Open world games can get a tad bit overwhelming. After a great introduction, you're thrown into a whole new world and a map drowning in dozens of icons and you don't know what the heck any of them mean. Some are pretty straight forward and others could use an explanation or two.
Some of these blips on the map can be extra money, street cred, or more. If you want to grind before a big mission you should check out all the Night City hot spots. If you find yourself bored after the main story then the hot spots will prove entertaining whether it be for gear or for side quests.
10 Reported Crimes
There will be enemies lurking around certain areas in the city and out of the city. When you approach this area, you'll get an incoming dispatch about a reported crime that needs solving. Whether the police are on their way or not, you can handle the situation in a jiffy. These jobs leave you with a stash of goods to collect and experience points.
9 Side Jobs
Side jobs are jobs not yet assigned by Fixers. Going near these locations will prompt an incoming call from the current area's Fixer about the situation going down nearby and how to go about it. Doing these jobs give you Street Cred and money.
8 Undiscovered Activity
These can be looked at as Side Jobs just not by Fixers themselves. These will be NPC's providing a side quest experience. Sometimes there can be money involved, but most times there won't be. Undiscovered activities provide more gameplay experience rather than main story progression or grinding for materials and money.
7 Tarot Cards
After progressing to a certain point in the game, you'll start seeing strange graffiti that moves and you're able to scan them and collect Tarot cards from them. You have to collect a certain amount and bring them back to Misty to further uncover the meaning of them.
You can find the cards you've collected by hitting I and hovering over Journal then down to Tarot. In this section, you'll get a more detailed look and read on these Tarot cards and maybe figure out why you see them by yourself.
6 Vending Machines
Vending machines might be where you do all your shopping as opposed to a normal store. There are multiple vending machines at every street corner and more. Most of them sell you consumables for a small price of around five Eddies. If you're low on health or buffs, these vending machines can be put to good use in that fashion. They are very convenient since they are everywhere.
5 Drop Points
Drop points are your quick one-stop station when you don't have time or don't feel like traveling to a vendor. Vendor's can be scarce and separated but drop points are more frequent with multiple uses. These can be used in Side Jobs to drop off quest items to disappear forever, or they can be places where you quickly sell your junk or lighten your load.
4 Fast Travel Points
There are different ways to travel to and fro in Cyberpunk 2077. You can walk by foot and take in the incredible graphics, cruise in a fancy car, or just fast travel. You can go a while without realizing fast traveling is an option because it isn't quite obvious that that's what these machines are for until you put it up to your nose and interact.
These machines will be a blue marker on the map. All you have to do is interact with the screen and it will blow up your map for you to click another time traveling point to go to.
3 Assault In Progress
These are actively aggressive enemies that shoot first and ask questions later. They are actively performing illegal activity, sometimes holding innocent people hostage for robbery. These don't get you money as they aren't reported crimes or unassigned jobs, just meatheads being meatheads. You can get experience and loot from these, though. Or just have fun killing enemies.
2 Criminal Activity
If you participate in this while police are nearby the NCPD might aggro on you as well since it's their turf and not a reported crime. They are very much similar to reported crimes or side jobs in terms of random gang members chilling by a building and ready to shoot. The only difference is if you get some Eddies off it or not.
1 Shops
In really bougie area's, you can get lucky enough to enter a real store on the street to purchase some outfits. But most of the time you'll find yourself finding a random vendor selling questionable items. There will be clothing vendors, weapon vendors, cybernetic venders a.k.a Ripperdocs, and Netrunners. These are pretty basic spots as they just sell you gear you're after to become stronger in the game.