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Imitations
This article is about the lore development in the PAYDAY Series. For the Crime.net chronologically arranged heists in PAYDAY 2, see Story Line.

This is the timeline of events in the PAYDAY franchise.

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The timeline of PAYDAY: The Heist has no official order of which the heists take place in-universe, or canonically.

PAYDAY 2 used to also have no official timeline, and with the much larger array of heists, was more frequently debated, with only few things certain. That was the case until the release of the FBI Files, which contains an official timeline in the "Heist Database". However, some people question whether it is the actual timeline or just a possible order.

PAYDAY 3 is the most story-driven of the 3 games and has a clear order in which the heists take place in the story.

Pre-PAYDAY Era (?-2011)[]

After ten years on the run as a result of his illegal past, Nathan Steele/Dallas goes through the criminal equivalent of a midlife crisis and decides he wants to operate with a crew of criminals. Bain, a mysterious man with a lot of connections who no one has ever seen the face of, reaches out and grants him his wish. Bain and Dallas proceed to contact and recruit three other members to the new gang they were forming: James Hoxworth/Hoxton, a British career criminal who once worked with his own gang in London; Wolf, a violent and unhinged man who suffered a psychotic break when his video game company went bankrupt, leaving him and his family on the streets; and Nicklas/Chains, a former military veteran-turned-mercenary with extensive field experience. Together, they formed what would soon become the infamous PAYDAY Gang, a crew of dangerous criminals with intimidating clown masks concealing their identities. With Bain orchestrating everything behind the scenes with CRIME.Net, the newly-formed PAYDAY Gang wanted to wage a war against the U.S. Government and make a mockery of them through the crimes they would soon commit.

PAYDAY: The Heist (2011-2012)[]

First World Bank[]

The PAYDAY Gang introduced themselves to the public by inflitrating and clearing out the vault inside of the First World Bank in New York. Bain had an inside man plant a drill and two cans of thermite inside the copy machine in the bank's server room for the gang to use to break into the vault. Using the keycard they obtained from the bank manager, the gang got into the server room, obtained the drill and thermite, and used the former to drill open the security gate leading to the vault. As they waited for the drill to finish its job, they went ahead and erased the bank's security footage as a SWAT team arrived to apprehend the heisters. Once it was finished, they made their way towards the back and ignited the two cans of thermite in a room directly above the vault. The thermite effectively burned through the floor and the gang proceeded to clear the vault of all its money. Once all the loot was bagged, the gang fought their way through the SWAT team in the lobby and used C4 to blow a hole in the wall next to the server room on the second floor. The gang ran through the building, down the stairs, and escaped via a garbage truck Bain had waiting as their getaway.

The Heist Continues[]

The PAYDAY gang had made a name for themselves thanks to the success of their first heist. What followed was a series of jobs in which the gang went on to cause havoc throughout New York and get rich while doing so.

The Heat Street job in particular put the gang on the map since it took place in broad daylight in the middle of the city. The gang snuck into a Manhattan Embassy and obtained a plate-filled briefcase. As they were about to escape undetected, their escape driver, Matt Roscoe, double crossed the gang by shooting the crew member holding the briefcase, taking it for himself, and driving off. The PAYDAY gang pursues his van on foot through the streets of New York to get the briefcase back. Unfortunately, Matt’s gunshots alerted the civilians nearby, as well as the NYPD, so the PAYDAY gang had no choice but to fight through a police blockade on the way. Bain attempted to send a second getaway driver to help the gang catch up with Roscoe, but failed because not only did the cops have roadblocks everywhere, but they managed to shoot him and crash his van as well. Matt got into an accident and the gang reached his location. To convince Matt to get out of his car, the gang poured cans of gasoline around it and lit them on fire, forcing him out of the car to avoid suffocating to death. They found that Matt had handcuffed the case to his arm, so the gang took him hostage and escorted him to their escape chopper. After removing the case off of Matt, they let him get arrested by the police.

