Payday 2 - How the Secret Was Solved

[@TheKknowley]

Hope you enjoyed the video! Try Buildbox from his link for free if there’s a game designer in you, looking to build and sell your own creations: mtchm.de/72qk2

[@QIKUGAMES-QIKU]

Umm Subscribed.. BUT hate to sound so NOOB as I don't know this Arg .. I know this Game Very well But WTF ????

[@bladestorm1745]

If only wordsmith was working on the story in the early days. Imagine how complicated the arg would be if it spanned 5 years instead of 6 months.

[@kobban63]

Oh fucking Hell

[@destrojer124]

I thought it took longer, than 6 months!

[@Crackheadcentral2188]

If it woulda started during payday: the heist, it woulda been SO GOOOOOOD

[@Poptart133g]

Hopefully he's still on board for Payday 3. Can you imagine if you had several mysteries like this running right from the start of a Payday game?

[@insert_name_here6487]

poor lore boys would probably still be trying to crack it

[@R77ification]

You forgot to mention that the clues didn't add up to anything at first because the ARG had a different direction before somewhere around the time Alaskan Deal released. There's even a few leftovers from the original ARG, like the useless map trigger that happens in any variation of Bank Heist when you spell Baldwin via opened deposit boxes. I still have to unlock the achievements I need for the secret lol.

[@javgarag]

I peeked into the editor and you're actually right! The game sends a debug message saying "A WINNER IS YOU!" but doesn't actually do anything.

[@thoalis4325]

The old steam guide where everyone was grasping at straws was classic. I had no idea what any of it meant but I liked to lurk and check on it every once in a while.

[@aslightlydisappointingsala9481]

I still remember translating so many riddles that by the time I was done I could do most of them without needing a guide

[@Toxic_Drummer]

I remember my buddy and I doing the secret in the white house about a week after and I was the dedicated translator. My brain was not having any of it. I would just translate the last 10 characters as my buddy protected me. I had like 3 pages of notes because we messed up like 3 times.

[@DavienMcCarty]

Imagine being a new player like 5 years after payday 2 stops being updated. You get it with some friends, have a good time then find out about the hidden ending and this takes you down a rabbit hole of excavating old threads, old videos, and digging out forgotten information since the arg having since ended and all those websites closing down, trying to piece together the story long after it was over. Ending up with only a fraction of the tale. What a bizarre experience that must be.

[@xavirav3358]

I remember looking for the secret way before the first Gage dlc. So was there any secret back then or did they add it years later?

[@bubbanator3340]

I honestly can't wait for it. I hope one day my kids will find this game, and have a half interest in it, before I info dump on them, and they get totally hooked.

[@roorooglizzydoo2026]

@@bubbanator3340 I think by that time hafe life 3 will be confirmed

[@valeriecitro6836]

Trust me and I speak from experience because me and my cousin got this game 6 months ago after I re-watched therussainbadger's 4 videos over and over again. We got to the end (we play on console so don't have everything) watched a video on everything and were blown away and upset with what we missed.

[@valeriecitro6836]

So glad that after 1.5 years of re-watching those videos that I saw it was on ps plus premium lol

[@Averi0]

You had to be there at the time of it to realize the full potential of it. God it was such a hype time for Payday, starting with Alaskan Deal.

[@Hyped_Panda]

I loved all of it. I think my comment is still somewhere on the green hacker/leaker website

[@Tas_Ydrokolios]

I really hope something like this will happen for pd3

[@uppercutgrandma4425]

I'm new to the game. What point was Payday at it's most popular? And what are a few events that fans fell in love with?

[@Hyped_Panda]

@@uppercutgrandma4425 maaamy of the events were very good, so you can look forward to them in PD3. I can definitely tell you tho that CrimeFest was one of the least liked (they added safes then)

[@Cavi587]

Such a shame I left the game around 2014. Never realized something as hype as this ever happened. I left around the time the old Hoxton breakout came out and I thought that was pretty hype.

[@scarface406]

im still impressed what the legendary wordsmith did with this hope he will return for payday3

[@kozakmate2703]

This has to be one if not the best ARG in gaming. I still remember watching RandomKenny streaming the whole thing. Doing the secret after a few days of the stream with my friends was such a great moment in my payday career. Still remember the time when I was palying Payday the heist and saw that Payday 2 beta is coming and never imagined that i will be still playing the game since 2013.

