WMG / PAYDAY 2

There will be a DLC map in Payday 2 involving British Hoxton's prison break.

• It's clear that the fans have a love for the original Hoxton from the first game, and many have a disdain towards the new Hoxton. The Christmas soundtrack reveals that Hoxton is in prison and plans on breaking out. This DLC map would not only be about aiding in Hoxton's escape, but may even have one of the four players take control as the original Hoxton as he awaits rescue, AND fights along side the other players! Sure it's not a heist, but it is a prison break, and breaking buddies out of prison can be just as awesome!
  • Also hinted further in the teaser web site for the Eating contest Day heist. Bain tells the crew that if McKendrick gets elected to mayor (with some help from the crew of course), the man can use his connections to move "an old colleague" to a lower security prison."
    • Finally, confirmed as of The Dentist announcement.
    • Totally called it!

The Elephant will betray the Payday Crew.

• The Elephant is rather ruthless when it comes to eliminating the competition against his political goals, and he appears to be above cutting loose ends himself to ensure no possible issues will come that could threaten his reputation. Not to mention, Bain constantly fears that this will happen to them in the event that the Elephant thinks that they outlive their usefulness to him.
• Furthermore, it is possible that the Dentist may end up helping the Payday crew (likely as a contract). He is similar to the Elephant in some ways (having connections, having a dark interior to their otherwise friendly exterior, etc), except he sees the Payday crew as a major benefit to him (he did make it clear to NOT betray him), whereas the Elephant simply sees them as a means to the end.
• Someone did betray Hoxton and plans to incarcerate the rest of the crew, as discovered in the Breakout mission.
• Jossed. The Elephant did not betray the crew. It was Hector.
  • Then again, the Elephant DOES have a role in bringing in Commissioner Garrett to stop them. Whether this is tying up loose ends, simply covering his own ass, or putting in a competent cop who he can safely get close to for Bain while keeping up appearances is yet to be seen.

The upcoming female character is/was Jim Hoxworth's lover.

• The teaser featuring her had the dark setting with a similar birthday cake, along with her singing happy birthday, all during a crimefest 2014 stream. All likely her celebrating Jim Hoxworth's birthday.
• This could even make it a nod at the fact that Scotland was seeking their independence from the U.K., since she is Scottish, and Hoxworth is British.
  • Half confirmed. She's an acquaintance of Hoxton's, but not his lover.

There will be an eight playable character.

• It will be Ilija the sniper. He has gotten more friendlier with each heist to be release, and he may be asking for his own mask, which could make him effectively one with the crew, and thus, a playable character.
  • Jossed. The eighth playable character is Dragan, a crooked cop sent by The Butcher.

The person who betrayed Hoxton and the rest of the crew is...

• Alex, the pilot from PAYDAY: The Heist. Easily the most abused person in the game for his repeated mission-complicating bungling (Or is it...) his reputation for screwing up is so big Bain still refers to it in Payday 2. He also never directly participates in heists, usually just showing up to move things around, but has enough contact with the crew to know who they are, or at least a lot of DNA evidence in his helicopter. He's close enough to the crew to know them, he's trusted enough to not be immediately suspicious, he hasn't committed enough crimes to be facing a massive sentence, and with the arrival of the much-more-reliable Bile as helicopter pilot he's probably feeling threatened as well. He has all the motivation to sell out Hoxton in exchange for his own safety and turn informant on the rest of the crew while still 'working' for them. Also telling is how in the only two missions where he shows up in Payday 2, Big Oil Day 2 and Rats Day 3, suspicious things occur, such as the usually-failed ammunition drops and the cops' unusually rapid response time to an isolated area in Big Oil Day 2 and the armed gangsters with a bus full of explosives on Rats Day 3. Both seem like ambushes. On a meta level, he's important enough to be known but not important enough to derail the narrative entirely, and let's be honest, a lot of veterans of The Heist really want to kill this guy.
• Dallas. He cut Hox lose after the man got too violent, and now regrets the decision. He uses the Dentist's connections to free Hox in the hopes that the truth would never be found.
  • Seems unlikely, given Hoxton says that the FBI has data on all the heisters and the Dentist actually approached Dallas with the idea of breaking Hoxton out. Also, Dallas can still put up with Wolf.
• Bain, for the same possible reasons as Dallas and possibly Alex. Bain knows literally everything about the Payday crew, sets up their jobs, and most importantly, always has a backup plan. The idea that he would put the crew into a situation where they would ultimately be forced to leave one of their own behind because there was no backup plan makes it seem likely that Bain planned it that way, for some unknown reason. He sounds pretty enthusiastic about breaking Hoxton out, but maybe that's only because he knows that Hoxton will never trace it back to him.
  • While there have been times Bain has struggled to come up with a backup plan, it's also possible this is part of a long-term scheme of his and the informant's DNA is fake. Also notable is the fact that while he freaks out about going loud on Firestarter Day 2, he doesn't on Breakout Day 2 despite the MUCH higher profile of what the Crew is doing, as if that's what he expected them to do.
  • And for the same reasons as Alex the Pilot from the first game, many people want to put Bain down at last.
  • Bain via Gage. It was noted on the teaser page for The Bomb that Gage mysteriously vanished not long after Hoxton broke out and The Butcher is now supplying the crew's guns. Perhaps he's hiding? He would have no motivation to do it himself, but perhaps Bain told him to do it knowing he could then use Gage as a scapegoat if the crew ever found out.
• Someone in Hoxton's past life. Hoxton had wronged many people before he came to the PAYDAY crew, so it could be possible that one person stepped up and got the dirt on Hoxton so he could suffer as long as possible for the things he did. He swindled people and got involved with debt problems, so it's likely someone got sick of his shit.
• Perhaps The Elephant, as noted by a guess above.
• Matt Roscoe. Hoxton claims he knows it wasn't Matt because he knows all Matt's secrets, but maybe Matt's been holding out on this one. He has a lot of reasons to hate the crew and after his experience in Heat Street he'd gladly turn on them in a heartbeat, even if it meant going to prison himself. He certainly knows everyone in the crew, and his involvement with them would explain why the FBI has his DNA on file as well as why it would be on some of their forensic evidence - Matt did bleed all over everything during Heat Street after all. It would also lead to a pretty badass heist involving breaking into Hazelton Prison to abduct him (something Hoxton jokes about doing during his own breakout).
• Vlad; all of Vlad's missions are but petty errands, it's inevitable. He's trying to fuck them over.
  • Vlad is petty-minded and fairly small-time compared to everyone else, so his heists being petty and small-time make sense in context.
• A character from the Web Series, such as Lucas or Greta.
• It could be Gage acting on his own- he either got arrested for his own illegal activities and sold out the crew for a lighter sentence, or just sold them out for a huge payoff (which will be the reward for the job where you settle up with him.)
• All Jossed. Hoxton's Revenge reveals Hector to be the traitor, and all his jobs were FBI ploys to catch the Payday gang.

The greatest heist that Bain is preparing the crew for is against the Murky Water Mercs.

