Cyberpunk Playing Styles

Life Paths

Your chosen life path dictates the backstory / upbringing of your character. Early storyline, alliances, dialogue, in-game characters etc will differ depending on your choice.

• Nomad

  “Roaming the Badlands, looting scrapyards, raiding fuel depots – life on the road wasn’t easy. But growing up in a nomad clan has its perks. Honesty, integrity, and a love of freedom – qualities that few in Night City possess, and no amount of money can buy.”

• Street Kid

  “They say if you wanna understand the streets, you gotta live ’em. Gongs, fixers, dolls, small-time pushers – you were raised by them all. Down here the law of the jungle dictates the weak serve the strong – the only law in Night City you have yet to break.”

• Corpo

  “Few leave the corporate world with their loves – fewer still with their souls intact. You’ve been there – you’ve bent the rules, exploited secrets, and weaponized information. There’s no such thing as a fair game, only winners and losers.”

Street Cred

Your street cred will increase as you complete missions and other activities, including main quests and side jobs. Reaching higher levels of street cred will unlock different vendors and items. The maximum street cred level is 50.

Standard Builds

• Tank Build

  The ‘tank build’ will be well known to role-playing gamers and is fairly self explanatory – a big, strong character that’s built to take a hit and weald some serious damage. As a ‘tank’ you’ll want to keep an eye out for the big guns and stock up on grenades, flashbangs and heavy armour. This build is designed for mercs who want to charge around the map, all guns blazing.

  Life Path: Street Kid
  Skills: Body, Reflexes
  Perks: Hard Motherfucker, The Rock, Regeneration

• Stealth Build

  Fancy yourself as a stealthy assassin? You’ll want to move cautiously and remain undetected. Weapon choices will likely include blades, sniper rifles and hand guns with silencers.

  Life Path: Corpo
  Skills: Cool, Reflexes
  Perks: From the Shadows, Cutthroat

• Programmer Build

  Hacking security cameras, databases and mainframes, the ‘programmer’ build uses their intelligence and computer skills to clear a pathway.

  Life Path: Corpo
  Skills: Intelligence, Cool
  Perks: Forget Me Not, Weak Link, Daisy Chain

• Mechanic

  There are plenty of ways to customise weapons and armour if you have the know how. The ‘mechanic’ build is an expert in crafting and yields more components when dismantling items for parts (instead of selling them).

  Life Path: Nomad
  Skills: Technical
  Perks: Mechanic, 200% Efficiency, Field Technician

Character skill tree

Mixed Builds

With a limit on how many skill/perk points and how much street cred you can acquire in-game, you’ll want to choose wisely when upgrading your mercs’ abilities, particularly with a mixed build.

• Stealth Programmer (my current playing style)

  The ‘stealth programmer’ is the ultimate hide and seek character build. Turning off security cameras whilst sneaking in and out, nobody’s going to see this deadly assassin coming.

  Life Path: Corpo
  Skills: Cool, Reflexes / Intelligence, Cool
  Perks: From the Shadows, Cutthroat / Forget Me Not, Weak Link, Daisy Chain

• Tank Mechanic

  The ‘tank mechanic’ is his/her own best friend – craft your own custom weaponry for maximum damage and build your own armour to soak up the return fire.

  Life Path: Nomad / Street Kid
  Skills: Cool, Reflexes / Technical
  Perks: Hard Motherfucker, The Rock, Regeneration / Mechanic, 200% Efficiency, Field Technician

Character skill progression / perks