[@IkeFanBoy64]

I'd say Battlefield 1's Master Man Easter eggs are a good contender, but I'd happily solve the riddles on the White House than redo the Beginning and Conflict parts of Master Man. Least I got the Peacekeeper.

[@thatnellykid]

I remember playing Payday 2 when it first came out and just treating it like a standard shootemup, it wasn't until very recently when I found out that there was a whole deep lore aspect to it. Thank you so much for explaining everything in such a clear and digestible way! Very much appreciated.

[@lillycutie3806]

YO! This is great! I was actually looking for information on this exact topic a couple weeks ago, but my cursory searches turned up very little. Very glad to be able to rewatch this bit of Payday History :)

[@TheKknowley]

Honestly, this video exists for that exact reason. When writing the Story if Payday series, I was desperate for access to that information. I feel like lesser known parts of the solve (the final riddles in particular) are not well documented in the internet!

[@ivy2850]

a little old but i think u got the lovers dance riddle in the video, among old recovered things (the auction items) theres are 4 statues of couples dancing, locked in their love lol

[@incognitocat8905]

It was epic! I can't wait for something like this in Payday 3!

[@aracnadei13]

Check out some of the Alice and Smith games like The Black Watchmen if you want more of this type of gameplay. They're pretty neat.

[@pearlgrips4969]

When I got into payday2 only a year ago, I was absolutely thrilled to somehow see Giancarlo, my favorite villain actor, playing the dentist what a good experience

[@Skay.]

Everyone was let down that nothing prior to white house mattered and was just random 'cosmic' lore "GREATEST ARG OF ALL TIME"

[@BenersantheBread]

I sure hope Payday 3 will either fully commit to the space alien magic shit or not at all. I still remember my confusion when I heard RandomKenny going from talking about how Vlad was going to betray us to talking about fucking nephilim

[@professorhazard]

But who can solve the mystery of why Hoxton's face is no longer burned in the ending?

[@kieran_is_me]

I mean he has enough money to get some good plastic surgery, so maybe he did that

[@matowekleshmitz2921]

23:43 that’s the Atlantic Ocean my dude.

[@RZ_VR]

I was just asking myself a few days ago how this ARG was figured out. Thanks for this!

[@CaiHy-Bri]

For anyone who might have forgotten, this is the complex lore for a silly game where you rob banks with miniguns and bow and arrows

[@Lifeless9619]

For the "Dance" riddle about recovered things and lovers. Could it maybe be a reference to the way the pieces spin when taken out of the box and the music we used to solve them? Idk, I'm working backwards from our solution here.

[@squanguslobotomus7890]

I was wondering what the importance of the Yggdrasil painting was during the original secret. I'm intrigued by its inclusion in the Mountain Master heist mainly due to the fact I never saw it anywhere else, and the inclusion of it felt just off.

[@slavkun8706]

As someone who only casually played this game for the first few years it was out. I am amazed at how much lore they managed to toss in that is otherwise completely missable if you don't dive in for it. I have completed every Treyarch Zombies easter egg and have no clue how I missed out for so long on such a great story in an otherwise unassuming game.

[@ymmatinthehat]

Paydays secret was such a great addition and i hope there will be an even better one in 3

[@Kadeo64]

The only way payday 3 will be able to ramp up the secret will be to make this shit worldwide.

[@IcedSynergy]

My partner speaks Japanese and shes very impressed by your pronunciation of the Email, apparently you nailed it.

[@MarcLeoNyu]

Voyager?, Gilgamesh?, Enkidu?, Ishtar?, Cupid?, Psyche? Thank you Fate Grand Order. I wouldn't know many of those names without you.

[@Lagbeard]

In hindsight, the Payday 2 secret was kind of a let down, mostly because it was only ever implemented into the game with the introduction of the White House heist. But I do remember Firestarter being the one Heist that everyone looked at for a secret, as I do recall hearing people did find some oddities there as you could apparently get a Helicopter to show up near the escape van in Day 1, set off sprinklers at the front of the FBI house on Day 2... Which led to speculations that along those 2, you had to trigger something nobody ever found on Day 3. As far as I know, the Overdrill in Payday the Heist became available much earlier in it's life than the Payday 2 one did comparatively. The trick was finding the vault, and opening it. Not waiting for the devs to add it in.

