Kanabo

Kanabo

Class	Melee Weapon
Type	Blunt
Weapon	Two-Handed Club
Armor Pen	25%

The Kanabo is a two-handed club, a heavy Japanese war stick for a Body build that likes to fight up close. Each swing can stun the target, and blunt weapons knock enemies out rather than kill them. The Kanabo is a good choice for a run that leaves enemies alive. The in-game line jokes about it: to anyone who does not speak Japanese, even a simple stick sounds sophisticated. Melee weapon sellers and enemies supply the Kanabo through most of the main story. A Body build can pick one up whenever V is ready to fight hand to hand.

Combat

The Kanabo is a blunt weapon. Its hits leave enemies unconscious instead of dead. Each blow has a chance to stun, and a stunned enemy is open for more hits or a finisher. With the right mod, the Kanabo can kill.

Blunt weapons reward blocking. With the Body perks, blocking also helps V attack. Blocked hits give back Stamina and add bonus damage. Blocking while sprinting turns into a charge into the enemy. A ground slam staggers everyone nearby. With the Fly Swatter perk, blocking with a blunt weapon also absorbs part of the damage from gunfire. It helps when a melee build has to cross open ground.

How to Get Kanabo Guide

Buy the Kanabo from a melee weapon seller in Night City.
Loot it from enemies who carry one.

Kanabo Map Location

The map shows Coach Fred in Little China, one of the melee weapon vendors that sell it.

Kanabo map location:

Map credit by Map Genie.

Compatible Mods

8 weapon mods are compatible with Kanabo.

Name	Image	Effect
Airstrike		Raises crit chance and crit damage for midair attacks
Barbarian		More damage against stunned, staggered and knocked down enemies
Bloodbruiser		Makes a blunt weapon lethal and able to cause Bleeding
Cyclone		A sprint attack opens unlimited combos with stacking attack speed
K.O.		More damage and knockdowns on stunned enemies, slower attacks
Pax		Makes the weapon non-lethal, more damage outside combat
Severance		Hits to the head or limbs of a weakened enemy can dismember and kill
Silencio		More crit chance and crit damage when crouched and undetected

Upgrades

A better Kanabo is a higher-tier one. Shop stock and enemy drops rise with V's level. Two clubs of the same tier have the same stats, whether they were bought or looted.

Character Builds

The blunt weapon perks are in the Body tree. Wrecking Ball cuts the Stamina cost of blunt attacks. It also adds the charge that can knock enemies down. Quake raises attack speed and unlocks a ground slam that damages and staggers everyone close by. Breakthrough strips enemy armor for a few seconds after a strong attack. Kinetic Absorption turns blocked hits into Stamina and bonus damage. Ripple Effect heals V for every enemy hit by Quake. Finisher: Savage Sling adds a blunt finisher that restores Health. It can also throw the victim into other enemies.

For cyberware, Dense Marrow raises melee damage, but each swing costs more Stamina. Microrotors add melee attack speed. The Adrenaline Booster restores Stamina after each melee kill. A Berserk operating system such as the Zetatech Berserk adds damage reduction and removes the Stamina cost of melee attacks. It also lets a blunt weapon perform a Superhero Landing from midair. Its mod slots take blunt and melee mods. Barbarian adds damage against stunned, staggered and knocked-down enemies. K.O. adds damage and a knockdown chance on stunned targets. Bloodbruiser makes the club lethal and lets it cause Bleeding.

Select a Build

Blunt Berserk Build

A one-handed club and Dashes pick off enemies one by one while Berserk is on cooldown. Once Health drops, Berserk makes the character invulnerable and melee attacks cost no Stamina. Quake slams the ground whenever it is ready and staggers every enemy nearby.

Attributes: Body 20, Reflexes 20, Technical Ability 20, Intelligence 3, Cool 18.

The perks, cyberware and weapon mods for this build are listed below.

