Even though Cyberpunk 2077 has first-person shooter gameplay, at its core, it’s a deep RPG with rich and complicated upgrade paths and extensive skill trees. Here’s a simple breakdown of all the different perks & attributes you can upgrade, as well as the best skills to unlock through each one.
To the average player who doesn’t play RPGs, Cyberpunk 2077 might seem a bit intimidating at first. Just because it has first-person gunplay, doesn’t make it a first-person shooter. The game is complicated, with a large number of skill trees and upgrade paths, so it’s easy for even seasoned RPG veterans to get confused by all the options available.
So what are all the different perks & attributes, how do you upgrade them, and why does each one have three separate skill trees? Here’s a simple guide into the feature, as well as some recommendations as to which ones you should be focusing on unlocking within each attribute after the release of Update 2.0.
Basics of attributes & perks in Cyberpunk 2077
With Cyberpunk 2077, players have five attributes they can upgrade: Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence, and Cool. If you purchased the Phantom Liberty DLC, then you’ll get an extra one called Relic.
Each one governs its own set of perks that affects a different aspect of your character and can change gameplay up significantly. Every perk provide you with a range of various bonuses and new abilities.
At the start, fans have six free Attribute Points that they can divvy up between all the different ones. You can use them however you see fit, so if you want to use them on one aspect, you technically can, although it’s highly recommended that you don’t.
Once you use all of them, not to worry, as you can earn more points simply by playing.
Body
According to the text in-game, the Body attribute is your V’s “raw physical power”. The more you upgrade this area, the more health, stamina, and melee damage you’ll have. Basically, anything that has to do with how physically strong your character is will be found within this category.
Within Body, there are three skill trees that can be upgraded: Athletics, Annihilation, and Street Brawler. Overall, focusing the most on the Annihilation tree is probably your best bet here while you’re still upgrading things, as this is the area focused almost exclusively on damage.
Hit the Deck is one particular skill worth aiming for, as it will increase damage on staggered and knocked down enemies, which happens often.
Reflexes
The Reflexes attribute deals with everything to do with “maneuverability”. With every single upgrade using your Attribute Points in this category, you’ll increase your overall movement speed, passive Evasion, Mantis Blades damage, and more.
Despite the overall focus being advertised as “maneuverability”, all three skill trees have to do with weapons: Assault, Handguns, and Blades. Given the fact that you’ll be using assault rifles a lot in Cyberpunk 2077, the Assault category is probably the best to focus on.
While there’s a lot of great skills to aim for in this category, Savage Stoic or Recoil Wrangler are particularly great. The former increases rifle and SMG damage by a hefty 35% if you’re standing still, while the latter reduces your recoil on the same weapons by 10%.
Technical Ability
Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest updates on Esports, Gaming and more.
As one might expect, this attribute has to do with your V’s technical skills. This doesn’t need too much explaining, but every time you upgrade it using your points, you’ll get an increase in damage.
Unlike the other two Attributes, this one and all the other ones in the game only have two skill trees to upgrade: Crafting and Engineering.
Crafting is what you’ll want to focus on here, as it can help you out dramatically. You’ll also want to aim for the Edgerunner Artisan skill, which gives your V the ability to craft Legendary items.
Intelligence
This is also pretty self-explanatory. Intelligence has to do with your character’s ability to hack and upgrading this area will increase your damage and duration of quickhacks.
There’s two skill trees to upgrade within the Intelligence category: Breach Protocol and Quickhacking. Honestly, you could choose either tree and be happy with your choice, as both are equally important within Cyberpunk 2077.
For the skills themselves, again, it’s pretty much Sophie’s choice here: they are all great. That being said, a good base skill to aim for is the Buffer Optimization, as it will increase the duration of daemon effects by 100%.
Cool
While the last attribute may sound like a joke at first glance, it’s certainly not. Your Cool determines your stealth, including how much damage you do while taking down enemies while hiding and the speed at which enemies detect you.
Once again, there’s only two skill trees to upgrade here: Stealth and Cold Blood. The former is probably where you’ll want to focus the most, as Stealth is vitally important.
Because of its importance, you’ll want to level up your Stealth skill tree as much as possible. There’s no real true standout here and you’ll want all of them at some point.
Relic
If you bought the Phantom Liberty DLC, then you’ll have access to the Relic skill trees and some of those are top notch.
Even though there are not a lot of options, you can improve the Cyberware you have equipped to your arms and improve their stealth or gunplay. Each one shines individually, so it’s up to every player to determine how they choose to spend their points.
So, there you have the best perks & attributes to upgrade your build in Cyberpunk 2077. For more Cyberpunk knowledge, be sure to check our other content and guides:
Phantom Liberty file size for PC, Xbox & PS5 | Cyberpunk 2077 Romance guide | Cyberpunk 2077 build classes explained | How to get Gorilla Arms | How to get the fastest car free: Rayfield Caliburn | Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty PC requirements | How to claim Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Witcher rewards | Is Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty the game’s only DLC? | How much does Phantom Liberty DLC cost? | Is Keanu Reeves returning as Johnny Silverhand?