[@sauceinmyface9302]

I agree, but only in the sense that other major secrets along the way would've kept the community going and thinking. The last six months with the white house unlocking everything is still really cool, but it makes a lot of what comes before feel less rich in comparison.

[@owenrichardson4497]

bro makes the best payday videos

[@Dragonoid9810]

One could describe the Payday crew's many escapades as 'dances', much like when Deadpool finally confronted Ajax, "Let's dance. (And by dance, I mean let's try to kill each other!)"

[@djxgam1ng]

I only know about Payday based on an elaborate Easter Egg I watched on KZbin that no one or group of people would never have solved without some type of developer help…with that being said, what exactly is the “secret” in this video? Trying to not have to pause every few seconds. By the way, bravo on just getting right to the point with your explanations and focusing on FACTS. Every informative video on the internet needs to follow that template.

[@5persondude]

I really enjoy your more “grounded” take on the mysteries. Specifically, how you think critically about how some of the topics and details came to be within the context of the game’s development and how Overkill more-or-less “stumbled” into this storytelling as opposed to some kind of galaxy-brained 4D chess move. It’s refreshing to hear about a more “accidental/experimental” success as opposed to simping over some “mad genius” creator. Minor tangent, but maybe I’m just cynical after everyone praising people like Hideo Kojima as god-life figures… only for people to make valid criticisms that, while not invalidating their life’s work, is a sort-of “bigger they are, harder they fall” scenario

[@Brav9x]

Everytime I see that you uploaded a new video I get excited! Thanks for your awesome work! Keep it up man

[@blunderingfool]

I've never been able to do the secret, have to deal with all the gangsters in safe house in 60 seconds, never been able to pull it off.

[@epath4957]

Yeah that's pretty much multiplayer only. I'm incapable of playing MP due to my slow af connection so I just installed a killall cheat for it. I also had to use a mod yo activate Overdrill solo :/ . If that's not your thing, I'd advice redoing the piano sequence. As I learned well after completing the secret, it alegedly rerolls your achievements.

[@jacobfield5227]

The trailer for Payday 3 dropped a few days ago, Hopefully we get a complex and more intricate game like we had in payday 2 but more content and story in a sense.

[@kamensentai13]

if payday 3 has a secret like this or better i can't wait to follow along in the hunt and hope it is available to console players

[@citrusity222]

15:05 I like how you said that it stumped seekers for a while even though right when you said that I thought "sounds like a satellite" also 30:41 could be from the Garnet heist with the big statue of the lady in the front with a jewel in her hand

[@sgtpieman]

I mean, the short answer is the secret was solved by a new writer coming on at the end of Payday's life to turn the fun side arg into the main plot for the game even so far as solving it being how you get the good canonical ending. Whatever the original secret was only Overkill knows, but it was probably just going to be a secret vault in the bank level until they realized that would be lame and too easy to figure out so before they finished making that they just put it on the backburner, forgot about it, and then when trying to use it to sell people microtransactions blew up in their faces (geez how out of touch and far up your own butt do you have to be to not see that coming?) they just quietly canceled the idea until the new writer came on and was like "I don't care much for the whole crime angle but this conspiracy secret thing could go places. I'm gonna run with this."

[@exanyt]

That new writer basically saved the game and gave it a ending we all would remember.

[@totallyupdoggin]

I was hoping you would cover the hunt for the overvault in this video!! But oh well

[@Bone_Incidents]

Keep in mind, this is a game about robbing banks.

[@horrorking1000]

Honestly never knew payday went this deep I knew about the left 4 dead stuff but the extended lore like with the dentist and all has been lost on me until now

[@MightyAMF]

Man those images from Bain's guide give me flashbacks. Spent hours in those levels trying to solve their meaning by trying to interact with everything. I even made that Secret Theory Thread on the steam discussions which grew so big that even I couldn't stick with for 5 years, was quite disheartening that all that original stuff lead to nothing but it was great fun. (But I am on the plaque though!)

[@unustheuntouchable]

I was super actively involved in those early incomplete days. Audio analysis, image decrypt attack attempts. Obsessing over the metal sounding bit of sidewalk on the basic bank map. So much work that could never possibly pay off. It burned me out on PD2 for years, honestly.

