History VideoGame / Cyberpunk2077

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to subsequently released material, it's a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and keeps his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba will be appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed. "Phantom Liberty" is set to release on September 26, 2023.

* LeaningOnTheFourthWall: In [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P39n86v-T7w the Idris Elba Live-Action trailer]], he asks the audience "How do you win when the game is stacked against you? You go all in." Just in case you thought he was ''only'' talking about the expansion's story and not the fixes to the game itself, he ends the trailer with "Remember, the game is fixed." Phantom Liberty releases alongside the free (and final) 2.0 update from the game's infamously glitchy launch, and the main game has been widely considered "fixed" for some time.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream meant to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's first major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to subsequently released material, it's kept in the convention of a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and will likely keep his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba will be appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed. "Phantom Liberty" is set to release on September 26, 2023.

* ForgoneConclusion: The Cinematic Trailer shows Solomon being gunned down by Arasaka soldiers in a train after being betrayed by Songbird. As shown in other trailers and previews, however, Solomon survived and went into hiding.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream meant to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's first major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to subsequently released material, it's kept in the convention of a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and will likely keep his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba will be appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed. "Phantom Liberty" is set to release on September 6, 2023.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream meant to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's first major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced, with a release date of 2023 for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to subsequently released material, it's kept in the convention of a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in rescuing the President from Dogtown, a never-before explored district of Night City. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and will likely keep his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign, and Creator/IdrisElba will be appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream meant to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the [[Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners spin-off anime]] sharing its name, the game's first major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced, with a release date of 2023 for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to materials released alongside it, it's kept in the convention of a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in a currently unknown mission. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and will likely keep his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign as well as Creator/IdrisElba appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

On September 6th, 2022, in a stream meant to promote the "Edgerunners" update celebrating the nearing release of the spin-off anime sharing its name, the game's first major [[DownloadableContent DLC]], titled "Phantom Liberty", was announced, with a release date of 2023 for only the [[UsefulNotes/TheNinthGenerationOfConsoleVideoGames ninth generation consoles]] and PC. According to materials released alongside it, it's kept in the convention of a SpyFiction story, with V taking an oath to assist the government of the [=NUSA=] in a currently unknown mission. Creator/KeanuReeves reprises his role of Johnny Silverhand and will likely keep his status of {{Deuteragonist}} throughout the campaign as well as Creator/IdrisElba appearing as FIA Agent Solomon Reed.

[[caption-width-right:350:"Wake the fuck up, Samurai. We have a city to burn."]]

For the expanded universe, see [[Franchise/{{Cyberpunk}} here]].

[[folder:Expanded Universe Material]]
* Creator/DarkHorse Comic Books:

** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077TraumaTeam'': Written by Cullen Bunn and illustrated by Miguel Valderrama, released in March 2021.
** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077YouHaveMyWord'': Written by Bartosz Sztybor and illustrated by Jesús Hervás, with colors by Giulia Brusco and a VariantCover by Mattia de Iluis; New volumes are still being released.
** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077YourVoiceTP'': Written by Aleksandra Motyka and Marcin Blacha and illustrated by Danijel Zezelj. It was added for free to the game's preorders and was released in a physical form in July 2021.
** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077WheresJohnny'': Written by Bartosz Sztybor and illustrated by Giannis Milonogiannis, with the cover by Sean Phillips. Released in September 2021.
** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077BigCityDreams'': Written by Bartosz Sztybor and illustrated by Filipe Andrade and Alessio Fioriniello, with the cover by Matias Bergara. Released in January 2022.
** ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077Blackout'': Written by Bartosz Sztybor, with art and cover by Roberto Ricci, and an alternative cover by Max Fiumara. The run contains four comic books and was released from June to September 2022.

* ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'': A 10 episode anime set in the world of the game premiered on Creator/{{Netflix}} in September 2022. The series is produced by Creator/StudioTrigger in collaboration with Creator/CDProjektRed and directed by Creator/HiroyukiImaishi with Music/AkiraYamaoka as composer.

* ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2077GangsOfNightCity'': Creator/{{CMON}} have [[https://www.cmon.com/news/cmon-announces-cyberpunk-2077-afterlife-the-card-game announced]] [[https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/news/29212/announcing-cyberpunk-2077-afterlife-the-card-game that]] they are producing the game that was supposed to be released in 2020. It was originally a card game called ''Cyberpunk 2077: Afterlife -- the card game'', but has been renamed to ''Cyberpunk 2077: Gangs of Night City'' and was changed into a miniature board game instead. Players are supposed to take on the role of Fixers, recruiting cyberpunks and sending them on missions in Night City.

[[/folder]]

----
!!Wake the fuck up, Troper, we've got examples to burn:

[[index]]
* Cyberpunk2077/TropesAToB
* Cyberpunk2077/TropesC
* CyberPunk2077/TropesDToF
* Cyberpunk2077/TropesGToL
* CyberPunk2077/TropesMToR
* Cyberpunk2077/TropesSToZ
[[/index]]

[[foldercontrol]]

