It’s a wonder how much new stuff has been pumped into Cyberpunk 2077 with the 2.0 update. Before this, perk guides would have been small, stuffy, and boring. Now, they’re packed to the max with all-new options that will have real and tangible consequences for your play style. Chip back in, choom, as it’s time to take a look at the new Technical Ability perk tree.
This tree has gotten such a radical overhaul, it’s hard to compare it to its original iteration. Each point spent on Tech Ability gives you a flat +2 Armor bonus, with a 40 point bump by the end if you max out the attribute. At it’s core, Tech Ability focuses primarily on major body-related cyberware (the Skeleton and Integumentary System pieces), your health restoration items, grenades, and Tech-based weapons. High Tech Ability scores also let you bypass certain locked doors in various areas. If you’re looking to find out how close you can get before going “chrome crazy,” this is gonna be your kind of tree.
Rookie Tier (Stat Level 4)
Glutton For War (Major Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This is one of the first perk clusters you can access on this tree, and it’s a little underwhelming at first blush. This particular perk increase the recharge on grenades and health items by 5% after downing an enemy. Considering that you can no longer spam grenades or health items the way you did before the v2.0 patch, but rather have a fixed number of “charges” which regenerate over time, this really does help.
First Aid (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk bumps the recharge speed for health items by another 15% if you’ve only used one charge. If you’re pacing yourself and picking your battles carefully, this can be an improvement in your combat effectiveness, particularly if you don’t have abilities that return health when used.
Transfusion (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk bumps the amount of health restored by an item by 30% if you’re using the last charge of that item. Given how health items work in 2.0, this might be a bit tricky to manage. For flat restoration items like MaxDoc, this is probably best used when you’re below half your maximum health. For heal-over-time items like Bounce Back or the Blood Pump cyberware, you might want to use it before you drop below half health but are still in the middle of heavy fire.
Gearhead (Major Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This is the vehicular combat perk for the Tech Ability tree. The perk grants a 33% bump to vehicle health, while vehicular weapons get a 25% bump in damage and an 0.7-second reduction in weapon lock-on time. This is a good all-around sort of perk if you’re going to be trading paint (and bullets) on the streets.
Pro Tier (Stat Level 9)
All Things Cyber (Major Perk, 2 Perk Points) – This perk, and its satellites, are about improving the performance of cyberware in general and body improvement cyberware in particular. The first point gives a 10% boost to all cyberware stat modifiers. The second point reduces the Cyberware Capacity cost for Skeleton and Integumentary System cyberware. Cyberware Capacity is one of the new systems added in the 2.0 patch. Now, each piece of cyberware has a cost to it. You can’t just go out and get the Legendary pieces, shove them into your gonk body, and let it roll. There’s a cost involved. Cyberware Capacity increases as you level up, and certain perks in the Tech Ability tree open up expanded options for cyberware. All that said, the Integumentary and Skeleton cyberware pieces are probably some of the most resource-intensive, so getting a 20% reduction in capacity costs is a good idea.
Chrome Constitution (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk grants a 5% reduction in damage if all the slots in the Integumentary Systems and Skeleton cyberware sections are filled. That’s a lot of chrome to be putting in. But, each system adds to your overall Armor total, so getting some damage reduction on top of that isn’t a bad idea.
Renaissance Punk (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk bumps your Cyberware Capacity value by 4 for each Attribute you have above 9, including Tech Ability. That works out to a maximum 20 points of extra Cyberware Capacity, which might just be the difference between getting something new or being stuck with last year’s chrome.
Lucky Day (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk gives you an extra 25% of crafting components when looting them from random boxes. It doesn’t add anything from disassembling items for components, so keep that mind.
Driver Update (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – With this perk, all cyberware pieces gain a third stat modifier of some sort, whether it’s Quickhack Damage or RAM Refresh rates.
