This guide describes how to progress through Cyberpunk 2077, which attributes to choose, which cyberware to install, which weapons to use, how to make a lot of eddies, and how to dominate level 60 endgame with any playstyle you choose.
INTRO
I have one question for you: do you want to become the ultimate legend of Night City? If you want to make a name for yourself, reach the major leagues, become a millionaire, use the best weapons around, complete your vast collection of vehicles, and take on Cyberpunk endgame with such ease that you can settle for one playstyle, or change playstyles like you change clothes, then this is most definitely the guide for you.
I must clarify that by different playstyles, I mean changing between different operating systems for your cyberware (Cyberdeck, Sandevistan, and Berserk) and achieving great overall performance from every playstyle. You can even specialise in any weapon category that tickles your fancy, all from one build where you will never need to change your attribute points ever again!
But that’s when you reach level 60 and if you haven’t reached that stage yet, then let’s assume that you’re starting a new playthrough from the very beginning. We will cover how to start off with a new playthrough, how to economically progress through it, the best weapons to keep an eye out for in each group category, the best allocation of attribute points at level 60 and then finally, the endgame phase along with shapeshifting the build to promote and enhance different playstyles.
NEW PLAYTHROUGH
When starting a new playthrough, I recommend allocating your first attribute points during character customisation like this:
5 BODY
4 REFLEXES
5 TECHNICAL ABILITY
4 COOL
4 INTELLIGENCE
Right from the word go, you have access to all the basic starter perks from all five attributes. And you make the open world more accessible early on by investing an extra point each in Body and Technical Ability. When V levels up, do NOT instantly spend your attribute points: you don’t unlock access to more perks until you reach level 9 and then level 15 in any attribute, and the bonuses per level are so negligible that there’s absolutely no tangible benefit to just spending attribute points as soon as you gain them. Unfortunately, one of the worst decisions CDPR made for version 2.0 was to implement scaling attribute checks – these same checks could be low in requirement early in a playthrough, but then require more attribute points than before when V levels up.
In light of this, the best thing to do is reserve your spare attribute points until you come across attribute checks, either in dialogue or the open world, before you spend them. Most dialogue checks will tell you that you have insufficient points in the specific attribute, but there are a few other dialogue checks that will be invisible and not an option unless you have the necessary amount of points invested in that attribute. The good thing though is that you can boost that attribute in the middle of a conversation, and the missing dialogue option will reveal itself once you exit the menu.
If you want V to level up as quickly as possible, there is nothing better than focusing on main missions and side jobs first and foremost. The faster you increase your level, the sooner you will notice that higher tiers of weapons, items and cyberware will become more apparent throughout Night City. By level 40, vendors will start selling the tier 5 versions of their wares.
ATTRIBUTES
While we are on the subject, it’s best to state at this early stage in the playthrough what our ultimate end goal is, so that V is fully prepared and as versatile as can be when reaching level 60. You can change cyberware, weapons, clothes, vehicles, and even perks as many times as you like in Cyberpunk. But in a single playthrough, you only get one time to change your attributes if you are not satisfied with them. Once that change is made, you cannot go back. So it’s important to deal with attributes first just to establish our sense of direction. Here is what I strongly recommend:
15 BODY
15 REFLEXES
20 TECHNICAL ABILITY
16 COOL
15 INTELLIGENCE
I have theorised and tested the ♥♥♥♥ out of how to allocate the attribute points best in order to optimally min-max Cyberpunk in the endgame phase regardless of playstyle, and every time, it always comes down to this specific loadout. You might question why we only have one attribute maxed out to 20 and miss out on access to several capstone perks in the process. That’s because when it comes to overall efficiency as well as versatility, V’s potential is at its highest when you have unlocked access to all the Phenom level perks which require at least 15 points invested in each attribute to tap into. The Phenom perks make more of an overall difference than the Legend level capstone perks.
The vast majority of capstone perks at Legend level, really only offer very slim quality-of-life increases at best in the grand scheme of things. And if you try to unlock access to as many of them as possible, you significantly diminish and sacrifice V’s potential in other areas and even risk making the entire playthrough less accessible and less complete overall. So we’ll take a closer look at each attribute in finer detail.
BODY
Body is easily a 15, no question about it. Yes, there is a slight risk that your Body count isn’t high enough (pardon the pun) in certain dialogue checks depending on how early or late you are into the playthrough when they take place. But the main benefit of having 20 Body is far more to do with being able to tackle any physical obstacle in the open world that has a Body check. And guess what? Even with just 15 attribute points invested, you can still bypass 20 Body checks, simply by equipping a tier 5 pair of Gorilla Arms!
With 15 Body, the best benefit is being able to use Adrenaline Rush: a key perk in your defensive capabilities. Additionally, if you like your shotguns or LMGs, you get a chance to obliterate enemies and even use that as a way to further enhance Adrenaline Rush. If you love your Gorilla Arms or running around with the best blunt melee weapon in the game, all the relevant perks up to Phenom level cover everything you need.
If you are going to invest in making yourself proficient with shotguns and/or LMGs, do not waste a perk point on Bullet Ballet: it is bugged and doesn’t function according to its own description. Are we missing out on Rip and Tear? No, and I say that confidently while acknowledging at the same time that it’s one of the better capstone perks in the game. True, your DPS potential with shotguns is incredible with this capstone perk. But if you want to massively increase your shotgun performance, you want to be using Sandevistan and this is where a bizarre problem occurs: there’s a little-known glitch where if you use a quick melee attack during Sandevistan, you cannot then fire your shotgun again until after you’ve first deactivated Sandevistan. You would have to constantly toggle it on and off at the right times in order to justify using the capstone in the first place. It’s doable, but can get incredibly annoying and tedious pretty quickly!
Are we missing out on Onslaught? Absolutely not! This only benefits LMGs which get almost no love in Cyberpunk. There are only two iconic LMGs which didn’t even exist in the game until the DLC arrived. And even though you can use it from range, it just doesn’t have the raw, destructive power that the best iconic shotguns possess. As for the capstone perk itself, the 20% magazine refill draws ammo from your reserves; it is NOT free ammo gained out of nothing! So at best, it’s an absurdly minor quality-of-life increase for an unpopular weapon category.
Are we missing out on Pain to Gain? For one particular playstyle, maybe. But overall, not really. 20% recharge of your health item is a nice bonus to have, but it only works while Adrenaline Rush is active so it’s not going to be every single time you neutralise an enemy. Good capstone perk? Definitely. But is it worth investing all the way to 20 Body? Definitely not. No matter the playstyle, you can survive the toughest challenges in Cyberpunk for long periods without Pain to Gain.
Are we missing out on Finisher: Savage Sling? Hell no! Don’t get me wrong, it’s a cool capstone, but it’s far more of a luxury feature than anything necessary. Besides, you automatically get finishers for all (bladed and blunt) melee weapons, Gorilla Arms included, when you use Berserk cyberware. Hell, the best blunt melee weapon in the game is the one blunt melee weapon that is LEAST in need of a finisher!
