Throwing Knife Build (Patch 1.63) - Cyberpunk 2077

By zanuffas
Last updated: 21 September 2023

This post is all about the best Throwing Knife build for Cyberpunk 2077. Overall these weapons have been lackluster. However, since the 1.5 and 1.6 patch, they have received significant attention from CD Projekt Red. With this in mind let's see what they are capable of

Throwing Knife Build
Conclusion

Throwing Knife Build

The build is very fun and provides an interesting approach to combat. Generally speaking, you will be using melee weapons to kill enemies from the distance. This build will try to maximize everything that is possible so that the build would be very powerful.

throwing knives build cyberpunk 2077

Our general aim is to have a very high critical chance so that knives would return to V after each critical hit. Of course, the Throwing Knives build is a glass cannon and will require practice to survive the more difficult game encounters.

Attributes

Starting the game

Reflexes +3.
Cool +3.
Technical Ability +1.

Progression

Level	Reflex	Body	Tech	Cool	Int
10	10	4	5	9	3
30	16	4	12	16	3
50	20	4	18	20	9

Here is the reasoning for how we pick each of the attribute points:

Reflexes - provides bonus damage and perks for the Blade tree. It is most important for Throwing Knives build
Body - we put a few points to increase the survivability of the build.
Tech - this is a very important tree. It unlocks legendary weapon crafting. We will need it to improve our knives. The legendary tier provides a +9% critical chance which we will need for the active Juggler perk. Moreover, legendary knives have a shorter cooldown to return.
Cool is stealth related perk that also increases combat capabilities
Intelligence - this one looks strange as why would you need it on physical damage build? The reason is that we want some Frontal Cortex cyberware that gives a bonus Critical Chance.

If you have problems with survivability leave Reflexes and Cool at level 18. This way you can put some points into Body and get Athletics perks for better HP management.

Perks

Let's go now through recommended perks for the Throwing Knives build. I suggest do not follow the perks blindly and adjust them based on your playstyle. However, the two most important trees in my opinion are Blades and Ninjutsu

Blades

throwing knives build blades tree cyberpunk 2077

Reflex Level	Skill	Description
1	Sting Like a Bee x3	Increases attack speed by 30%. It will ensure that you have very fast attacks to take out enemies as fast as possible.
4	Slow and Steady x1	As the build is prone to enemy shots, having increased armor by 30% while moving is essential not to die instantly
4	Crimson Dance x2 (Optional)	Gives a 30% chance to apply Bleed. Although it does not deal massive damage it will provide other benefits later on
6	Flight of the Sparrow x2	Reduces the Stamina cost of all attacks with Knives by 50%. Especially early you don't want to drain your stamina bar and get fatigued.
10	Blessed Blade	Gives a flat 10% critical chance. This is very important perk for Throwing Knives build as critical hits will allow the knife to instantly return.
12	Bloodlust x2 (Optional)	This ability complements Crimson Dance and gives health regeneration when the enemy is Bleeding. I think it is optional as it may be great in the mid-game but becomes useless later on.
12	Float Like A Butterfly x2	Dodging will give 50% more damage for 5 seconds. Very high increase for something that you will constantly activate Kerenzikov or dodge enemies
15	Judge, Jury, and Executioner x3	Huge damage boost on the first hit to the enemy. Your knives will be much deadlier
15	Fiery Blast x3	Very strong perk. It gives a bonus of 3% damage for every 1% health the enemy is missing. It will be useful in drawn-out fights when you switch to Katana
18	Deathbolt	This is an ability that you need for encounters with many enemies. Each enemy that you kill will restore your health by 20% and increase the movement speed by 30% for 5 seconds.
20	Dragon Strike	A very powerful perk that greatly improves Throwing Knife build late in the game. It gives +40% Crit Damage. Combine this with high Crit Chance and you have a deadly build.

Ninjutsu

This is a very important tree for Throwing Knives build. It will allow knives to poison enemies and greatly improves stealth damage and capabilities.

