A complete Cyberpunk 2077 Solo Berserker Build and Guide to designing an aggressive, close-quarters overwhelmingly powerful character. The guide is specifically designed for Update 2.0+!
This guide is up-to-date for Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.12
Table of contents
- Introduction to the Solo Berserker Build
- Weapons
- Core Attributes and Perk Points
- Cyberware
- Solo Berserker Build Summary
Introduction to the Solo Berserker Build
As a Solo Berserker, you’ll strengthen your ‘ganic body and enhance it with tech that lets you slam the ground hard enough that it quakes around you.
Should you decide to send all that kinetic energy into a gonk foolish enough to stand in your way, you’ll find that the only thing left behind after your fist connects is a pool of blood and a few splatters of viscera.
This strategy is all about leveraging the overwhelming power of Gorilla Arms, Tech weapons, and explosives.
The Cyberware in this build focuses on enhancing your performance at close range and maximizing your survivability. You’ll be free to use the Gorilla Arms pretty much exclusively if you want, but have the flexibility to rely more heavily on your guns and explosives.
From a skill tree perspective, you’ll be investing heavily in Body and Technical Ability, acquiring almost all of the Perks in these areas. Additionally, you’ll be making a significant investment in the left branch of the Cool tree, which is dedicated to buffing handguns and rifles.
Blades vs Blunt Weapons
When it comes to melee combat, the choice between blades and blunts is crucial. Blades are typically silent, speedy, lethal, precise, and have about as much range variety as guns, though blades offer superior short-range performance while guns have long-range supremacy.
Blunt weapons attacks themselves are quiet just like blades, though they accompany a noisy playstyle with multiple group-focused capabilities. They are slower than average than blades, are non-lethal, and have a more consistent set of ranges, all of which are melee. However, there are not as many types of blunt weapons compared to blades.
Survivability-wise, blades synergize better with high mobility and mitigation, while blunt weapons focus more on blocking, crowd control (CC), and armor.
Melee Combat: Gorilla Arms, Berserk, and Explosions
The focal point of this build is the melee combat, which consists of actively attacking by punching with your Gorilla Arms and throwing FG-X Frag grenades alongside electrical explosions from Shock-N-Awe, Ticking Time Bomb, and the Fury EMP Blast from reaching level 60 with the Engineer Skill.
As you select a target to punch, other enemies around you will take damage from all those electrical explosions, thinning out the pack. The punches not buffed by the Relic Perks are non-lethal, but everything else will kill the enemy outright.
It seems the developers intended for you to only use Gorilla Arms for punching while Berserk is active, and it’s definitely harder to use without Berserk at the beginning of the game, but you can totally do it almost all the time.
When their health gets low, you can finish off enemies or pick them up and throw them. Both finishers heal you. Throwing an enemy takes longer, but you can damage another if you hit them, or have fun if you chuck them out of a building or something.
Weapons
In this build, alongside the Gorilla Arms, you’ll be using Iconic versions of a Tech sniper rifle and Tech double-barrel shotgun, along with either an LMG or Tech handgun. The branches we’ll be upgrading will boost the effectiveness of Shotguns and LMGs, Handguns and Rifles, and Tech Weapons.
While my specific weapon recommendations aren’t all that important since you will be spending such a significant amount of time punching and exploding, you should still select weapons that are effectively self-sufficient, requiring no Perks to be sufficiently lethal, or are otherwise ideally benefit from at least 2 of the Perk Trees. Typically, you’ll want the tech versions of Shotguns, LMGs (non-existent), Handguns, or Rifles.
Tech Sniper Rifle
The Tech sniper rifle greatly expands your overall combat capabilities by giving you a powerful option to take down enemies that are so far away that it would be impractical to run over and punch them or otherwise get into range with one of your shorter-range guns. Typically, these enemies will be Netrunners or Snipers, and you can see them with the red lines connecting while hacking or aiming with their laser sight.
I think Tech works better than Power with this build because it allows you to defeat stronger enemies with a single (head)shot more consistently, especially while already in combat. The Stamina limitations associated with Power weapons are less pronounced since you spend time charging each shot too.
I recommend either the Breakthrough or the Rasetsu for your Iconic Tech Sniper rifle. Before you unlock either, you can use the standard Tech sniper rifle, the Nekomata.
Iconic Recommendation: Breakthrough
The Breakthrough has 4 shots per clip instead of 3 and has a significantly shorter reload time, allowing you to fire more frequently. You can’t hit quite as hard, but headshots from the Breakthrough are still strong enough to one-shot all human enemies, so you’re not gaining much.
