PAYDAY 2

PAYDAY 2

852 ratings
*UPDATED* Pistol Grinder Build [One Down Optimized]
By Lawyer Rune
Author's Note: This build is NOT receiving new updates. I no longer have the time to dedicate to the game, and as such, this build may fall out of meta. I will leave it up, on the assumption that basic mechanics of the build will remain relevant.
This build is focused around using Primary and Secondary Pistols with a Dodge / Grinder build, outputting massive damage while remaining highly mobile, and maintaining the survivability necessary to complete loud One Down and Deathwish missions.

Officially OverDrill Certified!!!
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Overview
To begin, Let me just say that subjectively, This build is simply FUN to use. So, Enjoy it!
This build is made for those who are tired of being slow and bulky in an Improved Combined Tactical Vest, but who still want to be able to output great amounts of damage without having to constantly hide in cover on higher difficulties.

This build is centered around moving quickly and putting out a lot of damage with well placed headshots, allowing the player to stay healed without using First Aid Kits.

Highlights include:
  • Teamplay utility, with "GET THE F*CK UP" and bag transporting skills
  • Insane Damage, thanks to Pistol skills which turn your handguns into death rays
  • High mobility, which allows you to move in and out of combat situations as quickly as you need to
  • Ridiculous Survivability, thanks to dodge skills and the Grinder perk deck
  • Dual Pistols, for looking like a total Badass.
  • This build has been used to successfully complete Overdrill on First World Bank!
Skills
Mastermind

  • Inspire Aced AKA "GET THE ♥♥♥♥ UP" is absolutely mandatory for Deathwish, and there is practically no loud mission where this will not be useful.
  • Combat Medic Aced and Painkillers Aced are both incredibly powerful combined with Aced Inspire. Your shout revive will give your teammates 10 seconds of 30% damage reduction and 30% more health upon being revived. This will help to stop teammates from getting instantly downed after being revived, which can be a problem if someone gets caught out of position on DW.

Enforcer

  • Transporter Aced is very useful to have on any build, as most missions involve transporting bags. Transpoter makes this suck less.
  • Underdog Aced is amazing for a Tier 2 Skill, as it gives a 15% damage increase and a 15% damage (taken) reduction.

Technician

  • Run and Gun so we can shoot and sprint, allowing us to keep our dodge chance high while dealing damage.

Ghost

  • Sprinter Aced allows us to sprint more often, and gives us +10% dodge chance while sprinting. This is core for our build.

Fugitive

  • Swan Song Aced allows you to both deal out insane damage without expending ammo and move yourself to a more ideal location before going down. if you're lucky, you might get downed by a cloaker or stunned by a taser during the swan song, negating your down!
Perk Deck (aka why Grinder is OP)
The Unique, cumulative bonuses of Grinder are as follows:
  • Damaging an enemy regenerates +4 health every 0.5 seconds for 4 seconds, stacking up to 4 times
  • +40% Health
  • +40% chance to penetrate armour
Grinder allows the player to restore health simply by dealing damage.
Upon completion, the perk deck gives 4 health every 0.5 seconds for 4 seconds. This effect stacks up to 4 times.

Translation: Dealing damage 4 times will regenerate 32 health every second for 4 seconds, which totals 128 health recovered over 4 seconds. given that with this perk deck, we have a total of 322 Health, this allows us to heal about 40% of our health in 4 seconds. this is equivalent to 10% health regenerated per second, or 100% health regeneration in 10 seconds.

When paired with the pistols, this perk deck becomes extroardinary.

In addition, the perk deck gives the player a whopping 40% chance to penetrate armor, and an additional 40% Health (which is what boosts us from 230 Health to 322 Health).
Armor (What should I wear to Prom???)
Two Piece Suit:
The Two-Piece Suit is the inevitable choice for this build, as it gives us the best possible stats for Dodge, Speed, and Concealment. It also gives +1 to Attractiveness.

This comparison shows why a Lightweight Ballistic Vest is NOT the best choice:
While the modest decrease in concealment and speed definitely hurt us more than the 10 additional armor helps us, the biggest loss is that our Dodge is reduced from 20 to 0. Most especially on deathwish, this is going to hurt us greatly.

While wearing the Two-Piece Suit, we have the following Dodge chances:

20% dodge chance at all times
35% dodge chance while crouching
35% dodge chance while ziplining
45% dodge chance while sprinting
Weapons
For weaponry, we will use Akimbo pistols for a primary, and a pistol for a secondary. This setup allows us to have a High concealment, High damage combination, which is versatile enough to take out dozers at close range (with half of a magazine or less) and snipers at long range (with 1-hit kill power).
Secondary:
LEO Pistol
The LEO is an excellent pistol, with good ammo count, a sizeable magazine, good accuracy and stability, and most importantly, very high damage.

