Cyberpunk 2077: Best Sandevistan build

Time stops.

A man with a colorful mohwak wielding a sword on a busy street in Cyberpunk
Image via CD Projekt Red

There are many gameplay-altering pieces of tech in Cyberpunk 2077 that practically force you to adapt whole builds to them. One of these is the Sandevistan, which allows you to slow down time for a short period to line up headshots and escape enemy fire.

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So what’s the best build to optimize this piece of tech? This article will walk you through our pick.

Cyberpunk Sandevistan build tips

Attributes

The center of a Sandevistan build, like any good blade build, is Reflexes. Reflexes make your skills with blades better and help close the gap between you and enemies faster so you can take them out. The Reflexes attribute also helps you out with your use of revolvers.

The second most important is your Technical Ability. The Sandevistan is, after all, a piece of Cyberware, and you’re going to want to optimize its usage. Increasing your capacity for techware will allow you to supercharge your abilities for maximum kill potential.

Your third most important attribute is Cool. Cool will allow you to maximize your critical hit potential for sneak attacks and headshots, increasing your proficiency with handguns. After this, increase your Body. This is a close-quarters combat build after all and body perks always help with that.

Perks

All Reflex-based builds have to start with Slippery, as it opens up all movement-based perks. The parkour perk is also a great first perk available to you which will allow you to increase your movement and get out of tough situations.

Work your way up to blade perks like Finisher: Bladerunner, Dash, Mad-Dash, Airdash, and eventually Slaughterhouse. When it comes to a blade-based playstyle, finishers are your bread and butter as they allow you to not just rack up the kills but regenerate some health while doing so. You should also take all of the perks that help you increase the efficiency of your finishers, like Opportunist.

A character in Cyberpunk 2077 uses blades to attack an enemy.
Power up your blades. Screenshot by Dot Esports.

For Technical Ability, level up your perks as you see fit until you get to All Things Cyber. This will greatly increase your efficiency with the Sandevistan.

Body is of less importance, but the Painkiller and Dorph Head perks are key. Pain Killer is pretty much necessary for every build in our opinion. Health regeneration doesn’t limit itself to the confines of any play style. Dorph Head helps you out with pieces of Cyberware like Blood Pump, which greatly increases the efficiency of any Cyberware close-up play style. Blood Pump, aided by Dorph Head, increases your mitigation chance by 100 percent. This makes you hard to hit and hard to kill.

In the Cool tree, work on your stealth. Any perk that delays detection is good, but we can particularly recommend building yourself up to perks like Deep Breath, and Deadeye, which are central to any build that focuses on revolvers. The Sandevistan will make you more likely to hit headshots, so anything that can help you out with those is good. Deep Breath helps you slow down time a bit to line up your headshots, and Deadeye which, when you upgrade it, allows you to go into Sharpshooter Mode which makes headshots cause massive damage and lets you shoot with no bullet spread.

Skills

We recommend leveling up the Headhunter skill as much as you possibly can. This skill will help you stay hidden, line up headshots, and increase critical hit potential.

Weapons

As far as blades go, we recommend seeking out the Satori. This blade doesn’t just come equipped with a great damage output, it allows you to leap at your enemies to take them out. It’s been weakened in the most recent patch, but it’s still among the strongest swords in the game.

For your revolver, go with the Comrade’s Hammer to help you dish out as much critical damage as possible.

Cyberware

Obviously, the Sandevistan is going to be key. Blood Pump is also central to making sure that you can dodge attacks.

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Attributes

Here’s how you should dish out your starting attributes for the Solo Slugger build in Cyberpunk 2077.

BodyReflexesIntelligenceTechnical AbilityCool
ThreeSixThreeFiveFour
Starting Attributes

Perks

Finisher: Bladerunner, Slaughterhouse, Pankiller, Dorph Head, Deep Breath, Deadeye,

Weapons

Satori, Comrade’s Hammer

Cyberware

Sandevistan, Blood Pump.

David Martinez Build

An image from Cyberpunk Edgerunners showing a character with his back turned to the camera and some kind of mechanical sword on his back
David Martinez. Image via Netflix

If you’re a big fan of Cyberpunk 2077, you’re probably familiar with the affiliated anime, Edgerunners, whose protagonist is David Martinez. A Martinez build is similar to a Sandevistan build, except David likes to solve things with his fists instead of blades.

