An Easy to use NO DLC build that is good on all difficulties. Viable on Death Sentence One Down but would not make DSOD a breeze sadly as it is a hard difficulty.

Introduction

I believe that many people struggle on loud because of bad builds so here is a very easy to use DSOD viable build for everyone to use on any difficulty.

HOWEVER, I may say this build is DSOD viable I DO NOT RECOMMEND going to DSOD immediately as it is a INSANELY unbalanced difficulty. I highly recommend Death Wish as it is far more fair and balanced with almost exactly the same rewards from Death Sentence and is MUCH EASIER. There is no real reason to do Death Sentence Loud beyond getting the achievement or for the challenge.

Infamy Cost Reduction

Tier 4 skills for no infamy players are locked by spending 18 points in tiers below, to get a discount to unlock tier 4 skills at 16 points instead you will need to claim the first infamy reward.

Inventory and Weapons

Perk Deck: Armorer

Armor: Improved Combined Tactical Vest (ICTV)

The best armor for Armorer is ICTV

Melee: El Verdugo

Any 70 damage melee is suitable as long as you feel it provides enough swing speed or feels great. The main use of it is to kill any common units or non-dozer units for a reload speed from bloodthirst.

The Kento’s Tanto and the Comically Large Gold Spoons are good non-DLC 70 damage melees too, give these a try and see which ones feel better to use.

Throwable: Concussion Grenades

Concussion Grenades are capable of stunning all non-special units at a large distance, you might be tempted to use grenades or other explosives to kill them instead but the range is lower and you might not even kill most of them. Instead, you may consider throwing them to stun enemies then walking in to shoot the easy targets that were stunned. Concussions are also helpful for buying time for doing objectives. There is an electric grenade option but it has less throwables and lower range.

Deployable: Medic Bag

The LMG is capable of killing a heavy zeal unit in 3 body hits and picks up at least 10 bullets per ammo box, bringing an ammo bag would be pointless. The other option would be tripmines but not many missions will find use for mines and fire trap is a very expensive skill. Medic bags are a decent option for the team as it never hurts to be prepared for accidents.

Primary Weapon:

KSP LIGHT 58 LIGHT MACHINE GUN

Modded for maximum Stability:

Barrel: Optional

Barrel Ext: The Bigger the Better Suppressor

Bipod: Lion Bipod

Boost: Stability

Gadget: LED Combo

Stock: Plastic Stock

If you own “Gage Weapon Pack #2” DLC the KSP LIGHT MACHINE GUN (without the 58 number) is a straight upgrade with a faster reload and slightly better stats.

Secondary Weapon:

I have 2 recommendations which depends on preference.

Krinkov Submachine Gun:

This is mainly for hitting snipers as it has perfect accuracy and stability, it is also ideal for bulldozers.

Modded for accuracy and stability (Without DLC):

Barrel Etx: The Bigger the Better Suppressor

Boost: Accuracy

Custom: None

Extra: None

Foregrip: Moscow Special Rail

Gadget: LED Combo

Magazine: None

Sight: Any

Stock: Wooden Sniper Stock

If you do own “Gage Spec OPS” DLC the only improvement you can add is Magazine: Speed Pull Magazine

Compact 40mm Grenade Launcher:

Used for indoor and smaller maps like No Mercy where enemies group up often.

Only important modification is:

Ammunition: None

Fire rounds and electric rounds are not practical with this grenade launcher.

The stats of this weapon is irrelevant.

Mastermind Skills

There is no practical reason to run quick fix aced with medic bags. Quick Fix Aced is capable of ruining other player’s berserker damage boost.

An example is when an anarchist tries to get berserker from their own molotovs after using the Quick Fix Aced medic bag. The extra 10% could throw them off and may get them killed.

Another example is Armorer has a different way of getting berserker, getting shot by a heavy zeal on Death Sentence for 225 damage out of 230 health. This gives about a 90+% berserker but Quick Fix aced they would get less and might screw up their weapon breakpoints.

Quick Fix basic on the other hand is also not a useful skill for the doctor bag.

It makes it deploy 1 second faster and you can only deploy 2 of them over an entire heist anyway. Medic bags should also be placed strategically and preemptively. Identify an area that is safe for teammates and place a medic bag there ahead of time even if no one has died yet. If you placed it early when you are not under pressure you won’t need that 1 second of deploy time for medic bags.

