1-hit-kill netrunner playthrough possible?

[Tems]

I saw an inspiring video recently of someone beating Diablo by killing every mob and boss they encountered in 1 hit without using cheats or mods.

I'm not sure if any boss in Cyberpunk can be killed in one hit, but with pistols at least it should be quite possible to stealth headshot most of the non boss enemy types so long as you can get your hands on a Tamayura.

But what about netrunning? I've definitely looted the blue Synapse Burnout before reaching level 10, but upgrading a deck to blue quality and then have enough RAM (10?) to use it... it can't be done, right? With consumables, maaaybe??

Is anyone here good enough at the meta to check how feasible a one-hack-man netrunner is?

 

[Tarille]

It should be possible, outside of bosses which tend to be too tanky (Though, I'm not familiar enough with Easy difficulty to know how much health they actually have relative to damage of things - Chimera at the very least is not one-shotable making PL impossible in such a challenge)

Short Circuit should be able to one shot your basic pleb enemies on Easy difficulty (And if not, then at the very least detonating explosive containers certainly does, especially with the perk that boosts their damage) which gives a way to gain experience.

At level 20 (Or earlier if you farm out Health Boosters for blue upgrade materials) Rippler T3 cyberdeck will give a hefty bonus damage for using quickhack queue (Just queue up a T1 Bait or Reboot Optics after your damage quickhack)

Once you get to level 30 you gain access to the Ultimate Quickhacks which will enable one-shots on elites, namely System Collapse would be the most feasible to use for such a challenge. Sadly, these don't tend to work on cyberpsychos or bosses.

 

[Tems]

Thanks for the tips. I'm going to try a new run tonight.

A couple rules:
- only quickhacks as a direct source of damage
- kill only what I can kill in 1 hit
- skippable bosses can be skipped
- control quickhacks are allowed

I think that a row of synapse burnouts counts as single hacks, since that is what I believe it effectually results in. But I dunno.

It would be great if there was a place that respawns groups robot enemies so I can make good use of Short Circuit in the early game, but I'm not particularly aware of any.

Post automatically merged: Oct 13, 2025

Actually, I'm not sure the Scav hideout at the start of the game can completed this way. No quickhack will kill anything outright, so you can't trigger the bit where Jackie clocks the guy with the mini gun. The alternative is to stealth takedown the big guy, but that would break the rules.

Post automatically merged: Oct 13, 2025

Unless there is a way to skip it I guess.

Post automatically merged: Oct 13, 2025

Nope I was wrong, you can't even get past the first guy next to the freezer.

 

[LeKill3rFou]

It would be great if there was a place that respawns groups robot enemies so I can make good use of Short Circuit in the early game, but I'm not particularly aware of any.

Before Act 2, I don't think so, but I could be wrong. But when you unlock the whole city, there is a little area in Japan Town - Charter Hill (not far from the ripperdoc, the "russian") in which there are little group of robots and only robots which respawn in theory

 

[Tems]

Hm. That is good to know. Is that in that park, or am I thinking of something else?

 

[Tarille]

It would be great if there was a place that respawns groups robot enemies so I can make good use of Short Circuit in the early game, but I'm not particularly aware of any.

There's a few places that have some robot enemies.

Near the area where Playing for Keeps occurs there's an alley that has a couple of NCPD drones flying over a corpse with bunch of loot on it (Across the street from where you deposit Jacob's eye at the end of said gig)

The compound you go to for Welcome to America, Comrade has a few robits patrolling. Also nearby to that compound is a hidden area accessed through one of the large drainage pipes that has a few NCPD drones that patrol there.

In the slums nearby to where Small Man, Big Evil takes place, there's a bunch of NCPD drones patrolling the rooftops (They usually attack you when you're actually trying to do that gig...).

The NCPD hustle where you obtain the crafting specs for Psalm 11:6 has a couple of robits in the area.

Way down in the south-west of Watson, there's a little oil rig type place that has a couple of turrets (This place has a platforming section that leads to a skill shard. It used to also drop some Legendary pants and its location is noted in the old "Hidden Secrets" guides)

There's a warehouse in the north-eastern part of Watson that contains 3 NCPD drones it is the same place as one of the games Perk Shards (So looking up a guide for Perk Shard locations will direct you to the place)

 

[LeKill3rFou]

Hm. That is good to know. Is that in that park, or am I thinking of something else?

I can point it out on a map, but if you know a bit the game, from memories, it's just in front of where you start the first race with Claire (where you call and wait for her). There are at least 6 or 7 robots in the area

 

[Tems]

I remember, thanks.

As it stands though I can't think of a way to get past the prologue in the scav den.

Using a takedown on the scav leader voids the challenge rules, and I have no way to take down enough of the scav forces to let Jackie do it for me.

Post automatically merged: Oct 13, 2025

I just found out that Jack can actually veeery slowly kill enemies. I might try streaming this, leave behind some kind of record.

 

[Tarille]

Using a takedown on the scav leader voids the challenge rules, and I have no way to take down enough of the scav forces to let Jackie do it for me.

You'll probably have to simply suck it up and do what DS3 challenge runners do and not count the tutorial area that takes place before you can do anything.

If you want to keep to the spirit of the run you can also do minimal takedowns to bypass it (The guy at the freezer and the boss guy)

You may have to do something similar later in the game too for certain fights (For example, the drones that chase you when you escape from Konpeki during The Heist. The motorcycle riding ninjas while you're being saved by Takemura in The Heist. Anytime you play as Johnny.)