Cyberpunk 2077 guide: Best stats and attributes explained

After years of waiting, Cyberpunk 2077 is finally here. To no one's surprise, CD Projekt RED's latest game is a true RPG, and that means a vast world filled with choices, people, secrets, and tons of ways to customize your "V." To become stronger and take on every threat and obstacle in Cyberpunk 2077, you'll need to master attributes. These essential facets of your character improve your core stats, unlock new perks and abilities to earn, and all-in-all bring you closer to becoming unstoppable chaos. Here's everything you need to know about attributes in Cyberpunk 2077.

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What do stats and attributes do in Cyberpunk 2077?

Cyberpunk 2077 is a full-blown RPG, and that means it's up to the player to decide what kind of protagonist their game will have. Rather than a linear story and a pre-defined character, you can customize every aspect of your "V," from their appearance, personality, and especially their skillset. Like other RPGs, Cyberpunk 2077 caters to every playstyle and preference, and you can achieve your perfect character using attributes and skills.

There is an absurd number of options available in Cyberpunk 2077, and it can be bewilderingly complex at first glance (especially for those who aren't intimately familiar with traditional RPGs).

In this Cyberpunk 2077 guide, we'll be going over all the primary attribute groups, why you should care about your skills, and how to take advantage of this staggeringly deep system to craft the exact playstyle you want. Desire to be a gun-slinging ranger that specializes in marksmanship and ranged weapons? Done. A technologically-advanced netrunner that can silently hack their way into the strongest of fortresses and emerge unscathed? Absolutely. A berserker that wields powerful weapons and brute strength indiscriminately? You can do that too.

There's an endless number of ways to go about this, so let's get started with the basics.

How do I use and level-up attributes in Cyberpunk 2077?

In Cyberpunk 2077, attributes are general skill groups that increase your base stats, give you bonuses in key game aspects, and grant you access to a considerable number of perks, which are split into their own groups. There are five attribute groups in total, and each one caters to a different kind of playstyle. You can (and are encouraged) to improve every attribute, but it's entirely up to the individual player to decide which attributes are most important, and where to invest your attribute points.

You can check out each attribute group below and information about what each attribute does, or you can check out our comprehensive list of all skills, attributes, and perks in Cyberpunk 2077 for the ultimate resource on everything you can accomplish in Cyberpunk 2077. In this guide, we're more focused on how to use attributes and why they're important.

Attributes

Like many RPG's, Cyberpunk 2077 gives you a level that indicates your overall power level, to help you gauge your growth as well as the difficulty of missions and enemies. You level up by gaining XP, which comes from completing missions, defeating baddies, and pretty much everything else. There's never a shortage of things to do if you want to become stronger, and Cyberpunk 2077 will generally award everything you do with XP; that way, your time spent almost always leads to character growth.

When you level up, you'll always gain an attribute point. These points can be spent towards one of the five base attribute groups. Putting points into an attribute will give you base stat increases related to that attribute. This could mean increased melee attack, superior armor, more health or stamina, and so much more. This ensures that, even without a focus on what kind of character you want, leveling up will still increase your strength.

It goes a lot deeper, though. Each attribute group contains two to three perk groups, which offer specific abilities and upgrades for your character. This is how you customize your loadout to the minute details and setup your character exactly the way you want.

Players can invest attribute points wherever they want, either pouring everything into just a few, or focusing on a more even spread. Ultimately, your attributes dictate what kind of character builds you have access too, so study each attribute and their relevant perk groups to decide what you want to do. The sky's the limit in Cyberpunk 2077.

Perks

Perks are sub-classes under attributes, with more specific focuses. Gaining perks gives you new abilities, bonuses, and specific boosts to your character. If you want to be a gun-wielding ninja, a stealth-based killer, or a craft-happy handyman, perks are how you achieve this goal. You unlock perks by spending perk points, which are separate from the attribute points you gain from leveling up.

