Cyberpunk 2077 Sniper Build – The Tech Sniper

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Build Introduction to the Tech Sniper

Welcome to a brand new Cyberpunk 2077 Build: The Tech Sniper! This build is all about firing off massive Tech Weapon damage *through walls* to impact the target before they even know what hit them! This build is very handy in any type of fight: from medium or even close distances due to the flexible nature of the Tech Precision Rifle, and of course from long distances using a fully speced out Tech Sniper Rifle.

In this guide we’ll cover everything you need to know to make it work 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

Alright, first let’s talk starting attributes. Our primary focuses on this build will of course be Rifles, both the Precision and Sniper variety. Both weapons reside in the Assault Skill Tree which increases through the Reflex Attribute. So you’ll want to put three early attribute points into Reflexes for a total of 6.

The next primary attribute we’ll want to invest in is the Technical Ability Attribute. This is the primary source for Tech Weapon specific Perks which are found in the Engineering Skill Tree. We can also benefit from crafted weapons and ammo as well as weapon upgrades from the Crafting Skill Tree. I’d recommend adding three additional points to the Technical Ability stat at the start of the game for a total of 6.

Your final starting attribute point is up to you but I recommend placing that point into the Cool attribute. We will eventually put several more points into Cool for some great perks found in both Cold Blood and Stealth.

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 Tech Sniper Build is as follows:

Body: 12 (+9)
Reflexes: 20 (+14)
Tech: 20 (+14)
Int: 4 (+1)
Cool: 14 (+11)

Life Path

Your chosen Life Path is of course up to you, but for me the Nomad Life Path makes sense as that outdoor lifestyle and time spent out on the Badlands probably has given us plenty of time to refine our shot.

Starting out as a Nomad in the Badlands.

Weapons And Gear

Let’s talk Weapons and Gear next.

In terms of weaponry, this build will focus almost entirely on mastering Rifles, specifically Sniper Rifles and Precision Rifles. While you can use Assault Rifles as well, it doesn’t quite fit the theme of this build.

Let’s talk about your go to Sniper Rifle first the Nekomata. The Nekomata is an ultra powerful option for sniping enemies from a distance due to the fact that it’s Tech-based. Tech Weapons in Cyberpunk 2077 have the ability to shoot through walls and other forms of cover by charging up your shot. So a quick charge, combined with some way to see enemies such the Ping quickhack is a deadly combination. Nekomata’s are fairly common to find in the game and can also be crafted and upgraded to legendary quality if you wish.

My personal favorite on this build is something a little different – that being the Widow Maker Tech Precision Rifle. This is a special, iconic weapon that you will pick up as part of Panam’s questline in the Badlands, so it’s worth doing that series of missions as soon as possible. Once you get the Widow Maker it can be further upgraded to legendary quality through the Crafting Skill Line. This Tech Rifle is nearly as powerful at range as the Nekomata, has the same capability to shoot through cover, but also does well shooting from the hip without sights at either medium to close range. I love this one!

The Widow Maker also has a high chance to apply Poison to your target, giving them some nasty extra damage over time that can easily finish them off in a few seconds if your initial shot doesn’t do the job.

Mods And Attachments

The Tech Sniper will benefit from any decent scope attachment applied to your weapons. This will be especially important when using the Nekomata at long range. Any scope is fine, though the longer the range the better in most cases.

There is a wide variety of weapon mods that can be added to your Rifles as well. My favorite option is the Countermass Mod which will reduce vertical weapon recoil after firing.

Cyberware

Moving on to Cyberware next.

The centerpiece cyberware option for this build will be 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.  

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

Some other great options for this build are the more defensive Cyberware items like Dermal Plating – this can be found in all different strengths and rarities that give you higher innate armor rating. Other forms of subdermal armor give you protection from specific status effects like the Fireproof coating which protects you from Burn.

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

Under Optics, the Keroshi implant can be further modded for a whopping 25% bonus Headshot damage with the Trajectory Analysis mod. This can be picked up from Viktor near V’s Apartment in Watson.

Your Keroshi Optics can also be modded for higher Crit Chance by using the Weakspot Detection mod, which is fairly common to find in Night City.

Skills And Perks

Moving on to Skills and Perks next, we have quite a bit to cover in this section involving Assault, Engineering, Stealth, Cold Blood and Althetics. 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 Assault Perks

The Assault Skill Tree includes all of our rifle related Perks for both Precision Rifles and Sniper Rifles. For the complete list of updated Assault Perks be sure to check out our Assault Perks Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Eagle Eye Reduces time to aim down sight with Rifles and Submachine Guns by (10% | 25% | 50%). (3 Ranks)
Bulletjock Increases damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns by (3% | 6% | 10%). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 4
NAME EFFECT
Covering Killshot Increases Crit Chance with Rifles and Submachine Guns by (10% | 20%) when firing from behind cover. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 6
NAME EFFECT
Bullseye Increases Rifle and Submachine Gun damage while aiming by 10%.
Executioner Deal 25% more damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns to enemies whose Health is above 50%.
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Duck Hunter Increases Rifle and Submachine Gun damage to moving enemies by (10% | 20%). (2 Ranks)
Shoot, Reload, Repeat Defeating an enemy with a Rifle or Submachine Gun reduces reload time by (20% | 40%) for 5 seconds. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Nerves Of Steel Increases headshot damage with Sniper Rifles and Precision Rifles by (10% | 15%). (2 Ranks)
Feel The Flow Reduces reload time for Assault Rifles and Submachine Guns by (10% | 20%). (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Trench Warfare Increases Rifle and Submachine gun damage by (5% | 10%) when firing from behind cover. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 14
NAME EFFECT
Named Bullets Increaes Crit Damage with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 20%.
Skull Skipper Each headshot reduces recoil with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 4% for 10 seconds. Stacks up to 5 times.
LEVEL 16
NAME EFFECT
Bunker Increases Armor and Resistances by 15% when shooting with Rifles and Submachine Guns from behind cover.
Recoil Wrangler Reduces recoil with Rifles and Submachine Guns by 10%.
LEVEL 18
NAME EFFECT
Long Shot Rifle and Submachine Gun damage increases the farther you are located from enemies.
LEVEL 20
NAME EFFECT
Savage Stoic Increases damage with Rifles and Submachine guns by 35% when standing still.
Punisher After defeating an enemy with a Rifle or Submachine Gun, weapon sway is nullified and weapon spread does not increase for 10 seconds.
+0.2 seconds per Perk level.

