Guide: How Does the Cyberpunk 2077 Police System Work After Patch 2.0

What Actually Pisses Off the NCPD?

Night City isn’t some dystopian police state where carrying an iron gets you arrested. Gun laws are pretty relaxed, so just walking around strapped won’t make cops blink twice. But the moment you start doing actual crime? That’s when things get interesting.

Attacking civilians is the fastest way to earn heat. Punch one, shoot one, accidentally run one over with your car – doesn’t matter, the NCPD will come running. And they’re not interested in hearing your side of the story.

Same goes for cops themselves, obviously. Touch an officer and your wanted level jumps faster than V on Kerenzikov. Stealing their patrol cars? Yeah, that’ll do it too. Wandering into restricted areas like active crime scenes without permission – instant wanted star.

Hostiles don’t count.. Kill every single one if you want. NCPD doesn’t care about gang warfare as long as you’re not catching civilians in the crossfire. The second a stray bullet drops some random bystander though, your minimap lights up blue and you’re running.

How wanted stars escalate during police chases?

The Heat system runs from one to five stars, and it’s almost always sequential. You don’t just jump straight to four stars unless you do something truly spectacular (spoiler: you really have to try). The game tracks what it calls a “crime score” that builds up as you keep committing crimes.

Each star represents a bigger NCPD response. Keep shooting civilians, keep fighting cops, and that score climbs until boom – next star lights up. What’s sneaky is the “crime score buffer timer” that runs in the background. Stop attacking for a bit and that score resets before it pushes you to the next level. So if you’re sitting at three stars and just… stop shooting for like 30 seconds, you won’t hit four. The timer runs out, your score drops, and you stay put.

⭐ One Star – Barely an Inconvenience

First star is kinda nothing. Any cop who happens to be nearby will come after you, sure, but that’s it. No reinforcements, no active manhunt, just whatever beat officer was already in the area getting annoyed at your behavior.

They show up as blue dots on your minimap. That’s your cue to just… leave. Walk away. Drive down the street. If there’s no cop actively looking at you, this resolves itself in seconds. They might even start with melee weapons if they can reach you on foot, though they’ll pull their piece if you’re in a vehicle or they can’t get close.

Don’t even bother hiding. Just avoid those blue dots and keep moving. One star is the game’s way of saying “hey, cut it out” without actually committing to a real chase. I’ve cleared one stars by literally walking around a corner and waiting like ten seconds.

⭐⭐ Two Stars – Now They’re Trying

Two stars means patrol cars start showing up. Two officers per vehicle, usually, and they’ll actively search your last known position instead of giving up immediately. Cops switch to firearms here, so the kid gloves are off.

Still manageable though. The response isn’t overwhelming, just persistent. If you’re smart about using alleys and breaking line of sight, losing two stars is pretty straightforward. Main roads are your enemy here – stay off them because that’s where those patrol cars spawn and they will find you.

Back alleys, side streets, anywhere with corners and cover. That’s your friend at two stars. Don’t panic, just move with purpose and duck out of sight. Takes a bit more effort than one star but nothing crazy.

⭐⭐⭐ Three Stars – Things Get Serious Real Fast

Three stars is where I personally start feeling the pressure. Officers arrive in groups of four now, coming in bigger vehicles, and you’re gonna see heavily armored tactical units joining the party. Body armor, light machine guns, the works.

Oh, and combat robots show up too. Drones, those Zetatech Bombus reconnaissance units, sometimes the bigger Militech Griffin combat drones. Honestly? The robots are usually less dangerous than the human cops, which is kinda funny when you think about it. Snipers might start taking positions at this level depending on where you are.

If you’re caught out in the open at three stars, you’re gonna have a bad time. I mean really, you’ll get shredded in seconds. The NCPD throws enough bodies at you that even a decent build struggles to hold them off. Stick to alleys and ruins – places with lots of cover and limited sight lines. Open plazas and rooftops are death traps.