Chipware Connoisseur (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – The 2.0 patch introduced upgrade options for cyberware, allowing to build up your chrome at a lower cash cost than just outright buying it, assuming you’ve got the components to spare. With this perk, when you go into your friendly neighborhood ripperdoc to do an upgrade, you’ll get two different stat options. Additionally, when dealing with Tier 3 grade cyberware or higher, you’ll get a third option. If you’re looking to fine-tune your cyberware, this perk is going to be a must-have.
Health Freak (Major Perk, 2 Perk Points) – This perk, along with its satellites, is a continuation of the Glutton For War cluster. The first point bumps recharge speed for health items and grenades by a flat 8%, no conditions attached. The second point gives you an additional health item charge and increases recharge speed for those health items by 150% when out of combat. If you’ve gotten through a nasty firefight by the skin of your teeth and don’t have a health item charge handy, this will help cover that in short order.
Coming In Hot (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk increases the recharge speed on grenades by 50% if you’ve used up all your charges. Not a bad deal if you got a little overzealous with your grenade throws!
Borrowed Time (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk instantly gives you one full recharge of a health item after downing an enemy, but only if you’re below 25% health and you have no health charges available. This one is very situational. If you’re constantly finding yourself in bad scrapes where this particular set of circumstances keeps happening, you might find this useful. Otherwise, you could sleep on it without missing anything.
Field Medic (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk increases the speed at which health items are used by 15%. A solid choice when you’re under fire.
Demolitions Surplus (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk essentially duplicates the second point of Health Freak, but applies to grenades, giving you an additional grenade charge and 250% recharge on grenades outside of combat.
Phenom Tier (Stat Level 15)
Bolt (Major Perk, 3 Perk Points) – This perk cluster stands alone, focusing on Tech-type weapons. The first point increases the charge-up speed for Tech weapons by 20%. The second point buffs damage for fully charged shots from Tech weapons by 15%. The third point unlocks Bolt shots. To get off a Bolt shot, you have to charge up your weapon but release the trigger before it’s fully charged. It will behave as though you fully charged the shot, bumping up the damage by another 30% as well as reducing the penalty for shooting through cover by 50%. The perk notes that for full-auto Tech weapons, Bolts are fired in a short burst, and can be maintained if you hold down the trigger completely.
Lightning Storm (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk increases charge-up speed for Tech weapons by an additional 10% after you fire a Bolt shot. It can stack up to three times. Swapping weapons or firing a non-Bolt shot resets the stack.
Internal Clock (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk states that the time window to fire a Bolt shot is increased, but fails to quantify it. You may have to play around a bit to figure out how much of an increase it actually is.
Shock Value (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – With this perk, Bolt shots ignore enemy Armor. If you’re looking at facing down Adam Smasher, MAX-TAC police units, or heavy mechs on a regular basis, this is probably one you want to grab!
In Charge (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – Under normal circumstances, a Tech weapon which fully charges automatically fires. With this perk, that doesn’t happen, requiring you to ease off the trigger to let the round go off. This is helpful for weapons like sniper rifles that require you to stay in control.
License To Chrome (Major Perk, 3 Perk Points) – Showing the super-jacked and chromed-out back of David Martinez from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, this perk (along with its satellites) is a continuation of the All Things Cyber cluster. The first point grants another 10% to all cyberware stat modifiers. The second point gives you a flat 40-point boost to Armor. The third point opens up a third cyberware slot in the Skeleton cyberware row, as well as boosting all Skeleton cyberware stats by an unquantified degree.
Cyborg (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk reduces the Cooldown of all cyberware by 15%, but only if all available cyberware slots are filled. You actually might want to save this one for later, as it requires being fully kitted out to activate.
Ambidextrous (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk opens up a second slot for your Hands, so you can now theoretically ricochet with Power weapons with a Ballistic Coprocessor and still use Smart weapons with a Smart Link instead of having to choose one over the other. You should get this perk before getting Cyborg.
Built Different (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk allows you to purchase and install Cellular Adapter cyberware into the Integumentary System row. Cellular Adapter is a catch-all sort of piece of gear, making a wide array of improvements over multiple areas. It’s also expensive, so be sure you have the eddies on hand before picking up this perk!
Extended Warranty (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk extends the duration of all cyberware effects by 15%. No fuss, no muss.
