All Katanas Ranked Worst to Best in Cyberpunk 2077

one of my favorite builds in cyberpunk 2077 is  that of a katana wielding lightning fast Sandevistan   Ninja indeed katanas feel like one of  the weapons in this game which cdpr put the most   effort into fleshing out with awesome visuals and  various unique variants So today we're donning   our ninja robes saying goodbye to the needless  benefits of ranged combat and venturing out to   perform a dance of shining metal and flailing  limbs all in the name of figuring out the pros   cons and special abilities of each of this game's  katanas before deciding once and for all which is   best let's get into it just as I do when ranking  the guns let's start off by outlining the exact   build I've opted for when trying out each of  these katanas now I must admit this wound up   becoming a little more complicated than usual you  see I usually spec pretty heavily into most of the   benefits and perks allowing my gameplay to look  pretty satisfying by incorporating all the various   cool abilities problem is when it comes to katanas  these things are already so freaking powerful that   by designing a perfect build around them I was  killing everybody with one swing at the game's   hardest difficulty how the hell was I supposed  to register the differentiating qualities of   these blades when they all achieved the exact same  goal in the exact same way so as a differentiation   from the norm I specced only into blade perks  which I thought would make a real difference to   gameplay this improved the situation somewhat but  I couldn't ignore the fact that katanas are just   pretty similar in terms of gameplay what with them  all being the same item pretty much and therefore   some of the ranking consideration will simply have  to come down to looks and the context surrounding   these blades anyway I then spec as usual in to 18  tech for legendary crafting as well as 20 cool  since there are both some very cool Ninjutsu and Cold  Blood perks in this tree which fulfill our role   as an all-powerful ninja what's more I decided  to go with the militech Sandevistan for once   as it has the highest boost for crit chance which  will come into play later with some of the blades   anyway now that that's slightly more lengthy  build explanation is out the way let's get   on to these awesome looking katanas down in last  place of course let's talk about the bog standard   non-iconic katanas now you're likely going to be  finding a lot of these during your travels around   night City the quality of which can vary quite  significantly you see canonically in the cyberpunk   timeline people still believe that swords were  pretty freaking cool even into the late 21st   century when soft-guided projectiles were becoming  All the Rage even so in terms of katana Evolution   it goes from our classic blade and Hilt design  down to a straightforward one piece printed   from a single polymer mold obviously the tensile  strength of such a thing should be crazy what with   every single part being you know fully atomically  bound though a problem I have with katanas is I'm   actually a little disappointed at the lack of  genuine sword fights in this game sure there's a   couple decent ones the fight against Oda can work  well with the sword and this cyber psycho from   The Phantom of night City gig will drop a decent  Katana variant but generally these weapons are   pretty hack and slash with little to no resistance  I know in a game with so many gun variants that   the constant need to Parry melee attacks for  Katana players might seem a little silly but even   another beat on the Brat variant with fencing  matches could have been a really cool addition   that being said I still find katanas in general  one of the most satisfying up close and personal   ways to play the game and particularly like that  some of these random katanas you can find have an   added thermal chemical or electrical damage aspect  as well in addition to the Phantom Of Night City   sword you can also buy a legendary variant from  coach Fred in V's apartment building though unless   you don't plan on leveling up your crafting  at all I don't really see why you'd bother   up next we have hiromi sato's Tsumatogi which can  be acquired during the Pisces side job with Judy   from this table here it's an okay looking blade  though nothing special I don't think compared to   many others now Tsumatogi's whole thing has mostly  to do with electricity providing a bonus 20% shock   chance that's one in five attacks dealing shock  damage coupled with granting you the bearer a 10%   shock resistance both of these do work nicely in  combat and are a welcome advantage against robots   in particular what's more this blade encourages  you to do more than simply hack and slash at   enemies rewarding wielders five percent extra  damage when they attack from blocking sprinting   jumping or crouching again pretty nice additions  to a reasonable blade but my primary reason for   ranking it down here however has to do with when  we acquire it Pisces is at best a mid to late game   Quest meaning by that point in our playthrough  we will be pretty powerful already as I mentioned   during the build section of this video leveling  enough perks and ablades will make every single   one a one slash weapon even on very hard and  therefore renders the extra benefits granted   by this sword kinda obsolete what's more you'll  likely have acquired a number of other decent   katanas by this point and I'm not quite sure why  anyone would trade some of those out for this   going from a late game Katana black unicorn for  most of you is likely the first Katana you'll have   come across during your playthrough