RELATED: Cyberpunk 2077: The Fastest Vehicles In The Game (& How To Get Them)
Iconic weapons can be upgraded to keep them relevant. Some will be found as a blue rare or even a green uncommon but they are worth every bit of effort to make them legendary guns that will never leave a player’s holster again. Others might say “iconic” or “legendary” but they are complete trash — in fact, some are worse than the standard guns they are based on. By doing research and making wise choices in Cyberpunk 2077, V can save some eddies and have maximum firepower at all times. It’s a cutthroat world, but those with the right firepower will be just fine. Those without it better have a save file handy.
Heads up! Some of these guns are obtained as a result of major plot points, so some big spoilers are in this article.
Updated on April 22nd, 2022 by Hodey Johns: After adding the locations of the weapons worth upgrading in one update, readers have wanted to know where to find the locations of the weapons worth skipping as well. Whether it’s to complete a collection or simply to see for oneself exactly how terrible these weapons are, that’s respectable, so this latest update adds more weapon locations. Also, some players enjoy giving the game a whirl for the visual aesthetic; Cyberpunk 2077 is in the title after all. Considering that players will be seeing a lot of these weapons on the screen, a picture has been added in each section so gamers can see if they like the look of the gun before picking it up.
10 Upgrade: Overwatch
Sniper Rifle. Power Weapon. Built-in silencer. Faster reload speed.
The Overwatch is the best sniper rifle in the game without debate. As a sniper rifle, reload speed is always useful when the window of opportunity for multiple targets is only so long. The built-in legendary silencer is incredible to help with those shots so enemies don’t scatter. If V puts a silencer on a gun, the damage gets reduced, even when using a legendary silencer in Cyberpunk 2077, but this built-in variety keeps the damage full.
It might be the best sniper rifle for that alone, but what makes it absolutely overpowered is the raw damage. V can go through the entire game without seeing a four-digit damage number. This gun regularly hits for five digits with headshots. Perhaps somebody misplaced a decimal because even 10% of the damage would have been more than enough to one-shot most enemies.
Where To Find The Overwatch
Don’t worry about overturning every secret quest and location, this rifle can be obtained by playing the main missions, but it does require succeeding at a specific objective. During the Riders on the Storm mission, V will be asked to try and save Saul. Of course, saving him is a reward in and of itself in terms of role-playing, but there if V succeeds, the Overwatch is given as a reward for the rescue.
9 Skip: Plan B
Pistol. Power Weapon. Chance to apply bleed effects. Each shot costs eddies.
Players who complete every single side quest, gig, quest chain, and NCPD mission in the game will be surprised to learn they still don’t have enough money to buy a high-end car or another pricey piece of equipment. Even the most frugal of players will have to tighten their belts to stay afloat in Night City.
This means that a gun with average DPS that costs eddies every time it is fired must be ruled out. This gun is the first iconic weapon some gamers get ahold of since it comes from early fixer Dexter DeShawn, but it’s a poor representation of the power of iconic weapons. Under no circumstances should it be fired or be placed on the upgrading table unless the goal is to play through the game without spending money.
Where To Find The Plan B
As mentioned, the gun drops off of Dexter DeShawn, but he doesn’t exactly part with it willingly. After he betrays your team and gets several main characters killed, V exacts his revenge in short order during the story. Find his corpse in the junkyard with the Plan B on him.
8 Upgrade: Skippy
Pistol. Smart Weapon. Deals electrical damage and has a chance to shock. Scales to player level. Option to target lethal and non-lethal areas. Speaks when equipped.
Skippy is widely regarded as the best gun in the game and there are plenty of reasons to back that up. As a smart weapon, bullets don’t miss already, and Skippy has a setting that makes it so all shots hit in the head, effectively doubling or tripling the listed damage (which is already absurd). It automatically scales to player level, too, so it needs no effort to upgrade Skippy in Cyberpunk 2077.