throwing knives build ninjutsu tree cyberpunk 2077

Level	Skill	Description
1	Silent and Deadly	Increases damage dealt by silenced weapons. After some testing, I can confirm that Throwing Knives are included in this category
1	Crouching Tiger	Gives 20% faster movement speed while sneaking
5	Dagger Dealer	Enables knife throwing. The Knife that you wear can be thrown by aiming.
7	Assassin	Deals 15% more damage to humans. Almost all the enemies that you will fight will be humans, so the choice is obvious
7	Strike from the Shadows	Increases Critical Chance by 7% while sneaking. You will have a higher chance to do a critical hit on the first strike before the enemy spots you.
7	Leg Up (optional)	I personally prefer to use takedowns, especially early in the game. However, if you feel that you do not use them, pass up this ability
9	Sniper x2	Increases headshot damage by 20% outside combat. As you will use your knives when sneaking, this is a perfect ability to greatly increase Knife Throwing damage.
9	Cutthroat	I put only one point here. My main reason being is that usually, not many enemies will survive the knife to the head. However, it is very useful in boss fights when you switch to a large weapon.
12	From the Shadows x2	Provides a 20% bonus critical chance for the first 7 seconds of the combat.
12	Ghost x2	Increases the detection time before the enemy spots you by 40%
14	Critical Antidote	A Strong Attack or thrown Knife against a poisoned enemy will remove their Poison status, dealing instant Poison damage instead, and will have a 100% increased Crit Chance. Cooldown 5 sec. per affected enemy.
14	Venomous Fangs	All knives apply Poison
14	Looking Sharp	Another decent ability is that will blind the target if it does not die after the knife hits the head.
14	Rattlesnake	Enemies affected by Poison cannot sprint.
16	Juggler	Thanks to this perk, the ninja build improves by a large margin. It allows to instantly restore a knife it throwing it results in enemy death or critical hit.
16	Hasty Retreat	Gives a 50% boost after being detected for 5 seconds. Thanks to this ability you can run around very fast and take out a few enemies before your take damage
18	Cheat Death	Reduces damage by 50% when health drops below 50% for 10 seconds. The ultimate survivability perk.
18	Corrosive Poison	Poison now also affects drones, mechs, and robots but with reduced effectiveness. Deal 20% more damage to poisoned enemies.
20	Toxicology	Increases the poison duration, great on boss enemies.

Cool Blood

throwing knives build cold blood tree cyberpunk 2077

Level	Skill	Description
1	Cold Blood x3	After defeating an enemy, gain Cold Blood for 7 sec. and increase movement speed by 2%. Stacks up to 3 times. The duration of each additional stack is 1 sec. shorter.
5	Blood Brawl x2 (optional)	Melee damage is increased by 10% while Cold Blood is active. I did not find that this gives any bonuses for Throwing knives, but it can still be useful.
11	Collagulant	Stack of Cool Blood are removed one by one instead of all at once
11	Frozen Precision	Each stack of Cold BLood now increases headshot damage by 5%. Perfect choice for Knife Throwing on this Ninja build
12	Predator x2	Each stack of Cold Blood increases attack speed by 30%
14	Cold and Calculating	Critical hits can now also add a stack of Cold Blood
16	Coldest Blood x2	Increases Cold Blood stack by 2
16	Critical Condition x2	Cold Blood will have its duration increased by 50%. Ensures that you can still maintain the buffs even after hiding from the enemy.
18	Immunity	Makes you immune to Bleeding, Poison, Burn, and Shock. Makes Will to Survive obsolete
20	Bloodswell	Rather than dying, all Cold Blood stacks will be removed and you will Damage Immunity for 5 seconds. This can happen only once per 15 seconds.
20	Merciless	While Cold Blood is active Crit Chance is increased by 5% and Crit Damage is increased by 25%

Crafting

throwing knives build crafting tree cyberpunk 2077

Level	Skill	Description
1	Mechanic	Get more components when disassembling. Useful for crafting good gear
5	True Craftsman	Allows to craft Rare items
5	Scrapper	Automatically disassembles junk items. Great quality of life perk
11	Field Technician	Increases damage of crafted weapons by 10%. This will make your knives or katanas much stronger
12	Grease Monkey	Allows to craft Epic items
16	Tune-up	You can now increase the quality of your components.
18	Edgerunner Artisan	Allows crafting legendary items. Have in mind that I also recommend having a Crafting level at 12. This way you unlock many legendary Crafting specs.

Build tactics

The build is very fragile due to low Body. Due to this learn to effectively use Sandevistan to avoid direct enemy fire. The build also heavily relies on stealth, so have that in mind when approaching encounters.
Juggler is a very important perk as it allows you to instantly return knives after a headshot or critical hit. Otherwise, you only have 3 knives which result in 3 ammo.
Try to get Legendary knives as soon as you can. They provide +9% to critical chance. This will improve damage and give a higher chance for Juggler to activate

throwing knives build melee attack cyberpunk 2077

In case you need you can easily engage in melee combat. The knives are capable weapons, however, do not rely on them for longer encounters as your stamina will be drained easily.

Equipment recommendations

This section will cover equipment and cyberware recommendations for Throwing Knives build in Cyberpunk 2077. They are not set in stone and feel free to adjust based on your liking.

Knives

This is the most important part of the build. After the 1.6 patch, two new iconic knives were added that greatly improve the capabilities of the Throwing knives build.

