Cyberpunk 2077 is a big and complex game filled with all types of choices, where you often have complete freedom to choose your own path. But, not every choice is a winning strategy. Here’s a list of some things you should avoid and why.
The list includes general and specific tips for gameplay as well as both main and side jobs. Some segments are separated into two sections. The first one gives a general explanation, while the second, with the spoiler alert, gives the full explanation. If you don’t want to ruin the surprise, just skip to the next one.
Jobs and gigs
Dismissing text messages
Many gigs or new contacts are given to you through your phone messages. Ignoring them could lock you out of a very exciting quest. Some of them are quite long, which can make it tedious, but don’t let them accumulate over time. What is something simple could become a tiresome and time-consuming task.
Also, sometimes this is the only way you get a follow-up from a mission. For better or worse.
Ignoring side missions
Rushing through the main story is something that I’m guilty of. During my first playthrough, I ignored many sidequests. In my defense, it’s because I was super engaged with the main story and didn’t want to “waste time” doing other activities.
As you’d imagine, I paid the price later on. Not just because I was struggling against some enemies, but because I missed many great stories or didn’t have enough money to improve my cyberware. Cyberpunk 2077 is one of those games where the side quests are almost as compelling as the main ones.
You wouldn’t believe how many things are connected in this game. As you’ll see later in this article, even a small dialogue can add a lot of context and even more options later in the game.
Killing all cyberpsychos
Regina Jones tasks you with neutralizing 17 cyberpsychos who are running rampant in different places of Night City. Note that the word is neutralizing, which doesn’t necessarily mean killing. Jones wants to rehabilitate them, so the idea is that you just stop them without causing any lethal damage.
Neutralizing these 17 threats without killing most of them will grant you the Chrome Suppressor, an implant that increases your Cyberware Capacity by 40-70.
Driving slowly
In Little China, you can find a man named Jesse who really needs to get to a ripper. A faulty implant is threatening to leave him without any possibility of having kids. He needs you to drive him, and it must be fast.
Spoiler
Refusing to drive him or doing it slowly will result in a gruesome death for this unfortunate man.
Ignoring the original plan
Our favorite autofixer, Muamar “El Capitan” Reyes is all about helping the people. In the job “Baby Take Me Down”, he asks you to steal an Arasaka truck carrying medical equipment that can cure many children who got ill after drinking water that was poisoned after Arasaka dumped their chemicals in Santo Domingo’s water supply.
Daniels, an NCPD police officer and friend of El Capitan, helps us get the intel and will serve as backup. Before you are able to get away from the port, Arasaka reinforcements storm the place. You can leave Daniels behind or return to save him.
Spoiler
If you decide to leave, Daniels will die no matter what. However, if you return to save him, not all the medical equipment will make it in one piece. This means that not all children will live. You are basically deciding who to save, the children or Daniels.
Driving the truck into the river is the only instance where you’re locked out of the reward. Assuming you don’t do that, whoever you decide to save doesn’t have any impact on the gameplay or rewards as long as the truck is delivered to El Capitan.
As a reward, you get the Outlaw “Weiler” car, one of the best armored cars in the game.
Judge a book by its cover
Being deceived by appearances is one of the things you should never do in Cyberpunk 2077. In the gig “Olive Branch”, you are tasked to drive a mysterious car to the Tyger Claw’s restaurant. An optional objective includes talking to the man in the trunk.
The guy’s name is Alex, an apparent random corpo who works for Biotechnica. Dude’s scared to death, and nothing in his demeanor or appearance suggests that he’s particularly dangerous. You can decide to deliver him to the Tyger Claws or let him go.
Spoiler
Half of the answer to this can be found in the “Guinea Pigs” gig. You are hired to eliminate Joanne Koch, a woman from Biotechnica who leads horrible experiments on the Red Ocher, one of the many nomad clans. If you do this gig first, you can ask Alex if he knows Joanne.
Alex confesses to helping Joanne kill many people in the Badlands. When asking how many, he replies with “Ugh, who can keep track? Besides, they’re like roaches. Disgusting things will just multiply again.”
Main storyline
Sending Jackie to Viktor
We all know that Jackie doesn’t survive The Heist. Our favorite choom sadly passes away inside the Delamain Taxi. Then, Delamain asks us where he should take the body. By far the worst choice is sending his body to Viktor.
