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Payday 3 Roadmap (May 2024): All DLC and Updates Coming In Year 1

What updates and DLC content is coming to Payday 3 in 2024?
Payday 3 Roadmap (May 2024): All DLC and Updates Coming In Year 1
Starbreeze Studios

Payday 3, from Starbreeze Studios, may have had a rocky launch, but it still looks as if it will be entertaining players for years to come. With constant announcements from the development team about what content and updates they plan to bring to the game, players naturally want to know what they can expect from one month to the next. Below, you'll find all the information for the currently planned DLC and updates in Year 1, plus, all the latest news on what's coming to the Payday 3 roadmap in 2024.

Update on 30 April 2024: We've updated this article with the latest information about Payday 3's upcoming content plans.

Latest News

26 April 2024 - 

Another LARGE blog post here from the Payday 3 team discussing upcoming changes to Loud Modifiers and difficulty changes. 

There's so much information, so we recommend giving the blog a read, rather than us trying to distill quite complicated topics. 

5 April 2024 - New Shock Grenade Revealed

As part of the latest operation Medic Bag update, Miodrag “Mio” Kovačević, game director on PAYDAY 3 revealed a new grenade as part of a new blog post.

This new shock grenade, nicknamed the 'The Pig Tickler 187', is coming "in a future update" so isn't available right now, but we do have plenty more information on how it will function.

Here's a bit more info:

"The shock grenade, also known by its in-universe name “The Pig Tickler 187”, is a new crowd control tool for your arsenal. When you throw the grenade, it explodes three times before it expires. Any enemy hit by any of the three explosions will become stunned for one second, and after the stun expires, they will become slowed for 3 seconds."

"While the grenade is pretty flashy, we don’t want it to just be a glorified flashbang, which is where its unique feature comes into play. Any enemy or civilian hit by the initial explosion will be the start of an electric arc. This arc will jump to the closest enemy seven times before it expires, as long as they’re not too far away from each other. Any enemy hit by the arc will get the full effect of the shock grenade’s stun. This gives it somewhat different coverage from the flashbang, as you could stun a group behind corners and not in a fixed radius. The downside compared to a flashbang is that enemies will be stunned for a shorter duration."

"While the actual grenade does no damage by itself, some law enforcement are more conductive than others; any Shield, Zapper or Techie hit by the shock grenade will die immediately. Sadly, the Dozer will maintain his crowd control resistance, so he won’t be shocked at your attempts to use this grenade against him."

Pig Tickler 187

15 March 2024 - Adaptive Armor Live Preview

Last night's PAYDAY 3 stream was joined by Game Director Mio for a live showcase of the new Adaptive Armor and Fortitude skill line in action. Take a look a learn more on the youtube video below:

1 March 2024 - Operation Medic Bag, Blog Update #2

In the second Operation Medic Bag blog post game director Miodrag “Mio” Kovačević spent some time discussing the new Adaptive Armor which is going to be introduced to Payday 3 in the future.

The blog post is pretty extensive so if you want the full overview, give it a read on the link. But in short, Adaptive Armor is intended to be a solution to existing issues with armor mechanics in the game, which large sections of the player base haven't quite jelled with.

The new Adaptive Armor is described as having two chunks of healthbars, each requiring 4.5 seconds to regenerate, with a lower damage reduction compared to regular armor but without permanent damage.

The post then goes on to discuss the strategic implications of using Adaptive Armor:

"In short, Adaptive Armor Lining does not take permanent “trauma” damage, but can also take less damage before a chunk breaks. If a chunk breaks, you still need to restore it with an Armor Bag, but, in theory, you can make it last forever if you take cover in time. In a practical sense, if you don’t want to deal with armor maintenance as much, this is the armor for you, and it will let you do some aggressive plays if you’re smart about it. However, utilizing regular armor and repair kits might last you much longer than the Adaptive Armor with certain builds. You can also pair it with the upcoming “Clean Slate” Tank Mastery that’s coming in the same patch as the armor. This skill will let you use armor repair kits to restore an armor chunk if you have no armor."

