Perk decks are one of the core parts of Payday 2, and they can make or break a build. If you want to know which are the best ones in the game, we got you covered! Whether you’re looking for raw power or utility, this list of the best perk decks are worth knowing:
What Are the Payday 2's Best Perk Decks?
Perk Decks are secondary customization for your character, which means their use varies greatly depending on the other customizations you use. A build is the combination of Skill Trees, Perk Decks, and weapons, and there are countless different combinations for a player to try. Perk Decks have varying benefits, but they all provide passive support for you or your crew in the form of health, stamina, or armor boosts.
It’s important to acknowledge that choosing the best perk deck can be a highly personal decision, influenced by individual playstyles and preferences. While we’ve highlighted some exceptional perk decks in this article, it’s crucial to remember that what works best for one heister may not necessarily be the ideal choice for another.
In the criminal underworld, diversity in perk deck selection is the spice that keeps the game exciting.
Crew Chief Perk Deck
A Crew Chief is in charge of an entire branch of a criminal organization. Their job is to command troops and report to the commander.
Being in command entails taking care of your troops, and this perk deck ensures that happens. The Crew Chief provides perks to the entire team. Damage reduction, stamina boost, health boost, and armor are among the perks available to you and your crew. The perks become more intense as the player gets closer to completing the deck. The player can take a hostage and hide them somewhere before the shooting begins.
That hostage will continue to help them throughout the game. At least until the hostage is killed or freed. This deck can be combined with the aced Hostage Taker skill to increase the value of your hostages. This feature distinguishes the Crew Chief perk deck, but the fact that it provides more health, armor, and stamina for you and everyone else in the game, it is overall, extremely beneficial.
Grinder Perk Deck
Grinders are in the thick of the fight, inflicting pain and surviving against incredible odds. Their survival is heavily reliant on their ability to kill. The Grinder Perk Deck is all about making yourself feel good after inflicting harm on others. After completing this deck, the player will have 40% more max health, a 30% better chance of piercing enemy armor, and health regeneration.
After dealing damage, the player will regain 4 health points every 0.3 seconds for a total of 4.2 seconds. That means shooting someone can net you a total of 56 health points. This perk can be stacked as an added bonus. The end result? The more pain you inflict, the stronger you become. But there’s a catch: you can’t wear anything heavier than the Lightweight Ballistic Vest into battle.
This deck has a strong influence on health and does not provide benefits to the rest of the crew, so it would normally rank lower on any list. When you combine this perk deck with turret guns, any damage your turrets cause gives you health.
Muscle Perk Deck
Your job as the muscle is to inflict pain and violence. These people are used by criminal organizations to send a message, usually through extreme pain. Because they are frequently in the midst of battle, they must find a way to survive, which is what this deck provides.
The Muscle Perk Deck provides you with an abundance of health, which is necessary because you will be targeted more frequently than your teammates.
Sociopath Perk Deck
Because of their inability to feel guilt, sociopaths can be extremely effective criminals. Criminal syndicates frequently avoid them due to their unpredictability, but there is no denying that they excel at violence. Dealing death is what really gets this Perk Deck going. The deck boosts total armor by replenishing armor and health with nearly every kill. Because melee attacks deal significant damage, you will take less damage at medium range and when surrounded.
The deck’s superpower is mass chaos. This deck increases the likelihood that the enemy will panic following a medium-range kill. This deck is fantastic when the player is purposefully walking right into an ambush and everyone must die. This deck excels at close and medium-range melee combat, which is a valuable skill when it comes to conserving ammo.
The disadvantages of this deck are that it provides no perks to the crew and that missing a melee attack causes the inflicted damage to return to normal levels. Despite this, the sheer amount of damage you can inflict earned this deck a spot on this list.
Burglar Perk Deck
Burglars are notorious for breaking and entering, but their abilities extend far beyond that. Their agility enables them to quickly pick locks, bag corpses, and respond to pagers. Their speed is also useful for dodging bullets [1].
When it comes to a stealthy heist, concealment is essential. This deck is ideal for sneaking around because it reduces the chances of being seen. The ability to respond quickly to pagers while bagging faster means you’re less likely to be caught hiding one of your victims. Faster lockpicking skills will allow you to slip through doorways and into safes without being noticed. This deck is on this list because it can be used for both stealthy and loud missions. It is the most versatile of the stealth decks.
Kingpin Perk Deck
When you choose the Kingpin perk deck in Payday 2, you step into the shoes of a master manipulator, adept at controlling the battlefield and providing vital support to your team. The core ability of the Kingpin deck is the Injector, which grants you a temporary invulnerability and health regeneration boost when activated. This allows you to become a frontline tank, absorbing enemy fire and pushing objectives with ease. What sets Kingpin apart is the ability to share this invulnerability with your teammates, turning you into a beacon of resilience for your crew.
Choosing the Kingpin perk deck means becoming the ultimate battlefield manipulator and a vital support pillar for your crew in Payday 2. This turns you into a frontline tank capable of absorbing enemy fire and pushing objectives with ease. However, the true strength of Kingpin lies in your ability to make you into a beacon of resilience for your crew.
Anarchist Perk Deck
As a heister, embodying the Anarchist perk deck means embracing chaos and resilience in equal measure. In the relentless world of Payday 2, you’ll find yourself in the thick of the action, and the Anarchist deck equips you to thrive there. As it absorbs and breaks on enemy fire, you’ll experience a brief moment of invulnerability before your actual health is affected.
Your health is converted into armor, costing you health but continuously having armor. On the highest tier every shot landed on an enemy helps you replenish your armor, incentivizing you to be on the offensive. This means you can be both a relentless attacker and a durable defender, making Anarchist perfect for players who enjoy high-risk, high-reward scenarios. The deck shines in loud and chaotic heists, where you can maintain a constant presence on the frontlines, with careful movement on dodging and neutralizing attacks.
Leech Perk Deck
Leech is all about being a relentless vampire on the battlefield. When you equip the Leech perk deck, you’ll become a life-stealing force to be reckoned with. When you select the Leech deck, you’ll siphon the life force of your enemies with every strike, converting their pain into your strength and regaining teammates health up to 10%. This unique ability to regain health through aggression makes Leech a favorite among self-sufficient heisters.
Every time you deal damage to enemies, you’ll siphon a portion of their health and convert it into your own. This unique ability to regain health through aggression makes Leech a favorite among players who prefer a more self-sufficient playstyle, while also healing the whole team.To maximize the benefits of the Leech perk deck, consider combining it with weapons that have high damage output and a good rate of fire, allowing you to drain your enemies’ life force quickly and keep yourself in the fight.
Stoic Perk Deck
The Stoic perk deck is all about harnessing the power of resilience and endurance in Payday 2. When you choose Stoic, you become a master of pain, with the ability to withstand a significant amount of damage. You’ll have access to throwable “Stoic’s Hip Flask” to convert damage taken into DoT for the next 12 seconds.
The core mechanic of this perk deck revolves around your health turning into a “Stoic state” when you take damage, preventing your health from dropping rapidly. Instead, your health will gradually decrease, allowing you to stay in the fight longer. Stoic is an excellent choice for players who enjoy a balanced mix of offense and defense, making it suitable for both solo heists and team play.
Conclusion
In the world of Payday 2, where crime reigns supreme and heists are the order of the day, the choice of perk decks can make all the difference between success and failure. So, whether you’re a leader, a sadist, a tough-as-nails enforcer, a sociopath, or a stealthy operator, the best perk deck for you is out there.
Now, it’s time to assemble your crew, gear up, and get ready for the next big score. Happy heisting!
