Payday 3 skills, skill tree and skill points explained

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We explain the skill tree in Payday 3, as well as how you can respec your skill points and research new skills

Payday 3 skills tree points
(Image credit: Starbreeze)

Understanding Payday 3 skills and the skill tree is integral to becoming a master criminal, as by using it you'll be able to unlock fresh abilities and powers that can give you (and your squad) a huge advantage in your latest caper. Furthermore, if you understand how to apply and respec these skills to adapt to the next heist on your list, then you can handle your business in exactly the way you want and give your team the best chance of a clean getaway.

Having played through the game myself for a while, I'll take you through the basics of the Payday 3 skill system, along with an explanation of how you can get more points, how you research skills, and how you can generally make a hired goon of the highest order.

How do Payday 3 skills and skill points work?

Payday 3 skills tree points

(Image credit: Starbreeze)

The Payday 3 skill system works as follows:

  • Players select what skills they want to "research" from the skill tree, found in the loadout menu.
  • Experience gained in heists is then converted into "research."
  • When fully researched, the skill can now be selected by putting a skill point into it.
  • You can also deselect a skill at any time and put that point into something else, allowing you to respec.
  • You gain more skill points as you gain more Infamy, done by completing the challenges displayed in the main menu.

This is a slightly more complex system than it probably needs to be, but the upshot is that you should pick all the skills you're most interested in straight away and start researching those (if you don't pick any, it just works down the list in the order they're displayed). 

You're much more likely to be limited by skill points than the amount of researched skills you can have. Even when you max out your infamy, you only get 21 skill points, so you'll never have a full range of skills or anything close to it. Instead, you'll need to carefully pick and choose - go for stealth and hacking skills if you're interested in going quiet, or go for armor and weapon skills if you intend to go in guns a-blazing.

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Joel Franey
Joel Franey
Guides Editor, GamesRadar+

Joel Franey is a writer, journalist, podcaster and Very Tired Man with a BA from Brunel University, a Masters from Sussex University and a decade working in games journalism, often focused on guides coverage but also in reviews, features and news. His love of games is strongest when it comes to groundbreaking narratives like Disco Elysium, UnderTale and Baldur's Gate 3, as well as innovative or refined gameplay experiences like XCOM, Sifu, Arkham Asylum or Slay the Spire. He is a firm believer that the vast majority of games would be improved by adding a grappling hook, and if they already have one, they should probably add another just to be safe. You can find old work of his at Eurogamer, Gfinity, USgamer, SFX Magazine, RPS, Dicebreaker, VG247, and more.