Cyberpunk 2077 - How to get Street Cred

Cyberpunk 2077 hides tons of little systems under its hood. The Street Cred system is just one of many areas you can upgrade your character. It is one of the most important parts of the game yet also one of the more esoteric. There are a few key ways to build it, but before that, let's explain what it is.  

Street Cred is a form of experience throughout Cyberpunk 2077 and is predominantly used to get access to new gigs and new wares. Gigs are one of Night City's many side activities and a good way of levelling up, getting Eddies, and experiencing a little more of what Cyberpunk 2077 has to offer. Here are just a few ways of getting Street Cred.

Cyberpunk 2077 Street Cred - Kill Every Enemy

Although you are likely to do this anyway, it can't hurt (you anyway) to stress this point: killing enemies is a good way of upgrading practically everything. Every enemy you kill in the streets of Night City will earn you Street Cred, especially when combined with stealth and headshots.

As you wander, you will likely spot gangs of them roaming around. Take them all out for a nice increase in Street Cred. While you do this, watch out for police and loot everything you can.

The Main Quest and Street Cred

Due to the number of bad guys you make your way through, you can get street cred naturally by playing through the story. It will bring you from location to location and give you the chance to do a couple of different activities on the way. Killing enemies with stealth and headshots seems to be the main way of upgrading it here.

If you want to get street creed, this is one of the worst ways of doing so. There's just too much story going on, as obvious as that sounds, to efficiently raise that little green bar. You are better off exploring the city if you really want to make your way through it. That being said, you can still do it this way so it's a nice little bonus and a good way of breaking up the monotony of repeating activities.

The NCPD and Street Cred

The NCPD is a very efficient way of garnering lots of Street Cred. To know how to take advantage of this, open up your map and look for light blue markers littering it. The "Assault in Progress" activity has you find a victim being terrorized by a group of thugs where you must take them all down and loot the item at the center. The icon for this one is a blue bat. These are the most prevalent of the NCPD activities and, therefore, the easiest to find. Once you finish them, they disappear from the map and are finite in number. This means that doing them will limit the number of enemies in each area but not by enough for that to really matter. 

Moving from here, we have "Reported Crimes." Showing up on the map as a blue question mark, this denotes that a crime has been reported. Your only goal here is to incapacitate all the enemies in a given area. You can opt to kill them all or just knock them out—either way, you will receive Street Cred and money. 

Finally, we find "Organized Crime." This appears as a blue skull on the map and is generally the hardest of the three available. Luckily, every location on the map of all three of these activities has a difficulty on it if you hover over it. This is in relation to your stats and abilities, so if something is extra hard, just come back later for a much easier time. Every one of these are relatively self-explanatory but a really good way of learning a decent chunk of Street Cred. 

Gigs and Street Cred

Gigs are practically the most important aspect when it comes to Street Cred. They are used to get it, and it's are used to unlock more gigs. It seems the whole point of gigs and Cyberpunk 2077's "gig economy" is to be quite cyclical. 

Doing one of its many gigs is a good way to earn Street Cred, kill enemies, get loot, and keep yourself entertained. With a max Street Cred of 50, it can be a little tedious to just kill enemies until that green bar fills. This will break up that monotony and guarantee lots of Street Cred. This seems to be the most efficient way of doing so, too.

This all being said, you don't need to rush the progression of Street Cred. Completing the game gives you the option to go back and finish what you haven't, and there are plenty of stops in the story that allow you time to do what you like. Varying between all these different activities should get you going for hours. If you do every gig you can when you unlock them, then do the NCPD activities and the main quest until you unlock more; you should make your way through them rather quickly. 

And that's it. There doesn't appear to be an incredibly fast way of getting street cred but there are the most efficient ways of doing so. If you're looking for any more guides on all things Night City, check out the resources below.