Skip to main content

Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression and rank up bonuses

From zero to 60

Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression: A white man with short black hair, wearing a black suit and red tie, is looking at himself in the mirror with an unwell expression on his face
Josh Broadwell avatar
Guide by Josh Broadwell Contributor
Published on

Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression received quite the overhaul in the RPG’s big, free 2.0 update. CDPR streamlined V’s abilities by regrouping them under new names and categories and altered the way you level them up. Since skills are entirely separate from perks and other abilities, you can feasibly rank up all five and stack your V with some pretty sweet bonuses, depending on how you play.

This guide explains how Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression changed, how to rank up all five skills, and what you get for your trouble.

Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression

How does Cyberpunk 2077 skill progression work?

Each of Cyberpunk’s five skill groups requires different actions to level up, but most of the tasks involve things you’d do normally while playing anyway. Headhunter, for example, levels up when you use firearms and land headshots, while the Shinobi branch levels up as you use movement abilities. Since these upgrades aren’t tied to perk points, you can feasibly rank up all of them just by playing the game normally.

Progress made during Cyberpunk’s previous life counts toward progress in the 2.0 version, so if you boot up an old save file and notice random progress in some of these categories, that’s why.

Cyberpunk 2077 Solo skill progression

Levelig up solo is a bit weird. This category groups heavy weapons, carrying capacity, and health under one banner, but the only way to level it up is by using fists, gorilla weapons, clubs, and shotguns repeatedly. Even if you don’t use heavy weapons that much, it’s worth pulling them out from time to time just for some of the rank bonuses. Extra health and better carrying capacity are always good.

Solo skill rank bonuses

  • Rank five: Increases carrying Ccapacity by 50
  • Rank 10: Increases health by 10
  • Rank 15: +1 perk point
  • Rank 20: Fists and Gorilla Arms have: +20 percent damage and +20 percent attack speed. Fists may apply bleeding.
  • Rank 25: Carrying capacity increases by 100
  • Rank 30: Health increases by 15
  • Rank 35: +1 perk point
  • Rank 40: +10 percent critical hit chance against enemies within five meters
  • Rank 45: Strong attacks and quick melee attacks deal 25 percent more damage
  • Rank 50: +25 percent health after a finisher
  • Rank 55: When Adrenaline Rush is active, Adrenaline decays 50 percent more slowly and cannot decay below 10 percent
  • Rank 60: Berserk triggers +30 percent enemy health threshold to perform Finishers, +50 percent health from performing finishers, and +30 percent Bersker duration

Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner skill progression

Hacking raises your Netrunner skill rank, as you’d probably expect. Use your quickhacks on people and terminals whenever you can to boost this one quickly. Some players say any action tied to Intelligence will also boost your Netrunner rank. I didn’t notice a significant increase, though, and hacking is just a faster way to do it in general.

Netrunner skill rank bonuses

  • Rank five: Increases RAM recovery rate by five percent
  • Rank 10: Increases RAM by one
  • Rank 15: +1 perk point
  • Rank 20: +20 percent lock-on range with smart weapons
  • Rank 25: Increases RAM recovery rate by five percent
  • Rank 30: Increases RAM by one
  • Rank 35: +1 perk point
  • Rank 40: -20 percent RAM cost for quickhacks used on devices and vehicles
  • Rank 45: +15 percent duration for control and convert Quickhacks and +5 percent damage with combat quickhacks.
  • Rank 50: +40 percent duration for overclock
  • Rank 55: -10 percent health loss from using Quickhacks during overclock.
  • Rank 60: When active, Overclock now reveals enemies within 10 meters and lets you Quickhack non-Netrunner enemies through cover

Cyberpunk 2077 Headhunter skill progression

Bumping up your Headhunter rank is more straightforward. The ideal way to do it is by landing headshots, which seems to increase your skill progress quite a bit. Weapon techniques and targeting weak points also count toward progress, and I noticed small gains from using handguns in general, even without pulling off fancy moves.

Headhunter skill rank bonuses

  • Rank five: Decreases visibility to enemies by 10 percent.
  • Rank 10: +10 percent headshot damage and +10 percent damage against vulnerabilities
  • Rank 15: +1 perk point
  • Rank 20: No weapon sway when crouched
  • Rank 25: Decreases visibility to enemies by 10 percent
  • Rank 30: +15 percent headshot damage and +15 percent damage against vulnerabilities
  • Rank 35: +1 perk point
  • Rank 40: Optical Camo is active while grappling enemies
  • Rank 45: Decreases recovery time after a throw by 30 percent
  • Rank 50: 30 percent faster when crouch-walking and crouch-sprinting
  • Rank 55: Damage bonus from being undetected outside of combat persist for three seconds after entering combat
  • Rank 60: +15 percent Optical Camo charge when neutralizing an enemy in one of the following ways: During focus mode, during Deadeye Mode, or with a thrown weapon

Cyberpunk 2077 Shinobi skill progression

Your Shinobi skill rank is a bit more challenging to work with. You get points toward the next rank when you use movement abilities – so, dashing, dodging, climbing, and all that. From what I could tell, though, these only seemed to count if you used them in combat. Using katanas and other swords counts as well, so if you’re not the most mobile fighter, you might want to stick to those when you’re trying to rank up.

Shinobi skill rank bonuses

  • Rank five: Increases movement speed by five percent
  • Rank 10: -5 percent stamina cost from dodging and dashing
  • Rank 15: +1 perk point
  • Rank 20: Improved accuracy after dodging or dashing for a short time
  • Rank 25: Movement speed increased by five percent
  • Rank 30: -10 percent stamina cost for dodging and dashing
  • Rank 35: +1 perk point
  • Rank 40: Increased mitigation chance the faster you move
  • Rank 45: +25 damage with fast attacks
  • Rank 50: Air dashing and sliding reload 20 percent of your equipped weapon’s ammo
  • Rank 55: Low stamina does not affect ranged accuracy or melee attack speed
  • when attacking from midair or while time Is slowed.
  • Rank 60: When Sandevistan is active: +40 critical hit chance and no stamina cost for any movement

Cyberpunk 2077 Engineer skill progression

Engineer is the easiest skill to rank up. You earn progress through using smart weapons, throwable items, and, best of all, crafting. You can speed through the ranks by crafting and never even have to use a smart weapon if you don’t want to, though the bonuses certainly make those weapons more appealing and useful.

Engineer skill rank bonuses

  • Rank five: Increases armor by 15
  • Rank 10: Increases Cyberware capacity by five
  • Rank 15: +1 perk point
  • Rank 20: +10 grenade percent damage and explosion radius
  • Rank 25: Increases armor by 25
  • Rank 30: Increases Cyberware capacity by 10
  • Rank 35: +1 perk point
  • Rank 40: Increased shock chance from charging a tech weapon or electric baton
  • Rank 45: Health item effectiveness +15 percent
  • Rank 50: +30 percent for all Cyberware stat modifiers
  • Rank 55: +10 percent damage from Bolt Shots and +40 percent burn chance with Bolt Shots. Chain Lightning will set enemies on fire
  • Rank 60: When Fury is active, you may cause an EMP blast

If you're looking for new adventures in Night City, check out how to start Phantom Liberty and meet Solomon Reed, and brush up on how to get the best Phantom Liberty ending of the lot.

Read this next