Cyberpunk 2077: What are quickhacks?

Quickhacks are one of the most unique parts of the combat in Cyberpunk 2077, practically turning you into a sorcerer of the net. Their status as unique to this game sometimes gets new players confused as to exactly what they are.

Quickhacks overview for Cyberpunk 2077

Quickhacks in Cyberpunk 2077, put simply, are codes you can load into your Cyberdeck to influence the cyber-based world around you. Since almost everyone and everything has some sort of chip installed in them, you can hack into other people’s brains like computers and slow them down in combat.

Certain builds, like the Hack-N-Slash Netrunner, focus on optimizing quickhacks as much as possible. Ability with quickhacks generally scales with your Intelligence stat. There’s also a whole series of perks within the Intelligence perk tree that optimizes your ability with quickhacks.

Their multiple uses and scaling with Intelligence have drawn comparison to spells and magic in fantasy-based games.

Quickhacks cost RAM to use, and RAM is something you can increase through Cyberware and perks. You can determine a quickhacks stats by looking at how much damage they do, how long their duration is, and what their upload time is (how long it takes to put them in use).

The different types of quickhacks

Combat

Combat quickhacks are the most common, and you’ll likely want to load up your cyberdeck with a lot of them. Since Intelligence doesn’t help you out with the use of many weapons, combat quickhacks will be one of your main tools for killing.

Covert

Covert hacks work well with Cyber-ninja builds, and help you sneak by enemies without getting found out. These quickhacks work on enemies without them ever knowing what hit them, luring them out into a certain area, erasing the fact that they saw you from memory, or more.

Control

Control quickhacks take it a step further and actually take over your opponent’s body. This can be used to reroute your opponent’s walk pattern in a stealth scenario. They can also limit enemies movement severely, and take out their Cyberware.

Ultimate

These quickhacks are the most costly to use and will completely nuetralize your opponents. They can cause your opponent to explode grenades in their own hands, shoot themselves, and more.

Vehicle quickhacks

Certain quickhacks can only be used to take out vehicles. These only become available to you after you unlock the “carhacker” perk.