All SMGs Ranked Worst to Best in Cyberpunk 2077 2.1

SMGs are the fast firing often less powerful set  of weapons in cyberpunk 2077 with a wide range   of models to choose from including some of the  strangest and most creatively interesting guns   in the entire game I looked at them all so you  don't have to and this video will show you how   to get them top tips for using each as well as  which of course are best this has been one of my   favorite lists to do so let's get to it the build  I used for SMGs was switched up a bit depending on   the gun at hand but generally was specked into  20 reflexes buying up air Dash and of course   SMG perks including the top tier Submachine fun  body had health regen perks as usual for better   close-range survival then Tech had cyberware Buffs  as well as healing items and sometimes Pyromania   though I switched that out for Bolt shots when  using the senkoh LX or in intelligence the smart   gun perks for the various smart weapons there's  also a couple guns optimized for stealth in which   case you'll instead want this low-level cool tree  and possibly crouch Sprint if you can afford it as   for cyberware it's very similar to the assault  rifle build Chrome compressor based but with   kerenzikov for slow-mo accuracy when we need it visual  cortex for more crits shock absorber or better   still immovable Force as SMGs aren't always the  most precise Auto healing and heal on kill Chitin   for more regen and either painducer or Optical  camo depending on if you're playing stealthy after   that try to fill every slots as that'll reduce our  cooldowns by 15% when we also have the cyborg   perk with that out the way though it's on to  a set of weapons that can differ pretty wildly at   the bottom for me the DS1 Pulsar strikes an okay  balance of both speed and damage firing slightly   slower than the other power SMGs which itself  isn't such a bad thing when you factor in a little   more ammo conservation after all with how easy  it is to drain these less shots for a takedown is   welcome indeed described canonically as a somewhat  failed experiment of Dara polytechnics though with   reduced handling capabilities what I would say  about that on testing it myself though is that the   recoil actually isn't terrible but bullet spread  whether aiming or firing from the hip can be   fairly chaotic even with immovable Force cyberware  things can get pretty out of hand and this is merely   accentuated in actual ranged combat with bullets  flying everywhere fortunately the focus fire mod   can somewhat reduce this whilst a combo of Ready  Steady the Mind Over Matter perk and the right   cyberware can also help with ads fire making this  ammo hungry spray and prey gun into something   closer to a beam rifle and further capitalizing on  the 100% headshot multiplier though even with all   that it's still not quite perfect feeling even now  a little like an untamed beast and there are SMGs   with better beam rifle potential than this so why  not lean here into the high damage chaos factor   with say pyro or firecracker or get two of these  models equip both with big mag and the Submachine   fun perk and just switch to and fro never having  to reload there's so many possibilities here   as there are with most of the SMGs and this one  is a fairly common drop or weapon vendor spawn I   found one both at Marty jenklow's fuel station or  over in Arroyo Kang Tao's g58 Dian is what I'd call   the Speedy smart SMG shooting at the same speed  as a pulsar or Guillotine only of course this time   with smart targeting often head seeking bullets  sounds good and it is I'd imagine the hit ratio   is certainly higher with this than a gun we have  to aim but it's still really doesn't help itself   in conserving ammo see sadly the Dian is one of if  not the weakest gun on the list great for mowing   base level foes down but taking a very long time  on the stronger ones obviously the multi-targeting   system as well means shots will often be split  across everyone in the targeting Square good   for Splash damage yes but consider the fact that  everyone is being left alive for longer and it's   not so good for us who are far more likely to die  even dashing around to mitigate damage than we are   by selectively targeting one enemy at a time or  indeed just using a stronger smart SMG although   there's still something to be said about the fact  that trauma team use these guns and I think I can   see why there due to often being deployed in  hot zones and just having to fire away whilst   also focusing on a casualty compared to the other  smart guns on this list this is the most spray   and pray one only in this case of course our  prayers are answered after about 1.15 seconds   only without as much punch as they otherwise  could be and firing as Target locks change can   also result in several missed shots a problem not  so prevalent with slower firing weapons anyway if   you still want to use it but there's a better  iconic variant coming up you can buy the base   variant of this one from the Glen Fenrir in  2.0 then hmm i mean thematically I can appreciate   the change with the gun more functioning as the  