REFLEXES
Reflexes is even more of a definite 15 than Body! The unparalleled boost to defence and quality-of-life regarding general movement with both dash and air dash, is a sin to miss out on. Your melee DPS with the bladed weapon perks is crucial to invest in, and Sharpshooter with its relevant perks does a lot for your assault rifles and SMGs. With one or two exceptions, it’s mostly blue dialogue lines where you will find attribute checks in Reflexes. I don’t recall a single occasion where 15 Reflexes was too low to be denied the option. So there is no worthwhile open world benefit to pushing all the way to 20 Reflexes. But what about the capstone perks?
Are we missing out on Salt in the Wound? Ultimately, no. This capstone perk only benefits assault rifles, and the range of iconic assault rifles in this game is not particularly impressive, unfortunately. There is one iconic assault rifle that would be very nice to bolster with the capstone perk, however, you must first complete the final story mission (by going with Rogue) in order to obtain it. And even then, you have to consistently land your shots without fail, on the same target no less, just to enjoy the bonus damage. It sounds a bit too circumstantial for a capstone perk that is located at the end of an attribute which has no open world incentive for being maxed out to 20, let alone just for the sake of only one worthy assault rifle.
Are we missing out on Submachine Fun? Your SMGs will say yes you are missing out because of the extra fire rate and skipping reloading altogether, but your ammo reserves will thank you for it! Using one SMG alone is enough to burn through ammo at a rapid rate, but if you’re relying on two different SMGS in a long battle, it might not be that long before you run out of ammo and have to resort to another weapon that doesn’t need handgun ammo in order to be used! Besides, there is always going to be one SMG that’s better than another in direct comparison, and this can negatively impact your performance just because you might have the wrong SMG for the wrong time or the wrong scenario. The capstone perk can be both a boon and a hindrance.
Are we missing out on Tailwind? Truthfully, you never needed it in the first place! It’s very easy to get sucked in because by its description, it does sell itself really well. Gaining stamina from air dashes and double jumps, who in their right mind wouldn’t want that?! But I was curious enough to test it out one time and the result surprised me. The quickest way to get about Night City when on foot, is to dash > jump > air dash > jump again, and perform it in a way where you cover the most distance in a single leap in the shortest possible time. If you do this movement correctly, whatever stamina it cost you to do it, will be fully recovered by the time you land on your feet. If you don’t need Tailwind to be able to do that indefinitely, then you don’t need Tailwind full stop!
Are we missing out on Slaughterhouse? In terms of DPS, not at all. Your melee damage potential is so vast that bleeding damage on top of it is rather insignificant. The extra stamina boost from finishers would be appreciated with one playstyle in particular, but that’s nowhere near enough of a reason by itself to blow 20 attribute points on Reflexes.
TECHNICAL ABILITY
If you have 15 points in every attribute, then only one of them can be maxed out to 20 with the remaining points. And no matter what build idea or playstyle you have in mind, it should ALWAYS be Technical Ability! Unlike Body which enjoys bonus points for open world attribute checks from Gorilla Arms, Technical Ability does not enjoy the same benefit from any cyberware. So there is strong incentive in the open world alone (and also for key dialogue options) to max out this attribute so that you can bypass any technical issue.
Not only that, but it houses Edgerunner which is the absolute number one capstone perk in the game! Reducing max health by 25% is a price I’m happy to pay if it means that we can push 50 cyberware capacity beyond our default limit. And make no mistake about it, cyberware capacity is arguably the most precious resource you can accumulate, and it’s also quite limited. The quality of your cyberware and the synergy of specific pieces combined, are what allow V to make the biggest difference, more than any weapon. Because we’ve maxed out TA, we have access to the other capstone perks so there’s no risk of missing out!
COOL
Like Reflexes, this is absolutely a 15 with no dialogue or open world incentive to push it to 20. The only reason it has the final point to make it 16 is because we get bonus crit damage per attribute point invested in Cool. Yes, it’s more about stealth, and certain weapon types that may or may not be so appealing to you. But it’s still much better to boost the overall utility and versatility of the build, instead of just sacrificing it for very circumstantial capstone perks. If nothing else, crouch-sprinting is a cool extra to have!
Are we missing out on Nerves of Tungsten-Steel? Yes, a little, I won’t lie about that. It’s definitely one of the best overall capstone perks, and it targets three different weapon categories with two really nice DPS buffs. But there is one weapon in the game that benefits from Focus and Deadeye, and massively outperforms any other weapon that enjoys the same benefits. It leaves every revolver in the dust, yields DPS beyond anything a precision rifle can churn out, and makes sniper rifles envious with its single-shot damage potential. And that weapon happens to be a pistol, the one weapon type that gets zero benefit from this capstone perk.
Are we missing out on Run ‘N’ Gun? No, not even with the best pistol in the game in your hand. It’s a very minor quality-of-life increase at best. Sure, you can aim to activate Focus and then let go and shoot from the hip to enjoy constant Deadeye. But the best pistol in the game happens to fire a guaranteed crit shot with the first bullet from a fresh magazine, and can be equipped with a legendary XC-10 Cetus silencer that gives you guaranteed crit hits while undetected.
Are we missing out on Style Over Substance? It depends on a few things. Are you trying to make some noise and create mayhem? Then yes, it will benefit the best throwing weapon in the game significantly. But if you want to stealthily take down enemies instead, then guaranteed crits with the best throwing weapon is not a wise idea, thus you must downgrade to something else in order to not raise any alarms. As for the guaranteed crit hits themselves, the means of triggering them make the capstone perk a bit convoluted to put into practice, and it further constrains you into using Sandevistan which is by far the best operating system for throwing weapons.
INTELLIGENCE
Until patch 2.02, it was worth having 20 Intelligence if netrunning was your primary playstyle. But they’ve nerfed the total quickhack damage potential enough with the latest patches, where you may as well put 15 in it like every other attribute. Even if you have zero intention of being a netrunner come endgame, you do start off the playthrough with a Militech Paraline cyberdeck as your operating system, and you can use it (or even better, switch to the Tetratronic Rippler and upgrade that or buy higher tiers of it when available) to rack up Netrunner XP for bonus perk points, and to also earn more eddies as you advance through Night City. If nothing else, having 15 Intelligence is useful for key dialogue options and attribute checks in main missions and side jobs, as well as being able to hack the vast majority of access points and devices on offer.
I don’t think it’s worth sacrificing the options that 15 Intelligence gives you just to reach more circumstantial capstone perks, just in case such a thought crosses your mind. You have to have 12 Intelligence in order to use tier 5 cyberdecks and quickhacks. You can equip them with less than that, but it will fail to upload the quickhacks without at least 12 Intelligence. And you need at least 15 Intelligence to unlock Overclock, otherwise netrunning in endgame is pointless.
The Intelligence attribute can eat up a lot of perk points easily when investing in it to become a Netrunner. If you want to be able to one-shot standard and elite enemies in endgame, with or without stealth, I can tell you how to achieve that later on but for now in the earlier stages, I’ll tell you about the following perks which are unnecessary or even bugged.
The perk Warning: Explosive Hazard is bugged as it doesn’t increase explosive damage. The two perks Counter-A-Hack and Copy-Paste are not bad but a waste of perk points if you already have a certain handy piece of cyberware in your frontal cortex.
