Cyberpunk 2077 presents five different Attributes – Body, Technical Ability, Reflexes, Cool and Intelligence – but there are also Skills. These are different from Perks, acting more like sub-categories for each Attribute. The more you use a Skill, the more it levels up but only till level 7. Past this point, investing more points into the corresponding Attribute is necessary to advance a skill further.
Each Attribute has three different types of Skills associated with it. The Body Attribute has Athletics, Annihilation and Street Brawler which are increased by running and climbing, killing enemies with machine guns and shotguns, and defeating foes with melee weapons respectively.
Hitting level 7 on Athletics will increase carrying capacity by 40, grant two more Perk Points, five percent more stamina and 10 percent increased stamina regeneration. If you manage to get to level 9, then another Perk Point and five percent increased health will be provided. As for Annihilation, hitting level 7 ultimately provides 20 percent reduced time for aiming down sights, 10 percent reduced recoil, 5 percent increased critical chance and 25 percent reduced spread on shotguns and machine guns along with two additional Perk Points. Getting to level 9 will provide an additional 10 percent of recoil reduction and one more Perk Point.
Finally, if you hit level 7 with the Street Brawler, then you gain 10 percent block damage reduction, 10 percent stamina cost reduction, 10 percent increased critical damage and 5 percent increased attack speed with fists, blunt weapons and Gorilla Arms along with two more Perk Points. Hitting level 9 grants 2 percent more effective damage per second with the above weapon types and another Perk Point.
Next is Reflexes. Its main Skills are Handguns, Blades and Assaults. As you might have guessed, they’re leveled by using pistols and revolvers, bladed weapons, and rifles and SMGs respectively. Let’s start with the benefits provided from leveling Handguns. Hitting level 7 with this Skill will provide 20 percent reduced ADS time, 10 percent reduced recoil, 25 percent reduced spread and 5 percent increased critical chance with pistols and revolvers. You also get two additional Perk Points to spend. If you manage to hit level 9, then you get another Perk Point and 10 percent reduced recoil on handguns.
For Blades, getting to level 7 will provide 10 percent increased attack speed, 10 percent stamina cost reduction, 2 percent increased effective damage per second, 10 percent critical damage and 5 percent critical chance when using blades. One additional Perk Point will also be provided. Hitting level 9 simply grants two more Perk Points. Finally, with Assaults, getting to level 7 will provide 20 percent reduced ADS time, 10 percent recoil reduction, 25 percent reduced spread, 5 percent increased critical chance on rifles and SMGs along with two Perk Points. At level 9, you get another Perk Point along with 10 percent additional recoil reduction on SMGs and rifles.
Now we come to Technical Ability, which has only two Skills – Crafting and Engineering. These are leveled by crafting and dismantling, and using Tech weapons respectively. For Crafting, hitting level 7 will reduce crafting cost by 5 percent, provide two additional Perk Points, a 5 percent increased chance of acquiring Components from Crafting, and new crafting specs for weapons, clothing and consumables. At level 9, you get another Perk Point and crafting specs for Rare weapons and clothing. In the Engineer field, getting to level 7 will reduce charge time by 5 percent, provide 5 percent increased effective DPS and 6 percent increased armor when using Tech weapons along with three additional Perk Points. At level 9, you gain 5 percent increased critical chance with Tech weapons and one more Perk Point.
Next up is Cool, which has two Skills – Stealth and Cold Blood. Performing stealth takedowns and sneaking past foes will level the former but the latter is a bit more unique. It’s leveled up as other Skills increase, providing general bonuses regardless of your build. For Stealth, hitting level 7 will increase evasion by 3 percent, provide 10 percent reduced visibility to foes, 10 percent increased health regeneration outside of combat and three additional Perk Points. At level 9, you gain 3 percent increased movement speed and 3 percent increased effective DPS.
For Cold Blood, you gain 10 percent increased critical chance, 3 percent increased armor, 10 percent increased health and 10 percent increased stamina along with two Perk Points at level 7. At level 9, all resistances are increased by 5 percent while another Perk Point is granted.
Finally, there’s Intelligence with Breach Protocol and Quickhacking Skills. These are leveled by breaching enemy protocols and using quickhacking. Pretty straightforward, all in all. For Breach Protocol, hitting level 7 will provide 15 percent increased Breach Protocol Time, 10 percent increased Components acquired and two Perk Points. At level 9, Component acquisition is increased by an additional 10 percent while RAM is increased by 1.
As for Quickhacking, it provides a 10 percent increased Quickhack duration, decreases cooldown by 5 percent, increases RAM by 1 and two Perk Points at level 7. Getting to level 9 provides an additional 5 percent reduction to Quickhack Cooldown along with one Perk Point.
It’s worth noting that Skills can be leveled up till 20, providing even more cumulative bonuses to specific builds and tactics. Plan and execute your play-style accordingly since that will influence how your Skills will develop. However, keep in mind that attributes cannot be reset so invest wisely.
Best Legendary and Iconic Weapons
Night City is full of powerful guns and melee weapons to acquire. Even if you happen across a weapon that’s Rare, it could also be Iconic which provides some unique properties. To that end, let’s take a look at some of the best Legendary and Iconic weapons you can find.
- Comrade’s Hammer – Starts out as Epic but can be upgraded to Legendary and four mod slots. It deals all kinds of damage but is most notable for firing a single charged shot that passes through walls and floors. If you properly spec into it, this Tech weapon can be a monster.
- Overwatch – Has incredible physical damage and critical hit chance along with a strong headshot damage multiplier and four mod slots. The best sniper rifle in the game and works especially well with stealth builds thanks to its silencer.
- Malorian Arms 3516 – With a good amount of damage, particularly Thermal damage, Johnny Silverhand’s pistol is definitely worth using. It even has four mod slots.
- Widow Maker – It’s a Tech weapon whose charged shots deal tons of damage with each shot firing two projectiles. Along with Chemical damage, the weapon also has a 33 percent chance to apply poison to foes.
- Kang Tao L-69 Zhuo – Smart Shotgun that can lock on to eight targets at a time. Alternatively, you can fire all of its pellets onto a single foe for increased damage.
- DR12 Quasar – Has fairly high DPS with charged shots dealing 10 percent more damage. Also features three mod slots.
- Jinchu-maru – Pairs well with Kerenzikov, providing 100 percent critical hit chance while it’s active. Deals double damage against enemies that have twice your health, which makes it effective against tankier foes. The last hit in the combo also deals double damage.
- Overture – Deals an incredible amount of physical damage with bullets capable of ricocheting off surfaces. Also boasts high critical hit chance, critical hit damage and 2x headshot damage multiplier.
For more details on recommended Legendary and Iconic weapons, check out the videos by Neon Arcade and JorRaptor below. You can also watch LunarGaming’s guide showcasing the locations of all the Iconic weapons and armor in the game.