[@lunamonkey]

I'm also on the plaque in the bank on Payday 1 as Lunamonkey. Good times.

[@Moriohj]

ah yes, an heist game

[@heroman2372]

Payday 2, as written and directed by Hideo Kohima.

[@DrCake-oz3ge]

“This one was solved almost immediately. The answer was 9,192,631,770, the precise scientific definition of a second in terms of the transition frequency of a Caesium-133 atom, minus 10, the number of ratified articles in The Bill of Rights”. HUH

[@shreknskrubgaming7248]

I wonder if the chess/death riddle has anything to do with a certain film. I can't recall the exact name of it, maybe "The Seventh Seal" or something like that, but I'm not sure. It's an old Swedish film in which a man plays chess against the incarnation of death itself. There's a lot more to go into, but I haven't seen the movie in a long time. I'd recommend it for anyone if they can watch films subbed or if there's any dubbed version of it that I'm not aware of. It was rather interesting.

[@1lucia]

I truly hope Payday 3 is able to top this story. It's so incredible. I hope wordsmith got a hefty promotion and is working on it!

[@semibreve]

With the announcement of Payday 3, I'm glad for the amazing history of this series bring covered for new players

[@thewolfstu]

Payday: The Heist Payday 2: The Secret Payday 3: The Payday

[@ratsukitheblunderingbuffon]

Great vid, man!

[@nylonzero9048]

You ever just rob a few banks and then accidentally get involved in a quest against a god?

[@stupidratt]

holy crap gustavo fring is a dentist?

[@Max44321]

I've been wondering about the secret, well, from a lore point. If the three kinds are meant to have been around for ages, they had to keep jumping bodies, right? So the temples and the Lament should've been activated every 50 years or so, but their activation causes a mini nuclear explosion which would've been noticed, especially if it blows off the top of a pyramid, how's that work ten, the kinds remaining alive forever?

[@High-Overlord-Snarffie-Pug]

I once found the right key to unlock my own front door when I had 3 keys on the keychain. Only took me 2 wrong choices. I felt like I was genius.

[@RZ_VR]

As for “DANCE”, I assume it’s got to do with how archaeologists have discovered the remains of people who held each other in their final moments, such as after a volcano erupted.

[@floginfoo]

24 seconds since posted, wow the bell worked for once

[@WildWombats]

Will Payday 3's secret ending take several years to figure out??

[@acuteavocado1962]

so, assuming that the secret ending is canon, is the elephant now mortal again? what happens when a watcher uses the ark? "bain" is dead, but his consciousness was transferred to the president. is the president now elephants watcher?

[@drunkie3186]

Can’t wait for pay day 3

[@dan5992]

For me the "dance" solution made the most sense to be honest. I immediately assumed that "four couples" referred to four legs, and locked in their love describing the four legs moving around with some form of romanticism attached to it, therefore probably a dance.

[@terminalspeakers]

Ever since this stuff became more apparent I’ve been waiting to get a Scooby Doo mask because of his connection to the Anunnaki.

[@l00pz0n2]

LMFAO

[@aidancuredale9387]

Great vid as always

[@dominousraptor1906]

I really hope Payday 3 has something like this, being somebody who is late to join and doesn’t own a PC, I really wish I could have experienced it. I really hope Overkill does this again someday down the line

[@mute1496]

I hope Payday 3 follows suit and they put as much care and thought as they did into Payday 2's secrets and story. Awesome video :)

[@notorious-g6515]

11:24 i don't know who thought that the term "עיר" (pronounce "EIR") -that is written on the figures forehead... is translated to "watcher"... the meaning of "EIR" in hebrew is "city" but there is another option- "עיר" from old aramic, can be translated to "arbiter of god ', or "angel"

[@Goa7lord]

I'm gonna be honest, I listened to the video as background noise in a loud cafeteria without paying any attention to what kknowley is explaining

[@missingindy]

I actually tried looking up the coordinates of the Dreaming Temple in Google Maps and Google Earth, but when I did, nothing would appear, and by looking at how to input coordinates in Google Maps, it’s because of the numbers in front of the S and the W

[@tomwaine88]

Can someone tell me the name of the song playing in the sponsor from about 1:14 onwards please?

