Best Sniper Build - Giants Killer (Patch 1.63) - Cyberpunk 2077

This post will cover what I would think is the best sniper build in Cyberpunk 2077. Although there are other variations that offer much higher damage, this one provides very interesting gameplay:

• Ricocheting bullets
• Sniper Rifle with Silencer

Did this grab your attention? If I may add the Sniper Rifles that will be used will have the best sound effects out of all weapons in the game.

So let's start

Sniper Build - Giants killer

The build is inspired by the anti-tank material rifles, that can pierce the heaviest armors. Of course, we will have a twist, a special rifle that can also use a silencer.

Not only that but you will be able to utilize the weapon's Power ability so that bullets could ricochet. This will allow you, if played smart, to take out enemies behind the wall and also provide some thrills of fast thinking.

The build is optimized all around and will use stealth, assault, crafting, and hacking perks.

Attributes

This section will go through recommended attributes and how you should progress with them. Picking the correct ones will ensure that you have sufficient stats to kill enemies.

Starting the game

These are attribute allocations that I recommend starting with. It will ensure that you have decent damage with rifles and have some improvements with armor.

• Reflexes: +3
• Technical Ability: +3
• Cool: +1

Progression

As your progress through the game, I recommend prioritizing Reflexes and Cool. Once you reach 12 Cool you can stop putting points and then concentrate on Technical Ability

When you obtain Overwatch you should have 10 Body to wield it properly

Endgame

Here is how your attributes should look like at level 50

• Reflexes 20. Increase Sniper Rifle damage and any related stats
• Technical Ability 20. Increases armor and allows the crafting of the strongest weapons and armors in the game.
• Body 10. You need to have this before obtaining the Overwatch or STP32 Sniper Rifles. They require 10 Body to be used effectively. This happened after the 1.5 patch
• Cool 12. Can unlock more stealth-related perks and provides decent improvements to Cold Blood
• Intelligence 9. We need this for some quickhacks and Cyberware that increase Crit Chance.

Perks

In this section, I will go through recommended perks for the Sniper build in Cyberpunk 2077. These are Base perks that I recommend taking

Assault

Level	Skill	Description
1	Bulletjock x3	Increases damage with Sniper Rifles by 10%
1	Eagle Eye x3	Reduces time to aim down sights. It is relevant for this Sniper build as you will move around often, due to this you need to be able to target enemies fast
5	Covering Killshot x2	Increases Crit chance with Sniper rifles by 8% when shooting behind the cover
7	Bullseye	Sniper rifle damage is increased by 10% when shooting with aim.
7	Executioner	Deal more damage with Sniper Rifle if the enemy has more than 50% health.
9	Shoot, Reload, Repeat x2	After you take out an enemy increases reload time for a few seconds.
11	Nerves of Steel x2	Increases headshot damage with Sniper Rifles by 15%.
12	Trench Warfare x2	Increases damage by 10% when shoot from behind the cover
14	Named Bullets	Crit damage is increased by 20% for  Sniper rifles.
16	Recoil Wrangler	Reduces recoil by 5%
18	In Perspective	Allows bullet to ricochet additional times from Sniper Rifles
18	Long Shot	The further you are from the enemy the more sniper damage is increased.
20	Savage Stoic	Increases damage by 35% when standing still
20	Punisher	Sway is decreased for 10 seconds after the enemy is defeated.

Engineering tree

We mainly take this tree for Power Type upgrades (ricocheting)

Level	Skill	Description
5	Draw the Line	If equipped with Ballistic Coprocessor shows ricochet trajectory. With this perk you can now plan how to best take out enemies behind covers as you can see where your bullet will hit
16	Play the Angles x3	Ricochet deals additional 50% damage.

However, if you will have left up perks, definitely get Grenade upgrades:

Level	Skill	Description
5	Grenadier	Displays the radius of Grenades
7	Sharpnel	All grenades deal 20 damage, in addition to their normal effects
11	Bigger Booms x5	Grenades deal 25% more damage
16	Can't Touch This	You will become immune to your own grenade effects
20	Jackpot	Enables Grenades to deal Crit hits.