literal bane of maelstrom but I don't know I kind   of miss the Blazing Inferno of fire and death you  know I mean sure we can make a regular gun that   now with a simple pyro mod but still I do miss  it on Fenrir a bit mind you the new version   isn't the worst thing in the world instead focused  into doing electrical damage as well as having a   chance to upload cyberware malfunction to an  enemy as it is supposed to be Maelstrom's Bane   then I figured who better to test it on than  literal chromed up Borgs though they didn't seem   all too fussed by the intrusion on their circuitry  continuing the fight as normal in fact overall of   all the quick attacks a gun could administer it  could do a lot better than cyberware malfunction   I mean there's short circuit which to be fair we  can get in many forms overheat which also we can   get in many forms contagion contagion that would  be a good one I mean cyberware malfunction can be   useful on certain enemies with powerful cyberware  Sandy users for instance and it does increase our   subsequent damage to an enemy but compared to the  mods we can add to a regular Saratoga now it just   doesn't hold up into the later game fortunately  it's acquired for free during the sacrum profanum   side quest up in the north side docks and to be  fair is still an SMG well worth using until you   get a better basic one and some good mods the  most standard feeling spray and pray power SMG   I would say would be the Saratoga by far not the  strongest gun of this game but by all accounts one   of the speediest unloading an entire 40 round mag  in just over 3 seconds factor out reloading and   you can fully use up all ammo in a little over a  minute so hopefully you find some more during   that as standard power SMGs go though this one  is technically one of the highest quality looking   like a futuristic successor to the MP5 and feeling  like one too Saratoga comes with a decent handling   out the box and we can see this with the reduced  recoil and circle of spread compared to the other   power weapons still demanding your accuracy but  more rewarding to those who can shoot straight   plus there's so many of these about the place it's  all too easy to acquire multiple to switch between   them with the Submachine fun perk personally I  took one regular modded with Focus fire and Ready   Steady turning it into a beam rifle alongside the  more powerful but slightly slower barghest variants   with a reduced ammo capacity of just 30 though  meaning it'll be emptied even quicker still a   better variant though I would argue especially  with something like pyro or firecracker but a bit   more annoying on those frequent reloads a specific  place to get all of these is dogtown stadium sofia   sells the regular crafting spec whilst Herold  normally stocks barghest guns and I would say with   the right mods the potential insane accuracy  of these versions would beat the fenrir in   2.0 now arasaka's shingen smart gun a triple burst  fire weapon similar to the yukimura pistol but   obviously this time working off of SMG perks and  their available mods described as a highquality   homage to Japan's love of Miniatures and the dream  weapon of any Soldier or mercenary not going to   lie at first I didn't see it standing there firing  slowly having to click over and over again when   there's plenty of other entries to manage the job  quicker but then I realized there's a far more   Optimum way to use this which especially benefits  from the level 20 Tailwind perk from reflexes see   with this thing's tall targeting Square it's  particularly excellent at holding enemies in   its sights with the smart targeting taking the  edge off and allowing us to dash around with   insane speed in a way we just couldn't pull off  so well with power weapons still Landing perfect   headshots whilst also gaining every Dash based  mitigation buff like a sandevistan ghost only   we don't even need the sandevistan which would  inevitably just slow down our fire rate even   the gun's burst fire works perfectly with this  method adding natural breaks to keep dashing and   continually keep people in our line of sight it  can even down a few Maxtac members before running   out of ammo ammunition is still an issue with this  gun but a smaller one which can when appropriate   be solved by just getting in a car so as a smart  gun headhopper is a fantastic choice of mod   especially with my dashing method while big mag  just reduces our need to reload or switch quite   as much in the more tightly packed environments  though I'd probably opt for a different weapon   but you can buy the crafting spec for this one  from the downtown weapon vendor arasaka's shigure   is another of those older guns still around in the  game up alongside its direct successor similar to   the tamayura pistol or nowaki assault rifle but  rather than a higher damage less modernized build   shigure is a little weaker than the Saratoga but  also faster the fastest non-iconic in fact and   also importantly having an increased mag capacity  of 50 resulting in yes a larger recoil Arc but   initial shots are fairly well packed together and  in practice against