Beginners Tips for Cyberpunk 2077

With the release of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners in Fall of 2022 and the release of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty a year later, the world of Night City has never been more enticing to step into. Whether you’re just starting out or are revisiting to check out the new content, you may want some beginners tips for exploring Night City.

• Play the Tutorials. While you’re gonna be itching to see all of what Night City has to offer, don’t skip out on the Tutorials. They’ll help explain the basics of gameplay, and there is a lot to know.
• Scan, Scan, Scan. Even if you aren’t interested in stealth, it’s a good idea to scan an environment before barreling in. You can see things like explosives, how many enemies there are, secrets, and items. You can tag stuff and people so you can still see them through walls, etc.
• Complete Act I. There is a lot going on and it’s exciting to start exploring, but get through Act I of the story to have access to all of what Night City has to offer.
• Level Your Street Cred. Street Cred will increase the amount and what kind of gigs you get, but it’ll also allow you to equip higher level gear. For instance, if you want those really sick Mantis Blades, you gotta reach Street Cred 20.
• Pick Up Everything. Even Junk, because some of it can be worth a lot of eddies. There also is no stealing for V in Night City, so you can pick up those eurodollars you see sitting around. There are lots of places to sell items, so snag as much as you can to sell. You’ll need a lot of money if you are interested in purchasing Cyberware!
• Do Not Equip the Auto-Dismantle Perk. Seriously, don’t do it. Even if you’re into crafting, the auto-dismantle may scrap a piece of junk that is worth good money - once it’s broken down it won’t be worth the same amount. It’s better to manually select items so you don’t lose out on the eddies.

There are 3 Life Paths you can choose from as your backstory which will give you a unique starting prologue to your game: Nomad, Street Kid, and Corpo. Whichever you pick will give you special dialogue options during some conversations during your playthrough of Night City - other than that, it doesn’t influence the story too much. Pick whichever fits your character best.

There are 5 Attributes to level up during your story, and within those are skills to select. You can upgrade these in a variety of ways to create a build perfect for how you want to play.

• Body - Increases your health, stamina, and brute strength
• Reflexes - Influences your speed and dexterity
• Technical Ability - Influences your ability to tinker with gadgets, explosives, machinery and crafting
• Intelligence - Increases your intelligence which influences your ability to hack
• Cool - Increases your stealth abilities

The most important thing to keep in mind when choosing your attributes to level up, you cannot reset your choices like in many other RPGs. As for the skill points within those attributes, you can reset them but only if you have the cyberware, Tabula E-Rasa, to do so - but also keep in mind it costs 100,000 eurodollars from a ripperdoc. Just choose wisely when you’re leveling up.

The core of any RPG is the dialogue and choices you make to determine your story, so be mindful of what you pick and what suits the character you’re playing best.

• Dialogue choices in yellow will advance the plot of the conversation, and can have consequences
• Dialogue choices in blue allow you to get more information without consequences before advancing through the conversation via the yellow option
• Some responses are timed, you’ll know by the yellow bar above the choices that starts going down - you can choose to say something or nothing at all.
• Some responses have an icon or your life path next to it - these are specific to your character from either the attributes you have or your life path to choose for a unique option in dialogue.
• Sometimes there is no way to know if a choice you made impacts the story until much later on - including if you choose to help someone or not.

Tip: If your attribute is under what you need for a choice, you can level it up if you have the points to do so during the conversation.

Hacking in Cyberpunk 2077 does more than just infiltration and reconnaissance, it can also do damage and net you some money. Increasing Intelligence will increase your hacking abilities, especially useful if you’d like to be a Netrunner. Cyberware will also increase your hacking abilities through the operating system and your ocular choice.

There is Breach Protocol and Quickhacks - Breach Protocol is a minigame of which you’d imagine is more akin to hacking into something whereas Quickhacks can be done by scanning someone or something and making a selection.

• Breach Protocol will upload a virus which can make quickhacks cost less, or later on make enemies weaker etc.
• Quickhacks use RAM which will then recharge - the more powerful the hack, the more it uses. This can do things like turning off cameras, causing an enemy damage, or allowing you to see all the enemies in the area.

Just keep in mind that you're not the only hacker in Night City - there are Netrunners who will do the same things to you, so keep an eye out for them.

The Phantom Liberty DLC is the number one reason to revisit Cyberpunk 2077 in 2024. With Update 2.0 launching at around the same time, many additions to the game have been made since the initial launch of Cyberpunk 2077, including a new perk system, improved combat and driving, and an entirely new DLC campaign and zone.

• To access the Phantom Liberty DLC, you can either hop into a save file that has completed the Transmission story quest, or jump straight into a new game and load right into Phantom Liberty. If you choose this option, the game will set you to level 15, and allocate your skill points automatically.
• Dogtown has 9 new gigs and 14 new sidejobs, as well as two new repeatable tasks. The first one is airdrops, a package that is heavily guarded. After eliminating the enemies around the airdrop, or sneaking up to it, and then hacking it, you can open up the package for great loot like cosmetics and shards. The other repeatable activity is vehicle contracts. Find a vehicle and drop it off at the specified location for rewards, with increased rewards for dropping off the vehicle with minimal damage.
• The Relic skill tree is a new skill tree that is exclusive to the Phantom Liberty DLC. The skills on this tree help with recon, stealth, and combat, and can be unlocked by searching for Militech Data Terminals throughout Dogtown.

Whether you’re in combat or sneaking around, there are a lot of actions you can take while playing Cyberpunk 2077. Make it a little easier on yourself by placing Crouch and Interact/Reload on your paddles for quick access. Crouch also serves as a dodge if you double tap the paddle.

Take it a step further to cycle through weapons, and reduce fatigue from all the scanning by mapping these to your paddles. You can stay focused on moving around and spotting enemies while keeping your essentials right at your fingertips on the back of the controller.

It may take some practice to get used to, but once you’re comfortable, try out some other mappings; you can tailor to your playstyle.

Check out the next entry in the series on How To Improve Your Aim in Cyberpunk