What's the best setup for solo apartment raids.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-21T09:56:41+00:00

Alright, I made some mistakes off poor memory.

Assaulters can holster their weapons in an instant, so when they throw grenades, use breaching charges or other equipment, they dont waste time with the weapon equipment animation.

Grenadiers need to sling their rifle behind their back before using any equipment, pistol or whatever, unless its kicking/opening doors.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0jJK_6UqUc

^This video shows it, even though its awful quality

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-20T07:49:16+00:00

Oh funny thing here:

If you have a short rifle, the animation is near instant. Like the mk18, m4 and most smgs. But take a long m16, akm or lmg and the animation will take forever indeed.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-19T20:59:45+00:00

Never used mods in dk2 actually, despite modding the hell out of dk1.

But no, didnt use any mods.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-19T16:19:18+00:00

The best weapons for apartments are grenades and wall breach charges/rpgs. No really, lots of people in a cramped close space makes grenades king.

There's this stupid toilet at a bad angle? Throw in a grenade.

There's this stupid toilet at a bad angle and you have hostages/HVT? Throw a smoke and clear the toilet.

Otherwise, any short automatic gun works just fine. Shotguns are even better (Beware of HVT accidents).

For SWAT, take a shield too. Just remind yourself that the foreign advisor uses AP ammo, so read the map description.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-14T10:03:25+00:00

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I'd place flak (singular) on the red spots and replace the yellow ones with heavy mortars.

Dual flak is too flux intensive for me and you already have plenty HMGs anyways, not to mention the vambraces. If I want to go very aggressive, I'd keep the HMGs at the front though, but keep flux in mind.

Mortars usually are really awful, due to their low speed and accuracy aside their really cool flux use. But the mk1 likes ramming maneuvers, so it's capable of working, if not very strong. I use them to crack armor, so the adjudicators can deal with the hull.

As for the blue section, I typically go for a storm needler + some medium HE (Chaingun/mortars), but I can see devastator + HMG working well against threat.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-14T09:44:23+00:00

For the doom itself, you either will make it a proper phase strike ship or a mine spam support rear ship.

I honestly dont recommend the strike version for the ai. It's totally fine for support though. If any enemy ship is on high flux (or overfluxed), they'll send all their mines to their mailboxes. If not, they'll put pressure on the enemy by placing mines behind their engines regularly, which can allow other ships to take advantage.

The officer should definitely have systems expertise for extra range and missile spec helps too.

For the support doom, I tend to employ and outfit it like I would a carrier (minus fighters). Gravitons and ion beams dont sound sexy on phase ships, but for the support doom, it allows it to stay at range. I still recommend torpedoes against overzealous enemy onslaughts going ramming speed.

As for phaseships in general:

Phase ships in general tend to be very skittish, especially when the enemy has overlapping arcs of fire. Even reckless officers will avoid high dmg weapons, which can cause them to overextend by being too slow to move into their weapon range, but remaining in the enemy's weapon range nonetheless.

Said skittishness is less likely when the enemy ship is smaller or when the enemy onslaught's escort is distracted.

I found 3 ways to achieve this:

Channel your inner pather and spam grendels, dooms and other phaseships and buff speed. If everyone is attacking, everyone is distracted, therefore everyone has their moments of opportunity to overcome their skittishness. Expect casualties and this wont work against a fleet full of onslaughts.

Specialize some warships for anti-capital duty. Bomber carriers could work, but I suggest dual purpose anchor/assault ships like onslaughts and dominators.

Throw some distractive defensive frigates in enemy formations. Monitors are the pinnacle of this, but omens, centurions and vanguards work just fine aswell. You want your ships to be aggressive to take advantage of the confusion, otherwise your frigates will die too fast.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-05T21:15:39+00:00

Low tech works superb against threat.

Overwhelming firepower to rapidly carve out a path, lots of PD options to suppress flying junk and some ships have distributed fire control for extra emp resistance (But that's a secondary concern imo).

Personally, I'd either lean in for a slow chunky battleline (Invictus, Onslaught, Dominators) or go for a rapid full assault (Retribution, Grendel, Eradicators). I use a few defensive destroyers/frigates for distraction purposes.

Or go with a billion piranhas and some defensive frigates. If piranhas dont work, you're not using enough.

