Best Skills in Payday 3

Updated: 26th Oct 2023 by Team SuperCheats

Best Skills in Payday 3

If you are going to pull off a heist in Payday 3 you better invest the skill points you earn into some decent skills. Look at our Best Skills in Payday 3 guide to find out which ones are worth getting.

Best Skills

Like the other games in the Payday series the skills you choose are determined by your own individual playstyle and on how plan on dealing with the heist. You can either go in guns blazing and be aggressive, or take a stealthy approach, slipping in and out without being detected.

Skills in Payday 3 are organized through skill trees with the majority of them requiring you to invest a skill point into the base skill of the tree to access the subskills associated with that tree. Remember that you will also have to earn XP in order to research and unlock your desired skills.

Before you start investing skill points into the various skills on offer you should have a clear picture in your mind of the type of build you are trying to create for your crew. Some skills are better than others and having them equipped can make your heists go considerably smoother. Below is a list of all the skills available in Payday 3.

• Engineer Skill Line

  AP Turret, Cooling System, Detonation, Spin Cycle, Dual Sentries, Targeted Fire

• Medic Skill Line

  Steady Hands, Extra Charge, Combat Medic, Code Blue, Triage, Field Surgery

• Ammo Specialist Skill Line

  Scrounger, Fully Loaded, Plate Up, High Grain, Mag Throw, Top Up

• Mower Skill Line

  Recoil Handling, Suppressive Fire, Ammo Funnel, Replenish, Sprint Loaded

• Infiltrator Skill Line

  Quick Fingers, Retriever, Bagger, Blade Bouncer, Frugal Thrower

• Tank Skill Line

  Hardy, Extra Plates, Armor Up, Last Man Standing, Disengage

• Sharpshooter Skill Line

  Collateral Control, Long Shot, Precision Shot, Cutting Shot, Speed Aim

• Escapist Skill Line

  Balanced, Move and Cover, Slide Tackle, Battering Ram, Swift

• Demolitionist Skill Line

  Cooker, Shell Shock, Blowback, Blast Shield, Overcooked, Extra Munitions

• Enforcer Skill Line

  Quick Reload, Face To Face, Solid, Combat Reload, Shock and Awe

• Manipulator Skill Line

  Overbearing, Silver Tongue, Negotiator, Menacing, Stockholm Syndrome, Master Trader

• Gunslinger Skill Line

  From The Hip, Heavy Hipfire, Finisher, Quick Draw

• Grifter Skill Line

  Walk The Walk, Social Engineering, Open Mic, Slippery

• Hacker Skill Line

  Secure Loop, Appliance Breach, Routed Ping, Signal Catch

• Tactician Skill Line

  Crowd Control, Coup De Grace, Discombobulate, Expose, Scramble

• Strategist Skill Line

  Combat Marking, Threat Assessment, Misdirect, Marked For Death

• CQC Specialist Skill Line

  Soft Assets, Groundskeeper, Pin Puller, Savage Takedown, Pressure Points, Cover-Up

Best Skills to Get First

In Payday 3 your level dictates how many skill points you can have active at any one time. There are no restrictions on the skills you can choose, all the skills can be accessed as soon as they have been researched.

This means during the early game, where your skill point allocation is severely limited, you need to carefully choose which skills to invest in. Keep in mind that you can also refund all your skill points at any time so you are not permanently attached to a build you don't like.

Listed below are the best skills to invest your skill points into first in Payday 3.

• Battering Ram (Escapist)
• Quick Fingers (Infiltrator)
• Open Mic (Grifter)
• Stockholm Syndrome (Manipulator)
• Bagger (Infiltrator)
• Secure Loop (Hacker)
• Glitch Protocol (Hacker)

Best Skills

The skills below are the best available and it is essential for criminality that you implement them to create a great build in Payday 3.

• Ammo Funnel (Mower)
• Bagger (Infiltrator)
• Glitch Protocol (Hacker)
• Aced Engineer (Engineer)
• Quick Fingers (Infiltrator)
• Secure Loop (Hacker)
• Slippery (Grifter)

Below are more details on the top three skills available in Payday 3.

• Ammo Funnel

  Ammo Funnel can be found on the Mower skill line and is arguably the best skill available in Payday 3. If you have this skill any ammo you pick up will instantly be added to the magazine of your equipped weapon.

  If your magazine is already full the ammo will be added to your ammo reserves instead. Having a continual flow of ammunition during a firefight is crucial.

  The requirement for the Ammo Funnel skill is that it needs to be paired with a skill that grants EDGE status effect. The best option is to pair it with Sharpshooter which will enable you to attack with more precision.

• Bagger

  Bagger is on the Infiltrator skill line and when equipped to your loadout you will be able to loot 50% faster. Having this skill is especially valuable when you are playing solo.

  The requirement for the Bagger skill is that you have the RUSH status effect which you will gain with the basic Infiltrator skill when you pick a lock or kill an enemy with a throwing knife.

• Glitch Protocol

  The Glitch Protocol skill can be found on the Hacker skill line and when used will create a distraction that will totally proccupy for 5 seconds whoever is in your line of sight. For example, it can create a disturbance on a guard's radio that will fully divert his attention allowing you to slip away if you are about to get caught or are at risk of being caught doing something illegal, or about to be detained.

If you want to get your hands on the best skills and weapons that Payday 3 has to offer you will need to earn XP and level up to meet the requirement to unlock them. We have a guide that will tell you the Easy Ways to Earn XP and Level Up in Payday 3.