Cyberpunk RED skill
Pilot Sea Vehicle
Pilot Sea Vehicle is a skill in Cyberpunk RED: Handling boats and watercraft through harbors, canals, and open water.
Last reviewed
Key facts
- Stat
- REF
- Category
- control
Overview
Pilot Sea Vehicle covers boats: harbor craft, powerboats, small commercial vessels, anything that moves on water. Night City sits on a coast with a working port, flooded districts, and a great deal of cargo that would rather not pass through a customs checkpoint. At the table this is a smuggling and access skill. Water is a route that has no traffic cameras, no roadblocks, and far fewer eyes than any street, which makes it the way crews move things and people that cannot go by road. It also opens the parts of the map most campaigns forget exist: offshore platforms, drowned neighborhoods, and the container terminals where a lot of interesting cargo sits waiting.
How it works
Linked Stat: REF Category: Control Resolution: 1d10 plus REF plus skill level against a DV from sea state, visibility, and the demands of the maneuver. A natural 10 adds another roll, a natural 1 subtracts one. Conditions: Calm harbor water in daylight is near the bottom of the ladder, while open sea in weather or a night approach with no lights climbs well up it. Boats also handle nothing like cars, so an experienced driver gets no benefit here without ranks in this skill.
Tips and playstyle
Best for: Smugglers, coastal campaigns, and crews whose jobs touch the port. Character concepts: A dockside Fixer with a boat, a Nomad family that runs coastal freight, a former harbor patrol officer, a courier who moves cargo the wet way. Synergies: Sea Vehicle Tech keeps the boat running when the nearest yard is not an option. Navigation-adjacent uses of Perception matter at night, and Trading turns access to water routes into steady work.
Frequently asked questions
Does this come up in a normal campaign?
Only if your GM uses the waterfront. In a purely inland game it stays unused, so check the campaign's geography before spending points on it.
Can I use Drive Land Vehicle on a boat?
No. They are separate skills in separate lanes, and a boat's handling has almost nothing in common with a car's. Expect to roll unskilled, which means stat alone against the DV.
Why would a crew use boats at all?
Because water avoids checkpoints, cameras, and traffic. Moving people or cargo out of the port district by sea is often the only route that does not pass a corporate scanner.