SWAT Turret (2024)

SWAT Turret
Van Helicopter
Description
Enemy Type	Automatic Sentry Gun
Statistics
Health	35,000 (Normal) 35,000 (Hard) 125,000 (Very Hard) 250,000 (Overkill) 400,000 (Mayhem/Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Shield Health	700 (Normal) 700 (Hard) 3,000 (Very Hard) 5,000 (Overkill) 7,000 (Mayhem/Death Wish) 7,000 (Death Sentence)
Headshot Multiplier	100 (Normal) 100 (Hard) 100 (Very Hard) 100 (Overkill) 100 (Mayhem) 100 (Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Extra Statistics
Turret Magazine	400 (Normal+) 800 (Mayhem+)
Turret Rate-of-Fire	1,000
Turret Reload	8s
Turret Damage	2 (Normal) 5 (Hard) 13 (Very Hard) 20 (Overkill) 35 (Mayhem+)
Repairs shield?	Twice
Other
Internal name	swat_van_turret_module
Achievement(s)
v·d·e

Ceiling Turret
Description
Enemy Type	Automatic Sentry Gun
Statistics
Health	8,750 (Normal) 8,750 (Hard) 62,500 (Very Hard) 125,000 (Overkill) 200,000 (Mayhem/Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Shield Health	20 (Normal) 700 (Hard) 1,500 (Very Hard) 2,500 (Overkill) 3,500 (Mayhem/Death Wish) 3,500 (Death Sentence)
Headshot Multiplier	100 (Normal) 100 (Hard) 100 (Very Hard) 100 (Overkill) 100 (Mayhem) 100 (Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Extra Statistics
Turret Magazine	400 (Normal+) 800 (Mayhem+)
Turret Rate-of-Fire	1,000
Turret Reload	8s
Turret Damage	2 (Normal) 5 (Hard) 13 (Very Hard) 20 (Overkill) 35 (Mayhem+)
Repairs shield?	No
Other
Internal name	ceiling_turret_module
v·d·e

Ceiling Turret (Broken Scarface Mansion/Diamond Heist version)
Description
Enemy Type	Automatic Sentry Gun
Statistics
Health	12,500 (Normal) 12,500 (Hard) 12,500 (Very Hard) 12,500 (Overkill) 12,500 (Mayhem/Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Shield Health	20 (Normal) 20 (Hard) 20 (Very Hard) 20 (Overkill) 20 (Mayhem/Death Wish) 20 (Death Sentence)
Headshot Multiplier	100 (Normal) 100 (Hard) 100 (Very Hard) 100 (Overkill) 100 (Mayhem) 100 (Death Wish/Death Sentence)
Extra Statistics
Turret Magazine	400
Turret Rate-of-Fire	1,000
Turret Reload	8s
Turret Damage	30 (Normal) 30 (Hard) 30 (Very Hard) 30 (Overkill) 30 (Mayhem+)
Repairs shield?	No
Other
Internal name	ceiling_turret_module_no_idle
v·d·e

The SWAT Turret is a special enemy in PAYDAY 2, unlocked on February 10th 2015 as part of The Hype Train community event, at 300,000 gallons of hype fuel. It was released during the Spring Break Event (13-21 March) on day 5.

While commonly mounted on SWAT Vans in open outdoor areas, they can also appear under helicopters, and indoor turrets exist mounted on the roof.

While AA-guns and suitcase turrets appear on all difficulties, all other variations require Very Hard or above (with a VAN appearing in day 2 of Goat Simulator on Hard difficulty, and turrets appearing on The White House at the Humvee on all difficulties and inside the PEOC on Hard and above).

Overview[]

"An expensive but effective piece of kit. This converted armored truck sports a remote-controlled turret. It can lay down a huge amount of suppressive fire in its field of view. The turret itself is also heavily reinforced, with the main part of the gun being protected by plates of ballistic armor.

My Notes: The introduction of these mobile turrets was inspired. They’re damn near indestructible. Not the most accurate, but capable of laying down some withering suppressive fire. Still need to drill our teams more in their tactical use - I want to see SWAT teams pushing the Payday gang into the FOV of these turrets.

"

—FBI Files Description.

