Welcome to Night City, choom! With the right chrome and plenty of swagger, you won’t just survive the mean streets of Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition – you’ll own this town. Whether you’re a sneaky netrunner who short-circuits foes or a tanky cyborg who tosses brutes aside like toys, these five tips will get your mercenary career off to a shiny start.

Don’t try to be a jack of all trades. Instead, create a focused character that suits your play style – like a hyperkinetic cyber-ninja who deflects bullets with her katana. First, choose an operating system that fits your desired role: slowing time to a crawl with a Sandevistan is perfect for close-range melee and gunplay, for example, while a cyberdeck is a must if you want to fry synapses from the shadows. Then opt for implants and perks that mesh well with your OS.

Your armour rating comes from cyberware implants, not riot helmets and tactical vests. Invest in upgrades such as subdermal armour and nano-plating if you want to avoid flatlining during firefights. Bonus: you can rock whatever fashion you want – it won’t matter if that hot-pink vinyl jacket can’t stop a bullet.

Once you hit level 10, look for a ripperdoc selling cybernetic leg enhancements. The reinforced-tendons implant gives you the ability to double jump – great for finding sneaky hidden routes through air ducts or balcony doors – while fortified ankles enable super-leaps that’ll help you quickly close the gap in a fight or escape over a high fence. Just remember: you can have only one leg enhancement installed at a time.

Eurodollars (aka eddies) make the world of Cyberpunk 2077 go round, and early in the game the fastest way to earn cash is by looting weapons from fallen foes and selling them at drop points. But always hang on to weapons marked iconic, such as the Her Majesty pistol – these one-of-a-kind guns and blades can be upgraded to higher tiers, so you won’t outgrow them as you level up.

Committing crimes will ratchet up your wanted level and provoke local law enforcement, but the authorities will chase you only as long as they can see you. Duck into a quiet alleyway or clamber onto a rooftop and stay out of sight until they call off the hunt. That is, unless you’ve behaved so badly that you’ve got the augmented MaxTac squad on your tail, in which case you’d better run! (When MaxTac is after you, you’ll need distance and time before your wanted level resets.)