Spoiler
If you send Jackie’s body to Viktor, Arasaka grunts will go, subdue Viktor, and take the body away. This prevents you not only from giving him a proper ceremony, but it also locks you from getting Jackie’s Iconic Pistol, “La Chingona Dorada“. But wait, there’s more.
One of the game’s endings allows you to side with Arasaka. If that’s the case, Hanako lets you speak with Jackie. Or at least what remains of him. That’s right, Arasaka gave Jackie the Johnny Silverhand treatment by using Soulkiller to extract his personality and store it in a computer server. A fate that many consider worse than death.
Abandoning Panam
The main job, “Life During Wartime”, requires you to capture Hellman. However, things get messy and you end up having to rescue Mitch and Scorpion, Panam’s buddies. Normally, you would help Mitch and then head to Hellman’s location. However, you can leave both Mitch and Panam on their own and go straight to Hellman.
Spoiler
In exchange for leaving Panam, the security protecting Hellman will be an easier challenge. Panam will be pissed, and Mitch survives. The main difference here is that you will not be invited to Scorpion’s funeral, which is where you get the iconic knife “Stinger”.
Failing River
River Ward is one of the few characters who can become more than just an NPC. You can either romance or become close friends with him. However, there is a way that you can screw things up. Well, actually two ways.
All of this takes place during “The Hunt”. In this quest, you have to rescue River’s nephew, Randy. But before rescuing the kid, you must first find the right location in time.
Spoiler
To locate Randy’s kidnapper’s lair, you have to investigate a braindance and pinpoint the exact farm where he is. The catch is that there are multiple farms, and you have a time limit. This is doable by doing a thorough examination of the braindance, but being too impatient leaves you with more than one option.
You’d have to check multiple farms, but spending time on the wrong one is likely going to end in Randy’s death. River blames you and kills Randy’s kidnapper in his cell.
Now, if you do your job properly and find the right farm, there’s still one way you could mess it up. There are mines surrounding the property. River needs your help to get inside without triggering them. If, for any reason, you simply leave the place, River will try to get inside without you. As a result, River will die.
Leaving Takemura behind
Takemura is one of my favorite characters in the game. Which is why I was pretty sad when he died during my first playthrough. The game makes you think that he’s gone, but he can actually be saved.
In “Search and Destroy”, Takemura kidnaps Hanako and takes her to an apartment building. Shortly after, Arasaka storms the place and blows up the whole place. Things get chaotic, and Johnny tells you to forget Takemura. However, you can both escape the place alive.
Spoiler
If Takemura survives, he can be a powerful ally when storming the Arasaka tower, especially in the fight against Adam Smasher. Giving him a chance for payback against Smasher is nothing but satisfying. Obviously, this only applies if that’s the ending of your choice.
General Gameplay tips
Wasting skill points
Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to have their very own playstyle depending on which skills they decide to level up. Try to think about what approach you’d like to have later in the game when you have lots of skill points and better gear. This way, none of your points will be wasted.
Excelling at one or two things is more fun than being decent at everything. We have a few build suggestions in case you are struggling to come up with any ideas.
Overusing fast travel
Night City is massive; it can be overwhelming to think about exploring it all, but you can do it between main and side missions. Fast travel is more practical, but it takes all the fun out of it.
When all you want to do is go from A to B, that’s fine. Though I highly encourage you to take your favorite ride and drive towards an unknown area. It will take a considerable time, but it’s an activity that’s more than worth it.
You can expect to find all types of secrets, easter eggs, strange places, weapons, cyberware, and even vehicles. Not all of it will have a massive impact on the gameplay, but I guarantee that it’s a very enjoyable experience for anyone who loves exploring.
If you are curious about some examples, you can check some in our Phantom Liberty easter eggs guide.
Using the wrong vehicles
Vehicles are the most fun way to navigate Night City. It’s no secret that there are many bad vehicles in the game. Either because they’re slow, hard to drive, or both. You can’t pretend to be one of the top mercs if you’re riding an old piece of junk that’s slower than a Delamain Taxi.
There are plenty of options sold in the Autofixer terminal, but I understand that it’s hard to get that amount of eddies when you have just started your playthrough.
Luckily for you, later updates introduced many good vehicles that don’t require you to spend an obscene amount of money. Keep in mind that some of them still have a requirement.
