Cyberpunk 2077: What activities develop V's skills? Cyberpunk 2077 guide, walkthrough

Last update: 02 November 2022

This page of our guide for Cyberpunk 2077 explains how to develop V's skills and level them up. You will find out what activities are useful for developing skills. These are obviously different types of activities for different skills.

• Levelling up character's skills - general information
• Athletics - how to develop?
• Annihilation - how to develop?
• Street Brawler - how to develop?
• Handguns - how to develop?
• Blades - how to develop?
• Rifles - how to develop?
• Crafting - how to develop?
• Engineering - how to develop?
• Stealth - how to develop?
• Cold Blood - how to develop?
• Breach Protocol - how to develop?
• Quickhacking - how to develop?

Levelling up character's skills - general information

In Cyberpunk 2077 you can develop V's skills. There are 12 skill trees in the game and each skill category falls under one of the five main attributes of the main character.

Experience points for skills are not earned at the same rate as the "main" experience levels. The development of skills is much slower. This is because the game adds XP only for activities related to a particular skill category. For example, in the hacking skill category, the game adds XP only for successfully hacking opponents and devices. You will find information about what types of activities enable you to develop particular skills later on in this page. This is a very important knowledge in terms of faster leveling of particular skills and reaping the associated benefits.

You can track your progress in developing a given skill in the window of its tree, i.e. in the window where you buy perks associated with a given skill. The information is displayed in the lower left-hand corner of the screen. You can find out how much XP you are missing until your next level up and what rewards for progress you have already managed to unlock. The rewards can be free perk points (to be spent on any skill tree) and stat bonuses.

Each skill can be developed to level 20. However, there is one important limitation here - the current skill level cannot exceed the level of the attribute to which it is linked.

In the example shown above the attribute Body has 6 points. This means that you will be able to develop Athletics, Annihilation and Street Brawler to a maximum of level 6 out of 20. You must first spend development points on increasing the attribute and only then continue to gain xp for the associated skills.

After you advance to the maximum level 20, you will gain access to a special perk. The unique per is obviously different for each of the 12 skill categories.

The special perk, apart from offering a stat bonus has one important feature - it can be developed any number of times, i.e. you can spend any number of perks points on it. Each spent perk point will make the special perk stronger and V's stats will increase even more. Spending perk points on upgrading the special perk is only advisable in the final phase of the game once you have unlocked all the most important perks related to your chosen style of play.

Athletics - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to Body. You need to develop your Body attribute to be able to gain xp and level up Athletics.

In order to develop your Athletics you must:

1. Perform activities that require a lot of physical strength. These can be, for example, opening a closed door by force (relying on Body-based action) or tearing a defensive turret from the base on which it was placed.
2. Perform activities that use up the character's stamina .

Annihilation - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to Body. You need to develop your Body attribute in order to gain xp and level up Annihilation.

In order to develop Annihilation you must:

1. Use shotguns to eliminate enemies.
2. Use heavy weapons (e.g. heavy machine guns) to eliminate opponents.

Street Brawler - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to Body. You need to develop your Body attribute to be able to gain xp and levels up Street Brawler.

In order to develop Street Brawler you have to:

1. Beat your opponents in fistfights. XP is gained during fistfights and while using the Gorilla Arms (cyberware).
2. Defeat your opponents with blunt weapons. You can always find the type of used melee weapon in its description (the second main weapon type is blades - they are related to another skill category).
3. Defeat your opponents with a monwire. This is an advanced cyberware to be purchased from ripperdoc.

Handguns - how to develop?

This is a skill category associated with the Reflexes attribute. You need to develop the Reflexes to be able to gain xp and level up Handguns.

In order to develop Handguns you must:

1. Use pistols to eliminate enemies.
2. Use revolvers to eliminate enemies.

Blades - how to develop?

This is a skill category associated with the Reflexes attribute. You need to develop Reflexes to be able to gain xp and level up Blades.

In order to develop the Blades you must:

1. Defeat your opponents with blades. This is a variety of melee weapons, which includes, among others, katanas and knives. You can always find the type of used melee weapon in its description (the second main weapon type is blunt weapons - they are related to another skill category).
2. Defeat your opponents with mantis blades. This is an advanced cyberware to be purchased from ripperdoc.

Rifles - how to develop?

This is a skill category associated with the Reflexes attribute. You need to develop Reflexes in order to gain xp and level up Rifles.

In order to develop Rifles skill you must:

1. Use SMGs to eliminate enemies.
2. Use various types of rifles to eliminate enemies. Apart from assault rifles, they can also be sniper rifles.

Crafting - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to the Technical Ability attribute. You need to develop Technical Ability in order to gain xp and level up Crafting.

In order to develop Crafting you must:

1. Create new items through crafting.
2. Improve your items through crafting.
3. Break down items from the inventory. You can purchase a perk that can automatically break down items classified as junk / scrap.

Engineering - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to the Technical Ability attribute. You need to develop Technical Ability in order to gain xp and level up Engineering.

In order to develop Engineering you must:

1. Perform activities that require you to use technical skills. This could be, for example, cracking a lock in a closed door. Generally, this is about activities that require the use of the Technical Ability attribute.
2. Use weapons that penetrate walls to eliminate enemies. This is specifically about Tech weapons.
3. Use grenades to eliminate enemies.

Stealth - how to develop?

This is a skill category associated with the Cool attribute. You need to develop Cool to be able to gain xp and level up Stealth.

In order to develop Stealth, you have to:

1. Carry out successful surprise attacks on opponents. These can be, for example, disabling after getting behind the enemy's back and grabbing them, or attacks with a silenced weapons.
2. Hide the bodies of defeated opponents. Look for all sorts of large containers - lift the bodies and place them in crates.

Cold Blood - how to develop?

This is a skill category associated with the Cool attribute. You need to develop Cool to be able to gain xp and level up Cold Blood.

In order to develop Cold Blood, you must eliminate your opponents when the Cold Blood is active. As a reminder, this is a passive perk that must be bought first. By default, it activates after defeating an opponent and guarantees increased movement speed for a short time. The Cold Blood Tree is associated with its development.

Breach Protocol - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to the Intelligence attribute. You need to develop your Intelligence to be able to gain xp and level up Breach Protocol.

In order to develop Breach Protocol you must:

1. Perform activities that require high intelligence. These may include attempts to hack systems. Generally, this is about activities that require the use of the Intelligence attribute.
2. Break into systems using Breach Protocol. We are talking about hacks that involve a hacking mini-game.
3. Hack devices (e.g. vending machines, computers, fans).

Quickhacking - how to develop?

This is a skill category related to the Intelligence attribute. You need to develop your Intelligence to be able to gain xp and level up Quickhacking.

In order to develop Quickhacking you must use hacking on your opponents. This is about using hacks related to the currently used cyberdeck.