Lucy Netrunner Build - Edgerunners - Cyberpunk 2077

Lucy Build

This was quite a hard build to make. Representing an anime character where the world rules may be different from what the Cyberpunk 2077 game offers. Lucy is a highest-tier netrunner, capable of uploading Daemons and quickhacks in a very quick manner.

She also uses Monowire throughout the anime, which is even deadlier - tearing enemy limbs or shredding them to pieces. In the game it is also a very powerful weapon and has huge synergies with Netrunning - recover RAM, quickhack upload through melee attacks, etc.

The difficult part of making this build comes from a simple thing - pistols. You would think this sounds strange. Unfortunately, they hardly fit in the Netrunner theme, because you have to invest in the Cool attribute. 

This would not be a problem, but by the time you get Cool to 15, to get the good pistol perks, your Monowire and Quickhacks will be at a different level. This leaves no need for Pistols at all, maybe just for some boss encounters. For this reason, I decided to concentrate on recreating Lucy's theme with Monowire and quickhacks but leaving some leeway for the player

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 Lucy Build.

Starting Game

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

Attribute	Allocation	Description
Intelligence	+3	The main attribute of the build will give increased RAM and quickhack-related perks.
Body	+2	Unlocks the first tier of perks
Reflexes	+1	Unlocks the first tier of perks, and will give some mobility perks.
Technical Ability	+1	You will mainly need to unlock the first-tier perks for now.

End Game Attributes

Here is the goal of Lucy Build. The build is already powerful by level 41, and this is where I leave it. After that, you are free to invest where you prefer - Cool for Pistols, Technical Ability, for more Cyberware, Body, for more HP, and improved Adrenaline Rush​ or even Reflexes for Air Dash​ and better mobility

Attribute	Total Allocation	Description
Reflexes	9	I don't think I can play this game without Dash​ anymore.
Body	15	I think the body attribute is crucial for any Netrunner-type build. Once you use Overclock,​ the additional layer of HP from Adrenaline Rush​ will do wonders for survivability.
Technical Ability	15	I think it is appropriate that Lucy is not as chromed as David Martinez, leaving it at 15 is a perfect balance.
Cool	3	Although Lucy uses a Pistol, it's not something that has been used to a large extent, just one of the ways she intimidates foes
Intelligence	20	The main attribute of Netrunning gives proficiencies with quickhacks and Monowire.

Perks

Let's go through the perks of the Lucy Build. We will go through about 45~ perk points for the build, and the game awards about 80. So you will have perk points left to adjust the build to your needs. However, the core of it is enough with the former.

Intelligence Perks

This is the main perk tree for the Lucy build to work. It will unlock both melee combat perks and quickhacking ones.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Eye in the Sky	You mainly take it for progression; it is also useful early in the game when you do not have much RAM capacity. So using cameras saves a little. I do not use them.
Warning: Explosion Hazard	This is a very cool perk. You can create explosions from various containers around the world by hacking them. This will boost that damage, sometimes doing even more than dedicated combat quickhacks.
Optimization	Simple RAM recovery increase. We need the perk to progress further

Level 9 Perks

Perk	Description
Embedded Exploit	To fully utilize the damage potential, be sure to first upload something like Ping, Cyberware Malfunction, or Sonic Shock. This will easily boost your damage, I recommend this combo against elite foes.
ICEpick	Some bonus RAM savings when mixing quickhacks.
Siphon	One of two main perks specifically for Monowire. Now each hit restores RAM. I recommend also activating Contagion on them and using Thermal Monowire for the explosion combo as a side effect.
Hack Queue	Allows the creation of some sweet combos and utilizes unique effects with the next perks.
Feedback Loop	Easy bonus RAM recovery rate.
Data Recycler	With Overclock and Blood Daemon, this perk will allow us to obtain RAM from health
Counter-a-hack	Reveals enemy netrunners when they are hacking you, but we are taking this for the next perk.
Copy-Paste	This is a huge perk, that can instantly upload Suicide or Burnout Synapse to all of the enemies.

