Cyberpunk 2077 Beginner Guide — Attributes, Perks and Early Money

Cyberpunk 2077 lets you rebuild your character cheaply, but the early hours still reward focus. Pick one primary attribute — Body for shotguns and blunt weapons, Reflexes for blades and mobility, Intelligence for quickhacks, Technical Ability for crafting and cyberware, Cool for stealth and precision rifles — and push it toward its perk thresholds rather than sprinkling points everywhere. Perks only unlock at specific attribute levels, so a scattershot build ends up locking itself out of the good nodes in every tree at once.

Money is the real bottleneck, and the most reliable source is not the main story: it is gigs and NCPD scanner hustles. They are short, they pay, and they leave you with skill progression and loot. Sell the guns and clothing you are not wearing at drop points, and dismantle low-value junk for crafting components instead of hoarding it. Do not spend heavily on vehicles early — you get a free car, the metro covers most of the map, and that money is far better spent on cyberware at a ripperdoc. Prioritise the frontal cortex and operating system slots, since those gate your quickhacks and the iconic cyberware that defines most builds.

A few habits keep you alive: craft and upgrade your main weapon instead of constantly swapping, use cover aggressively since even late-game enemies can drop you quickly, and read shard pickups and supply drops for skill and perk rewards. If you own the Phantom Liberty expansion, its new Relic skill tree adds a second progression axis that makes an early detour to Dogtown worth considering.