⭐⭐⭐⭐ Four Stars – Where Escape Gets Hard

Four star wanted level brings out the APCs – Armored Personnel Carriers. Yeah, those chunky armored vehicles that look like they could shrug off a missile. Elite units with better gear, hostile netrunners who’ll start hitting you with quickhacks (cripple movement is their favorite, naturally), and sometimes you’ll even see NCPD Minotaur mechs stomping around.

Every NPC on screen feels like a cop at this point. The sheer number of officers hunting you is overwhelming. They’ll set up roadblocks if you’re in a vehicle, cutting off your escape routes on main streets. Those APCs have mounted weapons but they don’t actually use them against you – probably a balance decision because otherwise four stars would be borderline impossible.

Netrunners are the real problem here. They hide behind cover and just spam quickhacks while the tactical units rush you. Trying to fight this head-on is suicide unless you’ve got an endgame build with all the bells and whistles. Even then it’s rough.

Best bet? Head for the Badlands. Outside Night City proper, the NCPD’s response slows down significantly. Or grab a heavily armored vehicle with weapons and just punch through. Fighting’s still a terrible idea, but at least you can survive the trip to somewhere they can’t follow.

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Five Stars – MaxTac Wants You Dead

Five stars means MaxTac. The cyberpsycho suppression unit. The absolute top-tier threat in Night City’s law enforcement. When you hit five stars, you hear that distinctive aerial dropship coming in and you know you’re in for a fight.

MaxTac deploys in a squad of four elite operators, each one basically a mini-boss with their own health bar:

• The Heavy Gunner – slow but tanky as hell, carries a machine gun that’ll melt your health bar if you stand still. High HP pool, hard to drop quickly.
• The Assault Operative – fast, aggressive, charges at you with an assault rifle. Doesn’t give you breathing room.
• The Mantis Blade Assassin – exactly what it sounds like. Mantis blades for close combat, SMG for when you try to keep distance. Terrifying in tight spaces.
• The Sniper – hangs back and provides fire support. You think you’re safe behind cover? Think again.
• The Netrunner – hides somewhere annoying and hammers you with quickhacks. Cripple movement, blind, whatever they can do to make your life miserable.

All of them are rocking military-grade cybernetics, heavily armed and armored, and they can’t be grabbed from behind unless you manage to stagger them first. Which is tough because, you know, they’re actively trying to kill you.

Oh, and if you thought you’d just jump in a car and drive away? MaxTac netrunners will initiate a “tracing location” bar. When it fills up, your vehicle completely shuts down. Dead stop. You’re getting out and fighting or you’re dying in that car. Vehicle escapes at five stars basically don’t work.

The only real strategy that consistently works is optical camo combined with double jump air dashes. Move fast, break line of sight, find somewhere secure, and hide for about two minutes. Fighting MaxTac requires a fully maxed endgame build and even then it’s dicey. Most of the time? Just run and hide until the heat drops.

Fun fact from the lore: most MaxTac members are rehabilitated cyberpsychos. The NCPD catches these psychos alive, mind-wipes them, reconditions them, and throws them back out to hunt other cyberpsychos. It’s dark as hell when you think about it. Some of them are basically living in a hypnotic rest state and only wake up for ultraviolent missions. Their only memories become endless cycles of crushing cyberpsychos.

Different Cops in Different Districts

Not every part of Night City uses the same law enforcement. The NCPD response changes depending on where you are, and some districts have their own security that responds instead of regular cops.

