There are many different types of missions in Payday 3, but your overall goal remains consistent: make as much money as possible. Cash isn’t just a way to measure how well you did in a heist, but is obviously a currency you need if you want to unlock any of the game’s many weapons or cosmetic items to customize your theif. This makes earning money equally as important as leveling up and getting new skills since, no matter how good you are, you can’t upgrade your arsenal without it. There are a decent number of jobs to take at launch, but not all are created equal in terms of potential profit. Even those that seem like they will give you the most cash may not be the most efficient. If you and your crew want to grind out money as fast as possible in Payday 3, these are the jobs to take.
Most profitable heists
Before looking at the heists themselves, it should be noted that every heist you do can be made more profitable by increasing the difficulty level. Obviously, this will also increase the challenge, and beyond the normal level, we would only recommend it if you have a good loadout and team of friends with you as opposed to joining up with random people online. If you’re unprepared, it can also make heists take longer, which is another factor you will need to consider.
Road Rage
Road Rage is an early job you can attempt that is also the first one where there’s no stealth option at all. You start this mission already masked up and on alert. The objective here is to break into an armored truck full of rare-earth elements that is set to cross the Queesnboro Bridge, which just so happens to be under construction. On normal difficulty, you can potentially between $200,000 and $500,000, but bump that up to Overkill and you can stand to walk away with $850,000 in a single job. You might wonder why this is the top when there are other jobs with higher potential payouts, but that’s because this mission, once understood, can be done and dusted in 10 to 15 minutes.
Since this is an early mission – the second one you get – as well as not requiring a ton of coordination due to the lack of stealth, this is a great mission even if you’re playing solo. While you always roll the dice with matchmaking, odds are players will at least be able to follow the heist’s directions and hold their own in a firefight, which is all the teamwork that’s really needed for this job.
Gold & Sharke
On the other end of the spectrum, Gold & Sharke is a longer mission, but well worth the time investment if you can pull it off. On the Overkill difficulty level, you can earn yourself a massive $1.3 million payout for a perfect job. If you’re still learning things and playing on normal, you can still get a very respectable $400,000 to $800,000 for your work. The problem will be, of course, pulling it all off and getting out alive. This is a classic bank job set in the titular bank, but you’re going in with two tasks to complete. The first is finding a server locked in a vault, while the second is simply to get as much cash as possible.
This is a big heist, and a long one no matter how you slice it. Even on normal difficulty, it is highly recommended to take a full team when doing this job. Staying undetected as long as possible is paramount since trying to do all the objectives while fighting off the cops, and then taking the time to secure all the loot, can get hectic fast. If you do it right, this mission will still run around 30 to 40 minutes, so the payout is certainly worth it.
Other viable jobs for cash
If those two jobs aren’t your style, or you just want a bit of variety in your criminal career, there are a couple of other good heists to make some quick cash. Neither is as efficient as the two listed above but still have decent loot to scoop up.
99 Boxes is a slightly longer mission, perhaps around 30 minutes or less, that has a normal payout ranging from $300,000 to $600,000. That’s about on par with Road Rage’s, but obviously takes around twice as long.
Another possible way to go would be the Rock the Cradle job. This has a similar time frame as 99 Boxes, perhaps a little less at 25 to 30 minutes, with a normal payout range of $100,000 to $600,000. So long as you and your team are able to get the maximum amount of bags by the end, it is a decent money maker for you, but obviously not the ideal.