Another time, the crew went to an apartment building in the NY projects run by a gang of drug dealers, led by Chavez. The crew posed as customers in a phony drug deal with the intent of gaining access to a Panic Room full of cash. The PAYDAY gang is invited in and places the money on the table in front of a drug dealer, who heads off to find Chavez so he can get them their shipment of meth. They then put their masks on and wiped out the entire gang. One crew member cable ties Chavez and swipes his keys, allowing the rest of them to open the red door leading to the panic room. The crew then placed four saws - two on the sides of the panic room and two on the floor below - with the goal of taking the entire room with them using a magnet attached to Alex's helicopter. Once the saws finished detaching the panic room, Alex delivered a bag of C4 to the PAYDAY gang and they blew large holes in the roof, 5th floor, and 4th floor. Alex then flew back with a large magnet attached to his chopper. The gang attached the magnet to the panic room and he flew away with the entire room as the gang fought off the police. The gang then escaped through the sewers.

One of their most destructive jobs was the time the gang blew up a bridge to intercept a prison transport and free a wealthy Chinese businessman's son from police custody. To do this, the crew planted explosives on the Green Bridge and activated them. This caused a passing tanker to detonate and blow the bridge in two.

Some of the PAYDAY gang's jobs were not so loud and destructive though. One of the first times the gang took a stealthy approach to a job was the first time they robbed the Garnet Group of its diamonds. The crew used a glass cutter on a window to breach the building. Then they successfully snuck past the guards and hacked the alarm boxes around the building in order to deactivate the lasers surrounding the vault full of diamonds. Unfortunately, the vault code given to them did not work and the gang got caught by security. The crew had no choice but to intimidate the CFO of the company and Ralph Garnet to get the vault code. The gang also stole an extremely valuable red diamond (likely a garnet) locked behind more security measures. The tactics the gang used in Diamond Heist would be used for many of their future jobs, but they would manage to not actually trigger the alarm in the process.

Mercy Hospital and the Guide of Cagliostro[]

As it turns out, Bain had greater motives beyond just making money. Bain had been wanting to uncover an ancient secret that no criminal organization has ever been able to uncover. To begin his research, he needed to get his hands on the Guide of Cagliostro. This guide contained valuable information and strategies for planning and conducting heists which would be used by Bain and the PAYDAY Gang in the near future. A shady individual agreed to give him the book in exchange for two samples blood from an infected patient in quarantine in one of the isolation units at Mercy Hospital.

As the gang fought off the police assault, a mysterious military group with a shark logo arrived at the hospital. The Air Force attacked the building with missiles.

The four barely make it out alive with two samples of infected blood. After they escape via Bile’s helicopter, Mercy Hospital collapses and burns to the ground.

Bain decided he was going to cut ties with this mysterious contact for good, hoping the events that took place today wouldn’t come back to haunt them in the future. Little did Bain and the rest of the gang know that they would.

Slaughterhouse[]

This was the PAYDAY Gang’s first direct encounter with MurkyWater after their attack on Mercy Hospital.

Counterfeit[]

Undercover[]

Stealing the ancient Mayan gold (OVERDRILL)[]

Hoxton Arrest (2012)[]

At an unknown time between the setting of the first and second game, the original Hoxton was left behind after a job gone sour. However, all of this was after the first PAYDAY game as his lawyer in "Intro" song in the Merry Payday Christmas Soundtrack says "Look, they got you. You understand? They got you good. You were caught on tape at the Garnet Group break-in, your fingerprints were all over the panic room, and your apartment is filled with blueprints from banks in D.C." This suggests that they had already moved to D.C. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Intervention and incarcerated at the same high security prison, Hazelton, and cell as their previous driver, Matt, whom he regularly beats up, which he sees as "karma" for double-crossing them.

