Here’s a rather short guide on the Stealth 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 Stealth perk tree is exactly as advertised – mainly tied to Stealthy gameplay. No surprises here. This perk tree is either heavily invested into (if you’re going for this playstyle) or largely ignored. If you invest into Cool for Cold Blood, there might be some Stealth perks you want along the way.
Stealth is joined by Cold Blood in the Cool attribute tied Perk trees.
Stealth Perks List & Tierlist
Since we have a perk tree which deals, inherently, in niches. Many of these ratings will be swayed depending if you’re “invested into” that certain build type. More details in the chunk below.
| Tier | Perk | Attribute | Req | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Crouching Tiger | Cool | 1 | Movespeed + while sneaking. |
| A | Silent and Deadly | Cool | 1 | Silenced weapon damage + while sneaking. |
| C | Hidden Dragon | Cool | 5 | Allows aerial takedowns. |
| F | Dagger Dealer | Cool | 5 | Allows you to throw knives. |
| A | Strike from the Shadows | Cool | 7 | Crit Chance + while sneaking. |
| A | Assassin | Cool | 7 | Bonus damage to humans. |
| D | Leg Up | Cool | 7 | Movespeed + after a takedown. |
| B | Sniper | Cool | 9 | Non-combat headshots damage +. |
| F | Cuttthroat | Cool | 9 | Thrown knives damage +. |
| B | Stunning Blows | Cool | 11 | Quick melee attacks with ranged weapons allow you to grapple. |
| F | Clean Work | Cool | 11 | You can immediately pick up a body after a takedown. |
| D | Aggressive Antitoxins | Cool | 11 | Grants you immunity to poison. |
| A | Ghost | Cool | 12 | Detection time is increased. |
| B | From the Shadows | Cool | 12 | Upon entering combat, crit chance increases for a short time. |
| C | Venomous Fangs | Cool | 14 | All knives apply poison. |
| D | Rattlesnake | Cool | 14 | Poisoned enemies are slowed. |
| F | Commando | Cool | 14 | You cannot be detected under water. |
| D | Silent Finisher | Cool | 16 | Execute enemies at low health when struck by a knife. |
| F | Restorative Shadows | Cool | 16 | Increases health regen in stealth. |
| C | Hasty Retreat | Cool | 16 | Boost movespeed for a short duration when detected. |
| A | Neurotoxin | Cool | 18 | Damage from poison is doubled. |
| A | Cheat Death | Cool | 18 | At half health, take half damage for a certain time. Has a cooldown. |
| C | Hasten the Inevitable | Cool | 18 | Deal bonus damage to poisoned enemies. |
| F | Ninjutsu | Cool | 20 | Crouched melee sttacks from stealth are surely crits, and do bonus damage. |
Stealth Perk list rundown / viability / analysis
Here’s a short blurb about each perk, if you’re wondering why they’re good or bad.
[A] Assassin (Cool 7): Bonus damage to humans. A vast majority of your foes will be organic (and humanoid), so this perk represents a huge new vector of damage amplification for little cost. Obviously powerful for any choom.
[A] Crouching Tiger (Cool 1): Movespeed + while sneaking. Great for any character even if you’re not planning for pure stealth. I would take this perk on almost every character. Low key godlike.
[A] Ghost (Cool 12): Detection time is increased. Great for any character. Seriously. This overlooked perk helps you sneak around even if you aren’t going for a stealth build (Even if at Cool 12 you’re likely stealthing it up).
[A] Cheat Death (Cool 18): At half health, take half damage for a certain time. Has a cooldown. For a single perk, this boosts your survivability by a titanic amount. It’s a get out of jail free card, every minute.
[A] Silent and Deadly (Cool 1): Silenced weapon damage + while sneaking. Core to the assassin build. The low requirement in cool makes this super attractive for even non stealth builds.
[A] Strike from the Shadows (Cool 7): Crit Chance + while sneaking. Core to the assassin build. Crit chance is a little hard to come by, and this gives a lot of it. It gets an A despite its niche nature due to how powerful and synergistic crits can be (aside from it being core to a certain build type).
[A] Neurotoxin (Cool 18): Damage from poison is doubled. Okay this is only an A due to its importance to any build that focuses on poison. It’s obviously powerful there, but almost worthless elsewhere. I guess this is purely an A due to it being monolithic in ONE build-type regardless of how popular (or unpopular) it may be.
[B] Sniper (Cool 9): Non-combat headshots damage +. Core to the assassin build. Otherwise, it isn’t too hot. Its powerful but niche effect still kind of merits a B.
