Panic Room/Walkthrough

Panic Room is the third heist. The crew must go to a drug deal, kill the dealers, and take a room full of cash.

Walkthrough

Entrance (back alley)

Get ready! Ambush alert!

Go into the apartment block.

There is a small chance (higher on Overkill difficulty) that you will be ambushed by the drug dealers before you enter the building, in which case the first three objectives will be skipped. This is indicated by several factors:

• the first entrance to the building is locked.
• the second is guarded by three gangsters instead of one.
• a crew member saying "I have a bad feeling about this".
• the gang members demanding for money.

Drug deal (lobby)

Wolf with Chavez.

Have someone go into the marked room, and place a bag on the table. The others should take up postions to storm the building.

After the drug deal, you'll be able to go up to the second floor (Sometimes Chavez is in the drug room). But don't stay for too long, the drug dealer will notice you and automatically start the heist.

Start the heist

Start the heist and start shooting all of the drug dealers.

Locate the panic room (floor 3)

Run up the stairs, shoot drug dealers, and find the Panic Room. There are drug dealers in almost every room, so if you want the trophy for killing all of the drug dealers in 60 seconds, have everyone pick a floor and kill everyone on their floor.

Find Chavez

Chavez will be wearing an orange sports jersey with his name on the back. Find him quickly for a trophy. Take the key by either threatening or killing him. After you have done this is the ideal time to look for cash bundles, which will be in hidden locations, like windowsills, cupboards, air conditioning units, tables, and shelves. There will usually be 1-3 bundles behind the red door, as well as within the locked rooms that only law enforcement can open, but don't unlock the panic room until you are certain have found all the other bundles, since opening this door sends in the cops.

Get into the panic room (floor 3)

Open the marked red door. This can only be done by the member who took the key from Chavez. Cops will now storm the building.

Detach the panic room (floor 2 and 3)

Set up saws in the marked locations. I recommend having one person stay on floor 3, to keep the saws running, and stop cops that go up the stairs. You may want a sniper on the roof or a balcony, and the other two should stay in the lobby to keep out cops.

Keep the saws running (floor 2 and 3)

As the saws jam, your floor 3 guard can restart them. Only have one person doing this, as it will take 2-3 people to keep the cops out.

Wait for the explosives (roof)

Have 1-2 people go to the roof, the others should either stay in the lobby, or retreat up the stairs to floors 2 or 3.

Take out the snipers (roof)

There will be about 5 snipers popping up on nearby rooftops. 1-2 people should be able to take them out fairly easily.

Rig the C4 charges

The bag of explosive will randomly drop in one of three locations: on the roof behind the access stairs from floor 5, on floor 4 of the fire escape that leads all the way up to the roof, or in the back alley. You can only carry 3 charges at a time, so you will have to run back to the explosives bag to resupply, or have more team members carry them. Start placing charges in the marked locations: 3 charges on the roof, 3 charges on floor 5, and 3 charges on floor 4. Ensure someone keeps at least one extra charge while planting the explosives, because it will be needed for the escape at the end of the mission.

Move away from explosives (floor 2)

As soon as all 9 charges are set, everyone must retreat to floor 2 before Bain will set them off. The faster the entire team gets to floor 2 the better, so only shoot law enforcement who directly threaten you while you move so you can get on with the heist.

Secure the roof (roof)

Now move everyone to the upper floors, 1-2 people to the roof to secure it while the rest hold the line on floor 4. Cops will begin jumping from neighboring roofs onto your building. Special units tend to use the roof access and the building behind it (while facing the opening). Cops also tend to attempt to fire on your team from the neighboring buildings, and a bug exists where cops may clip over the buildings to get back to the neighboring building. Maintaining presence on the roof from this objective on to the Escape and keeping law enforcement from reaching the grafiti at the center will earn you a trophy.

Attach the magnet (floor 4)

Now have one person attach the magnet to the panic room, with at least one partner to defend him. Keep at least 1 person on the roof.

Defend the helicopter (roof)

At this point, there are 2 options for completing the heist. Either way, at least 1 person has to take care of the snipers and other law enforcement on the neighboring buildings until the coast is clear for Alex to make off with the panic room.

The first strategy is to keep everyone on the roof in preparation of a daring alley escape, while the other is to send 2-3 people down through the building to clear out as many law enforcement as possible while waiting for Alex to leave.

Escape (basement)

As soon as the helicopter pilot says, "Okay, I'm pulling this shit outta here," start moving towards the basement. Use the fire escape in the alley to descend floor-by-floor until you reach the ground; if however you are not confident about your ability to use the fire escape without downing yourself, then run down through the building, but be prepared for significantly more resistance, especially from Shields even if there were crewmates clearing out the building prior to the escape objective.

Once you reach the ground, place a C4 charge on the basement door. This is the only C4 charge in the game that can down or even hurt players, so move at least a few feet away from the explosion. There are sometimes gangsters, cops or a Bulldozer waiting past the door.

