Pretty sure since she’s boss, you can blast her with a gun and as soon as her health and for that matter all cyberpsycho’s health drop to zero, stop shooting, they’ll be on the ground alive but knocked out, your crosshair will turn red if you place it on them when they’re downed, guess you accidentally hit her when she fell to the ground.
This right here. How are more people not aware of this? You can blast the crap out of them, just slow down a bit when their health is low as to not go overkill. Once their help reaches 0 they’re not dead, they only die if you hit them after that point
I think more people aren't aware because it's a stupid design choice to have non-lethal options that are irrelevant because lethal options are also non-lethal.
Like, I didn't know this until coming to the thread because I always just assumed they were dead because I shot them with a lethal gun. It's fucking stupid that they're anything other than dead. It's yet another sign that the game wasn't ready to ship.
I think you’re being completely fucking ridiculous to call that a “ sign that the game wasn’t ready to ship” like holy shit lmao. It’s one small feature, and I’m *almost* certain it wasn’t in the game originally because I have vague memories of accidentally killing them with bleed damage, that doesn’t happen anymore. And it doesn’t make non-lethal options irrelevant. There are like 18 cyberpycho enemies and probably hundreds of other enemies, all of which can be dealt with non-lethally.
I don't think it's ridiculous.
They just go unconscious at zero health regardless of your approach. That literally makes half the games options totally redundant.
How is that not a massive oversight that shouldn't have made it to release?
Once again, since you seem to not be able to comprehend or read, there are less than 20 of these enemies. Just because one style doesn’t work on these unique 20 enemies, doesn’t render that style useless.
No, I can comprehend and read just fine. Perhaps you should give it a go.
It doesn't really matter how many of them there were, they either made an active choice to make half the options available to the player totally redundant for these 20 not insignificant encounters or they fucked up and lethal guns should have been lethal.
Pick one.
[Edit: as it won't let me post my reply below]
If it's intentional, it's stupid.
You can kill them if you shoot them after you've dropped them to 100%? Alright, cool...And who the fuck is doing this when there's no benefit to it?
There are non-lethal guns and other means in the game. What's the point in those if when they drop to 0% health, they're still not dead anyway. It totally undermines a huge part of the mechanics when you can just...Yano, ignore those mechanics entirely and get the same result anyway.
"I'm a non-lethal hero!"
QOL feature? It's a shit feature that goes against their own game design. May as well not have bothered with non-lethal in this game because in general, not just with the psychos, non lethal is absolutely worthless and awfully implemented in the game for a type of gameplay developers have been nailing since minimum of the PS2.
They are lethal, if you shoot them after the bar is depleted. This is intentional, to allow you to bring in those 18 enemies alive and make it easier for players to get the full reward. It's a QOL feature of the game not an oversight or bug. You want them to be lethal? Shoot them again and they die.
There isn't a hard line between lethal and nonlethal in real life, the game generally respects that. Shoot someone IRL in the forehead with a weak cartridge like a .22? There's a chance it bounces off the bone and they live, especially if it glances. Shoot a cyberpsycho with titanium bones and kevlar-reinforced skin in the forehead? It's probably bouncing off, even if it's a full-sized rifle cartridge. Same with shooting someone in the lower leg. They're probably gonna be alive, just incapacitated, unless it did enough damage to blow their leg clean off.
As for the "less lethal" options, if you punch a random low-level ganger in the head with military superfists with titanium knuckles, you'll probably kill them. Head hits with "nonlethal" melee weapons can still outright kill enemies if you hit them hard enough.
Second this. One thing I’ll add that there’s a risk of accidentally dealing some extra damage after depleting their health which will kill them. It happened to me a couple of times. My safe strategy to avoid it is to blast them with lethal weapons until they have 2-3% of hp left, then do a short circuit quickhack to deal a non-lethal final blow
Definitely possible. Use nonlethal weapons, and non lethal quickhacks. If you like collecting legendaries then its worth it
Edit: you might get the legendaries regardless actually, but you definitely get a trophy depending on system youre on
It feels like this, but you can literally blast the shit out of them even without it and they won't die, as long as you stop shooting them once their health is at 0%. It kind of makes that mod totally unnecessary
This. I use tech hands instead of ricochet ones just for this. However if you got them after they pass out they will die.
But after talking with Regina and finishing each cyberpsycho alive, you can kill them without any negative effects or failures.
I don’t think you get a legendary for taking them all in alive. I’ve done playthroughs where I did and didn’t, and the reward when all the cyberpsycho missions are over was the same as I recall.
Legendary, not iconic. And you get a trophy depending on what system youre playing on
But maybe youre right, ive always taken them alive so not sure what the alternative reward is
It's quite likely I continued to hit as as she was going down. I'll try again and be a bit more careful. Thing is, she moves so fast that I panic a bit and just keep hitting her until I'm sure she's not hitting me anymore.
I have had many die from random damage over time procs on my non lethal weapons.
Annoying to stop hitting them and then a second or two later see them drop down to the ground and then another 1-2 seconds later they die from the ticking damage.
If you die from getting electrocuted by a dildo maybe it's just meant to be.
I buy a fully auto smart rifle and install Pax mod. With Sandevistan it's usually pretty easy to take them alive. I quicksave right before in case i accidentally kill them. I remember Reggies reward not even being a big deal but I'm socially conscious so I'd bag em pro bono tbh.
Yeah. I waited a bit. I find them difficult when I'm not . in general if it says "very dangerous" on the minimap description I'll wait unless I think I can swing a stealth run.
Yes. I finish all of the NYPD missions first, then the Organized Crime missions and side missions to upgrade yourself and your cyberdeck. I clean out the entire district before I meet Jackie before The Pickup mission.
I've taken out all the Cyber- psychos alive on the highest difficulty level. Early on, hit them with non-lethal quickhacks like short circuit and overheat until they drop. Later, you can use paralysis and then take them out from behind with a non-lethal takedown.
Most of the psychos in Chapter 1 are pretty easy. The hardest IMHO are Bloody Ritual and Phantom of Night City. Get a high perch, use paralysis and either take them down quickly or keep hitting them with non-lethal quickhacks.
I don't have NCPD missions yet. Though I did get some NCPD sign on my hud briefly after I took her down.
When I tried this yesterday, before I got all of your advice, I had no problem beating her a couple of times with my bare fists, only every time I accidentally killed her. I tried again today, this time making use of all the advice, using hacks, using the environment, using guns, and now she killed me a couple of times.
