As of Ultimate Edition, the DLC-less brethren are getting more and more options to deal with Winters.

As such, this guide is marginally useful at best and I will not be updating it any longer.

Thank you all for reading this guide.

2016 May 4: Just wanted to do a quick update. I will be working on the concept of Winters shortly.

As for the trip mines placement that I found/mentioned, I will let you guys know more about it again.

In short, I have 2 methods of placement, a sure-fire placement to force Winters' retreat, and a perfect kill placement which will take down Winters and all his buddies

But don't get too excited, it'll be most useful only for solo players due to the line-of-sight use with trip mines.

28th February 2016: Started work on Counterfeit. Added testudo formation
16th January 2016: Goat Simulator Heist D1 added
8th December 2015: Birth of Sky added
7th December 2015: Hoxton Revenge 91.1 patch update
6th November 2015: Added Lab Rats
24th October 2015: Added Slaughterhouse
22nd October 2015: Updated Alesso Heist. Main trip mines have an easier reference now
19th October 2015: Winters concept and damage calculation added
17th October 2015: Trip mine concept added
14th October 2015: Big Oil D1/D2 and Firestarter D1/D2 added
13th October 2015: Hoxton Breakout D2, White Xmax, Election Day D1/D2 Plan C added
12th October 2015: The Alesso Heist, Big Bank, The Bomb: Dockyard, Hotline Miami D1 and Watchdogs D1 added
11th October 2015: Diamond Store, The Diamond added
10th October 2015: Art Gallery/Framing Frame D1 added
9th October 2015: Hoxton Revenge added
8th October 2015: Cook off/Rats D1, Jewelry Store, Ukrainian Job added
7th October 2015: Creation of guide

Planned

• Understanding trip mines with relation to Winters' formation
  
• Clean up of this guide to be more presentable

Completed

• How to defeat Winters
  
• Concept - Trip mine
  
• Concept - Winters
  
• Damage calculation
  
• All map placements

As the guide title suggests, this is a guide for players to defeat Winters, even on their own, with the base game only and it works on Deathwish.

I understand this guide will be overlooked by most players (because who doesn't own a DLC nowadays?). If you do pass by my guide and have a friend without DLC, do pass this information on to him. I'm sure he'll appreciate it.

I have a friend who plays Payday 2 with me and he didn't get a single DLC so I initially started the challenge of playing loud with non-DLC weapons and mods and had to face this challenge.

And now, you can face him full on too.

If you enjoyed my guide, I'd appreciate a rating, thank you.

Credits to Frankelstner's guide for some of the information.

First off, since we do not have any weapons or grenades. We're mostly out of luck. Except that we have 1 single explosive item. The trip mine. And we only need 2 of them. However, using only 2 requires careful placement. 3 is recommended instead.

Q: Won't that severely limit my skill build?
A: No, not really. You'll only need to invest 6 points.


Q: Only 2? What if I screw up my placements?
A: Practice makes perfect. Or invest more points if you need the other trip mine. I highly recommend having 3 trip mines. I'll try to cover more on their formation some time later.

Q: Even if so, that limits my play style by taking up my deployable slot.
A: Sadly, this is a limitation that cannot be overcome if you use ammo hungry weapons, dodge build (for first aid kit). You'll have to depend on map assets and ammo pick ups.

Q: When do I shoot?
A: When Winters is fully in position you'll see this icon right next to the assault wave bar. His entire squad might not be in formation by then so you can either wait for them to assemble or take Winters down immediately.


Now here comes the meat.

Do this immediately at the start of the heist.

All you need is to plant 2 trip mines right smack in the centre (or thereabout) where Winters would be standing and 1 as a trigger out of the zone where his squad will stand. Remember to put it somewhere close enough to the 1st one and yet in a spot where you can snipe it to trigger a simultaneous explosion.

Remember to turn them off so cops and civilians don't trigger it. Take your firefights elsewhere too so stray shots won't destroy them. Some maps might have problems for this e.g. Hoxton Breakout so the same advice applies, take your firefights elsewhere.

When Winters is fully in position, take a shot at your trigger and watch Winters retreat in defeat.

If you're not much for text, you can check out my video here:

Trip mines belong to the explosives category:

• Trip mines dish out 1000 damage.
  
