone through major updates that changed how things work. The biggest changes are:

• Silencers no longer increase damage
• Crime Spree modifiers work differently now
• Some weapons pick up different amounts of ammo than before

One specific example: Assault Rifles with DMR Kits used to be really good, but now they only pick up 1 bullet at a time, making them pretty much useless.

Because of all these changes, if you’re looking at builds from before 2018, they probably won’t work well anymore.

How to start playing Crime Spree on 10k+

First

You should get yourself at least 53 (or 56 if you don’t have infamy point in Mastermind yet) level because at this level you can get skills without those playing 10k+ Crime Spree is very hard if not impossible.

(Feign death can be replaced with Swang song)

Second

You should know what those are skills for. That will be in build section.

Third

You should get some knowledge about the game, like knowing what should you do at this point of the heist and what should you not do, basic mechanics like 512-granuality, behavior of the enemies, armorgating, ammo pickup rates of different weapons. Or you can have some other player in your team know it for you.

Fourth

You should decide if you want to be a host or a teammate (obviously). That will affect what you should bring with yourself so you better have different profiles for different situations. And you need a 10k+ Crime Spree already to play it as host (thanks, cap).

Fifth

You should install some mods that will make the game playable. Because without mods you will lose a lot of Crime Spree and your game will crash a lot. More on what mods to install and to why even install them in mods section.

Builds for HOST

Host will do most of the objectives, so, as a host, you will need everything to do objectives as fast as possible. That means you should know when you need a saw/drill skills, and when you don’t.

Mastermind

Inspire is self-explanatory, you should never go without it or you may ruin the game just because you don’t have it. You shouldn’t take FAKs because you use one when you have low health, but here you never have low health because enemies take it all with 1 shot. That is also the reason why you shouldn’t bring Combat Medic Aced if you have infamy point in Mastermind.

Converts can tank a lot of damage because they have same health values as the enemy you converted, so if you convert a 25k hp tan you will get yourself a 25k hp convert that also will have huge damage resistance from Partners in Crime aced. Having Joker aced is not that important as 35% damage boost nullifies by 512 granuality.

Fact about converts. Converted guards and alike tend to survive longer than tans because they mostly run away from the battle, while tans usually stay in the middle of the shootout. So converted guards guarantees you longer 10% movement speed while converted tans gather more enemies around themselves.

Enforcer

Shotgun CQB aced and Close By aced for comfortable use of Dragon Breath Shotgun. If such isn’t used consider changing them for Swang Song/Feign Death, Lock ‘n Load.

Transporter is just a nice skill to have because it can save some time, but not must-have. You may also take Bullseye basic if you play with Rogue for armorgating. Taking any other armor skills is ultimately useless.

Think if you need a saw skills. Consider taking Extra Lead if you think that there’s not enough ammo bags in the team.

Technician

Jack of All Trades aced allows you to bring an additional ammo bag or ECM with you.

Only 1 player in team has to bring drill skills and most likely that would be you, same with Shaped Charges.

Lock n’ Load allows you to run and shoot at the same time and you will run around a lot. If you use shotgun with Dragon Breath rounds this skill can be replaced with Close By.

Ghost

ECMs can stun enemies for ~30 seconds, but they don’t get stunned instantly and most of the time you will not use feedback on one ECM more than once, so I prefer to not take them.

Having dodge is better than not having dodge, so you bring Duck and Cover aced and Sneaky Bastard aced. Parkour aced is for the same reason you take Lock n’ Load.

Optical Illusions basic is important for survivablity because enemies will tend to target your converts/bots instead of you.

Fugitive

Nine Lives aced will massively reduce your Doctor Bag consumption rate. Swang Song aced allows you to do objectives like planting C4 on the roof on Stealing Xmas under the heavy fire of enemies. Feign Death aced may save you while all of your teammates are down or far away. Messiah is useless for obvious reasons.

What should you do as a HOST

So you have a 10k+ Crime Spree lobby that people will try to join to get boosted. Most of them will be players that have from zero to little knowledge about the game. Don’t be angry on them for it, try to explain to them that they are not prepared for this rank of Crime Spree, maybe ask them to read this guide first (free ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) advertisement).

(Examples of new players trying to get boosted)

You, as a host, should be aware of those things. You also should be aware of crashes people may have when they join you. You should be aware of massive desync this game has. One time I played The Diamond and my teammate took it. On the way back he jumped on a wrong tile and gas came while the diamond on his back disappeared. So we had to wait for gas to clear and then for the drill, which awfully lengthens the time you have to defend the objective from unending hordes of enemies.

Host has to know more about the game than teammates because as I said, teammates can crash, teammates can leave. You should be more knowledgeable than teammates because you here have Crime Spree rank more than 10 thousand, not they (most of the time). You should know what you actually play and how you play it, because some players that join Crime Spree don’t even know what modificators do. They just read somewhere that on Crime Spree enemies have a bit more health.

Builds for TEAMMATES

While host does objectives you will need to make sure those objectives are done as fast as possible, every second counts.

