To increase the natural abilities of your Cyberpunk 2077 character, you’ll need to get your hands on attribute and perk points, and then spend them on key areas.
As there are so many attributes, perks, traits, and skills to upgrade, but a cap at level 50 in the game, your decisions in the Character section of the game menu (press the TouchPad/View button to access) are crucial to how you develop.
So, here’s everything that you need to know about these key areas, as well as a detailed look at the five key attributes, their associated skills, the perk trees, and the mighty traits available.
How attributes, skills, traits, and perks work in Cyberpunk 2077
By upgrading your attributes, you’ll receive an increase to their individual passive effects as well as build towards unlocking new perks within their associated skills.
How you spend your attribute points should be entirely dependent on your preferred play style. For example, if you enjoy melee combat and competing in the fights across Night City, lean into the Body attribute. If hacking and stealth is more your game, look to Intelligence and Cool.
As you play Cyberpunk 2077, performing related actions to each of the skills will earn you skill xp. However, the skills attached to each attribute (as shown in the image above) are capped by your attribute level. For example, if your Body attribute is level 6, your Street Brawler skill can’t exceed level 6.
Levelling up each skill will grant further passive bonuses related to the theme of the skill and attribute. If you build a skill to level 20 – for which, you’ll also need its attribute to be level 20 – you’ll receive a specific trait. Most skills will also reward you with additional perk points as you reach higher levels.
Further, the skills related to each attribute contain several perks that you can unlock with perk points. While skills are levelled up through your actions, perks are unlocked and upgraded with perk points. These are earned by levelling up your character: the same way as you acquire more attribute points.
Perks require a set attribute level to be unlocked. Each skill has some free perks to unlock, but to get into the best perks of Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll need to increase the appropriate attribute first.
When you unlock traits by hitting level 20 on an attribute and one of its skills, not only will you gain its passive effects, but you can also continue to upgrade. Unlike perks, traits don’t have a hard upgrade cap, meaning that you can continue to improve the trait with your perk points.
What are the best attributes to upgrade in Cyberpunk 2077?
The best attributes to upgrade comes down to how you want to build your Cyberpunk 2077 character, the skills that you prefer to use in-game, and the perks that you want to unlock.
However, there are certainly some attributes that you should seek to upgrade with your starting attribute points for a new character build.
So, to help you get a look at which attributes to follow, here are the details for each attribute, their associated skills, traits, and the final perks available.
Cyberpunk 2077 Body attribute skills, top perks, and traits
Upgrading your Body attribute will provide enhancements to your character in the following ways:
- Health points increase
- Stamina points increase
- Punching damage (including with Gorilla Arms) increase
- Melee weapon damage increase
- Faster movement when grabbing enemies
- Faster movement when wielding a heavy machine gun
- Increase movement while grappling enemies
- Increase enemy grapple duration
The Body attribute has three associated skills, which are levelled up with the following actions:
- Annihilation: Damage foes using light or heavy machine guns, or shotguns.
- Athletics: Perform actions with a cumulated stamina cost in excess of 500 and pass Body level tests.
- Street Brawler: Damage enemies with fists, Gorilla Arms, blunt weapons, Monowire, or the Superhero Landing while Berserk.