Overall, this looks like yet another positive change for Payday 3 and the game's long road to recovery.

23 February 2024 - Operation Medic Bag, Blog Update #1

In their first blog update for Operation Medic Bag, the developers at Starbreeze have outlined their plans for more frequent and consistent game updates, aiming for smaller but more regular patches starting from April 2024.

They also announced a few highlights from the upcoming patch, including:

  • Two features to help your game look & run better on PC:
    • support for DirectX 12 will be added in the next PAYDAY 3 update
    • Image Scaling Upscaler (NIS), DLAA 3.5 as well as DLSS Super Resolution 3.5
  • several controller options such as the much requested dead zone adjustments to make controllers more customizable
  • The unready function - You can now click “READY” again to… unready.
  • "we’ve added a challenge for completing Cook Off on OVERKILL and getting out with 19 perfectly cooked bags" for hardcore players. Anyone who pulls this off will be rewarded with a unique weapon charm.
 

15 February 2024 - Devs announce Operation Medic Bag

Here it is, the long overdue answer to how the developers will revive Payday 3.

 This will form part of an "updated comprehensive roadmap" of what the team plans to do to the game throughout 2024.

"Summarizing all the feedback from our community, we have identified what we believe will be some of the most impactful changes to PAYDAY 3, listing them in this post."

This can be broken down into a few areas, but the full breakdown of information can be found further down this page, as there's a lot to take in.

17 January 2024 - Developers share their plans going forward

The developers at Starbreeze know fans are not happy with the state of the game, but thankfully, they're doing something about it.

"We’re well aware that many of you aren’t satisfied with the game the way it is in its current state," the team told fans in a new blog post today. "Since launch, we’ve been reading your valuable feedback in forums, social media and in video comments in addition to the FeatureUpvote page. This helps us massively and is crucial to the continued development of PAYDAY 3.

In addition, the devs explained that they have "put together a strike team" comprised of veteran developers from the design, community, communication and production teams, principally with the focus on bringing PAYDAY 3 "up to where it will meet your expectations."

The team then committed to sharinga plan detailing the upcoming improvements as part of a blog coming this February.

Payday 3 Year 1 'The Bad Apple' 2024 Roadmap Overview

There will be a range of new content released over the course of the first year of the game, with Starbreeze Studios not giving any official release dates, but simply listing when the updates will drop by season. Here's a rundown of when the upcoming DLC is expected to release in 2024:

  • DLC 1 - Syntax Error: Winter 2023 (Out Now)
  • DLC 2 - Boys In Blue: Spring 2024
  • DLC 3 - The Land of the Free: Summer 2024
  • DLC 4 - Fear and Greed: Fall 2024

This isn't all players can expect from Starbreeze Studios for Payday 3in the coming months, as the tweet also states there will be a range of updates between these, including:

  • Seasonal Events
  • Playable Characters
  • Skill Lines
  • New Enemies and Weapons
  • Unreal Engine 5 update
  • New Cosmetics
  • New Features
  • Quality Life Improvements
The first year roadmap for Payday 3 through Fall 2024
Image: Starbreeze Studios

Payday 3 Operation Medic Bag 2024 Roadmap Overview

Starbreeze collected a tremendous amount of feedback from various community sources to better understand how they can improve the game in 2024. 

With all the feedback in one place, they started narrowing down the major categories the developers needed to look at and came up with the following list:

  • Optimization & Reliability
    • This covers the game performance in all ways. This includes reliability of both performance and consistency of finding games, UI improvements and technical issues such as crashes.
  • Teamwork & Co-op
    • With this, we collected all things that make playing with others easier. Including communications tools such as VoIP & text chat, how your party is made up and how you communicate.
  • Replayability & Progression
    • This refers to features that will make playing again easier and more enjoyable. Sticking with your group, the infamy system and more.
  • Fantasy & Heisting
    • This one will reinforce the heisting fantasy, this involves a Crime.Net style map as well as more features to make you feel like a true heister.

Following this, the developers then narrowed down the key areas of improvement that they intend to focus on in 2024.

