You can choose from a good number of melee weapons in Cyberpunk 2077. Here is a list of all of them, from worst to best.
You can always change Cyberpunk 2077 into a hack-and-slash game, even though it’s not one by default. With the way Night City throws everything at you, players who stick to their guns might be at a big disadvantage when a netrunner starts cutting them up at point-blank range. One easy way to deal with these in-your-face threats is to use a special melee weapon.
Also, you shouldn’t worry about the short range of these melee weapons because you can sneak up on an unaware target before they know what’s going on thanks to several perks. The real trick is to make the most of your hits, so it’s important to find a unique tool. If you want to know which of Night City’s special melee weapons will work best with your play style, you don’t need to look any further.
Cocktail Stick
When they coded in the Cocktail Stick, they must have made a mistake. It’s called an iconic weapon, but it doesn’t have any famous stats or benefits. Maybe it wasn’t meant to be anything special. Some flavor writing says, “Looks like a toy, cuts like a laser,” but even this is wrong.
Based on DPS alone, it’s the worst famous melee weapon in the game. It’s funny to cut up enemies with a sword meant to decorate a drink, but once the laughs are over, you’ll find that a regular knife does about five times as much damage as this.
Sir John Phallustiff
This weapon is based on a toy for adults, and it’s funny. If you use a controller, you can feel it move as you use it. It sounds like a lightsaber when you swing it around, and it is obviously satisfying to hit an enemy over the head with something so crude.
This naughty weapon is also very unique because it has been patched and updated many times, which has changed the state effect that makes it stand out. At the moment, this adult toy is best at doing more damage when it hits the head, but there are better options out there.
Cottonmouth
If you like doing a lot of damage to status effects, the Cottonmouth is the best pick. Since every hit with this electrical cane has a small chance of poisoning or shocking enemies, it’s likely that one or the other will happen, giving you an advantage against both robots and living things.
The DPS is also pretty good, but the Cottonmouth’s biggest flaw is that you can only swing it twice per second. If you want the status effects to work in your favor, you really need to be hitting faster than that. However, if you build around it and heal yourself often, there may be room for the Cottonmouth in your inventory.
Tinker Bell
It’s not great that this weapon does less damage overall, but the chance to kill an opponent with a strong attack makes it hard to resist, especially against cyberpsychos and bosses with a lot of health. When you knock them out, you get free hits, which is better than any amount of DPS.
The stun effect adds to the shock effect, making it very hard for enemies to move or shoot when they face this weapon. This is great when you’re in close range, where you’re already vulnerable. The lockdown effects are nice and make up for the lower damage.
Tsumetogi
If you don’t like to use active skills, the Tsumetogi is the best katana in the game for you. This sword has some of the best damage per second (DPS) in its class, and it also hits five times per second, but it’s best at holding down a single enemy.
This tool has a good amount of electrical resistance, which could help you beat cybernetic opponents in tough fights. The other katanas on this list are better than this simple one because they have more unique effects and work better with cyberware and computer systems.
Butcher’s Cleaver
The Butcher’s Cleaver is much bigger than the other knives you can find in Night City. Because it is so much bigger, it moves much slower and does more damage. But this weapon makes it more likely that an enemy will bleed, and when you hit an enemy who is already bleeding, your attack speed goes up even more.
Even though these stats aren’t bad at all, this cleaver is totally useless because many of the game’s robot enemies are immune to the bleed effect. But if you find yourself facing off against more than one human enemy, you can always use this knife to quickly cut through them.
Scalpel
This sword gives players an advantage when using an operating system, but it also gives you a little more freedom. When any Sandevistian computer system is running, your chance of getting a critical hit with the Scalpel goes up by 50%, and all of your hits will cause the target to bleed. If you have other effects that increase your chance to get a critical hit, this one might put it over the top.
Also, the effects of shock, stun, and bleeding will keep enemies exhausted and stunned. The bleed is good against organics, the shock is good against robots, and the DPS on this sword is good against everything else. Make sure to try this if you find an operating system with a feature that works for a long time.
Gold-Plated Baseball Bat
Even though the weapon is a club, it swings as fast as a sword, so you’ll get plenty of hits. In terms of raw DPS, this baseball bat does a lot of damage, more than many other weapons in the game.