Barrel Extension: Flash Hider
The Flash hider sacrifices 4 accuracy for 12 stability and a slight damage increase. Further, unlike most barrel extensions for pistols, it does not impact concealment.

Gadget: Micro Laser
This is a fantastic visual aid for aiming, especially on the move (which you will be, a lot).

Magazine: Extended Magazine
The extended magazine for the LEO is a no-brainer, as it gives us a larger magazine without impacting concealment. Plus, it gives us more time to take out pesky Tasers that are stunning you.

Sight: Pistol Red Dot Sight
The sight is nice to help aim, especially on darker maps. the attachment also negates the accuracy penalty of the flash hider.

Slide: Custom Slide
the custom slide gives small bonuses to Damage, Stability, and Threat, without impacting Concealment.


Primary:
Akimbo Interceptor .45's
The Akimbo .45's give us insane damage output at close to mid range.

Barrel Extension: Flash Hider
The Flash hider sacrifices 4 accuracy for 12 stability and a slight damage increase. Further, unlike most barrel extensions for pistols, it does not impact concealment.

Gadget: Micro Laser
This is a fantastic visual aid for aiming, especially on the move (which you will be, a lot).

Magazine: Extended Magazine
Unlike the LEO, the Extended magazine does sacrifice some Concealment to squeeze in those extra bullets. Those 16 extra bullets bring the total capacity to 42, which is more than enough to kill 2 skull dozers with headshots. Very worth.

Slide: Match Slide
The Match slide sacrifices 1 Concealment in exchange for 4 Accuracy and 8 Stability. This leaves us at 27 concealment for this weapon, and our overall build at 4 concealment, which is exactly where we want to be!
Playstyle
  • Using this build requires the player to be on the move as much as possible. Sprint as much as possible.
  • This build is not tailored to having high ammo, so especially on longer days of missions (day 1 of Rats, for example), you will need to be using your mobility to pick up ammo from fallen enemies.
  • Aim for headshots whenever possible. You will kill enemies consistently with 1 headshot on overkill or below, and 2 headshots on Deathwish. This will also keep your armor up near constantly, thanks to Bullseye.
  • This build is most especially vaulable for taking out Dozers, Tasers, and Cloakers. Tasers and Cloakers will die from 2-4 headshots, while dozers will fall with half a magazine of shots to the face/head. Often, you will crit/armor pen so significantly that the dozer will fall with their facemask still partially intact.
  • You can take out dozers with insane speed. Walk right up to them, and unload your akimbos at their face as fast as you can click. You'll probably kill them before a teammate's RPG even has time to explode.
  • As you are using pistols, there is almost no situation in which you will not be able to kill a taser that is stunning you. Don't panic click, look around (spamming F to try and highlight the taser if you can't see him), and then light him up when you have located the jerk.
  • Shurikens are an excellent choice for a throwable, as the poison over time works with Grinder. They are also great to use when you are low on ammo, or when you are being charged by a cloaker and you are caught reloading.
  • Molotovs are excellent for Grinder Damage over time as well, and are excellent for taking out Captain Winters.
  • If you do not remain aggressively mobile, Shields will give you a very difficult time. Flank them as quickly as possible, and use your teammates to help you take them down. This build works excellently when paired with an ally using a TechForcer or a Master-Enforcer build using a Sniper rifle or HE Shotgun.

There are some weaknesses inherent to this build that are important to consider:
  • It is difficult to maintain ammo without having high self control over your accuracy and rate of fire.
  • This build is vulnerable to snipers, ESPECIALLY on DeathWish. If you or your team do not proactively take out snipers, you will struggle greatly.
  • Shields will give you a difficult time if you cannot get around them.
  • Although this build will fill the medic role well, this build will struggle on drill intensive missions without a TechForcer or similar heavy build present to diversify the skillset. You cannot have a team of 4 all run this build, or you will have a lot of difficulty with drill missions.
Non-DLC Alternatives
This build uses the following DLC:
  • Sokol Character DLC (Grinder Perk Deck)
    For a Non-DLC alternative to the Grinder perk deck, I would recommend the Rogue perk deck. This alternative gives the build a greater Dodge chance (+30%), but it will suffer greatly from not being able to replenish health. As such, more points in the Fugitive tree would have to be spent on First Aid Kit skills. The Grinder perk deck is the core of this build, and I do not recommend using this build without the Grinder Perk deck.
    However, The Ex-President Perk Deck can also be used with some degree of success. Rogue deck *can* work if someone on your team has first aid kits.

  • The Bomb Heists DLC (LEO Pistol and Modifications)
    Any pistol that you can modify to have reasonable concealment and good damage will work more or less as well as the LEO, this is simply my personal preference. Viable alternatives would include the Crosskill, the Signature .40, the Interceptor .45, or the Chimano Custom.

