Joy

Joy
PD 3 PD 2 Mask Joy in Payday 3. Joy in Payday 2. Joy's character icon.
Career information
Role	Hacker
Signature weapons
Ranged	Signature Akimbo Signature
Melee	Hackaton
Grenade	Pocket ECM
Biographical information
Nationality	Japanese-American
Language(s)	English, Japanese
Age	22 - (PAYDAY 2) 27 - (PAYDAY 3)
Physical description
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Build	Slender
Ethnicity	Asian
Other
Portrayed by	TBA
Voiced by	Siu-See Hung
Quotes	Quotation page
Room	Joy's Van
Internal name	`joy`
v·d·e

FBI Description

FBI Files:The ranks of the Payday gang are bolstered again. With the issues they are facing in regards to their leader Bain, it appears they needed someone with superior hacking skills. Our intelligence suggests that the individual going by the name of “Joy”, comes to the gang by way of Vernon Locke, perhaps head-hunted from Murkywater. Could it be that she was also behind the (rumored) attempted hacking and shutdown of Crime.net?

She is possibly the youngest member of the gang, and surveillance suggests she is an exceptionally skilled computer wizard. Behavioral specialists at the Bureau also speculate that she may be naive, with a strong ideological identity, so could perhaps be swayed to become an asset in the future, though it has proven to be exceptionally difficult getting criminals connected with Payday to flip.

"You have one life left, cats. Don’t make us waste it!"

—Joy in her bank speech

Joy is a Japanese Hacker, the twenty-second playable character released for PAYDAY 2, and the fifth playable character released for PAYDAY 3 alongside Pearl.

Previously exclusive to the Nintendo Switch release of PAYDAY 2, Joy was released as a free character to the PC editions of the game as part of operation ICEBREAKER on August 13th, 2018.

Background[]

Joy's been a cyber criminal since her younger teens. She's a skilled hacker, when it comes to tech and computers. But she also knows how to handle a gun and she's as tough as they come in spite of her young age. As protegé of the shrewd Vernon Locke, Joy joins the ranks of the Payday gang with her cyber-security expertise on offer. With the mounting threat of the enigmatic Kataru, it will be increasingly important to protect Crime.net from interlopers. This is where Joy will show her worth as a member of the crew.

Trivia[]

Joy's LED mask briefly flashes in the patterns of the signature masks of several Payday gang members in the Switch teaser trailer, in the order of Dallas, Houston, Chains, Wolf and finally Clover.
- Houston's mask pattern is omitted in-game, but Hoxton's and Bonnie's are present.
Joy is the second Japanese heister to be inducted into the gang after Jiro.
Joy is the fifth heister to not conform to the gang's standard suit, on top of also being the first and so far only female member to not wear a suit.
It is implied that she is the hacker responsible for the infiltration of Crime.NET. Locke previously claimed that he did this himself, though it is possible he was hiding her involvement for future use.
- If this is true, this implies that they had been working together for at least a few years prior to her introduction to the PC version of the game.
Joy's choice of alias and the red-and-blue coloration of her mask are references to her home platform's controllers, the Switch's Joy-Cons.
- Joy's shoes are also colored after the Joy-Cons.
- Joy also references Nintendo consoles in her pager lines. By her own admission, Joy currently owns every Nintendo console ever released.
- Joy also has a Nintendo Switch visible in her pocket.
At age 27, Joy is the youngest member of the Payday Gang.
Technically speaking, Joy does not have her own room at the Safe House. Her accommodations seem to consist entirely of a van that she drove in from elsewhere.
One of the pins on Joy's jacket features five dots in a pattern that is likely a reference to Conway's Game of Life, in which this combination of dots can be inputted to create a "glider", the simplest possible object capable of moving in a predictable pattern.
Being a gamer herself, most of Joy's voice lines are fairly meta, referencing a "heist game", another one asking "when's payday?", and refers to healing items as "health potions", among other things.
Formally joining the gang in mid-late 2018, Joy is the member with the shortest staying time among the crew as of the end of PAYDAY 2.
- However, it can be inferred that Joy had joined the crew much earlier, as she is seen as one of the heisters who participated in the City of Gold heists.
Joy is the only playable heister that has voice-lines for all other playable heisters when she calls out for them. However, no other heisters have lines recorded for her.
According to Locke, Joy had direct involvement with all heists after her release, excluding the San Martin Bank.
- She acquired the invitations for the attending crew for Shacklethorne Auction Heist.
- She acquired the Murkywater identification for the crew for the White House, (though it is highly unlikely this ever would have worked, considering the faces of all members of the gang, including her, are known by the FBI, ZEAL, and Murkywater.) as well as providing Locke with the programming to hack the computer to the vault.
  - Despite Locke saying Joy provided the program, the computer clearly says that the hack uses Wolf Root, which was designed by Wolf for the Undercover heist.
- She warned Locke of the Murkywater supply line destroyed during Border Crossing.
Joy's hands are noticeably smaller than those of any other heister, making most weapons fit improperly in them. This formerly caused other heisters to have a clipping issue involving her signature melee weapon, the Hackaton.
Joy's pants have various mathematical equations, writings, and drawings on them. Most of the writing is incomprehensible due to being in low quality (as well as being in cursive.)
- One of the clearly visible writings on her upper right leg is "7A120 / (SB)2 + 8! + bobblehead - 111 = ?" The mathematical equations appear to be comprised of both trigonometry and algebra.
- The drawings could potentially be graphs, though there is little to no context as to what they could be for.
- As for the writing, she has two small paragraphs or sentences on her upper left leg, as well as another just above the first tear. It is very difficult to read any of the writing for the previously stated reasons.
Despite being listed as Japanese in the game and FBI files, Joy is a first-generation Japanese American. By her own account, she has never been to Japan, though she has the desire to go there.
Joy also doesn't have any voice lines recorded in Japanese, though she does claim to speak the language. This includes Jiro, whom she does not have any special dialogue with in the safe house.
Similar to Sokol, Joy has an affinity for ice hockey. If interacted with in the safehouse while playing as Sokol, she will tell him she loves the sport and "can't believe" he used to be a pro player, implying she recognizes him from his previous career. One of her pager lines involves her talking about the sport, saying she believes the Queens will have a good year.
In two of her Taser lines, she will refer to the unit as "Electro." This is a reference to the Marvel villain of the same name, who controls electricity and has the desire to become a god-like figure.
In the beginning of Beneath the Mountain, Joy may say "Murloc-... I mean, Murkies everywhere." This is likely a reference to the Murloc, a race of bipedal amphibious beings in the Warcraft universe.
In her teaser art and the case for the physical copy of the Switch version of the game, the colors of Joy's mask are much darker, and the skull icon is over the red and blue split. In-game, however, the colors are brighter, and the skull pattern is its own pattern rather than placed over the red and blue split.
Joy's sub-machinegun, Signature SMG, bears a similar name as the Signature .40 Pistol. This is due to the real-world variants of both weapons being produced by Sig Sauer.
It was revealed before the release of the Jiu Feng Dragon Pack that Joy is originally from San Francisco, and was contacted by Jiu Feng about jobs in the city.
The opening to the Dragon Heist implies that it would have been the first time Locke introduced Joy to the rest of the gang.