Mastermind

Inspire is self-explanatory, you should never go without it or you may ruin the game just because you don’t have it. You shouldn’t take FAKs because you use one when you have low health, but here you never have low health because enemies take it all with 1 shot. That is also the reason why you shouldn’t bring Combat Medic Aced if you have infamy point in Mastermind.

Converts can tank a lot of damage because they have same health values as the enemy you converted, so if you convert a 25k hp tan you will get yourself a 25k hp convert that also will have huge damage resistance from Partners in Crime aced. Having Joker aced is not that important as 35% damage boost nullifies by 512 granuality.

Fact about converts. Converted guards and alike tend to survive longer than tans because they mostly run away from the battle, while tans usually stay in the middle of the shootout. So converted guards guarantees you longer 10% movement speed while converted tans gather more enemies around themselves.

Enforcer

If you take shotgun with Dragon Breath rounds with yourself, consider taking Shotgun CQB aced and Close By aced for comfortable use of the shotgun.

Transporter is just a nice skill to have because it can save some time, but not must-have. You may also take Bullseye basic if you play with Rogue for armorgating. Taking any other armor skills is ultimately useless.

Your host probably already has saw skills so you may not bring it. Consider taking Extra Lead if you think that there’s not enough ammo bags in the team.

Technician

Jack of All Trades aced allows you to bring an additional ammo bag or ECM with you.

Most-likely your host already has drill skills, so you don’t have to bring your own, same with Shaped Charges.

Lock n’ Load allows you to run and shoot at the same time and you will run around a lot. If you use shotgun with Dragon Breath rounds this skill can be replaced with Close By.

Ghost

ECMs can stun enemies for ~30 seconds, but they don’t get stunned instantly and most of the time you will not use feedback on one ECM more than once, so I prefer to not take them.

Having dodge is better than not having dodge, so you bring Duck and Cover aced and Sneaky Bastard aced. Parkour aced is for the same reason you take Lock n’ Load.

Optical Illusions basic is important for survivablity because enemies will tend to target your converts/bots instead of you.

Fugitive

Nine Lives aced will massively reduce your Doctor Bag consumption rate. Swang Song aced allows you to do objectives like planting C4 on the roof on Stealing Xmas under the heavy fire of enemies. Feign Death aced may save you while all of your teammates are down or far away. Messiah is useless for obvious reasons.

What should you do as a TEAMMATE

As you join the lobby of high Crime Spree you should know that your main target here is to stay in the lobby until the end of the heist to get rewards and that means that you should be more useful than the bot. Here is a list of what bot can do.

• Bot can tank damage
• Bot can stun a group of enemies
• Bot can revive you at any moment because he can just tank damage while reviving
• Bot can make you faster (regarding your interations, reload and swap time)
• Bot can kill enemies

You, as a teammate, should overcome a bot in all of these things or you will be replaced by a bot. For example, buy a Rapid Reloader if you replace the bot with Accelerator.

As a person you already have perks like moving bags, deployables and interactions, but most of the time it is not enough or completely useless.
You should look out for possible mistakes host may do and point it out to him.

Equipment

Equipment has a role of constantly stunning enemies, that means that you should bring something that sets enemies on fire, makes them sick with poison. Explosions also have the ability to stun enemies but ammo pickup of the explosive weapons is so low, it is just not worth it.

Primary Weapons:

DLC

• Flamethrower Mk.1 with ‘Rare’ tank.
• Light Crossbow with poison bolts.
• Izhma or Steakout with Dragon Breath rounds.
• Airbow with poison arrows.

Non-DLC

• DECA Technologies Compound Bow with poison bolts (just 1 weapon, I am sorry for that).

Secondary Weapons:

DLC

• Grimm, Street Sweeper, Goliath with Dragon Breath rounds.
• Pistol Crossbow with poison bolts (taking 2 crossbows is not recommended because you can’t stun multiple enemies with 1 shot).

Non-DLC

• MA-17 Flamethrower with Low temperature mixture (sorry again for just 1 weapon).

Melee:

• Electrical Brass Knuckles.
• The Buzzer.
• Stainless Steel Syringe.

Throwable:

• Concussion Grenades are your best choice but others are viable option too.
• Incendiary Grenades.
• Molotov Cocktails.
• Shurikens.

Perk Deck:

Rogue

Anarchist

Other perk decks are relying on killing enemies or don’t provide enough protection.

Armor:

• Two-piece suit and only suit.

Deployable:

• Doctor bags as primary.
• Ammo bags, ECMs, or shaped charges as secondary.
• Saw with Fast Motor and Durable Blade.

P.S. Some weapons aren’t locked by DLC but the modifications on them are, for example Izhma is free but Dragon Breath rounds on it are DLC).

List of Jobs that are Actually Playable

ECM Rush (The number means how many people you need):

• Bank GO (1)
• FBI Server (1)
• Bank Heist (2)
• Swing Vote (3)
• Shadow Raid (3 + good coordination)

Loud:

• The Big Bank
• The Diamond
• The Search
• Interception (requires further testing, stand-by for an update)
• Four Floors
• Truck Load
• Engine Problem
• First World Bank (requires further testing, stand-by for an update)
• Transport jobs (requires further testing, stand-by for an update)