Ultimate Cyberpunk 2077 Edgerunners Build! Fight Like David Martinez!
Introduction to the Cyberpunk Edgerunners Build: David Martinez
The popular, new Netflix Anime Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. follows the story of 17-year old David Martinez as he rises through the ranks of Night City’s legendary cyberpunk Edgerunners – mercs for hire. David is an interesting and complicated character who shows a lot of heart, and a lot of chrome! The goal of this build is to play Cyberpunk 2077 just like David, from Weapons and armor, to Cyberware, Perks and even the Outfit, so let’s get started!
Starting Attributes
Let’s talk starting attributes first. Our primary attribute when replicating the playstyle of David Martinez as shown in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners is going to be Body. Throughout the show we see that David is gifted with an extremely durable physical frame that he eventually enhances through the use of Cyberware. The Body Attribute will also power one of our main offensive Skill Trees: Street Brawler, so you’ll want to put three early attribute points into Body for a total of 6.
The next primary attribute we’ll want to invest in is the Cool Attribute. Cool empowers the very useful Cold Blood Skill Tree which unlocks some very powerful offensive and defensive Perks based on how many enemies we defeat in quick succession. Basically the more enemies we fight the stronger we become! I recommend putting three starting points into the Cool Attribute for a total of 6.
Your final starting attribute point is best spent on Reflexes. Though we won’t be using much of the Skill Trees powered by the Reflexes Attribute, a high Reflexes Stat will be required to use replicate David’s choice of Cyberware: the Sandevistan. Place your final starting attribute point here.
Suggested Starting Stats.
Attribute Progression
You’ll earn 49 additional Attribute points throughout your journey to level 50 in Cyberpunk 2077. The recommended distribution for the David Martinez build is as follows:
Body: 18 (+12)
Reflexes: 15 (+11)
Tech: 18 (+15)
Int: 3 (+0)
Cool: 17 (+11)
Life Path
Though David spends some time at the Corpo Academy at the beginning of his story he is without a doubt a Street kid, so I believe this option makes the most sense if you’re attempting to fully recreate him in the world of Cyberpunk 2077.
Weapons And Gear
David’s main weapon throughout the show is his Fists which he eventually amplifies through Cyberware, so we’ll get to that in a minute. Until you’re able to get those brutal Gorilla Arms, it makes sense to have a few other weapons on hand. For this, I like to use both pistols and SMG’s. These will serve you well until you fully max out the Cyberware on this build.
Armor
If you want to get fully styled as David Martinez you might as well pick up his jacket too! This piece of gear was also added to Cyberpunk 2077 as part of the Edgerunners DLC. To get this Legendary piece of outerwear you’ll need to start the new “Over The Edge” side mission found in Santo Domingo. This mission is fairly simple and has you learn more about what David and his crew have been up to since the events of the show. At the end of this relatively short mission you will be awared with David’s Jacket.
Armor Mods
A wide variety of stat-boosting Armor Mods are also available in Cyberpunk 2077. Keep an eye out for any legendary mods that may drop from random encounters in Night City. My favorite option is the Fortuna Clothing Mod which increases Crit Chance by a further 15%. This will be ideal for upping our Gorilla Arms damage.
Cyberware
Moving on to Cyberware next.
The centerpiece Cyberware used by David Martinez is the Sandevistan. In the Cyberpunk Edgerunners show David picks up a military-grade Sandevistan right away to unlock some insane power. Unfortunately, the game does not work quite the same way! In Cyberpunk 2077, most high-level Sandevistans require a decent amount of both the Reflex stat to use and Street Cred to purchase.
A powerful option that you can get fairly early is the QianT Sandevistan Mk. 4. This powerful Cyberware only requires 15 Reflexes to use and can be purchased with a relatively low Street Cred of 27. This powerful piece of Cyberware can be found from Fingers in Japantown.
The next piece of Cyberware we’ll want to focus on is the Gorilla Arms. Gorilla Arms in Cyberpunk 2077 allow your build to punch incredibly hard especially when using Strong Attacks. Different rarities of Gorilla Arms can be found throughout Night City, but if you want Legendary quality your best bet will be to go to Doc Ryder in Wellsprings.