• Anyone who saw the first episode of the Web-series, Bain makes it clear that all the heists the crew goes for is training for the biggest heist in history. Basically, the cops, FBI, and even Gen Sec, are all just target practice for the crew to face against a greater threat. Not to mention the only armed group that Bain refuses to let the crew shoot through are the Murky Water Mercenaries (getting caught in the Shadow Raid results in Bain forcing the crew to leave within one minute), probably because they weren't ready to deal with them yet. Furthermore, the first game had Murky Water Mercs as enemies at the butcher shop, and they were a lot tougher than the regular SWAT officers. Every heist is just training the crew to go up against them in the event that the ultimate heist goes south.
  • As an alternative theory, the greatest heist he's planning is against the CIA. The CIA logo features prominently in the backgrounds of various planning documents, but has never taken center stage or even been mentioned yet. But they are in Washington DC, and the Payday crew has been attacking everyone else with impunity...why not the CIA?
    • Alternative alternatively, The biggest heist he's planning is the robbery of mercy hospital...to get the green flu...Aka, the no mercy heist....
• Confirmed, really. Maybe not in difficulty or reward, but in terms of what you're stealing, it's hard to imagine that even the Dentist's Loot from Golden Grin will be more significant than the little thing you boosted for Vlad in Meltdown.
• Partly Confirmed due to the unusually large presence of Murkywater at the White House

The Butcher will be female.

• More specifically, she'll be voiced by Clover's Scottish actor; Overkill said she'd voice an upcoming character.
  • Confirmed, but she's Eastern European.

The Butcher will be directed to the gang via Clover.

Clover's a nice lead in to introducing The Butcher.

• Jossed, but there's a new playable character.

Clover shoots Dallas In the Back at the end of The Diamond trailer.

• At the very end, after Clover narrates the diamond's history, we see Dallas reflected in a glass case reaching for the diamond itself. We suddenly hear a single silenced gunshot and a bit of blood splatters on the display case. As none of the guards use silenced weapons, it had to be one of the other heisters, and none of them have any reason to attack Dallas so far (except Hoxton, but he would've done it already). Clover likely thought to pull a stunt like she did with Hoxton originally, shooting Dallas and making off with the diamond herself. Given who Dallas is this probably won't end well for her... which fits with the Diamond's tale perfectly.
  • Or it's a Cloaker. And Dallas was probably just downed.

Wolf will introduce the eighth playable character.

• I could believe it. Let's see...Chains served with John Wick during his army days, Dallas brought in Houston to replace Hoxton, Hoxton was Clover's mentor...everyone in the original gang except Wolf has introduced someone to the crew. Maybe he's next up on the list after all! Or he hasn't introduced anybody because he's a lone Wolf...get it? Either way, if Wolf does introduce somebody, who could it be?
  • Jossed. Dragan has absolutely no prior connections to any members.
  • Wolf possibly has his turn with Jacket, if the implications from the Hotline Miami heist trailer are true.

Hector will have a new contract that will be a part of a free update.

• The Elephant has Eating contest Day, Vlad has the Xmas Heist, and Bain has countless solo missions in terms of contracts released after the game was released. Now it'll be Hector's turn.
  • Jossed. Hector IS involved in the free Hoxton's Revenge heist... as the traitor who sold out the Payday gang.

Breaking Bad and Payday are in the same continuity.

• Apparently, both Hector's cooks and the Commisar's cooks know the recipe to make Walter White's blue meth, which means that has gotten out somehow. Hector is aware of Heisenberg's existence. Plus, not much is known about Gustavo Fring even to this day, specifically, his family is hardly mentioned. It's possible that the Dentist could be Gustavo's twin brother, and happens to be in the same sort of business. Only this time, he's aware of his brother's mistakes and intends to avoid making them.

The game takes place in Valhalla.

• That explains the endless waves of cops, and how none of the crew ever die no matter how many times they get shot. They're already dead. They died a long time ago, and they are now living in Valhalla, where they will fight until the end of the world. Bain is Odin, who can change his appearance, and the new characters are all recently killed warriors from the criminal underworld, brought to Valhalla and given scenarios they're familiar with.

Bain is Smooth Mcgroove.

• Or well, this universe's version of him. I seriously cant be the only one that seriously thinks the actor who played bain looks exactly like him right?

Hector being the traitor is a meta example of You Have Outlived Your Usefulness from Overkill.

• For a long time, the Rats job was the most exp-heavy of the lot, and people rushed it constantly. With Hotline Miami and Hoxton Breakout dethroning the Rats job from that distinction, with Hotline Miami having a meth lab of its own, and Cook Off somehow yielding more exp than regular Rats and not having escape missions, Overkill decided that Hector's jobs and presence have been rendered redundant.

The continuity of Hotline Miami and Payday 2

To explain Jacket's presence would mean to consider the following possibilities:

• Hotline Miami IS in canon with Payday 2
  • We are yet familiar with the political structure that exist within Payday 2, at least not completely. It is possible that there was a US-Russian Coalition, but it may have gotten disbanded after the nukes fell on San Francisco, and eventually Miami, and everything resumed to just the US with remnants of the Russian mobs still existing, plus Jacket somehow surviving fallout.
• Hotline Miami is blended into Payday 2 in a sort of another alternate universe. In this instance, there are many variables involved, such as if the war in Hawaii did happen, if it ended differently, if 50 blessings had failed their assassination attempt, etc.
• Hotline Miami is a work of fiction in the Payday 2 universe, and the Jacket in Payday 2 is a copy cat!
  • He just so happens to be so good at his job of murdering Russian mobsters that he became just like the character, and even developed a reputation that sort of brought him to life.
  • This seems the most likely. Given we have heists that take place in Pensacola (Counterfeit), Los Angeles (Aftershock), and Russia (Boiling Point), all three of these would offer Bain a chance to comment on the events of Hotline Miami were they true in the Payday universe. Additionally, one of Jacket's nightmare lines from Prison Nightmare strongly implies he's not the real Jacket. Hotline!Jacket is also almost bleach-blonde while Payday!Jacket has more brownish-blonde hair.
• Deus Ex Machina
  • Jacket simply escaped through a portal to a parallel universe right before the bombs fell and somehow ended up in this universe. This could explain why he wraps his hands with his fingers exposed. Even if the police do gather his finger prints, they cannot identify a man who doesn't exist!
• Jacket might not be the actual Masked Maniac, but simply a copycat killer who's a fan of the game taking up the mantle in the Payday-verse.
• It's all but confirmed that Hotline Miami is an in universe game as one of the safehouse upgrade for Jacket's room includes an arcade machine (possibly custom-made) of Hotline Miami.
• I think that Hotline Miami did happen, but the timeline split off at the end of Hotline 1. So after Jacket kills the entire mob he does not turn himself in but he goes on the run, When he was in a coma the killings slowed down and when he awoke they started back up so they found out that it was him and it explains his change in mental state from game to game. He has been off the grid for over 20 years.

There will be a heist (or a series of heists) to clean up the mess Hector made

• Among the evidence you find include photos and names for most of your contacts, including the Dentist, Gage, The Elephant, etc. Especially for someone like the Dentist and the Elephant, there is no doubt the FBI will be onto them since Hector is out of the picture, and presumably have no other leads to follow.
• One idea is another rescue heist. With Gage on extended vacation, maybe the FBI will visit him, and there will be a contract where you must rescue him.
  • Debunked. Gage has returned through the Ninja Weapons DLC pack.

Bain has been preparing three sets of crews.

• There is the old crew consisting of Dallas, Chains, Wolf, and Hoxton (who was previously replaced by Houston, who assumed the same codename). Then the new crew consisting of Dragan, Bonnie, Houston, and Clover, who fulfill similar roles to the old crew. Then there are the hired guns: John Wick, and Jacket, who are both renown for being ruthless, deadly, and very much capable when needed for the job; the back up crew if you will.

