Cyberpunk Weapons: Power, Tech, Smart and Melee Guns, Plus Malorian 3516, Skippy and Every Named Weapon

The three gun technologies#

Power weapons are conventional firearms. A Ballistic Coprocessor in your hands can push their ricochet chance from a default 5 percent to 100 percent.

Smart weapons use gyrojet tech to fire caseless, guided ammo. They need a Smart Link to lock on, and the Tyger Claws' tattoo ink jams that lock. Tech weapons use railgun tech and punch through obstacles depending on how long you hold the charge.

Melee weapons are Blade, Blunt or Throwable. Throwables arrived with patch 2.0 and return to the thrower. Pick by how you want to fight, not by the price tag. For the implants behind the arm weapons, see the cyberware list.

Power weapons#

The conventional guns. They cover the widest range, from pistols to light machine guns. If you do not know what to buy, start here.

• Constitutional Arms Liberty: A 14-round semi-automatic pistol with a high fire rate and high recoil. Constitutional Arms' long-running classic and the base of several named guns. Opinion: the Honda Civic of Night City.
• Tsunami Nue: A semi-automatic pistol firing heavy .45 rounds, from the Japanese maker Tsunami. Compact, heavy, and underrated.
• Militech M-10AF Lexington: A fully automatic 9mm pistol with a 20-round magazine, designed around the 2030s. Militech worked with Tao Industries on a weighted muzzle to tame recoil. Spray and pray, but with style.
• Malorian Arms Overture: A double-action revolver with six .42 rounds. High quality, from the company that built the 3516. A revolver for people who count their rounds.
• Militech M251s Ajax: A mid-range, fully automatic assault rifle with a 30-round magazine, slow fire rate and high recoil. Reliable, not pretty.
• Arasaka HJSH-18 Masamune: An assault rifle designed in the 2050s, based on the Nowaki from earlier in the century. Fires three-round bursts only. For anyone who likes their bursts clean.
• Militech M221 Saratoga: A submachine gun in production since the 2040s, aimed at corporate security.
• Budget Arms Carnage: A cheap 4 gauge pump-action shotgun. Cheap. Loud. Messy.
• Rostović DB-4 Igla: A double-barrel shotgun from the Serbian maker known for budget guns.
• Rostović Kolac: A precision rifle added in patch 1.6, in Rostović's budget line.
• Techtronika SPT32 Grad: A left-handed, bolt-action sniper rifle from the maker called the 'Russian Militech'. Left-handed shooters rejoice.
• Constitutional Arms M2067 Defender: A light machine gun meant for corporate law enforcement. Civilians like it too, and it is designed to be low profile.

Tech weapons#

Charge it, then fire through the wall. Slower rate of fire, more penetration. The right call when your enemy hides behind everything.

• Arasaka JKE-X2 Kenshin: A tech pistol designed for Arasaka operators. A corporate sidearm that suits assassins.
• Militech M-76e Omaha: A simple, compact and reliable semi-automatic tech pistol.
• Techtronika RT-46 Burya: A four-shot, double-action tech revolver. Four shots, make them count.

Smart weapons#

Guided rounds that curve around obstacles and travel slower than normal bullets. Need a Smart Link. Our read: the lazy person's favorite and a lot of fun.

• Arasaka HJKE-11 Yukimura: A small, compact smart pistol with a 30-round magazine, built on Arasaka's trusted platform. Many rounds, small gun, lots of tricks.
• Kang Tao G-58 Dian: A smart submachine gun with a retractable stock and folding parts for concealed carry. Hides under a coat and still bites.
• Kang Tao L-69 Zhuo: A smart shotgun loaded with four cartridges. For those who like their bullets with GPS.
• Nokota D5 Sidewinder: A smart assault rifle from Nokota.

Melee and cyberware blades#

Edged and blunt weapons, plus the implants that turn your arms into them. Close range is where Night City remembers you.

• Katana: The 2020 variant was a first try at a modernized katana on cheaper materials. By 2077 it is cast almost from a single mold in a polymer-like material. The one blade every runner pictures.
• Mantis Blades: The Daikon NT Mantis Blades, made by Arasaka, extend from the forearms. They hit with a bleed chance and let you leap at enemies in range. Arms that look like a nightmare. Great at close quarters.
• Monowire: A hidden cyber-whip that works in melee and at short range. With the Jailbreak Relic perk it can be fitted with a control quickhack.
• Gorilla Arms: A brute-force Arasaka arm upgrade classed as a blunt weapon in the game's own weapon list.
• Projectile Launch System: An Arasaka arm-mounted launcher for charged explosive shots.

