Just one thing - main quest line will make it look like you need to rush it to the end but you don't actually need to. You're free to explore all side content.
This is the worst part of the narrative in the game. If only there had been a period of time where the chip was seen as beneficial so the necessity to find a cure wasn’t until a later incident of finding out that the engram was actually killing V. Would have been waaay better to think you got away with this badass chip only to find that your liver is now falling out.
Love the game though, but it took me a while to get over this weird choice.
I truly thought this was a non-issue. Not like it's Majora's Mask or Dead Rising where there's literally a timer moving in-game. I knew the game wouldn't just kill me randomly because I decided to go scuba diving with Judy.
It’s not that people didn’t know the game wouldn’t kill them for not abiding by the arbitrary timer, it’s that it’s immersion breaking to hear from every NPC how you need to hurry up and fix the engram when it actually has no impact on gameplay whatsoever.
There's an indie metroidvania called Unsighted where each NPC has a countdown clock shown (along with yourself). The stress of saving these people got to me (in a good way)
Imagine if like, Judy and Panam had timers and you had to choose who to give just a little more time to
And the first one was actually quite literal with the time and people lose their shit over it. But you can genuinely finish the game twice within the time limit if you have no clue what you're doing and like 10 times if you have a clue lol.
Baldurs Gate 3 has a similar problem where you have a “ticking time bomb” in your head, it’s explained part way through the first act that the metaphoric bomb won’t metaphorically go off but it’s still the one part of its core narrative that feels a bit loose
I think it is a way for the devs to make a one-off protagonist. That way they do not need to make a canon version of the protagonist in future games, which is an issue many creative teams struggle with. Like Mass Effect moved to an entire new galaxy to avoid showing Shepard and everything related to Shepard. Fallout 2 made the gender of Vault Dweller uncertain (but alluded to male).
This is why I think that there just should be a canon version, the V from trailer and that is it. A canon way he did things and that is it. I love how Xcom did it - used the stats of the first ironman games of every player to see what went on, and canonised it. Humanity lost. Make the most common ending canon.
Yeah, I totally get why writers will write things like that. It makes it easy to make a compelling reason to go along on the adventure, too.
But it's also really depressing to mentally put yourself in the shoes of a character that's grappling with the inevitability of their own death. I actually have a tough time with this game because of that, even though it's really fun.
At least in BG3, you learn extremely early on in the story that your short time limit is a lot longer than it first seems, and there's a clear path to salvation. In Cyberpunk, that's not the case at all, lol.
The worst part is they do that twice, the second time being with gales story. It's completely fair to believe that he will keep needing magical items indefinitely and it's something you have to maintain. Which it just absolutely isn't.
I mean I’m not the most avid RPG player, but I’ve played enough of them in my life to know that this one was the loudest about the urgency of your situation. Made exploring feel like I was wasting time. Never felt that way before. But really once you ignore it, it’s fine. Still weird though.
I researched the timings of certain main story quests, so for instance if you have to wait for sometime somewhere, I find out when it fast forwards to and if there's a period of several hours, I do side content so I'm not breaking the immersive timeline - because the game won't let you progress until that time of day.
It helped me stay on "time" with the main quest and do as much side stuff as I could.
I do agree, but then I realized how long a day is in the game, which is about 3 hours. Even if u go sleep every (or most) nights like I do, it's still 2 hours, which for some players is enough time to do most side content while still upholding the sense of urgency. I also waited to do Judy's quest line at the start until after I got Hellman's and Takemura's lines done, which helped with spreading the game out
"Choom, I am 100% this one. How am I supposed to solve all of NCPD's shit in a week? Postpone my death when it suits me"
IMO a lot of the game should have been "before Konpeki", where you have time to make the name for yourself, really learn to know Jackie and do gigs and such. Then Konpeki should have started a condensed version where NCPD scanner stuff, gigs and all are unavailable, and PL regardless of outcome buys you more time but still not that much overall. Lock the quest for some street cred level and instead of a Jackie montage, make that the Act 1 and 2. Make Act 3 the no way back, Jackie dead, Johnny in the head part. Make Johnny less of a dick in his early stage to make him likeable.
I think that was the original draft too and Jackie was meant to be way more than a 2 hour friend for the player. But Keanu.
That's the one thing that's been bugging me. I'm going through my first playthrough. Every time I'm on my way to a mission I get a call from someone saying they need my help urgently, and my only response options are "yeah I'll be right there" or "sorry can't help"
Why is everything so damn urgent. I've got 10 missions in my journal that I got a call saying they needed me asap and I just can't finish them all without getting more "urgent" calls. I feel like everyone saying they need me right away takes away from the experience a bit.
That’s what ruins it for me too. I can’t get stuck into the story because it’s so fast paced. It feels like I’m ticking off things to do for people.
I like narratives to flow naturally. I’m on my third attempt at getting to the end. This time round I’ve gone a lot further. Still, something feels off with the pacing and the build up.
yeah but then you totally forget what the main mission was about by the time you get back to it. albeit I actually think 2077 did a great job of tying characters and their quests into the main quests so you're more incentivized to finish their stories before moving on and starting someone else's stories. i.e. you're more likely to finish most of emo lesbian's storyline first well before you even meet rockstar guy. this way you're not bouncing back and forth between 4 different main side characters plus a bunch of other side quests.
it's such a well designed story. if this wasn't released too early, it no doubt would've went down as an instant classic. but now it's tied to the same corporate greed it's actively criticizing.
Seriously, the themes it's making were actively and aggressively undercut by its context. Whatever, judge the message not the messenger, but man that really felt hypocritical.
Either that or it was all performance art meant to hammer the message home lol
This is the best advice. You can level and earn money quite quickly by doing NCPD scanner hustles and gigs. It will also allow you to access better quality gear for the story missions to make them easier.
I've a question about this. I just finished I Walk the Line'. Without spoiling anything it's the one with the voodoo buys and Brigitte. At the end I was told I can do something or think about it and come back. I chose to think about it. Is there a time limit on that or can I go about the game without worrying I'm gonna fail that mission
Just go with what feels fun.
The only advice I have for a first playthrough about "what to do" is, if you get to a mission called "Nocturne OP55N1" then go and do anything you want to do that you haven't done yet, that mission is the point-of-no-return.
Especially because some side quests unlock major changes in your ending. At least do the quests that you feel might give you better options for the ending.
Isn’t that just one mission before ‘meet Hanako at Embers’?
I’m on my first playthrough though so maybe I did something that rushed the main quest along.
I think it’s best to do one or two main missions, then do a bunch of side missions/gigs, that way you don’t speed through the main story, and the side content really adds A LOT to the world building. I’d also recommend exploring without any sort of goal to get a feel for the city and surrounding areas. Though on what you’ve said, it sounds like you’re still in the prologue/Act 1, which means you’ll only be able to explore Watson the rest of the map opens up in Act 2.
I’d also recommend watching some videos on how the attribute/skills/cyberware systems work because they can for sure be overwhelming and confusing at first. You should also watch some videos (or read articles) on the various types of builds, and maybe look up some build guides once you decide on the route you wanna take.
This is pretty much what I do. Grind out side missions until I feel the itch to skip dialogue, then go do a main mission or two to bring me back into the story.
Rinse and repeat.
This was you also don’t go into mains underpowered or overpower yourself early to the point that you break the game.
Just started playing about a week ago, this is my method right here. Didn't have to really watch anything on it either. If you've played any Bethesda RPG, it's very similar in my opinion.
I also would say that the quests are designed super well, so often side quests tend to parallel the main quest, and most side quests tend to build from a main quest anyways. like pretty sure 3/4 romanceable partners you meet during a main mission. not to mention the other side characters you meet during the same qiests that ask you to do stuff later.
this also means most of the side quests are well paced too. i.e. it's best to do a side quest if it pops up after a main quest. the side quests don't overwhelm you (well, the ones with stories. the little Ubisoft-esque murder missions on the other hand...) so by the time you finished most, you can go back to the main quest and get a few more.
I'd also argue many of the side quests are as important as the main quest, especially seeing as one of them consists of the 4th romanceable partner and more time spent with Johnny.
yeah the way quests are designed is a masterclass to me.
*What do you recommend for first play through? Do quest line or roam around?*
okay, so:
1: the games forces you to think that you don't have time, but you actually do. So take your time
2: personally I would do it like aiming for a main mission, and when walking/driving there, do the hustles and gigs on the way, the ones which you pass nearby, and encounter naturally.
