You can’t be playing a game like Cyberpunk 2077 and be completely oblivious to the fact that your character can be spec’d out with cybernetic enhancements. Or in Cyberpunk terms, spec’d out with chrome.
Whether you’re just starting out with the game or have clocked in a considerable amount of hours exploring and picking apart Night City, it’d do you well to check out what cyberware to equip your V with.
We’ve got a little bit of everything for everywhere. Grab a pen and paper, we’re gonna make this listicle a doozy.
Frontal Cortex
Ah yes, the grey matter. The response machine. The cerebral spaghetti. The frontal cortex hosts cyberware that has a holistic impact on the rest of V’s body. It comes with a three-slot capacity, all of which can be slotted in with spicy items. Let’s check them out:
Best item: Heal on Kill
Why go through the hassle of injecting yourself with a Maxdoc when you can chop off heads and heal in the process?
The Heal on Kill cyberware is a fantastic option for those looking to go gung-ho on enemies in close quarters. Don’t worry about ducking, hiding, or thinking up stealth strategies. Just have at ‘em and let the kills heal you as you rampage onward!
Stats:
- In-combat health regen
- Increases crit chance by 7%
- Great for taking down large groups
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Northside, Watson.
2nd Best Item: Visual Cortex Support
Tip the scales in your favor by equipping some extra support! The Visual Cortex Support has no reason to exist other than to up the fun by increasing the player’s crit chances.
Since you can already equip mods and attachments to boost your weapons to clinch 100% crit damage, equipping this cyberware will make you a savage by further punching those numbers up!
Stats:
- Crit damage gets a 30% increase
- Best for taking down bosses
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in West Wind Estate, Pacifica.
3rd Best Item: Limbic Enhancement System
Another brilliant shortcut to achieving crit damage without troubling your weapons. The Limbic Enhanced System serves as another automatic piece of cyberware that allows V to supercharge his attacks, dishing out crit damage in spades.
Stats:
- Increases crit chance by 7%
- Adds to already present crit chance
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Japantown, Westbrook.
Ocular System
“The eyes, Chico. They never lie.” Your oculars are an essential part of the Cyberpunk cyberware system. Not only are they necessary for enhanced vision but they’re crucial for mapping out enemies when things are about to get dicey. Let’s check out the best equips:
Best Item: Kiroshi Optics Mark 3
We’re going to place the Kiroshis at the top of our list. Why, you may ask? Well, firstly because Kiroshi is the only one who makes ocular implants, and also, the more mod slots, the more fun the game gets!
Keeping that very principle in mind, the MK 3 offers up to three mod slots to play around with. Each with its own advantage for V to get an edge over his enemies.
Stats:
- Affordable buy
- Three mod slots
- Makes combat fun
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Little China, Watson.
Circulatory System
This particular cyberware deals with V’s vitals. That means his blood flow and all that he can possibly do with his blood circulation in and out of combat. Hang on tight, there’s a good jog into biology and biophysics for this section:
Best Item: Biomonitor
An uncommon, and most effective piece of biotech that V could get his hands on fairly early on in the game. It’s usage is nothing fancy. It’s just an additional lifeline for V. The biomonitor activates when V’s health bar drops to 15%, replenishing him with a full health bar to initiate another rodeo with his killers.
Tekken Announcer voice, “ROUND TWO!”, “FIGHT!”
Stats:
- Instantly restores 100% health when V's health drops below 15%
- Has a 2-minute cooldown
Many of the best cyborgs in the game come equipped with this brilliant piece of tech. If you win a boss fight with a big shot Animal, chances are pretty fat they’re going to drop one of these for you.
2nd Best Item: Second Heart
Exactly what the name implies. Second Heart functions the same way as a biomonitor except it activates when V’s health depletes completely. Once the health bar reaches 0, Second Heart springs V back to life and gives him another shot at taking down whoever dared to zero him.
Stats:
- Activates once V’s health depletes completely
- Has a 2-minute cooldown
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Wellsprings, Heywood.
3rd Best Item: Blood Pump
It wouldn’t be called Cyberpunk if you couldn’t do dangerous futuristic stuff with your body, now would it? The Blood Pump cyberware is a manual piece of tech that the player can activate at any given time to restore up to 90% of V’s health. It’s a quicker option for those who don’t want to wait for the second heart or biomonitor to activate.
