Cyberpunk 2077 offers a very open system for creating your character build: there are no classes, so everything depends on how you distribute your Attribute Points and Perk Points. Meanwhile, you will be leveling your Skills by directly using them (that is, by performing actions that relate to a certain Skill). Your Skills will be filling the gaps in your character build and often lending themselves to your build planning organically, since you will most likely be leveling the aspects of your character you use the most. This guide will focus on the Character Skills in Cyberpunk 2077, how you level these Skills up, and what benefits you get by doing so.
Skills fit neatly into the Attribute-Skill-Perk RPG system of Cyberpunk 2077: Attributes set a level cap on your Skills and you customize your Skill-related bonuses by purchasing Perks. If you need a quick overview of this system, we have prepared a “Attributes vs. Skills vs. Perks” section for you below.
Skills are at an interesting place in this system — at a first glance they might seem not to do much, but you will notice that the passive bonuses from their Skill Progression Rewards add up quickly to make a difference for your unique build, especially when it comes to weapon proficiency. Skills will also provide you with most of your Perk points.
(It’s still worth leveling some of the skills you don’t plan on using — a good chunk of all Progression Rewards are Perk points!)
Here are the bonuses you will see from leveling your Skills:
Each Skill level above the 1st earns Skill Progression Rewards, which award passive increases along with Perk points. They are the main source of your perk points in the game (read more about Perks in our Perks Guide).
Getting your Skill to level 20 unlocks an exclusive Perk for that Skill.
For most ranged and melee weapons, your Skill level significantly improves the experience of wielding that weapon due to Skill Progression Rewards.
There is also a slightly less noticeable bonus to paying attention to your Skills: they serve as a good way to track what actions you perform the most as your play through the game. If you aren’t sure about what build you should pursue, either at the beginning or mid-game, just watch which Skills you level the quickest. Of course, you can significantly expedite Skill leveling by investing into Perks and by trying to perform certain actions more frequently, so expect the correlation to go both ways.
With that being said, let’s look at what suggestions and tips we have for you and then go through each of the Skills individually.
We cover the basics of this correlation in our Attributes Guide and Ultimate Character Guide if you want to make sure you fully understand the system. Still, we will cover the basics and a few important points here once again.
Here are the basics:
Attributes themselves give you passive bonuses per level (see individual Attributes listed later in this guide).
Attributes set a cap level for your Skills. Skills are leveled through use.
Attributes unlock high-level Perks. All Perks except for one (that is, one for each Skill) are unlocked by increasing your Attribute level.
If you don’t know what Skills you want to focus on, it’s a good idea to observe what Skills you use the most (that is, what Skill-related actions you perform the most — see our list below for correlations) and then increase Attribute levels to accommodate them.
Don’t get carried away in only investing into a couple specific Attributes that you envision for your build (unless you have a very specific plan that concerns Attribute bonuses and Perk unlocks) — if you can’t seem to catch up with Skill XP, look to Skills like Cold Blood, Athletics, and Annihilation and see if you naturally lean towards leveling them. Their Attribute bonuses, Skill Progression bonuses, and Perks will benefit a lot of character builds and investing into those areas might smooth out some of the rough edges of your build.
If you don’t know what maxing-out a Skill does for you in regards to Perks (since Attributes unlock almost all of the Perks for you), we suggest you look over our section titled “Unlocking Traits” below.
List: Leveling Skills
(The list was adapted, with some changes and additional tips by us, from Cyberpunk 2077 – The Complete Official Guide by Piggyback.)
Concrete XP values you will see in this list will scale based on a target’s level. Numbers you will see here are base values.
If a Skill is leveled by dealing damage to enemies in a specific manner, keep in mind that the XP will be awarded after your target is neutralized — it might look like you need to kill an enemy using a skill-related action in order to get the XP, but that is not the case, unless the phrase “defeating targets” is used.
If you have discovered some other non-obvious methods of leveling Skills efficiently, please let us know in the comments and we will add them below!
