A guide to Cyberpunk 2077 stealth character builds

In this Cyberpunk 2077 stealth character guide I show you how to sneak up on enemies and do thousands of damage, like any self-respecting deadly assassin.

Building a Cyberpunk 2077 stealth character can feel daunting during the initial customisation process and after. But if you want guns and melee weapons to hit like a choo choo train you want, this video can help.

Having spent 35 hours now as a stealthy bringer of death and premature life insurance claims, I thought I’d share some of my wisdom. Hopefully some of you guys and gals can share your Cyberpunk 2077 character tips in the comments here or below the video.

Cyberpunk 2077 stealth guide: The basic principles

Cyberpunk 2077 stealth characters are designed to sneak about undetected, taking down enemies down while your opponents remain unaware of the fact all their friends are dying one by one. The key points are that you are hard to detect and can take down your enemy fast.

We call that initial strike an alpha and it’s important you hit hard because if your opponent survives and can get away the alarm will be raised and you’ll need to run and hide and will not enjoy experience boosts to your stealth skill.

Side note: Stealth experience is awarded for damaging enemies with sneak attacks (you get this once the enemy dies), performing a lethal or non-lethal takedown, concealing neutralised enemies in bins and other hiding places and performing a takedown and hiding the body in a hiding place simultaneously.

This experience goes towards your stealth level, with rewards given all the way up to level 20 of the skill.

You can use a number of different weapons to achieve an alpha strike. I love handguns and snipers, with the former particularly deadly as it can be silenced and therefore kills go unheard. You can also use your fists or daggers, katana swords, Mantis Blades – it’s up to you.

Handguns are particularly effective because they have a decent range – more than adequate indoors and can be enough outdoors although the sniper is better here – and allow you to perform headshots.

As you may have noticed, handguns can have some big bonuses to headshot damage – my gun increases damage by 2 if you don’t miss.

Now you can go round killing enemies with a takedown and hide the bodies, this definitely works. Except when dealing with higher level enemies who may detect you unless you distract them first. They can shrug you off and then you’re in trouble.

With a high alpha stealth character and a good handgun and sniper, I’ve taken on enemies around level 28 when I was only level 12 with Cyberpunk’s difficulty level set to Very Hard. It’s good for experience, bad for loot as I have a lot of cool gear I simply cannot wear yet.

Cyberpunk 2077 stealth: The best attributes

Whether starting out or adapting a Cyberpunk 2077 stealth character, you will want to sink your attribute points into the Cool attribute. Each level increases your crit damage by 2 per cent, all resistances by 1 per cent, stealth damage by 10 per cent, reduces the speed at which enemies detect you in stealth by 0.5 per cent and increases monowire damage by 3.

Monowire, spoiler alert, is a melee weapon that you can attach to your arm and can dismember people. It seems to hit hard and can dismember enemies, but I prefer the explosive nature of the projectile launch system as it hits hard and is great against groups of enemies.

The reduced detection speed is a big plus, but it’s the damage bonus and crit damage you really benefit from as it helps you one shot enemies or at least severely reduce their health. You will want to max Cool out.

Body is useful if you want to punch harder, while Reflexes helps with passive evasion, increases critical hit chance and increases the damage by Mantis Blades.

The best perks

Frozen Precision for 50 per cent more damage from headshots, which means sinking points into getting the passive Cold Blood perk and boosting its potency such as duration, max stack amount and other useful bonuses.

In Stealth, From the Shadows increases crit chance by 25 per cent for 7 seconds, Trigger helps you move from one target to the next faster, Silent and Deadly increases damage dealt by silenced weapons while sneaking, Strike from the Shadows increases your crit chance by 15 per cent while sneaking, Assassin means 15 per cent more damage to humans and the various knife and poison skills if you wish to use knives.

In Reflexes, you will want to boost the relevant weapon perks. I favour handguns so I’ve increased my crit chance with pistols and revolvers by 12 per cent with High Noon. Other particularly useful attributes include Desperado, High Noon, Rio Bravo, Wild West, Brainpower, Attritional Fire, From Head to Toe, Westworld, Snowball Effect and Grand Finale.

As you can see, many of these perks make you hit hard initially and even harder if you keep getting those headshots and/or kills. So making sure you have a decent gun or weapon. More on that later.