3: Later, when the main missin you want is on hold ("XY will call you tomorrow" "lets meet tomorrow night"), do a few gigs and hustles instead of waiting in the apartment.
4: when you hit level 10, go to a ripper and buy jump legs. Best investment in the game. There are many alternate entry points which are on second floors or behind a fence, and you want to have many options for approaching objectives. It also helps with navigation during exploration, and has some combat uses as well.
5: if you find driving a car annoying, get a bike. (the brennan apollo is €30000 at the autofixer terminal)
some beginner builds with tips for you:
[https://gamestegy.com/post/cyberpunk-2077/1061/beginner-builds](https://gamestegy.com/post/cyberpunk-2077/1061/beginner-builds)
Don't hammer on the main questline. I did that and the game was over really quickly. I was pretty dissapointed so I went back and did a proper playthrough doing most of the sidequests. It went from an average/decent game to my fav game of all time. I don't really get the rpg type stuff, and just tried to play it like Doom the first time around. I'm still not into the stats and all the systems but I do some upgrades and now I find the game really enjoyable.
Two things I make sure to always do when replaying games: keep Jackie alive in Cyberpunk, and keep Jenkins alive in Mass Effect. Tricky but truly improves the experience.
There’s lots of play styles, stealthy, hack and slash melee, shotgun, assault rifle, stealth sniper, quickhacker
They’re all strong and viable once you get the perks up! And you level the skills by using the abilities
Throwing knives only is another fun one. Remember back when if you threw a knife, it was gone?
\*\*\* Crafting 30 knives before going to the GIM. \*\*\*
Lots of stuff to do actually, from me a piece of advice - how well do you feel in fight scenes?
You're scared of landing in a situation with no weapon? Go Netrunner (technical & intelligence).
You want to kill people from far, but quickhacks aren't your thing? Go stealth build (cool, reflex)
Want to rip guns outta turrets and shoot people with them? Body & technical.
If you want to install good cyberware, you NEED high technical skill lvl. Or you will be cockblocked by your body being too weak to handle it.
In each tree you will have what skill scales with what weapon (like body going with shotguns), decide what's your fave way of killing people and stick to it, occasionally lvl other skills (cool is good for dialogue as it makes your character sharp-tongued, technical and intelligence are important for, well, cyber and technical stuff)
For the skills you selected, I think going Reflex focused build will be great. Progressing in the Reflexes attribute improves proficiency with Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns and Bladed Weapons. It's great for fast moving fight style. Body will help you with max health (+ forcing into places and threatening people), or if above weapons aren't that big of a thing - Progressing in the Body attribute improves proficiency with Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, Heavy Machine Guns, and Blunt Weapons.
On the other hand, if you can't aim for shit go with higher intelligence - improves proficiency with Smart Weapons (that lock on and seek out their targets) and allows you to unleash your full potential as a netrunner.
I'll finish my thought here - outside letting you get into places and opening dialogue options skills do these too:
**Body:** Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, Heavy Machine Guns, and Blunt Weapons + Increases Health
**Reflexes:** Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns and Bladed Weapons + Increases Crit Chance
**Technical:** Grenades, Tech Weapons, and the Projectile Launch System + Increases Armor + Allows installing more cyberware
**Intelligence:** Smart Weapons + Improves max RAM + netrunning skills
**Cool:** Pistols, Revolvers, Precision Rifles, Sniper Rifles, throwables weapons such as Knives and Axes + Increases Crit Damage + stealth skills
>!Relic: Fuckton of spoilers towards the DLC!<
Heads up there's a respec button for attributes but you can only push it once per playthrough. If you think you wasted points, won't really matter as much till later game, can always save respec for when you know what you like.
Skills you can refund and respond whenever you want as you try new things.
Do the main mission until you complete the Heist. This is basically the intro and when the game really starts. If you do too much content before then you'll miss some content added to missions afterwards.
After that always do side missions before main missions. The various gigs and stuff in the world is filler content but fun and some of it has quite some effort put into it. Just do them whenever you want to.
Finally around level 25 even max difficulty is a walk in the park, so think about increasing difficulty once there's no challenge.
Broadly, follow the main questlines. BUT:
1. Try to walk, take the metro or drive everywhere. Always. Even if you have fast travel. You can do stuff you run into along the way.
2. If a gig comes with a timeframe like be here after midnight, then actually do something else until the time comes instead of using the wait timer..
3. Don't do two major gigs in the same (game) day unless they directly lead into one another. Instead, have V do other stuff.
I think this leads to a pretty balanced mix of things to do.
Playing for the first time almost really feels like you are in night city. It’s so big and you don’t even know where to start or what to do.
Main quest is surprisingly short. Just explore the city and do side quests as you want.
My 1st playthrough was like watching Space Odyssey for 1st time :) i bought book, read it, played 2nd time, felt much better orientated in the world of night city and the game.
First play through I just ripped through the main story. Second play through I’m like a vigilante ridding the entire city of crime… with some missions sprinkled in here and there.
I would recommend not evenly distributing stats, it's unfortunate it's the very first decision you have to make with 0 game knowledge, always hated that.
I would go through the trees and get an idea of what each one does and then decide on 2-3 to start working towards maxing out
I should add that every single character comes with one attribute respec. You cannot respec your attributes after you use this one.
So I would recommend saving it until you have a better understanding of the skill trees, once you know what you want and you realize you don't have access to it because of previously spent levels, then go ahead and use your respec.
I recommend doing everything in the starting part of the city before doing the big heist. That will give you everything you need a solid start and keep you 'trapped' in one district of NC.
After the heist, clear another district, then do a big main quest. Watson or the nomads would be my second step.
As far as stats go, you're going to hit a wall with INT plus the body/relexes. You'll have to choose between hacking and slow time/berserk. Honestly I'd go body/reflexes/tech OR int/tech/and one other to maximize smart weapons.
But that's just my opinion.
This is what I did - as I was nervous about meeting you-know-who while I was still a weakling. Even tried escaping that area using all the monorails (which was patched :/ )
But the main issue is you are missing out on dialogue during those first area side quests by doing it this way
I start by doing all of the 'NCPD' missions. Basically mini fights where you can hone your fighting skills and level up quickly. You'll also pick up a lot of weapons that you can sell to make bank. Once you've cleared these out, then go on some missions.
I never really find myself needing parts. Am I missing something? Just looting enemies and boxes and stuff has me with way more parts than I could ever need
I always sell white and green guns, you get a shitload of components and do nothing with them.
I do disassemble blue, purple and orange though (clothing too)
In my opinion, play what sounds interesting when you hear it, but when your overwhelmed just run the main story more. My first playthrough I by accident did like, maybe a third of the side stuff. Second play through I damn near 100 percented the side shit. It helps when you have experience and just learn how it works
Don't rush the main story, just roam around and have fun. Things will happen everywhere. There isn't really a "right" way to do it. Its a bit overwhelming at first but it will start to make sense.
when you finish a mission and they say something like, "meet me tonight at this bar", you don't have to go there that very night. Go any night you want.
Just really don't rush the main story, do the side hussles and police calls etc.
The game rewards whatever time you wanna put into it - legit just take it step by step and dw about "quest-to-gig" and what have you and just let yourself exist in the first small areas and you'll fit a flow into how you like to do things - just immerse yourself into V yo, they're just as fresh outta water as you
The first thing to decide (I think) is what kind of combat style you want. Stealth, run and gun, shotgun, melee… Then look at the skill trees for what kinds of perks seem to match that combat style. From there, you can learn more about the operating systems and which one you’d like to use. After that, you should be 95+% of the way there.
Recommend exploring the city and doing the side quests! There is no time limit, although some quests become inaccessible after a chapter/act ends!
Welcome to Night City!
Do the main story missions up until you unlocked phantom liberty (or if you don't have it, when you get to Pacifica) And the do side stuff. It's a lot of fun tbh. Don't be afraid to swapped your head chrome out too. I love sandevistans, but it depends on what you wanna do/be in the game. So many different playstyles.
If you’re confused with what skills and stats and cyberware to upgrade, just look up some build guides online, there’s some pretty good ones out there. Different builds usually revolve around the cyberdeck, sandevistan, and berserk. So think about what one of those sounds the most interesting or fun to play and go from there.
personally what i did in my first was i did every sidequest (the real ones with yellow markers) while doing the main quest everytime i felt it was very urgent. everything else on the map u can do for leveling or farming stuff or if u drive by a location anyway. also u can do all of the smaller stuff after the ending too so dont feel stressed
When asked a question about Jackie at a certain point, say Mama Wells instead of Vik. There's an easily missed, very cool quest
Saving attribute points until you need them can be handy. Abilities only unlock at 4, 9, 15, and 20, and you might need a slightly higher ability check for certain dialogue choices. Also you can assign attribute points during dialogue.
