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Best Attributes, Perks, and Skills
This portion of the Cyberpunk 2077 guide explains the best attributes and perks for every playstyle. You have five attributes: Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence, and Cool. An additional attribute has been added exclusively for the Phantom Liberty expansion as well: Relic.
These attributes have subsection skills and within those are perks you can unlock. Cyberpunk 2077 has a fluid class system so while you do select your life path (Corpo, Nomad, or Street Kid) you don’t overtly select your class or play preference. Instead, it’s up to you to select the perks that best fit how you want to tackle Night City. But don’t worry, we’re here to help. This Attributes, Perks, and Skills guide has been updated for Cyberpunk 2.0 and the Phantom Liberty expansion.
Best Attributes
The best attributes always depend on your playstyle but here’s a general breakdown of what we recommend you primarily spend your points on when you’re first building your character.
- If you’re playing as Netrunner (Hacker): This means you’re into stealth and hacking above all else. We recommend you spend most of your initial attribute points on your Technical Ability, Cool, and Intelligence. This is because Tech Ability relates to crafting and engineering, Intelligence relates to quickhacking and breach protocol skills (lowers hacking cost and makes enemies more susceptible to damage), and Cool relates to stealth and cold blood (increased movement speed) skills.
- If you’re playing as Solo (Mercenary): This means you’re into combat above all else. We recommend you spend most of your initial attribute points on Body and Reflexes. This is because Body relates to athletics, annihilation (gunplay), street brawler (melee) skills, and Reflexes relates to use of handguns, blades, and assault rifle skills.
- If you’re playing as a mix of the two: This means you like options and just want a good build. We recommend you spend most of your initial points on Reflexes, Intelligence, and Body or Cool. Reflexes and Intelligence give you a mix of Netrunner and Solo styles. Body and Cool are interchangeable depending on if you want to lean a tad more into combat or stealth.
Tip: Dialogue Skills and Choice Impact
It’s worth noting that when it comes to the story you may get additional dialogue options and choices depending on what attributes you have. You'll see it as having the attribute icon next to the dialogue choice.
Best Perks
There are five attributes in Cyberpunk 2077 and they each have their own subsection skills with over a dozen perks for each.
Tip: How to Select the Best Perks (Skills) for You
If you go for a balanced build you may be unsure what your playstyle is, and thus struggle to pick an attribute to spend your perk points on. No worries; just let the game tell you! You gain XP within a certain Attribute when you use it. So spend your perk points on your high(er) level attributes because those stats reveal your play tendencies. For example, if Reflexes > Handguns is level 2 while everything else is still Level 1, that means you’re using your handgun reflexes more than everything else.
We’ve broken down the best perks from each attribute.
Jump to Attributes:
Body
Body determines your physical power. Putting points into it improves your proficiency with Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, and Blunt Weapons. You can also force open doors, rip off turrets, use intimidating dialogue options, and it gives you +2 Max Health per Attribute Point.
This skill tree has a variety of perks available to you, including the ability to unlock slow Health Regen in combat and a new ability from the 2.0 update called Quake, which allows you to damage and stagger nearby enemies with a slam from a Blunt Weapon. Below, we've broken down the best Perks included in this tree.
Body
- Painkiller - Unlocks slow Health Regen in combat.
- Quake - Unlocks fully at level 3. Press the appropriate button to violently slam the ground, damaging and staggering nearby enemies with a chance of knockdown. (Only affects Blunt Weapons)
- Spontaneous Obliteration - At level 3, unlocks Obliterate - the ability to sometimes instantly kill and dismember enemies at low health.
- Fury Road - In vehicle collisions: +50% damage to enemy vehicles and their occupants, -50% damage to your vehicles. You take no damage as a vehicle occupant in collisions.
- Vehicle combat is brand new to Cyberpunk 2077 thanks to the 2.0 update - take advantage of it with these perks!
Reflexes
Reflexes determines your maneuverability. Adding points into it improves your proficiency with Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns, and Blades. You also move quicker, have more observant dialogue options, and it gives you +0.5% Crit Chance per Attribute Point.
This skill tree includes perks ranging from an Air Dash to skills you can use in vehicle combat, like the Stuntjock perk. Below, we've listed some of the best perks available in the Reflexes tree.
Reflexes
- Air Dash - Unlocks the ability to Dash in midair at level 3.
- Lead and Steel - Unlocks the ability to block incoming projectiles with Blades at level 2. This consumes Stamina.