Painkillers is capable of saving players such as Armorer because they are revived with full armor immediately. The damage reduction from painkillers and combat medic reduces a shot from heavy zeals from 225 to 31.5. Armorer has 280.5 armor and can now tank 8 shots (9 with Frenzy Basic) instead of 2 from a heavy zeal. This greatly reduces the risk of dying immediately upon revive.

Only Basic Inspire was taken as points were needed on other weapon stat skills such as The Professional Aced (Ghost) was needed to boost the weapon stats.

Stable Shot for weapon stats.

Enforcer Skills

Iron Man Aced for ICTV Because it is the best armor for armorer.

The Combined Tactical Vest (CTV) is not capable of tanking the 225 damage from a common heavy zeal without a heavy skill point investment (Iron Man Basic + Frenzy Aced). Worth considering for Low Blow Crit setups but you will still tank less than ICTV.

Shock n Awe skill was taken to deal with shields. Simply fire bullets at the shield to stagger them and you will eventually get them to expose themselves for you, melee is guaranteed to knock them down.

Bullseye basic is mandatory.

What is armor gating?

If you have any amount of armor you can never take any health damage. (except shot by snipers)

This is useful when using the berserker skill as you won’t die easily to random shots. Bullseye allows you to armor gate a shot of any damage that comes to you. If a common heavy zeal does 225 damage to you the 5 armor from bullseye will armor gate it and save you.

Die Hard is good for buying the extra second you need to complete an objective or revive a teammate. Yes, if that description is accurate your teammates are objects.

Resilience Aced is for flashbangs, it is possible to destroy flashbangs before they go off but that isn’t something we can always do in the heat of battle.

Scavenger Basic is good for taking ammo through walls. The primary example is taking ammo from the roof of Panic Room from the floor below.

Technician Skills

Body Expertise is the main thing here as it removes the need for us to aim at the head. Aiming for the head with the LMG is hard so this skill makes it a lot easier to deal with most units. Body Expertise DOES NOT work on Bulldozers so use a high damage SMG or the LMG to deal with it.

Surefire Aced is necessary for Body Expertise as common tan coloured units will have body armor that prevents bullets from even damaging them. Do not skip this for Body Expertise setups.

Lock n Load basic helpful for landing a headshot while moving to get the bullseye armor that could save your life. Lock n Load Aced is helpful for the very long reload LMGs have. 40% does not seem like much but believe me it has saved me a couple of times.

Fire Control is not a necessary skill but could be helpful if you wish to hit snipers with an LMG. Fire control aced should be avoided as it does not increase accuracy, it only reduces an insignificant penalty.

Steady Grip Aced for weapon stats.

Never take Heavy Impact in this tree as enemies may move weirdly and make it harder to hit them, not that this skill would matter since even Death Sentence Heavy Zeals will die in 3 body hits with this build.

Ghost Skills

Parkour basic for movement with the slowest armor in the game. DO NOT ACE PARKOUR, without it aced you can sprint to cancel your reload and start shooting immediately to save your life.

The Professional Aced for weapon stats, pretty straight forward.

Fugitive Skills

Nine Lives for an extra down which is especially helpful for One Down modifier. Could be removed for other skills if you find yourself not dying very often.

Bloodthirst Aced is for faster reload with LMGs. Kill some cops with your LMG with hit any enemy that gets to close to you for an easy kill. Don’t need to charge the melee and make sure you use a 70 damage melee or it might not kill on a tap of the melee key.

Berserker Aced to buff the LMG and SMG.

Frenzy Basic ensures there is a minimum of 40% berserker boost, which is enough for the LMG to kill heavy zeals in 3 body shots with Body Expertise. Don’t need to go for a higher berserker as it would not bring much more benefit to the build.

If you moved points from both Die Hard and Nine Lives consider getting pumping iron aced as you can kill dozers or deal massive amounts of damage to them. It is great for saving your ammo too. Would need to charge the melee at least half or more to make sure you deal a significant amount to the dozer. I do not really recommend it as melee kill dozers is very dangerous and has killed me several times when attempting it. Pumping iron basic is unnecessary as bloodthrist is enough to kill a common zeal unit for reload boost.

PD2 Build Link

For people who have issues loading images:

https://pd2builder.netlify.app/?s=xa001000cN10-6V0050120001xc&p=2&a=6&t=4&d=3 – [netlify.app]

Version With Inspire Aced:

https://pd2builder.netlify.app/?s=1G0010008N10-5gF0050120001xc&p=2&a=6&t=4&d=3 – [netlify.app]

For people who plays solo or have a team that doesn’t die too often (more DPS):

https://pd2builder.netlify.app/?s=0-410008N1000100V00501G0001xc&p=2&a=6&t=4 – [netlify.app]

Either Single Medic Bag for a few inevitable downs, ammo bag, or mines as mines can skip some objectives with it such as the gates for the basement in Hotline Miami Day 1.

