Help me out. Grind or Story?

[suhtiwdog]

The world of Night City is open to me. Sitting on about 50K after Act 1 and having payed off my ripper doc debt & buying a crappy car.

Do I buy some Rare quality legs & arms & cyberdeck now in Watson, and just play the story… upgrading as necessary?

Or… do I grind for some more money & more street cred and just go buy the best cyberware before continuing the storyline?

What would you do? What have you done?

 

[Crimsomrider]

I'm personally ignoring the main quests and exploring the city while coming across activities to do. The main quests I wish to savor afterwards.

 

[The_Blacks]

The story is always my priority in any game, never been a fan of grinding

 

[LadyMiseryAli]

Why not both? Grind and explore a wee bit, then do a story mission. Rinse and repeat.

 

[suhtiwdog]

Mostly, I guess, I’m just wondering if it’s a waste of money to buy the lower tier cyberware now or save for the better stuff, you know, playing Act 2 over-leveled and with the best endgame cyberware?

I mean, should I make Takemura wait in the diner while I go full Adam Smasher with legendary gear? Or show up with some humble blue and green cyberware? Lol.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

It depend
If you want to buy everything, you'll have to grind at some point.
But when you'll reach high level (+40), "grinding" is a strong word. Just by selling weapons/clothes that you looted during GIGs or quests would be enough to emptying 1, 2 or three drop points. So for the end-game stuffs, money won't be a big issue
(I bought for about 2 millions eddies of clothes, without especially grinding for money^^)

Edit : But I won't lie, I always start the main quest (talking to Takemura) after reaching the level 30 to have a decent look (which doesn't matter anymore with Wardrobe^^)

 

[GrimReaper801]

Mostly, I guess, I’m just wondering if it’s a waste of money to buy the lower tier cyberware now or save for the better stuff, you know, playing Act 2 over-leveled and with the best endgame cyberware?

I mean, should I make Takemura wait in the diner while I go full Adam Smasher with legendary gear? Or show up with some humble blue and green cyberware? Lol.

It really doesn't matter. Starting level 25+ you'll be making so much money from all the loot you'll find and sell that wasting money on low tier cyberware changes nothing. Nothing is locked behind a timer either.

You can just go about it in any way you want. You're not gimping yourself or missing on anything, it'll all be available rather quickly. If you level a bit you'll get access to some extra dialogue options that aren't available unless you have the required stats but those are all 100% flavor.

 

[Crimsomrider]

I personally just get the essentials such as double jump and cyberware that don't have epic or legendary tiers. The rest I then wait for until later because I'm not selling anything, just disassembling, so I'm solely depending on the money earned from activities to make the Night City experience a bit more immersive as a struggling Merc, which is why I carefully spend my money only on the necessities

But if you're selling loot then you may as well spend it because there's enough money solely from activities to obtain everything, so selling will make you richer than Saburo Arasaka.

 

[SpookyFX]

I did "both" at first then after the point of no return I knew enough that I realized some kind of "don't fear the reaper" ending was coming so I grind hard planning for that.

But honestly the grind in this game (crafting best weapons and clothing) is not good enough in my opinion (not HOT fun like it is building guns in Fallout 4) so I advise just doing the story.

The story is great and the rest of the game totally makes up for the lack luster crafting.

Unless you are the kind of player that wants to search/find buy the Cool guns and clothing. I guess that is fun for some people. That would certainly get you to explore the city which is about the best part of the game.

Edit: OH you got to get the double jump as soon as you can so you can do power parkouring around the City. WOW is it fun for the simple way it is implemented in the game. If it looks like you can grab it to climb up in most cases you can. So you do not need to think just CLIMB and JUMP and have fun seeing an angle of the city (from roof tops and overhangs and giant pipes) that is locked out to people that do not parkour. This will also provide alternate routs to getting into locations.

 

[Bassdeff]

Get the double jump, it's pretty much the only chrome you need. As for the cyberdeck, go to the Kabuki Ripperdoc and spend 10k on a stephenson mk 2. It will be good enough to carry you until you are ready for Legendary. The 7 buffer on it will let you decript pretty much any access point.

