So, what is the point of the Tech tree?

[jordangold527]

You use it to craft items. Nice, but you can make ample eddies in the game to where you can usually buy clothes and weapons you actually like/that work with your build. So, crafting is more about convenience of not needing to spend 5 minutes going to a shop to buy stuff as well as potentially upgrading gear. Upgrading might only be important on Very Hard because enemies don't seem too sturdy on Hard mode from my experience.

There are only 3 legendary weapons you can craft (not including the Iconics which are basically just enhanced versions of other weapons or Chaos/Lizzie which are missable) that are Tech Weapons which is what Engineering focuses on. One of which does not charge which means none of the perks in Engineering actually benefit it. That means the only synergy Tech really has weapon-wise is with a precision rifle and a sniper rifle. If you don't invest in Reflex/Assault, you lose out big time... or if you like any other weapons aside from long distance pot-shotters.

I feel like I totally screwed up my build. I went Tech for my second skill because people said crafting was worth it, but so far, all it really has done is save me a little cash... which, while nice, means next to nothing since I haven't dropped below 200k since hour 15 out of 72. (note I only bummped Tech up to 18 to craft gear around hour 65 or so).

Am I missing something when it comes to Tech? Is upgrading gear really worth such a heavy investment? Is there some synergy I am missing or did I kinda just screw up by not investing elsewhere. I mean, Tech doesn't increase armor like it says it does so that is a bust. I have crafted everything I want so I won't need to craft again until level mid 40s or 50 (I am 38 right now) and I could honestly just buy gear at shops which would be better because I could choose my aesthetic instead of crafting the ugly stuff I got after resetting 6 hours of my save because of the "Legendary Spec vendors no longer sell them after your first visit" bug as well as have a wider variety of weapons to choose from.... I think?

IDK. Any advice or wisdom for someone feeling lost and cheated after investing 15 irreversible attribute points into a skill?

 

[LeKill3rFou]

There are only 3 legendary weapons you can craft (not including the Iconics which are basically just enhanced versions of other weapons or Chaos/Lizzie which are missable) that are Tech Weapons which is what Engineering focuses on.

More than 3, if you count all the "basic" legendary crafting specs aquired in Organized Crime, and when you reach the level 18 in crafting.
For example: Katana, Ashura, Copperhead, Saratoga, G-58 Dian, HJKE-11 or Unity.

For me, very usefull for :
-Recover mods which otherwise would be difficult, or even impossible to have in number (crit / chances and crit / damage).
-Open locked doors hiding legendary weapons/clothing (not iconic weapons, but with usefull abilities).
-Upgrade iconics to legendary version.
-Decrease the number of components required to craft/upgrade objects (it's cheap at first, but after ten upgrades, it stings a bit).
-Increase damage to robots.

For me, Tech skill is definitly useful and always go to the level 18
(and generally, I finish at level 50 with perk points without really knowing where I could spend them. So I haven't the impression to have wasted my perk points into tech skill)

And for crafting specs in vendors, I have buy some after the first visit, but I have skip time (24H) many (lot) times. (for buy an epic version of the dress that I wanted).

Post automatically merged: Jul 5, 2021

All the weapons I can craft (without the red overlay) are non-iconic "basic" legendary weapons (it seems to me, that much more than 3)
(there are a little more under the second screenshots, but whatever...)

Spoiler

 

[jordangold527]

More than 3, if you count all the "basic" legendary crafting specs aquired in Organized Crime, and when you reach the level 18 in crafting.
For example: Katana, Ashura, Copperhead, Saratoga, G-58 Dian, HJKE-11 or Unity.

Just looked it up and you are correct. The level 18 crafting skill bonus includes a Tech Sniper and a Tech Revolver which brings it to a total of 5. 2 are snipers, 2 are revolvers, and 1 is a precision rifle.

For me, very usefull for :
-Recover mods which otherwise would be difficult, or even impossible to have in number (crit / chances and crit / damage).