• No loss of damage from distance compared to other explosives.
  
• Damage boosts only from Spotter (Basic) and Tactical Mines (Aced). I doubt these stack.
  
• Basic blast radius 3m.
  
• Line of sight required. This means regular shields and Winters don't take damage from the front.

Technician skills enhance the trip mine deployable in various ways: Amount, blast radius, deployment time, toggle on/off, sensor mode and targeted damage.

Most of them are self explanatory, so I'll zoom in on the important ones.

Combat Engineer (Aced): Sensor mode, spots specials that trip the laser, only in loud.
Tactical Mines (Aced): +15% damage to specials spotted by the sensor mode.
With these 2 combined, trip mines potentially cause 1150 damage. You shouldn't need this damage boost for this guide, unless you allow Winters' damage resist to build up to 50%. Can be replaced with Spotter (Basic) from Mastermind skill tree as well.

Tactical Mines (Basic): +30% blast radius
Jack of All Trades (Basic): +70% blast radius
These 2 will increase the blast radius of the trip mine to a maximum of 6m. 3m is enough to force Winters to retreat, but some shields survive.

To spend as little points as possible, assuming you are not using the Technician skill tree, here are the skill point costs for the various blast radius:
3 metres: 6 skill points
3.9 metres: 10/11 skill points
6 metres: 22/24 skill points

Here's a test I did in Hoxton Revenge to demonstrate the results:
3 metres: 4 shields left


3.9 metres: 1 shield left


6 metres: 0 shield left (see them helmets fly!)


In short, if you're not working the Technician tree, getting the 6 metres upgrade just to finish off the shields is not a good investment.

Line of sight required (protection from the front)
For this guide, we will want to understand more about the Testudo formation that the squad employs. But before that, we have to note that the shield that they use is protected from trip mine explosions from the front, just like a regular shield.


The shields have protection from the front, so our trip mines have to be deployed either directly below or behind them. We will analyze this situation in the Testudo formation section.

A new GenSec Elite, Winters spawns with a squad of 10 shielded and SMG-armed members. They employ a testudo (Roman tortoise) defensive position, remain on the defensive and does not move after deployment. You should have pretty much heard about him but may be unsure who/what he does.

General info

• Spawns only on Very Hard and upwards.
  
• Doesn't spawn in CrimeNet Offline (single player). He does spawn when you play solo in CrimeNet without AI.
  
• Spawns only once per heist, doesn't respawn after defeat.
  
• Chance to spawn only during assault waves.
  
• His deployed presence is shown by a shield icon next to the assault wave bar (top right).
  
• Winters has 3000/6000/8000 HP and his squaddie has 1500/3000/4000 HP.
  
• Retreats when Winters reaches 20% HP or when 4 or less squaddies remain.
  
• Unlike regular shields, Iron Man (aced) does not provide knockback.
  
• Has a 10% damage cap per hit, before multipliers.
  
• Has a 6x explosives multiplier.
  
• Headshot and crit multiplier 5x, 3.75x on Deathwish.

There are more detailed information Frankelstner's guide, including spawn rate and chance to spawn etc.

What does he do?

• Causes a never ending assault wave.
  
• Gives a damage resist boost to all enemies on the map, starting from 10% and increasing every 5 seconds by 5% until 50% (total 40 seconds).

The damage resist boost might be taken lightly at the start when you leave him alone. Ultimately, with basic math you're essentially taking 2x as long to kill an enemy, resulting in 2x ammo needed. The never ending wave also hampers your objectives, increasing your chance to fail.

How do we defeat him?
Just as a regular shield, without Iron Man (aced), we can circle around and damage them from the back or use trip mines.

For now, let us see and understand how the shields react based on their numbers, from 10 to 5.
Each time 1 shield is lost they will cover up the gap and rearrange their formation.
Click to view the full image.

10


9


8


7


6


5


... Coming soon ...

Some technical concepts apply here, namely 512 granularity and the damage formula.

This simply means maximum number of hits to eliminate is 512 hits, even if you use the weakest weapon. Example, Winters on DW has 8000 HP, is divided into 512 granules.

So each granule is worth 15.625 HP. If you shoot damage Winters with 20 damage, he receives 2 granules worth of damage, 20/15.625 rounded up.

