Cloaker (PAYDAY: The Heist) (2024)

The Cloaker is a special unit who has great agility and can instantly incapacitate a player with his melee attack. He wields a Compact-5 sub-machine gun and wears dark blue attire, night vision goggles and a gas mask.

Behavior[]

The Cloaker moves fast, often rolls laterally, and can briefly run on walls. When close enough, he may decide to charge his target and unleash a kick that instantly incapacitates the victim. If no crewmates are nearby after the melee attack, then the Cloaker will beat his victim with a nightstick (although this is purely aesthetic). The Cloaker can kick AI-controlled crew members, but this kick will cuff them instead of incapacitating them.

The Cloaker is especially dangerous when behind smoke grenades and around corners. The Cloaker sometimes comes out of vents and holes in the ceiling.

Cloakers may sometimes emit a hissing or whistling sound when they are nearby.

Strategy[]

At a distance, the Cloaker is less dangerous and can be distinguished by the green glow on his goggles. However, he can close the distance quickly by sprinting. In close proximity, the green glow will disappear, making them easily mistakable for Blue SWAT or Heavy SWAT. Players may distinguish them by their goggles as well as by using the shout command.

When the player sees a Cloaker sprinting towards them, which usually means the Cloaker is about to kick the player, it is advised that they open fire on him immediately and backpedal if the Cloaker gets too close. The player cannot escape a sprinting Cloaker without sprinting as well; however, trying to outrun a Cloaker is not advised because he may never give up the chase until you are down. Shotguns are quite effective against a Cloaker since they are powerful enough to make one stagger backwards, delaying his attack.

It is also possible to continously melee a Cloakerto keep himstunnedif a player can approachoneout of his sight, however this is not advised as they often appear in groups. If a group of Cloakers appear right in front of the player, sprint back, and attack once you gain enough distance.

Cloakers do not have a cooldown after performing a takedown unlike their PAYDAY 2 counterpart, so a single Cloaker is capible of kicking multiple people within an incredibly short timespan. It is vital for the victim to shout out his location to others. A group of Cloakers, or sometimes even a single Cloaker has a chance to take down the entire crew if they are not paying attention. If you notice that a Cloaker has taken down one of your teammates, check your back immediately, then either kill the Cloaker first or have a third teammate watch your back when helping the victim up.

When deploying, Cloakers also have a tendency to enter a structure by vents, so avoid standing right under a vent or placing your back to a vent on the wall. They will often usesmoke grenadesto cover their approach. Cloakers are also capable of performing some stunts to ambush players; such as crawling under vehicles, or wall-running for a brief period.

Though ill-advised, using a Cloaker as an impromptu healing method is viable, as a kicked heister gets partially healed if helped back up, and the kick does not incur a bleedout penalty for that player. This tactic is rarely used, however, and is largely frowned upon during online play, due to the fact that the kicked player may be in a hazardous situation (i.e middle of an Assault wave) where the team could not reach, and having a member in custody can cost the team dearly. Alternatively, the Cloaker who kicked the previous heister may still linger around the site and may kick anyone attempting to rescue the downed player.

Trivia[]

• Cloakers, based on their preferred method of entry and combat style, might have been based on either the Central Intelligence Agency's Special Operations Group, within the Special Activites Division, usually known as SAD/SOG, the DEVGRU or Delta Force, as all three are major counter-terrorism units and are known to covertly inserting armed personnel into a combat zone to "handle" the situation from the inside.
  • DEVGRU and Delta Force personnel are all extensively trained in hand-to-hand combat in order to swiftly and effectively takedown any aggressor, similar to the kick ability that all Cloakers possess.
  • The Delta Force infiltration fatigue resembles that of the Cloaker's. They too, are sometimes equipped with nightvision goggles during night-time incursions.
• The melee attack of a Cloaker is unusually powerful, as it is capable of incapacitating a grown man and sending him crashing into the floor, helpless. Unless struck at a vital spot, an average human would not be shocked enough to remain immobile like depicted in-game.
  • Strangely enough, a heister helped back up on his feet after being kicked down would suffer no lingering effects of the attack, despite it being powerful enough to one-hit them into submission.
• Contrary to their name, the Cloakers do not "cloak" at all, but rather use a camouflaged uniform to blend in with their surroundings as well as their comrades and usually pop a smokescreen before engaging the crew. The smokescreen tactic is even more effective in PAYDAY 2, where their new uniform reduces visibility even further.
• Incapacitation by the Cloaker'stakedown does not count as bleedout, and therefore does not exclude the "Bulletproof" challenges. In No Mercy, despite the force Cloakers use to incapacitate players, the takedown will never break the blood vials that players hold.
• When the player gets incapacitated, the screen's borders sometimes flashes blue, simulating a "shock."
• Since Patch 13 with the addition of the Wolf Pack DLC, Cloakers have become much more aggressive, chasing after players that are much farther and are more dedicated when chasing their targets.
• Wolf's quotes for Cloakers often include warning his teammates to beware of more Cloakers.
• Cloakers will always wear their night vision goggles regardless of the lighting conditions in any given area, in reality this would make combat much more difficult for the Cloaker and heavily restrict and limit their vision.
• The Cloaker's appearance and choice of gun seem to be heavily inspired by the British SAS, specifically the SAS during the 1980 Iranian Embassy Siege.

Gallery[]