v·d·e Watchdogs
FBI Files Loading Screen
Heist Info
Contractor	Hector
Contract Days	2
Loud / Stealth	✔ / ✘
Loot	Coke
Base experience (XP) (day 1)	12,000 (completion) +2,000 (chopper escape) +2,000 (securing all bags)
Experience (day 2)	12,000 (completion) +1,500 (per secured bag after bag #3)
Extra Statistics JC Level 50 Minimum Experience 25,500 Maximum Experience (Normal) 47,500 Contract Cost 155,000 (Normal) 310,000 (Hard) 775,000 (Very Hard) 1,550,000 (Overkill) 2,000,000 (Mayhem) 2,000,000 (Death Wish) 2,000,000 (Death Sentence) Contract Payout 300,000 (Normal) 600,000 (Hard) 1,500,000 (Very Hard) 3,000,000 (Overkill) 3,300,000 (Mayhem) 3,900,000 (Death Wish) 4,200,000 (Death Sentence) Maximum loot payout 640,000 (Normal) 1,240,000 (Hard) 1,600,000 (Very Hard) 2,560,000 (Overkill) 4,360,000 (Mayhem) 4,960,000 (Death Wish) 5,560,000 (Death Sentence) Bag Limit 16 (both days) Package locations 20 (both days)
Other
Internal name	watchdogs
Achievement(s)
Trophies
v·d·e

"You'll ride with the drugs. You'll ensure my product arrives in the harbor and makes it onto the speed boat. In the meantime, perhaps you can enjoy the refrigerated comfort of my meat truck and cool off a little, because the heat will be on. "

—Hector offering the heist.

Watchdogs is a two-day heist in PAYDAY 2.

Contracted by Hector, it involves the crew moving cocaine from an ambushed transport vehicle to the docks on the first day and loading the goods onto Hector's boat on the second day.

Since both days of the heist immediately open into loud combat, it is impossible to complete stealthily and no stealth bonuses are available for it.

Day 1 (Truck Load)

Objectives

1. Protect the cocaine until a pickup vehicle can arrive.
2. Move the cocaine onto the pickup vehicle.
3. Escape via ground vehicle.
4. Escape via helicopter. (If vehicle driver is killed)

Assets

Ammo Bag
Price:	$6,000 (Normal) $9,000 (Hard) $12,000 (Very Hard) $18,000 (Overkill) $30,000 (Mayhem) $42,000 (Death Wish) $54,000 (Death Sentence)

Doctor Bag
Price:	$6,000 (Normal) $9,000 (Hard) $12,000 (Very Hard) $18,000 (Overkill) $30,000 (Mayhem) $42,000 (Death Wish) $54,000 (Death Sentence)

Armored Escape
Price:	$11,000 (Normal) $16,500 (Hard) $22,000 (Very Hard) $33,000 (Overkill) $55,000 (Mayhem) $77,000 (Death Wish) $99,000 (Death Sentence)

Grenade Case
Price:	$3,000 (Normal) $4,500 (Hard) $6,000 (Very Hard) $9,000 (Overkill) $15,000 (Mayhem) $21,000 (Death Wish) $27,000 (Death Sentence)
Requires the Gage Weapon Pack #01 DLC to unlock

Risk Level I, II, III

Gage Courier Packages

Walkthrough

The crew starts out inside a truck that is transporting Hector's cocaine, which has been ambushed by the police, forcing them to fight their way out. Under heavy fire, they have to move the cocaine from the truck to a nearby warehouse to wait until a secondary extraction vehicle can arrive. After holding out for several minutes, the vehicle arrives and the crew must throw the cocaine onto the vehicle.

At this point, Bain has arranged for a separate extraction vehicle to arrive for the crew. The Escape Driver can be targeted and killed by police. If the the crew doesn't kill the police firing at him, or they don't get to the escape zone before he is killed, the driver will die, and the crew will have to wait for Bain to call in Alex or Bile to extract the group via helicopter. After several more minutes, Alex or Bile arrives and positions himself nearby. The group must then fight their way to the helicopter and escape. Any bags of coke still carried by the crew onto the helicopter will spawn with them on day 2, instead of at the pickup truck near the police.