[B] Stunning Blows (Cool 11): Quick melee attacks with ranged weapons allow you to grapple.
[B] From the Shadows (Cool 12): Upon entering combat, crit chance increases for a short time. Well, its great for augmenting your “non-stealth” combat options. The short duration where you have boosted crit chance is going to represent a massive chunk of damage (for boss types), or outright kills when you’ve been freshly detected. Hovers between B/C.
[C] Venomous Fangs (Cool 14): All knives apply poison. The effect is powerful, but Knives are just a “worse katana”. If you’re PURELY SPECCING INTO COOL, then Knives are your only melee option then this becomes good.
[C] Hasty Retreat (Cool 16): Boost movespeed for a short duration when detected. I find this one weird. If I’m detected I’m usually very near them already, anyway. I guess this isn’t bad for those who want to melee their way after being detected.
[C] Hasten the Inevitable (Cool 18): Deal bonus damage to poisoned enemies. This is obviously a trait which requires quite a bit of build preparation and a lot of other perks, plus specific weapons. Even if you fulfill all of those, it’s unexciting and not exactly mega powerful.
[C] Hidden Dragon (Cool 5): Allows aerial takedowns. I can count the times I wish I had this, and even during those times the problem could have been solved in other ways. A simple reset optics or headshot does what this does. I’m being kind by rating this a C, it’s probably closer to D territory.
[D] Rattlesnake (Cool 14): Poisoned enemies are slowed. Being slow can be relevant against powerful enemies and bosses, so this might be a little harsh with the D rating. However, for the most part, slowing an enemy whose life expectance is less than a few seconds seems really bad.
[D] Aggressive Antitoxins (Cool 11): Grants you immunity to poison. Not terrible but not exciting. Could potencially be a C, but there are better perks out there (Immunity from Cold Blood), or even cyberware that does this. It’s not terrible, but very very low priority.
[D] Leg Up (Cool 7): Movespeed + after a takedown. Well. Increasing movement after a stealth takedown… it doesn’t jive well with what you’re doing. You’re trying to be methodical, then you get a movespeed boost? It’s weird, jarring and unnecessary. It’s not worthless, though, so it avoids the F rating.
[D] Silent Finisher (Cool 16): Execute enemies at low health when struck by a knife. It doesn’t work on “extremely high threat” enemies… So you’re trying to execute low health chumps with another attack? Won’t that attack just kill them? This narrowly escapes F rating.
[D] Ninjutsu (Cool 20): Crouched melee sttacks from stealth are surely crits, and do bonus damage. This one SOUNDS SO COOL, but is so bad. Crouched melee attacks = difficult headshots. And why not just headshot crouch with a pistol? It’s so weird. Also you ALREADY COME WITH a ONE-SHOT STEALTH KILL (Stealth takedowns)… So this is just for “fun” – and even then it kinda fails at that.
[F] Dagger Dealer (Cool 5): Allows you to throw knives. IN ITS CURRENT FORM (Please let me know if they change this) – IT’S ABSOLUTE GARBAGE. The damage is “okay”, but pales in comparison to stealth headshot builds. But currently, YOU CANNOT RETRIEVE YOUR KNIVES. Even if you do somehow gather enough junk knives to throw – YOU HAVE TO REEQUIP A NEW KNIFE EACH TIME. In its current form this perk is even less than an F.
[F] Cuttthroat (Cool 9): Thrown knives damage +. Well, since the pre-requisite perk to make this function is garbage, this one is garbage by inheritance.
[F] Clean Work (Cool 11): You can immediately pick up a body after a takedown. Weird perk. The half second you gain is not even worth a perk. Also, loot on the body is lost since they never “fall off” (This will probably be patched. Even if is it would still be bad).
[F] Commando (Cool 14): You cannot be detected under water. Oh boy. Water scenarios are few and far between. Honestly I tried to write many sentences on why this is bad, but honestly I think it doesn’t need much explanation.
[F] Restorative Shadows (Cool 16): Increases health regen in stealth. Conflicting ideals. In stealth, you might as well use a consumable. So… What’s the point? A tiny bonus to a tiny amount of health regen while in stealth? Very close to being actually worthless.
Summary and Closing
Stealth caters to the stealthy mainly. No surprises there. HOWEVER – even if you aren’t a purely stealth build – a few of the core perks here can help many characters boost subterfuge capability before a fight breaks out. A few of these perks are powerful enough to find themselves in any character.
Well that’s about it for a list of Stealth 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!
