Best Solo Build Update 2.1 - Cyberpunk 2077

Best Solo Build

The build takes full control of the Body attribute perk tree. This makes it an effective all-rounder - that can use shotguns, light machine guns, gorilla arms, and even hammers with baseball bats. This Solo build fully stands by its words - doing everything solo.

My preferred option of playing this is mostly using Defender or any other Light Machine Gun, for a continuous stream of bullets. However, once the bullets are out either use a quick melee for a strong finisher or activate Berserker.

With Berserker, the second level of Mayhem starts. You automatically equip Gorilla Arms, or Blunt weapons and start Bashing enemy heads. The melee perks allow creating small quakes, sprinting while knocking out foes, or slinging enemy bodies all while in total rage mode.

To further enhance the body and be able to control light machine guns, we will take a lot of cyberware. This will allow, us to better manage operating system effects, and weapon control and provide needed defenses to survive.

So let's jump into the build.

Attributes

First, let's go through attributes, they will decide the direction of the build and give access to different tiers of perks. The higher tier gives better actions and passives to further support the build. Let's take a look at what we need for the Solo Build.

Starting Game

Here are what attributes we should be taking at the start of the game.

Attribute	Allocation	Description
Body	+3	Will give us bonus HP early in the game and is the main attribute of the build
Reflexes	+3	Gives a critical chance and will be used to obtain mobility perks.
Technical Ability	+1	Unlocks the first tier of perks.

End Game Attributes

Here is the goal of Solo Build that we should reach at level 50

Attribute	Total Allocation	Description
Reflexes	20	Maximum Reflexes will ensure a higher critical chance and unlock a few mobility perks
Body	20	The attribute will give bonus HP and unlock all the perks needed to be effective with the build.
Technical Ability	20	Will provide perks related to healing items and cyberware. Moreover, provides bonus armor for better protection against damage.
Cool	8	Gives a boost to critical damage, but overall we do not need it much.
Intelligence	3	We skip this attribute as we do not use anything related.

Perks

Let's go through the perks of the Solo Build. We will go through about 60~ perk points, and the game awards about 80. So you will have points left to adjust the build to your needs.

Body Perks

The main attribute of the Solo build. It unlocks fist-related perks, health regeneration, and huge protection boosts against damage.

Level 4 Perks - HP regeneration

These perks will ensure that we have sufficient HP regeneration in various combat situations.

Perk	Description
Painkiller	A very valuable perk that is recommended for any build. We also need it for the progression
Dorph-head	Blood Pump will be one of the main Cyberware that we use to drastically boost HP restoration
Comeback Kid	Higher health regen, the closer to death you are? Count me in

Level 9 Perks

Perk	Description
Wrecking Ball​	The ability allows now to knock out targets while sprinting. This is great for mobility as it gives better control of the battlefield.
Breakthrough​	Increases the damage after strong attacks. I always recommend running by holding the attack button, so that the strong attack is ready the moment you need it.
Die! Die! Die!​	No need to worry about low stamina as now more bullets will shower the targets
Like a Feather​	Move without any hindrance using light machine guns and heavy shotguns.
Don't Stop Me Now​	Gives some survivability boost when low on stamina.
Bullet Ballet​	A quality of life improvement for better weapon handling when shooting.

Level 15 Perks

The next set of Perks will give a huge survivability boost to the Solo build. Moreover, we get weapon perks, that will allow instantly finish the enemy off. I skip some blunt weapon perks, because mostly they will be used when Berserk is activated.

Perk	Description
Adrenaline Rush	Awesome perk gives a second layer of HP when using healing items. This will give so-needed survivability if you plan on using Edgerunner and also play on Very Hard
Calm Mind	Delay before Adrenaline starts decaying, prolonging the second layer of HP.
Juggernaut	Encourages you to have Adrenaline activated most of the time, to get these sweet combat bonuses.
Unstoppable Force	Makes you immune to some knockout effects.
Quake​	A violent hit that knocks down everyone around the area. It can be initiated from the air. It gets even better with some additional perks.
Epicenter​	Now quake will do even more damage the higher you jump from. So be sure to do a double jump before initiating it.