The SWAT Turret is usually composed of a black armored SWAT van with an automated turret on top of it that features a laser targeting module. The Turret is stationary and acts as the law enforcer's version of the sentry gun. The turret itself has a medium attack range, but when made friendly with the use of an ECM jammer, it gains a significant range boost, capable of gunning down even Snipers if it happens to scan over them. A loudspeaker-like voice will announce when a SWAT Van Turret is about to enter the field and deploy (although due to bugs, this may not appear on Four Stores with specific RNG). Helicopter, ceiling and AA guns do not have this warning.

Despite being mechanical, the SWAT Van Turret does have an applied "headshot" damage multiplier. Once the armor plates surrounding the targeting lens are destroyed, the fragile lens becomes exposed, which serves as the unit's "head", and any shot landed there will receive a 100x damage boost. Due to this, this special unit bears many similarities to a Skulldozer, albeit a stationary one.

As of Update #86, the Van Turret gained a minor self-repair ability that causes the gun platform to retract into the vehicle briefly before emerging at full health. A SWAT VAN Turret can only self-repair up to three times and any destroyed armor plates will regenerate. Ceiling-mounted turrets do not have this ability, however will retract between Assault Waves to never return. AA guns remain deployed until destroyed or disabled (Henry's Rock). Helicopter-mounted turrets will undergo repairs, but will not retract into the vehicle, allowing players to continue firing on a target that won't return fire at all, greatly helping out teams able to destroy them before the repairs are complete.

SWAT Vans will also deploy tear gas to ward off players who attempt to get up close.

Interestingly enough, this turret design seems to have caught on elsewhere around the world and is not unique to the FBI. As observable during heists as far as Miami, Nevada and even Russia, it appears that rich and powerful individuals and PMCs such as Murkywater and Ernesto Sosa can acquire their own turrets for their own defense. Even the US government employs them as seen in The White House heist to guard the vault containing the presidential pardons. These turrets are often mounted to the ceiling or other high-hanging structures so as to allow them to drop down and engage targets without obstructing the path of ground units. The Mexican Police has also borrowed the idea of a SWAT Van Turret and deploys it against criminals in the San Martín Bank.

Appearances[]

• Bank Heist (all variants)
• Beneath the Mountain (ceiling turret overhead in the mountain base)
• Brooklyn 10-10
• The Biker Heist (normally in Day 1, normally or on bottom of helicopter on Day 2)
• Birth of Sky
• Boiling Point (ceiling turret overhead in the lab's center room and/or in the scanning room)
• Counterfeit
• Diamond Heist (broken ceiling turret overhead in vault)
• Diamond Store
• Election Day (Day 2 Plan A/B)
• Firestarter (Day 3)
• First World Bank
• Four Stores
• Framing Frame (Day 2)
• Green Bridge (bottom of helicopter)
• GO Bank
• Goat Simulator (Day 2)
• Heat Street
• Hell's Island (Crate turret)
• Henry's Rock (Regular ceiling turrets upon pressing the red button, crate turret in front when getting keycard)
• Hoxton Breakout (Day 1)
• Hoxton Revenge
• Meltdown
• Reservoir Dogs Heist (Day 1)
• Santa's Workshop
• Scarface Mansion (broken ceiling turret overhead in the pre-office room)
• Shacklethorne Auction
• Slaughterhouse
• Watchdogs (Day 1)
• The White House (SWAT van turrets around the outside and ceiling turrets overhead in the vault room)
• San Martín Bank

Strategy[]

Like Cloakers, the turret tends to spawn in set locations, but can appear at any time (with an occasional radio announcement alerting players before and when a SWAT van will enter the scene). Rather than spawning immediately, the turret can remain dormant inside any SWAT van in the map, instead unfolding only when one or more characters ventures too close. As such, players should exercise great care in the maps above lest they put themselves at risk of a surprise attack.

Instead of using audio like other specials, the turret instead relies on visual means to telegraph its attacks. Whilst the laser obviously indicates the direction of attack, the colour indicates its status: red means hostile to the players, amber indicates the eight second reload is underway, green means friendly to players (and hostile to law enforcers), and flashing green indicates the ECM controlling it is about to end.

