Payday 3: How to complete Rock The Cradle in stealth

Rock The Cradle in Payday 3 is a nightclub heist that can be quite difficult to finish in stealth. Here’s how you complete the mission without raising the alarm.

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.

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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.

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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. 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.

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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 head upstairs to the Accounting Room. In here is a red keycard and a code. The keycard will give you access to the IT Room, provided you can distract the bouncer at the door with a nearby lure.

Once you’ve got access to the IT Room, you can use the keycard on the door again to gain access to the Crypto Wallet.

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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 so you should be able to ferry the bag quite easily.

If you were able to grab that code from the Accounting Office earlier too, you’ll also be able to access the loot inside the vault. The vault is located near the loot drop, on the opposite side of the VIP Room as the IT Room.

And that’s how you stealth Rock The Cradle in Payday 3. Be sure to check out our other guides here:

Best stealth build | How to stealth No Rest for the Wicked | How to stealth Dirty Ice | How to stealth Rock The Cradle | How to stealth Gold & Sharke | How to stealth Touch The Sky | How to stealth Under The Surphaze