Before Update 2.0, your skin slot was an afterthought. You slapped Subdermal Armor in there, forgot about it, and got your real protection from a jacket with three Armadillo mods. That era is over. Clothing is cosmetic now, with a handful of minor late-game exceptions. The armor stat comes almost entirely from your Skeleton and Integumentary System implants.
So the skin slot went from filler to one of the two places you can’t afford to leave empty.
Here’s what’s in Cyberpunk 2077 Integumentary System Cyberware and what implant worth your capacity.
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How the slot works
Unlike Skeleton (which gains a third slot from the License to Chrome perk) or Hands (second slot from Ambidextrous), there’s no perk or quest that opens a fourth skin slot. Plan around three.
Capacity is the real constraint
Everything you install costs Cyberware Capacity, and capacity binds long before eddies do. You gain it from levelling, from shards scattered around Night City, and from the Chrome Compressor if you’re willing to give up your Operating System entirely. The Edgerunner perk lets you blow past the cap by up to 50 points at a cost of 0.5% max Health per point, which works out to a 25% health cut if you max it out.
Whether that trade is worth it depends on how much of your survivability comes from armor versus raw HP.
Tiers, Ripperdocs and stock refreshes
Tiers gate by character level: Tier 1 from level 1, Tier 2 from 10, Tier 3 from 20, Tier 4 from 30, Tier 5 from 40. Every ripperdoc in the base game stocks the same catalog since 2.0, so there’s no reason to drive across town for a specific one. Dogtown’s ripperdocs carry a slightly wider list that includes the iconics, which makes Phantom Liberty a hard requirement for two of the entries below.
Ripperdoc stock refreshes every ten levels rather than daily, and the stat modifiers attached to each piece are randomised until that reset. The Chipware Connoisseur perk lets you reroll them when upgrading.
Every Integumentary System implant at a glance
| Implant | Min. tier | Capacity | Armor (min tier → T5) | What it does |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subdermal Armor | 1 | 5 | 17–49 | Armor, nothing else |
| ProxiShield | 1 | 10 | 8–36 | −8% to −20% incoming damage at 3 m, fading to 0% at 6 m |
| Cogito Lattice | 1 | 12 | 18–54 | +200–240% armor from this implant while RAM is below 2–10 |
| Countershell | 1 | 12 | 17–57 | +30–50% Mitigation Chance for 4 s after losing 35% Health in 3 s (6 s cooldown) |
| RangeGuard | 1 | 14 | 10–34 | +30–90 armor when no enemy is within 6 m |
| Shock-n-Awe | 1 | 25 | 44–92 | 10% chance on taking damage to discharge 135–500 damage nearby |
| Cellular Adapter | 2 | 10* | 74–162 | Requires Built Different. Per Technical Ability point: +1% explosion resistance, +0.5% Tech weapon damage, +0.5% health item and grenade recharge speed |
| Carapace | 2 | 16 | 38–94 | +20–32% armor effectiveness against hits from the side or rear |
| Nano-plating | 2 | 20 | 38–78 | 4–7% projectile block chance, +100% for 1.4–1.7 s after a dodge or Dash, capped at 3 blocks per 5–6.5 s |
| Optical Camo | 2 | 20 | 15–30 | −30% to −90% visibility for 4–7 s, 70–50 s cooldown |
| Defenzikov | 3 | 20* | 24–80 | +50–90% Mitigation Chance for 3–4 s when Kerenzikov ends |
| Chitin (iconic) | 3 | 50 | 140–200 | Huge armor plus a Body-scaled Health Regen boost |
| Pain Editor | 4 | 35 | 88–108 | −6% to −7% all incoming damage |
| Painducer | 4 | 30 | 114–138 | Converts 25–30% of damage taken into damage-over-time |
| Peripheral Inverse (iconic) | 4 | 30 | 8–36 | −34% to −45% incoming damage at 3 m, fading to 0% at 6 m |
Cyberpunk 2077 Integumentary System Cyberware: All You Should Know
Here is the complete list of Integumentary System Cyberware:
Subdermal Armor
A shadow of what it used to be. Five capacity for up to 49 armor is fine efficiency, but 49 armor stops mattering somewhere in the mid-game. Keep it as a placeholder while you save capacity for something better, then drop it.
