Cyberpunk 2077 General Tips for Beginners – No Spoilers

The long-awaited CD Projekt RED game is not only ambitious and large-scale but also sometimes unfriendly. As in any other old-school RPG, you can make a few unpleasant mistakes, which is why the first passage will be blurred.

To make your first experience in the game more comfortable, we have compiled a small list of the most basic tips without spoilers: how not to make a mistake with pumping, what to spend money on, and where to go to make it fun (spoiler: not in the area of prostitutes Chpok Street, there is almost nothing to do there).

Getting started and roleplaying

The choice of character backstory should be taken seriously: it determines the first 20-30 minutes of the game, opens up unique storylines, influences the ending, and gives a few special phrases in dialogues that help your role-playing.

Regardless of who you start out with, your character, V, will always be a “neighborhood kid” – even if he’s been in the office for a few years. Given this and the events of the game, the nomad’s path (Nomad) and the street Kid (Street Kid) will be more canonical. Corporate (Corpo) – this is an option for the second, “scum” passage if you want to look at the path in the spirit of the renegade from Mass Effect.

However, nothing prevents you from playing like this in the very first run — the game does not put any restrictions. Even for a Corporation, you can win back a good guy and get a plus or minus positive ending. But still, do not make your choice very freely: right or wrong actions, just like the backstory, can open up completely new paths for you to pass, or Vice versa, remove whole pieces of content from your game.

How difficult to play

The choice of the difficulty level determines only the incoming and outgoing damage, as well as the number of health points for enemies. The gameplay does not fundamentally change.

Therefore, for the first time, it is better to play on an average, in order to enjoy the plot and action, and the second passage is already high with knowledge of how to play and what to download.

Believe me, the second and possibly even the third time the game is worth playing – it is very variable, and you will not see all the content in one run, even if you clear everything at all.

Pumping

With the pumping, it’s about the same as with the choice of background: Cyberpunk 2077 does not limit you in anything and almost does not punish you for the wrong choice of skills (especially at low difficulty levels), but still, you should not throw points at random.

The game is a purebred RPG, so the best solution would not be to mold V as a jack of all trades, but to focus on several key areas. The fact is that the abilities that open on more advanced skill branches are usually more interesting than the basic ones.

At the same time, it cannot be said that without “Strength” or “Technique” you will lose a lot: many abilities here partially duplicate each other. For one door that needs to be broken, there is almost always a second one that can be knocked out.

Leveling is divided into five characteristics, which include 2-3 branches of abilities, affecting several different aspects of the hero.

• Power. Melee, heavy weapons, and stamina. A strong character will be able to more successfully “bullish” opponents in dialogue, knock outdoors, tear off machine guns from turrets and shoot them.
• Reaction. Blades, rifles, pistols. The only branch where there are no non-combat skills at all. The best choice for Dodgers, Stealth, and other heavy weapon opponents.
• Technics. Crafting, working with mechanics, energy weapons (they can break through walls). An experienced technician can spot important things when discussing robots and machines, and also show off wit in dialogues about repairs.
• Intelligence. Hacking, programming. Hacking, tricking cars, reprogramming turrets, and cameras – it’s all about the mind. Also affects dialogs related to code and cracking.
• Composure. A thread entirely dedicated to stealth and how you conduct your conversations. IT Opens V to quieter and cooler response options in some dialogues.

In total, the hero has 50 possible levels, for which he receives 50 points of characteristics (not counting those that you will be given at the beginning of the game). You can scatter them evenly and little by little know how to do everything, but it is better to choose two main characteristics for yourself and pump them into the maximum 20 points, and either scatter the remaining ten at will or invest in something else: for example, in the same reaction, so that you had a greater choice of weapons.

It should be borne in mind that 20 points in the reaction will give you nothing but combat skills – there are no abilities in this branch that increase your income or skills outside of battles. And composure is not needed by anyone except fans of pure stealth: even a loud security cabinet can secretly pass the game, composure only increases the already working stealth and allows you to inflict monstrous damage from a weapon with a silencer.