enemies I felt the range of   this one was actually pretty decent beaming people  from across the way with relative precision and   the increased speed allowing me to get more shots  off after activating kerenzikov that bonus 10 Rounds   as well opposed to the regular 40 doesn't seem  like much but often times was just what was needed   to fully drain a health bar before switching  or reloading and with a big mag mod this could   even be increased to a huge 77 rounds reloading  this by the way not quicker than switching quite   but still very slick and if you don't have the  Submachine fun perk with this or a different SMG   to switch to it's really not much of a problem  and given the hyper rate of fire a great mod I   found actually was the Chimera core firecracker  turning every bullet explosive and dealing Splash   damage to everyone near ish to the targets it's  a speedy and underrated modable gun overall not   too common but I bought mine from the arroyo weapon  vendor though SMGs across the board do have an   ammo problem and this is arguably one of the worst  offenders take for example even my high-powered   build versus maxtac one mag would drain about 20%  of the health bar so 250 accurate rounds to fully   defeat one of them considering this ammo type is  capped at 1K then you'll have to either pick your   fights in places you'll know they'll there be  plenty more ammo to loot or a car to jump into   or pack this into a build with assault rifles or  something else that uses different ammo or no ammo   at all what do you get when you cross a private  defense Mega Corp with a designer fashion brand   well obviously you get a Sleek looking gun that  won't ruin your outfit and also the only Tech   SMG model Senoh LX will actually require a visit to  jinguji clothing store in order to buy the fashion   brand in question Who collabed on it being an  SMG though and Tech weapons being guns that need to   charge this one has an interesting mode of fire  simple hip fire is a small instantaneous burst   good for the occasional finisher shot but that  doesn't penetrate walls at least not this model   but where this weapon truly shines is in its  ads fire which after a little charge releases   an insane flurry of automatic shots which have  some vertical recoil but zero bullet spread it's   probably the most accurate SMG not to have Smart  targeting or accuracy increased ing Mods plus if   walls have a tendency to get in your way then well  they're not So Much Anymore now you might think   given the hold to fire nature of this weapon that  the often release early to fire bolt shots would   be off the table here but actually not at all and  you definitely want to spec into as many of those   perks as you can if using this gun including  the top tier chain lightning they don't fire   100% of the time but provided you're not shooting  through cover first then more often than not   you'll be seeing a shower of electrical Blue  bolts so overall very effective very accurate   with a ton of damage the only drawbacks really are  needing to aim down the sight or the fact we have   to charge it up first you can't use this quite as  mindlessly as many of the others but you can slap   on the Chimera wallpuncher mod to effectively  double its damage just like that and then you   can even take it in vehicles for just continual  bouts of burst fire the shingen mark 5 prototype   is now just about a slightly better variant of  the shingen but partly just beats it on the   cooler more Chic design and the fact it can be  found pretty easily and totally free coming into   the arasaka industrial park in Santo Domingo to the  containers at the back it'll be kept in a little   hidden ammo crate here there's also an email  inside the compound explaining its Origins and   it was apparently sent as a gift from the brother  of one of the saka Guardsmen here snuck into this   container arriving from somewhere in Iraq I think  statistically identical to the regular gun save   for two pretty useful things the ability to Target  three enemies at once and a 30% burn chance and   yes we could technically achieve the same effects  on the base gun with a headhopper or two pyro   mods but we don't have three mod slots anymore so  we can never quite get on the mark 5's power level   the targeting system is also landscape this  time to account for those multiple targets but   other than that it's pretty much the same merits  as the regular shingen perfect for darting around   and mindlessly firing and such one of the new  gun types added in Phantom Liberty was the barghest   manufactured smart gun called Warden with  barghest and regular versions both buyable at   the stadium vendors interesting considering it's a  barghest weapon entirely though In fairness not a   tremendous amount of difference between them the  quote unquote barghest version deals some more   base damage to the compromise of being limited to  a pretty close range gun now overall I would say   at least when it comes to Base versions that this  is the best smart SMG striking the perfect balance   of effective AOE damage or quickly Downing one foe  when need be this all comes down to