Painducer
More raw armor than almost anything else in the slot, and it spreads incoming damage over time instead of letting you eat it in one chunk. That pairs well with regeneration-heavy Body and Tech builds. It does not, however, synergise with RAM Recoup the way people assume, since that implant scales off the amount of damage received rather than the frequency.
Pain Editor
A flat 7% off everything at Tier 5, no conditions attached, for 35 capacity. It’s the boring answer, and boring is underrated when you’re getting shot from four directions. The situational alternatives beat it in their preferred situation and lose to it everywhere else.
Cellular Adapter
The strongest thing in the category if you can reach it, and reaching it is the problem. It won’t install at all without the Built Different perk, which sits deep in the Edgerunner branch and needs 15 Technical Ability. Every one of its bonuses scales off that same attribute, so half-investing is pointless. If your build is already going there, take it. If it isn’t, the perk investment isn’t worth chasing for one implant.
ProxiShield
Protects you from whatever is standing on top of you, with the reduction strongest at 3 m and gone by 6 m. Melee builds get consistent value. Everyone else gets a slot that sits dormant for entire encounters.
RangeGuard
The mirror image is here. Up to 90 armor at Tier 5, but only while no enemy is within 6 m. Neither this nor ProxiShield is a trap, but be honest about how you actually fight before picking one.
Carapace
Covers your back and flanks, boosting armor effectiveness by up to 32% against hits from those angles. Most useful when your front is already behind cover, and it quietly helps against melee attackers and grenades. Turn around when something explodes near you.
Countershell
An anti-burst panic button. It won’t stop you taking the damage that triggers it, it just gives you a window to relocate after a big spike. Overclock netrunners get incidental value here, since spending health counts toward the threshold.
Defenzikov
Kerenzikov’s plus-one. Mitigation up to 90% for a few seconds every time your Kerenzikov window ends is genuinely strong, and it does nothing whatsoever if you don’t have Kerenzikov installed. Don’t buy one without the other.
Nano-plating
The odd one. A flat 7% block chance at Tier 5 isn’t much, but the guaranteed block window after a dodge or Dash effectively extends the safety of every evasive move. Melee and mobility builds get real mileage. Cover campers get almost none.
Shock-n-Awe
A 10% chance to zap everything near you when you get hit, dealing 500 damage at Tier 5. The trigger condition favours builds that spend a lot of time in melee range taking hits, which is a slightly awkward fit for its Technical Ability attunement.
Optical Camo
The only non-Arms implant that works as an active ability. At Tier 5 you get −90% visibility for seven seconds on a 50-second cooldown, which is enough to walk past people. Low tiers are noticeably weak, so don’t judge it by the Tier 2 version.
The catch is that it occupies the quick slot your grenades would otherwise use. For a stealth build that’s a non-issue. For anyone throwing explosives, it’s a real cost.
Chitin
The iconic Subdermal Armor and the closest thing to pre-2.0 armor values, at 200 armor at Tier 5 with a Health Regen bonus that scales off Body. Fifty capacity is a serious ask, though. Roughly a third of a typical mid-game budget for one slot.
Perks that change the math
All Things Cyber
Level 1 bumps every cyberware stat modifier by 10%. Level 2 cuts Integumentary and Skeleton capacity costs by 20%, which is effectively free capacity for the two slots you care most about.
Chrome Constitution
−5% incoming damage when all your Integumentary and Skeleton slots are filled. It requires All Things Cyber at level 2. Small number, but it stacks with everything else and never turns off.
Built Different
Unlocks Cellular Adapter. Sits at 15 Technical Ability in the Edgerunner branch, so it’s a build commitment rather than a pickup.
What I’d actually run
Pain Editor or Painducer for bulk, Carapace or Countershell for the situational layer, and whichever of ProxiShield or RangeGuard matches your engagement range. If you’ve gone deep enough into Technical Ability for Built Different, Cellular Adapter replaces one of those and it isn’t close.
Specialist builds
Stealth builds should take Optical Camo and stop arguing with themselves about the grenade slot. Netrunners running Overclock want Cogito Lattice. Anyone with Kerenzikov installed should look hard at Defenzikov.
The one rule that applies to everyone
Fill all three. Between Chrome Constitution and the fact that every one of these implants carries armor as a baseline, an empty skin slot is pure loss.
Cyberpunk 2077