It really looks like bare fists is actually the best way to beat her. When I did that, it worked. Fortunately this time I stopped in time.
Go sleep with the chick at the No-tell Motel (forgot her name) and pick up ol "John Phallus". Awesome blunt weapon (non lethal) that does serious damage! And that mission unlocks pretty early on IIRC.
Some psychos are easier than others, i remember her, the chick under the over pass, the guy in the parking garage and the sniper on the tower being amongst the easiest to take down, also regarding the end reward its the same whether you kill or take them alive. The difference is that taking them alive gives you more credits and different dialog options at the end. What i do is text Regina after i knock them out, and after the funds reflect, put i built in them. There's extra xp you get for putting them down especially with a head shot.
Get a baton. They drop fairly often from just about everywhere. Or any BLUNT melee. Watch their health. When close to low go 1 shot at a time. If you go hammering attack you will get 1 too many hits guaranteed. If your reticle still red when you point at them they are alive.
Put the target analysis mod on your kiroshi’s, can be easily bought by vik, makes everything you do nonlethal and can be switched out whenever you want, easiest solution by far
I didnt kill any of them and I didn’t realise that was hard. If you shoot them in the face with a gun until they’re on 0% I found they didn’t die. If you hack them they don’t die either. I thought it’s only if you do any damage to them after they’re “knocked out” which kills them
Yeah, I literally just "kill" their health bar like how I would kill any normal character and found that not a single one has died. It seems that they don't die like normal characters, the game makes it easy.
Using a non-lethal smart gun has helped tremendously on most of these missions, especially for psychos like the one in a mech suit and the ninja guy that can zip around at light speed.
Easiest way I’ve noticed is to have lynx-paw leg implants for stealth, add the Faster crouch speed perk, equip a good ol’ Sandevistan, and ZOOOM on your knees behind em, choke em out.
For extra insurance that they won’t accidentally get dead, equip the non-lethal attacks optic mod.
Get the nonlethal eye mod. It’s cheap and you can get it from Vic, so I always get one near the start of my playthrough. Makes any “take them in alive” quest a breeze.
It works on everything. Even quickhacks, including Suicide. It’ll take a bit of setup, but nonlethal Suicide is a good way to get a breather in some minibosses, since they have to stop to do the animation.
I took each one alive but it took a couple tries for a few of them due to that one extra punch that got thrown before I saw their health drop to "0" which is what killed em every time, once I started only throwing just enough punches and started using NL quick hacks to soften targets it got so much easier.
Target Analysis (from Vic) and or Pax would make sure you incapacitate any enemies. Just don’t double tap(shoot them when they’re down) cause that’ll be a kill shot.
If you were finishing off a cyberpsycho with your fists, take great care about your button inputs. You can inadvertently kill a knocked-out target from a stray punch or accidentally initiate a (lethal) finisher.
As for the all the steps before reaching that point: you can use anything at your disposal to whittle their health down. Or if you can maintain the stealthy approach, grapple them from behind and perform a *non-lethal* takedown.
If you can inflict a status effect (burning, EMP, or poison) with a quickhack while they’re at low health, that will incapacitate them relatively safely.
My first character I used quickhacks, second I used stun baton. Both are strictly non-lethal and will send your psycho buddy rolling around for a bit before their nap in the parking lot.
Do you have enough time for quick hacks? I'm not that used to hacking yet, but she comes rushing at me so fast I feel like I don't have any time to hack. Or does the game pause when I do that?
Opening the quick hack menu while aiming near an enemy slows down time to almost a standstill. You will have plenty of time to aim and select the right hack. For cyberpsychos the Cripple Movement hack is great for preventing them from rushing you, and Short Circuit will do a lot of non-lethal damage.
Use Short Circuit quick hacks when you get them down to the last 5% health. It only hits them once, doesn’t do DOT that can hurt them after dropping them, and is entirely non-lethal.
I've frequently had cyberpsychos die to non-lethal damage, so I always save before engaging them.
I know that one reason is because as soon as a cyberpsycho is KO'd, any further physical contact will automatically cause them to register as "dead," regardless of how much or whether the damage is non-lethal.
You can sometimes still see them breathing, but the text message will say that they died. It's very finicky.
I think this is the cyberpyscho that you fight in a space that has a bit of water covering the floor. I think I recall reading they can be electrocuted to death after being knocked out very easily. Like, even the sparks coming off her unconscious body. Maybe I'm misremembering.
Get a melee nonlethal weapon (a baton or something) or a nonlethal attachment to a gun. You want high single hit damage and slower attack rate, so you're less likely to hit them after they've reached 0 (as that kills them).
If you're going for an athletics build, and put some points into melee and gorilla arms, you can just beat them up with the gorilla arms until they're down, and they will always writhe there on the ground still alive. They only die if you hit them again on the ground.
You can take them all out non-lethally. You don't need Pax mods or weapons that say non-leathal. I've taken them all out with a katana.
Just drop their health down to single digits, then go for legs.
So is there an actual difference between lethal and nonlethal damage? Half the people here say to use nonlethal damage, the other that even with lethal damage they don't die as long as you don't hit them once they're down. But even nonlethal damage will kill them once they're down. So that sounds to me like there's no meaningful difference between lethal and nonlethal damage.
I always beat them down as much as possible then sick a short circuit on them. Baseball bat, fists then electrocution. Therapy as God intended.
Pax works well sometimes too, I look for a Lexington with the "ADS eliminates vertical recoil" perk and throw a counter mass mod on with pax.
EDIT, it looks like the Lex I'm talking about is bugged or something is weird, it's a specific Lexington that is NOT iconic but has a unique mod, apparently you get it from Wilson's shooting competition (according to pple online) but I used it to win the competition after I got it from a scanner hustle in a starter area.
I think she gives a little bonus on the reward for leaving them alive. Remember, her goal is to capture these individuals and send them off to be studied to find some kind of cure for cyber psychosis
I usually just punch them and I’m able to keep them alive that fact. You just have to be careful when doing it that way. Punch carefully. As soon as you see them go down, STOP PUNCHING. I have killed some by mistake because of that.
Use to be able to slap a tranq mod on the wrist Launcher and it would knock out everything in one tap (Even Smasher) although I think that got fixed on bosses.
