Here’s a rather short guide on the Handguns Perks Tree. Here you’ll find a list, tierlist, attribute requirement, shortened description about each perk, and a short blurb about why each perk is “good, bad, or something in between”. Here goes!
Overall, the Handguns perks tree, well, buffs up your handguns (Pistols and Revolvers). Many of these perks are based on mainly either upfront combat or stealth, with a heavy lean on critical hits.
Handguns is joined by Assault and Blades in the Reflexes attribute tied Perk trees.
Handguns Perks List & Tierlist
The ratrings are a little skewed assuming you want the stealth ones for a stealth build. The generalist ones are always good, and the combat focused ones assume that you wanna throw it down with pistols.
| Tier | Perk | Attribute | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| C | Gunslinger | Reflexes | 1 | Reduces reload time for Pistols and Revolvers. |
| A | High Noon | Reflexes | 1 | Crit Chance + with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| A | Rio Bravo | Reflexes | 5 | Increase headshot multipliers with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| B | Desperado | Reflexes | 5 | Increase damage with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| B | Long Shot Drop Pop | Reflexes | 7 | Increase damage to targets 5m+ away with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| C | On The Fly | Reflexes | 7 | Reduce draw / holster time with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| B | O.K. Corral | Reflexes | 9 | Do more damage against targets with 25% or less health. |
| C | Steady Hand | Reflexes | 9 | Reduce Pistols and Revolver recoil. |
| A | Vanishing Point | Reflexes | 9 | Evasion+ after dodging while having a Pistol or Revolver equipped. |
| C | From Head to Toe | Reflexes | 11 | Increase damage to limbs with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| B | A Fistful of Eurodollars | Reflexes | 11 | Increase crit damage with Pistols and Revolvers. |
| D | Acrobat | Reflexes | 12 | You can now perform dodges while aiming a Pistol or Revolver. |
| D | Grand Finale | Reflexes | 12 | The last round in a pistol or revolver clip deals double damage. |
| A | Wild West | Reflexes | 14 | Removes the damage penalty of Pistols and Revolvers from distance shooting. |
| B | Attritional Fire | Reflexes | 14 | Firing consecuting shots with a Pistol or Revolver increases damage. |
| A | Westworld | Reflexes | 16 | If your Pistol or Revolver is fully modded, increase crit chance. |
| B | Snowball Effect | Reflexes | 16 | Killing an enemy increases your fire rate with Pistols and Revolvers. Stacks five times. |
| F | Lead Sponge | Reflexes | 18 | Enables you to shoot Pistols and Revolvers while dodging. |
| A | Brainpower | Reflexes | 20 | After a headshot with Pistol and Revolvers, gain a large crit chance bonus. |
| A | The Good, the Bad, the Ugly | Reflexes | 20* | After a crit with a Pistols or Revolver, gain a large bonus to damage and armor. |
Handguns Perk list rundown / viability / analysis
Here’s a short blurb about each perk, if you’re wondering why they’re good or bad.
[A] The Good, the Bad, the Ugly (Reflexes 20*): After a crit with a Pistols or Revolver, gain a large bonus to damage and armor. While some L20* Perks can fall a little flat… This is preem. Damage and armor welcome in any and all amounts, and this gives HEAPS.
Handguns and criticals go hand in hand, as you will see…
Many crit perks may be “ok” for other weapons, but they’re godly on Handguns.
[A] Westworld (Reflexes 16): If your Pistol or Revolver is fully modded, increase crit chance. While unexciting, a large crit chance bonus for “nothing” is great.
[A] Brainpower (Reflexes 20): After a headshot with Pistol and Revolvers, gain a large crit chance bonus. Well, no matter if you’re going stealth or not, this is massive. You’ll be headshotting often anyway.
[A] High Noon (Reflexes 1): Crit Chance + with Pistols and Revolvers. Well, it’s a basic as basic goes perk, but here we are. As long as it’s crit with handguns – “you take those”.
[A] Rio Bravo (Reflexes 5): Increase headshot multipliers with Pistols and Revolvers. While obviously powerful for assassin builds, this is just great “all the time”. It increases the BASE multiplier so it really amps up the damage when all other modifiers are stacked up.