Handguns (Reflexes)
Dealing damage with pistols and revolvers
XP varies with damage dealt
Blades (Reflexes)
Dealing damage with katanas, knives, one-handed blades, and Mantis Blades
XP varies with damage dealt
Assault (Reflexes)
Dealing damage with rifles and submachine guns
XP varies with damage dealt
Crafting (Technical Ability)
Crafting an item
XP varies with item crafted
Extra Tip: starting mid-game (level 20-25+) it’s a good idea to start collecting higher-rarity loot as you explore the city, particularly rare and epic drops, and dismantling anything you do not need to use the components for higher-level crafting. You will notice a big difference when working with higher-level materials. Find gang hideouts and larger areas with frequent enemy spawning (for example, locations inside Pacifica) and attack larger groups of enemies to get a lot of loot.
Upgrading an item
XP varies with item crafted
Disassembling a junk or equipment item
Awards 5 XP
Extra Tip: it might be tempting to get the Scrapper perk to automatically disassemble junk items and expedite the leveling process, but beware that this will destroy 750E$+ junk items that will give you components based on their rarity grade and not their price. That is, a common $750E$ junk item will give you the same common components as a 5E$ junk item, but will end up being much more valuable when sold.
Engineering (Technical Ability)
Opening doors and performing other actions that require a certain Technical Ability Attribute level
Awards 100 XP
Dealing damage with grenades
XP varies with damage dealt
Dealing damage with wall-piercing shots
XP varies with damage dealt
Breach Protocol (Intelligence)
Quickhacking device targets
Awards 75 XP
Opening doors and performing other actions that require a certain Intelligence Attribute level
Awards 100 XP
Extra Tip: you will encounter extraneous devices, like mounted TVs and spotlight lamps that are used as decor. Quickhacking takes only a second to perform, but messing with every device you see early on will make a difference for progressing through lower levels. Try to hack different targets to maximize the XP rewards. Same goes for ICEpick Breach Protocol sequences – they take a few more seconds, but starting most of your battles with debuffed enemies or decreased RAM cost is of advantage to you and will help you level Breach Protocol in no time.
Quickhacking (Intelligence)
Quickhacking enemy targets
Awards 75 XP
Extra Tip: applying multiple quickhacks to the same target scales the XP value you get per each action down.
Athletics (Body)
Opening doors and performing other actions that require a certain Body Attribute level
Awards 100 XP
Spending 500 or more stamina through actions
Awards 25 XP
Annihilation (Body)
Dealing damage with shotguns and machine guns
XP varies with damage dealt
Street Brawler (Body)
Dealing damage with fists, blunt weapons, Gorilla Arms, and Monowire
XP varies with damage dealt
Dealing damage with the Superhero Landing with Berserk is active
XP varies with damage dealt
Ninjutsu (Cool)
Dealing damage with sneak attacks
XP varies with damage dealt
Performing a takedown (both lethal and non-lethal)
Awards 100 XP
Concealing bodies in drop-off locations
Awards 100 XP
Extra Tip: If you have a moment after a battle, go around and drop bodies into a nearest trash bin/dumping location. Most of the locations have at least one, but they can be overfilled. This won’t take too long and will give your Ninjutsu Skill a great boost, especially early on.
Performing a takedown and hiding the body simultaneously
Awards 200 XP
Cold Blood (Cool)
Performing finishing moves in combat
Awards 100 XP
Defeating targets with at least one Cold Blood stack active
XP varies with damage dealt
Extra Tip (one of our favorite tips!): This is definitely one of our favorite skills to level! If you invest a single perk point into the Skill to unlock Cold Blood, you will start gaining that Cold Blood stack automatically with a bonus to your movement speed every time you defeat an enemy, and thus level the Skill automatically. This skill will quickly get to level 2 and give you a 10% Crit Chance increase, then increase your armor by 3% at level 3, and if you put any Attribute levels into Cool ever (that is, if it’s level 4 or above), you will get back your perk point! After that, it will double your investment (extra perk point at level 5) and keep giving and giving, especially if you invest more perk points into it. With this tactic, neutralizing enemies will become one of your strongest abilities. Aim for larger chains of kills to get a lot of XP very quickly.
