There are many different ways you can approach combat in Cyberpunk 2077. You can rely on stealth or go in guns blazing, hack your way through cyberspace, or make your stand amidst a crowd.
The Cyberware and perk system optimizations introduced after the 2.0 Update, which was polished further with the Phantom Liberty DLC, brought new innovative ways to how your character can be built.
Based on your strengths and preferences, you can choose a path that fits best with your playstyle. To make sure you always have the best equipment for your preference at hand, we have compiled the best builds you can use in Cyberpunk 2077.
The Assassin Ninja
The Ninja build revolves around maintaining stealth and taking out enemies quickly in Cyberpunk 2077. It uses movement speed, detection bars, cloaking abilities, and silenced weapons to make sure you don’t blow your cover at the first encounter.
Ninjutsu, Feline Footwork, and their secondary perks are required for flexible and quick movements. They will allow you to move, aim, shoot, sprint, and perform other actions while crouching to maintain stealth.
Relics like Optical Camo and Emergency Cloaking give you the ability to move in and out of combat on a whim.
Stealth Assassin adds a lot of thrill as you need to navigate through enemy territories quietly. It is mostly non-combative which is why the damage is sometimes underwhelming. The suppressed weapons have weaker damage, putting you in a tough situation if you miss your shots.
Despite the movement speed buffs, you will still have very restricted movement, and the slow-paced approach contradicts most content the game has to offer outside the main questline.
The Immortal Shield
If surviving has been a problem in Cyberpunk 2077, then why not try your hand at a tank build? You will be stacking up armor and damage mitigation to withstand anything the enemies have in their arsenal.
It revolves around maxing out Body Attributes for health regen and making sure you can take a few hits. Adrenaline Rush is the heart of this tree which can get you amazing buffs other than Health ones like immunity periods, damage increase, and slower decay on Adrenaline Rush.
Since you will be using heavy ammo weapons like the LMGs, the Reflexes perks will allow you to counter the movement speed penalties.
Best Beginner Build
For newcomers and those who want to cruise through the early game in Cyberpunk 2077, the beginner build is the way to go. All you need is a good Assault Rifle and pair it with decent Cyberware to get you started.
Kiroshi Optics, Shock Absorber, and the Militech “Apogee” Sandevistan are a few must-haves for this build to work. With time dilation and damage boosts, you will be able to plow through everything pretty easily.
Reflexes Attribute is an obvious choice for the weapon perks. With lower investment Ready, Rested, Reloaded and Tunnel Vision are good grabs. But once you have allotted 20 Attribute points, get the Sharpshooter and Salt in the Wound for maximum damage output.
Edgerunners
Fans of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners can also recreate their favorites in-game by using similar abilities and kits.
David Martinez
Among these characters, David Martinez is the one that stands out the most. Other than his jacket Easter egg in Cyberpunk 2077, you can get the canon variants of his weapons as well. You will be looking at Lexington, M-76E Omaha, and the DB-2 Satara as your daily drivers along with Cyberware at its core.
The most important ones are the Gorilla Arms (Thermal variant) for damage, Axolotl and Newton Module for cooldown reductions, and Militech Sandevistan for slowing down time.
To tie everything together, invest in the middle tree of both Body and Technical Ability Attributes. Perks like the Adrenaline Rush, License To Chrome, Edgerunners, and Extended Warranty are great starting points.
Lucy Kushinada
Lucy’s Monowire build is an iconic reflection of Lucy’s kit in Cyberpunk 2077. It revolves around 2 things only, Monowire and hacking.
You will be putting everything in Intelligence perks to grab all the Quickhack upgrades you can. In contrast, the second half of your investment will be on Technical Ability for the Cyberware enhancements.
With Relics, you can apply Quickhacks with your Monowire using the Jailbreak skill. It is one of the pay-to-win options for taking your build to the next level.
You will be able to experience the best of both worlds, the backseat damage of quickhacks with frontloaded damage of the wire. Since there are many variations of the Monowire, you can cover a wide area of enemy weaknesses.
The only downside is that it is a bit complex to juggle hacks and the limited range of the wire limits you to engage in mid-range combat at best before you go back to other weapons.
Savage Slugger Solo Build
Savage Solo build is for those who don’t want to commit to a playstyle but still want to clear out most of the content in Cyberpunk 2077. It capitalizes on the freedom to invest in a wide range of skills and equipment.
You will be mainly focusing on the best attributes to start with, Reflexes, Body, and Technical Ability. They house all the major perks you need for damage, defense, and utility.
License To Chrome, Air Dash, Aerial Acrobat, Calm Mind, and Pain To Gain just to mention a few. Cyberwares that reduce the cooldown of your abilities like the Axolotl and the Newton Module will prove indispensable for maintaining rotations.
There is a lot of flexibility on what you can do with this solo build which is its biggest strength and weakness. It uses the best stats at its core so you can’t get wrong with it and you can develop it towards the playstyle you enjoy. However, it requires you to work things out yourself which is something a lot will not be looking for.
The Bladerunner
The Bladerunner combines the traditional katana with the finest Cyberware enhancements in Cyberpunk 2077. There’s a wide range of great Katanas that you can choose from to perfect your cyborg samurai fantasy.
You will need the Blades upgrades under the Reflexes skill tree. Not only does it help boost damage and lower the activation cost of abilities, but it also unlocks the epic finishers to kill off your enemies in style.
License To Chrome and Extended Warranty under the Technical Ability tree are also essential for maintaining Cyberware uptime.
The Katana build has a lot to offer with fast-paced attacks and the ability to bounce between enemies covers a lot of caveats it had before the 2.0 update. It is a bit squishy, but we think the sheer power along with the fun it brings to the table, can easily cover the drawbacks.
The Cyberninja
Everyone in Cyberpunk 2077 is connected through cyberspace which you can manipulate at your command as a Cyber ninja. The Netrunner build focuses on planning and utilizing Quickhacks to control the enemies around you.
Intelligence and Technical Ability are the bread and butter of a Cyberninja so focus on maxing them out first. RAM-related skills should be your priority as they almost always provide additional abilities as well.
Start with Hack Queue, Embedded Exploit, and Proximate Propagation, and once you have upgraded, branch over to Overclock, Queue Acceleration, and Spill Over.