Therefore, the advice is this: clearly define who you want to play and scatter the abilities according to the 20-20-10 scheme – two main characteristics, one additional, and everything else a little bit.

Of course, you can ignore our recommendations and choose whatever you want (especially on easy-medium difficulty), but it’s much more interesting to play when you are very good at one thing. And high difficulties still require thoughtful pumping, if you do not want to suffer.

If we start from the “canon” roleplay, we can recommend the following set:

Korporat: intelligence and composure + reaction and technique. So you will have a burglary master, able to sneak into enemy territory with a silencer on his weapon. In the event of an open collision, he will fight off with the help of a short-barrel, rifles, and blades (ordinary swords or wrist weapons). Due to slightly improved equipment, it will be able to slightly improve equipment. Power can be ignored – with stealth you will not need it anywhere, except for rare boss battles, which, however, can also be taken with stealth skills with good ingenuity and pumping.

kid of the streets: strength and technology \ intelligence plus 10 points to choose from. A Gopnik from the bottom of society is more logical to be a mountain of muscles and invest the rest in what you like best. The technique will allow you to create the best equipment, intelligence – to hack enemies and get money from stealing other people’s data. As a result, you will end up with a terminator machine capable of assembling a huge machine gun and opening steel doors with your hands.

Nomad: technique and reaction plus 10 points to choose from. Nomads are better suited for sniper rifles and energy weapons, to which you can optionally add the same intelligence for hacking and strength for endurance or close combat if you are not a fan of swords. With such a layout, a skilled mechanic from the Wasteland will emerge from the character, capable of cutting enemies with blades and shooting them with a sniper rifle or revolver. Well, or energy weapons, if you want to be a real combat engineer.

The characteristics determine the maximum threshold of your abilities: that is, if you have 10 reactions, then you will not pump blades, rifles, and short barrels above 10. Abilities develop according to The Elder Scrolls scheme – the more you use, the better you do it. It only affects damage and efficiency: a character who does not know how to shoot a machine gun will be able to use it if his strength allows. There will simply be little sense from this: the damage from weapons depends on whether you have pumped the characteristics, abilities, and necessary perks. The shotgun will be like shooting salt for the player with priority on reaction, and the revolvers will turn into water pistols in the hands of the enforcer.

Ability points are given not only for a new level but also for the development of these very abilities, as well as rare chips that can sometimes be found among the loot. That is, the points for obtaining perks in the game are much more than 50, they can be spent more freely.

Some more tips for leveling

• Even if you completely ignore the power abilities, but you have an extra ability point, you can take immunity to the explosions from your grenades. Useful as it is very easy to detonate with your explosives.
• Do not swing knife throwing in the composure branch. This is a surprisingly useless perk.
• All characters need this technique, regardless of the type of game. The reason is a craft. Without technical skills, you cannot improve and create things, and if you want to craft legendary equipment, you need skill level 18.
• If you are going to craft, pump the following two abilities: automatic scrapping (unnecessary items for sale will immediately turn into crafting parts and will give you experience for scrapping) and the creation of parts from other parts of a lower rank. The skill for a reduced cost of creation and improvement will also be useful: the best equipment requires too many parts, and it is very difficult to get them, let alone buy them.
• All branches have an endless ability in which you can invest an unlimited number of points. Think three times before you do this: there are a lot of abilities in the game that are more useful to invest in than in another increase to crits.
• If you develop intelligence and hacking, invest in the skill of increasing the amount of money for stealing other people’s data. This is a lucrative source of income, and if you master the local mini-game, then each theft will bring you a thousand or two Eurodollars, which is very good.
• If you need pistols or blades as an additional weapon and not the main one, then 10 reaction points should be enough for you (at least on medium difficulty).
• For good implants, breaking most doors, and other little things, 8 strength is enough for you. The best implants will require 12, but this is an extra expense – leave that to the security forces.
• If you don’t want to rock stealth and don’t plan on making a completely invisible character with a silencer, just forget about composure. You won’t lose anything if you don’t download it. The entire game can be played through stealth without investing a single skill in it. So she is needed only by ardent fans of the most inconspicuous game and those who want to play an imperturbable mercenary.