Queue Prioritization is also bugged and does not work as stated. Data Recycler bizarrely functions to some degree while simultaneously being partially bugged, to the point where it is absolutely a waste of a perk point regardless. Not only has its potential been nerfed with patch 2.02 but if you do enough testing with it, you’ll realise that the perk description misses out a crucial detail. When you down an enemy with a combat quickhack like Short Circuit or Synapse Burnout, the next quickhack in the queue already starts uploading for a millisecond when they are neutralised,
ergo Data Recycler IGNORES the next quickhack in the queue, and skips over it so that it only refunds you for the next one, assuming there even is a next one at all! We won’t have Queue Mastery thus we can only upload 3 quickhacks max in our queues. And in order to one-shot enemies as an endgame Netrunner, we need our best combat quickhack to come second in all of the queues it features in. With all these factors considered, Data Recycler will have zero effect or benefit for our netrunning shenanigans.
You can easily do stealth as a Netrunner and have enough quickhack damage potential in endgame without the following perks: Proximate Propagation, Encryption, Subordination, Icepick, Shadowrunnner, and System Overwhelm. You will want almost all the perks relevant to Overclock in any serious netrunning build, but the only exception to that is Power Surge. You should always activate Overclock first before you start quickhacking and/or engaging enemies, so you should be at full health anyway. And with about 95-99% of all the scenarios in which you use Overclock, you’ll easily keep that single instance running if you’re playing it correctly and using the best combat quickhack for the job, thus never needing to reactivate Overclock the majority of the time.
Are we missing out on Queue Mastery? If you asked that question before patch 2.02 then I would have said yes. Back then, it was efficient netrunning to queue 4 quickhacks, as you could exploit a loophole with the Data Recycler perk (where it refunded the full default RAM costs of the remaining quickhacks, NOT the reduced costs) to almost fully restore your RAM after neutralising an enemy. But CDPR closed that loophole with patch 2.02 by making sure that Data Recycler refunds the actual costs (reductions included) so you can no longer get a worthwhile RAM refund beforehand. So nowadays? No, we’re not missing out on Queue Mastery because in terms of costs to RAM (and health during Overclock) it’s way more efficient to queue up just 3 quickhacks.
Are we missing out on Spillover? It might feel like you are missing out, but not in totality. It actually hurts your netrunning if you’re trying to employ stealth because even if you try and mask your progress, a non-covert quickhack could still spread out and consequently allow the enemy to trace you. Even then, you still need to upload the same quickhack queues to each individual enemy in order to benefit from the upload order and synergy of the quickhacks. And we’ll still be able to one-shot standard and elite enemies without Spillover anyway, stealth or no stealth.
Are we missing out on Smart Synergy? It’s not bad but it doesn’t serve any great purpose. Enemies have to be under the influence of quickhacks just so your smart weapons get the bonus 25% damage. If you’ve had the opportunity and enough RAM and health to quickhack enemies in the first place, it would be much quicker to kill them with just quickhacks alone. To make the capstone perk even more redundant, there are only two smart weapons really worth using in endgame, and they’re still not even close to your best source of DPS against tougher enemies anyway.
ECONOMY
Different players are going to have different opinions about how best to advance through Night City on your way to the major leagues. You can have the difficulty set to Very Hard and still make life much easier for V, if you take a more economical approach to your playthrough. If you follow all the steps I’m about to lay out, then you should amass a considerable amount of wealth come the endgame, and I’m not even talking about basic knowledge stuff like selling each piece of junk that nets you 500 eddies.
Case in point with my current playthrough at the time of writing this and having arrived at the endgame stage, without any glitches or cheesy exploits but just playing the game normally, my V has rented every apartment, collected every vehicle for sale from El Capitan’s Autofixer, and even went further as to purchase every single piece of clothing for sale from every vendor in Night City, and I still have well over 5 million eddies in my bank account, and I still haven’t completed all the side jobs or NCPD scanners yet! So how is this possible?
Save up eddies for cyberware – This is your number one priority in terms of how you spend your money, as your choices of cyberware and the quality of it, are what make the biggest difference for V in any playthrough. If you’re ever thinking of spending money early in your playthrough, only spend it on cyberware and whenever it’s mandatory to spend eddies in main missions and side jobs.
Cars and apartments are luxury purchases – Ergo, you do NOT need to buy them early on in the playthrough. V’s Megatower H10 apartment in Little China has the closest fast travel point to a bed and personal stash out of all forms of accommodation in Night City. And some of the best vehicles in the game can be acquired free of charge, even early on in the playthrough. You should not even consider buying anything from El Capitan until you gain access to Dogtown and can take on vehicle contracts for him, so that you can get a 24% discount for the Autofixer. In terms of time and money, it’s most efficient overall to do one vehicle contract and then buy a car before taking on another vehicle contract. You will definitely need at least 2 million eddies along with a discount for each and every single purchase to complete the collection of vehicles.
Only purchase iconic weapons – Iconic weapons that can only be acquired by purchasing them from specific vendors are an obvious exception to the general rule, which is that you should NEVER waste your money on a non-iconic weapon. Come endgame, the highest possible tier of weaponry is tier 5++, which can only be found out in the open world, or dropped by your enemies. No weapons vendor will ever sell a single weapon at the highest possible tier, and no matter what stage of the playthrough you find yourself in, there are always plenty of weapons out in the open world of the same quality or better, so it’s absolutely pointless to buy them.
DO NOT sell your unwanted weapons – Instead, disassemble them. Sounds counter-intuitive, doesn’t it? Why not sell weapons when you can get eddies for them? Well, anyone who truly understands economics will know that it isn’t always entirely about the money; you can make something more economical, your journey through Night City included, by implementing other factors such as mitigating cost, time management, risk assessment, acquiring assets and resources, etc. Disassembling weapons gives you a more scarce resource than eddies, and also gives you bonus XP for your Engineer skill. Crafting components are incredibly valuable and you simply can never find enough of them out in the open world. You need crafting components if you want to upgrade your iconic weapons, but especially earlier on in the playthrough, they’re very useful for upgrading your cyberware. One reason is because it saves eddies compared to buying all your cyberware at tier 5 from ripperdocs later on, and another reason is the next big tip.
Use the full potential of the Chipware Connoisseur perk – This is a perk that you will eventually not need in endgame when you have all the fully upgraded cyberware you could possibly want. But when upgrading cyberware, it gives you a lot more options to endow your V with the type of bonus stats you want. Come endgame, you can have more specific bonuses such as extra melee damage, headshot damage, stealth damage, health item recharge speed, mitigation strength, and others that you may desire. You don’t have as many options to choose from if you simply buy your cyberware at higher tiers. It’s more effective overall to buy your desired cyberware at the lowest tiers available on the market, and use Chipware Connoisseur to give you as many different options on the menu. It’s a sorely underrated perk but when used correctly, it WILL save you plenty of eddies!
Upgrade your tier 4 crafting components – ONLY do this after you have fully upgraded all the cyberware and iconic weapons you want to use in endgame! I do not even bother upgrading tier 1 components because they hold more value in crafting ammo when you’re running low, and it takes 625 of them to be converted into just one tier 5 crafting component! And you will inevitably reach a point in endgame where you really only need legendary crafting components for upgrading all the worthwhile gear. If there is nothing left to upgrade with them, you can use tiers 2 and 3 crafting components to craft extra weapons and sell them off for some quick, extra money. Disassembling tier 5 weapons and clothing for more components will be your primary source of legendary components, but you can also disassemble tier 4 gear for their respective components and upgrade them. Even at level 60, there is a LOT of loot for both tiers 4 and 5 around Night City.