Dallas has asperger's syndrome

• In Dallas's in game bio, He is described as being "Not the social type" and is the canon "mastermind" behind the heists, Being not very social is a common symptom for people with asperger's and autism in general, you could argue that him being the mastermind would mean he is specifically an "autistic savant".
  • This seems highly unlikely, since many of the Mastermind skills revolve around manipulating people and assisting your own crew, and Dallas' background has him manipulating two crime families into war with each other. Hardly talents that indicate difficulty in relating to people. Just because he doesn't like socializing doesn't mean it's a neurological issue.
  • Seconded. Auties tend to be painfully straightforward, even naïve, and tend to see situations in black-and-white. Deception isn't in their nature. I watched the entire web series and the Dentist trailer, paying particular attention to Dallas, and saw no sign of any of the personality or behavior markers I would recognize in an autistic person. "Not the social type" can mean a lot of things; in Auties it's typically a very withdrawn behaviour, not meeting eyes, and appearing to be in a world of their own. On the other hand, many Auties can be very friendly and outgoing. (For the record, my 21yo daughter is autistic; while I wouldn't claim to be an expert, I've had quite a lot of exposure to the condition.) Dallas showed none of that. I would say that Dallas is definitely not autistic. ^note For a good example of typical autistic behaviors, consider watching Alphas and paying attention to Gary Bell.

Crime.net is on the deep web

• In case you aren't aware of what it is, the deep web is a place on the internet only accessible from applications like "tor". it is filled with tons of stuff...you don't want to see, such as online drug markets, hitmen for hire, sellable slaves, etc. Essentially, considering the deep web is filled with such illegal shit, and considering the NSA, It is heavily likely crime.net is on there.

Hoxton wasn't arrested, he was killed

• Hoxton was killed by hector(albeit disguised hector) in counterfeit, now. after that, hoxton was sent to hell, where he was tortured by satan, hence the burns on his face and mask hoxton, of course, was replaced with houston after the ol brit's death, but the crew didn't truly accept that hoxton died, so they still refered to him as hoxton. the reason as to why hoxton was sent to hell, Is because he got a little too violent, even killing civillians at times. hoxton breakout took place in purgatory, purgatory in the payday universe simply looks like the real world, like the matrix
  • Hector is also shown to be very violent in the web series.
  • I doubt that this is the case, considering he's alive and kicking. It would have to be an incredibly convincing stunt double or something in order to fool not just the gang, but also the police and even Commissioner Garrett into thinking it's him. Also, given who Hoxton seems to be known as given what material he's given, I doubt Hector would have succeeded if he tried to kill Hoxton. Also, it's general consensus that Hoxton's face burns were as a result of bleach.

The game is basically Deus Ex and the crew are actually Robin Hoods.

• The game's lore is actually a giant conspiracy where corporations like Gen Sec (under the control of a larger conspiracy) exercise sway over the government. The main facets are:
  • Cloning technology exists (but is kept secret from the public). Police maintain a secret heavy presence and have outposts on every block. This explains the seconds-long response times, the huge amounts of police the crew face, and why they are treated as expendable (they have to be for the cops to use them like they do).
  • The government is putting something in the water or the air that makes people ludicrous and illogical, and even child-like. It explains why civilians engage in those ridiculous conversations that can be heard in heists like Big Bank and Car Shop, and why they try to flee when bullets are flying past their heads. As evidenced by people like guards and bank employees the crew, it affects some people more than others, or there is some sort of medication that counteracts its effects.
  • The Payday Gang are secret philanthropists who use their earnings to help people get out of the government-induced poverty and aid other revolutionaries against the Illuminati. This, combined with the fact that the cops probably can't be counted as real people since they're dumbed down clones made to kill, shifts the Payday Gang from Villian Protagonists to Anti-Villains. Their having a sense of morality also explains their refusal to kill civilians.
    • A few lines of the lyrics of 'Payday For You And Me' support this particular claim.
    • The "secret philanthropists" thing is basically canon, although it's less "secret" and more "incidental". The First World Bank heist, if done quietly, involves getting a code from one of the bank's internal network terminals, but there's no way to figure out which one it is except trial and error. If you pick the wrong one, Bain will cheerfully erase various excessive debts from random bank customers' records while he's in there. Considering some of the characters' backstories, particularly Wolf and Dallas, they have plenty of reason to hate predatory lending and usury.

Hoxton learned about a certain lyric in "I've been a Bad Boy" the hard way.

• The line in question is "...and certainly no watch for you, if you ask a woman when she's due (and it turns out she could, you know, use a little exercise)". Hoxton might have asked that question to Bonnie.
  • If that is the case, I'd die of laughter

With more John Wick content coming, a Wick game, and a sequel to the movie, we'll get a cameo of the Payday gang in the sequel.

I mean come on... games-to-movie, movies-to-games, and trans-media franchises are all the rage. It would even give Lionsgate' a new movie IP to spin off and use.

Bain is Kento

While yes, Bain's voice actor Simon Vilkund(who in case you didn't know, is also the composor of the game's soundtrack) is Swedish, who says Bain is neccessairly Swedish? Considering kento's very existence was a secret (at least before Jiro's boss found out), who else would know about Kento other than Jiro's wife, Jiro himself or Kento himself?

• The Web Series shows Bain's face slightly, and it's not the least bit Asian.

Houston suffers from depression.

Houston is known for being a quiet keep-to-himself kind of person within the team, on top of the fact that he's known for being The Scrappy as well as finding difficulties being accepted by both the fandom and even his own team-mates. Worthlessness is one of the major symptoms for depression (and the fact that he's generally quiet might be an indication of how he feels on the inside), and if the way he is treated by his team and the fandom is any indication - as well as anything else that Houston might be going through off-screen or between heists - chances are Houston's self-worth is deteriorating.

• The fact that Hoxton constantly belittles him at every single opportunity (to this very day, no less) probably doesn't help matters, either.

Bain is gay.

Dude just sounds a little too pleased about finding a "good" china store (implying he's interested in porcelain on a level to have criteria for what makes a china store good or bad) and finding original art pieces on the job (implying that he knows fine arts well enough to tell an original masterpiece from a reproduction without actually inspecting it himself), plus his general mother-hen pestering of the crew when they're on the job. These things don't necessarily prove he's gay, but considering that he's reclusive, mysterious, suggests himself to be ex-military (and if he's American, he most likely would have served at a time during don't-ask-don't-tell policies), what's one more secret?

The crew is returning to previous heists from the first game just to hit them again

• With First World Bank now in the game, Bain may sometimes say "back to where it all started" when choosing the heist on Crime.net. The crew doesn't seem to have any reason to return to the bank other than robbing it again. They'll return to old haunts like No Mercy and The Diamond Heist to get those valuable pieces of loot again and indulge in the juice of the action.

Captain Winters will join the Payday gang at some point.

He's sort of a weird blend of both Captain Americas (Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes, also "Winters", as in "Winter Soldier", natch). It'd fall right in line with his homage for him to grow dissatisfied with law enforcement because he finds it corrupt or immoral, and turn to heisting as a way to fund his own campaign to clean up law enforcement when he gets busted down for objecting. He might even Go Mad from the Revelation a little like Wolf did. And after all, he'd make a damn fine Mastermind.

In the Payday universe, cloning and genetic engineering are standard practice for law enforcement, and Gen Sec Industries leads the way.

It explains a lot:

• Why killing civilians delays hostage trades, but killing huge numbers of police doesn't. They're mass-produced clones that are considered to have no human worth. The special units are given more advanced training (particularly cloakers, whose fancy martial arts probably cost a lot in trainer fees), but none of them are technically "real" people.
• Why the police are happy to send an army's worth of cops to respond to everything the Payday gang gets into, even to defend other, possibly worse, criminals. This is also why the Captain does the smart thing and actually runs the Hell away once his team of elite shields is killed; he's a specially-engineered police unit and considered more valuable than the others, but he never shows any emotion about losing his teammates, implying that they're mass-produced, and he knows it.
• Why Bain is eager to help the average schmuck whenever it's convenient and gets mad about killing civilians, but doesn't care about when you kill cops who have been taken hostage.
• Why cops and guards are easily dominated and turned against their own teammates/superiors; they're engineered to obey, but have no families or morals beyond obedience, so a sufficiently charismatic leader (ie, a Mastermind) can easily overwhelm them.
• Why Pager Guy doesn't give a shit about anything. He's a clone and he knows it, he probably doesn't even get paid, so he works according to the guidelines of his job and doesn't bother raising the alarm, no matter how obviously fake the pager responses are, unless he's required to do so by the rules.
• Why it's called Gen Sec. It's short for Genetic Sequencing Industries.
  • This part's Jossed. Gen Sec used to be called "Generic Security" before having the name shortened.
    • Although it could still work; The 'Generic' part of Generic Security could refer to how all the officers are generic.

