Environmental hazards are present on many maps in both PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2 to hinder the players.
C4
C4 is utilized by the heisters, law enforcers, and even gangsters in both games to blow up various objects. C4 in most cases will injure, if not incapacitate, heisters caught in the explosion.
C4 can be applied to numerous objects in PAYDAY 2 with the usage of trip mines, however requiring the user to have the Shaped Charge skill Aced.
In Election Day Day 2 Plan A/B and both days of Hotline Miami, M18 Claymore mines are used by the enemies, and players that either trip their lasers or shoot them will detonate them, potentially downing heisters.
Due to trip mines and Shaped Charges being able to be used in virtually any heist with doors or safes, only heists where C4 is a map element are listed below. Heists and days marked with an asterisk (*) feature C4 used against the players rather than by them (or if the players do use C4 in the same heist, it is incapable of downing them), and those marked with two asterisks (**) feature C4 that cannot harm players in any way, either because it is too far away from the players when detonated or the explosion simply does not hurt them.
Electrified objects
Electrified objects are an environmental hazard present in PAYDAY 2, causing players that get electrocuted on contact, as though they were being tased by a Taser.
They are present in Big Oil Day 1, in the form of an electrified fence, Firestarter Day 3, where the vault door will shock those that try to set up the thermal drill, Goat Simulator Day 1, where if a goat is stuck on a fan or up on a scaffold, grabbing the fan goat or trying to climb up the scaffold's ladder will electrocute the heisters, and in Boiling Point, where the fence outside the hatch to the underground laboratory will shock heisters prior to the EMP bomb going off. While the vault door in Firestarter, fan/ladder in Goat Simulator, and fence in Boiling Point can be turned off, the fence in Big Oil cannot.
Explosive barrels
An explosive barrel in Meltdown.
Explosive barrels are an environmental hazard present in PAYDAY 2, introduced with the Meltdown heist. Shortly after being damaged, they will explode, damaging characters, dealing about as much damage as a grenade launcher grenade in about the same radius.
They are present in the following heists:
Rusty, dormant versions of the explosive barrel can be seen in Firestarter Day 1, Shadow Raid, and, due to being a loud version of Shadow Raid, Meltdown.
Up until being removed in Update #95.3, Golden Grin Casino had a sort of variant of the explosive barrel in the form of fire extinguishers.
Fall damage
Fall damage is an environmental hazard present on every map in PAYDAY: The Heist and most maps in PAYDAY 2. Falling from heights too high up will deal damage to the player that fell.
There are certain fall heights called fatal heights, given its name as falling from these heights will make the player enter bleedout on impact, taking away one of their downs.
A unique version of the fatal height appears in the Birth of Sky heist; jumping out of the plane in which the heist starts without a parachute or throwing away the parachute prior to the landing point being visible will send the player directly into custody on impact.
All damaging falls will take health away from the player on impact, but with the aced Cat Burglar skill in PAYDAY 2, players will only take armor damage from non-fatal heights, provided they have at least 75% of their armor prior to impact. In the PC version, the Cat Burglar skill's effects became a default gameplay feature in Update #100, leaving fatal heights to be the only way to take health damage.
Fatal heights are present in the following heists in both games:
There are several maps in PAYDAY 2 where fall damage cannot be taken through normal means, these being Election Day Day 2 Plan C, Four Stores, Transport: Underpass, and the Cafe and Park escapes. Additionally, fall damage can only be taken in the Jewelry Store and Ukrainian Job heists through the usage of the Vantage Point asset.
Fire
A player standing in fire in PAYDAY: The Heist.
In both games, fire is a scripted map element that harms players by standing in it. In most cases, environmental fire is a consequence of the players' actions, though in some maps, it is in the map by default, for example The Bomb: Forest. Some fire does not harm the crew and is simply there for aesthetic purposes.
Environmental fire deals 5 damage to players every 0.25 seconds after 1 second of standing in it.
Fire usually serves little more purpose than being an inconvenience to the crew, deter players from certain areas, or be a reminder of their actions, but in some cases it is part of objectives. For example, in Firestarter Day 1, gas tanks near the hangars can be blown up and the weapon bags can be burned in them as an alternative to securing them. Some fire can also help the crew instead of hinder them, such as in Mallcrasher, where gas cans can be used to burn stores that don't have anything destroyable in them.
In the Santa's Workshop heist, after 4 loot bags are secured, an equipment bag containing a flamethrower setup will be granted once every time the escape "vehicle" comes around. Dropping it at a doorway will deploy a flamethrower trap, that, when activated, will kill any and all law enforcers that pass through it for one minute before having to cool down. The fire from the flamethrowers do not harm heisters and do not actually burn the law enforcers; it simply insta-kills them.
In PAYDAY: The Heist, two fire symbols would flash near the center of the screen when the player stands in fire. This is not present in PAYDAY 2.
