The most important skill we recommend grabbing early is the Bagger skill, in the Infiltrator tree, which lets you loot bags 20% quicker. This is invaluable in all modes of play, so be sure to pick it up!
Best Stealth Build
Although builds for loud are expected to vary, Stealth builds may feel a lot more hom*ogenous, with there being definitively useful skills while you're sneaking around New York City. Since a lot of trees are focused on combat, the skills that allow you to flex your guile are much more limited.
- Hacker- This tree focuses extensively on the use of hacking and disruption. The only things you're able to hack are cameras, which allows you to make them ignore you or cause them to explode in Hard and below difficulties. This tree also lets you interact with Lures from a distance, which is very useful in conjunction with other skills.
- Infiltrator - Although this tree's name feels like a no-brainer for stealth, there's only a few useful skills in here that actually provide some stealth benefits. The skills that improve your lockpicking, however, are invaluable.
- Grifter - This one is all about improving your Casing Mode skills, but it also helps with several stealth mechanics anyways, as many stealth heists don't force you to be masked up to begin with, so this has strong benefits whenever you're able to remain in Casing Mode.
- CQC Specialist - This skill tree, on the other hand, improves your stealth capabilities when masked up. Grifter and CQC are diametrically opposed, but there are some heists that may call for you to be masked up and some that may call for you to be in Casing Mode, so knowing when to choose is key!
We recommend something like this for a generic stealth build:
Infiltrator (Aced), Quick Fingers, Bagger, Grifter, Walk the Walk, Social Engineering, Open Mic, Slippery, Hacker (Aced), Secure Loop, Appliance Breach, Routed Ping, Signal Protocol, Signal Catch, Strategist (Aced), CQC Specialist, Groundskeeper, Pressure Points, Cover-Up
This way you have skills that are both beneficial in Casing Mode and while masked up. If there are heists that force you to start masked for stealth, you could drop some of the Grifter skills to get skills that improve you general enemy suppression to make you more reliable in tough situations.
Skill Trees Outlined
We have a section covering all of the available skills as well as a quick overview in our All Payday 3 Skills guide, but we'll go ahead and cover what each skill tree does best and how they may interact with other skills.
- Medic - This skill tree awards playing support and being a flexible member of the team, allowing you to heal quicker and provide more healing overall. This tree lends itself well to helping your squad, so it may not be the best for solo play, but is invaluable in multiplayer if you want to dedicate yourself to the backlines.
- Ammo Specialist - This skill tree awards shooting your gun and shooting it a lot. Take this if you expect to chew through ammunition quickly and want to make sure your team always stays stocked with ammo at all times. There's also some useful armor perks in this tree, so dipping in might be helpful for all builds.
- Mower - Like Ammo Specialist, this tree awards you for continuous fire. Suppressing fire for your allies and allowing you to fight for longer without reloading is the name of this skill tree. Although the first skill benefits automatic weapons, there's also a strong argument to dip into this tree for the ability to fight without reloading, which might benefit single-shot weapons like shotguns and sniper rifles as well.
- Infiltrator - The first of your stealth trees. While this skill tree has a lot of useful lockpicking improvements, it also has some throwable improvements and synergizes with throwing knives. If you ever wanted to be a ninja, this is your skill tree.
- Tank - As the name implies, this skill tree is all about taking damage for your team and making sure your armor reserves stay strong. Armor is very valuable in this game, so being able to keep it sustained for your whole team is a very strong benefit.
- Sharpshooter - This tree is all about ADSing and precision accuracy. If you fancy yourself more of a single-shot sort of heister, this skill tree is invaluable for giving you that one-shot potential while also allowing you to fight from a distance.
- Escapist - This skill tree is all about movement speed and movement options. While some of the movement options don't benefit you in Casing Mode, this will make you very agile in those loud heists, and especially in the heists with a lot of cover and obstacles.
- Demolitionist - This skill tree is great for those who love to throw grenades and keep up sustained crowd control. It has ways of replenishing your throwables, as they moved the grenade launcher weaponry to the special Overkill slot, so you can keep your explosions going even if you keep throwing grenades.
- Enforcer - This skill tree is all about those who like to get up close and personal. For those who fancy using a shotgun, or simply being in the heat of battle, this has easy ways to keep yourself powerful in that close range battle.
- Manipulator - Similar to the Medic, if you feel yourself to be more of a support-type player, this tree allows you to masterfully use your hostages as well as take hostages more effectively. Buying enough time with trades during negotiation may buy your crew enough time to finish their loot before the assault even starts.
- Engineer - For those who like to sit back and relax, this tree lets you place sentry guns that do all the work for you! They've been changed for those who have played Payday 2, but they still fire effectively and accurately. This tree benefits only your Sentry Guns, so if you're going to commit, make sure to go all the way.
- Gunslinger - This one is all about shooting from the hip. For those who can hip-fire accurately, this tree has some rewards for you, making your damage better as well as giving you easy access to Edge. It also makes your sidearm more reliable in any other situation.
- Grifter - The skill tree that improves your casing skills. This one is a must-take for stealth raids that allow you to remain in Casing Mode for as long as possible. It's even possible to now complete a heist without ever putting your mask on, which is a significant change from Payday 2.
- Hacker - This skill tree lets you take advantage of cameras and guard radios. This skill tree is also invaluable for stealth runs, so if you're going in quiet, this one is a no-brainer.
- Tactician - This is an interesting support tree, that lets you be crowd-control for your squad. Vastly improving your stun and stagger effects, this skill tree is great for neutralizing those high-value targets.
- Strategist - Sort of a generic tree, it improves your marking abilities, which means it's always beneficial, as it allows your marked targets to become more susceptible to damage.
- CQC Specialist - For those who like to skulk around while remaining dangerous, this one allows you to be more effective in stealth with the mask on while also improving your human shield capabilities, letting you stay dangerous on loud as well.
All playstyles are viable and encouraged in Payday, so try and mix and match skills to design your ideal build!