Be a Netrunner – When players think of the Intelligence attribute, they think about quickhacking, Overclock and smart weapons. But not many players seem to realise that the Intelligence attribute is secretly the best one out of all five for making eddies. Hacking access points and devices is no secret, but you increase your money-making potential significantly by upgrading your cyberdeck and using the Forcekill Cypher perk. Even if you do not like netrunning, it is worth sucking it up early in the playthrough so you can accrue more eddies, more quickhack crafting components, and more quickhack crafting specs if not the quickhacks themselves. Speaking of which…
Craft and sell quickhacks – If I had to say what is the biggest money-making tip in the entire game, without any exploits involved, it’s this one right here. Crafting quickhacks gives you bonus XP for both Netrunner and Engineer skills. Selling quickhacks can quickly earn you an absolute FORTUNE in the market! Unlike standard crafting components however, it’s actually unwise to upgrade quickhack crafting components because you rack up a lot more eddies by just crafting as many quickhack copies as quantitatively possible, regardless of their tiers. Any quickhack will cost the same amount of crafting components as another quickhack of the same tier, but some quickhacks sell for more eddies than others. When it comes to tier 4 and 5 quickhacks especially, you want to be using your components to craft copies of ultimate quickhacks. Each tier 5 copy of quickhacks such as Cyberpsychosis and Suicide, will earn you at least 25,000 eddies per copy!
FREE VEHICLES
Even if you are the most avid completionist, you should take it easy on the gas in terms of amassing your own private collection of vehicles as you progress through the playthrough. You should most definitely wait until you have enough spare eddies before focusing on expanding your list. But at the same time, there are some vehicles out there that will not cost you a single eurodollar to acquire. Better yet, there are a few that you can acquire for free, almost immediately after the Heist has concluded, sparing the need to buy or steal. I am only going to mention four vehicles: two cars and two bikes, two of them being great on tarmac, two of them being great off-road, all of them costing zero eddies, and also where to find them all.
Rayfield Caliburn “Murkmobile” belonged to Murk Man who is Night City’s biggest reference to Batman. Apart from being painted in black, there is nothing unique in stats or performance about this particular Rayfield Caliburn model. But that’s not really a complaint considering that it is the one car in Night City with the highest top speed of well over 200 mph! You do not need a single eddie to your name in order to add this beast to your collection. However, you must complete the main mission Ghost Town and also max out your Street Cred to 50 before it becomes available to you via the relevant side quest, which is in the same mine tunnel that Panam drives through during Ghost Town when hunting down Nash.
Quadra Type-66 “Hoon” is basically the free alternative to the Wingate. Although the latter does have slightly better performance overall, it’s pointless to nitpick over such small details when one of these options demands tens of thousands of eddies, while the other option is sat waiting for you in an abandoned warehouse in Northside, Watson. Nothing in terms of story to spoil with this one: Hoon being a reference as well as the signature number of 43, this rally car is actually dedicated to Ken Block, a real-life rally driver and Youtube star who tragically lost his life in January 2023, may he rest in peace. It drives very well on all terrain, but is especially useful going off-road in the Badlands.
Jackie’s ARCH is one of the best-performing bikes in the entire game. I will not spoil any story details as to how you come into possession of it. All I will say is that after the Heist, you can obtain it after completing the side job Heroes. If you chose the Nomad life path and have high enough Technical Ability, while outside the All Foods plant during The Pickup main mission, V can recommend to Jackie that he makes changes to the exhaust. The bike will then become
Jackie’s Tuned ARCH , weighing a tiny bit more but also sporting extra horsepower.
Scorpion’s Apollo is your best option if you’re a complete bike fanatic but have to go off-road in the Badlands. Again, I am not spoiling any story details as to why you come across this dirt bike at all, but all you need to do is just complete the main mission Life During Wartime.
CYBERWARE
The first thing that needs to be said on the topic is that cyberware capacity is hugely important. Here is how cyberware capacity works and how you can boost it with the following:
- Default cyberware capacity = 24 (starting at level 1)
- +3 cyberware capacity per level up = 177 (from level 2 to level 60)
- Engineer skill progression = 15
- Tier 2 shard = +2 capacity per shard, 14 shards in total = 28
- Tier 3 shard = +3 capacity per shard, 8 shards in total = 24
- Tier 4 shard = +4 capacity per shard, 4 shards in total = 16
- Tier 5 shard = +6 capacity per shard, 2 shards in total = 12
- Max value of Renaissance Punk perk = 20
- Edgerunner capstone perk = 50 (spare capacity beyond the limit)
- Tier 5++ Chrome Compressor = 70 (for your Operating System)
Even though the Chrome Compressor can in theory take your cyberware capacity way above 400 in total, it comes at the expense of not being able to use a Cyberdeck, Sandevistan, or Berserk. This consequently forces you into a more ‘naked’ playstyle, where you are expected to splash out on more expensive and/or iconic pieces of cyberware to make up for the absence of a true operating system. So the true maximum possible capacity for this particular build can reach up to 366. However, there is a glitch where once V reaches level 60, you will not see any more shards being dropped, and this stunts your cyberware capacity before it can reach the maximum possible value. This was supposed to be patched in version 2.1, but I have not witnessed any more shards dropping in my current playthrough, so beware of this.
I will not mention any glitches or mods that would serve as a workaround for this, I leave such things to your discretion. But you need to be aware of this in case you do not have enough cyberware capacity to equip all the slots on top of what are the essential pieces of cyberware for all playstyles. Thus it’s anecdotal as to what your max limit will be as it could differ with each playthrough. Without any glitches or mods of any kind, the lowest cyberware capacity I’ve had so far is 300 before the shards dried up. My current highest record in another playthrough is 340.
If you add up the cost tally of all the compulsory pieces of cyberware listed below, it totals to 269 cyberware capacity. You have just two empty cyberware slots left to fill up. We also need an Operating System, and we still have one slot free for the Nervous System, both of which will require certain pieces of cyberware in accordance with the desired playstyle in endgame.
It’s important to note that we are NOT choosing our cyberware for the sake of increasing max armour. That is why you will not see armour-only pieces that require very little capacity being listed. It’s what each piece of cyberware brings to the table that matters, anything that buffs armour is just an added extra not worth mentioning. Having said that, if you’re able to fill out all of the available cyberware slots even with just really cheap pieces, go for it as it is worth being able to use the Cyborg perk for reduced cooldown. But as a priority, save your spare cyberware capacity for the operating systems and their corresponding key cyberware in the endgame variations.
FRONTAL CORTEX
Axolotl has a hefty price tag in terms of cyberware capacity but each time you neutralise an enemy, it reduces the cooldowns on all of your cyberware, and it also adds extra duration to your operating system regardless of your playstyle.
(48) Self-Ice is every enemy netrunner’s worst nightmare! It’s a very inexpensive piece of cyberware that prevents you from being on the wrong end of quickhacks such as Cyberware Malfunction, Reboot Optics or Weapon Glitch. It does operate on a cooldown, but that is less of a concern thanks to Axolotl.
