The Frontal Cortex is one of the cyberware categories in Cyberpunk 2077, and it’s the one that quietly decides whether your netrunner build works or falls apart. Cyberware in general covers the implants you install, swap out and upgrade on V’s body for passive buffs and active effects.
The Frontal Cortex gives you three slots to fill. Three slots, twelve candidates. That’s the whole problem in a sentence.
Nine of the twelve implants are attuned to Intelligence. Kerenzikov Boost System is the lone Reflexes item and Mechatronic Core and Newton Module both run off Technical Ability. If you’re building anything that isn’t a netrunner, that ratio is going to hurt.
Table of Contents
Tier 5 at a glance
Tier 5 is the only tier with complete data on every item, so it’s the cleanest place to compare. Capacity is what the implant costs against your cyberware capacity limit; price is in eddies.
| Cyberware | Capacity | Attunement | Tier 5 effect | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Axolotl | 55 | Intelligence | -12.5% cooldown on all cyberware after a kill | 31,117 |
| Bioconductor | 20 | Intelligence | 35% quickhack crit chance; -4 Max RAM | 50,869 |
| Camillo RAM Manager | 10 | Intelligence | Recovers 23% Max RAM at 20% RAM; +2 Max RAM | 42,392 |
| Cox-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer | 50 | Intelligence | 100% quickhack crit chance; -5 Max RAM | 31,117 |
| Ex-Disk | 10 | Intelligence | +6 Max RAM; +17% upload speed | 7,980 |
| Kerenzikov Boost System | 8 | Reflexes | No shooting stamina cost, +15% time slow | 33,915 |
| Mechatronic Core | 5 | Technical | +35% damage to machines; +2 Max RAM | 16,961 |
| Memory Boost | 20 | Intelligence | +1.25 RAM per kill; +1 Max RAM | 550,869 (see note) |
| Newton Module | 14 | Technical | -1.25% cooldown on all cyberware after a kill | 50,869 |
| RAM Reallocator | 40 | Intelligence | Recovers 30% Max RAM at 20% RAM; +2 Max RAM | 31,915 |
| RAM Upgrade | 8 | Intelligence | +0.17 RAM/sec recovery; +2 Max RAM | 7,980 |
| Self-Ice | 5 | Intelligence | Negates an enemy quickhack; +2 Max RAM | 16,961 |
Look at Ex-Disk and RAM Upgrade sitting at 7,980 eddies while Bioconductor asks for 50,869. The two cheapest implants on the board are also two of the most universally useful for a quickhack build, which is not how these things usually go.
Every Cyberpunk 2077 Frontal Cortex Cyberware implant
Axolotl
Capacity: 55 · Attunement: Intelligence (listed at Tier 5 only) · Tier 5 price: 31,117
The heavyweight of the cooldown-reduction group. Every time you neutralize an enemy, all your cyberware cooldowns drop instantly: 7.5% at Tier 1, -9% at Tier 4, and -12.5% at Tier 5.
Tier 4 comes with +5.3 Bonus Stealth Damage, +2.6% Melee Damage and +5.3% Aim Speed. Tier 5 swaps that for +2.8 Bonus Stealth Damage, +7.9% Aim Speed and +0.8% Crit Chance, and this is the only tier where the attunement attribute is filled in.
That 55 capacity is the highest cost in the category, and it’s a real commitment. Prices are listed as 101,000 at Tier 1, 57,874 at Tier 4, and 31,117 at Tier 5.
Bioconductor
Capacity: 20 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 50,869
Bioconductor lets your quickhacks land critical hits. The crit chance climbs in tidy 5% steps across the tiers: 15%, 20%, 25%, 30%, and 35% at Tier 5. The -4 Max RAM penalty stays put the entire way, so you’re paying for those crits in RAM at every tier.
Attuned bonuses start small at +1.4% Reload Speed on Tier 1, then add quickhack damage from Tier 2 (+1.8%). From Tier 3 up you also get +0.05% to all dealt damage per Attribute Point. Tier 5 finishes at +2.1% Quickhack Damage and +1.8% Reload Speed.
Prices: 4,207 → 7,865 → 14,588 → 26,169 → 50,869.
Camillo RAM Manager
Capacity: 10 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 42,392
An emergency RAM battery. When your available RAM falls to 20%, it instantly restores a chunk of your maximum: 15% at Tier 4, 23% at Tier 5. Both tiers give +2 Max RAM and run on a 100-second cooldown.
The attunement is where it earns its keep, -2 seconds of cooldown on this cyberware per Attribute Point. Stack Intelligence and that 100-second window shrinks fast. Tier 4 adds +1.9% Quickhack Damage and +2.4% Electrical Damage; Tier 5 bumps those to +2.1% and +2.5%.
Tier 4 is listed at 21,809 eddies.
Cox-2 Cybersomatic Optimizer
Capacity: 50 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 31,117
The other quickhack-crit implant, and the reason people build around Intelligence in the first place. At Tier 5 it gives a flat 100% crit chance with quickhacks, for -5 Max RAM. Tier 4 lists 90% crit chance at a heavier -8 Max RAM cost.
Its attunement is on a different scale from everything else here: +0.5% quickhack damage per Attribute Point, ten times the 0.05% all-damage bonus most other implants offer. Tier 5 also carries +3.1% Quickhack Damage, +2.7% Reload Speed and +0.19 RAM regen from neutralizing an enemy. Tier 4 gives +2.1%, +1.8% and +0.13 respectively, at 57,874 eddies.
At 50 capacity, running this alongside Axolotl isn’t realistic.
Ex-Disk
Capacity: 10 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 7,980
Straight RAM and speed, no drawbacks attached. Tier 3 gives +4 Max RAM and +5% quickhack upload speed, Tier 4 goes to +5 and +11%, Tier 5 lands at +6 and +17%.
