Mods
The following is a list of mods to help. More will probably be added as I/others find more to use, or that at least seem useful.
Here are also a few trusted websites to find more mods that might not be on this list:
Just note, that some mods you may find on the websites above are considered cheating, and bad ones like free xp or DLC unlockers will get you marked as a cheater by the game (not to mention DLC unlockers are straight up piracy). Be careful and thoroughly check the mod's page before adding it, for this reason and that some mods are added to the game differently, such as needing to be placed in an overrides folder!
All mods are linked to their respective mod website (click the titles). I haven't made any of the mods here, credit goes to the mod creators, of whom you can see on their mod website.
Prevents crashing from network lag and malicious players, along with other settings.
(Attempts) to unhide modlists so that you get an accurate reading of someone's mods if they are hiding it/is bugged.
Adds a customizable indicator for when the armor break invincibility goes off for Anarchist.
When you ace the Iron Man skill, the ICTV will be automatically equipped. Prevents you from forgetting.
This mod allows you to change the color of the contour of bags to better represent the weight of the loot, instead of checking the names of each bag.
Changes graze a bit to trigger the effect in a few (more complicated) ways (the website explains it better than I ever will). Also makes graze spare civilians.
This bot improves your bot teammate AI so they don't have an IQ equal to the room temperature. Very customizable, full list of changes on the site.
Adds settings that let you customize what your bots can use and what they look like.
Forces the track "Break the Rules" to always be the lyrical version, instead of having only a 10% chance of hearing the lyrics.
This is a build manager that lets you save, share, and import builds through url formats used by websites like pd2builder and pd2skills.
Lets you change the name of your lobby on Crime.net, instead of needing to change your steam name. This only displays on Crime.net, and you keep your actual name in game.
To set a lobby description ("welcome message"), type "/lobbydesc blah blah" or "/lobbyinfo blah blah".
To check what the lobby's name and description are currently set to, type just "/lobbyname".
To reset the name to your Steam name, type "/lobbyname reset" or "/lobbyname clear". To remove the lobby description, use clear/reset, too.
This amazing mod allows you to translate both other player's messages and translate your own messages into other languages. This would allow you to play in worldwide servers without having to worry about language barriers. I definitely recommend looking through the mod page to see all the commands and how the mod works in the first place. This is compatible with quite a few HUDs, but any HUDs not listed in the mod page will crash, so be warned.
Helpful mod to quickly ban/mark cheaters. Especially helpful for some mods that don't get marked by the regular cheater tag. Some cheats don't instantly ban them, however you do get notified.
Prevents crashing due to memory overload. Only really recommended if you are having memory problems.
Adds a weapon charm for more heisters than just Dallas.
Replaces the loading screens with colored in versions.
Similar to the FEDNET Inventory Mod, it updates all attatchment icons to be their fully colored-in version instead of the black and white.
Adds presets for crew management, so you don't have to set a new one every single time you make a new profile.
Adds a variety of features to Crime.NET, such as mod blacklists, a more defined legend, and pfp frames.
Several fixes for the Crime Spree mode that Overkill hasn't fixed yet. Full list on the mod website.
Allows you to add your own music to the game. Requires some config, so see the mod page for more details.
This mod gives an overhaul to voicelines, mostly just adding a lot of subtle ones that were scrapped/unused in game
(Update: The actual original Deadlocke mod has still not been updated, but someone else had released a fixed version, and that is what I have linked in the title. If the original mod again gets updated I will update this)
Allows items and pages in your inventory to be dragged and dropped instead of having to go to the "move' menu every time.
Changes the screen on drills to give you a more detailed understanding of when and how many times the drill may break.
When in a vehicle, allows your camera to rotate 360 degrees, both for better awareness, and to make sure everyone's in the car.
A mod that may seem a bit cheaty, but useful when running into issues with the game without having to alt f4 and lose your crime spree.
A simple texture change mod that changes the difficulty masks in the menus to look more fancy.
Fixes the experience values in the menu to display the correct amount of xp gained.
Fixes voice lines overlapping in game.
