Payday: The Heist – Special Police Guide: Shield

Payday: The Heist is a four player co-op FPS developed by Overkill Studios (now a part of Starbreeze) which allows you and three of your friends to perform all kinds of stings and heists, ranging from stealing diamonds to printing counterfeit money. Reviews of Payday were widely positive, and is frequently compared to the likes of the Left 4 Dead franchise. There are many things that set Payday apart from other four player co-op games: the sheer amount of teamwork needed to pull off a heist, the variety of ways to successfully finish a heist (some may be done stealthily, rather than blasting your way through), the adrenaline pumping music playing as you gun down thousands of police offers, and many more things. The four protagonists (Dallas, Hoxton, Wolf, Chains) work their way through heists usually wearing their trademark clown masks.

Since buying Payday when it went on sale a while ago, I haven’t regretted a single moment of it. With the ability to change load-out and play style so easily, it’s a game that I find myself going back to every week. Also, the randomly generated positions of objectives, guards and, in some heists, beginning spawn points, it’s safe to say that you will not play the same heist in the same way twice.

Thanks to the success of the original Payday, a sequel is being created and will be released in August – see this article for more details. To celebrate this, I have decided to help you out, with the ultimate Payday: The Heist guide. Through this guide, I’ll be running you through many things: special enemies, achievements, strategies for a heist, weapons and unlocks, and even more!

Shield

Carrying only a silenced pistol, the Shield is the weakest, in terms of damage, of the four special police units and also has the least amount of health. What makes the shield so ‘special’ is the fact that… it has a riot shield (no surprises there!). These bad-boys can’t be taken out from the front, and can be extremely annoying in bottle-necked situations, like the many corridors in the Undercover heist. Reliable team members are needed to take one of these out – one person needs to be distracting as another flanks the Shield. As their health is quite low, once successfully flanked, it can be taken down within a matter of milliseconds – one shot if you manage to get them right on the noggin.