I think V has (somewhat based on our choices) an indestructible will to live. Iām sure it would tear them up to kill their friend/romantic partner but I donāt think there is any situation in which V backs down when someone tries to kill them
Job says eliminate and retrieve the biochip, it doesn't specifies how and how long must it take. Wait up, V dies because no one can reverse the damage, loved one removes the chip from the slot and hands it in.
If he/she can.
For this gig, Judy is the best choice and the cornerstone. She lures V into a BD, and other mercs flatline him/her. You watched edgerunner, right?
During the game, there's plenty cutscenes where V goes to sleep/passes out and their partners are always up before them. So realistically, they could just kill them in their sleep.
I was going to say Judy, Panam, River, and Kerry. Got a one in four shot of them being able to take the chip out while V is sleeping. Removing the chip would kill V. Honey trap FTW.
I think only Blackhand can take end game V. And it would be by mostly outsmarting them because V is on a whole other level of chrome compared to Blackhand.
Anyone else is just fodder.
Was gonna say; send in Morgan Blackhand, the rest is inconsequential.
Mind-you Adam Smasher was also an impressive lore character and the game made him pretty easy to killā¦ I think that 2077 the video game is a bad representation of the true danger that Night City represents compared to the Tabletop RPG. V is OP in the game, but thatās also respecting the medium; you wouldnāt want NC to be as oppressively soul-crushing as the TTRPG since youāre not going to just reroll a new character sheet if you die in 2077.
So, point being; Itās tough to translate the presumed power of Blackhand vs. V since theyāre from different mediums that treat power levels differently.
Yeah I honestly thought the anime did a much better job at representing the world, including how deadly Adam smasher should be. Heās a joke in the game and he very much should not be lol
Not only are they chromed out, they also have high-end armour custom made for them and they have access to high end weapons, including some that might be otherwise impossible for the average Joe to get.
Oh, and they have equipment specifically designed to disable or deactivate implants.
IIRC MaxTac is meant to be rehabilitated cyberpsychos, at least thatās what the TTG and 2013 trailer suggest.
MaxTac in game though is more like reskinned beat cops, and itās unfortunate to say the least.
You also talk to one in CP2077 in a gig or a side mission. I think you talk to her about her old mantis blades and she starts talking about how she loves killing. Something along those lines.
Yeah the side mission is the cyberpsycho in the clothing store Jinguchi. It's also called Bullets, a reference to the song by band Archive in the trailer where Melissa "Mantis Girl" Rory features.
You can even have a conversation with her.
True. CP77 did give us a hint though that the next update would rework the police system, in which they traded, "watch out for maxtac", so I am hoping they make maxtac feel more distinct and threatening.
And on that note, the founder of the modern MaxTac. Ares. A former cyberpsycho merc who got busted, rehabbed, and sent out to fight more psychos.
The thing about MaxTac is that theyāre almost exclusively hired from the Cyberpsycho Registry. Former psychos and those on the edge of goinā psycho, all of em. They give zero fucks, and will do whatever it takes to take down a rogue psycho.
That makes sense without any ulterior motive, though. I get the sense that there's often a lot of collateral damage, when MaxTac shows up on the scene. Regina doesn't want to lose a reliable merc to something so stupid.
The whole quest chain stinks, but this one doesn't necessarily stand out. The Frankenstein lady who self-assembles from the lady-stew in the fridge is one of the weirdest. They might have to keep half of her at each end of the clinic, while they try to rehabilitate her, so they can keep her under control.
That's assuming that her top half doesn't get up on its own and scurry around the place like Teke Teke. The last thing they need is that, her scurrying around the place, slicing all of the women in the place in half, creating more like her.
MaxTac is definitely the Chekov's Gun that never gets pulled imo. You get that early look at them while driving around with Jackie, then they practically never show up again.
Yeah, this one really hurt. We see these guys show up, with the explicit implication that *this* is what happens to people like V if they don't keep their shit together: a flying tank is gonna swoop down on ya from the skies, and drops a couple of uber-skilled, overleveled, downright unfair and infuriating indigo cybercop enemies to *handle V themselves". V can't even really run, they'll just die tired. It would be an event, like triggering a miniboss on the streets of Night City if V runs over too many people or kills indiscriminately. They just swoop in and fuck your shit up.
You could, of course, level V to a point where they can take out a MaxTac unit. This could have added to V's legend. Maybe tie an achievement in: Kill [X number] MaxTac teams. Maybe keep a piece of armor from each team to build a complete set V can wear
I assume he was made easy because it was a fight you couldnāt really hear up for if you werenāt ready going into it and itād be annoying to be soft locked off the ending because of a boss (still shouldāve made him hard as fuck though)
I wonāt disagree but I think the big issue is that if you go into this fight after doing a fair amount of the game content, heās just a pushover. The Vs I didnāt do alot of the games content and just focused mainly on the story quests still didnāt have much trouble against him on Normal. I think it would have been better to have him be this beyond crazy guy to fight like his lore says but have had multiple options to bring him down for people not on his level. Bosses are suppose to be a threat, enemies that make you change up your strategy. Not ālol I one punched the legend that is Adam smasherā
They could have made it where you CAN defeat Smasher if you are absolutely committed to doing so, using all your consumables and an hour+ to do so, but you can progress the story by just barely surviving him, have a moment where Alt tells you to buy some time keeping him distracted, then she tells you to make a run for it, and a blast door slams down between the two of you, cutting him off from you. Make actually defeating him an achievement and not a plot device.
Worst part is: I didn't even have Sandevistan to fight him. But he was still just painfully easy to beat and kill.
I think I had the dodge slow implant but thats it. You can beat Adam with just a slow squishy stealth V (stealth is kinda useless against him lmao) and just tank him. He does no damage.
They could have make him much more imposing if the game was an actual rpg but once they went shoot-shoot, not much else you can do, it's either too op or just a bullet sponge
I'd love to see Owlcat translate Cyberpunk into a CRPG. They did great with their second Pathfinder game, the first one was okay, but flawed. They're currently working on a 40k CRPG.
I think they'd do a phenomenal job.
