Cyberpunk 2077 is an action RPG allowing players to customize their characters in the game. In 2077, cybernetic modifications are the norm, and players can immensely modify their characters. This guide outlines a hard-hitting Melee-weapons-only build that obliterates those who dare stand in your way.
The Melee Build
Melee Weapons
This invincible build has a primary focus on Melee weapons. The Gold-plated Baseball Bat can be collected from Denny’s pool in the “Second Conflict” mission. This is your primary weapon because of its defining feature of being the slowest weapon but inflicting the greatest amount of damage. 1703 DPS, to be precise. The baseball bat deals the most damage per single hit. Two additional mods are added to this weapon: the Cold Shoulder. This mod increases damage by 5%. Combining them gives you an added 10% damage.
The second weapon used in this build is Tinkerbell. Tinkerbell is an iconic electronic baton that electrocutes enemy targets. It has a high DPS of 1545. It’s the go-to weapon against robots and can perfectly electrocute any enemy in the game, including giant robots. Using Tinkerbell on Robots always causes them to explode immediately, making it much more fun. This weapon can be found in the control room of the Edgewood farm in the mission “The Hunt.” Like the baseball bat, 2 Cold Shoulder mods will be added to increase damage.
The third melee weapon is the Jinchu-Maru Katana. This Katana packs a whooping 2254 DPS. It deals significant damage thanks to its combo multipliers. Again, 2 Cold Shoulder mods are used here as well. Additionally, the last strike from its combo deals double damage. It always deals double damage when squaring up to enemies with twice as much health as you. It is looted from Sandayu Oda in “Play it Safe.”
Players can opt for an alternative to Katana to defeat long-ranged enemies. Legendary Ajax Assault Rifle is suggested; you can buy it from Marty Jenklow in the Biotechnicia Flats. Try getting the MK Clearvue scope, a silencer (VC-10 Alecto), and a Crunch mod. The Crunch mod increases damage by 5%.
Closing Items
There are a few more closing items to add to this impressive build. A Daemon Hunter Tactical Bandana adds 4% critical damage and boosts the armor by 50 points. Coupled with the Polarized Rocker Aviators Eyewear, that also adds a 4% critical chance. A ballistic vest is also used, which upgrades armor protection by 82.1 points.
The build also wears Reinforced Corporate Slacks that add 101 points of armor but, importantly, make the character immune to electric shocks. Bullet-proof Shorties are also worn, enhancing armor protection by 62 points.
Kerenzikov
Players in CyberPunk 2077 are accustomed to use Sandevistan. This build doesn’t contain Sandevistan as its operating system. Instead, this melee build integrates the usage of Kerenzikov. Like Sandevistan, Kerenzikov allows players to slow down time to better land deadly blows. To activate Kerenzikov, hold the aim button, move in any direction, and double-tap the dodge button. It activates Kerenzikov for 6 seconds and has a cooldown period of 5 seconds. It allows players to have the best of both worlds. Players can go Berserk, utilize Beast Mode, and still slow down time to extract heavy damage.
Cyberware
Cyber augmentations play a crucial part in any Cyberpunk 2077 build. These installations can be modified at any Ripperdocs in Night City. Cyberware amplifies a player’s strength while shoring up weaknesses in this build.
Frontal Cortex
In this frontal cortex, you must use the legendary Heal-on-Kill; this implant Heals you 10% after an enemy is defeated. It will also stack up with the Heal-on-kill from Berserk, regenerating 15% of your health in total. In addition, the rare Mechatronic Core will also be utilized. This combative implant increases the damage to drones, mechs, and robots by 30%. There’s nothing to add in the third and final slot available.
Ocular System
For your ocular system, the epic Kiroshi Optics MK. 3 is the obvious choice. It enhances your vision, and three mods are used to augment this cyberware. Weakspot Detection is used in all three mods, enhancing your critical chances by 2% each. Giving a total of 6% critical chance. This also saves you 6 skill points that can be used to upgrade the Merciless skill. For players using guns in this build, although not recommended, get the Trajectory Analysis for increased hatchet and critical damage.
Circulatory System
This aspect of cyberware deals with the health of the character. The Legendary Biomonitor implant is utilized in this build. This amazing cyberware increases your health to 100% automatically when it drops below 15%. This technology can be acquired from the Ripperdoc in the Badlands. The second slot has the legendary Second Heart inserted. This handy implant instantly restores your health to 100% when your health falls to 0. It means you don’t have to worry about taking damage in this build, as you have top-notch health regeneration systems running. The third slot is reserved for the legendary Bioconductor. This vital piece of cyberware reduces all cyberware cooldowns by 30%. This includes cooldowns of Berserk, Biomonitor, and Second Heart. This implant essentially guarantees your build’s invincibility. All of these combined give you 3000 Hit points or three lives. This build is built to be invincible.
Immune System
As usual, the epic Metabolic Editor is implanted in the first slot. This helpful piece of cyberware grants you immunity from poison and regenerates your health after the poison is applied. For the second slot, the legendary Pain Editor is the obvious choice. This reduces all incoming damage by 10%. Both of these implants make you immune, no pun intended, from damage by enemies.
Nervous System
For the nervous system, the legendary Kerenzikov is used. This essential implant allows you to slow down time while sliding or dodging for a minimum of 3.5 seconds. A handy alternative to Sandevistan. Additionally, the second slot is reserved for the epic Nanorelays. This enhances Kerenzikov/Sandevistan’s duration by 2 seconds. Kerenzikov can be used for a maximum of 6 seconds and has a cooldown of 5 seconds.
