Non-Lethal Weapons Keep Killing NPCs

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Since release date I've noticed that every so often a non-lethal weapon ends up killing an NPC I did not want to kill. Doesn't seem to matter which weapon as I've used a stun baton, wrench, hammer, pipe, crowbar, tomahawk (which i dont get how its non-lethal but whatevs), and all of them have killed an NPC at least once per encounter.

Is this a bug, a hold over from the tabletop game in how non-lethal damage worked, or a form of immersion/realism where even if you're not meaning to; hitting someone in the back of the head with a wrench can still sometimes kill a person? The only sure fire way i've found of taking down someone without killing them is non-lethal take downs and using quickhacks like system reset, contagion or overheat.
 
If i read the description of melee weapons (like baseball bat) :
"Their kick* are not always lethal, but your enemies will feel it passing"
(if i understand, they could be lethal sometimes)
For me, all my guns have non-lethal mod (I never use melee weapons), and they never kill enemis :(

*not sure for that :D
 
Since release date I've noticed that every so often a non-lethal weapon ends up killing an NPC I did not want to kill. Doesn't seem to matter which weapon as I've used a stun baton, wrench, hammer, pipe, crowbar, tomahawk (which i dont get how its non-lethal but whatevs), and all of them have killed an NPC at least once per encounter.

Is this a bug, a hold over from the tabletop game in how non-lethal damage worked, or a form of immersion/realism where even if you're not meaning to; hitting someone in the back of the head with a wrench can still sometimes kill a person? The only sure fire way i've found of taking down someone without killing them is non-lethal take downs and using quickhacks like system reset, contagion or overheat.

non lethal just gives them 1 hp instead of dieing, if you hit them again after, they are dead. They can also be killed by friendly fire.
Its pretty hard to be consistently non lethal with weapons from what I ve seen.
 
If i read the description of melee weapons (like baseball bat) :
"Their kick* are not always lethal, but your enemies will feel it passing"
(if i understand, they could be lethal sometimes)
For me, all my guns have non-lethal mod (I never use melee weapons), and they never kill enemis :(

*not sure for that :D
Thats not what the english description says. Its more along the lines of "Its not lethal but your enemies will wish it were". I also dont think thats meant to be taken as a literal description of the weapon and whether or not it kills.
non lethal just gives them 1 hp instead of dieing, if you hit them again after, they are dead. They can also be killed by friendly fire.
Its pretty hard to be consistently non lethal with weapons from what I ve seen.
Thats the thing, im not hitting them again and it often isnt friendly fire. I hit them, they go down and then start bleeding out. Next thing I know they're dead. I had read somewhere if the weapon has a bleed effect it can still kill them, but if thats the case then why do any non-lethal weapons have a bleed effect? Kinda defeats the purpose of non-lethal.
 
I didn't notice this happening so much until I tried very hard. On very hard, I almost always accidentally kill an NPC even when using a non-lethal *melee* weapon. The only exception is cyberpsychos, which *usually* seem to get knocked out propery in my playthroughs even on very hard.

Weirdly, using the Pax mod still works great. I know this doesn't solve the underlying issue, but if you're melee focused and don't want to kill, swapping to a gun with Pax or using a non-lethal quickhack just for the final blow seems to work if you're willing to compromise.
 

"NON-LETHAL WEAPONS KEEP KILLING NPCS"

Although kinda indifferent whether or not it's intended, an inconsistency in the game or simply bugged, can confirm it's still happening today.

Equipped with 'Target Analysis' - "All your weapons are nonlethal", NPCs sometimes die;
- When hit a second time by a ranged shot during the "drop to ground" sequence,
- When hit a second time by a ranged shot when lying on the ground, (dies 100% in all cases, most surely intended),
- When you drop a body from your shoulder and it falls unfortunately,
- When an NPC gets hit by a ranged shot that went through several obstacles and/or NPCs before,
- When your companion(s) step on, against, trips over a body lying on the floor.

During the earlier versions of the game, there were cases in where there was a substantial delay between an NPC being hit, and its reaction of it, resulting in either that NPC continuing what it was doing before getting hit, to can no longer die. My guess is this feature could use some more evaluation, if it hasn't already.
 
Since release date I've noticed that every so often a non-lethal weapon ends up killing an NPC I did not want to kill. Doesn't seem to matter which weapon as I've used a stun baton, wrench, hammer, pipe, crowbar, tomahawk (which i dont get how its non-lethal but whatevs), and all of them have killed an NPC at least once per encounter.

Is this a bug, a hold over from the tabletop game in how non-lethal damage worked, or a form of immersion/realism where even if you're not meaning to; hitting someone in the back of the head with a wrench can still sometimes kill a person? The only sure fire way i've found of taking down someone without killing them is non-lethal take downs and using quickhacks like system reset, contagion or overheat.
take a look
 
I had this happen a lot with melee weapons, to the point I stopped using them when I wanted to take non-lethal approach during my second playthrough. (ver. 1.23, normal, XBox One X).

I had the same thing happen during my first playthrough, but it really became an issue in late game. Most likely culprits were that some of the damage was applied after NPC was unconscious state from physical damage, poison, fire, electric etc. damage was applied after that and / or crit damage.
 

nc_01

Forum regular
I had the same problem of non-lethal weapons killing NPCs. But after reading a few posts of this forum I am now able to successfully use non-lethal weapons on enemies and keep them alive.
What works for me is to be very careful and stop hitting / shooting at the right moment. For me it makes sense -- if you don't stop, you will kill eventually. It works for me both with non-lethal melee weapons and range weapons combined with 'Target Analysis'.

