Cyberpunk 2077 hit the market in December of 2020, with not a few complaints about it. Unfortunately, the game did not come out in the desired conditions, despite its long development, and this made a large part of the community turn up their noses, who were not satisfied. However, over the years, CD Projekt RED has managed to fix the situation with the release of many updates (among other things, 2.0 was announced during the recent Gamescom 2023 and is already available). In addition, the development team has spoken and also announced a DLC, Phantom Liberty, coming soon only for PC and next-gen consoles. For this reason, we have decided to create this Cyberpunk 2077 story recap article in which we go through the entire history of the game.

Cyberpunk 2077 recap

Cyberpunk 2077 was born as a video game inspired by the board game, created by Mike Pondsmith, full of numerous manuals in which every single aspect is explained in detail: geopolitics, the press, up to more “trivial” aspects such as fashion in vogue on the streets of Night City. This serves to make you understand how the development studio has managed to pack a game full of details and facets, whose story is difficult to summarize in a nutshell if you don’t want to leave out important details. Furthermore, it must also be considered that the game has different endings, which further increases the difficulty of synthesis. However, we will try our best to give you as detailed a recap as possible without boring you too much.

The game is set in Night City, in 2077, as the title suggests, a sprawling city that is alive and full of activities to enjoy. The protagonist of the adventure is V (it’s up to you to choose the gender of the character), a citizen of the city’s slums, who will have to make his way up the hierarchy without stepping on the wrong people’s feet. In fact, the city is now controlled by macro-corporations, which are certainly not afraid to use violence to repress riots and silence those who disagree with their politics. Consequently, staying alive, especially for less wealthy people, is not easy and the story of the game begins with the protagonist who accepts a high-risk job, with the vision of becoming a successful mercenary.

At this point, V and his companion Jackie Welles, who can be both a recent acquaintance of yours or an old friend, based on the path you initially choose for your character, enter into a contract to recover a very precious technological artifact, known as the immortality chip. Obviously, this is not a simple mission, as this chip is guarded by one of the megacorporations that command the city, the Arasaka.

However, after successfully infiltrating one of the company’s skyscrapers where this chip was kept, in the escape, the container breaks and the only way to preserve its contents is to inject it into V’s brain. The results of this implant are unknown and unpredictable, but it turns out that this precious chip is none other than the digitized soul of Johnny Silverhand, the most famous rocker in history who died 50 years earlier in violent circumstances.

A shocking discovery that marks the adventure of V. Johnny, played by the famous actor Keanu Reeves, will be a real co-star of Cyberpunk 2077. Death does not prevent him from having goals and desires, and above all an unquenchable thirst for revenge towards Arasaka. With his soul implanted directly into his brain, the risk of V becoming his puppet could be very high, not to mention that half of Night City wants to get their hands on the chip.

V, who is supposed to be Saburo’s killer, wakes up in a pile of scraps and manages to survive, only to be carried away by Takemura, one of Arasaka’s security heads who has been given the responsibility of finding Saburo’s killer. Following a report to his superior, Takemura aids Johnny in getting better before the two of them must fight off Arasaka agents riding motorcycles who appear to be out to assassinate them. Then, to help V heal, Takemura transports him to Viktor the Ripperdoc. According to Viktor, unless V can discover a means to securely remove the chip from his mind, his and Johnny’s minds will become permanently connected and the two will be inseparable.

Now feeling better, V heads to a nearby diner to meet Takemura and assess the situation. Takemura requests that V find Evelyn Parker because he is aware that she had a close relationship with Yorinobu and would be able to provide him with more information that will assist him in proving Yorinobu’s guilt. The chip on V’s head needs to be removed, so they also hope to find Evelyn and learn how to do it. In addition, V decides they will search for Anders Hellman, a bioengineer who worked on the artifact and might be able to help them remove the chip. Now that Jackie’s funeral is also open to V, it brings some solace for them to be allowed to go.

During this sequence, Johnny randomly interjects; telepathically speaking, he and V can talk to each other. Johnny clarifies his mistrust of corpos like Takemura while also stating that his position has evolved and he no longer desires V’s death. He suggests speaking with a fixer by the name of Rogue whom he had business with in the past if they want aid in their quest to have the chip removed from their memory.

Now that V has amassed the $15,000 he requires to compensate Rogue for her assistance, he visits her. Hellman routinely convoys through a region of the Badlands, according to Rogue, where she thinks he may be attacked easily. Panam Palmer, a Nomad who owes Rogue money for botching a prior mission, will be needed by V in order to carry out the operation. The two travel to V’s camp in the Badlands, Aldecaldo, after she contacts Panam to arrange a meeting. Prior to discovering Hellman, they come up with a plan to recover Panam’s vehicle and the misplaced goods, which goes down without a hitch. The goods are then given to Rogue’s men at the Sunset Motel before V and Panam figure out a plan to capture Hellman.

