The co-op shooter FPS Payday 2 is a great game to play with your friends, but it gets even better with mods. There are tons of Payday 2 mods but most of the ones that exist aren't total overhauls since it is mainly a multiplayer game, but the modding community of the game already produced some useful additional content. Without further a due, here are the best Payday 2 mods you need for a better experience.
Best Payday 2 Mods
BLT 2.0
Sep 01, 2020 Installing this mod is so simple, just extract the downloaded mod and paste it in PAYDAY 2/mods/ folder. Get Bullet Dismemberment Mod. How to install Payday 2 mods 2020. Now, here is the magic that happens. There are many new gamers who don't know how to install these mods in Payday 2 without crashing the game. Re-Texture Project. Models and Textures. Uploaded: 31 Oct 2015. Last Update: 03 Jun 2016.
Before we get to the meaty part of great Payday 2 mods, we need the BLT 2.0 to install and manage our mods easier. It notifies you when there is an update for one of your mods and lets you update it easily. You can also check the information about the mod you are planning to download beforehand, so overall this is an essential Payday 2 add-on if you are planning on modding the game.
Enemy Health and Info
Payday 2's Enemy Health and Info mod show the health of the enemy you are aiming at with a health bar above their head. It also shows their names, giving each kill more weight; you can also change these names from the mod's files. A small Payday 2 mod, but useful regardless.
WolfHUD
One of the must-have Payday 2 mods, WolfHUD combines a lot of useful HUD mods together and makes some necessary changes. There are around 30 additions and changes such as KillCounter, TabStats and AutoPickup. You can also turn off the functions you do not like from the Options menu.
Better Bots
Though Payday 2 is mainly a co-op game, there will be times where you have to play with bots. Better Bots does what its name suggests: It makes Payday 2's bot way more useful. They can aim and shoot faster, throw grenades, melee, dominate cops and mark enemies and more. It is one of the best Payday 2 mods for when your friends are offline.
Keepers
Keepers is another mod for Payday 2's bots that when combined with our previous pick, can make the singleplayer Payday 2 experience much better. This essential Payday 2 mod improves bots' pathfinding, taking cover and responsiveness. You can also order them to patrol, take cover or interact with objects.
Re-Texture Project – Performance & Quality
Re-Texture Project is a texture mod that vastly changes some of the locations in Payday 2. Some indoor textures in Payday 2 are undeniably badly textured and designed. This mod overhauls all of them and changes those textures to more modern ones.
FEDNET Inventory Icons
This Payday 2 inventory mod changes vanilla grey icons of your weapons and equipment in your inventory with colored ones from the game's FBI database. FEDNET Inventory Icons look way better and make it easier to find what you are looking for in the game.
Restoration Mod
Restoration Mod is the closest you can get to a Payday 2 overhaul mod. It is a major mod project collaboration that adds a lot of new features, restores cut features, rebalances gameplay elements and adds new masks, heists, weapons and enemies with new gameplay mechanics. It is one of the biggest Payday 2 mods out there, so it requires some outside help in order to work: SuperBLT, Beardlib, and the Voiceline Framework.
Bullet Dismemberment
Enemies in the Payday 2 can get really frustrating in the later levels, so if you have ever wanted to rip a Taser's limbs off, you can use Bullet Dismemberment mod. As its name suggests, this graphics mod lets you decapitate and dismember your enemies in Payday 2.
Burstfire
You can shoot your guns in single fire or full-auto in Payday 2, but there aren't any burst fire options. Burstfire is a weapon mod lets you use burst fire on some weapons by tapping V twice. Be careful, though, since if you mod the gun with a fixed fire mode like auto/single fire, burst fire won't work.
Dynamic Crosshair
The first Payday game, The Heist featured a crosshair, but as you know, there isn't one in Payday 2. While this makes the game more immersive, some people like to play with a crosshair. Dynamic Crosshair is a HUD mod does not only add a crosshair, but it also makes it so that it changes shape according to stances and changes color when aiming at an enemy or civilian.
Drap & Drop Inventory
In Payday 2, you need to click 'Move Item' on the item you want to move and then select the slot you want in order to manage your inventory. That is far from smooth. Drag & Drop Inventory is a quality of life mod allows you to move your inventory by dragging and dropping the items in your pack.