(5) Mechatronic Core is another very cheap piece of cyberware for your frontal cortex. Fully upgraded, it can give you as much as 40% extra damage against mechs, drones, robots and turrets. You might not fight such enemies as often as humans but for only 5 cyberware capacity, 40% bonus damage is very generous! (5)
ARMS
Electrifying Gorilla Arms might make your hands look ugly, but they are probably the best arm cyberware you can have. They are certainly the most versatile as at tier 5, they can give you +6 to Body when it comes to attribute checks regarding physical objects, although this bonus sadly does not apply to checks during dialogue. But with these arms on top of having 15 Body, you will be able to physically bypass any obstacle, even if it demands 20 Body. And the electrifying variant allows you to be effective when against mechs, robots and drones. (8)
SKELETON
Epimorphic Skeleton is quite costly for cyberware, but is superior to any other form of skeletal cyberware that places heavy emphasis on armour, negating any need for the likes of Para Bellum or Rara Avis. As well as providing a decent amount of max armour, more importantly you get bonus max health which can make up for some of the deficit imposed by the Edgerunner capstone perk.
(32 with All Things Cyber perk) Dense Marrow can offer as much as +27% melee damage when fully upgraded, which is major considering that melee damage is essential when going up against MaxTac and bosses. The 20% stamina penalty is obviously not ideal, but your perks and skills should provide you with reductions in stamina costs. When using Berserk which has zero stamina cost while it is active, this piece of cyberware is all upside and no downside!
(13 with All Things Cyber perk) Spring Joints seems unpopular and questionable as a choice, but it does provide the equivalent of almost 20% damage reduction and once you’re accustomed to utilising mitigation often, you will find that the bonus to mitigation strength more than justifies Spring Joints being a fixture in this build.
(13 with All Things Cyber perk)
NERVOUS SYSTEM
Neofiber might not seem worthwhile but believe me when I say: any buff to mitigation strength is worth it! And even the low mitigation chance plays a very useful role as you shall soon see.
(12) Kerenzikov is essential to this build, even if you can only activate it by dodging/dashing while aiming down sights with ranged weapons. But a really important point to mention is that you can activate it frequently as it has a very short cooldown. This, Neofiber and Spring Joints will all make perfect sense with the next piece of cyberware on the list!
(14)
INTEGUMENTARY SYSTEM
Defenzikov is sorely underrated, and a huge component of our versatile build! Each time Kerenzikov ends, you get +90% mitigation chance (from the tier 5 version of this cyberware) for a few seconds! And by the time those few seconds are over, you are pretty much ready to activate the Kerenzikov combo again. But remember when I said that Neofiber would play a very useful role? Combine the 10% mitigation chance from that with this, and we can pretty much get almost 100% constant uptime of 100% mitigation chance while we are using our ranged weapons! Then combine all of this with Spring Joints and you’re pretty much taking your mitigation strength up to about 80%! For 4 pieces of cyberware offering this much synergy in terms of defence, it’s possibly the wisest 55 cyberware capacity you could ever spend!
(16 with All Things Cyber perk) Optical Camo is actually very important and becomes the best gadget to have equipped in your quickslot by far, seeing as the Relic perks from the Phantom Liberty DLC give it far more utility to take advantage of. Now yes, you can use this without it being in your gadget quickslot if you have the Vanishing Act perk. However, you will not gain the benefits of the Relic’s bonuses if you do this. By having Optical Camo in your quickslot, you can use it to potentially get out of the combat state which is a massive deal as it grants you many options. You can disengage and then re-engage in combat again with the benefit of stealth damage bonuses, you can craft more ammo if you’re low, and you can use the +150% health recharge speed from the Health Freak perk in case you are low or empty on health charges.
(16 with All Things Cyber perk) Peripheral Inverse is our next best form of damage reduction when we’re up close with a melee weapon in hand and unable to maintain 100% mitigation chance. It’s less of a requirement when using Berserk, but it makes a hell of a difference when you’ve got an entire MaxTac squad in close proximity. Fully upgraded, it gives you up to a substantial 45% damage reduction from any attacker within 3 metres of you. If however you are struggling for cyberware capacity, go ahead and downgrade to the Proxishield, as that can offer up to a respectable 20% damage reduction under the exact same conditions for a third of the cost.
(24 with All Things Cyber perk)
FACE
Kiroshi “The Oracle” Optics provide you with as much information as your eyes can see within range, even if there are walls, ceilings and other obstacles in the way. They may not be cheap for a pair of eyes which admittedly doesn’t offer an exciting range of options overall, but they are quite useful and tend to give you better bonus stats when upgrading them. (10)
HANDS
Smart Link might not be cost-free compared to the Tyger Claw Tattoos in terms of cyberware capacity, but having it equipped allows you to use smart weapons whenever you please, and there are two particular smart weapons in the game worth using, especially if you end up being a Netrunner come endgame. Unlike the tattoos, you can also upgrade it so that it can provide you with different bonus stats, including ones such as melee damage which is always useful. (4)
CIRCULATORY SYSTEM
Blood Pump is something that once you try, you can never go back to ordinary health charges. Why bother with either MaxDoc or Bounce Back when there is a cyberware that literally combines the best of both worlds, and activates instantly rather than you having to go through the animation of chugging a health item?
(15) Biomonitor has great synergy with Blood Pump as the former automatically activates the latter when your health drops below 35%, and gives it a boost to effectiveness at the same time. I must warn you: there is a small chance that you could still die despite this activating, in the event that the last amount of damage you sustained was far too great. However, if you have mitigation constantly active, then this should not be a problem. The main benefit of this is that you don’t have to focus on your health bar so much as it’s all set to autopilot.
(14) Microrotors is another piece of cyberware that significantly boosts melee DPS, as much as 25% faster attack speed when fully upgraded. If you love your katanas like I do, then this cyberware is non-negotiable in my opinion. (12)
LEGS
Reinforced Tendons is such a quality-of-life piece of cyberware that it’s hard to look at anything else to equip your legs with. Not only does the double-jump feature allow you to get more verticality, but it combines so well with dash and air dash that you’re able to travel from A to B on foot surprisingly quickly. The added potential for parkour is self-evident as you can easily vault over enemies, seek high ground that they can’t reach, or vault over walls or rooftops to escape the cops that pursue you. (8)
WEAPONS
I’ve done a LOT of weapon testing just to narrow down the single best picks for each category. And by category, I mean weapons that would receive benefits from the perks that enable them. For example, shotguns and LMGs are boosted by the same perks, but we’re only really interested in the one weapon that dominates its field and gets the most usage and synergy out of a versatile build.
Errata in my honest opinion, is the overall victor in a hotly-contested category for bladed weapons because you can easily use it in any playstyle, and it works against single enemies as well as crowds. When it comes to DPS and performance in Cyberpunk 2077, any weapon or method that gives you an opportunity to score guaranteed critical hits is the best option. It’s far better than stacking crit chance, especially as most crit chance boosts don’t combine as well as you assume they would. This burning blade may be lacking in base damage compared to other katanas (which is something you can fix by cleverly utilising the Chipware Connoisseur perk) but at the same time, having a chance to ignite enemies and land guaranteed crit hits while they burn, is what gives it the edge over all the other katanas on offer. And the more you can boost bonus crit damage, the more this becomes a forgone conclusion. Byakko enthusiasts may well disagree, but they need to kill an enemy with it and then use that temporary buff to carry on swinging until they run out of stamina. It’s more circumstantial than Errata in comparison because it is very much a momentum-based blade, and one that fails to serve its purpose if you’re dealing with just a single enemy or worse, a single boss. And unless you’re using Sandevistan, it’s not worth talking about the Scalpel.