However, it has less consistent behavior regarding wall penetration because it can ricochet, and the Ballistic Coprocessor seems to get confused by the wall penetration part.
This isn’t a huge disadvantage because your visibility will be quite limited with this build. You’re gonna have a hard time aiming accurately through cover anyway.
Pick the Breakthrough if you like to snipe a lot of enemies and hate reloading. You can loot the schematic for Breakthrough from a Suspected Organized Crime NCPD Alert at the southern edge of Rancho Coronado, Santo Domingo.
Iconic Recommendation: Rasetsu
The Rasetsu deals more damage per shot, has more consistent behavior regarding wall penetration than the Breakthrough, and can pierce enemies.
However, it’s not accessible until late in the game, has 3 shots per clip instead of 4, and features a significantly longer reload time. Furthermore, the extra damage doesn’t do much to expand your capabilities. Headshots from the Breakthrough can already one-shot all human enemies.
Pick the Rasetsu if you value consistency and the biggest possible damage numbers. You can loot Rasetsu during the mission You Know My Name at the Black Sapphire in Dogtown.
Tech Shotgun
I recommend using a Tech double-barreled shotgun against nonstandard enemies like bosses and mechs when Berserk is not available. It’s more helpful in the early game when Berserk is weaker and less available.
Later on, this weapon is far less important, and you may want to replace it with some sort of Tech Pistol, so you have something that makes sense for cutscenes and upgraded for car chases.
Iconic Recommendation: Order
Order is the only Iconic Tech shotgun in the game, before getting it, you can just use the DB-2 Satara. The charge and reload time on Order are ridiculously long given you only get to fire a single shot. However, each shot will delete anything it hits aside from bosses, which is ridiculously satisfying.
You can purchase Order from Herold, the Black Market Vendor, at the EBM Petrochem Stadium in Dogtown.
Power LMG or Tech Handgun
I recommend using a Power LMG as your final weapon, though it’s about as separate from regular gameplay as you can get with an equipped weapon. Thanks to the Onslaught Legendary Perk (20 Body), you really don’t need to reload or stop firing until you completely run out of ammo, so until you have spare materials to spend crafting ammo, the gun is basically a cooldown ability.
LMGs are similar to the HMG you rip off of turrets, though the fire rate will end up being much faster, and you don’t have to worry about it getting too hot, and even get some boosts from having low Stamina.
Since it’s so separate, and the only Iconic is found in the DLC, I think this whole section and the investment in that branch of Body can be skipped if you just have the base game.
Iconic Recommendation: Wild Dog
The Iconic version doesn’t change functionality like some do; it’s really just an extra buff to damage output, so if you don’t have the expansion, don’t worry, the M2067 Defender or MA70 HB will work just fine.
THIS PARAGRAPH CONTAINS A SPOILER!
The Wild Dog drops from Phantom Liberty’s Colonel Hansen during the Firestarter mission. It is the only Iconic LMG in the game.
END OF SPOILER
If you don’t want to use an LMG, I recommend using a Tech handgun or revolver instead since that will get buffed by the same perks as your Tech sniper rifle. There are many to choose from. I personally enjoyed Comrade’s Hammer the most, though I also used the Raiju, which is a Tech SMG, for quite some time as well.
Core Attributes and Perk Points
In this build, practically all of your Perk Points are allocated to Technical Ability, Body, and Cool. This allocation means you aren’t really starved for Attribute Points, and you can easily cut off a specific branch in the Body tree when you’re short on Perk points.
All Attributes
This build requires you to invest heavily in multiple attributes to access the top perks in specific branches, though you won’t be getting any Perks in Intelligence and only a couple in Reflexes at the most.
I recommend spending 10 points on Intelligence when you max everything else out so that you can make more money by being able to hack most Access Points. If you don’t want to do this, by all means, spend those on Reflexes for a tad bit of extra critical chance.
Body
Body boosts your survivability and effectiveness with blunt weapons, namely, the Gorilla Arms. With Phantom Liberty, you’ll be able to spend enough points here to buff your shotgun and LMG as well. The middle branch is all about passive health regeneration and gives access to an effect called Adrenaline Rush, which gives you some overshield (or rather overhealth) whenever you use your healing item.
