The Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner build is all about making the most of your hacking abilities. Picture one of those ‘hip and cool’ hackers you’ve seen in the movies, and that’s more or less what we’re aiming to replicate with this build. To help you get the perfect Netrunner build in Cyberpunk 2077, we’ve run through the best mods, perks, cyberwar, and weapons that complement this playstyle, so without further ado let’s dive in.
The Best Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Build
The Netrunner is all about making the most of your Breach Protocol and Quickhacks, and as such you’ll want to focus your attribute points on Intelligence and Body.
Intelligence is fairly straightforward, given this is the attribute that harbors your Quickhack and Breach Protocol skill trees. The more you level Intelligence up, the more Quickhack and Breach Protocol perks you’ll have available to you.
As for Body, you’ll want to level this up to increase your health, health regeneration, and armor, allowing you to survive really intense shootouts with your enemy. It also helps improve your maneuverability which can be handy for dodging enemy attacks or finding a secret path to your objective.
Down below, we’ll break down the best perks, cyberware, cyberdeck, weapons and mods for a Netrunner build in Cyberpunk 2077.
Best Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Perks
For the best perks, we’ve broken this down into Breach Protocol and Quickhacking. While there are some perks in other attributes like Body that may be handy, they’re not crucial to a Netrunner build like Breach Protocol and Quickhacking perks are.
Breach Protocol Perks
- Head Start (18 Intelligence Required) – Automatically uploads the first daemon in the list at the start of every Breach Protocol.
- Total Recall (11 Intelligence Required) – The ICEpick daemon reduces all quickhack costs by an additional RAM unit.
- Turret Tamer (12 Intelligence Required) – Unlocks the Turret Tamer daemon during Breach Protocol, which sets the status of every turret in the network to friendly for 3/6 minutes.
- Big Sleep – Unlocks the Big Sleep daemon during Breach protocol, which disables all cameras in a network for 3/6 minutes.
We’re a big fan of the Big Sleep and Turret Tamer perks, primarily because their daemons can make infiltrating enemy bases a cinch. Total Recall helps alleviate any RAM limitations you might be having, while Head Start just helps simplify Breach Protocol even more.
Quickhacking Perks
- Bloodware – Quickhacks deal 10%/20%/30% more damage.
- I Spy (5 Intelligence Required) – Reveals an enemy netrunner when they’re attempting to hack you.
- Subliminal Message (11 Intelligence Required) – Quickhacks deal 50%/100% more damage to unaware targets.
- Plague (14 Intelligence Required) – Quickhacks that spread can jump to 1/2/3 additional target(s).
- Critical Error (16 Intelligence Required) – Quickhacks can now deal Crit hits based on your Crit Chances and Crit Damage stats.
- Bartmoss’ Legacy (20 Intelligence Required) – Unlocks crafting specs for Legendary quickhacks.
Our Quickhacking perks for the Netrunner focus on maximizing the damage you’ll deal with them. Bloodware and Subliminal Message straight increase the damage %, while Critical Error enables you to get Critical Hits with Quickhacks, massively increasing potential damage with each one.
Plague is a great perk to pair with something like Contagion, allowing you to wipe groups of enemies in close proximity out quickly. Finally, Bartmoss’ Legacy allows you to craft the best Quickhacks, maximizing the damage dealt by each one.
Best Netrunner Cyberware
There aren’t a huge amount of cyberware upgrades across all your body parts that play into a Netrunner build. Instead, they tend to focus on the circulator system and frontal cortex. We’ve run you through the five cyberware upgrades you should consider for your Netrunner build below.
- BioConductor (Circulatory System)
- Ability: Cyberware cooldowns -10%/20%/30%
- Cost: Rare – 6,000 (Body Requirement 12), Epic – 10,000 (Body Requirement 14), Legendary – 14,000 (Body Requirement 18)
- Tyrosine Injector (Circulatory System)
- Ability: Increases Breach Protocol duration by 100%
- Cost: 1,500
- Self-ICE (Frontal Cortex)
- Ability: Prevents enemy netrunners from hacking you. Cooldown 45 seconds.