[A] Wild West (Reflexes 14): Removes the damage penalty of Pistols and Revolvers from distance shooting. Well, this is huge for the stealth pistol build, but still great for upfront combat. Godlike with Skippy. It eliminates one of the weaknesses of Pistols, completely.
[A] Vanishing Point (Reflexes 9): Evasion+ after dodging while having a Pistol or Revolver equipped. While dodging is a little janky, this perk is actually super powerful and somewhat makes dodging feel “dodgy”. It’s a huge increase in toughness.
[B] Desperado (Reflexes 5): Increase damage with Pistols and Revolvers. Basic but you won’t be sad to take this. More damage = happiness.
[B] Long Shot Drop Pop (Reflexes 7): Increase damage to targets 5m+ away with Pistols and Revolvers. Honestly this is stronger or weaker depending on a few things. You want this no matter how you use your handgun, but don’t expect to maximize this all the time (and neither should you tryhard just to trigger this). Skippy comes to mind.
[B] O.K. Corral (Reflexes 9): Do more damage against targets with 25% or less health. Eh, it’s strong enough for a single perk point. Again, can’t complain with more DPS.
[B] Attritional Fire (Reflexes 14): Firing consecutive shots with a Pistol or Revolver increases damage. While almost useless for assassin builds, I still take this if I plan to use handguns when I need to switch to “Plan B”. Again, for one Perk point this more than pulls its weight.
[B] A Fistful of Eurodollars (Reflexes 11): Increase crit damage with Pistols and Revolvers. Well, given how tied to criticals handguns are, this is obviously decent.
[B] Snowball Effect (Reflexes 16): Killing an enemy increases your fire rate with Pistols and Revolvers. Stacks five times. Can be good or bad depending on the pistol type. Basically it’s an A or C depending on your style – so I’m guessing B is where this should be. Again… Skippy…
[C] Gunslinger (Reflexes 1): Reduces reload time for Pistols and Revolvers. Even if this really helps on some handgun types – I find it hard to invest in this and be “Super happy”. Again, this goes up real high if you love certain pistols… But typically people reload in cover…? Idk man.
[C] On The Fly (Reflexes 7): Reduce draw / holster time with Pistols and Revolvers. If you like switching between weapons during combat this can be pretty cool. Double pistols “in-combat” can be cute. This perk would be great there, but it’s kinda niche and mostly a playstyle “feelsgood perk” to activate your brand of power fantasy.
[C] Steady Hand (Reflexes 9): Reduce Pistols and Revolver recoil. A weird one. Most handguns don’t have a problem with recoil. It could be worth a perk depending on the gun you like, but generally it’s not a high priority.
[C] From Head to Toe (Reflexes 11): Increase damage to limbs with Pistols and Revolvers. It’s a small bonus, and you don’t really want to hit bodies anyway. Not terrible… A certain gun comes to mind that literally only shoots heads (Yeah, it’s Skippy).
[D] Acrobat (Reflexes 12): You can now perform dodges while aiming a Pistol or Revolver. Since I feel dodging is kinda janky overall… I mean… Dodging while aiming and shooting just feels bad from a mechanical standpoint. Probably deserves an F.
[D] Grand Finale (Reflexes 12): The last round in a pistol or revolver clip deals double damage. Great for the memes, but practically useless (what if you miss the last bullet?). It’s cool, but unneeded.
[F] Lead Sponge (Reflexes 18): Enables you to shoot Pistols and Revolvers while dodging. Again, dodging feels janky… Now imagine shooting while dodging. Why not wait 0.125 seconds then shoot more accurately? Man this is rough.
Summary and Closing
The Handguns perk tree is well put together IMO. Many perks benefit both stealth and in-combat handgun styles which is great. Aside from some of the janky dodge related perks, this perk tree is great for any handgun user – and the crit synergy is great!
Well that’s about it for a list of Handguns perks – hopefully you enjoyed our tierlist of these perks to help you decide what to get for your build! Check out our tierlists on the other perk trees in Cyberpunk 2077!