The Bionic Lungs, which is attached to the Skeletal System, is a another great stat-boosting piece of Cyberware that David also uses in Edgerunners. Extra stamina is actually very useful for Brawler builds like David because it allows us to punch more often.
A Bioconductor, which attaches to the Criculatory System, will be another very useful piece of Cyberware for this build as it can reduce our Sandevistan by 10% – 30% depending on the rarity. The legendary Bioconductor can be obtained from the Nomads Ripperdoc in the Badlands and will reduce our Sandevistan cooldown from 15 seconds to 10 seconds! If you’ve already progressed the story far enough his location eventually changes to the Nomad Camp near the North edge of the Badlands as shown below.
Cyberware Mods
The most important mods you’ll want to search out when building a David Martinez style Brawler build are those that mod our Sandevistan. The best option here by far is the Heatsink mod, which reduces the Sandevistan cooldown between 2% – 4% depending on rarity. Using three of these will push our Sandy cooldown to nearly zero seconds!
Finally, a Neurotransmitter mod for the Sandevistan is a powerful option if you want to focus more on the Crit Damage potential of this build.
Skills And Perks
Moving on to Skills and Perks next, we have quite a bit to cover in this section involving Street Brawler, Athletics, Annihilation, Cold Blood and Stealth and more. I’m going to go through what I think are the most important Perks to help match the playstyle of David Martinez as shown in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, but as always, only use this as a Template and feel free to mix and match Perks that you feel work best for you.
Recommended Street Brawler Perks
The Street Brawler Skill Tree includes several melee weapon related Perks for increased damage and better sustain. This Skill Tree will be the primary way to buff David’s Gorrila Arms or any other melee weapon we decide to use. The recommended Perks for this build are below. For the full list of Perks, see the Street Brawler Skill Line.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Crushing Blows | Increases damage from Strong Attacks with Blunt Weapons by (10% | 20% | 30%). (3 Ranks) | ||
| Flurry | Increaees damage from combo attacks with Blunt Weapons by (30% | 40% | 50%). (3 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Dazed | All attacks with Blunt Weapons have a (15% | 30%) chance to apply Stun. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Rush | Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons regenerate (3% | 5%) Health over 2 seconds. (2 Ranks) | ||
| Efficient Blows | Reduces the Stamina cost of all attacks with Blunt Weapons by (25% | 50%). (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Opportune Strike | Increases damage with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun by 50%. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Reinvigorate | Defeating an enemy by performing a Strong Attack with a Blunt Weapon restores (10% | 20% | 30%) Stamina. (3 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Relentless | Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun restore (20% | 30%) Stamina. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Thrash | Strong Attacks with Blunt Weapons reduce the target’s Armor by (20% | 40%) for 7 seconds. (2 Ranks) | ||
| Frenzy | Defeating an enemy increases damage with Blunt Weapons by (30% | 50%) for 5 seconds. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Unshakable | Successful attacks with Blunt Weapons against enemies affected by Stun restore (5% | 10% | 15%) Health and (5% | 10% | 15%) Stamina. (3 Ranks) | ||
Recommended Athletics Perks
The Athletics Skill Tree is focused primarily on improving our movement and maximum stats. The recommended Perks for this build are below. For the full list of Perks, see the Athletics Skill Line.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Pack Mule | Increases Carrying Capacity by 60. | ||
| Regeneration | Health slowly regenerates during combat. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| True Grit | Increases max Stamina by (10% | 20% | 30%). (3 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Wolverine | Health regeneration activates (20% | 40% | 60%) faster during combat. (3 Ranks) | ||
| Epimorhosis | Increases Health regeneration threshold from (60% | 65% | 70%) to (65% | 70% | 75%) in combat and to 100% out of combat. (3 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Steel And Chrome | Increases Melee Damage by (10% | 20%). (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Like A Butterfly | Dodging does not drain Stamina. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Invincible | Increases max Health by 15%. | ||
| Tenacious V | Getting hit does not interrupt Health regeneration. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Marathoner | Sprinting does not drain Stamina. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Dog Of War | Increases Health regeneration in combat by (30% | 60%). (2 Ranks) | ||
| Cardio Cure | Health regenerates (15% | 30% ) faster as you move. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Steel Shell | Increases Armor by 10% | ||
Recommended Annihilation Perks
While Shotguns and LMG’s are not a focus of this Melee Build, you can gain some extra speed and mobility from the Annihilation skill line. The recommended Perks for this build are below. For the full list of Perks, see the Annihilation Skill Line.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Speed Demon | You deal more damage the faster you’re moving. | ||
Recommended Ninjutsu Perks
The Ninjutsu (formerly Stealth) Skill Tree will add to the overall effectiveness of this build including increased damage and Crit Chance when starting combat. The recommended Perks for this build are below.