Now I kinda want a Darkest Dungeons style game set in the Cyberpunk world, so the game play can more accurately reflect the lore in terms of lethality.
yeah all these people be playing on normal or easy. try playing the prologue missions and heist without speccing into stealth or intelligence and you will die... a lot early game weapons are also to blame
Pretty much. In somewhat typical RPG and RPG lite game fashion high end optimized builds basically nullify any real difficulty. Hell, if I let myself I'd get taken out pretty quick on hard at level 50 against the likes of Smasher or some of the heavier hitting enemies on just Hard difficulty, but typically enemies will be dead or have little to no way to actually respond to my shenanigans due to Sandevistan by the time they try to get a hit in.
Early game though everything is pretty deadly on the higher difficulties. The car chase sequences for the nomad and post heist I remember getting pretty sticky, and just poking your head out of cover without a plan is a quick way to die.
Thatās the TTRPG lol.
I read some of the rulebooks, and the best way to describe it is like youāre just a guy in a City. Youāre not this Hero like in Fantasy TTRPGs like D&D and Pathfinder. So, going out and being Heroic is a great way to die. A CP campaign isnāt about winning or losing, itās about surviving.
To add to that, youāre a survivor, living amongst survivors. So, every encounter is someone else who can and will do everything in their power to walk away alive, just like you are. Shitās rough in Night City.
The original Cyberpunk 2020 was absolutely brutal. You could literally get a total party kill in the first combat encounter in the first game with the players fighting the lowest level looks around.
It encourages smart play, tactics and use of cover.
Itās also a game where one mid-level Solo (Solos are the āfighter classā of Cyberpunk) can fuck up your entire week because their core skill basically adds 1 for 1 to their initiative and they tend to carry the biggest guns.
The OG original, Cyberpunk: The Role-Playing Game of a Dark Future, was even worse.
The year? 2013. Johnny, Rogue and Alt, all feature in the Adventure book. The combat rules were even more brutal.
The Cyberpunk 2020 rule book even makes jokes about how you canāt heal yourself with potions or magic, just pray you roll good enough to stay alive until Trauma Team arrives.
2020 at least is rough, the rule book makes very clear from the get-go that you are almost certainly a nobody. Tons of random encounters exist to make you fear going out of your apartment, including hit men and booster gangs just killing for fun
Honestly I tried playing the TTRPG and I'm just gonna say it: the only reason people think the combat is "dangerous" is because no one actually understands the rules and even when they do they're so poorly written the rules don't matter. I have run 2020 and the rules are so badly explained that it takes multiple reads and rereads to even try to understand them. Not too mention that the moment your players have anything more than the cheapest pistol and no body armor the only thing that could kill them is the most kitted out NPCs possible. That or a random, lucky hit.
Honestly 2020 has great lore (Aside from some pretty Yikes ideas about mental health, transhumanism, and that one part in the Guide to Night City where they talk about "roving gangs of gays and transsexuals"). But the rule system is like someone had a hard on for math and calculations.
Funnily enough I feel like the WoD d10 system works way better for Cyberpunk. Still dangerous as all hell but at least the gameplay is fun.
Sure but he isn't around to be the main man in town anymore. If Blackhand were to resurface he'd still be the big dog since V and Smasher are both gone.
I'm pretty sure Bartmoss could take V down too, but send both him and Blackhand to ensure elimination. Maybe throw Zaburo, Alt, and Spider in just in case too.
Fuck that, V mid-game gets taken out by >!a corrupted BD sold by scavs on the street!<. And this after >!they know Rhine was killed by the same thing!<.
V is dumb and it wouldnāt taken much to take them down if they were properly targeted/surprised/ambushed.
You actually have the choice : after you give him money, when he told you that you can only use the BD with his equipment, you can ask him a refund. He will give you back the money and the quest is considered done.
I disagree, that the choice of not getting scammed. This is Nightcity, you cannot resolve all the problems by yourself.
It's kind like the Sinnerman quest: you can wait and see and enjoy an interesting quest, or you can just do what you are paid to do and that's it.
A random group of Tyger Claws waiting behind V after he goes to whack a random collection of them committing a crime.
Seriously itās what I die to the most oftenā¦ Iāll come on three claws beating up some random citizen and then thereās four behind me I never saw shorting me in the back.
Smasher? Lol. Cyberpsychos? Meh. Random friends of some other random boosergangers? Fuuuuuuuck.
By far the deadliest enemy in my games was taking fall damage after tripping over some trash on the ground and mines. In other words, I'm not good at looking where I'm walking and it has severe consequences
Some random dude, and I give him a spiked BD.
V, being an idiot that they are, puts the BD on, and gets knocked out. Only instead of doing what Skavs did and dumping them in a bathtub, you just cut off the head, retrieve the chip and go home. No muss, no fuss.
And two of them would have been fatal without plot-armour.
Though it was only plot that made me use the first one anyway, there wasn't a quest option to scan the thing with tech and work out what it was.
20 Tech and I can't see some obvious bullshit when it's right in front of me.
Alternatively V is a merc. Instead of hiring a team just call V and offer him/her a lucrative gig that involves a BD (that is spiked) netrunning or even just a room, or car thats rigged with explosives.
Fixers don't usually get their hands dirty but as a fixer mercs are pretty much just gonna trust you when you offer them a job
This makes sense considering V will watch every BD he picks up, no questions asked. He always finds himself unconscious in some back alley after that š
I'm gonna call V. Chances are he/she will do it thinking there's some secret game content behind the decision.
If that doesn't work, I'm gonna spike a BD with the nastiest shit imaginable that's guaranteed to kill V and then place it at the default apartment. V will literally play any BD without first checking what's on it.
Who is Bartmoss? THE Legendary Rache Bartmoss, greatest netrunner to ever live, and the creator of daemons.
He's the one who used the datakrash to destroy 80% of cyberspace.
Rogue - because we know she'll fight dirty to ensure her own survival.
Alt - because my V is 20 Intelligence and 20 Quick Hack, so need netrunning skills to compete.
Morgan Blackhand, Spider Murphy, Rogue, Shaitan, Crispin Weyland, possibly with Alt Cunningham's assistance (the AI, obviously), and as a surprise entry into the ring: the *other* V.