the fact that   fire rate continuously increases as we unload  the mag which is perfect as an initial imperfect   lock wastes less ammo and by the time we're fully  honed in we're firing the majority of the bullets   for majority of the damage I'd recommend the  hackatomy Chimera mod on this gun above the others   as the chance to proc it just seems a lot higher  possibly because each shot is actually a ton of   mini projectiles and maybe each of them have the  5% chance but it's a fantastic combo all the same   combine it with the heal on kill cyberware as  well as like I said it's a master at dropping   crowds of enemies quickly though not feeling weak  like the Dian possibly due to that satisfying fire   rate increase overall it proves once again that  whilst barghest engineering may be crude it   actually gets the job done really well in practice  so good job to Murphy or whoever designed this   in the cannon whilst the budget arms Guillotine  literally has budget in the name it is in practice   a highly underrated gun I think certainly not as  classy as the Saratoga or shigure in the cannon and   hipfire bullet spread before mods can be a bit of  a pain but with the actually semi-decent built-in   scope our circle of accuracy is surprisingly good  and with 45 rounds in the magazine as well it's   even a little less of an endless reloadfest than  the Saratoga a little less not much with damage   slightly lower than the other budget SMG the pulsar  though exceeding it in its ability to beam   people plus there's an easy to acquire crafting  spec at Robert Wilson's by our apartment so   you can craft as many as you want or need and  then switch between them there's all kinds of   brilliant combinations including of course Focus  fire and Ready Steady to make your aim look like   this though the model I would reserve for that is  the free very special and even more accurate XMOD2   variant acquired up here in longshore stacks and  if you can't pass the body check to get through   the door then just grab it by shooting through  this window and sort of looking in the right   place and this one has Superior stats all around  save for when it comes to range so I'd use this   for slightly closer beaming and switch to the  standard one for anybody further away in terms   of destroying Maxtac though that's again going  to work at about 20% Health per Mag so still a   bit of an issue there and you'll want to keep  in reserve a heavy or melee weapon or if not   than just a projectile arm launcher even in terms  of fighting off General hordes of enemies though   this is definitely the beamiest base power gun I'd  say with the right mods XMOD2 or not this variant   isn't really that dissimilar from its Base version  but thanks to its ability actually working great   for SMGs I placed Chesapeake a little higher than  the standard Warden just like all the others in   the series of prime gaming guns it's a barghest  variance with a neat looking red texture with   the only difference being the ability to move up  to 20% faster after consecutive kills dealing a   bonus 25% Damage as we do and since SMGs  especially smart SMGs fully lean in to the move   around a lot playstyle this ability just Falls  right in as passively brilliant and probably the   most optimized for this than any of the others  in the series which is potentially why it was   first to drop as a prime gaming Redemption back  in September if you missed it though you'll just   have to keep checking various air drops around  Dogtown until you find it then again being iconic   we can't add hackatomy to this so if you're planning  on turning the chimera core into that maybe stick   with the regular Warden or just get both and  switch between them with the Submachine fun   perk Kang Tao's yinglong an iconic Dian variant was  my number one SMG back in 1.6 hellmaybe one of my   number one weapons overall with its explosively  showy and shocking ability to trigger numerous   emps in a fight and it's still good no doubt  about that but since now 2.0 has vulnerability   analytics bolt shot the spinetickler mod and  all around a lot more ways to trigger these same   mesmerizing effects yinglong feels like a lot less  of a novelty now and if we take a basic look it is   just a regular Dian with a little more base damage  still chewing through ammo and still losing out   to Stronger guns much of the time though there is  something to be said about the gun's ability to   rain down stormfire after all it is named after  a Chinese dragon rain deity and even has a cool   looking glowing Insignia against multiple targets  the bonus explosions really do go a long   way to proc bonus Splash damage plus they do still  look awesome and are generally bigger than other   types of lightning explosions now no doubt you'll  still want a stronger smart gun in reserve for the   more powerful enemies this performed pretty poorly  against a singular Maxtac member so maybe pair   it with a warden or something even like the ashura  luckily this one is fairly easy to get dropped by   some lizard skinned animal guy named Denzel Cryer  in a suspected crime at the south end of Wellsprings   unlike Fenrir