Level 15 Perks

Perk	Description
Overclock	The ultimate perk of Lucy's build. You can sacrifice HP to obtain additional RAM. Pairing it with Hack Queue, Blood Daemon, and Burnout Synapse, allows you to sustain this effect infinitely.
Sublimation	Improves survivability and unlocks the next perk in the tree
Race Against Mind	More damage to the lower HP? This is auto-pick for the build
Queue Acceleration	Further improves queue size, allowing the creation of even more powerful combos
Finisher: Live Wire	This perk will take the Monowire to the next level. It will give a big RAM regeneration, activate synergy with Suicide quickhack, and also give a brief period of invulnerability while doing the finisher
Queue Hack_Root	Nothing special, just a small improvement to save RAM. It will also unlock the next perk.
Blood Daemon	This is a bad boy. It unlocks huge potential for Overclock allowing you to regain your lost health.
Queue Prioritization	Faster upload speed for the first Quickhack, when you fill up the queue.

Level 20 Perks

Perk	Description
Queue Mastery	Once you get this perk, be sure to always fill the queue for lockdown. I recommend using Cyberware Malfunction as it is cheap. This will result in +15% higher damage against the target.
Spillover	Occasional double hack? No reason not to take it as Overclock will be constantly active.

Body Perks

This is a very important perk tree. Although we will only take a few perks, they will play a huge role in higher survivability. First, as this is half a melee build, enemy bullets will hit you often. Second, while Overclock is active, having some survivability will ensure that Lucy's build will not die once spending all HP on quickhacks.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Painkiller	Allows regenerating HP during combat. This is very valuable, especially in the early game, where you often may not have healing items.
Comeback Kid	Faster HP regeneration the closer to death you are.
Dorph-head	A brief damage reduction from mitigation for 2 seconds. Very valuable once you are in a shootout

Level 15 Perks

Perk	Description
Adrenaline Rush	Gives a huge survivability boost by unlocking a new health bar after activating a healing item. It will ensure that you don't die while using Overclock and with the next perks gives some good bonuses.
Juggernaut	Once Adrenaline Rush is up and running this will give a decent boost to all damage and faster movement speed
Calm Mind	Delay of Adrenaline Rush decaying.

Technical Ability Perks

In anime Lucy has a decent amount of cyberware implants, of course, it was not as much as David Martinez. So we are replicating partially this setup and also improving what we can use with the build.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Glutton for War	As healing items play an important role in this build, the perk ensures that you regain them faster.

Level 9 Perks

Perk	Description
All Things Cyber	Lower cyberware capacity cost for some slots and bonus stat modifier increase.
Renaissance Punk	Additional cyberware capacity based on the attributes invested.

Level 15 Perks

Perk	Description
License to Chrome	A new cyberware slot and bonus armor

Reflexes Perks

This tree will give a small boost to critical chance with Monowire. Moreover, we want to unlock Dash for greater traversal and mobility capabilities.

Level 4 Perks

Perk	Description
Slippery	We mainly take this for progression

Level 9 Perks

Perk	Description
Dash	The main perk that improves the mobility of Lucy's build.

What to do with the rest of the Perks and Attributes?

The Lucy build is more or less done by level 45 or earlier, depending on your skill progression and collected perk shards. Here are some suggestions on how you may evolve the build further:

• Going for Pistols and Cool Tree. This would be somewhat relevant to the anime, as Lucy has used the Pistol weapon occasionally. However, at this level, you will probably be taking out enemies left and right with quickhacks, which leaves the pistols somewhat useless.
• Going more in Tech Tree to get Pyromania, Health Freak,​ and Ticking Time Bomb​ for huge bonuses to defensive stats and explosions you make. You could also pick Edgerunner​ in the meantime, but I would leave it for David Martinez build if you want to stay true to the source material.
• Take more perks in Reflexes, to unlock Air Dash for very high mobility to move around the Night City and the battlefield. This will allow you to create some sick combos and gain huge defensive boosts while moving around.

Perks - Relic

These perks are available with Phantom Liberty DLC. They will give further improvements to some of the game mechanics. It is especially powerful with Arm cyberware giving them unique effects.

Priority	Perk	Description
1	Jailbreak	With the new relic perk, arm cyberware gets powerful enhancements. Monowire specifically, can upload control quickhacks with Strong attacks.
2	Data Tunneling	Improvement to quickhack uploads for Monowire.
3	Vulnerability Analytics	Shows vulnerabilities, that allow for huge damage boosts when hit with Monowire. Especially useful against stronger enemies.
4	Machine Learning	Increases the frequency of vulnerabilities.