Attuned bonuses are unusual for this category, +2.6% Headshot Damage Multiplier and +2.6 Health at Tier 5, plus +0.05% to all dealt damage per Attribute Point. Tier 3 and 4 run the same pairing at +2.2 and +2.4.
Ten capacity for +6 Max RAM at 7,980 eddies is the best raw value on this page. Tiers 1 and 2 aren’t documented.
Kerenzikov Boost System
Capacity: 8 · Attunement: Reflexes · Tier 5 price: 33,915
The one implant here that has nothing to do with quickhacks. It upgrades the Kerenzikov by improving V’s speed and reflexes, and while Kerenzikov is active it removes 100% of the stamina cost from shooting. That part doesn’t change across tiers.
What scales is the time dilation: time slows by +5% relative to your enemies at Tier 3, +10% at Tier 4, and +15% at Tier 5.
Attunement gives +0.1% Crit Chance per Attribute Point, which is genuinely useful outside a netrunner build, alongside +1.8% Reload Speed and +5.2% Aim Speed at Tier 5. Tier 3 costs 9,906 and Tier 4 17,448. Nothing is listed below Tier 3.
Mechatronic Core
Capacity: 5 · Attunement: Technical · Tier 5 price: 16,961
Anti-machine specialist. Damage against drones, robots, mechs and turrets scales in flat 5% steps: +15%, +20%, +25%, +30%, and +35% at Tier 5. Max RAM sits at +1 through Tier 3, then +2 at Tiers 4 and 5.
Attunement gives +0.5 Armor per Attribute Point from Tier 3 onward, plus Explosion Damage and Grenade Recharge Speed bonuses that creep from +2% to +2.6%.
Five capacity is the joint-cheapest slot cost in the category, and the price chain is complete: 1,407 → 2,626 → 4,957 → 8,727 → 16,961. If your build already leans Technical, this is nearly free.
Memory Boost
Capacity: 20 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 550,869 (probable typo)
RAM back on every kill, which is what keeps an aggressive quickhack build from stalling out. It returns +0.4 RAM per neutralized enemy at Tier 2, +0.7 at Tier 3, +1 at Tier 4, and +1.25 at Tier 5, always with +1 Max RAM attached.
Attuned bonuses lean stealth: +5.2 Bonus Stealth Damage and +2.1% Quickhack Damage at Tier 5, down to +4.4 and +1.8% at Tiers 2 and 3. From Tier 3 up it also carries +0.05% to all dealt damage per Attribute Point.
The Tier 5 price of 550,869 doesn’t hold up. Every comparable Tier 5 item sits between 30,000 and 50,000, and Newton Module lists exactly 50,869.
Newton Module
Capacity: 14 · Attunement: Technical · Tier 5 price: 50,869
The budget version of Axolotl. Same effect at roughly a tenth of the strength: -0.6% at Tier 2, -0.8% at Tier 3, -1% at Tier 4, -1.25% at Tier 5.
Where it wins is capacity. Fourteen against Axolotl’s 55 is the difference between fitting your other two implants and not fitting them. Attunement gives +0.5 Armor per Attribute Point from Tier 3, with +5.2 Bonus Stealth Damage and +2.6% Melee Damage at Tier 5.
Prices run 7,865 → 14,855 → 26,169 → 50,869, which is a lot of eddies for a 1.25% reduction. Tier 1 isn’t listed.
RAM Reallocator
Capacity: 40 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 31,915
Camillo RAM Manager’s, hungrier twin. Same trigger payout: 15% Max RAM restored at Tier 4, 30% at Tier 5, both with +2 Max RAM. The cooldown drops from 95 seconds to 75.
Its attunement is the strongest cooldown reduction on the page at -3 seconds per Attribute Point. Tier 5 adds +3.1% Quickhack Damage and +3.9% Electrical Damage; Tier 4 gives +2.1% Quickhack Damage, +0.13 RAM regen from kills, and +2.6% Electrical Damage at 10,261 eddies.
Forty capacity for a panic button is steep. Camillo does most of the same work for 10. Nothing is documented below Tier 4.
RAM Upgrade
Capacity: 8 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 7,980
Passive RAM regeneration, and probably the least glamorous implant in the category. Recovery rate goes +0.05, +0.08, +0.1, +0.13, and +0.17 units per second across the five tiers. Max RAM is +1 at Tiers 1 and 2, then +2 from Tier 3 up.
Tier 1 has no attuned bonus at all. From Tier 2 the bonuses are health-flavoured: +1.3% Health Regen Bonus and +1.6% Health Item Recharge Speed at Tier 5, plus +0.05% to all dealt damage per Attribute Point from Tier 3.
Prices: 2,807 → 5,245 → 9,906 → 17,448 → 7,980. Eight capacity and under 8,000 eddies for the top tier makes this the easiest slot to justify.
Self-Ice
Capacity: 5 · Attunement: Intelligence · Tier 5 price: 16,961
Counter-netrunning. It automatically negates an incoming enemy quickhack, which matters more than it sounds like when you’re getting hit with Cyberpsychosis mid-fight. Max RAM goes from +1 at Tier 3 to +2 at Tiers 4 and 5.
The cooldown is where it gets strange: 40 seconds at Tier 3, 60 at Tier 4, then 45 at Tier 5. That doesn’t scale cleanly in either direction and looks like another data problem. Attunement takes -0.5 seconds off that cooldown per Attribute Point, so a high-Intelligence V can bring it down substantially either way.
Tier 4 and 5 add Melee Damage Resistance and Damage Over Time Resistance at +1.9% and +2.1%. Tier 4 costs 8,727.
Cyberpunk 2077
