Whether you’re new to Cyberpunk 2077 or a weathered veteran who’s looking for some fresh inspiration, we’ve got just the thing for you! We prepared three varied builds for you to experiment with, and broke them down into easy-to-follow categories so you know where to invest your perk points from the very beginning to the end game, as well as which weapons and cyberware best synergize with them (and where you can find them).
Our first build is Bullet-Time Ninja — make sure to check it out in our Build Planner.
This build is perfect for living out your Edgerunner fantasy by taking full advantage of the Sandevistan and getting the most out of this iconic piece of cyberware. To top it off, we’ll make use of heavy time dilation to get as much as possible out of the DPS of some great melee weapons.
Perks
This build focuses mainly on the Reflexes and Technical Ability trees, so make sure to invest maximum points in both during character creation. Any extra points can be allocated to the Body tree for some extra survivability at the start of the game.
At the beginning of the game, stick to investing points in the Reflexes tree — our most immediate goal is to unlock the Dash perk, which is perfect for closing the distance between enemies, and will help speed up our open-world exploration. At the pro level, it gives us access to the Blade branch, where we’ll want to invest in the Lead and Steel perk, followed by Bullet Deflect.
Once you acquire your first Sandevistan, invest in the Bullet Time perk. We want to keep allocating points into the Reflexes tree until we unlock melee finishers with the Bladerunner perk.
Once we get access to blade finishers, we can start allocating points into Tech. This will further improve our survivability, but what’s more important, it’ll grant us more cyberware capacity. The most important perks in this tree are Cyborg, Extended Warranty, and obviously — Edgerunner.
We can be a little bit more flexible with our points after getting the Edgerunner perk. Since we already have a lot of points allocated to Reflexes, we can get the master-level Slaughterhouse perk and Air Dash. To spice up our gameplay, we can unlock perks that will improve our ranged options. This all comes down to weapon type preference, but since our Reflexes are already at a high level, we’d suggest giving the left branch a try to greatly buff SMGs and Assault Rifles.
Cyberware
Before we lay our hands on a Sandevistan, we need to improve our survivability. Since this build involves taking on most enemies up close, we should definitely buy Carapace and ProxiShield. If you still feel like you’re taking too much damage, either Bionic Joints or Scar Coalescer are great additions. However, pay attention to your cyberware capacity, as you want to make sure you have enough space to install Dense Marrow and Adrenaline Booster, as these two are an absolute must for any melee build.
Last but not least, we can purchase our Sandevistan. The Dynalar Sandevistan will carry us through most of the game, but it will eventually need to be replaced with Apogee.
Weapons
Since this build puts a heavy emphasis on blades, it would probably be a good idea to get one! Luckily, some of the most powerful katanas are available throughout the main story. Be sure to keep your eyes open, though, as they can be easy to miss! During “The Heist”, take a deep breath and search Yorinobu’s penthouse before trying to exit the building. There are three powerful Iconic weapons here: the Satori Katana, Nehan Kaiken, and Kongou Pistol. To get the Satori, you’ll need to go to the roof and search the AV. The Satori and Nehan in tandem provide strong health regeneration, which will allow us to main our katana without the need to pull out a ranged weapon. Both the Satori and Nehan will take a spot in our inventory all the way until we get access to Blade finishers.
To keep both the Satori and Nehan at a proper power level, make sure to dismantle any weapon instead of selling it. The same goes for most clothing. If the sell price isn’t that high, then we should always default to making Crafting Components — we’ll need a lot of them for weapon upgrades.
Once Blade finishers are available to us, we can be a little bit more flexible with our weapon choices. Errata is a very powerful Thermal Katana available in the “Automatic Love” story mission. After entering the Scavengers hideout, make sure to watch for a furnace. It will be in one of the last rooms before your objective. The Errata is hidden there. This blade combos extremely well with the Psalm 11:6 assault rifle available in one of the Watson gang outposts.
With the “Automatic Love” mission done, we should probably spend some time in the open world to level up and gather some funds for cyberware. When doing so, try sticking to Kabuki. Completing all of Wakako’s gigs will reward you with the strongest Katana in the game — Byakko.
Late Game
While it might take some time, you should definitely establish your position as Night City’s resident cyberpsycho by helping Regina Jones round up all of the others. She’ll reward you with Axolotl cyberware. Combined with the Apogee Sandevistan, it will grant you almost infinite Time Dilation. This can be pushed to the extreme thanks to Phantom Liberty. Siding with So Mi will give you access to the Quantum Tuner, which not only decreases the cooldown of all your cyberware but also stores additional Sandevistan charges.
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