Payday 3: How to stealth Houston Breakout

A familiar face returns to Payday 3, with the Houston Breakout heist bringing the gang to a New York courthouse to free their old friend. Here’s how to complete the level in stealth.

Originally titled The Land of the Free, Houston Breakout is the third DLC for Payday 3 released as part of its Year 1 roadmap. With the release of this heist, only one DLC remains left in Starbreeze’s first-year plan.

A spiritual successor to Payday 2’s Hoxton Breakout mission, this heist has different objectives for loud and stealth approaches. Here’s how to complete it while in stealth.

Guard placements

Firstly, make sure you’re running our recommended Payday 3 stealth loadout which has been optimized for the latest patch. As you’ll be spending a large portion of this heist unmasked, using the Grifter and Hacker skill lines is essential here.

Here are all the guard locations we’ve found so far, but be aware that the exact number will change depending on the difficulty you’re playing.

• Four guards in the lobby, two by the metal detectors and two patrolling
• One guard in the underground parking lot in the gate control room
• Three guards in the underground holding cell, two in the surveillance room, and one by the metal detector
• Three guards patrolling upstairs wings of the courthouse, plus one who moves between floors
• Two guards near the courtroom entrance
• Two guards inside the courtroom
• One guard in the court clerk’s office near the conference room
• If Lead Guard is active, a Lead Guard will spawn in the lobby and patrol the entire map

Due to the amount of guards on this map, we recommend staying unmasked for as long as possible to avoid any unnecessary complications. It’s even possible to complete the entire heist without masking up once.

Disable the metal detectors

When you begin the heist, you’ll start in the lobby area of the courthouse. As his trial is still ongoing, Houston is being held in the courtroom which is currently in recess.

Look ahead and note the metal detectors in the lobby. You’ll need to deactivate these first before moving on. Interact with the circuit breaker located on the wall to your left and take note of the four switchboxes you’ll need to flip.

Each switch box has four different color switches. The color currently being shown on the circuit breaker corresponds to the switch you need to flip next. You can flip each switch box in any order you like, but it must be done in the correct color order as shown on the breaker.

For example, if the first color is Blue, you can flip the Blue switch on any of the four switch boxes to start with. Then you must head back to the breaker and repeat with the next color in the sequence. For colorblind players, a visual symbol is also available.

There are two switch boxes in the lobby, as well as two in the underground parking lot. As the parking lot is a Private Area, make sure you avoid being detected by cameras down here.

Once you’ve flipped all switches, head back to the circuit breaker and interact with it to disable the metal detectors. Head through to the rotunda and the entrance to the courtroom is located to the right.

You’ll need a Press Badge to enter the courtroom. These can be found on the backs of two NPCs located in the main rotunda area. Make sure you’re not being observed when pickpocketing one. When you have the Press Badge, go back to the courtroom entrance and enter the room.

Due to violent behavior, Houston can be found in a locked room to the left during the trial. From here, the heist can divert into two possible objective paths depending on the type of evidence being presented at the trial: Digital Evidence and Physical Evidence.

Check the board at the front of the courtroom to see which you’ll need to go after. But before you go after the evidence, you’ll need to get the Judge to send Houston back to the holding cells.

Blackmail the Judge

To begin blackmailing the Judge, you’ll need a QR Code. You can find one by searching through phones that are laying about. One can be found upstairs in the viewing balcony above the courtroom. At least two QR codes can be found later: one in Judge Green’s safe and another in the clerk’s office.

To go to the upper floor, flights of stairs are located at the end of each hallway. Once you have the QR code, head downstairs and find the Judge’s office. It’s located down a hallway behind the courtroom. Be sure to hack the camera on a loop so it doesn’t spot you.

Enter the Judge’s office using the code and hack his PC. While that’s taking some time to complete, crack the safe in the wall to grab another QR code and a USB drive.

Once you’ve hacked the PC, Shade will ask you to insert the USB drive to get some dirt on the Judge. Next, you’ll need to head down to the clerk’s office, located near the metal detectors from earlier.

There are two possible entrances here. We recommend taking the right-hand entrance behind the clerks. If you can trigger Rush from Grifter Basic and combine it with Social Engineering, you’ll be able to move through this area undetected so long as you avoid the guard.

Find the desk with the employee’s name and hack into their PC. This computer will have the blackmail Shade needs. Keep your eye out for any guards that move through this room, and be sure to retrigger Rush by moving close to the employee who walks around.

Once you’re done with the PC, leave the office area and head back to the area with the desk clerks. If you’re going for Digital Evidence, read on. Otherwise, skip down to Physical Evidence.