Adds borderless windowed mode to Payday2
Use this to help learn the gage package locations. Could be seen as a little cheaty, but gage packages aren't all that detrimental to the game, so regardless it's not that bad.
Adds sounds for switching weapons.
At the moment, there's still an annoying as hell bug that prevents your pecm from actually functioning in a multiplayer match. This mod fixes this, at least when you are hosting.
This mod revamp's the gun audio, taking things from many different games and sources, and fitting them all into PayDay. Very customizable, even if only in the mod files.
Adds bug fixes (mostly aimed at WolfHUD) that adds a keybind to clear stuck HUD elements on your screen.
This mod does several thing to the offline mode, including turning on achievements and community events, enables skins, chats, and Captain Winters among other things.
Always shows your infamy card in menus. Client-side only.
Adds color to the Ready, Not Ready, and Loading indicators in the preplanning menu that makes them stand out more clear, and also allows for customization.
This mod is mostly quality of life, as if you're the host, it will replace the black screen when entering a heist to a well made intro cinematic instead.
Improves AI pathing without really changing the way their combat works.
Improves John Wick's model greatly.
Overall improvements to ladders, because they are pretty bad in this game. Very useful for those who grind Shadow Raid
Adds a bunch of skins to the game and also allows for customization in tandem with other mods.
Mods that use LAS:
Places the laser to where the bullets actually go. In the base game, bullet location and where the laser points are calculated differently, resulting in it being inaccurate, and this mod fixes this.
Lets you look at a host's stats to check if they're a cheater without having to even join the lobby.
Lobby Player Info shows you just that; it gives you information both in the lobby and right before a heist what perk deck you and your teammates have on and how your points are allocated. This is very useful, especially in public lobbies where people don't know what they're doing.
Adds the ability to have custom backgrounds for the menus. It comes with one by default, but there are also custom backgrounds made by other people, such as:
Requires CustomOST! Adds the track "Stygia" from the demo of Metal: Hellsinger.
Self explanatory charm pack.
Adds in a menu in the GUI to help with maps like cook off, rats, etc. Uses contractor voicelines to determine the ingredient, so make sure those are on!
Changes the marked crates to be more descriptive of what's inside.
Fixes the download manager crashing and also brings with it some neat optimizations.
(I also happen to be the one to dig this out of a discontinued website and uploaded it to modworkshop. Credit still goes to it's original creator)
An updated version of the risk level asset.
Displays a counter in your main menu with a counter of how many mods you have both in your mods folder and mod_overrides folder.
Adds more heists that can be pulled in Crime Sprees. You can toggle the setting on and off in order to host crime sprees for others without the mod and still allows you to join normal crime sprees.
This mod is very straightforward, as it allows you to see stats that have impact on gameplay, but are never actually revealed in vanilla weapon stats.
Actually adds every movie into the theater.
(This has a different way of being added to your game, read the mod page carefully)
A whole bunch of settings that make player names fade out depending on where you are looking to reduce screen clutter. Very customizable.
Allows you to have up to 30 skillsets, however you still have to pay a hefty price for each one of them.
Adds another 15 profiles to play around with. You can also name the profiles up to 30 characters.
Activates Overdrill on a keybind. This is meant for offline play or lobbies without 4 real players. Won't work in stealth, nor will it work at difficulties less than DW. You still have to wait out the whole drill.
Since the overvault puzzle answer isn't exactly a secret anymore, this mod ensures you don't accidentally input the wrong tiles after waiting over 30 minutes for OVERDRILL to finish by highlighting the right tiles.
Causes lasers to fade as they go farther from the gun, instead of just being a long laser cylinder that ends abruptly (does not affect snipers or SWAT turrets).
This is a utility mod pretty much strictly used as a dependency by other mods to function.
Adds some radial menus you can use to play audio to your game. Good for communication, or just being funny.
Removes the annoying blur from any labs like the one on cook off, rats, hotline miami, etc.
Allows you to reconnect to the last server you were on.
This mod removes enemy contours when they die. In base game, contours might last after something has already died, not ending until the countdown expires or until it despawns, which can be very distracting.
