First World Bank/Walkthrough

	This article is about the PAYDAY: The Heist mission. For completing the PAYDAY 2 mission, see First World Bank (Payday 2).

The heist requires the team to go in, take the server room key from the manager, take a drill and some thermite from the server room, drill the gates to the vault, melt the floor above the vault, grab the cash and escape.

Objectives

1. Enter the bank (lobby)
2. Find the bank manager
3. Get the drill and the thermite (server room)
4. Start the drill (drill area)
5. Drill the gates (drill area)
6. Erase the security footage (management)
7. Pour out the thermite to melt the floor (above the vault)
8. Melt the floor (above the vault)
9. Empty the vault (vault)
10. Get through the lobby
11. Blow a hole in the wall (management)
12. Escape (basement)

Walkthrough

Enter the bank

Get ready to begin a shoot-out.

Enter the bank. If you don't have much experience with this heist, then look around a bit. Stay away from and take note of the security guards, who wear a white shirt, black pants and a black cap. Look out also for cameras on some of the walls, as you will want to destroy them. The civilians you see are potential hostages, provided you have the cable ties. The server room is at a corner of the second floor of the right side of the bank, and you'll want to know how to quickly navigate to it.

Find the bank manager

He thinks everything is under control.

There are several locations where the manager can be:

• Behind the teller desk on the right side of the lobby
• In the office by the drill area, left of the lobby
• On the balcony overlooking the drill area
• On the front balcony overlooking the lobby
• On the balcony above the cafeteria, right of the lobby
• In his office on the second floor (if he is in there, a security guard will be outside and if you try to advance into the office past the guard, the heist will start automatically)
• In the conference room on the second floor above the cafeteria
• In the office next to the cafeteria, to the right of the lobby.

When a crew member is close enough to the bank manager, he will be highlighted in orange. You can either kill him or restrain him to get the keycard, but you will be penalized for harming him. Start the heist when you're next to him, take his keycard.

Get the drill and thermite

You are lucky no one needed to make some copies before you start the robbery.

Use the bank manager's keycard to unlock the server room. Take the drill and a can of thermite behind the photocopy machine. If you are playing in single player, then you should plan to return here at a later time for the second can; if you have a human crewmate, then they should take the second can of thermite.

Start the drill

You know the drill.

After you grab the drill, exit the server room, turn right, go straight, descend the stairs, and place the drill on the gate in the drill area. Someone should supervise the drill so that it's restarted soon after it jams, and beware of snipers through the high window on the side. The drill takes four minutes to complete, plus the amount of time during which it is jammed.

While the drill is working, the rest of the team should make sure all of the cameras in the area are destroyed, and try to keep the police as far away from the drill area as possible. Most of the law enforcers will come through the main lobby, but they will eventually also come through the windows in the drill area and cafeteria.

Erase the security footage

Don't even think of downloading free born!

During the drilling process, Bain will tell you to erase the security footage. Locate the highlighted laptop, which is randomly placed in either the server room, one of the offices in management, or the conference room.

Interaction with the laptop takes 15 seconds (without the toolkit), and any interruption will force you to start over, so having a crewmate cover you is recommended. If the laptop is in a room with windows, then there is a chance that the windows will be shattered during the process; if this occurs, then a Taser and/or Cloaker will enter through the window immediately after. If you're alone or not confident that your crewmate will prevent you from being tased or incapacitated, then you must turn around and eliminate the special units.

While in management, you may wish to locate the manager's office and grab the two cash bundles hiding on the computer's tower and next to the large TV. Sometimes there will also be a cash bundle on the computer tower in the office next to the manager's office.

Once you have the evidence erased, resume guarding the drill. If you let the drill finish before erasing the footage, then you will not receive the reward for the drill objective until you erase the footage.

Pour out the thermite

This time you have to burn your way through.

Get near the drill when it is almost done, and go through the gate as soon as it is open. Upon entering the next area, you'll almost always encounter several more security guards. Eliminate or, if an assault is not currently active, detain them for additional hostages. Work your way to the counting room in the back, and search the table for money bundles if you wish. Pour the can of thermite above the vault. If your crew is not in possession of the second can, then if possible, work your way up to the server room again to fetch the other can, and place it above the vault to speed up the burning process.

Melt the floor

Defend the vault while the thermite burns the floor for a few minutes. Unless you're playing on Overkill 145+ difficulty, where Cloakers can come through the vents in the back, the closest enemy entry point is the elevators, so that room is a common area to hold out. Most of the enemies will come through the gate, but SWAT, Tasers and Cloakers can come through two of the elevator shafts during assaults. If you're close enough to a shaft, then you can hear the sound of an enemy rappelling down a few seconds before they reach your level. Since the enemies from the shaft must unhook themselves before attacking, you have time to kill them before they can inflict any damage. If you start to get overwhelmed, back off towards the security desk, which provides good cover, and it is common to have an ammo bag and doctor bag placed behind it.