Bonus no infamy version for those chads:

https://pd2builder.netlify.app/?s=Ba001000cN10-52V005010-41zc&p=2&a=6&t=4&d=3 – [netlify.app]

(just infamy anyway it is not worth staying at 0 infamy)

For the No Infamy version: Remember to change the barrel extension of LMG to “The Tank Compensator”. The “Competitor’s Compensator” is better if you own the Gage Mod Courier Pack

About the build

Why no inspire aced?

Inspire Aced is a very overused skill and has made people less caring with their lives. Players need to learn to avoid dying in very bad spots as they somehow believe that inspire aced would save them. When a player is inspired their health is set to about 10%. Let’s imagine that player is using the Rogue perk deck with a suit. If that player died in the open where 10 cops still have line of sight to them, Inspire aced would likely give them an extra down because they would die in 2 hits upon revive even with Painkillers aced. If you have Inspire basic you will learn to be more careful about your revives and clear the area first so you won’t die trying to revive someone. Using a concussion to stun the enemies and then revive them is also a decent option.

Tanking with ICTV:

Try to get back into cover once your armor tanks a few hits and wait for it to recover, you want to ensure your armor does not get broken often as you want to preserve the 2 seconds of invulnerability for unexpected situations or running out of cover to cover.

Why Silence the LMG?

Silenced weapons reduce the enemy’s speed to react your shots and will take longer for them to start shooting at you. Silenced weapons have no threat, this means enemies won’t unexpectedly jump away into cover, potentially saving themselves rather than staying out to continue taking your bullets. Finally, silenced weapons will have better weapon stats even if The Professional does cost a few points, You will feel the difference of 60 accuracy to 80 accuracy when you try it.

No Messiah, Swan Song?

Revenant Abuse is a very different play style that is extremely dangerous and requires a strong amount of expertise and team work. This is not a recommended play style outside of high crime spree.

Reloading with the LMG:

Make sure to always get at least 2 kills with your weapon before trying to reload it, the Lock N’ Load Aced skill really helps with the reload for both the LMG and SMG. Don’t forget that Bloodthirst Aced does indeed stack with Lock N’ Load but you don’t have to do that all the time.

Getting more berserker damage boost:

You can actually safely tank a shot of 70 or less damage for even more berserker damage boost. Simply issolate either a Gangster, Light Zeal, or Shield unit to and hit their head for bullseye to both protect yourself and kill the enemy unit you used to get your damage boost.

Getting extra berserker damage does not heavily impact the build, if you cannot find a safe or easy way to get the damage you should not try to. I do not recommend getting Berserker boost at all on lower difficulties as it definitely won’t matter there.

Inspire Basic:

Shouting at your teammates will increase their movement and reload speed by 20% for 10 seconds. I recommend shouting at your teammates especially if they wear ICTV to give them a nice speed boost to move around, it is always helpful especially when needing to run through areas such as the street of shops at Reservoir Dogs.

Team Bot Boosts:

If you don’t play with a full lobby here are some boosts to consider.

“Accelerator” Crew Boost. Be sure to put it on the bot at the left of the menu as it is the last bot to be replaced by joining players. This helps to solve the LMG’s biggest weakness which is long reloads.

A helpful movement boost from “Invigorator” Crew Boost is less important but great, I’d put it at the middle of 3 bots as the 2nd last bot to be replaced by players.

“Sharpeyed” Crew Ability makes it pretty damn near impossible to run out of ammo with LMGs. I had to fire 200 bullets into the wall for showcasing the scavenger clip in the video.

“Quick” Crew Ability is generally a very good and often underrated ability, with 3 bots you can reduce a drill fix time from 7.5 seconds to 2.5 seconds. There are a lot more interactions that this ability helps on but it would be a long list.

Remember, there are some suggestions on improvement to the build if you have DLC they are not major upgrades and therefore are not required.

Finally, here is a build showcase video:

https://youtu.be/9x25v-mRcuA – [youtu.be]

This is all about PAYDAY 2 – DSOD No DLC Build + Weapons Attachments & Class; I hope you enjoy reading the Guide! If you feel like we should add more information or we forget/mistake, please let us know via commenting below, and thanks! See you soon!