Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Skill Progression: How to Level Up Your New Skills

Cyberpunk 2.0 changes so many things about the base Cyberpunk 2077 experience that it might as well be a new game. While it will take you quite some time to navigate the update’s many changes, 2.0‘s new Skill Progression system may just be its most initially confusing and ultimately important new feature.

So if you want to get the most out of your Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 build (and why wouldn’t you?), here is pretty much everything you need to know about the game’s modified Skill system:

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Skill Progression Explained

In the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update, Skills are passive upgrades that are divided into five major categories: Headhunter, Shinobi, Netrunner, Solo, and Engineer.

Each of those skill categories provides a series of (mostly passive) benefits related to the theme of the category. So Headhunter will gradually increase your headshot damage (among other things) while Netrunner expands your quickhack capabilities.

What’s the point of this new system? Well, it essentially replaces the old Perk system while working in conjunction with Cyberpunk 2077 2.0‘s new Perk system. Basically, the old Cyberpunk 2077 Perk system was filled with upgrades that largely offered statistical buffs to a character’s primary attributes. While useful, those buffs were not particularly exciting and didn’t always feel worthy of the valuable points that went into them.

So, the new Skill system allows you to acquire many of those same statistical buffs (and more) without having to spend Perk points. Instead, the Perk system is now free to support a greater array of more interesting abilities, and the Skill system can be leveled up just by performing certain actions related to those Skill categories.

In typical RPG fashion, though, leveling up a Skill path will become more difficult as you progress. So while you may acquire many early progression points in each major Skill category by accident later on, you’ll eventually need to focus on leveling up certain Skill Progression paths by completing specific actions if you want to reach the highest possible levels.

What actions? Glad you asked…

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Headhunter Skill Progression

The Headhunter skill can be leveled up by completing certain feats during combat. The best (and most obvious) way to level up the Headhunter Skill is to score headshots on enemies with any weapon. However, you can also level up Headhunter by performing other specialized combat techniques such as silenced weapon takedowns or targeting an enemy’s known weak points.

Alternatively, it does appear you can slowly level up this skill by using Pistols, Revolvers, Silenced Weapons, Knives, Axes, and Throwing Weapons. However, it seems to be much more efficient to go for headshots, so if there is a weapon you feel comfortable consistently scoring headshots with (such as an assault rifle), then that may be your best bet.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Headhunter Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%.
Rank 10: 10% Headshot Damage and 10% Damage Against Vulnerabilities
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: No Weapon Sway When Crouched
Rank 25: Decreases Visibility to Enemies by 10%
Rank 30: 15% Headshot Damage and 15% Damage Against Vulnerabilities
Rank 35: Gain a perk point
Rank 40: Optical Camo Is Active While Grappling Enemies
Rank 45: Decreases Recovery Time After a Throw by 30%
Rank 50: 30% Faster When Crouch Walking and Crouch Sprinting
Rank 55: Damage Bonus From Being Undetected Outside of Combat Persist for 3 Seconds After Entering Combat.
Rank 60: 15% Optical Camo Charge when Neutralizing an Enemy in One of the Following Ways: During Focus Mode, During Deadeye Mode, With a Thrown Weapon.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Nerunner Skill Progression

Netrunner is probably the easiest Skill Progression path to understand and eventually level.

In order to progress along this path, you just need to hack everything you can. While quickhacks will be the quickest and most reliable way to advance your progression along this path, you can also gain experience from hacking terminals and other objects in the environment. If it requires you to use your Intelligence abilities, it will probably advance your progression along these paths.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Netrunner Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5%
Rank 10: Increases RAM by 1
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: +20% Lock-On Range With Smart Weapons
Rank 25: Increases RAM Recovery Rate by 5%
Rank 30: Increases RAM by 1
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: -20% RAM Cost For Quickhacks Used on Devices and Vehicles
Rank 45: +15% Duration For Control and Convert Quickhacks. +5% Damage With Combat Quickhacks.
Rank 50: +40% Duration For Overclock
Rank 55: -10% Health Loss From Using Quickhacks During Overclock.
Rank 60: When Active, Overlock Now Reveals Enemies Within 10 meters and Allows You To Quickhack Non-Netrunner Enemies Through Cover