Personally, I have never found it difficult to get decent mods. Most every clothing vendor I have visited has had great mods which restock on the regular. Sure, costs money, but my second point goes towards that opinion. Second point: no way am I going to dismantle weapons/gear with good mods. They are usually high quality and sell for at least 800eddies. Can easily just buy more crafting materials/mods with that cash. However, that is a bit of a money sink in some ways, I suppose.

-Open locked doors hiding legendary weapons/clothing (not iconic weapons, but with usefull abilities).

I have only found 2 doors that require more than 13 Tech and both had easy to find alternate routes. 98% of places have multiple routes so you never really REQUIRE Tech to get into a place that might have decent loot in my experience. I might have not encountered certain things though so IDK. I suppose it does offer a more direct route and possibly even allows you to avoid many issues you could encounter otherwise though.

-Decrease the number of components required to craft/upgrade objects (it's cheap at first, but after ten upgrades, it stings a bit).

Okay, but why/what would you be crafting so much to where that would matter? The only thing I can think of would be healing items and I have a stock of over 500 I have looted and never touched outside of boss fights. Crafting isn't really a great way to make money anymore from what I understand. Also, if you can find/buy things that are fairly on par with what you can craft then 30% reduced cost in crafting materials doesn't seem like it would matter much. I might be missing something about this.

-Increase damage to robots.

Certainly nice, but isn't that perk unlocked early on? Also, isn't there a piece of cybertech that does the same thing with an even greater bonus? I guess doubling up is nice for overkill. Not sure I see how this is a major selling point though. I haven't encountered many robotic enemies. Maybe they come later in the story?

And for crafting specs in vendors, I have buy some after the first visit, but I have skip time (24H) many (lot) times. (for buy an epic version of the dress that I wanted).

There is a known bug where the vendors who sell legendary armor specs will no longer sell any specs after your first visit. Literally tested it yesterday. Also, why get epic when legendary is better? Aesthetics?... yea. You're right. Aesthetics are worth it given how armor isn't really much of an issue after a certain point.

Thank you so much for the response! I know I kinda tore into it with more questions which was probably pretty rude. I do really appreciate the help and will definitely think on those things. I know I tend to play games in a weird way so I probably have an odd perspective on what to do with the crafting in this game and how it compares/interacts with other things in the game. I suppose seeing another perspective on crafting has allowed me to think a bit more on it. Either way, I can't exactly change my build at this point. Gonna have to get used to Tech, lol.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Yep, I will try to answer quickly

Look my screenshots, all available weapons are not iconics. Unlocks with crafting skill, find during GIGs or simply find in the world (like the tech riffle at the top of the AfterLife elevator).

I talk about mods who are difficults to buy essentially "Bully" (crit damage by 30%) and "Fortuna" (crit chance by 12%). Those who are "easy" to buy as Deadeye only provide 7% of crit chance and 20% of crit damage. On a full clothes, to reach 100% of crit chance, "Fortuna" is way better and good solution (and if you want buy "Bully" and "Fortuna", you will have to wait and skip times a uncredible number of times...)
I dismantle all rare/epic clothes that I don't like (especially if they have legendary mods on them). An epic is always "worse" than an legendary item with full mod slots.

In moslty every GIGs you have "locked doors" not "only" for other way to access it, but only to hide an epic item (or legendary if you have the level and the patience to save/reload). Especially the weapons who have "special" abilities. Abilities that it's impossible to have on "looted" or "crafted" weapons.

I want to lower the cost of components not specifically for crafting, but for upgrading. For example, if I find a great gun at level 30 (like a legendary Quazar with 2 bullets per shot). I want to keep it and upgrade it. Well at level 40, it will start to cost a lot of "money" for legendary components (and at level 50, I'm not talking about it. It could be more than 50 legendary components for one level).

So after few (a lot) of playthrough, I can affirme (for me at least), Tech skill is really useful. I can't play without

 

[ottffss1]

Tech is a good attribute if you want to use mostly tech weapons and get the most out of them (rifles and some specialty pistols like quasar and apparition and maybe even comrade's hammer and benefit from engineering tree and those perks).

Crafting alone is probably not worth it - but them again I can see a lot of swordsman that absolutely want a gold Satori.

