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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesStart with a current version, choose one primary playstyle, and spend early points toward that style instead of copying a pre-2.0 build. Cyberpunk 2077’s Update 2.0 rebuilt the perk trees and skills, so older beginner guides can describe menus, reset rules, and upgrade paths that no longer apply. The official Update 2.3 materials identify July 16, 2025, as the patch-notes date and list Xbox Series X|S, PlayStation 5, PC, Nintendo Switch 2, and Mac. Patch availability can change, so check your platform’s current version before following any menu instructions.
What to know before you create V
This guide is a spoiler-light orientation to the parts of the opening game that cause the most avoidable confusion: display settings, the redesigned progression system, combat direction, hacking requirements, and the difference between perk and attribute resets.
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Update 2.3 is free for base-game owners
CD PROJEKT RED’s Update 2.3 FAQ says the update is free for owners of the base game and does not require the Phantom Liberty expansion. Installing the update does not require starting a new game. If you already own Cyberpunk 2077, update the installation before changing settings or spending points so that the menus and progression rules match the current build.
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One free scan finds every outdated or missing driver and matches the right update for your exact hardware.Free scan · exact hardware matchIf you do not own the game, the base game is the relevant purchase for starting the campaign; Phantom Liberty is not a prerequisite for Update 2.3’s changes. Edition names and platform availability can vary by store, so verify the exact listing for your system.
#1 Best Overall
- Explore all of Night City’s extremes — From V’s rise as a cyberpunk mercenary in Night City to their journey into the shadowy world of spies in Dogtown, dive into the full story and carve your own path through it.
- Meet unforgettable characters — Forge relationships with a rich cast of characters all with their own dreams, tragedies, and tales to tell, including Keanu Reeves as rockerboy Johnny Silverhand and Idris Elba as secret agent Solomon Reed.
- Explore one of the most immersive cities in video games — Experience a breathtaking city of the dark future at home or on the go with the power of Nintendo Switch 2! Customize your journey from the very first steps with performance and quality mode.
Do not use a pre-2.0 build guide as a map
Update 2.0 overhauled the perk trees and skills. It reduced the number of perks while making individual choices more consequential, which means a guide written for the original release can point you toward a tree, stat assumption, or reset expectation that no longer exists. Treat older videos and screenshots as historical references, not as instructions for a current save.
Set up graphics and display options without chasing a universal preset
There is no single “best” value for every player. A PC with a high-refresh monitor, a console connected to a television, and a Mac display have different performance and HDR constraints. Use your platform, screen, and priority—clarity, frame-rate consistency, or image quality—as the starting point.
Find Crowd Density in the current menu
Update 2.0 moved Crowd Density from the Gameplay menu to Graphics. If you remember an older guide telling you to search Gameplay, that path is obsolete. Open the pause menu, enter Settings, choose Graphics, and look for Crowd Density there.
The move is a menu-location change, not a promise that one setting value is optimal. If you are troubleshooting performance, change one graphics option at a time, play the same type of scene for several minutes, and keep the setting that meets your frame-rate target without making the city feel distracting. The official notes do not establish a universal Crowd Density value.
Recheck HDR after the 2.3 interface changes
Update 2.3 improved the HDR settings screen. Its patch notes mention a corrected calibration preview and a clearer description of the Tone-Mapping Midpoint control. That makes the screen easier to interpret, but it does not define one correct midpoint for every television or monitor.
- Enable HDR in your platform and display first, if your screen supports it.
- Open Cyberpunk 2077’s Settings and enter the HDR section.
- Use the calibration preview to judge whether dark detail and bright highlights remain visible on your screen.
- Adjust the controls for your room and display, then check a dark interior and a bright outdoor scene before settling on the result.
- If the game looks washed out or clipped, compare the game’s HDR state with the console, operating-system, or television HDR setting rather than changing several controls at once.
Because the available official material documents the screen changes but not tested values, avoid copying numbers from a guide made for another panel. HDR calibration is display-dependent.
Rank #2
- Cyberpunk 2077 is an open-world, action-adventure story set in Night City
- Become a cyberpunk, an urban mercenary equipped with cybernetic enhancements and build your legend on the streets of Night City
- Take the riskiest job of your life and go after a prototype implant that is the key to immortality
A practical first-launch checklist
- Confirm that the game has finished installing the current patch for your platform.
- Set the display mode, resolution, and frame-rate target appropriate to your hardware.
- Locate Crowd Density under Graphics, not Gameplay.
- Calibrate HDR only if your display and platform are configured for HDR.
- Play a short, repeatable scene after each major change so you can identify which setting caused a problem.
Understand the redesigned progression system
Your character grows through attributes and perks, but they are not interchangeable. Attributes establish the broad direction of a build; perks add the specific behaviors and advantages inside that direction. The post-2.0 system is designed around fewer, more meaningful choices, so spending points randomly across several trees can leave you without a clear strength when the opening missions become more demanding.
