Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Skill explained: how to level up fast and all bonuses

Netrunner is a skill in Cyberpunk 2077 that gives bonuses to V’s RAM and hacking abilities as it progresses. If you’re going for a Netrunner build, or really any Intelligence based build, progressing this skill as much as possible will help tremendously.

Even if you aren’t focusing on hacking, the extra RAM acquired by progressing the Netrunner Skill is something that will always come in handy. This guide will break down every tier of the Netrunner Skill and that tier’s associated bonus, and will also provide tips and tricks to increase the skill as quickly as possible.

Cyberpunk 2077: Netrunner Skill bonuses

The Netrunner Skill starts at Rank One and caps out at Rank 60. Every five ranks, a new passive bonus is added. You can track your progress with Netrunner as well as all other skills by going to Character>Skill Progression.

The bonuses for each rank of Netrunner are:

• Rank five—Increases RAM Recovery Rate by five percent.
• Rank 10—Increases RAM by one.
• Rank 15—Gain one Perk Point.
• Rank 20—Gain 20 percent additional lock-on range with Smart weapons.
• Rank 25—Increases RAM Recovery Rate by five percent.
• Rank 30—Increases RAM by one.
• Rank 35—Gain one Perk Point.
• Rank 40—Reduces RAM cost for quickhacks on devices and vehicles by 20 percent.
• Rank 45—Increases duration for Control and Covert quickhacks by 15 percent and increases damage for Combat quickhacks by five percent.
• Rank 50—Increases Overclock duration by 40 percent.
• Rank 55—Reduces health cost of Overclock quickhacks by 10 percent.
• Rank 60—Overclock now reveals all enemies within 10 meters and allows you to quickhack enemies through cover.

the XP required to advance ranks start off relatively low, so reaching rank five will happen very quickly. The cost goes up the higher your Netrunner skill gets, however, and as soon as you get to around rank 10, it will start taking quite some time to progress to the next rank.

Cyberpunk 2077: How to progress the Netrunner Skill fast

XP for the Netrunner Skill is gained by doing anything that has to do with, well, Netrunning. This means that things like quickhacking, using Breech Protocol, or using Intelligence dialogue options all grant some XP towards Netrunner. Additional, Skill Shards can be found or purchased to gain a hefty chunk of progression XP.

Here are the best ways to progress Netrunner quickly:

• Scan and quickhack any and everything.
  • Any quickhack that you use grants Netrunner progression. Even if you don’t need to use a quickhack to distract enemies in combat, doing so will give you Netrunner XP.
• Hack the expert sequence of all Access Points you find.
  • When hacking Access Points with Breech Protocol, there are three different levels you can complete the matrix at. Completing the Expert level grants a ton of Netrunner progression.
• Purchase or find Skill Shards
  • Skill Shards were added in the 2.0 Cyberpunk update, and they’ve made progressing skills significantly more pain-free.
  • Skill Shards come in different tiers—one through five. The higher the tier, the more progression a Shard grants.