• Japantown – Tyger Claws gang members respond at first star alongside NCPD at higher stars. It’s their territory, they enforce it.
• North Oaks – The wealthy district where corporate executives live. Corporate Security handles the first three wanted stars. NCPD doesn’t even show up until you hit four stars and Corp Sec is overwhelmed. Makes sense – rich people pay for their own private army.
• Watson/Northside – Heavy armored officers, minimum two per patrol car, and they shoot on sight at first star. No warnings, no negotiation. Northside doesn’t mess around.
• Badlands – Outside Night City, you’re not dealing with NCPD anymore. Militech forces and SoCal Border Patrol take over. Different faction, same aggressive response.
• Dogtown – The Phantom Liberty DLC area. Barghest soldiers act as police here since Dogtown’s technically outside NCPD jurisdiction. Wanted levels escalate 80% slower than Night City proper because Barghest doesn’t care about much beyond keeping order for Colonel Hansen. Civilian deaths barely raise your Heat because… well, Barghest. MaxTac still shows up at five stars though because nobody wants cyberpsychos running loose anywhere near Night City.

How to Lose Your Wanted Level

Getting stars is easy. Losing them? That requires understanding how the system works.

The core mechanic is line of sight. The NCPD needs to see you to maintain pursuit. Break line of sight and your wanted stars become transparent. Stay hidden and those stars start flashing. Keep hiding for roughly 30-55 seconds and your wanted level clears completely.

• NCPD won’t thoroughly search for you. They’ll check your last known position, take a few turns, but they won’t methodically sweep every building. You can literally hide behind a single pillar in some cases and they’ll run right past you. It’s almost comical how bad their search patterns are.
• Use alleys and buildings. Head down an alley, make multiple turns, duck into a building if possible. Go through buildings to break line of sight completely. The NCPD isn’t smart enough to predict your path – they just respond to where they last saw you.
• Avoid open areas like the plague. Main highways, open streets, anywhere with clear sight lines. That’s where aerial units can spot you and where patrol cars spawn predictably. Tight spaces are your friend – places where it’s easy to break line of sight and hard for cops to surround you.
• Vertical movement helps a lot. Use elevators to quickly change elevation (though some might be disabled during pursuits). Jump to rooftops with double-jump cyberware. Go underground into subway stations or parking structures. Cops don’t handle vertical space well.
• Vehicle tactics – Switch vehicles mid-chase. The police track specific cars, so stealing a new one can confuse their pursuit. Drive under overpasses and through tunnels to break aerial surveillance. Use off-road routes because cop AI struggles off-pavement. Head to the Badlands – getting outside Night City makes losing pursuit way easier.
• Safe zones are instant resets. Walk into any gun store, clothing shop, ripperdoc, basically any interior shop, and your wanted level vanishes. Just gone. Your apartment works too – going home clears wanted status or speeds it up significantly.
• The bug that works sometimes – calling Wakako (fixer contact) during combat opens a dialogue menu. While that menu’s up, wanted level disappears. Calling Regina Jones and choosing the first dialogue option does the same thing. Is it cheating? Maybe. Does it work? Absolutely 😉

What doesn’t work: Standing still and hoping they forget about you. At three stars and above, roadblocks appear and the NCPD is persistent enough that you need to actively evade. At five stars with MaxTac, vehicle escapes are basically impossible because of the vehicle breach mechanic that shuts your car down.

Getting That “APB is Not Enough” Achievement

So you want to hit five stars and unlock the achievement. Good news: you don’t need to survive or escape, just reach five stars.

You need to do it in Dogtown. That’s the only place the achievement triggers.

Here’s my recommended approach: max out your character level, equip your best cyberware, collect all Relic perks for extra power. Make a backup save before you start because you’re probably gonna die.

Go to Dogtown. Head near the pool area or stadium entrance. Start attacking Barghest soldiers or civilians. Keep killing reinforcements as they arrive to escalate your wanted level. Once you hit four stars, keep fighting until MaxTac shows up in their dropship.

Achievement unlocks the moment you reach five stars. Boom, done.

Lower the difficulty if needed. There’s no shame in it – achievements don’t care what difficulty you’re playing on. Use grenades and explosives to build crime score faster. Back up to indoor areas like the pool if you’re getting overwhelmed.

Alternative: during the “Moving Heat” quest, triggering the alarm starts you at four stars. Just escalate from there to five.

Then reload your backup save and go about your business. Unless you’re confident in your build (and I mean really confident), surviving five-star heat isn’t worth the hassle just for exploration.