[@MilesFox92]

Is there a video of RandomKenny completing the secret for the first time? I really wanna see his reaction on everything

[@thespookyest]

So the story went from rob a bank to breaking bad

[@weskingtime6087]

i left payday for A FEW YEARS WHAT THE FUCK

[@Gilgamesh_King_Of_Uruk]

I like your funny words seekerman

[@thegamingbayskeletor1637]

I remember completing it in 2018 after hours of grinding for the achievements, crashing during the white house heist and having the dentist obliterate Bain because me and my mates were too slow or dumb Good times

[@CaptPatrick01]

_Expectation:_ Ha ha, funni heist go brrr... _Reality:_ *Stargate: SG1*

[@Hyped_Panda]

I loved being part of trying to figure out the ARG on Steam Discussions. Too bad I didn't help enough to get referenced in-game T_T

[@zalzus1118]

The four couples locked in love likely refers to two feet and two hands for each person four couples "locked" in the motion of dance. Granted this doesn't explain "among old recovered things" but it's the best I got.

[@CloakerEvo86]

i wish more games were like this, have cryptic people will have to decipher, but newbies can simply sit back and enjoy after its been deciphered. A lot of games opt for bad lore or just... Lore.

[@sauceinmyface9302]

The fear is that no one will be around to solve your riddles if you spend too much time working on it. You need a thriving community existing for it to really work, making it best for live service games or just, popular ones.

[@troywalks]

Ok lets talk about how the knowley has been playing this game for 9-10 years i give you my respect

[@lukaskolind7396]

I love the lore of pay day but if they do it again with pay day 3 I swear I'm gonna have an aneurysm.

[@Agent_OB]

Man i was so in to trying to solve this before it was even implemented, eventually gave up really sucks there was not more to the tarrot cards

[@DrDementia]

I hope payday 3 has a crazy ass story and stuff like eastereggs. I don’t want to get my hope up to high because if we learned anything from last year it was how disappointing the game launches were.

[@jasonhernandez730]

Dancing is not possibly literality dancing I think it could be another way of saying you have to do a ritual celebration. Maybe signifying that you have completed the ARG.

[@damjanblodmaster955]

19:16 it looks like the ark of the convent(its a translation from google translate)

[@sombodythatyouusedtoknow9046]

What are your fav songs and heists? mine are Mr purple,dead man´s hand and break the rules

[@Dribbleondo]

Oh christ it's 35 minutes. Strap in folks; this is gonna be a good one.

[@The_curator.]

Are you going to cover payday 3 in September?

[@simplyWiTcHeS]

whoda thought that a game about robbing anything and anyone had such deep lore and mysteries

[@samisterioyt1138]

Wordsmith needs a raise, my guy made me loose 4 full years of my life.

[@GiggleFist720]

This honestly hooked my interest into this game

[@FacelessShrewd]

13:45 ._.) if that's actually the answer and the reasoning behind it then I'm actually astonished at the payday community

[@LuanNguyen-ml6qw]

NUGGET was here

[@melissagraham5628]

My hurt brains

[@alphonsowillis6942]

ahhh yes the sunken city of Ali-A, truly one of lovecrafts greatest creations

[@johnnystankiewicz295]

Im quite suprised knowley has only 100k subs, ive never paid attention to his sub count and thought he has like a million, guessing by the video quality

[@jgvtc559]

😮 makes me think of cicada 3301 Its like a simplified version of that Cryptography is dope

[@Blindmin]

shit i had no idea payday had anything even close to this kind of lore

[@adytm]

I was watching this at night, I didnt understand a word xd, I have to rewatch it now

[@daralag8013]

The time when we thought payday 2 will end.

[@wasab1364]

I think my game is broken I have completed Brooklyn bank many a time but the medallion does not want to show on the table. I have completed it on mayhem and below is there something I’m doing wrong. It’s the last thing I need

[@floopusdoopus]

How do we know it’s been solved? There’s some suspicious things all over the game with no explanation…

[@mickiejade6709]

Like, what? And even if so, how would we know its not hinting at PD3? :[]

[@Jacksnowyy5008]

When i tried to kill the dentist i failed because i forgot to shoot him in the mouth