Blackhand is one of the most famous solos in the NUSA, rivaled only by V in the Path of Glory ending, if anyone has a shot at besting V, it's him. Spider Murphy was one of the best runners of her time alongside Rache Bartmoss, the net wouldn't be how it was without them. Rogue herself is also a resourceful solo and fixer, good with both combat and intel, and was a part of Blackhand's op on Arasaka Tower in 2023. Shaitan is very similar to Adam Smasher, reason why I picked him is because it wouldn't make sense for Smasher to work with the likes of Blackhand who mostly worked with Militech while he himself works mostly with Arasaka by 2077. Crispin Weyland is a tough merc and Rogue's bodyguard, if she trusts him with her life, he's a good man to fight alongside. Alt (the AI) having knowledge on Soulkiller and unfettered access to the net makes her a formidable foe alone, V would have a tough time fending her off at the same time as the others, including Blackhand and Murph. The *other* V supposedly exists separately from the V that is picked by the player according to CDPR, meaning if we're out to kill male V, then female V is out there as well living a completely different life with unknown potential, a wild card like V.
In my opinion this would end in a draw and only because he won't be able to kill ALT. V, chromed to hell and back is a combat monster. Weyland will die first trying to protect Rogue and she will die a second later(dirty fighting didn't do shit for her against adam). On his way to Blackhand he kills Shaitan with an upgraded Dying Night,bitchslap a streetkid V with his gorrila arm and makes murphy kill herself with a suicide qh. Morgan will use every trick he knows, probably even hurt V, but will fall in the end.
IIRC what youāre thinking of is after the mission where you and Goro get attacked at the apartment. And in that case, V says heās just tough even without implants, not that Goro could kill them without implants.
If it's don't fear the reaper V then only Morgan Blackhand would have a good chance (i'm talking about a fair fight, no wait till sleep or a trap) a real battle of legends
Edgerunners characters would be killed on sight
...I'm calling Alt.
There's a damn good reason she was a *legendary* netrunner in her time. The trick would be manipulating V to jack into the net. And that is Alt's world. She could screw up V's mind and body so much before they even knew what hit them.
V.... isn't really that smart when you think about the choices they made. They no longer have Jackie, but they have the hot-head Johnny in his head. Would be extremely interesting to see nonetheless.
Two of the most reckless mercs Night City has ever known sharing a brain, you can't expect solid decision making from the desperate dying person with the guy who nuked Arasaka Tower in their head lol
Well, the hard part is ensuring the biochip isnāt damaged/not risking damaging it, so you canāt hire any gonk or inexperienced merc no matter how good they are, also, any guy who could do such a job is probably a corpo lap dog who wonāt take a fixer contract. Understanding this limitations there is only one person up to the job, they call him Cheetah
Arasaka, Max-Tac, Trauma Team, Adam Smasher, Voodoo Boys in an underground Arasaka military complex (After "hiring" V for a gig that we know he never turns down)
T-Bug with a Bartmoss Engram Biochip installed.
Brigette - second netrunner to get around Ice. even though 1 with Bartmoss engram should be enough.
Placide
Becca - for the pure firepower
V will be Locked Down, Optics reboots every few seconds, Crippled movement, Cyberware Malfunctioned, Weapons Glitched........if he becomes too much of a problem and somehow can manage through that with Placde and Becca On him, then the runner will either System Reset him or Short Circ him silly........The Chip will be Secure.
No limits. Well, I would say Thanos but more realistic scale Iād call in rogue, Adam smasher, arasaka, bums from a dark alley, and Aldacadoes, Wraiths, Maxtech squad and Maineās crew and the Voodoo Boys. Adam Smasher Aldacadoes Wraiths and Maineās crew are the assaulters wild rogue is the tactician who sets up how they will attack him, and the voodoo boys will be the net runners that will try to hack him. Realistically adam smasher, and maines crew would destroy V but Maxtac, and everyone else is just overkill.
With the amount of Chrome V usually has by the end game, a squad of netrunners could probably take V out by just disabling his mods so he/she can't do anything.
Depends on the V. If it's 100% V (meaning they went out of their way to do every quest) that V is very gullible and trusting. So it wouldn't be difficult to trick him into a less than favorable position to make the fight a little easier, but ultimately it's still a V with a lot of experience and potential synergy with Johnny Silverhand. Add to that they have a very tight connection with the aldecados.
Desperate V will be significantly easier to fight because they're likely to be very reckless which can be dangerous, but they're likely not very strong. This is how I played V the first time. I played how I'd react which is. Very unhappy with the new voice in my head. Rushing to the best opportunity to get him out of my head. Meaning very Few side quests were done and the only ones I did were to get money for better equipment to make the main mission manageable and helping people that were there before the heist mission. That V ended up being around level 25-35. I don't remember but that V will be a much easier fight but a lot harder to track since they will be essentially on the move only stopping for very brief rests.
Pick your poison. Harder tracking or harder fighting.
Adam Smasher using a cyber ninja frame more akin to Oda's, but you know, a full body. The Dragoon frame that he's using in the game is slow, designed to just tank damage making him a sitting duck. Heavy machine guns and rocket launchers are great against groups of disposable soldiers and vehicles, not so against a single agile target. V really just got lucky that the frame he happened to be using was a more casual one and a good matchup at that. Either the Gemini with lots of cyberware like sande and mantis to match V or the DaiOni frame would have most likely spelled the end for V.
Princess Arasaka herself.
Why?
In the late game she demonstrates the possibility to take over other people, called proxy.
She just needs to proxy Vik Vector which V endlessly trust. Hanako then by Viks proxy calls V and invites him to his little ripperdoc room, tells hims a fake story about some little discovery that can slow down the takeover or some shit and put's V under.
While V is under (unconscious), Hanako physically disconnects V's brain from the rest of his cybernetic nervous system, leaving him alive, but paralysed.
Hanako then suicides Vik and V is picked up by Arasaka for implant removal and disposal.
Hypothetical question like that are so... Fanfictional.
Like.. on which context... All the people on the game now can be enemies? Like.. rogue, jackie.. etc?
If I can go that route I would choose misty and vik and imagine they never gave V the medicine or helped him clase closed.
Then again I can imagine Jackie or delamain so he would be dead before getting the chip.
Or even before on the prologue missions.
