The Face slot in Cyberpunk 2077 holds V’s optical hardware, and it behaves differently from every other cyberware category. Seven of the eight options are Kiroshi optics that share one job with a different twist each, one of those seven drops scanning entirely for raw crit chance, and the eighth implant doesn’t even share the socket. Before Patch 2.0 this was called the Ocular System and only Kiroshi Optics fit it. The category was rebuilt and renamed Face, and here is exactly what each implant does.
Quick answer: Install Kiroshi “Clairvoyant” Optics for almost any build until cyberware capacity lets you specialize. Highlighted enemies help in every fight, on every difficulty.
How the Face slot works
You get your first pair of eyes for free. Viktor installs the Basic Kiroshi Optics during the quest The Ripperdoc. After that, every Kiroshi you buy is a swap into the same slot, never an addition. You carry one pair of Kiroshi eyes at a time.
Every Kiroshi model shares two traits. Scanner zoom scales with tier, starting at 4x at Tier 1 and reaching 10x at Tier 5. And any highlight effect the optic produces stays active for 60 seconds after you scan a target, which is long enough to scan once and clear a small camp before the outline fades.
There is a second Face slot, but it does not take another Kiroshi. It unlocks during the Phantom Liberty story and accepts only the Behavioral Imprint-synced Faceplate. Nothing else fits there.
The scanning optics that highlight targets
Five Kiroshi variants exist to mark something in the world while you scan or aim. They differ only in what they light up and how far that reach goes.
Kiroshi “Clairvoyant” Optics
Highlights enemies within 12.5–19.5m while scanning, with 6/8/10x zoom, so it starts one tier above the basic model. Keeping bodies lit through walls for a full minute reshapes how you enter nearly every combat encounter, which makes this the default pick for most players. You can buy it from any ripperdoc at level 20 or higher, or pick it up from a scripted airdrop at Tranquil Terrace in Luxor Heights after finishing Lucretia My Reflection.
Kiroshi “Sentry” Optics
Highlights cameras and turrets within 15–39m while scanning, with 4/6/8/10x zoom, sold at ripperdocs. It earns its slot early for netrunners who have not yet taken the Eye in the Sky perk in the Intelligence tree, since it frees the quickhack slot that would otherwise go to Ping. Once you own that perk, Sentry duplicates something you already get.
Kiroshi “Doomsayer” Optics
Highlights explosive devices and traps near your crosshair and within 10–29m, using the same 4/6/8/10x zoom and 60-second window. This is the weakest option for most players. Its narrow use case covers detonating enemy explosives at range or surviving if hidden hazards keep catching you off guard.
Kiroshi “Stalker” Optics
Stalker breaks the pattern because it triggers off aiming, not scanning. It links automatically to your equipped Tech weapon, and while you aim it marks enemies behind cover across 10–24% of your field of view, up to 15–53m deep, with 4/6/8/10x zoom. Tech weapons fire through cover, so the pairing is the whole point. Run Stalker without one and you can see hidden enemies but cannot shoot them, so the slot is wasted.
Kiroshi “The Oracle” Optics
The Oracle folds every highlight type into one implant. While scanning it marks enemies within 15–19.5m, cameras and turrets within 30–39m, and explosive devices and traps near your crosshair within 22–29m, with 8/10x zoom. Ripperdocs sell it from level 30, and quality steps up every 10 levels afterward. The trade-off is cyberware capacity, since it costs nearly as much as the other optics combined. It also floods the screen. When everything is highlighted, nothing stands out, and fast fights turn into a wall of orange.
The two Kiroshi optics that skip scanning
Two Kiroshi models ignore the highlight formula altogether. One is your starter pair, the other is an Iconic that turns the slot into a damage stat.
Basic Kiroshi Optics
The freebie reduces how fast cameras detect you by 20–44% depending on tier and gives 4/6/8/10x scanning zoom. That camera detection reduction is the only stealth-specific effect in the whole Face category. If you play quiet and never need a highlight effect, keeping the basic model is a real choice rather than a mistake, and you can rebuy it from any ripperdoc if you swapped it out.
Kiroshi “Cockatrice” Optics
The Iconic added in Phantom Liberty raises Crit Chance by 25–35% and offers up to 10x zoom. Buy it from Dogtown ripperdocs at level 35 or higher, or loot it from an airdrop. Cockatrice is not an upgrade of another optic, it is a different deal. You surrender every scanning benefit in the slot for a large flat crit boost, which is an easy trade on a damage-focused endgame build and a poor one on a stealth or netrunner build.
Note: the crit chance from Cockatrice applies to weapon attacks, not quickhacks. Quickhack crit chance comes from a separate piece of cyberware, so a hacking build gains nothing here.
The eighth implant: Behavioral Imprint-synced Faceplate
The Faceplate is not an optic and never competes with the Kiroshi models. It fills its own dedicated Face slot that opens during Phantom Liberty and can hold nothing else. Its in-game name is the TNRTX10.0, manufactured by Zetatech and Militech, and Farida Nazeri installs it during Birds with Broken Wings.
Mechanically it lets you reset your Bounty level, as long as that level is under 4, once every 25 minutes. The cooldown drops to 20 minutes at Tier 5+ and 15 minutes at Tier 5++. In lore, the faceplate uses metanthropic cloaking to rewrite V’s facial features into someone else’s and syncs with an installed behavioral imprint to match that person’s voice, expressions, and mannerisms. It is a story item that also works as a get-out-of-NCPD card.
All eight Face implants and where to get them
| Implant | Core effect | Where to get it |
|---|---|---|
| Basic Kiroshi Optics | Camera detection speed reduced 20–44% | Free during The Ripperdoc; any ripperdoc |
| “Clairvoyant” | Highlights enemies, 12.5–19.5m | Ripperdocs at level 20+; airdrop at Tranquil Terrace after Lucretia My Reflection |
| “Sentry” | Highlights cameras and turrets, 15–39m | Ripperdocs |
| “Doomsayer” | Highlights explosives and traps, 10–29m | Ripperdocs |
| “Stalker” | Highlights enemies behind cover while aiming a Tech weapon, up to 15–53m | Ripperdocs |
| “The Oracle” | All three highlight types combined | Ripperdocs at level 30, quality up every 10 levels |
| “Cockatrice” (Iconic) | +25–35% Crit Chance | Dogtown ripperdocs at level 35+; airdrops |
| Behavioral Imprint-synced Faceplate (Iconic) | Resets Bounty level below 4, every 25 min | Birds with Broken Wings, installed by Farida Nazeri |
Which Face implant to install
Start with Clairvoyant and stay there until your cyberware capacity gives you room to think about anything else. After that the choice follows your build. A Tech weapon makes Stalker worth the slot. A crit-scaling damage build in the endgame justifies the eddies for Cockatrice. A pure stealth build that never fires a shot can hold the Basic Kiroshi and spend the freed capacity where it matters more. The Oracle looks like the strict upgrade because it does everything at once, but in an actual firefight it buries useful information under visual noise.
