Cyberpunk 2077‘s recent 2.0 update introduced major improvements to melee combat and crit-focused builds. According to popular YouTuber KhrazeGaming, one build stands above the rest for dominating the Hard difficulty – the BladeRunner.
By combining high-DPS katanas with hard-hitting throwing daggers, you can slice through enemies like butter while triggering insane crits. Even in endgame content, this build allows you to reliably take down elite enemies in seconds.
In this comprehensive guide, you‘ll learn:
- Why the BladeRunner is the best all-round build after patch 2.0
- The optimal melee and range weapons to use
- How to maximize damage through crits and poison effects
- The best skill investments to become an unstoppable cyberninja
- Powerful combos to melt bosses and solo group fights with ease
Whether you‘re starting a new playthrough or respecing your high-level V, this guide has everything you need to build the ultimate glass cannon V and finally experience Cyberpunk 2077 properly on Hard. Let‘s dive in!
Why BladeRunner is the Best Build For Hard Difficulty
The BladeRunner Build focuses on using Katanas and Throwing Knives while investing heavily in the Cool Attribute and its related perks. This offers several major advantages:
Extreme Melee Attack Speed
Katana attack speed bonuses from Cool skills allow you to chain hits faster than enemies can react. By dashing between targets, you can wipe out entire squads before they can even draw their weapons.
Guaranteed Crits
Cool skills give you 100% crit chance against enemies when attacking from stealth or at long range. Since throwing knives count as a ranged attack, you can reliably crit even large groups after the opening attack.
Enormous Crit Damage
Combining guaranteed crits with high damage katanas causes most enemies to go down in 1-3 hits. Against solitary foes you can trigger chain crits for over 200k+ damage.
Poison Support
Throwing knives instantly apply poison status effects. This synergizes with Cool skills to give a further 200% damage bonus to katana attacks against poisoned enemies.
Add in the classic cyberpunk abilities like bullet time reflexes, increased movement speed and health regen, and you have a build that excels in every combat situation while requiring minimal resource management.
According to popular YouTuber KhrazeGaming, the BladeRunner “might be the most accessible, highest damage build” that works for all levels of gear and upgrades. So whether you’re starting fresh or taking on endgame content, this guide will transform you into a virtually unstoppable solo fighter.
Optimal Weapons
While the BladeRunner build offers flexibility for various katanas and knives, two weapons stand out for their raw DPS…
Yorinobu’s Katana
With a base DPS over 2000 and bonus electrical damage on every hit, this iconic katana allows you to shred through any enemy caught in melee range before they can react. It also has a chance to instantly kill weaker targets, letting you chain executions across the battlefield.
Viper Throwing Knives
Offering the highest damage and chance to poison per knife thrown, equipping a set of Viper knives should be a priority. Poisoning groups of enemies before dashing into melee range amplifies the damage bonuses of Cool skills massively.
During the early game until you acquire these weapons, focus on keeping your primary melee and throwable weapons upgraded to the best available versions. Prioritize any that offer bonus electric or poison damage.
David Martinez’ iconic pistols also received major improvements in 2.0, making them a great backup weapon for ranged encounters before you pick up throwing knives.
Attribute & Skill Distribution
To maximize your lethality, the majority of points should be invested in Cool skills…
Cool – 20
This governs stealth, crit damage and melee weapon bonuses. Getting it to 20 ASAP is essential.
Cold Blood should be a priority early Cool investment. Rank it to max as soon as possible for bonus crit chance/damage and health regeneration during combat.
Throwing Knives Mastery is also vital for boosting knife damage and applying poison. Knife Expert lets throwing knives ignore enemy armor and penetrate cover.
Assassin and other melee damage passives will cause your katana strikes to one-shot most non-boss enemies, even on Very Hard. Executioner gives a 50% damage bonus to help cut down tankier foes quickly.
Cat Footed, Evade, Strike From The Shadows and amped Up support your aggressive hit-and-run style by increasing mobility, defence and ambush damage.
Reflexes – 16
Since melee combat relies on rapid reaction times, investing in Reflexes early helps activate bullet time against dangerous enemies, while increasing passive evasion.
With 16 Reflexes, you unlock the Reboot Optics quickhack. This instantly reboots an enemy‘s entire HUD and optical systems, blinding them completely while you close in for the finisher.