Note that because the SWAT van itself isn't destroyed (only the turret) the SWAT Van Turret cannot respawn. Unless they can be avoided, players should co-ordinate to destroy SWAT Van Turrets and then resume normal heisting.

Health[]

The turret has a very high total health, though this is partially countered by damage multipliers granted to players. Additionally, the reason for its (at least initial) durability is due to the armor plating on the front: impenetrable even by armor piercing rounds, players must whittle away at the plate in order to expose the turret's weak point, the targeting lens.

Damage against the plate is capped at x7 for explosives, with an additional cap applied after that prevents any type of attack - bullet or explosive - from dealing more than 3500 damage to the shield or 42,000 to the base, meaning that a high damage weapon such as the HRL-7 will have much of its potential firepower negated; this is additionally restricted as the damage stacking caused by hitting multiple armor plates (as seen with Bulldozers) does not apply to the turret. As such, massive damage weapons like the aforementioned HRL-7 and Thanatos .50 cal, will be very inefficient, whereas the GL40, Frag Grenades or a shotgun with HE Rounds are highly recommended.

An effective way of taking down the shield is with a single Molotov co*cktail thrown on top of the van and next to the turret, the grenade will completely burn through the shield during the course of its duration, even on Death Wish difficulty. This is far from being foolproof, however, as to deal maximum fire damage very careful trajectory calculations must be made prior to throwing, which is hardly feasible when under suppressive fire, and thrown Molotovs can be shot out by the turret if it's still active when the player pops out of cover to toss.

For this reason it is very dangerous to attempt to use the HRL-7 on the turret while it is firing at you because the turret's high rate of fire means it can shoot down the rocket as soon as it's fired, downing the player in line-of-sight of the turret where it will be hard for others to revive you. If using the HRL-7, get someone else to distract the turret or wait for it to reload in order to safely hit it.

Once exposed, the targeting lens (where the laser is emitted) can be damaged. It is highly recommended players concentrate fire at this time, abusing the x100 damage bonus with automatic or high-damage weapons and working together to quickly finish it.

A Thanatos at this point can one-shot it on the Overkill difficulty and below (2 on Death Wish).

Another way to deal with the turret is to deploy your own sentry gun to fight fire with fire, or use it as a distraction to allow the rest of the team to flank and destroy the threat. If your sentry gun has a shield it will prove a big advantage, since the bulletproof plating can block all attempts at dealing damage from the SWAT Van Turret.

Damage[]

The turret has a rate of fire of 1000 rounds/minute, so it is advisable to confront it while it's focused elsewhere, friendly, or performing its 8-second reload (yellow laser). The turret's damage also increases with difficulty, and carries a x4 damage multiplier at less than eight metres; combined with 400 round magazines, players must either combine heavy armour (or cover) and distance or very high dodge and speed lest they be ripped to shreds. Due to how dodging and taking damage works, it is possible to continue dodging for as long as the turret shoots the player (with no other units doing so) while taking no damage, making for a useful distraction to take on the turret.

Should players get between ten and eight metres of the vehicle, damage begins to severely ramp upwards from x1.1 to x4 as they approach and, should a player deal reasonable damage when less than eight metres away, they will be subject to flashbang attacks from the turret. With the turret receiving a maximum multiplier of x4 for those within an eight metre radius, the damage of every bullet stacks accordingly:

ECMs[]

Placing an ECM anywhere on the map will cause the gun to temporarily target law enforcers, the targeting laser changing from red to green to reflect this. When the ECM's effect is almost over the laser will flash notifying heisters to move to cover before the turret turns on them.

When the turret is friendly, nearby law enforcers will attempt to seek cover instead of attacking it. Players can either move through open ground while the turret covers them, or take advantage of its lack of hostility, by exposing or destroying the targeting lens, especially when the ECM is about to shut off.

Weapons[]

High damage and rate of fire weapons are recommended to take down both the shield and turret itself efficiently. Assault Rifles, SMGs, LMGs, Akimbo SMGs and Akimbo Pistols are good weapons to burst down the shield and, possibly, the turret quickly and efficiently.