PAYDAY 2 (2013-2023)[]

Testing Dallas’ Skill[]

The PAYDAY Gang’s return[]

Vlad[]

Hector[]

The Elephant[]

Hoxton Breakout[]

Golden Grin[]

Locke’s betrayal[]

Breaking into the FBI[]

The Medallion[]

Shacklethorne Auction[]

Henry’s Rock[]

Hell's Island[]

The greatest heist of all: The White House[]

Finding Baldwin's Lament[]

Silk Road[]

City of Gold[]

Texas Heat[]

...[]

It has been confirmed by Overkill that PAYDAY 2 takes place after PAYDAY: The Heist.

In the tutorial heists, Bain mentions it has been two years since Dallas has last participated in a heist, which would align with the release dates of PAYDAY: The Heist and PAYDAY 2.

There were also various boxes in the pre-Update #110 safe house named after various heists from the first game. It is speculated that these boxes contain loot or equipment from those heists.

Pre-FBI Files Release[]

Until the FBI Files were released, confirming PAYDAY 2's timeline, the order in which the heists took place was almost entirely up in the air. All that was known at the time was that Hector's heists took place in a definite order, along with The Dentist's and The Butcher's heists, though the order of The Dentist's heists are less defined. Additionally, some voice lines indicate a sort of order regarding Vlad's heists.

Hector Timeline[]

It was known for certain that Watchdogs takes place before Firestarter and Firestarter before Rats, both based on Hector's comments at the end of the former, and the elimination of the Mendoza cartel's D.C. operation in Rats would make Firestarter occurring after Rats impossible.

After the PAYDAY crew fulfills his contracts, Hector tries to seek protection from the FBI but is eventually assassinated in Hoxton Revenge. His death would later be mentioned by Vlad in the Goat Simulator heist, in a remark about the "void in the powder trade" that appeared after Hector was killed, ending his cocaine operations.

The Dentist Timeline[]

Even though not one of The Dentist's heists, he and his heists put The Elephant's Election Day heist along The Dentist's timeline.

In The Dentist's introductory video, he mentions the First World Bank and Election Day heists while talking to Dallas, along with teasing some of his heists, supporting that Election Day occurs before any of The Dentist's heists.

Hotline Miami is The Dentist's second heist, following The Big Bank. In the heist, the Payday Gang kills The Commissar so The Dentist can convince the District Attorney, whom has relations to the Commissar, to lower security around Hoxton. Since the Election Day heist is committed so The Elephant can have Hoxton be transferred to a lighter-security prison, Hotline Miami would have to occur after Election Day, as if it were the other way around, the act of lowering the prison's security would be moot, since Hoxton would be transferred to a different prison anyway.

The Dentist's next two contracts are Hoxton Breakout and The Diamond, though it was unclear in which order. In the Hoxton Revenge heist, The Dentist's fifth heist, evidence boards show footage of Clover breaking into the FBI office with the rest of the crew in Hoxton Breakout, even though she was released alongside The Diamond, released after Hoxton Breakout.

The Dentist's last heist is Golden Grin Casino, taking place after each of his previous heists. Said heist takes place before the Reservoir Dogs Heist, Breakin' Feds, and Henry's Rock with Bain's capture and the box bearing very similar markings like the other ones taken by the crew. In Hell's Island, it is revealed he has turned into a traitor and has joined forces with Murkywater.

He is eventually killed by the crew in The White House for holding Bain at gunpoint in an attempt to stop them, should the crew solve the secret.

The Butcher Timeline[]

The Butcher's two heists occur in a "What if?" scenario.

The Butcher's Forest contract takes place if the crew doesn't do the Dockyard contract, and the bomb is loaded onto the train that the gang assaults in the Forest heist. However, neither heist retcons the other, both heists canonically taking place in the PAYDAY universe.

After The Bomb: Forest or The Bomb: Dockyard, The Sosa cartel sinks one of her ships, then contracts the Payday Gang to kill Ernesto Sosa.

