Lucyna Kushinada, better known as Lucy, is a highly skilled netrunner and the romantic partner of protagonist David Martinez from the anime adaptation Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Lucy has a mysterious and introverted personality in the anime. Although details on her cyberware and the quickhacks she uses are vague as she is portrayed as someone who can handle all problems that involve netrunning and cyberspace. This guide will showcase the best Lucy build that is faithful to all the details the show reveals to the audience.
In Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, Lucy’s primary weapons are quickhacks and a monowire. She runs a lot which implies a focus on speed/agility, and only carries a pistol which implies aversion towards heavy weaponry like assault rifles and machine guns. With this information, we can make attribute, perk, and cyberware choices that will facilitate a playstyle similar to how Lucy operates in the anime.
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| Attributes for Lucy build |
| Perks For Lucy Build |
| Cyberware For Lucy Build |
| Best Quickhacks for Lucy Build |
| Lucy Mod For Appearance |
After the release of the expansion, Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, the total attribute points players can acquire and use throughout the game have increased from 56 to 66, as the character can now be upgraded to level 60 and you get one attribute point per level increase. There has also been the introduction of relic perks, some of which synergize with the netrunner-monowire playstyle. These new additions have also been accommodated in this Lucy Monowire Build, so without further ado, let’s get into it.
Attributes for Lucy build
It is important to plan ahead on how you are going to spend your attribute points as they can only be reset once per gameplay. Since Lucy is a netrunner, the focus will be to get Legend status or 20/20 for the Intelligence attribute. A good rule to keep your Lucy build in Cyberpunk optimized, would be to spend two attribute points on intelligence as you climb up the levels, and then spend one on some of the other attributes so that they don’t fall too far behind. This will allow you to unlock the netrunning abilities as quickly as possible, while also maintaining a relatively balanced build with regards to other attributes. The attributes to focus on in order of priority are intelligence, reflexes, technical ability, body, and cool. Here’s how all the attribute points should be distributed. To expedite the leveling-up process, you could focus on side jobs, gigs, and NCPD scanner hustles earlier in the game
| Attribute | Points | Description |
 Intelligence | 20 | Investing heavily in this attribute is a must for this build. In particular, you must focus on getting almost all of the perks in the left and center perk trees as they augment your abilities related to quickhacks, RAM recovery, monowire, and enemy detection. |
Reflexes | 20 | Lucy is shown to agile and quick on her feet, which is in line with enhanced reflexes. You will focus solely on the center perk tree which will unlock abilities like dash and air dash, these make traversal and combat much easier and more engaging. |
Technical Ability | 20 | Though specifics about all of Lucy’s cyberware were not clear in the Edgerunners, it is still wise to invest in this attribute. The sole focus is once again the center perk tree as perks like License to Chrome and Edgerunner will ensure your ability to equip iconic cyberware variants such as COX-2, and RAM Reallocator. |
Body | 15 | Investing in body attributes will matter from a health, durability, and fortitude perspective, especially if you are not looking to get one-shotted by more powerful enemies later in the game. Health and adrenaline rush bonuses from the Painkiller and Adrenaline Rush perk branches will make head-on combat much more approachable if you are caught with low RAM, which is bound to happen. |
Cool | 6 | Whatever remains, you should put in cool, choose whatever suits your playstyle. |
Perks For Lucy Build
Among all the available perks in Cyberpunk, some have a pivotal role while others are supplementary. Only the pivotal or important perks are discussed here which we deem necessary for the Lucy monowire build to work. How you spend the remaining perk points is up to how you wish to approach the game. As an example, you could even invest more attribute points into the Cool attribute and unlock its pistol combat-related perks instead of unlocking the Edgerunner perk by maxing out Technical Ability and focusing on Cyberware, such a setup would still not be unfaithful to a typical Lucy Monowire build.