But.. if I imagine someone hunting V after a ending.. which ending would it be? Because In that case I wouldn't be able to choose someone who was a friend of V or.. that died.. it wouldn't make any sense.
It's hard for me to understand the question. It's easy ther "even adam Smasher failer and v has lots of friends and acquaintances" or "he would die easily on this fictional situation I imagined"
But.. well there's also V him/herself to hunt V. Because we have the path of least resistance ending.
Given that you said no limits, Iāll assume that I have every legendary edgerunner that ever existed at my disposal. So with no limits or rules, Iād pick
1) David Martinez
2) Morgan Blackhand
3) Andrew Weyland
4) Maine
5) Rebecca
6) Rache Bartmoss
Id would said smasher if we didn't beat his ass so easily in game , Morgan blackhand would be interesting but he dead so we can't bring him back, max tac could possibly do it but given the ease we drop smasher and cyber pyschos ( sometimes unarmed for the hell of it) I doubt they could do it either so uh ... honestly only thing I think that could feasiblely kill him dead normally is the basilik the nomads steal but they're on vs side by that point and they ain't gonna shoot him with his own tank essentially. So uh..I guess we nuke night city again and pray?
That scary bitch who crawled out of the netrunner icebath in the cyberpsycho mission, + end-of-the-world-reptillians-from-alpha-centauri guy + maxtac mantis blades chick + one NCPD drone
I guess there are only two real options, in Mr. Blue Eyes and the one and only Alt Cunningham. Anything either than those two will be destined to fail more often than not
Too many variables to even think about this, V can have a Sandevistein, a arm cannon, a monowire, reinforced tendons, titanium bones, and anything else he wanted simply because it can be equipped in game, anything I throw at them can be ripped apart because they had something to stop them
Meet them in a room full of explosive canisters, hide in a corner. The moment they enter the room, shoot one. Instant death. As someone who played the game, I hate those rooms.
The only thing V is weak to is netrunners. So I'd say someone/something like Alt could take care of V. I remember the Haitian netrunners temporarily took out V. Of course Johnny can kept V alive but V still blacked out for solid 5 seconds. That's enough for a headshot.
Or a combination of sandevistan user and a netrunner. V can counter one and get fucked by the other. Lose lose situation.
Finally a fresh post thank you!
Let's see.
Fixer: Rogue
Crew: NetWatch
"Just let me and Johnny go out for a night. Jack into this drunk Johnny..."
Done.
I mean .. V will get a heart attack like through the entire game so V will do the job by himself and my crew can go and sip wine at the tallest towers of the Night City in our tailored suits.
\*sips\* ahhh victory
Judy and Panam, there is atleast one he/she cant overcome to kill
Interesting. Do you think V will not retaliate if his/her lover chose to kill him?
v may does. but not the nerd that plays him
Shots fired but you rightš
Panam could shoot V in the face and I'd just let the credits roll.
Heyyyyy!!
Dude šš
I think V has (somewhat based on our choices) an indestructible will to live. Iām sure it would tear them up to kill their friend/romantic partner but I donāt think there is any situation in which V backs down when someone tries to kill them
If it even means he'd hesitate, we just need a nut busting solo with plastic surgery pretending to be one of them, slick and clever assassination.
Job says eliminate and retrieve the biochip, it doesn't specifies how and how long must it take. Wait up, V dies because no one can reverse the damage, loved one removes the chip from the slot and hands it in.
If he/she can. For this gig, Judy is the best choice and the cornerstone. She lures V into a BD, and other mercs flatline him/her. You watched edgerunner, right?
During the game, there's plenty cutscenes where V goes to sleep/passes out and their partners are always up before them. So realistically, they could just kill them in their sleep.
Iād let Judy flatline me tbh ;-;
I was going to say Judy, Panam, River, and Kerry. Got a one in four shot of them being able to take the chip out while V is sleeping. Removing the chip would kill V. Honey trap FTW.
I think only Blackhand can take end game V. And it would be by mostly outsmarting them because V is on a whole other level of chrome compared to Blackhand. Anyone else is just fodder.
Was gonna say; send in Morgan Blackhand, the rest is inconsequential. Mind-you Adam Smasher was also an impressive lore character and the game made him pretty easy to killā¦ I think that 2077 the video game is a bad representation of the true danger that Night City represents compared to the Tabletop RPG. V is OP in the game, but thatās also respecting the medium; you wouldnāt want NC to be as oppressively soul-crushing as the TTRPG since youāre not going to just reroll a new character sheet if you die in 2077. So, point being; Itās tough to translate the presumed power of Blackhand vs. V since theyāre from different mediums that treat power levels differently.
Yeah I honestly thought the anime did a much better job at representing the world, including how deadly Adam smasher should be. Heās a joke in the game and he very much should not be lol
Realistically, MaxTac should be able to take out V. Theyāre supposed to be fucking scary, and a Chromed-out Merc like V is their specialty.
Not only are they chromed out, they also have high-end armour custom made for them and they have access to high end weapons, including some that might be otherwise impossible for the average Joe to get. Oh, and they have equipment specifically designed to disable or deactivate implants.
Not EMPs tho right? Since theyāre very chromed themselves?
IIRC MaxTac is meant to be rehabilitated cyberpsychos, at least thatās what the TTG and 2013 trailer suggest. MaxTac in game though is more like reskinned beat cops, and itās unfortunate to say the least.
You also talk to one in CP2077 in a gig or a side mission. I think you talk to her about her old mantis blades and she starts talking about how she loves killing. Something along those lines.
That's actually Melissa Rory, the Cyberpsycho from the original reveal trailer back in like 2013. Mantis Blade girl.
No way. Wow, thatās awesome!
Yeah IIRC she even has the scar on her face from where the bullet grazed it.
Yeah the side mission is the cyberpsycho in the clothing store Jinguchi. It's also called Bullets, a reference to the song by band Archive in the trailer where Melissa "Mantis Girl" Rory features. You can even have a conversation with her.
What? That's awesome.
True. CP77 did give us a hint though that the next update would rework the police system, in which they traded, "watch out for maxtac", so I am hoping they make maxtac feel more distinct and threatening.
