Damage Mitigation is one of the highly useful stats in Cyberpunk 2077 that you are also going to have difficulty understanding. This is because the game fails to explain how exactly the mechanic works and how it relates to other Damage Reduction stats.
Damage Mitigation was added with the 1.5 update to replace Evasion. You now have Mitigation Strength and Mitigation Chance, which further complicate matters.
Worry not though. The inner workings behind these stats are almost the same as in other games, with just a few tweaks to make it unique. Here is what Damage Mitigation is and does after the 2.0 update.
What is Damage Mitigation?
Damage Mitigation determines the amount of taken damage reduced by a certain percentage in Cyberpunk 2077. It is independent of your Damage Reduction stats that you can get from your Armor or Perks.
Damage Mitigation is calculated after all other damage reduction has occurred, which includes Armor Damage Reduction, and Incoming Damage Reduction. It is followed by two other stats: Mitigation Strength and Mitigation Chance.
Mitigation Strength
Mitigation Strength is the decreased damage you take from a Mitigated Hit. Every character by default has 50% Mitigation Strength to start with. There is no limit to how much Mitigation Strength you can have, unlike the Mitigation Chance.
Mitigation Chance
Mitigation Chance in Cyberpunk 2077 is the likelihood of Mitigating incoming attacks which is calculated individually per hit.
To start, you will have a 10% Mitigation Chance as a baseline. The Maximum Mitigation Chance you can have is 100%, which means all of your hits will be mitigated.
Damage Mitigation 2.0 explained in Cyberpunk 2077
Damage Mitigation works the same after the 2.0 update as the day it was added in Cyberpunk 2077. To further explain how the mechanic works, we will use starting multipliers.
Considering at base level only, if you have Damage Mitigation and receive a hit, you will have a 10% Chance to Mitigate 50% of the damage, meaning you will take 50% less damage from the hit.
The concept is similar to that of Crit, where higher Crit Damage means nothing if you do not have the Crit Chance to increase the likelihood of it occurring.
How Damage Mitigation differs from other damage reduction stats
Damage Mitigation follows a similar concept of reducing the incoming damage but the way the work sets them worlds apart. Other sources of damage reduction as of yet in Cyberpunk 2077 are Armor and Damage Reduction stats. Damage Reduction however plays into other stats rather than being an independent entity itself.
Damage Mitigation vs. Armor Damage Reduction
Armor Damage Reduction reduces the damage taken from ranged shots only and increases with your level and armor points. Your Damage Reduction Stats in your equipment and Perks are included with your Armor, unlike Mitigation.
Melee weapons, Damage Status Effects, and Quickhack ignore Armor and thus the Damage Reduction and can deal a full amount of damage with each hit.
Damage Mitigation on the other hand is not specified to a specific type of hit and applies to hits from all sources, weapons, and utility.
How good is a Mitigation Build in Cyberpunk 2077
If survival in Cyberpunk 2077 is a problem for you, especially in Very Hard mode, then Damage Mitigation is worth grabbing. The good thing is that you can find Mitigation Chance and Strength as part of the best perks in the game.
Armor is great to have but elite enemies end up having armor penetration or ignorance equipped in their kit which ends with a 2000 Armor build getting two-shot. To avoid this you will need to grab Damage Mitigation from Cyberware and perks which offer a more universal resistance.
Perks
Most of the Damage Mitigation perks are under the Cool attribute. The easiest ones to get are in the Body and Attributes Skill Tree, which are the best starting attributes for most builds.
- Cool: Feline Footwork, Small Target, Blind Spot, Unexposed, Level 2 Ninjutsu, Serpentine
- Reflexes: Aerodynamic, Can’t Touch This,
- Body: Don’t Stop Me Now, Dorph-Head
- Technical Ability: Heat Shield
Cyberware
The best Cyberware that gives you Mitigation Chance and Strength is as follows:
- Skeleton: Kinetic Frame, Spring Joints
- Nervous System: NeoFiber
- Integumentary System: Countershell, Defenzikov, Pain Editor,
- Operating System: Qiant “Warp Dancer” Sandevistan
