Cyberpunk 2077: Best Quickhacks

Quickhacks are essential to the build of any Netrunner in Cyberpunk 2077 who wants to make a name for themselves in Night City, and some of the best Quickhacks on the market will topple empires within the right Cyberdeck. There is immense power in Quickhacks for Cyberpunk 2077 that should not be underestimated, as often the hack is mightier than the bullet.

Most enemies might choose to chrome-up with Sandevistans and powerful guns, but what of the V who has indulged in Intelligence and brought an army of Quickhacks? Now, that’s a V that’s going to burn Night City with the powers only a true Netrunner can possess.

8

Memory Wipe

Keep Stealth Going by Preventing Enemies From Noticing V

• Effects: Untraceable. Prevents the target enemy from noticing you for a short time. -35% trace progress when uploading outside of combat. Quickhacks queued after Memory Wipe are not traceable. Forces all enemies to exit combat state.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

Memory Wipe provides players with the ins that they need for total stealth gameplay, as it will make it so that players are untraceable, but only if players use it outside of combat. What this means is that targeted enemies are unable to notice the player, meaning they can get as close as they want to deal with a lethal strike.

Memory Wipe isn’t the best Quickhack, but it’s not the worst. Further variants like the Tier 5 and Iconic will reduce the upload time, and will even make it so that all enemies exit the combat state so that players can neutralize their enemies before they’ve even seen them coming, but it’s mainly a Quickhack for those who are dedicated to stealth.

7

Cripple Movement

Disable Enemy Movement and Cyberware

• Effects: Disables enemy movement and cyberware that supports movement and dodging. +15% melee damage against affected enemies. Affected enemies are more susceptible to melee Finishers. +5% Health and +2 RAM after performing Finishers on affected enemies.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

Many of the gangs in Night City are dependent on cyberware to get around, and as such, the Cripple Movement Quickhack is going to disable their ability to get around, making them easy targets to attack as they remain docile and vulnerable. On top of this, further variants of the Cripple Movement Quickhack will provide bonus damage to melee attacks, and even provide more health and RAM upon a Finisher.

The fact that players have an easy way to basically disable enemies and make it so that they can’t do anything other than watch V go cyberpsycho on them for over 13 seconds just proves that being a Netrunner can be extremely overpowered in the right hands.

6

Cyberware Malfunction

Disable Enemy Cyberware and Increase Their Vulnerability

• Effects: Stacks up to 8 times. Disables enemy cyberware for 10 seconds and increases all damage against the affected enemy by 5%. At 2 stacks, permanently disables enemy cyberware. At 3 stacks, deals Electrical damage over time. Each application refreshes the effect’s duration or reapplies the effect. At maximum stacks, enemy cyberware overloads, dealing massive damage. Cyberware Malfunction cannot be used on the same enemy again.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

Cyberware Malfunction might not totally cripple enemies like the Cripple Movement Quickhack, but it will serve a higher purpose against cyberpsychos and other criminals of Night City that have too much chrome. Cyberware Malfunction will disable the cyberware of enemies, meaning those with Mantis Blades or Sandevistans are useless against the V that uses this Quickhack.

During these 10 seconds of vulnerability, those impacted by the Quickhack will also have a 5% increase in weakness to damage from all sources, so players can really go to town on them. Stacking this Quickhack means even more damage, and can totally disable the enemy’s cyberware and stack the damage dealt to them.

5

Sonic Shock

Cloak Enemies From Others to Single Them Out for a Stealth Kill

• Effects: Untraceable. Quickhacks against the affected enemy still initiate trace progress but do not increase it. Deafens the enemy, reducing their ability to detect you. Scrambles comms, preventing the affected enemy from communicating with their allies. Cloaks the enemy from their allies’ sensory systems, causing them to be ignored. Uploading Sonic Shock to an enemy already affected by Memory Wipe and reboot Optics will cause them to lose consciousness.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

With the right synergy with other Quickhacks, Sonic Shock can become a lethal monster on the battlefield, as V hunts his enemies like ghosts. Stronger variants of Sonic Shock will allow players to cloak their targets from their allies, meaning that they are easy prey that other enemies ignore once players activate Sonic Shock to see them fry.

