Netrunning in Cyberpunk 2077 allows players to hack into the enemy interfaces and unleash deadly Quickhacks, devastating the enemies. This combat aspect is challenging to master, but with enough practice, it’s the futuristic method of obliterating enemies. This guide looks to combine infinite RAM with corresponding Intelligence perks to craft a purely Netrunner Build.
Combat Strategy
With a primary focus on Netrunning, your combat strategy consists of using the cyberdeck to scan enemies and then uploading a variety of Quickhacks to them, causing them to malfunction. Various Quickhacks are available throughout the game, but for this Build, you must focus on the Ultimate Quickhacks. System reset, Short Circuit, Suicide, Cyberpsychosis, and Detonate Grenade are the ones that will be used. There are different ways to play this, by being a stealth hacker, a suicide hacker, or even a stealth shooter. These involve a combination of hacking, short-circuiting, and then shooting anyone who survives the initial carnage.
The Build
Weapons
The iconic Satori Katana is the first weapon equipped in this Build. Its unique modifier deals up to 500% critical damage but reduces base damage by 20%. It has a base DPS of 1704. It’s easier to use than the Jinchu Maru Katana. Three Cold Shoulder mods are equipped as it is crucial to increase the base DPS rather than critical damage.
The second weapon for this Build is the legendary Moron Labe assault rifle, with a base DPS of 916. Assault rifles are essential for this Build as critical hits increase the chance of triggering the Short Circuiting damage from the Short Circuit Quickhack. The Moron Labe has an MK Clearvue scope and XC-10 Alecto silencer. The blue silencer adds a 2.5 damage multiplier when attacking from stealth. Four Crunch mods are equipped to increase damage by 28%, as a single Crunch mod increases damage by 7%.
The third weapon utilized in this Build is the legendary Problem Solver. This sub-machinegun has a base DPS of 1329 and coincidentally has the highest firing rate of any weapon available in the game. This favors the Build as every bullet fired can trigger Short Circuit damage; the Problem Solver is the ideal weapon for the Netrunner Build. It is armed with the epic Handyman scope and the legendary RC Aswang muzzle. The Aswang muzzle increases ricochet damage and increase damage by 25%. Because the weapon has a heavy recoil, a Countermass mod can eliminate horizontal recoil. Three Crunch mods are fitted in the remaining slots to increase damage.
Legendary Armadillo mods are the norm for the closing items except for the eyewear, equipped with Johnny’s Aviators, which increases the critical chance by 4%. The legendary Armadillo mods enhance the Build’s armor and reinforce the Build’s defenses. Some legendary items give us critical damage but are tough to find as they’re scattered all around Night City.
Cyberware
Frontal Cortex
The rare Memory Boost cyberware gives the Netrunner Build back three cyberdeck RAM units after defeating an enemy. Combined with the Forget-Me-Not perk, it’s four RAM units for defeating an enemy. This provides the Netrunner Build infinite RAM to apply Quickhacks without worrying about RAM. The second slot is equipped with the legendary Limbic System Enhancement implant. This cyberware increases critical chance by 7%. Lastly, the third slot is armed with the legendary Visual Cortex Support. This implant increases the critical damage by 30%.
Ocular System
The epic Kiroshi Optics MK.3 is the obvious choice for enhancing the visual system. Three Trajectory Analyzers are fitted in the available mod slots. Each increases the headshot bonus damage by 25%, totaling 75%.
Circulatory System
The rare Microgenerator is equipped in the first slot. This defensive implant releases an electrical shock when your health falls to 15%, dealing damage to enemies worth 40% of their health. For the second slot, the Tyrosine Injection is utilized. This increases the breach time of the breach protocol by 100%. Lastly, the third slot is armed with the common Biomonitor. This cyberware instantly restores health to 30% when it falls to 15%.
Immune System
The legendary Pain Editor is equipped in the first slot. This handy implant reduces all incoming damage by 10%. The epic Metabolic Editor is fitted in the second slot, granting immunity to poison attacks and helping you regenerate health whenever poison is used against you.
