Cyberpunk 2077: a beginner's guide without spoilers

Cyberpunk finally breaks into the lives of gamers and epicly ends the 2020 gaming year. We share with you the most important nuances, without which an organic start is impossible.

Our Beginner's Guide to Cyberpunk 2077 we built on tips and tricks that would have helped us on our first playthrough. If you want to get the perfect run in the dark world of the future from the first time, but at the same time not suffer from spoilers, then this guide was created especially for you.

Optimal difficulty level

The game has 4 difficulty levels. They do not have any effect on the plot, only on the gameplay. That's why if you're into Cyberpunk for roleplaying and storytelling, Low is the one for you. Medium and High is an option for those who like to wrestle with NPCs in combat encounters, but don't want to linger on it for too long. The highest level of difficulty is a special category, both competent pumping and a special skill of the game are important here. We do not recommend starting your first run with it.

You can choose your own playing style

Cyberpunk 2077 is an action and RPG game, but not at the same time. You can spend hours exploring, traveling, building relationships, infiltrating, hacking and discovering Night City and then following up with action scenes that rival Hollywood blockbusters.

How exactly to play is up to you. If you want to feel the atmosphere of the dark world of the future, then we recommend that you try a leisurely age. In that case, your the campaign will be more like an RPG, and not even on a computer, but on a desktop.

However, nothing prevents you from quickly skimming through the plot, like any good action game. Yes, you will lose part of the moment, but you will keep the cinematic narration. And no one is stopping you from making the next run smoother.

And, of course, you can mix these two types of age, however, it may not be as impressive as it seems at first glance. The abrupt interruption of the action-narrative with long interpolations of impatient exploration of the city is tiring.

Communicate

Play V, don't just move a soulless piece. Use every opportunity to ask all questions to your NPC interlocutor, including optional ones. They are highlighted in blue. You will learn much more about the world in which you will spend all your time. Knowledge is the antidote to confusion, and The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is confusing, if only because it is so different from ours.

Be consistent

At the start of the game, you must choose one of three backgrounds. Nomad, Street Child, and Corporat are the available life paths for V. In any other game, they could be treated as classes, but this is not the case. These are just backstories, each of which gives you the opportunity to get your own version of V.

Each start has an introductory mission (prologue), but V always has the same starting build. The only difference is the backstory, which gives your character a twist. It primarily affects wagering, but does not essentially limit you in any way. You will spend the rest of the game earning experience to turn your hero into whatever you like.

Pumping matters

Attribute points and ability points allow you to develop your character.

Attribute Points make V stronger and better in broad categories such as Strength, Reflexes, Technique, Intelligence, and Composure.

Points skills open access to bonuses in ability trees that develop from characteristics.

Example: If you want to play invisibly, then pump skill points into composure, which increases critical damage, resistance, and detection time. If you need more cool stealth moves, spend an ability point on Hidden Dragon. This is a perk available in the stealth tree (Cold Blood > Stealth > Perks). Thus, pumping in the game is carried out. It's not as difficult as it seems at first glance.

Force necessary in order to pump the melee skill. Also in this branch develops endurance. Reaction - this is a shooting characteristic, which also opens access to bladed ones. Technique develops skills in handling energy weapons and other mechanics. A Intelligence is a direct access to hacking and fighting smart machines.

Rock in a timely manner

Cyberpunk 2077 asks you to spend points on character creation when you know next to nothing about the game. And there are no wrong builds in this situation, so go with your intuition. Your first decisions will not be able to ruin your age, so trust your intuition.

You will continue to accumulate points by playing, earning XP and leveling up. And here's our advice - don't spend it all at once. Develop your vision of the build, and then invest in a few selected branches. We also do not recommend focusing on only one characteristic - the result will be too one-sided and uninteresting.

For example, sometimes a dialogue requires a certain value of some characteristic. As you can see in the image above, an icon appears to the right of the dialog box showing the minimum stat requirements for expressing your opinion. This icon corresponds to the character's attribute categories. In almost any situation, you can enter the menu and get to the desired indicator (without interrupting the dialogue). This is actually convenient and seriously simplifies the age.

And this doesn't just apply to conversation. If you have points burning a hole in your virtual pocket, spend them on the currently needed upgrade branches. When you spot a locked door, spend stat points on a Technique that allows you to open doors, among other things. Everything is as simple and intuitive as possible.

Headshots don't work

In any other game: headshots are one-shot kills.

Cyberpunk 2077: headshots deal some damage.

It's confusing, but makes sense if you understand how Cyberpunk calculates damage. Upgrade your weapons, invest points in any skill related to the weapon you use, and look for perks that increase damage. All of them are connected.

With enough time, leveling up your character and upgrading your arsenal, you will turn your headshots into instant death shots (under the right circumstances). The trick is to know there's a lot behind the scenes mathematical calculations that determine your damage in each combat encounter.

I am a bricklayer, I work three days

From the very beginning of the game you will start to receive phone calls and text messages with personalized orders from other Night City residents. These are side small quests, concerts and fuss. They will keep coming.

These missions will keep piling up and piling up, but don't let the ever-growing list bother you. We knew we could ignore them but felt weird watching them pile up on the magazine menu. Don't worry that it might negatively affect you in some way. Let them accumulate.

Cyberpunk 2077 alerts you to optional quests based on your location. Let's say you're driving through Night City on your way to your main job and you get a phone call about a part-time job. Chances are if you stop and look at your log you will find that a side quest might be on the other side of town, and that's confusing. So let them pile up if you like. The game will alert you when you are around and can take care of them.

Obey the rules of the road

Driving in open world cities is always extremely problematic. If you really want to get somewhere without incident, slow down. Otherwise, heaps of accidents and downed pedestrians cannot be avoided, and this has a bad effect on both the dynamics of the gameplay and role-playing.

Save often

Cyberpunk 2077 is gaining momentum every second, Also, the game sometimes crashes. Get in the habit of saving in case something goes wrong. You don't want to, say, pull out a gun after five minutes of driving around town, just to find it starts firing randomly and now everyone in that place hates you. Save every time you realize that you have ed some kind of crisis area and would not like to do it again.

Quick scan is your best friend

Activate a quick scan every time you enter a new building, a new room, a new street, basically everywhere. We say scan everything because you will always find something. Only in this way will you be able to discover all the secrets and Easter eggs, collect the most valuable loot and go through especially difficult quests.

After scanning, you can find literally anything. Sometimes it's literally in-game trash. Sometimes this is a special loot for a specific mission. More often than we expected, it was a crate of loot that we wouldn't have noticed if we weren't constantly scanning everything.

Don't Forget the Side Quests

No spoilers, but they affect the game. And it is not always possible to immediately foresee exactly how.

Here is an example without spoilers. The main mission at the start of the game tells you that you can either meet your buddy or take a detour to meet someone you've never met before. Both goals are related to the mission. Fulfill an optional condition, and this will make the age much more interesting.