[[folder: # to D]]
* OneHundredPercentCompletion: There is no counter for the game at large, but the character menu keeps track of how far you've progressed in the three interconnected subplots of V's merc career, Johnny Silverhand's tale, and V's Relic problem, respectively. However, their meaningfulness is debatable. Aside from that you can unlock achievements by completing all gigs and NCPD tasks in Night City's various districts, with one achievement per district.
* AbortedArc: Several times throughout the game, interesting events occur that seem to initially build up, only to be abandoned and ultimately go nowhere.
** While investigating the death of Mayor Rhyme for the Peralezes, V finds a lot of evidence that his advisor Holt was involved, or at the very least knew it was going to happen and covered it up, with further implication that the NCPD may have been behind it due to Rhyme cutting their funding. None of this is picked up after the quest that the evidence is discovered, and River explicitly mentions that it was all swept under the rug.
** On the topic of the Peralezes, V begins to find evidence that the suspicious activity in their homes, and their odd memory issues, is being deliberately engineered by someone for an unclear purpose, and this someone contacts V with a warning not to interfere further just before they meet with Jefferson to reveal their findings. However, regardless of V's choice, none of this is brought up again, and the mysterious caller doesn't come up at any point after this. The only change is how Jefferson addresses V in the end credits: Tell him, and he's a paranoid wreck as the mysterious operator continues to harass him and his wife. Don't tell him, and he is relatively normal, and even asks if V would be interested in more wetwork for him. [[https://twitter.com/PKernaghan/status/1441026008350539785?s=20 Word of God on Twitter]] stated outright that V's role is to make a choice but not witness the consequences regarding that choice for the Peralezes; there IS a grand conspiracy playing out, but V isn’t able to overturn it alone.
** A more egregious version of this trope shows up during the Nomad heist of the [[HoverTank Basilisk]] from Militech. At V's prompting, the Aldecaldos can reveal they learned about the Basilisk from monitoring Militech comm channels, to which V can reply that the whole setup seems a little ''too'' good to be true, what with the convoy carrying the Basilisk essentially driving ''right by'' the Aldecaldo camp, practically waving it on the Nomads' doorstep. V's observations are pretty much shot down with little more than the explanation of "well, its too good an oppertunity to pass up!" but later in the quest the game hints again at something going on when the Militech comm operators conveniently boot the 'Caldos off their radio channels right after they snag the Basilisk, as if they ''just'' noticed they were listening in. Again, this is ignored by the Nomads, and Mitch later reveals he apparently threw Militech off the trail by parking the stolen transport trucks near a rival Nomad camp, and nothing more is made of it.
** Militech themselves appear several times throughout the game as potential allies. This, plus Militech's well known ''cold'' war with Arasaka since the Tower bombing, makes it strange that they fade so heavily into the background. If you work with Militech to retrieve the Flathead, the agent you speak to in the end of that mission makes it clear that they're open to working with V again. By Act 2, it's well known that V is a wanted person by Arasaka and is trying to find leads on several people, but Militech doesn't appear again as someone you directly work for/with. That same agent from the Flathead mission is also the one who gives a speech about how Militech is now the ones who will be outfitting NCPD with a new exoskeleton fleet, which doesn't appear in the game. This is only made more notable by the potential for V to have a one night stand with an agent of Militech, [[spoiler: Meredith Stout herself]], which is the only encounter of its kind in the game, as it's more in-depth than a Joytoy but notably lesser than any of the "full" romances that can be played out in the game.
** There are multiple gigs that target the same high-level Soviet fixer who's currently doing business in Night City. The Chinese are also involved somehow, plus said fixer appears to be a personal rival of Regina Jones', the NC fixer who hands out these gigs. It all seems to hint at some international shadow war going on behind the scenes, but the whole thing just peters out with no conclusion, never to be mentioned again.
** Some missions feature setpieces that are implied to have had major [[SceneryGorn impacts in the world]]. However, these are only referenced on radio or TV news and the world at large remains unchanged. Examples include the EMP power outage V causes while kidnapping Hellman (which caused millions in damages and widespread blackouts) and the sandstorm during ''Riders of the Storm'' (which killed or injured hundreds). The blackout is especially egregious, as the intro movie actually shows it taking place. However, for whatever reason, the mission in-game is set to daytime and occurs too far away from Night City for any changes to meaningfully render.
* AbsurdlyHighLevelCap: The max level is 50. Each level grants one attribute point, and the max level of each attribute is 20, and weapon and gear spawns are scaled to the player's level while enemy levels are static. All of the game's content becomes comfortably doable in the 20's, and reaching into the 30's makes most of it a push-over. Interestingly, it's difficult to reach level 50 unless you do absolutely everything in the game.
* AbsurdlyHugePopulation: Night City is densely populated with citizens from a variety of ethnicities, cultures, and subgroups due to being an important trade city. It is also economically segregated with a massive homeless population and reliant on trade with Nomads. As a result, people are packed together in a very small space with the Badlands stretching on for vast distances. This is made especially egregious by the presence of "megatowers", each one designed to be a city in itself and meant to house ''hundreds of thousands'' of residents, despite their size being only nominally larger than your average skyscraper.
-->'''V:''' Main issues? Sky high rate of violence and more people living below the poverty line than anywhere else. Can't deny it -- it's all true... but everybody still wants to live here.
* AbsurdlySharpBlade: The Mantis Blades and the katanas can easily cut enemies apart.
* AceCustom:
** Not only is V able to own several vehicles, but each one has unique visual and performance modifications not found in the models found in the streets. Cars sold by Dakota Smith are all this trope, being heavily modified by Nomads to better handle the scarce resources, hostile bandits and corpo soldiers, and nonexistent roads outside of big cities.
** During the course of the game, V can acquire Iconic Weapons, modified versions of ordinary guns that boast special effects, extra damage and [[BlingBlingBang flashy paint jobs]].
*** Special mention must be made of Johnny Silverhand's Malorian Arms 3516 handgun, a one-of-a-kind semiauto pistol designed and built specifically for him. It's one of the few truly unique weapons in the whole game, and the only gun that combines the traits of Power and Tech weapons in a single package.
** All of Judy's braindace equipment is custom made, except the casings.
** The Basilisk armoured transport the Aldecaldos steal ends up as this once their techs get to work on it, giving it massively upgraded firepower (an extra gun in its turret and a heavy-duty multi-tube smart missile system), a high-speed booster, and one of the clan's signature fancy paintjobs. [[spoiler:It ends up being dangerous enough to solo an entire Militech strike force with a single pilot and come out the other side in one piece.]]
* ActOfTrueLove:
** [[spoiler:"The Sun" ending is treated like this for Johnny. After everything they've gone through with Johnny, V trusts him enough to give him control over their body to get them to Mikoshi, because they believe they lack the strength to do so themselves. Johnny is clearly very humbled and eager to make V proud.]]
--->'''Johnny:''' Thanks [for trusting me], V. I'll get us through this, you'll see. See you on the other side (...) That's right. [[BadassBoast Even if I gotta burn this whole fuckin' city down!]]
** [[spoiler:Giving their body to Johnny in the "Temperance" ending is this for V, especially when the player achieves a high relic compatibility. Instead of living out whatever little they have left, they choose to go beyond Blackwall with Alt and give Johnny a chance at a new life and [[TheAtoner redemption]].]]
--->Sacrifice -- that doesn't even come close to describing what happened in Mikoshi. Is there a word for trading your life for someone who doesn't deserve it? Brass tacks - this body's got a new owner and he can go straight to hell if he doesn't treat it with respect. You catch all that, V? Shit, somehow I can't shake the feeling you're still here somewhere...
* ActionGirl: V can be played as a woman if the player so desires thanks to CharacterCustomization. You fight alongside a few of them (notably Judy and Panam) in a few story missions as well.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Nancy Hartley/Bes Isis's reaction to finding out the mysterious net personality Swedenborg-Riviera that she's pursuing for a news story is actually [[spoiler: a simple fortune-teller AI in Pacifica hacked by a prankster netrunner to spout nonsensical anti-corporate rhetoric. Especially if a Netrunner-specced V decides to join in the prank and crank up the nonsense on the AI to eleven when they find the fortune teller bot, so the clueless Bartmoss Collective followers go nuts trying to interpret the extra-ridiculous rhetoric.]]
* AdaptedOut: Despite Morgan Blackhand's importance to the 2023 Arasaka raid and his and [[UnknownRival Adam Smasher's]] one-on-one duel, he himself doesn't make an appearance. Instead, the raid is entirely driven by Johnny and rather than being dismembered by an autoshotgun, Johnny and Smasher have the duel on Arasaka's roof.
** Morgan Blackhand does appear as the author of the "The Solo's Manual"-shard. It also references a certain rockerboy who tried to take on a platoon of corpsec and got flatlined for the trouble. "It didn't make him a solo. It made him dead."
** Given how Alt clearly states that [[UnreliableNarrator Johnny's memories are not to be trusted]], there is speculation that the events of the tabletop are in fact still canon and Johnny's narcissism simply edited out his contribution, some even placing Morgan's duel during the conspicuous cut between Smasher's dramatic entrance at Arasaka and Johnny arriving at the roof.
* AddedAlliterativeAppeal: Early in the game, when Jackie teases the female V for her frequent substance abuse, she shoots him down by claiming to be "as '''c'''lean as a '''[[CountryMatters c]]'''[[CountryMatters unt]] in a '''c'''onvent". Apparently, even hard swearing can be given a poetic touch.
* AdjustableCensorship: There's a "Nudity Censor" option that puts mosaic-esqe blurs on explicit nudity or adds underwear to characters who are fully nude otherwise and prevents the player from customizing V's genitalia.
** Copyrighted music can also be disabled from playing in-game (mostly through in-universe radios). It's likely that both options are intended for streamers, let's play creators, and others playing the game on platforms where not all of the game's content is within the terms of service.
* AdvertisedExtra:
** The Animals boss Sasquatch received quite a bit of focus in the game's pre-release phase, including the player's choice to let her live after her BossBattle. In the actual game, Sasquatch can be snuck past without much problem, [[SkippableBoss avoiding the fight entirely]], and even if you do fight her, whether you let her live or not has no consequences whatsoever.
** Trauma Team medics are featured prominently in the marketing materials, on merchandise, and the very first released tie-in comic, ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077TraumaTeam'', which was released before the game itself, tells the story of a doctor from one of the units. Despite that, Trauma Team appears in exactly ''one'' mission in the game, "The Rescue", the very first one after the prologue. You can also see their [=AV=] in "The Heist", when they're [[spoiler:rushing towards Konpeki Plaza when V and Jackie try to escape with the Relic]], but you don't get to interact with them.
** [=MaxTac=] featured heavily in the game's announcement phase but have next to no presence in the game proper. Their sole mandatory appearance is part of a non-interactive early-game cutscene that lasts for all of ten seconds, and their only other involvement apart from that happens in an obscure sidequest that's extremely easy to miss. One can play through the whole game without realizing that [=MaxTac=]'s even in there somewhere.
* AdvertOverloadedFuture: Night City is completely covered in ads top to bottom. It's hard to walk a couple of meters without running into a tv screen with some incredibly crass advert blaring on it. TV shows can hardly go for a minute without an ad break, and there is even a entire channel on TV called "Just Ads!" which is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin.
* AIIsACrapshoot: Played with:
** Delamain is nothing but polite and professional to a fault towards V and even manages to snap a joke, but [[spoiler:his personality fragments]] are crazy to the point they mimic real mental issues such as poor anger management, depression and multiple personality disorder.
** The reason for the existence of the Blackwall is the fear that the AIs which thrive in the Old Net will eventually begin attacking humanity, who depend on the Net and Cyberware. Played with the AIs you can interact with, [[spoiler:Delamain]] is nothing [[NiceGuy but polite and genuinly helpful and good-natured]], [[spoiler:Alt]] is cold, calculating, unfettered and remorseless.
** [[spoiler:Forcing the personalities to converge into one being causes Delamain to forcefully evolve into a being closer to Alt than his old self and he leaves to go to wander, but he leaves behind a "son" who acts just like the original before the issues. Johnny even points out you may have accidentally created a God.]]
* ALighterShadeOfBlack: V and their allies tend to be this. Criminals, mercenaries and Fixers of all kinds and yet their actions are far less cruel than the ones they go up against. Many of V's side jobs tend to have them working as a VigilanteMan and Fixers, especially Regina and Padre Ibarra, generally send V on missions to put down people Night City could do without, rescue people who’ve gotten in over their heads and/or are being victimized and generally go up against vicious gangs or amoral corporations.
* TheAllegedCar:
** Almost all the cheapest vehicles sold by fixers are either beaten-up junkers in various states of disrepair or things barely worthy of being called cars, with the performance to match. A prime example being the Thornton Galena mentioned below and the Mai Mai, a tiny shoebox of a car with abysmal performance across the board that no self-respecting edgerunner would be caught dead in.
** The state of the Nomad lifepath's starting vehicle through out that prologue. It, however, is a case of WhatAPieceOfJunk, as its performance rivals that of most of the sports cars in Night City and has good off-road capabilities as it was custom-designed as a Nomad vehicle, [[spoiler:and you can retrieve that same car much later in the game from a wandering techie who found it in the city's local landfill, whether by intimidation or paying her off to legally re-acquire it.]]
* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Discussed and lampshaded in the side mission "Holdin' On": Kerry and Johnny talk about their bandmate Denny dating their another bandmate, Henry. Johnny doesn't understand what Denny saw in Henry, due to Henry being a FunctionalAddict and Denny being the smartest member of the band. Kerry answers that Denny always had a [[HasAType thing]] for losers, and that Henry was perfect for her, because she got to "rescue him over and over again". Johnny then asks "But why did she never tried to fix me?", to which Kerry responds with "Because she'd have to get in line, that's why!".
* AlternateHistory: Due to being set in the same world as ''TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020'' by Mike Pondsmith. The setting's history diverges noticeably from ours:
** Most importantly, viable BrainComputerInterface technology that allows for fully functional {{cyborg}} prosthesis is already working and in wide circulation by the early 2000s, something that even at the time of the game's development in the 2010s was still very much in a research phase.
** Many other alternate events, like a UsefulNotes/TheEuropeanUnion equivalent being established a year earlier than in the real world and as a monetary union right off the bat, also occur.
** The Soviet Union is still around, being the headquarters of [=SovOil=]. It's an ally of the [[UnitedEurope European Economic Community]] that's abandoned orthodox Marxism-Leninism.
** The United States [[FallenStatesOfAmerica collapsed]] and [[DividedStatesOfAmerica split]] in the 1990s, paving the way for the [[JapanTakesOverTheWorld Japanese domination of American economy]], at least outside the NUSA.
* AnachronismStew: One of the more famous examples is a nuclear-powered [=MagLev=] train... programmed via cardboard punchcards. Justified, since the aftermath of the 2022 [=DataKrash=] virus pretty much set computer technology back about five decades.
* AnAesop:
** Even under an oppressive system, you can still lead a meaningful and impactful life. Stay true to yourself, uplift other people and find small joys in life and you'll be able to say that you've had a decent run.
** Dying for a vague ideal just isn't worth it. Risking your life to save/protect your loved ones, who are tangible people, is.
** No matter how noble the goal you might be fighting for is, it doesn't excuse being abusive and toxic to people who are closest to you.
** Change is good and a sign and a part of life. Clinging to what you know at all cost will lead to losing your humanity and can be compared to death.
** Bonds with other people is what makes life worth living and they should never be underestimated.
** Accept death and mortality, your own and your loved ones. You will grieve, but time will help, and you should keep living your best life to honor your departed loved ones.
** Eternal life at the cost of your own humanity isn't worth it.
** Pursuit of fame and glory will only make you want more and more. You will never be satisfied with what you have.
** You have more people looking out for you and caring for your well-being than you likely think.
** Even if you won't become well-known or remembered by the whole world, you can still inspire others around you to change their lifes for the better, which is just as, if not more, valuable.
* AnArmAndALeg: Explosives and high-powered weapons like a good old point-blank shotgun blast have a chance to dismember your target. There's even a perk explicitly designed to boost the percentage chance with shotguns for the sake of doing it more often, too.
* AnatomyArsenal: V can choose between four arm-mounted cyberweapons:
** [[ArmCannon The Projectile Launch System]], a miniature grenade launcher built into V's left forearm.
** [[BladeBelowTheShoulder Mantis Blades]], a pair of massive, scythe-like blades built into V's forearms that deploy in a manner resembling praying mantis pincers.
** [[PowerFist Gorilla Arms]], forearm replacements that can be used not only for [[PunchedAcrossTheRoom punching people across rooms]], but also [[ArtificialLimbsAreStronger ripping machineguns out of their turret mounts and carrying them around]] as well as [[DungeonBypass forcing doors open]].
** [[WhipSword The Monowire]]: a razor-sharp filament that extends from V's wrist. Like the mantis blades, it can be used to slice enemies to pieces, but it has a longer reach and its damage is tied to stealth ability rather than to the blades skill.
* AndNowForSomeoneCompletelyDifferent: [[spoiler:Zig-zagged in the Act 1 interlude, which opens with a playable flashback, as Johnny Silverhand, to the 2023 assault on Arasaka Tower. It's later revealed that V is experiencing this memory of Johnny's thanks to the Relic.]]
* AnInteriorDesignerIsYou:
** After finishing certain missions, V will get new items for their house. They will appear in set places, except for the figurine [[spoiler:Mitch]] gives you, which has to be manually placed.
** Update 1.5 introduced the option to give V's starting apartment a "makeover", or in other words, a 10,000 eddies paint job. The player can choose between six different styles, none of which does anything about the apartment's layout or furniture. One can also purchase up to four additional apartments in various parts of Night City, but while these do look very different from V's initial digs, they can't be customized at all.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler: Only one ending ("Death", obviously) actually definitively ends things for Johnny and/or V. The rest of the endings have V either moving on to continue their search for a cure (or to live what life they have left to the fullest, depending on our interpretation) or Johnny in V's body leaving Night City for a second chance at life.]]
* {{Antepiece}}: Braindancing serves as this for a plot-related one involving the Relic heist.
* AntiFrustrationFeatures:
** Despite the game indicating otherwise, you don't actually need to use non-lethal tactics against cyberpsychos. It is technically possible to actually kill a cyberpsycho with the right weapon, mods and perks, but generally speaking even if you shoot one in the head with an anti-tank rifle -- which is actually encouraged since one capture practically forces a SniperDuel -- the game counts it as a non-lethal takedown and the target will be left squirming on the floor alive.
** Allies are invulnerable and undetectable, so you don't have to worry about getting caught or failing during an EscortMission.
*** Related to the above, if you roll over in a mission-critical vehicle, that vehicle will almost immediately flip back on its tires by itself, sparing you from having to reload your latest savegame. Normal vehicles don't have this luxury.
** After completing Act 1, entering your default Archer Hella for the first time results in it getting hit by a rampaging Delamain taxi and wrecked. Thankfully, right after the cutscene ends (and the relevant quest to get it repaired starts), the local fixer contacts you and offers a car for sale, literally just one level up in the parking garage where the wreck occurs. One of the missions that starts at the beginning of Act 2 ("Heroes") will also reward you with a motorcycle for free depending on how you play the mission out, so that, even if you cannot afford to buy the first car, you won't have to go without some form of wheels for long.
** Knowing that few players will follow traffic rules, above a certain speed traffic lights will nearly always switch to green when V drives through them. This is both to give the player the right of way to lessen the chance of annoying collisions, as well as to keep their DrivesLikeCrazy tendencies somewhat immersive.
** The release version of the game made no difference between iconic and regular gear when it came to disassembling or selling stuff, leading to a lot of permanently lost unique equipment. This was changed in a patch so that trying to mess with an iconic item brings up a pop-up window that asks for confirmation first.
* AntiHero: V is an Edgerunner, doing dirty work for corpos and higher-tier criminals, their only concern being how much eddies they make in the process. Where they fall on the scale depends on some of the choices players make. At the very least just about everyone they go up against could count as an AssholeVictim in one way or another and some missions like rescuing victims or taking down human traffickers are downright heroic.
** Pretty much every character in the main cast would qualify, due to their addictions, pragmatism, ties to organised crime, recklesness, willingness to commit violent acts or break the law for their own gain. The only character who isn't directly tied to any crime, violence or vices would be [[PerkyGoth Misty]].
* AnyoneCanDie: Most notably with [[spoiler:Jackie]], who received a lot of coverage in trailers and pre-release material, and is [[spoiler:dead by the end of Act I]]. Of course, [[TrailersAlwaysSpoil this was actually spoiled in one of the pre-release trailers]], setting players up for this trope in the game proper. Other characters who always die are [[spoiler: T-Bug, who gets her brain fried by Arasaka netrunners during the heist, Saburo, who gets choked out by Yorinobu a few minutes earlier, [=deShawn=], who gets shot in the head by Takemura after retrieving a half dead V, Evelyn, who gets hacked into a coma, raped by her boss and sold to Scavengers, and after being rescued she commits suicide due to having memories of everything they did, and Scorpion, who gets killed by the Kang Tao in a raid to get Hellman. Depending on how one views living behind Blackwall with Alt, either Johnny, V or both will die.]]
** Depending on player's choices, other casualities are [[spoiler:Takemura, who might get saved in "Search and Destroy", [[GuideDangIt but it's so unclearly telegraphed that many players missed it, especially the ones who tried to save Jackie]], River gets killed if he rushes the SerialKiller's lair by himself, Hanako will die in "The Sun" ending, where Alt brings the Arasaka space station down, Yorinobu's bodyjacked and effectively murdered in "The Devil" ending, Rogue will die in "The Sun" ending and Saul will die in "The Star" ending. Meredith Stout will die if you don't follow her orders on the flat head retrieval, and there are countless other minor [=NPCs=] who might die depending on players' choices.]]
* ArbitraryEquipmentRestriction: A variation with the game's GunAccessories. There's no real rhyme or reason to what accessories you can slap on which gun. Some power weapons can accept suppressors while others just arbitrarily can't (a prime example being the [=SOR-22=] precision rifle). Some long guns can't mount a scope although they have more than enough space - and most definitely the need - for one, often making them take a backseat in favor of similar guns that ''can'' be upgraded.
* ArbitraryGunPower: All over the place, both due to standard FPS reasons and RPG mechanics.
** A particularly good example is comparing the Lexington, Unity, and NUE handguns. All three are expressly .45 caliber pistols, so their stopping power should be about the same. But the Lexington can only do a small fraction of the damage per shot of the other two, for no apparent reason other than that it is fully automatic. The NUE and Unity are closer in stopping power, but the NUE is a bit stronger, again for no reason other than that it is a bit slower to fire and has a smaller magazine. Submachine guns, that realistically should be slightly more powerful than pistols (as longer barrel will provide higher muzzle velocity) as a general rule, deal only a small fraction of the damage per shot that pistols do. Saratoga SMG in game can do even less damage, than aforementioned Lexington pistol. Assault rifles in general are slightly more powerful than SMG, but still weaker (in terms of damage per shot) than most of the pistols. And, of course, single shot and slow-firing rifles provide much higher damage per shot than its rapid-fire counterparts.
** Johnny Silverhand's iconic handgun, when wielded by himself in his flashback missions, is a pure death machine. When V wields it in the game's present day, it's a powerful but nowhere near as game-breaking pistol generally on par with most of the standard handguns of the same level. Of course, UnreliableNarrator is explicitly in force here, so Johnny is probably exaggerating his destructive power.
** Justified in some cases, like Johnny's handgun or Grad sniper rifle. The former is described as custom job, firing large caliber rounds, generally used by big game hunting rifles, and the latter is a heavy anti-tank rifle.
* ArbitraryMissionRestriction: One of Claire's four racing missions takes place in the Badlands, an ideal opportunity to break out your favorite Nomad-pimped car. Unfortunately, this race is also the only one that forces Claire's massive truck Beast on you for no apparent reason. Its top-heavy chassis, spongy suspension and low acceleration make Beast one of the worst cars you could possibly sit in for this race, giving the whole thing a lot of FakeDifficulty that could've been avoided if the player was allowed to pick one of the cars specifically built for this kind of terrain.
* {{Arcology}}: Par for the course for the codifying franchise of the Cyberpunk genre, the Megabuildings around town (within one which V resides) are arcologies by another name. At least, that's what CDPR apparently intended them to be in the game's conceptional stage. The actual constructs in the game certainly are huge and house a mix of residential and commercial units, but they don't generate their own power and most definitely aren't self-sufficient in terms of food or amenities, disqualifying them from the arcology label.
* ArmorIsUseless: Weirdly zigzagged. Armor is definitely helpful in mitigating incoming damage, but its LevelScaling is so atrocious that its effectiveness drops off rapidly as V levels up. By the time you hit level 25+, the armor values you need to retain noticeable damage reduction have become so high that trying to get by with looted or purchased gear is equivalent to walking around naked. The only way for armor to stay competitive in the late game is through abusing the ItemCrafting system, which means anyone who didn't specialize in the Tech skill is basically SOL.
* ArmorPiercingAttack: Tech rifles have the ability to punch through cover and hit targets on the opposite side.
* ArtificialAtmosphericActions:
** In order to make Night City seem alive, the sidewalks and streets are filled with people. Unfortunately the pathfinding leaves much to be desired, with some civilians crossing the streets only to turn around, walking in circles, walk straight into walls, get stuck on each other, or even through each other.
** Sometimes you may see civilians conversing with one another... and glitches can cause them to accidentally face the other way.
** On occasion you can see police officers surrounding someone as if to arrest them. But sometimes the game won't spawn anyone to be "arrested", causing the police officers to instead be staring at thin air.
* ArtificialLimbs: Robotic arms, legs and so forth have become commonplace by 2077. There are stores selling them around Night City, and you can add them to yourself if you have the eddies.
* ArtificialStupidity:
** The aforementioned civilian AI leaves very much to be desired. Sometimes, the AI might point guns at you and not open fire.
** There's about a 50:50 chance that V's car actually ends up near them when you summon it thanks to its shoddy pathfinding capabilities. Half the time it drives off into the sunset instead.
** Car spawning when summoned gets wonky on busy streets; it's not rare to see the car arrive completely torn apart because it spawned under or ''inside'' another vehicle.
** The driving AI is so lacking that they will almost never leave the rails they're scripted to drive on. This effectively makes car chases with the police non-existent.
** The police are laughably easy to evade. If you're a couple meters away from them and out of their sight for a couple seconds after being spotted, they'll completely forget about you.
** Characters that have abnormal factors (such as being paraplegic) don't have their AI flagged or scripted to behave differently. This creates hilarious effects like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JHTuEPU7uFk V seemingly being able to cure paralysis by punching people]].
* ArtisticLicenseReligion: Apart from the distinct Torii gate, the Shinto shrine in Japantown is arranged and designed more like a Buddhist temple than what it's supposed to be. It's also attended to by what look like Buddhist monks (although there is a kannushi in attendance as well).
* AscendedGlitch: from Witcher 3, pertaining to Geralt's horse Roach. An arcade game was present as scene filling called "Roach Race" since the game's release, with musical themes from the Witcher game series on it. With the v1.6 update, it was expanded into an obscacle dodge minigame with 8-bit pixel graphics, featuring lampoons of memetic glitches from Witcher 3 such as Roach ending up on rooftops, running on just their front legs, and with the gameplay frame of running away from Geralt.
* AscendedMeme: The "You're breathtaking!" meme from E3 2019 is referenced multiple times: it's one of the photomode poses, it's the name of one of the achievements, and Kerry will respond to a shouting crowd member with this line and associated pose in "Off The Leash".
* ATasteOfPower: After stealing the Relic and [[spoiler:being betrayed by Dex]], the player is put in the shoes of [[spoiler:Johnny Silverhand during his assault on Arasaka tower]]. He has 400 health that regenerates extremely fast, infinite ammo, and a bonafide HandCannon that can kill every single enemy in the map in one or two shots. Needless to say, it'll be a while before V can get to this level.
** In the very first job you do, you down an enemy that's equipped with a heavy machine gun - a monster of a weapon that'll make mincemeat out of pretty much everything, so big you can't even carry it in your inventory. You get to test it by effortlessly blowing away one or two mooks, then the cutscene plays and the gun disappears. It'll be a ''long'' time before you get to fire one again.
* AttackDrone: The Flathead, a quadruped spider drone made by Militech that V must retrieve in Act 1. Its purpose is more reconaissance and infiltration rather than anything direct, with a suite of features to that end. The more traditional flying variants show up as well, mostly used by Arasaka and Militech.
* AwesomeButImpractical:
** High-end cars can fall into this. As cool as owning a Rayfield Aerondight is it costs a whopping 220,000 eddies, something you could spend on far more useful upgrades, and it isn’t even the fastest car in the game. You can also get free cars throughout the story and side missions that function just as well, if not better, than the majority of the bought vehicles.
*** Just to hammer the point home: the Aerondight's sole outstanding feature is its ludicrous price tag. Its top speed and acceleration are decent at best, it handles like a barge around corners, and contrary to what the trailers claimed, it isn't even armored, being no more resilient than V's starting car. No matter what you need a car for, there're always better and much cheaper options than the Aerondight. Its role is essentially a BraggingRightsReward both InUniverse and out--well, that and cruising Night City in style. Middling performance notwithstanding, it ''is'' a slick-looking ride.
** Related to the above, the various supercars certainly look cool and usually have great acceleration, but they're fragile and tend to have terrible handling. In other words, they're among the worst choices for Claire's racing missions, and often even just for getting around Night City. There are numerous cars available that are much cheaper, almost as fast, and ''much'' easier to control, especially around corners.
** Some high ranked items aren’t as good as the ones a tier below them. An epic quality leg cyberware upgrade allows the player to float briefly in the air to shoot down at enemies...which just makes them a bigger target due to lack of cover. Adding to that the jump height is shorter than its lower tiered counterpart, making it less practical for traversal.
** A few of the high-tier body perks also qualify. Being able to regenerate health both inside and outside of combat is all well and good, but the game practically throws healing items at you anyway. Using one or two of those to near-instantly bring you back to full-health is far more reliable than waiting for it to slowly regenerate in combat, especially on higher difficulties where enemies can easily kill you in a handful of shots.
* BadassBoast:
** Body-dependent dialogue options usually result in V intimidating the other side into submission with one of these, often with a generous helping of ToThePain.
** Johnny also has his fair share, usually revolving around how nothing will stop him from achieving his goals.
* BadBoss: Since corporate un-accountability is a main theme of Cyberpunk genre at large, naturally the game is rife with examples. It's a relatively ''good'' boss that ''isn't'' actively trying to get their subordinates killed and is merely working them to the bone. The Corpo lifepath prologue has you dealing with a Bad Boss of the incompetent kind, who gets you caught in the fallout of reprisal from his own boss of the [[YouHaveFailedMe failure-intolerant]] kind.
* BakenekoAndNekomata: During the mission "Gimme Danger", Takemura and V will see a stray cat sitting nearby their hiding place, with Takemura commenting that the animal might be a bakeneko. The same cat model is used multiple times during the game: after Johnny got left for dead in his memories and [[spoiler:when V heads to Misty's Esoterica rooftop to make a decision about theirs and Johnny's fates]]. [[MaybeMagicMaybeMundane Are they actually bakenekos or just regular cats?]] It's up to the player to decide. The SniperRifle model in the [[MagneticWeapons Tech Weapon category]] is also called "Nekomata", which is employed by the Arasaka snipers used in the Dashi Parade mission.
* TheBandMinusTheFace: Subverted. Johnny Silverhand IS present on Samurai reunion gig, but for everyone present besides [[spoiler:Kerry (who is in the know), it is V performing in Silverhand's place.]]
* BattleCouple: Male V and romanced Panam form one in [[spoiler:"The Star" ending]]. Johnny and Rogue during the first attack on the Arasaka Tower ([[spoiler:and possibly the second one, if the player chooses "The Sun" ending]]) might count, because while they've broken up, there is clearly some unresolved romantic tension.
* BavarianFireDrill: For the mission "Gimme Danger", where Takemura and V do some preparatory work in the warehouse where the dashi floats for the parade are being stored, Corpo V potentially has the easiest time of all if, while casing the location, you spot [[spoiler: a panicking guard who made an indiscretion and left evidence of it, freaking out that counter-intel will catch wind and skin him alive. V, having been Arasaka Counter-Intel before being canned, can pull this trope off to walk right in without any worry of hassle from guards, invoking the name of Abernathy, the IronLady in charge of Counter-Intel in the region.]]
* BeautyBrainsAndBrawn: the three female characters who (may) take part in the Relic heist:
** Evelyn: Beauty. She's the escort who managed to get vital info from Yorinobu's penthouse when on the job.
** T-Bug: Brains. The netrunner responsible for the Flathead and MissionControl for Jackie and V. Judy might also qualify, to a lesser degree.
** Female V: Brawn. She actually sneaks into Corpo Plaza with Jackie to steal the Relic, and she's the only one capable of holding her own in open combat.
* BilingualBonus: Pre-release footage shows off Japanese, Norwegian, Russian, Spanish and many other languages that provide various easter eggs, puns and jokes.
** One hostile NPC shouting "Du blir løyst fra banda som bind deg" / "You will be freed from the ties that bind you" in Norwegian, a ShoutOut to a lyric from "Helvegen", a song by the band Wardruna.
** A sign in the E3 2018 gameplay for a hotel reads "HOテル", aka [=HOteru=], aka the Japanese transliteration of hotel. (One can imply by the pun [[LoveHotels what kind of hotel it is]].)
** The "Tools of Destruction" featurette has a large "Corp-Bud" sign on a building, the "Bud" part being a stereotypical suffix used in Polish construction company names.
* BilingualDialogue: Various characters are able to speak with others in their native language and still be understood thanks to the prevalence of [[TranslatorMicrobes translation implants]]. Saburo Arasaka uses Japanese regardless of who he speaks to due to his nationalistic principles, and Hwangbo, V's client during the gig "Flight Of The Cheetah", talks in Korean the entire time, with V responding in English. Random [=NPCs=] can be heard holding bilingual conversations as well.
* BittersweetEnding: Or DownerEnding, depending on what ending the player gets.
** [[spoiler: No matter what choices are made V's [[YourDaysAreNumbered days are numbered]]. V can be DrivenToSuicide and leave behind all their grieving and angry friends, agree to have their mind copied as an engram like Silverhand by Arasaka, walk away from Arasaka with just weeks to live, give up their body so Johnny can take over and have a fresh start, or return to their body in the non-Arasaka endings with months to live. If V chooses to go with the Nomads they'll leave Night City determined to live and hopeful for a solution while if they go alone they'll stay in the city, trying to build up their legend before their inevitable death. The DownerEnding would be suicide but the BittersweetEnding is that V can survive as a digital ghost under Arasaka or in cyberspace, or they can believe they can find a cure while living on their own terms.]]
** [[spoiler:The ending of Judy's questline, "Pyramid Song". Judy decides that she can't stay in Night City any longer and decides to leave it behind, but is nevertheless grateful for V's friendship and support. She only stays in Night City if V romances her, but she states that it's only temporarily and she plans to move on with or without V.]]
** [[spoiler:Any ending where your romantic partner breaks up with you. While the scenes themselves are sad, you always split on [[AmicableExes relatively good terms]], with both sides understanding their reasons.]]
* BlackComedy: Rife with it. Night City is a brutal, lawless, and horrific place but you can find some ''very'' dark laughs here. One example is a shard detailing the conversation between two criminal debt collectors torturing a guy by [[{{Fingore}} slowly chopping off his fingers.]] He gave at 9 but his torturer's OCD couldn't let him leave it at that.
* BlackMarket: There's no single place in Night City where V can go to obtain illegal merchandise, but a lot of items (top-tier combat cyberware in particular, but also [[TheLastOfTheseIsNotLikeTheOthers pineapple pizza]]) have FlavorText that all but confirms their illegality. In short, almost any ripperdoc in the city is a black market dealer. Some quests also tangle with a specialized black market selling truly depraved braindances.
* BlandNameProduct: Compare the company logos for the fictional [[https://cyberpunk.fandom.com/wiki/File:Corp_logo_consarmsWhite.png Constitutional Arms]] with real-life [[https://www.smith-wesson.com/sites/default/files/Smith_Wesson_3.jpg Smith and Wesson]].
* BlingBlingBang: A number of weapons are plated with a rather specular sheen. Of particular note are Las Chingonas Doradas (singularly La Chingona Dorada since you can only wield one at a time), Jackie's unique [[GunsAkimbo dual]] [[HandCannon Tsunami Nue]] guns with embossed gold-plated slides and a muzzle brake, which are later acquirable [[spoiler:some time after his Oferenda if you ordered Delamain to deliver his remains to his mother.]]. Many other variant-skin weapons are painted in Kitsch-style colors too.
* BodyHorror: The setting's cybernetics can get ''extreme'': People cut off their arms to turn them into concealed cybernetic blades, or pluck out their eyes to install "better" robotic ones. This is best exemplified with the Maelstrom gang, an extreme body mod faction, whose members all have ''the top-front quarter of their skulls removed'' to install a set of robotic eyes in the gaping cavity. Similarly, the attempts at hacking into brain implants depicted in early trailers and gameplay videos can lead to ''burning people's skulls out''. Adam Smasher takes the cake, having replaced 96% of his body with cybernetics.
* BookEnds:
** The Streetkid's Lifepath prologue starts and ends with V straightening out their broken nose. [[spoiler:Finishing with The Sun Ending as a Streetkid starts and ends with V talking to a shady Fixer for a job.]]
** [[spoiler:Getting The Star ending with the Nomad lifepath will have V begin the game leaving one family to go into Night City, and end the game joining another while leaving Night City. Both have V taking off the symbol of the life they're leaving behind, with the Bakker's clan patch in the beginning and the 'lucky bullet' necklace in the end.]]
** [[spoiler: Getting the Devil ending with the Corpo lifepath has V starting and ending the game as a servant of Arasaka. While the Corpo prologue shows V falling from grace as an Arasaka employee who loses everything, the Devil ending has V get back into Arasaka's good graces while technically being a mercenary.]]
** Regardless of lifepath, [[spoiler: V also points out that they started and ended the plot by stealing Arasaka tech.]]
* BoringButPractical:
** The Ping quickhack. It doesn't debilitate or damage in any way, but it does reveal every networked device (including enemies with cyberware) in a local subnet when you apply it. It's an instant recon sweep. The Legendary tier version enables hacking devices through walls.
** Overheat and Short Circuit are simple early-game quickhacks that, once buffed with a few perks, can one-shot almost anything in the game that isn't a boss, and their sheer damage output makes them very useful against those as well. They're also non-lethal, doubling their value due to the numerous optional no-kill mission objectives.
** The Gorilla Arms Cyberware. While comparatively not as flashy as the Mantis Blades, Monowire or Projectile Launcher, they basically enhance the power of your fists alone. Being non-lethal, they are also great for incapacitating enemies, plus they're the only weaponized equipment V can use in fisticuffs-only situations (such as boxing matches, or tossing Valentino thugs out of Mama Welles' bar). They also can boost Body skill checks in dialogue and world interactions and nullify Body checks on weapon handling; they're the only arm cyberware that offers an attribute boost. Can be made less boring with some fridge thinking: Punch a concrete or metal wall, notice the damage you did to the wall, and contemplate that you are striking ''people'' with these.
** The Reinforced Ankles implant simply lets V [[InASingleBound jump much higher than normal]], but it's amazing how handy this simple feature can be in any number of situations, from traversal to infiltrating guarded areas unseen. It's probably not a coincidence that the implant is among the most expensive on the market.
** Smart guns. Just aim them in the general direction of the enemy and keep laying on the trigger until nothing shoots back anymore. While unspeakably boring for avid shooter players, they can be a godsend for people who aren't as good at this sort of game. The fact that they use the same UniversalAmmunition as all the other gun types makes them even more viable for casual gamers.
** Low-tier Sandevistan implants. As enticing as 10x time slowdown for 8 seconds is, it [[RequiredSecondaryPowers doesn't affect the inertia of your weapons]] -- and there isn't much you can do in 0.8 seconds of real time. Simple implants with a 2-3x slowdown still give you a massive reaction time advantage over enemies while lasting several times longer.
** InUniverse, the Archer Hella (V's default car after the prologue) has this reputation, to the point that it was ''too'' practical; despite high initial sales, it almost bankrupted the Archer car company because once someone bought one, they never had to buy another car ever again, and, on the ''remote'' chance it broke down, its design was simple and straightforward enough that anyone who knew which way to hold a wrench could practically repair it in their garage, or on the side of the street if they lacked a garage. In gameplay, V's Hella looks rough, with multiple jury-rigged fixes and customizations, [[WhatAPieceOfJunk but has fairly decent performance overall]].
** In a game with a ''lot'' of varied, exotic and supertechnological weapons, one of the easiest and most practical choices to start with is the medium revolver. Not fancy semiautos which (at that point) do piddling damage, not advanced handheld railgun pistols that require developing a whole tech tree before they become good; no, just the most twentieth-century six-shooter you can think of, replete with side-swinging cylinder that you fill manually.
* BottomlessMagazines:
** Despite looking like a single-shot weapon, the Projectile Launch System has infinite ammo and never needs to be reloaded.
** Same goes for the Basilisk tank's autocannon.
* BrainComputerInterface: Naturally, given that it's ''Cyberpunk''. The most common is cybernetic brain augments with sockets or cables for wired connections and reading from external media, a la ''Franchise/GhostInTheShell''.
* BrainUploading: The main selling point of the Relic chip -- a TV show guest early in the game says it allows for immortality by having people's minds transferred into new bodies. [[spoiler:In the "Devil" ending, it's revealed that the one V stole wasn't the only one in the world, and Saburo Arsaka comes back from the dead thanks to it.]]
* BreatherEpisode:
** "Pyramid Song", the last quest in Judy's questline. While it's quite melancholic, it's a peaceful mission where V and Judy go diving together to test out Judy's new [=BD=] scrolling technique. It's notably one of the few missions where you literally can't kill anyone or engage in any sort of violence. It's both a breather episode for Judy's questline and the game in general.
** Kerry's entire chain of quests, while it can veer into some heavy emotions, is kept relatively light-hearted. Once again, the entire storyline can be played without any sort of combat (the only exception is [[spoiler:if you've allowed Patricia to take over Maelstrom; you will be forced to fight with some mooks in "Second Conflict"]]). "Boat Drinks" is just a peaceful sail with Kerry that ends with the two of you engaging in some property damage (instead of cold-blooded murder, as it often is in other missions). Kerry's story arc gets unlocked [[spoiler:right at the end of act two, so it's a break between the frantic act two and the ending sequence.]]
** "Following The River", the last quest in River's storyline, is just a nice dinner with River and his family, that allows V to spend a nice evening with their new friends, especially after the tense investigation before.
* BrickJoke: The "Postcards from Night City" featurette shows a woman being held hostage by two gangoons. "2077 in Style" featurette reveals they were MuggingTheMonster, as she promptly deploys her [[BladeBelowTheShoulder Mantis Blades]] and kills them both.
-->'''Karina Lee:''' Look at the moves on this girl! Slicin'em up like sashimi!
* BroadStrokes: How certain events and characterizations from the tabletop game are handled. For example, the Arasaka Tower raid in 2023 took place in both the video game and the tabletop game, but Johnny was captured alive and killed with Soulkiller, and not [[HalfTheManHeUsedToBe dismembered by Adam Smasher's autoshotgun]]. Morgan Blackhand is also suspiciously absent in the game's retelling of the events. Worth noting that Johnny's memories (through which we experience those events) are openly stated to be [[UnreliableNarrator biased and not an exact retelling of what happened]] with [[WordofStPaul Mike Pondsmith]] confirming Unreliable is the most generous version of what Johnny could be called due to... circomstances that the game never mentions.
** The wholesale exclusion Morgan Blackhand, a character who is vital to the raid and Johnny being on that raid in the TTRPG versions of that night, as well as Militech backing the whole operation is also a notable narrative choice.
* BrutalHonesty: The advice that Sgt. Dobs gives during the ''Safe & Sound'' segments is as grim as it is valid, no matter how gently he tries to convey it.
* BulletTime: Two reflex booster implants allow this: Sandevistan is more versatile and grants longer use at slower time, but replaces your cyberdeck, so you can't, for example, distract or paralyze enemies with Quickhacks, while Kerenzikov slows time for the duration of a dodge, allowing you to correct your aim and let off a shot. Another implant gives you momentary BulletTime when you're in an enemy's line of sight or when your health is low, allowing you a moment to retreat.
* ButForMeItWasTuesday: In a bit of a darkly comedic example, one of the local NC talk shows reports a massive gun battle in the city of Chicago which claimed almost 200 lives. The host comments that while the local politicians called it a "massacre", the citizens called it "a typical Tuesday".
* ButThouMust:
** [[spoiler:Even if V and Jackie stealth through the hotel knocking out every guard their automated ride will drive loudly through the garage, thus forcing an escape and a loud firefight through the streets that will get V betrayed by Dex for getting too much attention. Even if V tells Dex that they weren't the one to kill Saburo, Dex will remark that Arasaka won't care and uses this as justification to betray them.]]
** [[spoiler:During the second Johnny flashback Thompson records Alt's death, much to Johnny's rage. Though the game gives you a time sensitive prompt whether to punch him or not it doesn't matter -- Johnny is so angry that he will beat Thompson to near death even if you let the timer run out.]]
** [[spoiler:In the Corpo lifepath prologue, the only possible attitude you can adopt towards Jenkin's order to assassinate Abernathy is reluctant acceptance of the task, with no room for either enthusiasm or rejection. Nor can you turn your back on him and inform Abernathy after you leave, in an effort to save yourself. Regardless of what you think of the job, you're locked on rails to support Jenkins and ultimately fall with him. This is highlighted when you're approached in the club by Arasaka's men who all but physically put a gun to your V's head as you're fired for Jenkin's plan and forced to hand over the data regarding Abrenathy.]]
** During "Automatic Love", the only way to enter Clouds [[spoiler:to look for Evelyn]] is to book a session with a doll. For some baffling reason, even if you outright ''tell'' the front desk that you'e not there as a customer, she can't seem to get it through her head that you would be at Clouds for anything other than pleasure, and there is no further dialogue choices to outright clarify that no, you're not a lovesick client or someone looking for some kicks, [[spoiler: you're one of Evelyn's personal associates trying to locate her because she's literally ''gone missing.'']]
** Weirdly zigzagged outside the main story. Most sidequests, even intricate questlines like the ones offered by the various [[LoveInterest Love Interests]], allow V to decline the task on offer. But then there are seemingly random quests that can only be accepted, with no reason given why the player has no say in the matter.
* CameraPerspectiveSwitch: [[spoiler:At the game's ending cutscene, the camera switches from first-person to third-person, which is the only time the game does this outside of mirrors, vehicles, and picture mode.]]
* CanonImmigrant: Yishen, the {{Deuteragonist}} of the ''ComicBook/Cyberpunk2077YourVoiceTP'' comic added to the pre-release copies of the game can be briefly seen and interacted with in the "Never Fade Away" mission, where she struggles with a broken vending machine, with Johnny having an option to help her out.
* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: [[spoiler:After being shot and left for dead, V is rescued by Saburo Arasaka's bodyguard Goro. While he initially has no love for V, they are the only one who can prove Yorinobu murdered his father, and the only one he can turn to after being framed for the crime by Yorinobu.]]
* {{Cap}}: V's level and street cred are capped at 50, attributes and skills at 20. There's also a limit on how much loot they can carry, but this can be modified in a number of ways.
* CapitalismIsBad: [[ZigZaggedTrope Zig-zagged.]] On one hand, Night City is just about the bleakest portrait of unfettered capitalism imaginable, with amoral corporations using every means available to protect their bottom line while reducing their employees to virtual serfdom. Those who don't work for a corp fare even worse, with no social safety net and most of the population unable to afford even basic medical care, while it's treated as a given that the wealthy elite [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveMoney can get away with just about anything.]] No one ever offers any real alternatives, however; the rebellious Edgerunners are just as capitalistic and cutthroat as the corpos they oppose, more concerned with finding their own fame and fortune than making radical change. Likewise, the game also throws a few jabs at the Soviet Union, the NUSA's communist rivals (which has a socialistic corporate system); one news article documents the survival of a group of Soviet miners who were caught in a collapse. After crediting their survival to their implants, the reporter happily says the miners will be resuming their work ''next week.'' The main point in highlighting the negatives of capitalism is to demonstrate how out of their league V is in all this.
** One radio segment actually manages to strike a balance in the dystopian evils of both worlds in the form of a pair of news stories; in the first, a major humanitarian crisis in southeastern Europe is spiraling out of control, in large part due to the local governments ''refusing'' to render aid because it might "interfere with the free-market economy." The second story is from (The People's Republic of) China, whom have just ''banned'' manually driven vehicles, forcing citizens to only use self-driving vehicles that will only go on "authorized" trips to and from work, and has also mandated human-powered vehicles such as bicycles to be fitted with GPS trackers.
* CashGate: At some point the main story won't progress until you pay a certain fixer 15,000 eddies for their help in an upcoming mission.
* CassetteFuturism: The "shard" digital media format and "jack" connection port tech work exactly like "future" looking versions of SD cards and USB cables that were industry standard in computers at the time of the game's development. Over-the-air hacking does exist, however. The return to physical media can be justified by the fact that the infamous [=DataKrash=] of 2022 from the universe's lore destroyed the net as we know it today. In 2077 the old internet is the lair of rogue AIs and ancient viruses, and the modern net is a set of carefully defended walled gardens, air-gapped subnets, and corporate datacenters. The AI called "the Blackwall" manages traffic over the physical infrastructure of the internet and attempts to keep the traffic from the old wild net and the new net separate. The Doylist explanation is that the pen-and-paper RPG that established the tech was written in the 1980s.
* CastFromMoney: The iconic pistol "Plan B", found [[spoiler:on Dex [=DeShawn's=] dead body]], uses V's cash as ammo, one eddie per shot. Being an unremarkable piece of hardware apart from that feature puts it pretty deep in JokeItem territory.
* TheCameo: Creator/HideoKojima can be seen in a restaurant in the story mission "The Heist", under the name "Hideyoshi Oshima".
* CastingGag: Who else to play a [[Film/JohnnyMnemonic cyberpunk]] [[Film/TheMatrix messiah]] but Creator/KeanuReeves? Johnny Silverhand joins the ranks of his other cyberpunk heroes by being a revolutionary anarchist and {{Antihero}} with a severe attitude problem. Silverhand also joins the [[Film/PointBreak long]] [[Film/BramStokersDracula list]] [[Film/MuchAdoAboutNothing1993 of]] [[Film/JohnnyMnemonic characters]] [[Film/{{Constantine}} that]] [[Franchise/JohnWick Reeves]] has played named some variation of "John".
** The esoteric shop owner Misty, able to read tarot cards, is voiced by Creator/EricaLindbeck, who also voiced a character in [[VideoGame/Persona5 a game with strong tarot motifs]]. This also [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfHeroesTrailsOfColdSteel isn't the first time she voiced a character called Misty.]]
** Creator/CheramiLeigh and Creator/RobbieDaymond also took part in the English dub of ''VideoGame/Persona5''. Notably in Daymond's case, he plays a detective in both ''Persona'' and ''Cyberpunk 2077'', but the personality of his character and his relationship with Leigh's own character are diametrically opposed between the two games.
** Creator/CheramiLeigh has experience [[VideoGame/Borderlands2 playing characters with cybernetic limbs]].
** It wasn't the first time Creator/MieSonozaki voiced the LostLenore of a [[VideoGame/DeusExHumanRevolution cybernetically]] enhanced legend who's role plays a massive part in the story where the McGuffin is misused by an Asian MegaCorp to control all cybernetics.
** Casting Michał Żebrowski as Johnny Silverhand in the Polish version is this on a meta-level: before the game came out, fans speculated (though mostly jokingly) if Geralt from ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' will appear in the game in some way. Come trailer revealing Johnny Silverhand, and Polish gamers found out that yes, Geralt will indeed be in the game... but it won't be the one from the game series. Żebrowski played him in a 2001 cult classic ''Series/TheHexer''.
** In the Polish version, one of the cyberpsychos is voiced by a [[PromotedFanboy famous Polish rapper]], Quebonafide. His latest album, at the time of the game's release, was titled "Romantic Psycho".
** It's not the first time Creator/NoshirDalal plays a [[VideoGame/SekiroShadowsDieTwice ninja with advanced prosthetics who's tasked with protecting the heir of a royal Japanese family who's travelling through a dangerous, war-torn land.]]
* CelebrityParadox:
** Self-inflicted. Keanu Reeves portrays Johnny Silverhand. Keanu is also co-owner of Arch Motorcycles, a bespoke motorcycle maker. Arch-brand motorcycles appear in the game, one of which is [[ProductPlacement owned by Jackie Wells]] [[spoiler:and potentially/eventually by V]].
** There's also the Music/RunTheJewels song, "No Save Point", made specifically for the game and that actually plays on one of the radio stations, which directly namedrops Keanu Reeves. The creators' explanation is that Reeves existed in-universe as a niche actor who never really got popular, and whose most notable trait was his physical resemblance to Johnny Silverhand.
** Are the Soviet ripperdoc Nina Kraviz and the real-life Russian musician Nina Kraviz the same person?
* CentralTheme:
** The impossibility of dealing with systematic issues like poverty, prejudice, sexual exploitation, and environmental devastation. The Edgerunner protagonist, V, constantly butts heads with Johnny Silverhand over whether its possible to change anything in Night City. The player character can accomplish individual good in quests or profit from the crime in the city but they are unable to change anything on a structural level. [[spoiler:Not unless they're willing to do something just as big, like assaulting Arasaka Tower, and even then the change is temporary at best and devastating for bystanders at worst, and no matter the outcome, V will leave a ''lot'' of burned bridges in their wake, in one form or another.]]
** Another is what it means to be alive. Many characters debate on whether it's better to live a long and quiet life or to go out young in a blaze of glory as a legend so you can be remembered. Going hand in hand with this is how you live your life in the face of impending death. Life in Night City is already a dangerous place where you can catch a bullet to the head on any given day even if you aren't involved in criminal activity, but it goes doubly so for V [[spoiler:who is facing impending death within weeks due to the biochip in their head.]] The game also makes numerous references to the infamous Music/NeilYoung lyric, "its better to burn out, than fade away," including an in-game band having a song titled "Never Fade Away", and examines whether it truly ''is'' better to burn out (by fighting against fate to the death and [[DoNotGoGentle going out in a blaze of glory]]) than to fade away (accepting the cards that fate has dealt you, and [[FaceDeathWithDignity crossing the threshold with your head held high]]); One of the characters is in a remarkably similar situation as Music/KurtCobain was, seeing his legacy of anti-corpo rebellion being injected into the mainstream and "sold out", leaving him in a depression over how, despite it being decades later, the world is still the same shithole it was back in his time.
** Different ways of dealing with mortality, your own and your loved ones. Religion is still prominent in the universe, with Shinto and Catholic priests in the overworld (and Padre being one of the fixers), Buddhist monks being a part of different sidequests, and other major religions like Judaism or Islam being mentioned. The "Secure your soul" program promises people immortality through technology, and rich members of society (like the Arasakas, Rogue or Kerry) being able to prolong their lives and youth through different implants and rejuvenation treatments. Many sidequests center around different characters' way of dealing with their loved ones deaths ([[spoiler:Claire seeking revenge for her husband's accidental death, Misty missing Jackie and reminiscing with V, Judy's guilt over Evelyn's death, Kerry's and Rogue's problems with handling Johnny's death, Joshua's spiritual awakening before his death sentence is carried out, how V will handle their own deteriorating health and imminent death]]).
** Legacy. V is trying to carve their own through the course of the game, Johnny has to grapple with the fact that he's mostly remembered as a terrorist and an asshole, Viktor left his past as a boxer to lead a quiet and humble life [[spoiler:Jackie wanted to become a legend, but died tragically, and is mostly remembered by his loved ones by his personal qualities, Joshua Stephenson wants to be crucified and leave the braindance of the event as his legacy, Alt left the Soulkiller to be used by Arasaka after her accidental death, and now wants to destroy it, Panam is frustrated that the Aldecaldos under Saul are slowly becoming an antithesis of what they stood for (rejecting their legacy), Rogue and Kerry have to live up to their legacies of a legendary fixer and rock star.]]
** The importance and meaningfulness of human relationships. Throughout the game, V can befriend many different characters and change their lives for the better. [[spoiler:Every playthrough ends with V receiving calls form their friends, who want to stay in touch or outright thank V for what they did for them. The "Reaper" ending shows that V was never as alone as they felt, but instead had plenty of friends who were there for them. Unlocking "The Star" and "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" endings, considered the most optimistic ones, requires forging a deep bond with the Aldecaldos and Panam/Johnny, respectively. The main catalyst for Johnny's and V's character growth is their mutual bond and their respective [[ActOfTrueLove acts of true love]] show the length to which they both will go to save each other's lives.]]
* CityOfAdventure: Night City has been voted "worst city in America" by 2077, with poverty galore and absurd amounts of violence (both regular and corporate-sponsored). People go there regardless in the pursuit of a better life... even if they have to take it from someone else. It is full of multiple criminal gangs who rule whole districts, a police force that works for sinister megacorporations, and has an entire subculture of mercenaries doing jobs for all of them. Violence is the way that almost all issues are resolved.
* CharacterCustomization: V's gender, appearance, skills and even backstory are up to the discretion of the player.
* CharacterLevel: Three systems: Experience levels, Skill levels and Street Cred. The first allows you to improve your attributes, giving you straightforward stat upgrades. The second is limited by your attribute level and increases by using specific skills, granting you perk points and bonuses to those skills. The third works like fame and recognizability and is awarded by completing quests.
* TheCityNarrows: Pacifica, a coastal neighborhood for the wealthy, including a giant mall and a beach resort, was completely abandoned (some buildings mid-construction) following the Fourth Corporate War. Now, it's the worst part of Night City, where nobody aside Max-Tac or elite Edgerunners dare to go and where only homeless people, down on their luck immigrants and [[TheBerserker the Animals]] live. [[spoiler:And the Voodoo Boyz]].
* ClusterFBomb: This a Mature rated game and the characters frequently throw in curse words ranging from mild ones to CountryMatters. If you took shots every time a hard curse word is uttered, you would suffer alcohol poisoning for years to come.
** Exaggerated in the Russian version, where almost everyone swears constantly.
* CombatMedic: The Trauma Team are a combination of paramedic and bodyguards who come in in squads of four, fully armed and fully armored medics in a reinforced vehicle. This is pretty justified since Night City is plagued with crime, and their service area covers all of Night City, including gang hideouts or corporate sites (provided the client is working for said corporation).
* CombatStilettos: Ten-inch heels appear to be part of the NCPD's street uniform for female officers, regardless of how impractical this sort of footwear would be in a perpetual warzone like Night City. At least it doesn't seem to have much of an influence on their chances of survival, seeing how their more sensibly dressed male colleagues [[RedshirtArmy die just as quickly]].
* CompanyCrossReferences: ''Cyberpunk 2077'' features a lot of references to [=CDProjekt's=] previous hit, ''VideoGame/TheWitcher'' series. A full list can be seen on the [[ShoutOut/Cyberpunk2077 game's shout outs page]].
* ComputerVirus: Used often, including with a credit chip containing a hidden virus shutting down electronics in a gang hideout. V can also ''weaponize'' viruses and use them to hack electronics, guns, and ''even people''.
* ConspicuousConsumption: The ultra-rich are rife with profligacy, spending money on opulence. The Neo-kitsch style exemplifies this, with iridescent golden trim and other flashy flairs with extravagant materials. For another example, the [[CoolCar Rayfield Caliburn]] for sale is a mere two years old, in Dino's inventory because the previous owner believes "only poor people drive two-year-old cars". Scrappers covet the refuse from the ultra-rich, who throw away perfectly functional goods after minimal use.
* ContractualBossImmunity: Higher level enemies with a skull, robots, and bosses are immune to stealth grabs. At best, some bosses are heavily chromed and vulnerable to a stealth takedown that takes out their initial 25% health.
* ConvenientlyEmptyRoads: The "The Beast In Me" questline is a series of races throughout Night City. The racecourse is a holographic visual shared to the racers only, but the streets are entirely empty whenever there's a race going on. This was amended in a later update, so now there is some traffic you need to be aware of, but it's still much less than normal.
* CoolBike:
** The Yaiba Kusanagi sports bike, featured in the Deep Dive video and displayed at CD Projekt Red's booth at Tokyo Game Show 2019. Inspired by the motorcycles of ''Manga/{{Akira}}'' and ''Anime/BubblegumCrisis''.
** The fourth Night City Wire livestream revealed that Keanu Reeves also granted CD Projekt RED ProductPlacement rights for his custom-built motorcycle brand, Arch. In the game, you [[spoiler: inherit Jackie's]] Arch bike (based on the ''extremely'' limited edition [[https://archmotorcycle.com/arch-method-143/ Arch Method 143]]) in Act 2.
* CoolButInefficient:
** V can learn how to throw knives at enemies for a silent high-damage attack at close to medium range. The problems with this are manifold -- V really just throws the one knife they can hold, knives themselves are surprisingly rare drops (and crafting more requires resources better spent elsewhere), throwing your knife temporarily deprives you of your melee weapon, and if you miss the knife's gone for good. Slapping a suppressor on a good revolver is nearly always a better choice for silent ranged combat.
*** CDPR eventually took note and rectified this with the 1.5 update, making it so that a thrown knife goes on a brief cooldown before automatically returning to V's hand. Alternatively, V can go and pick it back up directly (even pull it out of the target enemy), and having multiple knives in your inventory allows for multiple throws in a row.
** You have the option to indefinitely upgrade weapons and clothing, slightly improving their stats each time. It's meant to keep your favorite gear competitive as you level up, but the exponentially escalating upgrade costs make this virtually impossible to keep up for long, and the ridiculous amount of level-scaled loot the game throws at you makes it unnecessary, anyway.
** Ultimate quickhacks are guaranteed to neutralize the target one way or another, but their RAM costs and cooldown timers are massive even when combined with an ultimate-boosting legendary cyberdeck. Half of them also only affect a single target, and the ones that can be used against groups tend to be woefully ineffective [[note]]forcing an enemy to detonate a grenade in their hand doesn't do all that much when most enemies only carry EMP grenades or flashbangs, and enemies under the effect of Cyberpsychosis only deal ScratchDamage on other [=NPCs=] past the early game[[/note]]. They can have situational use (mostly to create a distraction), but in terms of damage output they're much, much less effective than the basic Short Circuit or Overheat quickhacks.
* CoolCar: The game contains cars that are every flavor of cool, from the Nomads' rolling fortresses to exquisitely sleek (and ruinously expensive) corpo hypermachines, with some old-school classics like Johnny's Porsche 911 thrown in for good measure. In-story, though, the stereotypical cool cars (and ultimate celebrity status symbols) are the Rayfield Caliburn and Arondight. Aesthetically inspired by the legendary Bugatti Veyron, they're advertised as blisteringly fast masterpieces of automotive art with the armor of a main battle tank -- since if you have one of these, everyone in Night City is going to want to take it for their own. Unfortunately, [[GameplayAndStorySegregation their actual in-game performance doesn't come anywhere near that]], leaving their looks and bragging rights status as their only perks.
* CoolestClubEver: Night City has many of these.
** "The Afterlife", a club that takes a major [[TheFixer Fixer]] like Dex Deshawn to even get a table at, built in the remnants of an old morgue.
** Lizzies is a nightclub that operates as a BandOfBrothels' headquarters that specializes in braindance porn.
** The Totentanz is a club owned entirely by Maelstrom made in the remnants of a factory building. It puts the 'punk' in cyberpunk, having a massive mosh pit and with music playing so loud it can be heard on street level despite the fact it's several stories up.
** During a brief flashback as Johnny, you get to experience a first person romp and gunfight through Atlantis. A classy club that was the Afterlife of 2020 back in the golden age of Edgerunners.
* TheCoronerDothProtestTooMuch: This is typically how the corpos thinly cover up their murders when they can't use their control over the city to make their murder legal and present it as justifiable. The most notable example is [[spoiler:Yorinobu Arasaka throttling his father to death, and then claiming he was poisoned]].
* CorporateWarfare: The [[MegaCorp megacorps]] of Night City all vie for control through subterfuge, economic dominance, or just plain violence. The primary conflict is between Arasaka Corporation and Militech, with both sides having gone to open war during the Fourth Corporate War and even used nukes.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: In a world where corporations are above the law, only care about their bottom line and don't hesitate for a nanosecond to walk all over the little man if it means a cent more profit, just about every high-level corpo in Night City is one of these. One of the most prominent examples is Meredith Stout, a Militech agent you meet during the game's second mission. Egotistical, elitist and sending V and Jackie on what would have been a suicide mission if not for their skill, only to scoff and smugly insist on her superiority when called out by V. [[spoiler:If the player chooses the right interactions, V can actually end up sleeping with her though.]]
* CosmicMotifs: [[spoiler:All endings feature it to some degree: "Path of Glory" has V departing to rob a space casino, "The Devil" takes place on an Arasaka research station in space, "The Star" ends on a shot of V and Panam looking out into the night sky, and "Temperance" has Johnny departing Night City with the starry sky above.]]
* CountryMatters: Along with all the other foul language in the game, the C-word gets used liberally and is uttered by Night City denizens almost as often as mundane words like 'and' or 'the'.
* CovertPervert: On the outside [[spoiler: Meredith Stout is as dignified, and arrogant, as any other corpo suit.]] By asking about a blink-and-you-miss-it tattoo, she will invite V to meet her in the No-Tell Motel. Given your previous conversations it's easy to think she'll give you an assignment but when you enter the room where she's staying, she'll be dressed in an outfit consisting of a leather harness, thigh high leather boots, choker and electrical tape. This outfit shows off several tattoos that show a wild side you'd never expect. You then are given the option of having sex with her. If you look in the room after the encounter you can even find a rather large sex toy that she left. (Sir John Phallustiff, a ''very'' good non-lethal melee weapon for that time of the game, which counts as an Iconic weapon, allowing it to be greatly upgraded.)