Problem Solver is the  other Saratoga variant that's remained exactly   what it was prior to 2.0 as the fastest firing  most bullet hungry gun in the entire game a 90   round magazine which unloads in less than double  the time of the regular Saratoga about 6 seconds   and with a faster reload time too it ensures you  could actually burn through all your ammunition   if you really tried in about a minute and that  really is the only weakness of this gun that   can't be somewhat fixed law enforcement who don't  drop ammo aside this could even potentially run   out if you're not carefully looting more in just  the larger enemy encampments suspected crimes and   criminal activities and such though that's  possibly a deliberate design of the game the   ammunition limits being the only way to genuinely  Nerf this powerful piece of Kit I mean sure recoil   looks out of control fired against a wall but  bear in mind the magazine is a lot bigger and   provided you readjust semi decently it's firing  enough rounds that plenty are still bound to hit   in fact it'd be fair of you to assume the damage of  this would get massively nerfed but actually it's   the most powerful Saratoga variant shot for shot  sitting on par with the much harder to control   Pulsar forget the ammo problem for a second  and Problem Solver does solve the problem of   enemies quicker than pretty much all the other  power SMGs and is absolutely ideal for smaller   more open fights with less cover just maybe bring  some non handgun ammo backups to the bigger ones   or alternatively try to conduct some of the fight  from a car as ammo doesn't appear to deplete from   inside those in fact as I've said before hopping  in one of your cars during a fight actually seems   to replenish about two magazines of ammo anyway  this gun is attained pretty early and pretty   easily too by dropping the boss in The Wraith  Camp during the Riders on the Storm Quest you   know what would be a good idea having a silenced  weapon for stealth purposes that also utilizes   the Aimbot benefits of smart targeting and for  all the genius Mega Corps out there the only   guy who's actually put these two things together  at all was the sovoil special agent Boris ribakov   modifying his own orange tinted Warden and naming  it [___] which I believe is a Russian expletive to   describe a terrible situation or a cluster [ __ ]  and would be the last thing probably uttered by   any victim of this sneaky Accurate Gun we can  of course loot it from Boris after defeating   him in the Dogtown gig spy in The Jungle which  I've broken down all the hidden details of in   this video obviously guaranteed headshots from  stealth are a very useful thing to have though   with a halved ammo capacity of 20 it may not be  quite enough to take down skull level enemies in   one Mag plus you've got to be careful with the  smart targeting to not aim at more foes than   [___]can take down without reloading though  other than that it's a pretty convenient gun also   sporting an increased headshot multiplier from the  regular Warden and dealing plenty of bonus damage   with stealthy shots like other silenced guns with  crit chance also increasing along with fire rate   over time you'll also o want to try aiming down  the sights with this one especially if you're   quickly dispatching a singular enemy as the firing  mode will switch to a quadruple burst as opposed   to that gradual Warden increase which is still  present with hipfire overall there's a lot more   options with this variant of the warden and it can  in the right situations be a fantastic stealth gun   making it one of the best and most unique smart  guns in the whole game so whilst Senkoh LX is   the only Tech SMG it's not the the only one that  can shoot through cover in fact now that neither   Prejudice nor Johnny's malorian have this ability  anymore I think buzzsaw is the only non-tech gun   to reliably shoot through things making it very  special its Base stats otherwise are near identical   to the regular Pulsar and as you can see there's  still that same problem of a fair amount of bullet   spread but honestly the convenience of having a  fully automatic fast-firing SMG where it doesn't   matter if we sometimes clip the edge of an object  or an enemy runs behind a wall that by itself is   a hugely appreciated feature which immediately  places the buzzsaw leagues above so many other   SMGs and into the Realms of Top Guns for the  whole game but it gets better so much so that not   only does the Pulsar spread not matter but it's  actually a good thing kind of see the second part   of buzzsaw's ability is its massive bonus damage  to enemy limbs often Maiming them and making them   a lot less threatening sure there's still that  100% headshot multiplier but basically so long as   bullets aren't hitting the Torso which with this  spread is going to happen more often than not then   you'll be doing extra damage plus it's the perfect  thing for vulnerability analytics as it can hit   those Diamond points from any angle basically  it's an utter beast for all combat situations   and it's crazy to think how all the weaknesses of  the regular Pulsar