Operation Medic Bag: Blog Update #13 – Challenges & Progression

Happy Friday heisters,

As mentioned last week, we’ll cover the new progression system coming to PAYDAY 3 in the next game update. We’ve spoken on it in loose terms before, but the current challenge system is being removed from the game to make way for the new system.

Why change!?

We had good intentions with the current system and how it was initially set up, but obviously, it did not work out as planned for a number of reasons. The challenges themselves weren’t particularly interesting to a lot of the PAYDAY community, and while some players who enjoy trying out different playstyles and loadouts had no problem with the system as it stood, many felt punished for staying with their preferred playstyle; obviously, not a good outcome, as we don’t want to punish anyone for that!

Coupled with some technical issues that meant the Challenges didn’t complete properly or the rewards were not granted, it amounted to what we can only describe as a suboptimal system that left a bad impression of the feature within the community. Thus, we began to rethink!

How progression will work

With the new progression system, you will gain Infamy Points (IP) based on how many bags you secure, as well as the quality of said bags of loot that you abscond with! For example, if you clean the jewelry on Dirty Ice, that bag of loot will give you more IP than if you just “grab-and-go”. It incentivizes completing the additional objectives and taking a little more time to get the higher-quality bags.

Since IP payouts will directly scale with how many bags you manage to steal, heists such as Cook Off will be even more lucrative since – now – you won’t have to steal every bag for the bulk of the bonuses. Just gotta cook that high-end sh*t!

Wealth By Stealth

We’re keeping the stealth bonus which gives you additional IP for successfully escaping without raising the alarm. We feel that players enjoy striving towards mastering the execution of a heist, PAYDAY has always been about mastery, and being an unmitigated badass of thievery. Also getting rich, obviously.

Gotta Snatch ‘em All

Another bonus that’s staying is the “All Bags” payout. If mastery is a core part of the power fantasy of PAYDAY, it would be insane not to incentivize going for the big score.

Escaping with everything of value should be one of the goals of any heister, even if that plan gets obliterated on first contact with the enemy–as it so often does–we want you to have that feeling of risk/reward that comes with “just one more bag.”

Going Loud Allowed

Speaking of plans being obliterated during a heist because someone gets seen… Yes, we’re talking about you, Steve! A bonus to IP for completing a heist “loud” is added for all those times Steve fumbles the wrench into the well-oiled heisting machine. This bonus applies if you escape after at least one assault wave, or have reached the final charge.

Some heists are much easier and faster in stealth than in loud, so this bonus acts as an option for you to play the way that you prefer and not feel like you are shoehorned into any particular playstyle. The hope is that you can progress and grow your overall level without having to compromise where you personally get the most fun!

Balance In All Things

As part of this update, we’ve also recalculated the Infamy Point payouts for completing heists. We’ve aimed to counteract the removal of the challenge system, hopefully resulting in an even transfer to the new system in terms of leveling speed.

Since this is the first iteration of the new progression system, we expect we’ll have to make adjustments here and there, so please continue letting us know when you discover anything that seems off!

There will be “optimal” heists and progression grinds that the community will find, of this, we have no doubt. Our goal has been to balance each payout so that it’s worth the time and risks taken to complete them. You should play the heist you want, and not have to feel the need to min-max one or two for optimal payout. That said, you can absolutely do that if that’s your bag. We’re not here to yuck anyone’s yum.

What’s Next?

If you’re wondering what’s next for the progression system and IP payouts, we do have plans for later in the year to add some “hardcore challenges” along the same lines as Cook Off.

These challenges will reward either IP, C-Stacks, or even cosmetics when completing a difficult challenge, but that will be a while off yet. We’ll revisit that topic once we’ve got a couple more in the bag.

Please check back in next week, for a run-down of the new Assassin Skill Line! For now, we will wrap up this week’s blog, and wish you a rad weekend!