Cyberpunk 2077 gives you a tons of opportunities to make decisions about how you want to play: from how you want to spend your Attribute points and what loot you would like to get rid of, to what Mod you want to equip and which stop you want to make on your way to your next point (and in what vehicle). This can get overwhelming, especially if you’re playing for the first time.
So, in this guide we will list things to look out for and keep in mind while playing the game, with some tips for how to optimize your character and make your journey through Night City easier.
Driving & Vehicles
Most of your time getting from place to place (that isn’t spent fast traveling) will be spent in a car. Here are some useful tips and tricks on vehicles and driving:
Driving in third-person view will allow you to see oncoming obstacles better.
If you need to dump items quickly, you can call your car (if possible), and dump items in the trunk.
You cannot keep any car that you steal.
Know How to Holster Your Weapon
Walking around Night CIty with a shotgun out is bound to alert nearby pedestrians, as well as any Cops or Gang members. Sometimes holding a button to select the holster button is annoying. Here is how to “Quick Holster” your weapon on each platform.
Here’s how to quick-holster your weapon in Cyberpunk 2077 on each platform:
XBOX: To quick holster on Xbox, double tap the Y button
PlayStation: To quick holster on PS4 and PS5, double tap the Triangle button
PC: To quick holster your weapon on PC, double tap the left ALT key.
Know Where to Level Up
Pick and choose your fights: higher Danger Levels usually take levels 10 and up to properly complete. With that in mind, here is how to level up in Cyberpunk 2077:
Cyberpsycho indicator
Stick to the gigs in Watson, lower level gigs to build you up.
Avoid the “Danger level: Extremely high” areas early in the game.
Once you’re at least level 10 , look for higher-level gigs that are Danger level: Extremely Dangerous and Cyberpsycho attacks.
Try Different Builds
Cyberpunk has a true RPG element to it’s skill tree system. CD Project Red made sure that players could use any build they want. Cyberpunk 2077 gives a lot of incentive to play your own game, with Melee builds with blunt weapons, or Hacker builds with massive cyberdecks. Note that while it’s fun to do jack-of-all-trades builds, the strongest builds are generally going to builds that focus on one style, because you can stack bonuses — depending on the difficulty you’re playing on, you may need to min-max a bit to survive tougher encounters.
One great way to try new things is by respeccing your skill points. Depending on how far in the game you are, the price of redoing your perks can vary. Go into the character menu with the Skills.
Leveling & Loadout
There are a lot of choices in Cyberpunk 2077 when it comes to building your character. Below we’ve compiled a ton of tips on each key aspect, from Attributes and Skills to Perk and Weapons
Attributes
Attribute Points cannot be reset at any time, so keep that in mind when distributing them.
If you’re not sure what kind of build you want to make, the game does not punish you for making a balanced build.
However, it does heavily reward you for having a more specialized build.
It’s a good idea to invest a few points in either Technical Ability or Body, so that most doors won’t be closed for you early on.
Furthermore, you can put some points in Intelligence to be able to hack a few doors.
You can never max out all Attributes. At max level (50), you will have a total of 55 Attribute points to distribute, allowing you to max out three at most.
If you’re not sure what Attributes you want to focus on, pay attention to your Skills. You will likely want to increase the Attribute that raises the max level of those Skills that you are leveling the quickest.
Body is a great Attribute to invest in, no matter what build you decide to make. This is because it increases your overall survivability, and once it’s high enough, you will be able to force open almost every door in the game.
Body, Technical Ability, and Intelligence will probably have the highest effect on your playthrough experience.
Intelligence and Technical Ability tend to be the most useful in dialogue.
Body and Technical Ability will open the most doors for you.
Skills
As Skills level with use, paying attention to which ones you’re leveling the quickest will help determine how you want to build your character.
If a Skill is leveled by dealing damage to enemies in a specific manner, you will not gain the XP until the enemy is neutralized.
You will not have to kill enemies, unless the Skill specifically says you gain XP by “defeating enemies.”
Keep an eye out for Skill Shards as you progress through the game. These will give instant XP to a specific Skill when used.
If working on Crafting, starting mid-game (level 20-25+) it’s a good idea to collect higher-rarity loot as you explore the city, particularly rare and epic drops.
Dismantle anything you do not need to use the components for higher-level crafting.
Find gang hideouts and larger areas with frequent enemy spawning (for example, locations inside Pacifica) and attack larger groups of enemies to get a lot of loot.
Also for Crafting, as tempting as it may be, do not immediately get the Scrapper Perk. This is because some of the junk items that can be disassembled are worth €$750+, which can help you get money quickly early on.
If these items are disassembled, you will get the same components you would get from disassembling a much cheaper item of the same rarity.
A quick way to level up Breach Protocol early one is to use Quickhacking on every device you see.