In the end I think hackers should absolutely skip tech as you do not need weapons.

But ultimately a build with high INT, high COOL and high REFLEXES is probably ultimate glass cannon. - well until you realize that at least in the normal unmodded game armadillo mods and high cool make you unkillable.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

like a screenshot is always better than words :
"Why the tech perk to retrieve mods ?"
(when you can also buy them on stores)
Because for have that and to be able to install the mods that go well on any clothes that you want, you would spend your life in the stores
(current 1.23 playthrough, far to the end)

 

[NorseGraphics]

Upgrade your weapons to Legendary, and upgrade your armor to the max without needing to spend 10x as much materials/time/eddies. Not to mention you can get mods from armor and swap out what you want/need. You can't do that wihtout the Tech-tree.

 

[Netrunner2go]

reason #1 - legendary iconics // personally missing them on most of my builds i only went tech 12 with - for at last epic upgrades. tho i feel you builds gonna be less flexibile or powerful if u go with a tech tree with more highend tech/craft.

12 points will still let u use 3x18 points on other attributes which makes tabu la rasa shine bright... you can play nearly any combat build with nearly every highend cyberware depending on your mood and pocket money.

but like others already said there are some nice perks at the higher end which bring qol or special build power... some 18-20 tech perks are really interesting - they seem very niche but could make a lot of fun with the right char build - but in the end you are right a high tech/craft tree isnt a must have and cuts oppertunities kinda strong. its all about personal likings...

 

[Mobster100]

Upgrading might only be important on Very Hard because enemies don't seem too sturdy on Hard mode from my experience.

I played it on Very hard and crafting for the most part is not very useful. I used it a bit in the beginning when I didn't knew better, but it quickly became pointless gathering all the resources to upgrade your gear, to only just get them to a state where they are useful and there are so much loot in the game anyway.

I think I did eventually craft 1 or 2 items that I used in the endgame, but in general I think it was pointless. But then again, I weren't to concerned about the skills in general, as I didn't really find a lot of them particular interesting.
All the ones, where you get +% damage etc. doesn't really get my blood pumping
So I think the whole skill system bothered me more than just the Tech tree, so I never really regretted that I had gone so deep into crafting and eventually seeing all the abilities you could get in the others trees, which could be a lot more useful than what I had. But even with my "broken" built, I had no issue pretty much instant killing everything.
Near the end game, it seems to me, that you become a God almost regardless of what you do or how you spec. And it was what eventually let me to just finish the game, because there were no challenge left anymore, unless I on purpose chose that there should be.

(And no, im not a good FPS player, I rarely play them.)

 

[Bartinga2077]

"SO, WHAT IS THE POINT OF THE TECH TREE?"​

To offer (alternative) variation in how you grow your character? Mighty apparent in many RPG games.

 

[SpookyFX]

"Lock Picking"
I do not like walking away from any locked door. And I have found several locked locations where there was no other way to get in (I always check for secret passages and routes especially with my high level of Parkour).

And for me, I hate the entire idea of ripping doors off their hinges. If every gorilla guy can do that why have locks...

Seriously however I wish "Lock Picking" had not been part of Tec. I do lock picking as a hobby (something that stuck with me after I stop performing stage magic) and lock picking has never been about high-tec, it is about finding clever work around's past the high tec engineer's best laid plans:

"Lock Picking Should have been put under Cool!

Most successful street criminals are resourceful and inventive not smart and educated. If they were smart and educated, most would get off the hard streets and into a cushy office.

 

[WDStudios]

The best weapons in the game are Iconics. Tech lets you make Iconics as good as they can possibly be for maximum bang bang. It's really not rocket science. Also, doors.

 

[Netrunner2go]

The best weapons in the game are Iconics. Tech lets you make Iconics as good as they can possibly be for maximum bang bang. It's really not rocket science. Also, doors.

yeah its rreally no rocket sience that even rare or epic weapons one-shot everything in the game on very hard - actually there is no need to go for high tech on every build you play. if you go for flexible builds u can even drop tech/craft entirely and still oneshot everything with npc drops or vendor weapons. its just about personal preferences but at this state of the game there is no "must have reason" for the tech tree at all.