It also implies that, in the Payday universe, not only has cloning technology been perfected, it's also been thoroughly legislated. The ethical and moral implications of cloning humans in a way that amounts to mass production would raise huge concerns with the public, but major corporations have been using "creative" interpretations of legalese to skirt around that kind of thing. In Gen Sec's case, they've arranged it so that cloned police are legally considered property, not people, which neatly gets them out of having to pay them or afford them any basic human rights, but it also means that the Payday gang can kill hundreds of them without ever committing homicide. It's the only reason Hoxton didn't get a death sentence even after he should, by all rights, be considered one of the most prolific spree killers in human history. The most they could charge him with was grand larceny and destruction of private property, neither of which warrant capital punishment.

• It would explain the rising crime rate and the need for Crime Net to exist in the first place. If police work and private security are all exclusively done by clones with no human rights, that removes an entire industry from the job market. Some of the bank jobs have background characters who are either in bad financial situations, or trying to make money on questionable inventions, and although the Payday gang seems to be Bain's pet team, Crime Net apparently caters to a huge criminal market. Of course the crime rate would go up, unemployment is probably at an all-time high.
  • The FBI Files actually say that a lot of security guards in the game are ex-MPD. It would explain why the guards seem to not notice so many things that are obviously wrong. They may have been replaced with clones and now, the simply don't care anymore or may want the police to look very incompetent as revenge for having them replaced.
  • This could also explain the Cowboy Cop tendencies of a lot of the MPD Officers, they could be trying to prove that they are just as good as the cloned officers.
• Going along with this, Twitch could possibly be a clone on the side of the Payday Gang, given that it's possible for him to die in a van crash but still pick the crew up minutes later. With the addition of Jimmy to the crew, this gains even more plausibility, as Jimmy is himself a clone.
• The FBI Files could be interpreted as also backing this up. Commissioner Garrett specifically points out how they have 'plenty' of SWAT personnel, when the vast majority of a Police Dept. would be made up of Police Officers and Detectives, not SWAT Officers. And he also says that the Yellow SWA Ts are being lost to poor decisions at the command level. As there must still be some human police officers and detectives, as evidenced by there still being a Commissioner, it makes sense that they would be lost to poor command if they are being treated as if they are property and not people.
• All but confirmed with "Boiling Point", provided it's canon. Most likely they've been working with Akan in some way, but the Crew in that job steals the DNA for Akan's clones. From the looks of it, the two are in the same universe.

The reason the Goat Simulator Heist pays so well is because the crew demanded to be paid extra.

If the trailer alone as well as the heist itself is anything to go by, the Payday Gang are both annoyed and distressed by the job Vlad sent them to do - and who can blame them? What they thought was a simple retrieval of coke ended up being a retrieval of goats that led them on a wild, dirty, challenging and logic-defying chaotic chase around the city, mainly due to Vlad withholding information from the crew once again and the goats being problematic little buggers for the team. Simply because of Vlad putting the gang under so much bullshit (or rather, goat-shit) in the heist across both days, the crew got so pissed off for what Vlad put them through that they actually demanded to be paid heftily for doing the dirty job. Vlad likely complied because he seems far too off the deep end to realise the gang's plight or anger, or just doesn't care.

Speaking of Vlad...

The Payday Gang will kill or betray Vlad at some point.

Vlad was considered nuts by Bain from the very first contract they take for him (Four Stores), and has gone further and further down the deep end ever since. He has connections to the gang, but that doesn't necessarily deem him safe from their wrath if they decide to turn against him, not least because of heists such as the Meltdown and the Goat Simulator Heist, if the latter were to be considered canon to the storyline.

Now, why would the crew go against him? Simple - Vlad's noticeably more apparent insanity as well as constantly being as unhelpful to the Payday Gang as he could be, intentionally or otherwise has led to some pretty hairy situations. The very fact that he withholds important information alone led the Payday Gang to be completely unaware of the fact that they were being sent to boost nuclear warheads in the Meltdown heist.

The Payday Gang may take Vlad's contracts more for now, but eventually he may end up crossing the line and the crew and Bain will tell Vlad that enough is enough. And they'll do that by deciding to kill him, or rat him out to the cops. Besides, what happened to the last contractor that pissed the team off that much? Ask Hector.

America in the Payday universe has some serious overconfidence issues.

As anyone could tell you, common sense pretty much indicates that in real life, banks would not have several hundred thousands of dollars in cash on hand at any given time, specifically because of the possibility of getting robbed. That's just how it is and why most loot payouts in Payday wouldn't tally to most real life robberies. In Payday, however, the banks are all ridiculously loaded to the brim with cash, gold or other goodies. There isn't any reason given as to why the banks all do this - but it could be possible that Payday's America is just too confident and full of themselves to move it to a safe place, almost as if they're inviting criminals like the Payday Gang to try and rob them.

This is somewhat supported by the Alesso Heist's background and why the gang go there - because Gen Sec were boasting about how their vault in their arena is supposedly impenetrable and that they loaded it with tons of money. To the Payday Gang, they were simply like "Challenge Accepted" and breached the vault without anyone noticing, making Gen Sec look like a bunch of ninnies for bragging like that. This kind of cocky behaviour could also be interpreted as being lampshaded in the GO Bank job, when Bain notes the hatch and the ladder leading to the roof.

Bain: An access ladder, with the hatch unlocked. These sloppy assholes deserve to be robbed.

Bain will have Locke killed.

Either offscreen or by the crew in a stealth-only mission. Locke is not only an asshole and a massive wildcard, but he has the capability to do serious damage to Bain's work if he chooses to, which he will do the minute he gets a better offer. He's a huge liability, and one that Bain will remove from the picture the instant he stops being useful. Day 1 would involve killing Locke himself and hacking his systems to see where all his evidence is, then Day 2 would involve breaking into his office and either stealing or destroying all his computer equipment to remove all trace of Crime.net.

• Considering Locke has only had two missions to establish himself thus far (and was only mentioned in the opening of the Murky Station Heist), there isn't really any evidence to say that Locke is feigning his loyalty outside of insulting the team at times (unless he deliberately chose Black Ridge and the Zeus airplane as targets to try and incriminate them, but that has yet to be seen). That said, however, the fact that he made it clear to the crew that he could take down Crime.net at the drop of a hat probably doesn't help his case if the gang do turn on him suddenly. He's probably worse off than, say, The Elephant. But I suppose we'll have to wait and see.
  • Bain isn't worried about Locke feigning loyalty, he's worried that Locke has no loyalty at all. Not to the Murkies, not to Crime.net, not to anything but himself. While this is true of a lot of the other contractors, and even some of the crew members like Rust, none of them is capable of doing the lasting damage to Crime.net that Locke can, and Locke is the only one among them that would benefit from it (as bringing down Crime.net is his literal job). Bain guards Crime.net zealously, and it wouldn't be a surprise if Bain wants to get rid of that uncertainty.
• Potentially confirmed with the revelation from the new heist Alaskan Deal; Locke does indeed betray the crew in the mission (and the Butcher too, by proxy). His fate, however, is yet to be determined.
  • ...and Jossed, for now. Reservoir Dogs Heist has Locke replace Bain as mission command due to Bain's location being compromised and captured by unknown assailants.

