Cyberpunk 2077 offers a lot of versatile skills that you can choose from and with the 2.0 Update, the ability to mix and match abilities is even more easier. As you progress through the game, you will start to find a style that is more comfortable and true to you. When the experiments come to an end, you will start looking at building your kit more seriously.
Before you progress these skills to their maximum level, we have discussed the best perks that will work with most builds in Cyberpunk 2077 to help make your decision easier.
How the 2.0 perks system works in Cyberpunk 2077
If you are returning to Cyberpunk 2077 after the massive 2.0 update, you will probably find the perk trees a bit limited. This is because the new perks system is all about impacting gameplay and builds with active abilities or abilities that are only beneficial in certain situations. The old perks that gave you raw damage percentages, for example, have been removed; and mostly shifted to the new skill progression paths.
The previous perks system contained both types of perks. Hence, everyone just went after the perks that improved their abilities. This made the other perks meaningless.
With the 2.0 perks, you can now only unlock perks that modify your overall playstyle or build. This also means that you should not rely on perks to increase your damage. If you want to do that, you will have to unlock the weapon perks for the type of weapon you are using. Either that or take the new cyberware upgrades which are now much more powerful.
Perhaps the most quality-of-life upgrade is that you can remove and re-invest a Perk Point free of cost from any skill that you have. You can also reset your Attributes to restart your whole build, but it has limited uses. This grants you more flexibility with your builds so you can try out a lot of gameplay mechanics and choose the one you like best.
Best Body Perks 2.0
Body determines your toughness and strength levels in Cyberpunk 2077. These perks increase your health and improve your proficiency with close-range and heavy weapons such as shotguns, light/heavy machine guns, as well as melee blunt weapons.
The core of Body, though, has to do with the Adrenaline Rush ability, a temporary mode where you potentially become unstoppable.
The best thing about the Body perk trees is that you only need to invest 4 attribute points to get a couple of important health regeneration perks. They are useful for just about every 2.0 build in Cyberpunk 2077.
Painkiller and Comeback Kid
Painkiller and Comeback Kid (require 4 attribute points) are the best Body perks to get early on in the game. We highly recommend them to players who are either new or returning after the 2.0 update.
Both perks work together to give you health regeneration during combat and for your missing health. They are excellent perks to increase your early-game survival chances.
Fury Road
Fury Road (requires 4 attribute points) increases the damage done to enemy vehicles while reducing the damage done to yours in collisions.
It is pretty self-explanatory and a great perk to have for the new vehicular combat mechanics introduced with Phantom Liberty.
Adrenaline Rush
Adrenaline Rush (requires 15 attribute points) is a three-level perk that massively boosts your total health and health regeneration.
It unlocks an Adrenaline mode at level 3 that gives you up to 50 percent maximum health from all sources including the Blood Pump cyberware mod. The extra health acts like armor to absorb damage, but the effect is only temporary.
This is a must-have Body perk if you have an overly aggressive playstyle and want to be in the faces of your enemies.
After level 3, make sure that you take Unstoppable Force and Juggernaut to further improve your Adrenaline Rush mode. You will become immune to all movement penalties and status effects while gaining increased movement speed and damage. In summary, you will become an unstoppable tank.
Best Reflexes Perks 2.0
Dash and Air Dash
Dash (requires 9 attribute points) gives you exactly what the name suggests, the ability to Dash. At Level 1, it reduces the Stamina cost of Dash and Dodge. At Level 2, you can replace your Dodge with a Dash which covers more area. You also Vault over small or low obstacles automatically.
Air Dash (15 Attribute Points required) is Dash but you can defy gravity and physics for it with even less Stamina cost.
Slaughterhouse
This perk makes your defense, the ultimate offense. With Slaughterhouse (20 attributes required) every deflection, counterattack, and attack inflicts Bleed onto enemies. This increases the dismemberment chance and makes them even more susceptible to Finishers. Additionally, all dismemberments grant you a 25% Stamina boost.
It adds more defensive options for Mantis Blade builds or Katana builds which are already a bit squishy. You can’t get damaged if there is no one left alive.
Submachine Fun
Submachine Fun (20 Attribute points required) makes swapping to SMGs faster and automatically reloads them once they are equipped. It also increases the fire rate by 22% to an already fast damage dealer.
It streamlines rotations, giving you little to no downtime when shifting between weapons. You can quickly move to your secondary and then back to SMG, not having to reload, ready to fire once again.
Best Technical Ability Perks 2.0
Technical Ability in 2.0 Cyberpunk 2077 makes you compatible with high-tech Cyberware and makes it easier to override devices and bypass security locks. It also houses perks that will make you an expert at handling Explosives, Tech Weapons, and Projectile Launch Systems.
All perks providing Cyberware upgrades form the core of this build and since the 2.0 update, they have become even more relevant to your kit.
Technical Ability provides a more universal buff than any build depending on any type of Cyberware. You can actually get away with grabbing a few important capacity and cooldown upgrades with low investment if you are not looking to max out the Perks.
