Payday 3’s Rock The Cradle heist is a fun one to finish in stealth, but it can be quite difficult. Here’s how to sneak through the nightclub level without setting off any alarms.
Rock The Cradle in Payday 3 is a Vlad heist, in which you need to go to a nightclub and steal a crypto wallet worth millions of dollars. While this level is a lot tougher than the previous two stealth missions that come before it, we’ve got a full walkthrough to help you sneak your way to victory.
Before you get started, make sure you’re using the Payday 3 best stealth build to make your time in the Neon Cradle far less stressful.
Here’s how to complete Rock The Cradle in stealth. It’s worth noting that this heist holds a few different variances depending on the game difficulty you’re playing, so your experience may vary in a few different elements.
How to stealth Rock The Cradle in Payday 3
Through our testing, we’ve found 8 guards present throughout this level on Normal difficulty:
- 1 uniformed guard on the ground floor
- 1 uniformed guard on the top floor
- 2 uniformed guards patrolling the VIP room
- 1 camera room guard
- 2 bouncers guarding the VIP room entrance
- 1 bouncer guarding the IT room
Your first objective is to get into the VIP Floor, which is closed off to you. When the heist loads, walk into the nightclub and head to the back area near where the DJ is. You’ll see two bouncers guarding the door and will refuse you entry.
There are two methods to get to the VIP Floor on easier difficulties, but on higher difficulties, you’ll only be able to execute one of these.
Rock The Cradle VIP Room access invitation method
The first method is to fabricate a fake VIP Room invitation. Across the room from the bouncers, you’ll notice a door that can be lockpicked. If you have the Social Engineering skill from the Grifter skill line, gain some rush by running near a civilian and you’ll be able to pick the lock without being spotted.
Head upstairs and across past the DJ booth to Cassandra Rifkin’s office. Pick the lock here, but be careful of the camera, and hack the PC inside. Once that’s done, head back downstairs and search for the outline of a civilian. It’s Rifkin, and you need to hack her phone. She’ll start from the outside of the club and patrol the public and private areas.
Approach Rifkin and you’ll be able to interact with the phone attached to her belt. This will start a hack – but the trick here is to stay close to her. If you move outside of the circle surrounding her before the hack is complete, you’ll have to start over again. Start the hack once you are in a safe place.
Once that’s done, you can head back up to Rifkin’s office and interact with the QR code reader by the display case. Open the display case and take the VIP Invitation. Now all you need to do is authenticate it, which you can do with a RFID reader. It’s located either in the Meet Hall opposite the office or in an office on the ground floor.
Find the machine and authenticate your VIP Pass, then take it down to the bouncers, who will accept the invitation and allow you to enter downstairs.
Rock The Cradle VIP Room access speakers method
The other method to gain access to the VIP Room is to mess with the DJ’s speakers. On the floor near Rifkin’s office, head up to the speaker area by using either the stairs or a vent inside a nearby storage room.
Up here, you’ll need to interact with four speakers. There may also be a patrolling guard. You can either kill him or avoid him, but we recommend saving as many radios as possible for downstairs so try to leave him be. Once that’s done, head back down to the DJ booth and interact with the console.
This will cause a guard to come and investigate, taking the stairwell up to the second floor. Use this as an opportunity to kill him, take the keycard he drops, and get into the VIP Room.
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Rock The Cradle Crypto Wallet
The VIP Room houses an IT area holding the Crypto Wallet you’re after. Look for a bouncer guarding a room near the bar area. There are two methods to getting the wallet out of there. The first is to head into the poker table room, which is on your right after descending the stairs. In here is an accountant who will give you his business card.
Take the business card and head over to the other side of the VIP Room. Take note of the bouncer guarding the IT Room. Shade will mention tricking the accountant into opening the crypto wallet storage for us, but she needs access to a phone.
Head into the room near the IT Room, it’s located on the other side of the bathroom. Avoid the camera and use the phone here to give the accountant a call.
He’ll make his way over from the poker room to the IT Room. While you can’t get through there from the front door due to the bouncer, you can head into the bathroom next door and open a vent in the wall that gives you access. Once the accountant has reached the storage, he’ll open it leaving you with an opportunity to snag it.
If you can’t get the accountant to the IT Room, you can instead try to force it open. Head upstairs to the Accounting Room. In here is a red keycard, which will give you access to the IT Room provided you can distract the bouncer at the door with a nearby lure. If you don’t want to do this, however, you can also enter the IT Room via a vent in the next-door restroom.
Inside the IT room is a whiteboard with a code on it and a color. Take note of this, and head back up to the upper area where the entrance to the VIP room is located. You’ll see a door just at the bottom of the stairs which leads to a small room with eight different switchboxes.
The correct switchbox will have the code from the whiteboard written on it, and then the color you need to hit is one of the four also listed on the whiteboard. For example, if the whiteboard read “A400 Blue”, then you’d need to open the switchbox labelled A400 and the hit the blue switch.
After doing this, you now only need to disable the security measures on the crypto vault by heading back to the accounting office and interacting with the PC. After doing this, it’s yours for the taking.
Rock The Cradle Vault
You need to take the Crypto Wallet over to the loot drop on the far side of the VIP Room. This is quite simple if you take the upstairs route and head across the walkway. There are no civilians up here apart from the dancers so you should be able to ferry the bag quite easily.
In the Accounting Office, there are also three codes. One on the desk, one in the safe and one in the storage closet. Take note of each code as one will give you access to the loot inside the vault. The vault is in one of the side rooms, with three possible spawns.
The money inside the vault is optional, but you’ll earn extra payout for securing the money. Similarly, there are also cocaine stashes hidden inside the wooden crates dotted around the back areas of the VIP Room, which you can also secure.
Once the Crypto Wallet has been secured, the escape will trigger in a room near the entrance to the VIP Room. You’ll need the blue keycard to open it, but the escape zone lies just beyond the door. Stand in the zone to complete the mission, ready for the next stealth heist – Under the Surphaze.
For more Payday 3 heists, refer to our full mission list. If you need some quick cash, we can also recommend a bunch of heists that are best for earning easy money.