Escape times by difficulty

Normal	Hard	Overkill	OK 145+
5:00	3:00	2:00	1:00

Additional rewards

• 12 money bundles spawn out of 54 possible locations inside the building. They cannot be destroyed by the C4 explosion.
• Room 145, which is on the second floor, can only be accessed on Overkill 145+ difficulty and contains 48 money bundles; see the section Are there more than two?.

Variations and events

Heist Start

• The heist will start normally, with the crew walking into the building, and putting their masks when they are prepared.
• When the crew walks into the alley behind the building, there may be some gang members there preventing them from reaching the door. The gangsters will request the crew leave the money, then attack, starting the heist. This has a higher chance of occuring on higher difficulties.
• Once the crew is inside the building, if any player attempts to walk past the guards on the stairs before the deal is initiated, then the heist will automatically start. This is also true for the guards guarding the stairs leading to the 3rd floor and you can't go past them at all without forcing them to attack you.
• When the deal is done, if you wait around for several minutes, the drug dealers will notice that the money the crew gave them is fake, causing them to launch an ambush on the crew.

Chavez

• Chavez starting location changes per heist, though he will never start on the first floor. Chavez will also run to escape the players, making him even more difficult to capture.

Locked Doors

• At the beginning of the heist one of the two back doors will be locked.
• A room with two doors in the lobby may be locked. If not, there is a window which can be used to shoot out at police from.
• The door leading to the staircase on the 5th floor may be locked.

Snipers

• There may be at least three snipers on the buildings across the street.
• At least four Snipers will set up on the roofs of the buildings across the alleys of the apartment building.

Escape

• When you reach the basement during the escape sequence, there may be several gangsters waiting inside to ambush you. This is more common on higher difficulties.

Unique achievements

Are there more than two?

Find ten money bundles. This achievement can only be unlocked by a player who personally collects at least ten bundles, so human players can prevent teammates from earning the achievement by picking up bundles. For this reason, it is advised that pursuers of this achievement attempt it only if all teammates agree to avoid picking up any bundles.

The locations of the bundles are randomly generated for each heist, with sometimes more than ten. Common placements are on the floor, near air vents, in boxes, on furniture, and on counters. A bundle is sometimes found on the roof, near a vent or even on the ground. No bundles can be destroyed by the C4 explosion.

The team can search most of the building without enemy resistance by refraining from opening the panic room after clearing the building. However, a bundle is often found in the panic room and several other rooms only become accessible when the police break down their doors, so progression through the heist is often necessary for the achievement.

The most common crowbar location: the laundry room.

A player at reputation level 145 or above can quickly find ten bundles by opening room 145, which can only be opened in Overkill 145+ difficulty.

To open room 145, pick up the crowbar in the laundry room (if the room is closed, then jump from the second floor to the laundry room's window), opening the locked door on the second floor by the stairs with the crowbar (room 145), and scavenging the room for bundles of money.

There are 40 money bundles in the room, so all four players can unlock the achievement in a single playthrough if everybody picks up exactly 10 bundles. On occasion, the bathroom inside the room can also be opened, granting access to a little more cash.

The crowbar can only be acquired after the heist is started, and it is not highlighted, making it more difficult to find. There are several possible locations in which the crowbar could be spawned, but the most common one is the laundry room. In contrast with other heists with crowbars, Panic Room's crowbar is not a necessary item and only one of them spawns.

Hot lava

Prevent law enforcers from reaching the graffiti on the center of the roof in panic room from the Secure the Roof objective until the Escape objective on hard or Overkill difficulty. You will have to have played the heist from the start.

There are several good spots for players to defend the graffiti, mostly behind the vents or the main staircase. Players should spread out somewhat and quickly eliminate cops who come from the main staircase (if it is open, as sometimes it is locked, making this achievement easier), cops who jump from the two adjacent buildings, those that climb from behind the main staircase, and those who ascend the fire escape. However, sometimes a Swat helicopter will appear on the roof and drop enemies close to the graffiti, even a bulldozer, so it's recommended to take them out first.

You can run but you can't hide

Take the key from Chavez within the first 45 seconds of starting the mission – i.e., the point at which your masks are donned. To complete this challenge, you will have to have played the heist from the start.

Don't make the drug deal, just go inside and pass the blocking thugs. Chavez is spawned on floor 4, and will either go upstairs or downstairs. Kill him, or tie him down on sight to take his key, though shooting him is faster and does not incur a trade penalty.

There will be random chances of him spawning in the drug deal room on the first floor, thus making the achievement laughably easy to unlock.

Quick draw

Kill all armed thugs in and around the apartment building within 60 seconds of you and your crew drawing your weapons. You will have to have played the heist from the start.

Because of the number of kills required in a short amount of time, it is recommended that you attempt this with as many human players as possible. The team should partition the floors so that each player spreads out and clears a different floor. The player who finds Chavez should kill him on sight, take his key, finish clearing their designated partition, and then open the panic room, as it usually contains 2-3 gangsters (don't forget to check the fire escape). Another player should be waiting at the other end of the third floor for a door to open, as there is usually one gangster behind it as well.