Alternatively to the above WMG, The Dentist will order Locke killed, or will do the deed himself.

Granted, he's left the Payday Gang as of the Golden Grin job, but he's never made it clear that such a thing was permanent, as he may tell the crew that he'll contact them if he needs them again. Even then, it was only a single "contract" that consisted of the multiple heists and he might offer another one-time deal for Locke's assassination. This seems more likely when you consider he offered the Hoxton Revenge contract despite Hoxton ordering it - the reason being because the FBI had him on an evidence board, and his run of crime was of course at risk because they now had suspicion on him - a small lead. Not to mention he had told Dallas that he has the same powers as Locke (well... sort of) but he's always seemed loyal from the start, moreso than Locke at least. If he can do that to make a member of the crew disappear or seem unrecognisable, he could do so to someone he deems a threat. Locke may end up becoming one such person if he decides to backstab the gang.

Locke is not a traitor.

With the Alaskan Deal heist ending with him being marked for death by both the PAYDAY gang and the Butcher, my guess is that he did it only to try and draw out the organization that wanted to destroy the PAYDAY gang, mentioned back in Heat Street. With Locke knowing of their existence, maybe he turned traitor so that he could be a Double Agent.

• Confirmed by the Reservoir Dogs Heist.

The group that captured Bain is the same group that Locke told us about in the Heat Street heist.

Given that Locke said that someone is "out to destroy the PAYDAY gang", it seems pretty clear that taking out Bain is a good first step to destroying Crime.net.

And speaking of the group...

This group is comprised of former criminals and associates of the PAYDAY gang.

All of the gang's enemies, past and present, will be involved. The Garnet family, Bob McKendrick, the Mendoza cartel, Winters and Garrett, the remnants of the Russian mafia, Akan's forces, Murkywater, GenSec… everyone that the gang has pissed off, will pitch in to fund and train a crew of PAYDAY gang-killers. These guys are the same ones that featured in the PAYDAY 2: Crime War trailer.

Scott Sagano will be killed by the Payday Gang, or most likely just Rust.

To elaborate, Scott Sagano is mentioned in Rust's FBI Files bio as being a survivor on the brief attack at the bar where Rust shot his old comrades, and is a member of the Overkill MC to boot and has agreed to side with the law enforcement in exchange for protection. Considering we know how well this worked for the last person who sided with the FBI, chances are this won't get Scotty much further if at all, even moreso if he has any more information that the gang wants their hands on.

Bain can somehow make the gang perceive what the players can see.

Admittedly, this is a bit of crack-WMG, but then again you do have to wonder about how the gang knows exactly where they're going or what to interact with in certain cases. Even more telling that something strange is going on is that Bain will actually tell the crew that he's "marked" certain computers or whatever - why would he say that to the crew unless he knew that they could actually see that marked outline? If he was directing it to the player only, then the crew would have no idea what he's rambling about.

• Semi-confirmed: Bain's Guide, released with the Career Criminal Edition, talks about "some futuristic glasses" which had been modified by Russian hackers, in order to explain the detection meters^*  Scroll down to page 11 . It's not unreasonable to say that all the HUD elements are projected onto these glasses, along with marked interactions.

The BCI Helmet stolen in the Biker Heist will become a Chekhov's Gun for the gang to use in a future heist.

That sort of thing does seem like it would interest the gang and would make them want one of their own. Also because it would be awesome to control a drone, wouldn't it?

Hoxton called the cops on us.

During the Hoxton Housewarming Update, the cops were apparently tipped off about shenanigans at the new Safehouse, prompting an attempted raid. Who ratted us out this time? Bile? Vlad? Nah, it was Hoxton. In the leadup to the update itself, Hoxton wrote the invitations to the party and commented with a laugh that he "might as well invite the fucking cops" as well. Given his increasing agitation at things like the mob mocking the food at the party and Houston having a giggle behind his back, it's entirely possible he decided he needed to let off some steam... and LITERALLY "invited the cops" with an anonymous tip, casually confident that the assembled crew could easily fend off a handful of pigs expecting a drug den and really looking forward to popping some helmets.

Payday 2's story will end with Bain getting arrested, not the crew.

As much work as the crew does, Bain is the real heart of Crime.net, the system through which the crew meets their contacts and gets their jobs. Bain's arrest would leave the crew in a bad state, unable to get the sort of jobs they're used to, and would result in many members of the gang eventually going their own separate ways (giving a good plot reason for why a sequel may not have all the heisters returning from Payday 2). This could mean that either someone else steps up to take Bain's role (likely Dallas, but perhaps Hoxton or Vlad) or that the very first heist of Payday 3 is breaking Bain out of custody by either crashing his trial or breaking into prison. Subsequent heists would start small, building Crime.net or its replacement back up, then get larger and larger as the crew gets more and more contacts again (and the developers get more comfortable creating bigger heists on a new engine).

• As of the Reservoir Dogs heist, this one is looking less plausible, but not entirely inaccurate. Bain's gone missing, and it doesn't seem like its' the cops that have him.

The Safe House Raids are a Batman Gambit on Hoxton's part.

Going off of the above Housewarming Party theory, Hoxton not only called the cops on us for the initial attempt, but developed an entire plan around just such an eventuality - just in case the cops ever got suspicious again after the first time. If he suspects that the cops are approaching the Safe House and are about to storm the place, then he simply just informs Bain to alert the crew, has Aldstone go into the lower levels and just locks off the area connecting the main floor to the basement so that the cops can't raid the vault. And then asskicking ensues. For the first attempt, he simply left an anonymous tip to the police that suggested the Payday Gang's whereabouts, with Hoxton counting on the police to take the bait, which they did.

This also explains why the Safe House Raid is listed as a mission under Hoxton's name, despite not being a contractor - because the raid countermeasures came from him, seeing as how it was his idea to move to the new locale in the first place.

Locke was in a Marry Them All situation at some point.

Based on the comment he may make in Birth of Sky: "Good things come in threes. Like that week all my wives died." Must've been a Henpecked Husband if this kind of thing satisfied him.

There will be a series of Grand Finale heists

This set of heists will be the final update to the game, when that comes around. They will involve settling unfinished business somehow related to each contractor. Each heist would be linked to a contractor, and require a player to finish all their heists to unlock it, except for Bain's, which will also require all other finales to be complete. For some ideas.

• Vlad: A crazed scheme that will somehow involve the nukes from Meltdown. Maybe the crew will have to protect them from being set off by a group of corrupt cops.
• Hector: Considering his current state, his finale will probably be related to what was left behind by his death. Perhaps the remnants of his cartel will try and get revenge.
• The Elephant: Considering his actions, it wouldn't be surprising if he wanted to become president. The heist will have the crew eliminate a No Celebrities Were Harmed version of Trump, in order to open a path for The Elephant to step in.
• Locke: Stop him from taking down Crime.Net in some manner. Most likely by killing him and destroying his data, as an above WMG suggests.
• Classics: The first game's Diamond Heist. In said heist, the security was provided by Murkywater. This time, they'd be more involved, perhaps with Locke being involved, depending on when this heist takes place.
  • Jossed - Diamond Heist was released as a Classic Heist during the Locke and Load event on Crimefest 2017.
• The Butcher: She will require the crew to steal something especially dangerous, maybe more nukes.
• Jimmy: The crew will have to battle Akan in some manner, in order to ensure his plans are stopped once and for all.
• The Dentist: His loot will be revealed, and it will play an integral part in a grand plan to take out Commisioner Garrett.
• Bain: The Very Definitely Final Dungeon. In this heist, the crew will pursue Captain Winters, who has had a Heroic BSoD from all the lives that have been claimed, and will become the Final Boss of the game. He will hide out in a hidden location, and have his own elite team to protect him. Of course, he will not flee this time, but will have more health than anyone else in the entire game. He will also have trained a group of Medics as his shield units, to increase his survivability.