Each of the Body attributes’ associated skills has its own perk tree, which unlocks further as you use points to level-up your Body attribute. Below are the perks from each set of skills which require the highest Body attribute level:
| Skill | Perk | Description | Requirement |
| Annihilation | Biathlete | Weapon spread doesn’t increase while you move. | Body Level 20 |
| Athletics | The Rock | Enemies can’t knock you down. | Body Level 20 |
| Athletics | Indestructible | Reduces incoming damage by 10%. | Body Level 20 |
| Street Brawler | Unshakable | Blunt weapon attacks versus stunned enemies restore up to 15% health and stamina. | Body Level 18 |
| Street Brawler | Biding Time | Blunt weapon blocks restore up to 15% health. | Body Level 18 |
You can unlock the Annihilation trait, Athletics trait, and Street Brawler trait by reaching level 20 in each skill. When you achieve this, these are the bonuses that you’ll receive:
| Skill | Trait | Effect | Per Perk Point Increase |
| Annihilation | Bloodbath | Dismembering enemies reduces weapon recoil by 50% for six seconds. | +1% |
| Athletics | Hard Motherf***** | Ten-second armour and resistance increases by 10% at the start of combat. | +1% |
| Street Brawler | Guerrilla | Ten-second critical damage increase by 60 seconds at the start of combat | +2% |
Cyberpunk 2077 Cool attribute skills, top perks, and traits
Upgrading the Cool attribute of your character will grant the following:
- Increase critical damage
- Increase all resistances
- Increase stealth damage
- Reduce the enemy’s detection speed while in stealth
- Increase Monowire damage
The Cool attribute has two associated skills, which you can increase in level by doing the following:
- Cold Blood: Defeat enemies while Cold Blood is active, and perform finishing moves on foes.
- Stealth: Perform lethal or non-lethal takedowns, hide neutralised enemies, takedown and hide the body simultaneously, and damage enemies with sneak attacks.
Each of the skills under the Cool attribute has its own perk tree, with more perks being available for each skill as you level-up your Cool with attribute points. These are the perks from the two skills which need the highest Cool attribute level:
| Skill | Perk | Description | Requirement |
| Cold Blood | Immunity | You’re immune to burn, shock, poison, and bleeding with Cold Blood active. | Cool Level 20 |
| Stealth | Ninjutsu | Melee weapons deal 100% more damage from crouched stealth attacks and guarantee a critical hit. | Cool Level 20 |
You can get the Cold Blood trait and Stealth trait by building up to level 20 in each skill. By getting the traits, your character will benefit from the following bonuses:
| Skill | Trait | Effect | Per Perk Point Increase |
| Cold Blood | Merciless | 10% critical chance increase and 25% critical damage increase when Cold Blood is active. | +1% critical chance, +3% critical damage |
| Stealth | Toxicology | Five-second increase to poison effects applied to foes. | +0.2 second |
Cyberpunk 2077 Intelligence attribute skills, top perks, and traits
Applying an attribute point to your Intelligence will provide the following bonuses:
- Increase cyberdeck RAM capacity
- Increase quickhack damage
- Increase quickhack duration
There are two skills that are influenced by the Intelligence attribute, which you can level-up with the following actions:
- Breach Protocol: Quickhack devices and perform actions behind gates that require a test of your Intelligence attribute level.
- Quickhacking: Quickhack enemies.
The two skills of the Intelligence attribute have their own perk trees, with the following being the Intelligence perks that require the highest attribute level to unlock:
| Skill | Perk | Description | Requirement |
| Breach Protocol | Compression | Cuts the sequence length required to upload daemons. | Intelligence Level 20 |
| Breach Protocol | Buffer Optimisation | 100% increase to daemon effects. | Intelligence Level 20 |
| Quickhacking | Optimisation | Reduces the cost of quickhacks by one RAM. | Intelligence Level 20 |
| Quickhacking | Bartmoss’ Legacy | Unlocks crafting specs for legendary quickhacks. | Intelligence Level 20 |
You can gain the Breach Protocol trait and Quickhacking trait by reaching level 20 in each skill. With the traits unlocked, you’ll get these passive ability increases:
| Skill | Trait | Effect | Per Perk Point Increase |
| Breach Protocol | Transmigration | 50% increase to your Breach Protocol’s breach time. | +5% |
| Quickhacking | Master RAM Liberator | 50% increase to RAM recovery rate. | +1% |
Cyberpunk 2077 Reflexes attribute skills, top perks, and traits
Increasing the level of your Reflexes attribute will reward you with the following boosts:
- Increase to your passive evasion
- Increased critical chance
- Increased Mantis Blades damage
Three skills are associated with the Reflexes attributes, with the following detailing the actions that you need to perform to level-up the skills:
- Assault: Use rifles and sub-machine guns to damage foes.