Hostage Escort Tweaks
Payday 2 Jacket Voice Lines Mod
This quality of life improvement lets you handle 3 hostages at once and increases their maximum follow distance, so they don't just lay on the ground when you move a little bit far away from them. They also follow you a lot closer and move faster, so you won't just kill hostages out of frustration anymore thanks to Hostage Escort Tweaks.
Loading Screen Info
Loading screens in Payday 2 used to be black screens, but even the new ones are pretty bland with just trivia information. Loading Screen Info simple mod adds a lot of general and useful tips, tricks as well as some specific information about the campaign you are playing. A fundamental Payday 2 mod for newcomers.
Reconnect To Server
Every gamer faces some connection issues at some point, but in the vanilla Payday 2 reconnecting to the last server you were playing is a hassle as you need to find the game again on Crime.net. Reconnect To Server is a lightweight mod that adds the ability to reconnect to the last connected server by a simple Reconnect button.
Inventory Count
Probably the simplest Payday 2 mod in our list, Inventory Count shows you the number of throwables and deployables such as grenades and Ace of Spades cards when you select them. This should be in the main native game, but who needs good game design when you have a modder?
From the simple quality of life improvements and small tweaks to huge overhaul and gameplay mods, here are our top picks for the best Payday 2 mods you can't play without. Of course, there are countless more mods for Payday 2 but these are our choices. If you have a great suggestion or liked our article, let us know!
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- 1Unused Dialogue
Unused Dialogue
Ukrainian Job / Jewelry Store
The games files have some early lines for both Vlad and Bain in the heist 'Ukrainian Job'. The concept originally was to steal a necklace for Vlad's wife, Ludmilla, so she can wear it at Dmitri's wedding, and 'look better than her (Dmitri's Wife)'. In the final version of the heist, the gang steals a Tiara meant for Dmitri's Wife, from the jewelry store, which, in turn, is supposed to make Dmitri postpone the wedding.
In addition, the filter on Bain's is the same one heard in PAYDAY: The Heist, which is still heard in the final game on a small number of his quotes. Vlad's lines don't have a filter in them, meaning they were never updated.
Boiling Point / Murky Station
The Elephant was meant to be the contractor for the Hardcore Henry heists, as he does play a significant role in the trailer for the heists, being the person to give Dallas the briefing in the first place, although unlike Jimmy, he was working for Akan, not against him. The original briefing, given by The Elephant, was to steal a server full of data on experimented humans-turned-superhumans that Akan would use to create his own superhuman-mooks, suggesting he realized Akan was a threat. It was even depicted in the trailer as such, so it was very likely that the developers re-recorded the lines for Jimmy after realizing that it would make more sense for the heists to be contracted by Jimmy (who overrides The Elephant's deal near the end of the trailer).
| 'This Russian organization is conducting some very disturbing experiments from a hidden laboratory- in Russia. The lab in Russia is holding information that could literally change how we perceive reality in this world. If you really want to stop Akan on getting his hands on whatever he's after, you need to get there first. Head to Russia and do your thing.' |
| 'Murkywater are transporting the EMP bomb by train, but, luckily for us, they have a planned pitstop. And that's when you need to strike. The hidden trainyard is where you'll find the EMP bomb parts. The place will be heavily guarded by Murkywater, so I hope you're up to the challenge. Sneak in there, and get them, then get out quickly. Do not sound the alarm.' |
Safe House Raid
At the end of the mission, Bain mentions that he'll make a phone call to a mole in the police to take care of the massive amount of dead bodies in the Safehouse. This is that phone call. Maybe it was cut to save players' time.