Crafting Tree

Thanks to this tree you will be able to upgrade Sniper rifles for maximum damage

Level	Skill	Description
5	True Craftsman	Allows crafting Rare items
11	Field Technician x2	Crafted weapons deal 10% more damage. This perk will make it worthwhile to craft weapons.
12	Grease Monkey	Allows crafting epic items
16	Tune-Up	Can upgrade lower quality components to higher ones. You will need this perk later in the game to get Epic and Legendary components
18	Edgerunner Artisan	Allows to craft legendary items
20	Cutting Edge	All damage stats for crafted weapons is increased by 5%

If you have left some points, also take Grenade related perks:

Level	Skill	Description
9	Sapper x2	Increases Grenade damage by 20%

Cool Blood

Cool Level	Skill	Description
1	Cold Blood x3	Allows gaining Cold Blood stacks that provide various stats bonuses.
11	Coolagulant	Stack of Cold Blood are removed one by one instead of all at once
11	Frozen Precision	Headshot damage is increased by 5% for each stack of Cold Blood. This will allow you to maximize Sniper rifle damage.
12	Icy Veins x2	Reduces weapon recoil by 6% for each stack of Clod Blood. This way your sniper rifle will be much more accurate

Ninjutsu

Cool Level	Skill	Description
1	Silent and Deadly	Increases damage with Silenced weapons. The main Sniper Rifle Overwatch is silenced, which makes it a very strong perk
1	Crouching Tiger	Movement speed is increased by 20% when sneaking
7	Strike From the Shadows	Increases Crit Chance by 7% while sneaking.
7	Assassin	The perk increases damage to humans by 15%
9	Sniper x2	Increases headshot damage by 20% outside of combat. This perk is very effective against the first enemy, that has not yet detected you.
12	From the Shadows x2	Crit Chance is increased by 20% for 7 seconds after entering combat
12	Ghost x2	Increases the time it takes enemies to detect you by 40%

Athletics

Level	Skill	Description
1	Regeneration	Health can now regenerate during combat
7	Epimorphosis	Increases Health regen threshold from 60% to 65% in combat and to 100% out of combat

Quikchacking

I recommend investing in this perk tree once you have decently covered everything that is related to Sniper rifles.

Level	Skill	Description
1	Biosynergy x3	Increases RAM recovery during combat. You will not use many quickhacks, however, you should still have an adequate recovery rate in case you need to use them
5	I Spy	Reveals enemy netrunner if they are attempting to hack you. I think this is important as you can use STP32 Grad to take them out through walls before they deal damage
7	Weak Link	You should be often using Distract Enemies quickhack. Weak Link will allow decreasing the amount of RAM this quickhack costs
9	Signal Support x2	Increases quickhack duration by 30%

Breach Protocol

I recommend investing into this perk tree once you have decently covered everything that is related to Sniper rifles.

Level	Skill	Description
1	Mass Vulnerability x2	Enemy physical resistance is decreased by 30% for 6 minutes. Will make sure that you can one-shot enemies with Sniper Rifle
7	Mass Vulnerability: Resistances	Weakens enemy resistances in the network by 30%.

Build tactics

Okay, this is what tactics and gameplay strategies I use with this Sniper build:

1. Start with Breach Protocol to apply Mass Vulnerability to everyone in the network
2. Apply Ping to reveal all enemies in the network. This will allow you to plan the best approach.
3. Equip Overwatch sniper rifle for the silencer.
4. Before engaging enemies use Distract Enemies quickhack. This way you can take out one enemy while another is looking for the distraction
5. If you get detected and enemies are far away, equip SPT32 Grad and start shooting enemies through the walls.
6. If enemies get close equip Assault Rifle and spray shots to take out enemies close to you.

Other general tips

• Have a few grenades on hand, they can become very useful if there is a group of enemies close to you. Grenades easily knock them out.
• Once you have Draw the Line perk you can see the ricochet trajectory. Together with Overwatch, you can take out enemies behind the cover while not creating any noise.

Equipment recommendations

In this section, I will go through the recommended gear for the Sniper build.

Weapons

As you can guess the main weapon will be a sniper rifle. However, before you obtain one of these you can definitely use something like Nekomata.

Priority	Item	Description
1	Overwatch	The main weapon that this Sniper Build uses and relies on. It is a unique variation of SPT32 Grad and comes with a silencer. Its drawback is that it requires 10 Body to properly utilize it.
2	SPT32 Grad	The power-type sniper rifle shoots through walls and does not require power-ups like Tech Sniper rifles.
3	Nekomata	A decent rifle that you can use until you obtain the ones mentioned above

Assault Rifles. These are perfect side weapons, that should be used in close combat. Moreover, they benefit from Sniper perks as well

Item	Description
Moron Labe	Great Assault Rifle that can be received fairly early in the game. It has a fast rate of fire and can dismember enemies
Psalm 11:6	Deals additional thermal damage and can burn enemies. I think it is very effective against most human enemies throughout the game

Recommended mods

Mod name	Description
Vendetta	Increases headshot damage
Crunch	Increases damage
Penetrator	Increases Crit Chance
Pacifier	Increases Crit Damage
Countermass	Eliminates horizontal recoil while aiming.

