Cyberpunk 2077: Complete Walkthrough & Boss Guide

Cyberpunk 2077 opens with three mutually exclusive origin stories: Nomad, Street Kid, and Corpo. Each prologue reframes how V perceives Night City and colours your dialogue options throughout the entire game. The Nomad crosses the Badlands border with a beat-up car; the Street Kid wakes from a back-alley deal gone wrong; the Corpo operative escapes an Arasaka power play in a glass tower. All three storylines converge at the same point — V meeting Jackie Welles and taking their first mercenary contracts in Watson. Complete the opening jobs, get ripped at Victor Vector's clinic, and absorb the neon-soaked chaos of Night City before the main story kicks into high gear.

Act 1 sets V and Jackie on a collision course with the Relic chip. The Information sends you into the Clouds dollhouse to interrogate Evelyn Parker, who reveals the existence of a Flathead robot the Maelstrom gang stole from Militech. The Pickup gives you a critical choice: pay Royce for the bot, fight your way out, or broker a Militech deal using Stout's card. The outcome affects whether you face Royce in full combat or slip away clean. Either way, secure the Flathead — you need it for the Konpeki Plaza heist. Stock up on healing items and quickhacks before heading to Maelstrom's All Foods plant; the corridors are tight and Borg-heavy.

The Heist is Act 1's centrepiece and the mission that shatters V's world. You and Jackie infiltrate Konpeki Plaza under the guise of guests, plant the Flathead inside Yorinobu Arasaka's suite ventilation system, and crack the Relic from its case. Everything unravels when Saburo Arasaka arrives and Yorinobu murders him — triggering a full lockdown. The escape through the hotel's service floors is a chaotic sprint. The Relic chip embeds itself in V's neural interface after a rooftop confrontation. Jackie dies in the AV as you flee, and you wake up in a landfill with the ghost of Johnny Silverhand living in your head. There is no going back from this moment.

Act 2 begins with Playing for Time: Johnny Silverhand manifests inside V's consciousness and delivers his nihilistic worldview in a rooftop conversation above Night City. The story then splinters into parallel questlines. Automatic Love kicks off Judy Alvarez's arc — V searches the Clouds brothel for Evelyn Parker, uncovering a VoodooNet conspiracy that links the Voodoo Boys to Netwatch and a rogue AI lurking beyond the Blackwall. Navigating this questline requires confronting Woodman, the Clouds' enforcer, and ultimately helping Judy liberate the dolls from corporate exploitation. These choices ripple into the late-game endings available to V.

Two major Act 2 threads run in parallel. The Voodoo Boys' questline culminates in Pacifica, where Brigitte's netrunners jack V into the Old Net to contact Alt Cunningham beyond the Blackwall. Johnny's history with Alt — and Arasaka's original theft of her engram — comes into focus here. Simultaneously, Takemura's questline Down on the Street has V working alongside the disgraced Arasaka bodyguard to build a case against Yorinobu. Takemura believes presenting Saburo's murder to the corporate board will clear his name. Both threads inch V closer to Hanako Arasaka and the endgame. Manage both; do not neglect either questline or you lose ending options.

Panam Palmer's questline is the emotional backbone of Act 2 for players who want the Aldecaldos ending. Starting with Ghost Town, V helps Panam reclaim her Panzer from Raffens thugs, then assist the Aldecaldo clan in a series of increasingly high-stakes jobs across the Badlands. The missions culminate in Queen of the Highway, where V and Panam commandeer a stolen Basilisk AV to rescue Saul from Wraith kidnappers. Completing all of Panam's missions earns V a genuine ally willing to storm Arasaka Tower from outside the city. Invest time in these missions — the Aldecaldo ending is widely considered the most hopeful conclusion in the base game.

After meeting Evelyn's contact and gaining access to the Voodoo Boys' netrunning chamber, players who own Phantom Liberty can divert to Dogtown — a militarised enclave inside Pacifica ruled by Colonel Kurt Hansen and his Barghest mercenaries. The expansion opens with Hole in the Sky: a NUSA presidential shuttle crashes in Dogtown and V is recruited by FIA agent Solomon Reed to extract Songbird, the president's rogue netrunner. The central tension of the DLC is a three-way tug-of-war between Reed, Songbird, and Hansen. Firestarter forces V to choose sides, and that choice determines whether you fight Hansen or watch him fall to Reed — and whether Songbird offers V a rogue Militech cure.

Tapeworm closes the main Act 2 questlines and transitions V toward the finale. Nocturne OP55N1 is the point of no return: V meets Hanako Arasaka at Embers, and the game locks you into your chosen ending path. The options range from storming Arasaka Tower with Johnny's old Samurai contacts, calling in the Aldecaldos with Panam, trusting Hanako's corporate play, or walking away with Rogue Amendiares leading the assault. Phantom Liberty adds a fifth path — contact Songbird via a hidden socket in V's head for the Militech cure route. Whichever path you choose, the endgame is a race against the Relic's destruction of V's engram — save Night City or save yourself.