Forget everything you thought you knew about building a character in Cyberpunk 2077. The massive 2.0 update wasn’t just a patch; it was a fundamental reinvention of the game’s core RPG systems. Gone are the days of the jack of all trades V. Night City now belongs to the specialists, the masters of a chosen craft who build their very identity around a single, synergistic combat philosophy. To dominate the streets, you need more than good reflexes; you need a plan, a blueprint for power.
This is your definitive playbook. We’re diving deep into the theory behind the character sheet before unleashing that knowledge on five of the absolute best Cyberpunk 2077 builds designed to make you a legend. First, we’ll cover the foundational mechanics, the attributes, perks, and cyberware that form the bedrock of any powerful character. Then, we’ll provide a step by step walkthrough for five S-tier archetypes, from the digital god Netrunner to the time bending Cyber Samurai, giving you everything you need to conquer Night City.
What’s in our Best Cyberpunk 2077 Builds Guide?
The Foundations of Power: Understanding V 2.0’s Core Mechanics
Before you can build your legend, you need to understand the rules of the game. This section breaks down the essential systems that govern your character’s power, empowering you to not just follow our guides, but to eventually create unique builds of your own.
The Five Pillars: Your Core Attributes Explained
The five core attributes, Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Intelligence, and Cool, are the absolute foundation of any build. You’ll distribute points between these at the start and gain one new point with every level up, to a max level of 60.
- Body is your raw physical power and resilience. Each point adds +2 to your Max Health and improves your proficiency with Shotguns, Light Machine Guns (LMGs), and Blunt Weapons. It’s the core of any tank or brawler build and lets you force open doors and use intimidating dialogue options.
- Reflexes determine your speed, maneuverability, and agility. Each point grants +0.5% Crit Chance and governs your skill with Assault Rifles, SMGs, and Blades. This attribute is also what unlocks advanced movement abilities like the essential Dash.
- Technical Ability represents your affinity for chrome and high tech gear. It adds +2 Armor per point and enhances your use of Tech Weapons and explosives. Most critically, it’s the gateway to unlocking the best cyberware and bypassing technical obstacles.
- Intelligence is the domain of the netrunner. Every 4 points adds +1 to your Max RAM, directly empowering your quickhacking abilities and your synergy with Smart Weapons.
- Cool is all about stealth and killer instinct. Each point adds a significant +1.25% to your Critical Damage, making it a must have for damage focused builds. It governs Pistols, Revolvers, Precision/Sniper Rifles, and Throwable Weapons.
The “Technical Tax”: Why Technical Ability is Almost Mandatory
With Update 2.0, the primary source of your Armor shifted from clothing to cyberware. Your ability to install this life saving chrome is limited by a stat called Cyberware Capacity. The main way to increase this capacity is through perks in the Technical Ability skill tree, like License to Chrome. This creates what players call the “Technical Tax.” To achieve high survivability (Armor) and unlock the full potential of any build (which all rely on cyberware), a significant investment in Technical Ability is practically unavoidable. This makes it a core component for nearly every optimized character, not just “techie” builds.
Chrome is King: The Cyberware and Operating System Revolution
Your cyberware is now your primary gear. Clothing is purely cosmetic, with nearly all of your Armor coming from implants in your Skeleton and Integumentary System slots. Your most important cyberware choice, however, is your Operating System (OS). You can only have one, and it defines your entire playstyle.
There is a trinity of power at the top. The Cyberdeck is for Netrunners, enabling you to perform quickhacks. Different decks specialize in different approaches, from stealthy hacking to devastating damage over time combos. The Sandevistan is the “bullet time” OS, slowing down time for everyone but you. It’s the perfect choice for Blade and Gunslinger builds that rely on speed and precision.
Finally, Berserk is the “Hulk mode” OS, granting temporary invincibility or massive melee buffs, but locking you into close quarters combat. It’s ideal for brawlers using Gorilla Arms or other blunt weapons. These three systems are mutually exclusive and are supported by entirely different perk trees, forcing a level of specialization that makes the “jack of all trades” a relic of the past.