Integumentary System
In the first slot, we have the legendary Subdermal Armour. This cyberwar increases additional armor by 300 points. For the second slot, the legendary Optical Camo is implanted. This allows you to sneak up on enemies and grants you 15 seconds of invisibility. For the last slot, an epic Heat Converter is slotted. This mechanism protects you fully from burns and adds 10% damage to your attacks when burned.
Operating System
The operating system is a fundamental part of any Cyberpunk 2077 build. This Melee build uses the iconic Militech Berserk MK.5 as its primary operating system. Berserk massively boosts your strength and resilience. This ability lasts for 60 seconds and has a 60 seconds cooldown period. It reduces weapon recoil and sways by 15% each. It increases melee damage by 15% and armor and resistance by 10%. It also gives you 40% more health when activated, allowing players using this build to run around causing massive damage without worrying about health.
The Militech Berserk MK.5 has 3 additional mods that this build will utilize. The first Mod is the legendary Beast Mode. This mod is apt for melee combat as it increases all Melee damage by an incredible 100%. This doubles all the build’s Melee damage. Bruising Berserk will be used in the other 2 Mod slots. This gives the build another 47% of added melee damage. The melee damage generated from these Berserk mods is multiplied by a factor of 2.47. This number is impressive for any build, let alone this melee-focused build.
Skeleton
The first slot is reserved for the epic Synaptic Signal Optimiser. This implant increases your overall health by 50%. The second slot contains the legendary Microrotors. They increase your attack speed by 25% and greatly upgrade the DPS of any melee weapon, such as Katana, baseball bat, and Tinkerbell. It’s a must-have for this build as it increases the damage from melee weapons.
Hands
Smart Link implant is used to augment Hands. This implant isn’t vital to this build as Smart Link allows precise targeting and increased critical damage from guns. Since firearms aren’t a part of this build, players can choose to have or leave them. No considerable difference is made to the build.
Arms
Gorilla Arms is a major part of this melee-focused build. Gorilla arms drastically increase damage in melee combat with an impressive 1644 DPS. With each successive attack, the arms charge, and these arms deal additional damage. Players can use a Strong Attack to knock down enemies when fully charged.
There are three mod slots for Gorilla Arms. The first mod slot will be the legendary Animals Knuckles. This causes internal bleeding on successful attacks. The second mod is the legendary Black Market Battery which increases the maximum charge and charge damage by 100%. The last mod is a rare Sensory Amplifier. This mod increases the critical damage by 20%.
Legs
Reinforced Tendons are used in the single slot for Legs. This cyberware allows players to double jump, and since it’s a melee build, don’t forget to slot these to deal damage from high above.
Skills
Skills are attributes you can assign to your character to increase specific attributes. There are 5 primary categories; Body, Reflexes, Technical Ability, Cool, and Intelligence. A unique distribution of value points is needed to make this build effective. This also lets you get coveted items such as the Heal-on-Kill, Bio-monitor, Second Heart, Berserk, and Microrotors. This guide will review the important skills and attributes this melee build requires.
Cool
Starting with the Cool skill, tree this Ninjutsu skill tree improves your ability to sneak by enemies and eliminate them silently. Only a single perk is needed here. The Assassin perk allows you to deal 15% more damage to human enemies.
Moving on to the Cold Blood skill tree. Cold Blood provides a range of improvements while quickly eliminating enemies. This build requires investing exactly 68 points on the Merciless perk. This will give you a 100% critical chance with all your melee weapons. Additionally, we’ll also pick up the Blood Brawl perk. This increases our melee damage by 10%. Next, we will pick up perks that initiate and increase the duration of Cold Blood. These include Cold Blood, Coolagulent, Cold & Calculating, Critical Condition, and Coldest Blood.
Technical Ability
We will only pick up perks from the Crafting section in the Technology skill tree. This section enables you to craft and upgrade items and components. The perks needed from this section are True Craftsman, Grease Monkey, and Field Technician. These perks increase the damage from our crafted melee weapons.
Body
In the body tree, we’ll first pick up perks from the Athletics section. This section’s perks improve our ability to perform physical feats such as sprinting, swimming, grappling enemies, and using them as human shields during combat. Pack Mule and Regeneration are our first perks. Steel & Chrome is a vital perk for the build as it increases by 20% melee damage. Tenacious V is another perk required. Invincible perk increases 15% of Health while Steel Shield increases 10% of armor.
The Street Brawler section improves proficiency in close combat using blunt weapons or fists. Important perks such as Flurry, Crushing Blow, Frenzy, and Payback will increase damage. Other perks that will increase damage under different conditions, such as stun or bleeding damage, will not be useful as this build aims to kill enemies with a single shot. Rush is a vital perk as it allows 3% health regeneration whenever there’s a successful hit.
Reflexes
The Blades section deals with improving combat skills using Blade weapons. Since this build utilizes a Katana, this section will be interesting. The Roaring Waters perk gives Strong attacks 30% more damage. Sting Like A Bee increases the attack speed by 30%. Judge, Jury & Executioner perk increases 100% damage by blades against enemies with maximum health. Fiery Blast is also useful. Deathbolt perk restores 20% health on defeating an enemy with blades.