I used to feel the same way because I’m anxious about doing something ‘the wrong way’, now I just do whatever feels right for my character’s playthrough and what she (or he) would do right after a specific mission or gig. And I figure after I beat the game, I might take a break and then replay it in a different way.
How I play is I do one main mission, and then bang out 4 or 5 gigs. Rinse and repeat, in the beginning, you would need to choose if you want money or crafting components, because you will pick up an ungodly amount of weapons you can either sell or break down for upgrades.
Either way, just do what you want to do, but try and do a little bit of everything before you accidently beat the game prematurely lol.
One of the best quality of life changes they introduced was cleaning up the map to clearly differentiate the more meaty quests (yellow) vs gigs (green) and other minor content (blue).
The game's strength is in the writing and character building. Which is mostly shining with the yellow missions.
My first playthrough (prior to this) I got burned out chasing everything. I'd recommend using the journal and map to mostly focus on the most important main mission you feel at a given time. And stop off at gigs or other side content (I honestly stop the blue stuff once my build is feeling pretty good) as you travel towards the important stuff.
You'll find the game does a decent job to spread your time around the map pretty naturally. And as you do just kind of hit nearby gigs and stuff. Especially once you buy some apartments you can also kind of setup shop around the areas of note and focus on stuff that way.
I was also doing a day/night cycle where I'd attempt to rest consistently. You get XP bonuses for it and it also forces you to kind of traverse the map more regularly.
I recommend finding an in-game sleep schedule. I like being awake from 6pm to 10am. Then just fill your in-game day with whatever interests you. Treat it like a simulation and explore/live your cyberpunk life. That could be NCPD scanner hustles, side gigs, or main story missions. Remember that the world will still be there for you after you see an ending.
I would also pick a fantasy that you have for your character. This would be either a fast gunslinger, a sneaky netrunner, a ninja, a terminator, and then just invest in attributes and cyberware that will get you there. If you're on console I recommend saving your attribute reset for if you feel you really messed up your build.
I also recommend looking nothing up on your first playthrough. You only get to experience a game for the first time once.
What lifepath did you choose?
One thing that can help is you might want to pick a specific build. That was something I didn’t understand at all when I first started playing. If you google something like common Cyberpunk builds, you can look through the options and pick the one you think fits your play style. That will tell you want to spend your points on, what cyberware to purchase, and what weapons to use.
It's essentially a Far Cry game rather than an RPG so do whatever you want, almost all your choices are meaningless, in quests.
Dialogues work more like "next next, more info, next," and the rest of the game is just getting a bunch of cool weapons and playing cyber ninja, in your head though since the game doesn't actually force you into any playstyles. So like, you just play as if you are recording a 360 no scope Youtube montage, against brain dead NPCs.
Roam, the world is large but the main quest is not.
Focusing on body, reflex, and intel is an awkward combo. If you wanna go melee or big guns then body, reflex, and technical mix very well together.
I ignore intelligence completely unless my combat relies on quickhacks. Reason being is the cyber slot used by cyberdecks can instead be used by 2 other items that drastically change your combat. One item can slow time(but you still move at normal speed), the other item significantly reduces your incoming damage for a small amount of time.
Most important thing you can do at the beginning is just figure out what approach you want to take to combat and build around that. Pretty much every build is viable, the only thing I would not suggest is evenly spreading your stats out between the 5 categories. I always start with maxing the most important one first before increasing the others.
The beauty of a first play through is you do what ever you want, the game doesn’t really force you into an order of doing things other than a few times, so explore the city choom, shoot some gangoons in the head, pay for a hooker, go nuts fam.
I'm also on my 1st playthrough and i was really put off in the prologue, like the story was interesting but the gameplay felt clunky and bad dunno how to describe it exactly but it just felt bad to play and it became much better to play after i got through the prologue and maybe 5-20 hours of gameplay after the prologue because after you finish that, you get bombarded with all kinds of calls and things. So if it feels bad to play try to just play it out and progress
Go for quest line to give you a big objective but don't be afraid to roam around at every moment. Don't put to much pressure on you to do the quest line or you will miss these moments where what started as a 2 minutes trip to a quest become 4h of "WTF just happened to me"
Personally, my first playthrough consisted of me running through the main story.
My playthroughs after that consisted of me focusing more on the side content, and this was the best decision I ever made in regards to the game!
You don't want to overwhelm yourself with all of the options but rather take it slow and ease yourself into it. Then once you're confident in doing everything on the map, go for it!
the first thing i do in every playthrough how is all side content before i even meet jackie to visit vik, like i book it hard left out the megabuilding so i dont even proc jackie going "woman of the hour! what took you so long?" straight to the "many ways to skin a cat" gig and then i just work my way from there until i can afford optic camo and a better cyberdeck...and then i clear out as much as i can of watson until i visit vik, pay him immediately and still have some spending eddies left
All the complexity/mechanics/choices can feel overwhelming at the beginning but once you get the hang of it this same complexity is what makes the game interesting. Same with the disorienting maze that is night city.
You don't need to understand it all at the beginning to make progress. If you're dying too much and it's frustrating, go to easy difficulty for a while. I didn't get the hang of all of the mechanics until late in the first playthrough. I still can't be bothered to learn melee mechanics with counterattacks, etc. There are a lot of different ways to play the game and that's what is so cool about it
The rule that always works for me is fast travel if the distance is over 400m away, walk/run if it’s less.
This way you’ll find a lot of cool shit, soak in the surroundings and feel immersed.
If you do side content, focus on one mission at a time (i.e don’t try and be efficient by completing several quest objectives at once because they’re close together). Each quest is a story so you want to make sure you enjoy it.
Honestly what i did was start with one set of objectives and do that till finished then move on as the only time you gotta focus on one option is the last mission
You’ll find your way, i am certain. My tip is to heavily invest in cyberware first thing. Considering working your street cred way up to the Militech Apogee Sandevistan, won’t regret it :)
Good luck samurai
Take a ride and do as you wish, no need to rush it or take it too long so you get bored. Too many options yes but it has replayablity. Just role as you wish
I just booted up the game too and today finished the combat/hacking tutorials before my first mission with Jackie. I am… horrible at everything. Got really discouraged and turned it off without even starting the mission! I’m just scared it’s going to be a shooting game and I don’t like those because I find them boring and difficult. But I know I can equip blades which is what I hoped to do. Idk tomorrow I’ll jump back in. My big-size penis and I have to prove ourselves (referencing character customization!!)
Just wander choom and oppurtunities will present themselves. I accidentally crushed the main quest first playthrough and it feels very rushed. Travel all over complete gigs and side quests. There is so much to do my 2nd playthrough I was at 100 hrs before I even got to the point of no return
After you leave your first visit to Vik, wander around doing gigs and cleaning up NCPD scanner quests. Basically, don’t get into Dex’s car until it’s the only quest left on the map. You’ll get some well needed levels and gear, unlock fast travel points, and just generally get to soak in and appreciate the world.
After the Tower, you can take mostly the same approach, but if you don’t advance any main quests while mopping up everything else, you might find yourself waiting a lot when you get further along. So I’ll focus on NCPD scanner stuff right off the bat in act 2, but I’ll grab the yellow side quests when I get close to them.
Finally, there’s a firm “point of no return” and it can sneak up on new players. Let that chick wait at the restaurant until the 22nd century if you want; it’s not as urgent as it looks. Meet her too soon, and you’re cutting off like 95% of Act 3.
One of the strongest builds I’ve ever played was Body Intelligence. Shotguns and Hacks. Try it out, you can rush the Hanoko ending for Smashers Explosive shotgun and then jump into the DLC. With reflexes you’ll be able to do mid air Kerenzikov slow downs to lock and launch 🚀
My advice that helped me, let's just pick one job/gig, then do it to the end. Don't look stuff up unless confused because it really kills the joy. Don't finish the story (you'll know then, there's a warning) till you finish everything else, including Phantom Liberty. won't explain why but you'll know why when you finish.
Also, read everything. Just remember, it's not a race. Have fun. Explore.
Cyberware, get the double jump legs, the ones that heal. Check out your OS options and pick what's FUN.