Unlocking the Relic: The Phantom Liberty Skill Tree
If you own the Phantom Liberty expansion, you’ll gain access to a separate skill tree during the “Dog Eat Dog” main quest. You’ll earn Relic Points by progressing the story and finding hidden Militech data terminals throughout Dogtown. This tree unlocks game changing new abilities for your cyberware. The Jailbreak branch supercharges your arm cyberware, giving Mantis Blades a paralyzing leap attack and letting the Monowire upload quickhacks.
Vulnerability Analytics lets you detect weak spots on enemies, guaranteeing critical hits when you strike them. And Emergency Cloaking enhances your Optical Camo, allowing you to vanish mid-combat to escape detection.
Night City Archetypes: S-Tier Build Walkthroughs
Now that you understand the theory, let’s put it into practice. Here are five of the most powerful and synergistic build archetypes in Cyberpunk 2077.
The Ghost in the Machine: The Ultimate Netrunner Build
This build turns V into a digital god, controlling the battlefield from the shadows with a cascade of lethal quickhacks, complemented by deadly Smart Weapons. It combines untraceable stealth with the explosive power of a combat hacker.
The attribute priority is 20 Intelligence, 20 Technical Ability, 15 Cool, and 15 Body. 20 Intelligence is non-negotiable for top tier hacking perks. 20 Technical Ability pays the “Technical Tax” for maximum cyberware and armor. 15 Cool unlocks crucial stealth perks, and 15 Body provides the Adrenaline Rush health buffer needed to safely use the Overclock perk.
For perks, you’ll max out the Hack Queue and Overclock branches in the Intelligence tree. In Technical Ability, the central cyberware branch, including the final Edgerunner perk, is mandatory. For your cyberware, the Tetratronic Rippler Mk.5 is the undisputed king of cyberdecks due to its massive RAM pool and quickhack combo potential.
Your arms should be equipped with a Monowire, which, when paired with the Relic perk, can apply quickhacks on hit. Your main weapons will be Iconic Smart SMGs or pistols. For a deeper look at the best options like the Yinglong, and where to find them, you can consult our complete Cyberpunk 2077 Weapon Guide. The core of your gameplay will be quickhack combos, such as using Sonic Shock to make your next hack untraceable, followed by a lethal option like Synapse Burnout.
The Cyber Samurai: The Sandevistan Blade Master Build
This is the ultimate speed fantasy. You will bend time to your will, becoming a whirlwind of steel that slices through entire squads before they can even raise their guns. This build is all about extreme mobility, precision strikes, and maintaining near 100% uptime on your time slowing effects.
Your attributes should be 20 Reflexes, 20 Technical Ability, 20 Cool, and 18 Body. 20 Reflexes is for blade mastery and essential movement perks like Air Dash. 20 Technical Ability is for your chrome, and 20 Cool provides an immense boost to your critical damage. 18 Body ensures you’re durable enough to survive any stray hits.
Max out the Blades branch in the Reflexes tree, making sure to grab Finisher: Bladerunner. In Cool, max out the left side tree for raw critical damage perks like Deadeye. Your OS must be the Militech “Apogee” Sandevistan, the best in the game for its massive time dilation and cooldown reduction on kills. This is paired with the Axolotl cyberware, which further reduces your Sandevistan cooldown with every kill, allowing for perpetual bullet time.
For your weapon, you have several excellent katanas to choose from. The Scalpel gains a massive crit chance bonus while Sandevistan is active, while the Errata deals guaranteed crits against burning enemies. To find the perfect blade for your playstyle, check out the detailed listings in our Cyberpunk 2077 Weapon Guide. Finally, the Relic perk Vulnerability Analytics adds another layer of guaranteed critical hits, pushing your damage to astronomical levels.
The Unstoppable Force: The Berserker Brawler Build
Forget stealth and tactics. This build is a walking fortress of chrome and muscle. Your strategy is simple: activate Berserk, become temporarily invincible, and pulverize every enemy in sight with your bare, cybernetically enhanced hands.