This is why with a HUD mod you'll see that the shields suffer damage inconsistent with your weapon stats.

Winters and his squaddie takes a max 10% damage per hit, before bonus multipliers and damage resist buff.

Trip mines deal 1000 damage and will in any difficulty hit the 10% cap even on the Deathwish difficulty: 1000 > 10% Winters DW 800, 1000 > 10% squaddie DW 400.

With these concepts in mind, we can work out the damage:

Total damage = Damage capped x Bonus multipliers x Damage resist, then converted to granules.


Scenario 1: 1 Trip mine goes off immediately on Winters deployment, Deathwish.
Total damage = 10% x 6 (explosive multiplier) x 0.9 (10% reduction) = 54%, converted to granules.
Total damage = 800 x 6 x 0.9 = 4320 before granularity = 4328.125, 54.1%

Damage less than 80% so Winters stays in position.


Scenario 2: 1 Trip mine goes off immediately on spotted Winters deployment, Deathwish.
Total damage = 10% x 6 (explosive multiplier) x 1.15 Spotter (basic) x 0.9 (10% reduction) = 62.1%, converted to granules.
Total damage = 800 x 6 x 1.15 x 0.9 = 4968 before granularity = 4968.75, 62.1%

Damage less than 80% so Winters stays in position.


Scenario 3: 2 Trip mines immediately on Winters deployment, Deathwish.
Total damage = 2 x 10% x 6 (explosive multiplier) x 0.9 (10% reduction) = 108%, converted to granules.
Total damage = 1600 x 6 x 0.9 = 8640 before granularity = 8640.625

Winters loses more than 80% and is forced to retreat.


Scenario 4: 2 Trip mines, with full damage resist buff, Deathwish.
Total damage = 2 x 10% x 6 (explosive multiplier) x 0.5 (50% reduction) = 60%, converted to granules.
Total damage = 1600 x 6 x 0.5 = 4800 before granularity = 4812.5

Damage less than 80% so Winters stays in position.

With this, it's pretty straightforward:

• 1 trip mine is not enough.
  
• Spotter (Basic) isn't really essential in defeating Winters, unless you screw up the trip mines and have to take him down with conventional weapons.
  
• The damage resist buff can turn the tide in his favour.

You can attempt to set the trip mine off while he's in motion, before the damage resist buff starts but that's pretty risky and dependent on timing.

The ambush point is just right at the start, just past the double doors and before the 2 short pillars-looking things.


The overall placement looks like this.


For the main trip mines, look ahead. Use the cabinet centre as reference.


And looking to the right, use the mask on the wall as a reference.


The trigger mine is also along the same axis, but in front of the bin instead.


You should be able to trigger it from the top floor before the technicians' booth.

The ambush point is right in front of the spawn point, using the dashes in the middle of the road, just before the white car.


Alternate view from the white car to the spawn point.


The main trip mines can be planted in the middle of the dash.


The trigger trip mine will be to the left of the main trip mines (facing north). Just put it in the space between the 2 dashes.


You can snipe it from the gallery lobby.


Or from the roof.

Ambush point: right after the main entrance, in the rectangle space before the hall.


The tiles will be a useful reference.


The overall placement: Using the flag as a guide, place the 1st trip mine at the end of the 3rd tile after the carpet, then 2nd trip mine 1 tile to the right.


The trigger will be another 3 tiles away.


You should be able to shoot the trigger from the stairs near the timelock.


You could inch out from the ledge too, but you'll be under heavy fire.

The ambush point for day 1 is right after the main entrance. If you look closely at the entrance, you'll see tire tracks leading in. We'll be using the right tire track for this.


The landmarks to refer are a little hard to find, it takes a bit of work.


The main trip mines are to be planted in the tire track itself, lined up with the yellow container when you're standing in the track.


Standing in the tire track, aim at the yellow container and ensure that it looks 2 dimensional (can't see the side of the container). Then look right down and plant 2 trip mines.


Turn a 180 degrees and follow the tire track towards the house while looking at the stack of concrete blocks.


Same as per the main trip mines, we will want to shift until we can no longer see the side of the concrete block (in green). If you have trouble finding it, there's a concrete block jutting right out (in red).