Intelligence
Early Game Perks
| You will probably not be engaging enemies head-on as a net runner in Cyberpunk. This perk will be quite useful and complementary to a stealthy playstyle as it will highlight any cameras and reduce RAM cost for quickhacks through cameras. |
| This is an important perk to have as it will increase RAM capacity and also allow you to deploy a queue of two hacks on a single target. This is major since it opens up the possibility of combos. |
| This perk will refund 80% RAM cost of the quickhacks which remain in a queue if a target flatlines before the queue ends. A good perk to have, especially early in the game where RAM is scarce. |
| When attacking a group, their netrunner will often try to hack you with daemons like Reboot Optics, Weapon Glitch, and Location Reveal. This perk will allow you to maintain stealth and cover while countering their netrunner with your own set of daemons. Acquiring this perk just for the sake of getting the Copy-Paste perk is also a good idea. |
| This is a major addition to your hacking arsenal, allowing you to upload high-damage hacks like Synapse Burnout, System Collapse, and Suicide through the enemy netrunner to multiple nearby enemies |
 Optimization | This perk allows you a faster RAM recovery rate, nothing special but you sort of have to get this one to move up the center tree. Nonetheless, it’s a good one to have especially early in the game, due to relatively low available RAM. |
| This is a must-have perk as it extends the duration of control quickhacks by 100%. Control quickhacks can be used on Enemies and machines to deactivate or take control of cyberware. Good examples are Cripple Movement and Weapon Glitch, which make it obvious why you should have this perk in a netrunner build. |
| This is a great perk as it increases quickhack damage by 60% for enemies already affected with control or covert quickhacks. This means that if you upload something like Cripple Movement (Control) or Bait (Covert) before a combat quickhack like Short Circuit (Combat), you will most certainly deal a lot more damage and are likely to take down enemies without having to engage them head-on. |
| Getting this perk is a no-brainer as it applies to the monowire. Siphon will allow RAM recovery with a monowire attack and double recovery for slashing enemies already affected by your quickhacks. Getting this perk is the main reason you will need to get the Icepick perk, though that too is not a bad perk to have. |
| Though not necessary for the sake of staying true to the build, this perk is good to have if you will be focusing on stealth. Early in the game, most of your quickhacks will be traceable, silently taking down a straggler will remove all trace progress thereby allowing you to avoid confrontation for longer. |
Late Game Perks
| Although it gives additional RAM while also reducing RAM costs for hacking machines, the real benefit is increasing queue size by one. This will allow you to make even more deadly combos. Combine its effect with the Embedded Exploit perk to upload a control, combat, and finally, an ultimate daemon to deal massive damage. |
| This perk is a must-have for this build. Not only does it have Lucy as its perk image, but it also allows you to execute preem finisher animations on enemies with low health, making your playthrough much more fun. An enemy killed with a finisher will also restore health and RAM. |
| This perk is similar to those Japanese electronic devices that go from optional to indispensable after some initial usage. You will probably beat the game fine without it, but once you see how better upload speed augments your playstyle, you’ll wonder why you didn’t equip it sooner. |
 Overclock | The build is incomplete without this perk. Overclock will allow you to activate overclock mode in which you will be able to upload quickhacks even with insufficient RAM at the cost of 10 health units per missing RAM unit. This trade will always work in your favor as you can pair it with perks like Sublimation, Blood Daemon, and Power Surge which will mitigate the health lost for all the extra daemons you upload in overclock mode. |
| Sublimation causes all RAM recovery effects to regenerate health too while overclock is active. You’re going to want this equipped for mitigating the health loss caused in overclock mode as you upload those extra daemons. |
| Who doesn’t want to get the most bang for their buck, this perk does exactly that. When acquired, this perk will steadily increase damage dealt by quickhacks by up to 50% as you lose heath in overclock mode. |
| Blood Daemon gives you 40 health for each quickhack still queued on an enemy at the time you neutralize them. This perk, paired with the Sublimation and Queue Hack_Root, incentivizes you to go all out on your quickhack combos against enemies, and queue as many as you can without flatlining. |
 Queue Mastery | Once you unlock this bad boy, you can essentially set up your combos any way you like. You could add a few staples to your combos like Cripple Movement or Cyberware Malfunction, which will ensure easy pickings if the rest of your queue didn’t already neutralize the target. |
 Spillover | This perk gives a 50% chance that any quickhacks uploaded in overclock mode will spread to an additional target. What’s there not to like, since you’re grabbing queue mastery at level 20, might as well grab this one for an additional perk point. |
Reflexes
This Lucy Monowiore build relies heavily on movement, making reflexes the second most important attribute in Cyberpunk after intelligence.