Armor Mods

Mod name	Description
Deadeye	Non-stackable and can only be equipped on the face. Provides a 15% headshot damage multiplier. Also increases Crit damage.
Armadillo	Increases armor, great for increased survival on higher difficulties
Fortuna	Increases crit chance by 4%. Can only be equipped on the face
Bully	Gives an 8% Crit Damage bonus. Can only be equipped on the face

Cyberware - Frontal Cortex

Slot	Item	Description
1	Limbic System Enhancement	Increases Crit Chance. This is the reason why we level Intelligence to 9
2	Visual Cortex Support	Increases Crit Damage
3	Heal-On-Kill	This item provides a certain percentage of health after each enemy that you kill. The effectiveness increases with the cyberware rarity

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.

The ocular system recommended mods:

Mod name	Description
Trajectory Analysis	Increases headshot bonus damage by 25%.
Weakspot Detection	Increases Crit Chance by 2%.

Cyberware - Circulatory System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Microgenerator	Once health drops to 15% you will release a shock to nearby enemies. Be careful as it may also trigger nearby explosives
2	Biomonitor	Automatically restores HP when it falls below 15%.
3	Syn-Lungs	Unfortunately, due to low Body attribute, this Sniper build does not have many good options in Circulatory System

Cyberware - Immune System

Slot	Item	Description
1	Cataresist	Increases all resistances against the status effect
2	Shock-n-Awe	Provides a chance to release Electrical nova to nearby enemies.

Cyberware - Nervous System

You can wear 2 pieces of cyberwar for the Nervous System. Try to get the highest Rarity of the mentioned item

Slot	Item	Description
1	Synaptic Accelerator	Slows time when detected by enemies.
2	NeoFiber	Increases the chance to mitigate damage. because you have maximum Reflexes this is a somewhat good option to pick.

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
3	Supra-Dermal Weave	Grants immunity to Bleeding.
3	Grounding Plating	Grants immunity to Shock.

Cyberware - Operating System

Operating Systems will not bring you any extreme changes, however, they will allow you to use some of the quickhacks more often in case the situation arises. Your main and most effective approach is still to use Sniper Rifles.

Priority	Item	Description
1	Arasaka Mk.4	Covert quickhacks cost 2 RAM less (like Ping). Moreover, combat quickhacks have their duration increased by 40%.
2	Stephenson Tech Mk.4	Reduces cooldown, and upload time. Increases combat quickhack duration. This Cyberdeck is better in case you use combat quickhacks.
3	Arasaka Mk.3	Covert quickhacks cost 1 RAM less (like Ping). Moreover, combat quickhacks have their duration increased by 30%.
4	Stephenson Tech Mk.3	Reduces quickhack cooldown and increases combat quickhack duration.

Quickhacks to be used with the Cyberdeck for Sniper Build

Mod name	Description
Ping	It is a mandatory quickhack that reveals all enemies that are connected to the network. This will allow you to see all enemies through the walls and plan your encounter.

Cyberware - Skeleton

Slot	Item	Description
1	Synaptic Signal Optimizer	You can obtain common quality cyberware for a minimal amount of health boost.
2	Bionic Joints	Reduces weapon recoil. The rare version can be equipped without any Body attribute requirement

A good option is Microrotos cyberware. Unfortunately, after testing I did not see that it would improve the attack speed.

Cyberware - Hands

Slot	Item	Description
1	Ballistic Coprocessor	This implant is required to correctly utilize ricochet. It will also allow seeing the trajectories if you have taken Draw the Line perk.

Cyberware - Legs

Slot	Item	Description
1	Reinforced Tendons	My personal favorite makes traversing much easier.
1	Lynx Paws	A perfect option if you want to concentrate on stealth approach

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post. I hope it covered all that you need to know to make the Best Sniper build in Cyberpunk 2077. As mentioned this is not the strongest build in terms of damage, however, it provides a more interesting angle of gameplay where you still have to use your wits.

Feel free to leave comments below.