There are two major amateur mistakes to make with Skippy. The first is to program it for headshots right away. For whatever reason, after fifty kills, it will automatically change back to the opposite. So start with non-lethal shots, then, when it switches back, have V respond with “I don’t know,” and this will enable permanent headshots. The next trap is that a quest exists to give Skippy back to its original owner. The eddies aren’t even good, but no amount of eddies would be enough to replace Skippy anyway.
Where To Find Skippy
Skippy is lying out in the open, but it can be easily missed. So long as the player has access to the side missions still, it’s not too late to go back and get this awesome pistol. Head to Heywood and look for a side job entitled “Machine Gun.” After knocking out the requisite villains, V will find the contraband on the ground next to the body of a thief.
7 Skip: Divided We Stand
Assault Rifle. Smart Weapon. Deals chemical damage. Chance to apply poison effects. Targets up to five opponents at once.
The theory of an assault rifle that fires shots without ever missing looks great on paper. Adding chemical rounds to each bullet is even better, the rapid-fire essentially assures that targets will be taking poison damage after a clip or two.
RELATED: Rarest Encounters In Cyberpunk 2077
But the biggest drawback is supposed to be a feature. By targeting five at the same time, bullets are spread out too thinly among groups of enemies, especially robotic ones where the poison is rendered useless.
Stacked on top of that is the gun’s low DPS and it’s pretty common to empty five clips or more on a mob before they finally go down. There are some great NPCs out there, but they’ll have to disavow ever knowing the main character if V tries to show off with the Divided We Stand.
Where To Find The Divided We Stand
In Southeast Santo Domingo, there is a shooting contest. The mission is called “Stadium Love” and winning the competition yields this assault rifle. It’s not easy, V has to get wasted and go to different courses, then shoot targets in a fixed period of time. Bring something with a high rate of fire!
6 Upgrade: Apparition
Pistol. Tech Weapon. Charged shots deal double damage. Increased damage, fire rate, and reload speed at low health.
V will probably never need to use the feature of this gun, as amazing as the feature is. The gun syncs up with the user’s vitals and does better output at lower health. To see this effect, the player will have to get into a very bad situation first, but the odds of enemies living long enough to surround V are minimal.
Charged tech weapons deal around double damage to begin with, so the feature on this weapon that does double damage means V will regularly be hitting enemies for quadruple damage. Factor in the ridiculously high base damage numbers on the gun and it’s basically one-hit kills for anything less than a boss fight or cyberpsycho, meaning V will likely be at close to full health by the time the fight ends.
Where To Find The Apparition
This is going to be bad news for most players, but this gun can only be obtained by a V with the corpo background. During the War Pigs quest, you’ll get a chance to loot Frank’s body. He’ll have this pistol that hits like a sniper rifle on his person. Match it up with some Johnny Silverhand items and it’s effective and stylish!
5 Skip: Chaos
Pistol. Tech Weapon. Each clip randomizes crit chance, damage type, and chance of effect.
The Chaos sounds like fun to use, and in many ways it is. After emptying a clip, when the player decides to reload, the gun will change crit chance, damage type, and effect chance. In one clip, bullets can be thermal and in the next, the bullets can be electrical. The name “Chaos” is very appropriate.
However, as a tech weapon, the way to maximize the damage is to charge up each shot and shoot slowly. This means clips are few and far between and it’s easy to get stuck on an ineffective effect for the given enemy. The DPS is poor, even worse than other common pistols at the same level, making the gun nothing more than a burden to carry around.
Where To Find The Chaos
Things will go quickly south during a conversation with Royce, even if players try to end things peacefully. The encounter can’t be missed, but the gun can. After killing Royce, find the Chaos on the ground next to his body.
4 Upgrade: The Headsman
Shotgun. Power Weapon. Chance to apply bleed effects. Increased bleed effect chance. Increased dismemberment chance. Double the number of pellets. Reduced reload time. Increased spread. Reduced rate of fire. Reduced clip capacity.
