lethal vs non lethal?

[Colmaniac]

Is there any advantage/disadvantage for this?
Always liked stealth in games with the multiple game play options like deus-ex. Total stealth wasn't my top strength, majority of the time either too many in one area, so full on guns blazing etc. But not until recently replaying dishonoured 1&2 and getting 90% full stealth and non lethal stats I become much better at this skill also much quicker at getting the local area done with out the long drawn out waiting for that time to strike.
My CB77 has now become more enjoyable and a lot faster for side missions etc. And so far most take downs are non lethal, except those with a lot of AI bunched together.

So what is the advantage/disadvantage for lethal vs non lethal?

[Mei]

Outside of a couple of side quests where non lethal is an optional goal. The game doesn't recognise it in most cases and will act as if you killed everyone either way.

[N00B]

If I remember correctly, non-lethal rewards you with extra street-cred. Street-cred meanwhile once leveled up grants you bonuses with vendors, usually discounts. Using non-lethal takedowns and "kills", I managed to max out my street cred before even meeting Judy through gigs and NCPD missions.

[Bjørn]

I'm not 100% certain of this, but I think I've noticed that if you kill someone after you've neutralized them non-lethally, you'll get a few extra points (10?) in whichever skill is applicable for your kill method. These are the Headhunter, Netrunner, Shinobi, Solo and Engineer skills.

https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/Cyberpunk_2077_Skills

So for example if you shoot someone with a shotgun to kill them after you've taken them down non-lethally, you'll get some points in the Solo skill.

And I'm pretty sure that if you throw a living body in a dumpster (counts as lethal), you'll get some points in the Headhunter skill.

Someone correct me if anything of the above is wrong

[Maviba]

Originally posted by Colmaniac:

So what is the advantage/disadvantage for lethal vs non lethal?

Mainly the rewards, but some missions also require non-lethal actions in order to be successful.

Not sure about the following, but I think it can also affect your relationship to some fractions if you do so in side-quests.
If you kill a lot of people of a specific gang, they might starr attacking you as soon as they recognise you.

[EricHVela]

Regarding optional takedowns when it's not offered as a solution.

Some quests give you a different dialog if you choose non-lethal. There're two that come to mind (meaning there could be more) where if you choose to deliver the target alive, the dialog is that the fixer wasn't expecting it (as it wasn't in the job description) but now has the opportunity to personally deal with the target in a personal way. Beyond that, nothing else changes for those optionally non-lethal takedowns.

There's a situation in PL where, environmentally, it looks like there's no non-lethal option in a BBEG fight, but if V manages to leave the person alive (very difficult), the peripheral dialog changes slightly from V killing the person to someone in the person's inner circle doing the killing instead. That BBEG ends up dead either way, and beyond those backstory-only mentions, nothing else changes.

As Mei mentioned, it's usually considered lethal anyway most of the time. V can leave everyone alive at one major story mission, and the game still assumes V went in and killed a whole bunch of people. (A takedown is required twice in that mission because those people have something V needs. There's no way of avoiding contact with everyone to reach the end of that mission.)

[valium]

The game wont treat them as dead if you dont stash them, THAT kills them.

You can do the Rogue gig where you have to go take out a union buster, and you can choke out everyone in the building, and as long as you dont stash them, Rogue commends your non-lethal approach.

[Tokenn]

Note also that destroying a drone can count as a 'kill'. There is at least one 'no-kill' mission where the fixer will scold you even if you carefully do non-lethal takedowns on all the _human_ enemies.

[Colmaniac]

Yea don`t know why they added "dustbins" if that kills them :(. Gotten to act 2 as that gives access to the entire city, so far not been doing the main mission, just doing the side missions for skill points, crafting gear etc. Since there isnt much in it for non leathal starting just using other weapons instead of stunning, Only targets kept alive are those that require it during missions.

[valium]

It would make sense for crates and dumpsters to be fine.... ish, and not lethal, but CDPR apparently had bigger priorities and just made all the stashes the same. It isnt a big deal, but at least they made it obvious stashing them is lethal with the UI change.

[Taberone]

Originally posted by Colmaniac:

Is there any advantage/disadvantage for this?
Always liked stealth in games with the multiple game play options like deus-ex. Total stealth wasn't my top strength, majority of the time either too many in one area, so full on guns blazing etc. But not until recently replaying dishonoured 1&2 and getting 90% full stealth and non lethal stats I become much better at this skill also much quicker at getting the local area done with out the long drawn out waiting for that time to strike.
My CB77 has now become more enjoyable and a lot faster for side missions etc. And so far most take downs are non lethal, except those with a lot of AI bunched together.

So what is the advantage/disadvantage for lethal vs non lethal?

The Stella mission with the two cops covered in blood in Phantom Liberty has a benefit if you only knock enemies out: Dodger will let you go unharmed if you only use nonlethal force on his men, as long as you tell him the truth.

But you'll miss out on his unique revolver if you don't kill him. And it's a really nice revolver, has the unique property of increased knockdown chance on leg-shots AND it will always crit-headshot if the enemy has been knocked down first.

[FizzyElf]

Originally posted by Colmaniac:

Is there any advantage/disadvantage for this?
Always liked stealth in games with the multiple game play options like deus-ex. Total stealth wasn't my top strength, majority of the time either too many in one area, so full on guns blazing etc. But not until recently replaying dishonoured 1&2 and getting 90% full stealth and non lethal stats I become much better at this skill also much quicker at getting the local area done with out the long drawn out waiting for that time to strike.
My CB77 has now become more enjoyable and a lot faster for side missions etc. And so far most take downs are non lethal, except those with a lot of AI bunched together.

So what is the advantage/disadvantage for lethal vs non lethal?

There is one singular major advantage to playing non lethal: You can "kill" the enemy twice.

[N00B]

Originally posted by Colmaniac:

Yea don`t know why they added "dustbins" if that kills them :(. Gotten to act 2 as that gives access to the entire city, so far not been doing the main mission, just doing the side missions for skill points, crafting gear etc. Since there isnt much in it for non leathal starting just using other weapons instead of stunning, Only targets kept alive are those that require it during missions.

I once accidentally killed 8ug8ear in her introductory mission because I completely forgot that putting someone in a locker kills them instantly.