For blades, you will want to sink points into the equivalent blades perks such as Sting Like a Bee, Roaring Waters, Crimson Dance, Stuck Pig, Shifting Sands, Blessed Blade, Fiery Blast, Judge, Jury & Executioner, Unbroken Spirit, Bloodlust, Float Like a Butterfly and Deathbolt. Stealth’s Ninjutsu is also great as it means dealing 100 per cent more damage and a guaranteed critical hit.

My character favours weapons but you should consider some investment in Breach Protocol and Quick Hacking so you can manipulate cameras and enemies before a fight starts. Reducing the damage resistance of all enemies in a group, for instance, can be useful.

If you plan on using fists, you’ll be sinking points into the Athletics and Street Brawler areas. Perk highlights include Steel and Chrome, Cardio Cure, The Rock, Dazed, Flurry, Crushing Blows, Opportune Strike, Payback and Frenzy.

Bear in mind that the maximum level of your character is 50 and you start with three points allocated to each attribute. That means 17 points maximum per attribute and a chance of maxing out three attributes at best.

When you max out an attribute, you get a Trait. This can be levelled as much as you want, so in the endgame this can be handy if you have nothing else to improve as you level up. The problem is that traits require two level 20 attributes.

For Stealth, you get Toxicology. This is a bonus to poison effect duration and requires level 20 in Cool and Stealth. Each level adds 0.2 seconds per level.

For handguns, it’s called The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. This grants a 30 per cent increase in armour and damage if you land a critical hit. Each level adds 1 per cent extra. You need level 20 in Reflexes and Assault.

For Cold Blood, it’s called Merciless and it increases the chance of a critical by 10 per cent and critical damage by 25 per cent. Each level increases crit chance and crit damage by 1 and 3 per cent, respectively. You need level 20 in Cold Blood and Cool.

Also bear in mind that you can respec your perk points one time only and it costs 100,000 so will take a while to get to that amount of money. The item comes from a Ripperdoc and is called Tabula Rasa. This translates to blank slate, which makes sense.

Sadly, at the time of making this guide you cannot respec your attribute points. So play the game, see what kind of gameplay you enjoy most and then focus on the relevant attributes.

The best character armour, weapons and mods

When you plan to nuke an opponent in one or as few shots as possible, the gun matters. My Overture handgun doubles the damage of headshots – the higher this number, the better – and does a lot of damage per shot. Single, hard-hitting weapons work best for an alpha strike.

Then you want a silencer so you don’t alert other enemies. A good silencer can significantly increase stealth attack damage, 2.5 times in the case of the XC-10 Strix, at the expense of base damage. So make sure you’re in stealth mode when you pull the trigger for maximum damage.

Being distance from an opponent reduces the speed at which you will be seen so a scope can help, as this improves range and can make it easier for you to line up a long-range headshot.

As for my sniper if I want to take on enemies that are really strong, I’ll maintain a lot of distance and aim for the head as my Ashura smart sniper rifle does a huge amount of damage per bullet and it has a 3x multiplier if you hit the head.

Aiming is manual with smart guns until you get the right implant, at which point this gun can fire bullets that home in so you can shoot over or round some obstacles. Just let the gum aim for slightly longer before firing so it targets the head.

If you miss, there’s a chance the bonus stealth damage will be removed as enemies will be after you and its slow to fire so you can be overwhelmed fast. Unless you hang back or jump in and out of cover, which you should do.

If your sniper or weapon is rapid fire, then prepare to hold or bash that trigger and hope you do enough damage fast. Personally, I prefer the alpha method as getting up close can end badly if I fail to do enough damage fast on Very Hard and it also means everyone else is alerted.

As for armour and mods, prioritise damage output and armour amount in case you do get shot at. Movement speed is great too and there are some useful mods such as Ping and Reboot Optics to help you discover and eliminate enemies without detection.

I would also consider the implants that help slow down time, as this can help you get a headshot or multiple headshots when discovered. Or simply run away and hide – your call.

And that’s it for my Cyberpunk 2077 stealth character guide, I’ve not covered absolutely everything because there are many routes to success. This is just one that I personally enjoy using and can be highly effective – even from a low level.