Solo Mode & Offline Mode

Upcoming Solo Mode & Offline Mode Updates

It is clear to us that the community wants the ability to play PAYDAY 3 reliably and on your own terms. In order to meet that need, we will be doing two major changes to the current implementation.

Firstly, we will be developing a stand-alone solo mode you can get into without going through the matchmaking flow. This will be a local game, on your own machine, thereby circumventing the need to connect to a server.

We see this being rolled out in two phases:

  • Phase One will still require an online connection to our backend systems for progression, unlocks, etc.
  • Phase Two will look to improve on the solo mode implementation and allow you to play the game without requiring a constant internet connection. You will need to connect intermittently to our backend to upload your progression, but will otherwise be able to play offline. We’ll need to come back with details on exactly how this will pan out.

As playing co-op will always be dependent on connecting to another machine somewhere, we are seeking to implement the solution that provides the best balance between reliability, latency and overall experience. Our technical leadership have been evaluating options for the past months and will be able to share more details on the solution in the near future.

Stability, Matchmaking & Server Browser

Updates toStability, Matchmaking & Server Browser -

On the topic of cooperative play. Our matchmaking isn’t doing a good job of bringing people together. We have a number of social and cooperative features planned for the year as well as rebuilding our matchmaking functionality into a much more robust system.

Until those features are implemented, the current matchmaking will be supported by a quickplay functionality, ensuring you can reliably play with other players. Later in the year, we’re looking to bring back a Crime.Net style server browser.

Challenge Based Progression

Challenge Based Progression Updates -

Based on your feedback, as part of our Replayability & Progression initiative, our current challenge-based progression didn’t achieve the goals we intended, so we’ve decided to do away with the current system.

The challenges will be removed and we’ll switch infamy progression to be tied to heist completion. As part of this, we will revisit all the current heist payout values, add scaling per bag secured for Infamy Points and also a new bonus that rewards loud playstyles. The existing challenge framework will be repurposed to give cosmetic rewards for hardcore accomplishments instead.

Ui Revamp

UI Updates -

We’ll be working on creating a more intuitive UI that better explains what’s happening around the player as well including a simplified friends menu as well as a menu UI that better communicates the heisting theme. We’ll be rolling out improvements and eventually a revamp of most of the current UI during 2024.

New Content

New Content Updates -

In addition, we intend to deliver on and expand our promises for new content. There are 3 DLCs still planned for 2024 and we intend to add another free heist for PAYDAY 3 in this same period.

We will also be rolling out skill lines, cosmetic items, rewards, a free LMG primary and much more throughout the year.

DLC Pricing

DLC Pricing Updates -

We’ve received feedback regarding the DLC pricing not meeting player expectations. As a result, we are currently reviewing the pricing on upcoming DLCs.

In-game Store

In-Game Store Updates -

Once we are satisfied with the improvements we’re intending to make to PAYDAY 3, we’ll revisit this topic in 2025.

Unreal Engine 5

Unreal Engine 5 Updates -

We have reallocated the resources dedicated to the Unreal Engine 5 update to instead work on the improvements to the PAYDAY 3 experience. Since the UE5 update wouldn’t directly fix the current problems, we’ll come back to this topic once we are able.

Initial Focus In 2024

Initial Focus For Payday 3 -

Many things mentioned need preparation or other features in place to be implementable. There are a number of items that we can start working on immediately. As such, we have a list of goals that we would like to finish by summer 2024. We won’t go into great detail on any of these topics, but will list them here:

  • Quickplay v1
  • Loadout Renaming
  • Recurring Smaller Content Drops
  • Controller Improvements
  • Vote Kick
  • Rotating Stealth Modifiers
  • Unready Button
  • Play Again Feature
  • Merge Players into Party Post Match
  • Daily Activities with Rewards
  • Mask Vendor with Weekly Rotating Inventory
  • Communication Wheel Improvements v1

Looking for more Payday 3 content? We've got you covered with a range of helpful guides below.

Payday 3 Stealth Mission Guides
Payday 3 Overkill Mission Guides
Payday 3 Best Build/Loadout Guides