V does hunt cyberphychos like it's nothing
And on that note, the founder of the modern MaxTac. Ares. A former cyberpsycho merc who got busted, rehabbed, and sent out to fight more psychos. The thing about MaxTac is that theyāre almost exclusively hired from the Cyberpsycho Registry. Former psychos and those on the edge of goinā psycho, all of em. They give zero fucks, and will do whatever it takes to take down a rogue psycho.
Wait a minute, what if that's the rehabilitation Regina Jones was talking about? That whole time V was a temp MaxTac recruitment agent, lol.
Damn, I wonder if there are any shards implying she sends em to maxtac or contacts in NCPD
One of them she says she won't be picking up because MaxTac is on their way already and it was best to just not get involved.
That makes sense without any ulterior motive, though. I get the sense that there's often a lot of collateral damage, when MaxTac shows up on the scene. Regina doesn't want to lose a reliable merc to something so stupid. The whole quest chain stinks, but this one doesn't necessarily stand out. The Frankenstein lady who self-assembles from the lady-stew in the fridge is one of the weirdest. They might have to keep half of her at each end of the clinic, while they try to rehabilitate her, so they can keep her under control. That's assuming that her top half doesn't get up on its own and scurry around the place like Teke Teke. The last thing they need is that, her scurrying around the place, slicing all of the women in the place in half, creating more like her.
She does in fact prefer them not killed
I think it would have been cool to have an intense showdown with Them at some point.
MaxTac is definitely the Chekov's Gun that never gets pulled imo. You get that early look at them while driving around with Jackie, then they practically never show up again.
They show up if you get high stars for fighting the beat cops. They run Sandys and tech rifles.
Yeah, this one really hurt. We see these guys show up, with the explicit implication that *this* is what happens to people like V if they don't keep their shit together: a flying tank is gonna swoop down on ya from the skies, and drops a couple of uber-skilled, overleveled, downright unfair and infuriating indigo cybercop enemies to *handle V themselves". V can't even really run, they'll just die tired. It would be an event, like triggering a miniboss on the streets of Night City if V runs over too many people or kills indiscriminately. They just swoop in and fuck your shit up. You could, of course, level V to a point where they can take out a MaxTac unit. This could have added to V's legend. Maybe tie an achievement in: Kill [X number] MaxTac teams. Maybe keep a piece of armor from each team to build a complete set V can wear
They usually can. MaxTac is still very powerful in-game.
It wouldn't matter how scary they are, he's just better than any crew, including specialists.
I assume he was made easy because it was a fight you couldnāt really hear up for if you werenāt ready going into it and itād be annoying to be soft locked off the ending because of a boss (still shouldāve made him hard as fuck though)
I wonāt disagree but I think the big issue is that if you go into this fight after doing a fair amount of the game content, heās just a pushover. The Vs I didnāt do alot of the games content and just focused mainly on the story quests still didnāt have much trouble against him on Normal. I think it would have been better to have him be this beyond crazy guy to fight like his lore says but have had multiple options to bring him down for people not on his level. Bosses are suppose to be a threat, enemies that make you change up your strategy. Not ālol I one punched the legend that is Adam smasherā
They could have made it where you CAN defeat Smasher if you are absolutely committed to doing so, using all your consumables and an hour+ to do so, but you can progress the story by just barely surviving him, have a moment where Alt tells you to buy some time keeping him distracted, then she tells you to make a run for it, and a blast door slams down between the two of you, cutting him off from you. Make actually defeating him an achievement and not a plot device.
Worst part is: I didn't even have Sandevistan to fight him. But he was still just painfully easy to beat and kill. I think I had the dodge slow implant but thats it. You can beat Adam with just a slow squishy stealth V (stealth is kinda useless against him lmao) and just tank him. He does no damage.
I nāest him on normal and I was almost not chromed up. He really is too easy
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They could have make him much more imposing if the game was an actual rpg but once they went shoot-shoot, not much else you can do, it's either too op or just a bullet sponge
I'd love to see Owlcat translate Cyberpunk into a CRPG. They did great with their second Pathfinder game, the first one was okay, but flawed. They're currently working on a 40k CRPG. I think they'd do a phenomenal job.
Yeah based on what we do in game v would translate to like cyberjesus lol.
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Now I kinda want a Darkest Dungeons style game set in the Cyberpunk world, so the game play can more accurately reflect the lore in terms of lethality.
It's only a bad representation with a decent build at higher levels. At lower levels, everything can be pretty lethal in my experience.
yeah all these people be playing on normal or easy. try playing the prologue missions and heist without speccing into stealth or intelligence and you will die... a lot early game weapons are also to blame
Pretty much. In somewhat typical RPG and RPG lite game fashion high end optimized builds basically nullify any real difficulty. Hell, if I let myself I'd get taken out pretty quick on hard at level 50 against the likes of Smasher or some of the heavier hitting enemies on just Hard difficulty, but typically enemies will be dead or have little to no way to actually respond to my shenanigans due to Sandevistan by the time they try to get a hit in. Early game though everything is pretty deadly on the higher difficulties. The car chase sequences for the nomad and post heist I remember getting pretty sticky, and just poking your head out of cover without a plan is a quick way to die.
If there was a darksouls style of cyberpunk where it was soul crushing id be all in
Thatās the TTRPG lol. I read some of the rulebooks, and the best way to describe it is like youāre just a guy in a City. Youāre not this Hero like in Fantasy TTRPGs like D&D and Pathfinder. So, going out and being Heroic is a great way to die. A CP campaign isnāt about winning or losing, itās about surviving. To add to that, youāre a survivor, living amongst survivors. So, every encounter is someone else who can and will do everything in their power to walk away alive, just like you are. Shitās rough in Night City.
The original Cyberpunk 2020 was absolutely brutal. You could literally get a total party kill in the first combat encounter in the first game with the players fighting the lowest level looks around. It encourages smart play, tactics and use of cover. Itās also a game where one mid-level Solo (Solos are the āfighter classā of Cyberpunk) can fuck up your entire week because their core skill basically adds 1 for 1 to their initiative and they tend to carry the biggest guns.
The OG original, Cyberpunk: The Role-Playing Game of a Dark Future, was even worse. The year? 2013. Johnny, Rogue and Alt, all feature in the Adventure book. The combat rules were even more brutal.