Panam discusses her strategy in the morning, which is to destroy Hellman’s AV as it passes over the region. They will need to destroy a nearby power plant first, and then AV Hellman is on his way to Kang Tao (a Chinese weapons manufacturer) to use an EMP weapon to knock out the company’s power systems. The plot largely succeeds because Panam uses a portable missile launcher to destroy the AV and V plants a device that destroys the power plant.

At this point, V questions Hellman after he is taken into custody. The relic chip, however, is an experimental form of the biochip that was created to activate an engram construct within a new host body, as opposed to only connecting with pre-saved engrams, therefore he is, unfortunately, unable to actually assist. When Hellman enters V’s consciousness, he discovers that V’s own systems are failing and giving way to Johnny’s personality.

Takemura then tells V about his scheme to kidnap Hanako in order to provide her with proof that Yorinobu killed Sarubo. He explains that the Arasaka parade, which will be staged in Saribo’s honor, will be the sole opportunity for them to get close to her, so they must gather information about the event’s security. The security system of Arasaka is infected by the shard before V and Takemura discuss Takemura’s strategy. In order to further weaken Arasaka’s defenses, a virus will be uploaded at Arasaka’s industrial park. Next, Takemura will direct V to three snipers during the parade that he must eliminate, and last, Hanako will be taken hostage from her float.

V, though, picks up again on his mission to get in touch with the Voodoo Boys first. He has been provided a route, which entails meeting a man named Placide and doing a task for him in return for a meeting with their commander, Julliette. Before being told to go to Placide, V visits the Pacifica neighborhood and unintentionally walks into a funeral. Placide then charged V with infiltrating a rival gang’s base of operations known as GIM (Grand Imperial Mall), infecting a van loaded with cutting-edge Netwatch hardware, and eliminating The Animal’s netrunner. After communicating with the netrunner, V manages to pull off all of this, but he then passes out. It turned out that the Voodoo Boys were not only freeing Brigitte from their clutches but also guarding a data fortress from Netwatch’s prying eyes.

The agents in the vicinity were all torched as soon as V granted them access to the network, though. V was also in danger of dying because of his connection to the netrunner. Placide is shocked to see V, who is undoubtedly incensed that he was set up, as he hadn’t genuinely counted on him to survive. In the midst of their argument, Brigitte shows in and proclaims that she would assist V by looking at the chip in their underground data stronghold, the crypt. In order to connect all countries before the war, Brigitte says that the crypt was formerly a component of the transcontinental maglev system, an antiquated digital network.

Then Brigitte adds that the engram is required by The Voodoo Boys in order to speak with Alt Cunningham, whose construct continues to exist beyond the Blackwall. Because they are convinced that something will soon emerge from beyond the Blackwall to wipe out everyone, they think Alt is the one person who can assist them in gaining safe passage through it.

In the data fortress of the Voodoo lads, V meets Bridgette after taking an ice bath. Then V relives a memory of Johnny that incorporates Alt. Players take on the role of Johnny and then battle their way through the tower to arrive at Alt. She has already had her mind uploaded into a construct, and there is no turning back, according to a doctor on the scene, thus, she is practically dead.

When they return to the present, Johnny tells V that Alt isn’t actually gone because she got in touch with him months after the incident to say that she was trapped in Arasaka’s network. After that, Johnny went back to the tower and attempted to blow it up, but he plainly failed. Alt is still alive and now dwells outside of the Blackwall where no one can touch her, proving that the Voodoo Boys were correct all along. Now that she is in possession of the component of Johnny’s build needed to penetrate the Blackwall, Bridgette uses V to get in touch with Alt.

As his condition worsens, V has a breakdown after leaving the Voodoo Boys (either quietly or by killing them all). If it comes down to one of them not making it through the process, Johnny says he’ll have himself wiped rather than try to take over. He presents V with the dog tags of a former coworker who died in combat in exchange for him.

V returns to meet with Takemura and carry out the strategy they agreed upon because she is now prepared to work with him to find Hanako. Nearly everything goes according to plan; the two succeed in accomplishing their goals, but something goes wrong at the last minute: V is forced to battle and kill Sandayu Oda, a member of Hanako’s security detail. Even worse, Hanako refuses to listen to Takemura, so he is forced to shoot her with a sedative weapon. V is compelled to make a hurried getaway before meeting Takemura again at an abandoned apartment complex.

At the apartment complex, Takemura pleads with Hanako to divulge the identity of the person who murdered her father and assist V with the relic chip. Hanako is unfazed, nevertheless. V is then forced to fight his way out of the building as Arasaka men storm in. Then V awakens in a motel where Johnny is keeping an eye on him. Then, there is a knock on the door, and it is revealed to be a stand-in for Hanako’s proxy messenger. She explains that she wants to meet and that she believes in V.

Hanako, whom V meets, explains that she wants her brother to be punished for his actions (murdering their father), but also that she can get them into Arasaka Tower and to the Jack-in point that will allow them to travel to the data fortress Mikoshi — this is so Alt can use its power to separate V and Johnny — by getting them there. However, Johnny has a different strategy in mind, one that entails Rogue and him breaking into the tower on their own. V must choose whether to trust Johnny and Rogue to break into Arasaka Tower for a third time or to trust Hanako, a representative of Arasaka.

