Planning your Character

Cyberpunk 2077 Skills Guide: All Attributes & Perks

Guide
Cyberpunk 2077 Skill-Guide by SPACE4GAMES.
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Status: Gold
Release: 10.12.2020
Update: 2020-12-28
Game version: 1.23

You improve your character in Cyberpunk 2077 by the enhancement of Attribute Points, and by unlocking unique Skills, also known as Perks. Our guide will show you which options you have, how Skills and Attributes relate to each other, and which Perks might be particularly useful.

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  • Blue or different-colored bars with a double arrow symbol include texts and sometimes tables, which are folded for clarity. Click or tap on the bars to open them. When using mobile devices, slide your finger to the left to fully view the tables.

You’ll learn the following things in this Cyberpunk 2077 Attributes & Perks Guide:

  • which attributes are available for your character, as well as the effects of upgrades
  • which Perk categories are linked to the corresponding Attributes
  • which Skills you can unlock in the Perk Categories, and which effects are linked to them

Cyberpunk 2077: Upgrading Attributes and Skills

Attributes play an important role in the character creation process: V has three points in each of the five Attributes (Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Cool) at the beginning of the game, and you can distribute another 7 points anywhere you wish. This is your first adjustment towards your desired playing style. Each point you distribute increases the values associated with the Attribute. You can reset Perk Points that have already been distributed by paying a hefty fee – but you can’t reset Attribute Points. You can distribute a total of 49 points up to the maximum character level of 50, of which you can spend a maximum of 20 on a single Attribute.

  • Further Attribute and Perk Points are gained by leveling up, unlocking the resulting Perk Rewards, or by collecting Street Cred.

You’ ll encounter situations throughout the game where certain Attribute requirements are necessary. For example, if you want to intimidate a guard or steal a car with people inside, you need a certain Body value first. If you don’t want to use force to break down doors later on (Body!), you need a suitably high value in Technical Ability. Intelligence makes hacking mini-games easier and so forth.

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Of course, the points you invest into an Attribute also determine which Perks or Skills you can unlock. You’ ll find an overview of all the Perks and the Attribute Requirements further into this guide.

Consider what playing style you want to follow, when creating your character, and spend your Attribute Points accordingly. Further below, we summarize the bonuses for you, and provide some hints on which Attributes are better suited for which playstyles.

Perk Points

You can use Perk Points to unlock the skills called “Perks” in the corresponding Skill Trees of the Attributes. You receive Perk Points when you level up, or when the related Skill Tree – for example “Blades” or “Stealth” – levels up. While some Perks are already available at the start of the game, others can only be unlocked after you have invested enough points in the associated Attribute value. Some Perks have only one level, while others can be upgraded to higher levels with stronger effects.

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You can invest an unlimited amount of advantage points into advantages marked “0+”, up to the general maximum. You must have reached level 20 in the Skill Progression before they can be unlocked.

The listing below shows you the color markings used for Perks in the Perk Trees:

  • Grey: You still lack the required Attribute Points for these Perks, meaning they are not usable.
  • Red: You can use these Perks by adding a Perk Point for V.
  • Light Blue: You have already invested one or more Perk Points in this Perk, but you have not reached the maximum level yet.
  • Yellow: You have invested Perk Points into this Perk, and have reached the highest possible level.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Skill Tree Athletics with all Perks
Red marked Perks can be unlocked via a Perk point – as pictured here in the Athletics Perk Tree.

Cyberpunk 2077 follows the principle of “Learning by Doing”, at least if you want to see progress in the skills belonging to the individual Skill Trees, and gain rewards through that: For example, for the Perk Tree “Breach Protocol” you should regularly conduct data mining on terminals, or perform the quick hack “Breach Protocol” on enemies. If you want to unlock the Perks for melee fighters in the “Street Brawler” Skill Tree, you’ll have to beat up your opponents zealously – and so forth. While the lower levels become available quite quickly and thus are also available for play styles that don’t use the corresponding weapons, or don’t perform the necessary activities as often, you will still have to practice very regularly to reach the final levels.

  • You unlock a total of 20 Skill Progression Rewards for every Perk Tree. You can see the first nine levels in the overview of the Perk Tree. You can see more by scrolling to the right in the respective field.
  • Note: Skill progression is tied to attribute level. For example, if you invest only eight points in Reflexes, you can shoot rifles and pistols as much as you want – you won’t get past Level 8 in the Reflex perk trees’ skill progression.

Redistributing Attribute and Perk Points

If you’re no longer comfortable with the play style you’ ve chosen based on your distributed Attribute and Perk Points, you can still restart, at least partially. As far as we know at the moment, you can’t redistribute Attribute Points once they’ve been spent, so the only option you have is to invest newly acquired Attribute Points into Attributes different from the ones you’ve favored so far.

