Cyberpunk 2077 Netrunner Build – The Ghost

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Introduction to the Ghost Netrunner Build

Welcome to a brand new Cyberpunk 2077 Build called The Ghost! If you’ve ever wanted to experience the best options being a Netrunner in Night City has to offer then this is the build for you! As an expert in Breach Protocol and Quickhacking, the Ghost Netrunner can completely avoid most combat situations as needed, or for a more devious approach, hack into our enemies’ Cyberware causing all kinds of insane damage in the process!

In this guide we’ll cover everything you need to know to stalk Night City as an elusive and mysterious Netrunner, including the primary attributes, best weapons, armor, cyberware, and all the best perks you’ll want to pick up, so let’s get started.

Starting Attributes

Our primary focuses on this build will of course be Breach Protocol and Quickhacking, which luckily both stem from the same Attribute: Intelligence. So stacking that INT stat early will be important to get a solid start as a Netrunner. When first creating your Netrunner add 3 Attribute points here for a total of 6 Intelligence to start.

The next primary attribute we’ll want to invest in is the Cool Attribute. This powers both the Ninjutsu (formerly Stealth) Skill Tree and the Cold Blood Skill Tree making this build elusive and destructive in combat if need be. We will want to add three more starting attributes into Cool for a total of 6 points in this attribute as well.

Your final starting attribute point is up to you but I recommend placing that point into the Reflexes attribute. Reflexes in Cyberpunk 2077 is linked to both the Handguns Skill Tree and the Assault Skill Tree which will let us use a wide variety of weapons that are easy to find in the early game.

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 Netrunner Ghost Build is as follows:

Body: 11 (+8)
Reflexes: 14 (+10)
Tech: 6 (+3)
Int: 20 (+14)
Cool: 20 (+14)

Life Path

Your Life Path choice is up to you, but for me, in my mind, the Ghost Netrunner playstyle works best with a Corpo Life Path character. I imagine you learned quite a few Corporate secrets being so close to Arasaka tech for so long – all the more reason to destroy them from the inside out!

Starting as a Corpo will give you access to some unique Corporation themed dialog options. Great for those that want to roleplay a dark personality with a chip on their shoulder and something to prove.

Weapons And Gear

Let’s talk Weapons and Gear next.

In terms of weaponry, this build does nearly all of its devastating damage without firing a single shot – that’s how powerful the Netrunner playstyle can be!

However, when starting out you won’t have access to all the higher-level hacker Perks, so it will be best to have something that can fire off a few bullets when you need the extra protection. I recommend a Pistol or SMG for close to mid-range combat and a Sniper Rifle for finishing off enemies from a distance.

Mods

The Ghost Netrunner Build doesn’t require much in the way of fancy gear to be powerful, however, some armor mods can actually increase our Quickhacking damage!. My favorite armor mod by far for this build is the Fortuna, which increases your overall Crit Chance. Another great option is the Bully Mod which increases your overeall Crit Damage. Note that these won’t be fully usable until you unlock the Critical Error perk in Quickhacking which allows your quickhacks to critically strike.

Cyberware

The most important piece of Cyberware for any Netrunner build in Cyberpunk 2077 will be the Cyberdeck. Cyberdecks allows you to slot various Quickhacks to control and damage your enemies. Unfortunately, the base model Militech Paraline that V comes equipped with does not have much RAM, and will need to be upgraded quickly if you plan on doing any serious hacks. You’ll want to upgrade this as soon as possible with something like the Biotech Mark 2 to extend V’s Base RAM.

Once your Street Cred is Level 40 or above, you can start shopping for Legendary Cyberdecks like the Raven Microcyber Mark 4. This Cyberdeck can be purchased from Robert, the Ripperdoc near Kabuki Market.

Another powerful Cyberware option for this build you will want to pick up is the Sandevistan. Multiple different forms and rarities of the Sandevistan exist in Cyberpunk 2077, available from different manufacturers. The exact model you pick up does not make a huge difference, though higher quality pieces will grant you better stats and more time spent in Time Dilation mode. Time Dilation allows us to slow down time to deliver more Quickhacks to obliterate our enemies.

Within the Skeletal System, titanium bones and the Synaptic Signal Optimizer are great options for the increased Carrying Weight and Bonus Health.

 

The Sandevistan is one of the most powerful types of active cyberware in the game.

Best Quickhacks Options

The key to eliminating targets as a Netrunner in Cyberpunk 2077 is choosing the right Quickhack for the job. Based on the quality of your Cyberdeck, you can have up to 6 Quickhacks slotted at once. Also, be advised that many Quickhacks have bonus effects if you use Legendary Quality versions. Both the basic and legendary effects for some of my favorite Quickhacks are listed below.