While your crew defends the vault, there are nine additional cameras in this area: one watching the gate, four in the elevator room, two near the top of the stairs to the vault, one above the vault doors, and one next to the room with the thermite. Destroying these cameras quickly reduces the number of elevators that become spawn points.

Empty the vault

3. PROFIT!!

If there are multiple human players, you have two options: have only part of the crew enter the vault while the rest defend the vault area, or have the entire crew enter the vault. With the former, your escape will be easier because the police won't be able to surround the vault, but the players defending the vault area must be competent enough to hold them off. With the latter option, you may wish to replenish your ammo before entering the vault, as you'll have a big fight soon.

If playing on Overkill 145+ difficulty, then those who enter the vault must be prepared for the four Bulldozers inside; good placement of trip mines are highly effective for this.

If you're designated to enter the vault, then once the thermite is finished, enter the vault from where you placed the thermite. Sometimes, there will be a security guard and civilians inside the vault, so check your fire. Run to the stacks of money on the center table, and start loading the bags. If you have a crewmate helping inside the vault, then avoid working on the same stack. Once the bags are loaded, pick up the cash bundles on the two carts and the open deposit box.

Get through the lobby

Prepare yourself for the toughest fight of the mission. You must get through the lobby and reach the wall by the server room where you picked up the drill and thermite. Don't take too long before exiting the vault, since the cops will move in from the front and through the hole you made. Once you exit, you can squeeze into the space between the open vault doors and the walls, although this can backfire if any special units come after you. Push to the top of the stairs as quickly as you can, using the columns for cover once you reach the top. Move back through the vault hallway towards the drill area. Once you reach the drill area, look out for snipers in the windows in front of you and on top of the building through the window on the right. Don't bother going up the stairs to your right; a security gate has closed, forcing you to go through the lobby (sometimes the upper corridor will stay open, but it's never a safe assumption). Expect a lot of cops and several special units (usually Shields) in the lobby ready to engage you. On higher difficulties, three snipers will be posted on the upper balconies, and the ones on the street are scarily accurate. Trying to rush through is ill-advised; use teamwork, kill as many of the cops as you can, and stay mobile. Use the wall behind the tellers' counters for cover and get to the cafeteria.

Blow a hole in the wall

Demolition time.

Once you make it into the cafeteria, head up the stairs and past the manager's office until you reach the server room. You will notice three spots on the wall to the left where you can place C4 charges. The wall won't explode until all three are placed, so if you're ahead of your teammates, feel free to put the first two up and wait until your team is nearby and healthy. After you place the last charge, the C4 will explode after a few seconds, triggering an endless assault wave and countdown timer, so make sure everyone is ready. Even though most new players think that the explosion can kill them, it's actually wrong. The explosion deals no damage to you or your teammates.

Escape

The only way to escape

Jump through the hole, run through the bathrooms, turn right, and get into the first room. On higher difficulties, when you turn right out of the bathroom, there's a slight chance that there will be a Shield, either a Bulldozer or a Taser, and some heavy SWATs right in front of you. In the large office area, there will be a Bulldozer, two Tasers, a squad of Blue SWAT, or a squad of Cloakers waiting for you. You can run-and-gun past the Bulldozer and Blue SWAT, but you should always take down the Tasers or Cloakers. Use cover and get through the room as quickly as you can. SWATs and Tasers will rappel through the windows endlessly, which is nice if you're chasing a certain challenge, but not nice if you're trying to escape. Run to back of the room and go through the door. Watch out for civilians by the back desk and through the door (near the elevators). The four flights of stairs offer a moment to reload your weapons if you're running low. At the basement level, you'll see many doors. Keep in mind that it's completely random whether any of these doors open, but if they do, you'll have to deal with either a Bulldozer or a Taser. Stay on your toes when passing these doors and make sure your teammates are near in case you get downed. Move through the hallway until you reach the parking garage, where your getaway garbage truck will pull up to extract you. You may have a Bulldozer or group of Cloakers waiting in the basement where you extract, so when you walk through the last door before the garbage truck, check the corner to your left immediately after you enter, just in case. 

Escape times by difficulty

Easy	Normal	Hard	Overkill	OK 145+
4:00	4:00	4:00	2:00	1:15

Additional rewards

• There are 25 money bundles, each worth $25K for a total of $625K. 21 of them are inside the vault, with some on the desk and some in the safe deposit boxes. The remaining four are randomly spawned in several predefined locations throughout the bank, which can be inside the bank manager's office, the offices of the drill area, and above the vault.
• 70 Mayan gold bars, each worth $1,000K for a total of $70,000K, are inside the Overvault; see the section Overdrill.