Level 20 Perks

Perk	Description
Pain to Gain	Together with Glutton for War and Health Freak these perks will make it easy to have health restoration on hand.
Finisher: Savage Sling​	Very cool finisher that can either restore health or allow you to throw enemies at the next target. This deals decent damage but most importantly it is fun
Onslaught​	Can make LMGs have almost infinite ammo as long as you kill foes. Of course, against bosses and elites, it may take a whole magazine to remove them.
Rip and Tear​	The perk is only needed if you plan on using Shotguns. Otherwise, skip it.

Reflexes Perks

These perks will give a mobility boost.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Multitasker​	A quality of life improvement, giving some alternatives for combat when sprinting.
Slippery	Base perk, that we will need to progress to other levels. Moreover, it gives some survivability and encourages constant movement.
Muscle Memory​	Makes ranged combat much easier as you sustain your mobility while reloading

Level 9 Perks

Finally, we will be able to get the first mobility perk. It is useful both for exploration and combat

Perk	Description
Dash	Another new perk that gives a short dash to avoid or get close to the enemies.
Mad Dash	Doubles the distance if dashing directly to an enemy. perfect when you activate Berserk and use Gorilla Arms.
Can't Touch This	A 100% mitigation chance while Dashing is valuable. This will give you a higher chance of survival under heavy fire.

Technical Ability Perks

The perks in this tree play an important role in general survivability, item usage, and cyberware. Overall, you will want to heavily invest in this tree throughout the mid and late game.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Glutton for War	You will be taking out a lot of enemies, so why not faster healing item recharge?
First Aid	Faster healing item recharge speed.
Transfusion	If you use the last charge, you are close to being overwhelmed or dead. So a 30% boost is awesome.

Level 9 Perks

Perk	Description
Health Freak	You now have 3 health recharge items, making combat a bit easier.
All Things Cyber	Mandatory perk as we will need as much Cyberware as we can. Reduces its costs
Renaissance Punk	Gives some additional cyberware capacity. Feel free to switch it to Driver Update or Chrome Constitution once you have enough cyberware.

Level 15 Perks

Perk	Description
License to Chrome	Improves Skeleton cyberware and unlocks a new slot for even more chrome
Extended Warranty	The increased duration is useful for Revulsor, Berserk, and some other cyberware.
Ambidextrous	Gives an additional slot for hands cyberware, that you can use to increase accuracy or get unique effects.
Cyborg​	I think this perk is extremely important when using Berserk. The problem is that it starts its cooldown reset once you finish its activation, making it take a long time till you can reuse it. This perk is one of the ways to minimize that period.
Pyromania	We will be able to fully utilize this perk with Shock-n-Awe cyberware because shockwaves count as explosions.
Friendlier Fire​	As you will constantly release electroshocks, this will give some defenses against it.
Heat Shield​	With constant shock explosions, each Pyromania​ stack will give some additional mitigation chance, greatly improving survivability.

Level 20 Perks

Perk	Description
Edgerunner	I think this perk could be optional. It is amazing as it gives 50 Cyberware capacity allowing to put in at least one additional iconic cyberware. Moreover, you have a chance to enter Fury State for a huge damage boost. However, this reduces your health, increasing your chances of dying.
Ticking Time Bomb	Aamzin perk, that not only releases EMP but also gives a brief period of damage reduction.

Perks - Relic

With the introduction of Phantom Liberty, you will be able to obtain new perks that give unique capabilities. Here is what I recommend for the Solo Build:

Priority	Perk	Description
1	Jailbreak​	Unlocks unique effects for Arms cyberware. Gorilla Arms unlocks a powerful hit that activates after killing an enemy. Use a strong attack after that to activate it.
2	Limiter Removal​	The charged attack now knocks back nearby enemies.
3	Vulnerability Analytics	Shows enemy weak spots, which when hit, create an electricity explosion. It is especially useful against robots and stronger enemies.
4	Machine Learning	Improves Vulnerability Analytics by making them appear faster and giving a higher critical damage boost

Combat and Tips

Here I would like to share some suggestions on how to utilize the Solo build to the maximum.

