__________________
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|    Shadow Raid     |     
|   DEATH SENTENCE   |
|           | * *\ / |
|  *  *  *  *  *  *  | 
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Shadow raid is a very flawed
stealth heist, that doesn't mean
I don't love it though. The heist
has multiple problems, mostly to
do with how transporting bags works
in Payday 2. Payday 2 has a weighted
bag system. The heavier the object
you're hauling, the slower you move.
This becomes a problem about 10 minutes
into the heist when you have each bag
stored in a safe location. The van
is on the opposite side of the map. I 
usually kill two of the guards on the
side of the building since they're the
only ones that patrol over there. It leaves
me with one pager including the mandatory
killing of the cameraman. It takes an 
unreasonable amount of time to
move bags within that heist. It kills the
pacing, 20 minutes of slowly moving bags
to the other side of the map. This problem
can be mitigated however, with a small
favor for 15k, you can choose your 
way of moving the bags. Through either
a zipline on the bottom right side of the
map. This takes it to a boat stationed
a couple of hundred meters away. Inside trash
cans, etc. There's also thermite for the
underground option, or just easy movability
of bags to the select areas. As sewer grates
block the entryways to other sewer grates,
this becomes necessary if you want to go 
that route. 

Seven types of loot exist:
Paintings	Light
Nose Candy	Light
Money		Cannot run with
Assault Rifles	Cannot run with
Gold		Slows walking speed
Samurai Armor	Slows walking speed
Alien		Slows to a snail's pace

On Death sentence difficulty, you need 12 bags.
There's three sections of the map with loot.

Outside the warehouse, money and gold are stored
inside shipping containers. If you're lucky a crate you 
need a crowbar to open will be dropped by heli 
after about 5 minutes. This in my playtime seems 
to drop one of the aliens. There's two enterances to
this section of the map. Through the main gate, and the
side enterance that has three guards. Usually the easier
option just given the positioning of the guards. The
shipping containers do not require anything to open
them with, this area is completely optional (most
of the time) as the warehouse contains the 12 bags
of loot required. Guarded by 4-5 guards that alternate
around the area. While this sounds like a lot of guards,
it isn't just given the distance and cover. They're not
a threat once you learn their movement patterns.

The loading zone of the warehouse. This area contains
six crowbar accessible crates. These contain everything
listed above EXCEPT for Assault rifles, paintings, and
samurai armor. About two or three Murky Water guards 
patrol the area. They have bullet resistant armor. 
The important part about this area is the two keycarded 
10-second time lock area containing the samurai armor.
Four pieces of it are located inside and net a high
value if stolen without being caught. The problem is 
that guards get alerted when seeing the vault door open.
If you want to get the Samurai armor, you'll have to kill
at least three guards so the alarm doesn't go off, or
have ECM jammers and a full team of 4 carrying the armor.
I'd advise against going for the armor unless you want
the achievement, it's an investment getting that armor.
The loading bay also serves as a good enterance to the
warehouse, just given the overlook on top of it. The
ladder on the side enterance of the map will lead directly
to the loading bay, which will directly lead to the warehouse
storage/barracks/camera room/whatever else.

The storage barracks room is the most important part of the
heist, especially if you're using the sewer-thermite strategy.
Right next to where the vault is, a sewer grate exists leading
directly to the van OR the zip-line boat area. Both options are
decent, though the zip-line boat area, while it costs favors and
payday 2 money, usually it isn't blocked off by sewer bars. This
area contains multiple areas of loot, a crowbar isn't needed to 
get a good portion of the loot inside of this area, this is also 
where you get the crowbar. This area is covered by two floors.
Only accessible to each other through one staircase used by
guards. This area is the riskiest when it comes to guard placement.
But becomes easier to manage with enough patience. On the second
floor is where the cameraman is stationed. He is protected
by a lock-pickable door. It is essential to take out the camera
man given how annoying the cameras are inside of this heist. The
outside warehouse section can be accessed by the staircase on the
first floor, if you lockpick both doors this will introduce a new
guard into the section however. So only open if it is necessary. 
On both floors two keycard protected sections exist. Keycards are
dropped by guards. One of these sections is guaranteed to have a
crowbar accessible crate. This is not garunteed to contain any
loot. Depending on RNG spawns, money or nose candy can be found
on the ground of those sections, the crowbar accessible crate and
the loose loot cannot exist within the same section. This area
must be entered at least once to finish the heist given the
density of loot compared to the other areas.
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*_________________________________________________________________*

What do I think about this heist?

I love the first part of it, it's adrenaline inducing and requires
a decent amount of attention to how you manuver through the map.
It's the bag part that really makes me hate playing this heist.
Which is a shame really, since the heist without the pace crushing
bag section is up there with Art Gallery - Stealth. I hope if they
add this map as a legacy map in Payday 3 they fix that issue with
more zip lines or something to streamline the process. The other 
zipline that they offer isn't viable due to the amount of distance
needed to travel to even access the area and the guards that surround
the zip line at all times. I hope they add it to Payday 3.

THE MUSIC!:

Sly Gloves and Now We Wait are both amazing tracks, though I usually
play with Sly Gloves. It has such a tense feeling to it. The electric
guitar synth mixed with the subtle distorted drums in the background
adds so much to the atmosphere. Sneaking around a dockside warehouse
owned by a paramilitary organization while hearing in the background
BRAUUMAUUUBAUUUMAAUUUMAUUU psh psh is dreamy. I'm not being sarcastic
either, it's genuinely a great experience. While And Now We Wait is a
great track, I don't think it fits the heist as well as Sly Gloves. 
Nothing can beat the the vibe Sly Gloves adds to the heist.

Here's the song if you want to listen to it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv75vI8aimY 

Final Thoughts:

While this isn't my favorite stealth heist, it has elements that put
it up there. Cannot say it's a good stealth heist however just given 
that damn bag section. 

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 *                        *
|      FINAL RATING:       |
|          6/10            |
|  "Amazing, but the bag   |
|   section ruins it."     |
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