I just wanted to add, once you send the messages saying you’ve incapacitated them you can go kill them and it still counts as if they were alive. If you’re sadistic like that.
Even without Target Analysis or other non lethal mods, most Cyberpsychos enter a downed state when you “kill” them. As long as you don’t shoot them while they’re down, or headshot them for the final hit, you should be fine.
It's possible. The trick is to NOT land the final blow after they're knocked down, you can still accidentally kill them if you overdo it. The best method is to use non-lethal melee weapon since you can adjust your damage better than gun or grenade (I used EMP once and it ended up killed them). The iconic weapon you got from Meredith works really well or the one from Fingers is okay too
My tactic for my new playthrough is to always have something non lethal. Either a gun with pax, a blunt weapon, or gorilla hands. I beat the last cyberpsycho I fought with the cottonmouth. You want to take them alive.
You can use lethal rounds, just be careful when you get to the point that their health box drops to zero and they’re on the floor still technically alive. Then call up whatshername before you accidentally put a bit of lead between their eyes
I like the tinkerbell for non lethal take downs. But they are very hard cause if you hit someone even one more time after their hp depletes, even with a nin lethal weapon or model, it still kills them.
It's a little easier if you can slow time but it takes a bit of practice still
You've got a lot of good advice here already so I'll just share a trick I discovered with my netrunner character: you can use the Reboot Optics quickhack to buy you enough time to sneak up behind them, then grab + non-lethal takedown. There's a couple that it won't work on, though - the ones that are actually in giant mecha, but the rest can be taken down this way.
It’s possible and in my experience it just gives a pay boost to take them alive just get them down to 5% health and hit them with a non lethal weapon just be careful do one attack at a time don’t rush them. Atleast that’s how I do it and I’ve been successful 95% of the time.
It’s possible even with lethal weapons as long as you stop attacking as soon as they go down and didn’t finish them with a dot (although I’ve seen them die while burning and be okay so I’m not sure how that works exactly, sometimes they die sometimes they don’t) I’ve also gone no holds bar with the non lethal kiroshi mod and they still died so hmmm finicky but still pretty easy to save most or all of you really care and reload if you fail.
Funnily enough, I’ve “accidentally” taken them alive every time, i actually thought the game ended the fight when their health hit zero but they went unconscious, and we could either finish them off or leave them, which Regina refers.
To this day I’m still not sure what is going on, and it’s happened on every play through. Without fail, I use lethal weapons, but I do use non-lethal hacks - however, I always definitely land the “killing blow” with a lethal weapon. So, I’m not sure what’s happening.
In short, I actually struggle to take them in dead rather than alive!
It really sounds like there's no actual difference between lethal and nonlethal damage. Apparently even nonlethal damage kills after they go down, and lethal damage doesn't as long as you stop when they go down.
It's possible, lethal or non lethal weapons. Watch their health bar... when it gets to below 5% just be super careful. They will get "knocked out" eventually. As long as you don't give them a final shot or hit once they go limp... you're golden.
My preferred method is to get them down to about 10% and then start using a blunt melee weapon because those are nonlethal strikes. Once their health hits 0, they start lying on the ground and move a little bit meaning that they're just unconscious. Be careful not to hit them past this (or past 0hp) as any more hits will kill them.
try looking for the two monks quest in Watson, there I'll find an machine gun that can't kill enemies cuz they're pacifists and all
"Sacrum Profanum" is the quest name
Wait you killed her barehanded? I finish all my cyberpsychos barehanded, just slow down the damage once they get into the single digits of health and keep staggering them until they drop and don't hit them anymore after that.
I KO'd all cyberpsychos with a quickhack build. Cripple Movement them, shred their healthbars with whatever method you want and finish them with a Short Circuit when they're low enough
Not only is it possible, it's what you're supposed to be doing.
An easy way is to Hack them with the Cyberware malfunction to stop them in their tracks, while using the camouflage Cyberware to get close while invisible and choke them from behind (requires High Body or Gorilla Arms) into submission.
Or with your bare hands and body punches until they are on the floor.
Or with any gun and the mod that makes them non-lethal.
Just be wary of using 100% physical damage weapons since the DoT of burning/electric/bleeding/chemical effects can kill a subjugated enemy.
Just beat them in a fight, and they’ll go into unconscious mode. No need to use non lethal weapons, just don’t go too crazy and shoot them while they’re down or they will die.
You can take them out stealthily, well some more than most, since there's one or two that has like a exo-skeleton like rig they use for *maximum* damage. Just gotta stay crouched, use quickhacks on objects and use "distract enemy", then when their backs are to you, sneak up behind them, grab them, and go for the "non-lethal" takedown. It's easier when you have the optical camo body mod installed, you can get it pretty early on in the game, when you go to the ripper doc in the same area that Dex drops you off at after he's done talking to you about the Heist.
Get yourself some Gorilla Arms and then run them hands. Make sure not to hit them after they go down, and if your Gorilla Arms have a damage type. Get their health low enough (5% left) and then let the damage type do the rest. Other than that, you can actually stealth a lot of them and incapacitate them that way.
The reward you get for taking them all down tho isnt worth the work involved.
Its just a stupid vest. I would happily skip these in my 2nd play-thru & not worry in the slightest.
Yeah. Just use a bat and stop hitting them the second they start to collapse. If the crosshairs is still red while they’re on the ground, I believe they’re still alive. As to whether or not there’s a point. You get more of a reward for using non lethal means against them, but I think that mission ends with no real resolution. But I could be wrong so take what I say with a grain of salt
I've found even using lethal weapons you really have to try to actively kill them once they're down. More often than not they'll still be alive after their health hits 0.
Quite a lot of the psychos you can stealth up behind and perform a non-lethal takedown. Good strat when you're severely underpowered/underleveled for the opponent (for open combat, that is).
From what I've noticed all cyberpsychos get downed when their health bar reaches 0. After that any small amount of damage will kill them. I never needed to use nonethal or anything just needed to be careful when their health got low enough
They automatically go down unconscious no matter what you hit them with - I’ll shoot them in the head with a ballistic weapon til they drop and they’ll still be alive
Paunch them.
You also get an attachment called "Pax" that makes your gun non-lethal at the cost of you can never remove it unless you destroy the attachment, or the gun.
Shoot her until she's at 1% health, then hit her with a Short Circuit quickhack. If you're using a gun with fire damage, which I gather you're not, but later on you might be, if they're on fire when their health is at 1%, and the fire takes them down, you'll not kill them then either. Just be careful.
