Hacking is more focused on “systemic, non-objective” mechanics, but Starbreeze has plans to expand on it with more content later.

If it wasn’t obvious based on Dev Diary episodes thus far, Payday 3 is expanding a lot on the series’ core mechanics. Launching with eight heists, each with its unique identity, players will have more options for stealth and leveraging civilians for benefits. However, there are also new security modifiers to beware.

As producer Andreas Häll-Penninger notes in the latest Dev Diary, these are “a way for us to sort of throw in a wrench into the game when you’re stealthing. Depending on what difficulty you play, we have a rotation of security firms and what they do is they change how you have to approach different things. It’s a way to make the heist more challenging and increase replayability.”

Objectives and goals also scale with the number of players, though that doesn’t mean solo players have less stuff to do. Senior game designer Miodrag Kovačević noted, “For example, in one heist, you might need to do a hacking objective on one end, but then you need to go and do something on the other end of the heist, and then that’s something another player can do.”

With the world evolving since Payday 2 and feeling more high-tech, there are more security systems. Players will also have more tools and equipment, but hacking will only feel a “bit more” expanded initially. It’s more of a “foundation” to expand on post-launch.

“So right now, hacking is mostly focused around systemic, non-objective hacking, and the game is more focused on cameras. We have certain plans for down the line to further expand hacking as we add more content to the game,” said Kovačević.

A closed beta is available for Xbox Series X/S and PC, which ends on August 7th. Payday 3 launches for Xbox Series X/S, PS5 and PC on September 21st.