(Located in the forge of the Electric Corporation power plant, most easily obtained during the main mission Disasterpiece.) 
Tinker Bell looks like a meme weapon. Hell, it IS a meme weapon! But I’m being 100% serious when I say that you are wasting your time if you are looking at any other blunt melee weapon than this iconic cattle prod. You can drop Sasquatch’s Hammer, abort the Baby Boomer and turn off Sir John Phallustiff. Because Tinker Bell is so ridiculously effective, that you can make MaxTac die… of sheer embarrassment! Ever wanted to see a MaxTac agent’s health go from 100% to zero in just one hit? Well, Tinker Bell gives you a 20% chance to do just that if RNGesus blesses your strong hits! But even if he is not with you in spirit, you can still use this iconic melee weapon to stun MaxTac agents long enough to get behind them and snap their necks. If you have a bizarre aversion towards using katanas or bladed melee weapons, then this is THE melee weapon you should be procuring and using everywhere you go. Need I say more?!
(Located in the control room of the house at Edgewood Farm that belongs to Anthony Harris, obtained during the side job The Hunt.) 
Agaou covers all your throwing weapon DPS needs except for stealth, in which case I would advise that you also take the Blue Fang if throwing weapons are what give your life in Night City the most meaning. But in a weapon category that is predominantly about knives, it’s actually an iconic Tomahawk that steals the show and performs best overall. It just does more damage, has higher crit chance than most throwing weapons, and crit hits create shock explosions that can tag multiple enemies. The last part is the reason why it can hinder your efforts when it comes to stealth though.
(Located in Dogtown, dropped by Ayo Zarin in Increased Criminal Activity: Voodoo Boys.) 
Sovereign is amazing if you love your shotguns and a seemingly perfect choice of weapon for any build that allows you to get up close to enemies. You might look at its stats and think its base damage is not impressive compared to other iconic shotguns, but it’s that low because firing point-blank shots guarantees crit hits, and don’t forget that it’s a double-barrel shotgun so you’re firing two shells at once! Additionally, hitting an enemy in the torso gives you both extra movement speed and reload speed which is no small matter considering that shotguns typically are slow and clunky to reload at the best of times. And when you consider that the Dezerter burns you, the Order has a frustratingly long charge time for a tech weapon, and all the iconic shotguns that fire single shells require that you reload each shell individually anyway, the Sovereign is very reliable, user-friendly and not at all lacking in its potential DPS!
(Located in Japantown, as a crafting spec, dropped by Shinobu Amai during the NCPD Scanner Hustle titled Suspected Organized Crime Activity: Modern Labor Market.) 
Raiju is not just undoubtedly the best tech weapon in the game, but also arguably the best overall SMG in the game, even better than the Yinglong, the Fenrir or the Erebus. It does serious work in any build you use. It can deal shock damage, crit damage is increased by 33%, headshots have 33% extra crit chance, and you don’t even need to charge it for the bullets to penetrate walls and objects! It’s incredible when time is slowed down because it fires its bullets as if it is unaffected by the slowdown effects. And you can make the DPS even more insane by firing constant Bolt shots and supplementing them with the Chain Lightning capstone perk!
(Located in Dogtown, inside a locked cache, key dropped by Ross Ulmer in Increased Criminal Activity: BARGHEST.) 
Pride is Rogue’s iconic pistol that you can pick up at the end of the final story mission of the game by going with her. Then after completing the story in that way, you must reload from the ‘Point of No Return’ but it is so worth doing all of that if you’re looking to use one weapon that benefits from Focus and Deadeye. Considering one of the Cool perk trees is dedicated to pistols, revolvers, precision rifles, and sniper rifles, Pride is more than strong enough to dominate all those categories! The first bullet fired from a new magazine is a guaranteed crit hit. Pride also deals +100% crit damage, and +10% headshot damage against elite enemies, the ones with skull icons above their heads. Is that still not enough for you? When your health is above 75%, Pride gives you 420% headshot damage! Oh, and you can also equip it with a legendary XC-10 Cetus silencer so it can do 150% bonus stealth damage AND guaranteed critical hits as long as you remain undetected, unironically customising it to become the best stealth weapon in the game. This pistol does more damage with a single bullet than any other pistol, revolver, precision rifle, or sniper rifle!
(Located in Arasaka Tower, immediately after the final boss fight during the main mission Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door.)
ENDGAME
So your V has finally reached level 60, your collection of cyberware and weapons is coming along nicely, and now the time has come where you really want to reach the ultimate tier of the major leagues. Thus we need to determine what exactly constitutes a viable, effective and proficient endgame build, and achieve that while simultaneously making it flexible enough to accommodate radically different playstyles when the mood strikes.
You can play the game on Very Hard difficulty and still get away with a lot of things. You can have a mediocre or subpar build that’s still viable enough to handle the majority of the game. But if you want to gauge how strong your V really is, then the ultimate test of an endgame build is being able to use it to the point where you can handle yourself even if you accrue five felony stars, and can withstand a seemingly endless onslaught while going up against squads of NCPD and MaxTac. No other enemy or boss in the game, not even Adam Smasher, can compare to this test.
In testing my V against waves of NCPD and MaxTac in particular, I learnt a few interesting things. For starters, if you rely solely on ranged weapons, you are inevitably going to run out of ammunition. I don’t care what ranged weapons you use, I don’t even care if you use different types of weapons just to be able to utilise all the different ammo types. If you carry on such a battle for long enough, your reserves will run empty sooner or later. You can use tier 1 trading components to craft any ammunition, but you are blocked from doing this while the combat state is active. In that event, you have no choice but to try and lose the cops and get out of combat, so that you can craft.
And for those avid netrunners who rely on quickhacks for their main source of damage, it’s a similar story in regards to RAM. Sure, you have Overclock, and there is much you can do to tinker with quickhacks in terms of queues, upload order, smart use of certain perks, etc. But then MaxTac shows up, and you eventually realise that the risk of going all-in on netrunning, far outweighs the reward. Even with your best efforts, the devs have nerfed the DPS potential of netrunning so hard into the ground, that you can no longer rely on that alone to fight MaxTac. You can still dispose of them as a netrunner of course, but it requires a different approach.
This is why no matter the playstyle, when it comes to DPS versus MaxTac or any boss for that matter, melee damage is king. Not only does it have good DPS, it also costs you neither ammunition nor RAM, only stamina. And there are ways of dealing with cost of stamina. Any worthy endgame build will utilise at least one melee weapon to make incredibly short work of the toughest foes. So when it comes to our builds, we will always prioritise perks that boost our performance and DPS output for our chosen melee weapon. Any ranged weapons you want to use are secondary in priority when it comes to spending your spare perk points.
So we know what we’re aiming for in terms of offensive capabilities, but what about defensive? As mentioned when we were discussing cyberware, we’re not going all-out to stack max armour. In fact, I’m of the opinion that armour is the most overrated form of defence in Cyberpunk. If you don’t believe me, go to a ripperdoc, get them to install enough cyberware to give you the maximum possible value of armour you can sport, and then see how long you last in a fight. You still get killed pretty quickly, right? If not even 100% max armour is effective enough to stop us from dying so easily, then we should be focusing our efforts elsewhere instead.
