The Rock the Cradle stealth heist takes you to the Neon Arcade nightclub in Payday 3. This is a front for some shady businessmen to make under-the-table deals. Lucky for you, they have stored all of their money in a Crypto Wallet.
Going into the heart of Neon Cradle, you will need patience, planning, and a lot of preparation before you step into enemy territory. The multilayered map, strong security, and multiple exit and entry routes will keep you on your toes so don’t give up if you need to retry a few times.
Triggering the alarm will give you a great combat experience to test your combat skills in Rock the Cradle Loud but in our opinion, completing the heist in stealth is a bigger challenge.
Table of Contents
How to complete Rock the Cradle in Stealth for Payday 3
Completing the Rock the Cradle heist in Stealth in Payday 3 requires a lot of patience and vigilance. While avoiding security cameras, alarms, and guards, you must make your way to the back of the Neon Arcade and walk out without being seen.
Though you can bring any weapon as long as it has a suppressor on it, we recommend the Signature.40 pistol with a silencer equipped. Not only is it one of the best weapons in Payday 3, but it is accessible with great damage output and will not hinder your mobility, an important aspect of Stealth.
Your Stealth Build in Payday 3 can be tailored to your needs but for this heist, we recommend Glitch Protocol, Walk the Walk, and Hacker as basic pick-ups which will significantly improve your run.
Get an invitation to the VIP Room
The first thing you need during Rock the Cradle in Stealth is to get access to the VIP Club. Enter Neon Arcade through the front door and make your way to the end, past the dancers by the Neon Lounge Bar.
You will see the VIP Club entrance on your right but it will be guarded by two Bouncers who won’t allow you to pass without an invitation.
To get an invitation you need to search Cassandra Rifkin’s office, so start by getting through the door leading to the stairs on your left. Crouch to avoid detection and make quick work of the lock check.
Go up the stairs, through the door, and unlock the door across to get into Rifkin’s office. Once you are through you will see a QR Code Scanner on the wall as shown in the image above.
However, the QR Codes are with Rifkin who will be highlighted on the map for you. To find Rifkin, go back down the stairs towards the entrance and you will see a woman with a black suit and red skirt walking in the bar with a phone on her back.
Beware there is a lot of security in the area. We recommend marking the patrolling guards so you know who is coming in your direction.
Crouch behind her and wait till you are not being observed to hack the phone. Follow her around till the digital key has finished downloading which will take a few seconds.
After it is complete, go back up to her office, scan the QR code, and grab the VIP invitation after the display case opens. However, you can’t enter the VIP club just yet, as you are required to authenticate the invitation with RFID.
Authenticate the VIP Invitation
The RFID required to authenticate your VIP invitations during the Rock the Cradle Stealth Heist in Payday 3 can be found either in the Staff Room beside the VIP club entrance or up the stairs on the tables across. This is random for each player.
For the Staff Room entrance, you will need to crouch and unlock the door after passing the lock check. To access the upstairs area, go near the entrance and use the stairs on the left to head up. Next comes the hard part.
To avoid the cameras in the area, hide behind the pillar on the right till the camera is facing away from you and run towards the wall with the giant headset sign.
Hug the wall till the cameras calm down, put the invitations on the RFID, hack the computer, and stay put. Make sure you are not detected by the camera on the pillar across so move around to get away from its line of sight.
After the computer shows you a green signal, take the invitations and hug the left side to get back downstairs.
Get into the VIP Room without an invitation (hard difficulty only)
If you are playing the Rock the Cradle stealth heist in hard difficulty or above, you will have a way to get into the VIP Room without needing an invitation.
This can be done in two ways: by using the Glitch Protocol Skill or by reconfiguring the speakers.
Glitch Protocol method
Grab the Glitch Protocol skill under the Hacker Skill Tree which will allow you to interrupt a guard performing an action, distract them for 5 seconds, and make them go back to what they were doing before they interacted with you.
With the skill equipped, go to the bouncers outside the VIP club room, use the skill to distract them, and grab the Blue Keycard off the right bouncer’s back and scan it to get inside.
You will only have a 5-second window to grab it so make it count, otherwise you need to wait 1 minute before you can use the ability again.
We highly recommend investing in Hacker Skill Tree, especially for Stealth in Rock the Cradle in Payday 3 because simple perks like this will make the heist infinitely easier for you.
Reconfiguring the speakers method
Reconfiguring the speakers is another way to access the VIP Room without requiring an invitation in Rock the Cradle, but it will require you to put on the Mask.
If you are doing a Mask-Off run, we recommend using any of the aforementioned methods instead because you cannot remove the Mask once it is on.
Go up to the top floor using the stairs on the left of Neon Lounge Bar and instead of going straight to Rifkin’s Office, you will head up to where the DJ and speakers are located.
Go up to the catwalk, and while minding the cameras make your way to the speakers in the back. We found activating the speakers from right to left was easier than the other way around due to the positioning of the cameras.
After turning all four speakers, you will be asked to deal with the DJ to distract the guards. You can either kill the DJ and hide his body or grab the DJ as a human shield, take him to the room next to you, and tie him up in there.