David Martinez Attributes

For Martinez, we recommend going with your Body and Technical Ability as your mains instead of Reflexes and Technical Ability. Essentially replace Reflexes with Body in importance. This will increase your proficiency with blunt weapons—like your fists. You’ll also be making use of revolvers less than shotguns.

Make your strong secondary perk Cool—the headshot and critical hit bonuses will serve you just as well.

Reflexes can be your next choice. It’s still good to dash around, just not as important.

Just like the previous build you can avoid intelligence.

David Martinez Perks

The name of the game for perks is Body, Body, Body. You’re practically going to want to own this whole perk tree. There are some very important ones in the Cool and Technical Ability trees, but practically every Body perk will be important to you.

Martinez is, if nothing else, a great gunman. Grab some perks that are going to make your shotgun usage as great as possible. You’re going to want to build your way up to the Spontaneous Obliteration perk which will every once in a while completely dismantle your opponents and generally improve your proficiency with shotguns. Extend this branch to grab Skullcracker which will increase your Melee proficiency.

Build up to the legendary perk Rip and Tear. This perk allows you to deal 100 percent more damage on a Melee attack after you hit a shotgun blast, and vice versa. This is practically tailor-made for the David Martinez build in its ability to combine these two things in tandem.

In the Body tree, extend out to the blunt weapon perks when you can as well. These will help you out with your Melee combat. You can eventually build up to the hilarious legendary perk, Finisher: Savage Sling, which turns Cyberpunk 2077 into Smackdown: Shut Your Mouth and allows you to toss opponents at each other.

The middle tree will help you eat damage, which is always helpful as well.

Though Body perks are generally the most important, the Cyberware skilltree in The Technical Ability Skill build is perhaps most central to making the David built unique.

By following this skill tree up, you’ll gain advantages to all Cyberware modifiers—including your Sandevistan—increase your armor capacity, and eventually open up the Edgerunner legendary perk, which is the crux of this build. This lets you exceed your Cyberware capacity at the expense of your health. Every fan of the anime knows Martinez has an absurdly high tolerance for Cyberware that makes him a unique fighter. This perk allows you to get fully ‘borged out and live your Martinez fantasies. It also gives you a trace chance of entering a fury state, which turns you into a veritable killing machine.

Info for the Gorilla Arms from Cyberpunk 2077
The Gorilla Arms. Screenshot by CD Projekt Red.

The next most important is the perk in the relic tree that specifically applies to the Gorilla Arms, but we’ll get to those later.

The left side of the Cool perk tree is going to be the next most important to you. Anything that up your weak spot and headshot damage is going to be great for you, even if you’re making use of a pistol. The Deadeye perk is particularly important, as David is able to keep shooting accurately without getting tired.

We recommend putting some effort into the Reflexes perk tree that lets you increase your movement, but it’s not as important.

Weapons

Obviously, you’re going to need to get yourself a great shotgun. We recommend the Rostovic DB-2 Satara for its striking power and charge shot. It’s also a gun that Martinez recommends to recruits in the anime itself, so we have evidence that he’s experience with it. For pistols, you’re pretty much going to have to go with the Lexington, since that’s the one that Martinez uses.

Cyberware

Cyberware is key to a David build. Put on as much as possible, becoming the teched-out beast he is. Obviously, the most important is the Sandevistan, but there’s another, the Gorilla Arms, that’s essential to his build.

The Gorilla Arms turns your fists into what’s arguably the best blunt weapon in the game. You can punch out opponents in between shotgun blasts just like David does and not lose any efficiency.

David Martinez Build Summary

Attributes

BodyReflexesIntelligenceTechnical AbilityCool
SixThreeThreeFiveFour
Starting Attributes

Perks

Edgerunner, Finisher: Savage Sling, Rip and Tear, Skullcracker, Spontaneous Obliteration

Cyberware

Sandevistan. Gorilla Arms.

Weapons

Rostovic DB-2 Satara, Lexington.

Author
Image of Christian Flynn
Christian Flynn
Christian Flynn (he/they) is a mixed race Puerto Rican writer and performer in NYC. He can be regularly seen performing in and producing comedy shows at the People's Improv Theater. His plays have been developed around the city.