Unlocking Traits
You might have noticed that Perks are unlocked by leveling a corresponding Attribute, not the Skill.
Why bother leveling a Skill to 20, in that case?
Well, on level 20 of any Skill you will unlock a unique Perk that can only be unlocked by getting that Skill to level 20. For example, Assault of level 20 will unlock Punisher, and Cold Blood will unlock Merciless. These Perks are singled-out as “Traits” because you can keep investing overflow Perk points into them indefinitely — the scaling bonus is listed with every Perk in our Perks Guide.
Let’s look at Merciless as an example. If your Cold Blood is 20, the perk will unlock and do the following: While Cold Blood is active, it increases Crit Chance by 10% and Crit Damage by 25%. Then, it will also give you +1% Crit Chance and +3% Crit Damage per Perk level.
It might not be worth collecting Perk Points specifically to keep investing into Merciless, but it might definitely be worth it to invest your overflow here, if you are mostly left with low-level Perk options due to your lower Attribute levels elsewhere (as we discuss in our Attributes Guide, it’s not possible to get all of your Attributes to maximum level.)
Reflexes Attribute
Assault
Improves ADS Time, Recoil, Spread, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage of your Submachine Guns and all Rifle types.
Level 20 unlocks Punisher Perk. (After defeating an enemy with a Rifle or Submachine Gun, weapon sway is nullified and weapon spread does not increase for 10 sec. +0.2 sec per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Reduces the ADS (aim down sight) Time on Submachine and all Rifles types by 20%.
+1 Perk Point
Reduces the Recoil on Submachine guns and all Rifle types by 10%.
Reduces the Spread on Submachine guns and all Rifle types by 25%.
+1 Perk point
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using a Submachine guns or any Rifle type.
Reduces the Recoil on Submachine guns and all Rifle types by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 15% when using a Submachine gun or any Rifle type.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil on Submachine Guns and all Rifle types by 10%.
Reduces the Recoil on Submachine Guns and all Rifle types by 15%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Spread on Submachine Guns and all Rifle types by 25%.
Reduces the Spread on Submachine Guns and all Rifle types by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil on Submachine Guns and all Rifle types by 15%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Punisher).
Handguns
Improves ADS Time, Recoil, Spread, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage of your Pistols and Revolvers.
Level 20 unlocks The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly Perk. (After a successful Crit Hit with a Pistol or Revolver, damage and Armor increase by 30% for 5 seconds. +1% per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Reduces the ADS (aim down sight) Time of your Pistols and Revolvers by 20%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Pistols and Revolvers by 10%.
Reduces the Spread of your Pistols and Revolvers by 25%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using Pistols or Revolvers.
Reduces the Recoil of your Pistols and Revolvers by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 15% when using Pistols or Revolvers.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Pistols and Revolvers by 10%.
Reduces the Recoil of your Pistols and Revolvers by 15%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Spread of your Pistols and Revolvers by 25%.
Reduces the Spread of your Pistols and Revolvers by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Pistols and Revolvers by 15%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly).
Blades
Improves Stamina, as well as Attack Speed, Stamina Cost, DPS, Crit Damage, Crit Chance, and Block Damage Reduction when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
Level 20 unlocks Dragon Strike Perk. (Increases Crit Damage with Blades by 25%. +1% per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Increases the Attack Speed of your Katanas, Blades and Mantis Blades by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
+10% Stamina Cost Reduction while attacking when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
+2% Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
+10% Crit Damage when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
+10% Crit Chance when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases the Attack Speed of your Katanas, Blades and Mantis Blades by 10%.
+10% Stamina Cost reduction while attacking when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
Increases the Attack Speed of your Katanas, Blades and Mantis Blades by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases the Block Damage Reduction of your Katanas, Blades and Mantis Blades by 25%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Stamina by 5.
+3% Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) when using Katanas, Blades or Mantis Blades.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Dragon Strike).
Intelligence Attribute
Please see our Cyberpunk 2077 Hacking Guide for a more detailed breakdown of the two skills, the Quickhacks list, and some of our strategy ideas!
