The game consists of a variety of heists that the player can opt to either carry out by themselves, with the AI, or as part of a multiplayer game. There are heists such as bank robberies, drug trafficking runs, rigging an election, or stealing smuggled nuclear warheads. Some of the heists put a large emphasis on stealth, often leading to bonus experience points and money on completion, and certain heists can only be done in stealth.
The level selection menu is styled as a fictional website, Crime.net, where missions pop up periodically as contracts in a map of Washington, D.C.[10][11] The player can pick up an open contract, join a contract another player has started, or buy a contract with in-game money in an offshore bank account. There are seven difficulty levels: Normal, Hard, Very Hard, Overkill, Mayhem, Death Wish, and Death Sentence, with increased money and experience payouts for higher difficulty levels. Some contracts in Payday 2 take place over multiple days, with each day represented by a separate level with different objectives.[12] After certain days of heists are completed in 'loud' (in which the alarm has sounded) the game may add an escape level, where the players' original escape is thwarted and they must survive to reach their backup getaway.[11]
Many jobs in Payday 2 can be completed in stealth. If the player avoid getting caught on camera, evade or silently kill security guards, do not kill more than four guards with pagers and keep any civilian witnesses from calling the police, the alarm will not be raised and the players will receive an experience bonus. Otherwise, players will have to achieve their objectives, carry out any loot they find to a drop-off point, and reach their escape point under the pressure of constant police assault waves. Most of the enemies are SWAT units sourced from D.C. police, then FBI SWAT, GenSec private security contractors and finally the Department of Homeland Security as difficulty increases. Mixed in with these are special units; all versions of Payday 2 include the "Shield" and the "Taser" - both named for their signature equipment, the "Bulldozer" - a SWAT team member in a modified near-bulletproof bomb suit, and snipers. The Crimewave Edition and PC version include the "Cloaker" - an infiltration and hand-to-hand combat expert. Exclusive to the PC and Crimewave editions are near-indestructible SWAT van turrets, capable of area denial, a medic capable of returning an enforcer to full health with no status effects, and Captain Winters, a well-protected veteran police officer who sustains assaults and buffs enemies until he can be driven off.
If the player takes too much damage they will be knocked down and incapacitated. If no one helps them back up, or if they are downed a number of times without healing up via a Doctor Bag, they will be taken into custody. On lower difficulty levels players in custody will eventually come out of custody after a set time period, but otherwise, their teammates must take a hostage to trade to get them back into the game. A job is failed if all players are downed or in custody, or reaching a heist-specific fail condition.
At the end of each heist, the player is presented with a screen with three cards, one of which is to be chosen by the player (called a "Payday"). These bonus cards can be weapon modifications, masks, weapon skins, colors or materials for masks, bonus experience, or money. The player can purchase and customize masks, although these are purely cosmetic and have no effect on the gameplay.
Throughout the game, the player accumulates money and experience. The money is divided into two parts. 20% of the money is given to the player to spend on weapons and masks and 80% is placed into the player's offshore account, which is intended as part of the story to be the player's retirement fund, however, the player can use it to purchase heists from a broker, to buy bonus cards without performing a heist, to become infamous, or a player can press a button in their safehouse to burn all of it.
During the 4th day of "The Search For Kento" event the Crime Spree game mode was added, in which players complete heists consecutively to earn large rewards. As the player completes heists, their crime spree rank increases, with the number of ranks earned varying depending on the heist chosen. As the player's rank increases, they must choose modifiers that make the heists increasingly difficult. Players can start at rank zero or pay continental coins to start at higher levels. When choosing a heist, players are given three choices, and the option to reroll the choices for continental coins. Players can choose to end their crime spree at any level and claim their rewards. If a player fails a heist, or their game closes during the heist for whatever reason, their crime spree will end; they can choose to either pay continental coins to resume the crime spree or end it and take the rewards. During the pre-planning of the heists, certain "Gage Perks" can be purchased with continental coins to provide players with buffs.
As players earn experience points, their reputation level increases. When a player's level increases they earn skill points, allowing them to buy abilities and bonuses from skill trees representing five of the playable heisters and playstyles: The "Mastermind" tree, containing healing, crowd control, and precision focused skills, refers to Dallas. The "Enforcer" tree, containing shotgun, armor, and ammo skills refers to Chains. The "Technician" tree, containing turret, trip mine, drill, and automatic weapon skills refers to Wolf. The "Ghost" Tree, containing stealth, ECM, dodging, and crit skills refers to Houston. The "Fugitive" tree, containing melee, bleedout, and pistol skills refers to Hoxton. They have two stages: Basic and Aced[13][14] It is not possible to max out every single tree and players are often encouraged to mix and match skills from each tree to maximize usefulness. Players also receive "perk points," in proportion to their experience, that can be used to unlock additional bonuses from 22 "perk decks", also based on the playable heisters. Players can switch between 15 profiles of skills, perk decks, weapons and equipment at no cost before starting a heist.
When a player reaches level 100, they can opt to raise their "Infamy" level, up to level 500. Becoming Infamous grants a player access to special items, a permanent bonus to all gained experience, and gives them special poses in lobby screens. However, raising one's Infamy level causes them to lose all of their spending money and experience, and a sum of $200,000,000 is deducted from their offshore account until they reach Infamy level 5.