The right branch buffs your blunt weapons, including Gorilla Arms, primarily by greatly expanding what you can do while wielding one, though also by reducing your stamina consumption and attack speed. When you max out the tree, you’ll be able to slam the ground, sending out a Quake that damages and knocks down nearby enemies, and the effect can scale with your fall speed and fall distance. You recover HP and stamina for each enemy hit by Quake.
You’ll also get access to some finishers that allow you to punch or pick up and throw your victims so violently that their bodies break apart on impact. You recover a ton of HP each time you finish an enemy off this way.
The left branch improves your proficiency with shotguns, and especially LMGs, along with the quick melee attacks you do with those weapons. The unique capability in this branch gives you a chance to instantly kill some enemies with each hit at low HP along with other buffs dependent on the aforementioned Obliteration of enemies.
In the early game, dump as many points as you can into buffing blunt weapons (right branch) until you start running into survivability issues, then invest points into health regeneration (middle branch) as needed.
As you approach level 60, you can start investing in buffs for your LMG/shotgun (left branch). Since shotguns, especially the Iconic that I recommend, are already lethal, I think only it’s worth investing in this branch if you plan to use an LMG. You can only afford the most important Perks, and you’ll have to give up some nice-to-haves elsewhere.
Technical Ability
Technical Ability increases your Cyberware Capacity, gives your Tech weapons a special precision charging effect called Bolt, and improves the effectiveness of your Healing Item, Explosives, and Cyberware. You have to use FG-X Fragmentation Grenade with this build because Pyromania only triggers from that type of Grenade and the Projectile Launch System.
Just about everything in this tree is valuable, so if you have a spare Perk Point, spend it on something here, whatever you feel you need at the moment. Keep in mind that some of the Perks in this tree have more specific use cases than the other trees, so be sure to read each Perk effect carefully and only spend it if you will benefit from it now.
Read our in-depth guide to the Technical Ability Attribute and Perk Trees
Cool
In the Cool tree, all you’ll need are the buffs to damage and stamina regeneration for rifles (and handguns) in the left branch. Focus and Deadeye trigger when you have high stamina; they make aiming easier, make your headshots deal significantly more damage, and refund stamina.
You’ll want to spend more points in the left branch whenever you have a hard time landing a headshot or can’t deal enough damage to one-shot most enemies, assuming your rifle isn’t garbage. Don’t forget that most of the buffs require you to have very high stamina, so they won’t always work.
Everything you should know about the Cool Attribute and Perk Trees
Relic
The only thing you will be able to make consistent use of in the Relic Skill tree is the Jailbreak and Limiter removal perk to occasionally buff the strong attack from your Gorilla Arms. When you see your fists glowing with the blue from the Relic, your next strong punch will vaporize the next enemy and deal significant damage to those foolish enough to be standing behind them.
Vulnerability Analytics and Machine Learning are sometimes useful, but you’re often standing too close to see them or can’t reach far enough to hit the marked area from where you’re standing. You don’t use Optical Camo, so those Perks aren’t all that helpful.
You have to find Militech Data Terminals in Dogtown to fully unlock and upgrade the Relic Skill Tree and we have all of their locations available in that guide.
Cyberware
In this section, I’ll be covering the Cyberware I recommend you use with the Solo Berserker build.
General Cyberware Recommendations
The amount of Cyberware you can equip is too variable to offer a one-size-fits-all solution. The Cyberware you’ll be able to equip depends on your exact street cred, level, current perks, and how many Cyberware capacity shards you’ve found. As a result, I’ve divided up my Cyberware recommendations into 3 categories based on their importance to the build.
Primary Cyberware Only
Primary Cyberware is what I consider to be essential to the build. It should be what you prioritize equipping first before anything else. For this build, the essentials increase your damage output in ways that are unique to this build and provide all of your active ability Cyberware.
| Icon | Cyberware Implant | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Electrifying Gorilla Arms | Arms |
| Dense Marrow | Skeleton |
| Shock-N-Awe | Integumentary System |
| Microrotors | Circulatory System |
| Blood Pump | Circulatory System |
| Kiroshi “co*ckatrice” Optics OR Kiroshi “The Oracle” Optics | Face |
| Militech BerserkOR Biodyne Berserk | Operating System (read its dedicated segment further down in the guide) |
Secondary Cyberware Included
Secondary Cyberware is what I consider to be important to the build but not to the same degree as the Primary Cyberware. Most of it focuses on enhancing survivability, but I want to clarify some of the ones that may seem less useful at first glance.