With five hits per second, this weapon has a higher chance of bleeding than other weapons, so you can be sure that after one second of fighting, any target you have will be bleeding. Even though the stun effect isn’t as strong, the number of hits still gives you a better chance, especially against cyberpsychos and bosses.
Headhunter
The Headhunter knife is a melee weapon that is very different from most others because it works more like a long execute. Specifically, this weapon marks targets it hits with the blade. Marked enemies take 250 percent more damage from headshots with any other weapon, but the mark goes away after you hit the enemy in the head.
Also, if you set this mark off with another weapon, the Headhunter goes right back into your collection. The best way to use this blade is to throw it at an enemy to start a fight, then hit them in the head with a gun that does a lot of damage. The blade will go back into your inventory right away, so you can use this method over and over again to increase the damage your headshots do to other players.
Caretaker’s Spade
This is the only weapon on the list that is not based on another popular type. This is the only shovel in the game, which makes it unique. You might think that this is a reskinned club or bat, but the number of swings and data show that it was made to be unique.
You can increase its damage through the roof with the extra mod slots, but that’s not really necessary since it’s already the highest DPS weapon in the game, just barely beating out the first place on the list. It doesn’t have many extras, like electrical or bleeding effects, but damage is what matters, and this weapon excels at that.
Overall, this shovel doesn’t have a lot of flashy effects, but you can use it in almost any attack build because it has a lot of customization options and heals your status.
Byakko
The Byakko sword was added to Doodle Baseball game for free, and it can be used once all of Okada’s gigs have been completed. This sword is great for fighting enemies with guns because it extends the range of your strikes, letting you hit them from farther away.
Also, when you use a charged move with this katana, you will jump forward and hit any enemies in your way. With this special jump, you’ll become a skilled killer who can kill enemies no matter how far away they are.
Blue Fang
The Blue Fang is another knife you can use to make your weapons stronger before a fight starts. When this ice blade hits an enemy, it stuns them for one to three seconds, making them fall over.
But if you hit an enemy outside of combat, the stun effect happens right away. For example, if you throw your blade before a battle starts, it will make one enemy stumble right away. You can kill them quickly while they are stunned, making it so that you always get a free kill at the start of every fight.
Stinger
Don’t judge a book by its cover or a melee weapon by its sheath. This ordinary-looking knife is one of the best in the game. It has about the same DPS as the Caretaker’s Spade, but it swings at a blistering 6.67 stabs per second, which is faster than any sword. When you take into account the skills that go with it, this will do the most damage in the game. Since many of those skills only boost blades, this is better than the Caretaker’s Spade. If you like the benefits of a Katana, you’ll find that they all move over to this knife because it’s registered as a blade. This makes it an upgrade in every way.
People who are afraid to go into a gun fight with a knife will quickly change their minds when your targets start falling like flies when you flick your wrist quickly. But it’s important to remember that the Stinger has some of the lowest range in the game. This means you have to get really close to your opponents to use it.
Satori
The Satori katana is one of the most unusual weapons on this list because its most famous effect actually makes the blade less effective at doing damage. More specifically, this blade does 20% less damage to enemies, but when it hits, it does 500% more damage.
To get the most out of these numbers, you should make sure that your crit chance is as high as possible through upgrades, augments, and abilities. If you can’t be sure that your moves will always hit critically, this blade might not be the best one for you. But if you do, the Satori will do the most damage on critical hits of any weapon in the game, wiping out enemies with a single blow.
Jinchu-Maru
Most of the benefits of this weapon depend on a mechanical modification called Kerenzikov. If you aren’t already using this mod, you should really think about it. With the Kerenzikov’s active ability, you can slow down time by 50% for 1.5 seconds every 5 seconds. This is a great feature for people who use melee weapons.
This blade makes the most of those 1.5 seconds by making sure that every hit is a critical hit and that the last hit is a critical hit that does double damage. If the boss has twice as much life as you do, your critical hits will do four times as much damage.
This weapon will make you a total beast in battle, but you have to remember to always use the Kerenzikov to keep the weapon’s very powerful buffs going.