Payday 3 Cast

Given that when a new game comes out, having some-20 available heisters out of the gate would be too overwhelming—and it'll be difficult to have that many voice actors, not to mention some of their plots may be resolved. Thus, they Payday Gang may break up a little by this time, with few members remaining.

• Returning Heisters
  • Dallas - The Mastermind and, of course, being the face of the franchise
  • Chains - The Enforcer still
  • Hoxton - The Fugitive and still provides intel he's gained from FBI files
  • Houston - Takes Wolf's place as the Technician, given that he works on the gadgets almost as much as him as well as the vehicles
  • Clover - Takes Houston's place as the Ghost being the team's resident burglar
  • John Wick - with him blacklisted by the Continental, the Payday Gang is the only group he has left
  • Sydney - she joined for the fun and probably has no reason to leave
  • Dragan - may double as a contractor given his plot doesn't seem to be over
  • Sangres - he hasn't been around for long enough but probably wants to make up for all the fun he's probably missed

• New Heisters
  • Ilija - The Sniper, with his own associated Perk Deck. Having proven himself so many times, he deserves a place in the official team
  • Kento - The Runaway, finally found and grateful, he joins the team
  • Bobblehead Bob - The Survivor, given all the abuse he's lived through and that he's probably developed Stockholm Syndrome

• Leaving/Dead Heisters
  • Jacket - Dead due to too many enemies catching up to him—or renouncing the Jacket name to return to a normal life whether or not he really was him or a Fan
  • Bonnie - returns to a life of gambling
  • Sokol - realizes he misses hockey too much and comes back
  • Bodhi - Reestablishes the Ex-Presidents and may return as a Contractor
  • Jimmy - super dead with his true body having been killed during Hardcore Henry
  • Rust - forms another biker gang and may return as a Contractor
  • Scarface - moves into the Scarface Manor

• Returning (as) Contractors
  • Bain - just as with Dallas, it won't be Payday without him
  • Wolf - given that Ulf is not going to be involved yet remains as a consultant, he may still have some involvement in the new game
  • Jiro - now too old for the heavy lifting, and with his son taking his place, he instead performs tasks or gathers intel, both Yakuza-related and not
  • Dragan - he may have some Interpol related heists
  • Any heisters who have left and are still alive but wind up in trouble
  • Aldstone - for some crazy fetch quests on par with Vlad relating to history
  • Vlad - too much fun and crazy heists
  • The Dentist - for the deeper and more serious heists
  • Gage and the Butcher - arms dealing-related heists

• Non-returning Contractors
  • Hector - we already killed him
  • The Elephant - Might be eliminated himself by his rivals
  • Locke - may betray the gang

• Special Enemies
  • Captain Winters is still around, and more dangerous than ever
  • A Cloaker that makes no sound and can chain-takedown up to three Heisters
  • A Taser/Medic that can use their special ability on three units at once

Locke kidnapped Kento.

It's unlikely that the final Classic heist, the Diamond Heist from the first game, would have any semblance of a relation on Kento's whereabouts (why would Garnet Group know or want to know anything on the matter, anyway?). However, Locke being the one responsible might make a bit of sense considering the following:

• He was part of the Heat Street mission which involved getting Matt Roscoe so he could give up info on Kento's whereabouts (this being the only Classic mission where someone other than Bain co-ordinates the whole thing, so he's relevant in some fashion); so far nothing has come of it. Yet.
• His backstabbing of the crew in Alaskan Deal, revealing he was Evil All Along - or at least, not on the side of the Payday Gang anymore.
  • Leading from the above, the Prison Nightmare quote that may get heard occasionally: "You got Hector, but someone else is lying to you" might have been alluding to Locke; the possibility of it alluding to someone like Bain, for example, may just have been a Red Herring.
• With him ditching the Payday Gang and the Kento story arc still yet to be resolved, it'd be an interesting way to wrap it up if it was him who was the mastermind behind it the whole time. What Locke said in the intro/flavour text for Heat Street might have been Metaphorically True; there was someone who was out to destroy the gang, he just didn't say that said someone was Locke himself. Hell, Locke might have been bluffing about the whole meeting being with someone intending to destroy the gang and the meeting may have actually been something that would have blown open Locke's secrets, hence why Locke would want the gang to stop them. And besides, none of the other contractors or anyone the gang knows have any obvious reason to be the ones responsible for Kento's disappearance.

Locke was blackmailed.

• Spoilers for Alaskan Deal ahead. Yes, Locke did indeed betray both the Butcher and the PAYDAY gang, but think back. Just before the train doors are breached in the heist, Locke says "I was made an offer I couldn't say no to." This could mean that he had no intention of betraying the gang, but someone else forced his hand. There are factors in the heist and its' supplemental material that support this theory, as well:
  • When the gang are rooting around in the shipment (as depicted in the Locke and Load website comic), Locke has no objections. Surely, if you're conducting an arms deal, the last thing you'd want to do is let the muscle use and/or keep the merchandise?
  • During the heist itself, you go up against regular cops. Not Murkywater, just cops. Surely, if Locke was trying to sell you out, wouldn't it make more sense to do so to his own employer? Or, if he did want to betray them, he'd have told both the cops and Murkywater, so as to increase the size of the force being mobilized against the gang.
  • Even after the heist, Crime.net is still active. Locke introduced himself to the gang via. a message he slipped into Crime.net, and it stated that he had a killswitch to Crime.net as well. After betraying the gang and their subsequent escape, if Locke really wanted the gang gone (or wished to evade them), the first thing he'd do is knock out their organizational network to cripple them. Granted, this might be a case of Gameplay and Story Segregation, but it still doesn't make sense.
• It depends on what the heist on Day 9 will be covering (if it's even a direct continuation from the Alaskan Deal mission to begin with). Bearing in mind that Bain mentions after the heist that "Locke will be running from more than just us", which suggests that he probably won't be able to pull Crime.net's plug right away with the Payday Gang, the Butcher and Murkywater all after his head (and that would provide an interesting set-up for a Timed Mission scenario in a heist against him). To say nothing of the fact that Locke can be as much of a Wild Card as Vlad, so right now it's hard to tell if he's doing it of his own volition or if the ones he sold the gang and the Butcher out to have a metaphorical gun to Locke's head.
• Jossed. Locke wasn't blackmailed into betraying the gang. His betrayal was staged by Bain and Locke in order to get the gang out of DC, while Bain looked into some private matters. During the Reservoir Dogs heist, Bain gets nabbed and Locke takes over as the gangs' coordinator, with his first item on the agenda being to find out whos' got Bain.

The 'Holy Grail' that Bain was talking about is the actual Holy Grail

There's been a lot of old relics among the loot that the heisters pick up that seem to have unknown significance: whatever the Dentist's loot is, the paintings medallion in the Brooklyn Bank. On top of that, the party that e-mailed Garrett about helping him capture Bain sent messages encoded in cuneform, which may imply they've been around for a while. Perhaps Bain stumbled upon the Grail's location and was captured to keep the Grail hidden?

The party behind Bain's capture is most or all of the previous contractors working together.