The Painducer makes you take damage in a more consistent manner so you won’t die suddenly and can trigger Shock-N-Awe more reliably while giving a lot of armor. Self-Ice is nice because you’ll seldom actually be in melee range of a Netrunner, so being able to stop hacks is lovely.
| Icon | Cyberware Implant | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Self-Ice | Frontal Cortex |
| Mechatronic Core | Frontal Cortex |
| Epimorphic Skeleton | Skeleton |
| Para Bellum | Skeleton |
| Cellular Adapter | Integumentary System |
| Painducer | Integumentary System |
| Fortified Ankles | Legs |
Tertiary Cyberware Included
Tertiary Cyberware is what I consider to be valuable to the build but not essential. The attunements are variable, and they’re really just nice to have if you have some spare Cyberware capacity that can’t be used on a Primary or Secondary.
You could absolutely give up or change any of these if you prefer something else, but this lets you fill in every available slot and fill up all but the final point of Cyberware Capacity for your Fury EMP.
| Icon | Cyberware Implant | Category |
|---|---|---|
| Axolotl OR Newton Module | Frontal Cortex |
| Neofiber | Nervous System |
| Atomic Sensors | Nervous System |
| Adrenaline Converter | Nervous System |
| Threatevac | Circulatory System |
| Ballistic Coprocessor | Hands |
Active Ability Cyberware
Active Ability Cyberware is Cyberware that you have to activate in order for it to provide any benefit in combat. With this build, there are 2 pieces of Cyberware that offer a distinct active effect, including the Gorilla Arms and Berserk.
Berserk
Berserk is one of the three types of Operating System Cyberware. This type is dedicated to improving your performance while using a melee weapon. Activating Berserk restricts you to melee weapons (no guns, healing, or grenades), eliminates the Stamina cost for using melee weapons, makes you immune to death, and heals you for 25% of your maximum HP for each enemy you defeat once the effect ends.
It also turns on a heavy red filter and turns off many UI elements, allowing you to focus on the combat, but makes you less informed about the state of the world around you, so you can’t be quite as strategic, just like someone who has gone berserk. You can turn it off early, but you have to wait for the cooldown to finish before you can use it again.
Most Berserks are attuned to Body and provide some other bonuses while active that synergize with your melee attacks. Upgrading Berserk improves these unique bonuses.
I recommend using the Militech Berserk, which is the only Iconic version of this type of Operating System. It costs a ton of Cyberware capacity, but it’s worth it because it’s significantly stronger than the non-Iconic versions.
Notably, it makes you immune to damage instead of just preventing your HP from dropping below 25%. However, you still have a strong incentive to use it at low health because it also makes you also deal more damage the lower your health is when it was activated.
Before you unlock the Iconic, I recommend using Biodyne Berserk.
See all Berserk Operating Systems in our Cyberware Catalog
Gorilla Arms
The Gorilla Arms are your actual melee weapons, and they are considered a blunt weapon for the purposes of the Perks in the Body tree. With this build, they will be the only thing you can use while Berserk is active, and that’s fine. You can and should activate Berserk to buff the damage dealt by your Gorilla Arms whenever its available unless the fight is almost over and won’t be off cooldown in time for the next one.
You can absolutely still punch enemies while Berserk is not active, though you can’t ignore faraway enemies like Snipers and Netrunners since you aren’t immune to damage. In those instances, swap over to your Tech sniper rifle to take out the enemy that’s out of reach and return to punching.
I strongly recommend using the Electrifying Gorilla Arms with this build because they are one of the types that deal the most damage per hit, are attuned to Technical Ability, so you’ll get the full damage boost from spending 20 points.
They’ll also visually match all of your other electrical cyberware effects, benefit from stats that boost electrical damage, and even out your performance against mechanical enemies.
Everything about the Arms Cyberware in Update 2.0
This concludes the guide for the Solo Berserker combat build in Cyberpunk 2077. Remember, this build maximizes your survivability and is all about enhancing your performance at close range. So, get out there and start punching!
If you’re interested in a build on the opposite side of the gameplay spectrum, check out some of my other build guides, like the Blade Assassin and Netrunner.
The Blade Assassin build relies on stealth, knife-throwing, and a bit of poison to topple enemies, while the Netrunner build uses their Cyberdeck to execute Quickhacks from afar along with Smart weapons since they spent all their time at the academy instead of the firing range.
For everything else, visit our Master List of Cyberpunk 2077 Guides – a collection of highlighted guides about the game and its expansion.
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