Are there enemies immune to quickhacks in Cyberpunk 2077?

Question

I'm pretty deep into the game, relying on quickhacks for damage so far, and I've yet to encounter enemies immune to quickhacks entirely. This seems to indicate that I don't need any other weapon.

However, I notice many of the quickhack build guides (e.g. this) take Reflexes for a second option. Based on my experience with the game so far, I don't understand why they would do this.

Are there enemies immune to quickhacks? If not, why even bother with other weapons? Why not take the defensive traits instead?

Answer 1

Yes, update 1.2 made Cyberpsychos and minibosses immune to the System Reset Quickhack:

Cyberpsychos and minibosses are now immune to Tranquilizer rounds and System Reset Quickhack.

That's because System Reset trivialized those fights that were meant to be challenging, as it could instantly defeat any enemy non-lethally.

While it's possible that later updates added more immunities, in my experience (before update 1.2), there were no enemies that were immune to any Quickhacks.

As for why Reflexes is recommended for a Quickhack build, my guess is:

• Critical Error allows your Quickhacks to benefit from Critical Chance and Critical Damage. Critical Chance is affected by Reflexes, and even without Critical Damage, your Quickhack will deal 50% additional damage per Critical Hit, making Reflexes (for Critical Chance) more valuable than Cool (for Critical Damage).

• Generally speaking, Quickhacks synergize better with guns (Reflexes) than stealth (Cool). Using Quickhacks may interfere with stealth by alerting nearby enemies (some Quickhacks don't), but it won't interfere with guns.

• Technical Ability is mostly useful for its ability to craft legendary items, some of which are incredibly powerful, but do not directly affect a Quickhack build.

• Body doesn't really synergize with Quickhacks, but it doesn't interfere with it either. Having more health and stamina is never wrong, but Body favors melee, while Quickhacks are closer to ranged attacks. Guns would allow you to fight back while waiting for your RAM to recover, without forcing you to move from your current position.

This means that Reflexes is simply the best attribute to invest in, once you've maxed out Intelligence.

Answer 2

(Answer updated for Phantom Liberty)

There are enemies immune to quickhacks, but they are generally plot-critical (or the quickhack would not make sense against them). For example, in the final race of The Beast In Me, you cannot quickhack Sampson's car for reasons that will quickly become clear if you've never done that quest before. Another example is you can't use the Bait quickhack on an enemy who's standing on the opposite side of a waterway. Aside from these, the most important enemy that is "immune" to quickhacks are minibosses, against which the instant-death quickhacks System Reset & Suicide might not work, (although you are annoyingly still able to use these quickhacks, they just have no effect).

That said, the game did change substantially in that it's no longer possible to kill most enemies with a 1-RAM cost quickhack. A simple Short Circuit will now generally cost 8-10 RAM. In compensation you have more RAM total & RAM regeneration is faster, so you can still queue 3+ Short Circuits on one target to ensure they die, but there's not enough RAM if you're fighting several enemies at the same time. This means that an alternative weapon is more important than before.

As with pre-Phantom Liberty, which alternative weapon you use is up to you. The Intelligence tree remains necessary for a quickhack build, and it incidentally buffs Smart weapons, so that's the natural choice, but there are plenty of alternatives. Besides, you have enough attribute points to max three (and nearly a fourth) if you wish. You're not constrained to smart weapons; you can use whatever blows your hair.

That leaves the question of whether one of your three maxed attributes should be Reflexes. Suffice to say it doesn't really matter. Reflexes does add to your quickhack damage (since there's a cyberware upgrade that lets your quickhacks critical hit), and I've found the ability to dash to be a major convenience, but ultimately it's up to your playstyle. If you like quickhacks, definitely max Intelligence, and the rest is up to you.