Body – 12
Raising Body gives more base health to compensate for a "glass cannon" playstyle. With 12 Body you can also unlock Second Heart, giving a second life if your health is overwhelmed.
Remaining attribute points can be invested into Technical for improved weapon crafting to max out your katana DPS, and a few points into Intelligence for quickhack utility likePing and Reboot Optics.
By combining all these passive buffs with Cold Blood‘s active damage and health regen steroids during combat itself, you‘ll have all the tools needed to dominate the most challenging fights Cyberpunk can offer.
Advanced Tactics & Combos
While the raw damage output allows you to overpower enemies quickly, mastering advanced combos and strategies will let you effortlessly take on all kinds of content.
Ranged Crit Openers
Attacking enemies from stealth or at long range gives guaranteed crits thanks to Cool skills.
When entering an area with multiple targets, throw Viper knives at the two furthest enemies first. This will apply poison and trigger crit damage. Whether the knife kills them outright or not, it leaves them weakened for the follow up.
Quickly throw knives at closer targets to stagger them, then dash into melee range while they‘re recovering to finish them off with Yorinobu‘s Katana before they can react.
Against isolated dangerous targets like Cyberpsychos, open with a few shotgun blasts from stealth for big crit damage, then quickly rush them down.
Finishers
The key to successfully chaining kills is using signature finisher moves that instantly take stunned enemies out of a fight.
Cyberpunk offers options like non-lethal takedowns, grapples and targeted quickhacks, but for ultra high damage, nothing beats the new iconic Katana finishers added in patch 1.5…
After hitting an enemy with a few strikes from stealth or using knives/guns to stun them, activate the Left Trigger katana finisher. This will unleash a deadly precision slash, beheading or dismembering the target for an instant kill.
You can chain these stylish executions to wipe out entire squads in seconds while Cold Blood keeps your health and damage steroid maxed out.
Against tougher enemies like mech suits or Cyberpsychos, bring them close to death with throwing knives and shotgun blasts, then finish them with the Right Trigger katana finisher – a dashing lethal series of slashes combined with a devastating stab attack.
Maximizing Cold Blood
Cold Blood should be kept active as much as possible. Look for opportunities during combat to apply Cold Blood‘s heal using the quick action wheel if the bonus crit stats are running low.
Try to stealth takedown isolated enemies first to max out the buff duration before engaging the rest. Using the Projectile Launch System to lob electric bombs into a group is also a great way to instantly fill the Cold Blood meter before dashing in.
With buffs active, even enemies 10+ levels higher will melt under your rapid slashes as you dance between them at blinded-by-the-lightspeed.
Matching The Best – David Martinez Comparison
According to KhrazeGaming‘s extensive testing, the BladeRunner build actually surpasses the previous "best build" candidate – the David Martinez pistol/shotgun setup that defined early Cyberpunk meta.
While David Martinez absolutely destroys with tech weapons and shotguns after buffs in patch 1.5, ammo needs to be managed carefully. The BladeRunner meanwhile offers sustained domination without needing to pause for reloads.
Both builds leverage Cold Blood‘s bonus damage and healing, but BladeRunner’s stronger synergies with melee and throwing knives push its peak damage output even higher. Katanas also ignore armor values, letting you cut down enemies like Adam Smasher just as quickly as basic goons.
Of course these builds can complement each other! By keeping high burst damage tech weapons and David Martinez’s pistols equipped in your secondary weapon slots, you essentially eliminate all potential weaknesses a cyberninja assassin could face.
But for reliably shredding through the hardest fights solo in style, while looking like an absolute badass, nothing compares to the Cyberpunk 2077 BladeRunner Build. Just make sure you‘ve got some points left for mantis blades too once you max out the katanas!
Conclusion
Whether you’re a veteran looking to shake up your next playthrough, or just bought the game to see what all the fuss is about, using this guide to optimize your build around katanas, knives and Cold Blood will let you experience Cyberpunk 2077’s fluid combat at its most intense.
These stacking skill combos update classic hack ‘n slash action to create an electrifying new playstyle, with the satisfaction of styling on enemies who seemed impossible on your first attempt through the story.
So spec out your skill shards into Cool and Blade skills, grab your nearest katana and ironically prove just how cool melee combat can be in a cyberpunk world. Just stay frosty against those Arasaka agents and you’ll become Night City’s most wanted merc in no time!
Have you tried a specialized BladeRunner build in Cyberpunk 2077? Share your experiences and tips in the comments below!