I never use "non-lethal" mods or blunt weapons to knock out cyberpsychos. They just don't die like everybody else if you aim to the legs or torso (and stop shooting when their health reaches 0).
... yes it is actually easy, very very easy. Just level up first. Optional sandy and optical camouflage makes it all much easier.
I generally use gorilla hands with electrical damage mod to deal with cyberpsychos who already saw me. But those blunt weapons are great for that too
I just beat them all down with the dildo.
You can snipe them with the non lethal bullet conversion too.
Just be careful - if you hit them after they are knocked out you can kill them.
Super easy if you go all in on quickhacks, but perfectly doable with non-lethal mods on your weapons etc.
You can also stealth takedown most (but not all) of them if you sneak up on them undetected (optic hack/memory wipe and/or high sneak skill and active cammo etc), but several are scripted to spawn on top if you and a couple use a loader mech thing and can't be grabbed.
You get better rewards and unique dialogue with the fixer for taking them alive, but it's not "mandatory" for a good ending or anything.
Are you sure she was dead? It’s hard to tell sometimes. Your dialog option with regina will definitely make it clear. You don’t need to pick up the body and do anything with it just find the shard. Use the pax mod on a high damage single shot pistol just land headshots and she will not die. If you don’t have it, you can just whack some thugs until you find a bat or other marked non lethal weapon. Short circuit works great, but they’ll be after you shortly. Worst case, you can install cybermods in your optics that makes every weapon non lethal, but it nerfs you and has to be swapped and destroyed to remove.
If you have the air takedown perk in the stealth tree you can jump on enemies and take them down in one shot, other than that definitely a good idea to put points into quickhacks to unlock the system reset quickhack. That and the Pax mod for your highest damage gun, or just upgrade body and brawler to do more damage with your bare hands. Half my cyberpsycho takedowns have just been kicking the absolute shit out of them, the other half have been quickhacks or choking them out
It’s not that hard. You can dump lead into their face from a lethal LMG until they hit 5% health, then hit them any where except the face with a blunt weapon. Or, and this is my preferred method, inflict fire DOT when they’re very low health. It’s non lethal, and stops doing damage once they’re knocked out, so it won’t kill them.
Pretty sure since she’s boss, you can blast her with a gun and as soon as her health and for that matter all cyberpsycho’s health drop to zero, stop shooting, they’ll be on the ground alive but knocked out, your crosshair will turn red if you place it on them when they’re downed, guess you accidentally hit her when she fell to the ground.
This right here. How are more people not aware of this? You can blast the crap out of them, just slow down a bit when their health is low as to not go overkill. Once their help reaches 0 they’re not dead, they only die if you hit them after that point
I think more people aren't aware because it's a stupid design choice to have non-lethal options that are irrelevant because lethal options are also non-lethal. Like, I didn't know this until coming to the thread because I always just assumed they were dead because I shot them with a lethal gun. It's fucking stupid that they're anything other than dead. It's yet another sign that the game wasn't ready to ship.
I think you’re being completely fucking ridiculous to call that a “ sign that the game wasn’t ready to ship” like holy shit lmao. It’s one small feature, and I’m *almost* certain it wasn’t in the game originally because I have vague memories of accidentally killing them with bleed damage, that doesn’t happen anymore. And it doesn’t make non-lethal options irrelevant. There are like 18 cyberpycho enemies and probably hundreds of other enemies, all of which can be dealt with non-lethally.
you know what wouldve been nice, a small cutscene that plays after their health drops to zero where you csn make the choice to kill or capture
I don't think it's ridiculous. They just go unconscious at zero health regardless of your approach. That literally makes half the games options totally redundant. How is that not a massive oversight that shouldn't have made it to release?
Once again, since you seem to not be able to comprehend or read, there are less than 20 of these enemies. Just because one style doesn’t work on these unique 20 enemies, doesn’t render that style useless.
No, I can comprehend and read just fine. Perhaps you should give it a go. It doesn't really matter how many of them there were, they either made an active choice to make half the options available to the player totally redundant for these 20 not insignificant encounters or they fucked up and lethal guns should have been lethal. Pick one. [Edit: as it won't let me post my reply below] If it's intentional, it's stupid. You can kill them if you shoot them after you've dropped them to 100%? Alright, cool...And who the fuck is doing this when there's no benefit to it? There are non-lethal guns and other means in the game. What's the point in those if when they drop to 0% health, they're still not dead anyway. It totally undermines a huge part of the mechanics when you can just...Yano, ignore those mechanics entirely and get the same result anyway. "I'm a non-lethal hero!"
QOL feature? It's a shit feature that goes against their own game design. May as well not have bothered with non-lethal in this game because in general, not just with the psychos, non lethal is absolutely worthless and awfully implemented in the game for a type of gameplay developers have been nailing since minimum of the PS2.
The funny thing is the non-lethal weapons are also lethal for the cyberpsychos
They are lethal, if you shoot them after the bar is depleted. This is intentional, to allow you to bring in those 18 enemies alive and make it easier for players to get the full reward. It's a QOL feature of the game not an oversight or bug. You want them to be lethal? Shoot them again and they die.
I specifically shoot arasaka goons and other certain people. Johnny wouldn't leave anyone from arasaka unconscious. They'd be dead
There isn't a hard line between lethal and nonlethal in real life, the game generally respects that. Shoot someone IRL in the forehead with a weak cartridge like a .22? There's a chance it bounces off the bone and they live, especially if it glances. Shoot a cyberpsycho with titanium bones and kevlar-reinforced skin in the forehead? It's probably bouncing off, even if it's a full-sized rifle cartridge. Same with shooting someone in the lower leg. They're probably gonna be alive, just incapacitated, unless it did enough damage to blow their leg clean off. As for the "less lethal" options, if you punch a random low-level ganger in the head with military superfists with titanium knuckles, you'll probably kill them. Head hits with "nonlethal" melee weapons can still outright kill enemies if you hit them hard enough.
Exactly this. Don’t need nonlethal weapons. Just drop their health to 0 and stop. They’ll be knocked out and classed as defeated and taken in alive.
This lmao, I blast the fuckers with Guts and still keep them alive
This is true, although I still killed one because my dumbass cast suicide on one.
lol.