In the event that you select Johnny and Rogue, Johnny will have complete control over V’s body. After that, he goes to Afterlife to persuade Rogue to join his mission. Rogue’s strategy is highly explosive; she intends to attack Arasaka Tower head-on, firing missiles into the tower before diving inside (using grav boots to slow their drop), and battling their way to the Mikoshi jack point.

They prepare before Johnny talks to Alt, who says she can read his thoughts since he is a construct, and before that, they prepare. She states with certainty that she will be able to split Johnny and V, destroying Mikoshi in the process. Almost everything goes according to plan. They are shot down by Arasaka Tower’s defenses and actually crash into it, but they eventually make it to Mikoshi. Sadly, Rogue perishes in the process when Smasher, the member of the Arasaka security team that murdered Johnny all those years ago, executes her as soon as they enter the chamber where Mikoshi is confined.

If you choose Hanako’s plan, Hanako manages to get V inside Arasaka Tower and then reveals that, prior to agreeing to meet with V first, she actually spoke with a constructive version of her father, Saburo. Saburo’s construct persona is exposed to V, who learns that he has always had this plan in mind and that it was his idea in the first place. Then, Hanako brings V to a meeting of the Arasaka board in an effort to persuade them of what has happened. Hanako switches on Saburo’s construct because the board won’t budge despite V’s or her own requests. The board initially thinks it’s a ploy, but they suddenly realize it’s Saburo, and they decide to take Hanko’s every word from that point forward.

Unfortunate events occur. Suddenly, the building is placed on lockdown due to the discovery of intruders, and a security team then attacks the board meeting. Yorinobu sends his men there to kill everyone, and it turns out they are the ones doing it. Then, while Hanako takes control of the structure, V departs to find Yorinobu. Adam Smasher, Yoriobu’s security guard, is killed as V battles his way closer to Yoriobu. Yorinobu responds with a brief speech before Hanako enters the room. Yorinobu is then confronted by him, and Yorinobu grabs him in his arms before ordering V to leave with Hellman.

Cyberpunk 2077 multiple endings

As we have already mentioned at the beginning of this article, Cyberpunk 2077 offers different endings, based on the choices we make during our adventure.

Where Is My Mind?

V has lost a large portion of his memories after discovering himself on an operating table on an Arasaka space station. When the construct was uploaded to Yorinobu’s body, Saburo Arasaka was said to be alive once more, according to a news report. He then goes to his room and watches the program there. Anders Hellman then informs V that the surgery has caused radiation illness, which is causing his body to die. He now has a decision to make: continue living out his days on Earth and perish, or upload his mind to Mikoshi and turn into a construct.

All Along the Watchtower

Players who have completed all of Panam’s side quests and decided to call Panam rather than reply to Johnny’s question about whether they want to follow Hanako’s or his plan will result in this ending. In the concluding scenes, Alt erases Johnny from V’s memory, but the fact that he will pass away in six months is still a problem. Then, V must decide whether to spend his final six months on earth and perish or to remain in Mikoshi with Alt and let Johnny take over his body. In the first, he and Panam are shown smuggling out of Night City while making a promise to keep looking for a means to keep him alive.

New Dawn Fades

The way this finale unfolds is almost identical to how “All Along the Watchtower” (or “Path of Glory”) does, but there is an intriguing twist. V will stay in Mokishi with Alt if he decides to let Johnny take over his body, and Johnny will live out the remainder of his life in V’s body. Johnny packs ready to leave Night City in the closing scenes, but not before he stops by V’s grave to pay his respects. Along the way, he also visits a music shop and buys a guitar, which he later gives to the young man who took him into town.

Path of Glory

If you choose to believe Johnny and break into Arasaka Tower with Rogue, this conclusion will be brought on. Alt informs V that his body will undoubtedly expire after they meet in Mikoshi, and V decides to spend the remainder of his days on Earth. Starting in V’s posh new residence, the final scene unfolds. The Afterlife Bar, which he now owns, is where he goes after getting dressed and dressed. In that location, he encounters a corpo who offers him a new job that appears to require breaking into a space station. A weapon at the ready, V is then seen donning a space suit and rocketing into space.

Suicide

If players select a specific dialog option during Op55n1, Cyberpunk 2077 may truly come to an end. Particularly, V’s response to Johnny’s question about whether he or Hanako will carry out her plan, “Could also just put all this to rest.” Then V will hold a gun to his head to put an end to the situation before it becomes too difficult.

Secret Ending

If V chooses not to respond to Johnny’s inquiry about her preference for the plan during Op55n1, the final ending possibility is activated. If you don’t wish to hurt anyone, Johnny will interpret this as your intention, and he’ll take over your body. Once inside Arasaka Tower, players will battle their way out. In the event that they pass away at any moment, the game will terminate with the credits rolling. The “Path of Glory” or “New Dawn Fades” endings will then be activated, depending on their final decisions, if they are successful.