While not the contractor, The Butcher's men are involved in Alaskan Deal.

Vlad Timeline[]

In Meltdown, which takes place after Shadow Raid as indicated by the open, empty samurai armor vault, when one of the warhead cases is opened, Bain may reference the Mallcrasher and Ukrainian Job heists ("Vlad, smashing malls is one thing, stealing tiaras is one thing, but nukes?!"), indicating that those two heists take place before Meltdown, and likely Shadow Raid.

In Aftershock, when one of the safe trucks is opened, Bain will reference the Ukrainian Job and Meltdown heists, further reinforcing the heist order in the files.

Goat Simulator takes place sometime after Hector's death (and therefore, Hoxton's Revenge), in which Vlad mentions the death of the former drug lord created a void in the powder trade.

Post-FBI Files Timeline[]

The release of the FBI Files not only confirmed that the heists added to the game post-release take place in the order they were released in, clearing up the mystery around Hoxton Breakout and The Diamond, it also confirmed the order the heists in the game since its release are in. It is shown in the Heist Database that Four Stores is not only Vlad's first heist, it is also the first heist in PAYDAY 2. It also confirms Jewelry Store to be Bain's first contract and Big Oil to be the Elephant's first. It also shows that Beneath the Mountain is Vernon Locke's first contract, which is also supported by Bain voicing suspicion upon completion of the heist

Jimmy Timeline[]

Murky Station takes place before Boiling Point, as in Murky Station the crew and Jimmy steal the EMP bomb they need to access the hidden lab in Russia in Boiling Point. Also, Murky Station occurs after Locke's Beneath the Mountain and/or Birth of Sky heists (but allegedly, prior to Alaskan Deal), as Bain mentions stealing the EMP bomb would earn favors for him.

Vernon Locke Timeline[]

At some point after the PAYDAY crew conducted heists on Murkywater such as Shadow Raid and Meltdown, Vernon Locke manages to infiltrate Crime.net with the original intention of destroying it as tasked by the shady organization in an act of vengeance. However, being the mercenary he is, Locke instead proposes to work together or otherwise he will "press a red button" to shut down Crime.net for good. Bain, having no other choice, agrees with Locke's offer. The mercenary then pushes the PAYDAY crew to steal valuable items in a Murkywater stronghold and infiltrate a cargo plane owned by Murkywater to retrieve pallets of cash and eject from said plane.

Eventually, Locke receives a tip off that leads the crew to pursue the treacherous Matt on Heat Street, claiming "an organization is set out to destroy the gang" with Matt being a possible member. He assists the gang in sending Bile to extract them once after Matt is apprehended.

All seems well until Locke arranges a weapons deal with The Butcher in Alaskan Deal. Soon after the crew arrives, Locke seemingly betrays them and leaves the area for the police force to capture or kill the gang. Bain swears his revenge and promises to get even with him. The PAYDAY crew succeeds in escaping, and proceeds to subsequently cut off Locke's finances in the Diamond Heist.

In a surprise twist, Locke returns but this time, assists the crew when Bain himself is captured by Murkywater/The Kataru in the Reservoir Dogs Heist. Bain's last words in that heist mention to trust Locke in spite of his earlier betrayal and says he was "getting close to something big". The mercenary promises to take care of the crew and expresses his condolences for Bain's demise. With his absence, Locke has taken over Bain's role and leads the Payday Gang in Brooklyn Bank where they unearth a medallion.

As revealed in Brooklyn Bank, Locke claims that Murkywater is responsible for the latest events and has caught ear of his acts against the mercenary force and therefore, has severed their communication ties with him.

After The Elephant becomes detained, Locke orders the crew to retrieve a box that was previously under the crooked politician's possession in the Breakin' Feds heist. Solomon Garrett is present but the crew avoids alerting and killing at all costs as ordered by Locke. The crew steals the box and with the last of his Murkywater personal favors being used up, Locke sends them to Henry's Rock, a Murkywater secret underground facility that holds two additional boxes of certain interest. However, the Payday Gang is exposed and forces the heist to go loud, with waves of both Murkywater PMCs and law enforcement swarming the facility. Undeterred, the gang succeeds and escapes with the intended possessions.

