Today is the launch of Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update ahead of Phantom Liberty, and as I said in an earlier article, you should probably just start playing now, whether you’re a new or returning player, as it will not affect your enjoyment of Phantom Liberty when it arrives, and you get to try out all the new changes.
I do have some advice about the first five things you should do when you log in to 2.0, so here’s what I would recommend:
1. Go Check Out The Cyberware Update – You should get an actual quest for this from Vic after at least the intro for new players, and immediately for returning ones. It’s an introduction to the new cyberware system that shows how slotting works with the new capacity system. You will install your first few mods, and then you can check out the larger list of cyberware you want to buy now if you can afford it, or work toward. Now all ripperdocs sell all cyberware options, so you don’t have to bounce around trying to find things. Also keep in mind that you will also be looting cyberware, even iconic cyberware, in the wild as you play, so don’t go too nuts with purchases too early.
2. Be Very Sure About Your Attribute Point Spending – Attribute Points level up specific categories of skills, and are required if you want to start shaping your build early. You used to never be able to respec, now you can respec exactly one time. Before you start putting points in, look at the full tree and decide which type of build you want to pursue. However, by level 60, you will have about 80 total attribute points on the board, meaning you can max three full categories and get to level 17 or so on a fourth. So there is a lot of long-term wiggle room here.
3. Skill Points Are For Experimenting – Within the Attribute sections, CDPR has now unlocked the ability to refund Skill Points that slot into specific abilities any time you want, for free. While you will still have to work within the overall tree you have unlocked, you can absolutely experiment here and cycle through perks based on how useful you think they are in relation to your build. Try things out, change them, try again.
4. Dismantle All Clothes You Find Or Have – CDPR has now changed clothes to be entirely cosmetic. They used to have armor and perks on them, but that has all been moved to cyberware instead. You want to delete clothes you find because A) they dismantled into new Tier 1-5 materials you will use to craft or upgrade guns or cyberware B) they will all stay in your transmog “closet” at any of your apartments or at any clothes vendor, so you can use them after deletion And C) you want to delete them because they have weight, and it will dramatically free up carrying capacity if you ditch them. I believe there are a couple head items that still have a perk on them, so just double check those.
5. Decide Between Needing Cash Or Components – Pick up every blue or higher rarity drop you see. Many of these will be weapons. Once you hit that point, you will need to decide what you’re prioritizing. If you sell them at drop points, you will get a lot of cash if you stack them up, used for mostly cyberware and cars. If you instead dismantle them, you will get those Tier components I said you need for crafting and upgrades. So figure out your current goal and work toward that. By the end of the game I was selling anything purple rarity or below and dismantling ever orange legendary caliber items to split the difference.
Bonus: Buy ammo. If you’re doing a gun-based build, this is not Starfield. Ammo is insanely cheap and hard to loot. Buy it from gun vendors whenever low. It’s a drop in the bucket.
Those are my 5+ pieces of early advice, I’ll have more about Phantom Liberty specifically later.
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