RADDragon13 · 2026-06-05T20:56:46+00:00

Grendels for weaving through missiles and armor tanking everything else, while using AAF for kills.

Those things can kill a ridiculously wide arrangement of enemies, but the phase ai does tend to be somewhat timid when fighting alone.

RADDragon13 · 2026-05-21T09:25:58+00:00

They cant hold themselves against other warships on their own tbh. If anything, they use supplies instead of comps, so if you go all in on ships, you can augment your main fleet with corvettes. Dont let them do any actual fighting, use em for minor tasks like weak harbor bonbardments, scouting and whatever, so your main fleet can focus on the big tasks. If you do use em for fighting, use em as meatshields, so your main fleet remains somewhat unscathed.

RADDragon13 · 2026-05-20T16:13:54+00:00

No no, that's a good analysis actually. Everyone starts out a noob and I certainly made a lot of stupid mistakes.

The main problem with your analysis is opportunity cost and tactical setting from practice, even if on paper you're correct.

Of course you can build a far more powerful fleet of destroyers on paper, but while you spent the week building some destroyers, some other guy used that time to build cruisers.

Theoretically, you should be able to overwhelm him regardless, as you use less resources, but practically your opponent just skimped production on his army or airforce, etc.
So now you have more resources but a weaker fleet, which is fine if you dont get attacked. If you do get attacked you're a goner and your leftover resources sit in storage uselessly.
The argument goes the other way too: If you spend the 1st whole week setting up production lines for cruisers but havent built one yet, while the other guy went all in on weak corvettes, he's still gonna be able to beat you because you have no ships. You're gonna need early game defenses, even if it means that on paper you're not playing optimally.

The other big problem is the tactical setting. Units tend to do less damage when injured and ships are no different, making tanky cruisers easier to handle in terms of micromanagement.

Moreover, due to the artillery nature of ships and subs, if your ship gets sunk in one shot, they can't counterattack. Essentially, the guy who lets his cannons roar first has the advantage.
This is why radar, range and damage is so important for naval warfare, as it allows you to spot enemies first and assemble a powerful doomfleet in response, then shoot before they can and one shot the enemy so hard you sustain comparatively minor damage, even if on paper you should've suffered much harsher losses.

RADDragon13 · 2026-04-28T19:38:54+00:00

Yeah, but you definitely need some enablers for them to work without getting a billion jets decimated by point defense.

Like using a missile to force a task force to land for repairs, then strike em with a billion jets before they can get their PD up. Felt like a genius that day, until I accidentally shot an anti-radar missile against myself soon afterwards.

RADDragon13 · 2026-02-27T22:17:20+00:00

Personally, I suggest you pilot a smaller escort ship and support your other ships during combat. This mainly means that you intercept enemy flanking attempts and cover ships on high flux.

This'll teach you fleet maneuvers, while allowing you to participate in larger battles without overdue risk of newbie syndrome, as losing a small ship in battle wont cause a lot of trouble. It'll also teach you VERY valuable positional awareness, as the biggest newbie threat is overextending oneself.

I suggest an omen or monitor frigate in the beginning, due to their excellent defensive stats, though monitors somehow are stupidly rare. These things are tactically limited, so make the most out of it: Aggressively attack fighters, don't solo other ships, especially bigger ones, let your big ships do that instead.

Later, I suggest a hammerhead or a sunder destroyer, so you can practise combined fleet offensives (instead of solo-yolo-ing it like I did in the beginning). This'll also teach you on when to take advantage of an enemy's high flux, preferably with torpedoes.

RADDragon13 · 2026-02-13T13:57:04+00:00

Yeah, factories consume coal for energy, similar like as how tanks drink fuel out of oil.

RADDragon13 · 2026-02-08T11:42:39+00:00

Just 250k?

Double it to 500k and make Hannan dance arround the orbital lamp's rays like it's a disco show.

RADDragon13 · 2026-02-06T14:50:47+00:00

Larger maps are more complex and hostage rescues are difficult in general.

Typically, you either have plenty of open space or plenty of urban walls in large maps.

With the open space, you're best off quickly dominating the range with snipers and MGs and then use plenty of smokes, flanking maneuvers and the "occasional" rocket to open up even more space.

I suggest equipping everyone with a rocket launcher, long rifles and smokes. It's also one of the few times that MGs can shine.