| 'Captain Smith, Congratulations on your promotion, uh, I'm sure you're grateful. Listen, I have a request. We need a cleanup operation. Some officers ran into...uh...unexpected resistance...*breathes*...on a routine raid. There were no survivors. That's right, no survivors. I need the area cleared, and no questions asked. Understand? Nothing happened here! Can you do it? *Pauses* Ok, great. Tell me when it's done.' |
Undercover
| 'This is trouble! I can see at least nine guys!' | Presumably said when Bain is eavesdropping at the beginning of the heist. Even when the undercover feds arrive, they total up to four (of which two are promptly shot by you.) |
| 'Radio scanner -Don't mind that, it's my police scanner, there are no cops here.' | Bain was supposedly going to be tipped off that cops were in the near-vicinity because of his police radio scanner. This makes little sense story-wise, as Bain is likely off-site, and the fact that getting clues early can make players disrupt the deal at a less-than opportunistic time. |
| 'Must be Feds! Taxman is being set up!' | Likely unused due to Bain bordering on whispering the command when it'd make no sense to do so. |
| '(Policeman shouting on a megaphone) Up top! Move people, let's secure Alpha One!' | In the final game, the announcer just tells them to apprehend the Payday Gang. |
| 'I count four guys.' | This is never used, even when the undercover cops turn up, Bain repeats his 'I see 2 guys' line or that the sellers have turned up. |
| 'Alex will be seen by that helicopter!' | While there is a police helicopter, it's nowhere near Alex. |
| 'That's four guys.' | |
| 'I see four guys.' | |
| 'Holy!-, I..I count nine guys!' | |
| 'Sneeeeze!' | One of the few lines that the Taxman has that isn't used. |
| 'I see nine of-em!' | |
| 'Uuuh, that must be my Police Scanner. The Cops are miles away!' | More police scanner tomfoolery. |
| 'What-uh, Wha? That must be my police scanner. The cops are nowhere near!' |
Panic Room
In PAYDAY 2's remake of Panic Room, the secret big toothbrush item that originated from PAYDAY: The Heist was made 'extra loot' to pick up, Bain has lines for you stumbling upon it, which, rather curiously, don't play in-game.
| 'Whoa!, that's a big toothbrush. I want it.' |
| 'Hey now! that's a big toothbrush. -pauses- Can I have it?' |
| 'What the hell is that? An enormous toothbrush?!. I could really use something like that.' |
GO Bank
| 'Three more minutes guys!' | Said by George, the plane pilot, but never used as he never takes that long in the actual game. |
| 'Four bags, hustle, hustle!' | Bain counting bags, presumably while they're being thrown into the van. |
| 'Nine bags! You guys are legendary!' | Likely a reference to those annoying Quake announcer mods made for Counter-Strike'. |
| 'This is a new tactic. I'm seeing cops placing trip mines in the parking lot. Don't let them get that stuff set up.' | |
| 'Yeah, tell him his ass is on the line if he isn't available for the regular time lock check-in!' | Bain impersonating Hillary, the GenSec security lady who may end up calling. |
Amongst the prank calls that play when answering the Robert's Bank phone, there are some that didn't make it in-game.
| 'Hey there, We've got an alert of a camera out on the premises. You should probably check that out, preferably unattended.' |
| 'Yeah, there's a charge on my credit card the wife can't see, so er... I was in Mexico and-' |
| 'Coconut has milk, A coconut has hair. A coconut has flesh. Therefore, a coconut...is a mammal.' |
| '*Donald duck impression*. Just kidding, I'd like to make a deposit please.' |
| 'Er, hello, I have an important note for a Mr. Bain: 'Mycket snö, ingen ficklampa!' (Lots of snow, [but] no flashlight!) |
| 'I will make your head explode using sound! *evil laugh*. Wait a minute, whoah nooo! [explosion]' |
| 'The bank *audio skips* I'm coming for you! It's me, Dallas, kid. The- *static* Wait, am I talking to my partner?! Jesus.' |
| 'Hey guys, just to let you know. We have reset your safe and default PIN code as 0000. So, please get that changed before anyone tries attempts to open it.' |
| 'Hi, I'm calling in because I have a question on my OVE 9000 Saw and I was wondering if you guys could help me out.' |
Meltdown
From these many unused pieces of dialogue, the Meltdown heist was originally contracted by the Butcher. Instead of the task being to retrieve nuclear warheads for Vlad in the final version, it instead involves recovering servers with sensitive data.
| 'We're headed back to the Murkywater warehouse. The Butcher wants us to recover some sensitive data held on a server before they bug out for good. And if there's any loot leftover, well you know what to do.' |
Great Train
At one point, a three-day heist involving a train was planned, going as far as to have Simon Viklund (the voice of Bain and the game's sound director) record lines for it.
Day 1 would involve defending a tunnel with a cart transporting goods from the bank vault. You would also have to refuel an engine occasionally to keep the cart working. Day 2 would involve keeping the bags safe and waiting for a new truck to come in. Day 3 would involve making it to a train yard in time in order to throw the bags onto a train. You could determine where the train would come from with a control panel if you got there fast enough. If you missed it, you would have to wait for a helicopter (which would have a random loot capacity) to pick up the bags. These files have since been removed from the game.