Nervous System
The rare Kerenzikov is utilized in this Build. An alternative to Sandevistan, this implant allows you to slow down time. To activate Kerenzikov, hold down the aim button, move in either the left or right direction, and double-tap the dodge button. The rare variant of this implant lasts for 2 seconds. In the second slot, rare Nanorelays are slotted. They increase the Kerenzikov mechanism’s duration by one second. This totals the duration of Kerenzikov to three seconds.
Integumentary System
The legendary Subdermal Armor is utilized in the first slot. This cyberware increases armour protection by 300 points. For the second slot, the legendary Optical Camo is armed. It grants invisibility for players for 15 seconds, favoring stealth. Lastly, the epic Heat Converter is equipped in the final slot. This implant grants you immunity from burns and instead adds 10% more damage to your attacks.
Operating System
The operating system for this Netrunner Build is the Tetratronic Rippler MK.4 cyberdeck. This cyberdeck is the most efficient and finest cyberdeck available in the game. It has a base RAM of 10 units and can spread Ultimate Quickhacks to two targets. It allows the players to perform Quickhacks while scanning enemy targets and devices. A defining feature of this cyberdeck is that it reduces the cost of Ultimate Quickhacks by three RAM units. It also reduces the Quickhack uploading and cooldown time by 75% and 45%, respectively. Additionally, it can accommodate up to six Quickhacks at a single time.
Players need to get to Intelligence Level 20 to unlock the Ultimate Quickhacks. They need to unlock the Intelligence perk Datamine Virtuoso; this perk allows acquiring Quickhacks by hacking any high-level terminal in Downtown, Haywood, and Voila! You will usually get 1-2 legendary Quickhacks by hacking them. Saving the game before hacking the terminal allows you to reload the game to try your luck again.
You will need five crucial legendary Quickhacks in your cyberdeck and for combat. The legendary System Reset cripples the target’s nervous system, causing them to lose unconsciousness. The target will die without making any noise, making it an ideal Quickhack for stealth hacking. The passive ability of the System Reset Quicks reduces the further cost of Quickhack by one RAM unit. The legendary Short Circuit Quickhack overloads a target’s microcircuits with a two million volts charge. It makes the targets fry and blow up. It’s super effective against robots, mechs, and drones. The passive ability of the Short Circuit hack gives Short Circuit damage whenever your primary weapons make a critical hit.
The legendary Detonate Grenade Quickhack forces the target to detonate a grenade in their hands. The damage varies due to different grenade types. The passive ability of this Quickhack involves defeating an enemy with an explosion, after which the cost of Ultimate Quickhacks is reduced by two. The Legendary Suicide Quickhack is an insanely fun and terrifying method of eliminating enemies. This Quickhack forces the target to commit Suicide. The passive ability of this Quickhack is unlocked if the target panics, further reducing the cost of ultimate Quickhacks by two.
Lastly, the legendary Cyberpsychosis Quickhack causes enemy targets to attack enemies and allies. It also changes the status of drones, mechs, and drones to friendly, making them turn against your enemies. If no other enemies are left, the target will commit Suicide. For the last slot in the Rippler cyberdeck, the covert Ping Quickhack can be used, revealing enemies and devices connected to the local network. Handy for applying quick hacks.
Skeleton
The common Synaptic Signal Optimizer is used due to a lower Body level. It increases the Netrunner build’s health by 20%. The second slot is equipped with rare Microrotors. This cyberware increases the attack speed by 15%, enhancing the damage by melee weapons.
Hands
The legendary Smart Link is equipped in this Build. Although this Build doesn’t have any smart weapons to use this implant effectively, players looking to play with intelligent weapons should get this implant as it helps with the accuracy and effectiveness of smart weapons.