Implants

Unfortunately, augmentations in Cyberpunk 2077 are implemented rather modestly: a bunch of passives that do not change your appearance, and four combat implants for hands that change hand models.

• Mantis blades. The choice of those who have invested the most in the reaction, and especially in the blades – augmentation receives all the bonuses of the bladed weapon. Useful if you want to save a weapon slot (the blades are on the fists button) or if you don’t have a normal sword or knife.
• Gorilla hands. An excellent choice for security officials and those who find it difficult to complete missions with hand-to-hand combat, since they can be used in the ring.
• Fishing line. A fairly weak weapon, whose bonus is area damage. A not really necessary thing, you can ignore it.
• Rocket Launcher. Free endless explosives with low accuracy and rate of fire. It is not very useful, since the rocket launcher takes up a grenade slot and is less effective than the common spam with hand explosives. It flies more accurately and faster, and a pack of five grenades is much more useful than one oblique rocket from an implant for a lot of money, which is not yet covered by bonuses for grenades.

Of the useful things for riper docks, be sure to put yourself a leg implant that allows you to jump high. Or its counterpart with a double jump. These are almost the most useful augmentations in the game, which will greatly facilitate your passage. Hackers will need an implant with an increase in memory for hacking, and characters with eight or more strength points – an improved skeleton with an increase in health by 40%.

What to do in the city

The number of side activities at first can turn your head. Night City is packed with all kinds of content, and chances are, you’ll want to watch or do whatever you can get your hands on. But this is a dangerous path – you will almost certainly quickly get tired or from an excess of monotonous missions.

To make it easier for you, remember: everything interesting in the game is marked in yellow. The most posed and more or fewer plot tasks are noted in the corresponding section of the magazine. These tasks are given to you directly by the characters by phone call. By the way, if another friend calls with an urgent request at the wrong time, you can just say that you are busy right now. Then you can just call back at a convenient time and start the quest.

General tips for completing the campaign and side missions

• Activities marked with blue marks are strictly optional farming of resources and money. If you do not want to deal with outposts and towers – feel free to skip. Everything interesting is yellow, except for the Tarot cards of Silverhand. A separate mission is associated with them.
• Try to complete side missions between missions to pump up. The tasks do not have serious requirements for the level and your numbers of characteristics – it’s just that the more advanced hero will have more interesting options for dialogues and passage. The higher your level, the more variety. Well, strength too.
• Reputation on the streets opens up new missions for you. If you’ve cleared one area, expect new missions to appear later. The maximum fame level of 50 swings very quickly and is easy to take by clearing a couple of areas.
• It is not necessary to spend money on buying cars. The city is full of fast travel points, and someone else’s transport can be hijacked by threatening the driver with a cannon (however, you cannot call someone else’s car to you or use its trunk as a warehouse). In general, the cars here differ from each other mainly in appearance, and local races can be won almost on foot. Plus, several vehicles give you free on the plot. Considering the brutal prices for cars, there is no point in buying them – only if you have set yourself the goal of building a collection.
• Be sure to complete the mission to find the Delamein taxi. This is a full-fledged story quest, although from the beginning it looks like a banal search for seven items.
• It’s better not to be at enmity with Silverhand. The war with the inner rocker will not give you anything, but the alliance will open up a huge number of tasks, unique items, and other content that will be a shame to miss. Alas, for those who want to compete with Keanu Reeves, there is nothing in the game – just the appropriate endings. By the way, if during his missions you are offered a key to the container, be sure to agree.
• Take your actions seriously. If you listen to the terms of the quest or do not listen to the character’s advice, you may fail the quest. If a character asks you not to kill people, even if it is a bunch of killers, do not expect thanks for completing the task with noise and firefight.
• The very first area of ​​the prologue is not worth exploring. Better concentrate on the plot. As soon as a large Cyberpunk 2077 inscription appears on the screen, the prologue will end, and now you are free to explore the entire Night City and close all the side effects.
• Don’t leave the main side quests for later. The obligatory campaign is very small here, as most of the well-set tasks are hidden in the “sides”. In addition, friends’ quests open up new paths and even endings.