Edit: Personally I like to grind all the side gigs and police scanners and keep the story for last. That way I don't miss out on potential dialog options because I don't have required levels.

 

[Bartinga2077]

"HELP ME OUT. GRIND OR STORY?"​

I always did all available gigs before even going to Goro in the diner. But that was with previous versions. Now I do them after meeting Goro to get new gigs. So unless you're speedrunning, would propose grinding gigs and hustles, if only to stall the progress of Cyberpunk's super short story.

 

[zzzfrofzzz]

atm on my actual run on the hightest difficulty , i do both
-side quest , activity and main quest

as other said , following only main quest you may miss some hidden trigger event
that's the game don't telling us on act I ( mostly a big tutorial with the basis of main plot quest ) , doing others stuff can add others roots for main quest , npc , even on how you can handle main quest story ( some hidden rooms , or other pathway )

since 1.6 , they change how loots works
having some good loots perks / armors / gears can change a lot your gameplay ( this adding a new layer on how to play main quest )
steel amazed on each run , the feeling : " wow i can do that , there's this thing now " on quest . ( or ev on activity )

 

[Gothic_Wizard]

I have always found, after you land in the open world, don't push the main story do a bunch of the gigs in watson first. Get some levels and better equipment and money. Then proceed to do the pre-heist missions and heist itself. You'll thank me. If you run right to push the main story while you CAN do it, it'll be far more enjoyable with some levels and equipment under your belt. Hope that helps.

 

[Enjay001]

IMO, doing as many side missions/gigs as are available before committing to the heist is a good way to explore the city, get a feel for things and make you feel like a Night Citizen. After that, a slightly less extreme approach works better with a compromise between story only and total grinding works well.

 

[bauerkn]

I highly recommend to do only the story missions until after the heist in at least one of your playthroughs.

Spoiler: Here is why

Your newly gained companion might have a few words to say on some Gigs, which you never hear when you always do them before the heist

But after all, it is a choice that does not have a huge impact, so either do it your way or try different approaches.

 

[suhtiwdog]

For what it’s worth, ended up playing straight through the Heist… but since completing it I haven’t met a certain somebody at the diner yet to start the next main quest.

Level 30 now. Just been skilling up Technical to make a small fortune off crafting and buy all the specs I can.

Been enjoying farming with System Reset & Optical Camo Double-Jump Aerial Takedowns too much to continue the story.

Will probably complete the Delamain & Heroes side jobs before I move the story forward.

(Kinda anxious to get to Legendary crafting for the eddies, so might procrastinate the quests a little longer.

Well, that and I started replaying Mad Max… the lack of car combat & car modifications in Night City had be itching to co-op with Chumbucket again, heh.)

 

[Casualclick]

Do both. You can literally clear sectors of NCPD work and the available Gigs at your level, while following the Main Storyline.

 

[Don_the_brawler]

I wanna start off by saying, theres no wrong answer, everyone's opinion is best for them and that is perfectly fine. That being said...

To hell with the main story. To hell with Johnny. May the corporate god live forever and spread his influence all across night City for all I care. I'm drinking with that Valentino dude that was at Jackie's funeral. I'm racing through the mean streets of Night City right afterwards, no sobriety needed. I'm a loose canon busting tyger claws and maelstrom unprovoked. I woke up and chose violence. But most importantly, I did it my way. I gave that Arasaka lap dog Takamura the two finger salute and focused on grinding side quests. The true rebel path. All these people focusing on the main story desperately trying to save their short lived lives.

Wait. What was I talking about? Definitely gotta be that grind! Yes. Grinding. Why? Well for starters, I wanna dominate. Not win. Complete and unquestionable annihilation. I want to eradicate anyone that stands in my way effortlessly. Without challenge, like a god! My nomad V is the ultimate hacking machine. Whether he stealth hack or move from cover to cover, avoiding fire and dropping bodies. Sometimes one at a time and sometimes multiple at the same time depending on how close they are to one another when I hack them.

Side missions in general are just cool. They make the game feel so much less linear. Following the story alone is so boring. Even games with great stories become boring when you complete it enough times. Most of the times I beat a game once and that's it! If I replay it, its because the game itself is just that good.

 

[luattrinamhn]

Grind