For the full list of Updated Ninjutsu Perks, see the Ninjutsu Skill Line Guide.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Assassin | Deal 15% more damage to human enemies. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| From The Shadows | Upon entering combat, Crit Chance increases by (25% | 50%) for 7 seconds. (2 Ranks) | ||
Recommended Engineering Perks
Similar to Ninjutsu, the Engineering Skill Tree will help us deal more damage to a specific type of enemy: mechs, robots and drones.
For the complete list of updated Engineering Perks be sure to check out our Engineering Perks Guide.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Bladerunner | Increases damage to drones, mechs and robots by (20% | 40%). (2 Ranks) | ||
Recommended Cold Blood Perks
The Cold Blood Skill Tree increases our overall damage and resistances based on how many kills we rack up in combat. The recommended Perks for this build are below.
For the full list of Updated Perks, see the Cold Blood Skill Line Guide.
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Cold Blood | After defeating an enemy, gain Cold Blood for 7 seconds and increase movement speed by 2%. Stacks up to (1 | 2 | 3) time(s). The duration of each additional stack is 1 second shorter. (3 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Will To Survive | Increases all Resistances by (3% | 6%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks) | ||
| Blood Brawl | While Cold Blood is active, increases damage with melee weapons (5% | 10%). (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Defensive Clotting | Increases Armor by (4% | 8%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks) | ||
| Rapid Bloodflow | Increase Health regeneration inside and outside of combat by (5% | 10%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Coagulant | Stacks of Cold Blood are removed one by one, not all at once. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Predator | Increases attack speed by (10% | 30%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks) | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Cold And Calculating | Landing a Crit Hit has a 50% chance of applying a stack fo Cold Blood. | ||
| Pain Is An Illusion | While Cold Blood is active, reduces damage taken by 5%. | ||
| NAME | EFFECT | ||
| Coldest Blood | Increases max stack for Cold Blood by (1 | 2). (2 Ranks) | ||
| Critical Condition | Increases duration of Cold Blood by (25% | 50%). (2 Ranks) | ||
Pros And Cons
Let’s discuss what works well on this build as well as the potential challenges you will face.
Pros
This build does great initial damage, especially when using Strong Attacks. We also have several sources of enhanced mobility and armor, especially after defeating multiple enemies to gain stacks of Cold Blood.
Cons
In terms of disadvantages keep in mind that you don’t have as much defense against Snipers and other long range builds that may take you more time to deal with.
Combat Tips
Finally, a few additional combat tips before you head out.
1) Use a Strong Attack as your opener for the additional Armor Shred provided by the Thrash Perk.
2) Use the Sandevistan to slow down time in order to close the gap between you and a long distance enemy.
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Hack The Minotaur (HTM) is a professional Gaming Blogger and Youtube Creator with decades of experience in Gaming. Hack is the owner of HackTheMinotaur.com – an Elder Scrolls focused site for character builds and guides, and now Cyberpunkcentral.com – your source for unique Cyberpunk 2077 guides, builds and more!
Hack loves gaming content, particularly Traditional RPG’s, Action RPG’s and MMO’s. Go check out his YouTube Channel for even more builds and guides on popular series like the Elder Scrolls, Fallout and Cyberpunk and make sure to check out his social media for updates on what content is coming next!
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