A lot of these ideas seem to have been reused not just in the Armored Transport DLC, but other heists such as the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive de_bank crossover.
Airport
- 1Unused Dialogue
Unused Dialogue
Ukrainian Job / Jewelry Store
The games files have some early lines for both Vlad and Bain in the heist 'Ukrainian Job'. The concept originally was to steal a necklace for Vlad's wife, Ludmilla, so she can wear it at Dmitri's wedding, and 'look better than her (Dmitri's Wife)'. In the final version of the heist, the gang steals a Tiara meant for Dmitri's Wife, from the jewelry store, which, in turn, is supposed to make Dmitri postpone the wedding.
In addition, the filter on Bain's is the same one heard in PAYDAY: The Heist, which is still heard in the final game on a small number of his quotes. Vlad's lines don't have a filter in them, meaning they were never updated.
Boiling Point / Murky Station
The Elephant was meant to be the contractor for the Hardcore Henry heists, as he does play a significant role in the trailer for the heists, being the person to give Dallas the briefing in the first place, although unlike Jimmy, he was working for Akan, not against him. The original briefing, given by The Elephant, was to steal a server full of data on experimented humans-turned-superhumans that Akan would use to create his own superhuman-mooks, suggesting he realized Akan was a threat. It was even depicted in the trailer as such, so it was very likely that the developers re-recorded the lines for Jimmy after realizing that it would make more sense for the heists to be contracted by Jimmy (who overrides The Elephant's deal near the end of the trailer).
| 'This Russian organization is conducting some very disturbing experiments from a hidden laboratory- in Russia. The lab in Russia is holding information that could literally change how we perceive reality in this world. If you really want to stop Akan on getting his hands on whatever he's after, you need to get there first. Head to Russia and do your thing.' |
| 'Murkywater are transporting the EMP bomb by train, but, luckily for us, they have a planned pitstop. And that's when you need to strike. The hidden trainyard is where you'll find the EMP bomb parts. The place will be heavily guarded by Murkywater, so I hope you're up to the challenge. Sneak in there, and get them, then get out quickly. Do not sound the alarm.' |
Safe House Raid
At the end of the mission, Bain mentions that he'll make a phone call to a mole in the police to take care of the massive amount of dead bodies in the Safehouse. This is that phone call. Maybe it was cut to save players' time.
| 'Captain Smith, Congratulations on your promotion, uh, I'm sure you're grateful. Listen, I have a request. We need a cleanup operation. Some officers ran into...uh...unexpected resistance...*breathes*...on a routine raid. There were no survivors. That's right, no survivors. I need the area cleared, and no questions asked. Understand? Nothing happened here! Can you do it? *Pauses* Ok, great. Tell me when it's done.' |
Undercover
| 'This is trouble! I can see at least nine guys!' | Presumably said when Bain is eavesdropping at the beginning of the heist. Even when the undercover feds arrive, they total up to four (of which two are promptly shot by you.) |
| 'Radio scanner -Don't mind that, it's my police scanner, there are no cops here.' | Bain was supposedly going to be tipped off that cops were in the near-vicinity because of his police radio scanner. This makes little sense story-wise, as Bain is likely off-site, and the fact that getting clues early can make players disrupt the deal at a less-than opportunistic time. |
| 'Must be Feds! Taxman is being set up!' | Likely unused due to Bain bordering on whispering the command when it'd make no sense to do so. |
| '(Policeman shouting on a megaphone) Up top! Move people, let's secure Alpha One!' | In the final game, the announcer just tells them to apprehend the Payday Gang. |
| 'I count four guys.' | This is never used, even when the undercover cops turn up, Bain repeats his 'I see 2 guys' line or that the sellers have turned up. |
| 'Alex will be seen by that helicopter!' | While there is a police helicopter, it's nowhere near Alex. |
| 'That's four guys.' | |
| 'I see four guys.' | |
| 'Holy!-, I..I count nine guys!' | |
| 'Sneeeeze!' | One of the few lines that the Taxman has that isn't used. |
| 'I see nine of-em!' | |
| 'Uuuh, that must be my Police Scanner. The Cops are miles away!' | More police scanner tomfoolery. |
| 'What-uh, Wha? That must be my police scanner. The cops are nowhere near!' |
Panic Room
In PAYDAY 2's remake of Panic Room, the secret big toothbrush item that originated from PAYDAY: The Heist was made 'extra loot' to pick up, Bain has lines for you stumbling upon it, which, rather curiously, don't play in-game.
