Cyberpunk 2077: Quick scanning Cyberpunk 2077 guide, walkthrough
Last update: 19 February 2021
The quick scan in Cyberpunk 2077 has an extremely important function. It allows you to initiate hacking - one of the ways to defeat your enemies. In addition, scanning will be useful for tagging your opponents and gathering information about the explored world. On this page of our game guide, you will learn all the most important aspects of quick scanning.
How to quick scan?
First of all, we should mention that the quick scan feature is completely free and unlimited. You can activate it at almost any time during the game - with the exception of certain quest stages. You can turn on the quick scan with the following buttons:
PC |  |
PS4 / PS5 |  |
Xbox One / Xbox Series S / Xbox Series X |  |
Hacking
By scanning your opponent you can start hacking. There are no reasons not to immediately burn, knockdown or poison your opponent, but it is a good idea to start with breach protocol.
The status effects that you can trigger through hacking are described on a separate page of our guide: Status effects - hacking.
Breach protocol requires breaking the target's protection. You achieve this through playing a mini-game in which you have to input a sequence of numbers. The key to success is to choose the first column properly so that you don't accidentally block access to the numbers you need. Successfully completing the breach protocol mini-game will allow you, for example, to weaken enemies in the area or reduce memory costs on a hacked enemy.
Completing the mini-game is also necessary to open some containers and thus get additional items. For this reason, we recommend learning all the rules of breach protocol. You will find them on a separate page of our guide: Protocol Breaches, Hacking - advice.
Hacking allows you to influence not only your enemies, but also the devices in the game world. This allows you to take control of the cameras or cause a device to crash and thus distract nearby opponents. The principle is the same here - just turn on scanning mode and focus the viewfinder on the particular object.
You will find all available effects of device hacking here - Quickhacking.
Tagging opponents
Quickscanning opponents can give you a huge advantage in Cyberpunk 2077. By scanning your enemies, you will obtain information about their vulnerabilities (e.g. to fire) and you will also be able to tag them.
The tagged opponent is visible even through walls and all other elements of the environment. This will be especially useful if you don't want to be detected, but even when fighting openly, it's worth being aware of the current location of your enemies.
Acquiring information
The last function of the quick scan feature is to obtain information about the world. Many jobs require you to scan tracks or to investigate locations in search for clues. Besides, you can scan many other objects in Cyberpunk 2077. In most cases this will only provide you with the item's name, but sometimes you will also get some more interesting information. For example, by scanning a car, you will find out how much horsepower it has.