Variations and Events

This section lists variations and events that appear randomly or if the players make a certain decision. Police entry points or the locations of hostages are not mentioned because those are always random.

Vault Hallway

• On Overkill 145+ difficulty police units will sometimes come out of the vents.

The Vault

• Occasionally there are a couple civilians inside the vault.

Security Shutters

• In rare cases they malfunction and do not seal off the upper passage. This makes reaching the wall where C4 has to be placed a lot easier.

The Escape

• After the staircase part of the escape it is possible that some of the doors blow open revealing special units.

Unique achievements

Windowlicker

Defeat a law enforcer planting C4 on hard difficulty or above.

You must kill a blue SWAT who is trying to plant C4 on the bank's windows outside the main lobby, drill area, or cafeteria. This usually occurs between the first two assaults.

Near the beginning of the heist, run outside, place a trip mine on the center of the middle window of either the cafeteria or the drill area, and deactivate the mine before running back inside. Wait for the blue SWAT to plant C4 on the window with the mine; he can be easily recognized by his movement behavior. Unlike other law enforcers, who run past the windows to reach the lobby, he will hug the exterior wall and approach the center window of either wing. As soon as he is in front of your mine, activate it. Trip mines can be activated through the glass as long as your crosshair over them and you are close enough.

The following video shows how to easily get the achievement using trip mines. By placing the mines right next to the dividing columns for the windows, normal cops will not detonate it while the C4 planting cops will.

No photos

Destroy 12 security cameras in the First World Bank within 10 seconds of starting the heist.

This achievement can only be unlocked with the help of human players because bots do not attack cameras and the cameras are too far apart. There are several successful setups with four people, but a common one involves designating a player for each of the following locations:

1. Main lobby: 4 cameras
2. Drill area: 3 cameras
3. Corner by server room: 3 cameras
4. Stairs by cafeteria (adjacent to lobby, right side): 2 cameras

Because the lobby has the largest number of cameras out of any room and usually at least two security guards, it is the most difficult to clear out. Players designated with the drill area and cafeteria should have enough time to help with the lobby if necessary.

Players can target the cameras first and ignore the security guards, but cannot allow the guards to land a melee attack, which would cause its victim to be cuffed.

The M308 with the red dot sight (Accuracy II) is the most accurate weapon. The Reinbeck's spread pattern can be useful for players who cannot aim precisely and quickly.

• Main lobby: 2 cameras to the left.
• Main lobby: 2 cameras to the right.
• Drill area: 3 cameras.
• Cafeteria, 1st floor: 1 camera.
• Upper hallways, 2nd floor: 1 camera.
• Management, 2nd floor: 2 cameras.
• Management, 2nd floor: and 1 camera.

1/7

Overdrill

Vault hallway player positions

Solve the PAYDAY secret on Overkill 145+ with any mask and gain access to the Overvault. You will have to have played the heist from the start. And now normal difficulty also can access the overvault!

This achievement is derived from the PAYDAY Secret ARG event in 2012. Overkill 145+ difficulty and golden masks were formerly requirements, but are no longer necessary as of Patch 21. T

The patch also reduced the duration of the Overdrill from 7200 to 2000 seconds.

In order to trigger the secret, each of four human players must stand in one of the indicated positions (see image) and face the indicated direction in the vault hallway (elevator room) while all four of the security cameras in the hallway are operational. Because of how the secret is programmed, some patience and shuffling around may be required to trigger it.

Overdrill door

Once triggered, a red strobe light on the security desk will be activated, and the security cameras can be safely destroyed. The player equipped with the drill must place it on the newly revealed door above the vault, next to where the thermite is poured.

The drill takes 2000 seconds (33 minutes and 20 seconds) to finish, but never jams. Players are advised to find a highly defensible position during this time, such as the four niches at the vault hallway entrance. Players are also advised to keep track of time, as there is no cue when the drilling is complete. In the meantime, players can progress through the heist until the "Blow a hole in the wall" objective, to stop police from coming out of the elevator shafts. However, players should not breach the wall, as that would activate the escape timer and essentially abort the Overdrill run.

Birds-eye view of tile puzzle

Once the drill is done, proceed through the secret door. In front of the Overvault, players must interact with the six correct tiles to open the Overvault (see image). Pushing the wrong tile would invalidate the entire run by causing the Overvault to be locked permanently and the hallway to be filled with poisonous yellow smoke.

The result of a failed attempt at the puzzle

After pushing the necessary tiles, players who step inside the Overvault and have been present since the beginning of the heist will unlock the Overdrill achievement. The Overvault contains $70 million worth of Mayan gold ($84 million with the Noob Lube or Mr Nice Guy crew bonus, $98 million with both) and a Christmas present. The honorary plaques on the walls list the names of major contributors to the ARG. Completing the heist is possible, but not necessary.