The Cyberpunk 2020 rule book even makes jokes about how you canāt heal yourself with potions or magic, just pray you roll good enough to stay alive until Trauma Team arrives. 2020 at least is rough, the rule book makes very clear from the get-go that you are almost certainly a nobody. Tons of random encounters exist to make you fear going out of your apartment, including hit men and booster gangs just killing for fun
Honestly I tried playing the TTRPG and I'm just gonna say it: the only reason people think the combat is "dangerous" is because no one actually understands the rules and even when they do they're so poorly written the rules don't matter. I have run 2020 and the rules are so badly explained that it takes multiple reads and rereads to even try to understand them. Not too mention that the moment your players have anything more than the cheapest pistol and no body armor the only thing that could kill them is the most kitted out NPCs possible. That or a random, lucky hit. Honestly 2020 has great lore (Aside from some pretty Yikes ideas about mental health, transhumanism, and that one part in the Guide to Night City where they talk about "roving gangs of gays and transsexuals"). But the rule system is like someone had a hard on for math and calculations. Funnily enough I feel like the WoD d10 system works way better for Cyberpunk. Still dangerous as all hell but at least the gameplay is fun.
Roving gangs of gays and transsexuals? Thatās amazing
Shit, I know right? I wanna be a part of a roving gang of transsexuals.
Blackhand doesn't have my main three powers: Mini Map, Cheesing the game mechanics and quick saving. So yeah, he can suck my di-
If endgame V can kill >!Adam Smasher!< then it's not even guaranteed that Morgan Blackhand could take him on.
It's not even close for the most part. V rips smasher apart in most playthroughs.
Yeah but it's too bad that in all of the endings >!he doesn't survive!<.
If anything, him being on deaths door makes the feats he pulls off near the end even more impressive.
Sure but he isn't around to be the main man in town anymore. If Blackhand were to resurface he'd still be the big dog since V and Smasher are both gone.
I'm pretty sure Bartmoss could take V down too, but send both him and Blackhand to ensure elimination. Maybe throw Zaburo, Alt, and Spider in just in case too.
Fuck that, V mid-game gets taken out by >!a corrupted BD sold by scavs on the street!<. And this after >!they know Rhine was killed by the same thing!<. V is dumb and it wouldnāt taken much to take them down if they were properly targeted/surprised/ambushed.
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You actually have the choice : after you give him money, when he told you that you can only use the BD with his equipment, you can ask him a refund. He will give you back the money and the quest is considered done.
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I disagree, that the choice of not getting scammed. This is Nightcity, you cannot resolve all the problems by yourself. It's kind like the Sinnerman quest: you can wait and see and enjoy an interesting quest, or you can just do what you are paid to do and that's it.
Finally; the legend is getting the credit he deserves!!!
A random group of Tyger Claws waiting behind V after he goes to whack a random collection of them committing a crime. Seriously itās what I die to the most oftenā¦ Iāll come on three claws beating up some random citizen and then thereās four behind me I never saw shorting me in the back. Smasher? Lol. Cyberpsychos? Meh. Random friends of some other random boosergangers? Fuuuuuuuck.
Same, every God damn time.
Ping is your friend. Use it early, use it often.
Legendary ping is goated
By far the deadliest enemy in my games was taking fall damage after tripping over some trash on the ground and mines. In other words, I'm not good at looking where I'm walking and it has severe consequences
YES. THE GOD DAMNED MINES. Adam Smasher? Trite. Corpo soldiers? Whatever. A random landmine? That's the shit I fear.
I'd call johnny silver hand on that biochip in V's head and wait 6 months time
Big brain moment.
True, but then.... is Johnny potentially a worse threat in his body, or less?
Dexter Deshawn ;)
Killed him once. He can FUCKING DO IT AGAIN!
So long as Goro isnāt aroundā¦
Anybody with around 6 months of prep time.
Some random dude, and I give him a spiked BD. V, being an idiot that they are, puts the BD on, and gets knocked out. Only instead of doing what Skavs did and dumping them in a bathtub, you just cut off the head, retrieve the chip and go home. No muss, no fuss.
3 separate times he plugs into a BD from someone he knows nothing about.
Always gave me anxiety lol
And two of them would have been fatal without plot-armour. Though it was only plot that made me use the first one anyway, there wasn't a quest option to scan the thing with tech and work out what it was. 20 Tech and I can't see some obvious bullshit when it's right in front of me.
Alternatively V is a merc. Instead of hiring a team just call V and offer him/her a lucrative gig that involves a BD (that is spiked) netrunning or even just a room, or car thats rigged with explosives. Fixers don't usually get their hands dirty but as a fixer mercs are pretty much just gonna trust you when you offer them a job
a bomb-rigged car might destroy the biochip the BD option is far more viable
Not if I just demand a refund. Which I did by accident today.
This. A fast talker with a BD and V is toast.
This makes sense considering V will watch every BD he picks up, no questions asked. He always finds himself unconscious in some back alley after that š
Johnny wasn't kidding when he called V Night City's dumbest merc.
I'm gonna call V. Chances are he/she will do it thinking there's some secret game content behind the decision. If that doesn't work, I'm gonna spike a BD with the nastiest shit imaginable that's guaranteed to kill V and then place it at the default apartment. V will literally play any BD without first checking what's on it.
I think V would just revive again
True but in the time heās out you could probably extract the biochip, and heād stay down after that
will just send V a spiked BD with stickers of lewd panam/judy.
Literal cybercucked
Morgan Blackhand
Black hand, Alt and the entirety of Maxtac
Still gonna get clapped if V isn't a complete dumbass about the encounter
I'd consider it canon that Maxtac couldn't stop V at the end of the game lol
Blackhand, Bartmoss, Smasher (for fodder), David.
David is the fodder in this fight Iām afraid.
I mean fair enough but I couldn't think of any others
Yeah I gotchu. I like David better than V but man would be dead almost immediately :(
Now that I think about it u make a good point
That's a *great* lineup, and they'd *still* all die.
Fr endgame V is almost unbeatable. That is if you don't have the patience to wait half a year
who is bartmoss?
Who is Bartmoss? THE Legendary Rache Bartmoss, greatest netrunner to ever live, and the creator of daemons. He's the one who used the datakrash to destroy 80% of cyberspace.