ICEpick Breach Protocol sequences will help with this too, as well as give you an advantage in battle.
After battles, hide bodies in the nearest trash bin/dumping location to quickly and easily level Ninjutsu.
Running and jumping around Night City is an quick and easy way to build up your Athletics Skill.
It’s worth leveling up as many Skills as possible, even the ones you don’t plan on using. This is because around half of the Skill level up rewards are Perk Points, which can be used for any Skill.
Perks
You can reset your Perk Points at any time by using a Tabula e-Rasa.
Keep in mind, however, that the only way to acquire one is to purchase it at a ripperdoc for €$25,000.
Epimorphosis is a great Perk to get quickly, as it will allow you to start every battle at full health.
Cold Blood is a great Skill to invest Perk Points in, as it has a wide range of effects that will help you in combat while the buff is up.
If using Blades, Bloodlust and Deathbolt are great ways to increase your survivability and maneuverability in combat.
Judge, Jury and Executioner is another great Perk if using Blades, as it will double the damage of your first hit on an enemy when it’s at level 3.
The Regeneration Perk stacks with the buff gained from taking a shower in your Apartment, giving you a total of 20% increased health regeneration.
Pack Mule will help prevent you from having to throw away items in your inventory before you can sell them, especially while doing longer missions.
As most enemies in the game are Human, the Assassin Perk will give you a huge damage boost overall.
Weapons
The earliest iconic weapon you can get is the Satori, which you can get by completing the mission The Heist.
There are three iconic pistols you can get during Act I: Dying Night, Chaos, and Kongou.
Many iconic weapons can be found while doing story missions, so be sure to look around while doing them.
Don’t stress on getting headshots; while they do more damage, they’re not nearly as impactful as they are in typical shooters (unless you make a build centered around headshots).
It’s a good idea to keep weapons of every damage type, as enemies will be weak to different things.
Get the Best Cyberware
The best chrome in Night City is pricey, so save up those eddies and buy the epic stuff early on in the game. Depending on the build you’re planning, you may want to focus on specific types of cyberware –
Here are some strong cyberware choices at each stage of the game:
Street Cred is also important for buying cyberware, see our Street Cred Guide for the easiest route in the game, and our Arms Cyberware guide to get the Epic and Legendary arm implants such as the Monowire and Mantis Blades.
Ripperdocs and Inventory
The various Ripperdocs around NIght City offer great mods, upgrades, and crafting materials. However, here are some things not well-known about Ripperdocs and vendors:
Inventory is cyclical, so a player can skip 24 hours and wait for the Ripperdoc to restock.
Specific Ripperdocs will have specific weapon mods, but all will have crafting materials.
If you get stuck with the NCPD, Ripperdoc Clinics will automatically de-agro the police.
Gigs and Sidejobs
Most of the Gigs and Side content in Cyberpunk revolves around a small-scale murder spree. So, always stalk up on ammo or have plenty of MaxDoc MK 3’s at your disposal. Even the dialogue heavy Side-Jobs will involve a fight at some point, so keep your guard up.
Work your way down, finish the content in Watson first, than move downwards into Heywood. The further down the map you go, the harder the difficulty.
Time is on your side. Besides timed sidequests like rescuing Saul for Panem, there is no rush to continue the main story. So take your time, explore and complete the side content first to keep your level up.
Crafting
Crafting is important, be it upgrading melee weapons like swords, or upgrading long range weapons. Crafting materials are annoying to find, but the most common way to find them are at ripperdocs across Night City and Junk Vendors. Crafting is tied to two things:
Firstly, your player level will influence how many times you can upgrade a weapon
Secondly, within the “Tech” skill tree are the “Engineer” perks, these perks are tied to what weapons you can upgrade and by how much.
Miscellaneous
Your Life Path pretty much only affects your prologue and some dialogue options, so don’t put too much pressure on which one you pick.
Pick up everything you can, especially early on in the game. Selling extra guns is a great way to get money.
Constantly using Quick Scan can help you find more items.
Be careful when you’re around a lot of people. Pressing a wrong button or having your weapon out can get you into a fight you didn’t want to get into.
If you accidentally trigger a fight, there will most likely be an autosave from just before you made the mistake to reverse it.
Complete as many quest lines as you can before finishing the game to have more friends to help you, and more ending options.
All items in Cyberpunk 2077 can be Modded (as long as they have a Mod slot). Take advantage of this as much as possible to enhance your weapons and armor.
Check ripperdocs frequently to find new Mods.
Always keep an eye on the Danger Level of areas to make sure you’re not going into areas that are too difficult for your current level.
Be on the lookout for fast travel points throughout Night City. These are indicated by blue markers on the map.
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KainHighwind27
I'm a huge gamer who especially loves the Final Fantasy series. I will play just about any game, especially if it has anything resembling a Dragoon.
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