Digital Evidence

Hide behind the middle island counter and crack the two safes located against the wall. In here is a code that’ll allow you to enter the server room where the Digital Evidence is being stored.

With the code, go back to the rotunda and head upstairs. In the central upstairs area, you can find a room with a keypad lock securing it. Enter the code when a guard is not around and unlock the door.

Inside the room are two rows of server racks. You’ll be able to pick up four servers here, with one of these having Houston’s evidence on. Take each server over to the PC in the corner of the room. The computer will start to decrypt them one at a time. Do this until you decrypt Houston’s evidence.

Physical Evidence

If you’re going for Physical Evidence, you’ll be prompted to find the Evidence Room. It’s located on the first floor, just across from the clerk’s office. A notepad by the door will indicate where the code for the keypad can be found.

The code will be located in a meeting room on the second floor. Head upstairs and find the room with a whiteboard to see the code. Write it down or memorize it and go back to the Evidence Room. Punch in the code to get access.

Next, you’ll see rows of shelving units that are filled with physical evidence. One of these boxes is Houston’s, so we’ll have to narrow it down a little to find the correct box.

Note the calendar on the wall near the computer. Each day of the week has a certain letter assigned to it, and one letter will be circled. This is where Houston’s evidence is located. Find the shelf that matches the circled letter and pick up the evidence box.

Since each shelf has several boxes, you’re going to need to narrow it down further. Pick up any of the pieces of evidence and throw them onto the barcode scanner. Wait for the computer to do its magic, and it’ll eventually tell you if this is Houston’s evidence or not.

If it is, you’ll be able to continue with the heist. If not, scan another evidence box until you find the correct one.

Free Houston

Once you have the evidence you need, pick it up and leave it in the room somewhere safe. You’ll be coming back for this at a later time. For now, we need to free Houston.

Shade will now put the blackmail to good use. Follow the objective marker and head to the nearby office with a phone to have her call the Judge. He’ll suspend the court and leave the room. Houston will also be escorted back to the holding cells underground.

Before you head to the underground, you need two items: a Blue Keycard and a Box of Donuts.

Blue Keycard location

The Blue Keycard can be found on a guard in the upper east wing of the rotunda. The correct guard will be highlighted for you. Make sure you interact with it when nobody else is looking at you, or else you’ll alert the guards.

Box of Donuts location

The Box of Donuts can be found in the clerk’s office. It’s on a desk in the conference room. Be careful in this area, as it’s a Secure Area being patrolled by a guard. If caught, you’ll have to mask up and kill him before he arrests you.

With both the Blue Keycard and Box of Donuts, head back to the hallway where the courtroom entrance is located and enter the basement stairwell on your right.

Holding cells

In the basement, it’s a good idea to hack the various cameras and put them on a secure loop so you won’t be spotted by surveillance. Enter the first hallway directly ahead of you and use the Blue Keycard on the door to your left. 

In here, there will be two guards ahead of you with their backs turned. Move forward past the wall and look left. There will be a spot to place the Box of Donuts. Put them down here and leave the room the way you came – but don’t run.

After leaving this room, turn right and wait for the third guard to enter. All three will now be preoccupied with eating donuts to watch Houston.

Re-enter the room with the surveillance guards and look to the left wall to see four buttons labeled Cells 1-4. Pressing each button will open the corresponding cell door. Check which cell Houston is being held in and hit that button before leaving the room.

Follow the hallway around and you’ll meet up with Houston at the metal detector. Here you can either disable the metal detector or open the basement counter. Either way, Houston will be able to enter the parking lot from earlier. We’re almost done.

Lastly, you need to open the gate by pressing a button. Head to the guard room on the far side of the parking lot and lockpick the door. 

There’ll be a guard in here, but if you’re still unmasked you’ll be able to easily press the button from behind him. If not, you can use a nearby lure to get him to leave the room.

Now all that’s left is to go back up to the server room and grab Houston’s server. If you’re unmasked, it’s as easy as heading up through the lobby and back through the rotunda. If you’ve masked up by now though, the best way to get up there is by sneaking through the holding cells and going back upstairs that way.

Once you’ve secured Houston’s server and any additional loot, you’ll be free to escape and complete the heist. This will complete the mission and give you your payday. Now you’ll be ready for Payday 3’s next DLC heist, Fear and Greed, when it launches.

To see all the other heists you can play in Payday 3, check out the full mission list. Be sure to also check out the best heists to make some fast cash, as well as how the new solo mode works.