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. When done correctly, the results can be spectacular. If done incorrectly, you can be intensely frustrated.
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.
At the moment, there are twenty-two Perk Decks to choose from, each with a unique advantage. Below are the five best ones in the game:
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.
This deck is the best Perk Deck option because it is well-rounded and helps everyone on the team.
Grinder Perk Deck
To grind something means to crush it to dust, which is what the Grinder excels at. 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.
So, if you’re a bit sadistic and don’t want to ruin the look of your two-piece suit, this deck is definitely worth a shot. Health can be scarce during gameplay, but this Perk Deck gives you a chance to compensate.
Simply shooting, punching, exploding, or otherwise injuring the enemy will cause your health to immediately increase. 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.
It is ranked second because of how useful this deck can be for solo players. When you combine this perk deck with turret guns, any damage your turrets cause gives you health. With this ability, you can deploy a turret gun, take cover, and watch your health regenerate. After that, the Grinder is ready to re-enter the battle.
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.
As the player progresses through the deck, they will gain access to more health boosts and, eventually, the ability to regenerate health over time. When in a group, Muscle assists their crew members by drawing fire away from them.
As an added bonus, their presence may cause panic among the enemy, opening up a weak spot for an attack. In intense firefights, this deck comes in handy.
However, since this deck does not provide assistance with armor, speed, or damage inflicted, the extra health will vanish quickly if not used properly. Thus, this deck’s perks aren’t well-rounded, and they don’t help the other players, lowering its value.
However, when the goal is survival, extra health is essential. This deck can be extremely useful when combined with a skilled shot and a thorough understanding of mission details.
These perks can be beneficial to solo players by significantly increasing their health. When combined with heavy armor, you will be a formidable opponent.
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.
Melee attacks become 10 times more powerful, and close-range combat results in a reduction in damage taken as well as a 75% chance of creating fear in the enemy. On top of a maximum armor increase, one kill every second will boost armor and health.
When surrounded by three or more enemies, the player’s damage is reduced even more. This Perk Deck can be extremely useful by combining powerful killing abilities with increased armor and a lower impact on health.
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].
If they are struck, they easily shrug off the pain and continue on their way. Crouching down and remaining still is an important factor in this completed Perk Deck because it reduces enemy targeting and increases armor recovery.
The deck increases the crouch movement speed to make this a little easier. It is an excellent choice for stealth jobs, but if built properly, it can also be very useful on a loud board.
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. When things go wrong, which they often do, this deck provides you with increased dodging abilities as well as armor.
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.
