I'm having a hard time understanding how money works in Payday 2, it was way more simple in the first opus.
In a mission's preview, you can find different amounts of money:
- pay grade (which seems to be some sort of gauge)
- day rate
- contract pay
- something that looks like potential bonuses (in yellow, on the right side of the amounts)
- the payday which looks like the total of all that
Once the mission is complete, you get a debriefing screen with two sections:
The day rate and contract pay don't differ from the first screen, even if I have no idea of what it is exactly. Then there are the bag loot items (if looted all the bags during the mission) and more I-have-no-idea-what-it-is stuff like the instant cash, the offshore account.
And, finally, the only amount that is revelant to me, the spending cash (in green) which is what you actually get in your wallet after the mission.
In addition to all that, my friend and I are receiving different rewards at the end of each mission (I always receive a few thousands more than he does): we checked and we don't have skills that impact missions rewards… I just have a few more levels.
Sooooo… Any idea what are all these stuff and how the final instant cash is calculated ?
Best Answer
So far, from what I could read online (in this guide and on the wikia, among other sources):
Briefing screen
Pay grade
Also this thread suggests it can go up to 10 stars.
Day rate
Contract pay
Payday
Yellow bonuses
These bonuses come directly from the difficulty (or "risk") of the mission, pictured by the yellow skulls on this very same screen. Normal = no skull -- overkill = 3 skulls.
Debriefing screen
Instant cash and bag loot items
The instant cash it the one you loot and put in your pockets directly during the game (jewels, cash bundles, ...) The bags are those heavy packs of money, jewels or even drug you'll have to carry in order to achieve a mission.
Balance
This section contains the sum of all the amounts contained in the Income section ($332,400 in the example given in the question) distributed between two type of accounts: the offshore account and the spending cash.
Offshore account
Since August 30 2013, you can use your offshore account to directly buy specific missions from Crime.net.
Spending cash
The cash you get, finally. In the given example, it's 10% of the total amount, but so far I couldn't find any precise calculation to know if that percentage can vary or not.