You can still gain perk points from leveling up alongside your attribute points, but you also gain perk points from doing things in the world. If you beat so many enemies with your firsts, for example, you may get a perk point that you can either spend on making your melee abilities stronger or on anything else. Cyberpunk 2077 will occasionally reward you with perks just for doing something in a game a lot, encouraging players to try multiple ways of playing, and letting your abilities grow faster than your base stats.

This doesn't mean you can ignore attributes, though. Many perks are locked behind prerequisites and require a minimum attribute level from their group in order to be unlocked. This means you need to make sure you're spending your attribute points wisely, so you can earn the perks that you want. Those who remember the old Star Wars RPGs will be familiar with a system like this.

Finally, some perks (but not all) can be upgraded with additional perk points, increasing their effects or bonuses above the base amount. Even if you have your character set up the way you want, there are likely ways to still improve them with better stats and abilities.

What are all of the attributes in Cyberpunk 2077?

If you want the full rundown of every attribute and perk in Cyberpunk 2077, you'll definitely want to refer to our comprehensive guide. There are a lot, so we're just sticking with the basics here. There are a total of five attributes, and each has very different effects on your character and gameplay. Let's take a look.

Body

The Body attribute determines your character's strength and fortitude. This increases your physical power and stamina, which helps with health, melee damage, grappling bonuses, and even allows you to force open doors. Love melee weapons, close-quarters combat, or just being the strongest person in the room? Increase your Body attribute.

Starting from Level 3, every point added to the Body attribute gives you:

• +5 Health Points
• +3 Stamina Points
• +3 damage with fists and Gorilla Arms
• 1.5% increase to melee weapon damage
• 6% decrease to movement penalty while grappling and wielding an HMG
• 5-second increase to enemy grapple duration
• Increased movement while grappling

Reflexes

There are two sides to the physical in Cyberpunk 2077. While the Body attribute is all about brute force, the Reflexes attribute is more about finesse and speed. This still helps you out with melee weapons if you have the right setup, but the most significant advantage from the Reflexes attribute will simply be increased Evasion, Critical Chance, and the perks you gain access to.

Every point added to the Reflexes attribute gives you:

• 1% increase to passive Evasion from enemy attacks
• 1% increase to Critical Chance
• +3 damage with Mantis Blades

Technical Ability

The Technical Ability is a little bit different from the other attributes in that this attribute is way more useful for the perks you can unlock with it than for its base stat increases. That's not to say you can't find a lot of use just increasing your Technical Ability attribute, as building it up lets you unlock doors and use powerful Tech weapons. Still, this is the attribute to go for if you want to be able to craft whatever you need yourself, or want the mechanical know-how to find a way out of any situation.

Every point added to the Technical Ability attribute gives you:

• 5% increase in Armor

Intelligence

The Intelligence attribute is vital for a key part of Cyberpunk 2077's mechanics: hacking. In a world where technology has proliferated everything, including our own bodies, being able to hack is a vital resource and instrumental skill. Boosting your Intelligence attribute will let you take over security measures, enemy cyber-implants, and more. Inject a little bit of Watch Dogs into your playthrough of Cyberpunk 2077 with the Intelligence attribute.

Every point added to the Intelligence attribute gives you:

• 4% increase in cyberdeck RAM capacity
• 0.5% increase in quickhack damage
• 1% increase to quickhack duration

Cool

You may think that the Cool attribute increases your similarity to Johnny Silverhand, but it's not that kind of cool. Instead, this is your character's ability to remain calm under pressure, which is extremely important with stealth. This means bonuses to base stealth stats, as well as increased critical damage and basic resistance. If you want to slip through any stronghold unnoticed, boost the Cool attribute.

Every point added to the Cool attribute gives you:

• 2% increase to Critical Damage
• 1% increase to Resistances
• 10% increase to stealth damage
• 0.5% decrease to speed enemies detect you in stealth
• +3 damage with monowire

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