Console Commands to Clear Wanted Level

PC only – you need mods for this to work. Specifically, Cyber Engine Tweaks from Nexus Mods.

Install it, launch the game, press the tilde key (~) to open console.

Removes all wanted stars without disabling the police system. Clean slate, cops still work normally:

Game.PrevSys_safe()

Turns off crime prevention entirely. No cops, no wanted stars, commit whatever crimes you want. Useful for testing or just messing around without consequences:

Game.PrevSys_off()

Turns the system back on:

Game.PrevSys_on()

Gives you one wanted star instantly. Good for testing your escape routes or just seeing how the system responds:

Game.PrevSys_active()

There are other mods too. “No More Cops” adds UI buttons and hotkeys to toggle police on and off. “Toggle Police System” gives you hotkey control for enabling/disabling police and adjusting wanted levels 0-5.

Some NCPD Facts You Probably Didn’t Know

The police system at launch was hilariously broken. Cops would teleport directly behind you the instant you committed a crime. They’d spawn inside elevators, on rooftops in the middle of nowhere, basically anywhere the game felt like placing them with zero regard for logic. No vehicle pursuits – you could just drive 50 meters down the road and they’d give up.

Patch 1.2 in March 2021 increased the spawn radius so cops appeared further away. Patch 1.21 fixed the rooftop spawning. But the system wasn’t actually good until Update 2.0 in September 2023. That’s when we got real vehicle chases, the Heat system, all the stuff that makes cop interactions feel like an actual mechanic instead of a broken punishment.

MaxTac’s recruitment is disturbing when you think about it. They catch cyberpsychos alive, mind-wipe them, recondition them into operatives, and send them out to hunt other cyberpsychos. These are people who’ve already lost their humanity once. The NCPD’s solution? Turn them into weapons and point them at the next psycho.

MaxTac interventions deliberately end in massacres because the operatives themselves are barely controlled. They’re cyberpsychos hunting cyberpsychos. Not all MaxTac are former psychos – some are volunteers who believe in the mission – but most are rehabilitated killers who only wake up for violence.

The NCPD is massively underfunded and corrupt. They’re understaffed, overwhelmed, and most officers are on the take. Being a non-corrupt cop makes you stand out. In 2076, Night Corp became the main investor/sponsor after the city privatized the NCPD. Many “NCPD” officers are actually private security contractors just wearing the badge.

They primarily investigate crimes affecting Corporate class citizens or major public threats. Crimes against lower-class citizens in poor districts? Often completely ignored. The NCPD turns a blind eye to vigilante justice because they’re too overwhelmed to handle it themselves.

Pacifica officially isn’t part of Night City anymore but police still respond instantly if you commit crimes there. Before Update 2.0, Pacifica had minimal police presence to reflect its abandoned status. Now full NCPD response like everywhere else. Kinda breaks the immersion but I guess game balance won out over lore accuracy there.

Vehicle combat got introduced with 2.0 too. You can use pistols and SMGs while driving now. Motorcycles allow melee combat including katanas, which is honestly sick. You can shoot out tires, target drivers directly, and some vehicles have mounted weapons like machine guns and missile launchers.

How Updated Police System Enhances Gameplay And does It Really?

I kinda love the current system. It’s not perfect – cops still act weird sometimes, the search patterns are laughably bad, and getting five stars can happen accidentally if you’re not careful – but it’s a massive improvement over launch. Police chases actually feel like chases now. Escalation makes sense. MaxTac feels like a real threat instead of just another enemy type.

The NCPD corruption, the district-specific responses, the way Corporate Security protects North Oaks while Pacifica gets ignored – it all reinforces Cyberpunk’s themes about class warfare and systemic failure. The police aren’t there to protect people. They’re there to protect property and maintain corporate order.

Anyways even in its current state police system looks rushed and underdeveloped for AAA game like Cyberpunk 2077.

More Police System Questions Answered