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Shinobi Skill Progression

Shinobi is a bizarre Skill Progression path that basically asks you to play like a ninja (minus the obvious stealth tactics). Using weapons like Katanas, Machetes, Chainswords, or the Mantis Blades will always level up your Shinobi path. However, you can also gain Shinobi points by using Assault Rifles and SMGs. Performing acrobatic maneuvers (like running, dashing, sliding, and climbing) will also grant you Shinobi points, though perhaps slightly slower than other methods will.

Realistically, many players will probably end up trying to level Shinobi and Headhunter together given some of their natural synergies. Scoring headshots with an Assault Rifle will level up Shinobi and Headhunter, and going with a stealth melee build will require a little from each category.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Shinobi Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Movement Speed by 5%
Rank 10: -5% Stamina Cost From Dodging and Dashing
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: Better accuracy after dodging or dashing
Rank 25: Increased Accuracy For a Short Time After Dodging and Dashing
Rank 30: Decreased 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 Automatically Reload 20% of Your Equipped Weapon
Rank 55: When Attacking From Midair or While Time Is Slowed, Low Stamina Does Not Affect Ranged Accuracy or Melee Attack Speed
Rank 60: When Sandevistan is Active: +40 Crit Chance and No Stamina Cost For Any Type of Movement

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Solo Skill Progression

Another initially odd Skill Progression path, Solo is basically best thought of as the “heavy” Skill. You’ll level it up by using close-range weapons like Shotguns, LMGs, Clubs, Fists, Gorilla Arms, and other blunt melee objects. As you can see, though, blades like Katanas do not affect your Solo progression.

Because of that, this isn’t quite the universal close-range progression path you may initially think it is. However, that is the general idea behind this Skill, and it certainly will help anyone who favors less subtle methods of play and progression.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Solo Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Carrying Capacity by 50
Rank 10: Increases Health by 10
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: Fists and Gorilla Arms Have: +20% Damage and +20% Attack Speed. Fists also have a Chance to Apply Bleeding.
Rank 25: Increases Carrying Capacity by 100
Rank 30: Increases Health by 15
Rank 35: +1 Perk Point
Rank 40: +10% Crit Chance Against Enemies Within 5 meters
Rank 45: +25% Damage With Strong Attacks and Quick Melee Attacks
Rank 50: +25 Health After Performing a Finisher
Rank 55: When Adrenaline Rush is Active, Adrenaline Decays 50% Slower and Cannot Decay Below 10%
Rank 60: When Berserk Is Active: +30% Enemy Health Threshold to Perform Finishers, +50% Health From Performing Finishers, and +30% Bersker Duration

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: How to Level Up Engineer Skill Progression

You can level up the Engineer path by performing a variety of actions related to high-tech gear. That naturally includes Smart Weapons, Projectiles, Cyberware, Bolts, and Crafting, but it also extends to many thrown explosives and damage-over-time effects triggered by elemental abilities.

For the most part, though, this is the extension of the “Tech” Perk system. It’s one of the rare Skill Progression paths you’ll regularly level up by performing non-combat activities (crafters will be able to blaze through this path), but those who rely on explosives and elemental damage will certainly welcome the benefits this path has to offer.

Cyberpunk 2077 2.0: Every Engineer Skill Bonus

Rank 5: Increases Armor by 15
Rank 10: Increases Cyberware Capacity by 5
Rank 15: +1 Perk Point
Rank 20: +10 Grenade 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: +15% Item Health Effectiveness
Rank 50: +30% To All Cyberware Stat Modifiers
Rank 55: 10% Damage With Bolt Shots and +40% Burn Chance With Bolt Shots. Chain Lightning Now Sets Enemies on Fire.
Rank 60: When Fury is Active, You Occasionally Release an EMP Blast