Pyromania (Major Perk, 3 Perk Points) – This perk, along with its satellites, is a continuation of the Glutton For War and Health Freak clusters. The first point gives another flat 8% boost to health item and grenade recharge times. The second point increases the damage radius of grenades and Projectile Launch System cyberware (in the Arms slot) by 10%. The third point opens up the Pyromania buff: 5% movement speed and 10% explosion damage after hitting an enemy with an explosion in combat. This buff stacks up to five times. Should you take damage from your own explosion, you get two stacks of the buff. If you’ve got a reckless disregard for your own safety and aren’t afraid to get dangerously close to your own grenades, this is going to be an interesting perk set for you.
Heat Shield (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk adds 10% Mitigation Chance for each stack of Pyromania. With a full five stacks, that’s a 50% Mitigation chance (on top of your base 50%.)
Burn This City (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk changes how Pyromania works, so you may want to weigh your options. With this perk, when you reach a full five stacks of Pyromania, they’ll all be consumed to instantly replenish one grenade charge. But the damage boost and speed boost from the stacks will remain in effect for six seconds. If you feel like it’s a good trade-off, getting a fresh grenade out of the deal, it’s probably worth spending this point.
Flash Sale (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk allows you to double your number of grenade charges and the grenade recharge rate, but only if you’re using Flash, Smoke, or Recon grenades.
Friendlier Fire (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk grants you 50% resistance to damage and effects from explosions you cause. You’ll still take some damage, but not nearly as much, making Pyromania a little more accessible and less risky to you.
Doomlauncher (Minor Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk bridges the Pyromania and License To Chrome clusters. The Projectile Launch System cyberware gets some improvements. It gains one more charge, 20% recharge speed, an additional 25% recharge speed if you’re out of charges, 200% recharge speed outside of combat, and 5% instant recharge after downing an enemy. Oh, and it gets all the same effects as grenades would if you have the Burn This City perk!
Legend Tier (Stat Level 20)
Ticking Time Bomb (Major Perk, 1 Perk Point) – The culmination of the Glutton For War, Health Freak, and Pyromania clusters, as well as one of two culminations for the All Things Cyber and License To Chrome clusters. With this perk, whenever you activate Operating System cyberware like Berserk or Sandevistan or engage Overclock Mode (more on that in the Intelligence perk guide), you charge up a powerful EMP burst that goes off three seconds later and hits all enemies nearby. When it goes off, it applies the Stun condition to the affected enemies and deals damage proportionate to the quantity and Tier of cyberware implants installed (so make sure you’ve got good stuff chipped in). As an added bonus, 50% of all incoming damage is reduced while the EMP is charging!
Edgerunner (Major Perk, 1 Perk Point) – Featuring our boy David Martinez again, this time sporting his mom’s jacket, this perk basically lets you become a cyberpsycho. You can exceed your Cyberware Capacity limit by 50 points for a cost of 0.5% of your maximum health per point. For each point over the limit, there’s a 0.1% chance that you’ll enter a state of Fury for 12 seconds after downing an enemy. In the Fury state, you gain a flat 10% damage buff, a 30% Crit Chance buff, and a 50% Crit Damage buff. It’s a tough call: assuming you take the full 50 points, you’re sacrificing 25% of your maximum health for a 5% chance to literally go nuts. Only you can decide, choom!
Chain Lightning (Major Perk, 1 Perk Point) – This perk is the culmination of the Bolt cluster. Bolts will now deal Electrical damage and release an electric arc which can damage up to 3 nearby enemies. Not a bad way to help mow down hordes of angry robots.
If you really want to take yourself right to the Edge, to remake yourself into the chromed-out god of Night City, or just like to play with grenades and survive the experience on a regular basis, Tech Ability is the key to making it all happen. Crank it up!
Are you afraid of loud noises and shrapnel? Does the thought of replacing your flesh and internal organs with myomer and silicon squick you out? No worries, choom! Stick with GameLuster for more guides on Cyberpunk 2077 and their new Perks.
