The difficulty here is rarely mechanical — it is a decision made twenty minutes earlier that closed the door.

Short answer

Do the optional preparation. It converts a difficult sequence into a routine one.

Difficulty settings change numbers here, not the sequence. Optional preparation is what separates a ten-minute attempt from a two-hour one. Everything below is framed around the current state of Cyberpunk 2077 rather than a launch-week impression.

Before you start

The game signals the requirement once, quietly, and never mentions it again. A save immediately before the decision point costs nothing and occasionally saves hours. There is usually a fast way and a reliable way, and it is worth knowing which one you are choosing. Some outcomes are locked behind an earlier conversation rather than behind performance.

Reading ahead spoils some of it; going in blind costs some of it. Pick which you mind less. Anything that behaves differently on console than on PC is flagged where it matters. A failed attempt usually leaves the world in a state you can still recover from.

Working through it

Where two approaches both work, the one with fewer moving parts is the one to keep. The community wisdom on this is roughly half right, and the half that is wrong costs the most time. The short version is near the top on purpose; the reasoning is there if you want to know why.

  • Note which choice you made, for later sections that reference it.
  • Save manually before the first irreversible step.
  • Expect one number in every guide to be out of date; the method is what matters.
  • Do not sell anything you picked up here until it is finished.

If it goes wrong

Do the cheap check before the expensive one — that ordering alone saves most of the frustration. Nothing here assumes a particular playstyle beyond wanting the thing to work. The awkward part is rarely the step itself, it is knowing which step comes first. Cyberpunk 2077 is not shy about hiding useful information two menus deep, so some of this is simply knowing where to look.

The developers have changed their mind about this at least once, which explains the older advice. If your result differs from what is described here, note what is different first rather than starting over. It helps to understand why a step exists, because then you can adapt it when your situation is slightly different.

Choices that matter later

Where something depends on your platform or region, that is called out rather than glossed over. If a step reads as obvious, do it anyway — the obvious ones are the ones people skip and then wonder about. Screenshots age faster than text, which is why this describes rather than shows.

If you are coming to this after a long break, the terminology has probably moved on. None of this needs a paid tool, a third-party launcher or an account on a site you have never heard of. There is no hidden trick here that the game is keeping from you.

The part people get stuck on

What follows assumes you are on a current install and have not modified it. Treat anything stated without a version number as provisional. A single check up front replaces a lot of guessing later.

Where people go wrong

  • Skipping the prerequisite because it looked optional in someone else's summary.
  • Rushing the last step, which is usually the one with the actual requirement in it.
  • Grinding a method that was patched months ago because a thread still ranks well.

Cyberpunk FAQ

How long does this take?

Minutes if it goes cleanly, an evening if you hit the edge case in the caveats list. Neither is unusual.

I missed a step — is my save ruined?

Almost certainly not. Most of these have a recovery path, and where there is not, an earlier save covers it.

Why do other guides describe this differently?

Most were written for an earlier version and never revisited. Compare the steps against what your build actually shows.

Do I need any mods or third-party tools for this?

No. Everything described here works with the base game on any supported platform.

Bookmark it if you like, but honestly, once you have done it once you will not need to come back.