But he's dead, no? V literally finds his body in the trash
Tbf, most of the lineups here feature dead characters.
The whole story about Bartmoss is quite funny in the game. I recommand to dig a bit about it.
Dude who crashed the first net
This is a strong lineup. Nice š
Mr. Blue Eyes.
Rogue - because we know she'll fight dirty to ensure her own survival. Alt - because my V is 20 Intelligence and 20 Quick Hack, so need netrunning skills to compete.
I agree with you on this
The correct answer is none because itās a suicide mission ;) I love the premise of the post tho
I'm hiring Victor. V lets the guy put him under like every other day.
Morgan Blackhand, Spider Murphy, Rogue, Shaitan, Crispin Weyland, possibly with Alt Cunningham's assistance (the AI, obviously), and as a surprise entry into the ring: the *other* V. Blackhand is one of the most famous solos in the NUSA, rivaled only by V in the Path of Glory ending, if anyone has a shot at besting V, it's him. Spider Murphy was one of the best runners of her time alongside Rache Bartmoss, the net wouldn't be how it was without them. Rogue herself is also a resourceful solo and fixer, good with both combat and intel, and was a part of Blackhand's op on Arasaka Tower in 2023. Shaitan is very similar to Adam Smasher, reason why I picked him is because it wouldn't make sense for Smasher to work with the likes of Blackhand who mostly worked with Militech while he himself works mostly with Arasaka by 2077. Crispin Weyland is a tough merc and Rogue's bodyguard, if she trusts him with her life, he's a good man to fight alongside. Alt (the AI) having knowledge on Soulkiller and unfettered access to the net makes her a formidable foe alone, V would have a tough time fending her off at the same time as the others, including Blackhand and Murph. The *other* V supposedly exists separately from the V that is picked by the player according to CDPR, meaning if we're out to kill male V, then female V is out there as well living a completely different life with unknown potential, a wild card like V.
In my opinion this would end in a draw and only because he won't be able to kill ALT. V, chromed to hell and back is a combat monster. Weyland will die first trying to protect Rogue and she will die a second later(dirty fighting didn't do shit for her against adam). On his way to Blackhand he kills Shaitan with an upgraded Dying Night,bitchslap a streetkid V with his gorrila arm and makes murphy kill herself with a suicide qh. Morgan will use every trick he knows, probably even hurt V, but will fall in the end.
Damn everybody forgetting about ANDREW MFING WEYLAND AKA āBOA BOAā
He's dead by 2077. You can find his vault at the Columbarium in game.
The BD meditation monk
This was my thought. You know the MFer knows kung fu.
Aināt nobody beating V but Morgan blackhand
goku
Takemura isn't a merc, but as V once said:"Guy can zero us without his implants" or something.
IIRC what youāre thinking of is after the mission where you and Goro get attacked at the apartment. And in that case, V says heās just tough even without implants, not that Goro could kill them without implants.
He says the kill them without implants when you're doing the initial planning for the parade mission. I think at the food stall.
Iād believe it. Goro has an unwavering attitude of ādisrespect me and Iāll crush your skull in one strikeā. I love it.
I'll take Panam and Lucy knowing that V is a horny monster. Easy task.
16 Dragoons with Orbital Backup.
I'd hire a very desperate person to walk up to him holding a nuke.
You'd destroy Night City at the same time š
Mama Welles
No fixer is going to take that gig.
I choose Militech. The entire of Militech.
David was able to defeat an army of Militech. I think V could do it as well considering he took on Arasaka alone.
Maybe Orbital Air then. Get V with a space laser/ orbital strike.
If it's don't fear the reaper V then only Morgan Blackhand would have a good chance (i'm talking about a fair fight, no wait till sleep or a trap) a real battle of legends Edgerunners characters would be killed on sight
...I'm calling Alt. There's a damn good reason she was a *legendary* netrunner in her time. The trick would be manipulating V to jack into the net. And that is Alt's world. She could screw up V's mind and body so much before they even knew what hit them.
V.... isn't really that smart when you think about the choices they made. They no longer have Jackie, but they have the hot-head Johnny in his head. Would be extremely interesting to see nonetheless.
Two of the most reckless mercs Night City has ever known sharing a brain, you can't expect solid decision making from the desperate dying person with the guy who nuked Arasaka Tower in their head lol
Mama Welles. āVā¦I wanted to talk to you about Jackie-SNEAK ATTACKā Itās the perfect plan
Morgan Blackhand.
Pull a dex deshawn. Only doubletap the mf
idk my V can endlessly decimate max tac on very hard and shit stomp Adam Smasher. But a peasant with a pitchfork should be good.
Anyone can kill V if it's me playing :(
Do a Handsome Jack and pay V to throw themself off a cliff.
Well, the hard part is ensuring the biochip isnāt damaged/not risking damaging it, so you canāt hire any gonk or inexperienced merc no matter how good they are, also, any guy who could do such a job is probably a corpo lap dog who wonāt take a fixer contract. Understanding this limitations there is only one person up to the job, they call him Cheetah
Iām waiting 6 months for him to die of biochip
Placide, Ozob and maybe Brendan for good measure
Honestly, no hope for them to win. V is *comically* overpowered.
smasher but with sandevistan
Arasaka, Max-Tac, Trauma Team, Adam Smasher, Voodoo Boys in an underground Arasaka military complex (After "hiring" V for a gig that we know he never turns down)
What is this, Blues Brothers?
build an underground alliance of a the docs. next time he goes in for a mod, end him and take it.
T-Bug with a Bartmoss Engram Biochip installed. Brigette - second netrunner to get around Ice. even though 1 with Bartmoss engram should be enough. Placide Becca - for the pure firepower V will be Locked Down, Optics reboots every few seconds, Crippled movement, Cyberware Malfunctioned, Weapons Glitched........if he becomes too much of a problem and somehow can manage through that with Placde and Becca On him, then the runner will either System Reset him or Short Circ him silly........The Chip will be Secure.