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Attributes are the broad commitment
Think of an attribute as a category of investment. A Body-focused character, a Tech-weapon specialist, and a netrunner may all use weapons, but they are not asking the same attribute to do the same job. Before buying a point, read the attribute’s current description and the prerequisites of the perk or ability you want next.
Perks are the immediate behavior change
Perks are the choices you feel in play: a tree can change how you approach a weapon, a hack, or a defensive sequence. The official 2.0 notes specifically call out Overclock for netrunner-oriented play, Bolt shots for Tech weapons, and Adrenaline Rush for Body-focused builds. These examples show why the first question is “How do I want to fight?” rather than “What is the universal strongest tree?”
| Preferred approach | Officially documented example | How to use that information as a beginner |
|---|---|---|
| Hacking and cyberdeck play | Overclock in the netrunner-oriented perk design | Read the Intelligence-related prerequisites and build toward a coherent quickhack plan instead of buying unrelated weapon perks. |
| Tech weapons | Bolt shots | Check the Tech tree’s requirements and decide whether charged or otherwise Tech-focused gunplay is the behavior you want to practice. |
| Body-focused combat | Adrenaline Rush | Keep Body investments together if you want the close-range, durability-oriented direction represented by that tree. |
This is a planning framework, not a tier list. The official material does not establish one best beginner build or a tested ranking of these approaches.
Choose a first playstyle before spending heavily
You can carry different weapons and experiment, but your first several points are easier to evaluate when they support one main identity. Use the following choices as questions, not permanent labels.
Weapon-focused combat
Choose this if you want most encounters decided by firearm handling and positioning. Read the weapon-related perk descriptions, note their prerequisites, and invest in a small cluster that improves the kind of gunplay you actually enjoy. Do not buy one point in every weapon branch simply because it is available; that spreads your early budget without creating a clear advantage.
Rank #3
- THE ULTIMATE CYBERPUNK 2077 EXPERIENCE - Includes the critically acclaimed spy thriller expansion Phantom Liberty
- CREATE YOUR OWN CYBERPUNK
- Explore the city of the future – you decide when you want to go where and how to get there
- Decide how the story ends – your choices in the main game as well as in the spy thriller adventure Phantom Liberty lead to a complex web of consequences
Melee and Body-focused combat
Choose this if you want to stay close to enemies and build around the Body direction. Adrenaline Rush is the named example in the official 2.0 redesign. Follow the tree’s prerequisites, then test whether the resulting rhythm suits you before branching into unrelated categories.
Hacking and stealth-oriented play
Choose this if scanning, preparing quickhacks, and controlling an encounter are more appealing than relying on direct fire. Hacking has equipment and stat dependencies, so it is less forgiving to treat as a random side investment. Intelligence affects quickhack proficiency, RAM costs, and RAM recovery, according to CD PROJEKT RED support documentation.
A hybrid approach
A hybrid can work, but decide which system is primary. For example, you might use a cyberdeck to soften an encounter and a weapon to finish it. In that case, spend enough Intelligence-related points to support the hacks you actually use, then keep weapon investments focused rather than dividing every point among all available trees.
Spend your first upgrades step by step
The safest early process is deliberately unglamorous: identify a behavior, verify its requirements, buy the smallest useful step, and test it before committing further.
- Describe your intended combat loop in one sentence. Examples include “I want to fight primarily with Tech weapons,” “I want close-range Body combat,” or “I want to open encounters with quickhacks.” If you cannot describe the loop, wait before making a large purchase.
- Open the current perk tree and inspect the next two or three nodes. Read the full description and every prerequisite. Do not rely on a screenshot from an earlier version.
- Check the attribute connection. If a perk requires an attribute level, confirm that your planned points can reach it without abandoning the rest of your build.
- Buy one connected improvement. A single perk that changes your chosen behavior is more informative than several unrelated points.
- Use it in a real encounter. Test the perk in the kind of fight you expect to repeat. Note whether it changes your decisions or merely looks attractive on the menu.
- Continue along the same branch only when the result is useful. If the first purchase does not suit you, stop investing in that branch and reassess before spending more.
- Keep a reserve for requirements. The exact cost and availability of later nodes depend on your current level and version, so leave room for a prerequisite you can see in the tree rather than spending every point immediately.
This method avoids the most common beginner error: mixing a little of every tree and then wondering why no approach feels developed.
How hacking works and what a new netrunner needs
Quickhacks are not a menu-only ability. CD PROJEKT RED support describes them as actions used through the scanner and cyberdeck. That means a hacking-focused character needs to understand the relationship between those tools and the Intelligence attribute before investing deeply.
Rank #4
- A Nintendo Switch Online membership may be required for online play. Please check the game detail page on Nintendo.com for membership requirements.