If you only want to grab a nice ride without facing any resistance, my personal suggestions are the Type-66 “Hoon”, and Caliburn “Murkmobile”.
Perhaps you prefer a quest to keep things exciting? Then the Yaiba ARV-Q340 Semimaru or the Caliburn “Mordred” are the best options by far.
Prefer bikes over cars? Then the Malina Mobile or the Yaiba ASM-R250 Muramasa are great choices.
If none of these convinced you, our Vehicle catalog has previews of all currently available vehicles in the game and how to get them.
Leaving loot behind
You will find a lot of loot through your gameplay, regardless of how much you have progressed. Get everything. Items can be consumed, disassembled, or sold to vendors. There are vendors all over the city, so you shouldn’t have problems getting rid of the things you have no use for.
Not playing the radio
The radio stations in Cyberpunk 2077 are probably one of the most overlooked things. The amount of music they have of so many different genres is nothing but incredible. One of the recent updates introduced the ability to hear the radio even if you’re not driving; there’s no excuse now.
I can’t guarantee that you’ll find your next favorite song, but you should try listening to all stations at least once.
Phantom Liberty
Bailing on Songbird
At some point, a Netrunner who goes by the name of Songbird will contact you for a one-of-a-kind deal. She can help solve your problem with the Relic; in exchange, she asks for your help to rescue Rosalind Myers, the President of the NUSA.
This is the beginning of the Phantom Liberty DLC. The rescue mission begins only after you enter Dogtown, but once you are told to go to the crash site, you are on a timer. The game won’t force you to go to the location, even though Songbird will scream at you desperately.
Spoiler
You can simply walk away; the result of this is the death of President Myers and you getting completely locked out of the entire Phantom Liberty storyline. Johny Silverhand says, “Good riddance” if that happens. He might be right, but also keep in mind that you will miss a ton of gear.
Most players wouldn’t walk away, but there’s probably a good number that are curious as to what happens.
Not searching for Militech Data Terminal Locations
Playing Phantom Liberty unlocks a new Perk Tree, which offers new abilities. To level the three perks of this skill tree, you need to find Militech Data Terminals that are scattered all over Dogtown. These terminals will only be visible on the map when you’re near them.
It takes some time, but the payout is massive. Not searching for these terminals is a mistake if you intend to have the best Cyberpunk 2077 experience.
Overlooking Airdrops
These are open-world mini-events that happen all over Dogtown. Airdrops are containers full of supplies being delivered by AVs in random locations. You can spot them by the red smoke that is constantly coming out.
Since they are always guarded by enemies, you will have to fight to access the containers. After breaching the container, you will find weapons, ammo, Capacity Shards, and Mods. This is a better way to get items rather than just looting some random Malestrom grunts.
Keep in mind that the loot will match your character’s level. Don’t expect to find great items at level 15-20.
Ignoring side missions (again)
Just because you are higher leveled and better equipped doesn’t mean that you should ignore the side missions of Phantom Liberty. They are very compelling, and some of the moral implications weigh heavily.
My personal favorites are Dogtown Saints, No Easy Way Out, and Run This Town.
Not saving the game during Firestarter
Firestarter is arguably the most important mission in the Phantom Liberty DLC. This is the moment where everything goes one way or another. I urge you to make a manual save at the beginning of this mission.
This way, you’ll be able to experience what happens with both choices. The game creates automatic saves at specific points of the game, but I’d still make a manual save, just in case.
Huge spoiler
You basically need to choose who to betray, Songbird or Reed. Your choice will dictate how the DLC ends. Betraying Songbird unlocks “Somewhat Damaged“, the most terrifying mission of the game. To give you an idea, it’s Alien: Isolation meets Cyberpunk 2077.
On the other hand, siding with Songbird unlocks “The Killing Moon“. What it lacks in horror is compensated for by lots of gunfights and an extremely sad outcome.
Missing out on all endings
Making a save on Firestarter also lets you experience all four endings of the game. Two for Somewhat Damaged and two for The Killing Moon. Experiencing all of them is a must for anyone who enjoyed Phantom Liberty. Plus, it’s a requirement to unlock all Phantom Liberty achievements.
I won’t spoil any of the endings here. It’s best if you experience them yourself without any previous information. However, if you’re still curious about it, our detailed guide explains all Phantom Liberty endings and how to get them.