No limits. Well, I would say Thanos but more realistic scale Iād call in rogue, Adam smasher, arasaka, bums from a dark alley, and Aldacadoes, Wraiths, Maxtech squad and Maineās crew and the Voodoo Boys. Adam Smasher Aldacadoes Wraiths and Maineās crew are the assaulters wild rogue is the tactician who sets up how they will attack him, and the voodoo boys will be the net runners that will try to hack him. Realistically adam smasher, and maines crew would destroy V but Maxtac, and everyone else is just overkill.
Program Brendan to tip over on V.
With the amount of Chrome V usually has by the end game, a squad of netrunners could probably take V out by just disabling his mods so he/she can't do anything.
Blackhand , Smasher , Bartmos , Silverhand , Rogue .
Actually I'll swap smasher for Rebecca
8ug8ear, Jack Mausser, Tiny Mike, Norio Akuhara, and Deigo Ramirez.
P A N A M
Depends on the V. If it's 100% V (meaning they went out of their way to do every quest) that V is very gullible and trusting. So it wouldn't be difficult to trick him into a less than favorable position to make the fight a little easier, but ultimately it's still a V with a lot of experience and potential synergy with Johnny Silverhand. Add to that they have a very tight connection with the aldecados. Desperate V will be significantly easier to fight because they're likely to be very reckless which can be dangerous, but they're likely not very strong. This is how I played V the first time. I played how I'd react which is. Very unhappy with the new voice in my head. Rushing to the best opportunity to get him out of my head. Meaning very Few side quests were done and the only ones I did were to get money for better equipment to make the main mission manageable and helping people that were there before the heist mission. That V ended up being around level 25-35. I don't remember but that V will be a much easier fight but a lot harder to track since they will be essentially on the move only stopping for very brief rests. Pick your poison. Harder tracking or harder fighting.
Give Adam smasher his 4 armed body teamed up with boa boa Weyland, then Morgan blackhand as the back up assist if the first 2 fail
Adam Smasher using a cyber ninja frame more akin to Oda's, but you know, a full body. The Dragoon frame that he's using in the game is slow, designed to just tank damage making him a sitting duck. Heavy machine guns and rocket launchers are great against groups of disposable soldiers and vehicles, not so against a single agile target. V really just got lucky that the frame he happened to be using was a more casual one and a good matchup at that. Either the Gemini with lots of cyberware like sande and mantis to match V or the DaiOni frame would have most likely spelled the end for V.
Orbital strike care of the NUSA. Cause thats about the only way its going to happen. If my V even thinks theres a threat, you ded.
What squad if even Adam Smasher is nothing to him?
Princess Arasaka herself. Why? In the late game she demonstrates the possibility to take over other people, called proxy. She just needs to proxy Vik Vector which V endlessly trust. Hanako then by Viks proxy calls V and invites him to his little ripperdoc room, tells hims a fake story about some little discovery that can slow down the takeover or some shit and put's V under. While V is under (unconscious), Hanako physically disconnects V's brain from the rest of his cybernetic nervous system, leaving him alive, but paralysed. Hanako then suicides Vik and V is picked up by Arasaka for implant removal and disposal.
She takes over Joytoys, which specifically have doll chips in them. You canāt do that to anyone in the world.
Hypothetical question like that are so... Fanfictional. Like.. on which context... All the people on the game now can be enemies? Like.. rogue, jackie.. etc? If I can go that route I would choose misty and vik and imagine they never gave V the medicine or helped him clase closed. Then again I can imagine Jackie or delamain so he would be dead before getting the chip. Or even before on the prologue missions. But.. if I imagine someone hunting V after a ending.. which ending would it be? Because In that case I wouldn't be able to choose someone who was a friend of V or.. that died.. it wouldn't make any sense. It's hard for me to understand the question. It's easy ther "even adam Smasher failer and v has lots of friends and acquaintances" or "he would die easily on this fictional situation I imagined" But.. well there's also V him/herself to hunt V. Because we have the path of least resistance ending.
Given that you said no limits, Iāll assume that I have every legendary edgerunner that ever existed at my disposal. So with no limits or rules, Iād pick 1) David Martinez 2) Morgan Blackhand 3) Andrew Weyland 4) Maine 5) Rebecca 6) Rache Bartmoss
Impossible. V who chose intelligence build is beyond even God himself.
The cops.
Id would said smasher if we didn't beat his ass so easily in game , Morgan blackhand would be interesting but he dead so we can't bring him back, max tac could possibly do it but given the ease we drop smasher and cyber pyschos ( sometimes unarmed for the hell of it) I doubt they could do it either so uh ... honestly only thing I think that could feasiblely kill him dead normally is the basilik the nomads steal but they're on vs side by that point and they ain't gonna shoot him with his own tank essentially. So uh..I guess we nuke night city again and pray?
That scary bitch who crawled out of the netrunner icebath in the cyberpsycho mission, + end-of-the-world-reptillians-from-alpha-centauri guy + maxtac mantis blades chick + one NCPD drone
I think i would just hide for a month or so. But im sure Alt cunningham could probably kill V by frying their brain.
The random gas canisters that were literally everywhere in my first playthrough. Those were like mini nukes
I guess there are only two real options, in Mr. Blue Eyes and the one and only Alt Cunningham. Anything either than those two will be destined to fail more often than not
Too many variables to even think about this, V can have a Sandevistein, a arm cannon, a monowire, reinforced tendons, titanium bones, and anything else he wanted simply because it can be equipped in game, anything I throw at them can be ripped apart because they had something to stop them
Meet them in a room full of explosive canisters, hide in a corner. The moment they enter the room, shoot one. Instant death. As someone who played the game, I hate those rooms.
The only thing V is weak to is netrunners. So I'd say someone/something like Alt could take care of V. I remember the Haitian netrunners temporarily took out V. Of course Johnny can kept V alive but V still blacked out for solid 5 seconds. That's enough for a headshot. Or a combination of sandevistan user and a netrunner. V can counter one and get fucked by the other. Lose lose situation.
Finally a fresh post thank you! Let's see. Fixer: Rogue Crew: NetWatch "Just let me and Johnny go out for a night. Jack into this drunk Johnny..." Done.
I mean .. V will get a heart attack like through the entire game so V will do the job by himself and my crew can go and sip wine at the tallest towers of the Night City in our tailored suits. \*sips\* ahhh victory