Payday 3 launched with no offline mode for solo players. Now, nearly nine months after launch, it’s getting an offline solo mode. But, there’s a catch: You’ll still need to be online to access it.

From the moment Payday 3 launched in September 2023, things haven’t gone smoothly for the cooperative first-person bank-robbing simulator. Players complained about broken servers, bad matchmaking, bugs, and performance problems. Since then, the devs at Starbreeze have been updating and fixing the game, improving network play, and adding missing features as well as new content. But, since launch, the game’s always online requirement has remained, as well as a lack of a true solo mode for lone wolves. That’s going to change with the next Payday 3 update on June 27, but with some caveats.

In the latest developer update, the game’s global brand manager Almir Listo talked about the upcoming new heist being added to Payday 3 as well as the much-requested offline solo mode. However, to access the solo mode you’ll need to be connected to the game’s servers. And for your progress to be saved, you’ll need to connect back to the servers before shutting off Payday 3.

“It’s not our full vision for this feature. For now, we’re setting it as a beta to test how it runs,” said Listo.

Listo also said that the team expected the game’s performance to be affected in this solo mode since the parts of Payday 3 that were handled on the game’s servers are now being run locally on your PC. But, the devs say that the beta mode works and that you’ll be able to earn progression, assuming you log back into the online servers for Payday 3.

You might be wondering, why launch a solo offline mode that still requires online access? According to Starbreeze, it’s because they want to test that the feature works and build upon it. In fact, Listo says that the team doesn’t actually consider what’s launching on June 27 to be an offline mode.

“Keep in mind that this is not an offline mode, it’s a solo mode where the portions of the game previously hosted on our servers are now hosted on your device,” said Listo. “Bear in mind that this is a stepping stone for a feature to come, not something we’re releasing and calling done.”

So it’s a bit of good news / bad news as it’s clear that the devs are listening to fans and building a full offline mode that will, hopefully, mean that one day in the future Payday 3 will be fully playable without connecting to the internet. But for now, you still need to be online somewhat to play alone and “offline.” It’s a start, which is better than nothing.