Strategy

• You can use the OVE9000 saw to saw your way out of the bottom of the meat truck.
• If there is a door blocking the stairs next to the truck, you can bypass it by jumping onto nearby vertical planks, jumping to a taller crate stack, then jumping over the fence. You need to wear light armor (Ballistic Vest and lower) and have Sprinter to do this.
• If all the bags are thrown into the loot truck before the getaway driver arrives, you can wait where he comes in and leave immediately. He won't start coming until the 4th bag is loaded, so it is advisable to place 3 bags first and then stack up the rest of the bags near to the truck before throwing any in. Once they're stacked, the players should work together to throw all the bags in at once, and start making their way to the getaway car location. It is preferable that players time their bag throw at the end of an assault wave, so as to minimize the amount of opposition that can shoot at the players and the escape car.
• Bags carried to the escape vehicle count and will still appear with you on the next day.
• Clear the evacuation area if possible if attempting to escape in the SUV. The driver may sometimes die, even with the armored escape asset, before he even stops in the intersection because of the sheer number of enemies that fire upon him during his approach.
  • However with the addition of the SWAT Van Turret, this becomes a much difficult task, as on higher difficulties the turret is extremely hard to destroy, and the 1000 rpm fire rate can tear through the SUV, armored or not, in a matter of seconds. Therefore it may be a better idea to hold off at one of the helicopter landing points instead, unless the crew is confident they can make the short time window or the turret has been destroyed.
  • The overwhelming opposition on Death Wish difficulty almost always renders the escape car, Armored or not, a loss as they can shoot it and kill the driver even before he arrives. Unless the whole crew is at the pickup zone when he arrives, and provided that the amount of hostiles around the spot is not too large, he may just survive, though barely.
  • Be careful not to throw a Frag Grenade in the SUV's direction, as the blast can kill him if it detonates too close. Direct exposure to the explosion will kill him instantly regardless of difficulty, so beware.
• Dropping a sentry gun in the middle of the intersection may provide the getaway driver with some cover if players are still loading the coke.
• If playing on Death Wish difficulty and the trucks spawns to the building on the right, it is incredibly difficult, if not downright impossible, for users wearing anything heavier than a heavy ballistic vest to jump the bridge gap without having movement-speed bonus from a Mastermind's Inspire.
  • If one cannot afford the risk of downing the entire crew because of a botched jump attempt, have one player use light armor so only they need to jump the gap. Then, throw the bags over to the other end of the bridge so the other user can load the bags while everyone else stays behind.
  • That said, the area beyond the bridge gap is also the best defensible areas in the map. Bulldozers cannot jump the gap, other units are forced to jump one at a time to get there and not to mention forcing them on a bottleneck corridor (a particularly deadly area to use a Thanatos .50 cal, tripmines, and sentry guns.), and the only other entrance there is over the fences, which law enforcers will rarely use and have a short delay in climbing.

Day 2 (Boat Load)

Objectives

1. Secure the cocaine.
2. Turn on the search lights.
3. Protect the cocaine until the boat can arrive.
4. Move the cocaine onto the boat.
5. Escape via helicopter.

Assets

Ammo Bag
Price:	$6,000 (Normal) $9,000 (Hard) $12,000 (Very Hard) $18,000 (Overkill) $30,000 (Mayhem) $42,000 (Death Wish) $54,000 (Death Sentence)

Doctor Bag
Price:	$6,000 (Normal) $9,000 (Hard) $12,000 (Very Hard) $18,000 (Overkill) $30,000 (Mayhem) $42,000 (Death Wish) $54,000 (Death Sentence)

Sniper
Price:	$10,000 (Normal) $15,000 (Hard) $20,000 (Very Hard) $30,000 (Overkill) $50,000 (Mayhem) $70,000 (Death Wish) $90,000 (Death Sentence)