Well, sans Hector, of course. Locke mentions that "people Bain used to think could be trusted were listening". Apart from the gang themselves, what known party is there that Bain would actively put trust in? The contractors; the partners of Crimenet. It's likely that they caught wind of what Bain was planning somehow and decided that they would try to pull the rug out from under his feet and take it for themselves, whether it be for a united cause (whatever that may be) or for their own individual gain. Thinking about it, most contractors have a reason for doing this:

• Vlad: He's nuts - Bain mentions it himself - and he's got the gang into some serious hot water in the past (from transporting nukes to sending the crew to an earthquake-ridden Los Angeles). It's clear that there's nothing he won't do if it will satisfy him/his agenda, and he could likely reach a threshold where he's willing to put the drop on the gang to get what he wants. Sure, he acts friendly enough with the gang despite his... ''unique'' sense of humour, and at times he sounds quite clueless to what's going on. But Vlad, nutty as he is, might have been playing up just ''how'' clueless he is to the situations at hand.
• The Elephant: Given that he willingly set Bain up with a platform to spy on Garrett and pull a fast one on Mckendrick, the price would have to be really special in order to get him to turn his hand. Given his political connections, he could try to run for presidency (as suggested in an above WMG) and decide that now would be the perfect time to cut ties with the gang.
• Gage: The FBI Files suggest that the FBI have been trying to get something out of Gage for some time regarding Bain and the crew. The fact that Bain has been located by anybody at all - something nobody has managed to do beforehand - suggests that perhaps he might have finally squealed to someone.

There are a few cases where it could go either way, similarly:

• The Butcher: Yes, she was part of the Alaskan Deal fiasco and she wants Locke dead for his treachery. But it's ambiguous whether or not she is aware of what Bain and Locke were planning. Poor Communication Kills, maybe?
• The Dentist: A bit of an enigma, but the Dentist is a very powerful man of influence, and as such anyone who can get him on his side (or convince him to be on their side) is a dangerous foe. It's possible that the jobs he did were likely setting up for a greater scheme and to turn the tables on the gang.
• The Continental: Given the ending of John Wick Chapter 2, it's possible that the Continental will want at least Wick's head, and might just seek out the destruction of the PAYDAY Gang as a result of Revenge by Proxy. But how willing they are to lend their muscle to the crew's enemies is unclear.

And of course, it's unlikely that Locke or Jimmy would turn on the gang since both genuinely seem to care about the crew. As for the cryptic messages in Garrett's memos in the FBI Files... a villain that could control this group, perhaps? Locke also mentions in the Heat Street missions that "someone is out to destroy [the gang]". What would be an effective way to destroy Crimenet, especially from the inside out? Turn all the contractors of Crimenet against each other.

• It turns out that the kidnappers are an Asian syndicate group calling themselves "Beyond Yesterday", who communicate with Garrett via encrypted messages and clues for decoding via a MUDUTU application, which is rather clunky at best.
  • Then again, it's not currently clear as to who specifically is part of or in league with Beyond Yesterday/ The Kataru in the first place, save for Murkywater and Garrett. This being said, speculation has actually arisen in the game; the Henry's Rock Heist has a room during the final third of the mission showing a video of the captured Bain as well as a man who looks suspiciously like the Dentist, and lines from Chains and Duke in the Safe House cast suspicion upon Vlad and The Elephant, respectively. That it's implied that there's still a second traitor somewhere within the crew that hasn't been revealed yet is also a factor.

The characters were all trained by/worked with Neil McCauley.

Neil McCauley from Heat was known to work with a tight and well-trained crew. With the way the Payday gang works, it's not far out of the realm of possibility that McCauley trained or worked with some of the American members of the crew. The fact that some of them use the same "your money is insured/don't be a hero" speech indicates that they not only done the bank job before, but they may have gotten the speech from McCauley when working with him and have used it on their bank job scores ever since.

• It may also be that the reason why Waingro was brought on as a new guy in the film may have been because Dallas had left the crew or was in prison, meaning that due to not being there, there events of Heat played out the way they did due to his absence.

PAYDAY 3 will be set in After the End Fallen States of America and assaults isn't just the (militarized) police, but also members of large cartels and gangs that become essentially warlords with droves of gang members after the police run out of recruits and public trust hit rock bottom.

As crime rate is rising in the United States, mainly the capital city itself, billions of money taken away, and countless numbers of cops have been killed up to and including forces from the DHS itself, what will everyone think the state of country is? There's also the possibility of nukes being used.

The Dentist is immortal, and/or related to one of the three kings.

Duke says that a few thousand years ago, three kings decided to rule the world together and made a pact, dubbing themselves the Kataru. Of course, we don't know yet as to who these three kings were/are or what happened to them save (possibly) for the message Wordsmith left - "There were three. One is dead". It's possible that the Dentist was so adamant on stopping both Bain and possibly the Elephant from reaching Baldwin's Lament because he is one of the three kings himself, or at least represents one of them... and naturally, he needs Baldwin's Lament himself. While incredibly out-there, this is based on the following information that we have:

• The Dentist is a contractor whose motives were not made 100% clear for the gang throughout. With previous contractors, their vendetta was always evident based on their motives (Vlad wanted revenge against those who got him jailed/wronged him, or just to benefit his own operations, The Elephant wanted to destabilise his political competition, etc), but The Dentist's were left deliberately open to interpretation, with no clear goals in mind beyond hitting high-profile places for big rewards.
• He mentions in the flavour text for The Diamond that he has an individual who he represents. Naturally, who this individual is has never been revealed as of yet, save for his comment in his trailer that he is one of the Dentist's "patients".
• Bain mentions that The Dentist came practically out of nowhere, and similarly, Garrett's files on him mention that he had no intel on him until recently. It's possible that The Dentist has been around for longer than most people would think.
• If the idea that the box in the Golden Grin Casino is "The Dentist's loot" is taken at face value, then the three boxes from heist, Breakin' Feds and Henry's Rock all correspond to one king each.
• The Dentist and the man in the Diamond trailer with the glasses may very well be one and the same. The one behind Hitler, the one in the crowd outside the museum in the newspaper report and the one in the Diamond's reflection behind Dallas, it is all very likely to be him. He's been around since at least World War 2 if that is the case. Though given that there's a mysterious onlooker throughout the Diamond trailer itself throughout various stages of history, it's possible that he's been around for much longer.
• As noted above, the need for him to take Bain out of the picture at all would suggest that there's something about him that he doesn't want Bain to know.
• He might be the "Desmond" from the letter found from the Elephant raid in the FBI Files, but that's a different can of worms entirely.

The Dentist also being immortal would explain his manipulative nature, his lack of information on him (from both Bain and Garrett), and his deep, deep level of connections - he's played the manipulation game for a long, long time - and likely using the Diamond as a tool for said manipulation within the Kataru, since the Diamond has said to have changed hands for at least a thousand years according to the Diamond trailer and that its history is "one of treachery and murder" - which fits the Dentist given him seemingly betraying the gang as well as Duke mentioning a power struggle within the Kataru. He wanted the gang to take the Diamond to condemn more people to doom with its cursed nature (with the Payday Gang possibly being one such party) and the box from the Golden Grin was needed for some unknown reason. The three boxes may be the key to unlock Baldwin's Lament, perhaps?

There will be a heist on the White House.

