Payday 3: how to always flip the right switch when opening vaults

After a grueling launch weekend where the servers had tons of issues, players are once again taking to the streets of New York City to heist to their hearts’ content in Payday 3. With 8 heists at launch and 7 of them being able to be completed in stealth, players, new and old, are coming face to face with some of the new mechanics that the devs have created this time around.

In Payday 3, Stealth has been renovated through the addition of more layers to its action. While the basis of “go in, stay undetected, and get out with the loot” is there, now sneaky players will have to complete a dance of steps in order to get into the vaults where the loot is contained. As such, every heist that allows for stealth uses most of the same mechanics, remixing them and spreading them around their maps in a way that test the players’ ability and capacity to coordinate with their teammates.

Add to that a bit of randomization everytime you load up a heist, and newer players might feel a bit confused about the whole ordeal. One of these new mechanics involves deactivating a vault’s security systems to open them without making too much noise( a.k.a., drilling them open). In heists like No Rest for the Wicked, Rock the Cradle, and Gold and Sharke, you’ll reach points where you’re tasked with the objective “Flip the right Switch”. What does that mean?

How to Flip the Right Switch in Payday 3 Stealth Heists

Whenever you’re doing these specific stealth missions (and probably future ones too), there’ll be a point in the mission where you have to deactivate certain security systems to open a secure door that leads to your main objective. Using the game’s first and simplest heist, No Rest for the Wicked, as an example, here’s what the objective means.

In certain spots around the map, typically close to the door they secure, you’ll find specific breaker boxes that look like this (this one is already open, but they have a transparent cover that still shows you the interior).

Each of these boxes contains four different switches, labeled with a color and a symbol to identify them. To continue the mission without breaking stealth you’ll have to interact with the correct one, something that changes everytime you load up a heist. This means that you’ll first have to figure out what the answer is. In No Rest for the Wicked, to do you need to steal a red keycard and find the Power Room, while also flipping an electricity box to turn off the vault’s power.

After you do so, and hack the computer in the Power Room (in this instance it spawned on the bank’s roof), a panel next to the computer becomes interactable, and when you do so it’ll show exactly what switch you have to flip to open the doors to the vault.

Now you need to make your way back to the switchbox, or communicate with your teammates so someone else can get it as soon as possible. And just like that, you are one step closer to that sweet, sweet loot.

Of course, in higher difficulties or later heists, this simple mechanic can become more complex: you might need to flip several switches in the correct order, as told by the security terminal. Or perhaps there is no terminal, and instead you have to find the right box by comparing its serial number with notes and clues scattered around the map. Either way, you can rest easy in knowing that the answer to this specific type of puzzle will always be found in heist you are playing.