As was mentioned in ourguide to hackingin Cyberpunk 2077, there are several viable paths to choose from while playing the game. The most direct route to completing most missions can be boiled down to either shooting or punching everything that moves. This method is likely the one most players will follow during their first run through of Cyberpunk 2077 and it’ll probably be in the second play through that one will want to bring out their inner infiltrator. In some ways, this is the easier path since a sneaky V doesn’t have to worry as much about enemy levels and armaments. In other ways, though, it’s going to be a lot more difficult. Being seen can quickly lead to death, so players opting to follow the path of the ghost will need to keep a few important ideas in mind.
Hacking is Essential
Hacking is great for creating advantages in combat, but infiltration is where it comes into its own. Starting with quickhacks, players will want to verify they’re always armed with Ping and Reboot Optics. The former reveals all enemies connected to the local network, while the latter blinds enemies for a short period of time. Ping is acquired from a minor sidequest (as a gift from T-Bug) or from any vendor who deals in quickhacks. The same is true of Reboot Optics, though V should have it available from the outset.
Once acquired, using these is straightforward. First, always make Ping the first quickhack used on an enemy or network after infiltrating it with Breach Protocol. Once the enemies are revealed, make sure to mark every enemy using R3 (or its equivalent). Next, find and hack-into the camera network. Take control of a camera remotely, use it to find any enemies that were not revealed by Ping and mark them too; deactivate the camera network once that’s done. Now it’s time to being moving further into enemy territory.
Planning is Key
This will likely be a no-brainer to anyone who’s ghosted their way through the likes ofDeus Ex: Mankind DividedorDishonored 2,but new players should take note: success depends on planning ahead. Don’t just run into the next room and hope for the best. Even with the whole space scoped-out, it’s probably not going to work. Proceed carefully; choose the first target, figure out how to draw attention away from them, form a plan and only then move into action.
For example, say there’s a room with three guards and monitored by cameras. The cameras are watching the doors, the guards are all within each other’s fields of vision and they’re not moving. First disable the cameras, and then observe the guards. Which one can be pulled away from the group and what distractions are available? Answer this question and then make the selections.
Get into a position close to the target but still out of sight. Next, hack the chosen distraction and pull one guard away from the group. After that, hit the second guard with the Reboot Optics quickhack. Once that’s done, crouch-walk behind the target and knock ‘em out. Once they’re out and hidden somewhere out of the way, work on the other two. If the room in question has too many guards to knock out, then pick the most lightly-guarded route and only deal with the those guards standing between V and the objective. In this way, V should be able to make it through most encounters undetected.
Keep Cool No Matter What
Cyberpunk 2077 actually offers a Stealth skill tree to help players enhance their potency in the shadows. It’s found within the “Cool” attribute. There are many helpful perks to be had here, but the most useful for most infiltrators will be the Crouching Tiger, Clean Work and Ghost perks. Crouching Tiger increases movement speed when crouching by twenty percent, enabling V to cross rooms all the more quickly while still remaining silent.
Clean Work grants the ability to immediately pick up enemies’ bodies once they’re knocked out, saving time and preventing possible discovery. Finally, the Ghost perk makes V harder to detect, granting one extra time to get out of sight in a pinch. By combining these with a regularly upgraded cyberdeck and cyberware like the double-jump-enabling Reinforced Tendons, players should be able to remain nothing more than a bad feeling in the back of their enemies’ minds.
At the time of this writing, Cyberpunk 2077 is not in a good place performance-wise. CD Projekt Red is going to have to put in a lot more work in order to revealthe excellent game buried beneath the bugs and crashes.It is there, though, and taking on enemy encounters the stealthy way is only one way players can enjoy it.
