10 Character Builds That BROKE RPGs

Building and customising characters is one of the most fundamental parts of the role-playing and open-world genres.

From its tabletop roots with games like Dungeons and Dragons, all the way to the release of modern titles like Cyberpunk and Elden Ring, people often spend more time on designing the looks, skills, and personalities of their characters than they do on their adventures in-game.

And of course, the best games with the freedom to customise a character build are the ones that make players feel like their choices are impacting their gameplay, whether it be the missions and interactions they acquire or the advantages or disadvantages they gain against enemies.

However, one thing that's always guaranteed with gamers is that, where there's a possibility of finding exploits, someone will have discovered it.

Sometimes intentionally put in to reward savvy players, and other times the result of poor balancing from the developers, these overpowered builds either dominate the meta in both PvE and PvP, completely eclipse the scaling difficulty of a game, or encourage a style of playing that wasn't wholly intended when the game was released.

Pistol, gunslinging-based builds in Cyberpunk 2077 are all ridiculously overpowered, especially when playing on PC.

These smaller handguns might be the universal symbol for low-level starting weaponry in most games, however Cyberpunk has a number of features that make them pack a serious punch for players with the right investments. One of the best builds going revolves around Lizzie, a tech pistol that increases the number of rounds fired when fully charged, and which fires an extra round per shot.

Mode and Scope slots can be used to upgrade Lizzie, with the weapon boasting 10 rounds per magazine, and capable of firing a burst of five rounds, rather than three on the base Omaha.

An absolute must with any pistol build is the Crunch Mod, which increases the damage done by each bullet, and it is extremely handy on a weapon like Lizzie. Because Lizzie fires more rounds when charged, the mod becomes extremely lethal and incredibly scaleable the more stacked it is; for instance, three crunches applied at +8 damage each will work out to +32 damage/shot.

Cyberpunk 2077 is already a game that prioritises power over subtlety, and it's clear to see why gunslinging with a weapon like Lizzie is so often used to shred through enemies.