Early Game Perks
 Slippery | Doesn’t do anything in particular that you’ll notice right away, you just have to acquire it to move up the center perk tree. |
| One allows you to reload and the other allows you to shoot while you’re sprinting, sliding, and vaulting. You’ll want to grab both for the same reason, i.e., so that your gunplay doesn’t suck when you’re out of RAM or when you finally decide to mix it up and get your hands dirty. |
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| Ever brush your teeth without a toothbrush? Me neither. Ever played Cyberpunk without Dash? Me neither. Playing without Dash will feel far too sluggish after you have used it even once. Using Dash will help you immensely both in combat as you try to dodge bullets or break line of sight, and out of combat as you will attempt to cover more ground while traversing the streets of NC. |
| Increases dash range by 100%, an auto-pick if you’re going to be using Dash. |
| Increases mitigation chance by 100% while performing a Dash. Since you’re going to be dashing most of the time, why not also dodge bullets most of the time? |
Late Game Perks
 Air Dash | If you thought Dash was cool, wait till you meet its hotter cousin, Air Dash. As the name states, this perk allows you to perform a dash mid-air. Once you incorporate it into your gameplay, there’s no turning back—you’ll find yourself relying on it in every playthrough. The Air Dash feature will allow you to effortlessly execute virtually any combat move you can think of, significantly enhancing your combat effectiveness. |
 Aerial Acrobat | This perk unlocks mid-air manoeuvrability. Another perk with a potentially pivotal role as it will allow you to correct any miscalculated jumps and dashes while you are still in the air, while also improving overall manoeuvrability. |
 Tailwind | Gives a stamina boost each time you perform an air dash. This perk is more on the optional side since it’s not necessary for the build. You could use the same attribute and perk points for the pistol perks in cool, it’s a personal choice at this point. |
Technical Ability
Lucy is not shown to be exactly a Techie in the show and prior to the Cyberpunk 2.0 update we would have completely ignored this attribute and the related perks for this Lucy build. However, after the 2.0 overhaul the Technical ability determines how much of Cyberware you can support in Cyberpunk and the Lucy Monowire build in this guide will require you to have as much Cyberware Capacity as possible.
Early Game Perks
| This perk does come with a nice 20% discount on cyberware capacity costs for Integumentary system cyberware. The main reason to acquire this perk is to move up the center perk tree. |
| This perk will allow you to upgrade your cyberware in a way that is more in tune with your build. Chipware Connoisseur will allow you to pick from additional stat modifiers as you upgrade your cyberware using components. Pick the stat modifier that complements the build such as additional quickhack damage. |
Late Game Perks
| Nothing not to like about this perk, gives you an additional slot for skeleton cyberware, 10% additional cyberware capacity, and 40 armor. Also gives access to other great perks like Built Different and Ambidextrous which will improve your playthrough experience. |
| This perk is an auto-pick for this build since it allows you to install the Cellular Adapter cyberware for the Integumentary System. The Cellular Adapter must be added since for a relatively low cyberware capacity cost and just one perk point, it significantly increases armor, +76 at tier 2 and +146 at tier 5. A bargain compared to the other options. |
| This perk allows you to exceed your cyberware capacity by up to 50 points at the cost of 0.5% max health per point over capacity. This is a must-have perk since it will allow you to acquire the cyberware you need earlier in the game while your engineering skill level and character levels are still low. It can be frustrating when you have to leave cyberware slots empty due to low capacity when you desperately need them at the start of the game when the map is full of jobs. Though it’s not essential for the build to work, definitely grab this if you want to unlock the build’s full potential earlier in the game. |
Body
As every other Cyberpunk build, Lucy build requires you to be able to tank some hits. You don’t need to go all out in this tree but be sure to unlock enough perks to make your survival in Night City a bit easier.
