Highlights

• Cyberpunk 2077 is centered around body modification through Cyberware, which enhances character abilities and armor.
• Certain Cyberware upgrades, such as Heal-On-Kill and Pain Editor, are highly recommended for specific playstyles and combat situations.
• Ripperdocs in Night City offer a variety of Cyberware options, including legendary variants, that can be purchased or found throughout the game.

The base of the Cyberpunk 2077 world is all about body modification in the form of Cyberware. These upgrades can make your character even more powerful with increased abilities, better statistics, and even more armor than normal clothes can give you. There are 20 slots in total for various Cyberware items that fit in different slots on your character's body.

No matter what build you decide to go with, there is going to be at least one piece of Cyberware to level up your gang-killing game. This list will help you narrow your choices down to the very best that Night City's Ripperdocs can offer.

Updated on November 3, 2023, by Peter Hunt Szpytek: This list has been updated to include a video (featured below.)

15 Heal-On-Kill (Frontal Cortex Slot)

This Cyberware upgrade is pretty basic but is still extremely powerful. Heal-On-Kill does what its name suggests. It instantly restores 10% health every time you defeat an enemy. This modification is great for high-reflex builds that specialize in melee and close-range combat. This will come in handy for tackling the new Phantom Liberty expansion.

It won't completely substitute the need for manual healing, so make sure that you are still stocked up on MaxDoc and Bounce Back medical inhalers. You can purchase Heal-On-Kill from various Ripperdocs in Night City, but the Legendary variant can be bought from Cassius Ryder in Northside.

14 Pain Editor (Immune System Slot)

This is an extremely useful Cyberware upgrade that can easily be made inaccessible to you if you make a wrong decision. The Pain Editor simply reduces all damage you receive by 10%. No matter if it is from fall damage, gunshots, burning, or car accidents. This is very handy when stacked with other armor mods as well as a high amount of armor from clothes.

There is only one variant of this mod in the game, and it can only be purchased from a character you meet in a side job. The Legendary Pain Editor can only be purchased from Fingers in Japantown. You immediately lose the ability to buy this mod if you punch or kill Fingers during "The Space In Between" side job.

13 Optical Camo (Integumentary System Slot)

This is a great Cyberware mod for those who like to play the game with a more stealthy approach. The Optical camouflage mod simply makes you turn almost invisible for 15 seconds, with a cooldown of 45 seconds.

This was glitched until fairly recently, and you wouldn't be completely invisible. That has since been patched and is now working correctly. The legendary variant of this mod can be purchased from the Ripperdoc, Octavio, in Rancho Coronado.

12 Deep-Field Visual Interface (Nervous System Slot)

The Deep-Field Visual Interface is a Nervous System cyberware upgrade that increases your critical chance based on your proximity to the target. The farther away you are from an enemy, the higher the critical chance. At most, you can expect the crit chance to reach a whopping +95% at a distance of 90 meters. Needless to say, this is a go-to cyberware upgrade for any sniper build in Phantom Liberty.

In addition to adding a substantial amount of crit chance, the Deep-Field Visual Interface also grants the player +1% crit damage per Attribute Point while wielding the weapon. Combine that with the crit chance and you can expect to one-shot most enemies in the game, provided you’re shooting from afar of course. The cyberware upgrade can be purchased from Dogtown Ripperdocs or found randomly in Airdrops.

11 Synaptic Signal Optimizer (Skeleton Slot)

This is a fantastic Cyberware mod that will fit well with any character build. The Synaptic Signal Optimizer simply increases your maximum health by 60% with the legendary variant. It also requires 20 points in the body stat to be equipped.

This mod also fits extremely well with any other Cyberware that increases health or health regeneration, such as Heal-On-Kill. You can purchase this Cyberware from Nina Kraviz in Charter Hill.

10 Gorilla Arms (Arms Slot)

The Gorilla Arms are one of the game-changing Cyberware arm mods that you can use. These arms are all about punching and unarmed damage. They gain three damage per point that you put into the Body stat. They are also affected by any perks in the Street Brawler tree. Perfect for starting a fight in any of Night City's clubs and bars.

The legendary Gorilla Arms variant also adds six points to any Body attribute checks such as dismantling turrets, opening doors, and hijacking cars. There is also a 20% chance to apply whatever status effect is on the arms to any enemy you hit with them. The legendary Gorilla Arms can be purchased from the Ripperdoc in Wellsprings.

9 Adreno-Trigger (Nervous System Slot)

Adreno-Trigger is a Nervous System cyberware upgrade that grants the player a movement speed buff upon entering combat. The percentage and length of the buff vary depending on certain factors. At the minimum, you can expect to move around 20% faster for 30 seconds, which is definitely nothing to sneeze at. This upgrade works with tons of builds, but seems particularly suitable for melee-focused ones.

The Andreno-Trigger also comes with a passive ability that increases the cyberware upgrade’s effect by three seconds per Attribute Point. With high enough stats, you can expect the effect to last for around a minute, giving you enough time to slice and dice your way through entire groups of enemies. You can get yourself an Adreno-Trigger from a Ripperdoc in Dogtown provided you own the Phantom Liberty DLC. There’s also a chance that an Adreno-Trigger will spawn randomly inside an Airdrop.

8 Reinforced Tendons (Legs Slot)

This is one of the must-have Cyberware mods that any build can use effectively. Reinforced Tendons are a leg mod that simply allows you to double jump! This is incredibly useful for navigating Night City as well as fighting enemies during melee combat.