- 2025 CD PROJEKT S.A. All rights reserved. CD PROJEKT, the CD PROJEKT logo, the REDengine logo, Cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2077, the Cyberpunk 2077 logo, Johnny Silverhand, the SAMURAI logo, Phantom Liberty and the Phantom Liberty logo are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of CD PROJEKT S.A. in the US and/or other countries. All other copyrights and trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
The basic hacking workflow
- Use the scanner to identify available targets. The scanner is the interface through which quickhacks are selected.
- Check the quickhack you are considering. Read its description and any visible requirements before confirming it.
- Watch your RAM economy. Intelligence affects RAM costs and recovery, so a low-Intelligence character may not sustain the same hacking rhythm as a dedicated netrunner.
- Keep the cyberdeck in mind. Quickhacks are used through the cyberdeck; if your equipment or attributes do not support the plan, the perk investment will not by itself solve the problem.
- Review the result before adding more Intelligence points. If the scanner-and-cyberdeck loop is enjoyable and effective for your encounters, continue along its connected perks. If not, change direction while your investment is still small.
The available official support explains the scanner, cyberdeck, and Intelligence relationships but does not establish an optimal quickhack loadout. Do not treat a particular list of hacks as mandatory for every beginner.
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Reset advice is one of the areas where pre-2.0 guides are most likely to mislead you. Update 2.0 refunded perk points on existing saves and provided a one-time attribute reset as transition guidance. Its notes also say that the all-perk reset was removed.
What that means for an existing save
- Perk points were refunded when the redesigned system was introduced, allowing an existing character to rebuild the perk choices around the new trees.
- An existing save received a one-time attribute reset opportunity as part of the transition.
- The removal of the all-perk reset means you should not assume that the old global-reset behavior still exists.
What a new player should assume
Do not read the transition notes as a promise of unlimited attribute resets on a new character. The documented one-time attribute reset applies to the Update 2.0 transition for existing saves; it is not evidence that a fresh character can repeatedly refund attributes whenever desired. Plan attributes with more care than individual perks, and verify the reset options shown in your current game rather than relying on an old video.
Because the rules distinguish attributes from perks, keep those decisions separate in your planning. A disappointing perk choice is not the same problem as an attribute path that locks you out of the direction you wanted.
Combat habits that remain safe across builds
The official material available for this guide does not provide a complete, experimentally verified tutorial comparing firearms, blades, stealth, and hacking. It does support a few reliable habits that do not depend on claiming a universal build.
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- Read before buying. The rebuilt trees put more weight on each perk, so inspect descriptions and prerequisites instead of spending by icon or name alone.
- Commit to a testable behavior. If you bought a Tech-weapon perk, use Tech weapons long enough to judge it; if you bought a hacking perk, use the scanner and cyberdeck rather than evaluating it only from the menu.
- Keep your primary and secondary tools compatible. A hybrid is easier to manage when one system clearly supports the other instead of competing for every point.
- Change one variable at a time. This applies to both graphics settings and build choices. You need to know which change improved or harmed your experience.
- Stop following obsolete instructions. A guide that predates Update 2.0 may describe a different tree, a different menu location, or a reset system that no longer exists.
Troubleshoot the first hours by symptom
“I cannot find Crowd Density”
Open Settings, select Graphics, and look there. Update 2.0 moved the option out of Gameplay.
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“HDR looks wrong even after calibration”
Check that HDR is enabled at the platform and display level, then revisit the game’s HDR screen. Update 2.3 corrected the calibration preview and clarified Tone-Mapping Midpoint, but the right result still depends on your panel and viewing environment. Check both a dark and a bright scene before deciding.
“My old build guide mentions a reset I do not have”
Confirm whether the guide predates Update 2.0. The update removed the all-perk reset and documented a one-time attribute reset for the transition of existing saves. Those notes do not guarantee repeated attribute refunds for a new character.
“My quickhacks cost too much RAM”
Review the Intelligence investment and the cyberdeck you are using. Official support links Intelligence to quickhack proficiency, RAM costs, and recovery. If your plan is hacking-first, keep your Intelligence-related choices coherent instead of scattering points across unrelated trees.
“I bought points everywhere and nothing feels strong”
Pause new spending, choose one primary combat loop, and inspect the next connected perk and its prerequisites. The post-2.0 system rewards a coherent route more than a collection of isolated purchases.
A compact first-session plan
- Verify the installed patch and your platform’s current support.
- Choose whether your first experiments will emphasize weapons, Body-focused melee, or hacking.
- Set graphics options for your own display; remember that Crowd Density is under Graphics.
- Calibrate HDR only when your display supports it, using the updated preview as a guide rather than copying someone else’s numbers.
- Read the relevant perk tree and its prerequisites before spending.
- Buy one connected perk, test it, and continue only if it changes the way you want to play.
- If you choose hacking, make sure the scanner, cyberdeck, and Intelligence investment support the same plan.
- Treat attribute points as the less-flexible decision and do not assume unlimited resets.
Following that sequence keeps the early game understandable while leaving room to refine your character as you learn which combat loop you actually enjoy.
Quick Recap
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