Thanks to The Elephant's tips, the crew steals a black tablet in the Shacklethorne Auction heist and then launch a rescue operation for Bain in Hell's Island. Despite Murkywater having trained their personnel to mimic the law enforcement and deal with the Payday Gang in advance, they succeed in releasing Bain. On the rooftop of the Murkywater owned prison, Bain is seen in person for the first time, holding Kento's corpse. The reunion is cut short with Bain collapsing from what appeared to be results of prolonged torture. However, the truth is far worse. Murkywater had performed experiments on him, injecting him with a virus stolen back in No Mercy a few years back and effectively giving Bain limited time before it claims his life.

Undeterred, Bain watches over the crew one last time in The White House heist with Locke filling in for him, intending to see his co-heisters be free of legal persecution by stealing 24 presidential pardons. Succeeding yet again despite the odds, Bain congratulates the crew and says he is proud of them, right before the virus apparently claims his life. His funeral is held in Mexico not too long after, with most of the Payday Gang throwing in their masks into the hole.

There is, however, an alternate ending which may instead be the real canon (be warned that this contains spoilers, more than what was above): The Payday Gang, after infiltrating the P.E.O.C. in the White House, see a Mayan painting with "markings" that were apparently seen before in a museum as according to Locke. Upon removing the painting and detonating the wall with C4, an old tunnel, most likely initially used for mining upon appearance or first glance, leads to an elevator in which Locke will tell the crew to take it down. Locke's signal will break up as the gang get deeper. Once they stop, there is a giant wheel with cryptic markings that can be activated. Upon activation, dark entities will attempt to apprehend the crew. Whilst fighting the entities, the crew must pull and push levers to turn certain parts of the wheel. When it is solved, the wheel and walls behind it open, revealing a giant (vertically mounted) cylinder shaped cave with a structure resembling a Mayan temple, such as Chichen Itza in the middle in model-size. Soon after the cave closes behind the crew, the Dentist announces his presence by stating the crew's names. He had taken Locke and Bain hostage, and advises the crew to let him in and not to meddle. When the door opens, the crew shoots the Dentist from a safe distance so the Dentist couldn't shoot Bain or Locke. The cave then begins collapsing, forcing the heisters to rush as they take the Dentist's Mayan gold to the center, inserting the golden bars in the bar-shaped molds around the model temple.

The cave fills with lights, and goes white. The heist is over, Bain thanks the crew for everything, and from the player's perspective upon completing this, will unlock a short movie, "Offshore Payday". Within the short, is the crew gathering around on a beach; All seems well, Locke is golfing, Dallas has a boat named Medic Bag, and they begin to watch TV. The President of the United States, looking to be Bain reincarnated from the mysterious device in the cave into the President's body, awarding Commissioner Garrett for stopping crime on the streets. Bain/P.O.T.U.S. ends with a closing speech, saying at the end, "America, let's do this." The crew claps and the movie concludes. The player also has a second movie, which is an epilogue of what happened to the crew after all of this.

The Classic Heists[]

Starting with Update #84, missions from PAYDAY: The Heist were reintroduced into PAYDAY 2 as Classic heists. The canonicity of these heists are not clear, as some elements of the remade heists contradict with their original depiction.