Yes, yes, I know, Bain talked about it during Day 3 of Framing Frame, and he was probably joking, but here's the serious part: RandomKenny deciphered some text on the Obsidian Plate, and came across some interesting facts:

• On the tablet, there are four referenced temples, with particular coordinates, and each associated with a different mythology.
  • The first is the Pyramid of the Sun, a Mesoamerican temple.
  • The second is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, otherwise known as Giza, and obviously associated with Egyptian mythology.
  • The third is the Great Ziggurat, which is the Great Ziggurat of Ur, and associated with Sumerian mythology.
  • The fourth one is the kicker, however. It's called the Dreaming Temple, and the coordinates listed are 47° 08' 59.6"S, and 126° 43' 0.00"W. These coordinates lead to the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Specifically, Point Nemo, the location furthest from any known land-mass, and supposedly the location of R'lyeh, the sunken city of Cthulhu, as depicted by H.P. Lovecraft's works.

So how does this tie into the White House? Well obviously, we can't have an underwater heist, especially not at a location that far away from land. But there's more. There's one final sentence on the tablet: "Ark of the Watcher". And again, there's a series of coordinates. Deciphering those leads to 1600 Pennyslvania Ave. So there's something buried in the White House, most likely a key component of Baldwin's Lament. Once it's completed, Baldwin's Lament will be used to raise R'lyeh.

• Confirmed, but the target is not part of Baldwin's Lament - it's actually to get presidential pardons.
  • Unless you go for the Secret, which is Baldwin's Lament and its true purpose

The Kataru will betray Garrett in the future.

Here's how I think it's going to go down:

• Garrett and the Kataru will organize a handover of Bain, in exchange for a final component of Baldwin's Lament, but leak it in order to draw the PAYDAY gang out. The gang will go to rescue Bain, but while they do so, the three boxes will be stolen by the Kataru, destroying the safe house and wounding Aldstone.
• Now in posession of what they need, Garrett will have outlived his usefulness, and they'll try to do away with him. This will lead to Garrett begrudgingly working with the gang to stop the Kataru.
  • Given that Bain was rescued by the gang without any word from the Kataru, the described scenario doesn't seem likely.

The NecroCloaker is either a manifestation of the Nephilim, or a Nephilim himself.

There are several similarities between the NecroCloaker and the Nephilim, far too many for it to be coincidental:

• Both are giant beings, with little regard as to the wellbeing of humans.
  • All the quotes from the NecroCloaker are sadistic and brutal.
  • The Nephilim tore out a guy's heart.
• Both can seemingly warp reality at their leisure.
  • The NecroCloaker can summon enemies and attack the heisters with a vast array of weaponry.
  • The Nephilim, being offspring of angels, speak for themselves.

Maybe the Nephilim are invading the dreams of the gang, as a means to torment them. But why not pull a Freddy Krueger and simply kill them outright? Well, here's the answer: Bain. If Bain is indeed a Watcher, then he's helping the crew by giving them a fighting chance against the Nephilim.

Baldwin's Lament is the Green Flu

And Payday 3 will be revealed to be Left 4 Dead 3. And the Internet will explode.

• Jossed, It's a reincarnation device.

The No Mercy heist will be a Point of Divergence between Overkill's Payday franchise and their upcoming Walking Dead game.

Going with the point above, we might assume that Baldwin's Lament is not specifically the Green Flu, but some kind of zombification virus. Baldwin IV of Jerusalem was known as the Leper King after all, so some kind of rotting, wasting disease would make sense. We also know that the No Mercy heist is going to be included in this update, and that Overkill is working on a Walking Dead game as well as Payday 3. If we remember, No Mercy was about someone afflicted with a zombification virus and the crew stealing his blood samples... This suddenly turns the No Mercy heist into a Point of Divergence - If the crew succeeds and steals the samples, then Baldwin's Lament can be countered or cured and the Payday franchise continues, whereas if they fail then it can't be contained, spreads out of control, and we get The Walking Dead.

• Unless OTWD takes place in its own special canon vastly different from the source material, this seems unlikely. The apocalypse happens around 2003 in the comic and presumably the show. Both W Ds feature technology from only the early 2000s. The Payday universe is well into the late 2010s and features modern technology.
• Jossed. The No Mercy heist is not only a flashback that doesn't advance the current plot, but it's also confirmed to be canon in Payday 2's continuity. The Green Flu works differently than the Walker disease, so it's impossible for Payday 2 to tie into OTWD.
  • Plus this time the Green Flu gets contained by burning down the hospital.

Hector was one of the three kings.

Yes, this would mean that there's more to Hector's character than just a simple backstabbing of the crew. Remember that Wordsmith said regarding the ARG that "there were three, one is dead". With the Dentist strongly implied to be linked to the kings as well as the Elephant, it'd make sense that another contractor would be involved - and that Hector being the only dead contractor at the moment is a sign that he may just be the "one" of the three that has already bit the dust.

Compounding this possibility even further is that Hector was involved in the deal with the Mayan gold from the ARG of the first game, with Bain mentioning in a message about Hector wanting to buy the gold from the First World Bank and sending them to DC to get the deal done. In the final third of the Hell's Island Heist, Bain may use his last few seconds of consciousness to tell the crew to find said Mayan gold, which means that it has some significance beyond just simple monetary value. And because Hector was the one who acquired it before his untimely death...

Kento is not to be counted out.

Despite all the evidence to the contrary, most notably Bain visibly executing him during Hell's Island, I doubt that Kento is truly going to stay dead. From what I heard from ambient dialogue in the Safe House, the Dentist apparently experimented on Bain during his imprisonment, and according to Duke, "took some things" from him. Maybe Kento will be revived through these "things", and become an enemy, one similar to what Murkywater had to face when Bain escaped.

Payday 3 will receive a drastic Genre Shift into an Urban Fantasy or even a Lovecraftian Lite

After the gang manages to pull off a heist in the motherfucking White House, there isn't much to go from there. The Kataru and the Sephalim are still at large, so it's most likely that they will be the main antagonist of Payday 3.

There will be a small amount of post-White House Heist content to completely wrap up PAYDAY 2's storyline.

A lot of things are still unaccounted for and it can still be quite jarring for the crew straight up leaving and ending on a cliffhanger right there. There's also the fact that the Breaking News site has seen a Day 9 emerge with a small amount of story regarding the news reporter's attempts to find out the truth about the President, The Dentist and the PAYDAY Gang, despite the event only having 8 days shown initially. On top of that, Steam's achievements list for the game indicates that there's still one hidden achievement to be found - and all of the little hints and dialogue snippets in the Safe House - so chances are Crimefest 2018/The End isn't quite over yet.

Hell, maybe there'll be an Epilogue between Dallas and Locke as they contemplate where to go from here. After all, The Dentist, The Kataru and Murkywater are still out there and Crime.net is pretty much completely scrambled with Bain's death and everyone else save Locke going completely silent.

The Dentist will find some way to return for PAYDAY 3.

The thing about the Dentist is that he is a diabolical genius, a mysterious onlooker and, above all else, always has a plan (after all, he brought in pre-planning as a mechanic). There is absolutely no way that he would go out of his way to capture both Bain and Locke and then present himself to the gang under the White House with nothing more than a pistol and the Mayan gold - a crucial part of what the gang use with the Ark - and leave the gang that much time to shoot him unless he knew he had a backup plan in case things didn't go the way he wanted it to. After all, if he's found a way to last as long as he has already, who's to say he didn't make sure he'd have a revival method on standby or in the wings somehow?

Who's to say that he didn't just throw the fight on purpose, knowing that he'd be back one day...?

The Tony seen in-game is actually Tony Montana, Jr.

It's flat out stated in the movie that Tony is screwing Elvira day and night to father a child with her. It's entirely possible that by the time she leaves, Elvira is unknowingly pregnant with Tony's child and ends up having to raise him alone. Living with a drug addict mom can't be good, so it makes perfect sense that little Tony would grow up to be exactly like his father. Since Tony Sr. is a legendary drug lord, Junior may have deliberately made himself look and sound as much like his father as possible.

KaneAndLynch will show up as playable characters