Arms
The legendary Monowire is equipped in the Arms slot. The Monowire serves as the Build’s primary melee weapon. It has a base DPS of 2587. This deadly wire charges when it’s equipped but not used in combat. Charged attacks deal bonus damages to targets. With each subsequent attack, the charge level diminishes, lowering the level of damage too. The Monowire is very effective against fast-moving targets and groups of enemies. The Electrical Damage mod is vital to your melee weapon as most enemies don’t have any defenses against electrical damage. The High Capacity Monowire Battery increases the charge damage by 100%. Lastly, the Sensory Amplifier increases the critical damage by 20%.
Legs
The rare Reinforced Tendons are used in the Legs slot. This implant allows you to execute double jumps by pressing the jump button in mid-air.
Skills
Distribution of the skills allows you to enhance preferred attributes according to the Buil’ds needs. The Netrunner Build strongly emphasizes the Intelligence attribute levelling it to 16. The rest are as follows, Body 3, Reflexes 14, Technical Ability 18, Cool 20, and Intelligence 16.
Intelligence
In the Breach Protocol section, the Extended Network Interface perk automatically highlights nearby Access Points. The Advanced Datamine perk upgrades the Datamine daemon, increasing the number of Eurodollars collected from Access Points by 100%. As discussed, the Datamine Virtuoso perk increases the chance of finding Quickhacks from Access Points. This perk is vital to the Netrunner Build as it allows you to get Legendary Quickhacks at Intelligence Level 16.
In the Quickhacking section, the Bloodware perk increases the damage by Quickhacks by 30%. The Biosynergy perk recovers RAM units during combat. It recovers 12 RAM units in 60 seconds. The Signal Support perk increases the duration of Quickhacks by 50%. Critical Error is a vital perk that allows Quickhacks to strike critical hits based on your stats of critical damage and chance. Another crucial perk, Subliminal Message, allows Quickhacks to deal 100% more damage to unaware targets.
The Forget-Me-Not perk restores one RAM unit after defeating an enemy. The Daisy Chain perk reduces the cooldown of Quickhacks by 50% upon eliminating an enemy affected by a Quickhack. The Mnemonic perk reduces the cost of RAM units of Quickhacks by two when an enemy already suffers from one Quickhack. Lastly, the Diffusion perk doubles the Quickhack area of effect, which is helpful for players using the Suicide Quickhack.
Cool
In the Ninjutsu section, the Assassin perk increases damage to all human targets by 15%. The Silent and Deadly perk increases damage from the silenced weapons by 25% while sneaking. The ‘Strike from the Shadows‘ perk increases the critical chance by 7% while sneaking. Lastly, the Sniper perk increases the headshot damage by 20% outside combat.
In the Cold Blood section, the Merciless perk is upgraded to Level 60. This gives us 300% critical damage. The Cold Blood perk is also unlocked, allowing players to enter Cold Blood mode. The Frosty Synapses perk reduces Quickhack cooldown by 5% per stack of Cold Blood. The Coolagulant perk removes Cold Blood stacks one by one instead of being removed simultaneously. The Cold and Calculating perk gives a 50% chance of an additional stack of cold blood upon landing a critical hit. The Critical Condition perk increases the duration of Cold Blood by 50%. Lastly, the Coldest Blood perk adds two additional stacks of Cold Blood.
Technical Ability
Only two perks are required in this section. The Field Technician perk upgrades our crafted items in the Crafting section to deal 10% more damage. Lastly, the Edgerunner Artisan perk allows players to craft legendary items.
Reflexes
Only two perks are required in the Assault section. The Bullseye perk increases damage by 10% when aiming using assault rifles and SMGs. Lastly, the Executioner perk deals 25% more damage to enemies whose health exceeds 50%.
Body
Similarly to Reflexes and Technical ability, only two perks are required in the Athletics section. Firstly, the Pack Mule perk increases the Build’s carrying capacity by 60. Lastly, the Regeneration perk allows us to replenish health during combat slowly.
That’s all from this comprehensive Netrunner Build guide. Remember to use the Subliminal Message, Forget-Me-Not, and Datamine Virtuoso perks to make this build highly damaging, and use Ultimate Quickhacks to tackle all enemies.