Welcome to the wonderful world of speedrunning!

I'm PiTau, one of many PAYDAY 2 runners and the creator of this beginner guide. A few important things before we start.

First, I'm not a native English speaker. Most of my language experience comes from school & spending too much time on the internet. So if you spot any grammar or major stylistic mistakes, please report them and I'll gladly fix them.

Second, if you're a new player, you will probably have a harder time understanding this guide. I'm assuming that the reader already knows about basic mechanics, how skills works, why some guys wear a suit on loud heists... You get the idea.

Third, If you don't understand a particular term, please check the glossary section.

I think that's all the foreword needed, now let's do th...

That's the most popular question but the answer is pretty easy, however it's obviousness might be obfuscated by neat tricks. Here's my step by step guide:

0. Find the heist you like
During speedrunning you restart a lot. This means that you'll see and play the same heist over and over and over and ov... You get the idea.
Choosing the heist you like minimises chances of you being fed up with the run. My first heist was Beneath the Mountain.

1. Learn game mechanics
This is a no-brainer, but just to be safe, I'd like to emphasise this. If you don't know what skills do, how to create skill builds, how enemies work... You should probably do that before trying to speedrun.

2. Download and install SuperBLT
SuperBLT and instructions can be found here.[superblt.znix.xyz]

3. Download and install Speedrunning mod
You can get the mod here.[www.speedrun.com]

Now you might ask why is this mod required?
There are two reasons. First, PAYDAY 2 has very annoying RNG. There are World Records possible only with scenarios with a probability of 1% or less. Some runners, frustrated with this cheated and then admitted that they were using RNG manipulator.
This also brought the second concern. It's hard to tell if someone is using mods during the run. This could be only RNG manipulator, but also something more subtle, like 1% movement speed bonus. The Speedrunning mod makes that kind of cheating harder.

4. Watch a speedrun of the heist you want to run
Since Pizzayumyum started meddling with this game, we know about so many strange skips, ways OoB and more tasty things. For example, try and imagine how you think a Slaughterhouse speedrun would be played... Now compare it with current WR.


This route is the product of a few people fiddling with the map and by watching it, you don't have to reinvent the wheel.

Watching others of course is just a one part of the learning process.

5. Try running
The most common misconception is that you should recreate WR. Don't fall into that trap! This will only make learning harder. If you learn calculus you start with simple functions, when you start working out you start with a lighter training plan. Same here.
First just try do the heist normally. That way you'll see what parts might be harder and require more attention or maybe special tactics.
Next find some easy tricks and try to implement them.
Then finally try to reproduce WR.

6. Don't be shy to ask
There are other runners and we're not very secretive about our tricks. You can reach out to us on discord[discord.gg] and speedrun.com forums.[www.speedrun.com]

Just keep in mind that we're all from across the world, living in different time zones and have private lives, so you might have to wait a little bit for the answer. And don't ping somebody unless your question concerns them. Pinging me about my Beneath the Mountain or my classic% run is ok. Pinging me about Pizza's Art Gallery, is not ok.

7. Git gut and experiment
When you understand the map and current WR route, you can try to improve it. Example: in Slaughterhouse, no one thought about skipping the gate at the start, but I noticed a nice vent for PBSH and found out the way of skipping the gate, just after putting on the mask.
Pizza, having seen that, started experimenting and found out a way of skipping the gate, before masking up.

You can experiment too and don't be shy to share your discoveries. Someone might even help you improve them!

8. Record your run and submit to speedrun.com
Your recording should be uploaded to some video hosting that supports embedding. Most common are YouTube and archived streams on Twitch.

But first you have to record. How?
You may use Nvidia shadowplay. Easy to use, but only works with nvidia and I personally don't like this solution.

Beware: Nvidia shadowplay is very finicky with when it works and doesn't work as experienced by many users. For example, if your drivers are out of date then shadowplay won't work. Ensure you check that shadowplay is working properly before attempting to speedrun.

