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The Dirty Ice mission inPayday 3tasks the team with robbing Ashton Fine Jewelry, a front for an international gem cartel that traffics in conflict diamonds. While it’s possible to simply grab all the jewels you may and bail, you stand to make a lot more money if you use a hard-to-access sorting machine to ensure that your loot is untraceable.
This guide has everything you need to know about getting into the jewelry store, disabling security, and entering the workshop to get the most money possible from the job.
Updated on August 02, 2025 by Matt Arnold:If you want to get a big payout from Dirty Ice, you’ll need to open the vault and get the Rare Stone inside. We’ve added a section to this guide detailing how to do just that!
Jewelry Store Layout
The main showroom is accessible from the street, and can beentered freely as long as you aren’t masked.It’s possible to snag a few rings or necklaces while nobody’s looking, but this isn’t worth the risk. Standing near thepillar at the rear left side of the roomis the store manager, wearing ablue shirt, glasses, and a yellow scarf.She is critically important to the heist, so keep an eye on her!
Roughly five minutes into the mission, the manager’s shift will end; if she leaves, you’ll lose your opportunity to get into the jeweler’s workshop.
Behind the pillar is aportrait of the manager, who has charmingly awarded herself Employee Of The Month. Note her employee number on the frame; it changes with each run, but is sometimes the passcode to enter the basement.
Behind the showroom is the employee area, consisting of a single hallway. You can get in through the side of the building, either via a door or a window. This areaconnects to every other part of the building, but many of the doors are locked with QR code scanners. At the back of the hall arestairs leading to the basement.
The basement can only be accessed via a passcode, either from inside the building or from the doors on theleft and right sides of the building.The code will usually either be themanager’s employee numberor thewi-fi password written on the whiteboard in the break room.Rarely, the code will instead bewritten in a binder on the center table in the VIP Showroom. The computer in the manager’s office can tell you which one it is.
Inside the basement isat least one guard and one camera, plus the security room. There is also alocked doorthat contains a safe and the power switch for the store’s security system.
How To Open QR Code Locks
Most of the doors at the back of the store arelocked via QR code scanners.you may find phones lying around the area and hack them; each hacked phone provides you with a single QR code, which will open any single door. Phones can usually be foundin the break room, bathroom, and manager’s office, as well ason the ground outside to the left of the building.The phones are always randomly placed at the start of a new run.
Unlike keycards, a QR code can be used by any team member, not just the one who obtained it.
How To Enter The Jewelry Workshop
The VIP Showroom across from the manager’s office has a locked door that canonly be opened via a retinal scanner. To open it, you need totake the manager hostageand push her in front of the scanner. This will unlock the door, letting you use the sorting machine inside.
If you’re going in loud, you cansimply capture the managerand take her straight to the scanner. If you’re going for stealth, you’ll need to jump through a few hoops.
First, you need toaccess the basement.Find the passcode (see above), and use it to reach the locked door.Open the safeand turn off the power to the security system; Shade will ask you to take a picture of the documents inside the safe.
Once the documents have been photographed, and a teammate has approached the retinal scanner and hacked the manager’s computer, Shade will ask you touse the phone in the manager’s office.If the manager is still present, she’llwalk to her office, where you can capture her without causing a scene on the showroom floor.
How To Get Clean Jewelry
Bags of jewelry can bethrown into the chuteon the right side of the sorting machine. You can put as many bags in as you like, but the machine willonly process them one at a time.Once a batch of jewels has been sorted,clean jewelrywill appear on the tray. Clean jewelry is worth considerably more than regular jewelry.
The machine won’t start processing the next batch until the clean jewelry is removed from the tray.
How To Open The Jewelry Store Vault
There is a small vaultacross the hall from the Manager’s Office.Opening it requires the Red Keycard, which is found in the basement. On Normal and Hard Difficulty, it’snext to the safe containing the blackmail documents.On Very Hard and Overkill, it’s insteadcarried by the guard patrolling the basement.
The keycard scanner for the vault doesn’t work unless it’sactivated from the Manager’s Officeby pressing thebig red button on the desk.The scanner is only active for a fraction of a second, so opening the vault requires two people; one to press the button and one to use the keycard.
Remember, keycards can’t be traded between players, so the player that takes the keycard must be the one to open the vault.
If you’re playing solo, you canshove an employee at the deskto make them press the button. It’s easiest to have the manager herself do it, but there are some staffers wandering the back rooms that can also push the button for you. Just remember totie them back uponce the vault is unlocked!
Inside the vault is aRare Stone, which is worth several bags of jewelry on its own if secured.
Stealth Route For Dirty Ice
Once you’ve done it a few times, a stealth run of the Dirty Ice heist is a breeze. However, a hybrid run that starts stealthy and then goes loud offers thehighest potential payout while minimizing risks.
Start by having someonecheck the manager’s employee numberin the showroom. If you’re playing solo, you have plenty of time to do this; you have to wait for the guard near the fence to move anyway, so you may as well get this potentially useful information.
While you’re in the store,press the four buttonsby each of the windows. This willclose the security shutters, ensuring that passersby on the street have a much lower chance of seeing you take hostages in the showroom if it comes to that.
Oddly, closing the security shutters isn’t considered suspicious, so you can do it without risk of getting caught. Just be sure not toaccidentally grab the jewelry on the window displays, or security may notice.
Wait by the fence to the left of the store’s entrance; when the guard there leaves,pick the lockand go through the gate. If the guard has a keycard, quicklysneak up behind him and grab it.You should also have time tohack the phone to the left of the car, if it’s present.
Check the keypad on the basement door; if the employee number is the passcode, use it to get in; if not, you’ll have to eitheruse a QR code to open the side dooror mask up and go in through the window.
Hack the manager’s computer and look around for the passcode if needed; be sure tohack any phones you findif you can get away with it. Watch out for thesingle guardthat patrols the hallway and any cameras that appear. If you’re masked, you’ll have totie down any civiliansthat you encounter.
Once you’re in the basement, mask up if you haven’t already.Destroy the camerasand eliminate the guard patrolling the basement; if you have the blue keycard, you can also take out the guard in the security room to disable the cameras.
Get into the room with the safe and open it; by this point the manager might be on her way out the door, so be quick. Don’t forget toturn off the security system as well.
Return to the manager’s office andcall her on the phone, then use her to get into the workshop. By this point all the guards and employees in the back should be neutralized. Take as much time as you needcleaning out the VIP Showroomand putting the bags through the sorting machine.
Bring the bags to theescape van,parked just behind the building near where you entered. If you’re satisfied with your take, you can leave now. Otherwise, it’s time to go loud.
Loud Route For Dirty Ice
If you’re caught, or if you’ve finished the stealthy part of the heist and want more money,burst into the showroomand starttaking as many hostages as you’re able to. When all the civilians are on the ground, start breaking open jewelry cases.
If you closed the security shutters earlier, youmay be able to prevent an alarm, provided nobody escapes. Be sure to move hostagesaway from the front door.
Bring the jewelry bags into the workshop and start putting them through the sorting machine.Wait until they’re all sortedbefore bringing them out into the street to signal the helicopter. That way, when the chopper arrives, you’ll be able to just load up the loot and go.
The helicopter can only stay for about a minute once it touches down, but this can be extended or reduced based on the police presence in the area. If there are lots of cops around the helicopter, it will leave much faster. If the helicopter leaves, it will return after a few minutesat the dock across the street. It’s the farthest of all the escape routes, but the helicopter will stay there for the rest of the mission when it arrives.