Dash with Strong Attack for melee

Once you enter Berserk, you will automatically equip a melee weapon. When going straight for enemies I recommend already holding the attack button. This will charge up the Strong attack that you can instantly release when close to the target.

This way you do not waste any time, and do the maximum amount of damage most efficiently. Of course, you can also use Wrecking Ball​ that knocks down enemies allowing you to pummel targets lying on the floor.

Using Berserk

The cornerstone of this build is Berserk. It will allow you to go into ultimate mode where you are invincible and deal increased damage. The main drawback (or a blessing?) is that you have to use melee attacks for that. I think this gives an excellent change of pace from constant bullet spraying.

So my favorite approach with this build is to enter combat with Gorilla Arms + Berserk. After it ends you have some foes cleared already. Equip the Light Machine Gun and start the rest of the cleanup. Be sure to first take out Elite enemies with Gorilla Arms as LMG might not be effective against them. You want to avoid any reloading with this weapon.

LMG or Shotgun

The build can use both of these weapons, and it's your personal preference. I like LMGs more here as it is a better option in the medium range. Shotguns (not all of them) are best at close range, and you already have a weapon for that. However, you can take something like a Headsman that is perfect for medium-range headshots.

Use Kerenzikov for a survivability boost

Once you obtain Kerenzikov and Defenzikov, this will unlock a special mechanic after its effect ends - a 90% mitigation chance for 4 seconds. This more or less reduces all of the damage you receive by at least 50% (with base mitigation strength).

It is a huge survivability boost, allowing it to be a total bullet sponge during combat, this also encourages you to be agile in combat and not just to stand still.

Equipment

The build goes into Body-related weapons - shotguns, light machine guns, and heavy machine guns. Moreover, from level 10 you can equip the first Gorilla Arms. Also, you can go for blunt weapons like baseball bats and hammers.

Shotguns

Item	Description
Guts	The iconic weapon from Edgerunners anime is used by Rebecca. It has crazy recoil but deals tons of damage, and has a decent clip size.
Dezerter	Even more powerful than Guts, but reloads every shot. Moreover, will activate Pyromania with each shot.
The Headsman	The most precise shotgun? Has a 200% headshot multiplier, is very accurate, and has low recoil. Perfect for sniping those mid-range targets.
Redbone	Perfect shotgun to go all in with the "Speed Demon" theme. Utilize sprinting, and dashing for bonus damage.
Sovereign	Extremely fun shotgun to use that deals the most damage at very close range. Torso shots will also increase reload and movement speed. Synergizes well with Microgenerator due to constant reloading.

Light Machine Guns

There is another option for a machine gun, but it has a lower ammo capacity and I found it not to be that effective for longer encounters.

Item	Description
Wild Dog	Iconic version that has increased fire rate for repeated firing and critical chance. Takes Solo build combat to the next level
Defender	The base light machine gun. It comes with modification slots that allow for improving the weapon.

Blunt Weapons

One thing that you may note is that I do not recommend Baseball Bats. I find they do not fit the build's idea. If you are a cool guy who stands alone against enemy bullets, using something big and intimidating fits the theme better. That is just my preference, feel free to adjust based on your playstyle.

Item	Description
Sasquatch's Hammer	A slow weapon but deals large amounts of damage and can easily knock out foes.
Hammer	A base hammer, that comes with modification slots. Try to drop the highest rarity for your level.

Cyberware

Cyberware is a unique mechanic that allows us to fill the build with implants. Early games can be quite difficult as you will have limited capacity. However, as you progress and drop more Capacity Shards, you will be able to equip more. I will be covering here what is your goal for the end game, to make the build as powerful as possible

First Priority Cyberware

This is what is essential to make the build work. I would even recommend dropping everything else to equip these if cyberware capacity doesn't allow it. These cyberware selections make the core of the build.

