PAYDAY 3's Secret Chemical Message Decoded: What It Says and What It Means
PAYDAY 3 has a hidden message near the end of its Sins of the Future campaign, and it says:
“It was nice working with you, humans are interesting. Until next time.”
The message is hidden inside an audio log called MESSAGE_RE_SCIENCE, which contains a list of chemical elements. Convert those elements into their atomic numbers, replace the numbers with letters, and you get the sentence above.
And judging by the wording, whoever recorded it seems rather pleased with humanity. Which is interesting, considering we're talking about PAYDAY, where humanity's main contribution to society involves shooting police officers and stealing things that aren't nailed down.
The obvious suspect is SINS, the artificial intelligence associated with Scry Digital. Given what happens during the campaign, that would make sense.
But the recording never identifies its speaker. And I'm particularly interested in those last three words.
Until next time.
Someone is apparently expecting a reunion.
Before SINS started making the gang solve chemistry homework, PAYDAY 3 had already turned its heists into an interconnected story. Explore our PAYDAY 3 Campaign Mode guide to find out how the whole criminal disaster fits together.
How to decode PAYDAY 3's chemical message
The actual encryption is surprisingly simple once you know what you're looking for.
Every chemical element has an atomic number. Fluorine is 9, calcium is 20, vanadium is 23, and so on.
Those numbers can then be converted into letters using A1Z26, where A=1, B=2, C=3, all the way up to Z=26.
Here's how the recording begins:
Element | Atomic number | Letter |
Fluorine | 9 | I |
Calcium | 20 | T |
Vanadium | 23 | W |
Hydrogen | 1 | A |
Potassium | 19 | S |
Nitrogen | 7 | N |
Fluorine | 9 | I |
Lithium | 3 | C |
Boron | 5 | E |
That gives us ITWASNICE.
Continue converting the remaining elements and you end up with:
ITWASNICEWORKINGWITHYOUHUMANSAREINTERESTINGUNTILNEXTTIME
Add some punctuation and spaces, and there's your message.
I rather like this. It's a simple puzzle hidden behind something that initially sounds like a chemistry teacher reading out the contents of a periodic table while slowly losing the will to live. And then someone realises the numbers can become letters, and suddenly that boring list has a purpose.
Of course, whoever left the recording could have simply said the sentence. But apparently communicating with professional bank robbers now requires a working knowledge of chemistry. I'd love to see the gang's recruitment requirements. Firearms proficiency, lockpicking, hostage negotiation, and preferably a master's degree in molecular science.
One element initially caused confusion in an October 8 Reddit discussion. The poster eventually identified it as aluminium, atomic number 13, which translates to M.
Earlier community transcriptions from September 23 and 24 also included aluminium, so the solution actually predates the October discussion.
The decoding is reproducible, and multiple community transcriptions support it. CRIMENET hasn't independently checked the original recording against the game, though.
Had enough of artificial intelligence behaving suspiciously? Get back to honest, traditional criminal enterprise, where the only intelligence you need is knowing which end of the drill goes against the vault. Explore our Best Heist Games guide.
Is SINS behind the message?
Possibly. And it's a pretty convincing theory.
PAYDAY 3's rewritten campaign revolves partly around Scry Digital and its artificial intelligence, SINS. The story also involves attempts to destroy or corrupt that AI.
Now read the message again.
"It was nice working with you."
That's a remarkably friendly thing to say, considering the circumstances. Almost sounds like someone leaving a company after five years of employment, thanking Karen from HR for the wonderful opportunities before deleting the entire accounting department.
Then there's:
"Humans are interesting."
That's probably the strongest reason to suspect an artificial intelligence. Most humans don't refer to other people that way unless they're narrating a wildlife documentary or have recently purchased a suspiciously expensive telescope.
And finally:
"Until next time."
If SINS is responsible, that could mean the AI survived, escaped or remains involved in whatever comes next.
But there's a problem with that interpretation.
The message never mentions SINS.
It also doesn't confirm that anyone survived, explain what the speaker means by working with humanity, or establish when this supposed next encounter will happen.
We're connecting the message to the surrounding story, which is reasonable. Claiming we've solved the identity of the speaker would be going a bit further than the evidence allows.
Is PAYDAY 3 teasing another campaign?
Starbreeze has already confirmed that Campaign Mode, introduced with Update 3.9 in September 2026, was designed to support additional campaigns.
So another chapter is a real possibility, independently of whatever this recording is supposed to mean.
And that's what makes the final sentence interesting. If the speaker genuinely intends to return, the developers have already created somewhere for that story to continue. Whether it involves SINS, another AI, or somebody entirely different remains unknown.
I also find the tone peculiar. There's no obvious threat in the decoded sentence. No dramatic declaration of revenge, no promise to destroy the gang, no elaborate supervillain speech about humanity's impending extinction.
Just a rather polite farewell from someone who apparently finds us fascinating.
Which, if it really is SINS, might be considerably more worrying than an outright threat.
An enemy promising to kill you is at least being clear about their intentions. An artificial intelligence that has been observing humanity, considers the experience interesting and casually promises another meeting is a different proposition entirely.
And now the PAYDAY Gang gets to wonder whether the problem they thought they'd dealt with has simply been watching them.
For now, the decoded message is real, the SINS connection remains a theory, and nothing confirms the speaker's identity.
Someone has said goodbye.
I'd be rather surprised if they meant it.
The PAYDAY Gang has robbed banks, battled armies of police officers and apparently developed an interest in the periodic table. Explore our PAYDAY 3 coverage for more heists, criminal catastrophes and reasons to question your crew's qualifications.
FAQ
What does PAYDAY 3's hidden chemical message say?
The decoded message reads: “It was nice working with you, humans are interesting. Until next time.”
How do you decode the secret message in PAYDAY 3?
Convert each chemical element mentioned in the audio log into its atomic number, then use the A1Z26 cipher, where 1=A, 2=B, and so on. The resulting letters reveal the hidden sentence.
Where is the hidden message in PAYDAY 3?
It's found in an audio log called MESSAGE_RE_SCIENCE, near the conclusion of Act III, Sins of the Future, in Campaign Mode.
Is SINS the speaker in PAYDAY 3's secret message?
It's a plausible theory, but unconfirmed. The message's wording and SINS' involvement in the campaign suggest a connection, although the recording never identifies its speaker.
Does the hidden message confirm another PAYDAY 3 campaign?
No. Starbreeze has confirmed Campaign Mode was designed to support future campaigns, but the secret message doesn't confirm what the next story will involve or whether SINS will return.
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