- Blades: Use katanas, Mantis Blades, one-handed blades, and knives to damage enemies.
- Handguns: Use revolvers and pistols to damage foes.
Each of the Reflexes attribute’s skills has its own set of perks for you to unlock, with those featured below being the Reflexes perks that require the highest attribute level:
| Skill | Perk | Description | Requirement |
| Assault | Savage Stoic | When standing still, rifle and SMG damage increases by 35%. | Reflexes Level 20 |
| Blades | Crimson Tide | Bleeding applied with blades can be triple stacked. | Reflexes Level 18 |
| Blades | Deathbolt | Defeat a foe while wielding a blade will restore 20% health and increase movement speed by 30% for five seconds. | Reflexes Level 18 |
| Handguns | Brainpower | Critical chance increased 25% for five seconds after a pistol or revolver headshot. | Reflexes Level 20 |
You’ll unlock the Assault trait, Blades trait, and Hundguns trait when you hit level 20 for the applicable skill. When you have these Cyberpunk 2077 traits, you can make the most of the effects below:
| Skill | Trait | Effect | Per Perk Point Increase |
| Assault | Punisher | Weapon sway nullified and weapon spread doesn’t increase for 10 seconds after defeating foes with an SMG or rifle. | +0.2 seconds |
| Blades | Dragon Strike | Critical damage with blades increases by 25%. | +1% |
| Handguns | The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly | Damage and armour increase by 30% for five seconds after a critical hit from a handgun or revolver. | +1% |
Cyberpunk 2077 Technical Ability attribute skills, top perks, and traits
By applying attribute points to your Technical Ability, your Cyberpunk 2077 character will receive the following benefits:
- Increase your armour rating
- Use higher-requirement tech weapons
- Unlock higher-requirement tech doors
The Technical Ability attribute has two associated skills, which you can level-up by performing the following actions:
- Crafting: Craft, upgrade, and disassemble items.
- Engineering: Perform actions behind Technical Ability level test doors, damage enemies with wall-piercing shots, and damage enemies with grenades.
The two Technical Ability skills have several perks that you can unlock with perk points. Below, you can see the perks that require the highest Technical Ability level from each skill.
| Skill | Perk | Description | Requirement |
| Crafting | Cutting Edge | Crafted legendary weapons automatically get one stat improved by 5%. | Technical Ability Level 20 |
| Engineering | Jackpot | Grenades can deal critical hits. | Technical Ability Level 20 |
| Engineering | Superconductor | Tech weapons ignore armour. | Technical Ability Level 20 |
When you reach level 20 in the skill, you’ll gain access to the Crafting trait and Engineering trait. With these traits unlocked, you’ll be get the following effects:
| Skill | Trait | Effect | Per Perk Point Increase |
| Crafting | Crazy Science | 10% increase in the sale price of crafted items. | +1% |
| Engineering | Revamp | Charge damage increased by 10% and Tech weapon damage increased by 25%. | +1% charge damage |
How to earn more attribute points and perk points
Being able to enhance your passive abilities across the board, attributes and perks are essential to improving your character in Cyberpunk 2077, as well as further enhancing your other upgrades.
To earn more attribute points, you just need to level-up. Every time you level-up your character, you’ll get one attribute point, with level xp coming by way of completing activities and defeating enemies. The more difficult the task and the higher the enemy’s level, the more xp you’ll get as a reward.
Your primary route to getting more perk points is the same as getting more attribute points in Cyberpunk 2077: level-up your character. However, you can gain additional perk points by levelling up your skills.
Every time you level-up a skill, you’ll get a ‘Skill Up Reward,’ which comes in the form of a passive ability boost, the unlocking of a trait at level 20, or a perk point. Skills will reward you six or seven additional perk points as you enhance them from level one to level 19.
Now you have what you need to know to navigate the attributes, perks, traits, and skills of Cyberpunk 2077.