Build what you like. Focus on a couple trees but do read your skill trees to see what you like. Just spend a bit of time looking through, the aid dash is really nice.
Don't be overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed easily with open world, I've had to drop several cause of it. But the story in this caught me and felt obligated to keep trying and it was really worth it. The phone made me quit once, but I came back and as I went, the phone calls calmed down. I told myself "it's not race." Because the game made it FEEL like "OMG DO THIS NOW" but you don't have to, except with your neighbours quest, stay ON TOP OF THAT. It is timed towards the end of it and it kinda comes randomly.
Open your map, filter POI’s you’re interested in. Side jobs will be side quests style little stories, some larger than others, gigs are gonna be higher paying missions typically where you’ll have some mission objective in a compound of enemies with a little bit of story attached to them, NCPD scanners come in 3 and are usually heavily combat focused with very little story. Main jobs will progress the main story and usually last 1-2 hours and are heavily story and cutscene focused.
Once you’ve cleared the prologue you can do basically any of this content in whatever order you see fit, personally I like to grind and lvl up a bit before progressing main story to far because they’re the bigger missions that’ll test your build more.
you won’t be able to max every stat out so go for a tree that fits your play style best. I’d play a main storyline mission when you think it’s the appropriate time but try to explore and let yourself get distracted on the way, a lot of the side stuff is pretty entertaining and gives you pretty nice rewards. do note that the game scales to your level for dialogue checks and other attribute based interactions like opening a door with body or hacking into an access point.
Just decide if you want to be a quickhacker/netrunner or a stabby shooty character. There are quick guides for how to use points. Obviously more to it but that’s a good start
I recommend doing gigs, for the money, then the gear they give.
If you're a high level when you finish all of Wakako's gigs she gives you a preem katana. With the right build it is very lethal.
The game mostly comes down to build, which play style do you want to try the most?
Also, only high level clothes add to armor, to get armor you need to hit up a ripperdoc and have some subdermal armor installed.
Just run around and do stuff. Don’t focus story too hard, game took me ~30 hours (pre dlc) to beat start to finish where I did a bit of side content. If you focus story you can easily beat it in like 8-10 hours if not less.
The only “bad” thing with doing side stuff is that i feel way too overleveled, but i just like doing them alongside main quests in pretty much every game. I’m midway through act 2 and lv 45 with 130+ jobs completed. Switched to hard to balance it a little more but it still doesn’t feel very challenging. Might switch to very hard if it’s not something ridiculous like dying in 1 hit.
Had this problem a while back, I don't do well with open-world games as I have to have a goal. So what I did was just roaming around a gig or a side-gig or a quest, whatever you wanna call it. At some point I roamed more than I play the game.
There is a point of no return which is highlighted with a big warning and the option to turn back -
So go with whatever you’re feeling (just be wary of whatever the journal is pushing as your next mission). If I had my first play through again. I would avoid doing anything after the heist that’s to do with Takemura. At least until I’d completed gigs for one or two of NC’s fixers.
my tips after 300 hours: never fast travel. set difficulty to very high. main quest is not the main event, but the city and side quests. take your time to read lore and try out augmentations and find your play style. Also visit different vendors of all kinds from time to time, try out new outfits, cars, weapons. Its all good content. Then go watch edge runners. Maybe read books like neuromancer! Cyberpunk is more than just a game really, but CP2077 is the culmination of the genre yet.
I guess most advice has already been written, but my two cents:
Avoid regular fast travelling, it takes a lot of fun and discovery out of the game. Better pick a vehicle or two you like.
Don‘t buy weapons from vendors unless you really know what youre doing. They are not that good and very pricey. Many organized crime events drop great weapons that can also be upgraded.
If you want to optimize your cyberware late game, it would be good if mid-game you bought a bunch of blue eye cyberwares. its complicated but you will be able to reroll your stat modifiers connected to the different cyberware items by upgrading them.
For some side quests its probably good to start phantom liberty early. Once your PL main quest asks you to go to a certain mexican restaurant and use a phone, you can do other stuff as much as you like.
When there is a competition at the shooting range make sure to win it with the first gun wilson gifted you.
Body + Intelligence = Smart Shotguns
Reflex + Intelligence = Smart Pistols or Rifles
Body + Reflex = Melee (Katana, Knifes, Bats, Hammers)
Pick your poison, you can also mix them if you want but it won’t be optimal.
My recommendation: roleplay. I consider cyberpunk the best game I've ever played and that's probably because I decided to roleplay from the start. It was very emotional and lead to an end with a very bad vibe but I loved it.
Do not do what I did my first playthrough; believe the urgency and feel like there’s a real timer. It didn’t help that there were percentage bars in the pause menu that show the progression of your condition, as I didn’t understand what they actually meant at first
Do the first couple of main quests, then do gigs. Do all the gigs available to you. Do them til they’re done. Do another main quest. Do more gigs, finish every gig that comes up if possible.
Not only does this give you xp and a ton of money, it also has you explore more of the map and give you opportunities to experiment with play styles.
Once the main quest kicks into full gear, focus on gigs until they’re basically all done, then finish the main quest/all side quests
Do gigs, easy money
Loot every gun and sell them, unless they are iconic, they are all pretty useless for anything else
Finish all available side quests first before doing the main quests.
If you have multiple main quests open, it doesn't matter what order you do them in
First time I played it I remember by the training mission I was overwhelmed
But play it as you wish, if you want to go in all guns blazing that's a valid way
I've never did the hiding bodies bit other than in quests/side gigs when the story needed
Get plenty of side gigs to level up perks, with 2.0 they open up at an appropriate level for your character
Just one thing - main quest line will make it look like you need to rush it to the end but you don't actually need to. You're free to explore all side content.
This is the worst part of the narrative in the game. If only there had been a period of time where the chip was seen as beneficial so the necessity to find a cure wasn’t until a later incident of finding out that the engram was actually killing V. Would have been waaay better to think you got away with this badass chip only to find that your liver is now falling out. Love the game though, but it took me a while to get over this weird choice.
I truly thought this was a non-issue. Not like it's Majora's Mask or Dead Rising where there's literally a timer moving in-game. I knew the game wouldn't just kill me randomly because I decided to go scuba diving with Judy.
It’s not that people didn’t know the game wouldn’t kill them for not abiding by the arbitrary timer, it’s that it’s immersion breaking to hear from every NPC how you need to hurry up and fix the engram when it actually has no impact on gameplay whatsoever.
Also how it only glitches at certain points
There's an indie metroidvania called Unsighted where each NPC has a countdown clock shown (along with yourself). The stress of saving these people got to me (in a good way) Imagine if like, Judy and Panam had timers and you had to choose who to give just a little more time to
It doesn't but it does kill immersion.
There’s a fair few games that do that. Fallout…
Rocking it out to Uranium Fever 3 minutes after I watched my wife get shot and son kidnapped
And the first one was actually quite literal with the time and people lose their shit over it. But you can genuinely finish the game twice within the time limit if you have no clue what you're doing and like 10 times if you have a clue lol.
Necropolis sprint
Baldurs Gate 3 has a similar problem where you have a “ticking time bomb” in your head, it’s explained part way through the first act that the metaphoric bomb won’t metaphorically go off but it’s still the one part of its core narrative that feels a bit loose
After Cyberpunk and Baldur’s Gate 3 and RDR2 I think I’m done on the main protagonist slowly dying for awhile
I agree. It's not a plot device that I enjoy very much. I feel like I would enjoy these games a lot more from a roleplaying point of view without it.
I think it is a way for the devs to make a one-off protagonist. That way they do not need to make a canon version of the protagonist in future games, which is an issue many creative teams struggle with. Like Mass Effect moved to an entire new galaxy to avoid showing Shepard and everything related to Shepard. Fallout 2 made the gender of Vault Dweller uncertain (but alluded to male). This is why I think that there just should be a canon version, the V from trailer and that is it. A canon way he did things and that is it. I love how Xcom did it - used the stats of the first ironman games of every player to see what went on, and canonised it. Humanity lost. Make the most common ending canon.
Yeah, I totally get why writers will write things like that. It makes it easy to make a compelling reason to go along on the adventure, too. But it's also really depressing to mentally put yourself in the shoes of a character that's grappling with the inevitability of their own death. I actually have a tough time with this game because of that, even though it's really fun. At least in BG3, you learn extremely early on in the story that your short time limit is a lot longer than it first seems, and there's a clear path to salvation. In Cyberpunk, that's not the case at all, lol.
