Cyberpunk 2077recently got its long-awaited “Next Gen Update”, which overhauled a great deal of the game’s mechanics and systems. Among the countless changes toCyberpunk 2077by the Next Gen Update were a number of new and reworked perks for players to acquire during their playthrough, and this article will discuss and rank those new perks.
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Cyberpunk 2077has had a number of updates since its somewhat controversial initial launch, and this update seems intended to address many of the issues brought up by critics at launch while also marking the game’s debut on PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. Alongside the new perks discussed in this list, the update also makes a huge number of changes to existing perks, adds new weapons, additional apartments for V to rent, changes to combat and crowd AI, and makes large changes to the driving system, among other things.
5Draw The Line
Draw the Line replaces the perk “Lightning Bolt”, which increased the crit chance of tech weapons by 3%. This new perk instead allows players tosee a preview of a bullets' ricochet trajectorywhen aiming with power weapons, as long as ballistic coprocessor cyberware is installed. Useful for performing trick shots or striking at foes around corners or behind cover, but highly situational in its application, this perk carves a place for itself at the bottom of this list.
This perk could be potentially useful for hitting enemies that are hiding behind cover or around a corner by bouncing bullets off of walls or ceilings with great accuracy. It could also be used well with long-range weapons to extend the range and bounce the bullet around obstacles.
4Looking Sharp
The next new perk, “Looking Sharp”, replaces the perk “Commando”. The Commando perk made V undetectable while underwater, which was almost never useful in atypical playthrough of the game. Looking Sharp is much more generally useful, allowing players to blind an enemy by hitting them in the head with a throwing knife.
This is especially useful given the improvements made to knives in the Next-Gen Update, which make them much easier to use in combat by causing them to return to the player after a cooldown period (which varies based on the rarity of the knife). With this, it becomes very possible to blind multiple enemies in combat with carefully aimed knife throws.
3Juggler
The “Juggler” perk also ties into the changes to throwing knives and replaces the “Silent Finisher” perk. The Silent Finisher perk caused enemies below 15% health hit with knives to instantly die, while the new perk instead causes critical hits with knives to end the cooldown on all knives,returning them to V instantly.
Throwing knives are excellent weapons for inflicting poison and (with the Looking Sharp perk) blindness onto foes in combat, and this perk allows players to keep throwing for far longer than otherwise possible by allowing them to avoid the cooldown between uses of a knife.
2Easy Out
The “Easy Out” perk is a new perk for the Cold Blood perk set, and replaces the perk “Unbreakable”. Where Unbreakable increased the maximum number of Cold Blood stacks by 1, Easy Out insteadincreases the damage of ranged weaponsby 10% at level 1 and 20% at level 2, as long as the target is within 5 m of V and V currently has at least one stack of the Cold Blood buff.
Any build relying on pistols, revolvers, shotguns, or submachine guns will benefit greatly from this perk, as the increase to damage at close range pairs excellently with weapons that would suffer a decrease in accuracy over greater distances.
The Cold Blood perks as a whole revolve around building stacks of the “Cold Blood” buff, with most of the perks granting additional benefits to the player for every stack they have. Stacks are gained by defeating enemies, and the Cold Blood perks encourage moving quickly and eliminating enemies as quickly as possible to continue building stacks.
1Tenacious V
The “Tenacious V” perk is an exceptionally useful new perk that replaces the perk “Stronger Together”. Stronger Together increased damage dealt while carrying a body, which was,much like the commando perk, almost never useful during a typical playthrough. Tenacious V instead allows V to continue regenerating health even when taking damage. This means that V’s health regeneration cannot be interrupted by enemy attacks, making V far more durable in a fight.
This perk is useful to any build that can make use of it, especially builds that are frequently in the line of fire, like melee combat builds and builds using weapons that lose accuracy at long ranges, such as pistols and shotguns. When paired perks like Cardio Cure to improve regeneration or defensive perks like Hard Motherfucker, this perk can make V incredibly tough to put down. It also pairs well with the cold blood perks mentioned above, since they encourage a faster and more reckless playstyle.
Cyberpunk 2077is available now for PC, PS4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS5, and Google Stadia.
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