Rock The Cradle is the fourth heist in Payday 3, reuniting the gang with Russian mobster Vlad to steal a crypto-laden hard drive from a shady nightclub. The heist has to be completed without setting off any alarms if you want the valuable crypto; if you’re discovered, you’ll have to settle for whatever cash and other valuables you can steal.
You’ll need to know the ins and outs of the heist in order to successfully pull it off, and even then a lot can go wrong. With this guide, you’ll have the best chance at escaping with the prize.
Everybody should have a silenced pistol for this heist; a single unsilenced gunshot is all it takes to ruin your plans.
Rock The Cradle Heist Overview
Rock The Cradle can be broadly divided into two parts; getting into the VIP area where the crypto drive is hidden, then bypassing security once you’re in to actually steal the drive. There are two ways to do each.
To get into the VIP area, you’ll need to either forge VIP Invitations to show the bouncers, or mess with the club’s sound system to draw the bouncers away, then sneak in while they’re occupied.
To get the drive, you can either kidnap the club’s accountant and force him to unlock the security gate, or you can reset the building’s electricity to disable the lock.
If the alarm is raised at any point, the crypto drive is wiped, rendering it worthless. At that point, your objective will change; you’ll need to empty the club’s vault and escape with as much loot as you can.
How To Get A VIP Invitation
Blank VIP Invitations can be found in the office of the club’s Entertainment Director, Cassandra Rifkin. The easiest way to reach it is to walk all the way to the back of the club and lockpick the door on your left, directly across from the VIP doors.
Crouch while lockpicking, and stand as close to the corner of the room as you can. This minimizes the chance that the bartender will notice you.
Past the door, go upstairs and enter the door straight ahead. You’ll find yourself near the DJ booth, and the office is ahead and to your right; beware of the guard patrolling clockwise, and the camera above the office door.
Once you’re inside Rifkin’s office, hack her computer. Shade will mark Rifkin’s location; she always wears a black suit jacket over a red dress. If you’re alone, you’ll have to double back; otherwise, send a teammate to intercept Rifkin. She slowly walks around the club, moving between public and private areas.
When you’re standing behind Rifkin, you can hack her phone. This is a suspicious action, so only start the hack if you’re not observed. The best place to do this is on the stairs near the main entrance leading to and from the Reserved area.
Stand near Rifkin until the hack completes; everyone will get a copy of the QR Code required to open the case containing the VIP Invitations. Have the player in the office do so, then start looking for Rifkin’s laptop.
The laptop is in one of three places; the booth directly across from her office, the table in the Reserved area, or the staff office in the rear right corner of the club. Wherever the laptop ends up, watch out for cameras.
Place the VIP Invitations on the scanner next to the laptop, then hack the computer to overwrite them. Once you’ve collected the forged invitations, stand near the bouncer in front of the VIP doors for a few seconds, and he’ll let you in.
Stand just inside the doors to the VIP area and crouch; if you’re positioned just right, you can steal the bouncer’s keycard without him or his partner noticing, which will be a big help in the next section.
How To Get Into The VIP Area Without An Invitation
At least one player will need to be masked in order to get into the VIP area without an invitation. Follow the same route as above to reach the DJ booth outside of Rifkin’s office. When you first enter the area, look to the left for a set of stairs. If you’re masked, you can vault over the barricade to climb the stairs up to the scaffolding over the club.
Use a silenced weapon to shoot out the cameras on the right and left side of the scaffolding, then rewire the speakers at each of the four corners. When all four are set, interact with the DJ booth to change the music in the club.
Shade says that you need to capture the DJ, but if you stand just behind him, you can change the music without him even noticing.
Once the music is changed, the bouncer with the keycard will start heading toward the DJ booth, while the other bouncer will start patrolling the public area. Have an unmasked player wait in the corner behind the top of the stairwell, then steal the bouncer’s keycard as he passes.
If you’re running solo or don’t have anyone unmasked, you’ll need to carefully sneak across the club to get to the VIP area. The bartender will have left by this point, so stay low and go behind the bar. You can just barely get into the VIP area without being noticed – it’s tricky, but not impossible.
Scan the bouncer’s keycard to open the VIP doors, then head downstairs. If you’re masked, shoot out any cameras that you encounter on the way down.
How To Steal The Crypto Wallet
There’s much less security in the VIP area, but you’ll still have to contend with a handful of guards, bouncers, and cameras, plus the civilian revelers. The crypto drive is behind a locked gate in the IT room, which is located in the far corner. The door is usually guarded by a bouncer and a camera, but you can get in through the side, either via a vent in the bathroom or a side door in the maintenance area.
Once you’re in, check the whiteboard to find out which electrical box and switch you need to use in order to reset the power. The electrical room is immediately on the right when you first enter the VIP area. The best strategy is to have someone pick the lock and wait inside the electrical room until another player can confirm which switch is correct.
If you can’t cycle the power, or you’re masked up and can’t risk too much moving around, you can instead take the accountant hostage. He can be found in one of the poker rooms; look for a man in a suit standing in the corner rather than seated at a table. Shade will identify him as soon as a player get eyes on him.
You should be able to take the accountant through the maintenance rooms to reach the IT room; as long as the cameras along the route are taken care of, you shouldn’t run into any problems. Push the accountant into the retina scanner, then tie him back up and steal the drive.
The drop point is behind the trolley car; toss the hard drive (and any other bags of loot) over the construction materials to secure it. You can then escape via the service elevator near the stairs leading back to the main club. You can also loot the vault to get even more money from the heist.
Look for wooden crates throughout the VIP area; they sometimes contain cocaine, which you can steal for extra loot.
How To Open The Nightclub Vault
If you fail to secure the crypto wallet, or if you just want some extra cash after escaping, it’s time to open the Neon Cradle’s vault. It’s located in a side room off the maintenance area; look for a red cable running along the ground, and you’ll be able to find it fairly easily.
If you haven’t yet raised the alarm, all you need to do to open the vault is enter the passcode on the keypad. The passcode can be found in the Accounting Office, which is directly across from the electrical room. There are three codes; one on the desk chair, one in the storage room to the side, and one in the safe. Find the code that opens the vault, then bag up the money and escape.
If the alarm has been tripped, there will be an extra step; Shade will need to re-enable the keypad. Follow the red cable from before until you find an access point, then hack it. When the progress bar fills, you’ll be able to open the vault again as normal.
If an enemy gets too close to the access point, they will pause the hack until someone restarts it.
How To Escape The Nightclub If The Alarm Is Triggered
If you bought the Crypto Wallet asset during heist preparation, you’ll get a brief grace period after the alarm is triggered where you can still steal the drive. If not, it gets wiped immediately. From there, the mission changes. Go out to the parking lot and collect the sky cage pieces that your driver leaves behind. Place all three bags in the center of the dance floor; this is your new drop point for loot.
Bags on the sky cage can still be stolen by cops or destroyed by Cloakers; protect them during assault waves!
Once all the cash from the vault is on the cage, Shade will send a helicopter to extract you. Shoot out the skylight above the dance floor and defend your position until the chopper arrives, then stand on the escape point next to the sky cage.