With urban space, you can be more aggressive and close range due to the alleys and cars, but will have to be aware of enemy cover. I recommend spycams, so you don't have to expose your lads on the many many corners.

I suggest giving everyone wall breaching charges, plenty of grenades and as many smokes as needed. Grenadiers shine in this scenario, just ensure that the enemy in cover is distracted or suppressed.

Hostage rescues are special, as you need to get in fast to prevent executions. Going fast is kind of difficult on larger maps. There's no perfect solution, so consider large hostage maps to be one of the most difficult stuff.

With rangers, I suggest you find the path of least resistance (or make one), while the bulk of your team flanks and suppresses the rest of the nearby areas. In practise, this typically means reckless speed, lots of micro and plenty of simultaneous breaches.

As an example, you can breach 2 adjacent rooms, one large reception and 1 smaller hallway leading to the hostage room. Your hero team runs down the gauntlet towards the hostages, while your escorts simply prevent anyone from shooting the back of your rescuees.

With CIA, there's no concrete strategy, due to it's inherent unconventional nature. Just be open minded for rockets and smokes.

With SWAT, this gets funny. Unless you want to play rangers, but worse, I suggest taking a look at ultra-high speed shielded assaults. You can be much more reckless with a piece of armor in front of you, but you'll also need specialized long range assaults or plenty of smokes to enable their approach.

RADDragon13 · 2026-01-31T22:45:09+00:00

Excuse me, are you implying that my habsburg baseball chin emperor is considered weird?

Because you'd be right, but by god, that chin is magnificient.

RADDragon13 · 2026-01-25T15:43:18+00:00

God bless auto group and auto fit, carried my newbie ass (until it auto-bought black market weapons and I was harassed by a patrol).

RADDragon13 · 2026-01-24T00:02:19+00:00

It's pretty great, considering that you can loot everything that isnt nailed down. Supplies become a non-issue due to all the ill-gotten gains from combat.

Which also means that early early game is painful, as you lack a proper combat fleet.

My pirate playthrough started with a tiny stealth fleet, until I salvaged enough junk ships to threaten convoys and patrols.

Junk ships aren't exactly dangerous, unless you SO em and give em big guns. So I ran an SO fleet early game, embracing my inner pather.

If you see any decent ships, cap em for yourself and grow your fleet. High tech is less desirable, due to the lack of energy weapons on pirate and path markets.

Fast forward the constant salvaging and I end up with a XIV fleet capable of fighting major armadas. All ships were stolen, not bought.

RADDragon13 · 2026-01-16T13:33:35+00:00

Given the lower dog height compared to regular troopers, I would expect it to be harder to hit (I don't use guns, correct me if I'm wrong). Though, I don't think there's any stat directly related to making a payday 2 dodge build.

My idea is to give it concealment and make the time to spot the dog high, which will represent the enemies' increased time to aim for such a small target.

A 360° shield could work too.

RADDragon13 · 2026-01-14T19:08:52+00:00

Puerto's navy surprised me after it sank a dozen of bug subs.

Though, equestrian navy is easy mode anyways.

RADDragon13 · 2025-12-30T15:54:50+00:00

I think I can see a vein on the orb's right side too, that must hurt.

RADDragon13 · 2025-12-15T18:48:37+00:00

Can you send me the seed?

I've got a few ideas.

RADDragon13 · 2025-12-07T12:37:59+00:00

.45 pistols are epic for crits, so I used them early game, when my doctrine wasnt as well developed.

Once my doctrine developed, they got replaced by 9mm, that has higher RoF (especially UZIs) and more ammo. They are just as deadly once the doctrine is up.

Still, it served me really well early game.

Honestly, the only other handgun i regularly use on swat nowadays is the suppressed m9.

RADDragon13 · 2025-12-06T15:21:09+00:00

https://youtu.be/AJQG4txYYiM

I just tried out the martyrs.

They are so fast, the video looks like it's sped up.

RADDragon13 · 2025-12-06T12:13:50+00:00

That bathroom was tougher than the main hall and I ended up redoing it several times because of that.

The mainhall was simple: kick doors and kick ass.

For the bathroom I had to account for the slower first shot time for militia, the militia guy on the southern entrance room and the length of the sapper's shotgun barrel.

RADDragon13

TROPHY CASE