Payday 3 allows players to perform heists the way they want, with a huge list of skills to choose from. There are abilities to suit every occasion and playstyle, and the hardest part is choosing the best ones for you. This is where we come into play. To become a master thief, you need skills that will allow you to sneak into high security areas without being noticed. You’ll also need some backup benefits in case things go south. If the skill tree has you overwhelmed, let me show you the best skills to become a master thief in Payday 3.
Best Skills to Become a Master Thief in Payday 3
Before we dive in, I just want to highlight that there are no best perks in Payday 3. These are our choices and reasons why, but if you have favorites, don’t let our choices influence your own.
Glitch protocol
Disruption Protocol is a contender for the title of the most powerful perk in the game, regardless of playstyle. This skill allows you to fiddle with a guard’s radio, briefly distracting him, and you can do this once per minute. Many players call the Hacker Tree the most powerful in the game. Failure protocol is an important reason.
Infiltrator (Aced)
With this skill, you gain RUSH whenever you pick a lock or kill an enemy with a throwing knife. It’s not surprising, but if you put an extra skill point into Infiltrator, it will become “Ace”. An extra point is given to you by RUSH whenever a guard starts to spot you. RUSH increases your movement speed and allows you to move out of the way and avoid detection more easily.
Hacker (successful)
The Hacker perk may not seem like much, but if you combine it with Secure Loop , you can force two cameras to ignore you. Depending on the map and difficulty, this is an extremely powerful ability. The Aced version of Hacker gives you an additional runtime for Secure Loop and costs extra points.
Fast fingers
You’ll have a steady supply of RUSH if you use Infiltrator, which pairs nicely with Quick Fingers. This skill allows you to immediately pick locks after one swing if you have Rush. With Infiltrator you will get RUSH if you are spotted while picking locks, so you will instantly open high risk doors.
Escapist
If you’re building for RUSH, why not use a perk that activates it? Escapist gives you RUSH after 3 seconds of running. While the speed increase doesn’t have a big impact everywhere, it feels nice and helps you move around the map quickly.
Social engineering
There are a ton of excellent skills in the Fraud tree, but the one that allows for the most shenanigans is Social Engineering. With the help of Social Engineering, you can commit illegal acts in front of employees if you have RUSH. You only get this bonus if you’re exposed, but you can pull off some fun tricks with this skill.
Strategist (highest level)
If you’re a team player, the Aced version of Strategist is great because it allows you to tag two targets. I’ve lost count of the times I’ve wanted to highlight the guard and the camera at the same time. While this isn’t the most effective skill on the list, it’s a great quality of life bonus if you have the points to spare.
Even if you don’t have skill points to spare, they’re worth considering in the future as they’re very effective. The Payday 3 developers have confirmed that new skill trees will be added to the game in the future. If you don’t like anything now, chances are that will change in future updates.
