Can someone explain to me HOW exactly levelling up works?

[Amplifier]

I've just been blindly playing the game the past 20 hours and still have no idea how the levelling system works exactly.

As in, how am I exactly levelling up specific skills?? Is there any criteria I can look at on which actions level up which skills? I've tried googling this but I swear it seems the info is almost non-existent for some reason.
People just say 'oh go do missions and kill things and you'll level up'. I watched the IGN video and all the guy explains about is what you can use your exp points on. He doesnt even explain at all how you even gain EXP in the first place...


So my question is really just that... WHAT exactly do we need to do to level up? WHAT exactly are the actions that level up each skill/attribute/street-cred? Is there no specific list of actions anyone has on this?

[Amplifier]

There's street cred, attributes, perks and skills...

What levels up each of these exactly??

I gotta say this is the most confusing levelling system i've ever seen in a video game jeez

[charly4711]

Think about it like this:
1. The first thing is levels ... you get new levels through gaining general xp through missions (main story, side jobs, gigs, etc.) or killing enemies.
The most important thing levelling does is get you attribute points to spend on your attributes and also perk points to buy perks with.

2. skill levels are gained from specific skill xp that you get from doing things related to those skills (athletics: spending stamina, breach: hacking terminals or using breach protocol, ninjitsu: doing stealth takedowns and hiding bodies, tech: shooting through walls with tech weapons, disarming grenades, etc. etc. etc.)
Getting skill levels gets you specific bonuses concerning that skill, e. g. with ninjitsu it may take enemies longer to detect you, etc. Sometimes skill levels will get you perk points to buy perks with. (You can see the bonuses in the lower left below the perk tree for the skill.) Sometimes perks help with levelling skills (esp. cold blood where you can increase the duration and thus get a higher chance of doing stuff with a stack of cold blood which means you'll get more skill xp over time or breach where making it easier to apply more daemons means you'll get more xp.)

3. Attribute points tie the two together. The maximum skill level that you can get for any given skill is the number of attribute points you have in the attribute the skill belongs to. And the attributes points you get from getting more levels. Also, the attribute points unlock perks in the perk tree. There are perks you can only get if you have enough attribute points spent on the corresponding attribute.

4. Street cred ... you get from doing missions, killing criminals for bounties, etc, etc.
Street cred is mostly only relevant for unlocking gear in shops.

[Mander]

In short, there are 3 and half system working in tandem.

Level
STAT (&Proficency)
Street Cred

Level is exactly what it says on the tin: CAP is 50. You earn XP by completing gigs and killing enemies. For each Level earned, you’re rewarded with 1 STAT perk and with ability perks (to spend on the abilities tree).

STAT perks are used to raise one of the 5 STAT: Reflexes, Body, Tech, Cool and Intelligence. CAP for STATs is 20 and the level of each STAT determines how high the pertaining abilities can reach. For example: if you’ve STAT TECH at 18, the 2 pertaining abilities (Engineering and Crafting) can reach, at most, level 18. This, in turn, determines what perks you can unlock in the ability tree: if you want to unlock an ability in the ability tree that has a requirement of 20, you need to raise the pertaining STAT to 20.
How do you raise pertaining abilities instead? With Proficency: so, completing actions that pertains to the dominion of the ability. Crafting raises by crafting thing (the highest level that can be reached is set by the STAT level). And so on. By raising your proficiency, you’re rewarded with both perks to spend on the ability tree, and bonus to the ability you’re raising.

Street Cred instead is similar to Level, but only determines what goods vendors in game will sell to you.

[Bloodartist]

Originally posted by reignworld:

So my question is really just that... WHAT exactly do we need to do to level up? WHAT exactly are the actions that level up each skill/attribute/street-cred? Is there no specific list of actions anyone has on this?

I understand why this system is difficult. I tried to google so I would know some of the numbers were called, but the first entire page of search results was filled with completely useless and out of date "guides". More like misguides, if you ask me.


Character level: play the game

Street cred: play the game, do jobs and gigs and missions. Basically a second level which represents your reputation. Will unlock you new gigs, missions, vendor items

five main Attributes (body, reflexes, technical ability, intelligence, cool): you can manually add a point to an attribute when you level up your character level.

Each of the main attributes have three sub-categories (I dont really know what to call these). These are essentially the perk-trees.
These sub-attributes rank up on their own as you do a related activity ingame.
But these rank up ONLY to the maximum that is determined by how many points you have in the main attribute. So if your technical ability is 12, then crafting can only rank up to 12, not above. However, it lags behind if you dont actually craft much.

It all sounds way more complicated than it is.
- Play the game
- When game levels you up, invest the attribute point.
- When the game gives you perk point, invest it.

Thats it.

[Tokenn]

To level up a specific skill, _use_ that skill. If you want to increase your Blade skill, for eg. use your knives and katana to kill enemies. As you add to your skill points, you will advance as high as your overall Reflex level allows you.

If your Reflex level is 12, you will advance your skill to that level....just check the Blades Skill tree to see what that earns you...increased ability with Blades, Perks and the increase in Perk availability.

To level up Intelligence [Breaching and Quickhacking], use those skills, earn skill points which gets you increased abilities and Perks. Add the Perks where you want. TBH, it seems very clear and simple to me.

Note that you should see the tally of EXP points you accumulate on the left side of your screen after you complete every scanner job, gig, etc. Some things will get you double points. For eg. using a Tech weapon will get you Engineering EXP as well as the relevant Reflex EXP.