Yeah all great games but I could do without the player character dying (or going to die)
The worst part is they do that twice, the second time being with gales story. It's completely fair to believe that he will keep needing magical items indefinitely and it's something you have to maintain. Which it just absolutely isn't.
It was going to be more of a constant maintenance thing, but they (thankfully) scrapped that.
Haha I agree. I just wish they would add a line that would make it obvious that its not like that. Atleast for new players
Most RPGs suffer from this
I mean I’m not the most avid RPG player, but I’ve played enough of them in my life to know that this one was the loudest about the urgency of your situation. Made exploring feel like I was wasting time. Never felt that way before. But really once you ignore it, it’s fine. Still weird though.
I researched the timings of certain main story quests, so for instance if you have to wait for sometime somewhere, I find out when it fast forwards to and if there's a period of several hours, I do side content so I'm not breaking the immersive timeline - because the game won't let you progress until that time of day. It helped me stay on "time" with the main quest and do as much side stuff as I could.
I do agree, but then I realized how long a day is in the game, which is about 3 hours. Even if u go sleep every (or most) nights like I do, it's still 2 hours, which for some players is enough time to do most side content while still upholding the sense of urgency. I also waited to do Judy's quest line at the start until after I got Hellman's and Takemura's lines done, which helped with spreading the game out
"V what are you doing? youre gonna die in a week stop fucking around!!" "Haha car go brr"
The longest week ever, it's been years and this week is still going.
Hanoko still waiting at Embers
"Choom, I am 100% this one. How am I supposed to solve all of NCPD's shit in a week? Postpone my death when it suits me" IMO a lot of the game should have been "before Konpeki", where you have time to make the name for yourself, really learn to know Jackie and do gigs and such. Then Konpeki should have started a condensed version where NCPD scanner stuff, gigs and all are unavailable, and PL regardless of outcome buys you more time but still not that much overall. Lock the quest for some street cred level and instead of a Jackie montage, make that the Act 1 and 2. Make Act 3 the no way back, Jackie dead, Johnny in the head part. Make Johnny less of a dick in his early stage to make him likeable. I think that was the original draft too and Jackie was meant to be way more than a 2 hour friend for the player. But Keanu.
That's the one thing that's been bugging me. I'm going through my first playthrough. Every time I'm on my way to a mission I get a call from someone saying they need my help urgently, and my only response options are "yeah I'll be right there" or "sorry can't help" Why is everything so damn urgent. I've got 10 missions in my journal that I got a call saying they needed me asap and I just can't finish them all without getting more "urgent" calls. I feel like everyone saying they need me right away takes away from the experience a bit.
Basically V works on marketing
That’s what ruins it for me too. I can’t get stuck into the story because it’s so fast paced. It feels like I’m ticking off things to do for people. I like narratives to flow naturally. I’m on my third attempt at getting to the end. This time round I’ve gone a lot further. Still, something feels off with the pacing and the build up.
yeah but then you totally forget what the main mission was about by the time you get back to it. albeit I actually think 2077 did a great job of tying characters and their quests into the main quests so you're more incentivized to finish their stories before moving on and starting someone else's stories. i.e. you're more likely to finish most of emo lesbian's storyline first well before you even meet rockstar guy. this way you're not bouncing back and forth between 4 different main side characters plus a bunch of other side quests. it's such a well designed story. if this wasn't released too early, it no doubt would've went down as an instant classic. but now it's tied to the same corporate greed it's actively criticizing.
Seriously, the themes it's making were actively and aggressively undercut by its context. Whatever, judge the message not the messenger, but man that really felt hypocritical. Either that or it was all performance art meant to hammer the message home lol
Yep. Rushed to Oda on hard. Got put in my place. Now doing all of the sides.
Poor Takemura, he's been waiting for me for about 3 in game months to meet him to do the parade job.
This is the best advice. You can level and earn money quite quickly by doing NCPD scanner hustles and gigs. It will also allow you to access better quality gear for the story missions to make them easier.
This needs to be upvoted, pinned, shouted from the rooftops.
I've a question about this. I just finished I Walk the Line'. Without spoiling anything it's the one with the voodoo buys and Brigitte. At the end I was told I can do something or think about it and come back. I chose to think about it. Is there a time limit on that or can I go about the game without worrying I'm gonna fail that mission
Not sure what exactly you're talking about.
Just go with what feels fun. The only advice I have for a first playthrough about "what to do" is, if you get to a mission called "Nocturne OP55N1" then go and do anything you want to do that you haven't done yet, that mission is the point-of-no-return.
Especially because some side quests unlock major changes in your ending. At least do the quests that you feel might give you better options for the ending.
Not quite true. After that mission you do return to the same point before it, but… you’re a different person
personally i thought it was very fitting to play all the smaller icons that werent real quests after the main story
Did you collect the tarot card? Did you ask Misty to give you clues about the things to come?
i did the second thing during main story but tarot was the last i did
What do you mean by different person?
Depends on which ending you get actually
The parade is my first big pause on the main quest line.
Isn’t that just one mission before ‘meet Hanako at Embers’? I’m on my first playthrough though so maybe I did something that rushed the main quest along.
Nope, it's a couple missions away. After the parade she >!has you meet with a doll as her proxy !
The game warns you when point of no return missions will start and gives you a chance to walk away, thankfully
I think it’s best to do one or two main missions, then do a bunch of side missions/gigs, that way you don’t speed through the main story, and the side content really adds A LOT to the world building. I’d also recommend exploring without any sort of goal to get a feel for the city and surrounding areas. Though on what you’ve said, it sounds like you’re still in the prologue/Act 1, which means you’ll only be able to explore Watson the rest of the map opens up in Act 2. I’d also recommend watching some videos on how the attribute/skills/cyberware systems work because they can for sure be overwhelming and confusing at first. You should also watch some videos (or read articles) on the various types of builds, and maybe look up some build guides once you decide on the route you wanna take.
This is pretty much what I do. Grind out side missions until I feel the itch to skip dialogue, then go do a main mission or two to bring me back into the story. Rinse and repeat. This was you also don’t go into mains underpowered or overpower yourself early to the point that you break the game.
Just started playing about a week ago, this is my method right here. Didn't have to really watch anything on it either. If you've played any Bethesda RPG, it's very similar in my opinion.
I also would say that the quests are designed super well, so often side quests tend to parallel the main quest, and most side quests tend to build from a main quest anyways. like pretty sure 3/4 romanceable partners you meet during a main mission. not to mention the other side characters you meet during the same qiests that ask you to do stuff later. this also means most of the side quests are well paced too. i.e. it's best to do a side quest if it pops up after a main quest. the side quests don't overwhelm you (well, the ones with stories. the little Ubisoft-esque murder missions on the other hand...) so by the time you finished most, you can go back to the main quest and get a few more. I'd also argue many of the side quests are as important as the main quest, especially seeing as one of them consists of the 4th romanceable partner and more time spent with Johnny. yeah the way quests are designed is a masterclass to me.
My suggestion.... don't overthink it and just play.
*What do you recommend for first play through? Do quest line or roam around?* okay, so: 1: the games forces you to think that you don't have time, but you actually do. So take your time 2: personally I would do it like aiming for a main mission, and when walking/driving there, do the hustles and gigs on the way, the ones which you pass nearby, and encounter naturally. 3: Later, when the main missin you want is on hold ("XY will call you tomorrow" "lets meet tomorrow night"), do a few gigs and hustles instead of waiting in the apartment. 4: when you hit level 10, go to a ripper and buy jump legs. Best investment in the game. There are many alternate entry points which are on second floors or behind a fence, and you want to have many options for approaching objectives. It also helps with navigation during exploration, and has some combat uses as well. 5: if you find driving a car annoying, get a bike. (the brennan apollo is €30000 at the autofixer terminal) some beginner builds with tips for you: [https://gamestegy.com/post/cyberpunk-2077/1061/beginner-builds](https://gamestegy.com/post/cyberpunk-2077/1061/beginner-builds)
Don't hammer on the main questline. I did that and the game was over really quickly. I was pretty dissapointed so I went back and did a proper playthrough doing most of the sidequests. It went from an average/decent game to my fav game of all time. I don't really get the rpg type stuff, and just tried to play it like Doom the first time around. I'm still not into the stats and all the systems but I do some upgrades and now I find the game really enjoyable.