Grenade Case
Price:	$3,000 (Normal) $4,500 (Hard) $6,000 (Very Hard) $9,000 (Overkill) $15,000 (Mayhem) $21,000 (Death Wish) $27,000 (Death Sentence)
Requires the Gage Weapon Pack #01 DLC to unlock

Day 2 Overview (Bain's Guide)

Risk Level

Gage Courier Packages

Walkthrough

The crew is dropped off at the docks near the now-abandoned truck carrying the cocaine. If they were extracted via helicopter the previous day, Alex or Bile drops them off further away from the cocaine. On lower difficulties, several police officers will attempt to move the coke bags. On harder difficulties, a Skulldozer and a trio of Shields will be guarding the bags.

The crew must move to secure the cocaine (typically by carrying it to the nearby warehouse) before the police can repossess it. They must also turn on the searchlights that signal the boat to come, using a switch in the warehouse. The boat will arrive 2-3 minutes after the switch is pulled. Having one player at the start immediately go to the warehouse to do this will reduce the total time the team needs to wait for the boat.

There are three docks surrounding the warehouse, number 7, 8 and 9. The boat will show up at any one of these that is not blocked by a ship; it shows up at the same dock for every run within a heist. Sometimes dock 8 or 9 will be blocked by a ship which both prevents the boat from using that dock and serves as a spawn point for enemies.

Once the boat arrives, the crew can load the cocaine. The boat can carry only four bags at a time, this is indicated by the four barrels in the back. Be careful not to throw additional bags at the boat after it's full or they will fall into the sea, but the lost bag(s) will respawn at the truck where the coke was dropped off. Once loaded, the boat will leave with the cocaine, and the crew is left to defend the remaining bags.

Shortly after the the boat has left with the first load of cocaine, Alex returns with his helicopter to extract the crew. At this point the crew can either escape, carrying the additional bags of cocaine with them as they go or wait for the boat to return to do further runs.

Strategy

• Bags can be carried by the players into the escape helicopter and counted as secured loot, despite Bain's remark of lost coke. Using this method will award players the same amount of bagged loot money.
  • NOTE: However it will not grant the same amount of experience, as only bags secured by boat will count for that, forgoing 6,000XP (*difficulty modifier plus additional modifiers of the base XP as explained in Reputation (Payday 2)) for a 4-player team.
• The pickup truck in the warehouse is an obvious place to stash the bags while waiting for the boat, and seems to be a favorite. Don't be fooled -- if you put the bags on the catwalk they'll be much easier to defend.
• Check the docks for freighters as soon as you move the coke off of the truck. The boat will not come to a dock with a freighter, so you can position the bags to be closer to docks with no freighters.
  • The warehouse is a favorite hold-out, but the corners between the docks are actually easier to defend; each has a container you can hide behind which will constrain incoming fire. If the freighter is at Dock 7 or Dock 9, move the bags to the opposite corner and hold out there. If it's at Dock 8 (in front of the warehouse) the boat could arrive at either Dock 7 or Dock 9, and you won't know which until it's there; in that case hold out in the warehouse anyway, preferably on the catwalk.

Variations

• Since Update #42, both days can take place either at night or day. Day 2 was always be set in the same time as day 1, until Update #133 where it was changed to always be the opposite time compared to day 1.

Day 1

• The Loot Pick-Up can be in one of three places:
  • Up the stairwell, located to the right of the truck. It can be accessed either by the stairwell next to the street, or through the warehouse to the side.
  • The back of the warehouse located in front of the truck. A window is located in the next room where the bags can be thrown out. The door to the next room must be lock picked, blown open with shaped charges or sawed through.
  • Across the street, on the roof of a building to the left of the truck. This area can be accessed through a stairwell located next to the street, or through the warehouse. A bridge must be crossed to reach the loot truck.
• The escape helicopter can be in one of two places:
  • On the rooftop next to the bridge above the street. The ex-filtration area is located closest to the courtyard.
  • By the stairwells of the first loot-truck area.