it's awarded  to V's stash at the start of the game for all those   who linked the platform they're using to GOG or  just straight up own the game via GOG Galaxy this   was pretty straightforward for me because despite  owning cyberpunk through Steam I apparently had to   create a GOG account back in 2015 after I bought  the physical copy of The Witcher 3 back then I   guess owning physical game copies still took place  eight years ago speaking of The Witcher this sword   is indeed one big old reference to that franchise  with the blue runestones inscribed on the blade   indeed being Witcher runes this in spite of the  fact that long swords are the blades we use in   The Witcher and I don't think that Series has ever  featured a single Katana still I guess cdpr were   on a time crunch as it was and designing a whole  new sword type for one game weapon probably wasn't   at the top of their priority list as a starter  weapon this I find to be the most powerful thing   in my starter Arsenal and really excellent  for very early game provided you can get up   close to one enemy at a time you'll most likely  dispatch them quicker with this thing than any   of the starter guns with a bonus of zero ammo cost  a problem I found upgrading this one however is   that it doesn't really upgrade in the traditional  sense by simply crafting it into a higher tier   model instead performing five actual upgrades  will turn it to Epic tier with a further seven   from that turning it to Legendary this is all well  and good if you do it from early game so early   players take notes however in my case upgrading at  a higher level I just wasn't permitted to upgrade   the sword enough times to level it up like that  and even attempting to solve this with console   commands you know for the sake of the video seems  to get pretty messy so I'm sorry but this is   gameplay with the rare tier only which In fairness  is still very powerful and I realized when one   slicing enemies with this thing and all the  blade perks that I was in a bit of trouble here   if anything though it is just a very nice looking  blade and Swinging glowing runes about the places   you hack through enemies is a nice way to bring  a little of The Witcher franchise into cyberpunk   scalpel is yet another Katana with a focus on  electrical damage and has a 10% chance to shock   looking at the design here we can see it's kind  of modeled on a piece of medical Gear with the   light blue handle heavily reminding me of the  same color scene throughout hospitals however   the surgical Precision aspect is taken even  further with a 50% crit chance boost and a 100%   chance to bleed added in when wielding this  blade under the effect of a sandevistan   couple that up with some other perks and items  that boost crit chance and this thing becomes   a constant crit-hitting blood drawing machine  when used in conjunction with a low cooldown   sandevistan what's more this weapon can even  be acquired pretty early on in the game after   first speaking with rogue at afterlife and exiting  her Booth we'll be greeted by a guy named Dennis   claiming he has a job for us and doesn't want  to go through a fixer accepting will trigger   the Big in Japan side quest and involves  rescuing a man named haruyoshi nishikita   from some Tyger Claw infested slums be warned  though that this Quest involves having to carry   the dude and investing in the transporter perk  after reaching 12 body which allows you to shoot   a pistol whilst carrying someone does serve as a  nice time saver for this Quest equally you could   just put him down deal with the Tyger Claws and  then walk him out of there if you don't want to   wait it serves as a very decent sword to acquire  early on since it's a great weapon to use in other   sword fights like the Phantom Of Night City or  the battle with Oda which we'll get to in a bit   speaking of weapons which can be acquired somewhat  early on cocktail stick is the signature Katana of   Evelyn Parker and can be found during our visit to  clouds in the automatic love quest it's striking   to say the least a bright pink blade Which packs  more punch than you'd expect boasting an increased   dismemberment chance of 300% if you want to turn  this game into something as gory as Fallout all whilst cosplaying as an innocent princess then  this is the blade for you I mean damn I wonder   how many times Evelyn's had to use this in the  past this is not only a means of self-defense   it's a means to remove the limbs of troublesome  clients with extreme prejudice no wonder Evelyn   was so successful I mean I guess this was her way  of dealing with anyone unsavory anyway actually   acquiring this one can be done when making our way  to Oswald Forrest's office in the back rooms of the   clouds VIP area heading through this door here  we'll wind up in Evelyn's dressing room to find   cocktail stick on the side here be warned though  this room is pretty easy to miss and once we've   left clouds I'm not sure when we can get back in  so be sure to grab it when you can so that YouTube   can ruin the lives of any who try to mess with  you at number three we have Satori the personal   Katana of the emperor himself Saburo arasaka Satori is a Buddhist term meaning   Awakening specifically the idea to comprehend or  understand something previously incomprehensible   as the emperor's personal blade this one sports  a much more traditional katana look which I kind   of prefer to be honest that's because this blade  was apparently forged during the first half of the   20th century and is thus probably over 150 years  old at this point now that age does certainly show   in some sense with a 20% reduction to the blade's  base