Once in this position, look right down and plant it.


You can get a full view of the trigger from the camera room.


Or a really small allowance of space from the 2nd floor living room.

For Big Oil day 2, it's within the space outside of the porch, where the car is parked.
There is really little to refer to on the ground itself, so we'll have to use distant objects.


Both the main trip mines and trigger trip mines are in line with a fence.


Facing out from the mansion to the end of the map, you'll see this pair of posts as part of the fencing. This is the axis to line up the trip mines.


First line yourself up with the axis.


Then turn to the right to find a tree outside the fence. It marks the start of the clear sky.


Look down and place your main trip mines.


With the same axis, aim at the end of the hedge, look down and plant the trigger.


You'll get this set up.


You should be able to snipe at it from the 1st or 2nd floor. This shows a good view through the shutter blinds.


Or if the shutter blinds are down, you can shoot at it from the bedroom.

Winters deploys in front of the gas station, at the curb near the bed of roses.


We will be using the big square tile just after the roses.


This is the overall placement.


For the main trip mines, we want to have it slightly out from the line.


The trigger trip mine will be at the lower left corner of the tile.


Since this map is pretty open, you'll have plenty of options to snipe at the trigger.

Here's from the diner roof.


From the 2nd floor of Teuer's Automotives.


From the far end of the warehouse, with cover.


And my personal recommendation, from inside the front door of the diner; Has adequate protection, a clear view to the trip mine. Ideal for Deathwish.

Winters spawns at the west entrance, just outside of the dockyard.


Set up is as follows:


The main trip mines should be within the 2nd and 3rd plank spacing,


... aligned to the centre fo the spacing. You can use the cone-like piece as a reference.


Trigger trip mine to be placed next to the 1st plank.


You can snipe at it from the east gate, or the other end of the trains. However it can be pretty hard to do so if cops are swarming mid-assault.



Recommended to make your way to the 2nd floor of the west warehouse (with the security room) and wait for Winters to gather when you hear his voice.

Rats day 1, the deploy point is straight ahead to your spawn point very close to the street lamp.


Just immediately before the first lamp post and its spotlight is what we're after.


If you look closely at the dirt next to the road, you'll find a bald spot (circled in green).


Plant 2 trip mines where the laser sight is pointing at. Looking perpendicular from the road, use the clump of grass (circled in green) as a reference point.


This is the placement I have. The trigger trip mine is placed on the fence for easy access (see further down).


This placement allows you to shoot the trigger from the 2nd floor easily.


Ready to take down.

Note
You would require 6 trip mines since Winters can spawn in 2 possible locations. It is also possible to determine his location by listening the direction of his announcement. Sprint to the location when you determined the direction and you can deploy it just before he arrives. However it will be tricky since snipers might be around.

You can spend all 6 trip mines, or bring 3 each with a buddy.

Alternatively, you can combat him directly (I'll put up a video on how to do that with trip mines).

Location 1 - Behind the pool (Mitchell)
Location 1 for Counterfeit is behind the high wall of the pool, on the side of Mitchell's house.


This is the overall placement. The main and trigger mines are along the same line.


For the main trip mines, we shall use the lamp post as a reference.


Either use the sidewalk tile, or the garden gnome on the opposite side as a reference.


Turning to the left, we will have a trash bin and bench. Aim between them and place 2 trip mines.


Looking back to the side walk, we want to shift 1 and 3/4 tiles to the left and place the trigger mine.


You can get a pretty clear shot from the bedroom.


Location 2 - Behind the shed near the boat (Wilson)
Location 2 for Counterfeit is near Wilson's shed, next to the boat.


The overall placement. Note that they are in line with the divider between the grass and tiles.


Main trip mines will be using the tile marking just out of the shed.


Trigger trip mine will be 1 and 1/2 tile away to the right, when facing the shed from the street.


Unfortunately there's a car in the way, so we need some height. The railing just in the house works. You should be safe from the turret here as well.


It's a bit of a distance, so bring an accurate weapon.

The deployment point for this is at the rear plaza behind the store. It is at this road divider just behind the red car, the one in line with the lamp post.


This is the overall placement.


The main trip mines should be in line with the beginning of the road divider (to the right) and to the second prong of the road hump.