Combat and Tips

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

The Early Game problems

Unfortunately, early games with Lucy build, especially on Very Hard can be brutal. First, you don't get a Monowire until level 10. Second, low RAM and limited netrunning capabilities allow only a few quickhack uploads, while you have to wait for the recovery.

For this reason, I recommend using or carrying a pistol, to make the early level easier. Also, don't forget about grenades. You will be getting better and better and it starts becoming easier from level 15. Do not let this deter you as you can see from the showcases, Lucy is a beast in later levels.

Monowire to fuel quickhacks

The beautiful part of the monowire is that it's not just a tool to mindlessly spam attacks. It now synergizes with some perks and quickhacks. The main roles it is used:

• Regenerate RAM with basic attacks and Finisher: Live Wire
• Decreases costs of ultimate quickhack Suicide.
• Jailbreak and Data Tunneling to cripple or disable enemies with instant quickhack uploads
• Detonating explosions with Thermal Monowire
• And many more

The weapon unlocks multiple strategic approaches and gives a breath of fresh air to general Netrunner build, where you would use just quickhacks. This allows easily to take out something like MaxTac

Quickhack Combos

The major aspect of playing a character that uses Quickhacks is combining them. I recommend reading the Quickhack Combo guide as there are many of them. The ones that are worth using with Monowire build are:

• Melee Finishers + Suicide
• Contagion + Overheat or Thermal Monowire
• 2x explosions from the above or gas tanks + Detonate Grenade.
• Overclock + Burnout Synapse

Using quickhacks alone really impedes any type of netrunner build, because they cost a lot and many of them don't reveal their full potential before that. This is why you have to create combos.

Install Lucy Mod

If you are willing to be Lucy yourself, why not also have it as a companion? An amazing Lucy mod was created by xBaebsae. There are also other mods related to her on Nexus Mods that you can try. Have fun!

Equipment

Because this is a netrunner-type build, for the late game there is not a big need for weapons. However, there are a few considerations, first early levels before you unlock Monowire. Second, some encounters may need a ranged weapon to make it easier. Third, Lucy carried a Pistol with her

So I list a few options that you could pick throughout the game

Pistols

Item	Description
Unity	A basic pistol, that Lucy uses in the anime. Be sure to get the highest tier that drops.
Scorch	Iconic pistol that can be charged up to release three burning shots.
Dying Light	The first iconic ranged weapon that you will obtain. For maximum effectiveness hold the trigger as it has a fast fire rate and deals decent damage with headshots.

Cyberware

Cyberware is a unique mechanic that allows you to fill cyberware slots 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.

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	COX-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer	The all-powerful cyberware that makes quickhacks deal critical hits. It is also currently somewhat bugged giving a crazy 1000% damage boost.
	Bioconductor	The inferior version of COX-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer, however, comes with less cyberware capacity cost and less RAM reduction.
Arms	Thermal Monowire	The main melee weapon of Lucy Build appears in Ripperdoc inventories from level 10.
Skeleton 1	Epimorphic Skeleton	Gives a boost to armor and health. This will allow using more quickhacks with Overclock​ active.
Integumentary System 1	Countershell	Very cheap and effective cyberware that can boost mitigation chance by 50%.
Operating System 1	Militech Paraline	Ultimate cyberdeck if you heavily use Monowire. Gives bonus damage based on RAM used up. Moreover, while in Overclock, grants a huge boost to damage.
	Tetratronic Rippler	The best cyberdeck for pure damage with quickhacks like Short Circuit and Burnout Synapse.
	Biotech Σ Mk.4	This option synergizes well with Monowire and quickhacks like Contagion or Overheat. You constantly want to have these active so that monowire would get bonus damage.
	Raven Microcyber Mk.3	Watch Contagion spread to all enemies, and use Thermal Monowire to explode them one by one. The Cyberdeck does not give any benefits to Monowire directly, but greatly boosts spreading quickhacks.
Face 1	Kiroshi "Sentry" Optics	We mainly take this one for damage scaling based on Intelligence. It's not much, but having Face cyberware is necessary.
Circulatory System 1	Biomonitor	Automatically restores health by using healing items. I started loving this one, as you do not need to waste time and concentrate just on the combat.
Circulatory System 2	Blood Pump	The best health regeneration item and cyberware. It will also activate Adrenaline Rush for us.
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.

