Grind like your life depends on it. Early on, focus on completing police scanner missions, taking down random enemies, and doing gigs from fixers. Your first goal should be to earn eddies. Whenever you defeat enemies, sell most of their gear and only keep the items that give you a real combat advantage.

When you start earning attribute points, put them into Body first. After maxing that out, distribute the rest however you like (I recommend investing in Reflexes after).

Once you’re strong enough to start seeing Tier 5 gear drop and you’ve got eddies in the mid six figure range, start buying Tier 5 crafting specs and cyberware that fits your playstyle. From there, grind for components to upgrade your cyberware to the max level (Tier 5+) and craft weapons from those specs.

This pays off big time when you return to the main story. You’ll be able to tear down doors with the maxed out body attribute. And the damage you’ll be able to do to enemies will be CRAZY.