Payday 2 is a game with tons of content for both new and veteran players. In Payday 2, you can repeat missions several times and enjoy a different experience each time. Players can always find ways to make their gameplay different by trying new weapons in the game, completing an objective through another path, and playstyle. If you are one of these kinds of players, then this article on the best Payday 2 mods is for you.
This article covers our top 5 mods to improve your experience in Payday 2. This game is already excellent and thriving on its own, but that doesn’t mean we can’t add a little spice to it to make it more interesting. Some of the mods included here range from simple stuff such as HUD improvements to complete gameplay reworks with mods that make changes to your teammates and enemies.
If you were looking for official expansions instead of community mods, feel free to check out our companion review of the best Payday 2 DLC packs. There are currently over 70 to choose from, so we curated the list down to the top 5 picks.
How to install mods on Payday 2
For our mods, we refer to modworkshop.net. We don’t use the Steam Workshop for Payday 2 Mods because its variety is minimal, and most of its content is re-skins for weapons and characters but nothing too game-changing.
Install SuperBLT and BeardLib
Do not worry; we have already tested these two programs, and all of our computers and secrets in FPSchampion are still intact. SuperBLT is a tool to enable Payday to load mods. BeardLib is a tool that manipulates the Payday 2 script allowing SuperBLT to load mods into the game. All of this might look scary, but it is pretty simple; we highly recommend you watch this quick tutorial on how two install these two programs and get mods running.
Once these two programs are set, you just need to download, uncompress the mod and place the files in the mods folder inside the game installation folder.
5 Best Mods for Payday 2
If you followed the previous steps, you are ready, and we can dive deep into our top pick for Payday 2 mods.
Related Article: Is Payday 2 Split Screen in 2022?
Intro Cinematic Mod
This mod is pretty simple but one of our favorites. Instead of having a flat black screen at the start of every heist, now we have cinematics. The cinematic play at the beginning of every heist shows the mission name and the difficulty. This great Payday 2 mod contains over 70 cinematics, each for the specific heist you are playing. It also supports Crime Spree and shows your progress.
This Payday 2 mod also allows other creators to add their own cinematic to custom maps.
Link: Intro Cinematics Mod
Related Guide: How to Build the Best Melee Loadout in Payday 2
Better Bots Mods
This mod is impressive because it makes your AI teammates more helpful. They feel alive! As the mod description states, the original friendly AI in Payday 2 “is designed to be a couple of guaranteed Jokered cops with health regen instead of virtual recreations of actual players.” Better Bots Mods completely changes that by tweaking the AI and making it feel more like players. Here are some of the most significant changes made to the bots with this mod:
- Bots can dominate cops
- Bots Can dominate, intimidate and mark NPCs
- Bots are now able to hit any target
- Bots now wear a ballistic vest and ammo or doctor bag to make them feel human
- Bots’ targeting has been changed, and they now prioritize their target based on difficulty and distance
- Improved reactions
- Bots now will use throwables
These are only some of the changes made to the AI with this mod, but there are a ton more that will make them feel like real teammates.
Link: Make Bots Great Again
Hotline Miami Hud
As big fans of the Hotline Miami games, we had to try this mod immediately. This Payday 2 mod changes the main menu and every aspect of the HUD in-game.It will be an incredible addition to your experience, and you won’t regret it if you are a fan of Hotline Miami.
This mod adds:
- Color options
- Hud scaling
- Combo counter
- Stamina display
- ECM timer
- Inspire cooldown hint
- Bulletstorm indicator
- Custom chat
- Auto skip menus
- Interaction toggle
- And more
Link: Hotline Miami Hud
Related Article: The Best Payday 2 Stealth Build
Third Person Mod for Payday 2
If you are a big fan of third-person games, you will love this mod as it will let you play it like one.
This mod allows players to switch between third and first-person views at will. This mod also enables you to adjust the camera settings.
Remember that this game was made for the first person only, so not all the animations in the third person will look good. In some of the actions, the movements can look, well, weird! Also, the timing is not perfect since the hip-fire crosshair is not centered for third-person gameplay. But if you can better orient yourself from this point of view, this Payday 2 mod’s foibles are worth tolerating.
Link: Third Person Mod
LIES Mod (Little Intelligence EnhancementS)
As we mentioned before, the AI in Payday 2 is far from perfect, especially the enemy AI which sometimes can feel clunky and irrational. It’s common to have countless enemies rushing at you and concentrating in one spot, which breaks immersion. In Payday 2, players fight enemies that go from regular cops to special ops trying to counter your actions, and seeing them not using any tactics just feels off.
LIES mod will help you improve the enemy behavior during your missions, making it more tactical and updated. As the mod description states: “I can’t lie, there’s not an easy cure for PAYDAY 2’s vanilla AI, with years of old, outdated, and relatively broken code, it’s a wonder that it works at all to begin with, which is why most of the major rebalance and overhauls tend to re-factor a large majority of it into something that suits their style of gameplay.’’
As the description says, it is impossible to make the AI 100% better due to how the game is built, but this is one of the best Payday 2 mods because it is the closest players can get to fighting a living enemy. Enemies are more tactical in this mod, cooperating with their teammates and following more logical routes.
Link: Little Intelligence EnhancementS
Conclusion to Our List of The Best Mods for Payday 2
We hope you can improve your experience with these mods! We tried each of these mods before they made it onto our list, so we can vouch for them. You can also explore modworkshop.net for more mods, as it is full of them!
Feel free to check out our other articles on Payday 2 and other games on our website. For those looking for a challenging yet fun loadout to run with, check out our guide to the best Payday 2 dodge build. And for those who enjoy the fast-paced, crime, FPS shooter, you may also want to check out the best mods for Ready or Not. It’s a great tactical shooter from the other side of the law.
Good Luck, Good Heist!