You can also equip quickhacks. Here are the recommended ones for Monowire:

Item	Description
Cripple Movement	Glues enemies in place, but more importantly increases melee damage and Finisher effectiveness.
Weapon Glitch	Disables enemy primary weapon making most of them very weak.

I recommend reading the Quickhack Combo guide, to decide on the most relevant quickhacks for you. These are my recommended options for Cyberdeck:

Item	Description
Contagion	This is a very powerful combo. First, you upload Contagion, followed by Overheat. This will create an explosion that removes contagion but should either kill or greatly weaken enemies. The good thing is that Contagion in the meantime will start spreading to other enemies. You can also use a Thermal Monowire as an alternative
Overheat
Detonate Grenade	It is an ultimate quickhack so you may not get access to it early. However, once you get pick it you can use it very cheaply after creating explosions with the above combo.
Burnout Synapse	The main damage dealer quickhack. Allows extending Overclock and deals heavy damage the less RAM you have.
Short Circuit	A very powerful quickhack that deals electrical damage. It is very effective against robots, drones, mechs, etc.
Suicide	With Monowire Finisher: Live Wire, it is easy to reduce the cost of this quickhack to 4 RAM. This instantly kills most normal and Elite foes.
Sonic Shock	With this Quikchack you can easily isolate an enemy and it will not activate tracing. Follow it with combat quickhacks to ensure a kill without drawing any attention.
Cyberware Malfunction	I recommend using this one as a filler, to activate Blood Daemon or get bonus damage from Embedded Exploit. Moreover, by itself, this perk also increases the damage dealt.

Secondary Cyberware

These cyberware, are upgrades to the core of the build. Gives better defenses, more HP, and better RAM recovery

Slot	Cyberware	Description
Frontal Cortex 2	RAM Reallocator	A very powerful cyberware that you will be able to activate very often thanks, to Overclock​ and Data Recycler. Also, getting Axoltl will greatly reduce the cooldown, allowing you to constantly regain RAM. it has 15 base cooldown
	Camillo RAM Manager	The normal version has a much longer cooldown, but can also be effective due to its low cyberware cost.
Frontal Cortex 3	Axolotl	This cyberware will take the build to the ultimate level. It has a very steep cyberware capacity cost, and probably without Edgerunner,​ you will need tons of farming. But it gives cooldown reductions for everything - Overclock, RAM Reallocator, and any other cyberware.
	Newton Module	Gives a cyberware cooldown reduction after taking out an enemy. It is not much, however, with multiple kills, the effect adds up.
Skeleton 2	Spring Joints	Improves mitigation strength, complementing  Countershell, and Neofiber.
Skeleton 3	Dense Marrow	Increases the melee damage of Monowire
Nervous System 1	Neofiber	Gives bonus survivability by increasing mitigation chance and strength.
Nervous System 2	Synaptic Accelerator	This will give you some breathing room when you are close to being detected. You can initiate quickhacks or attacks and get an advantage on your foes.
Integumentary System 2	Shock-N-Awe	This is very powerful cyberware that gives decent armor, but most importantly it can damage surrounding foes. If prefer a playstyle where you engage in close to medium-range combat, I would recommend this cyberware. Be sure to get Pyromania​ + Heat Shield​ for the highest mitigation chance.
	Painducer	A defensive cyberware that will reduce some big damage you receive and spread it over time. Use it if you prefer staying in long range.
	Subdermal Armor	A simple cyberware that has a high armor-to-cyberware capacity cost ratio.
Integumentary System 3	Cogito Lattice	Defensive cyberware that has a very low cost. By using Overclock,​ you should have very high armor.
Hands	Smart Link	If you plan on using Smart weapons, otherwise skip it.
Circulatory System 3	Heal-On-Kill	Each target killed will additionally restore HP. This may be optional in the late game, as you will be already overpowered.

Conclusion

Thank you for reading this post on the best Lucy build in Cyberpunk 2077. I hope you enjoyed reading this build and it gave you an inspiration to replicate this amazing character from the Edgerunners anime.

Feel free to leave a comment below!