I prefer using OBS studio[obsproject.com]. It's harder to use but has a lot more options.
But other solutions are also good as long as your video is good enough. Theoretically there is no video standards but the better video quality, the easier is verification of the run.

9. Go to point 4
Find something else to run.

As I mentioned earlier, the Speedrunning mod has some nice features. Now it's time to get to know them better.


This one is easy to spot. The mod adds a more precise timer (by adding miliseconds, however, it's only a cosmetic change) and a list of mods installed. The list of mods is an anti-cheating measure. It can expose the most simple ways of cheating. Unfortunately it's not 100% fool-proof, but it helps.


Here is probably the most useful and important feature. You can edit heist specific or global RNG by just a few clicks. But sometimes, due to strange coding on Overkill's side, options may be limited. On the other hand, sometimes there are a lot of options, but all named by number. Finding the best settings might require asking somebody for help or testing settings until you find them.

RNG modification is not allowed in all categories!!! ALWAYS READ THE RULES!!!


Just map the key in the mod options and use it. This is useful when running in co-op, due to the 5 second count down timer.

In this section I will explain the most important tricks that work on every or mostly every heist (but sometimes they can be impractical or useless, depending on the heist).


This one is the easiest. To perform it, you need the SECOND WIND skill and a weapon capable of inflicting self damage.
This skill gives you a 30% speed bonus for 5 seconds after your armour breaks, like when you shoot under your feet with a High Explosive Judge or something like that. Just remember to not go down.


Harder and more limited but faster then the previous. Requires RUNNING FROM DEATH ACE skill, SECOND WIND skill (sometimes useless) and a way of getting revived.

When you get up, you get 30% more movement speed. If you get up fast, this bonus combines with SECOND WIND. In co-op this kind of boosting is easy, just have a player(s) with INSPIRE.

In single player, you can equip bots with the inspire skill, use MESSIAH, or FEIGN DEATH to get revived.

Remember to count your downs and patch up with doctor bags in strategic moments!


This requires a maxed out Yakuza deck.

This one is tricky. The less health you have the faster you move. Here, the FRENZY skill might come in handy, but you can also damage yourself until you have a miniscule amount of HP left.


The execution of these tricks are usually map specific, but it's possible on a lot of heists.

Due to the nature of this glitch, there's no one universal way. Usually you find some collisions between which you can clip out of bounds of the map.
The second way is PBSH (next section)
This may let you skip some time consuming tasks on the map, but sometimes it's just useless trick (like on Rats Day 1).


This one just requires to play in offline mode.

Find a slope or jump off a high point while running and start mashing the escape key (still holding W). Now cap your FPS to 30 and try again. You should notice that with lower FPS you go further with the same amount of pauses.
I also like to set the lowest graphics settings, but I'm unsure if its a placebo or an actual improvement.

This trick can let you travel incredibly fast on big maps and go OoB in a less classic way.

Once I found somewhere discussion about glitches in speedruns debating if they are acceptable or cheating and one person wrote:

At first glance using glitches might look as the easy way. However, glitches often make runs harder.

This is one of those glitches. Easy to understand and perform, but hard to master.


This one is not so simple, but might be interesting.

PAYDAY 2 has drama. Drama is one of many factors determining assault phase. If Drama is high then the fade phase will never end or the assault can start prematurely. This can be useful in heists where events are dependent on assault phase (like Panic Room). This is something rather new in speedrunning and worth exploring. Kingpin is recommended.

More about drama here

Giving ready made builds is a little bit counter-productive. There isn't a universal speedrunning build and even when you sort them in categories, they are in many cases heist specific.

That's why I'm going to just indicate some tasty skills and let you make your own build.
Bold skills are the most important ones.

Keep in mind this is not a list of must have skills, but rather a list of skills you should consider. Taking drill skills on a heist with no drills is a waste of skill points, for example.

If you want to see some example builds, many players usually show their builds at the end of their speedruns.

Yakuza, unless you have pretty good reason for another deck, such as playing on higher difficulties. Yakuza is the only deck that gives you movement speed!