These can be compared to Fortified Ankles, which allow you to hold the jump button and charge for one big jump. The Reinforced Tendons only exist as a rare variant and can be purchased from Viktor Vektor in Little China without a Street Cred requirement.

7 Smart Link (Hands Slot)

This Hands Slot cyberware mod is necessary for anyone who wants to specialize in using Smart Weapons. The iconic variant of the Smart Link increases the critical damage of Smart Weapons by 15% while also increasing the duration of target lock by 20%. Moreover, Smart Weapons get 0.1% extra damage per Attribute Point.

The Smart Link can be purchased from any Ripperdoc in Night City for under 20K eddies. Viktor, Dr. Chrome, and Buck's Clinic will all sell you Tier 5 versions of the implant, although they won't show up in their stocks until your character has a sufficiently high level.

6 Axolotl (Frontal Cortex Slot)

Axototl is a Frontal Cortex cyberware upgrade that instantly reduces the cooldown of all cyberware every time you kill an enemy. There’s no cooldown, so expect the effect to stack at a rapid pace whenever you’re neutralizing enemies in quick succession. The cooldown reduction will be somewhere between 9 and 12.5% depending on which version of the upgrade you install. But even the weaker version is quite powerful all things considered.

Both versions of the upgrade also grant the player +0.5 armor per Attribute Point, making Axolotl a good option to increase both your offensive and defensive capabilities. The stronger version of the upgrade can be acquired by completing all the gigs offered by Regina Jones. Do that, and you’ll receive a side quest called Last Call that ends with V. getting the upgrade for free. Alternatively, you can buy a slightly weaker version of Axolotl from a Ripperdoc in Dogtown provided you own the Phantom Liberty expansion.

5 Rara Avis (Skeleton Slot)

Rara Avis is a Skeleton cyberware upgrade that gives you a massive +42% armor at max level along with several other defensive buffs. The armor upgrade alone is pretty insane and will make your character significantly more difficult to take down. This cyberware implant was introduced in Phantom Liberty and far exceeds the best armor upgrade in the base game, Para Bellum.

Armor aside, Rara Avis also gives you +2 Health per Attribute Point and can be upgraded to grant additional defensive bonuses. Similar to other Phantom Liberty cyberware upgrades, Rara Avis can be purchased from Ripperdocs in Dogtown. The upgrade can also show up in Airdrops, but has a very low chance to spawn.

4 Netwatch Netdriver Mk. 1 (Operating System Slot)

The Netwatch Netdriver MK. 1 is hands down the best cyberdeck in the game even when taking into account all the new additions introduced in Phantom Liberty. The implant increases the duration of combat Quickhacks uploaded through devices by 20% while also boosting their damage by 15%. As an added bonus, this cyberdeck reduces the RAM cost of Quickhacks by -50% and their traceability by -20%

Another reason why the Netwatch Netdriver MK.1 is such a good cyberdeck is because it comes with 13 RAM slots, 8 Quickhack slots, and a Buffer size of 12. That’s plenty of juice for all your hacking needs. The Netwatch Netdriver MK.1 can be purchased for around 85K eddies from any Ripperdoc in Night City. There’s a chance you can get one for free while completing Many Ways to Skin a Cat, one of Regina Jones’ gigs, but it’s not guaranteed.

3 Dynalar Sandevistan Mk. 4 (Operating System Slot)

This is the alternative to the last entry for players who are more active in combat and specialize in melee and standard weapon combat. The Dynalar Sandevistan Mk. 4 will fit in the operating system slot and will allow you to slow time to 25% for 16 seconds. It increases your damage while it is active by 15% and critical damage by 15% as well.

It also has three on board mod slots to add even more damage improvements. The Sandevistan Mk. 4 also requires you to have 15 points in Reflexes to use. It can be purchased from Viktor Vektor in Little China.

2 Militech Apogee Sandevistan

The Militech Apogee Sandevistan is an Operating System cyberware upgrade that slows down time while also giving the user a bunch of powerful bonuses in the process. Time is slowed down by 85% while the effect lasts, allowing you to kill multiple enemies in quick succession before they even knew what hit them. During this time, V. gains increased headshot damage, crit chance, and crit damage. The maximum duration is eight seconds, however, you can extend that thanks to the upgrade’s other effects.

Killing an enemy while time is slowed down extends the effect of the Militech Apogee Sandevistan by another second or two. Moreover, there’s also a passive effect that further extends the duration by 0.1 seconds per Attribute Point. It wouldn’t be too much of a stretch to call the Militech Apogee Sandevistan one of the best cyberware upgrades in Cyberpunk 2077, let alone Phantom Liberty. Once you reach level 40, you'll be able to buy the implant from any Ripperdoc in Night City for around 120K eddies.

1 Mantis Blades (Arms Slot)

The absolute best and most iconic Cyberware in the game has to be the Mantis Blades. The blades come out of your arms and allow you to slice and dice your enemies with ease. You can even lunge at targets by holding down the attack button. There is also a unique kill animation with this attack.

With the legendary variant, there is an added 20% chance to apply whatever damage type is applied to the Mantis Blades. These absolute units can be purchased from the Ripperdoc in Wellsprings.

Next: Cyberpunk 2077: Best Weapons, Ranked