 

Recommended Engineering Perks

The Engineering Skill Tree is focused primarily on improving our use of Tech Weapons including Tech Rifles. For the complete list of updated Engineering Perks be sure to check out our Engineering Perks Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Mech Looter When looting drones, mech and robots, there is a (25% | 50% | 75%) chance of looting a weapon mod or attachment. (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Bladerunner Increases damage to drones, mechs and robots by (20% | 40%). (2 Ranks)
Up To 11 Allows you to charge Tech Weapons up to (75% | 100%) capacity. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Tesla Increases the charge multiplier for Tech Weapons by (15% | 35% | 55%). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 14
NAME EFFECT
Ubercharge Fully charged Tech Weapons deal 30% more damage.
Gun Whisperer Fully charged Tech Weapons do not shoot automatically.
LEVEL 16
NAME EFFECT
F All Walls Reduces the charge amount needed for Tech Weapons to penetrate walls by 30%.
LEVEL 18
NAME EFFECT
Lickety Split Tech Weapon charge time is reduced by (10% | 20%). (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 20
NAME EFFECT
Superconductor Tech Weapons ignore armor.
Revamp Increases damage from Tech Weapons by 25%. Increases charge damage from Tech Weapons by 10%.
+1% charge damage per Perk level.

 

Recommended Ninjutsu (Stealth) Perks

The Ninjutsu (formerly Stealth) Skill Tree allows the Tech Sniper to deal even more damage while crouching as well as increased headshot damage. For the complete list of updated Ninjutsu Perks be sure to check out our Ninjutsu Perks Guide.

LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Strike From The Shadows Increases your Crit Chance by 7% while sneaking.
Assassin Deal 15% more damage to human enemies.
LEVEL 9
NAME EFFECT
Sniper Increases damage from headshots fired from outside combat by (10% | 20%). (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
From The Shadows Upon entering combat, Crit Chance increases by (10% | 20%) for 7 seconds. (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 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)
LEVEL 5
NAME EFFECT
Will To Survive Increases all Resistances by (3% | 6%) per stack of Cold Blood. (2 Ranks)
LEVEL 9
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)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Coagulant Stacks of Cold Blood are removed one by one, not all at once.
Frozen Precision Increases headshot damage by 5% per stack of Cold Blood.
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Icy Veins Reduces weapon recoil by (3% | 6%) 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.

Recommended Athletics Perks

The Athletics Skill Tree will add to the overall speed, durability and maximum stats of this build. For the complete list of updated Athletics Perks be sure to check out our Athletics Perk Guide.

LEVEL 1
NAME EFFECT
Pack Mule Increases Carrying Capacity by 60.
Regeneration Health slowly regenerates during combat.
LEVEL 5
NAME EFFECT
Invincible Increases max Health by (10% | 20% | 30%). (3 Ranks)
True Grit Increases max Stamina by (10% | 20% | 30%). (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 7
NAME EFFECT
Epimorhosis Health regenerates up to (70% | 80% | 100%) of max Health outside of combat. (3 Ranks)
LEVEL 11
NAME EFFECT
Multitasker Allows you to shoot while sprinting, sliding and vaulting.
Divided Attention Allows you to reload weapons while sprinting, sliding and vaulting.
Like A Butterfly Dodging does not drain Stamina.
LEVEL 12
NAME EFFECT
Cardio Cure Health regenerates 25% faster as you move.

Crafting Tips

Crafting ammo and upgrading weapons is a great idea on this build. For example, the Iconic Widow Maker Rifle typically comes in Rare or Epic quality, so if you like this weapon you’ll want to consider upgrading it to Legendary quality further down the line to keep it’s damage competitive. This should be no problem because you will also ideally be maxing out your Technical Ability stat on this build which will let you unlock all crafting Perks. Here are some tips to help you along the way with crafting.

1) Deconstruct any weapons and armor that you don’t plan on using. Not only will this give you extra materials for crafting, but it will help you level up your crafting skill as well.

2) Never get stuck with low ammo in your inventory. Craft more in advance!

3) Pick up the True Craftsman, Grease Monkey, and Edgerunner Artisan Perks to craft Rare, Epic and Legendary quality items.

4) Pick up the Cost Optimization and Let There Be Light Perks to reduce crafting and upgrading costs.

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 while in stealth. Headshots also have massively increased damage modifiers. The ability to shoot through walls and cover is also invaluable when facing off against multiple enemies.

Cons

In terms of disadvantages keep in mind that you don’t have as much defense against melee builds. Try to focus on these enemies first as they run towards you!

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.

2) Use the Ping Quickhack to highlight enemies on the battlegield, even those behind cover.

3) Always aim for the head!

4) Before starting combat, always pick out a solid Sniper’s Nest location. Ideally this will include some pieces of cover and a height advantage over your enemies location.

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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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