What it is
Nukes & Dragons (nukesdragons.com/cyberpunk-2077/character) is a community-built web planner, originally known for its Fallout 76 planners before expanding to Cyberpunk 2077. Maintained by an independent team, free, no registration.
It covers the full 2.0 system: attributes, perks, Phantom Liberty's Relic Skill Tree. Generates URLs that encode the entire build — paste the link and the other person sees exactly what you built.
What problem it solves
CD Projekt RED's official planner is functional but conservative in UX: navigation feels slow when iterating many variants, no shortcuts to reset specific parts of the tree, no comparative layout. Nukes & Dragons solves the friction of iterating fast on builds.
If you're testing "what if I drop Body to 15 and raise Cool to 20?", the official planner forces redundant clicks; Nukes & Dragons lets you move sliders fluidly and see the immediate impact on available perks.
Differentiation
Versus the Official Build Planner, Nukes & Dragons:
- Faster, more fluid UI for iteration.
- Shorter, more manageable URLs to share.
- Side-by-side layout of all 5 trees (the official one shows one at a time).
- Less delay updating to a new patch — but can also fall 1-2 weeks behind when something new drops.
In exchange, the official planner is authoritative: if there's a discrepancy between what the planner says and what happens in-game, the official wins because CD Projekt RED maintains it.
What people use it for
Iterating between multiple candidate builds: when you have 3-4 ideas and can't decide which to commit to, Nukes & Dragons models them quickly and compares visually.
Sharing builds on Reddit / Discord: Nukes & Dragons URLs tend to show up more in community threads because the tool was popular pre-2.0 and many creators kept using it.
Planning serious respec: before spending a Tarot Card respec, you model 2-3 variants here and pick the one that closes best before touching the save.
Studying other people's builds: when someone posts a Nukes & Dragons URL, you paste it and see exactly how it's built. Editing variants on top is trivial.
Who this tool isn't for
If you want absolute guarantee that the planner reflects the current patch, go official. Nukes & Dragons can lag on minor changes (perk rebalances, cyberware tweaks).
If you're just starting Cyberpunk 2077 and have no intuition for what each perk does, the dense UI of Nukes & Dragons overwhelms. Better to start with the official planner (cleaner) and graduate to Nukes & Dragons once you know the tree.
If you need Spanish or any localization, Nukes & Dragons is English-only. The official planner is multilingual.
How it works in practice
- Go to
nukesdragons.com/cyberpunk-2077/character. - The UI shows all 5 trees side-by-side (attribute, perks, cyberware below).
- Move attribute sliders: the available-perks column updates live.
- Click perks to assign points; right-click or shift-click deselects.
- Configure the Phantom Liberty Relic Tree if you enable that option.
- The URL in the bar changes with every selection — copying it at any moment captures the full state.
- To experiment with variants, duplicate the tab, modify one, and compare the two URLs.
Honest limitations
Dense UI upfront. Having everything on a single screen can overwhelm new users. The learning curve is 10-15 minutes before you move comfortably.
English only. No Spanish localization. If your English is basic, perk names in English are an extra obstacle.
Lag with complex builds. With many perks assigned, re-renders when changing attributes can take 100-200ms — noticeable but not critical.
Updates trail the official. When a patch rebalances perks, Nukes & Dragons may take days or weeks to sync. Check the last-updated date in the footer before trusting it 100%.
No damage simulator. Same as the official — models which perks are available, not how strong the resulting build is.
How to get started
Go to nukesdragons.com/cyberpunk-2077/character. Start by moving the Body slider to see how perks open up; that gives you quick intuition for how thresholds work. Then build an experimental loadout — the result doesn't matter, it's to familiarize yourself with the UI.
Tip: when you find a build on Reddit/YouTube with a Nukes & Dragons URL, instead of reading it passively, open it, remove a perk at random, and see what breaks. That active exploration teaches more about tree interactions than any passive guide.