There are three penalties tied to this shotgun and it’s fair to be completely turned away by those warnings before ever giving it a chance. Players that overcome their fears about it will find that the reason these penalties are applied is to try and balance The Headsman out, but it’s still overpowered.
By doubling the number of pellets, the damage is doubled right away. Then factor in that this is a power weapon and any missed projectiles will ricochet back. Top this off with bleed and dismemberment effects. This all adds up to shredding anything within a few meters. In close-quarter rooms, there isn’t a better choice in the game.
Where To Find The Headsman
This gun isn’t actually located in the game, but an ingenious V can make one! First thing’s first, pick up the Edgerunner Artisan Perk. Next, go to North Oak and do a job there for the NCPD. The leader of this suspected organized crime activity will have the schematic on the body. Loot it, get to a crafting table, and enjoy one of the game’s few awesome shotguns.
3 Skip: Problem Solver
Submachine Gun. Power Weapon. Chance to apply bleed effects.
The Problem Solver doesn’t have any drawback to scare away any onlookers. It does have a nice bleed effect, but many standard submachine guns have bleed effects tied to them. To realize why this weapon is so bad, take a look at the iconic description and it’s plain to see why this gun has much to be desired.
RELATED: Pro Tips For Cyberpunk 2077 You Need To Know
It’s blank. That’s right, for some reason, an iconic effect was never given to this gun, making it just a normal submachine gun. It could be an oversight, but regardless, it’s got nothing going for it over anything else.
It’s just fine as a plain gun, but when upgrade resources are limited enough already, pouring them into a gun with nothing special about it is ill-advised.
Where To Find The Problem Solver
V will have to get to the desert and start completing missions with Panam’s crew to get to the Problem Solver. During a side quest called “Riders on the Storm,” V will be tasked with attacking a few bases. Look very carefully on the ground, one guard at the Wrath base will drop the weapon.
2 Upgrade: Stinger
Knife. Deals chemical damage. Chance to apply poison effects.
Katana users spend so much time figuring out which sword is the best that they overlook that it’s actually a knife that holds the title of the best blade in the game. As a blade, it gets every single advantage that a katana gets from the skill tree.
With full upgrades, it actually swings faster than a katana (6.67 swings per second to the katana’s 5). The base damage is better than even the best katana as it is, so the cherry on top is the poison effect chance. When swinging that quickly, the poison is nearly guaranteed to go off within the opening combo. Mixed with some cybernetics geared toward melee combat, this is the king of all melee weapon selections.
Where To Find The Stinger
Don’t neglect going out to the Nomad’s Camp in the desert area of Night City. There are plenty of treasures here, but none more valuable than the Stinger. Talk to Mitch who will give V a quest called “I’ll Fly Away.” After completing it, he’ll fork over this treasure as a reward.
1 Skip: Cocktail Stick
Katana.
Unlike the Problem Solver, this katana actually has an iconic description. But that’s where the differences end. Like that weapon, nobody thought to give this katana an actual effect. The description states that the Cocktail Stick “looks like a toy, cuts like a laser,” but if that’s true, it’s being compared to a very weak laser.
Iconic weapons are derived from base weapons and the stats are modified from there. The game does not explicitly say it, but there are actually two kinds of katanas. One has the second-highest melee DPS in the game. The other has the lowest. Sadly, this one is based on the lowest DPS model. This means that upgrading this blade is the equivalent of upgrading the worst melee weapon in the game. It has a mod slot, but that’s not good enough to turn this into anything decent.
Where To Find The Cocktail Stick
During the “Automatic Love” side mission, V will eventually have to go to a place called Cloud’s, which is something in between a casino, bar, and hotel. While at Cloud’s, grab a VIP pass and take the stairs to the fifth floor. The Cocktail Stick is next to some clothing on a dresser.
Cyberpunk 2077 was released on December 10th, 2020, and is available on Xbox Series X/S, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5, and PC.
MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 Expansion to Release in 2023