- Cost: 9,000 (Intelligence Requirement 10)
- Ex-Disk (Frontal Cortex)
- Ability: Max RAM + 1/ +3/ +5
- Cost: Rare – 12,000 (Intelligence Requirement 10), Epic – 20,000 (Intelligence Requirement 14), Legendary – 28,000 (Intelligence Requirement 18)
- Memory Boost (Frontal Cortex)
- Ability: Defeating an enemy restores 1/2/3/4 RAM Unit(s)
- Cost: Common – 4,000 (Intelligence Requirement 7), Uncommon – 6,000 (Intelligence Requirement 9), Rare – 12,000 (Intelligence Requirement 12), Epic – 20,000 (Intelligence Requirement 15)
Best Cyberdeck for Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Build
We’ve got a few different options here when it comes to the best cyberdeck for Netrunners. Keep in mind that we haven’t always specified the specific Mk of each Cyberdeck, as the model’s abilities remain the same across all versions, they’re just more powerful on the high-end versions.
- Tetratonic Cyberdeck
- Ability: Quickhacks deal 10/20/30% more damage.
- Cost: Mk. 1 – 7,500 Eddies, Mk. 2 – 15,000 Eddies (Street Level 14), Mk. 3 – 25,000 Eddies (Street Level 37)
- Stephenson Tech
- Ability: Duration of combat quickhacks +30%/ 40%/ 50%. All quickhacks have cooldown reduced by 30%/45%/ 45%
- Cost: Mk. 2 – 15,000 Eddies, Mk. 3 – 25,000 Eddies (Street Level 11), Mk. 4 – 35,000 Eddies (Street Level 37)
- NetWatch Netdriver Mk. 5
- Ability: Increases RAM recovery rate by 9 unites per 60 seconds. Quickhack spread distance increased by 60%. Combat quickhacks can be uploaded to 3 targets within a 6-meter radius. Quickhacks deal 30% more damage.
- Cost: 35,000 Eddies (Requires Street Level 49)
- Fuyutsui Tinkerer Mk. 3
- Ability: Increases RAM recovery rate by 9 units per 60 seconds. Quickhack spread distance increased by 40%. Combat quickhacks have 50% increased duration.
- Cost: 35,500 Eddies (Requires Street Level 37)
Best Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Weapons
There are no right or wrong weapons to use when it comes to the Netrunner. However, if you want to lean into that ‘hacker’ vibe, we’d recommend using Smart weapons with their homing rounds.
A blade melee weapon may also be useful for taking out enemies quickly at close range, and a silencer on any weapons you use is also recommended.
Best Netrunner Mods
When we talk about mods here, we’re talking specifically about cyberware and clothing mods. There aren’t a ton of mods that’ll really play into a Netrunner build, but we’ve picked out three that we think would definitely be beneficial to this playstyle.
- Fortuna (Clothing Mod) – Crit Chance +15%
- Bully (Clothing Mod) – Crit Damage +30%
- Threat Detector (Kiroshi Optics Mod) – Enemies that detect you are automatically highlighted.
- Weakspot Detection (Kiroshi Optics Mod) – Crit Chance +5%
Let us quickly explain our picks. Fortuna, Bully and Weakspot Detection all bolster your Crit Chance and Crit Damage, which combined with the Critical Error perk means you’re going to deal more critical hits with your Quickhacks and they’re going to hit far harder when they do.
Threat Detector is just a great little perk, especially if you’re trying to go the stealthy route and remain undetected for as long as you can.
There you have our rundown of the best Netrunner build in Cyberpunk 2077. We’ve also got guides for Mantis Blades and Gorilla Arm builds, should you want to want to invest in these upgrades, or you can check out more guides in our Cyberpunk 2077 guide wiki.
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