To redistribute your Perk Points, visit the most unsuspicous Ripperdoc you know, and take a look at his sales inventory. Switch from the cyberware menu to the “Trade” tab (at the top of the screen) and then click on the left icon with the three boxes in the sales menu filter. You will find the legendary Improvement Shard “Tabula E-Rasa” on sale. It will cost you a hefty 100,000 Eurodollars, no matter which Ripperdoc you buy it from – so you should really only follow this path if it’s inevitable.

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Cyberpunk 2077 attributes and perks Tabula E-Rasa in the sales menu of Ripperdoc Viktor vector
For a whopping 100,000 €$ you can reset your Perk Points. © S4G / CD Project Red

Perks suited for specific Playing Styles

With such a wide variety of existing Perks, it is difficult to find the right skills for the preferred playing style. In this section of our Skills Guide, you will find interesting perks for different priorities, and also where to find them (Perk Tree, Attribute, Attribute Requirement).

Convenient Play & Combat Options

  • Dodging does not use up any stamina: “Like a Butterfly” (Athletics, Body 11)
  • Automatic decomposition of junk items: “Scrapper” (Crafting, Technical Ability 3). Attention: This perk disassembles all junk items, including valuable jewelry, with which you can otherwise earn some money (750 €$). You should not choose this perk if you want to earn money with junk!
  • Display hostile Netrunners who try to hack you: “I Spy” (Quickhacking, Intelligence 3)
  • Grenade impact range becomes visible: “Grenadier (Engineering, Technical Ability 3)
  • Shooting while sprinting, sliding, vaulting: “Multitasker” (Athletics, Body 11)
  • Sprinting does not use up any stamina: “Marathoner” (Athletics, Body 14)
  • Increased carrying capacity: “Pack Mule” (Athletic, Body 3)
  • Consumables are 25% more efficient: “Innovation” (Crafting, Technical Ability 9)
  • Reduced fall damage: “Soft on your Feet” (Athletics, Body 5)
  • reloading weapons while sprinting, sliding, vaulting: “Divided Attention” (Athletics, Body 11)
  • Nearby entry points are automatically highlighted: “Extended Network Interface” (Breach Protocol, Body 7)

Melee and long-range Combat

See also: Cyberpunk 2077 Weapons Guide

  • General support for all combat styles: Athletics (Body), Cold Blood (Cool)
  • Ranged combat with Rifles and Machine Pistols: Assault (Reflexes)
  • Ranged combat through the use of grenades: Engineering (Technical Ability, supplemented by “Sapper” under Crafting)
  • Ranged combat with Pistols and Revolvers: Handguns (Reflexes)
  • Ranged combat with Tech Weapons: Engineering (Technical Ability)
  • Melee combat with Blade Weapons: Blades (Reflexes)
  • Melee with Blunt Weapons: Street Brawler (Body)
  • Melee with Shotguns and Light Machine Guns: Annihilation (Body)
  • Melee combat support through stealth attacks: Stealth (Cool)

Hacking

See also our Cyberpunk 2077 Hacking Guide.

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  • General skill trees for hacking: Breach Protocol and Quickhacking (Both in Intelligence)
  • Complementary skills in the Cold Blood Perk Tree: “Frosty Synapses” (Cool 7), “Quick Transfer” (Cool 12)

Resistances and Immunities

  • Immunity against damage from your own grenades: “Can’t touch this” (Engineering, Technical Ability 3)
  • Immunity against Shock: “Insulation” (Engineering, Technical Ability 14)
  • Immunity against knockdown-maneuvers by enemies: “The Rock” (Athletics, Body 20)
  • Immunity against Poison: “Aggressive Antitoxins” (Stealth, Cool 11)

Body

Body increases V’s physical strength and health points. Besides stronger melee attacks, and more efficient melee maneuvers, you can also open doors by force. This attribute is recommended for melee fighters, and for the use of Heavy Machine Guns, Shotguns and Light Machine Guns.

Every Point in Body gets you:

  • 5 additional Health Points
  • 3 additional Stamina Points
  • Damage with Fists and Gorilla Arms is increased by 3
  • Increase Damage with melee weapons by 1.5%
  • Movement Penalty while grabbing an enemy, and wielding a Heavy Machine Gun is reduced by 6%
  • Movement while grappling an enemy, and enemy grappling duration are increased by 5 seconds.

Body consists of the following Perk Trees:

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  • Athletics: Improves your chances of sustaining and dealing damage, and provides you with passive health regeneration, both during and outside of combat. There are also bonuses on the maximum carrying capacity, and you can reload and fire weapons during movement. Carrying enemies while moving at the same time is also possible.
  • Annihilation: Increases your movement speed and specific damage types. Bonuses on damage dealt, reload speed, and additional effects such as knocking away enemies are available for Shotguns and Light Machine Guns.
  • Street Brawler: Focused mainly on the handling of blunt weapons, and the associated damage bonuses as well as regenerations. In addition, incoming damage can be better blocked when using blunt weapons.
Cyberpunk 2077 V and Jackie are about to fight with two strongly cyberized Maelstrom fighters.
These Maelstrom guys are clearly looking for trouble – hopefully Jackie and V are prepared for the fight. © CD Project Red

Intelligence

Intelligence is a fundamental skill for Netrunners, and it determines the hacking skills, as well as the capabilities of your cyberdeck. Find out more in our extensive Cyberpunk 2077 Hacking Guide.

