Cyberpunk 2077’s misbehaving passive skill effects can now be fixed with a mod

After a number of players began to notice that some of Cyberpunk 2077’s passive skill effects weren't working as intended for them in saves made following the arrival of the game’s 2.01 patch, a modder has stepped up to rectify the issue.

As we previously reported, a number of the minor buffs bequeathed by progressing up the ranks of skills like Headhunter and Shinobi aren’t kicking into action as they should in saves made in the latest version of the game. Naturally, Night City’s mercs, many of whom have recently returned to delve into the Phantom Liberty expansion or start a fresh playthrough of the base game now that its 2.0 update has been deployed, haven’t been too happy about this development.

While there’s a good chance CD Projekt Red is already working on a fix for the issue, especially given how many people have taken to social media to post about it, a modder has released a fix that you can grab right now if you’re not in the mood to wait.

Called ‘Fix Skill Progression Rewards Not Applying’, this mod is the work of rmk1234, who’s previously put out a bunch of projects aimed at rectifying other minor bugs, including some that were affecting quickhacking and proximity mine audio.

According to the mod’s description, the skill bug has affected 16 passive effects in total, with the ranks of headhunter and shinobi being the most heavily compromised, while solo, netrunner and engineer only have one or two levels that aren’t behaving.

“The reason these are affected and not all (of the passives) just has to do with the method the game uses to apply each reward in game,” rmk1234 wrote in the mod’s description.

“As far as I know, other rewards are working, except for netrunner 60 (overclock hack through walls up to 10m), which I haven't been able to see working at all. That one I think is just generally broken, and I haven't had time to fully investigate it,” they continued. They add, “There could be others that are broken, but I have tested some others that I know work, such as solo (rank) 10.”

The modder also speculated as to the potential reason the issue could only be affecting saves made using version 2.01, suggesting: “I think the cause is that they are now properly saving something they weren't before, which is fixing some other bug (CD Projekt Red) intended to fix, but that has now revealed another logic bug, causing this issue.”

Regardless of the cause, this article will be updated ASAP if CD Projekt Red acknowledges the issue or deploys a fix aimed at resolving it. Though, the latter currently looks like it could well come as part of the game’s next big patch.

If you’re looking for more on Cyberpunk 2077, make sure to check out our array of guides to the array of missions and collectables in Phantom Liberty, as well as our coverage of some must-have mods for those heading to Dogtown.