* CrackIsCheaper: InUniverse, high-quality weapons are ''absurdly'' expensive. A legendary socket wrench can easily set you back 100,000 eddies in a weapons shop, not to mention what firearms cost. For reference, the average late-game gig pays out between 3,000 and 5,000 eddies. It makes the whole "higher street cred unlocks new weapons at vendors" shebang largely meaningless because at these rates you'll never pay for weapons, anyway.
** Similarly, high-tier cars can set you back about 100K eurodollars upwards. Each. And you have to collect them ''all'' to get a car achievement.
* CrapsaccharineWorld: Night City looks incredibly pretty on the surface, but it wasn't voted the worst place to live in America for nothing. The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jNC6MEA4rQk "Postcards from Night City" featurette]] begins with cheery in-universe TV personalities, goes through clubbing scenes involving dancing, drinking and doing drugs, then hits you with a MoodWhiplash switching to reports about rampant crime, pollution and skyrocketing numbers of homeless.
-->'''Newscaster:''' ''(cheerfully)'' We are '''fucked''', America! ''(more serious tone)'' And I'm not sure how we're gonna fix it.
* CrapsackWorld: As bad as it is in Night City and the New United States of America, it's implied through news reports and background dialogue that the situation globally is just as bad, if not worse:
** News reports you can overhear will discuss the skyrocketing pollution levels in Eastern Europe, and how the governments in the region are making no attempts to intervene. In addition, global warming has lead to temperatures in the Mediterranean rising to the point that large chunks of the region are now completely uninhabitable.
** To illustrate that point, one news report you can overhear in the game mentions that Antarctica is referred to by some as "Heaven on Earth" due to its amazingly low murder rate of 70 per 100,000 citizens. [[note]]In real life, the highest murder rate of any country is 52 per 100,000 citizens as of 2020.[[/note]]
** One news cast you can overhear mentions that the [[GreatOffscreenWar Himalayan Wars]] blew so much dust and soot into Earth's atmosphere that solar panels and even wind turbines are rapidly becoming useless for power generation ''across the globe''. The Himalayas are one of the tallest mountain ranges on the planet, but the area they cover isn't all that large, relatively speaking. For armed conflicts there to mess up the atmosphere so badly, they can't have been anything but nuclear exchanges of insane proportions.
** Most of the Middle East is ''gone'', having been nuked to hell in the so-called "Suicide War." The news mention that the neighboring Turkey often gets hit with the radioactive dust storms that resulted from the war. Lebanon seems to be doing ok though, as evidenced by one of the alcoholic drinks named after the Baalbek region.
** On a more down-to-earth level, Militech has been voted "Best Employer in Night City" three years running for offering such excellent benefits as a whole five days of paid vacation a year and free access to pharmaceutical-grade stimulants, and even offering a whole thirty-four percent of their workforce retirement benefits.
** One of the car purchase quest texts mentions that Argentina is back to being a military dictatorship.
** Yet another newscast talks about ongoing illegal salvage operations plundering the sunken ruins of Venice, implying the iconic city is completely gone. And if GaiasLament has claimed Venice, things aren't looking so good for numerous other cities along the Mediterranean's shores, either; though one character does mention moving to Malta after making their fortune, implying that at least the aforementioned island nation is still good enough to be considered an ideal retirement location.
** A notable aversion is Somalia on account of DramaticIrony. The country which, even in this wiki, is often portrayed as the CrapsackWorld de jour, appears to have become a popular tourist destination in the ''Cyberpunk'' universe, with commercials touting its beaches and cruises.
** Paying attention to the names of clothing items reveals that pretty much every piece of clothing in the game world is armored. Yes, even bustiers and ''bras''. Life in Night City is so dangerous that people don't dare stepping outside without what's essentially a full suite of low-level body armor. Even worse, it doesn't help. Numerous lines of dialogue imply that a violent death is the standard way to check out in this world, with V at one point suggesting building a monument to one character who passed away peacefully due to old age.
* CrazyHomelessPeople: Prophet Gary, the trashbag-clad ConspiracyTheorist ranting outside Victor Vector's clinic. Modeled after and voiced by streamer [=CohhCarnage=]. He usually makes an insightful theory about the dystopian conditions they're living in... before blaming it all on Lizardmen sponsored by the Scientologists of Alpha-Centauri. He's something of a tourist attraction.
* CriticalHit: Pretty standard fare for an RPG in terms of mechanics, inasmuch as that they have a certain percentage chance to deal multiple times the regular damage when they trigger. What makes them a bit unusual in ''CP 2077'' is how easy it is to stack crit chance to the point that every hit becomes a guaranteed critical. A quick tour around Night City's clothing stores is enough to amass enough Fortuna mods for a perpetual 100% crit chance. Pick certain perks or find a good weapon with a high innate crit chance multiplier and you can achieve the same result even faster. From that point onwards you'll deal damage in the hundreds of thousands with every hit regardless of the weapon used, turning every hit on any non-boss enemy (and even on most bosses) into a OneHitKill.
* CriticalHitClass: Subverted. There are attribute-dependent perks that increase crit chance for specific weapons, but the quickest and easiest way to stack up a perpetual 100% crit chance comes from outfit mods, which are independent from attribute distribution and general playstyle. Other perks enable quickhacks and even grenades to crit, thus paving the road for any conceivable character build to specialize in critical hits.
* CulturalCrossReference: The game was made in Poland, but it features a lot of references to foreign, mostly American and Japanese, media, ranging from [[{{Cyberpunk}} genre staples]] (''Film/BladeRunner'', ''Film/TheMatrix'', ''Manga/GhostInTheShell''), popular movies and [=TV=] shows (''Series/BreakingBad'', ''Film/DieHard'', ''Film/DirtyHarry'', ''Film/BrokebackMountain''), video games (''VideoGame/DeathStranding'', ''VideoGame/HalfLife'') to some really niche ones (a graffiti referencing a Russian book called ''Literature/TheTwelveChairs''). A full page dedicated to references in the game can be found [[ShoutOut/Cyberpunk2077 here]]. Not to mention the numerous [[https://www.ungeek.ph/2020/12/check-out-these-filipino-references-in-cyberpunk-2077/ references to Filipino culture]] such as street food and Tagalog brands like isaw (chicken intestines) and "Kabayan Foods" respectively, largely due to the Philippine-based studios who assisted in developing the game.
* CurbStompBattle: Combat starts out challenging, but as the player levels and finds more and more advanced weaponry and cyber implants a lot of the game's non-boss baddies become little more than target practice. In the last third of the game, a few shots from a smart shotgun in the general direction of a group of band members can often wipe them out before they can open fire at all. This, of course, opens up much more direct approaches to presumably-stealth missions - just waltz in through the front door and shred everything that stands in your way.
* CuteAndPsycho: [[spoiler:Lizzy Wizzy starts off sympathetic at first, being a star in love with her manager and worried that he's cheating, but she quickly skips over this line when V finds out that said manager planned to have her mind copied in an engram. While a scummy thing to do, he was at least partially driven by fear of her due to her cybernetics messing with her mind... which is quickly proven true when in a rage she slowly strangles him to death. While she feels guilty at first she soon finds inspiration in it and her after mission texts mention she made a braindance out of the incident while cheerfully texting V with smiley emoticons.]]
* CuteKitten: There's a sphinx cat that hangs around V's apartment complex that can potentially be adopted by them and live in their flat. Even '''Johnny''' seems to take some interest in it!
* CutsceneIncompetence:
** [[spoiler:V is ambushed and killed by Dex and his one bodyguard after the failed Relic heist despite the fact that they're still armed and uninjured. If the player had been in control, they could have likely killed both. Doubly weird, since a previous trailer showed the scene and justified it better, with V successfully fighting back and killing both the bodyguard and T-Bug despite being hacked and Dex barely managing to shoot him instead of doing so with ease in the game proper. It may be explainable by how exhausted V is at this point, shattered by Jackie's death and having run themselves ragged the whole day.]]
** Deep into Judy's questline, V gets completely owned in a cutscene sparring match against what's basically a cyborg hooker with some software upgrades. You [[SkippableBoss can later fight a real opponent]] with the same upgrades who's a total pushover. It's explained a bit as V isn't trying to hurt Tom, takes no damage, and is thrown into a couch.
* CyberneticsEatYourSoul:
** True to the pen-and-paper RPG, the more cybernetics people install in their body, the higher the chance they'll fall into "cyberpsychosis", a mental illness that causes them to empathize with machines more than humans to the point of [[FantasticRacism bigotry]] and violence. The Maelstrom gang actually pursue this; V and Jackie comment on how they ''worship'' machines, and see cyberpsychosis as a sort of enlightened state.
** Averted by V, however. No matter how many implants the player sticks in themselves, they're never at risk of cyberpsychosis. It can likely be explained with the Relic's influence between the neurological effect it's having on V's brain plus having Johnny around. Also averted for [[TheDreaded Adam Smasher]] despite him being listed 96% cybernetic, though given that he was already a psychopath before the enhancements and is working for Arasaka, it's likely he gets treatment to avoid the effects.
** The subject is also addressed in the Monster Hunter quest [[spoiler: that reveals cyberpsychosis is not actually real. It's a term that was applied liberally by the media to a wide variety of conditions ranging from hard drug use to faulty combat mods to nervous breakdowns to severe PTSD. Cyberpsychos are, by and large, dangerous because they're incredibly powerful cyborgs on a rampage, as many of Night City's citizens are prone to doing, but the lie that "too many implants makes you crazy" is easier and requires less action than the massive systemic issues.]]
** Mike Pondsmith, creator of the IP, went on to explain that he equates cybernetics to a drug addiction. The more people chrome up, the more they rely on it and often do so to fill some hole in their life. He went on to say a stable quality of life is likely the best suppresant for cyberpsychosis. This includes things like a good education, loving friends and family, and healthy living which result in people having a greater empathy, hence why empathy is the determining stat for your pyschosis resistance in the tabletop. It also explains why V is so resistant to cyberpsychosis, as at bar minimum he'll always have Jackie, Misty, Viktor, and Johnny looking out for him. This network of friends only gets wider if you tackle the sidequests that unlock the different endings.
* {{Cyberpunk}}: On just about every level. The game is named ''Cyberpunk''. It's based on the ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' tabletop game that has been shaping the genre since 1988. You play as a cybernetically enhanced StreetPunk. And it takes place in a world where violence, poverty, corruption and crime exists side by side with {{cyborg}}s, {{flying car}}s and other [[FuturisticTechIndex futuristic tech]].
* CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain: It often rains during important story beats and very occasionally in the open world. The "very occasionally"[[note]]datamining revealed a ~5% chance of rain for 30-90 in-game minutes, compared to 90% probability of sunny weather for periods of 8-15 hours; the other available weather phenomena like clouds, toxic rain or sandstorms spawn with probabilities as low as 2%, leading many players to never see them even once in their entire playthrough[[/note]] part drew criticism from players and critics who felt the game world was too bright and sunny for a cyberpunk setting, regardless of CDPR's explicit intention of averting this trope. The studio still relented about a year after release and increased the chance of rainy weather[[note]]to an astounding 10%, which still means Night City enjoys almost perpetually clear skies[[/note]] as part of the 1.3 patch. Mods are available to rebalance these percentages to more typical cyberpunk conditions.
* {{Cyberspace}}: Entering cyberspace is so risky that a hacker has to be in an ice-cold tub, a special suit or in a pool of water, to prevent their bodies from overheating while jacked in. And even then, of the times you do it yourself in-game, two ([[spoiler:once in the Voodoo Boys' base, once during the "Star" endgame]] results in the entire system shorting out once you exit. As for Cyberspace itself, it takes the appearance of a black void with semi-transparent constructs in which a projection of you can move.
* CycleOfHurting: Grenades are cheap to craft and can stunlock bosses into their staggered animation.
* CynicIdealistDuo: Subverted. In the protagonist duo, Johnny is both the idealist and the cynic. V is a hedonistic materialist with no interest in anything beyond the next job, paycheck or thrill. Johnny is a crusader, and lives and breathes his anti-corporate anarchist values. However, V is generally happy, mentally stable and has a wide circle of TrueCompanions. Johnny is bitter, abrasive and egocentric, which, along with his unrelenting unwillingness to compromise or back down from his ideals, has alienated every friend he ever had.
* DamageSpongeBoss: Bosses can take ''a lot'' more damage than regular mooks. Most of the time, this is justified by them being heavily cybered badasses, but at least one boss who just seems to be a regular human in a suit can still soak an impressive number of bullets before dropping, simply because he's a boss.
* DarkIsNotEvil: V, Johnny, and their group of TrueCompanions don't exactly represent the archetypes associated with [[IdealHero traditionally heroic characters]]: V is a struggling ProfessionalKiller, Johnny is a BombThrowingAnarchist, Jackie is an ex-Gangbanger who works as a merc, Misty is a PerkyGoth, Viktor is a BackAlleyDoctor operating from a dingy basement, Judy is a techie working for a gang, Panam is a merc who's not above hunting down a man who stole her car and gear and killing him, Kerry is an aggressive washed-up rockstar [[HellBentForLeather clad head to toe in leather]], Rogue is a [[TheFixer fixer]] setting up criminals with jobs, Takemura is a disgraced CorporateSamurai, the Aldecaldos are a [[VenturousSmuggler clan of smugglers]] and even River, the closest one to a classically heroic archetype (ByTheBookCop) is pretty intimidating and willing to use force. Despite all that, all of them are actually [[HiddenDepths much deeper than you'd think at a glance]], and generally seem to be good, if not flawed or misguided, people and reliable friends. It contrasts them with the closest thing the game has to antagonists, the Arasakas (Saburo, Yorinobu and Hanako), who are clearly distinguished, dignified and upper-class, but are also scheming, conniving and clearly detached from the rest of humanity.
* DaylightHorror: Much of the gameplay takes place during the day, showing the horrifying depravity of Night City.
* DeadlyDoctor: Despite the fact they're touted as a high-end premium medical insurance company, Night City's Trauma Team look about as far from an ambulance crew as you could get. Instead of medical scrubs, the squads look more like military combat medics; all of them equipped with guns and decked out in military-grade armor as they swoop in to haul their clients out of danger. At least they're nice enough to warn you to stand back and only taser you if you try to get close.
* DealWithTheDevil:
** In the Corpo origin story, Jackie outright calls working with Arasaka ''"un pacto con el diablo"'' and "selling your soul", such that he considers getting screwed over by Arasaka and terminated from the company to be a blessing in disguise, as it means that V can now choose their own path.
** At the conclusion of the Arasaka ending path, [[spoiler:the Relic is removed as Hanako promised you, but your condition is still terminal as the Relic has already rewritten your brain beyond repair. You are offered one solution: You can enroll in the Secure Your Soul program free of charge and join Mikoshi as a digital engram, abandoning your body forever. However, engrams don't legally have rights, so you'll effectively become Arasaka property. The bright side is that the science will likely advance enough in the future for you to one day download yourself into a fresh new body, but it's unknown when that will ever happen. You can also reject this, and return to Night City to live out the rest of your days unless a miracle cure presents itself to you]].
* DeathByAdaptation: Santiago Aldecaldo. He survived the events of the TTRPG and is even explicitly mentioned in the RED World Book; he has a son named Trace and would tell stories of the 2023 Arasaka Raid, insisting the bomb going off early wasn't theirs. Santiago is dead by the time of 2077 with a single dialogue contradicting RED and saying he died at Arasaka Tower in 2023. [[spoiler: This likely made more sense in an earlier draft of the game; Saul used to be Santiago as can be confirmed via datamining. Paweł Sasko explained on one of his streams that it was changed to balance out the amount of new characters vs ones taken from the tabletop game, and because it wouldn't make sense lore-wise for Santaigo to be alive in 2077 (unlike the Arasakas, Rogue or Samurai members, who can afford life-extending treatments).]]
* {{Deconstruction}}: The game deconstructs certain tropes and aspects common in western [=RPG=] games:
** There is no clear villain that V is up against. Saburo gets offed at the end of Act I [[spoiler:and only returns in the ending where you side with him]], you can get through entire game without speaking to Yorinobu ''once'', and despite her flaws, Hanako proves to be honest enough in her dealings with V ([[spoiler:in "The Devil" ending she sets them up with the biochip surgery, allows them to leave the space station, secures a spot for them in the "Secure your soul" program and is willing to hire them/give them funds for life if they choose to leave the space station and live free]]). The enemy is instead the whole faulty system that's put in place in Night City: It doesn't matter if Saburo, Yorinobu, or Hanako are at the helm, because the Arasaka corporation will still keep being oppressive, money- and power-hungry force trampling over the people of Night City. V was just one of many people Arasaka crushed, and if not the fact that the biochip they have in their head is an incredibly valuable piece of tech, nobody would even bother with helping them. The Relic and how it works is just the extension of that mindset. As Mike Pondsmith would say ''[[https://youtu.be/xYxt7cwDk4E?t=99 Cyberpunk isn't about saving humanity, it's about saving your self.]]'' and this game makes you face that.
** The game also deconstructs the GoldenEnding trope. [[spoiler:Not a single one of these endings can be considered unambiguously "good" without any drawbacks. V will either die, become an engram/digital ghost, be living on borrowed time (six months maximum at the end of the story), or will let Johnny take over their body. Even the unlockable endings ("The Star" and "(Don't) Fear The Reaper"), while somewhat more optimistic than the standard ones, don't change that much in terms of V's chance for survival. The Relic has simply spread too far, and no matter how many sidequests you do or right dialogue options you'll pick, it won't change the fact that V's body is permanently damaged (seemingly) beyond repair. To top this off in almost all ending routes where you ask for help someone important to V and/or Johnny WILL die in the opening of the final fight even if you do everything correctly.]]
** V doesn't impact [[spoiler:Night City that much in terms of day to day and is ultimately unable to free it from corpo control. While the "Path of Glory" and "The Star" endings allow you to cripple Arasaka, Night City is still far from free. Many in-game articles imply that there were some tensions brewing again between Arasaka and Militech, and it's very likely that Militech will simply kill off any Arasaka remnants and take over the city, meaning that, in the grand scheme of things, not much will change. To top thing off, V (or Johnny) likely won't live long enough to see what their raid has caused, or will be far away from Night City by then.]]
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: River expresses disgust at the amount of artificial substances that went into factory farmed beef in the early 21st century, of the type that most players of the game would cheerfully eat, but equally cheerfully scarfs down any number of foodstuffs players would find revolting, including but not limited to insects and synthetic fats.
* DemotedToExtra: Michiko Arasaka, daughter of Kei Arasaka. is a prominent character in the Cyberpunk: RED era of the TTRPG who has her own scenario and expanded backstory. In ''2077'' she is only passingly mentioned in a few shards and lines of dialogue as the leader of the company's [[InternalReformist liberal reformist faction]], but has a small cameo in the Arasaka ending path as [[spoiler:one of the board members gathered to hear the testimony against Yorinobu. Notably, she's the only board member besides Hanako who survives Yorinobu's shootout]].
* DevelopersDesiredDate: [[BadassBiker Panam Palmer]] is this to a male [[PlayerCharacter V]]. She's the only love interest for male V you meet in the main story, she plays a big role in the second half of act II and potentially act III, she spends the most time with V out of all romance options, their relationship builds more gradually (unlike the more sudden RelationshipUpgrade in the other three), and she's the only love interest for whom completing the side missions for will unlock a new ending, "The Star", which is considered the best one in the game. Even if you don't romance her, Panam is one of V's closest friends and allies, who's ready to die for them and offers V [[spoiler:joining her clan, the Aldecaldos, and leaving Night City together]]. The closest to this trope female V has is [[GadgeteerGenius Judy Alvarez]], who is also the only love interest for female V met in the main story, so she spends more time with V than just what's in her sidequest, she was heavily featured in promotional materials before the game came out, and is the only romantic option (other than Panam) who will join you in "The Star" ending. The other two romance options, [[TheRockstar Kerry Eurodyne]] and [[ByTheBookCop River Ward]] are only met through sidequests, have no bearing on the main plot, and spend much less time with the player than either Judy or Panam.
* DevelopersForesight:
** The developers included the option to turn off copyrighted music and nudity for the sake of online streamers. Thought this feature launched broken, it was later fixed.
** If the player manages to get in and drive Judy's car (which is impossible to do without mods), she will send them a light-hearted, but annoyed text message.
** You can actually fail the mission "Boat Drinks" by jumping off the boat and swimming to the shore. After some time, Kerry will send you a hurt message, where he's upset about you leaving him.
** Trying to call Jackie's phone after [[spoiler: his PlotlineDeath]] will actually give V the option to leave him updates on current events on the answering machine [[spoiler: as a kind of TalkingToTheDead]].
** ''Every single'' fictional musician in the game, be it in person or even simply mentioned ''once'' on a datashard, is represented on the in-game radio with their own unique song made by a real-life artist.
* DiabolusExMachina: The Arasaka heist at the end of Act 1 for the most part goes off without a hitch. It just so happens that on that particular day that the heist happened, [[spoiler:Saburo Arasaka returned to the US for the first time in decades to see his son. And it just so happened that Yorinobu decided to murder him right in front of your eyes. And it just so happened that because you witnessed all of this, you make the perfect patsy for Saburo's murder. Had you done the heist even a day earlier, V's crew would have been set for life rather than mostly dead with the final member living on borrowed time.]]
* DialogueTree: How every conversation where V is a part of works. Sometimes you get new dialogue options depending on your V's chosen lifepath and skillpoint allocation.
* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage:
** At the start of "Pyramid Song", you can catch Judy humming her {{Leitmotif}}, "Bells of Laguna Bend" to herself. Variations of the tune play throughout the entire mission.
** [[spoiler:Before the sex scene with Kerry plays out, he turns on the radio that starts playing a variation of the Samurai song "Archangel". It plays non-diegetically through the rest of the scene.]]
* DifficultButAwesome: [[PinballProjectile Ricochet shooting]] with Power Weapons. Dismissed by many as CoolButInefficient because of the change in paradigm in where to aim, the ricochet effect imparted by the Ballistic Coprocessor implant or an integrated ricochet engine in the weapon itself can become immensely powerful in the hands of a practiced user even in more typical shooting circumstances. One must develop an ability to intuitively spot ricochet angles and trust in the ricochet aim-snap to take aiming from there to get the most use out of it. In this mindset, the most overwhelmingly common usage is firing from the hip at the approximate midpoint on the (level) ground between you and the target, as the ricochet effect still works even when firing from the hip. The trajectory line applied with the "Draw The Line" perk in the Tech/Engineering perk tree (or thet Trajectory Generator eye mod pre-1.5) helps with more complex shots and can act as "training wheels" for learning the knack for eyeballing the midpoint on the fly. Version 1.5 gives some extra help for ricochet shooting, such as wider ricochet angles and potentially massive ricochet damage boosts from muzzle brake attachments, and also adds a green highlight even through walls to any target that is caught by the aim-snap while aiming down sights with the trajectory line. For massive damage per shot, one can experiment with adding a Babaroga muzzle brake (the model series with the highest potential ricochet damage multiplier) to an [[RevolversAreJustBetter Overture revolver]].
* DirtyCop: It's hard to find a police officer who is not on the take or otherwise involved in illegal activity. For example, the police chief paid off the Scavengers to get rid of the homeless dwelling in an abandoned tunnel then put a bounty on the scavs to eliminate them as witnesses, and V gets hired to "persuade" a honest detective to stop her investigation in the side mission "The Woman from La Mancha". However, most are at least still trying to do their basic job. Then, you have some dirty cops who take it to the next level and are opening working with the city's criminal gangs, even fighting alongside them in combat.
* DiscOneNuke:
** Dying Night is given to V for free by Wilson while leaving to meet Jackie for the first time after the Sandra Dorsett job. While it's a [[LittleUselessGun Lexington]], it has a lickety-split-quick reload time and an enormous headshot bonus damage. With a high quality silencer and some upgrades, stealth headshots can go well into the thousands of damage (or ''tens'' of thousands on crits), making it an excellent weapon for stealthy players. If you get the hang of hipfire-aiming for Ballistic Coprocessor ricochet shots, the Lexington's full-auto fire synergizes with the ricochet damage bonuses that are more prevalently available on power weapons after the 1.3 patch. It as well as almost every gun below can be upgraded to a better version of itself.
** The Fenrir submachine gun can be acquired as soon as the player met Dexter [=DeShawn=], being located in a small warehouse visited during a sidequest. While it's damage output will eventually fall short, it's still a Rare weapon with a [[KillItWithFire thermal damage]] bonus that can carry players for a long while.
** There's a [[GuideDangIt well-hidden loot chest]] in Kabuki that contains a legendary Monowire arm implant. Not only is this one of the most powerful melee weapons in the game, you normally can't even purchase it until you hit 25 street cred, and it costs well in excess of 100,000 eddies if you buy it at a ripperdoc's. You can pick it up right after the intro mission, with the only deterrent being a bunch of Animals gangoons guarding the area. The Wire, as well as pretty much all other legendary cyberware found in the open world, was removed in Update 1.3.
** For Handgun users, Lizzie is a unique [[ShortRangeShotgun Omaha]] [[MagneticWeapons tech pistol]] that can be found when meeting Judy early on in the game. While its short range hurts its effectiveness later on, it fires as fast as you can pull the trigger, resulting in huge DPS that can carry you well into Act 2 even when not upgraded.
** Skippy, one of the most absurdly powerful weapons in all of Night City, can be picked up the moment you start Act 2. And unlike all of the above examples, it stays that powerful indefinitely because it's the only weapon in the game that levels with the player instead of requiring expensive upgrades to stay competitive.
** Buzzsaw is likely to be one of the first craftable iconics you'll come across. While not overwhelmingly powerful stat-wise, it's one of only a handful of Power weapons that can shoot through cover, walls and other enemies, making it surprisingly lethal in a game whose gunplay is mostly cover-based.
** Not a weapon, but an all-black version of the ultra-expensive Caliburn supercar can be picked up for free [[spoiler:in a cave near Rocky Ridge. Namely, the same cave where you fight Nash and his goons in Panam's first mission. It's right around the corner of where that battle takes place, accessible at any time after the Heist mission.]] If you want to get places quickly and in style, accept no substitutes.
* DividedStatesOfAmerica: Night City is located in "The Free State of North California." The United States broke apart due to a coup attempt by the Alphabet Agencies (called the Gang of Four) and attempts to reunite the country only divided it further. News reports also reveal Texas is its own independent nation and has recently rescinded their law requiring their border guards to give warnings to trespassers before shooting them.
* DoAndroidsDream: V occasionally talks to Johnny about whether or not he has a soul, being technically just a digital copy of the original. In one side-mission revolving around a man who wishes to make a braindance of his state-sanctioned execution in order to inspire others to turn to God, V can ask Johnny if he believes his original body's soul has passed on to the afterlife, or if [[BarredFromTheAfterlife it was locked out]] since a copy of his consciousness still remained on Earth. Johnny's reaction is his usual dismissiveness.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything:
** After V slots in the Relic, and Johnny's constructs starts to overtake their mind, they become progressively weaker, [[IncurableCoughOfDeath cough up blood]], faint and have seizures. It's easy to draw parellels between V's condition and different deadly illnesses like tuberculosis or cancer. Additionally, there's the whole aspect of losing one's sense of self and memories, reminiscent of Alzheimer's disease.
** In "Chippin' In", V wants to know exactly what [[spoiler:Johnny will do after he takes over V's body to talk to Rogue. Johnny, frustrated and impatient, says:]]
--->'''Johnny:''' Don't worry, I'll be gentle. Ya might even enjoy it.
* DoorToBefore: Many gig locations and some main mission settings have hidden exit doors near the target that can only be opened from the inside. Others are accessible from both sides, so they can pull double duty as a DungeonBypass if you have the Body or Tech attributes required to open them.
* DoubleJump: Possible with one of the cybernetic implants, and another one grants you the ability to jump higher InASingleBound.
** Fingers has a special version of the double-jump implant that allows you to hover after double-jumping. It doesn't let you jump as high as the regular implants, but can help you reach far-away platforms.
* DroppedABridgeOnHim: Due to the brutal hellhole that Night City is, quite a lot of characters get unceremoniously killed off:
** [[spoiler: T-Bug]] has her brain fried by Arasaka netrunners. Other than a brief sentence where she's referred to in past tense and the fact that we never see her again, nothing about her death is outright said.
** [[spoiler: Dexter]] gets shot in the head by Takemura and is never talked about again, save for one or two brief mentions.
** You can find [[spoiler:Meredith]]'s corpse wearing cement shoes in one of the water reservoirs that surround the city. That only happens if [[spoiler:you don't accept her offer in "The Pickup"]].
** [[spoiler:Hanako]] dies in every ending path besides "The Devil" after [[spoiler:Alt hacks the Mikoshi network and fries everyone connected to it]].
** [[spoiler:Takemura]] will die during "Search and Destroy", when he gets crushed by rubble. [[spoiler:The player can actually save him if they turn around immediately after they get control of V, [[GuideDangIt but nothing in the game indicates that this is a possibility]], so most players just left him to die.]]
** If you abandon [[spoiler:River Ward]] at the farm where his nephew Randy is being held, he'll be killed in his solo attempt to save him. Additionally, [[spoiler:Randy]] will die if you go to the wrong farm.
* DrillTank: Not a tank per se, but [[spoiler:the Aldecaldos]] weaponize a giant tunnel drilling machine to [[spoiler:clear a path into the basement of Arasaka Tower in the Star ending.]]
* DrivenToSuicide:
** With two of the available Ultimate quickhacks, "Suicide" and "Detonate Grenade", you can force enemies to off themselves.
** [[spoiler:Near the end of the game, V has the option to take the "path of least resistance" and simply shoot themself in the head.]]
* DudeWheresMyRespect: Pointedly averted. The Street Cred level means that the more missions you do the more your reputation grows, which has benefits such as more missions and more items at shops. Meanwhile Fixers when you first enter their zone will also treat you with respect and sing V's praises as a reliable Edgerunner who can get anything done.
* DumpStat:
** Cool is not necessarily a bad stat, but it is quite compromised in comparison to the other stats. It can provide great critical damage to Body or Reflex builds for instance (especially at higher levels), is very good for stealth builds via the Ninjutsu perk tree, and especially with the Cold Blood perk tree offers a good deal of bonuses for killing enemies, but on its own it has very little to offer, especially against bosses. A pure Body, Intelligence or Reflexes build will give a much stronger bang for your buck and tech will provide plenty of perks for making money or crafting items.
** The Body stat covers the "loud" approach to combat in a game that frequently asks you to proceed stealthily. At range it improves shotguns, which are [[ShortRangeShotgun too short-ranged]] for most situations, and machine guns, which generally lose out against assault rifles in every respect except clip size. Body's buffs to blunt weapons and hitpoints are nice to have but ultimately irrelevant, and in the one instance where they could be really useful in theory (the boxing matches), they don't make much of a difference. Generally speaking, both ranged and melee combatants are better off focusing on Reflex and Tech instead due to these stats covering the vast majority of weapons in the game, and as far as hacking is concerned, Intelligence is the OneStatToRuleThemAll anyway. Worst of all, the most important Body-dependent implants like [[UnstoppableRage Berzerk]] and [[BulletTime Sandevistan]] replace V's cyberdeck, costing the player a huge chunk of flexibility by preventing the use of quickhacks. It probably explains why the two Body-dependent achievements are among the rarest unlocks on GOG. A common strategy is to bring Body to 6 points (required to handle certain heavy weapons like Grad sniper rifles or Burya revolvers with maximum efficiency) and leave it at that.
* DungeonBypass:
** If a gig is set in a specific building, there's almost always a usually well-hidden and attribute-locked side entrance somewhere that leads more or less directly to the gig's target. Larger buildings can have multiple alternative approaches, giving almost any playstyle a chance to avoid the majority of enemies and cameras in the area.
** Tech rifles can serve this role in Gun For Hire gigs. Ping the local network, look for that one enemy who looks somewhat unique and who (usually) doesn't move from their central position, and blast them through the walls with charged shots until they drop. Or just blast every red outline until you get the right one. Either option finishes the gig without you having to set foot inside the building.
* {{Dystopia}}: The {{cyberpunk}} world of ''[=CP2077=]'' has a society that allows body modification to the point many suffer psychotic breaks, and a police force that responds with dangerously excessive force to crimes. Ambulances are now floating [[AwesomePersonnelCarrier APCs]] staffed by PMC troops who will kill on sight to ensure no one gets in the way of them treating someone insured by their medical company. And millions live below the poverty line, with many only able to make a living as criminals resorting to stealing, selling drugs, OrganTheft and worse, or HiredGuns who hurt and kill their fellow man for a tiny bit of temporary contract work from {{Corrupt Corporate Executive}}s. [[spoiler:Did we mention that all major corporations are pushing their major resources into perfecting mind-control? Arasaka collects memories from their uploaded clients, Trauma Team wipes memories from their patients, and a shadow organization brainwashes key political figures]].
[[/folder]]