Pyromania
Pyromania (15 Attribute points required) increases the recharge speed and explosion radius at the base level. Level 3 is where things take a turn from an okay skill to a must-have one.
It increases movement speed and explosion damage by 10% after damaging an enemy with your explosive, which can stack up to 5 times. If you get hit yourself, you immediately get 2 stacks, which makes it pretty easy to gain stacks.
You will almost always have these stacks since the explosive radius can reach pretty wide, making the already good grenades, better.
Edgerunner
Edgerunner (20 Attribute Points required) increases your Cyberware Capacity by 50, which can pass over your Max Capacity limit at the cost of your Health. However, with each point over you get a Damage boost, Crit Rate, and Crit Damage, the whole package to make your builds overpowered in Cyberpunk 2077.
Chain Lightening
Chain Lightening (requires 20 Attribute points) just makes your Tech Weapon an AoE beast. With each Bolt, you can spread the Electric damage to 3 more nearby enemies causing a chain reaction to occur.
Best Intelligence Perks 2.0
Intelligence in Cyberpunk 2077 improves your hacking skills as a Netrunner and improves your proficiency with Smart Weapons. While it does favor Tech Weapons, the core of this Perk tree is Quickhacking, especially with the Overclock perk.
It will require medium to high investment, depending on whether you are aiming to become the best Netrunner in Night City or just looking to grab some favorable perks. There is not much at low investment and favors a niche playstyle mostly.
Hack Queue
Hack Queue (requires 9 Attribute points) allows you to automatically upload multiple hacks onto an enemy after adding them to a queue.
It has many favorable skills like Blood Daemon, Queue Acceleration, and Queue Mastery which greatly improves the damage, cost-efficiency, and upload speed of the queued hacks.
Hack Queue is also one of the best perks to pair with a Monowire build if you have the Jailbreak Relic. The Relic makes Monowire automatically apply Quickhacks while the Hack Queue will quickly upload multiple ones onto the enemy you are targeting.
Overclock
Overclock (required 15 Attribute points) converts your Health into RAM, completely removing the need for RAM altogether. As long as you are alive, you will have a source to upload Quickhacks, and has many secondary nodes that just make it a borderline broken perk.
Smart Synergy
Smart Synergy (required 20 Attribute points) pairs with Overclock for your Smart Weapons. It adds a flat 25% damage boost and instant homing bullets when an enemy is affected by Quickhacks while Overclock is active. Aiming is overrated, just upload Quickhacks and pull the trigger.
Best Cool Perks 2.0
Cool Perks is what allows you to become a Stealth Assassin in Cyberpunk 2077. You will be able to move through spaces undetected, perform silent takedowns, and disappear without leaving a trace behind. It also makes you proficient with the power duo, Pistols, Rifles, and Throwable Weapons, all that you need to carry out assignments stealthy.
It is another niche Skill Tree and requires high investment to deliver the best results. With no one major skill at its core, you will need to pick and choose what you need more to make the most out of Cool Perks.
Ninjutsu
Ninjutsu (required 15 Attribute points) improves the crouch movement speed and Damage Mitigation at base levels. At Level 3, you get the ability to crouch sprint, making you more agile and nimble.
Style Over Substance
Style Over Substance (required 20 Attribute points) makes your Throwable Weapons deal guaranteed Crit Shots while you are crouch-sprinting, Dashing, or Dodging. It also removes the movement speed penalty while you are aiming the weapon, allowing you to burst-shoot a lot of them.
Nerves of Tungsten-Steel
It is a pair with the Deadeye perk which enables you to go under Deadeye Mode which greatly reduces your Stamina consumption while increasing Headshot Damage.
In the case of Nerves of Tungsten-Steel (required 20 Attribute points), your Headshots and weak point hits are guaranteed Crits. These Crits have their damage increased by another 25% over the base boost from the Deadeye Mode.
The damage boost and the Crit hits speak for themselves here, making the perk an invaluable asset for ace shooters.
Best Relic Perks 2.0
Relics open up new Cyberware capabilities to offer access to more powerful and complete builds in Cyberpunk 2077. They are part of Attributes that are exclusive to the Phantom Liberty players.
Vulnerability Analytics
Vulnerability Analytics exposes weak points, termed Vulnerabilities, in enemy Cyberware and armor. Upon hitting these Vulnerabilities, your shots deal increased damage and get a 100% Crit Chance with a 25% Armor Penetration. You also unleash an EMP blast covering a 3m radius after you explode a Vulnerability.
It is one of the most versatile Relic skills and can be equipped with the majority of the builds. As long as you can reach those Vulnerabilities, you will be able to keep your enemies pinned and take them out quickly.
Emergency Cloaking
Emergency Cloaking is a stealth lover’s Golden Chalice. It makes enemies lose sight of you while Optical Camo is active, so you can exit combat without any repercussions.
Stealth is pretty stressful in Cyberpunk 2077. This helps take the edge off and also allows you to disappear like a ninja.