Stats:
- Manual activation
- Restores up to 90% health
- Has a 30-second cooldown
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s at a mobile camp in the desert.
Immune System
The immune system is responsible for all necessary checks and defenses from alien particles. Particularly those inflicted by enemy attacks and effects. Obviously, V won’t be able to completely block out negative status effects but he can come close to it. With the help of these trusty ‘wares:
Best Item: Cataresist
An all-around internal resistance device can never go wrong. If you don’t want to delve into the specifics of each cyberware and just want a goody-two-shoes device that’ll do a little bit of everything, then get this. The Cataresist increases all of V’s resistances to 35% so you can go hard on the offense and make ‘em see stars all the more quickly.
Stats:
- Increases all resistances by 35%
- A relatively cheap buy
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Japantown, Westbrook.
2nd Best Item: Pain Editor
Can’t block ‘n dodge all the shots coming at us, now can we? No problem! The Pain Editor takes the pain away (all 10% of it) to give you a smidge of relief as you get into those grizzly fights with gnarly chooms. Don’t worry about what sort of damage this caters to. The Pain Editor caters to all!
Stats:
- Cuts off all incoming damage by 10%
- Nice editor
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Japantown, Westbrook.
Nervous System
Calm those nerves with some chrome attachments! The nervous system is where all the fun reflex stuff comes in. Built to give V options when he finds himself in a pinch, cyberware made especially for this body part can turn the tide of battle. Let’s check out how:
Best Item: Synaptic Accelerator
It’s not always possible to go all in and raise hell through hordes of enemies. Sometimes you have to make calculated decisions and sometimes even those decisions can go up in the air.
Having a synaptic accelerator at the ready helps even your odds against a big boy by slowing down time by 50% so you can either make a run for it or hit the enemy at vital spots, taking them out of the equation before they have the time to do the same to you.
Stats:
- Slows down time by 50% for 4 seconds when V is detected
- Has a 1 minute cooldown
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Japantown, Westbrook.
2nd Best Item: Reflex Tuner
Call this an emergency synaptic accelerator, if you will. The reflex tuner is built for offense just as much as it is built for defense. Programmed to activate when V’s health drops below 25%, the reflex tuner then slows down time by 80% to allow the player to make a choice between fight or flight.
Whichever seems more tangible.
Stats:
- Slows time by 80% when V drops below 25% health
- Has a 40-second cooldown
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Japantown, Westbrook.
Integumentary System
A fancier term for the exoskeleton, the integumentary system is essentially the amount/type of armor V can equip himself with. This is crucial for reducing ranged physical damage and can have other advantages as well depending on the type of armor. Check it out:
Best Item: Subdermal Armor
Get a big, fat, slobbering chunk of armor on top of your health no questions asked by equipping the subdermal armor cyberware. Offering no tactical advantage, the subdermal armor boosts V’s armor by a whopping value of 300 points. Watch those half-chrome-meat-bags miserably try to chip off your health now.
Stats:
- Increases armor by 300
- Makes V a walking, talking juggernaut
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Kabuki, Watson.
2nd Best Item: Optical Camo
Players who would rather stick to the shadows and/or have the element of surprise on their side will come to appreciate this one. The optical camo cyberware lets the player gain “near” invisibility for 15 seconds so they can go in for an assassination or make tactful decisions.
This piece of tech was initially designed to make V completely invisible to all enemies including bosses but the developers have since realized that players use it to cheese through boss fights. Welp, this isn’t GTA you guys!
Stats:
- Near invisibility for 15 seconds
- Has a 1 minute cooldown
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Little China, Watson.
3rd Best Item: Heat Converter
One of the more kamikaze ‘wares on our list. If V is ever unfortunate, or fortunate in this case, to be affected by burn damage, the heat converter converts the burn damage into a 10% buff to all damage dealt by V.
Burn, baby, burn!
Stats:
- Converts burn damage into a 10% damage enhancer
- Makes V a pyromaniac
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Little China, Watson.
Operating System
This is the motherlode of all netrunning activity. The operating system is where V’s computer system gets its juice from. That includes the available RAM, number of slots, and how many quickhacks V can equip. In le man’s terms, it's the memory card slot for our cyborg boy.