[[folder: E to H]]
* EarWorm: "Ponpon Shit", a song by the InUniverse J-Pop band Us Cracks, is designed to be this. It's a perky, cutesy track with a catchy chorus that's harder to get out of your head than [[spoiler:Johnny himself]].
* EasterEgg:
** After the Heist mission, returning to [[spoiler:the landfill where V was left for dead by Dex [=DeShaw=] lets you find his body and loot his unique handgun, Plan B.]] There's also a minor sidequest to be found there that can give netrunner players an early-game boost.
** Going down a certain alleyway in the Kabuki market will lead you to a mysterious garage locked by a keycode. Guess the keycode and you'll find none other than [[spoiler:a secret developer room, complete with a large TV that displays photos of members of the CDPR team. There's also a sofa where Johnny will strum the tunes of various songs from the game on a guitar]]. Johnny will bring the garage to your attention, encouraging you to figure out the keycode.
** If you look at Evelyn long enough during the first meeting with her, when she and V talk by a bar, she will wink at them.
* EccentricTownsfolk: Night City includes chrome models, psychos who want to turn themselves into robots, ripperdocs who install cybernetic modifications but are entirely organic themselves, scavengers who kidnap people to steal their cybernetics, SWAT team ambulance workers, mind-linked identical twin mixed martial art fighters, overly sassy mercenaries, Haitian hackers worshipping [=AIs=], "fixers" with gold-plated cyborg arms, and all sorts of other oddballs.
* ElectronicEyes: One of the first pieces of cyberware V gets in the game is a bionic eye with a zoom lens that can later be upgraded. The Maelstrom gang instead opt for spider-like multi-camera arrays ''replacing their eye sockets''. In fact, there are hints that ''everyone'' in Night City has cybernetic eyes, like the Reset Optics quickhack being able to indiscriminately infect gangoons and civilians alike, and the occasional kid on the street walking around with creepy red Maelstrom-esque cyber eyes.
* ElementalPunch: And [[BladeBelowTheShoulder slice]], and [[WhipItGood garrote/whip]], and [[SuperWristGadget wrist-shoot]]. Each of the integrated forearm weapon cyberware types (Gorilla Arm, Mantis Blade, Monowire, and Projectile Launch System) offer the ability to swap out the business end of each for different element types.
* EliteMooks: Corpo soldiers are noticeably tougher, better armed and more challenging to hack. They also tend to shoot a lot better, making them much more of a threat than any of the gangoons on the street.
* EnemyEatsYourLunch: V being the "enemy" in question. You can help yourself immediately to any [[HyperactiveMetabolism food or drink]] in an enemy lair (or anywhere really), even directly off of a fallen enemy, if you press the secondary use button/key (as opposed to primary use key which stuffs it in the backpack)
* EnhanceButton: The game has its own high tech version with the "Braindance editor". Semi-{{Justified}} in that you only get what the recorder's cyberware enhancements picked up, but you can still move around in it to view different angles, and get data the recorder didn't notice, enhance and hear both sides of a whispered phone conversation, and even download whole files when the recorder only saw a single screenshot.
* EntertaininglyWrong: Although Morro Rock Radio personality [[AuthorAvatar Maximum]] [[Creator/RTalsorianGames Mike]]'s conspiracy theories he mulls over are for the most part based on tabletop campaign plots and thus are on the nose, his postulations about the goings-on with the Arasaka family ''seem'' plausible... but are dead wrong. He postulates that Kei is masquerading as Yorinobu in a cloned body, or that Saburo isn't really dead based on some of the sciences that Arasaka is purportedly capable of. Since V and thus the player bore witness to the events of that fateful night in the Konpeki penthouse, this is known to be false... but the knowledge is highly dangerous for V to even possess, let alone blather about openly, so they can't possibly entertain the idea of ringing Max Mike up and refuting his postulations.
* EpilepticFlashingLights: Shortly before release, [[https://www.gameinformer.com/2020/12/07/cyberpunk-2077-epileptic-psa?amp&__twitter_impression=true it was discovered that the flashing lights that precede braindance sequences were done in a pattern that consistently triggered epileptic seizures for at least one reviewer]]. The developers issued an apology, added an epilepsy warning screen in patch 1.02 and toned the light show down in patch 1.04.
* EveryoneHasStandards: Just about the only rule damn near everyone in Night City follows is "Don't screw over your fixer." The few people who break this rule are seen as stupid, greedy, and completely untrustworthy.
* EverythingIsOnline: doors, security systems, weapons, and even people are all hooked up to various networks, to the point you can (and often have to) hack into most of them.
%%* ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin: As you might expect from a game named ''Cyberpunk 2077'', you play as a [[{{Cyborg}} cybernetically]] enhanced StreetPunk ("cyberpunk" for short) in the year 2077.
* ExpandedUniverse: The game is the "main" work, but it's accompanied by officially licenced comics published by Creator/DarkHorseComics that tell the stories taking place in the universe, but have no direct impact on the game's story and feature different casts of characters.
** ''2077'' and its spinoffs are all themselves ExpandedUniverse works for [[TabletopGame/Cyberpunk2020 the series of tabletop RPGs]].
* ExperiencePoints: Deviating somewhat from the entirely point-based skill system from the original tabletop games, V gains experience points for three types of levels:
** CharacterLevel, which gives V attribute points and increases their overall health and effectiveness / availability of gear at their level. Mainly earned by neutralizing enemies and completing quests.
** [[StatGrinding Skill Levels]], which give V skill points and passive abilities. Earned by using the corresponding skill; V gains Street Brawling experience by punching people, Quickhack experience by hacking people's implants, Cold Blood experience by racking up a kill combo, etc. Note that each of V's skill levels cannot exceed their corresponding parent attribute.
** [[RelationshipValues Street Cred]], which unlocks new quests and shop equipment. Mainly earned by, once again, neutralizing enemies and completing quests, but at a far faster rate than V's character level.
* ExtinctInTheFuture: In keeping with GaiasLament, many species have died out. After a massive brushfire in Australia in 2068, only one koala -- nicknamed Omega -- survived and was going to be euthanized before she was saved by civilian protestors. Omega became a tourist attraction on the outskirts of Sydney for many years before a news report in 2077 confirms she'd recently passed away, rendering koalas extinct.
** In the Nomad prologue, Jackie mentions that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lesser_Antillean_iguana Lesser Antillean iguanas]] have been extinct for decades by the time of the game, alluding to the species' severely endangered status in real life.
* ExtraEyes: An option for augmented optics are multi-camera arrays resembling spider eyes, as used by the Maelstrom gang.
* EyeScream:
** The E3 2018 trailer features two examples, one of a man's eye getting ripped out, the other of a corporate burning alive from within, with flames shooting out of his mouth and eye sockets.
** Exaggerated when V goes to visit Viktor for the first time. V's eye is plucked out by a robotic hand and it immediately goes dark. Their replacement cybernetic eye is then activated before being implanted, allowing them to watch their own body on the operating chair, and it stays on as the ripper inserts it into their eye socket.
** As an initiation into the Maelstrom gang, one has the eyesockets removed and a fair part of the forehead replaced with a set of spider-like glowing red optics...''without anesthetic''.
* FakeBand: Songs on the radio are attributed to made-up artists, for example Samurai, Johnny Silverhand's band, is actually Music/{{Refused}}, with Dennis Lyxzen credited as Johnny's singing voice, and Lizzy Wizzy's songs are performed by her voice actress, Music/{{Grimes}}.
** Hip-hop producer Konrad Oldmoney is actually credited as ''twenty eight'' fake bands, one for each artist he collaborated with.
* FallenStatesOfAmerica: Yet another cyberpunk hallmark, though played with. The United States federal government has almost completely broken with many of the states outright [[DividedStatesOfAmerica seceding from the union]]. What remains of the US and its successor states are third world countries in all but name, filled to the brim with crime and violence as well as both political and corporate corruption. Compared to 2020s, however, it's an ''improvement'': the NUSA had succeeded in regaining control over much of the union, with the notable exception of Texas and Night City. The NUSA got back on its feet by nationalizing Militech, which now is practically synonymous with the NUS federal government. The current President of the NUSA is the former CEO of Militech. News shards suggest this revolving door arrangement between Militech and the NUSA government is common. Characters note that the NUS and Militech was once a match for Arasaka and the Empire of Japan, but have recently fallen behind in the Pacific arms race.
* FamilyOfChoice: V gets absorbed into Jackie's during the six month time skip, including his mom treating them as her own. The Aldecaldos are a more formal version of one, and V can end up one of them (formally or not) if the right paths are taken.
* {{Fanservice}}:
** The game is full of beautiful characters left and right in various stages of undress. FanserviceExtra of both sexes are often hocking wares and many of the models are attractive men or women wearing the clothes you'd find in a California hot summer. The Lizzie's Bar brothel is also full of gorgeous young punk women. You will find yourself visiting at least a couple of other brothels too.
** Evelyn Parker is a blue-haired FemmeFatale who plays the mysterious client before the Heist. She also has a lot of LesYay with her RiotGrrrl friend, Judy Alvarez.
** While all four main romance options ([[SpicyLatina Judy]], [[BadassBiker Panam]], [[SilverFox Kerry]] and [[{{Hunk}} River]]) are fully realised characters with proper depth, all of them are also very attractive, and their [[RomanceSidequest romance routes]] feature custom-made, explicit sex scenes in the first person.
** [[spoiler: [[SilverFox Meredith]] ''does'' look good in leather]], too bad you can only see her in it once.
** The alternative outfit for Johnny added in patch 1.3 gives him an open jacket with nothing underneath, letting the player see a bit of his chest and stomach. It's a custom mesh that adds the tattoo from his concept art which was previously absent, but the player can only see a small piece of it.
* FanDisservice:
** The first mission in the game after the lifepath intro has V and Jackie teaming up to rescue a woman named Sandra Dorsett, who spends her entire time on the whole mission entirely naked. She's also dying and covered in deep cuts and gashes, her complexion is deathly pale from blood loss and trauma, her head shaved bald, and she's spent god-knows-how-long in an ice-cube filled bathtub in scavenger captivity.
** Naked and mutilated corpses are a common sight in scav haunts, though a few also show up in Ho-Oh during the Monster Hunt mission where you take down SnuffFilm maker Jotaro Shobo.
** The service offered by the Dolls at Clouds. They're all wired with a brain implant that connects to Clouds' system. A customer plugs themselves into said system, where their deepest thoughts and desires are scanned to create a personality profile that overrides the Doll until the session is over. This effectively makes for an erotic experience coupled with IntimatePsychotherapy all in one package to fulfill a person's ultimate fantasy. When V engages said service however, Angel or Skye proceeds to dive deep into extremely personal details of your life that no one else knows while effectively challenging you with ''your own feelings'' on your [[spoiler: own impending death]]. Nothing sexual takes place and V is ''very uncomfortable'', to say the least.
** The ''extremely'' raunchy advertisements for things like dog food, cybernetics, TV shows, and tubes of meat paste are so ubiquitous they become background noise, and so ridiculous they lose any appeal they might have had.
* FashionableAsymmetry: Seems to be a trend in vehicle styling. Many of them features asymmetrycal tail- or headlight design. Chevillon Thrax even comes with asymmetrycal grille. Major exeption are Rayfield cars.
* {{Fauxrrari}}:
** The Quadra Turbo-R V-TECH is named after Honda's VTEC variable valve timing system and Audi's Quattro 4WD system. The car itself seems to be based mainly on Ferrari Testarossa, Vector W8, De Tomaso Pantera and Lancia Stratos with a more futuristic Cyberpunk design.
** The Rayfield Aerondight supercar is at least partially based on the Bugatti Veyron with its distinctive front grille.
** The Quadra Type 66 and its subtypes are an ode to a variety of classic American muscle cars over the years, having elements of a variety of them in its aesthetic design: you can spot elements from the Ford Mustang, Dodge Charger, and Pontiac Trans-Am, for example. It also has a number of famous paint jobs in its skin variant set, such as a NUSA-themed pastiche of the [[Series/TheDukesOfHazzard General Lee]], the green Mustang from ''Film/{{Bullitt}}'', and the silver/blue-striped Mustang from ''Film/GoneInSixtySeconds1974''.
* FemaleFlatfootAndSnarkyGuy: Gender inversion: River Ward can team up with a female/feminine V, who works as a mercenary. First, they can solve the case of the mysterious death of Night City's mayor, and later on they can catch a serial killer [[spoiler:who kidnapped River's nephew]].
* FighterMageThief: Despite the game not having a real class system, the three general approaches to combat boil down to the classic trio even so. Focusing on Body and Reflexes creates a warrior-style solo that fights with brute force in melee and massive firepower at close to medium range. Going for Reflexes, Tech and Cool results in a thief playstyle that relies on stealth and long-range firepower. Last but most definitely not least, any Intelligence-heavy build plays like a traditional mage with a wide array of "spells" fueled by a sci-fi version of a mana bar.
* TheFixer: An actual line of work in the game's world. V is hired by several fixers over the course of the game, most importantly by resurgent big shot Dexter [=DeShawn=], to pull off jobs for clients who would like to distance themselves from the illegal nature of the work.
* FlyingCar: Aerodynes, or "AV's" as they are colloquially called, which pretty much fill the airspace over Night City. True to the source material, AV's are reserved only for the wealthy and certain organizations such as the NCPD, military, private security, and Trauma Team, and, while some can be manually piloted, many are flown using automated systems so the passenger(s) can sit back and enjoy the flight. V has several encounters with them throughout the game, and in some instances even get to ride in them.
** The Corpo prologue has V being chauffeured in one while going to Lizzie's bar.
** The game also has flying ''garbage trucks''. Including one that crashed into the upper floor of a suburban house, or another being sent as a pickup for a hit gig in a penthouse that the player might resolve nonlethally.
** Trauma Team's main vehicles are flying ambulances built like [=APCs=], complete with autocannons which can and will shoot down any other AV in their way, whether it's blocking them intentionally or not.
* FollowThatCar: Happens in a few missions. In "Sinnerman" you have to chase down a police car carrying mass-murderer Joshua Stephenson. "Dream On" sends you in pursuit of a CreepyStalkerVan that's [[spoiler:spying on the Peralezes]]. And during the final race in "The Beast in Me", [[spoiler:Claire asks you to chase after Peter Sampson instead of racing for the finish line so that she can execute him in retaliation for seemingly killing her husband]].
* FortuneTeller:
** In the side quest "Killing In The Name", Nancy asks V to find out more about the mysterious thought leader who's been captivating the people of Night City, Swedenborg Riviera. After decoding a series of routers, [[spoiler:V finds out that Swedenborg was a modified fortune telling machine, called Leonora the Savantron, from Pacifica.]]
** Misty is a somewhat more modern take on the trope, being more PerkyGoth than MagicalRomani. She does tarot readings as one of the services in her shop, and can read V's future in a couple occasions.
* ForWantOfANail: The absolute crux that essentially results in the entire plot after Act 1 is that [[spoiler:Saburo and Yorinobu happened to have their meeting at the ''same moment'' that V and Jackie were burgling Yori's penthouse. Had the duo been but a few minutes earlier, they would have had a good chance of escaping with the Relic long before Arasaka even knew it was missing. A few minutes later, and T-Bug would likely scrub the heist since she wasn't able to crack the security systems before Yorinobu returned.]]
** Another crux was that Evelyn organized the heist herself, [[spoiler: rather than simply scrolling Yori's penthouse as the Voodoo Boys had originally hired her to do, with the intention of cutting them out of the deal to sell the Relic. Had she stuck to her original orders (and not asked too many questions), the VDB would have obtained the Relic as they wanted and V and Jackie never would have gotten involved.]]
* FreezeFrameBonus: The E3 2018 reveal had codes for ''VideoGame/TheWitcher3WildHunt'' for Xbox One for a few seconds when the conference was being 'hacked'.
* FreudianTrio:
** Id: Jackie. He's a very affable, emotional guy who loves partying, food and other people. He's both most upbeat and most prone to strong emotions like anger or compassion (his reaction to seeing Sandra Dorsett during "The Rescue").
** Ego: V. Due to being the PlayerCharacter, they can be more outgoing and upbeat like Jackie, or cooler and levelheaded like T-Bug, depending on the player's preference.
** Superego: T-Bug. She's much more distanced (literally and emotionally) from her co-workers' jobs, and gets V and Jackie out of trouble by staying cool and using logical thinking and her netrunning skills. She's also a fan of Aristotle.
* FromCamouflageToCriminal: Almost a given in the ''Cyberpunk'' series. There's quite a few. Mitch. Scorpion. Bob. Teddy. Cassidy. Carol. Saul. A good portion of the Aldecaldo Clan. The entirety of the 6th Street Gang. Several of the game's side characters. Johnny Silverhand himself when he was alive. Depending on player choices, V [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njKrOzLrMCE&t=201s can embody this trope better than anyone in the game]].
* FromStrayToPet: V can adopt a stray sphinx cat that lives near their apartment.
* FutureSlang: Has a few. Notable examples:
** Choom/choomba/choombatta -- friend, dude, buddy.
** Gonk -- fool, idiot, asshole.
** Delta -- go/leave, usually in a hurry; example: I gotta delta -- I gotta go/run.
** Flatline -- kill (someone) or die.
** Zero -- kill.
** Borg -- a nickname for people with large amount of cybernetics; derived from "cyborg".
** Preem -- an expression of positivity, similar to "cool" or "awesome"; derived from "premium".
** Nova -- basically a stronger version of "preem".
** Input/output -- boyfriend/girlfriend, respectively.
** Chrome -- Cyberware, regardless of color. The term is mostly used about big, noticeable implants like limb replacements. To "chrome up" is also a verb used to describe getting new or additional cyberware.
** Chroming -- Excessive use of cyberware.
** Iron -- Firearm.[[note]]Though this is borderline, as it is pre-existing real world slang for firearms[[/note]]
** Klep -- Steal.
** Klepper -- A thief. Derived from "klep", see above.
** Monochrome -- A corporate executive. Derived from the prevalence of black and white in corporate fashion styles (such as Neo-Militarism, primarily), as opposed to the more colorful streetwear.
** Corpo/corpo-rat -- A corporate executive. Far more charged and derisive than "monochrome".
** Scop -- Junk, garbage, crap, detritus. Calling someone a "scopmuncher" is exactly as insulting as you think. Also the label for a synthetic protein supplement, standing for Single Cell Organic Protein, and considered to be a PovertyFood.
** [=Ripper/Ripperdoc=]: An underground cyberware implantation specialist. Most Rippers also act as trauma surgeons and primary care physicians for those who can't afford Trauma Team subscriptions, or for various reasons don't want to seek aid from a corp-owned medical facility.
** Skezzed -- drug-addled.
** Gangoon -- a low-level gang member/foot soldier.
* FunnyBackgroundEvent: Johnny tends to hang in the background in most main plot (and more important sidequest) missions. Only V can see him, so he can pretty much do whatever he'd want without anyone else noticing him.
** In "Life During Wartime", he paces around the hotel room V and Hellman are talking, lying down on one of the beds and walking over another one.
** In "Gimme Danger", he will appear lounging on a railing, and will drop down the building V and Takemura are on when he gets frustrated with Takemura's loyalty to Saburo.
** In "Nocturne [=Op55N1=]", Corpo V can greet Hanako with a bow and deference, to which Johnny will appear in the background and give a dramatic FacePalm.
* FuturisticJetInjector: Gun-like jet injectors appear to be ubiquitous in the Night City, particularly with ripperdocs like Viktor, who uses one early in the game to sedate V's right arm while he grafts a ballistic augmentation onto their palm.
* GaiasLament: Much like in the original source material, the planet is in rough shape, especially around Night City. Desertification is common, the rain is more acidic than not, and pretty much every natural body of water in and around Night City is some form of biohazardous. On the fauna side, animals are almost ''unheard of,'' due to the environmental devastation and several wildlife-borne diseases that started several ''human'' pandemics as well, and resulted in deliberate exterminations that essentially wiped out the few animals that managed to survive the pollution and diseases. The worst part? ''No one cares.'' When an environmentalist tries to explain the horrific side effects that have been caused by killing off all birds, the talk show host brings out a woman who lost her children to Bird Flu and makes the environmentalist confront her.
** And some places are even ''worse.'' After the Suicide War of 1997, most of the Middle East has been reduced to fields of glass and radioactive sand, where even living life in a thick bunker and always wearing a hazmat suit when outside, most people are lucky to make it to thirty.
* GameplayAndStorySegregation:
** After V is [[spoiler:predicted to die within a few weeks as the Relic shreds their soul]], there is no time limit for the player to worry about; even though [[spoiler:no main quest ending allows V to survive]], the main questline can be pursued at the player's own pace.
** One side mission has a Fixer send V after someone after they went out of control and killed all the guards and the driver during what was supposed to be a hijacking, claiming it drew too much attention and ire. The player can behave identically in just about every gig and the worst they get is a slight reprimand from the Fixer for sub-par performance if there's a bonus objective to be stealthy and/or non-lethal. And a lot of the time they just ignore it.
** Judy's side-mission starts with her trying to recruit an old flame Maiko to gather more bodies so they can help take over the Cloud dollhouse/brothel. At no point can V point out they're a OneManArmy that might have already killed everyone there on their own, including the old owner, the last time they went and that they don't need any help.
** Just like any open world RPG the player is free to make V run around killing innocent people and cops during free roam. Outside of getting the attention of cops ([[ArtificialStupidity for however briefly they bother to attack you]]) there's never any lasting consequences for this and none of V's friends and acquaintances ever mention them going on a killing spree.
** Missions that require you to remove your weapons always ignore all models of V's potentially cyber-weaponized forearms or a cyberdeck full of hostile quickhacks and act as if they're disarmed once they toss their weapons. Particularly noticeable in [[spoiler:Konpeki Plaza]] where, with enough grinding, the player can purchase said cyberware but when put through a weapons scan comes up clean. It's especially egregious when you remember that in the ''Cyberpunk'' lore, combat cybernetics are actually ''more'' dangerous than guns themselves, and even someone with just a ''single'' cyber-weapon can still mow down swaths of gun-toting citizens before being brought down.
** If you go for the Temperance ending with the Aldecaldos' help, [[spoiler:the game gets confused and treats Rogue as both alive and dead at the same time -- Johnny-in-V's-body goes to the cemetery to mourn Rogue's death, only to get a call from her during the credits in which she verbally rips into him for what he allowed to happen. It's possible that this ending was originally restricted to Johnny's version of the final mission before it was made available as an option for all choices except The Devil.]]
** In gameplay V can heal from bullet wounds, explosions and melee attacks by inhaling a Maxdoc or injecting a Bounceback, which are in plentiful supply all around the city. In the story wounds are portrayed far more realistically. [[spoiler:Jackie bleeds out after the failed heist with V desperately yelling at Delamain to take him to a ripperdoc rather than just injecting Jackie with either of the two drugs. The same applies to both V and Takemura who take days/weeks to recover after the highway chase. Interestingly, in all the aforementioned scenes, the person takes a Bounceback.]]
** Attacking gangs never leads to any long lasting consequences. While every other gang member in the area will be hostile the faction as a whole never seems to hold a grudge against the lone merc who kills dozens if not hundreds of them in NCPD missions or free roam. You can, for example, attack the Voodoo Boys before and during V’s temporary alliance with them without comment.
** During the scene where V gets his or her first implants (besides the Militech cyberdeck that he or she starts the game with), V may comment on the Kiroshi optics, gushing over how they are "top shelf tech". In gameplay terms, however, these are the most rudimentary optical implants the player can receive, and they can be traded in for a superior version at almost any ripperdoc in the city. Whether they're further upgraded or not, the supposed quality of V's optics is never brought up again by anyone. It gets even weirder when you realize that Kiroshi is the only optics manufacturer whose products V can purchase; there's literally no in-game competition. Becomes FridgeBrilliance when you realize V wasn't talking about that model just Kiroshi in general. No other optics are available because they'd be a downgrade!
** The game has a huge problem with keeping Johnny's and V's relationship consistent between the main story and sidequests. It's all too common to get into massive bitching contests with Johnny during a main quest, only to turn into instant best buddies in the next sidequest because quest dialogue doesn't change regardless of where in the overarching narrative you choose to do the side content. This gets weirder in the ending missions where [[spoiler: no matter which path you take, Johnny and V end as friendly/having a friendly demeanor towards each other. Even if you choose for V to kill themself, Johnny just accepts it after a moment of anger. Even if you chose Arasaka and never said a bad thing about the company and only vocally disagreed with Johnny at every choice at that point, he acts like you're betraying yourself even if you really are the V you started as.]]
** Various characters and news casts point out how toxic the water in and around Night City is, but no matter how long V swims or even dives in lakes, river or the Pacific, they never suffer any ill effects.
** Claire Russell is introduced early in the game when she serves Jackie and V as the Afterlife bartender. In Act 2, she has a series of street racing side-missions, during which she has several heavy conversations about the death of her husband and her life as a transwoman, and which can end with [[spoiler: V and Claire committing a revenge murder and Claire gifting V her beloved truck.]] Afterwards, Claire's phone calls and texts become increasingly distant until she stops answering. However, she will still greet V in the bar with cheery dialogue that does not update to reflect their relationship.
** In the mission "Kold Mirage", Nix will trigger a daemon from a legendary Netrunner and require V to save him. All that is required to breach the security of this most-feared hacker is solving a simple Breach Protocol, no more advanced than ones V does to hack a vending machine.
** Wilson, owner of the Second Amendment gun store in V's megablock, invites the player to a shooting contest at some point in Act 2, for the explicit purpose of drumming up customers because he's short on cash. Depending on how generous you've been with your spending at his shop before, he might well have hundreds of thousands of eddies to his name in the shop interface when he says that.
** The street cred stat is meant to represent how well-known V is among the mercs and fixers of Night City, with the maximum level of 50 basically giving them living legend status. The problem is that there are so many opportunities to amass street cred in Watson alone that you can hit SC level 45 before you even finish Act 1 to kick off the actual plot, just by doing all the side content like Assault events. The relatively slow passage of time means this can be done in no more than three in-game days, less if you hurry, meaning that instead of slowly building your rep over the course of weeks and months, you go from zero to hero almost instantly.
** Placide will always trash-talk about your implants even if you're decked out in nothing but legendary gear that's literally the best money can buy. However, Placide is a massive jackass, so this one might just as well fall under GameplayAndStoryIntegration, too.
* GangBangers: The "Gangs of Night City" featurette showcases several of the gangs, including the ones revealed earlier: [[CyberneticsEatYourSoul the Maelstrom]], [[TheCracker Voodoo Boyz]], [[TheBrute the Animals]] and [[EthicalSlut the Moxes]].
* GangOfHats: The gangs are visually, ideologically and criminally distinct:
** The Animals are roided-up bodybuilders used as muscle for hire.
** The Voodoo Boyz are Haitian hackers paying lip service to HollywoodVoodoo.
** The Sixth Street are gun-toting {{Eagleland}}ers clad in military gear who started as a VigilanteMilitia before falling into crime themselves.
** The Tyger Claws are {{Yakuza}} (who behave more like JapaneseDelinquents) favoring melee weapons dabbling in prostitution and rackets.
** The Maelstromers are [[BodyHorror augmented to the point of being grotesque]] and take their names out of the Norse Mythology, fittingly dealing in illegal cyberware and assorted activities.
** The Moxes dress in neon and/or pastel and behave like studs and bimbos from TheEighties, being [[TheOldestProfession joytoys]] who took up arms to protect sex workers from abuse.
** The Valentinos are stereotypical Central and South American gangsters with added [[BlingOfWar gold-plated cybernetics]].
** The Scavengers' rank-and-file behave like ''gopniki'' (Russian hoodlums) while their higher-ups take more from TheMafiya.
** The Wraiths are a gang comprised of Raffen Shiv; Nomads exiled from their clans for heinous acts. They have a DesertPunk style to them.
* GasMaskMooks: Trauma Team personnel always have masks on to ensure they won't be afflicted with any potential airborne poisons, pathogens or illnesses while treating incapacitated patients.
* GayOption: A V with a masculine body and voice can pursuit [[TheRockstar Kerry Eurodyne]], while a V with a feminine body and voice can chase after [[GadgeteerGenius Judy Alvarez]]. You can also hook up with [[OptionalSexualEncounter joytoys]] regardless of yours and their genders. [[spoiler:Meredith Stout]] is available as a one-night stand for any V, which is completely missable if you don't speak to her correctly and side with her during The Pickup.
* {{Gayngster}}: Same-sex romances and sexual encounters are available to the player for both male and female V, allowing you to play as a deadly hired gun operating in the Night City underworld who just happens to be gay or bi.
* GenderBender: [[spoiler:In the Temperance ending Johnny takes over V's body, which leads to this if you're playing as a female V. ManIFeelLikeAWoman can be averted or played straight, as Johnny can tell his new sidekick in the ending that he won't be a woman much longer, implying some corrective surgery is already lined up.]]
* GenderIsNoObject: Women, men, and people of other genders seem to be about equal in the grand scheme of things: There are female ripperdocs, edgerunners, policewomen and soldiers. The most respected fixer in the city, Rogue, is a woman. Alt was a brilliant and well-known netrunner when she was alive, and Judy is considered one of the best braindance editors out there. Female V can be everything a male V can be. One of the [=MAX-TAC=] units is led by a woman (Melissa). Nobody has any objections when Saul appoints Panam as [[spoiler:the second leader to the Aldecaldos, nor do they have any issues if she starts leading them by herself after his death in "The Star" ending. Even a company very heavily tied to traditions like Arasaka has no problems with Hanako taking over after her father's death in "The Devil" ending]]. Amusingly, even all the [[EqualOpportunityEvil gangs]] have male and female members and seem to allow everyone to rise in the ranks on the same terms and allows women to become leaders (Suzy Q is the leader of the Moxes, Ofelia can become a leader of Maelstrom, The Voodoo Boyz are led by Maman Brigitte and Tyger Claws and Animals have high-ranking female members). That being said, women (especially sex workers) do tend to be victims of various forms of sexual assault by a wide margin; the Mox were explicitly formed [[BandOfBrothels by sex workers who felt it was safer to look out for one-another]].
* GetawayDriver: At the end of The Heist mission, [[spoiler:Delamain]] plays this role.
* GhostTown: Rocky Ridge is a direct example: planned development of suburban area that was swiftly abandoned when construction was deemed no longer economically viable. Other, smaller examples can be found around the Night City Badlands. Dialogue with Panam while en route to Rocky Ridge mentions that there are thousands such abandoned settlements dotted across North America.
** Pacifica is a former luxury oceanside resort that was left abandoned in the wake of the Unification War. Now part of its luxury hotels are filled with gangs and homeless squatters while a significant portion is walled off and known as the "Combat Zone".
* GladiatorSubquest: Optional variant, the "Beat the Brat" sidequest forming a chain of these.
* GilliganCut:
** In the E3 2018 gameplay, V denies Jackie's prediction that they will spend everything on a three-day bender. In the next cut, they are shown waking up...after a three-day bender.
** Another one happens in "The Gig" trailer: after T-Bug says "Preferably no bodies, not one", Jackie and V are shown going guns blazing through a bar.
* GlowingMechanicalEyes: A shorthand for the characters using the Net is their eyes glowing blue. Other colors are possible, like the Afterlife's bouncer's eyes glowing orange when he contacts Dex [=DeShawn=] over the local subnet, or red when scanning, or a static pastel rainbow if under the effects of an optics-disrupting cyber attack.
* GoldenEnding: Averted. Despite the game having multiple endings, none of them can be considered purely "good" without any drawbacks. [[spoiler:V will always either die, or will have six months to live, with [[AmbiguousSituation unclear probability of finding the cure]]. What most players would consider the best ending would be "The Star", with Judy or Panam romanced and all the other character sidequests finished. There's also the "Temperance" ending, where Johnny takes over V's body with their consent, but even that ending is very melancholic and bittersweet.]]
* GoldMakesEverythingShiny:
** A great lot of Neo-Kitsch-style clothing has gold trim.
** The Valentinos' visual style revolves entirely around gold. Their guns, their cyberware, their jewelry, even their cars are gold-plated all over. Some high-ranking Valentinos have more gold on their body than any other color.
** Dexter [=DeShawn=] has a gold-plated cyberarm, among a good number of other golden accessories.
* GoneHorriblyRight: Richard Night envisioned Night City as an environment of a new age of [[EnlightenedSelfInterest enlightened capitalism]], completely planned, self-sufficient, safe from crime, and multicultural. Unfortunately, he didn't take into account the effects that the rise of rampant corporatism would have on "new age capitalism", which turned the movement out to be anything but enlightened, making Night City ugly, poorly planned, and torn apart by crime. At least it is multicultural...
* GoodProstheticEvilProsthetic: The Maelstrom favor [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver red, black and silver cybernetics with an inhuman look]] (including glowing ExtraEyes), V prefers flesh-colored cybernetic arms and discreet optic implants with subtle, scar-like wiring on the face.
* {{Gorn}}: This grim setting does ''not'' shy away from graphic violence, both in and out of combat. Shotguns can blow huge, gnarly holes into enemies, limbs often get torn off by gunfire, heads get blown apart or chopped right off by swords, and that's not even getting into the disemboweled, mangled bodies of organ harvesting victims you'll frequently find in gang hangouts.
* GratuitousGerman:
** The Maelstrom gang's HQ is a club called Totentanz, which is German for "dance of the dead".
** One advertisement around the city shows some BDSM imagery with the slogan "Zeig dich" -- "show yourself".
* GrenadeSpam: Enemies that carry grenades have an infinite supply of them, so either take them out quickly or prepare for having assorted explosives chucked your way every couple of seconds. On the other hand, with grenades being cheap to craft and able to stunlock just about everything including bosses, this is an easy way to beat almost any BossBattle with a minimum of fuss.
* GroinAttack:
** ''Skippy'' is a smart pistol that can be tuned to ''Puppy-Loving Pacifist'' mode, where he only shoots people in the groin. This CrossesTheLineTwice when he sometimes shoots prematurely and apologizes for it.
** One early-game side mission is about an unfortunate dude who's suffering a constant and very painful version thanks to his defective Mr. Stud penis implant. BlackComedy at its finest.
* TheGuardsMustBeCrazy: Generally averted thanks to reasonably clever AI, but there are still some examples, most notably the Reset Optics quickhack. It's one of the few that doesn't provoke affected guards into action no matter how often they're hit with it, and not even if their entire squad ends up affected simultaneously. You'd think they'd find this kinda suspicious, but no, it's fine, back to business as usual. Same goes for the Request Reinforcements quickhack - you can send the same guard on a goose chase through his deployment area for hours if you're so inclined because they'll never suspect something being fishy.
* GuideDangIt: It's shockingly easy to miss unique loot and even story content; this isn't helped by the fact the game's wikia[=/=]fandom wiki, where you'd normally go for that sort of thing, is lore-focused and the dominant moderators are rather hostile towards gameplay[=/=]loot related edits.