Ping

  • Basic Effect: Reveals enemies and devices connected to the local network.
  • Legendary Effect: Highlights devices and allows to quickhack them through walls.

Overheat

  • Basic Effect: Applies Burn to the target, dealing high damage over time. Less effective against drones, mechs and robots.
  • Legendary Effect: Targets affected by Burn from Overheat are unable to use cyberware abilities.

System Reset

  • Basic Effect: Cripples a target’s nervous system, causing them to lose consciousness.
  • Legendary Effect: Passive while equipped: Defeating an enemy reduces the RAM cost of the next quickhack by 1. Stacks up to 6 times.

Short Circuit

  • Basic Effect: Deals moderate damage to the target. Very effective against drones, mechs, robots and targets with a Weakspot.
  • Legendary Effect: Passive While Equipped: Crit Hits with any weapon apply this quickhack’s Tier 1 effect.

Suicide

  • Basic Effect: Forces a target to commit suicide.
  • Legendary Effect: Passive While Equipped. Causing an enemy to panic reduces the RAM cost of your next Ultimate quickhack by 2.

Contagion

  • Basic Effect: Deals low damage that applies Poison to the target. Spreads to 2 targets within a 8-meter radius. Effective against closely grouped targets.
  • Legendary Effect: Passive While Equipped: All quickhacks capable of spreading to multiple targets can jump 1 additional time.

Skills And Perks

Moving on to Skills and Perks next, we have a LOT to cover in this section including Quickhacking, Breach Protocol, Ninjutsu (formerly Stealth), and Cold Blood. I’m going to go through what I think are the most important Perks to pick up so you can plan ahead. Keep in mind that this is just what I recommend and you can obviously mix and match the Perks you prefer to suit your playstyle.

Recommended Quickhacking Perks

The Quickhacking Skill Tree is focused on damaging enemies and inflicting status effects. Many Perks in this Skill Tree are essential to becoming a powerful Netrunner in Cyberpunk 2077.

For the complete list of updated Quickhacking Perks be sure to check out our Quickhacking Perk Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Bloodware Quickhacks deal (10% | 20% | 30%) more damage. (3 Ranks)
Biosynergy Allows RAM to recover during combat. Recover (4 | 8 | 12) RAM units every 60 seconds. (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 5
NAME EFFECT
Forget-Me-Not Eliminating a target affected by a quickhack instantly recovers 1 RAM unit(s).
Hacker’s Manual Unlocks Crafting Specs for Uncommon quickhacks.
LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Daisy Chain Eliminating a target affected by a quickhack reduces the existing cooldowns for all other active quickhacks by (10% | 35% | 50%). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Signal Support Increases quickhack duration by (25% | 50%). (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Subliminal Message Quickhacks deal (50% | 100%) more damage to unaware targets. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Diffusion Quickhack spread distance is 2 times larger.
Mnemonic Reduces the cost of quickhacks used against an enemy already effected by a quickhack by 2 RAM units.
School Of Hard Hacks Unlocks Crafting Specs for Rare quickhacks.
LEVEL 14
NAME EFFECT
Plague Quickhacks that spread can jump to (1 | 2 | 3) additional target(s). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 16
NAME EFFECT
Critical Error Quickhacks can now deal Crit Hits based on your Crit Chance and Crit Damage stats.
Hacker Overlord Unlocks Crafting Specs for Epic quickhacks.
LEVEL 20
NAME EFFECT
Optimization Reduces the cost of quickhacks by 1 RAM unit(s).
Bartmoss’ Legacy Unlocks Crafting Specs for Legendary quickhacks.
Master RAM Liberator

Increases RAM recovery rate by 50%.

+1% per Perk level.

 

Recommended Breach Protocol Perks

The Breach Protocol Skill Tree allows Netrunners to access enemy Networks and lower their defenses, allowing for more offensive options and comboing well with Quick Hacks.