Priority	Item	Description
1	Blue Fang	An iconic knife that has a unique effect. It stuns enemies on hit with different amounts of delay.
2	Headhunter	This is an iconic knife that marks an enemy. When the enemy is marked it received a 250% damage increase to the head. So in case you do not take out an enemy with the first hit, the second throwing knife will do the job.
3	Stinger	An iconic knife that deals additional chemical damage
4	Tanto	Not better than Knife. However, I think it fits better thematically.
5	Knife	A simple version that you will obtain various rarities throughout the game. Try to craft or buy the highest one

Here are some mods that I recommend to increase the damage

Mod name	Description
Cold Shoulder	Increases damage by 5%.
Scourge	Increases Crit Damage by 10%.
White-Knuckled	Increases Crit Chance by 2.5%.

Armor mods

Mod name	Description
Bully	Gives +8% Crit Damage. Great for maximizing damage late in the game
Armadillo	I recommend this mod for maximum survivability It gives bonus armor. Try to get the Legendary or Epic variant
Fortuna	Gives a +4% Crit Chance.
Zero Drag	Increases movement speed. It can make the gameplay a bit more difficult as you may run through the enemies. But overall makes the experience even more enjoyable

Cyberware - Frontal Cortex

Slot	Item	Description
1	Heal-On-Kill	The only decent Cyberware in Frontal Cortex for Throwing Knife build. However, it should greatly improve your combat capacity as you restore health after each enemy you kill.
2	Limbic System Enhancement	Increases Crit Chance by 4%. This has a great synergy with the Juggler perk.
3	Visual Cortex Support	Increases Crit Damage by 12%.

Cyberware - Ocular System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Kiroshi Optics Mk.3	Enables to have additional upgrades for the ocular system. Try to get the highest rarity which is Epic. It provides 3 upgrade slots.

Mods

Mod name	Description
Trajectory Analysis	Increases headshot bonus damage by 25%. use this mod to increase damage with Throwing Knives
Weakspot Detection	Increases Crit Chance by 2%.

Cyberware - Circulatory System

The problem with this cyberware is that you have low Body attributes. Due to this, you can only equip common rarity items.

Slot	Item	Description
1	Biomonitor	Instantly restores a large portion of health when it drops below a certain threshold.
2	Microgenerator	Releases Electroshock when health drops below 15%.

Cyberware - Immune System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Pain Editor	Grants immunity to Poison.
2	Shock-n-Awe	After taking damage, there is a 2% chance of releasing large electroshock that deals damage to nearby enemies. Unfortunately, you will be able to equip either common or uncommon variants.

Cyberware - Nervous System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Kerenzikov	You can now slow time when dodging or sliding.
2	Nanorelays	Increases Sandevistan and Kerenzikov duration. Use this only if you decide to use Sandevistan.
2	Synaptic Accelerator	Slows time by when you are detected by enemies. Do not use this together with Sandevistan as it can break its duration
2	Reflex Tuner	Slows time when your Health drops to 25%

Cyberware - Integumentary System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Subdermal Armor	Provides flat armor increase. Try to obtain the highest rarity for the highest value.
2	Optical Camo	This is a bad boy. You will become invisible for a few seconds which you can use to take out enemies. Really neat cyberware for a stealth build
3	Heat Converter	Increases damage if you are burning

Cyberware - Operating System

Priority	Item	Description
1	QianT Sandevistan Mk.4	Has a very short cooldown of 15 seconds. However, provides a shorter time slow.
2	Militech "Falcon" Sandevistan Mk.5	Very strong Sandevistan option, but has a very long cooldown. This can leave you open to enemy attacks
3	Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.4	Another good option which provides a longer Sandevistan duration of 16 seconds
4	Dynalar Sandevistan Mk.3	Slows time by 50% for 16 seconds. A very good option and get as early as possible. It is of Epic rarity

Operating system mods

Mod name	Description
Heatsink	Reduces Sandevistan cooldown. This is the best upgrade once you are able to get it. It will greatly improve Sandevistan effectiveness.
Prototype Chip	While Sandevistan is active, increases Crit Chance by 5%.
Neurotransmitters	While Sandevistan is active, increases Crit Damage by 15%.
Overclocked Processor	Increases duration of Sandevistan

Cyberware - Skeleton

Slot	Item	Description
1	Dense Marrow	Increases stamina cost of melee attack and greatly improves base damage. If you use melee weapons
2	Synaptic Signal Optimizer	This cyberware greatly boosts overall health. As you can equipt common rarity 20% is still substantial for better survivability

Cyberware - Legs

Slot	Item	Description
1	Reinforced Tendons	My personal favorite makes traversing much easier.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the Best Throwing Knives build in Cyberpunk 2077.

Feel free to leave a comment below!