** During the quest where [[spoiler:Takemura kidnaps Hanako to talk to her about her brother's betrayal and murder of her father, he takes her to a hotel that gets raided by Arasaka soldiers and the floor collapses under you. V says that they need to save Takemura, but Johnny says that it's too late and that V needs to get out of there. There's a secret objective where you CAN go back to save Takemura, but the game in a rare instance doesn't give you ANY hints about this. You just have to go looking for a way back through purely your own volition (or by accident). Otherwise, Takemura WILL die.]]
** There are certain strands of sidequests that, when completed, will unlock additional endings. Unlocking the secret ending requires not only completing a certain sidequest, but selecting a very specific set of dialogue options throughout it. There is absolutely nothing in the game to indicate any of this.
** There is a very powerful Epic Iconic Smart Pistol with an AI attached, Skippy, that is picked up in an alley on one of the locally triggered sidequests. When picked up, Skippy informs you that he has two modes: Stone Cold Killer or Puppy Loving Pacifist. In Stone Cold Killer mode, his Smart tracking aims at the head, [[InfinityMinusOneSword making him one of the most powerful pistols in the entire game,]] and in Puppy Loving Pacifist mode, his smart tracking aims at the legs, [[JokeItem making him one of the worst Iconic weapons in the game]]. Any normal player would obviously pick the far superior headshot mode at the start. The catch? With absolutely no prior notification, after 50 kills Skippy switches to the opposite mode PERMANENTLY with no way to stop it or change it back.
** One of Judy's missions involves a sleazy scumbag of a ripperdoc called Fingers. You get multiple very tempting opportunities to beat him up during his interrogation, but doing so even once prevents you from using his services later on, and he sells several unique implants and cyberware upgrades you can't find anywhere else.
** Almost all cyberware including the legendary variants can be found in the world for free, saving you a lot of cash and SC grinding, but the chances of tracking them down without a guide are remote. And then Update 1.3 came along and [[{{Nerf}} changed these chances to zero]].
** The trademark perk of Power weapons is their ability to ricochet their projectiles off of any solid surface. One of the two starter implants you get from Viktor is a Ballistic Coprocessor in V's palm that enables the ricochet effect. Nowhere is it mentioned that you also need a specific eye upgrade to actually ''see'' the trajectory, or that the trajectory has an auto-aim effect that snaps the trajectory to targets. The relative obscurity of the cyberware upgrade menu while trading with ripperdocs means that many players don't realize these upgrades even exist, extending the problem to almost all cyberware in some way.
** The player can go through the entire game without meeting Kerry and River, two out of four romance options with their own arcs and sidequests. River's sidequest is only available after doing the first Peralez quest where you first meet him, but you have no obligation to actually fulfill it. Kerry's questline is even more hidden, because it requires [[spoiler:completing almost the entirety of Johnny's questchain, with no indication that it will unlock Kerry]]. Kerry's questline also comes very late in the game, at the tail end of act two, right before the ending. After discovering them, romancing them is fairly simple (doing their questline and choosing a few dialogue options), but many players missed them entirely. As of February 2021, only about 14% of steam players finished Kerry's storyline, and about 29% completed River's. Compare that to 32% who finished Judy's, and a whopping 42% who completed Panam's, both of who you meet through the course of the main story.
** Unlocking "The Star" ending, widely considered the best one by the fans, requires [[spoiler:completing Panam's entire questline, as it requires her and Saul to make amends and Saul to promote her to lead the Aldecaldos alongside him.]]. This is the only other ending that has to be unlocked that drastically changes the game's epilogue ([[spoiler:since "(Don't) Fear The Reaper"'s one is a slightly modified "The Sun" epilogue, to the point where the two are often lumped together and simply called "Path of Glory"]]). While [[spoiler:Panam]] is an important character to the plot and one of the romance options, the player will likely do many sidequests for tons of different characters, with no indication that this specific questline will unlock something so significant. It's also worth noting that the three other love interests don't unlock any other ending's, it's just [[spoiler:Panam.]]
*** The best ending for the [[spoiler: Judy romance]] also requires following the above path.
** The game contains several legendary outfit sets, each following a specific theme like cop, media or fixer. Not only is this mentioned absolutely nowhere, most of the outfit pieces are also fiendishly well-hidden in places few players would ever look.
** Many legendary/iconic items are hidden behind stat-gated doors at side quest locations. If you complete the sidequest before your stats are high enough to open the door, you have no reason to ever go back there again and will never know there was a legendary item on the other side. Worse, some of these items are found during main missions in locations that are impossible to revisit after the mission concludes.
* GunFu: The actual name of an achievement you get for quickly killing three enemies with a handgun at close range[[note]]specifically, within 3.5 seconds at less than five meters[[/note]]. The devs all but confirmed that the whole thing is yet another tribute to Creator/KeanuReeves, particularly ''Film/JohnWick''. Because of how gun combat works in this game, this is only possible with very preem gun skills or [[BulletTime a Sandevistan]].
* GunsAkimbo: La Chingona Dorada, the weapons of choice for Jackie Welles. V can eventually obtain Jackie's guns from El Coyote, both of them, but can only use one at a time, which makes them the only iconic gun you can wield and display on V's WallOfWeapons simultaneously.
* GunsDoNotWorkThatWay: RealLife revolvers, barring some very rare exceptions, are generally incapable of mounting a suppressor due to their lack of sealing between the cylinder and the barrel making it useless anyway. ''CP 2077'' not only ignores this completely, it turns revolvers into ''the'' best stealth guns in the game thanks to a combination of massive single-shot damage and often enormous headshot damage multipliers enabling easy [[OneHitKill One-Hit Kills]] on all but the most elite enemies. However, this can be explained by suggesting that in 2077 all revolvers have some kind of gas seal, Nagant-style or otherwise.
** The Ajax assault rifle, while it is otherwise designed conventionally, is supposed to be chambered in 5.56mm caliber and should sport a magazine size of 30 rounds. Said magazine is very long with a noticeable curve, similar to the RealLife 40-round 7.62mm magazine of the RPK machine gun. A 5.56mm mag of such dimensions would hold about 60 rounds.
*** The Kyubi, a semi-auto assault rifle added in the DLC packaged with the v1.6 patch, has the same length banana magazine that the Ajax has, sharing the same animation set for reloads, and an ''even shorter'' 20-round capacity.
** On the same note, Johnny's Malorian pistol is stated to be chambered in an enormous 14mm caliber. Its magazine placement makes sense, but its size is way too small to hold 10 rounds of such dimensions.
** The Kang Tao Chao pistol has an electrically-fired disposable barrel that doubles as a magazine, as all the rounds are pre-loaded in the disposable barrel. While this is a comprehensibly futuristic design, the Chao defies physics by packing 30 gyrojet rounds into a five inch barrel.
** The Defender [=LMG=] is just plain weird. For starters, its grip is on the outer right side of the weapon instead of below it as usual. This would make both the integrated bipod and the FN SCAR-style shoulder stock extremely awkward to use, if not completely unusable. It also has a carry handle above the barrel, but with an estimated 80% of the gun's weight concentrated in the main body, it's so far off-center as to be useless as well. The second machine gun, the [=MA70 HB=], reuses the same animations and thus follows the same asinine design principles. Considering that the other power weapons are all sensibly designed, it really makes you wonder why the [=LMGs=] of all things ended up as such a harebrained design clusterfuck.[[note]]There actually ''is'' a real-life weapon that uses this setup, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neopup_PAW-20 Neopup PAW-20]], a South African semi-automatic direct-fire grenade launcher which has its main grip offset to the side instead of traditionally under the gun. The advantages this offers is that it makes the weapon much more compact, allows recoil to go straight into the shoulder for better weapon control, and allows for the weapon to be shot around corners without exposing the shooter as much. Unfortunately, while these are all valid advantages, the game makes no effort to actually ''make use'' of them; The Defender and [=MA70=] both have ''extreme'' recoil unless you stack points in the "Body" stat, shooting over cover and around corners exposes you as much as any other weapon, and both weapons are so damn bulky that offsetting the grip provides little actual advantage over something more traditional such as, say, a [[ChainsawGripBFG Chainsaw Grip]].[[/note]]
* HackerCave: The Voodoo Boyz' base of operations, full of computers, screens and, of course, hackers.
* HackingMinigame: Breach Protocol is a gameplay feature that plays an important role in the quickhacking mechanic; so much so that one of the two Intelligence skill trees is entirely devoted to it. Benefits range from crippling enemies in a variety of ways as soon as combat breaks out, to drawing large sums of money from the countless access points around Night City. The minigame itself consists of a square matrix of double-digit code snippets on the left side of the screen and a randomly generated list of code sequences on the right side that correspond to whatever daemons you have available for upload into the target network. The input sequence always starts from the topmost line and must alternate between lines and columns after each code snippet. How many daemons you can upload is limited by time, but primarily by your cyberdeck's buffer size, which provides one of the main incentives for buying better cyberdecks. The random sequences are usually generated in a way that allows you to chain them together for maximum efficiency, and figuring out how best to accomplish this is key to mastering the minigame. Thankfully, SaveScumming is a viable option in all but a handful of situations.
* HandCannon: There are quite a few massive handguns in circulation in Night City, but the most impressive examples are the Burya and the Liberty, respectively a bulky tech revolver of Soviet origin and a power near-exact copy of the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AMT_AutoMag_V Automag V]] that fires slowly but with tremendous power.
** Honorable mention goes to Johnny's Malorian Arms pistol that, while not looking particularly huge, is chambered in a custom 14mm caliber, meaning it has a larger bore than a [=.50AE=] Desert Eagle and the firepower to match. It's closest real life equivalent would be Pfeifer Zeliska revolver, chambered in .600 Nitro Express.
** Shot for shot, the most powerful gun in the game is the "Comrade's Hammer", a custom Burya that can be built after looting the schematics from a gang hideout. It only holds one shot and takes longer than the normal Burya to reload, but that one shot does ''ten times'' the damage of a shot from the normal version. With the right perks (in particular the one that causes the [[ExactWords last shot in the mag]] to do double damage) and level appropriate upgrades, it can consistently one-shot every normal enemy in the game, and take out [[OneManArmy cyberpsychos]] in two or three headshots, even on the harder difficulties.
* HardTruthAesop:
** A single person (or a small group) can't reform a corrupt system that spans the entire globe, because they simply lack the means and power to do so, and even if they'll put a dent in it, it will be patched up sooner rather than later.
** Some people are their own worst enemy. While the system or an outside agent might make a tempting target for blame, the fact is that sometimes the only one who is to blame for your bad situation is you and your poor choices.
* HeistClash: This is how [[PlayerCharacter V]] meets their future BestFriend Jackie Welles in the [[MultipleGameOpenings Street Kid life path]]: both of them are hired to jack the same luxury car. While they are arguing over it, a silent alarm goes off and the police catch both of them red-handed. They are later released by a sympathetic officer and decide not to hold a grudge against each other.
* HeroicBSOD: V gets two over the course of the game.
** The first is at the very beginning of Act 2, when they learn that [[spoiler:they will eventually die by having their personality overwritten by Silverhand's and that Vik, one of the best ripperdocs in town, can't do anything to save them.]]
** The second is at the very end of the game, when [[spoiler: V learns that after all their troubles, all they did to still find a way to save themselves, their brain has already suffered too much damage and that, even after being separated from Silverhand, they only have months at most to live. This is actually foreshadowed somewhat at the end of the tarot-collecting quest "Fool on the Hill," but with significantly less angst; V doesn't know this for sure yet.]]
* HiredGuns: Night City has an entire class of deniable mercenaries, so-called "edgerunners", who do dirty jobs for whoever pays enough. V and their companions make their living this way, and while brute force isn't necessarily on the agenda, design or circumstance often conspire to turn any job into a shootout.
* HitboxDissonance: Physical objects in the game world often have larger hitboxes than their model suggests. Many a sneak attack was ruined because a shot that should've passed right by an obstacle hit that obstacle instead of the enemy behind it, alerting them to V's presence. Enemy hitboxes occasionally fall in the opposite extreme where shots just pass through their limbs or head, doing no damage but - again - announcing V's presence to every enemy in the area.
* HollywoodHacking: Comes with the setting. With Netrunner skills, you can use hacking not only to break into computers, but also to hijack your enemies' cybernetics and force them to perform PsychicAssistedSuicide, as demonstrated in the 2019 Gameplay Deep Dive. The same video has Sasquatch, the leader of the Animals gang, grab V, plug a cable into her and upload a virus, causing InterfaceScrew.
* HollywoodSilencer: The detachable suppressors V can mount on many Power weapons play the trope completely straight. The only one that at least skirts the edge of realism is the one that's part of Panam's iconic Overwatch sniper rifle. Unlike the normal ones, this suppressor merely reduces the report instead of making it inaudible, so unless you're several dozen meters away from any witnesses, the shot ''will'' be heard.
* HomingProjectile: The "Smart" weapons can lock onto opponents, allowing you to hit them with minimum aim. They are essentially [[AbnormalAmmo gyrojet]] weapons, with projectiles guided wirelessly by the smart gun's targeting computer which interfaces with the shooter through a piece of hand-mounted cyberware built for smart gun interfaces.
* HonorBeforeReason: In the gig, "Hippocratic Oath", a ripperdoc named Lucy Thackery is being held by the Maelstrom against her will and made to treat their injuries and install their cyberware. When V comes to rescue her, she refuses to leave until she's finished treating her latest patient even though he's violent thug who's probably killed more people than she'll ever save. None of this matters to Lucy, who cites the Hippocratic Oath as part of her reasons for doing so. The only way to get her to go is to either help her or kill the patient either through inaction or shooting him dead.
* HoverTank: The Basilisk armoured transport you can help the Aldecaldo nomad clan steal is one of these -- a floating hexagonal lump of metal with a 25mm autocannon turret on top. This makes it useful for passing over rough terrain and Militech minefields, which is one reason the Aldecaldos (who make a great deal of their money from border smuggling) want it so badly. The other reason is that it's a NormalFishInATinyPond, where the tiny fish it's up against are Raffen Shiv marauders and their ramshackle DesertPunk vehicles.
* HyperactiveMetabolism: The easiest and cheapest way to heal V is to have them eat any of the food items one can find absolutely everywhere. This confers a long-lasting and pretty powerful HealingFactor outside of combat, but since this merely means "as long as the enemy hasn't detected V", stealthy characters can benefit from it practically nonstop... but then again, stealthy characters will rarely have need of it in the first place.
[[/folder]]
[[folder: I to M]]
* IconicOutfit: V's "Samurai" jacket -- with TronLines in the collar and large metal studs on the shoulders -- is featured in most trailers, promotional artwork and action figures.
* ImmortalityInducer: The plot revolves around a prototype chip that allows to store one's soul, or at least a copy of it, which Arasaka intends to use to allow the ultra rich to live on past their regular human lifespan.
* ImprobableAimingSkills: You can unlock an achievement by shooting an enemy's thrown grenade out of the air with any of the game's slow-firing revolvers, which requires either a fair bit of marksmanship or a lot of dumb luck.
* InstantSedation: A potent quickhack called System Reset, which is [[spoiler:a unique piece of soft built by legendary netrunner Rache Bartmoss]], will instantly stun and knock out a target via their cyberware. It is essentially the nonlethal (and stealthier) variant of the gruesome Suicide quickhack.
* InterfaceScrew: Every now and then after Act 1, [[spoiler:the Relic starts glitching and causes this to the Player. This is largely the [[TakeYourTime only real impediment]] caused by the Relic's weeks-to-live effect.]]
* InvisibilityCloak:
** The Flathead combat drone uses "dynamic camo", which uses cameras and screens on its surface to blend in with its surroundings. It's still fairly visible, but would be easy to miss at a glance.
** Update 1.3 introduced Optical Camo cyberware that makes V invisible to enemies and cameras for 5, 10, or 15 seconds, depending on implant quality, followed by a lengthy 60 second cooldown. Its graphics effect is a pretty bad example of VisibleInvisibility due to how plainly obvious it is to the player while enemies can barely spot V even while under direct attack, though this may be more for the player's benefit to avoid becoming disoriented by the sudden disappearance of their arms and weapons.
* ItAlwaysRainsAtFunerals: PlayedWith. The end credits (shown simultaneously with [[WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue voicemail messages sent to V]]) roll over a glass pane on the other side of which drops of water fall down. Depending on the player’s choices, V may or may not be alive [[spoiler:and in their own body]] at that point, [[spoiler:though even if the former, V’s days are numbered anyway]].
* JackOfAllStats: Johnny Silverhand's classic Porsche 911 was one of the best, if not ''the'' best car in the release version of the game. While slightly inferior in the top speed department to most of the muscle cars, it was still very fast, had great acceleration, good brakes and excellent handling. It's also quite sturdy and agile due to its small size, making it a top choice for Claire's racing missions. A later patch severely reduced its top speed and controllability, pushing it deep into mediocre territory instead. Its spot on the pedestal now belongs to the Javelina and the Coyote, two Nomad muscle cars that are among the fastest vehicles in the game and also handle almost as if on rails under most circumstances.
** V's default car is quite slow but sturdy and handles better than 90% of all the other cars. [[spoiler:The Delamain 21]] behaves exactly the same aside from higher top speed.
* JapanTakesOverTheWorld: As is common with cyberpunk settings, there is a massive amount of Japanese text and advertisement across Night City, which is based in California. It's still unknown though if Japan has become the dominant superpower by 2077 or if the [[UnitedEurope European Economic Community]] still remains the most powerful player on the globe, like it did in the original tabletop games. Though Japan itself may not be, the most powerful singular corporation is the Japanese zaibatsu Arasaka Corporation, run by a family whose patriarch is an [[NaziGrandpa old Japanese imperialist]].
* JaywalkingWillRuinYourLife: A scan of Mauler of the Animals reveals he's wanted by the Night City police for "Illegal use of pineapple or pineapple-adjacent products (Pizza Desecration Act, article 1, 5 5o)".
** This reaches a new level of comedy when you realize that "Tofu'd tuna and pineapple pizza" is a commonly available food item.
** This can apply literally if you jaywalk in sight of an NCPD patrol since it counts as an [[DisproportionateRetribution offence punishable by death]].
* JerkassHasAPoint:
** Wilson probably shouldn't be calling his potential customers "bush-league", but his rant about disrespecting firearms, and the responsibility of learning to handle a firearm if you own one are things pretty much anyone can get behind.
** Maiko is clearly out for herself and agrees with the plan [[spoiler:to kill the Tyger Claws ruling over Clouds]] mostly to [[WorkingWithTheEx get back at Judy]], but she's right about [[spoiler:the Tyger Claws not sitting by idly after losing Clouds]].
** Johnny is a ''massive'' asshole, but he's right about how corporations have ruined the world.
* JoinTheArmyTheySaid: Deconstructed by Johnny, a veteran himself. After V and Panam manage to get their hand so the [[TankGoodness Basilisk]], Johnny bitterly said that back when he was young, people his age didn't even need pro-army propaganda to join; they just needed to be shown the "toys".
* JokeItem: The Budget Arms Slaught-O-Matic. Its only use is as a quick RangedEmergencyWeapon if you weren't prepared enough to bring your more powerful equipment in a hectic battle and you don't have enough eddies to either purchase better equipment or upgrade your currently existing equipment before battle. While in lore it plays true to its description as a cheap gun made readily available for anyone outside of corpos, military, and government workers, its disposability after expending its entire magazine in one use and its inability to be crafted or upgraded makes it effectively useless as an everyday weapon, unless you're truly desperate.
* KatanasAreJustBetter: When they're [[HotBlade superheated]] and SharpenedToASingleAtom, like the Arasaka Thermal Katana featured in the "Tools of Destruction" featurette. Unfortunately, [[DummiedOut none of these made it into the game]], turning most katanas into standard melee weapons that are generally overshadowed by Mantis Blades. Only [[spoiler:Saburo Arasaka]]'s personal katana is truly powerful.
* KillStreak: The Cold Blood perk tree is focused on taking down enemies to gain stacks of Cold Blood which grant various buffs when leveled like increased armor, health regen, or attack speed to list a few. The perks available early on aren't much in terms of combat buffs, but as more and more perks are made available and are selected, it can turn a high-level V into a juggernaut as kills are racked up and the wear-off countdown is repeatedly reset. The stack can be made higher and the wear-off timer can be made longer, and a perk also exists that makes it so it just drops one stack level instead of losing the entire stack when the countdown expires.
* KillThePoor:
** A background newscast talks about the city's plans to fumigate the sewer system in the Watson district to deal with the vagrant population in them. Residents are warned to stay away from sewer openings during the operation.
** Two [=NPCs=] in the wealthy City Center district casually discuss shooting homeless people for sport as a fun pastime.
* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: Three major types of ranged weapons are "Power" -- more or less conventional firearms with the added potential for ballistically plotted ricochet trajectories; "Tech" - electromagnetic railguns that can potentially pierce cover; and "Smart" -- gyrojet guns firing remote-guided micromissiles.
* LargeHam:
** Creator/KeanuReeves CLEARLY enjoyed himself in this role. And boy does it show.
** Royce, the off-the-hinges leader of Maelstrom, is large and in charge and likes to let everyone know.
* LethalJokeItem:
** Aside from constantly talking your ear off, the iconic smartgun Skippy initially appears to be an otherwise normal weapon of its class... until you unlock its Stone-Cold Killer mode that automatically aims for the target's head, making it one of the deadliest weapons in the game that can take down absolutely anything (including any and all bosses) in extremely short order. Note that Skippy can be acquired and fully "trained" [[DiscOneNuke as soon as you start Act II]], [[GuideDangIt assuming you know where to look and how to train it]].
** Ozob's Nose, a simple basic grenade (no sticking, no homing) that requires the high-tier Edgerunner Artisan crafting perk, costs Legendary components to craft and does no more damage than a basic frag grenade, will pop with a party pizzaz... but also has a significantly increased explosion radius.
* LevelGrinding: More like Everything Grinding, really. [[RespawningEnemies Gangoons in the streets respawn]] when V leaves the area, which sometimes means just walking around the next corner and back. A popular example is a certain tour around the ripper clinic in Pacifica that takes you past at least seven groups of Voodoo Boys and Scavengers in less than two minutes of running and gunning. Rinse and repeat to grind XP (very slowly), street cred (surprisingly quickly), money by selling all the loot (decently quickly), crafting components by disassembling all that loot (ditto) and even specific weapons due to each gang having unique gear preferences. It's also a handy way to grind achievements like "take down [number of] enemies with [type of] weapons".
* LevelScaling: Zigzagged. Random weapon and armor drops scale to V's level, but enemies do not. The highest-level enemies including the FinalBoss sit somewhere around level 20-25, which V can reach before they even tackle the Heist mission. It tends to turn the rest of the game into a shooting gallery due to most enemies [[OneHitpointWonder going down in one hit from almost anything]] once you exceed level 35 and wield the gear to match.
* LibertyOverProsperity: The nomad perspective of the world in a nutshell. They may live hard lives, but consider it worth it to maintain their freedom from the domination of the corps. Saul threatening this independence with what Panam considers short-sighted decisions is Panam's main source of friction with him.
* LikeBrotherAndSister: If the player tries to romance a character who isn't attracted to them -- Judy and River for male V, Kerry and Panam for female V -- that character will let them down gently, and confirm that it can't happen. Despite this, they will still remain on close, friendly terms with V, and in the case of Panam, even be willing to risk her life for them. Judy seemingly views V as her new best friend after [[spoiler:losing her previous one to suicide, and she's by far the character devastated the most by their suicide in the Reaper ending]], and one ending has Panam literally adopting V as a sister in the Aldecados.
* LocalReference:
** You'll notice that the street name signs have an unusual design and color scheme for an American city. That's because they're based on the visual identification scheme used in Warsaw.
** Likewise, the sewage drain covers are also European styled; German, specifically, though the covers themselves can be found across central and eastern Europe.[[note]]Humorously enough, several players have commented that even if you did excuse the presence of German manhole covers in an American city, what ''isn't'' excusable is that they're ''completely the wrong type'' to be used on motorways, with the specific model in the game only being rated for sidewalks.[[/note]]
** Misty's second name, Olszewski, is unambiguously Polish, hinting that she's likely an American of Polish descent. If you call Viktor in "The Devil" ending, he will say that Misty can't come to the phone right now, because she's visiting her family in Poland. Viktor will also say that Misty sent him a postcard with a polar bear on it, referencing the old joke that claims that Poland is so cold and culturally backwards that it has polar bears roaming the streets.
* LostInTranslation:
** An odd example: If the player [[RomanceSidequest romanced]] [[TheRockstar Kerry Eurodyne]] and chooses to call him before the PointOfNoReturn, they can ask him about a new song he's working on. In the original Polish version, he says the title will be "Seamurai Goes Down", referencing the events of the last mission with him, where him and [[PlayerCharacter V]] have sex on a yach they stole from his manager and then promptly sank it, making the title a DoubleEntendre. In the English translation, the song's title is instead "Seamurai in Smoke", which loses the dirty pun. It's unclear as to why the title was changed, since it was already in English to begin with.
** Two last missions in Kerry's questline are called "Czarna Materia" ("Dark Matter") and "Teoria Wielkiego Wybuchu" ("The Big Bang Theory") in Polish. It also ties the first one with a song called "Dark Matter" on Kerry's computer, which foreshadows the events of said mission. In the English version, due to all missions being TitledAfterTheSong, "Czarna Materia" was titled "Off the Leash" (an InUniverse song), and "Teoria (...)" was changed to "Boat Drinks". While an attentive English-language player might connect the dots with the song and "Off the Leash" (it's briefly mentioned that the club this mission takes place in is called Dark Matter), the theme is completely lost with "Boat Drinks".
** A minor one in the corpo lifepath prologue: When Jenkins talks about the dirt he has on Abernathy, in the Polish version he specifically uses the word "kochanka", meaning that Abernathy's lover is a woman. The English word "lover" is gender neutral, so this detail is omitted, though Jenkins also mentions Abernathy's "lover's husband", which (very) vaguely implies a woman.
** At the very start of "Gimme Danger", Takemura says that the parade is going to celebrate "Japanese heritage", which may suggest that it's being held to celebrate people of Night City who are of Japanese ancestry AND their culture. In the Polish version, the word used is "dziedzictwo", which strictly means culture.
** During the gig "Psychofan", Johnny can recount one of Samurai's afterparties, where he says that Kerry threw up in Nancy's guitar case. This seems odd, because Nancy was the band's keyboard player, not guitarist. In the Polish version, the word used is "futerał", which is a more generic name for a case used for transporting any musical instruments, not only guitars.
** The [[IconicOutfit samurai jacket]] V can obtain is called "samurajka" in the Polish version, implying that it's a name of this specific jacket model (kind of like a cardigan is a specific type of sweater and not every sweater is a cardigan), or that this particular jacket is somehow one of a kind. The English name suggests that this is simply a regular jacket with a Samurai motif.
** In the English version of "Off the Leash", before V gets an option to kiss Kerry, he will say "Think you can drive the shadows away?" to which V can respond "I'll even protect you from yourself". This conversation sound more natural in the Polish version: Kerry instead asks "Obronisz mnie przed cieniami?" ("Will you protect me from the shadows?"), with V's response being more or less the same as above.
* LoveCannotOvercome: [[spoiler:Depending on your ending, your love interest might break up with you due to diverging goals in life. Each one has at least one ending where they stay in a relationship with V, however.]]
* LudonarrativeDissonance: the main plot of the game is that you are desperately seeking cure for a condition that is killing you. You are given only a few weeks to live and are constantly given reminders of your condition like choking, visual effects, as well as [=NPCs=] commenting on your imminent demise. However, a massive chunk of the game is about doing odd jobs for criminals and Fixers that will yield you money you can only spend on luxury items. A lot of gamers rush through the game, expecting to do the side content later, only to find out the story doesn't allow you to do so.
* MachineWorship: Many Psycho gangs have the end goal of turning themselves into machines. The Maelstrom in particular treat cyberpsychosis as a path to enlightenment through detachment from the human condition.
* MacrossMissileMassacre:
** Smart weapons in a nutshell. Assault rifles and submachine guns rapid-fire homing mini-missiles with impressive {{Roboteching}} capabilities, shotguns fire whole packs of miniature missiles at once, and certain iconic models may even allow you to target multiple opponents at once.
** The Basilisk hover tank is fitted with a cluster homing missile launcher after the Panam's Aldecaldo clan really gets to work on it. It's ready to go by the time the Endgame rolls around, and is put to use in the [[spoiler:Star ending, during the assault on the tunnel construction site.]]
* MadeOfExplodium:
** Do ''not'' attack MechaMooks in melee. Their destruction unleashes either a massive electrical discharge, a powerful explosion, or both. The damage of each is sufficient to OneHitKill anyone in the blast radius, V included.
** Be very careful around gas tanks, boilers and the like. A single fist punch is enough to make them go boom, one-shotting everything in a large area around them. Fortunately for V, [[ArtificialStupidity enemies don't mind taking cover behind them]]. Unfortunately for V, [[ArtificialBrilliance enemies don't hesitate to target the tank if V gets too close to one]].
* MadeOfIron: Vehicles in this game are ridiculously sturdy. Crash one into a wall at 200 KPH and the worst that'll happen is that its hood goes flying. T-boning another car at top speed will rarely even dent the door, let alone affect the driver in any way. Motorbikes are even more impressive in this regard, capable of continued operation at maximum performance after crashes that should turn them into compacted cubes of metal, plastic, and rider. The only thing that will make a vehicle go boom in this game is either copious amounts of heavy fire or a grenade or two.
* MagikarpPower: A netrunner's initial quickhack options aren't all that useful in combat, but put some points in the relevant perks and craft some advanced quickhacks and you'll quickly end up with the most powerful, most versatile character build in the game.
** The Cold Blood perk tree can start off as fairly underwhelming, since it gives V a very minor speed boost after killing an enemy (up to three times with upgrades). However, going further down the skill tree can grant V very useful boons, some of which also stack such as armor, attack speed, melee damage, healing rate, or quickhack cooldown. The wear-off timer can be extended, more Cold Blood stack levels can be added, and the wear-off timer expiring can be made to only lose one Cold Blood stack level than the entire stack. Some, while they don't stack, are also very useful and activate as soon as one stack is acquired, such as an immunity to ailments, more stacks, higher headshot damage or more damage resistance, allowing V to become a LightningBruiser with the ability to absorb and dish out way more damage while moving at a faster pace than before.
* MagneticWeapons: The "Tech" weapons, relying on magnetic accelerators, allow you to use ChargeAttack that can [[ArmorPiercingAttack punch through walls.]]
* MalevolentMaskedMen: The Scavengers wear holographic masks displaying simplistic, cartoony faces as their visual cue.
** Tyger Claws mooks frequently wear menpō (face guards covering the lower half of the head).
** MAX-TAC officers, police authorized to use [[JudgeJuryAndExecutioner lethal force]], wear helmets that cover the entire top halves of their head.
** Trauma Team troops wear gas masks at all times to make sure they can access patients without risking exposure to airborne pathogens or toxins.
* {{Mana}}: A netrunner's RAM bar is essentially the scifi equivalent of a mage's mana supply. Every quickhack consumes a certain amount of RAM when used. If you empty your RAM, you have to wait for it to replenish before you can continue to use quickhacks.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: Night City is a technological breakthrough as per the genre but some things are hard to explain with just advanced tech:
** One Cyberpsycho gig has V track a ritual where a bunch of dead gang members surround a woman lying on a freezer. Investigating around the area will lead to flashes of noise before the woman herself eventually springs back to life and attacks V despite having been dead up to that point. Neither V nor Silverhand can explain what exactly happened there.
** One mission has V and Takemura spot a stray cat while doing reconnaissance, when V points out that most animals disappeared from Night City a long time ago, Takemura will jokingly suggest that it's a [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bakeneko Bakeneko]], a cat spirit that spreads misfortune and is able to revive the dead. The cat also seems to see Johnny, following after him when he rolls off the balcony. While this is easy to dismiss at that time, what appears to be the same cat will later appear [[spoiler: in Johnny's memory of 2013 some fifty years earlier, during what was likely the greatest moment of misfortune in his life: as he lays bleeding out having failed to save Alt from being kidnapped by Arasaka, right before he'd embark on his first raid on Arasaka in a rescue attempt that ended with him inadvertently killing her.]]
** When [[spoiler:exploring a serial killer’s memories to track the location of his lair]] V can see images of his deceased mother such as her shadow behind a curtain but when the blinds are drawn she’s nowhere to be seen. While this might be explained away as the memories being a dream, the rest of the memories are relatively mundane with little in the way of fantastical elements.
** [[spoiler: Peralez’s entire quest chain has their memories being altered by a shadowy organization with no hints as to who it might be. While initially pegged as a Corpo conspiracy it takes on a more ExistentialHorror vibe the longer the quest goes, especially when V gets a phone call and seemingly gets hacked by an inhuman voice. Johnny surmises that it was a rogue AI that was responsible but ultimately, it’s left ambiguous who the mastermind is.]]
** [[spoiler:Misty’s tarot readings are noticeably accurate in the endings with her referencing death (of a sort) in Temperance ending and good fortunes in the Sun ending.]]
* MechaMooks: Although not nearly as numerous as human enemies, you'll run into your fair share of hostile combat robots, ranging from humanoid security androids to [[AttackDrone flying attack drones]] to massive walking tanks. They're generally MadeOfExplodium but [[MetalSlime give huge amounts of XP and have an absurdly high chance to drop legendary crafting components]].
* MeetTheNewBoss: If V chooses to [[spoiler:allow Maiko to take over Clouds]] in [[spoiler:Judy]]'s quest chain, the conditions end up exactly the same and there's effectively no change in management. On the other hand, [[spoiler:she’s correct in that Judy’s plan accomplishes nothing but getting reprisals from the Tyger Claws. And at the very least it seems unlikely she’ll do things like rape catatonic Dolls then toss them to Fingers like the previous boss did, and even puts said rapey-human-traffickey boss in V's and Judy's path to do with as they please as a show of good faith.]]
* MegaCity: Night City's individual high rises are like small towns of their own, including the mega building apartment complex you live in.
* MegaCorp: It wouldn't be cyberpunk without them. Multi-national corporations have "diversified" into having controlling interests in almost all aspects of daily life, with the Arasaka Corporation in particular having a stranglehold on multiple industries. It is also mentioned that corporate employees above a certain level are all but immune to prosecution by civil authorities, and are generally turned over to corporate security for "internal discipline".
* MissionControl: Various characters will regularly pop up on your HUD based phone to offer new jobs, give you info on your missions, or dictate your new marching orders if they're your employer. "The Heist" mission also has T-Bug act as this for V and Jackie.
* MockHollywoodSign: A [[https://twitter.com/CyberpunkGame/status/1315623084163039232 promotional image]] reveals one for the affluent North Oak neighborhood.
* ModernStasis: Although there have been some small technological changes since 2013 (the earlist point we see) and a few political borders have moved it's nothing groundbreaking and society is basically the same. Johnny is frequently disgusted just how little changed in the fifty-odd years he was dead.
* ModularEpilogue: Zig-zagged. While the main part of the epilogue is always the same (the only potential difference is which love interest makes an appearance), the ending calls you get from your friends will be different, depending on how far you've gotten into their respective personal quests. The only exception is [[spoiler:"The Reaper" ending, where all characters will be devastated by V's suicide, no matter their previous relationship.]]
* MomentKiller: Relic Malfunctions can happen at any time, including right in the middle of phone calls and even romance dialogue cutscenes. Needless to say that V suddenly cursing and coughing up blood while their vision distorts is highly effective at killing any sort of moment in an instant.
* MoneyForNothing: The only commodity in Night City that makes sense to invest in is top-tier cyberware, and even that can be found in the world if you know where to look. Everything else can be crafted regardless of crafting skills (ammo and grenades) or is either useless (most types of clothing), too expensive for what it does (weapons and armor), or both of the latter (vehicles). The result is an exploding bank account once you're decked out in your favorite cyberware at the start of the midgame. It's probably why CDPR came up with the Autojock achievement for buying all vehicles in the game.
* MoneySink: Practically the only reason why V can purchase vehicles. There's next to nothing in the game aside from cyberware one could reasonably spend money on, so if all that hard-earned cash is burning holes in your pockets, go buy a car.
* MonsterAndTheMaiden: A female/feminine [[PlayerCharacter V]] and [[{{Deuteragonist}} Johnny Silverhand]]. She's a human mercenary, while he's a VirtualGhost. He can't interact with the world directly, but he can give V advice and encouragement. Their partnership starts off through an accident, and they [[TeethClenchedTeamwork don't really get along for a long time]], but they can grow closer together if the player so desires, and even [[spoiler:give their lifes for each other]].
* MultipleChoicePast: While not as impressive as the initial plans, the "Lifepaths" featurette presents V's possible backgrounds: an inner-city gangbanger, a disgraced corporate agent or a Nomad whose clan fell apart. Each of them comes with its own set of prologue missions and additional gameplay options, but they all join up with V befriending (or being reunited with) Jackie and the two of them working together as Edgerunners.
* MultipleEndings: The game has a variety of different endings depending on your relationships with various characters and choices about who to ally with [[spoiler:in your attempt to raid Arasaka in hopes of using their facilities to split yourself from Johnny and the biochip]].