Gives the game far better textures in both the menus and the game itself.
This mod saves your exp in case you crash, disconnect, or are kicked from a game. Normally you would lose all the exp that you gained up to that point, but now if you rejoin, you'll keep all of it (you wont gain exp from tasks done while you were gone). Only works as a client for obvious reasons.
Saw Helper helps visualize the often times confusing hitboxes for the saw, making your saw experience much more efficient.
Adds an indicator for how much noise your saw is making (if any at all). Pretty useful if trying to do the silent saw trick.
Changes some shader settings to make the game look and feel much more immersive.
This mod adds a filters bar to your inventory to let you search and highlight weapons you are looking for, making sifting through your inventory much easier. (NOTE: Requires Quick Keyboard Input in order to function)
These are two different mods, but they are similar enough to be grouped together. The first mod highlights what achievements you need to be worthy for the secret ending to avoid a lot of annoying translation. The second translates the secret ending wheel to English to remove even more annoying translation. (Note that there are two different sites hyperlinked above for the different mods, each title has its corresponding website).
Adds a handful of useful tweaks to sentry guns. Detailed list of changes on mod website.
In the contract broker screen, it will show all of the xp data in the list, skipping the need to click on each heist to check the xp you would get from the heist.
Reduces a lot of the jank when using bipods and improves their functionality.
Adds subtle sounds when crouching and jumping for immersion
Allows you to do a handful of achievements that would normally require several other players to be done in solo. Only works when using offline mode, and some achievements are not supported. Check the site for the full list.
Under normal circumstances, bots will actually stay put instead of running over to you after you move 3 feet away. Things like going down will still prompt them to move again and assist.
Prevents you from losing your Crime Spree if your game crashes. You will still lose progress if you leave or fail the heist.
Fixes stupid details on guns when you add skins to them.
Tells you information about things like unoptimized teammate loadouts, pointing out having a saw with no ammo bag, and if someone is going for a mask achievement.
Changes the texture for the hackbox on The Diamond heist to be solid colors. Useful for low resolutions, and overall strains your eyes less.
Warning: due to the reusing of textures, this mod messes with the Lost in Transit heist. The game for some reason uses the same textures for the blinking lightbox, which causes the pattern to be impossible to get.
Changes the texture for loot bags to reflect the exact loot type it is.
Adds a charm similar to the loot bag charm, but it randomizes between any of the unique loot types from the original Unique Loot mod.
Reverts the reload animation for the raven shotgun to how it was in a past update. Adds a little bit of flair to the animation.
When mousing over a perk deck in the inventory menu, it will now display a more useful, in depth description of everything the perk deck does.
Forked off of WolfHUD, it's a much more stabile and customizable version of it. Probably the most popular infoHUD right now, especially after WolfHUD stopped getting maintenance. Has mostly everything from the previous HUD with a few extras, and the aforementioned stability boost. If you previously had WolfHUD, settings should carry over to VanillaHUD Plus (at least they did for me). Also compatible with other HUDs.
Fixes many visual bugs and issues. Has some compatibility problems so check the website for full details.
VELOSync is a absolute must have, as it decreases, and if multiple people have it, effectively removes desync. There is also an option to bind a key that will force correct the sync if things get extremely desynced.
(Edit: this is becoming a pretty old mod without many updates recently at all, effectiveness may vary).
Adds holstered weapon models to player's backs and hips (depending on the gun)
This mod is an info hud, which adds a whole bunch to the interfaces of the game, both during heists as well as menus and inventories. This particular hud displays pretty much everything you could ever need, from timers to enemy counts to your buffs. However, this creates a bit of screen clutter, so if you need your screen absolutely clean, this may not be for you. Lots of customizable options, and a lot of fun to set up and change.
Update 10/13/21: This mod is becoming steadily unstable over time, especially with newer maps. Try instead using VanillaHUD Plus, which is a fork of WolfHUD which is much more stable and has new additions.
When doing objectives, you will be notified at the amount of xp you gain.
