All Payday 3 characters: Every playable heister

The next installment of the PAYDAY franchise will bring the original four-person crew back together and two additional heisters with unique traits for players to try out in their criminal masterplans.

PAYDAY games don’t have a clear narrative regarding the order of the heists or the characters’ lives. Little is known about their backstory, except for their previous career before becoming heisters.

All of the thieves have been a heister since the first game in the series, PAYDAY: The Heist. The crew is originally from New York, but travels to Washington DC on PAYDAY 2. Now, they are returning to the Big Apple to pull off another major job.

If you haven’t played the previous PAYDAY games, this is your warning for spoilers, as we’ll cover what happened to each character in the franchise.

Dallas

• Name: Nathan Steele
• Age: 44 in PAYDAY 2
• Nationality: American
• Voiced by: Simon Kerr

Dallas is a 44-year-old American man called Nathan Steele. Dallas has been depicted as the Assault and Mastermind character throughout the franchise’s games. He united the original PAYDAY gang and organized the First World Bank heist.

A former Chicago mob member who started as a bouncer, he climbed the ranks of the criminal underbelly until he became a hitman. After going to hiding for messing with two rival gangs and the American drug mafia, Dallas decided to steal a weapon shipment and form his own crew.

The ending of PAYDAY 2 shows that Dallas bought a yacht and named it “Medic Bag”, a reference to his most iconic quote when in low health in-game and still gathers the crew not for business, but for fun.

Related: When is PAYDAY 3 coming out?

Chains

• Name: Nicolas.
• Age: 37 in PAYDAY 2.
• Nationality: American.
• Voiced by: Howard Thompson.

Chains, also known as Nicolas, has the most combat experience among the members of the PAYDAY crew. He has the Enforcer and Muscle roles in PAYDAY 2 to reflect his past.

After serving for 10 years in the U.S. Navy, Chains got kicked out and started offering his expertise as a mercenary. Addicted to adrenaline, he took a liking to his life as a mercenary, performing robberies and kidnappings instead of just fighting.

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After what happened in PAYDAY 2, Chains moved to Los Angeles and entered the entertainment industry, and followed his lifelong dream of being an arms master and stuntman. He made a difference in the stunt and practical effects used in movies turning most of his films into blockbusters.

Hoxton

• Name: James “Jim” Hoxworth.
• Age: 32 in PAYDAY 2.
• Nationality: British.
• Voiced by: Pete Gold.

Hoxton is the youngest of the PAYDAY crew. His real name is James Hoxworth and has the Fugitive and Crook roles when heisting in PAYDAY 2.

Born into a wealthy family in England, he chose the criminal life instead and got involved with gangs from Hoxton, a district in the East End of London. He got the nickname from when he got arrested with the British gang.

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Hoxton got arrested again sometime between the first and second games, which led Dallas’s younger brother to take his place in PAYDAY 2. The crew eventually breaks him out of jail during the PAYDAY 2 campaign.

Hoxton spends his time on the beach and throwing parties after everything is done. He bought the Golden Grin Casino and visits Las Vegas to play poker and mess around with his opponents.

Wolf

• Name: Ulf.
• Age: 34 in PAYDAY 2.
• Nationality: Swedish.
• Voiced by: Nicklas Berglund in PAYDAY 3.

Wolf is the 34-year-old Swedish Technician and Armorer of the group. No one knows his real name, as he is the most unhinged character of the original crew. That wasn’t always the case, though.

Wolf only left his law-abiding life at the age of 32. He used to have a family in Stockholm and worked in a software development company, but when the company went bankrupt during the Great Recession. He took out debts to try to keep it running, and when it failed, he had no other choice than to resort to crime.

Related: 10 Chambers is making new co-op heist FPS game to rival Left 4 Dead, Payday

That was too much for Wolf and he snapped. He started to enact criminal acts in his favorite action movies until he became the real deal and joined the PAYDAY crew.

After staying for a while with Dallas and his yacht, Wolf decided to move back to Sweden and went underground, but rumors say he left the criminal life for good.

Unknown heisters

Starbreeze and Deep Silver have two other heisters prepared for PAYDAY 3 they haven’t revealed yet. They might be returning characters such as Houston, John Wick, Joy, Clover, Jiro, Scarface, or Duke. We will update this article when they are revealed.

It’s likely more heisters will be added with the DLCs coming in the Season Pass as well. PAYDAY 2 featured 18 extra heisters as the DLCs. The expansions can be character packs, cosmetic packs, unique heists, and even promotions for movies.

There are a total of 81 DLCs for PAYDAY 2 on Steam, including heists, weapons, tailors, character packs, soundtracks, and bundles. It’s expected that PAYDAY 3 follows the same path when it comes to additioms.

PAYDAY 2 content was being launched until March 2023, ten years after the release of the base game. The Season Pass will cover only the first six months or the first year of addition content, depending on which version of the game you buy.