Best Item: Netwatch Netdriver Mk 5
The Netwatch Netdriver Mk 5 sprinkles a little bit of everything. Not only does it have a fantastic RAM size but it also provides large swathes of buffs to V’s damage dealing capabilities. Check them out:
- 11 base RAM, 8 buffer size, 6 slots
- Increases damage dealt by quickhacks by 30%
- Increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by 9 units per minute
- Increases quickhack spread distance by 60%
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Wellsprings, Heywood.
Skeleton
The bony part of V’s existence. The skeleton is where the body’s organic defense structures come in. V can use the cyberware available in this part to fend for himself or give him a significant boost in damage dealing to make his enemies pay. A little more than they normally would.
Best Item: Synaptic Signal Optimizer
Another fancy name for a function quite simple. The Synaptic Signal Optimizer offers a nice boost to V’s health, making him all the more healthy to go do unhealthy stuff. This is also one of those cyberware that has stuck since the game’s day one edition.
Many thought that CD Projekt Red would eventually nerf it but it still stands strong to this day. Buffing up V’s health by 60% like a good cyberware should.
Stats:
- Boosts health by 60%
- Nice, healthy mod
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Charter Hill, Westbrook.
2nd Best Item: Titanium Bones
You would wonder that with such a sexy name as Titanium Bones, V would get a Wolverine-like upgrade and have an indestructible body. But instead, you get your carrying capacity to increase by 60%.
Wow, right? Enjoy lugging all that scrumptious loot.
Stats:
- Carrying capacity increases by 60%
- Fancy name
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Wellsprings, Heywood.
Hands
Hands are crucial for augmenting your weapon type to be compatible with your body. Having a suitable hand cyberware gives you a seamless experience when using a gun, blade, or grenade. It makes the weapon feel like an extension of you and makes your enemies go boom all the more swiftly.
Best Item: Smart Link
Switch off your brain, point your gun lazily at the enemy, and still get the job done. The smart link is your one-stop solution to making bullets hit even if you’re not aiming specifically at chooms. Why? Because automatic aiming is a thing, duh!
Stats:
- Enables the use of smart weapons.
- Increases the chance for bullets to hit targets by 15%.
- Increases crit damage by 20%.
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Little China, Watson.
Arms
The house of the Gorilla Arms, Mantis Blades, and the Projectile Launch System. Arms store all the fun melee cyberware and offer themselves as an additional weapon in your weapons wheel. If you’re struggling with traditional combat, try switching things up with arms weaponry:
Best Item - Projectile Launch System
Having a built-in launcher that you can whip out at a whim’s notice is exciting stuff. The Projectile Launch System is V’s dedicated launcher that fires damage dealing blobs at enemies from afar.
The PLS is superior to its counterparts because the projectiles, apart from dealing damage, can explode causing Area of Effect damage and even applying status effects. It’s an all-in-one party!
Stats:
- Explosive
- Can affect multiple enemies at once
- Point n shoot
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Wellsprings, Heywood.
Legs
And at long last, we arrive at our final piece of cyberware; the legs. Legs are an essential component of V’s chrome in and out of combat. Mobility makes a lot of difference. Especially if you’re one of those who likes to stay on their toes when engaging enemies.
Best Item: Reinforced Tendons
What’s better than a single jump? Double jump! The reinforced tendons give V’s legs enough oomph to let him jump a second time, in mid-air. For combat purposes, this can help V gain a strategic position to take his enemies out or pounce on top of them for an ample serving of fists.
Out of combat, reinforced tendons can help V reach those hard-to-reach secret areas and acquire loot that would otherwise be impossible to get to. The trick with this cyberware is to get creative or you won’t be able to recognize half of its charm.
Stats:
- Unlocks double jump
- Lets V get creative with enemy encounters
- More movement opportunities
You can find this part for sale at a Ripperdoc’s in Little China, Watson.
Conclusion
That’s a wrap on all the snazzy cyberware we have for you. Keep in mind that there are about eleven different body parts that support cyber attachments. So, it can get a bit overwhelming to keep up with what to install first. Keep our listicle in handy so you have a more streamlined experience with the chrome. Go get ‘em, cyborg!
