The Cyberware and Armor system in Cyberpunk 2077 was completely revamped for patch 2.0. Before, cyberware and armor were separate entities, but now they’ve been combined into a system where installing specific cyberware will increase your overall armor rating. Read below to find out exactly what has changed in patch 2.0, and how you can make the most of it.

Cyberware Capacity 2.0¶

One new feature added in patch 2.0 was Cyberware Capacity which appears on the left of your screen. This indicates the amount of cyberware your body can handle. Gone are the days of being fitted up with cyberware to the eyeballs. Now, you’ll need to choose what cyberware will best fit your build and whether you’ll be able to equip them within the capacity.

Increasing Cyberware Capacity¶

At first, you’ll only have a small amount of capacity to work with, but as you level up, you’ll add to the capacity pool which will gradually increase every time you level. What’s more is, if you level up the Technical skill tree, you’ll gain access to new perks, most notably, the Renaissance Punk, and the powerful Edgerunner perks which will increase the capacity dramatically. Furthermore, you’ll be able to get specific cyberware in the Operating System that can increase it even more.

Cyberware Systems¶

There are 10 different systems, all with their own slots where you can place your cyberware, and each system is responsible for specific things. Read below for what each system represents.

How this works is like this. All the cyberware you find, or purchase will be related to the system you purchased from. For example, if you purchased cyberware for the skeleton system, the cyberware would focus on defense-based stats and modifiers. However, if you purchased a frontal cortex cyberware they would have stats and modifiers for improving your quickhacks, or reducing your cooldowns.

This system makes it easier to focus your cyberware in places that will benefit your build. For example, if you don’t use any melee whatsoever, you can ignore the arm system which will save you valuable cyberware capacity. Likewise, if you are a melee-oriented character, you may want to ignore the Hands systems. In short, you can really tailor your build to what you want to achieve instead of having useless cyberware taking up your capacity.

Upgrading Cyberware¶

If you look at your current cyberware, you’ll notice a small upward arrow in the right corner of the icon. This means that the cyberware can be upgraded, although you’ll need to visit a Ripperdoc to do this. The upgrades come in five tiers starting at tier 1 and going through to tier 5, and each tier requires higher tier components per tier.

Upgrading a piece of cyberware will add stat modifiers to it, and you can increase how many modifiers each piece can have by taking the Driver Update and Chipware Connoisseur perks in the Technical tree for a maximum of three. Furthermore, you can increase the maximum percentage that each stat gives you by upgrading the All Things Cyber perk in the Technical tree for an extra 20%.

Armor 2.0¶

Like the Cyberware system, the old armor system has been gutted and is now combined with your cyberware. Before, you would equip different clothes/armor in six slots separated by what it would cover. For example, you’d have an Upper Body which would have two slots, and each slot would cover something different like the Outer Torso, and Inner Torso. Now, the old system is more of a cosmetic system, although there are a few pieces that still give marginal upgrades, more on that later.

So, how does the new armor system work? Well, head to the cyberware section in the menu, and you’ll see a large blue vertical bar in the right corner of your screen. The higher the bar, the more damage reduction you receive resulting in less damage you take. This counts towards all damage except damage-over-time effects.

How to Increase your Armor in 2.0¶

Now you know what the new system is like, you may be wondering how you increase your armor/raise the bar. What you need to do is equip cyberware predominantly into the Skeleton and Integumentary Systems as they are specifically designed for that purpose, although the Legs system will increase it slightly as well. You can tell how much will be added with each cyberware thanks to the handy armor icon on the cyberware with the number next to it indicating how much will be added to the bar. If the cyberware doesn’t have the armor icon, it means it won’t give you any.

Another thing to note is your armor rating will be capped until you invest some perk points into the License to Chrome perk under the Technical skill tree. Not only will this perk increase the cap, it’ll also add +40 armor at Rank 2, and unlock another cyberware slot for the Skeleton System at Rank 3.

Armor Pieces 2.0¶

Although the armor system was completely revamped and the original slots are predominantly for cosmetic reasons some pieces do still come with stats. Most of these are marginal for the most part, but every bit helps, right? When you pick up clothing pieces now, check their stats to see if they come with anything. Helmets and Chest pieces appear to come with +Armor or +Damage Resistance, and eyewear can come with quickhack upload time reduction among others.