There are a lot of ways to send your enemies to the shadow realm in Cyberpunk 2077 — though bullet holes tend to be the most straightforward and familiar way, melee weapons are a sorely underestimated class of weapon for aspiring Night City merc-thieves. Indeed, getting your hands dirty up close and personal is a rather OP way to handle your business in NIght City once you start looking at the stats.
To that end, we offer you this list of the best melee weapons in Cyberpunk 2077, all of which are iconic and a majority of which also happen to be samurai swords. Fitting.
Satori
- 182 DPS
- 3.30 Attacks per second
- 500% Crit Damage
Satori sports low base damage in exchange for a wildly ridiculous 500% boost to crit damage, making it perfect for heavy-hitting Blade users who’ve invested in a Crit katana build.
The chance to obtain Satori, however, is easily missed during the chaos that comes with The Heist mission. After T-Bug opens the balcony for you to escape, instead head upstairs through the apartment to the helipad on the top. You’ll have to take out the Arasaki henchmen guarding the AV, but inside you’ll find this miraculous weapon just ripe for the plucking. Note that it has a special slot in V’s weapon stash back in Watson.
Gold-Plated Baseball Bat
- 847 DPS
- 4.5 Attacks per second
- 90% Chance to cause bleeding
The Gold-Plated Baseball Bat is an insanely overpowered blunt weapon with enormous base damage and a whopping 90% chance to inflict bleeding.
The Gold-Plated Baseball Bat can only be obtained during the Tapeworm mission of the Main Questline and can be found jutting from a cement-filled pool like Night City’s own bizarro version of Excalibur.
Jinchu-Maru
- 536.9 DPS
- 4.8 Attacks per second
- 100% Crit Chance while Kerenzikov Effect is Active
The Jinchu-Maru Katana is, without a doubt, one of the single most devastating Katanas in all of NIght City — with the right Cyberware that is.
The Jinchu-Maru comes with decent enough damage on its own but becomes utterly broken when paired with the Kerenzikov implant available from everybody’s favorite ripperdoc, Vik Vektor, for 5000 eddies. When wielded alongside the Kerenzikov, Junchi-Maru’s crit-rate is upped to a stunning 100% while the slow-time effect is active, and, as if that weren’t enough, deals double damage at the end of each combo. A vicious, destructive weapon.
The Jinchu-Maru is dropped by a certain someone in the Playing It Safe quest, so just remember to keep an eye out for it when looting “important” NPCs.
Tinker Bell
- 504.2 DPS
- 2.2 Attacks per second
- High Chance to KO Opponents
Tinker Bell is probably your number one go-to choice for non-lethal melee weapons in all of Cyberpunk 2077. The iconic Electric Baton deals hefty damage but becomes especially useful for certain situations when using its strong attack, which comes with an extra-high chance of KO-ing opponents. This is especially useful for taking advantage of the get-rich-quick glitch in I Walk the Line.
The TInker Bell can be found nearby Peter Pan’s house in Edgewood, right under the sheltering canopy of a tree.
Tsumetogi
- 754 DPS
- 5.0 Attacks per second
- Deals Shock Damage on-hit
Tsumetogi is a brutal Katana with ludicrous attack speed and a set of delicious buffs to serve as icing atop a blood-spattered cake.
Tsumetogi sports a 20% chance on-hit to deal Shock damage, buffs crit-rate and crit-damage by 5% and 10% respectively, and even throws in some added Shock resistance to V when wielding it. But what makes the Tsumetogi extra special is its ridiculous attack speed. Any serious gamer knows that high attack speed scales on on-hit effects, and with the Tsumetogi it’s not just Shock you want to prioritize, but the Bleeding effects in the Blades skill tree.