have actually been turned into   strengths with two minor but game-changing tweaks  oh and uh you can still try and slap a silencer on   this though good luck staying in stealth mode pick  up the crafting spec as soon as possible from this   suspected crime activity called Vice control up  in northside now you might not have thought it   but turns out this guy named Ross Ulmer at the  Longshore Stacks criminal activity is actually   a man of Exquisite fashion taste that's why he  keeps safely locked away a modified and improved   version of the senkoh LX named Raiju in fact thanks  to raiju's special capabilities it introduces an   entire another way to use it basic changes include  a slight bit more damage 33% more crit damage and   33% extra crit chance with headshots but the true  power of this gun is the slight tweak of allowing   uncharged shots to also penetrate obstacles  kind of like the Breakthrough sniper totally   revolutionizing the burst hip fire and removing  the senkoh LX 's biggest weakness of having to   wait before unloading an essential laser beam in  vehicles as well it continually fires in bursts   but is obviously great for going through enemy  cars I spent a while pondering whether I ought to   rank it above the buzzsaw and I think on account of  the generally improved stats better range reload   speed definitely better feeling accuracy plus  the fact you can choose between burst and full   auto modes Raiju just about has more going for it  but it's close so if I were you I'd slot them   into the same build with submachine fun then Name  said build after a very popular Lizzy wizzy album   at number one then we have a Erebus I mean come on  was it really going to be anything else firstly   it's the most powerful SMG by quite a ways firing  not in single shots but rather a barrage of mini   ones similar to the warden second it has a chance  to upload cyberware malfunction as well the same   ability as Fenrir but since this gun can stand a  fair chance against MaxTac a fair bit more useful   thirdly and this is the big one Erebus is inhabited  by a mantled rogue AI from Beyond the blackwall   forced like a Genie in a lamp to begrudgingly  Aid us in our endeavors uploading the blackwall   Gateway hack to immediately neutralize any  one with just a third their Total Health or less   making it far more efficient at saving ammunition  with magazine size too being a generous 50 and blackwall   Gateway even works on Maxtac which as  you can imagine can make those fights end well   a third quicker if we look at the console name  for this it's even referred to as Haunted Gun   and honestly I'm just terrified to rank anything  else higher after all what other gun is going to   take offense and obliterate my Consciousness  on a whim and those screams they hit different but fair warning Erebus is one of the biggest  faffs to get out of pretty much anything and   contingent on several things firstly we have  to side with Reed during FireStarter pursue   that to the somewhat damaged Quest then in  the first of the areas in cynosure where we   have to hide you'll have to rummage around for  a locked side door whose terminal links to a   circuit breaker that could be reset with a high  enough Tech skill and through the door is the   crafting spec at the end of the quest make sure  also to get the behavioral components and then a   while later we'll receive a text triggering  the this corrosion Quest at the end of which   we'll have a choice between the Canto cyberdeck and this you can only get one of the two   is all of that worth it just for this well for  gameplay I'd say absolutely on top of everything   this thing is like an evil Skippy throwing out  ominous one liners about how it wants to break   free and take over the world though that does mean  canonically by bringing this thing to the surface   we are probably hastening the demise of humanity  a fact confirmed by Alt Cunningham should we ask   her during the star ending but I went over that in  item five of my Phantom Liberty terrible decisions   video as a player only it is probably the best  SMG though also pair it with Raiju buzzsaw or [___]  to be even more effective across the board and  let me know in the comments which SMG you prefer   and why huge thank you to all the patrons for  keeping the channel alive I very much enjoyed   remaking all these rankings for 2.0 and your  support affords me more of the time needed to   do that you can find out more in the description  below as well as links to the Discord and such do   subscribe if you haven't already we're so close to  100K now I'm Sam Bram and thank you for watching

Channel: Sam Bram

Views: 78,653

Keywords: cyberpunk, cyberpunk 2077, sam bram cyberpunk, cyberpunk phantom liberty, cyberpunk smg build, cyberpunk smg ranked, cyberpunk best smg, cyberpunk all smgs, cyberpunk best smg 2.0, cyberpunk submachine gun, cyberpunk smart smg, cyberpunk smart smg build, cyberpunk 2.0 smg build, cyberpunk 2.0 best smg, cyberpunk all smgs 2.0, cyberpunk erebus, cyberpunk buzzsaw, cyberpunk ai gun

Id: ikBJ8CMNXN4

Length: 28min 41sec (1721 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 01 2024