Once you are done, change the music using the device on the DJ’s desk which will make the guards leave their posts and investigate the problem.
Get the Blue Keycard
The Blue Keycard in Rock the Cradle is located on the back of the bouncer at the VIP Club entrance. You will need to grab it as you make your way inside before the door closes when he is not looking at you.
This is important because you need the Blue Keycard later on to complete the heist in Payday 3. If you miss this opportunity, you will have to return all the way back.
Get the Red Keycard to enter the IT Room
Head down but you don’t want to enter the IT room on your left yet because you are still missing the Red Keycard. Instead, go towards the doors on your right, lockpick the Accounting Office, the door in the very back, and head upstairs. Be careful as there is a camera pointing toward the office, so wait under it till it looks away to unlock the door.
Head to the black cabin next to the desk and grab the Red Keycard inside with a code on the shelf for unlocking more loot. The code was 2069 in our case. On your way out look at the chair and remember the code listed on the paper as well. It was 1992 for us.
Now head back down to the IT room but it will be blocked by a guard. Go to the bar in front of him, crouch down, and use the prop on the table to create a distraction.
Quickly lockpick the door as the guard is away and carefully head inside to not get spotted by the camera ahead. Use the Red Keycard to unlock the IT Room door and make your way inside.
Secure the Crypto Wallet
After finally entering the IT room during the Rock the Cradle stealth heist in Payday 3, you can unlock the door on your left in two different ways in Payday 3. You can either put your mask on or pass the biometric scan to unlock the door.
If you are going the Mask-off route, take a step back and look at the whiteboard in the cubby right before the door. You will see a switch that you need to flip to unlock the door. It was L115 Green Switch for us. It will be randomized, so don’t worry if it is not the same because the process will not be any different.
To flip the switch, leave the room, head upstairs, and unlock the first door on your left using the Blue Keycard leading into the Electrical Facility.
You will find a row of switchboards, each with its unique code. Find the one that you got, ours was L115, and flip the right colored switch, ours was green.
Instead of going back to the IT Room, go to the Accounting Office where you got the Red Keycard and use the computer on the desk to override the crypto wallet. Unlock the safe on the shelf to your left to get another code, for us, it was 7496.
Go back to the IT Room. You may need to distract the guard again or sneak past him to get inside. You will have the biometric scanner cleared and the door will be open this time.
Grab the Crypto Wallet inside and head out of the IT room area. To secure the Crypto Wallet during the Rock the Cradle Stealth Heist in Payday 3, go behind the bar area after le
Rock the Cradle all loot (optional)
You can make your escape now and complete Rock the Cradle Stealth in Payday 3, but consider staying back for a while. There is more loot there to steal and increase your payout.
- There is a Vault across the bar in the Maintenance room that you can unlock using one of the three codes you found in the Accounting Office. For us, it was 7496, the one in the safe to unlock The Vault door.
- There will be a lot of cash and since it is pretty close to the extraction point, you can make a quick buck while you are there.
- There is also a crate outside the Vault that you can get for some extra cash.
- There are 4 paintings that you can grab in Private Booth 1 and 2 on the top floor. Additionally, you can grab the painting in the computer room next to the DJ’s booth and the one in Rifkin’s Office on the same floor.
- The Black Knight room in the VIP section also has cash and other loot to grab. You will, however, be required to tie up all the civilians in the room or else you will be caught stealing their belongings.
- There are three more crates as well in the VIP section, two of them are near the Server Room area. The first one is across the hallway from the Server Room and the second one is inside the train, right of the Server Room, in the center of the room.
- The last one is in the Storage Room across from the IT Room for which you used the Red Keycard.
Escape
Once you are done grabbing all the loot that you need, head up the stairs on the right, unlock the door using the Blue Keycard, and make your escape to complete the stealth heist.
Rock the Cradle stealth overkill changes
Overkill is the highest difficulty Payday 3 has to offer on Rock the Cradle Heist which includes indestructible security cameras and lead guard with unlimited radio spawns.
It differs slightly from how normal stealth is executed so we only mentioned areas that will prove unique or difficult.
Having the Glitch Protocol Skill will prove invaluable here as it allows you to hack guards for 5 seconds and additionally, de-agro them if you happen to get caught. This is also one of the best skills to unlock early in Payday 3.
To start, don’t enter Neon Cradle from the front door, instead make your way to the right for the kitchen access. Wait for the camera to turn the other way and quickly pass the lock check to unlock the door.
The accountant will be playing cards in the Black Knight room downstairs in the VIP Club area. You can grab his business card on the small table near the painting on your left and use the phone in the Staff Room to open the Crypto Wallet. It opens up a new possibility if you are looking for something new.
Rock the Cradle bug fix – can’t show invitation to bouncer
The Rock the Cradle stealth heist has a serious game-breaking bug in Payday 3. If you are going with the Blue Keycard stealth route, the bouncers will refuse to let you pass even after seeing your RFID-authorized VIP Invitation.
This bouncer keycard bug in Rock the Cradle will make it seem like you have just started the heist in Payday 3. The only solution to this bug is to hang around the premises until you see the guards flinch and let you pass through. Either that or restart the heist and give it another go.