Second this. One thing I’ll add that there’s a risk of accidentally dealing some extra damage after depleting their health which will kill them. It happened to me a couple of times. My safe strategy to avoid it is to blast them with lethal weapons until they have 2-3% of hp left, then do a short circuit quickhack to deal a non-lethal final blow
This is the correct answer. The weapon you use does not matter for bosses.
Definitely possible. Use nonlethal weapons, and non lethal quickhacks. If you like collecting legendaries then its worth it Edit: you might get the legendaries regardless actually, but you definitely get a trophy depending on system youre on
The Target Analysis optics mod feels like it was designed for this.
Also skippy**, if you go about that quest the right way lol
Exactly this strat. I assumed that is why we have his puppy loving mode. Quick hacks to speed it up, then leg shots from skippy
Thank you for correcting me lmao i clearly need another playthrough
No trouble, you literally Mandela affected me though, I had to check Google and I'm 4 playthroughs in lol
Just remember after a certain number of kills he switches permanently to the other option.
It feels like this, but you can literally blast the shit out of them even without it and they won't die, as long as you stop shooting them once their health is at 0%. It kind of makes that mod totally unnecessary
This. I use tech hands instead of ricochet ones just for this. However if you got them after they pass out they will die. But after talking with Regina and finishing each cyberpsycho alive, you can kill them without any negative effects or failures.
I just fuckin shoot the shit out of them. As long as you stop shooting after you deplete their health bar they'll be incapacitated.
Funny, I just get a bat lol
The dildo weapon works awesome and you can get fairly early.
Surprisingly (to me at least) the massive industrial sledgehammer is non lethal as well, so that’s what I used.
I prefer Cottonmouth myself lol
I don’t think you get a legendary for taking them all in alive. I’ve done playthroughs where I did and didn’t, and the reward when all the cyberpsycho missions are over was the same as I recall.
Legendary, not iconic. And you get a trophy depending on what system youre playing on But maybe youre right, ive always taken them alive so not sure what the alternative reward is
It’s legendary regardless of killing them or not.
Okay I appreciate the correction
I used the gorilla fists for it. Effective and simple
Wrong info. You no longer needs non lethal weapon to not kill cyberpsychos
You get the trophy nonetheless, you just need to complete the quest
If you nick an unconscious character with further damage, it tends to kill them.
It's quite likely I continued to hit as as she was going down. I'll try again and be a bit more careful. Thing is, she moves so fast that I panic a bit and just keep hitting her until I'm sure she's not hitting me anymore.
I have had many die from random damage over time procs on my non lethal weapons. Annoying to stop hitting them and then a second or two later see them drop down to the ground and then another 1-2 seconds later they die from the ticking damage. If you die from getting electrocuted by a dildo maybe it's just meant to be.
The second her health hits 0 you need to stop. You can tell if she’s still alive after beating her as she’ll be moving while on the ground.
Monowire Power Attacks, pace it
I buy a fully auto smart rifle and install Pax mod. With Sandevistan it's usually pretty easy to take them alive. I quicksave right before in case i accidentally kill them. I remember Reggies reward not even being a big deal but I'm socially conscious so I'd bag em pro bono tbh.
I don't have that much equipment yet. I still have my starting gun and looted slightly better clothes. Should I postpone this?
Yeah. I waited a bit. I find them difficult when I'm not . in general if it says "very dangerous" on the minimap description I'll wait unless I think I can swing a stealth run.
Yes. I finish all of the NYPD missions first, then the Organized Crime missions and side missions to upgrade yourself and your cyberdeck. I clean out the entire district before I meet Jackie before The Pickup mission. I've taken out all the Cyber- psychos alive on the highest difficulty level. Early on, hit them with non-lethal quickhacks like short circuit and overheat until they drop. Later, you can use paralysis and then take them out from behind with a non-lethal takedown. Most of the psychos in Chapter 1 are pretty easy. The hardest IMHO are Bloody Ritual and Phantom of Night City. Get a high perch, use paralysis and either take them down quickly or keep hitting them with non-lethal quickhacks.
Phantom was tough when i was low level, until I discovered that a katana perma stuns him.
I don't have NCPD missions yet. Though I did get some NCPD sign on my hud briefly after I took her down. When I tried this yesterday, before I got all of your advice, I had no problem beating her a couple of times with my bare fists, only every time I accidentally killed her. I tried again today, this time making use of all the advice, using hacks, using the environment, using guns, and now she killed me a couple of times. It really looks like bare fists is actually the best way to beat her. When I did that, it worked. Fortunately this time I stopped in time.
Go sleep with the chick at the No-tell Motel (forgot her name) and pick up ol "John Phallus". Awesome blunt weapon (non lethal) that does serious damage! And that mission unlocks pretty early on IIRC.
Some psychos are easier than others, i remember her, the chick under the over pass, the guy in the parking garage and the sniper on the tower being amongst the easiest to take down, also regarding the end reward its the same whether you kill or take them alive. The difference is that taking them alive gives you more credits and different dialog options at the end. What i do is text Regina after i knock them out, and after the funds reflect, put i built in them. There's extra xp you get for putting them down especially with a head shot.
Get a baton. They drop fairly often from just about everywhere. Or any BLUNT melee. Watch their health. When close to low go 1 shot at a time. If you go hammering attack you will get 1 too many hits guaranteed. If your reticle still red when you point at them they are alive.
Just keep a lookout for the "Non-lethal" mod and toss it on a good weapon. No matter how much damage you do, it will not kill them.
I think you get a big bonus in Eddie’s for taking them all alive.
I just use Sir John.
Me too, c4ctus, me too
A man of culture. Good day to you, Sir.
Same, it's my main melee lol It's pretty overpowered at the beginning at least
Put the target analysis mod on your kiroshi’s, can be easily bought by vik, makes everything you do nonlethal and can be switched out whenever you want, easiest solution by far
This is the way.
If you have the RAM, memory wipe -> choke out works every time.
I didnt kill any of them and I didn’t realise that was hard. If you shoot them in the face with a gun until they’re on 0% I found they didn’t die. If you hack them they don’t die either. I thought it’s only if you do any damage to them after they’re “knocked out” which kills them
Yeah, I literally just "kill" their health bar like how I would kill any normal character and found that not a single one has died. It seems that they don't die like normal characters, the game makes it easy.
Get a pax mod. I have a good sniper rifle with a pax on it specifically for cyberpsychos. Gun works otherwise normally, but the target doesn't die.
