Cyberpunk 2077 Skills

by | Cyberpunk 2077 Guides

What Are Skills In Cyberpunk 2077?

There are 12 unique Skills in Cyberpunk 2077. Each Skill Tree has multiple Perks which you can unlock to make your character stronger and grant them more abilities. Skills are linked to the five Attributes in Cyberpunk 2077.

ATTRIBUTE SKILLS
Body Annihilation, Athletics, Street Brawler
Reflexes Handguns, Assault, Blades
Intelligence Breach Protocol, Quickhacking
Technical Crafting, Engineering
Cool Stealth, Cold Blood

Descriptions of each Skill can be found below.

How Do Skills Level Up In Cyberpunk 2077?

Skills in Cyberpunk 2077 level up as you use them. Want to level up your Handguns skill? Shoot them – a lot! Want to level up Stealth? Be sneaky all the time. The Athletics Skill levels up by Sprinting and so on.

Each Skill Tree Levels up according to the table below:

SKILL LEVEL UP ACTION
XP GAINED
Annihilation Damaging enemies with shotguns, LMG’s and HMG’s. Earned when the target is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Assault Damaging enemies with rifles and SMG’s. Earned when the target is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Athletics Performing Actions that require the Body Attribute to complete. 100
Performing actions with a total cost of 500 or more Stamina. 25
Blades Damaging enemies with katanas, knives, one-handed blades and Mantis Blades. Earned when the target is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Breach Protocol Quickhacking devices. 75
Performing Actions that require the Intelligence Attribute to complete. 100
Cold Blood Performing finishing moves on enemies. 100
Defeating enemies. Varies based on damage taken.
Engineering Performing actions that require the Technical Ability Attribute to complete. 100
Damaging enemies with grenades. Earned when the target is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Damaging enemies with Tech Weapons wall-piercing shots. Earmed when the enemy is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Handguns Damaging enemies with Pistols and Revolvers. Earned when the enemy is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Quickhacking Quickhacking enemies. 75
Stealth Performing a Lethal or Non-Lethal takedown. 100
Concealing bodies in hiding places. 100
Simultaneous takedown and body hiding. 200
Damaging enemies with Sneak Attacks. Earmed when the enemy is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.
Street Brawler Damaging enemies with fists, Blunt Weapons, Gorilla Arms, or the Monowire. Earned when the target is defeated. Varies by damage dealt.

Leveling up the Annihilation Skill by using a Shotgun in Cyberpunk 2077.

How Is Maximum Level Determined?

The maximum level of all Skills in Cyberpunk 2077 is completely dependent on your character’s Attributes. Skills cannot rise higher than the Attribute which defines them. For example, if your Reflexes Attribute is 4, your Handguns Skill will also cap at 4. This greatly limits the amount of Perks you can unlock with a Skill, so you will want to think about your character’s Attributes carefully!

Level Up Milestones for all Skill Trees are found below:

 

LEVEL XP REQUIRED
TOTAL XP
1 0 0
2 2,000 2,000
3 3,710 5,710
4 5,592 11,302
5 7,661 18,964
6 9,938 28,903
7 12,443 41,346
8 15,197 56,544
9 18,228 74,772
10 21,561 96,334
11 25,228 131,563
12 29,261 150,824
13 33,698 184,523
14 38,579 223,102
15 43,947 267,050
16 49,852 316,902
17 56,348 373,251
18 63,494 436,745
19 71,354 508,099
20 80,000 588,099

Skill Progression Rewards

As you level up a Skill Tree in Cyberpunk 2077 you will also unlock  Skill Progression Rewards for every level obtained (2 – 20). These rewards can be as simple as a free Perk Point or something totally unique to that Skill Tree. For example, progressing to Level 4 in the Handguns Skill Tree reduces the recoil of your pistols and revolvers by 10%.

More information on all Skill Progression Rewards can be found by viewing each Skill Tree found below.

 

What Are Perks In Cyberpunk 2077?

Each Skill Tree in Cyberpunk 2077 contains around 20 Perks specific to that skill. Perks can be passive such as increased damage or reload speed with a particular weapon or active such as entirely new abilities.

More information on all Skill Trees and their accompanying Perks can be found by exploring the links below.

 

Body Skills

Annihilation

The Annihilation skill is all about heavy weapons – shotguns, SMG’s and more.

Athletics

Athletics covers most physical activities in Cyberpunk 2077. This can include forcing open doors, removing turrets from their base, and even using enemies as a human shield.

Street Brawler

The Street Brawler Skill involves any Melee Weapon that is not a Blade (covered in the Blades Skill) or your Fist.

 

Ripping a turret off its base using the Athletics Skill.

Reflex Skills

Handguns

The Handguns Skill revolves around using Pistols and Revolvers.

Assault

The Assault Skill covers both automatic rifles and sniper rifles. Perks in this Skill Tree improve weapon accuracy and sway, headshot damage and much more.

Blades

The Blades Skill includes held bladed weapons like Knives, Swords and even the Mantis Blades cyberware, but also involve perks that focus on mobility, armor and bleed damage effects.

 

Deflecting bullets with the Katana.

Intelligence Skills

Breach Protocol

The Breach Protocol Skill involves hacking computers, doors, turrets and more.

Quickhacking

Quickhacking is essentially hacking at range. For example, you can hack directly into an enemy’s Cyberware implants to blind them, or make a grenade explode in their pocket.

 

Using the Quickhacking skill to hack a member of the Animals Gang.

Technical Ability Skills

Craft

This Skill increases the quality and effectiveness of your crafted items and helps you gain more when deconstructed items found in the world.

Engineering

The Engineering Skill effects technical interactions with the world such as repairing broken systems as well and also improves your use of Tech Weapons.

 

 

Opening a maintenance panel using the Engineering Skill.

Cool Skills

Stealth

The Skill improves your ability to move around the game without being seen and applying poisons to enemies.

Cold Blood

The Cold Blood Skill improves your durability and combat prowess from defeating enemies. The more enemies you overcome the stronger you get!

Hack The Minotaur (HTM) is a professional Gaming Blogger and Youtube Creator with decades of experience in Gaming. Hack is the owner of HackTheMinotaur.com – an Elder Scrolls focused site for character builds and guides, and now Cyberpunkcentral.com – your source for unique Cyberpunk 2077 guides, builds and more!

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