Sonic Shock might not deal the most efficient damage to kill them, but the stealth capabilities to effectively single out an enemy and kill them with a silenced weapon, or another Quickhack, makes it the perfect choice for the V who wants to stay in the shadows with each combat encounter.

4

Contagion

Poison Enemies That Can Spread to Others

• Effects: Infects the enemy with a virus that causes toxic cyberware substances to leak. This deals poison damage over time and can spread to 4 enemy(-ies) within 8m. Effective against closely grouped enemies. Ineffective against mechs, robots, drones, and turrets. Stacks 2 times. Applying a Burn or Overheat effect against an affected enemy will cause the leaked toxic substance to detonate. The explosion removes Contagion’s effect. +15% damage with this quickhack against each subsequent enemy it spreads to.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

Contagion is a lethal virus that will see players infect their enemies with toxic cyberware to damage them over a period of 6 to 8 seconds. During this team, enemies won’t know where the damage is coming from, and it can even stack between enemies to topple empires of enemies before they even know what’s happening to them.

Combined with the Overheat Quickhack, the Tier 4 variant and above will combine this poison effect with burn to explode enemies, sending out different forms of deadly malware to enemies while also extending its time and damage dealt to make them all fall like dominos.

3

Synapse Burnout

Deals Immense Physical Damage

• Effects: Deals heavy damage. Damage increases by 10% for each RAM unit currently spent (max. +300%). =2 RAM cost for 15 seconds after neutralizing an enemy with this quickhack. Stacks 3 times. When Overclock is active, the damage bonus for Synapse Burnout (based on spent RAM) increases by 100%. Neutralizing an enemy with this quickhack extends Overclock’s duration by 3 seconds.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

For the brute Netrunners out there, Synapse Burnout is going to be the Quickhack for them. This is the perfect Quickhack to synergize with the Overclock perk from the Intelligence Attribute, as it will increase the maximum damage bonus to an absurd 500%, as well as increase the time the enemy is affected. The Quickhack itself is lethal in all the right ways, providing near-instant death due to its stroke-like symptoms.

Uploading this Quickhack to an enemy might be a tad expensive, but the increase to damage is going to make sure that this is an enemy that isn’t getting back up, and if they are, they aren’t going to last much longer with the use of another Quickhack or a bullet to the brain.

2

Suicide

Force Enemies to Take Their Own Lives

• Effects: Forces the enemy to put a gun to their head and pull the trigger, neutralizing them.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

Perhaps the most morbid and yet the most hilarious of the Quickhacks is the Suicide Quickhack, which will force enemies to kill themselves. Those who upload this Quickhack will watch with a smirk as the enemy that they have hacked will subconsciously pull out their own gun and blow their heads off. It’s an efficient Quickhack for those in the heat of battle, as the Iconic and Tier 5 variants provide a 10 and 20% health recovery to any enemy killed by this Quickhack.

Not only is it fun to watch as enemies in Cyberpunk 2077 put some iron in their mouths and pull the trigger, but it’s also equally as rewarding as it is sadistic, as players can recover their health by forcing enemies to take themselves out of the fight.

1

Reboot Optics

Reset the Optics of an Enemy to Make Them Temporarily Blind

• Effects: Blinds the enemy for the duration of the quickhack. In combat, it greatly reduces enemy accuracy.
• Iconic Variant: Purchased from Sammy Taylor at the EBM Petrochem Stadium, Dogtown (Phantom Liberty)

For beginner Netrunners, Reboot Optics is near-essential. To stealth players, there’s no greater Quickhack. While this isn’t a Quickhack to make enemies suffer from beyond the Blackwall, it’s still a nostalgic and early Quickhack that’s easy to obtain, and even easier to use, as all it does is upload a quick little hack to temporarily blind enemies for around 8 seconds, up to an extended 15 seconds.

It’s best used outside of combat so players can get behind their blind enemies and take them out via stealth, but even in combat, it can be pretty efficient, especially since getting a headshot on an impacted enemy will transfer the Quickhack to the closest one, while also providing a 30% damage buff thanks to the Iconic variant.