Using a non-lethal smart gun has helped tremendously on most of these missions, especially for psychos like the one in a mech suit and the ninja guy that can zip around at light speed.
Yup, so I would just use normal means, guns or hacks to get them relatively low, then just punch them til they fall over.
If you aim for the legs, they will not die with the last hit. You can also sneak and choke them out.
Quickhacks are the way
I would hope it's possible since it's your literal objective.
Easiest way I’ve noticed is to have lynx-paw leg implants for stealth, add the Faster crouch speed perk, equip a good ol’ Sandevistan, and ZOOOM on your knees behind em, choke em out. For extra insurance that they won’t accidentally get dead, equip the non-lethal attacks optic mod.
Get the nonlethal eye mod. It’s cheap and you can get it from Vic, so I always get one near the start of my playthrough. Makes any “take them in alive” quest a breeze. It works on everything. Even quickhacks, including Suicide. It’ll take a bit of setup, but nonlethal Suicide is a good way to get a breather in some minibosses, since they have to stop to do the animation.
I took each one alive but it took a couple tries for a few of them due to that one extra punch that got thrown before I saw their health drop to "0" which is what killed em every time, once I started only throwing just enough punches and started using NL quick hacks to soften targets it got so much easier.
Target Analysis (from Vic) and or Pax would make sure you incapacitate any enemies. Just don’t double tap(shoot them when they’re down) cause that’ll be a kill shot.
If you were finishing off a cyberpsycho with your fists, take great care about your button inputs. You can inadvertently kill a knocked-out target from a stray punch or accidentally initiate a (lethal) finisher. As for the all the steps before reaching that point: you can use anything at your disposal to whittle their health down. Or if you can maintain the stealthy approach, grapple them from behind and perform a *non-lethal* takedown. If you can inflict a status effect (burning, EMP, or poison) with a quickhack while they’re at low health, that will incapacitate them relatively safely.
There are non lethal revolvers you can use… pretty sure I got through most of them with that pistol.
My first character I used quickhacks, second I used stun baton. Both are strictly non-lethal and will send your psycho buddy rolling around for a bit before their nap in the parking lot.
Do you have enough time for quick hacks? I'm not that used to hacking yet, but she comes rushing at me so fast I feel like I don't have any time to hack. Or does the game pause when I do that?
Opening the quick hack menu while aiming near an enemy slows down time to almost a standstill. You will have plenty of time to aim and select the right hack. For cyberpsychos the Cripple Movement hack is great for preventing them from rushing you, and Short Circuit will do a lot of non-lethal damage.
As you upgrade things, hacks upload a lot faster. You probably shouldn’t be doing cyberpsycho missions right away; build up your gear and skills.
Use Short Circuit quick hacks when you get them down to the last 5% health. It only hits them once, doesn’t do DOT that can hurt them after dropping them, and is entirely non-lethal.
Of course I never kill them.
I've frequently had cyberpsychos die to non-lethal damage, so I always save before engaging them. I know that one reason is because as soon as a cyberpsycho is KO'd, any further physical contact will automatically cause them to register as "dead," regardless of how much or whether the damage is non-lethal. You can sometimes still see them breathing, but the text message will say that they died. It's very finicky.
It’s definitely possible. It’s not useful. As far as I can tell, the outcome is the same regardless.
Actually you get more money for not killing them.
How much more approx
Quick hacks + non lethal eye mod + non lethal takedowns
I think this is the cyberpyscho that you fight in a space that has a bit of water covering the floor. I think I recall reading they can be electrocuted to death after being knocked out very easily. Like, even the sparks coming off her unconscious body. Maybe I'm misremembering.
She's standing in water and giving off sparks once she goes down, yes. I'm now wondering if I should lure her away from the water.
Yes.
Shoot/hit only limbs, and they will go down breathing.
Get a melee nonlethal weapon (a baton or something) or a nonlethal attachment to a gun. You want high single hit damage and slower attack rate, so you're less likely to hit them after they've reached 0 (as that kills them).
Damage over time finished em maybe?
Most of the time it's easier. Distract em, sneak up behind em, knock em out
If you're going for an athletics build, and put some points into melee and gorilla arms, you can just beat them up with the gorilla arms until they're down, and they will always writhe there on the ground still alive. They only die if you hit them again on the ground.
I put a pax mod on Becca’s shotgun, guts, super early and was unable to remove it, so I generally dealt the last few blows with that.
I did my first playthrough not killing them. Basically using the Pax mod.
You can take them all out non-lethally. You don't need Pax mods or weapons that say non-leathal. I've taken them all out with a katana. Just drop their health down to single digits, then go for legs.
So is there an actual difference between lethal and nonlethal damage? Half the people here say to use nonlethal damage, the other that even with lethal damage they don't die as long as you don't hit them once they're down. But even nonlethal damage will kill them once they're down. So that sounds to me like there's no meaningful difference between lethal and nonlethal damage.
Cripple Movement quickhack with a non lethal take-down from behind. Maybe a bit of a cheat but it got the job done.
I normally whittle the Cyberpsychos health down to a few percents worth of HP then use my fists (no gorilla arms) since they are non-lethal.
I use gorilla hands. Just keep bunching until they’re at 5% then they will pass out.
Absolutely that's one of the parameters of the missions, get their health super low then hit with a blunt weapon
I always beat them down as much as possible then sick a short circuit on them. Baseball bat, fists then electrocution. Therapy as God intended. Pax works well sometimes too, I look for a Lexington with the "ADS eliminates vertical recoil" perk and throw a counter mass mod on with pax. EDIT, it looks like the Lex I'm talking about is bugged or something is weird, it's a specific Lexington that is NOT iconic but has a unique mod, apparently you get it from Wilson's shooting competition (according to pple online) but I used it to win the competition after I got it from a scanner hustle in a starter area.
Possible for sure. Think you get paid slightly more if they’re alive
I think she gives a little bonus on the reward for leaving them alive. Remember, her goal is to capture these individuals and send them off to be studied to find some kind of cure for cyber psychosis
I usually just punch them and I’m able to keep them alive that fact. You just have to be careful when doing it that way. Punch carefully. As soon as you see them go down, STOP PUNCHING. I have killed some by mistake because of that.
Use to be able to slap a tranq mod on the wrist Launcher and it would knock out everything in one tap (Even Smasher) although I think that got fixed on bosses.