  • Gage Mod Courier DLC (Flash Hider and Pistol Red Dot Sight Modifications)
    These two modifications are personal preference, and are by NO means required. I simply find the RDS accuracy and aiming bonus to be very helpful, and the flash hider's boost to stability without sacrificing concealment is a nice plus, but these come down to personal taste.

OverDrill Certified
OverDrill is an achievement obtained by activating a secret door on First World Bank, in loud, on Deathwish difficulty. This achievement involves waiting for a 2000 second drill (~35 minutes). In loud. On Deathwish.

I used this build to successfully complete this achievement with friends, and
  • Dealt out an insane 325k damage (most damage)
  • Did not have to use an ammo bag once
  • Scored 555 kills (most kills for the round)
  • Hit 342 headshots
Proof:

The Opened OverDrill Vault:

Personal Stats

Crew Stats

Frequently Asked Queries
  • How far into the infamy tree do I need to be to take full advantage of this build?
    In order to spend 120 skill points exactly as I have distributed, a player would need to be Infamy 4, and have unlocked the Mastermind, Enforcer, and Ghost infamy bonuses. However, this build is entirely viable if one has only unlocked the Mastermind infamy bonus, meaning that a basic infamy requirement would be Infamy level 2.

  • Why not use Gunslinger Aced? (take the flat +15 Damage for pistols in the Mastermind tree?)
    Mostly because I don't feel that it is worth 8 points. If you are consistently aiming for headshots, and with the crit chance/damage boosts that we accumulate elsewhere in this build, there is no breakpoint of damage that I am aware of that would make the +15 damage useful.

  • Why are none of the top-tier Fugitive skills Aced?
    Sneaky B*stard: I left this in basic form because as long as we maintain a concealment of 3 or 4, we can take advantage of the full 10% dodge.
    Low Blow: Same as Sneaky B*stard. 3 or 4 concealment = full benefit.
    Bullseye: In basic form, Bullseye restores 15 armour. using the Two-Piece Suit, we have 20 armor. Restoring any more armour than that would go to waste.
    Akimbo: I don't find the slight boost to stability particularly worth the 8 points, considering the very high stability akimbo pistols have inherent to the rest of this build.

  • Why bother using akimbo pisols with a pistol build instead of a normal Primary?
    Basically, because then you are benefiting from all the advantages this build is focused around with Both your Primary and Secondary weapons. Considering the need to stay under 6 concealment, I have a hard time finding a weapon that can best the akimbo pistols.
    Consider this comparison between the Valkyria Rifle (modded for concealment) and the Akimbo .45's:



  • JAJAJA STUPED NOOB WHY NOT USE _____ instead of _____???
    This guide is my preference. It's not a religious text. If you like ___ better than ___, knock yourself out.

    As for the specific question about the Chimano Customs, Here's a direct comparison of comparably modded Chimano Customs to the 2 weapons I have chosen.


Closing Remarks
Thank you for visiting my guide!

Consider reading the following guides, also written by me:

Shotgun Dodge/Grinder Build

Au Ticket Achievement Guide

One Down Silent Tank

Please feel free to leave reviews, questions, suggestions, criticism, or hate mail in the comments below!
179 Comments
Haiku 14 Aug, 2021 @ 1:52pm 
To anyone looking at this nowadays, I'd recommend using the GL40 (short stock, short barrel) with Incendiary grenades. Incredible AoE damage over time, and your health just SHOOTS up.

It's also really good on holdout maps, like Overdrill.
Nati 10 Aug, 2019 @ 2:29am 
Akimbo LEO pistols are better
EMERALD 17 Nov, 2018 @ 5:50am 
For those who have the same question as kitty, it looks like the preview image at the top of the guide uses different skills than the ones described. This could be because the guide creator updated the skills but not the preview.

I find this build to still be great! :)
charlie 2 Jun, 2018 @ 1:51pm 
i'm wearing the two piece with sneaky bastard basic and detection 3, but i have 15 dodge instead of 20. what am i doing wrong?
Kreavill 9 Mar, 2018 @ 12:23pm 
i don't see a big update
i don't see Graze
_Vexxii 3 Feb, 2018 @ 5:51pm 
This build might be still good.
Just needs a few skill tweaks and modifications and it's good.
Although, because it's grinder, don't expect to get so far in OD.
Deathwish is fine for this.
Praetorian 16 Jan, 2018 @ 11:58am 
@AustinB1024 Asking the same question here..
AustinB1024 25 Dec, 2017 @ 10:39am 
is the build still viable?
avgzone 4 Dec, 2017 @ 12:09pm 
@Seik0n its good if you can change your playstyle to suit it
Seik0n 7 Sep, 2017 @ 8:48am 
inferior build, outdated.