Fire is present in the following heists in both games. Heists and days marked with an asterisk (*) only contain fire that is either cosmetic or out of reach, thus cannot harm the heisters.
Lasers
Lasers are map elements in various maps in both games. Unlike other hazards, they do not cause bodily harm to players, but rather, tripping them will set off the alarm. In their only appearance in PAYDAY: The Heist— Diamond Heist— and some of the heists they appear in in PAYDAY 2, lasers are static and either can't be turned off or can be bypassed via security system manipulation, but in several maps in the sequel, the lasers are dynamic and can be bypassed by watching the laser pattern and moving through when allowed.
The following heists in PAYDAY 2 have lasers, and are separated between having static and dynamic lasers:
- Art Gallery
- The Diamond
- Framing Frame Day 1 and Day 3
- Golden Grin Casino
- Hoxton Revenge
Additionally, lasers can be seen in the vault area in The Alesso Heist, but said area cannot be accessed and thus the lasers cannot be tripped.
Metal detectors
Metal detectors are cosmetic map elements in both games and a hindrance to stealth in several heists in PAYDAY 2. Like the lasers above, walking through functioning metal detectors will usually trigger the alarm, but unlike lasers, do not have obvious indicators, meaning unaware players can very easily break stealth.
In addition to the heists listed below, functioning metal detectors appear in Firestarter Day 2, but are incapable of setting off the alarm on their own; They instead create a loud noise that alerts any and all guards in the area, which can potentially set off the alarm. Functioning metal detectors also appear in the old Safe House and Hoxton Breakout Day 2, but triggering them in the former does not actually do anything, and they serve no purpose in the latter as the alarm goes off anyway.
Functioning metal detectors appear in the below heists in PAYDAY 2:
Tear gas
Tear gas, also called poison gas, is utilized by the law enforcement in PAYDAY 2, dealing damage to heisters standing in it. It deals no damage to enemies or civilians. While not explicitly called tear gas, a similar gas is seen in PAYDAY: The Heist's First World Bank heist, appearing in the room before the Overdrill vault should the players press a wrong tile.
Tear gas deals 7.5 damage every 0.25 seconds after 1 second of standing in it.
Prior to Update #86, tear gas only appeared on a few maps. With said update, however, the SWAT Van Turret deploys tear gas when heisters get too close, making it appear on every heist the turret appears in, with the exception of The Biker Heist Day 2, where it is unreachable and/or on the bottom of a helicopter.
Due to the numerous maps where the SWAT Van Turret appears, only maps where tear gas being deployed are a scripted part of the map itself are listed below:
- Bank Heist (all variants)
- Boiling Point
- The Diamond
- Firestarter Day 3
- First World Bank
- Goat Simulator Day 2
- Hoxton Breakout Day 2
- Undercover
Other
Some maps in PAYDAY 2 have environmental hazards that don't fit into other categories, thus are listed here.
Big Oil Day 1
There are landmines laden throughout the scrapyard surrounding the house. Alerting the bikers or firing off weaponry near the landmines will detonate them, downing any heisters caught in the explosion.
Firestarter Day 1
There are gas tanks that spawn in several locations around the hangar, which can be blown up, allowing the weapon bags to be destroyed as a quicker alternative to being secured. Additionally, bags thrown into the burning gas tanks will detonate them as well, these explosions capable of downing heisters.
Lab Rats
In several locations, a giant-in-comparison-to-the-heisters spider can appear, which will incapacitate heisters that wander too close. It can be knocked off the table with enough gunfire.
Prison Nightmare
The Wheel of Misfortune may land on "Drills", which results in the NecroCloaker assaulting an area near the wheel with two drills, harming players that come too close.
| Heists | Release: First World Bank • Heat Street • Panic Room • Green Bridge • Diamond Heist • Slaughterhouse DLC: Counterfeit • Undercover • No Mercy |
| Weapons | Primary: AMCAR-4 • Reinbeck • M308 • Brenner 21 • AK Secondary: Mark 11 • Locomotive 12G • Compact-5 • GL40 Pistols: B9-S • Crosskill .45 • Bronco .44 • STRYK |
| Deployables | Ammo bag • Doctor bag • Trip mine • Sentry gun |
| Enemies | Regular: Security guard • Cop • FBI • Gangster • Blue SWAT • Heavy SWAT • Murkywater Special: Bulldozer • Cloaker • Shield • Sniper • Taser |
| Characters | Dallas • Hoxton • Wolf • Chains • Bain • Minor characters |
| Gameplay | Assault Waves • Civilians • Crew AI • Drills • Environmental hazards • Police Custody • Reputation • Risk Level (Overkill 145+) • Shout • Stealth • Upgrades |
| Miscellaneous | Achievements • Challenges • Companies (GenSec • Murkywater) • DLC • FBI • Gangs & Mafias • Graphic options • Masks • Overkill Software • Steam Trading Cards • Timeline • Update history |