So what is the best form of defence? Mitigation. Seriously, if you offered me 100% mitigation chance that is active unconditionally 24/7, and all I have to do in return is run around with literally ZERO to my armour, I would say a resounding ‘YES’ a million times over! You see, armour protects you from some types of damage but not others, damage over time being an obvious example. But the thing about mitigation is that when it’s active, it will literally halve any damage you sustain at a bare minimum due to mitigation strength being 50% by default, including damage over time and the other damage types not covered by armour.
And once you’ve done enough to get yourself as close to 100% mitigation chance being active for as long as possible, then mitigation strength can allow you to take things further. There is a reason why mitigation strength is capped at 90%, otherwise it would be like running around with the iconic Militech Berserk cyberware being active 100% of the time. Regardless of whatever else you may or may not have in terms of armour or other forms of damage reduction, mitigation will do exactly as it states and that’s an example of just how amazing it is as a defensive stat!
The only potential downside to mitigation besides being circumstantial in terms of activation, is that it’s a lot easier to have it active for longer when using ranged weapons, but it’s not so simple to have while using melee weapons. This is why making our build more versatile really comes in handy, and we’ll explore all of that in more detail. If you focus first on mitigation (chance first, strength second) then it makes other defensive factors such as health regen and max health seem a lot more effective in keeping you alive!
NETRUNNER
Because the brunt of our DPS in this build is with melee damage, there is less emphasis on quickhack DPS as it would be overkill and a waste of cyberware capacity to focus on that. This explains why we are NOT using the COX-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer: it costs a staggering 50 cyberware capacity, it reduces max RAM capacity, and doesn’t add much overall value to this particular build. It falls into that undesirable middle ground where it does too much damage for normal, weaker enemies, but still not enough damage to really trouble the likes of MaxTac. Before we go into cyberware, we should look at the quickhacks we’ll be using:
Cyberware Malfunction not only debuffs enemies so that you can do more damage overall, but you can also double-stack it to permanently disable an enemy’s cyberware. This is what I do against tougher enemies who like using Sandevistan or Kerenzikov. Particularly useful against MaxTac as well. After patch 2.1, regardless of using stealth or not, this is the first quickhack to upload in the queue order so that enemies will be susceptible to enough bonus damage to be one-shot by the sole combat quickhack we have installed.
Synapse Burnout is the only combat quickhack you truly need, even against non-human enemies. The more RAM spent, the more damage this quickhack can dish out. With the cyberdeck we’re using, we get 40% extra damage out of it if we queue up a non-combat quickhack immediately afterwards.
Sonic Shock is the cheapest quickhack in terms of RAM, and it’s the last quickhack to upload in the queue order. For a tiny amount of RAM, we queue this last so that as a non-combat quickhack, it gives a 40% damage boost to Synapse Burnout which precedes it.
Cripple Movement is a quickhack you might not end up using at all, but I personally like to include it on my list if only to reserve it as an option in combat. It is very cheap on RAM, and it does a solid job of pinning down enemies who are annoyingly evasive or are always paranoid in seeking cover.
Reboot Optics is on this list but you’re never going to spend RAM to actually use it, as our Cyberdeck will handle that. But you still need to equip it.
Weapon Glitch is another quickhack that we can use without expending RAM thanks to our specific Cyberdeck. However, it can prove to be useful at times and might be worth casting on certain enemies if they have quite powerful weapons.
Tetratronic Rippler is definitely the best overall Cyberdeck if we’re talking about being able to generally handle any situation in Cyberpunk. It comes with a generous bonus of max RAM, it gives us a circumstance where our combat quickhack (Synapse Burnout) can reap 40% bonus damage, it allows us to use both Reboot Optics and Weapon Glitch (free of charge) against enemies in range when activating Overclock, and our smart weapons get bonus damage when used against enemies under the effects of control quickhacks. And it’s one of the cheapest cyberdecks in terms of cyberware capacity.
(Operating System – 16) Revulsor is game-changing if you have the capacity to equip it. We are neither using Sandevistan nor Berserk, thus we are not best-equipped for melee combat when we only have Overclock in this build variation. But when Revulsor activates, that’s a really good time to go in and swing your melee weapon like crazy for the brief moments that time is on your side!
(Nervous System – 35) 
Yinglong is arguably the best smart weapon in the entire game, at least for focus-firing on single enemies. It actually has impressive bullet velocity for a smart weapon. But it also deals shock damage, and the EMP explosions it creates can also generate stacks of Pyromania. And being an SMG, you can shoot enemies with it while driving!
(Located in Wellsprings, Heywood, as a crafting spec, dropped by Denzel Cryer during the NCPD Scanner Hustle titled Suspected Organized Crime Activity: Living the Big Life.)
Ba Xing Chong is really good for targeting multiple enemies at the same time with its heavy base damage. While I prefer using Yinglong to kill enemies faster, what this smart shotgun does better than its smart SMG counterpart, is cause multiple explosions to very quickly rack up stacks of Pyromania! You want to use this weapon to refresh stacks before going in with melee.
(Located aboard the Ebunike, as a crafting spec which you can only obtain after completing the main story and reloading from the point of no return. Contained in a chest inside a locked room which requires an Access Token you must loot at the end of the final story mission.) When fighting multiple enemies, either in direct combat or from the shadows, you always want to activate Overclock. Ever since patch 2.1 which nerfed the damage potential of Synapse Burnout, if you’re trying to pick off enemies with quickhacks, then you always want to upload the following quickhacks in this specific queue order:
Cyberware Malfunction > Synapse Burnout > Sonic Shock and/or use your smart weapons. Use Cripple Movement as well if you’re dealing with very agile and evasive enemies. Of course, you want to use Overclock as much as possible, and neutralising enemies with Synapse Burnout helps a lot to extend its duration.
But when MaxTac show up, you want to be ready for them with a fresh, new activation of Overclock so you can tag them with Reboot Optics and Weapon Glitch. Use the Kerenzikov combo to get 100% mitigation chance as you move towards them, swap to the Errata (or Tinker Bell) and then activate Overclock. You should also double-stack Cyberware Malfunction on each MaxTac agent.
This playstyle has the broadest spectrum between ease and difficulty. You can take down an entire squad of enemies with just quickhacks alone, without any of them knowing you are there while you point and click away. But when the NCPD gets involved, you do have to focus a little more and play smart with this build variation as it’s the one most likely to get you killed when dealing with MaxTac. Then again, playing smart is a default requirement for any ‘Intelligence’ build!
SPEEDSTER
Sandevistan is the most popular operating system in Cyberpunk lore. It also happens to be the best operating system to use if you want to place more emphasis on ranged weapons, although it is versatile enough to also be used with melee weapons. If you love either shotguns or throwing weapons, then that is extra incentive to go all-in on Sandevistan as it really brings out the best performance in both weapon types. Slowing down time does more than just give you a distinct speed advantage: it allows you to attack or retreat more tactically, you can use it to reposition yourself, you can use it to generate more DPS and you can also use it to avoid a lot of hits.