AP weapons such as the 5/7 Pistol and Sniper Rifles can also work as they are able to pierce through walls and cover whilst the turret can't, granting safety for you to dispatch the turret with relative ease.

Other Tactics[]

If a team lacks the firepower to completely destroy a turret or skills to hamper it, there are two key weaknesses that can be used against it:

1. It cannot harm players that crouch behind or around the sides of the truck itself (though to make up for this, tear gas may be deployed to force heisters to break off close contact, the van can move around like in Meltdown, and some heists feature the van behind invisible barriers).
2. It can only fire in one direction and takes considerable time to switch to another target, allowing heisters to distract it.
3. It has a slow tracking speed, circle strafing near the turret would not let it able to damage you.

Players are strongly advised to either finish up whatever task they need to do or even vacate the scene if the radio announcement for the SWAT van turret is heard. Being an effective form of area denial, the turret can unleash a torrent of bullets at particular areas and easily prevent players from hanging around at where it can fire at team members.

Bugs[]

• Currently, players can mark the base of a turret after it is destroyed. While this is normally unobservable, due to the base being within the van and thus unmarkable through normal means, the base of the ceiling turret in Beneath the Mountain can be marked due to its position.
• The turret can currently be pre-damaged from the sides when the turret is "hull down" after repairing. Keep shooting until you start getting hit boxes from either side of it and you can inflict nearly fatal damage allowing the players to kill it right after it pops back up, this is highly recommended to be done by a single player using a machine gun with a bipod.

Achievements & Trophies[]

• Achievements

• Trophies

See Also

Union 5.56Shield (Payday 2)The Only 5 Melee Weapons Worth Using in Payday 2Gruber Kurz

Eye for an Eye In the second day of The Biker Heist job, destroy the helicopter turret. Unlocks the "Road Rage" mask, "Chromey" material and "Biker Face" pattern.

Attacked Helicopter In the Green Bridge job, kill the helicopter turret before the plane picks up the prisoner on the OVERKILL difficulty or above.

Hack This! In the Henry's Rock job, destroy the security turrets instead of shutting them down on the OVERKILL difficulty or above.

CAR vs. Car Destroy a SWAT van turret using only the CAR-4 rifle. Unlocks the "Longbore" Exclusive Weapon Set for the CAR-4 rifle.

Diamond

"You had to swat some wheels to get this beauty."

—Trophy description

UNLOCK CONDITION:
Finish the Diamond Store heist with all bags and destroying the SWAT Turret, on OVERKILL difficulty or above.

PLACEMENT:
Bottom Floor bathroom.

Trivia[]

• It appears to be based off of the Protector RWS Turret mounted with an M2 Browning machine gun, as can be seen when destroyed, and fitted with various layers of additional armor plates.
• The SWAT Van it is normally equipped on appears to be based off of the Lenco BearCat

• The SWAT Van is remotely controlled by an operator inside. It was initially thought that it was possibly automatic due to the lack of any visible human operator, but the release of the FBI Files revealed that it is in fact a remotely operated weapon.
  • Despite being operated remotely, these Van Turrets are vulnerable to manipulation by ECM Jammers into attacking the law enforcers they are supposed to protect instead.
• Damaged SWAT Van Turrets can repair themselves rather quickly by retracting into their vehicles and re-emerging sometime later.
• If multiple SWAT Turrets appear close to one another, one ECM Jammer will affect all of them the same way.
• The SWAT Turret has the highest "headshot" damage multiplier of all enemy units in Payday 2, at a staggering 100x.
• The SWAT Turret, along with snipers, does not retreat after an assault wave is over. In fact, save for the scripted sequences in Meltdown and The Biker Heist Day 2, most vans and their turrets are modeled directly into the static map geometry. However during assaults the SWAT Turret (except for the helicopter or Scarface Mansion turrets) does retract, only to resurface during an Assault or when heisters approach too close.
• SWAT Turrets controlled by ECM Jammers will show up as the player's favourite weapon during the post-game screen, as simply "Sentry Gun".
• At launch, the Boiling Point ceiling turret displayed the American SWAT name if its shield was destroyed. It was eventually replaced in Update #108.

Gallery[]

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