Regardless of whether or not you've decided to master the intelligence ability in Cyberpunk 2077, you'll be using some kind of quickhack in order to progress in the game. Even at maximum level, you'll only have access to so many slots for quickhacks, so you better make them count; find the good ones and ditch the bad.
Your playstyle will largely determine which ones mean the most to you, but there does appear to be a consensus on hacks that are good for most everyone and others that don't appear to be very efficient regardless of character build. Inform yourself ahead of time so you know when a quickhack should be installed and when it should be sold to Viktor for eddies.
Need: Short Circuit
- Deals a moderate amount of damage to an enemy.
- Deals major damage to robotic enemy units.
- Rare: Applies an EMP effect to the target.
- Epic: Deals bonus damage to enemies at a medium threat level or lower.
- Legendary: Critical Hit Bonus on equipped weapons count when applying damage from Short Circuit.
This is the bread-and-butter damage ability for everyone even lightly affiliated with quickhacks. The damage is solid, the RAM cost is cheap, and the way it kills a robotic unit in a single hit are all highlights. At the top level, this kills everyone but bosses outright.
Not Worth It: Whistle
- Target will be alerted and advance on your position.
- Rare: Target will advance on your position, but will no longer be alerted.
- Epic: Functions on enemies in combat.
This is not only inferior to the other options but downright bad even if there were no other selections. If you really want enemies to attack you, you might as well attack them first and get some damage in. Whistling at enemies that want you dead makes sense in a stealth action game, but it doesn't work here.
Need: Overheat
- Places a burn effect on a target.
- Robotic units take decreased damage from this ability.
- Rare: Temporarily stuns the target.
- Epic: Increases the duration of the burn effect.
- Legendary: The target can no longer use cyberware abilities while burning.
This goes hand-in-hand with Short Circuit, letting you choose one or the other depending on whether the target is a robot or an organic unit. Upgraded versions stun the enemies in the flames, easily killing most organic units with only one blaze of flames.
Not Worth It: Suicide
- Forces a target to commit suicide.
- Legendary: Any effect that causes an enemy to panic will reduce the RAM cost of your next Ultimate Quickhack.
The legendary effect on this ability doesn't really make much sense with the move itself, but that's not the core issue. Suicide is an instant kill and deserves the utmost respect and fear, but there is another option that is better in every way.
Need: Cyberpsychosis
- Causes the target to attack anyone around them, friend or foe.
- If no other target is around, the target will commit suicide.
- Legendary: Enemies being quickhacked will make no effort to avoid friendly fire.
Cyberpsychosis is the superior form of Suicide, making it so that your enemies do the hard work of attacking each other, saving you from damage and bullets. Remain undetected to systematically empty a room by having them kill both each other and themselves.
Not Worth It: Detonate Grenade
- A grenade carried by the target will detonate.
- Legendary: Killing an enemy with an explosion reduces the RAM cost of your next Ultimate Quickhack.
There are two glaring issues with this quickhack. The first is that you can't guarantee that every enemy will have a grenade. The next is that you can't know exactly what kind of grenade they have, so you have to hope for a good one. If you're spending the RAM, you're better off investing in a move you know will do damage instead of crossing your fingers.
Need: Ping
- Any enemy or device connected to the target on a local network is highlighted.
- Legendary: Any pinged unit can be scanned and quickhacked through walls and obstacles.
Being able to locate all enemies on a network is an overpowering advantage. It's great for any kind of playstyle, letting stealthy V get by without a scratch or helping guns-blazing V's pick up targets quicker.
Not Worth It: Reboot Optics
- Blinds an enemy.
- Rare: Blindness will spread to the next closest enemy.
- Epic: Increases the duration of the blindness.
- Legendary: Grants access to the Optics Jammer daemon.
Blindness isn't a bad effect, but when you have access to other choices that do more damage and cripple enemies even worse than just being blind, why would you insist on this downgraded quickhack?
Need: Cyberware Malfunction
- Disables the target's cyberware.
- Rare: Cyberware disability will spread to the next closest enemy.
- Epic: Upon expiration, one random implant will explode on the target.
Aside from boss fights, the most deadly unit in the game is the netrunner and having this quickhack transforms them from total beasts into harmless pedestrians. The legendary version causes an implant to explode, dealing damage and crippling the enemy for good.
Not Worth It: Request Backup
- If the target is not in combat mode, they will become alerted and join their allies.
- Epic: Also works against enemies in combat mode.
This is right there alongside Whistle in terms of dangerous to use. This is a single-player game, so alerting enemies who are already in combat to your position is as senseless as it gets. They are already shooting at you, why remind them of exactly where they need to be shooting?