The world of Cyberpunk 2077 is filled to the brim with sleek, compact, and stylish handguns that are just as lethal as the other weapons in the game. They're easy to handle and pack a mean punch that only gets meaner with the right combination of passive skills and gear mods.
The following is a gunslinger-style pistol build that relies on high crit stats and the player's ability to chain kills and score headshots. It's great at all stages of the game, and it's more than capable of one-tapping almost every enemy in Cyberpunk 2077, even in the hardest of difficulties. Here's how to set it up.
Updated September 26, 2023, by Marc Santos: This build guide has been updated to reflect the new skills and cyberware systems introduced in Cyberpunk 2077's 2.0 update.
Cyberpunk 2077 Pistolero Skill Build
The total revamp for the skills and perk system in the 2.0 update drastically changed how pistols are played in Cyberpunk 2077. Instead of spending the majority of perk and attribute points into Reflexes, players now need to invest in Cool and Technical Ability (and also a little bit into Reflexes still).
Long story short, in order to get a strong pistol build, players need to unlock every pistol-related skill in the Cool skill tree, starting with Focus and ending with Nerves of Tungsten Steel, including most (if not all) of the sub-nodes connected to them. Here's what each of the major skills do:
- Focus: Increases headshot and weakspot damage; no Stamina cost when shooting for a short duration after aiming down sights
- Deadeye: Greatly increases headshot and weakspot damage when Stamina is above 85%
- Nerves of Tungsten Steel: All headshot and weakspot hits are guaranteed to be critical when Deadeye is active; increases damage the farther away a target is
Run 'N' Gun is the only optional major skill here. Having no Stamina cost for hip-firing means Deadeye will always be active, but players will miss out on all the benefits Focus and its sub-nodes provide.
Speaking of sub-nodes, Head to Head, Deep Breath, and Quickdraw are the most important ones for this build because of the following:
- Deep Breath makes hitting headshots easier by slowing down time without using cyberware
- Head to Head extends the duration of Focus and its unlimited Stamina effect as long as players keep neutralizing targets
- Quickdraw negates the need to reload since players can just switch to another gun
- Players will never have to reload if they use the Shuffler mod, which reloads a percentage of a gun's empty magazine after swapping to it
With all these in mind, the new gunslinger playstyle revolves around scoring and chaining together headshot kills. Any weapon mod that helps make this easier (Zenith, Shuffler, Pinpoint) will help immensely.
As for the other skill trees, take the following:
- Reflexes
- Slippery
- Muscle Memory
- Multitasker
- Dash (2)
- Steady Grip
- Can't Touch This
- Technical Ability
- All Things Cyber
- Renaissance Punk
- Driver Update
- Chrome Constitution
- License to Chrome (3)
- Ambidextrous
- Extended Warranty
- Cyborg
- Edgerunner
The Reflexes skills allow for more agile movement in combat while enabling the use of Kerenzikov when sliding or dashing. Meanwhile, the Technical Ability skill build above is more or less mandatory for all builds, and this one is no different. Spend any remaining points on preferred Reflexes, Cool, or Body skills.
Recommended Weapons
Since 2.0 removed almost all the go-to weapon mods that make the old pistol build strong, players will need to make do with what's available. Thankfully, the pistol skills above guarantee that pistols and revolvers still have access to improved Critical Hit Damage and 100% Critical Hit Chance (as long as players hit headshots), which play core parts in the original playstyle.
The Overture revolver remains the most well-rounded option for this build thanks to its solid damage profile and easy handling compared to other revolvers. The heavier RT-46 Burya can also be a good choice if players manage its hard-kicking recoil.
Legendary variants are recommended for their modding capabilities, though some iconic guns like Amnesty, Archangel, and the Doom Doom DR-5 Nova are all worthy alternatives.
Regular pistols follow the same rules applied to revolvers, though they are better suited for stealth builds since revolvers can no longer use silencers. Still, hard-hitting handguns like the Nue and Tamayura can also be used in a loud build like this one.
Given the killstreak-focused nature of pistol skills, it's best to equip two or three revolvers at a time. Don't bother reloading and just swap to another gun if one runs out of ammo. Keep the streak alive and reap the benefits of the build.
Cyberware
Cyberware now plays a significantly bigger part in this build than before. The simple stat bump implants are now gone, and players need to improve their cyberware capacity and equip more advanced ones to get the most out of this setup. Priority implants include:
- Militech "Apogee" Sandevistan (OS): Slows down time and greatly increases damage output
- May not be available until Level 40+; use other Militech or Dynalar Sandevistans until then
- Tyrosine Injector (Nervous): Increases movement speed and headshot damage after a takedown
- Newton Module (Frontal Cortex): Reduces cyberware cooldowns after a takedown
- Kerenzikov: Slows down time when aiming after a dash, dodge, or slide
- Clutch Padding (Circulatory): Reduces Stamina cost for shooting
- Kiroshi "Clairvoyant" Optics (Eyes): Cool-attuned; highlights enemies when scanning
- Shock Absorber (Hands): Reduces recoil
Players should fill the remaining empty cyberware slots with their preferred implants for the sake of enabling the Cyborg skill, which reduces the cooldowns of all cyberware by 15% if all slots are filled. Use Sandevistan whenever it's available for quicker kills and easier aiming.
Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