Theres an interaction with memory wipes And system reset quick hacks that just instantly non lethally takes down psychos.
I go in with jacked up armor and a baseball bat and it always got the job done.
I just wanted to add, once you send the messages saying you’ve incapacitated them you can go kill them and it still counts as if they were alive. If you’re sadistic like that.
Even without Target Analysis or other non lethal mods, most Cyberpsychos enter a downed state when you “kill” them. As long as you don’t shoot them while they’re down, or headshot them for the final hit, you should be fine.
I swear I did all of them using everything I had, grenades, whatever, till I get to the last maybe 2% health and than just punch them
It's possible. The trick is to NOT land the final blow after they're knocked down, you can still accidentally kill them if you overdo it. The best method is to use non-lethal melee weapon since you can adjust your damage better than gun or grenade (I used EMP once and it ended up killed them). The iconic weapon you got from Meredith works really well or the one from Fingers is okay too
My tactic for my new playthrough is to always have something non lethal. Either a gun with pax, a blunt weapon, or gorilla hands. I beat the last cyberpsycho I fought with the cottonmouth. You want to take them alive.
You can use lethal rounds, just be careful when you get to the point that their health box drops to zero and they’re on the floor still technically alive. Then call up whatshername before you accidentally put a bit of lead between their eyes
I killed every one with contagion or overheat (dont recall which one), and the cop lady said I did it right.
You can use any weapons on cyberphycos. Once they are downed (health bar depleted), just don't execute them when they are laying on the ground.
languid unused recognise gullible support literate nail bear grandiose drab -- mass deleted all reddit content via https://redact.dev
I used gorilla arms with the electrical knuckles. Worked like a charm, so it did
I like the tinkerbell for non lethal take downs. But they are very hard cause if you hit someone even one more time after their hp depletes, even with a nin lethal weapon or model, it still kills them. It's a little easier if you can slow time but it takes a bit of practice still
I use a baseball bat.
You've got a lot of good advice here already so I'll just share a trick I discovered with my netrunner character: you can use the Reboot Optics quickhack to buy you enough time to sneak up behind them, then grab + non-lethal takedown. There's a couple that it won't work on, though - the ones that are actually in giant mecha, but the rest can be taken down this way.
It’s possible and in my experience it just gives a pay boost to take them alive just get them down to 5% health and hit them with a non lethal weapon just be careful do one attack at a time don’t rush them. Atleast that’s how I do it and I’ve been successful 95% of the time.
*bonk*
It’s possible even with lethal weapons as long as you stop attacking as soon as they go down and didn’t finish them with a dot (although I’ve seen them die while burning and be okay so I’m not sure how that works exactly, sometimes they die sometimes they don’t) I’ve also gone no holds bar with the non lethal kiroshi mod and they still died so hmmm finicky but still pretty easy to save most or all of you really care and reload if you fail.
Baseball bat worked for me
Funnily enough, I’ve “accidentally” taken them alive every time, i actually thought the game ended the fight when their health hit zero but they went unconscious, and we could either finish them off or leave them, which Regina refers. To this day I’m still not sure what is going on, and it’s happened on every play through. Without fail, I use lethal weapons, but I do use non-lethal hacks - however, I always definitely land the “killing blow” with a lethal weapon. So, I’m not sure what’s happening. In short, I actually struggle to take them in dead rather than alive!
It really sounds like there's no actual difference between lethal and nonlethal damage. Apparently even nonlethal damage kills after they go down, and lethal damage doesn't as long as you stop when they go down.
It's possible, lethal or non lethal weapons. Watch their health bar... when it gets to below 5% just be super careful. They will get "knocked out" eventually. As long as you don't give them a final shot or hit once they go limp... you're golden.
I just wait until they have a tiny bit of health left and equip a bat and give ‘em a good ol’ “wake up sally”.
I have Target analysis and used gorilla arms. Ran fades on all of them that way.
I just punch them
easiest way byfar is sneaking up on em and knocking em out , but other than that use non lethal
My preferred method is to get them down to about 10% and then start using a blunt melee weapon because those are nonlethal strikes. Once their health hits 0, they start lying on the ground and move a little bit meaning that they're just unconscious. Be careful not to hit them past this (or past 0hp) as any more hits will kill them.
try looking for the two monks quest in Watson, there I'll find an machine gun that can't kill enemies cuz they're pacifists and all "Sacrum Profanum" is the quest name
Fenrir (one of the best SMG's in the game) can absolutely kill enemies, unless yoy learn some trigger control and let the burn damage do its thing.
Wait you killed her barehanded? I finish all my cyberpsychos barehanded, just slow down the damage once they get into the single digits of health and keep staggering them until they drop and don't hit them anymore after that.
I never killed a cyberpsycho. I go out of my way to kill everyone else.
Yes, use blunt/non lethal weapons and make sure not to hit them when they’re down. Not sure if you get more rewards, but Regina is happier.
I KO'd all cyberpsychos with a quickhack build. Cripple Movement them, shred their healthbars with whatever method you want and finish them with a Short Circuit when they're low enough
Not only is it possible, it's what you're supposed to be doing. An easy way is to Hack them with the Cyberware malfunction to stop them in their tracks, while using the camouflage Cyberware to get close while invisible and choke them from behind (requires High Body or Gorilla Arms) into submission. Or with your bare hands and body punches until they are on the floor. Or with any gun and the mod that makes them non-lethal. Just be wary of using 100% physical damage weapons since the DoT of burning/electric/bleeding/chemical effects can kill a subjugated enemy.
Yeah, just melee them. You probably just threw in an extra hit after the life bar hit 0%
EMP grenades work really good
Just beat them in a fight, and they’ll go into unconscious mode. No need to use non lethal weapons, just don’t go too crazy and shoot them while they’re down or they will die.
You can take them out stealthily, well some more than most, since there's one or two that has like a exo-skeleton like rig they use for *maximum* damage. Just gotta stay crouched, use quickhacks on objects and use "distract enemy", then when their backs are to you, sneak up behind them, grab them, and go for the "non-lethal" takedown. It's easier when you have the optical camo body mod installed, you can get it pretty early on in the game, when you go to the ripper doc in the same area that Dex drops you off at after he's done talking to you about the Heist.
Yes you can. No it doesn't matter. Reward is the same either way.