PerksCyberwareMods

Name	Level	Effect
Painkiller	Body 4	Slow Health regeneration in combat
Comeback Kid	Body 4	Faster Health regeneration at low Health
Dorph-Head	Body 4	Brief full Mitigation after using a Health item
Wrecking Ball	Body 9	Cheaper Blunt attacks and a blocking charge
Fly Swatter	Body 9	Less ranged damage while blocking with a Blunt weapon
Breakthrough	Body 9	Strong attacks strip enemy armor
Quake	Body 15	Faster Blunt attacks and a ground slam that staggers
Aftershock	Body 15	Stamina back for each enemy hit by Quake
Epicenter	Body 15	Quake from midair grows with the fall
Ripple Effect	Body 15	Health back for each enemy hit by Quake
Adrenaline Rush	Body 15	More Health and the Adrenaline Rush mode
Juggernaut	Body 15	More speed and damage during Adrenaline Rush
Calm Mind	Body 15	Adrenaline lasts longer before it decays
Finisher: Savage Sling	Body 20	A Blunt Finisher that heals
Pain To Gain	Body 20	Kills recharge Health items during Adrenaline Rush
Dash	Reflexes 9	Unlocks the Dash and makes it cheaper
Mad Dash	Reflexes 9	Double Dash range toward enemies
Air Dash	Reflexes 15	Dash in midair
Glutton For War	Technical Ability 4	Kills recharge Health items and grenades
Health Freak	Technical Ability 9	One more Health item charge and faster recharge
All Things Cyber	Technical Ability 9	Stronger cyberware stats
License To Chrome	Technical Ability 15	Stronger cyberware, more armor and a Skeleton slot
Edgerunner	Technical Ability 20	Cyberware past the capacity limit for a small Health cost

Name	Slot	Effect
Projectile Launch System	Arms	Arm launcher that fires explosive shots
Biomonitor	Circulatory System	Uses a Health item when Health runs low
Newton Module	Frontal Cortex	Kills cut cyberware cooldowns
Mechatronic Core	Frontal Cortex	More damage against drones, robots and mechs
NeoFiber	Nervous System	More Mitigation Chance and Strength
Reflex Tuner	Nervous System	Slows time at low Health
Adrenaline Converter	Nervous System	Faster movement when combat starts
Militech Berserk	Operating System	Invulnerable melee mode
Dense Marrow	Skeleton	More melee damage

Name	Image	Effect
Airstrike		More crit chance and crit damage in midair
Barbarian		More damage against stunned or knocked down enemies
K.O.		More damage and knockdowns but slower swings

Weapon Categories

All Melee Weapons

Every melee weapon is listed below. The Iconic weapons come first, then the standard ones.

Iconic Melee Weapons

Name	Weapon	Headshot	Armor Pen	Location
Agaou	Axe	+125%	25%	Dogtown
BFC 9000	One-Handed Club			Rancho Coronado
Baby Boomer	Two-Handed Club		25%
Baseball Bat x-MOD2	Two-Handed Club			Dogtown
Black Unicorn	Katana		25%
Blue Fang	Knife	+150%		Badlands South
Butcher's Cleaver	Knife		25%	Coastview
Byakko	Katana		25%	Little China
Caretaker's Spade	Hammer		25%	Corpo Plaza
Claw x-MOD2	Axe
Cocktail Stick	Katana		25%	Japantown
Cottonmouth	One-Handed Club		25%	Japantown
Crowbar	One-Handed Club
Cut-o-Matic x-MOD2	Chainsword			Dogtown
Errata	Katana		25%	Arroyo
Fang	Knife	+50%
Gold-Plated Baseball Bat	Two-Handed Club		25%	North Oak
Gwynbleidd	Sword
Headhunter	Knife	+150%		West Wind Estate
Jinchu-Maru	Katana		25%	Japantown
Murphy's Law	One-handed Club		50%	Dogtown
Nehan	Knife	+150%		Arasaka Waterfront
Sasquatch's Hammer	Hammer		75%	Coastview
Satori	Katana		25%	Arasaka Waterfront
Scalpel	Katana		25%	Northside
Sir John Phallustiff	Blunt		25%	Kabuki
Stinger	Knife	+150%		Badlands East
Tinker Bell	One-Handed Club		50%	Badlands East
Tsumetogi	Katana		25%	Japantown
Volkodav	Machete		25%	Dogtown

Standard Melee Weapons

Name	Weapon	Headshot	Armor Pen	Location
Baseball Bat	Two-Handed Club		25%
Chef's Knife	Knife	+150%
Claw	Axe	+125%	25%
Cut-O-Matic	Chainsword		50%
Electric Baton Alpha	One-Handed Club			Rancho Coronado
Electric Baton Beta	One-Handed Club		50%
Electric Baton Gamma	One-Handed Club		50%
Hammer	Hammer		25%
Kaiken	Knife	+150%
Kanabo	Two-Handed Club		25%
Katana	Katana		25%
Knife	Knife	+200%
Kukri	Machete		25%
Machete	Machete		25%
Neurotoxin Knife	Knife	+150%
Punknife	Knife	+150%
Razor	Machete		25%
Steel Pipe	One-Handed Club		25%
Tire Iron	One-Handed Club		25%
Tomahawk	Axe	+125%	25%