Breach Protocol
Improves Breach Protocol Time, Components Aquired, RAM, and Buffer Extension.
Level 20 unlocks Transmigration Perk. (Increases the breach time of Breach Protocol by 50%. +5% per Perk level.)
Leveling Method: Device Hacking
You can level Breach Protocol through Device Hacking: scan facility’s devices (both security and stuff like spotlights and mounted TVs) and use your cyberdeck RAM to perform quickhacks on devices like cameras to compromise surveillance and distract your enemies.
Starting level.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Breach Protocol Time by 5%.
Increases Components Aquired by 10%.
Increases Breach Protocol Time by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Breach Protocol Time by 5%.
Increases RAM by 1.
Increases Components Acquired by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Breach Protocol Time by 5%.
Increases Components Acquired by 10%.
Increases RAM by 1.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Breach Protocol Time by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Components Acquired by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Buffer Extension by 1.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Transmigration).
Quickhacking
Improves Quickhack Duration, Quickhack Cooldown, and RAM.
Level 20 unlocks Master RAM Liberator Perk. (Increases RAM recovery rate by 50%. +1% per Perk level.)
Leveling Method: Target Hacking
You can level Quickhacking through Target Hacking: target individual enemies and use your cyberdeck RAM to perform quickhacks on their cyberware system, like compromising their senses, forcing them to deploy their own grenades, or commit suicide.
Starting level.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Quickhack Duration by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases RAM by 1.
Decreases Quickhack Cooldown by 5%.
Increases Quickhack Duration by 5%.
Decreases Quickhack Cooldown by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases RAM by 1.
+1 Perk point
Decreases Quickhack Cooldown by 5%.
Increases Quickhack Duration by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases RAM by 1.
Decreases Quickhack Cooldown by 5%.
Increases Quickhack Duration by 5%.
Decreases Quickhack Cooldown by 5%.
+1 Perk point
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Master RAM Liberator).
Body Attribute
Athletics
Improves Carrying Capacity, Stamina, Stamina Regen Rate, Health, Health Regen Rate, and Armor.
Level 20 unlocks Hard Motherfucker Perk. (When entering combat, Armor and Resistances increase by 10% for 10 sec. +1% per Perk level.)
Note: As of December 23rd, 2020, Athletics is still reported to be the disproportionately slowest-leveling Skill in Cyberpunk 2077. If this is a Skill you aren’t making a lot of progress in, do not blame your approach — many players are struggling with the same issue. There is hoping that CDPR releases a patch that addresses this issue soon.
If you have some advice on how to level this skill fast in its current state, please let us know in the comments!
Starting level.
Increases Carrying Capacity by 20.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Stamina by 5%.
Increases Stamina Regen Rate by 10%.
Increases Carrying Capacity by 40.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Health by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Health by 5%.
Increases Carrying Capacity by 100.
Increases Armor by 3%.
Increases Health Regen Rate outside combat by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Health by 5%.
Increases Armor by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Hard Motherfucker).
Annihilation
Improves ADS Time, Recoil, Spread, Crit Chance, and Crit Damage of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns.
Level 20 unlocks Bloodbath Perk. (Dismembering enemies reduces weapon recoil by 50% for 5 sec. +1% per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Reduces the ADS (aim down sight) Time of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 20%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 10%.
Reduces the Spread of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns.
Reduces the Recoil of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 20% when using Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 10%.
Reduces the Recoil of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 15%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Spread of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 25%.
Reduces the Spread of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces the Recoil of your Shotguns, Light Machine Guns and Heavy Machine Guns by 15%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Bloodbath).
Street Brawler
Improves Stamina and Health, as well as Block Damage Reduction, Attack Speed, Stamina Cost, Crit Damage, DPS, and Crit Chance when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
Level 20 unlocks Guerrilla Perk. (Increases Crit Damage by 60% for 10 seconds after entering combat. +2% per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Increases Block Damage Reduction by 10% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
+1 Perk point
Increases Attack Speed by 5% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
Increases Stamina Cost Reduction while attacking by 10% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 10% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
Increases Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) by 2% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Block Damage Reduction by 10% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
Increases Attack Speed by 10% when using fists, Blunt Weapons or Gorilla Arms.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Stamina by 5%.