Early Game Perks
| This perk unlocks slow health regen during combat. It’s a no-brainer to pick this as health regen is extremely important in combat, especially at higher difficulties, and also because it’s needed to move up the center perk tree. |
| This one offers a +60% health regen rate while sprinting and since you will be sprinting a lot during head-on engagements, best have this equipped. |
| Offers a +10% health regen rate for each nearby enemy. This is a game changer at higher difficulties for dealing with tougher enemies and crowds. |
Late Game Perks
 Adrenaline Rush | This perk unlocks the Adrenaline Rush mode which allows health items to give an extra health bar equal to 30% of the Max health, which decays with time. Adrenaline rush mode also gets some bonuses from other perks and is great for the overall fortitude of the build. |
| Gives an additional three seconds before the adrenaline bar begins to decay. |
Cool
Although Cool is more catered towards a Cyber-ninja build, you will have some leftover attribute and perk points after you have filled in everything essential for the Lucy Monowire build. Whatever perk and attribute points remain after you have made selections in other perk trees, you should put into whatever you like in Cool. If you follow this Cyberpunk netrunner build to the tee, you will not move past the level 4 perks, however, if you do end up not maxing out Technical Ability or Reflexes, and instead want to focus more on the Cool, we recommend choosing either the leftmost or the center perk tree. The center perk tree has perks that will augment a stealth-focused playstyle, whereas the leftmost perk tree will improve your prowess with pistols. Perks in the rightmost tree help with throwable weapons but investing points in that will mean that your build is no longer true to the source material.
Relic
With Phantom Liberty, Cyberpunk introduced the Relic upgrade system. You will first unlock this once you start the first mission of the DLC. you can then acquire the Relic Points from the Data Terminals throughout Dogtown in Cyberpunk 2077.
 Jailbreak | This perk unlocks abilities for each type of arm cyberware. For the monowire it allows you to equip it with a control quickhack like Cripple Movement, Cyberware Malfunction, etc. If you then land a strong attack on an enemy, the monowires upload the slotted quickhack without any RAM cost. |
 Data Tunneling | The slotted quickhack uploads to all enemies that came into contact with the strong attack without any RAM cost. |
 Vulnerability Analytics | This perk will show you vulnerabilities in the enemy’s armor. Landing attacks or shooting the enemy at those points will lead to 100% crit chance and 25% armor penetration. Hit them there enough times and you will trigger an EMP blast which will damage enemies in a 3m radius. |
 Machine Learning | This perk will allow vulnerabilities to appear more frequently each time you take out a vulnerability. Destroying a vulnerability will give a +10% increase in vulnerability appearing frequency and a +5% crit damage against vulnerabilities. These effects can be stacked 5 times. |
Cyberware For Lucy Build
Given how much skin is shown in the Cyberpunk Edgerunners, it’s rather surprising we do not get to see exactly what cyberware Lucy uses other than the Monowire. We have tried our best to estimate the specific Cyberware you would need to best emulate Lucy’s agility and Netrunning skills.
Frontal Cortex
COX-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer
Cyberware Capacity: 50
This is an iconic version of the Bioconductor Cyberware which makes Quickhacks deal critical hits. It is an extremely powerful cyberware that can give crazy boosts to your damage output making you as deadly of a Netrunner as Lucy was depicted to be in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners.
This Particular Cyberware can be purchased from the Ripprdocs in the Dogtown or looted from the Airdrops.