What I still doesn't work for me are quickhacks that are supposed to be non-lethal. I'm using quite often 'Short Circuit' and enemies look rather dead (although they stand in an upright position). There was a quest with buddhist monks ('Sacrum Profanum' I think) where one monk asks you to free another monk (his brother) and insists on not killing anyone. I used only Short Circuit on all the enemies and no other weapon / hack and the monks were not at all happy. Does anyone know how to use quickhacks in a non-lethal way?
 
I had the same problem of non-lethal weapons killing NPCs. But after reading a few posts of this forum I am now able to successfully use non-lethal weapons on enemies and keep them alive.
What works for me is to be very careful and stop hitting / shooting at the right moment. For me it makes sense -- if you don't stop, you will kill eventually. It works for me both with non-lethal melee weapons and range weapons combined with 'Target Analysis'.

What I still doesn't work for me are quickhacks that are supposed to be non-lethal. I'm using quite often 'Short Circuit' and enemies look rather dead (although they stand in an upright position). There was a quest with buddhist monks ('Sacrum Profanum' I think) where one monk asks you to free another monk (his brother) and insists on not killing anyone. I used only Short Circuit on all the enemies and no other weapon / hack and the monks were not at all happy. Does anyone know how to use quickhacks in a non-lethal way?
For me short circuit worked fine, generaly hade too kill them with a gun after if i wanted too kill them. Dunno if they fall on something tho. I wasent trying too be non leathal so never really reflected on it. And for that quest i just choked em all out instead since i wanted too do that quest non leathal.
 
What I still doesn't work for me are quickhacks that are supposed to be non-lethal. I'm using quite often 'Short Circuit' and enemies look rather dead (although they stand in an upright position). There was a quest with buddhist monks ('Sacrum Profanum' I think) where one monk asks you to free another monk (his brother) and insists on not killing anyone. I used only Short Circuit on all the enemies and no other weapon / hack and the monks were not at all happy. Does anyone know how to use quickhacks in a non-lethal way?
This sounds like a bug as Short Circuit should be non-lethal de-facto. I haven't had that sort of issue with non-lethal quickhacks during my both playthroughs. It could be either the job or quickhack that is bugged.

I recommend contacting support, but I'm curious if you happen to have Critical Error (quickhacks can crit) Perk unlocked?
 
This sounds like a bug as Short Circuit should be non-lethal de-facto. I haven't had that sort of issue with non-lethal quickhacks during my both playthroughs. It could be either the job or quickhack that is bugged.

I recommend contacting support, but I'm curious if you happen to have Critical Error (quickhacks can crit) Perk unlocked?
I did have it and i 1 shoted most enemys with short circuit but they were still alive after. Could be a bug tho or something with the falling down that made em dead.
 
I did have it and i 1 shoted most enemys with short circuit but they were still alive after. Could be a bug tho or something with the falling down that made em dead.
I haven't been here for months and I don't know if it's been debunked but it was one theory at time, if crit damage can leak could cause the issue but this is just a guess. Even if it would be just enemies dying when they hit the floor, it still shouldn't happen and didn't happen to me during my playthroughs.
 
I haven't been here for months and I don't know if it's been debunked but it was one theory at time, if crit damage can leak could cause the issue but this is just a guess. Even if it would be just enemies dying when they hit the floor, it still shouldn't happen and didn't happen to me during my playthroughs.
Yea its weird. was thinking it could be something to do with the extra effects from other hacks in your deck like the ping alerting mobs and so on.
 
No real problem with short circuit in my side.
Even it's really good because with the legendary one with its passive ability, it turns all my weapons into "non lethal" :)
Yes ping and breach protocol are affected by cripple movement, cyberware malfunction and weapon malfunction in legendary due to their "passive" abilities (here since 1.2, so I don't know if it's "normal" or a bug)

Anyway, when I want to be sure to not kill any enemi, nothing better than a "manual" knock out :)
 

nc_01

Forum regular
Thanks for all the hints! I will experiment a bit more.
Just one more question: Is it normal that enemies after I eliminate them with Short Circuit freeze in an upright position instead of falling to the ground? I have seen in YT vids that they fall to the ground and I think it used to be like that for me as well earlier in the game.
 
Thanks for all the hints! I will experiment a bit more.
Just one more question: Is it normal that enemies after I eliminate them with Short Circuit freeze in an upright position instead of falling to the ground? I have seen in YT vids that they fall to the ground and I think it used to be like that for me as well earlier in the game.
Nope, that shouldn't happen. I'm on Xbox One X and that doesn't happen to me. That might be only visual glitch though, some animations not triggering, or those animations, like falling down are on scheduler and don't play if time window runs out or something (pure speculation).
 
Nope, that shouldn't happen. I'm on Xbox One X and that doesn't happen to me. That might be only visual glitch though, some animations not triggering, or those animations, like falling down are on scheduler and don't play if time window runs out or something (pure speculation).

I'm on Xbox One X and that happens to me like 90% of the time if I instakill with Short Circuit. It's hilarious.

I can literally have an entire building of dead enemies frozen in position if I'm fooling around with Legendary Ping and the cyberdeck that spreads attack quickhacks, since that lets you hack through walls.

I thought maybe it was on purpose, like you fried them so quick they're frozen in place.

Have you invested heavily into intelligence with perks like the crit hits on quickhacks? Maybe it only occurs when you absolutely obliterate an enemy.

If you pick up their body, and then put them down again, they fall into a regular unconscious/dead state. But if you only loot them they just remain standing there. It's a bit spooky, haha.
 
You could possibly try too repair your cyberpunk install. Sounds like something is missing or it dont have the cpu power too use physics for the fall. Ive hade mobs get stuck in standing too but rarely.
 
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