Night City is calling in Cyberpunk 2077 — and if you want to become a legend, you’re going to need all the help you can get. The first 10 hours of Cyberpunk 2077 can be pretty daunting for new players. There are so many skills, activities, and different features in this cyber dystopia that we’re still trying to sort them all out.
And to help you focus on what’s important, here’s a list of 10 simple tips — just one paragraph each — that you’ll want to keep in mind. If you want to earn more points, cash in big rewards, and do more damage with headshots this is everything you need to know ASAP.
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Save Your Skill Points. Don’t just spend your skill / attribute points immediately after earning them. Sometimes you’ll encounter mission objectives that require a Technical Skill check to overcome — like a locked door. In conversations, you can also do certain things if your skills / attributes are high enough. You can pause the game right in the middle of a conversation to upgrade those skills and pass the checks.
Earn More Skill Points By Doing Everything. Don’t focus on just one weapon or playstyle. Change things up. Grab a shotgun in a level. Use stealth takedowns. Hack everything and start crafting in the menu from the very start. You can just sprint everywhere instead of driving to earn Athletic XP — why do you want to do all this? Because you’ll earn Skill Points. And those Skill Points can be used anywhere — not just the skills you earned them from.
Quickhack Everything. You get XP every time you hack stuff in the environment. Use all your available ram whenever you can to get more XP while exploring or fighting — earning more hack XP will get you more skill points. It’s good to get in the habit of opening your hack scanner anyway — you can find bounties, Access Points, and more with quickhacks.
Try To Avoid Using Fast Travel. If you only fast-travel, you’ll miss out on conversations for calls and texts on your phone. Usually these are for nearby missions (gigs) marked with a yellow “?” on the map. Do as many of these as possible to earn extra cash.
Loot (Almost) Everything. Don’t just take what you need and leave the rest. Especially check bodies after a gunfight and grab weapons — you can dismantle them for crafting parts. Use scan to find items that are junk specifically made for selling — sometimes you’ll find something rare and ultra valuable. You’ll need lots of cash, so grab all the guns and open all the boxes. Random junk? You can leave that behind.
Don’t Rush Through Act 1. At the start of Act 2, you’ll need to buy a new vehicle — and if you don’t have enough cash, you’ll be stuck walking around Night City. Not great for your street cred. Take your time and complete plenty of hustles and gigs to shore up your bank account before taking on “The Heist” mission.
Buy A New Cyberdeck ASAP. Speaking of buying, your starter cyberdeck is worthless because it can’t be upgraded. Most of us won’t even notice in the early game, but quickhacking can be an incredibly useful tool in your arsenal, especially if you want to sneak.
Deal More Damage With Headshot Skills. Sniper Rifles and Pistols have a special skills that allow you to do way more damage with headshots. Combine that with a silenced weapon skill that increases damage even more for a killer stealth headshot build.
Hack Access Points To Earn Easy Cash & Crafting Components. Access Points are found literally everywhere in the environment. If you see cameras or objects connected to a network, use Ping to find Access Points easily — or just scan and find them nearby. Make sure to take a moment to complete as many of the reward conditions as possible!
- Hacking an Access Point leads to a small mini-game where you need to connect numbers in a series — the numbers need to be on the same row / column. The more of these numbers you connect correctly, the more rewards you’ll get.
Get A Level 20 Sniper Rifle At The Start. You can find an absurdly powerful sniper right at the start of the game. On the beginner quest “The Ripperdoc” you’ll enter the neighborhood with Jackie. Enter the Esoterica shop, but stop in the alley before taking the stairs down to the Ripperdoc. To the left there’s a path to an elevator. Take it to the rooftops and check the chest near the ledge — there’s an SPT32 Grad Sniper Rifle.
- SPT32 Grad Sniper Rifle
- 694-848 Damage
- Level Requirement: 20
- Full Potential Unlocked at Body 6
- Sells for 642.
That’s 10 quick tips I wish I knew before starting up Cyberpunk 2077 — but even if you’ve already started the game, there’s plenty of time to take these quick tips and make yourself into a Night City legend.