The trigger trip mine should be just out of the yellow line, otherwise it will be blocked by the pavement for sniping.


In position to shoot from the rear door.

Winters will deploy in the gallery lobby, dead centre of the diamond :)


With this set up, place the main trip mines in the centre. And the trigger trip mine can be placed on either end, which determines which stairs you need to shoot it from.



A view of Winters in position.


You can snipe the mine through the ledge.


Or from the stairs.

For Election Day D1, it's located at the warehouse entrance where all the trucks are. In this image the trucks have already driven off. Looking towards the trucks, it's the 2nd entrance on the right.


Use the yellow parallelograms and the shadow as a marking.


First, place the trigger trip mine just at the outer edge of the central parallelogram. There are 11 of them, so either way it's the 6th. With that same line extending straight out towards the truck area, place the main trip mines on the line of the shadow and the light.


You won't have much choice in shooting the trigger mine, either from the far end of the warehouse or up close, else you'll be exposed to heavy fire.

The ambush point is the unguarded entrance. If you're in the office area facing towards the corridor, turn left. The clearest reference point would be the manhole.


Use the manhole and tiles as a reference and it will be pretty clear.


You will be able to snipe at it from either the office entrance, or the bank teller entrance.

For Firestarter D1, you can start placing the trip mines in safety. It's right in front of the 2nd cut-able fence. There's no actual position from where you can shoot the trigger trip mine. I have considered using the vantage point, but that would be part of the sniper DLC and is beyond this guide's purpose. Circled in green is the tree that you can hide behind to snipe the trigger.


For all the trip mines, use the middle space between the edge of the fence and the "Guard" sign as a reference.


Place the main trip mines just above the yellow road marking.


Using the same reference, place the trigger trip mine within the grey band on the road.


You should get this.


You can get some cover from behind the tree and snipe at the trigger.

For Day 2, the ambush location is right at the main entrance.


In front of the main door, the tiles provide a very easy reference.


Use the central line as a reference.


The main trip mines are placed in the centre of the 2 big tiles.


While the trigger trip mine is placed at the first row before the door, in the middle.


You can safely shoot at the trigger from behind the 2 beams on the second floor.

In Goat Simulator Heist Day 1, Winters and his squad deploys at one of the spawn/escape points, where a goat can usually be found.
It's pie shaped (lack of a better description), has a space within the building that is blocked off by posts. Too bad we can't just ram into him with the Longfellow.



This is the overall placement. It will be in line with a few reference points, mostly using the tiles and posts.



Using the post as the main axis, the one that is closest to the shadow but in the light,

we will then use the tile line just to the left of the centre flowerbox.


Using back the same axis of the post,

we will then use the 1st tile line out from the left flowerbox.


The map is pretty open, I'm not going to lie. It's going to be pretty hard to find cover.
You may want to use the park, the concrete railing as cover (picture),

or snipe at the trigger trip mine from down the street. It's a long shot, but we have the Platypus 90 now don't we?

Now Hotline Miami is a pretty tough spot to pull off. You may want to experiment a bit with the placements for the trigger trip mine. 2 police cars will provide cover against your shots.

The ambush spot is the rectangle spot before the turn in to the motel car park. 2 cop cars will spawn later.


There will be some white markings on the road you can use as reference.


Using the white markings, the main trip mines are to be placed in the space centre of the two markings as a reference for 1 axis


... and then facing south, in the centre of the further white marking as reference of the other axis.


The trigger trip mine to be placed in this spot, which is slightly north east of the main trip mines.


This viewing spot is at the east most part of the motel on the 2nd floor, where the ladder is. It will need multiple shots with an accurate weapon.


It is also possible to place the trigger mine to the rear, where you can shoot at it from behind a car at the left most end of the motel. However a wall may spawn, blocking off access to the road.

For Hoxton Breakout, we will want to look at the main hall, right in front of the desk. Again, we have the tiles to help us mark the placements. You can mirror this placement towards the right instead of left if you wish to.


The 1st trip mine goes in line with the FBI directory board.


And about 2 tiles (more like 1.5 tiles) before the brown row of tiles.


Next trip mine 1 square tile to the left.