For the complete list of updated Breach Protocol Perks be sure to check out our Breach Protocol Perk Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Mass Vulnerability Unlocks the Mass Vulnerability daemon, which reduces the Physical Resistance for all enemies in the network by 30% for (3 | 6) minutes. (2 Ranks)
Big Sleep Unlocks the Big Sleep daemon, which disables all cameras in the network for (3 | 6) minutes. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Mass Vulnerability: Resistances Upgrades the Mass Vulnerability daemon, reducing all Resistances for enemies in the network by 30%.
Extended Network Interface Automatically highlights nearby Access Points.
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Datamine Mastermind Upgrades the Datamine daemon, increasing the amount of components acquired from Access Points by (50% | 100%). (2 Ranks)
Turret Shutdown Unlocks the Turret Shutdown daemon, which disables security turrets in the network for (3 | 6) minutes. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Total Recall The ICEpick daemon reduces all quickhack costs by an additional 1 RAM unit(s).
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Turret Tamer Unlocks the Turret Tamer daemon, which sets the status of every turret in the network to friendly for (3 | 6) minutes. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 14
NAME EFFECT
Efficiency Uploading 3 or more daemons in the same Breach Protocol increases cyberdeck RAM recovery rate by (3 | 6) unit(s) per 60 seconds. Last 5 minutes. (2 Ranks)
Cloud Cache Competing a Breach Protocol reduces the RAM cost of your next quickhack by (1 | 2) time(s) the number of daemons uploaded. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 16
NAME EFFECT
Mass Vulnerability: Quickhacks Upgrades the Mass Vulnerability daemon, causing enemies in the network to also take 30% more damage from quickhacks.
Totaler Recall The ICEpick daemon reduces all quickhack costs by an additional 1 RAM unit(s).
LEVEL 18
NAME EFFECT
Head Start Automatically uploads the first daemon in the list at the start of Breach Protocol.
Hackathon Uploading 3 or more daemons in the same Breach Protocol shortens quickhack cooldowns by 33% for 5 minutes.
LEVEL 20
NAME EFFECT
Compression Reduces the lengths of the sequences required to upload daemons by 1. Cannot be reduced below 2.

 

Recommended Ninjutsu Perks

The Ninjutsu (formerly Stealth) Skill Tree allows the Ghost Netrunner build to unleash powerful Stealth Attack combos, often killing most enemies before being detected.

For the complete list of updated Ninjutus Perks be sure to check out our Ninjutsu Perk Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Crouching Tiger Increases movement speed while sneaking by (20% | 40%). (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Strike From The Shadows Increases your Crit Chance by 15% while sneaking.
Assassin Deal 15% more damage to human enemies.
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
From The Shadows Upon entering combat, Crit Chance increases by (25% | 50%) for 7 seconds. (2 Ranks)
Ghost Detection time is increased by (20% | 40%). (2 Ranks)

 

Recommended Cold Blood Perks

The Cold Blood Skill Tree will add to the overall speed, durability and damage of this build. With Cold Blood, the more kills you rack up in combat, the stronger you get!

For the complete list of updated Cold Blood Perks be sure to check out our Cold Blood Perks Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Cold Blood After defeating an enemy, gain Cold Blood for 10 seconds and increase movement speed by 2%. Stacks up to (1 | 2 | 3) time(s). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Frosty Synapses Reduces quickhack cooldowns by (3% | 6%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Rapid Bloodflow Increase Health regeneration inside and outside of combat by (50% | 100%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Coagulant Stacks of Cold Blood are removed one by one, not all at once.
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Quick Transfer Reduces quickhack upload time by (2% | 3%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 14
NAME EFFECT
Cold And Calculating Landing a Crit Hit has a 50% chance of applying a stack of Cold Blood.
LEVEL 16
NAME EFFECT
Critical Condition Increases duration of Cold Blood by (25% | 50%). (2 Ranks)
Coldest Blood Increases max stack for Cold Blood by (1 | 2).  (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 18
NAME EFFECT
Immunity Grants immunity to Bleeding, Poison, Burn and Shock when at least 4 stacks of Cold Blood are active.
LEVEL 20
NAME EFFECT
Bloodswell Upon receiving lethal damage while Cold Blood is active, prevents death, consumes all stacks of Cold Blood, restoring 10% Health per stack and grants Damage Immunity for 5 seconds. Player cannot gain Cold Blood while perk is active. Cooldown 15 seconds.
Merciless

While Cold Blood is active, increases Crit Chance by 5% and Crit Damage by 25%.

+1% Crit Chance and +3% Crit Damage per Perk level.

 

Pros And Cons

Let’s discuss what works well on this build as well as the potential challenges you will face.

Pros

This build has insane damage potential once all of your Perks and Quickhacks are fully maxed out! Most combat situations will be no problem once you realize your full Netrunner potential!

Cons

In terms of disadvantages keep in mind that it takes some time to fully realize this build. Some of the best Cyberdecks cannot be unlocked without a high Street Cred for example, plus to get the best Quickhack effects you will want to upgrade your quickhacks to Legendary quality.

Combat Tips

Finally, a few additional combat tips before you head out.

1) Attack from stealth around the edges of the battlefield at the start of an encounter to remove as many potential enemies as possible and to take advantage of those Ninjutsu Perks.

2) Use Breach Protocol, Ping, then as many quickhacks as possible until all your enemies are dead!

3) For longer boss encounters try using Overheat and keep shooting to trigger the Short Circuit passive effect.

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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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