All the Cyberpunk 2077 character creation options explained
How can you customise V in Cyberpunk 2077’s character creation?CD Projekt Red’s colossally ambitious and famously polarising RPG places players in the shoes of V - a protagonist with enormous scope for customisation thanks to the powerfulCyberpunk 2077character creation system.
When you start a new game in Cyberpunk 2077, you get to choose not only the difficulty level, but also V’s appearance, backstory, and starting attributes - all of which play a major role in immersing you in the story that Cyberpunk 2077 tells you over its many-hour campaign.
Below we’ll walk you through every aspect of character creation in Cyberpunk 2077, including the seven attributes and their uses, and the full depth of appearance customisation and which aspects of your appearance you can change later on.
Cyberpunk 2077 character creation options
When you start a new game in Cyberpunk 2077, there are four major choices that you must make regarding your character and playthrough:
We’ll go over each of these choices below and your options for each aspect of your Cyberpunk 2077 character.
There are four difficulty settings available in Cyberpunk 2077: Easy, Medium, Hard, and Very Hard. Here’s what the game says about each one:
Personally I’d recommend playing through the game on Medium difficulty, particularly if this is your first time playing. Easy difficulty really provides no challenge at all, and I don’t think the harder difficulty levels scale enemies up in a way that keeps the game fun.
At the beginning of a playthrough you can choose between three different Lifepaths for your character in Cyberpunk 2077. The Lifepath you choose determines V’s backstory, and how they came to reach Night City in the first place. Here are the three options:
For a much greater understanding of the above choices, check out ourCyberpunk 2077 Lifepathsguide!
With Cyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red created one of the more diverse and inclusive appearance customisation options we’ve seen in some time. Some of these options can be changed later on in the game, but others cannot. Below is every appearance option in Cyberpunk 2077 and whether they can be changed later on:
The final major aspect of Cyberpunk’s character creation is the attributes system. There are five major attributes in Cyberpunk 2077: Body, Intelligence, Reflexes, Technical Ability, and Cool. These attributes are taken straight from the tabletop RPG upon which the game is based.
Each attribute starts at a value of 3, and you have 7 points to assign across these attributes. Bear in mind that you can only ramp up a single attribute to a maximum of 6, so you can’t go all-in on a single attribute. But you’ll gain more points to assign as you level up your character.
There are also various perks to choose between, under which are grouped specific skills that can be accrued throughout V’s journey. Each perk is associated with a certain attribute, so let’s take a closer look at each attribute in turn and the associated perks we currently know about.
Your Body attribute determines your physical capabilities: under the lexica of traditional tabletop RPG systems, you could refer to Body as a combination of Strength and Constitution. A higher Body stat will allow you to take less damage from attacks, develop your melee prowess, and increase your carrying capacity.
The perks associated with the Body attribute are Annihilation, Athletics, and Street Brawler.
Having a high Intelligence value will allow V to solve problems more easily and notice more things throughout their journey. Intelligence plays heavily into the hacking mechanics of Cyberpunk 2077, giving you more options and abilities when it comes to hacking both hardware and wetware.
The perks associated with the Intelligence attribute are Device Hacking and Target Hacking.
The Reflexes attribute most closely resembles your dexterity from more traditional RPG systems, governing your precision when handling various weapons. But it may also affect other mechanics, including your ability to drive and pilot vehicles.
The perks associated with the Reflexes attribute are Blades, Handguns, and Rifles.
Your Technical Ability attribute will determine the effectiveness of your tech and equipment, and your use of them. This covers everything from body mods and armour to crafting and looting.
The perks associated with the Technical Ability attribute are Craft and Engineering.
Your Cool attribute in Cyberpunk 2077 covers everything from how intimidating and tough V seems to others, to their ability to push through tests of stress, pressure, and physical pain. Cool also affects the player’s stealth abilities and critical hit effectiveness.
The perks associated with the Cool attribute are Cold Blood and Stealth.
That wraps up our Cyberpunk 2077 character creation guide. Why not now check out everything we know about the variousromance optionsavailable to your V, or learn how tochange V’s appearancein-game? You can also check out our guide on thebest Cyberpunk 2077 builds, and our primer on the prospect ofCyberpunk 2077 multiplayerin the future. And for everything else related to CDPR’s groaningly huge RPG, check out ourCyberpunk 2077 walkthrough hub.