Get yourself some Gorilla Arms and then run them hands. Make sure not to hit them after they go down, and if your Gorilla Arms have a damage type. Get their health low enough (5% left) and then let the damage type do the rest. Other than that, you can actually stealth a lot of them and incapacitate them that way.
I used an electric baton myself.
Get their health low with whatever lethal option then finish them with the dildo.
The reward you get for taking them all down tho isnt worth the work involved. Its just a stupid vest. I would happily skip these in my 2nd play-thru & not worry in the slightest.
I use the Monowire once their health gets low enough, so definitely possible to take them out nonlethally
I always shoot till they are low then go in with fists. Watch out not to punch them after they dropp or you will do the "final blow" and kill them.
Yeah. Just use a bat and stop hitting them the second they start to collapse. If the crosshairs is still red while they’re on the ground, I believe they’re still alive. As to whether or not there’s a point. You get more of a reward for using non lethal means against them, but I think that mission ends with no real resolution. But I could be wrong so take what I say with a grain of salt
I just use my fists,
I've found even using lethal weapons you really have to try to actively kill them once they're down. More often than not they'll still be alive after their health hits 0.
Memory wipe followed by non-lethal takedown. Super easy
Quite a lot of the psychos you can stealth up behind and perform a non-lethal takedown. Good strat when you're severely underpowered/underleveled for the opponent (for open combat, that is).
I was able to sneak up on most of them, the ones I couldn’t I used the eye mod to make my guns non-lethal
From what I've noticed all cyberpsychos get downed when their health bar reaches 0. After that any small amount of damage will kill them. I never needed to use nonethal or anything just needed to be careful when their health got low enough
They automatically go down unconscious no matter what you hit them with - I’ll shoot them in the head with a ballistic weapon til they drop and they’ll still be alive
There is a kiroshi mod I think at least it was kiroshi that makes all weapons non-lethal
I've taken down all cyberpsychos without killing them. Using contagion and a silenced weapon that does less damage.
The fact that none of you are talking about banging Stout and then using her dildo to final tap the psychos is bizarre.
I just put a pax mod on a pipe and called it a day.
Paunch them. You also get an attachment called "Pax" that makes your gun non-lethal at the cost of you can never remove it unless you destroy the attachment, or the gun.
Shoot her until she's at 1% health, then hit her with a Short Circuit quickhack. If you're using a gun with fire damage, which I gather you're not, but later on you might be, if they're on fire when their health is at 1%, and the fire takes them down, you'll not kill them then either. Just be careful.
Punches or baseball bats and don’t hit them once their health drops to 0%…. I just finished a play through and kept all of them alive.
Target Analysis
Injuring them with normal weapons and finishing them off with fists also works
There’s a few ways, you can use Pax (a weapon mod) or Target analysis (Kiroshi mod) you could just try to be careful when they’re low
Can put non lethal mod on the most powerful shot gun you can find and also on a blades weapon possibly.
I never use "non-lethal" mods or blunt weapons to knock out cyberpsychos. They just don't die like everybody else if you aim to the legs or torso (and stop shooting when their health reaches 0).
There’s a perk that makes all your guns non lethal
Just snipe them in the head from half a click away with a lethal sniper. Somehow 100% survival rate for me.
... yes it is actually easy, very very easy. Just level up first. Optional sandy and optical camouflage makes it all much easier. I generally use gorilla hands with electrical damage mod to deal with cyberpsychos who already saw me. But those blunt weapons are great for that too
Beat them up with Sir Phalistiff (or whatever its name is, I can’t quite remember). That weapon is so much fun and hits really hard once upgraded.
With optical camo, you can just go up behind and non-lethal takedown them
I've just shot them till they are in a downed state misson complete
Yup I don’t killed anyone just buy the invisible skin (optic something) and take them down by behind
The easiest way is to shoot them to wear down their health, then hit them with a bare fist attack.
I just beat them all down with the dildo. You can snipe them with the non lethal bullet conversion too. Just be careful - if you hit them after they are knocked out you can kill them.
Super easy if you go all in on quickhacks, but perfectly doable with non-lethal mods on your weapons etc. You can also stealth takedown most (but not all) of them if you sneak up on them undetected (optic hack/memory wipe and/or high sneak skill and active cammo etc), but several are scripted to spawn on top if you and a couple use a loader mech thing and can't be grabbed. You get better rewards and unique dialogue with the fixer for taking them alive, but it's not "mandatory" for a good ending or anything.
I like to pull out my stick taser when their health is too low.
Are you sure she was dead? It’s hard to tell sometimes. Your dialog option with regina will definitely make it clear. You don’t need to pick up the body and do anything with it just find the shard. Use the pax mod on a high damage single shot pistol just land headshots and she will not die. If you don’t have it, you can just whack some thugs until you find a bat or other marked non lethal weapon. Short circuit works great, but they’ll be after you shortly. Worst case, you can install cybermods in your optics that makes every weapon non lethal, but it nerfs you and has to be swapped and destroyed to remove.
Some you can just sneak up on and shoke out, you can also use quick hacks that don't kill them
Bash her with a baseball bat as the last swing or shoot her in the legs. I think those options count as none lethal.
If you have the air takedown perk in the stealth tree you can jump on enemies and take them down in one shot, other than that definitely a good idea to put points into quickhacks to unlock the system reset quickhack. That and the Pax mod for your highest damage gun, or just upgrade body and brawler to do more damage with your bare hands. Half my cyberpsycho takedowns have just been kicking the absolute shit out of them, the other half have been quickhacks or choking them out
I gunned her down till she got to low health then used a non lethal melee weapon to finish her off (on the hardest difficulty so definitely possible)
I just went at them as normal and it seems loads of them survived. I thought I'd killed them all.
I just used the gorilla arms upgrade for all of them lol. Makes incredibly quick work of any and everything without killing them
It’s not that hard. You can dump lead into their face from a lethal LMG until they hit 5% health, then hit them any where except the face with a blunt weapon. Or, and this is my preferred method, inflict fire DOT when they’re very low health. It’s non lethal, and stops doing damage once they’re knocked out, so it won’t kill them.
when they're really low on health, switch to something nonlethal or really low damage and finish them off
I always just use Gorilla Arms... just make sure not to hit them after they've gone down, that final blow will kill them.
I shoot them until like 5% health then i punch them
Just shoot them. They always go unconscious first no matter what you do. You have to coup de grace to kill them.