Where to invest your stats & perks, what weapons to pick and why exactly in Cyberpunk 2077.
Introduction
This guide is about choosing stat, perk and weapon loadout that will result maximum damage output, thus, increasing speed with which you gonna farm through combat part of the game, grind items, complete quests e.t.c. It also surprisingly grants sufficient survivability, so not only you gonna have glass-cannon-level of damage output, but also gonna feel decent amount of tankiness even on last difficulty.
Guide is dedicated to most pleasant way of playing game, as speed of progression determines speed of reaching goals, fastest return of investment.
Written by producer who started as game designer back in 2013, so I guess that adds a bit of trust into question. By the time of writing I invested 42 hours into game.
Base stats
TL;DR – invest into reflexes, technical ability, cool, as literally EVERY one of them gives you both damage and survivability (cool gives the latter through perks).
Game starts with all stats equal to 3, and 7 available points, and the max level is 50, meaning that you can max out at least 3 main stats (14 points at start, 49 level ups, 60 point needed to reach goal). Focus is on reaching 20 exists because of last talents in each respective perk tree, also – stats on their own give significant bonuses and some stats are better than other for our goals.
Perks from level 20 have possibility to be invested infinitely, thus, no matter how many points u gonna get through DLC, quests or anything – you gonna have whole lot of options to invest into.
Body
For close range combat, HP, and opening some doors. Melee combat is only good in games. In real life it’s always huge tactical disadvantage, and it’s no exception for Cyberpunk, although it’s a game – why walk all the way to the enemy if you can shoot it from afar. So don’t waste your time.
Reaction
Adds evasion and crit chances, got perks for rifles, pistols, blades. Needless to say, best stat by it’s combat effect. And pistols we gotta grab for perks.
Technical Ability
Buffs armor. Always good to have. And both of its perk trees are very good.
Intelligence
In world of CYBERPUNK u gotta make AT LEAST 2 clicks to cast anything, hackwise. For 90% of cases that would be 3 clicks. And if you want to save “mana” you gotta do the minigame “breach” to lover cast costs before start casting. So, most casts = 3 clicks, very annoying. I started with that tree. But quickly grow to hate it. Why would I choose 3 clicks+ if I can make just 1 with my gun.
Right? Hacks gotta have quickbuttons, instead of annoying: TAB + SELECT TARGET + SELECT HACK + PRESS F. The entire hacking system can be characterized by the latter – PRESS F TO PAY RESPECTS, as conversion of time into result is worst among the entirety of options.
You can at least say that this way of gameplay is the most unique one, for which I do thank developers, however UI/UX solution is almost as horrible as Game of Thrones last season.
Cool
Slower stealth detection, more damage from crits. Obviously, our choice for the latter.
Perks
Rather perk trees, than perks themselves. Around 30 (+ last infinite perk) points can be invested in each tree. I only recommend investing 1 point into infinite one, because further upgrades are much less efficient, untill you somehow got nowhere else perks to spend.
General strategy is: invest into pistols until you feel like u don’t need to, invest into craft as early as possible to get max amount of components, invest into cold blood if got all craft & pistols needed, invest into tech weapons rest.
Reflexes > Pistols.
We don’t need blades, they’re melee, that costs time to reach enemy. Pistol bonus does not require us to kill enemies in order to get bonus from level 20 active (only needs crit, and we’re gonna have plenty), while rifle bonus does, which I personally find a disadvantage, but you can easily go that route too if you want.
Tech > Crafting, Tech
Crafting allows upgrades for iconic items and buffs their stats insignificantly (+5%), but most importantly, it also adds a ton of items from salvaging, grans chances to craft for free e.t.c. which, again, saves time.
Tech weaponry is only needed to be invested into when u feel like u don’t have enough dmg from pistols, and believe me, u gonna feel like u have plenty rather quick even on last difficulty.
Cool > Coldblood
Grants all sorts of bonuses for dmg and survival, and you don’t even need to kill to get them (cuz 1 perk activates max stack at around 50% of your hp, other activates it from crits, which you’ll be getting quite a lot using pistols). Generally awesome to mix into level-clearing killing spree, cuz also grants move speed. Also, increases crit chances further!
Weaponry
Tech pistols, obviously, since tech riffles charging makes last rifle bonus almost usless. Why tech of all weapon types? Well, do you see entire tree dedicated to power or smart weapons? I don’t. So, where to invest, where to invest, hm-hm-hm-hm… So, tech weapons it is.
Notable iconic tech pistol weapons at the game start:
1) Chaos – rare, shoots 2 shots per charge. Drops from Maelstorm boss at the factory (mission for FlatHead before Heist). Useful, if u don’t wan’t to go the Heist straight ahead and still want some good pistol on you. Not a big loss if u skip it, since IMO, Lizzie way more cool.
2) Lizzie – rare, shoots 5 shots per charge, my favourite, The Burst ™ just eats enemies for a breakfast. After you complete Heist mission and see game logo, shortly on main quest line there will be quest to find Evelyn, leading you to Lizzie’s Bar basement once more. On your way back from basement you’ll have some character other than Judy speak with you.
In that room Lizzie will be lying right on the table. With this you’ll wield a thunder at your hand. Be sure to upgrade it (inventory/craft/upgrades) and craft epic and legendary versions, once you unlock respective perks in tech skills.
Small addition: instead of using hacking OS purchase time-slowing damage increasing OS, you can find basic cheapest version in Watson, just check ripperdoc at north of Watson (not near the market). This build ain’t relying on stealth (since we want to convert time and efforts into result as fast as we can).
With this combination of stats, perks and weapons NOTHING will stop you now!
Have a blast, comrade! And let it be at least nuclear!
Credits
| Article publisher | MGN TV |
| Author | Hunger |
| Game | Cyberpunk 2077 |