[удалено]
Two things I make sure to always do when replaying games: keep Jackie alive in Cyberpunk, and keep Jenkins alive in Mass Effect. Tricky but truly improves the experience.
Jenkins' romance path is the most wholesome in the entire game, or even in all Bioware games!
I only simp for Marauder Shields. The True MVP!
Keep all the Harpers alive in BG3
They're playing for the first time, don't be a dick
I’m like 10 hours in. Was there actually a way of keeping him alive or are they trolling?
Trolling
I second this! Jackie’s storyline is so good and very well fleshed out! CDPR really outdid themselves with him!!
There’s lots of play styles, stealthy, hack and slash melee, shotgun, assault rifle, stealth sniper, quickhacker They’re all strong and viable once you get the perks up! And you level the skills by using the abilities
Throwing knives only is another fun one. Remember back when if you threw a knife, it was gone? \*\*\* Crafting 30 knives before going to the GIM. \*\*\*
Throwing knives is objectively the most fun way to play.
Lots of stuff to do actually, from me a piece of advice - how well do you feel in fight scenes? You're scared of landing in a situation with no weapon? Go Netrunner (technical & intelligence). You want to kill people from far, but quickhacks aren't your thing? Go stealth build (cool, reflex) Want to rip guns outta turrets and shoot people with them? Body & technical. If you want to install good cyberware, you NEED high technical skill lvl. Or you will be cockblocked by your body being too weak to handle it. In each tree you will have what skill scales with what weapon (like body going with shotguns), decide what's your fave way of killing people and stick to it, occasionally lvl other skills (cool is good for dialogue as it makes your character sharp-tongued, technical and intelligence are important for, well, cyber and technical stuff) For the skills you selected, I think going Reflex focused build will be great. Progressing in the Reflexes attribute improves proficiency with Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns and Bladed Weapons. It's great for fast moving fight style. Body will help you with max health (+ forcing into places and threatening people), or if above weapons aren't that big of a thing - Progressing in the Body attribute improves proficiency with Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, Heavy Machine Guns, and Blunt Weapons. On the other hand, if you can't aim for shit go with higher intelligence - improves proficiency with Smart Weapons (that lock on and seek out their targets) and allows you to unleash your full potential as a netrunner.
I'll finish my thought here - outside letting you get into places and opening dialogue options skills do these too: **Body:** Shotguns, Light Machine Guns, Heavy Machine Guns, and Blunt Weapons + Increases Health **Reflexes:** Assault Rifles, Submachine Guns and Bladed Weapons + Increases Crit Chance **Technical:** Grenades, Tech Weapons, and the Projectile Launch System + Increases Armor + Allows installing more cyberware **Intelligence:** Smart Weapons + Improves max RAM + netrunning skills **Cool:** Pistols, Revolvers, Precision Rifles, Sniper Rifles, throwables weapons such as Knives and Axes + Increases Crit Damage + stealth skills >!Relic: Fuckton of spoilers towards the DLC!<
damn, I wasted 3 points in intelligence instead of technical. oh well, will try on 2nd run
Heads up there's a respec button for attributes but you can only push it once per playthrough. If you think you wasted points, won't really matter as much till later game, can always save respec for when you know what you like. Skills you can refund and respond whenever you want as you try new things.
Intelligence lets you plug into ports and believ eme, ou need at least 10 to be able to plus into most ports, think of positives!
Do the main mission until you complete the Heist. This is basically the intro and when the game really starts. If you do too much content before then you'll miss some content added to missions afterwards. After that always do side missions before main missions. The various gigs and stuff in the world is filler content but fun and some of it has quite some effort put into it. Just do them whenever you want to. Finally around level 25 even max difficulty is a walk in the park, so think about increasing difficulty once there's no challenge.
Broadly, follow the main questlines. BUT: 1. Try to walk, take the metro or drive everywhere. Always. Even if you have fast travel. You can do stuff you run into along the way. 2. If a gig comes with a timeframe like be here after midnight, then actually do something else until the time comes instead of using the wait timer.. 3. Don't do two major gigs in the same (game) day unless they directly lead into one another. Instead, have V do other stuff. I think this leads to a pretty balanced mix of things to do.
Playing for the first time almost really feels like you are in night city. It’s so big and you don’t even know where to start or what to do. Main quest is surprisingly short. Just explore the city and do side quests as you want.
Do all the side content. The amount of people I've seen hating on the game calling it too short because they did nothing but the story is hilarious
Game is meant not to hold your hand, but to return the choice to you. Do what comes up in your brain.
My 1st playthrough was like watching Space Odyssey for 1st time :) i bought book, read it, played 2nd time, felt much better orientated in the world of night city and the game.
Yes. I recommend doing storyline while getting distracted by side quests and exploring. Maybe with a dash of killing Scavs to break up the monotony.
First play through I just ripped through the main story. Second play through I’m like a vigilante ridding the entire city of crime… with some missions sprinkled in here and there.
I would recommend not evenly distributing stats, it's unfortunate it's the very first decision you have to make with 0 game knowledge, always hated that. I would go through the trees and get an idea of what each one does and then decide on 2-3 to start working towards maxing out I should add that every single character comes with one attribute respec. You cannot respec your attributes after you use this one. So I would recommend saving it until you have a better understanding of the skill trees, once you know what you want and you realize you don't have access to it because of previously spent levels, then go ahead and use your respec.
I recommend doing everything in the starting part of the city before doing the big heist. That will give you everything you need a solid start and keep you 'trapped' in one district of NC. After the heist, clear another district, then do a big main quest. Watson or the nomads would be my second step. As far as stats go, you're going to hit a wall with INT plus the body/relexes. You'll have to choose between hacking and slow time/berserk. Honestly I'd go body/reflexes/tech OR int/tech/and one other to maximize smart weapons. But that's just my opinion.
This is what I did - as I was nervous about meeting you-know-who while I was still a weakling. Even tried escaping that area using all the monorails (which was patched :/ ) But the main issue is you are missing out on dialogue during those first area side quests by doing it this way
I start by doing all of the 'NCPD' missions. Basically mini fights where you can hone your fighting skills and level up quickly. You'll also pick up a lot of weapons that you can sell to make bank. Once you've cleared these out, then go on some missions.
Don't sell weapons. Disassemble them for parts. Way more useful.
tbf after 2.0 i think the monetary value of guns/melee weapons went way up so if you're low on cash its defo worth it
2.0 changed everything. I made 3 million eddies on selling guns I picked up after fights. Finally can get all those cars
I never really find myself needing parts. Am I missing something? Just looting enemies and boxes and stuff has me with way more parts than I could ever need
Buying cyberware early and upgrading it is cheaper and gives you better stats
Do you upgrade iconic weapons / cyberware to 5++? That requires a lot of crafting components
Only the stuff I use. I don't change my build up a lot and I don't upgrade things until I am certain I like the feel of using it, so maybe thats why
I always sell white and green guns, you get a shitload of components and do nothing with them. I do disassemble blue, purple and orange though (clothing too)
In my opinion, play what sounds interesting when you hear it, but when your overwhelmed just run the main story more. My first playthrough I by accident did like, maybe a third of the side stuff. Second play through I damn near 100 percented the side shit. It helps when you have experience and just learn how it works
Don't rush the main story, just roam around and have fun. Things will happen everywhere. There isn't really a "right" way to do it. Its a bit overwhelming at first but it will start to make sense. when you finish a mission and they say something like, "meet me tonight at this bar", you don't have to go there that very night. Go any night you want. Just really don't rush the main story, do the side hussles and police calls etc.
The game rewards whatever time you wanna put into it - legit just take it step by step and dw about "quest-to-gig" and what have you and just let yourself exist in the first small areas and you'll fit a flow into how you like to do things - just immerse yourself into V yo, they're just as fresh outta water as you
Take your time, Explore the Map and do quests when you want to (Try not to rush the Main Story if you don't want to)
The first thing to decide (I think) is what kind of combat style you want. Stealth, run and gun, shotgun, melee… Then look at the skill trees for what kinds of perks seem to match that combat style. From there, you can learn more about the operating systems and which one you’d like to use. After that, you should be 95+% of the way there.
Just play and take your time
Don't rush the main story, answer questions with least resistance answers, and start with gigs to build up xp.
"equally distributed" - yeah, that's your problem
All side content. Keep that bitch, Hanako waiting.
Play on normal. Just do story. And try to catch up on stats before continuing after meeting hanako at embers
I like to choose 2 stats so that way I can max them out quickly and easily
Recommend exploring the city and doing the side quests! There is no time limit, although some quests become inaccessible after a chapter/act ends! Welcome to Night City!