Named weapons and who carried them#

These are the guns with a name and an owner. Each is a variant of a base model above. Most come with a story, so spoilers hide in some of these lines.

• Malorian Arms 3516: The pistol Eran Malour designed to Johnny Silverhand's spec, because Johnny wanted something that could stop a cyberpsycho fan at 100 paces. By 2020 it was the most powerful personal handgun on the market, and by the Time of the Red it was rare and expensive. Adam Smasher called it a toy next to his Hellbringer. The most famous gun in the game, for good reason.
• Skippy: A Yukimura smart pistol with its own AI that talks to you. Regina Jones won it in a poker game from a techie called Danish. You pick Puppy-Loving Pacifist (limbs only) or Stone Cold Killer (headshots). A gun with an opinion about everything.
• Chaos: Simon 'Royce' Randall's Kenshin, painted red with a Maelstrom decal. Randomizes its damage type on every reload.
• Comrade's Hammer: A red Burya modified to fire a single high-explosive round.
• Cottonmouth: The cane-shaped club carried by the ripperdoc Fingers. Deals electrical and chemical damage.
• Sir John Phallustiff: A one-handed club that is also a vibrating toy. Meredith Stout leaves it for V in the Venus in Furs mission. The joke you will remember.
• Tinker Bell: A cattle-prod baton belonging to Anthony Harris, with a chance to knock enemies out.
• Plan B: Dexter DeShawn's gold-and-black Liberty. It burns eurodollars as ammunition, one per round. Our read: a very Night City way to burn money.
• Overwatch: A Grad that belonged to Mitch Anderson, who used it in the Unification War. Panam Palmer asked him for it and later promised it to V.
• Crash: River Ward's Overture. Charge it while aiming and it fires automatically.
• Pride and Prejudice: Rogue Amendiares' pair. Pride is a black and gold Liberty, Prejudice an orange Masamune. Using Pride first helps Prejudice.
• Kongou: Yorinobu Arasaka's magenta-and-black Liberty. It ricochets without a Ballistic Coprocessor.
• Genjiroh: A gold Yukimura that looks nearly new. It fires four projectiles and tracks up to six targets with a Smart Link.
• Ba Xing Chong: The Zhuo that belonged to Adam Smasher. It always fires both shells, eight explosive projectiles in all. The name means 'Eight-Star Gun'. Smasher's shotgun. Respect the name.
• Yinglong: A white G-58 Dian with a red decal. Its shots can release an EMP that disables cyberware.
• Divided We Stand: A gold Sidewinder with a New United States flag on the magazine. Targets up to five enemies at once with a Smart Link.
• Dying Night: V's Lexington, with a bayonet, brought to Robert Wilson for tuning. Hits harder the faster you move.
• Lizzie: A purple Omaha once owned by Susie Q, with the Mox logo on the grip. Fires more shots per burst.
• Mox: A Carnage that once belonged to Judy Alvarez. Judy gives it to V after Pyramid Song. A kind gift from a friend.
• Problem Solver: A dark green Saratoga with a Wraiths decal and a 90-round magazine.
• Fenrir: A spray-painted Saratoga with a Maelstrom logo. Shoots electrical damage and can upload a malfunction quickhack.
• Moron Labe: A gray Ajax with a skull graphic that dismembers more often.
• Hypercritical: Tiny Mike's Kolac. Shots can knock enemies down and the last round in the magazine always crits.
• Sovereign: An Igla with a wooden stock that fires both barrels at once.
• Errata: A military katana with a glowing tempered blade. Leap attacks and guaranteed crits on burning enemies.
• Black Unicorn: A katana with runestones from the Witcher universe, a crossover from CD Projekt's other franchise. The crossover nobody asked for and everyone mentions.

Who names what#

Weapon names follow house rules. Arasaka guns in 2077 are named after figures from Japanese history, like Kenshin, Yukimura and Masamune. Militech names rifle-caliber guns after Greek mythology heroes, pistol-caliber guns after events in American military history, and vehicles after mythological creatures.

That is why the Ajax is a rifle and the Lexington and Omaha are pistols. Quiz your friends. Once you spot the pattern you can tell a maker from the name.

Fixer's notes#

Opinion: Skippy is the best joke in the weapon list, and the best argument for a gun that talks back. It is a gun with opinions, and the setting is built on guns that think, so it is more lore than gag.

Common mix-up: Malorian Arms makes both the Overture revolver and the 3516. Johnny's 3516 is a different gun: a heavy pistol, not a revolver.

Tabletop: the RED weapon lists use different stats and tables. Do not port damage values across. See Cyberpunk RED, and the megacorporation guide for who makes what.

Kang Tao, the smart-gun maker behind many of these, has its own page: Kang Tao.