Cyberpunk 2077 - Modder brings Dishonored-style takedowns to Night City

While Cyberpunk 2077 endured a difficult lifespan following its 2020 release, things are finally looking up for the Keanu Reeves friendship simulator, with the Edgerunners anime and the announcement of a sequel convincing many to give it another chance.

A barrage of mods has been helping to make the Night City experience more interesting than ever before for these new and returning players. These mods bring everything from apartment-dwelling cats to tradable stocks to the game.

But now, a new mod has arrived for those seeking tweaks to Cyberpunk 2077's combat, endeavouring to make stealthy takedowns feel and look a whole lot cooler.

Want to unleash some killer takedowns and finishers on Cyberpunk 2077's enemies?

The mod in question is called ‘Finisher and Takedown Overhaul - ZKV_Takedowns’ and is the work of modder Kvalyr, whose previous work has made it easier to sort through your inventory in Skyrim.

But this time, they’ve decided to play around with the ways V can ambush unsuspecting foes via melee combat. This enacts a few changes designed to make grappling with an enemy or slicing through them with your mantis blades or melee weapon feel much more smooth and seamless.

So they’ve accomplished this by converting some existing melee weapon finishers into stealth takedown animations. This gives you the choice to kill an enemy via an unarmed takedown without having to grapple them first. It also changes which animations mantis blade takedowns are most likely to use.

The latter of these seems like the adjustment that’s taken the most work, with Kvalyr detailing having had to fix a bug that left some foes unconscious despite having clearly been fatally stabbed by the blades. This alludes to making a decision over which of their animations looked the least janky, with the aerial takedown one having won out.

Despite all of these changes improving things, the mod is still a bit of a work-in-progress at this point, with Kvalyr outlining a few teething troubles. They also add that they have future plans to add a UI feature that’ll allow you to configure it without having to open a file outside of the game.

How to install the stealth takedown mod

So if you still fancy giving it a go, you'll need to make sure to grab awpsoleet’s ‘Cyber Engine Tweaks’, jac3km4 ‘redscript’ and, if you’re planning on using REDmod, jac3km4’s ‘cybercmd’, first. Checking that your game is updated to its latest version, patch 1.61, is also a must prior to installing.

So now that you’re flying through their air on your way to decapitate some poor gang member, be sure to follow us for updates on the wacky world of Cyberpunk 2077 modding. We've got some awesome mod guides for the game, including how to romance Johnny Silverhand, and perhaps most importantly, how to pet V's cat. Additionally, we have all the info on the game’s upcoming Phantom Liberty expansion, which is set to launch in 2023.