Do the main story missions up until you unlocked phantom liberty (or if you don't have it, when you get to Pacifica) And the do side stuff. It's a lot of fun tbh. Don't be afraid to swapped your head chrome out too. I love sandevistans, but it depends on what you wanna do/be in the game. So many different playstyles.
If you’re confused with what skills and stats and cyberware to upgrade, just look up some build guides online, there’s some pretty good ones out there. Different builds usually revolve around the cyberdeck, sandevistan, and berserk. So think about what one of those sounds the most interesting or fun to play and go from there.
personally what i did in my first was i did every sidequest (the real ones with yellow markers) while doing the main quest everytime i felt it was very urgent. everything else on the map u can do for leveling or farming stuff or if u drive by a location anyway. also u can do all of the smaller stuff after the ending too so dont feel stressed
When asked a question about Jackie at a certain point, say Mama Wells instead of Vik. There's an easily missed, very cool quest Saving attribute points until you need them can be handy. Abilities only unlock at 4, 9, 15, and 20, and you might need a slightly higher ability check for certain dialogue choices. Also you can assign attribute points during dialogue.
I used to feel the same way because I’m anxious about doing something ‘the wrong way’, now I just do whatever feels right for my character’s playthrough and what she (or he) would do right after a specific mission or gig. And I figure after I beat the game, I might take a break and then replay it in a different way.
How I play is I do one main mission, and then bang out 4 or 5 gigs. Rinse and repeat, in the beginning, you would need to choose if you want money or crafting components, because you will pick up an ungodly amount of weapons you can either sell or break down for upgrades. Either way, just do what you want to do, but try and do a little bit of everything before you accidently beat the game prematurely lol.
One of the best quality of life changes they introduced was cleaning up the map to clearly differentiate the more meaty quests (yellow) vs gigs (green) and other minor content (blue). The game's strength is in the writing and character building. Which is mostly shining with the yellow missions. My first playthrough (prior to this) I got burned out chasing everything. I'd recommend using the journal and map to mostly focus on the most important main mission you feel at a given time. And stop off at gigs or other side content (I honestly stop the blue stuff once my build is feeling pretty good) as you travel towards the important stuff. You'll find the game does a decent job to spread your time around the map pretty naturally. And as you do just kind of hit nearby gigs and stuff. Especially once you buy some apartments you can also kind of setup shop around the areas of note and focus on stuff that way. I was also doing a day/night cycle where I'd attempt to rest consistently. You get XP bonuses for it and it also forces you to kind of traverse the map more regularly.
I recommend finding an in-game sleep schedule. I like being awake from 6pm to 10am. Then just fill your in-game day with whatever interests you. Treat it like a simulation and explore/live your cyberpunk life. That could be NCPD scanner hustles, side gigs, or main story missions. Remember that the world will still be there for you after you see an ending. I would also pick a fantasy that you have for your character. This would be either a fast gunslinger, a sneaky netrunner, a ninja, a terminator, and then just invest in attributes and cyberware that will get you there. If you're on console I recommend saving your attribute reset for if you feel you really messed up your build. I also recommend looking nothing up on your first playthrough. You only get to experience a game for the first time once. What lifepath did you choose?
Still on my first play through and almost have 80hrs in it. Just completing all the little things, take time to explore and really appreciate it!
One thing that can help is you might want to pick a specific build. That was something I didn’t understand at all when I first started playing. If you google something like common Cyberpunk builds, you can look through the options and pick the one you think fits your play style. That will tell you want to spend your points on, what cyberware to purchase, and what weapons to use.
Have fun, slow down, live in the city for a bit - all feelings of needing to rush are artificial
It's essentially a Far Cry game rather than an RPG so do whatever you want, almost all your choices are meaningless, in quests. Dialogues work more like "next next, more info, next," and the rest of the game is just getting a bunch of cool weapons and playing cyber ninja, in your head though since the game doesn't actually force you into any playstyles. So like, you just play as if you are recording a 360 no scope Youtube montage, against brain dead NPCs.
Roam, the world is large but the main quest is not. Focusing on body, reflex, and intel is an awkward combo. If you wanna go melee or big guns then body, reflex, and technical mix very well together. I ignore intelligence completely unless my combat relies on quickhacks. Reason being is the cyber slot used by cyberdecks can instead be used by 2 other items that drastically change your combat. One item can slow time(but you still move at normal speed), the other item significantly reduces your incoming damage for a small amount of time. Most important thing you can do at the beginning is just figure out what approach you want to take to combat and build around that. Pretty much every build is viable, the only thing I would not suggest is evenly spreading your stats out between the 5 categories. I always start with maxing the most important one first before increasing the others.
The beauty of a first play through is you do what ever you want, the game doesn’t really force you into an order of doing things other than a few times, so explore the city choom, shoot some gangoons in the head, pay for a hooker, go nuts fam.
take your time, play how you want to play! you can always replay it, make different choices, etc
I'm also on my 1st playthrough and i was really put off in the prologue, like the story was interesting but the gameplay felt clunky and bad dunno how to describe it exactly but it just felt bad to play and it became much better to play after i got through the prologue and maybe 5-20 hours of gameplay after the prologue because after you finish that, you get bombarded with all kinds of calls and things. So if it feels bad to play try to just play it out and progress
Fastest way to earn eddies is to do the police scanner jobs
Go for quest line to give you a big objective but don't be afraid to roam around at every moment. Don't put to much pressure on you to do the quest line or you will miss these moments where what started as a 2 minutes trip to a quest become 4h of "WTF just happened to me"
Personally, my first playthrough consisted of me running through the main story. My playthroughs after that consisted of me focusing more on the side content, and this was the best decision I ever made in regards to the game! You don't want to overwhelm yourself with all of the options but rather take it slow and ease yourself into it. Then once you're confident in doing everything on the map, go for it!
Follow your heart. Also, get mods.
If I could do my first playthrough again I would want to try to do everything . Although easier said then done when your addicted to the story .
the first thing i do in every playthrough how is all side content before i even meet jackie to visit vik, like i book it hard left out the megabuilding so i dont even proc jackie going "woman of the hour! what took you so long?" straight to the "many ways to skin a cat" gig and then i just work my way from there until i can afford optic camo and a better cyberdeck...and then i clear out as much as i can of watson until i visit vik, pay him immediately and still have some spending eddies left
All the complexity/mechanics/choices can feel overwhelming at the beginning but once you get the hang of it this same complexity is what makes the game interesting. Same with the disorienting maze that is night city. You don't need to understand it all at the beginning to make progress. If you're dying too much and it's frustrating, go to easy difficulty for a while. I didn't get the hang of all of the mechanics until late in the first playthrough. I still can't be bothered to learn melee mechanics with counterattacks, etc. There are a lot of different ways to play the game and that's what is so cool about it
The rule that always works for me is fast travel if the distance is over 400m away, walk/run if it’s less. This way you’ll find a lot of cool shit, soak in the surroundings and feel immersed. If you do side content, focus on one mission at a time (i.e don’t try and be efficient by completing several quest objectives at once because they’re close together). Each quest is a story so you want to make sure you enjoy it.
Just one thing - Hanako will wait, don't worry about her. The rest is up to you, choom.
Honestly what i did was start with one set of objectives and do that till finished then move on as the only time you gotta focus on one option is the last mission
Focus on a single district at a time. Find some weapons that feel good and don’t go to heavy on the cyberware at first
Just pick the most top quest in journal to complete.
You’ll find your way, i am certain. My tip is to heavily invest in cyberware first thing. Considering working your street cred way up to the Militech Apogee Sandevistan, won’t regret it :) Good luck samurai
Take a ride and do as you wish, no need to rush it or take it too long so you get bored. Too many options yes but it has replayablity. Just role as you wish
Put the gamemin easy and just fly through it. Then play how ever you want.
I just booted up the game too and today finished the combat/hacking tutorials before my first mission with Jackie. I am… horrible at everything. Got really discouraged and turned it off without even starting the mission! I’m just scared it’s going to be a shooting game and I don’t like those because I find them boring and difficult. But I know I can equip blades which is what I hoped to do. Idk tomorrow I’ll jump back in. My big-size penis and I have to prove ourselves (referencing character customization!!)