 

[SpookyFX]

Here is another example of why "lock picking" should have been under COOL not TECH:

My previous post on this subject: https://forums.cdprojektred.com/ind...point-of-the-tech-tree.11090539/post-13155169

 

[elmetnuter]

Like every other trees, it supplements and improve your playstyle. You can play the game without ever investing any skill points anywhere.
The question is for the player to answer, how do they want to enhanced their practical means? - contrary to other RPG where not investing in given tree branches will stop your character progression. In Cyberpunk you can rely solely on your level and weapon power to overcome the difficulty level.
I almost always choose the tech tree to be part of my skills. I like to craft my clothes and improve smart and tech weapons capabilities.

 

[gurugeorge]

One of the problems in the game is that the build system and progression system are out of whack. IOW, no matter what you do, no matter what haphazard build you have, no matter what path you take, you're ridiculously OP by the end of the game.

The whole system needs tightening up and tuning so that the differences make a difference, i.e. so that you can only be OP by pursuing one tree to its max (plus one ancillary tree somewhat).

Then, in theory, it should make a huge difference that you're able to recover legendary and epic mods from fairly early in the game (which is really the major perk of the tree). What it should mean, theoretically, to be a techie, is that you don't need to invest in the more combat-oriented trees to pack as big of a punch as those trees would if you pursued them. IOW, because you can stack ridiculous amounts of crit, or ridiculcous amounts of armor, via mods, that should compensate for lack of training in Reflexes or Body (for the respective weapons relative to those trees); plus you don't have to specialize in any weapon type, since techies can boost all of them to that kind of level. Also you have the "lockpicking" ability (which opens up - or would if the game were finished - alternative immersive sim paths).

In theory

 

[elmetnuter]

One of the problems in the game is that the build system and progression system are out of whack. IOW, no matter what you do, no matter what build you have, no matter what path you take, you're ridiculously OP by the end of the game.

Exactly, and the reasons is that V is leveling up to catch up with enemy levels - and enemy levels sole purpose is to "heavily" gate areas of play. By compensating for the enemy levels, V's stats overshoot by a good amount resistances and damages in comparison to them.
So, instead of having a level system that simply open skill and perk points to improve V capabilities over enemies' defined capabilities and damage, the raw internal stats always give you an edge that only grow stronger as you level up.
If you use the mod FGR (Full Gameplay Rebalance), you only grow stronger as you acquire more means to challenge your opponent because it get rid of levels entirely. It makes higher level enemies stronger and deadlier also because of their capabilities and not level damage or resistance.

I don't mind the current enemy level system but they clearly need to polish every number curves to avoid this nonsense. I am level 20 in my current playthrough with Blue level armadillo and regen from Body and basic resistance from Cool, and I can't be killed.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

I am level 20 in my current playthrough with Blue level armadillo and regen from Body and basic resistance from Cool, and I can't be killed.

In very hard, in City Center (so level 25-35 enemies), you will die easily for sure

Edit : At NorthSide/Kabuki/Little China (level 5-10 enemies), obviously, you can't die. Or you really have to want it.

 

[elmetnuter]

In very hard, in City Center (so level 25-35 enemies), you will die easily for sure

Haha Yes! One would think that after plowing through mobs for 20 level, one would have enough resistances for the next level bracket, but no. The enemies damage spike even harder because it has to play catch with your level of resistance only to overshoot it by a mile. And then, they stop leveling at level 35 while you keep multiplicating your damage output and resistance once again and are left with no challenge in sight.

 

[Jep1st]

Aside from the obvious which is crafting, tech will give you nice bonuses to tech weapons and smart weapons along with boosting grenade damage and armor rating. Crafting perks also allow you harvest good mods from items by breaking them down.
I also find tech useful for a character who has low body and/or low intelligence since tech allows you to open many doors, manipulate turrets and even turn off cameras.
Definitelly not the most essential ability but it has some cool stuff. Pretty much all my characters are at least tech 5 so I can craft rare items.