Cyberpunk 2077 is out, and people are really beginning to dig into it. Already Cyberpunk 2077 is the first single-player game to hit one million consecutive Steam players, and its momentum likely won't slow for some time. The game's economy is intimidating, with most of the best items heavily price-gated – players who want the very best will have to raise a boatload of cash.
The best stuff in Night City is prohibitively expensive. The economy of Cyberpunk 2077 is kind of a monster, with many of the best weapons and vehicles out of reach even into the late game. Earning enough money to get the best stuff in Cyberpunk 2077 takes a dedicated effort, and players will constantly find themselves desperate for another buck in Night City. Here are a few tips to earning enough money in Cyberpunk 2077.
Updated October 27, 2023 by Erik Petrovich: When it comes to how to make money in Cyberpunk 2077, the game gives players a lot of choice. Unfortunately, item duplication – arguably the best way to make money Cyberpunk players can take advantage of – is almost entirely fixed with the 2.0 overhaul and other updates throughout the years. But the game is not lacking in jobs or loot to find and sell to make some cash, some more lucrative than others. In Cyberpunk 2077, easy money is hard to come by all at once. Instead, players need to scrounge and save, loot everything they can sell, complete missions, and craft to make a decent buck in Night City. These three methods to the best ways to make money in Cyberpunk 2077 should give players plenty of extra eddies to spend on cyberware, vehicles, apartments, weapons, and everything else a resident of Night City needs to get by.
Completing Side Missions And Night City Objectives
It should go without saying, but missions both in the main quest and side quests, offer good payouts. Get as many of them under V's belt as soon as possible. Side missions are often where the juiciest stories are found, and there are other benefits to taking as many on as possible, like unlocking questlines that aren't normally accessible.
It's also worth mentioning that Side Gigs and NCPD Scanner Hustles are very lucrative sources of income. They take almost no time at all to complete, and they reward valuable items, crafting materials, and thousands of Eurodollars (or more in the later stages of the game). If players don't feel like progressing the main story or slogging through side quests, then these are the best activities they can do in Night City to earn money.
The best part is, players don't even need to go out of their way for these objectives. Typically, NCPD and similar side missions will pop up on the map as V drives by, so just make a small detour and take advantage of the easy looting, quest rewards, and XP.
Selling Crafted Items
Crafting items in Cyberpunk 2077 is actually one of the best ways to make money. However, players first need to invest some time, effort, and Eddies to get their character's Crafting skill up to snuff. Doing so unlocks a number of perks that make selling crafted items very profitable.
One trick to make the crafting grind less troublesome is to use the Skip Time feature. Visit any vendor that sells crafting materials, buy their entire stock, then wait for 24 hours. Their inventory should be completely refreshed by then, essentially giving players an unlimited source of materials (assuming they have the money to buy them).
After leveling V's crafting skills, keep making weapons and sell them to vendors. Higher-quality items tend to sell for more Eddies. The cost-efficiency of sellable crafted items will depend on the perks players unlock and the total number of crafting materials they can spend. Purple and orange-tier weapons sell for significantly higher prices than blues and greens, but they are also more expensive to make.
Looting Everything That Isn't Nailed Down
The simplest way to earn cash in Night City is to take everything for your own and sell it to whoever is willing to buy it. When exploring the gritty streets of Cyberpunk 2077 and killing enemies, pay attention to icons that indicate lootable items on corpses and containers. V can carry quite a lot of goods before becoming over-encumbered, and there are a ton of vendors and machines throughout Night City V can sell items at.
There's no excuse not to pick up quite literally every item that doesn't get the attention of the NCPD – and even then, stealing some items is well worth the trouble. Broken weapons can't be resold, but will instead automatically convert into crafting materials, which can be used to craft items to sell and make even more Eurodollars.
Consider putting unique weapons into the stash in V's apartment, but selling everything else that won't be equipped. If V's build isn't melee-focused, there's no reason to keep a bunch of melee weapons around. Other items, like cosmetics and junk items, are worth picking up too, though they aren't often worth as much as weapons.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, Xbox One, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S.