1. INSPIRE - this is useful in co-op. Basic Inspire gives you ability to boost somebody's speed by 20% for 10 seconds just by shouting and Inspire ACED helps with obtaining running from death's 30% speed boost.

2. PARTNERS IN CRIME - 10% movement bonus when you have a convert. Useful on maps, where you have to run a lot and have a time to get convert (like detonator and time locks in BtM).



1. CLOSE BY - Shooting and sprinting can give you a lot of mobility. It helps greatly with second wind boost.

2. TRANSPORTER - It helps with throwing bags. The more bags are in a heist, the more influential this skill becomes.

3. BULLETSTORM - If you have to eliminate x targets to move the heist further, in some cases, it can save you reloading time (very situational and usually not needed).



1. EVERY TURRET SKILL - If a heist requires guarding multiple areas (Alaskan deal) or big area (Panic room) or to kill x enemies before letting you go (Hell's island), or guard a lot of civilians (No Mercy), turrets are nice assets. Just don't build around them, rather use skill points that you have after taking the most essential skills.

2. JACK OF ALL TRADES - Having 2 deployables might speed some things up (C4 for a door and medic bag to refill MESSIAH etc.). Not essential for every build.

3. DRILL SAWGEANT - If there's a drill it's a must-have!

4. KICKSTARTER - If a drill is crucial to your time (Slaughterhouse, Ukrainian Job DW+), it's nice to take this skill and spam melee.



1. SIXTH SENSE - Sometimes you need to pickup a keycard on the passing while in an area you may not be travelling back to.

2. ECM OVERDRIVE - Sometimes you need to ECM Rush or open a certain door.

3. ECM SPECIALIST - Sometimes you need more ECMs or even pager delay.

4. DUCK AND COVER - It's just 1 point for extra stamina and sprint speed. It's a must have!

5. PARKOUR - Basic is a must have. 10% movement speed because why not? ACE is nice to have, but if you really need those 4 points, it's not needed.

6. SECOND WIND - It lets you do second wind boost. Must have!

7. OPTICAL ILLUSIONS - Useful when there's a lot of enemies and you have 2 spare points.



1. RUNNING FROM DEATH - it's nice to have a speed bonus, when you get up.

2. FEIGN DEATH - Ok, so this lets you get MESSIAH and gives a little chance of saving your run if you make a mistake.

3. MESSIAH - Important for single player runs. Not essential in every build but might come in handy during some runs (BtM).

4. FRENZY - OP combo with Yakuza deck. Very useful but also very expensive. There might be better investments for the heist you want to run.


If you play with bots, always remember about CREW MANAGEMENT. There you can take QUICK and INVIGORATOR plus some bonuses of your choice.

I know that it's part of build, but I made it a separate section, to make guide navigation a little bit easier.

Weapons in PAYDAY 2 can have 2 roles:

• Killing enemies
  
• Being a useful asset

Most of the weapons in the game meet the first criteria perfectly. Think of the AMCAR, not the best weapon, but capable of killing enemies, however it has rather bad accuracy, making it a weak asset. It can only shoot through locks of certain doors.
On the other hand, the OVE9000 Saw is terrible at dealing damage, but can easily open most of doors, open ATMs, open deposits... It's a great asset.

There are also weapons combining those two roles. Judge is a nice weapon to kill, but also it can activate second wind (if loaded with HE ammo).
Sniper rifles can penetrate walls and enemies.
And accurate rifles can help with taking down enemies from longer distance.

Another important factor is pulling out and hiding time. When you stop interacting with something, you're pulling out the weapon and can't interact until you pull it out entirely.

So now some recommendations:



When loaded with HE ammo, it can activate second wind boost and it's also good at killing with a decent pull out time.
And if you suppress it and use non HE ammo, it can make guards bodies fly (good for hiding them).
The only downside is a rather pitiful ammo pickup rate.



Mostly asset. Great turret killer and for running from death boost. However there's no ammo pickup and pulling out time is terrible.