damage however this Blade's age and likely   manufacture by use of ancient smithing techniques  does also give it an insane unique advantage over   modern counterparts that being a 500% damage  boost when Landing crit hits now as I mentioned   with scalpel there's a number of items and perks  which can boost our chance for a crit hit from   certain blade perks like blessed blade to Face  clothing mods cyberware and sandevistans all   of which combined can raise our crit hit chance  to near 100% depending on what you can and can't   equip now for many doing a build like this can  make the Satori the most powerful weapon in the   game though despite this it is not my number  one for several reasons firstly boosting crit   chance can come at the expense of other arguably  more interesting upgrades and second katanas are   already so bloody powerful that there's really no  need to do this even at the hardest difficulty but   the most important third I guess many people missed  this one and don't have it anyway since the game   doesn't hint us towards its location by any means  during the heist after everybody leaves the room   t-bug directs us to leave fire this door over  here after the door opens and she gets killed   every part of the game is indicating to us that  we have to imminently leave via this door but we   actually have the option to do this head upstairs  and out onto the landing pad roof and we can reach   saburo's AV stealthily take out the two guards  and we can actually open the door the car of   course won't fly us out though we can retrieve  the Satori Katana at an encrypted data pad now   interestingly this thing is Saburo's diary entry  in which he discusses how he might have actually   leveled night City to the ground pound had Hanako  not talked him out of it maybe Yorinobou isn't such   a bad guy after all then and might have done the  world a favor either way being able to claim that   you're wielding the sword of somebody called  the emperor is definitely a pretty cool concept Jinchu-Maru is a sword we can acquire after the boss battle  with Oda during the parade Quest as I said before   this is a great fight and I'd recommend bringing  along another sword just to get the most out of   the game's underused swordplay mechanics  honestly getting a perfectly timed parry   and the game doing its slow-mo thing for a moment  is incredibly satisfying now this thing has three   very awesome and Powerful stats it increases crit  chance to 100% when under the effect of kerenzikov   which can be useful in the odd crucial moment  but more usefully the blade does double damage   on the last strike of a combo and when attacking  enemies with double your health now I know all the   katanas in this game are insanely op but in terms  of damage stats this one is even consistently more   so than most of the others what's more this isn't  even Oda's sword but was originally Takemura's   therefore just like Jackie's pistols and bike  we can continue the tradition of carrying around   things which once belonged to V's friends  and extend that courtesy to Takemura as well   finally though my number one Katana in cyberpunk  2077 is without a doubt Byakko the same name   given to the White Tiger constellation in  Chinese astrology this one is acquired from   Wakako after completing all her gigs but despite  what I said about late game katanas earlier on   this one has a feature which more than makes  up for this with an extra one meter of range   as well as the ability for the wielder to LEAP  to an enemy from a distance this blade is the   only one of the katanas with any further attack  utility besides that of just increased damage I   so often found myself simply leaping towards  my foes automatically when swinging for them   and not close enough which was a nice time saver  and turned the simple hack and slash action of   using a katana into an even more simple motion  by removing a lot of the movement element on   top of this there's a 15% extra chance to make  enemies bleed compared to other katanas for an   ice boost of long lasting damage when you're  lunging quickly from enemy to enemy and don't   quite have time to finish each one off ultimately  out of all the katanas Byakko is described as the   one most perfectly balanced as all things should  be a quality which most definitely shows through   the unique bonuses and thus secures its place  at the top of my list but to be honest they're   all pretty similar and even picking a katana  on personal aesthetic preference is a fair   enough thing to do as you'll likely find it a  very powerful weapon regardless so let me know   your favorite Katana in cyberpunk 2077 and why  if you enjoyed this one then as always likes are   always noted and appreciated as they encourage me  to make even more videos like this and finally if   you haven't yet then go ahead and hit that  subscribe button to stay up to date on all   my cyberpunk content as well as Starfield and  Hogwarts Legacy which I also plan to cover in   the future thank you very much for watching I'm  Sam Bram and I'll see you soon in another video

Channel: Sam Bram

Views: 225,019

Keywords: cyberpunk 2077 gameplay, cyberpunk 2077 review, cyberpunk 2077, cyberpunk 2077 katana build, cyberpunk katanas, cyberpunk best katana, cyberpunk katana location, cyberpunk katana ranked, cyberpunk cocktail stick, cyberpunk byakko, cyberpunk satori location, sandevistan katana build cyberpunk 2077, cyberpunk samurai build, cyberpunk ninja build, cyberpunk ranking, sam bram cyberpunk, cyberpunk builds 1.6, cyberpunk best melee weapons, cyberpunk katana gameplay

Id: Yd4SJFyff14

Length: 13min 46sec (826 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 02 2023