Increases Health by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Stamina by 5%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Guerrilla).
Cool Attribute
Ninjutsu (Previously Stealth)
Improves Evasion, Visibility to enemies, Health Regen Rate, Movement Speed, and DPS.
Level 20 unlocks Toxicology Perk. (Increases the duration of Poison applied to enemies by 5 seconds. +0.2 sec per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Increases Evasion by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
Decreases Visibility to enemies by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Health Regen Rate outside combat by 10%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Movement Speed by 3%.
Increases Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) by 2%.
Increases Evasion by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Movement Speed by 2%.
Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%.
Increases Evasion by 4%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Decreases Visibility to enemies by 10%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Toxicology).
Cold Blood
Improves Crit Chance, Armor, Health, Stamina, all Resistances, and Movement Speed.
Level 20 unlocks Merciless Perk. (While Cold Blood is active, increases Crit Chance by 10% and Crit Damage by 25%. +1% Crit Chance and +3% Crit Damage per Perk level.)
Starting level.
Increases Crit Chance by 10%.
Increases Armor by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Health by 10%.
Increases Stamina by 10%.
Increases all Resistances by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Increases all Resistances by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 5%.
Increases Crit Damage by 10%.
Increases Movement Speed by 3%.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Armor by 7%.
Increases Crit Damage by 5%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Merciless).
Technical Ability Attribute
Crafting
Improves Crafting Cost, chance to acquire a component from crafting, and Upgrade Cost. Unlocks Crafting Specs for all grades of consumables, weapons, weapon mods, clothing, combat gadgets, and cyberware.
Level 20 unlocks Crazy Science Perk. (Increases the sale price of crafted items by 10%. +1% per Perk level.)
Starting level.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces Crafting Cost by 5%.
Reduces Crafting Cost by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Unlocks new Crafting Specs for consumables, weapons and clothing.
Increases chance to aquire a component from Crafting by 5%.
+1 Perk point.
Unlocks Crafting Specs for Rare weapons, weapon mods and clothing.
+1 Perk point.
Reduces Crafting Cost by 5%.
Increases chance to aquire a component from Crafting by 5%.
Unlocks Crafting Specs for Epic weapons, combat gadgets and cyberware.
+1 Perk point.
Increases chance to aquire a component from Upgrading by 5%.
Reduces Upgrade Cost by 15%.
+1 Perk point.
Unlocks Crafting Specs for Legendary weapons and clothing.
Reduces Upgrade Cost by 15%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Crazy Science).
Engineering
Improves Armor, Charge Time, DPS, Crit Chance, Thermal Resistance, and Crit Damage when using Tech weapons.
Level 20 unlocks Revamp Perk. (Increases damage from Tech weapons by 25%. Increases charge damage from all chargeable weapons and cyberware by 10%. +1% charge damage per Perk level.)
Starting level.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Armor by 3% when using Tech weapons.
Decreases Charge Time by 5%.
Increases Effective Damage Per Second (DPS) by 5% when using Tech weapons.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Armor by 3% when using Tech weapons.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using Tech weapons.
+1 Perk point
Increases Armor by 4% when using Tech weapons.
Increases Thermal Resistance by 5% when using Tech weapons.
Increases Crit Chance by 5% when using Tech weapons.
+1 Perk point.
Increases Crit Damage by 15% when using Tech weapons.
Increases Armor by 2% when using Tech weapons.
+1 Perk point.
+1 Perk point.
Decreases Charge Time by 10%.
Unlocks the last Perk in the Skill tree (Revamp).
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Mila Grish
Dedicated contributor at EIP Gaming and a part-time collector of books she will never have time to actually read. Jumps on the newest releases just as quickly as on the uncovered dusty collections from the basement. For her, shiny graphics can never be an excuse to not have a polished player experience or an immersive story.