- Stuntjock - Unlocks preem new ways to exit vehicles:
- Jump out - double tap the appropriate button
- Slide out - hold the appropriate button while at high speed
- You can also draw and fire weapons during these stunts
- While driving: no bullet spread penalty from movement, -50% bullet spread overall.
- Slaughterhouse - All attacks, counterattacks, and deflected bullets apply Bleeding, which increases dismemberment chance. Bleeding cannot kill enemies, but does make them more susceptible to Finishers.
- +25 Stamina from dismemberments
Technical Ability
Technical Ability represents your technical know-how. By investing points into it, you'll improve your proficiency with Explosives and Tech Weapons, along with high-end Cyberware. You can also bypass some locks, override devices, deliver savvy dialogue, and you'll get +2 Armor per Attribute Point.
Below, you'll find some of the best Technical perks available to you, including some great options for Tech Weapons, Cyberware, and for your healing items.
Technical Ability
- License to Chrome - All Skeleton cyberware have boosted stats.
- Glutton for War - 5% instant recharge of Health Items and grenades after neutralizing an enemy.
- Gearhead - +33% vehicle health
- Vehicle-mounted weapons receive: +25% damage, -0.7 sec. lock-on time
- Ticking Time Bomb - Charges a powerful EMP that hits nearby enemies after 3 sec. whenever you activate Operating System cyberware (Berserk, Sandevistan) or Overclock mode. Applies Stun and deals damage proportionate to the quantity and Tier of cyberware implants you have installed.
- -50% incoming damage while charging the EMP.
Intelligence
Intelligence determines your netrunning proficiency, so leveling it up will improve your handling of Smart Weapons and your netrunning abilities. You can also access local subnets, share your netrunning knowledge in conversation, and you'll gain +1 Max RAM per 4 Attribute Points.
Below, you'll find some of the best Intelligence Perks available to you, including a must-have investment for your vehicle if you're looking to take advantage of vehicle combat.
Intelligence
- Carhacker - Unlocks Vehicle quickhacks, allowing you to remotely take control, set off alarms, or even blow them up. The availability of a given quickhack depends on the Tier of your installed cyberdeck.
- Hack Queue - At level 2, unlocks quickhack queues, allowing 2 quickhacks on a single enemy. Queued quickhacks automatically upload in the order they are added.
- +30% upload speed for the second quickhack in a queue.
- Overclock - Fully unlocks at level 3. If you have a cyberdeck installed, press the appropriate buttons to activate. In this mode, you can use quickhacks even with insufficient RAM, but each RAM unit over your max costs 10 Health instead.
- Spillover - When Overclock is active: +50% chance for quickhacks to spread to an additional target.
Cool
Cool determines your abilities centered around stealth and assassinations. By investing in it, you'll improve your proficiency with Precision Rifles, Sniper Rifles, Handguns, and Throwable Weapons. You also get street-smart dialogue options and gain +1.25% Crit Damage per Attribute Point.
Below, you can find some of the best Perks to invest in from the Cool skill tree.
Cool
- Killer Instinct - +25% damage with knives, axes, and silenced guns outside of combat. They also provide a preview of estimated damage.
- Ninjutsu - At level 3, unlocks the ability to sprint while crouching. Crouch-sprinting allows you to move more quickly while staying silent, but it consumes Stamina.
- Focus - Fully unlocks at level 2. This mode automatically activates when you aim while at full Stamina.
- When active: No Stamina cost for shooting, allowing for more accurate shots.
- When it ends: -40 Stamina
- Road Warrior - Allows you to use Sandevistan to slow time while driving. Allows Kerenzikov to be activated when aiming and handbraking simultaneously.
- +25% weapon damage when your vehicle is drifting or airborne.
Relic
Exclusive to the Phantom Liberty expansion is the Relic attribute. With this skill tree, you'll be able to unlock the full potential of your cybernetic implants, from exciting new abilities for your arm cyberware to cloaking abilities.
These perks require specific Relic points, which can be found at Militech Data Terminals around Dogtown. Below, we've listed a few of our favorite perks from this tree.
Relic
- Sensory Protocol - When crouched, becoming detected by an enemy will temporarily slow time. Dodge or Dash out of the enemy's line of sight to immediately exit combat.
- Vulnerability Analytics - During combat, you can now detect Vulnerabilities in enemy Armor and cyberware. Hitting Vulnerabilities gives: 100% Crit Chance, +25% Armor penetration, and weakspot damage bonuses. Dealing enough damage to a Vulnerability will cause it to explode, generating an EMP blast that damages enemies within 3m.
- Spatial Mapping - All Leap Attacks with Mantis Blades now cripple enemies and increase dismemberment chance against those same enemies for 10 sec.