With Cyberpunk 2077 coming to Game Pass, a lot of you are experiencing this fantastic RPG for the first time. A lot of things have changed since the game first came out, so I’ll be going over a few tips to get you up to speed.
These tips will be spoiler-free, so I won’t be throwing in anything that ruins the experience for you. Let’s get started!
Cyberpunk 2077 as a New Player
There’s no need to overcomplicate things in terms of the actual gameplay, because Cyberpunk 2077 does a pretty good job of onboarding you with its tutorials. There’s even an optional combat and stealth tutorial after the intro of whichever lifepath you’ve chosen.
With that said, there are a few things to keep in mind while playing through it that you’re unlikely to know as a new player. Here are some tips to help you out:
1. Don’t Ignore Side Content
I’m not just saying this because the game’s an RPG and the side quests are genuinely some of the best content in the game, but the rewards are incredibly helpful as well. Those side gigs and NCPD scanner nodes in the map are all worth doing, as they’ll help you rack up a lot of XP and money over time.
You’re going to need a lot of cash if you ever plan on buying cyberware from ripperdocs, because those become prohibitively expensive real quick. Faster levels are nice too, as you get a lot of substantial perks through the skill trees. On that note…
2. There Is No “Meta” Build
Don’t get bogged down by the thought that you have to follow somebody else’s “build”, because everything works fine in Cyberpunk 2077. It’s all dependent on the type of character you’re trying to make.
If you wanna be a brawler who uses melee weapons and/or augmentations to fight up close, you can easily achieve that. Wanna be a stealthy netrunner who can clear an entire room by just staring at people from a distance? Doesn’t take a genius to build for that either.
Just take your time and read the nodes in each skill tree to get a general idea of what you should be prioritizing. You can also respec your attributes, but only once per playthrough. Perks can be changed at any time though.
I highly suggest saving a lot so you can reload if you aren’t satisfied with a choice you’ve made.
3. Avoid Rushing Through the Story
This ties into the first tip, but Cyberpunk 2077 does have a definitive end, and there are a handful of side quests that factor into some of the potential endings. The only exception will be the first act, because the game really opens up after you complete it.
I don’t recommend “rushing” either way, though. Even in act 1, you should at least try to explore a bit and get acclimated with how the game works. Most people reach the title card in around 5-6 hours, give or take. After that, the rest of the map opens up, revealing just how massive it actually is.
The story, especially at the start, is a slow burn. Even though the stakes would imply that you should be in a hurry, the game has no time limit. There’s also a point of no return that the game warns you about in advance, so it’s highly unlikely that you’d accidentally finish a playthrough.
If you want, you can just treat the game like a sandbox and ignore the main quest until you complete pretty much everything else in the map. Hell, I’ve had a playthrough where I exhausted the entire world map while an NPC from the main questline spent weeks of their life waiting for me in a diner.
4. Don’t Buy Cars Early
There are plenty of vehicles to get for free through the side quests and just plain exploration, so I highly recommend spending your early cash on cyberware instead. Without spoiling anything, you do get at least one free vehicle at the end of the first act.
There’s also one you can get from a boxing side quest, but let’s just say that it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea in terms of aesthetics. There are a bunch more throughout the game, including sports cars and… a cab. So you’re kinda spoiled for choice when it comes to free stuff.
While there is an achievement for getting every purchasable vehicle in the game, it’s going to be a while before you can even do this as some of them aren’t available to you until much later anyway.
5. Explore!
As much as possible, try to run or drive around the map rather than using the fast travel systems in the game. There are a lot of fun things to discover through exploration, whether they be fleshed out side content or easy-to-miss environmental storytelling. You might even find some decent loot underwater!
Cyberpunk 2077 is designed with wanderers in mind, and you’re likely to find quests without even looking for them on the map. There’s a handful of side stuff that go away after finishing certain quests or making specific decisions, main story or otherwise, so I still suggest periodically checking the map for any gigs you may have missed.
Random events were also added at some point, so you may run into shootouts or get chased down by an angry group of gang members as you enter your car. These don’t make the game feel as alive as something like Red Dead Redemption 2, but the game certainly doesn’t feel empty either.
I’ll admit that the game isn’t a full sandbox experience, as you do eventually run out of stuff to interact with outside of random combat encounters. You’ll go through at least a hundred hours worth of activities in a single playthrough before getting to that point though.
Just Have Fun With It!
If you enjoyed the starting act of Cyberpunk 2077, the game opens up so much more that it might feel a bit overwhelming at first. There are plenty of varying outcomes in both main and side story content, and the best part about playing through it with fresh eyes is doing it all blind. Hopefully these tips can help prepare you for the long haul to come.
Don’t blindly listen to random tips that blurt out NPC names and suggest specific courses of action/dialogue options for them. You’d be overoptimizing the story for their desired ending that way. Craft your own personalized narrative for your initial playthrough, because you only get to experience it for the first time once.
Again, there is a very explicitly defined point of no return in the game, so it’s not like you’ll suddenly go “whoops I finished the story” at any point. The worst case scenario is that you move things along and miss some side gigs that you would have enjoyed, but you can always seek them out in the next playthrough, if ever!