RAM Reallocator
Cyberware Capacity: 40
Having this Cyberware installed will automatically recover about 20% of your RAM whenever it falls below 20% of your Max Ram with a 95 seconds Cooldown. This is especially useful for this Lucy Monowire build as you would mostly be relying on your Quickhack before and during Combat in Cyberpunk.
EX-Disk
Cyberware Capacity: 10
This Cyberware will greatly increase the upload speed of all your Quickhacks essentially making you a more efficient Netrunner in Cyberpunk. We highly recommend having this Cyberware as it greatly improves your gameplay if you are trying to Roleplay as Lucy in Cyberpunk 2077.
Operating System
Biotech Σ Mk. 4
Cyberware Capacity: 16
The most important Cyberware for any Netrunner Build is the Cyberdeck. Any Cyberdeck would work for this build but the best Cyberdeck in Cyberpunk 2077 is the Biotech Σ. You can acquire the MK. 1 variant at level 10 from any Ripperdoc in Night City and then later upgrade it to MK. 4.
This operating system goes especially well with a Monowire build with loads of Quickhacks. This Cyberware adds 25% damage to your Monowire for every enemy affected with Contagion or Overheat Quickhack. It also increases the duration and damage of all damage-over-time Quickhacks.
Arms
Monowire
Cyberware Capacity: 8
For arms, there really is only one choice and that is the Shiny Shoelace… we mean the Monowire. The base variant of the Monowire is the way to go if you want to stay faithful to the Cyberpunk anime but you can also go for the thermal, electric or even chemical variants for added flare.
TIP: The Electric Monowire has a unique effect occasionally releasing an EMP charge that can disable Cyberware and prevent Quickhacks.
Face
Kiroshi “Sentry” Optics
Cyberware Capacity: 2
This top-of-the-line pair of Chrome lenses from Kiroshi in Cyberpunk highlight all cameras and turrets within a 35 meter radius. We mainly choose this cyberware over other options as it is Intellegence Attuned and will provide slight damage scaling according to the attribute points invested in Intelligence. These go excellently with the Lucy build as there will hardly be anything in your blind spot.
Skeleton
Para Bellum
Cyberware Capacity: 20
This Cyberware adds 90 armor for a relatively cheap cost of 20 Cyberware Capacity.
Epimorphic Skeleton
Cyberware Capacity: 32
Epimorphic Skeleton boosts both health and armor and is especially useful when Overclock is active.
RAM Recoup
Cyberware Capacity: 11
It does what it says. It allows you to recover a small percentage of RAM in relation to the amount of damage received. If you are trying to run a Netrunner build in Cyberpunk, which you obviously are, this implant is a must.
Nervous System
Adrenaline Converter
Cyberware Capacity: 6
This Cyberware Implant in Cyberpunk increases your movement speed by up to 40% upon entering combat. This allows you to quickly get into melee range and unleash the Monowire attacks on unsuspecting enemies.
NeoFiber
Cyberware Capacity: 14
NeoFiber increases the player’s mitigation chance and mitigation strength allowing them to negate more damage.
Circulatory System
Heal-ON-Kill
Cyberware Capacity: 10
We would be hard pressed if you asked us to prove Lucy used this cyberware in the show but we will still go ahead and recommend it as it is essential for combat especially at higher difficulty in Cyberpunk. This implant recovers a small portion of your health each time you defeat an enemy.
Microrotors
Cyberware Capacity: 12
This cybreware improves your melee attack speed. Since this build is primarily centered on Monowire as your primary weapon, we cannot recommend this implant enough.
Blood Pump
Cyberware Capacity: 15
This can be used as an alternative to any healing items in Cyberpunk and works better than most of them however if you do not wish to waste a Cyberware slot on healing items, the next best option would be the Biomonitor as it automatically uses the healing items you have equipped.
Integumentary Systems
Optical Camo
Cyberware Capacity: 16
Lucy is seen to be a sneaky assassin-like character and the complete opposite of David Martinez. Optical Camo will allow you to strike from the shadows and short Circ. any merc who is tragic enough to be your target.
