Cyberware 101: How Implants Work in Cyberpunk, What They Cost and Who Installs Them

What counts as cyberware#

Cyberware is technology permanently installed in the body, especially anything that connects to the central nervous system. A pacemaker or an artificial hip does not make you a cyborg. A Kiroshi eye, a Sandevistan or a cyberarm does.

Bioware is a different category: artificial biology instead of machinery. By Generation Three it was popular because it is immune to EMP, hard to spot with a scanner and less likely to cause cyberpsychosis. It is weaker than chrome, and the cheap illegal stuff comes with nanobots that can start eating your nervous system.

A lot of it is fashion. Fashionware exists purely to look good, because in Night City being unique is a currency and style is half the job.

How it goes in#

Installation uses nanotech to build an interface between the module and your nerves. Simple jobs are walk-in visits at chain stores like Bodyshoppe or Fashion/Fusion, which also tune and repair. Larger ones need an actual hospital and recovery time. Specialist clinics give better quality than mall stores.

Then there are ripperdocs: underground medtechs who install cheaply, skip the medical codes and trade quality for price. Expect extra pain and complications. They also handle illegal implants for the underworld. In 2077 the one most players meet is Viktor Vektor, who runs a clinic behind Misty's Esoterica in Little China and extends V credit more than once.

Opinion: the ripperdoc is the setting's most important character class that never gets a role. The difference between a good one and a bad one decides whether your Sandevistan is a superpower or a slow stroke.

The price: money and Humanity#

Money first. A cyberware install is treated like buying a laptop, TV or car: a major purchase, but within reach of most of the middle class. Working professionals often have two or three implants for ordinary reasons. Cyberoptics record meetings. Boosted cyberaudio catches gossip in the executive lounge.

Then Humanity. In the tabletop games every implant has a Humanity cost, and as it piles up your Empathy drops. At zero Empathy you hit cyberpsychosis. The full rules and the 2077 version are on the cyberpsychosis page.

Full body conversion is possible, and replaces nearly everything except the brain, but it is hard to avoid cyberpsychosis that way, so it is rare. Linear frames, the exoskeleton-like suits that let you bend steel bars, carry a Humanity cost easily ten times a standard cyberlimb. They also slow your reflexes and sink in water. Superhuman strength has fine print.

Four generations#

Generation Zero is the clunky stuff from the 1990s. Prosthetics got a boost during the First Central American War when thousands of wounded soldiers came home. The first arm had a crude gripper instead of fingers.

Generation One is metal and plastic, built in the 2010s for workers and soldiers, and still found on black markets. Generation Two, the so-called Age of Cyberware, is the most common stuff on the street: cheap, practical, with cybermuscles in place of pistons. RealSkinn appears and instantly becomes a status symbol.

Generation Three is corporate R&D: lighter carbon fiber and ceramic polymers, subdermal armor, bioware. Generation Four is for executives, with the best netrunning hardware and a style called neokitsch: gold weave, crystal limbs, wood-tile plating that costs more than a house. The poor get Gen One and Two. Executives get Gen Four.

Upkeep nobody budgets for#

Implants degrade. Small changes in body chemistry shift precision and response time, and even the nanites in bioware need recalibration. A faulty implant can stop working or endanger its owner, so a service checkup is recommended about every six months.

In the 2070s neuroviruses spread through infected personal links can also wreck implant function. If your arm gets hacked, the repair bill is the second-worst part.

That is the economics in one sentence: the install is the sale, and the maintenance is the subscription. See the Trauma Team for what happens when you cannot pay for the other kind of coverage.

Where to look next#

For specific implants, the cyberware list breaks them down by body slot. For one famous implant, read about the Sandevistan. For the rules on how far you can go, read cyberpsychosis.