You’ll want 20 Body, 20 Technical Ability, 20 Reflexes, and 18 Cool. 20 Body is the heart of the build, unlocking the best brawling and survival perks. 20 Tech is for cyberware, and 20 Reflexes is surprisingly crucial for the Dash perks, which you’ll need to close the distance to your enemies.
In the Body tree, max out the right side blunt weapon perks like Wrecking Ball and Quake, as well as the central Adrenaline Rush tree for god tier survivability. Your OS will be the Militech Berserk, which grants temporary invulnerability, making it a perfect “panic button”.
Your main weapons are your fists, supercharged by Gorilla Arms. For safety nets, install the Second Heart and Biomonitor cyberware, which bring you back from the brink of death. The Relic perk Jailbreak turns your Gorilla Arms into crowd controlling shockwave machines. For a backup weapon, a powerful shotgun like Guts complements your investment in Body perfectly.
The Deadeye Gunslinger: The Cool Powered Pistol Build
This build transforms V into a modern day gunslinger, a master of precision and critical hits. You’ll chain headshots with pistols and revolvers, often in slow motion, to clear rooms with surgical lethality.
The attributes are 20 Cool, 20 Reflexes, 20 Technical Ability, and 18 Body. 20 Cool is the core, unlocking the Nerves of Tungsten Steel perk for guaranteed headshot crits. 20 Reflexes provides mobility, and 20 Tech and 18 Body provide the necessary cyberware capacity and survivability.
Max out the entire left side pistol/revolver branch in the Cool perk tree. Focus, Deadeye, and Nerves of Tungsten Steel are the holy trinity of this build. For your OS, the Militech “Apogee” Sandevistan is still the top choice, as the time dilation is invaluable for lining up a sequence of perfect headshots. For your face slot, the Kiroshi “Cockatrice” Optics provide a massive, permanent buff to your critical chance. For weapons, iconic revolvers like the
Archangel or pistols like Her Majesty (which synergizes perfectly with Optical Camo) are prime choices. The Vulnerability Analytics Relic perk is once again a must have, providing another source of guaranteed crits that will make even the toughest enemies melt before your precise fire.
The One Man Army: The Tech and Explosives Engineer Build
This build is all about controlling the battlefield with overwhelming firepower. You will use the unique properties of Tech weapons to shoot through solid cover while unleashing a constant barrage of grenades and rockets, turning every encounter into a fireworks display.
Prioritize 20 Technical Ability, 20 Body, and 20 Reflexes. 20 Tech Ability is the heart of the build, unlocking the Bolt, Pyromania, and Edgerunner perks. 20 Body gives you the tankiness to stand in the fire you create, while 20 Reflexes provides the mobility to reposition.
Max out all three branches in the Technical Ability tree. The Bolt perks will supercharge your Tech weapons, while Pyromania turns you into a self healing explosives expert. This build is flexible with its OS; Berserk works for a tanky approach, while a Sandevistan can help you line up charged Bolt shots. Your arm cyberware should be the Projectile Launch System, which is essentially a third grenade launcher. Your weapons are, of course, Tech weapons. The iconic precision rifle Widow Maker is a classic choice, while the Nekomata sniper can eliminate enemies through entire buildings.
Your City, Your Rules
From the digital god to the time breaking warrior, the unstoppable brawler, the precise killer, and the master of demolition, these archetypes represent the peak of what’s possible in Night City. You are encouraged to use the foundational knowledge from the first half of this guide and the templates from the second to experiment. With the level 60 cap, powerful hybrid builds like a stealthy Netrunner (20 Intel, 20 Cool, 20 Tech) or a Gunslinging Samurai (20 Reflex, 20 Cool, 20 Tech) are not only possible, but incredibly effective.
Ultimately, while these are the “best” builds in terms of raw optimization and power, the truly best build is the one you have the most fun playing. Night City is your playground. The real legend is the one who carves their own path.
