Controversies aside, it’s hard to deny that there is a whole lot going on in Cyberpunk 2077. On top of the main story, there are a plethora of side questions, cyberpsychos to apprehend, gangland politics to navigate, and more gigs than you can shake a dildo at. There might not be too much flexibility when it comes to what kind of person V is—that is, a pretty abrasive one (although not one as utterly eye-roll inducing as Johnny Silverhand)—but there are tons of options for how to approach a situation. And what’s the most common situation V encounters, and the most prevalent mechanic in the game? That’s right—combat!
There are quite a few ways one can approach engagements with enemy NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077. V can go in guns-a-blazing, or sneak around using their exceptional arm strength to stealthily snap everyone’s neck. Better yet, V can be built as a Netrunner, and use their Quickhacks to wreak havoc on their foes. It’s an extremely effective way to approach combat, and a fun one, too. This guide will cover some of the best ways to build V into an unstoppable hacker.
Becoming the best hacker in Cyberpunk 2077
A hacking build—or Netrunner, as it’s called in the game—is kind of the Cyberpunk 2077 equivalent of a mage class. Unlike a more straightforward combat build, Netrunners can cast Quickhacks using RAM, with the main stat category being Intelligence. It might sound a bit confusing when learning about these systems in the game (especially because the game is often unclear about these things), but essentially, Quickhacks are spells, and RAM is MP.
Best Quickhacks
Quickhacks can be found, crafted, or bought from other Netrunners around night City and can be equipped in the inventory menu under the Cyberdeck tab. A great hacking build should make heavy use of these quickhacks:
- Short Circuit: An extremely useful damage-inducing Quickhack, especially against non-organic enemies.
- Synapse Burnout: An extremely useful damage-inducing Quickhack, especially against organic enemies.
- Overheat: Another extremely useful damage-inducing Quickhack, especially against organic enemies.
- Cyberpsychosis: Causes enemies to attack everyone around them; if no targets are present, they will commit suicide—it's like the Suicide Quickhack, but even more useful.
- Ping: Reveals all in-network enemies on the HUD.
There are other useful Quickhacks, but with how expensive things are in Night City, these five will quickly make for an exceptional arsenal.
Best Cyberdeck
In order to use these Quickhacks, V is going to need a good Cyberdeck as well. The starting Cybderdeck is far from the best for a hacking build, so save up those eddies and get a good one as soon as possible. There are several comparable cyberdecks that can be acquired once enough money and street cred is accrued, but you can’t go wrong with the Tetratronic Rippler MK.4. It costs a steep 43,750 eddies, but only requires a Street Cred level of 29, which is much lower than some of the other high end Cyberdecks. This Cyberdeck has 10 Base Ram, 8 Buffer Slots, 6 Quickhack slots, and comes with the following bonuses:
- Allows V to perform Quickhacks on targets and devices while scanning.
- Ultimate Quickhacks can spread once.
- Cost of ultimate Quickhacks is reduced by 3.
- Upload time is reduced by 75%.
- All Quickhacks have cooldown reduced by 45%.
There are no other stat requirements for the Tetratronic Rippler MK.4 either, so the player can spend their attribute points on Intelligence, as they should.
Best Perks
The Intelligence attribute category comes with two different perk trees as well: Breach protocol and Quickhacking. The following perks are a must have for the ultimate hacking build:
- Compression
- Headstart
- Mass Vulnerability
The above mentioned perks are all found in the Breach Protocol perk branch and should be acquired as soon as possible. Really, though, all the perks are useful, and since the best hacking builds require players to put points into Intelligence, building out those perk trees in whichever way the player sees fit will make V stronger no matter what.
There are lots of different ways to approach combat in Cyberpunk 2077, but few feel as unique to the RPG genre, and cyberpunk in general, as a hacking build.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, Google Stadia, and PC.