Cogito Lattice
Cyberware Capacity: 16
This Cyberware increases armor whenever you run low on RAM, allowing you to tank some damage before you can use Quickhacks again.
CELLULAR ADAPTER
Cyberware Capacity: 8
A better option than the Subdermal Armor that serves the same function but gives more armor. This Cyberware is also attuned to your technical ability which you will be maxing out anyway.
For each point in Technical Attribute gain:
- 1% explosion resistance
- 0.5% Tech weapon damage
- 0.5% Health Item recharge speed
- 0.5% Grenade recharge speed
Legs
Jenkin’s Tendons
Cyberware Capacity: 6
Nothing beats the double jump with Reinforced Tendons implant but in favor of staying faithful to the character of Lucy in Edgerunners, we will opt for Jenkin’s Tendons instead. Lucy was seen to be quite an athlete in the show and this implant will increase your movement and running speed.
Best Quickhacks for Lucy Build
Suicide | Starting with a bang, this Quickhack will instantly take out most of the enemies at a large cost of RAM. However, this RAM cost can be reduced by using the Monowire Finisher: Live Wire. |
Synapse Burnout | This quickhack is to your cyberdeck what grenades are to a projectile launcher. Its sole function is to inflict damage, and it excels at doing just that. Efficiently rewarding you with reduced RAM costs for stacking kills, it shines even more when the Overclock mode is engaged, delivering even greater damage output while extending the Overclock duration. |
Contagion | This quickhack can spread to four enemies next to your target in an 8m radius. If you then cause Burn or upload the Overheat quickhack then the toxic fluids will detonate and deal even more damage. Combine it with a control quickhack and follow it up with Overheat which will also cause perks like Embedded Exploit and Blood Daemon to kick in, so all you’ll need to do is watch the show and then pick up the loot. |
Short Circuit | A combat quickhack with the sole function of dealing damage, this works great against all enemies but shines against automated foes like mechs and drones. You can enhance its damage and duration if you queue it up after control quickhacks. It also applies an EMP leading to damage over time. |
Cyberware Malfunction | This is primarily a control hack which can be converted into a combat hack if you stack it several times, five being the limit. It disables enemy cyberware for 10 seconds on the first stack, permanently on the second, third stack will lead to electrical damage over time, and on maximum stacks the enemy cyberware will overload and deal massive damage. Stacking it all the way is a way of doing things, though a better way would be to pair it with combat quickhacks to activate the relevant perks that accentuate damage for such queues. |
Cripple Movement | Does exactly what it says, and is a must-have against higher-level enemies. Is some gonk acting fresh with a sandevistan? fry him with this sucker and watch his grin fade as this quickhack disables any cyberware that supports movement and dodging. This quick hack also augments melee damage and makes enemies more susceptible to finishers. |
| Sniper giving you trouble? send this present his relax as it will blind your targets. This quickhack also offers extra damage, RAM recovery, and spreads to the nearest enemy if you land a headshot. |
| Who doesn’t want to see their enemies burn, that’s why the devs included this quickhack in the game. Queue it up and watch as your foes are engulfed in the flames. Queue it up with Contagion or any control quickhacks to affect even more damage. |
Lucy Mod For Appearance
It is possible to make your Female V look quite close to to Lucy from Edgerunners by going to a mirror in your apartment or a Ripperdoc and choosing the “Change Appearance” option. However there is not a single article of clothing in game that looks similar to what Lucy wore in Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. Thanks to the modding community, that problem can be resolved by installing the Lucy Outfit Mod from Nexus Mods.
This Mod adds the iconic outfit of Lucy to your inventory meaning not only you can dress exactly as Lucy did, you can also mix it up to add some flare.
Have fun playing as Lucy in Cyberpunk 2077 and if you get bored of playing as a lone Netrunner, Check out our guide on the best Sandevistan Build to try things from David’s perspective.