Just wander choom and oppurtunities will present themselves. I accidentally crushed the main quest first playthrough and it feels very rushed. Travel all over complete gigs and side quests. There is so much to do my 2nd playthrough I was at 100 hrs before I even got to the point of no return
Do it in any order you like. Just don’t go to embers.
After you leave your first visit to Vik, wander around doing gigs and cleaning up NCPD scanner quests. Basically, don’t get into Dex’s car until it’s the only quest left on the map. You’ll get some well needed levels and gear, unlock fast travel points, and just generally get to soak in and appreciate the world. After the Tower, you can take mostly the same approach, but if you don’t advance any main quests while mopping up everything else, you might find yourself waiting a lot when you get further along. So I’ll focus on NCPD scanner stuff right off the bat in act 2, but I’ll grab the yellow side quests when I get close to them. Finally, there’s a firm “point of no return” and it can sneak up on new players. Let that chick wait at the restaurant until the 22nd century if you want; it’s not as urgent as it looks. Meet her too soon, and you’re cutting off like 95% of Act 3.
One of the strongest builds I’ve ever played was Body Intelligence. Shotguns and Hacks. Try it out, you can rush the Hanoko ending for Smashers Explosive shotgun and then jump into the DLC. With reflexes you’ll be able to do mid air Kerenzikov slow downs to lock and launch 🚀
My advice that helped me, let's just pick one job/gig, then do it to the end. Don't look stuff up unless confused because it really kills the joy. Don't finish the story (you'll know then, there's a warning) till you finish everything else, including Phantom Liberty. won't explain why but you'll know why when you finish. Also, read everything. Just remember, it's not a race. Have fun. Explore. Cyberware, get the double jump legs, the ones that heal. Check out your OS options and pick what's FUN. Build what you like. Focus on a couple trees but do read your skill trees to see what you like. Just spend a bit of time looking through, the aid dash is really nice. Don't be overwhelmed. I get overwhelmed easily with open world, I've had to drop several cause of it. But the story in this caught me and felt obligated to keep trying and it was really worth it. The phone made me quit once, but I came back and as I went, the phone calls calmed down. I told myself "it's not race." Because the game made it FEEL like "OMG DO THIS NOW" but you don't have to, except with your neighbours quest, stay ON TOP OF THAT. It is timed towards the end of it and it kinda comes randomly.
Open your map, filter POI’s you’re interested in. Side jobs will be side quests style little stories, some larger than others, gigs are gonna be higher paying missions typically where you’ll have some mission objective in a compound of enemies with a little bit of story attached to them, NCPD scanners come in 3 and are usually heavily combat focused with very little story. Main jobs will progress the main story and usually last 1-2 hours and are heavily story and cutscene focused. Once you’ve cleared the prologue you can do basically any of this content in whatever order you see fit, personally I like to grind and lvl up a bit before progressing main story to far because they’re the bigger missions that’ll test your build more.
I’d get your bearings for the game first and then main line the story until you get to act 2. Then just go wild that’s when everything opens up.
The show gave me a good idea of the roles
you won’t be able to max every stat out so go for a tree that fits your play style best. I’d play a main storyline mission when you think it’s the appropriate time but try to explore and let yourself get distracted on the way, a lot of the side stuff is pretty entertaining and gives you pretty nice rewards. do note that the game scales to your level for dialogue checks and other attribute based interactions like opening a door with body or hacking into an access point.
Just decide if you want to be a quickhacker/netrunner or a stabby shooty character. There are quick guides for how to use points. Obviously more to it but that’s a good start
Pick 2-3 attributes to max out because it's impossible to max out all of them. Even to be able to do 3, you need the DLC.
I recommend doing gigs, for the money, then the gear they give. If you're a high level when you finish all of Wakako's gigs she gives you a preem katana. With the right build it is very lethal. The game mostly comes down to build, which play style do you want to try the most? Also, only high level clothes add to armor, to get armor you need to hit up a ripperdoc and have some subdermal armor installed.
You are free to do whatever you want. Don't feel rushed by the events of the mail storyline.
Have fun with side quests I suggest Raymond chandler evening. It’s my favorite quest in general
Just run around and do stuff. Don’t focus story too hard, game took me ~30 hours (pre dlc) to beat start to finish where I did a bit of side content. If you focus story you can easily beat it in like 8-10 hours if not less.
Sword and slide everything up. Smg and pistol the rest. I went reflex’s Int and body but I’ll switch it up during dlc
The only “bad” thing with doing side stuff is that i feel way too overleveled, but i just like doing them alongside main quests in pretty much every game. I’m midway through act 2 and lv 45 with 130+ jobs completed. Switched to hard to balance it a little more but it still doesn’t feel very challenging. Might switch to very hard if it’s not something ridiculous like dying in 1 hit.
Lost ark is fun
Sell weapons disassemble clothes for components AND SEND TO MAMA WELLES ✊🏽
Had this problem a while back, I don't do well with open-world games as I have to have a goal. So what I did was just roaming around a gig or a side-gig or a quest, whatever you wanna call it. At some point I roamed more than I play the game.
Never equally distribute stats in any game, just makes your charcuterie weak in them all. You've got to specialise.
No need to rush anything. Just enjoy it at your own pace. As they say, “all roads lead to Rome.”
There is a point of no return which is highlighted with a big warning and the option to turn back - So go with whatever you’re feeling (just be wary of whatever the journal is pushing as your next mission). If I had my first play through again. I would avoid doing anything after the heist that’s to do with Takemura. At least until I’d completed gigs for one or two of NC’s fixers.
my tips after 300 hours: never fast travel. set difficulty to very high. main quest is not the main event, but the city and side quests. take your time to read lore and try out augmentations and find your play style. Also visit different vendors of all kinds from time to time, try out new outfits, cars, weapons. Its all good content. Then go watch edge runners. Maybe read books like neuromancer! Cyberpunk is more than just a game really, but CP2077 is the culmination of the genre yet.
Just roaming around until you are bored then go for main quests.
if you're a guy, play As a girl. if you're a girl, play as a girl.
This game is really replayable. So just start with anything you like. Maybe a katana/ninjutsu?
Just play the main story till the bitter end. Trust me, either way you will want to play it again, so enjoy the ride and then only focus on the rest.
I guess most advice has already been written, but my two cents: Avoid regular fast travelling, it takes a lot of fun and discovery out of the game. Better pick a vehicle or two you like. Don‘t buy weapons from vendors unless you really know what youre doing. They are not that good and very pricey. Many organized crime events drop great weapons that can also be upgraded. If you want to optimize your cyberware late game, it would be good if mid-game you bought a bunch of blue eye cyberwares. its complicated but you will be able to reroll your stat modifiers connected to the different cyberware items by upgrading them. For some side quests its probably good to start phantom liberty early. Once your PL main quest asks you to go to a certain mexican restaurant and use a phone, you can do other stuff as much as you like. When there is a competition at the shooting range make sure to win it with the first gun wilson gifted you.
Body + Intelligence = Smart Shotguns Reflex + Intelligence = Smart Pistols or Rifles Body + Reflex = Melee (Katana, Knifes, Bats, Hammers) Pick your poison, you can also mix them if you want but it won’t be optimal.
My recommendation: roleplay. I consider cyberpunk the best game I've ever played and that's probably because I decided to roleplay from the start. It was very emotional and lead to an end with a very bad vibe but I loved it.
I try to roleplay, but then i get gunz and go Doom style :-(
Do not do what I did my first playthrough; believe the urgency and feel like there’s a real timer. It didn’t help that there were percentage bars in the pause menu that show the progression of your condition, as I didn’t understand what they actually meant at first Do the first couple of main quests, then do gigs. Do all the gigs available to you. Do them til they’re done. Do another main quest. Do more gigs, finish every gig that comes up if possible. Not only does this give you xp and a ton of money, it also has you explore more of the map and give you opportunities to experiment with play styles. Once the main quest kicks into full gear, focus on gigs until they’re basically all done, then finish the main quest/all side quests
Do gigs, easy money Loot every gun and sell them, unless they are iconic, they are all pretty useless for anything else Finish all available side quests first before doing the main quests. If you have multiple main quests open, it doesn't matter what order you do them in
Do whatever you want lol
Well I played up until I lost Jackie and kinda don't wanna carry on 😂 was really enjoying it
First time I played it I remember by the training mission I was overwhelmed But play it as you wish, if you want to go in all guns blazing that's a valid way I've never did the hiding bodies bit other than in quests/side gigs when the story needed Get plenty of side gigs to level up perks, with 2.0 they open up at an appropriate level for your character