Every Point in Intelligence gets you

  • Cyberdeck RAM capacity is increased by 4%
  • Quickhack damage is increased by 0.5%
  • Duration of quickhacks is increased by 1%
  • The Breach Protocol mini-game becomes a bit easier

Intelligence consists of the following Perk Trees:

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  • Breach Protocol: This is where you can unlock useful hacking programs (so-called daemons) and enhancements – for example, a daemon that will briefly shut down all cameras or turrets connected to a network. A passive effect will highlight all hacking Access Points in your environment.
  • Quickhacking: With these perks, you regenerate memory capacity, reduce quickhack cooldowns, and increase the range and efficiency of your quickhacks. You can also identify enemy Netrunners who try to hack you. Crafting Specs for creating special and rare Quickhacks can be unlocked here as well.

Reflexes

Reflexes increase V’s agility. This not only affects the overall movement speed, but also improves passive Evasion, and the Critical Chance. This attribute is especially useful for melee fighters that want to use the Mantis Blades (see also our Cyberpunk 2077 Cyberware Guide), as well as long-range fighters who focus on the use of rifles and/or handguns.

Every Point in Reflexes gets you

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  • Passive Evasion from enemy attacks is increased by 1%
  • Critical Chance is increased by 1%
  • Damage caused by the Mantis Blades is increased by 3

Reflexes consists of the following Perk Trees:

  • Assault: Enhances (Critical) Damage with Assault Rifles and Submachine Guns as well as headshots performed with Sniper and Precision Rifles. Additional effects include faster weapon utilization, faster reload speed after killing an enemy, faster aiming, improved damage resistance while in cover, as well as increased damage when shooting from behind cover.
  • Handguns: Simplifies the handling of Pistols and Revolvers, and also increases their damage output. Provides V with additional beneficial effects such as long-range damage deduction alloys, and the ability to target and shoot during evasive maneuvers.
  • Blades: Increases damage dealt by blade weapons under various conditions. Enables and enhances Bleeding Effects, and increases Attack Speed and Critical Damage. A passive Health Regeneration effect when you bleed, and enhanced Armor during movement complement your options.
Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner of Vodoo Boys stands in front of several screens and hacks into a system
The Netrunners of the Voodoo Boys are true hacking specialists, and surely possess high intelligence values. © CD Project Red

Technical Ability

Technical Ability allows you to unlock doors, and to use Tech Weapons. In addition, V becomes more resilient in bloody conflicts due to improved armor. You can open all locked doors in the main story if you have a value of 9 in Technical Ability!

How to convert item crafting and components obtained through disassembly into Eurodollars is revealed in our Earning Money in Cyberpunk 2077 guide.

Every Point in Technical Ability gets you:

  • Armor is increased by 5%

Technical Ability consists of the following Perk Trees:

  • Crafting: This is where you craft items such as clothes and weapons with improved basic values in various levels of quality, upgrade items, get more item components or mods when disassembling them, and reduce the crafting costs.
  • Engineering: Boosts the damage of Tech Weapons, grenades, and provides V immunities or resistances to shock damage, explosive damage, and damage from your own grenades. It also increases damage against drones, mechs, and robots, and improves the handling of Tech Weapons as well as their effects.

Cool

Cool increases V’s resilience through Resistances and Composure. It also increases V’s efficiency in Stealth Mode. And it improves Critical Damage and Damage dealt with Monowires.

Each Point in Cool gets you

  • Critical Damage is increased by 2%
  • all Resistances are increased by 1%
  • damage in Stealth Mode is increased by 10%
  • the speed at which enemies detect you in Stealth Mode is reduced by 0.5%
  • damage dealt by Monowire is increased by 3

Cool consists of the following Perk Trees:

  • Stealth: Enhances damage when attacking from stealth, and enables Poison Damage through knife attacks. Your sneaking character is also harder to detect in a variety of situations. The handling and damage of Throwing Weapons, as well as attacks with Silenced Weapons, can be increased, as can Health Regeneration during stealth. You also unlock Poison immunity for V.
  • Cold Blood: Improves the combat machine mechanic that triggers after neutralizing an enemy, and which grants positive effects for 10 seconds, including faster Movement Speed, Health Regeneration, additional Armor, increased Resistances, increased Critical and Normal Damage per received combat machine stack. In addition, it is possible to increase stack quantity and duration.

Translation by: Dennis Anjuschin

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