Trigger trip mine 3 tiles to the left of the 2nd main trip mine.


View from the director's office.


The view might be blocked by the shield, so you can snipe it from the corridor instead.

For Hoxton Revenge, there will be 2 places to trigger the trip mine from. Either from the main wing or the side wing. Either way, this placement enables you to snipe from either wing.

Winters deploys in the backyard, outside the fence. It's past the rear gate if you circle the safehouse from the right.


This is the overall placement. 2 trip mines are placed slightly apart to ambush and yet be in range of the 1 trip mine (on tree) for a chain trigger.


The reference point for trip mine 1 is a little plant sticking right out of the ground. Go ahead and deploy trip mine 1 just slightly to the northwest of the plant (assume rear as north).


The reference point for trip mine 2 would be slightly to the northwest. One area looks like a rectangle, place it at the unshadowed corner.


The last trip mine goes onto the tree. It would look like it's half sitting on the fence.


With that placed, you can easily snipe it from both the main wing and side wing.

From the start point, follow the road down to the T-junction.


We will be using the road markings as a guide.


If you're unsure of this location, use the manhole as a reference point.


If you observe, there's a split in the texture. Combine that with the pedestrian crossing and you'll get the main placement point. Deploy 2 trip mines.


For the trigger, we will be placing to the right and behind of the main placement point. Green lines added for reference. This position is designed for use with Deathwish, as the alley is fenced up.


From the store, you should be able to get some cover while taking a pot shot at the trigger.

Lab Rats will be around for a short period during Halloween. I hope this will help some of you before it's over :)

The main location is just at the ice bags for the caustic soda container.


The reference points we have will be the match box at the side of the blanket combined with the gradient of the wood, which can be tough to follow.


Both the main trip mine and trigger mine will be along this line, using the part of the match box that touches the table.


Using the 1 visible line, we will put the main trip mines between the dark and light part of the wood (middle line in this image) and the trigger will be on the next line.


It should look like this.


You should be able to creep out from the barrel of caustic soda to take a quick snipe.

The ambush point for Winters will not be accessible until the safe is open and neither will Winters spawn.

The ambush location is right outside the warehouse where there's 2 doorways just before the tire pile. This is the view from the right doorway. We will be using the concrete block/pile as a reference.


Next we will simply use the shadow of the pile.


2 main trip mines go onto the northeast point of the shadow (the trip mines on the right in this image) and the trigger trip mine just out of the south tip of the shadow.


Winters won't be exactly in the middle but still within the basic 3 metre radius. You'll be able to snipe the trigger mine from the right doorway.

The deployment location is to the back and right of the start point.


Move past the carpark sign.


The deployment location for your trip mine ambush.


Ensure that your main and trigger trip mines are somewhat aligned to the centre of the 2 skid marks (green line).


Your main 2 trip mines will align with this shadow.


While your trigger, to the bumper of this car.


Overall view of the placement.


You should get a relatively good view even if you use the shutter codes asset.

Watchdogs is a pretty tough situation to solo. Make sure you take out the initial cops immediately, they will hinder you from placing the trip mines. The other cops will start spawning soon too, so make placements a priority and moving the bags secondary.

The placement point is in the intersection of the road, right north of the spawn point.



Forgive the 2 short green dashes there. Note that there is a square patch of concrete that has a different texture. That'll be your reference point.


1 trip mine at the southwest corner of the concrete patch. 2nd one to the north of it after the line, and the trigger trip mine out of the patch, in the space between the patch and the road marking.


This placement gives a good view of the trigger trip mine from both loot points. You should be able to snipe at it with ease.

East side roof.


West end roof.

For White Xmas, the location will be near the plane crash and the pilot. There will be 2 trains and 2 train tracks.

This is the wrong one, you'll see that the train tracks are straight.


The one we want, is curved. The trigger trip mine can be placed to the right instead if you wish to snipe it from the valley-like area.


You'll notice 2 long clumps of grass (circled in green). Refer from the further clump, then the 2nd plank towards you.


The main trip mine to be placed just on the 2nd clump of grass (after the tiny bald patch) after the plank.


Going back to the plank, just place it right in the middle.


From the left zip line (when looking from the shed towards the crash site), you can have a clear shot from the ledge.