  • First World Bank is stated in-game to be a revisiting of the bank after it reopened following its previous robbery, and the FBI Files allude to this stating it has "all the hallmarks of a classic job", but its location appears to have been moved from New York to Washington D.C. This fact is made even weirder by the later Heat Street remake still taking place in New York and containing advertisements featuring the First World Bank.
  • Slaughterhouse does not make any allusions to being a redo of the earlier heist and Bain's briefing and the heist's file in the Heist Database imply that this specific heist has not been done in the past.
  • Counterfeit's Heist Database file states that the counterfeiting operation had been ongoing for years, meaning the original heist never took place, assuming the file is canon.
  • Undercover has the entirely same premise as the original, but the remake's Taxman goes under the name Adrian rather than Eugene. The same heist occurring but with a different yet related IRS employee, involving a similar 25 million dollar hack, is rather strange, however not entirely implausible.
  • Panic Room, on its announcement page on the Hoxton's Housewarming Party, is stated to be a reenactment of the original by the request of Sydney, but in-game it is stated that should the heist be successful, it will go down in history, implying that a similar heist did not previously occur in-universe.
  • Heat Street canonically occurs twice in-universe, with Bain noting that the experience is similar to a past event.
  • Green Bridge seemingly also occurs twice, yet Solomon Garrett's notes imply that an incident like it has not been seen before.
  • Diamond Heist, possibly occurs twice, based on Ralph Garnet's voice mail to his father in the heist trailer.
  • The events of No Mercy back in PAYDAY: The Heist is said to be canon, with the virus stolen ending up in the hands of Murkywater and being injected into Bain. However, the PAYDAY 2 version is a flashback of those events.

Lost Tapes[]

PAYDAY Gang Assassination Attempt[]

PAYDAY 3 (2023-)[]

No Rest for the Wicked[]

Gold & Sharke robbery[]

Mason Laurent’s mansion[]

Locke’s Return[]

Syntax Error and SINS[]

Unresolved Storypoints[]

  • The boxes, amulet, the book of Bain and the diamond - Were they apart of the secret. The Storyline left this unresolved with a sudden return to Bain instead.
  • The Virus - Is it in the air. What was Murkywater trying to learn from the No Mercy virus?
  • Vlad - His warheads may have used for the nuclear blasts around the world. The Dentist lead a journalist to him, but nothing else was said about it..
  • The Elephant - After his arrest and release, he assisted the Payday Gang with the boxes and set up an investigation in the capitol. Nothing has come of that as of late.
  • Overkill MC - After The Biker Heist, The Elephant tasked the Payday Gang with being his replacement for the MC, performing tasks they would originally do. Nothing came of this.
  • Dragan's phonecall - Nothing came of it.
  • Gage - Teased for something by his actor, but nothing came of that. The last known mention was Alaskan Deal(?)(On the website for the weapons?).

Trivia[]

  • It is known for certain that First World Bank is the first heist to take place in the timeline. Its position on the list in the heist selection screen, the description of the heist, newspapers in Counterfeit, and the description of the heist's PAYDAY 2 remake plus comments made by Bain confirm this.
  • Initially, both Overkill Software and Valve Corporation confirmed that No Mercy is not canon in either the PAYDAY universe or the Left 4 Dead universe. This was changed in PAYDAY 2 in which the stolen virus ended up in the hands of Murkywater and is used to infect Bain after he was captured by them.
  • No Mercy must have occurred before Slaughterhouse because it is heavily implied this is Bain's first encounter with Murkywater.
  • Counterfeit occurs after at least Slaughterhouse, if not every heist in the game, as when putting the drill on the Frank Yaeger safe, Bain will comment on how unlike the "other ones", this drill won't jam.
  • There is little continuity within the heists in the first game, with only the order of the heists in the heist selection menu possibly indicating some sort of timeline. For example, it is presumed Undercover is the last heist to take place in PAYDAY: The Heist due to it being at the bottom of the heist selection screen list.
  • GO Bank, White Xmas, Stealing Xmas, Santa's Workshop, and Brooklyn Bank are the only heists known to take place during winter. The trailer for The Diamond heist shows a Christmas tree in one of the rooms, showing that it was previously meant to also take place in winter.



Gameplay • Heists • Skills & Perk Decks • Weapons & Equipment • DLC

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