• On Hard difficulty and above, there is a chance a squad of shields (SWAT Shields regardless of difficulty) will spawn at the back of the truck and the likelihood increases at higher difficulties. This can be confirmed by the sound of several shield clangs just before the door opens.
• There is a chance that the door leading to the back of the warehouse will be missing, forcing the crew to run to the stairwell located to the left of the truck if the Loot Pick-Up vehicle spawns in either one of the last two locations explained above.
• A door may block the entrance to the yellow staircase which requires drilling (179 seconds), sawing or one shaped charge to be opened. If the loot drop-off truck should arrive near the crane, players can alternately choose to use the staircase next to the street in order to move the coke, though this is more risky due to the amount of law enforcers spawning on the streets.

Day 2

• One or two freighters can spawn from docks 7-9. The boat driver will not go where a freighter is docked.
• Depending on the escape from Day 1, the crew will either spawn next to the loot-truck if they have taken the escape-car, or at the corner between docks 8 and 9 when dropped off by the helicopter.
• The open fence leading from the street to the warehouse yard can be on the left side or the right side, which will affect how enemies and players will travel in the area.
• The escape helicopter can spawn in 4 locations:
  • The balcony located inside the warehouse.
  • Docks 7-9, depending on where the freighter spawns.

Mayhem+ Changes

• On Day 1, the bridge crossing the road is partially destroyed. Players will have to make a difficult jump to cross over the gap.
• On Day 2, the doors and windows to the warehouse are sealed shut, forcing players to fight outside in the open. The floodlight switch will be placed on the exterior of the warehouse. There will also be fog covering parts of the map, limiting the players' view of their surroundings.
  • Also, a Skulldozer and three shields will spawn and guard the coke bags, which are located further away from the truck.

The FBI Files

This operation was conducted in cooperation with Hector Morales. The Payday gang were originally contracted to provide escort for a batch of Morales’ coke. The real purpose, however, was for them to be in a place and time of our choosing. Unfortunately, the Bureau underestimated the gang, who fought their way out of the ambush. However, it does not appear that the gang suspected the involvement of the Bureau. Morales directed them to a rendezvous at the nearby docks, where a second attempt to apprehend them was made.

My Notes: If there was ever a perfect opportunity to nail the Payday gang, this was it. Packed into a van, surrounded, we should have ended this there.

Bugs

• While coke carried to the escape zone still rewards the appropriate amount of cash, Bain will always remark that some bags were "lost" during the post-game debriefing, and the carried coke will not grant additional experience.

Achievements & Trophies

Trivia

• The docks where Day 2 of Watchdogs takes place can be seen from the bridge during Day 3 of Rats.
• There is unbagged coke loot underground in Day 2
• This was the first revealed multi-day heist in PAYDAY 2.
• While early footage of the heist showed Day 1 taking place at night^[1], Day 1 took place during the day in the Public Beta and the full release^[2] prior to Update #42.
• There are several unused assets that were never fully implemented.
• The brochure for the "Armored Escape" misspells the word "too".
• If one were to shoot the gas tank on the right side of the truck, the back of it will explode and be set ablaze.
• Purchasable Medic bag and Ammo bag assets on Day 1 appear in the back of the truck, yet can be used from outside of the truck if the player is within close proximity.
• If coke bags are carried to the escape zone on the players' backs on Day 1, they will spawn next to the drop-off point on Day 2.
• On Day 1 of the heist, players can use explosives to kill the escape car driver from within the playable zone of the map before he's scripted to drive in. Managing to do so will cause a unique animation to trigger where his car will hit a police cruiser and a few other empty vehicles before flipping over.
  • It then presumably catches on fire, as standing next to the now-upended vehicle causes the same visual distortions as the burning pile of money on Day 3 of Firestarter, though players will not suffer from burn damage doing so.
• Originally this heist was apparently supposed to last 3 days.^[3]

References

v·d·e PAYDAY 2 Heists