Militech “Apogee” Sandevistan is the most expensive operating system in the market but totally worth it. You are able to toggle it on and off, even spamming it each time its duration comes to an end which is great for constantly triggering the Ticking Time Bomb capstone perk. With time being slowed by 85% except for yourself, you will feel like you have total control of the battlefield.
(Operating System – 44) Adreno-Trigger grants you bonus movement speed when entering the combat state but because we have 15 Reflexes in this build, we get an extra 45 seconds to maintain that speed advantage! Because of Sandevistan, there is zero need to have the Revulsor or its non-iconic counterpart, the Reflex Tuner. So we might as well make ourselves even faster!
(Nervous System – 20) 
Scalpel is worth considering when you’re using Sandevistan. By default, it has a 30% chance to dish out shock damage which is always appreciated in any situation. While the OS is active, the katana gets +50% crit chance and guaranteed bleeding. It has more base damage than the Errata but lacks the guaranteed crit hits. Choosing between one or the other is almost entirely dependent on how much crit chance you have in total. Best way to determine this is get into combat with the Scalpel in hand, get up close to an enemy, activate Sandevistan and then go to your inventory to check out your DPS stats. Whatever your DPS stats are in that moment, reflect what exactly you’re capable of dishing out with the Scalpel. What does it say your current crit chance is in that moment? Does it seem really high, as in like 80 or 90%? Might want to carry on with the Scalpel. For me personally, anything below 80% crit chance would have me instantly resorting to the trusty Errata.
(Located in Watson, as a reward from Dennis Cranmer for successfully completing the side job Big in Japan.) Because you can toggle the Apogee on and off at any charge rate, you have so many options at your disposal in this playstyle. You can wreak absolute havoc with any of the best weapons available, especially if you love the Sovereign and/or Agaou. In order to enhance this build variation, here are two important tips. One, activate Kerenzikov first for 100% mitigation chance, but WAIT until it is finished before activating Sandevistan. If you pop it too early, there’s a glitch where Kerenzikov will slow you down despite Sandevistan being active.
And two, when you are engaging enemies with your melee weapon and want to stay with it for longer, consider spamming the Sandevistan key each time it comes to an end. What this does is constantly charge the EMP blast from the Ticking Time Bomb capstone perk. Not only can you stun and damage enemies with this, but every three seconds that it’s being charged, you also gain 50% reduction to incoming damage on top of that. But beware, if you accidentally kill civilians or non-combatants with the EMP bombs, you will provoke the NCPD into getting involved, if you have not engaged them in combat already!
BERSERKER
Last but not least, my personal favourite playstyle of them all! In my honest opinion, the Berserk variation is the strongest of all three. It may force you into using only melee weapons, but it greatly enhances your melee damage potential which is what you want in the toughest battles against bosses and MaxTac. While it is active, you cannot die as you are incapable of going below 25% of your max health, your stamina costs are zero, and you will enjoy +30% melee attack speed.
This completely circumvents the downside of 100% mitigation chance only activating with ranged weapons during Kerenzikov, as whenever you activate Berserk to go in with melee, you are in demigod mode and thus mitigation ceases to be a concern! And even when Berserk is on cooldown and recharging, you can use Kerenzikov with ranged weapons to stay at 100% mitigation chance, forcing enemies to only deal 20% of their total damage if they hit you at all!
Biodyne Berserk is actually the one you want for this, not the iconic Militech version which costs 75% more cyberware in comparison and doesn’t have great synergy with our health-related cyberware that functions on autopilot. What the Biodyne version gives is 50% damage reduction, and a whopping bonus of +100% crit damage! If only we had something in our arsenal to give us guaranteed crit hits, such as the Errata.
(Operating System – 20) Revulsor is not cheap being an iconic piece of cyberware. But it’s one of those ones that undersells itself and seems to be more frequently active than what it says on the tin, and the Berserk operating system is especially good at extracting more usage out of it. It’s basically a non-OS alternative to Sandevistan. So if you want to have your cake and eat it too, forget about Sandevistan, and combine Berserk with the Revulsor!
(Nervous System – 35) Although Sandevistan allows you to use melee weapons and particularly Tinker Bell efficiently, there is no denying that Berserk does general melee combat better. Out of all the katana builds I’ve tried, this one for the Errata feels like it kills any boss and MaxTac the fastest and most efficiently by far. What’s more, unlike Sandevistan which does stop after a set duration even with charge remaining, Berserk does not stop until its charge has run out completely, meaning Axolotl can do a great job of extending it so long as you have momentum in your favour.
So just to recap: you can activate demigod mode, dash and slice your way through the enemy with zero stamina cost, get the Errata to reap 100% bonus crit damage when it does guaranteed crit hits, keep Berserk going indefinitely with Axolotl, enjoy Sandevistan at the same time as Berserk when the Revulsor kicks in at low enough health, enjoy any of your favourite ranged weapons with 100% mitigation chance the entire time Berserk is inactive or on cooldown, and all the while reserving the option to bail from the crime scene with Optical Camo. Do you understand now why Berserker is my absolute favourite endgame build variation in patch 2.0?
OUTRO
Of course, what you do with your V and how you experience your own playthrough is your prerogative. All that I offer here are my strongest recommendations based on my collation of experiences over multiple playthroughs. My experiences have led to my overall perception that the majority of capstone perks are overrated and don’t offer as much value as having constant access to all the Phenom level perks in all attributes, and that I have a greater wealth of variety at my fingertips by going 20 Technical Ability and putting at least 15 points into all the other attributes.
But if you decide for example, that netrunning is not for you and you couldn’t give a damn if you give up the option of using Overclock, then you could take 5 attribute points out of Intelligence and reallocate them to max out another attribute to 20, or even reallocate 10 points so that you can have up to three attributes maxed out at 20. You only get one chance per playthrough to refund and reallocate your attribute points, so just be 100% sure what it is that you want exactly if you make that decision for yourself. But let me remind you the specific reasons for my particular brand of madness here, and what you risk losing if you deviate away from it.
If you don’t have 20 Technical Ability, you lose access to anything in the open world that requires that much investment, as well as placing a MASSIVE handicap upon yourself without the benefit of the Edgerunner capstone perk and its bonus cyberware capacity.
If you don’t have at least 15 Body, you don’t get the benefits of Adrenaline Rush and risk missing out on anything that requires 20 Body even if you are equipped with Gorilla Arms.
If you don’t have at least 15 Reflexes, you miss out on the huge quality-of-life improvement that is Air Dash and being an expert blademaster with katanas.
If you don’t have at least 15 Cool, you miss out on stealthy crouch-sprinting and being highly proficient with the best ranged weapon in the game out of ALL the ranged weapon categories.
If you don’t have at least 15 Intelligence, you sacrifice three major things, one of which is your money-making potential and how it can quickly turn you into a millionaire, the second is that you risk not being able to properly use tier 5 Cyberdecks and quickhacks, and the other thing is Overclock which is so imperative to netrunning in endgame that without it, you are so gimped to the point that you should not even bother equipping a Cyberdeck.But I can speak from my own experience when I say it’s precisely because of tailoring V in this specific way, that I can easily take on Adam Smasher after patch 2.1, or even go up against wave after wave of MaxTac and their NCPD support, regardless of whether I’m a Netrunner, Speedster, or Berserker, and choose when to bail and live to tell the tale. That is precisely when you know that you have become the ultimate solo of Night City!
