Crime Spree is Payday 2's ultimate test of endurance and skill, pushing your crew through an escalating series of heists with increasingly challenging modifiers. Success in Crime Spree requires not just individual prowess but a coordinated strategy and builds optimized for sustained combat and objective completion.
Choosing Your Path: Stealth or Loud
While many heists can be approached with either stealth or loud tactics, Crime Spree heavily favors a loud approach due to the sheer volume of enemies and the rapid escalation of difficulty. Builds focused on survivability, crowd control, and sustained damage output are paramount. Consider perk decks like Stoic, Anarchist, or Grinder for their defensive capabilities. Stoic offers invulnerability for a duration, while Anarchist provides damage reduction and armor regeneration. Grinder excels at sustained healing through damage dealt.
Essential Skills for Crime Spree
Key skill trees for Crime Spree include:
- Mastermind: Focus on Inspire Aced for quick revives and ammo/medic bag deployment. Combat Doctor skills are also vital for survivability.
- Enforcer: Shotgunner skills for close-quarters dominance, and ammo specialist skills for sustained firepower. Iron Man Aced is crucial for heavy armor builds.
- Technician: Turret skills can provide excellent area denial and damage, especially the Sentry Turret with the Guided Missile Launcher upgrade.
- Ghost: While less critical for loud Crime Spree, skills like Parkour Aced can aid in mobility.
Weapon Loadouts for Sustained Combat
Your weapon choice should reflect the need for both crowd control and dealing with special units. A common and effective setup involves a high-damage primary weapon like a high-concealment assault rifle (e.g., CAR-4 with specific mods) or a shotgun (e.g., IZHMA 12G with Overkill Aced) paired with a powerful secondary like a high-damage pistol or a grenade launcher. Ensure you have enough ammo by prioritizing ammo bags and skills.
Crime Spree Modifiers and Adaptations
As your Crime Spree score increases, you'll encounter modifiers that sificantly alter gameplay. Some common and challenging modifiers include:
- "More Specials": Expect a constant barrage of Tasers, Cloakers, Bulldozers, and Medics. Prioritize eliminating them quickly.
- "No Armor": This forces a dodge-focused build or reliance on specific perk decks that bypass armor.
- "Reduced Ammo": Requires careful ammo management and potentially more ammo bags.
- "Increased Enemy Accuracy": Demands better cover usage and faster reactions.
Adapt your strategy on the fly based on these modifiers. If "No Armor" is active, switch to a dodge build. If "More Specials" is prevalent, focus on crowd control and rapid target acquisition.