Health items and grenades are so much better in Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 update

Cyberpunk 2077’s 2.0 patch has brought with it sweeping changes to game balance and progression, but the change I’ve appreciated the most since returning to the streets of Night City is how grenades and health consumables now regenerate.

No longer must you toil, disassembling mountains of trash plucked from the still-warm hands of freshly killed gangoons, assembling different tiers of consumable and explosive and inevitably forgetting to assign them to their correct slots before your next big fight. 

Instead, consumables and grenades function much the same way weapons do, as you can now assign them to a slot where they’ll recharge over time. The 2.0 update has had a big focus on paring down Cyberpunk 2077’s abundance of junk loot, and health items and grenades are one of the biggest benefactors. You can still buy consumable food items that give you temporary buffs, but healing items and grenades are on a simple cooldown. Find one you like, equip it, and press a key to heal up or toss a ‘nade into a pack of enemies. It’ll regenerate shortly after.

There are still healing items with different effects—say, a jolt of up-front healing and then more regeneration over time. And of course you’ll have your pick of frag grenades and flashbangs, EMP grenades and incendiary grenades, etc. The new cooldown-based health and grenade items also ties into the 2.0 update’s huge skill system overhaul.

There’s now an associated perk tree inside the Technical Ability Attribute that affects consumable charges, recharge speed, and myriad bonuses, so it’s never been easier to make a strung out, stimmed up mad bomber if that’s your thing.

For more on Cyberpunk 2077’s big relaunch, check out our breakdown of what’s new in the 2.0 update vs. what’s new in Phantom Liberty.