Slot	Cyberware	Description
Frontal Cortex 1	Axolotl	I recommend this cyberware above anything else. It is crazy powerful for the build and is mandatory. Each kill reduces the cooldown of Berserk by at least 10%. However, it takes a lot of cyberware capacity, so you can switch it with Newton Module as a cheaper alternative.
	Newton Module	Gives a cyberware cooldown reduction after taking out an enemy. It is not much, however, with multiple kills, the effect adds up.
Nervous System 1	Neofiber	Gives a higher mitigation chance which makes it harder for enemies to detect you and increases your survivability.
Integumentary System 1	Shock-n-Awe	Mandatory cyberware for this build. As we will constantly be under fire and close to enemies, the electric explosions will do half of your work. Moreover, they work with Pyromania​.
Integumentary System 2	Chitin	A very costly option but gives plenty of armor boost and health regeneration rate.
	Countershell	Very cheap and effective cyberware that can boost mitigation chance by 50%.
	Subdermal Armor	Provides flat armor increase. Has a low cyberware capacity cost.
Operating System 1	Biodyne Berserk	My preferred option for Berserk. Although it has a longer cooldown, the damage boost is very high needing only a few hits to take out an enemy - a total MaxTac killer.
	Militech Berserk	The iconic Berserk operating system. Try to activate it with the lowest HP possible, this way you will get the highest boost to damage. This is the problem for me as it is a risky approach.
Hands 1	Gorilla Arms	The main cyberware to enable this build. You can pick any element you want, but I prefer the simple ones as they give the highest damage.
Circulatory System 1	Blood Pump	The most powerful healing item in the game, together with Biomonitor it makes a deadly pair for Solo Build.
Legs	Reinforced Tendons	My personal favorite makes traversing much easier.
	Fortified Ankles	Gives the highest jumps and high boost to armor compared to cyberware capacity cost. But you need to hold the jump button.

Second Priority Cyberware

Slot	Cyberware	Description
Face 1	Kiroshi "Cockatrice" Optics	Gives a huge boost to critical chance especially if you can afford the cyberware capacity cost.
	Kiroshi "Doomsayer" Optics	A more relevant eye cyberware that gives a higher critical chance based on reflexes
	Basic Kiroshi Optics	Simple eye cyberware, that I think does the job for this build.
Skeleton 1	Spring Joints	Improves mitigation strength, complementing Defenzikov, Countershell, and Neofiber.
Skeleton 2	Epimorphic Skeleton	Gives a huge armor and health boost, greatly improving survivability.
Nervous System 2	Kerenzikov	This is very important cyberware in my opinion. You can activate it by dashing while aiming. The best part happens when we get Defenzikov, as after the time-slow you are rewarded for 4 seconds with a 90% mitigation chance.
Integumentary System 3	Defenzikov	Enables a 90% mitigation chance after Kerenzikov ends. Greatly improving the survivability of the build.
Circulatory System 2	Biomonitor	Automatically heals, makes the combat somewhat easier, as you do not have to worry how long it takes to use a healing item.

Final Cyberware setup

The final setup is very important. We want the Cyborg​ perk to be activated as it will greatly reduce all cyberware cooldowns, and you definitely want berserk to be as low as possible.

Slot	Cyberware	Description
Frontal Cortex 2	Kerenzikov Boost System	A further enchantcement to Kerenzikov as you shoot with LMG or Shotguns.
Frontal Cortex 3	Mechatronic Core	Only taking it as it has the lowest cost to activate Cyborg​.
Skeleton 3	Dense Marrow	Gives a huge boost to gorilla arms damage at the cost of stamina. The good thing is that stamina is unlimited while in Berserk.
Nervous System 3	Adreno-Trigger	Iconic cyberware that boosts movement speed for a whole 30 seconds.
	Adrenaline Converter	Gives a decent movement speed increase when entering combat. Moreover, has low cyberware costs, before you can afford the above one.
Hands 1	Tyger Claws Dermal Imprint	Mainly take this to fill a slot at 0 cyberware capacity cost, you can also equip any other tattoos.
Hands 2	Immovable Force	Iconic cyberware that will greatly improve weapon handling. Comes with a steep cost
	Shock Absorber	Reduces recoil, making weapon handling easier.
Circulatory System 3	Clutch Padding	Reduces stamina usage for ranged weapons.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the best Solo build in Cyberpunk 2077. Taking enemies head-on without a glimpse of fear requires courage. This is what this build allows as you shower enemies with bullet rain. Once things are in place, activate Berserk for ultimate carnage with Gorilla Arms.

I hope you will enjoy the build!