Good ammo pickup, while loaded with HE, can activate second wind (requires more shots that judge) and pretty nice ammo pickup. Also decent pulling out time.



Here's something nice for stealth. This option is particularly tasty, because you can load it with HE, to speed up bag transport, when there is more than one bag.
However there's a terrible ammo pickup rate...



This one is strange. You can suppress it, it has nice pickup rate, fastest pulling out time, good damage (on Normal) and is very concealable.
However it can't inflict self-damage and could be a little bit more accurate.



Sometimes nothing beats the old Saw...



That's good, do it.
Here's a nice spreadsheet that might help you: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15sW5ujghwxsph0xo89vTZbnS_aD7DbKU3CmAFtRBuUI/edit#gid=819903647

When you watch a speedrun it looks like that. But it's not true. Behind most speedruns, Tens, hundreds or even thousands of hours are spent researching, planning, experimenting, training and trying. Some of this work can be divided between other people, however.

So remember being fast takes time, hence the title of this guide.


No! No mods, even mod_overrides except the Speedrunning Mod. One might say that it's just pack of small cosmetic changes. But verifiers would have a terrible time determining, that it's not let's say 1% speed boost, hidden in said cosmetic changes.

Also mods like WolfHud, gives players a tremendous amount of information. If you're a good PAYDAY 2 player, you can tell the assault phase by music and enemy behavior. Getting that information should be displaying a runners skill, not dependency on a mod.


No they are just a cosmetic addition! Most of categories use IGT from the CREW STATS screen after the heist.

But be aware, there are categories where RT is important; so remember to read the rules!


Yes they can. Just follow this:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=892936753


I know your pain. The Full restoration mod weights over 350MB and moving it around can be inconvenient, but you don't have to. Just disable mod in the SuperBLT mod list and restart your game. Now you'll only have the Speedrunning mod loaded.


That's not how it works. If you want to do a category that isn't listed, you can do it. Maybe more people will get interested and you'll see your category on the leaderboards someday!


Verifiers and mods have finite free time. There are much more simpler explanations like:

• There are other runs before your run.
  
• Some mods are away from home and they can't verify at the moment.
  
• Your run is long (example: classic%) and requires more time to check.

That's not true. I'd gladly help you, provided that I can. There are runners that will help you with your problem. Just one rule, ask when you genuinely can't do something, not because you are lazy.

Some vocabulary you might not know earlier.

BtM - Beneath the Mountain (or similar naming conventions such as Fs (Firestarter) or FF (Framing Frame)
IGT - In Game Time (that one on in-game timer)
OoB - Out of Bounds. Going out of map bounds, created by developers.
PBSH - Pause Buffer Slope Hyperspeed. Glitch explained in Basic universal tricks section.
RT - Real time (that on your clock)
Skip - Trick that let's you skip something in game.
WR - World Record
PB - Personal Best

This guide is a rather simple introduction. If you want to know more, here are some good resources:

Official leaderboards. Great place to find and watch runs and most importantly read the rules:
https://www.speedrun.com/pd2/individual_levels

This one is a little bit out of date (no mention of PBSH) but still contains a lot of useful information:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=769258277

If you need very specific information about game mechanics you might want to go here:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=267214370

Accurate weapon stats:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15sW5ujghwxsph0xo89vTZbnS_aD7DbKU3CmAFtRBuUI/edit#gid=819903647

Downpatching PAYDAY 2 versions:
https://steamhost.cn/steamcommunity_com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=892936753

If you understand LUA and you couldn't find heist specific information anywhere else:
https://bitbucket.org/Frankelstner/pd2-mission-scripts/src

Big thanks to Pizzayumyum for proofreading, creators of further readings, so I can keep this guide rather small and beginner friendly and CapitanBublo for suggesting a section about builds.
Thanks in advance to everyone who pointed out any mistakes within the guide that shall be fixed as soon as possible!
And, an especially large thank you for reading or referencing this work!