| 'Whoa!, that's a big toothbrush. I want it.' |
| 'Hey now! that's a big toothbrush. -pauses- Can I have it?' |
| 'What the hell is that? An enormous toothbrush?!. I could really use something like that.' |
GO Bank
| 'Three more minutes guys!' | Said by George, the plane pilot, but never used as he never takes that long in the actual game. |
| 'Four bags, hustle, hustle!' | Bain counting bags, presumably while they're being thrown into the van. |
| 'Nine bags! You guys are legendary!' | Likely a reference to those annoying Quake announcer mods made for Counter-Strike'. |
| 'This is a new tactic. I'm seeing cops placing trip mines in the parking lot. Don't let them get that stuff set up.' | |
| 'Yeah, tell him his ass is on the line if he isn't available for the regular time lock check-in!' | Bain impersonating Hillary, the GenSec security lady who may end up calling. |
Amongst the prank calls that play when answering the Robert's Bank phone, there are some that didn't make it in-game.
| 'Hey there, We've got an alert of a camera out on the premises. You should probably check that out, preferably unattended.' |
| 'Yeah, there's a charge on my credit card the wife can't see, so er... I was in Mexico and-' |
| 'Coconut has milk, A coconut has hair. A coconut has flesh. Therefore, a coconut...is a mammal.' |
| '*Donald duck impression*. Just kidding, I'd like to make a deposit please.' |
| 'Er, hello, I have an important note for a Mr. Bain: 'Mycket snö, ingen ficklampa!' (Lots of snow, [but] no flashlight!) |
| 'I will make your head explode using sound! *evil laugh*. Wait a minute, whoah nooo! [explosion]' |
| 'The bank *audio skips* I'm coming for you! It's me, Dallas, kid. The- *static* Wait, am I talking to my partner?! Jesus.' |
| 'Hey guys, just to let you know. We have reset your safe and default PIN code as 0000. So, please get that changed before anyone tries attempts to open it.' |
| 'Hi, I'm calling in because I have a question on my OVE 9000 Saw and I was wondering if you guys could help me out.' |
Meltdown
From these many unused pieces of dialogue, the Meltdown heist was originally contracted by the Butcher. Instead of the task being to retrieve nuclear warheads for Vlad in the final version, it instead involves recovering servers with sensitive data.
| 'We're headed back to the Murkywater warehouse. The Butcher wants us to recover some sensitive data held on a server before they bug out for good. And if there's any loot leftover, well you know what to do.' |
Great Train
At one point, a three-day heist involving a train was planned, going as far as to have Simon Viklund (the voice of Bain and the game's sound director) record lines for it.
Day 1 would involve defending a tunnel with a cart transporting goods from the bank vault. You would also have to refuel an engine occasionally to keep the cart working. Day 2 would involve keeping the bags safe and waiting for a new truck to come in. Day 3 would involve making it to a train yard in time in order to throw the bags onto a train. You could determine where the train would come from with a control panel if you got there fast enough. If you missed it, you would have to wait for a helicopter (which would have a random loot capacity) to pick up the bags. These files have since been removed from the game.
A lot of these ideas seem to have been reused not just in the Armored Transport DLC, but other heists such as the Counter-Strike: Global Offensive de_bank crossover.
Airport
Found in the game files are unused Vlad lines of debriefing the crew after taking AK rifles for his gang, they were presumably going to be used for what is now Firestarter Day 1 as they are in a folder called 'debrief_vld_airport'.
Infamy
Added with the Infamy 2.0 update is a sound-byte for leveling to Infamy rank 26, a level that is impossible to achieve in the actual game.
| 'INFAMOUS. LEVEL 26!' |
Of note is that the infamy card's texture has parts labeled 'HACKER', 'NEWB', and 'SCRIPT KID'. Another one showing the Overkill bomb is for the developers.
Microsoft Jacket Voice Lines
Unused Music
Found in the game files is this unused track tentatively named 'Insane', that has some similarity to an actually used track (named 'Full Force Forward' on the official game soundtrack).
Payday 2 Voice Line Mod 3