** "[[DealWithTheDevil The Devil]]": [[spoiler:You [[DealWithTheDevil join forces with Hanako Arasaka]] to get access to Arasaka's facilities in return for avenging her father Saburo. You successfully oust Yorinobu, but collapse shortly afterwards and are taken to an Arasaka medical space station. The Relic is successfully removed (and Johnny's code erased) and you spend months in recovery aboard the station, but to no avail -- the Relic has done too much damage and you'll be dead by winter. You are given a final choice: Surrender to Arasaka and let them turn you into an immortal virtual ghost like Johnny, or walk away to enjoy freedom for the few weeks or months you have left.]]
** "[[BittersweetEnding The Star]]": [[spoiler:You enlist the help of Panam and the Aldecaldos nomad gang to raid Arasaka, and following the splitting of you and Johnny, you choose to keep your body. You then leave Night City with Panam and the Aldecaldos, hopeful that a solution to your dying psyche can be found in the months you have left with your new family.]]
** "[[TheLastDance The Sun]]": [[spoiler:Johnny temporarily takes control of V's body to enlist the help of Rogue, raids Arasaka alongside her and ultimately completes his quest for revenge, though at the cost of Rogue herself. Following the splitting of you and Johnny, Johnny chooses to let you keep your body. You spend the following months managing the Afterlife and living the high life, having left your mark on Night City as a legend, but ultimately, with only weeks left to live before the effects of the Relic catch up to you, you take on one last job: robbing an Arasaka casino [[AstralFinale on an orbital resort station.]] [[BolivianArmyEnding Whether you come out of it alive]], you don't care; after all, your number was called a long time ago.]]
** "[[GrandTheftMe Temperance]]": [[spoiler:In either the Star or the Sun, you choose to give your body to Johnny to live out a long, fruitful life while your psyche remains in cyberspace, at least no longer in danger of being deleted by the Soulkiller virus in the biochip. Johnny eventually leaves Night City, in search of a new life thanks to the second chance you gave him.]]
** "[[DownerEnding The Reaper]]": [[spoiler:Rather than put any of your friends in danger for the sake of you or Johnny, you decide to leave on your own terms and [[AteHisGun shoot yourself in the head]].]]
** "([[TheLastDance Don't Fear]]) [[DyingMomentOfAwesome The Reaper]]": [[spoiler:If you befriend Silverhand and spend a few minutes debating which ending to take, he decides to propose [[OneManArmy assaulting Arasaka Tower solo]]. Whether it be avoiding risking your friends for yourself or Johnny, or simply going out with a bang like Jackie would have wanted, taking this ending means a ChallengeRun with no allies, and without dying once, [[NonStandardGameOver or else you get a]] [[SuddenDownerEnding variant of the Reaper.]] If you survive the whole way, though, you carve your legend out on your own as the one who took on Arasaka headquarters on your own, took down Adam Smasher and ''lived to tell the tale.'' The rest of this ending follows a variant of the Sun or Temperance (depending on your decision inside Mikoshi).]]
* MultipleGameOpenings: Depending on which lifepath you choose for V at character creation, the first half of the prologue features a completely unique storyline: the Nomad V smuggles a contraband item into Night City with Jackie; the Corpo V gets entangled in a political scheme within [[MegaCorp Arasaka]], then fired by their superiors covering their asses[[note]]and they already know Jackie from way back[[/note]]; and the Streetkid V tries to hijack the same supercar as Jackie but both get busted by the police. Either way, it is followed by a universal TrainingMontage and the first proper mission with Jackie.
* MundaneUtility: Of the four types of forearm cybernetics available, the [[MegatonPunch Gorilla]] [[ElementalPunch Fists]] are the only one that offer attribute boosts; specifically, to Body. Each quality tier boosts the strength progressively more. This makes them useful for boosting the ability to pry doors open, more effectively brace heavy weapons while firing, or doing dialogue checks against Body. It doesn't help with perk requisites, though.
* MythologyGag: The promotional materials are packed with references to the pen and paper RPG.
** The female cyborg poster in a window in the teaser trailer is based on the cover art for one of the ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' pen-and-paper rulebooks.
** V's glowing popped collar matches the one seen on the cover of the 2.0.2.0 version of the tabletop game.
** The character of chrome-skinned celebrity Lizzy Wizzy is a reference to the cover art of the "Chromebook vol. 1" sourcebook.
** The Voodoo Boyz are now a gang of mostly [[TheYardies Afro-Caribbean]] netrunners, having taken the name of an "earlier gang" -- their ''TabletopGame/{{Cyberpunk}}'' incarnation was a culture-appropriating bunch of rowdy white kids, and Mike Pondsmith [[https://www.pcgamer.com/mike-pondsmith-explains-cyberpunk-2077s-gangs-the-voodoo-boys-and-the-animals/ stated in an interview]] [[ApprovalOfGod he prefers CD Projekt's version.]]
** Ads for the "[[BiggerIsBetterInBed Mr Stud]]" penile implant play in the elevator. It's an actual piece of cyberware/bioware you could get in the tabletop game.
** The concept of brain uploading software goes as far back as the first edition of the tabletop game, where the Soulkiller program was an important element of the metaplot and Johnny Silverhand's backstory.
** One sidequest has V come across [[spoiler: the mortal remains of [[TheCracker Rache Bartmoss]], still in the [[HiddenInPlainSight disguised-as-a-refrigerator cryogenic chamber]] he'd been in since initially flatlining in the tabletop game's metaplot. One of V's reply choices to Johnny also nods to Rache's near single-handed wrecking of the Old Net in the tabletop games, as well.]]
** On a somewhat more meta note is the name of Morrow Rock Radio host Maximum Mike. "Maximum Mike" is the longstanding nickname of R. Talsorian Games founder and developer Mike Pondsmith, who voices him.
** The song "Friday Night Firefight" is titled after the chapter on combat rules in the pen-and-paper game rulebook.
** Flavor text on the pieces of unique clothing sets named after the character classes in the pen-and-paper game (Solo, Netrunner, Badge, Fixer, Techie, Nomad) comes from the quotes for each of the classes in the rulebook.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: N to S]]
* NamedAfterSomebodyFamous: All cocktails on the Afterlife's menu are named after an Edgerunner who made it big enough to be allowed inside and died during a run. [[spoiler:Jackie ends up having his own entry on the menu after the biochip heist]].
* NeckSnap: This is the method performed when successfully sneaking up an enemy from behind. It instantly kills the victim when the action is done. The non-lethal version simply knocks the victim out into unconsciousness instead. However, you still have to move their corpses away from plain sight of their allies, otherwise they will be alerted to your killings and the stealth option will be rendered useless, forcing you to improvise your plans. This can potentially prove very useful when dealing with certain enemies such as cyberpsychos, provided you have the right cyberware and quickhacks. However, certain bosses, such as Adam Smasher, will not allow you the opportunity to perform this method on them so you'll have to settle things the old-fashioned way.
* {{Nerf}}:
** Update 1.3 took the nerf bat to a wide range of game features, but quickhacks were hit hardest. Most notably, the legendary Ping's trait of allowing hacking enemies through walls was removed[[note]]one can still hack ''devices'' through walls, though, so if the place has cameras, enemies can still be targeted indirectly[[/note]], and the popular Contagion combat quickhack had its damage reduced to the point of uselessness. All enemies (not just netrunners) now also run a trace program to pinpoint V's location the moment the player uses any non-covert quickhack, making quickhacking essentially useless for stealth combat. On the non-quickhack front, all legendary cyberware that could previously be found in the open world was removed as well, forcing players to grind street cred until they can purchase it at a ripperdoc's.
** Update 1.5 attempted to fix the hilariously broken SocketedEquipment by reducing the number of mod slots in clothing items, lowering mod effectiveness (Armadillo's maximum armor rating for instance was capped at 75, down from 270), restricting certain mods to certain clothing slots, and disallowing the installation of high-quality mods in items of lower quality. Changes were also made to weapon modding, but these were much less impactful overall.
* NeverTrustATrailer:
** The 2018 gameplay trailer seen at E3 did ''not'' have any true gameplay. The PR team had it put together to drum up hype for the actual game, which had barely gotten out of the planning stages by that point.
** That "Samurai" jacket V is seen wearing in most trailers? You only get it near the end of the game, and only if you do Silverhand's quests.
** Perhaps to make a change from the earlier gameplay demos, Jackie never owns -- or goes out to buy -- a Quadra Turbo, instead having a Valentino-themed Arch motorcycle. However, later on in the game, V will eventually get the opportunity to buy one for themselves.
** [[spoiler:T-Bug never betrays V and is dead before V gets to the meeting with [=DeShawn=] after the heist]].
** "Wake the fuck up, samurai. We have a city to burn." The most famous line from the advertising never appears in the game.
** The Diner trailer features someone who never appears in the game talking to V and it implies one can buy a house or shooting from cars while driving. While Patch 1.5 a year after release finally allows the player to rent other apartments, a house with a pool is still not possible. Shooting from cars is only possible in pre-determined sequences and only ever as the passenger.
* NightmareFetishist: Not just V reacts a bit dumbfounded when the young, wealthy Russian ripperdoc who owns the Charter Hill clinic reveals that she actually ''enjoys'' being in Night City. Turns out she finds it fascinating how folks shoot each other in the streets or have to pay through their noses for basic medical services, both of which one apparently finds OnlyInAmerica.
* NoAntagonist: The main conflict driving the story is the biochip slowly taking over V's brain, and their race against time to get themselves untangled from Johnny and save their life. [[spoiler:The closest thing to a BigBad the game has would be the Arasaka corporation and the entire exploitative, soulless system governing Night City, but even then dismantling it isn't V's goal. If they'll take down the Arasaka tower in the "Path of Glory" or "The Star" ending, it's mostly done as a means to an end to get to Mikoshi and save themselves, and not due to any personal vendetta or heroic goals.]]
* NobleDemon: Goro Takemura works for the most tyrannically oppressive corporation in the world as bodyguard to none other than its sinister CEO. However, he carries a distinct level of honor and principle not commonly seen among those working for Arasaka, and [[spoiler:he allies himself with the player to bring Yorinobu to justice and can eventually become V's friend]].
* NoGearLevel: Zig-zagged. At the start of "Automatic Love", V is asked to deposit all their weapons before entering Clouds. [[spoiler:The mission can be cleared non-lethally, and V can pick up weapons inside, either from knocked out enemies or just lying around]]. Similar thing happens in the gig "A Lack Of Empathy". Played straight however with the "Sweet Dreams" sidequest [[spoiler:where V will wake up in the Scav haunt from the prologue mission, stripped of both weapons (minus those available as cyberware) and clothing]].
* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:Saburo Arasaka came very close to disowning his son Yorinobu in the past, but choose not to in order to spare his daughter the pain of seeing her brother be cast out. Yorinobu repaid Saburo by conspiring against him and murders him once he discovers that knew of his plans.]]
* NonActionBigBad: [[spoiler:You don't get to fight neither Saburo nor Yorinobu, depending on which one you see as the real BigBad. Saburo is an elderly man, and while Yorinobu used to be in a [[JapaneseDelinquents bosozoku]] gang, he likely wouldn't stand a chance against a OneManArmy like V. The closest you can get to fighting them are boss fights against [[CyberNinja Oda]], Hanako's bodyguard, and the very last battle of the game, [[TheBrute Adam Smasher]].]]
* NonstandardGameOver:
** During the heist, if you fail to hide after klepping the biochip, Adam Smasher will walk into the room, knock you to the floor, and stomp on your head.
** In "Search and Destroy", if you don't knock on the door four times as explicitly instructed, a bomb will go off, killing you on the spot.
** If you die during "(Don't Fear) The Reaper", [[spoiler:the game will end immediately and the credits will start to scroll, with other characters acting as though you were DrivenToSuicide. This is because this particular mission is treated as a SuicideMission, and [[TheLastDance a preferable way to check out than simply eating your gun]].]]
* NotSoDifferentRemark: In the "Bullets" side mission, the [=MaxTac=] team's lieutenant tells V that they enjoy killing just like her and suggests that they join her team. The player can decide whether V thinks the same.
* NoodleIncident:
** According to the Maelstrom boss Royce, Dexter [=DeShawn=] played an important role in Pacifica's downfall, but neither V nor the player ever learn the specifics.
** Rogue mentions having done past dealings with Arasaka, including (to her deepest regret) working with [[spoiler:Adam Smasher]]. It's this that compels her to help V and Johnny hunt him down.
** How Jackie and Corpo V met. All we're told is that it involved Jackie saving V's life.
* NormalFishInATinyPond: The Basilisk tank isn't a main battle tank but a transport vehicle, and is also obsolete compared to Militech's latest product line. It is, however, head and shoulders above the vehicle capabilities of [[DesertPunk banditry that maraud across the Badlands]], and also floats handily over minefields used by Militech and others to bottleneck and suppress smuggling routes, or ones left over from the Corporate and Unification Wars. For these reasons, a dissident faction in the Aldecaldo nomad clan led by Panam Palmer seek to smash'n'grab one that's being convoyed through the area by Militech for sale to a third-world country. Once assembled, Wraith bandits choose the [[CurbStompBattle worst time ever]] to attempt to wipe out the Aldecaldos while the Basilisk is loaded with live ammo and being put through the testing rounds, and the established leadership of the clan concedes the contention about it.
* NotQuiteTheRightThing: Due to the GrayAndGreyMorality of the setting, most choices are unpleasant {{Mortons Fork}}s, but in some cases, some choices lead to marginally better outcomes.
** In one quest, a couple of NCPD officers ask V to check on their comrade Barry, who is also V's neighbor. Talking to Barry, you learn that he's in severe depression after the one-two punch of watching a child be murdered (and the guilty party [[KarmaHoudini allowed to get away]] with it [[ScrewTheRulesIHaveConnections due to their connections]]) and losing his closest friend, Andrew. V can either wash their hands of the entire situation right there (even telling Barry to suck it up and deal) or they can be sympathetic and visit Andrew's grave. [[spoiler:If they do, they will find out that Andrew was a ''tortoise'' -- when Barry tried opening up to his fellow cops, one of them mocked him for it, and he felt so alone that ''talking to a tortoise'' was his only release. If you go back to his cop friends and let them know, the cop who mocked Barry will instead open up and reveal that he's been dealing with similar trauma.]]
** A bartender will ask V to tail his wife, convinced that the times she's come home late, combined with the fact [[ChocolateBaby their son looks nothing like him]] are due to [[{{Cuckold}} infidelity]]. After tailing her, V will find out that she's meeting a strange man in a rundown building. V can simply walk out without learning more. [[spoiler:If they stay and listen, however, the wife will explain that the man is her ripperdoc, and that she's meeting him in secret because every aspect of her body is artificial -- her hair, her skin color, eye color...''everything''. She underwent such drastic work to escape from a sordid past life, but her old face had hereditary influence over their son anyway. If you explain this to the bartender and tell him that his wife truly loves him, both will thank you later on.]]
** [[spoiler:In the Reaper ending V kills themself mainly to keep anyone else from dying for their sake. Instead, it just leaves their friends depressed and grieving with Panam and Kerry even angrily pointing out that it just proved they weren't thinking of their friends and what their death would do to them.]]
** [[spoiler:The same could apply for the Temperance ending where V gives up their body to Johnny. While this does give him a second chance at life most of V’s friends are unaware of what happened and Panam and Rogue, who do know, cast doubts on the decision, as neither are aware that V gave up their body to Johnny and instead assume he coerced V or took over by force; the former vows revenge against Johnny and promises to ‘rip V out of Johnny’s head’ while Rogue’s opinion on Johnny tanks to the point that she tells him to never come back to Night City. Johnny's comments in the game's completion window even lampshades this, outright stating V's sacrifice was for someone (himself) who doesn't deserve it.]]
* ObviousBeta: Upon release, the game was criticized for being buggy and unpolished on all platforms, but the console versions had this ''especially'' bad, with base eighth-gen console versions being borderline unplayable for many players. One player even reported three crashes within the first three hours of gameplay.
* ObviousRulePatch: In the release version of the game, quickhacking basically turned into an instant "I win" button once you got your hands on some epic-tier quickhacks, let alone legendary ones. No other combat style was safer or more versatile, but most importantly it was far, far more useful for stealthy players than the actual stealth skill tree could ever hope to be, making the latter completely superfluous. CDPR took note and reacted with a massive nerf to the stealth aspect of quickhacking that restored some semblance of balance to the skill trees. Quickhacking is still an extremely powerful combat asset, but nowhere near as broken as it once was.
** In early versions of the game, with a high Technical skill it was possible craft armor mods with values so high that V was essentially impervious to all but the most powerful attacks. Later patches would limit the number of mod slots on clothing, while substantially lowering maximum obtainable armor values from mods.
* OffscreenMomentOfAwesome:
** Things that happen between the introductory Lifepath mission and the Sandra Dorsett rescue are shown as a quick, non-playable montage, hinting at several setups and outcomes of potentially awesome things we aren't allowed to see or play through (including a BarBrawl).
** [[spoiler:Johnny’s brief escape from Adam Smasher in his playable flashback isn’t shown apart from Johnny firing at him a few times to no effect and then he’s suddenly up on the roof.]]
* OhNoNotAgain: One of the random lines from passersby in response to violence is just an annoyed-sounding "Not again!" ...which can lead to this trope if it's, for example, in response to a screaming, underwear-clad woman destroying plastic lawn flamingos with a comically oversized vibrator.
* OlderThanTheyLook: Due to cybernetic modifications and advanced medicine, many characters who are comparatively old only look like they are in their late thirties. Vik Vector, for example, is at least seventy years old but looks like he's about forty.
** All members of the Arasaka family look about half their actual age. Saburo and Yorinobu are canonically 158 and 82 years old.
** All members of Samurai (except Johnny, of course) are still alive despite being young adults in 2023, meaning they're around 80-90 years old. They still look like they're in their mid-thirties/forties (Kerry, Denny, Henry) or, at the most, mid-fifties (Bes Isis/Nancy), nowhere near their actual ages.
** Rogue is also still here, running the Afterlife and working as the city's best fixer. She's roughly the same age as the Samurai members, and looks to be in her fifties.
** FlavorText on loading screens says that by 2077, medical technology has advanced to the point of slowing the aging process...to those that can afford it, anyway.
* OneHitKill: Possible, but difficult to accomplish without alerting every enemy in the area. Several weapons are capable of them when regularly upgraded, fully modded, and supplemented by perks, including Legendary-quality sniper rifles, a Projectile Launch System loaded with tranquilizer rounds, the "Comrade's Hammer" unique pistol, revolver/shotgun headshots, and certain quickhacks, but most are not viable for stealth gameplay. After 1.5 quite a bit of the Ninjitsu tree is dedicated to letting you do this with thrown knives.
* OneHitPolykill: Tech rifles have a ChargedAttack that can penetrate cover, walls and enemies. Killing two or more enemies with the same Tech rifle shot unlocks an achievement.
* OneLetterName: The customizable main character is simply referred to as "V". [[spoiler:A story mission reveals that their actual name is Vincent (if male) or Valerie (if female), with V stating that they only allow really close friends]].
* OneManArmy:
** V can and will tear through entire gangs by themselves. Many side missions like Crimes in Progress and Bounties more or less require the player to tear through groups of enemies consisting of half a dozen or more gunmen and melee enemies, many of whom likely have cybernetic enhancements or body modifications like Maelstrom or the animals. Doing a healthy amount of side missions can easily put the player's body count in the triple or quadruple digits.
** Exaggerated in the [[spoiler:(Don't Fear) the Reaper ending where V stages a solo assault on Arasaka tower, killing every single guard inside and even defeating Adam Smasher. [[DyingMomentOfAwesome And all of this while being on their last legs due to how far the Relic has spread]]. There's a reason they become a LivingLegend afterwards.]]
** Johnny Silverhand also counts. In his playable flashback he's strong enough to match a high level V and [[spoiler:in the ending where the player enlist's Rogue's help he takes over V's body for the attack, proving just as deadly as them.]]
* OneStatToRuleThemAll: Intelligence is the only stat that can impact a sidequest's resolution. Without it, some sidequests can only end negatively such as [[spoiler: being forced to destroy Delamain's core or his rogue personalities instead of merging them together]] or [[spoiler:not being able to identify the possibility that a replacement liver has been sabotaged]]. Quickhacks, an Intelligence skill, is also better for stealth than the actual stealth tree since it only needs line-of-sight[[note]]And did we mention that the legendary-class version of Ping lets you ''hack without direct line of sight''?[[/note]] which includes remotely controlling cameras, won't immediately set off the alarms in case an attack doesn't oneshot, works on enemies that are [[ContractualBossImmunity immune to grabs]] including higher level enemies, robots, and bosses, actually works once a fight does break out, and time slows to a crawl while scanning and choosing which virus to torment your enemy with. Stealth quickhacking was so stupidly overpowered that CDPR nerfed it to oblivion with the 1.3 patch, turning it into more of a tool for ambushes and open combat instead[[note]]without doing anything to make the actual stealth skill tree more useful, unfortunately[[/note]].
* OneNationUnderCopyright: It's implied that by 2077, Miltech has effectively ''taken control of the United States'', given that the federal government is either comprised of former employees or bureaucrats under their payroll. This includes the infamous Elizabeth Kress who was president of Militech before becoming the President of the New United States for 50 years (2019-2069) only stepping down to be replaced by former Militech CEO Rosalind Myers. Both of Which have pushed for Reunification of the DividedStatesOfAmerica via military action, of course with weapons supplied by Militech.
* OneSteveLimit: Averted for the name "Elizabeth" and related. One instance is Elizabeth "Lizzie" Borden, the madame for the brothel that was where Lizzie's Bar is now. Her murder at the hands of Tyger Claw gangsters was the ''casus belli'' that led to the formation of the Mox gang before the game story's time frame. The second instance is pop music star Lizzy Wizzy (birth name Elisabeth Wissenfurth), famous for her full-borg cybernetic transformation in the middle of a concert. Third instance is Elizabeth Peralez, wife to Night City Councilman and mayoral candidate Jefferson Peralez. There's also the rarely mentioned Elizabeth Kress, former president of the NUSA.Thankfully, the story spaces the four characters out so that they do not associate, and each have a different context to keep them from getting confused: Borden is a PosthumousCharacter who has no real prescence in the game other than some brief mentions in dialogues and datashards; Kress is only mentioned in passing as well, while both Lizzy Wizzy and Elizabeth Peralez are physically present. Wizzy almost exclusively goes by "Lizzie" and is only around for a single side mission and associated phone/text conversations you can have with her and overhear as V. Elizabeth Peralez is the most involved of the four, being connected to a major sidequest chain, and moves in completely different circles than both Lizzie Borden and Lizzy Wizzy.
* OnlySixFaces: While most NPCS have diverse appearances, the gangs of Night City only have a handful of models each. This is less noticeable with Maelstrom, the Scavs, and to a lesser extent the Tyger Claws, as their faces are [[FacelessGoons frequently obscured]], but is very noticeable with the Valentinos and 6th Street Gang.
* OptionalBoss: The vast majority of bosses are optional, with most being either part of side missions or [[SkippableBoss avoidable by making certain decisions]] in the main story. Only a grand total of two bosses must be fought with no way around it.
* OptionalSexualEncounter: V can romance and have sex with male and female characters [[GayOption regardless of V's gender]], though two of the four major romance options will only be available to male or female V respectively. Somewhat surprisingly limited; outside of the four romances, there are four joytoys[[labelnote:*]]prostitutes[[/labelnote]] that V can purchase the services of, and one character they can have a one night stand with.
* OrganTheft: The first main mission in Night City involves rescuing a woman from some implant thieves. Stealing cyberware and reselling it is one of the main revenue sources and namesake of the Scavengers.
** Some shards and out of game information also points to the fact Trauma Team, who come to save her once you activate an emergency beacon function, harvest from dead or dying patients. Namely those late on payments.
* OutgrownSuchSillySuperstitions: Averted. One of the main fixers is a Catholic priest, Buddhist monks are frequently seen in the streets and religion still plays a heavy part of the world, with the biggest ones expressing themselves about cybernetics: Christianity have no problem with it (except Mormons who tolerates it only in life-or-death situations), Islam is against it but does not forbid people getting implants, Hassidic Judaism requires to ask a rabbi before getting chromed up, Buddhism completely forbids it. It's also possible to have a fairly long philosophical discussion with the monks on whether or not a LivingMemory or an AI counts as a "person" in Buddhism (the answer is complicated).
* PacifistRun: It is possible to go through the game without killing, if not necessarily without fighting, as the game offers multiple ways to neutralize enemies without killing them. Blunt weapons are categorized non-lethal and there are mods you can acquire that remove the lethality from your normal ordinance, meaning that weapons ranging from 4-gauge shotguns to frag grenades will become capable of putting down enemies without killing them. Any missions that require absolutely, definitely blowing up a few dozen people are entirely optional and, at worst, lock you out of select endings. The talking "Skippy" gun pokes fun at the choosing to fight nonlethally, as you're still brutalizing enemies pretty badly either way.
* PaintingTheMedium: In Johnny's flashbacks, [[spoiler:and when you allow him to take over V's body and in the "Temperance" ending]], the [=UI=] changes from yellowish orange to purpleish blue. Likewise, Johnny's version of the "Quest Updated" icon fits the clunkier {{Retraux}} style of 2023.
* PermanentlyMissableContent: Absolutely ''everywhere''.
** There are two ripperdocs who sell items that are unique to them but can be made impossible to trade with; one refuses to deal with you if you physically assault him during a main story mission, while the other does a runner or gets killed if you find out what's in his basement and don't accept a discount to keep quiet about it.
** Some missions become unavailable after a certain point, such as a funeral from a quest giver who moves location after a different mission.
** Iconic crafting schematics disappear along with the body of the boss enemy that dropped them if you fail to pick them up before leaving the area. Overlooked one or more schematics? Enjoy that gaping hole in your WallOfWeapons for the rest of the game. Some of these sub-bosses are hidden in main missions where the mission parameters discourage you from engaging them, so you might miss some schematics without even realizing it. And even if you have all the schematics, they won't do you any good unless you invested a ton of points in the Tech stat, making these guns unobtainable for high-level players who specialized in other stats.
** Related to the above, many iconic weapons are tied to certain main story characters and can only be picked up at specific points during specific missions. Miss your chance and they become unobtainable. To add insult to injury, some require serious ViolationOfCommonSense to acquire, like [[spoiler:Saburo Arasaka's personal katana being found in the opposite direction of where you're supposed to run for your life]].
** [[RuleOfThree And another one on this topic]]: iconic gear can be disassembled like any other. Fail to pay attention during a disassembling spree and that unique gun/sword/outfit is gone for good. The iconic knife Stinger has it even worse thanks to the Dagger Dealer perk that allows you to throw knives. This can be done exactly once per knife, so if you decide to throw Stinger for whatever reason, you'll never get it back in this playthrough. Thankfully, that last part at least was finally fixed in update 1.5, which made it so that thrown knives automatically return to V's hand after a brief cooldown. The game will now also prompt you if you attempt to dissasemble a legendary or iconic weapon, as as well as any equipment that you are currently weilding.
** Shoot enough people with everyone's favorite LethalJokeItem Skippy and it'll eventually initiate a quest to return the gun to its original owner. If you do so, Skippy's gone for good with no way of getting it back. The gun even has another example of this trope before that with its choice between a non-lethal and an extremely lethal firing mode. [[spoiler:The one you pick only lasts for about 50 kills before Skippy permanently switches to the other one, taking many a player by surprise either way.]]
*** Retroactively with patch 1.6 if you turn in Skippy before you complete the Cab retrieval missions, you can miss out on conversations between Skippy and [[spoiler: the car's AI you get as a reward]].
** It's very easy to cut off any chance at romancing your favorite LoveInterest just by making one wrong dialogue choice at some point in their personal quest chain, with the consequences often only becoming apparent much later in the game.
** The Don't Fear The Reaper ending hinges on making a string of specific dialogue choices in a certain conversation with Johnny, which occurs during a quest which is itself optional. Miss even one and you're locked out of this ending for good. Thankfully, there is a subtle indicator which can be used to determine if you're on the right path, though it's not until a later quest: [[spoiler: during "Holdin' On", Kerry will ask Johnny (temporarily in control of V's body) whether the two of them get along, to which Johnny will reply in the affirmative or the negative; Johnny responding in the affirmative indicates that you're on the right track to unlock the ending.]]
** You can fail "Riders on the Storm" simply by taking too long to do it [[TakeYourTime in an aversion to almost every other mission in the game]]. If you do so, or if you [[spoiler:side with Saul against Panam later on]] then you're permanently locked out of both [[spoiler:[[OptionalSexualEncounter Panam's romance option]] ''and the entire Aldecaldo ending path'', widely considered to be the GoldenEnding.]]
** Do anything other than rain fire on Maelstrom in "The Pickup" after meeting with Militech, and you'll miss out on the chance at [[spoiler:the one-night stand with Meredith Stout and the iconic melee weapon she leaves behind in her hotel room]].
** Telling [[spoiler: Claire]] anything other than to focus on the race during the aftermath of 'Beast in Me' second to last race and not chasing the crashing car in the final race will lock you out of getting one car [[spoiler: the Type 66 "Cthulhu".]] for free...though [[spoiler: if Claire kills Sampson, Regina will somehow get it and put it up for 76k]]
** The achievement for the Devil ending ''requires'' [[spoiler:that Takemura is still alive at this point]]. If you failed to account for this, [[GuideDangIt usually by not knowing the option even exists]], the only way to unlock the achievement and watch the "official" version of this particular ending is to either load a save from ''very'' long ago, or start a whole new game from scratch.
* PhotoMode: Includes a lot of character positioning and poses (with "You're breathtaking!" pose as AscendedMeme), picture settings, and up to 5 stickers.
* PinballProjectile: The "power" weapon projectiles can bounce off obstacles, allowing you to hit opponents behind cover. Weapons in this category either require a piece of hand cyberware called a Ballistic Coprocessor, or an integrated Ricochet Engine (or none in the case of the Kongou pistol). To see ''where'' it will ricochet, you will need to install a cyberware module into the Kiroshi ocular system called a Trajectory Generator pre-1.5 patch or invest a perk point in the Tech/Engineering perk tree's "Draw The Line" perk in 1.5 and above (ricochet trajectories still happen regardless of eye cyberware setup). The 1.5 update also introduced muzzle brake attachments that can enhance the ricochet angles or damage (as well as buff other performance aspects of the weapon it's affixed to). One particular case is the Babaroga for pistols, where even the most basic [[ColorCodedItemTiers Common-tier]] version will outright double the damage that ricochet projectiles inflict; the top-tier Legendary version will ''triple'' the damage. Affix it to a HandCannon and see what it does.
* PistolWhipping: This is an optional QuickMelee tactic if you're carrying a firearm and a hostile [=NPC=] is close enough to you to get within melee range. You can strike them with the frame of your firearm to inflict some damage, but it's not as powerful compared to ''[[VideoGame/{{Halo}} Halo's]]'' near-instant kill variant of this trope, and you have to bash them a few times until they're actually dead. It's more of an emergency move during battle if you're not carrying or using a melee weapon or not having arm implants installed in your body. There is a certain perk that allows your player character to stagger hostile [=NPCs=] while bashing them with your gun, leaving them open for a takedown. Unfortunately, it's not a viable tactic to use during boss fights as they usually have a lot of health and take way too much gun-bashing to even try.
* PlatonicProstitution: The "Clouds" dollhouse promises to fulfill their clients deepest desires. As V can find out in "Automatic Love", [[spoiler:those desires don't have to inherently be sexual in nature; sometimes, like in V's case, they can be something as simple as talk and reassurance, which V's doll is happy to provide for them.]]
* PoweredArmor: [[spoiler:Royce, no matter how the Flathead deals goes south]], uses an exoskeleton that provides greater strength and armor. A similar exoskeleton can be encountered in two of the Cyberpsycho Sighting sidequest: one manned by a construction worker driven mad by its control implants, and a nomad that was abducted alongside [[spoiler:Saul]] having been tortured and forced in by the Wraiths. And Adam Smasher has this integrated into his own physical body, his brain being the only biological part of him remaining.
* PragmaticAdaptation: The roles from the tabletop RPG have been eschewed for a "fluid class system" with a trio of Solo, Netrunner and Techie skill trees to freely invest in and combine. The Attractiveness attribute has been removed (as V is as attractive as the player wants to make them) and the slow-paced Improvement Point system has been replaced with a more typical XP bar.
* PsychoStrings: A techno version is used when [[spoiler:Yorinobu Arasaka snaps and [[SelfMadeOrphan murders his father Saburo]]]].
* RageBreakingPoint: The event that led to the [[spoiler:murder of Saburo Arasaka was this. Saburo was in the process of cryptically declaring that he's disowning his son Yorinobu for stealing the experimental advanced Relic, the key to effective immortality that Saburo was developing for himself. Saburo invoked Yorinobu's mother, stating it's good she is not around to see this, and that "the heart should break but once". Yorinobu snaps, and starts strangling his decrepit father.]]
* RainbowPimpGear: In full effect. When the game launched, there were no cosmetic slots to wear whatever the player desires without impacting their armor value. This is somewhat mitigated though by the people around you being equally as mismatched. Weapons are not exempt, the best examples being the Cocktail Stirrer and the Kongou, powerful [[AceCustom Iconic]] weapons, the former being a completely hot pink katana, the latter being a [[HandCannon Liberty]] with a silver finish and neon pink accents.
** Partially averted in a later patch; there are 'oversuits' that override the appearance of all the clothing but the hat and face, although not many of them. V starts with 'bare chest, bloody bandages, sweatpants', and later can find netrunner suits and hazmat suits, all only cosmetic in effect.
** Averted fully in the 1.6 patch, which introduced a transmog system that's available in V's apartment and safehouses, using your closet to make up to six different outfits based on gear you have picked up at one point with the current character, regardless of whether or not you still have it in your possession.
* RangedEmergencyWeapon: The Budget Arms Slaught-O-Matic is a fully automatic pistol that holds 36 rounds, but unlike the Militech M-10AF Lexington, it cannot be reloaded once its magazine has been depleted, and is simply thrown away permanently after emptying the magazine. Unlike the Tediore weapons from ''Borderlands 2'', [[DamnYouMuscleMemory the Slaught-O-Matic does not have the feature to digi-reconstruct itself after disposing the gun when its magazine has been fully expended.]] Its inability to be crafted or upgraded makes it effectively useless as an everyday weapon and its price at 630 eurodollars after being purchased at any Budget Arms Spontaneous Craving Satisfaction Machine renders it a waste of valuable eddies[[note]]although, as of the 1.6 patch, its price has been now reduced to 100 eurodollars, making it slightly more viable[[/note]]; in other words, it is nothing but a JokeItem.
* RayOfHopeEnding:
** The ending where [[spoiler:you leave Night City with the Aldecaldos]] is the closest ending to this; [[spoiler:while most of the other endings contain varying glimmers of hope, Panam and V are both in high spirits that one of Panam's contacts can provide a cure for V's still-deteriorating condition in the months they have left to live]].
** [[spoiler:"The Devil"]] is normally a very bleak ending, but if [[spoiler:Takemura]] is alive he will be optimistic that [[spoiler:you will one day be given a new body and therefore the chance to walk among the living once more; he even leaves you with the promise of hitting a restaurant with you someday in the future]].
* RearWindowWitness: In the middle of a botched heist, V and Jackie are forced to hide in a room and witness [[spoiler:Yorinobu Arasaka murder his father Saburo Arasaka, the head of the Arasaka megacorporation, in cold blood and hear them discuss how Yorinobu stole a Relic chip (the one holding Johnny Silverhand) from his father to sell it to Netwatch.]]
* RedEyesTakeWarning:
** The Maelstrom's creepy red cybernetic eyes are the first sign to be wary around them.
** When an enemy activates their Berzerk implant, their eyes start glowing orange, warning you to get out of their melee range or else. Two of the Beat On The Brat boxers do this before every attack and can take V down in a single combo thanks to it.
* RelationshipValues:
** The Relic corruption percentage in the stats screen doubles as a meter of how far the Relic has spread in V's body and V's relationship with Johnny (the higher the closer they are). It grows as the game's story progresses, and it can be boosted by choosing the right dialogue options ([[GuideDangIt though don't think it's easy to tell which ones are the correct ones]]) and completing Johnny's personal side quests.
** Update 1.5 introduced something of the sort for Night City's fixers. V now needs to complete a number of gigs per fixer before they're offered more jobs, with the current count displayed on the world map when hovering over the respective fixer's icon. Completing any and all available gigs triggers a deeply respectful message from the fixer in question, usually accompanied by a gift like a unique weapon or vehicle.
* RelationshipUpgrade: After the sex scene with one of the available romance partners, they will ask if this was a one-time thing, or something more. Choosing the latter will officially start a relationship with that character, allowing you to [[spoiler:call them before the PointOfNoReturn, which will make them appear in your epilogue]].
* RetCon:
** In [[{{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk}} the tabletop game]] set in 2020, the root causes and pathology of cyberpsychosis were well understood and, if not curable then at least treatable. Fast forward 57 years, and suddenly cyberpsychosis is far less well understood, and treatments are experimental at best and outright myths at worst. When the game came out in the 1980s, it was pretty much a way to increase BodyHorror and limit players from just having ''everything'', by threatening your character with removal by GM Fiat. Thirty years later, with more real-world knowledge about limb replacement, it may sound ableist and offensive to people with real world psychological issues and disabilities. The shift in the video game from the tabletop -- that cyberpsychosis isn't real but instead a bunch of factors like defective tech, psychological trauma, and drug use -- updates it to modern times while tying it into the setting's statements about corporate greed and recklessness. (It also saves CDPR from creating new dialogue and animations for a low-Humanity V, or figuring out if that's even possible given their condition, but that's surely a coincidence.)
** Likewise, Johnny Silverhand was killed by Adam Smasher via becoming HalfTheManHeUsedToBe. [[spoiler:In the flashback the biggest damage done is Johnny's mechanical arm being shot and he's instead shown being uploaded as the VirtualGhost that becomes V's companion.]]
** Pre- to post-release example: Various promotional materials stated that V is 23 years old, but in the game proper, they're 27.
** The artbook states that Johnny was in his late forties when he died, but in-game he died at 33.
* RevolversAreJustBetter: The various revolvers are generally the only handguns worth carrying around, mostly because they're your only half-decent chance at [[OneHitKill instakilling]] enemies silently from a distance. Semiauto handguns, barring a few iconics like Lizzy or Skippy, rarely qualify as more than an EmergencyWeapon.
* RewatchBonus: When you first get to the Afterlife with Jackie, you may catch a conversation between a woman and her rather cagey-sounding partner. [[spoiler:On the second playthrough, you might notice that it's actually Panam, and her "partner" is the man who betrayed her on a mission and stole her truck.]]
* RomanceSidequest: There are four possible romance routes for V, with two of them available in a single playthrough. Starting a relationship with any of them requires completing their personal side quest and choosing the right dialogue options. Male V can romance [[BadassBiker Panam]] or [[TheRockstar Kerry]], while female V can get with [[GadgeteerGenius Judy]] or [[ByTheBookCop River]].
* RummageSaleReject: The average fashion in 2077 is this, with garish and mismatched colors galore; the only people who avert this are usually corpos or in uniform.
* RushmoreRefacement: Mentioned by one of the talk show hosts on televisions jokingly about Saburo Arasaka considering this in his not-so-secret intent to run roughshod over American culture.
* SafeWord: V can choose either "Afterlife" or "Samurai" as one when booking a Doll session at Clouds during "Automatic Love". Interestingly, the safe-word in Clouds isn't strictly for BDSM encounters, but rather to prematurely terminate the Doll's session in case the client gets too uncomfortable with the subject matter, regardless of whether the client is actually in a sexual situation with the Doll, such as in V's case where the Doll assigned to them instead begins delving into some ''very'' personal matters which could understandibly freak them out.
* SamuraiShinobi: Goro Takemura has been scouted, augmented, and employed by the Arasaka MegaCorp to be the personal bodyguard of the patriarch CEO Saburo Arasaka. After [[spoiler:Saburo is killed by his own son]], Takemura goes rogue and his story arc is essentially that of a {{Ronin}}. On the other hand, he is of "peasant" birth (i.e. recruited from the streets), specializes in assassinations and other dirty work, and, notwithstanding his UndyingLoyalty to the Arasaka clan and his snobbish disdain for any culture other than Japan's, is basically a cyborg ninja. If you do anything besides cooperate with Arasaka in the endgame, [[spoiler:the corp will fall to ruin with Saburo remaining unavenged; the bitter message Takemura sends V in the credits implies he is considering his own [[DrivenToSuicide seppuku]].]]
* SaveScumming:
** A valid method to try out different dialogue options, although useful only in short-term cases. The really important choices usually don't make themselves known until much later.
** Unique legendary clothing pieces hidden in the open world spawn with a random number of upgrade slots that is determined when the item is picked up. Save and reload until you get the maximum possible number.
** The HackingMinigame's data matrix resets every time you quit out of it, as long as you haven't yet clicked on anything. This reduces the time you have to input the solution on your next attempt, but it's usually less annoying than wasting time on a particularly nasty sequence. And if you retried so often that you ran out of input time, you can just reload a (quick)save from before your first attempt.
** In a mission, once stealth is broken, every enemy in the level knows where you are and is gunning for you, with no way to re-establish stealth. It is also very easy to lose stealth from not observing a single camera or goon. If you want to play a mission in the more interesting and immersive stealth manner, you will have to reload repeatedly whenever you mess up.
* SavvyGuyEnergeticGirl: Male and female V are this to each other. Male V tends to come off as more of a distanced and cold BrokenAce, while female V is more feisty and prone to anger. According to Creator/CheramiLeigh, the voice actress for female V, this was done on purpose.
** Female V can be this with Johnny, due to Johnny's more dryly sarcastic nature contrasting V's more temperamental snark.
** Both Vs are also this to their respective love interests: Male V and Panam play this trope [[IncrediblyLamePun straight]], while male V and Kerry are a same-gendered example. Same thing with female V and River, though it's somewhat zig-zagged with female V and Judy; while Judy is certainly HotBlooded and prone to making impulsive decisions, she's overall more mellow, at least when compared to female V, making them qualify for this trope.
* SchmuckBait: One side job involves approaching a street vendor who offers an extraordinary braindance for 16,000 eddies. If you go through with the purchase, he charges an additional 4,000 eddies to use his headset since it's an older braindance. [[spoiler:Fall for ''that'', and you wake up naked without any gear in a building full of gangsters. Namely the very apartment you and Jackie rescued Sandra Dorsett from way back at the beginning of the game]]. And just to really rub it in, Johnny wastes no time calling you the dumbest merc in history for falling for such an obvious scam, and [[JerkassHasAPoint he really has a point there]]. You don't even get anything of worth out of it. It's the only quest in the game that you simply shouldn't accept, ever.
* ScratchDamage: Brushing by barbed wire will cause a miniscule bit of damage and induce a yelp of pain from V. It becomes more frustrating when trying to do jumping maneuvers around barbed wire, as it will send V flailing to the ground floundering about to get back on their feet.
* SentientVehicle: Delamain is a company that rents out luxury taxis controlled by a single AI with an intelligence that exceeds most humans. "He" becomes an ally to V in the story after [[spoiler:acting as their GetawayDriver after the botched heist mission]], and enlists their help to locate divergent offshoots of the AI that have broken free and are driving rogue in various parts of the city.
* SequelNonEntity: Kei Arasaka, who was Saburo's designated successor and dutiful son, foiling BlackSheep Yorinobu, is completely missing and mentioned in passing to have died during the TimeSkip between the tabletop and video game.
* SequenceBreaking: A minor example, but the game seems to assume you'll complete Act 1 as quickly as possible and has some dialogues that don't make sense otherwise. For example, it's perfectly possible to get Victor the 21,000 Eurodollars you owe him before going on the heist, yet the dialogue still suggests that [[spoiler:V is dying]], which they aren't yet. The dialogue will also still refer to V being in dept to him even if you got the money together before seeing him and paid him up front.
* SeriesContinuityError: Continuity within the side quests isn't perfect, as some of your choices will be ignored following later side quest plot updates; in the Beat on the Brat series, beating El Cesar will prompt you to choose one of 4 outcomes: take just the prize money, take just the car, take both and leave him with nothing, or let Cesar keep his car and your money and just take the glory; even if you let Cesar keep both, earning his respect in the process, when his daughter is born a while later, V and Cesar will friendly message each other as if V chose to take the car regardless. Similarly, Judy's sidequest involving the takeover of the Clouds will proceed as though Woodman, one of the managers there, is alive, even if you killed him during your last encounter. Both of these have been fixed as of Version 1.5, with the Tyger Claw leaders explicitly calling you a murderer if Woodman is dead.
* SexSells: Advertisements in the game are over-the-top sexualized in a variety of gratuitous ways. It's part of the theme of naked unfettered capitalism exploiting everything; in this case, people's sexual drives and tastes.
* ShaggyDogStory: The side job "Killing in the Name" has V go all around Night City to track down the elusive Swedenborg. Turns out [[spoiler:they're just a fortune-telling machine that someone connected to the net behind proxies and modded to spew out anti-corporate messages filtered through fortune messages]]. Johnny at least, is amused at the absurdity of the situation.
* ShameIfSomethingHappens: How Jackie scares off the Arasaka goons sent after V in the Corpo-Path beginning. He notes to the goons that they're ''way'' out of water, neck-deep in Mox territory (not to mention inside the middle of what is, for all intents and purposes, the Mox's HQ) and that causing trouble, such as trying to kidnap his friend V, may cause people to start shooting, and that "somebody might die today!" The Arasaka goons wisely back off, saving V from whatever grisly fate they had planned for them.
* SharingABody: The main plot of act II and III revolves around Johnny's personality, which was on the chip V had slotted into their head, taking over their body. The process isn't instant, which forces V and Johnny to cooperate to find a way to take the biochip out before the time runs out and Johnny will fully inhabit V's body. Johnny can only talk to V and show up in their vision as a VirtualGhost, but with time, he can take over temporarily, at first with the assistance of suppressant pills, and, with time, whenever he wants.
* ShipSinking: If your V has a matching voice and bodytype, they can romance both available romance options in a single playthrough (Kerry and Panam for masculine V, Judy and River for feminine V) with no consequences. [[spoiler:You can't, however, continue both relationships at once. At the end of "Nocturne (...)", V is given an option to call one of the characters they've romanced. The one they've picked will be featured in the epilogue, while the romantic relationship with the other will be axed, with V receiving their "best friends" variant of the phone call during the credits.]]
* ShipTease: Besides the ambiguous nature of Johnny and V’s relationship as stated above, there’s ''two'' separate teases with the fixer Wakako Okada:
** The first (and most blatant) is with Takemura, who she is immediately charmed by. If he dies, she expresses some disappointment over this. The attraction seems to be somewhat reciprocated by Takemura, who calls her a “delightful, mature woman”, though Takamura later expresses to V that he is very aware that Okada is a gangoon kingpin, practically an enemy of Arasaka, to whom Takamura is employed.
** The second is with the netrunner Chang Hoon Nam. The gig involving him is called “Wakako’s Favorite,” he has strict orders to remain in contact with her, and she says she “needs him” in the phone call issuing the gig. Later, it’s revealed by Chang Hoon Nam she regularly insists they have dinner together.
* ShootTheShaggyDog:
** In the end [[spoiler:after V is jerked around as free muscle for most of the main questline, it all proves meaningless since V's condition has deteriorated too much for them to be cured and they're only left with the choice of becoming a cyberghost or living out their last few months as themselves]]. In endings that aren't "The Devil", [[spoiler:V does not assist Hanako Arasaka which results in her death and renders Takemura's efforts just as pointless whether he's dead or alive.]]
** One side job involves a client tagging along because [[spoiler:ItsPersonal and he wants to make sure an escaped killer receives street justice. One car chase later, he's unceremoniously shot by cops because he decided it was a great idea to [[TooDumbToLive approach them with a weapon drawn]] after they repeatedly told him to back off.]]. If you stick around, [[spoiler:said escaped killer becomes your new client who demonstrates that he's genuinely remorseful for his actions, and hadn't escaped at all; he was only being shuttled around town in preparation for broadcasting his own crucifixion as repentance]].
** In the Corpo V side job "War Pigs", [[spoiler:an exasperated V can point out to Frank that it's pointless to capture them since Abernathy probably doesn't even know or care who V is, let alone the fact that V hasn't worked for Arasaka for the past six months. If V doesn't choose the right dialogue options (and/or didn't have the correct prereqesite conversation from the prologue anyways), Frank disregards V's warnings and tries to arrest them, getting himself killed in the process]].
* ShoutOut: [[ShoutOut/Cyberpunk2077 Has enough for its own page.]]
* ShowerScene: [[spoiler:"Path of Glory" ending allows you to take a shower with your [[RomanceSidequest romantic partner]].]]
* TheSixStats: The game has five main stats, with branching specialties:
** '''Body:''' Which combines the classic Strength and Constitution attributes; it calculates health, carrying capacity and both melee and heavy weapon damage as well as allowing V to intimidate others in dialog.
** '''Intelligence:''' Calculates V's ability to notice details and solve problems. It also calculates the player's skill in hacking.
** '''Reflexes:''' Analogous to Dexterity, it calculates V's precision with weapons and driving ability.
** '''Technical Ability:''' This stat determines the effectiveness of V's equipment, crafting and engineering, as well as looting. They are more apt to talk shop with other techies in dialogue mode as well.
** '''Cool:''' A mix of Charisma and Willpower, Cool determines V's ability to make witty comments, but also maintaining stealth and keeping focus in combat, increasing the chance of critical hits.
* SlashFic: In-Universe example. During the side gig “Psychofan”, you can find a particularly bad Slash Fic, full of StylisticSuck, which ships Johnny Silverhand and Kerry Eurodyne.
* SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration:
** Towards the end of the game, a major boss can take damage in a cutscene if you have allies with you (namely, [[spoiler:one of your allies pulls a TakingYouWithMe on FinalBoss Adam Smasher]]). When the cutscene ends, the boss fight starts with the boss already damaged by more than 1/5th of his health bar.
** For any mission undertaken or completed prior to "The Heist," the mission description in the journal is written in the First Person. One the relic is inserted, all the mission descriptions change to Second Person, as Johnny is addressing the player.
* SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty: The creators have expressed their dislike for how overplayed "[[CyberpunkWithAChanceOfRain Dark, gritty raining world]]" {{cyberpunk}} settings have become. As such, ''2077'' is full of bright multi-colored neon lights and relatively clean urban environments.
* SmartGun: Smart Weapons fire homing ammunition (typically high-velocity mini-rockets) at. In particular, 'Skippy' is a pistol with a simple-yet-snarky VI named Snippy installed; they can be customized to fire only at the head or only at the pelvis, they sometimes fire prematurely (typically a plus unless you aim at civilians on accident), and they chatter with the level of intelligence that you'd expect from a brain the size of... well, a gun.
* SocketedEquipment: Weapons, armor, and even externally accessible cyberware can have mods attached to them. Some are removable (called Attachments in some documentation) like gun sights and muzzle attachments, some are only recoverable with certain crafting skill perks, and necessitate the scrapping of the item.
* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Johnny's preferred way of proving to people from his old life that he's truly in V's head is to say, do, or know something only the real Johnny would know.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Zigzagged with [[Music/{{Archive}} Archive's]] song "Bullets" from the teaser trailer. Albeit the lyrics fit well with the teaser, the Trip hop sound of the song doesn't.
* SpaceAgeStasis: The sections where you play as [[spoiler:Johnny Silverhand]] seem to be technologically identical to 2077, despite being set [[spoiler:60 years in the past]]. This is subtly lampshaded in a few throw-away lines throughout the main story -- the people in power, first of all the megacorp leaders like Saburo Arasaka, are paranoid about [[StatusQuoIsGod keeping the status quo going on forever]]. Any significant change would upset the balance of power and threaten their cherished lifestyle of infinite luxury. No wonder nothing's changing societally, technologically or otherwise.
* SpaceCompression: A downplayed example. Though Night City as seen in the game could technically hold its canonical population of 5 million, the suburban districts of Rancho Coronado and North Oak are far too small for the city of this size; this is especially notable in North Oak, which is supposed to house dozens, if not hundreds of multibillionaires living in luxurious mansions, but the game's version of the area only has three. The limited infrastructure seen in the game would also be hard pressed to keep this level of population density functional.
* SquadNickname: MAX-TAC (Maximum Force Tactical Division) is nicknamed the Psycho Squad because their chief job is to hunt down psychos, rogue cyborgs gone nuts.
* SpookySeance: Discussed in "A Like Supreme". After Johnny gives the control over the body to V, Kerry will ask if Johnny is gone. V will respond that yes, but he can still hear Kerry talking. Kerry will laugh and say that he's "not in the mood for hovering tables and voices from beyond the grave right now".
* StealthHiBye: There's a monk who can guide V through some meditation, but he disappears without a trace after each session.
* StressVomit: Happens to V at the very beginning of the Corpo origin, from a combination of stress from the [[NoodleIncident Frankfurt Incident]] and implied drug abuse. It's also a symptom of the biochip's encroachment, causing V to throw up after [[spoiler: interrogating Anders Hellman]].
* StupidityIsTheOnlyOption: At numerous times, V has no choice but to directly walk into situations that any savvy merc would see as exceedingly dangerous, if not sure death. For instance, [[spoiler:when meeting Meredith Stout, V goes right up to her and her goons in a secluded location and attempts to shake her hand. Predictably, this leads to V being clocked, tied up and almost killed. An even more major case occurs during the final meeting with Dexter; alongside his body guard, he tells V to go into the bathroom and wash blood off their face. V has no choice but to do so, and the moment they do, their fate is sealed. Players can even hesitate to leave and stare directly at Dexter's bodyguard standing right outside the bathroom door, but they have no choice but to step outside, get clocked again, and get shot in the head by Dexter. If V refuses to enter the bathroom, they will still eventually get taken down by the bodyguard when distracted by Dexter.]]
* SuddenDownerEnding: [[spoiler: Dying in "(Don't Fear) the Reaper", one of the more-optimistic endgame routes, and the Reaper ending credits will roll instantly where V's friends and allies will either [[WhatTheHellHero berate them for selfish decision]] or sobbing over them being killed in action, even though this is a SuicideMission they decide to do alone.]]
* SuperCop: The Psycho Squads are not your average SWAT team. Armed with the best in armor, commo-equipment and vehicles they have free reign to anything and everything in their power to pull cyber-psychos to state sponsored therapy, whether they like it or not.
* SuperDrowningSkills: [=NPCs=] that fall into the ocean (which is highly unlikely to happen in normal gameplay, but is still possible to achieve) will drown instantly, as no one in Night City other than V themselves seems to know how to swim.
* SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome:
** In "The Woman from La Mancha" gig, your target, an NCPD detective whom the fixer would prefer be "discouraged" from her case rather than eliminated, is clearly very aware she is in hot water, if not being hunted outright. So when you break into her room to speak to her, she ''immediately'' draws on you, and you might be forced to gun her down if you don't pick the right dialogue options. Even if you do force her to stand down, she still has ''nothing'' kind to say to you because, one, you just told her that [[spoiler: her NCPD partners are the ones who ordered the hit]], and two, ''you're a fucking stranger who just burst into her room without so much as a howdy-do''. Of course you're not suddenly going to be buddies.
** Johnny was an avid smoker in life and will often neg V to smoke a cigarette to satisfy his craving. If V gives in, the player will be able to find filled up ashtrays in V's apartment. Given how stressful the situation V is in is, it's no wonder they became addicted.
** Judy's attempt at a coup in Clouds will [[spoiler:always fail, because a merc, a techie, two sex workers with kung fu moves installed in their implants and a [[TokenEvilTeammate low-level manager]] simply can't win with a highly organized gang sponsored by one of the biggest corporations in the world. Even after killing the local gang bosses (and possibly Maiko) and ousting the gangoons from the building, the Tyger Claws simply respond with ''more'' gangoons and proceed to brutally retaliate.]]
** At the end of River's storyline [[spoiler:he comes to the conclusion that it doesn't matter how much he will try to protect and serve the people of Night City, he's just one person struggling against a massively corrupt and jaded NCPD that is so far out of its league that the gangs would roll over it without a second thought even if it wasn't corrupted, and that he will never win this battle, no matter how hard he tries. He opts to quit the force entirely and start a new career as a PrivateEye.]]
*** River's partner Han points out a good example of this when [[spoiler: River confronts him over his involvement in covering up Mayor Rhyme's death: Yes, Rhyme's death in an underground strip club stinks to high heaven and back, but the mayor was an absolutely ''beloved'' public figure, both by the people and the corps, which is a rare thing indeed in a place like Night City. To try and challenge that and suggest that Mayor Rhyme died in anything ''but'' completely wholesome circumstances would set the city into an absolute uproar, the likes of which the NCPD simply would not be able to handle, wide-eyed idealism or not.]]
** Kerry comes to realize that he [[spoiler:can't just ditch his label, which exploits him and his art, because without them, he would have to either handle things like promotions, tours and media by himself or just ditch it entirely, which would essentially make his music unaccessible to most of his fans. He decides to stay with the label, but he's more than happy to make problems for his managers if they ever get too bold with his image or music.]]
*** Carrying off the above, Kerry essentially inflicts this [[spoiler:back upon the label company himself. Kerry isn't just a talented musician, but a rockerboy who was once a member of the most infamous anti-corpo rock band of the early 21st century, and headlined said band alongside what can be considered the poster child of rockerboy anarchists. He knows ''exactly'' how to get under the skin of monochromes (such as his record company), and he knows they can't just simply drop him as a client because he's practically a wellspring of eddies, as long as he keeps his trouble-making to a level where he is still affordable as a client.]]
** After destroying the Arasaka Tower in 2023, Johnny is mostly remembered by the mainstream public as a [[BombThrowingAnarchist terrorist]] who killed thousands of civilians, and not as a hero who valiantly fought capitalist tyranny. Additionally, aside from inadvertently killing around a half-million mostly innocent people, the main impact of Johnny's attack was to benefit a different sinister megacorp, Militech. In the end, the only people who actually ''like'' Johnny in 2077 are anarchist conspiracy theorists, dedicated Samurai fans (who likely shared the same political opinions anyways), and the few surviving close associates of Johnny [[spoiler: who knew the true reasoning behind the Arasaka attack]].
** After the [[spoiler:botched heist]], Evelyn tries to hide in her old workplace, the Clouds. [[spoiler:As it turns out, it's hard to hide from your unsatisfied clients when said clients are some of the most talented hackers in this universe, and can easily track her down and hack her remotely, without anyone being able to connect them to her death.]]
** While V tries to convince Dexter that [[spoiler:they didn't kill Saburo during the heist, Dexter actually believes them; it's just that ''everyone else'', including Arasaka and NCPD doesn't. Dexter just doesn't want to risk being associated with someone the majority considers the murderer of the most powerful man on the planet. The presence of Arasaka's Exterminators later shows how right he is, and demonstrates that even if Arasaka and NCPD ''did'' consider V innocent, Yorinobu himself isn't going to risk letting ''anyone'' who witnessed the murder of his father walk free, not even his own bodyguard.]]
** Many characters warn V about Dexter's "cool guy" act being a sham, and that he's much less chill than he lets on. [[spoiler:He ends up shooting V in the head to avoid being tied to them after the Heist turns into a clusterfuck.]]
** Similar thing happens with the Voodoo Boyz: there are multiple instances where V is told that they are especially wary of strangers and that they tend to dispose of any mercs who work for them. [[spoiler:Lo and behold, Placide infects V with a virus during their scan and will activate it after they do their job, expecting that the short circuit will kill them.]]
*** [[spoiler: The Voodoo Boyz get a dose of reality right back at them if you strike a deal with Netwatch; turns out, double-crossing every outsider you meet, regardless of their intentions, only works as long as the outsider ''doesn't survive'' the double-cross. And if they do survive? They might come back absolutely ''pissed'' and possibly ready to wipe you and your entire gang from the face of the earth.]]
*** On that note, wiping out the Voodoo Boyz leadership and most of their HQ will remove their spawn points from Pacifica, while replacing some of them with Scavs, who are quick to fill the power vacuum.
** How is Johnny remembered by his closest friends after a lifetime of heavy drinking, drug use and toxic behavior? Mostly as a nuisance at best, or a destroyer of lives at worst.
** [[spoiler:While Alt can separate V and Johnny's engrams with little to no issue due to being a brilliant netrunner, she's not a neurologist and can't fix V's brain degradation.]]
** [[spoiler:In "The Star" ending, many of the Aldecaldos actually die, because while they are trained veterans, Militech is still a professionally trained private army with the advanced equipment to boot, while the Aldecaldos' most advanced tech is an old [[HoverTank Panzer]] that was ''stolen from Militech to begin with.'']]
** [[spoiler:Dealing a mortal blow to the Arasaka corporation by storming Arasaka Tower, destroying Mikoshi, and killing Hanako in the "Path of Glory" or "The Star" ending doesn't free Night City from capitalist exploitation, as it's heavily implied that another company (likely Militech) could easily fill the power vacuum. Just as killing a king won't take down feudalism, killing Saburo or Hanako won't end "cancer capitalism" (as airwave pirate Dr. Paradox calls it), because another person or company will just take their place.]]
** [[spoiler:V's romantic partner will leave them in some endings, either due to divergent life goals (like Panam, who has to leave Night City to lead the Aldecaldos) or personal problems (like Kerry being unwilling to leave Night City with V because he couldn't cope with losing him so far from familiar comforts to fall back onto). While there's no doubt that all four of the love interests truly love V, their relationships couldn't have been longer than a few weeks by the time of the ending, which just isn't long enough to drop all your plans and step out of such serious comfort zones for.]]
** [[spoiler:After V allows Johnny to take over their body to talk to Rogue in "Chippin' In", he instead gets drunk, gives V a [[EmbarrasingTattoo tattoo]], takes drugs (including the ones that will prolong the time he is in control) and intends to takes a stripper home. Given Johnny's personality and [[FunctionalAddict past addictions]], this really shouldn't be that surprising.]]
* SwissArmyGun: The Achilles tech rifle is essentially three rifle types in one package. Firing it from the hip produces a shotgun-like blast with decently tight grouping, useful for CQB. Aiming down the sights tightens the spread enough for mid-range combat, and charging the shot while aiming produces a single solid beam with pinpoint accuracy that can replace a sniper rifle in a pinch. It doesn't excel in any of these roles but is [[JackOfAllStats a decent multipurpose weapon]] that has applications no matter the situation.
* SymbioticPossession: Despite all his faults, Johnny has enough decency to never take over V's body without their consent, [[spoiler:unless it's to save their life]]. He also tries to work with V, both in finding the solution for their Relic problem and in various sidequests and gigs, offering V advice and his own knowledge on various topics.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: T to Z]]
* TakeThat: At the end of the E3 2018 trailer, the FreezeFrameBonus includes this text in response to the question of whether or not there will be microtransactions in the game:
-->'''Trailer:''' In a single-player role-playing game? Are you nuts?
** In the Next-Gen Update Launch Trailer the line "If there’s one thing I can tell you about this city – you either love it or wanna burn it. No middle ground." seems to be a vicious one to the game's extremely polarizing reception from fans and critics and to the game's hatedom.
* TakeYourTime: Despite the fact that [[spoiler: V is slowly being taken over (unwillingly on both ends) by Johnny Silverhand and only has weeks left to find a solution]] there’s absolutely no time limit. You could spend months wandering around, taking jobs and fulfilling every side mission. The [[spoiler: impending DeathOfPersonality]] won’t come till you advance the story. You'll also have story missions where characters will tell you not to keep them waiting, but you can meet them at their leisure; they'll act the same no matter when you arrive.
* TankGoodness: The Aldecaldo sidequest chain culminates in you helping your nomad friends get their hands on a Militech Basilisk to help them get the edge they need in smuggling, security, and raiding. Technically, it's an armoured transport rather than a true main battle tank, but it's still the [[NormalFishInATinyPond toughest, hardest-hitting thing in the Badlands]], especially once the Aldecaldo techs (several of whom are veterans from Militech tank regiments themselves) get to upgrading it.
* TanksButNoTanks: As mentioned above, the Basilisk isn't actually a tank, as multiple in-game characters are quick to point out. Everyone still calls it a tank regardless because it's more convenient than "armored cargo transport with mounted self-defence weaponry", and because the modifications the Aldecaldos make to it after getting it up and running are mainly about enhancing its combat capabilities at the expense of its transport capacity.
* TarotMotifs: The achievements/trophies for the game and the endings are named after several Major Arcana. Fittingly, starting the game gives The Fool, which is the start of the journey (Right next to your apartment) while finishing the main storyline gives The World. There's also a sidequest to locate and scan graffiti of twenty Major Arcana, hallucinations caused by the presence of Johnny Silverhand with appropriately stylized, edgy artwork. Naturally The Fool is directly beside the entrance of V's apartment.
* TheTaxi: Autonomous Delamain cabs serve this role.
* TeamSwitzerland: Netwatch, being vital to the world by virtue of maintaining the Blackwall and dealing with any Net-wide threats, stays out of the corporate wars and is paid a king's ransom by the corporations for doing so. [[spoiler:They're actually PlayingBothSides in order to stay that way, as Arasaka and Militech would love to take over the Net]].
* TenderTomboyishnessFoulFemininity: Judy is a bit of a tomboy, but she's very sensitive, kind, and has a strong sense of justice. Her much more feminine ex-girlfriend, Maiko, is an opportunistic, snarky and cutthroat businesswoman who cares first and foremost for her own status and high place in the hierarchy.
* TerminatorImpersonator: There's a group of cyborg assassins known as "Exterminators" which are sent by the Arasaka corporation to eliminate dangerous targets. In addition to red GlowingMechanicalEyes, they attack the protagonist on motorcycles, they have long arm blades and one even tries to climb his way onto a car in a similar fashion to the T-1000.
* ThemeNaming:
** The muzzle brake attachments introduced for power weapons in the Version 1.5 update are all named after various monsters or usually unfriendly spirits in various cultural folklores around the world.
** Militech guns are named after famous battles in American history (Omaha, Saratoga, Lexington) or after Greek mythic figures (Ajax, Achilles). The Crusher gets grandfathered in as an exception, as it's a classic from the Tabletop game.
** Arasaka guns tend to be named after Japanese historical figures from the feudal period, ranging from samurai, daimyos, or even the famous swordsmith Masamune.
* ThereIsNoCure: PlayedWith. After a Relic biochip containing the VirtualGhost of Johnny Silverhand ends up permanently lodged in V's head, they are told they only have a few weeks or months to find a way to safely disentangle it from their brain -- otherwise, said brain will be permanently overwritten by Johnny's engram. They first seek out the original inventor of the Relic for a cure, but he confesses to them and the Relic has never been designed to be reversible. Then, in one ending, [[spoiler:the MegaCorp Arasaka (which funded the Relic) promises V to remove it -- but discovers that even without it, V's brain is still too damaged to live, so the best they can do is to turn them into a HumanPopsicle until (and if) an actual cure is found]]. In other endings, [[spoiler:V seeks the help of a powerful AI and storms the Arasaka HQ in hopes that the AI will separate Johnny from them -- which it does, but discovers that the Relic is almost done converting V's body into Johnny's, so V only has two options: let the chip finish the job, or keep the body for a couple more months they have left. V then sets off on a new quest to save themselves, the details depending on which ending it is, AndTheAdventureContinues]].
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Notably averted. V will frequently sit down for drinks or meals with other characters, and the game always gives you the option to consume whatever is in front of you, be it a beer with Panam or River's homemade jambalaya.
* ThisIsUnforgivable: Saburo Arasaka considers his son Yorinobu's attempt to [[spoiler:steal the Relic technology]] to be this. [[spoiler: Too bad Yori long ago considered Saburo's instrumental part in perpetrating what is now terminal-stage capitalist oppression on the world to be far more unforgivable.]]
* ThrowAwayGuns: The Budget Arms Slaught-O-Matic is a dirt cheap piece of crap gun that can't be reloaded, you just throw it away and buy a new one, essentially a poor(er) man's [[Characters/BorderlandsWeaponBrands Tediore]].
* TimeSkip: No matter which Life Path you choose, at the end of the Prologue, there will be a six month time skip montage showing you and Jackie getting integrated with the citizens and lifestyle of Night City which leads directly into the first mission.
* TitledAfterTheSong: Many missions are named after song titles, in particular a lot of the side quests, examples include -- [[Music/DavidBowie Space Oddity]], [[Music/TheSmiths There Is A Light That Never Goes Out]], [[Music/TheDoors Riders On The Storm]], [[Music/RageAgainstTheMachine Killing In The Name]], [[Music/{{Aerosmith}} Dream On]], among others.
* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: [[GadgeteerGenius Judy]] is the tomboy to [[FemmeFatale Evelyn]] and [[LipstickLesbian Maiko]].
* TheTower: The [[TarotMotifs "Tower" graffiti]] can be found in the Arasaka Tower, the subject of two raids that ended with the death of Alt, Johnny, and countless civilians. Johnny also has the tarot art tattooed on his right tricep. The first raid ended with Alt's death, which changed Johnny forever, the second one with Johnny being turned into an engram and uploaded on a biochip, and the potential third one will end with V, Johnny and Rogue or the Aldecaldos making their way through the tower to Mikoshi to save [[spoiler:V's life, with Alt slaughtering pretty much everyone inside]]. All three of these events have a profound impact on the people making up the squad, the Arasaka corporation and Night City as a whole (at least for some time).
* TragicBromance:
** [[spoiler:Between V and Jackie. Jackie's death during the heist has a clear impact on V, to the point where they get noticeably upset and emotional whenever he's mentioned. V can order "his" drink in the Afterlife during the "Path of Glory" ending.]]
** [[spoiler:Between V and Johnny, especially if you've kept their relationship on a good note. Both of them seem very depressed and in mourning over the departed one in whichever epilogue you choose.]]
* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: The cinematic trailer for the game spoilers [[spoiler:the end of Act 1 where Jackie dies during the heist for the Arasaka tech and that Dexter betrays V to save his own skin (and that V wakes up in a junkyard after getting shot).]] However, [[spoiler:in game, T-Bug dies before this scene happens (and doesn't seem like she'd turn on V anyway) and V doesn't properly meet Johnny until days later when they are recovering from nearly dying at their apartment rather than at the junkyard where Dexter dumped them.]]
* TransgenderFetishization: Seen on a street advertisement for the in-universe soft drink [=ChroManticore=] depicting a female model with a very noticable penis bulge, with the slogan "mix it up". The developers stated that the ad is there to show that, by 2077, transgender people became sex symbols in mass culture. The openly transgender character you actually get to interact with, Claire, isn't fetishized or sexualized in this way.
* TranslatorMicrobes: V starts the game with a translator implant that deciphers the most spoken languages in Night City, but requires downloading additional modules in order to understand more exotic languages, such as Haitian Creole. In a case of GameplayAndStoryIntegration, the subtitles will translate for the player. Although the Street Kid backstory disables it for Spanish, presumably because that version of V is fluent.
* UnderestimatingBadassery: In the Corpo V sidequest "War Pigs", [[spoiler:ex-coworker Frank is clearly down-on-his-luck and thinks he can hold V at gunpoint by his lonesome self to offer them to his boss Abernathy. What follows is a pathetically easy fight despite his Iconic tech pistol.]]
* UniversalAmmunition: There are only four types of ammo: pistol, rifle, sniper rifle, and shotgun. All weapons within each category can share ammo. The "rifle" category is the broadest, with [=SMGs=], assault rifles, and [=LMGs=] all sharing ammo. Notably, even the [[MacrossMissileMassacre mini-missile shooting]] smartguns use standard ammo despite theirs being vastly more complex than standard bullets or railgun slugs. The fact, that even weapons from one particular category (e.g. Power pistols) wouldn't have totally interchangeable ammunition doesn't help either.
* UnorthodoxReload: The reloading sequence of Johnny's iconic handgun is essentially two horizontal flipcocks with a magazine change in between, made doubly impressive by the gun lacking the trigger guard one would normally require to even attempt a flipcock in the first place. And then made triply impressive by handguns generally not being able to be flipcocked at all.
* UnusuallyUninterestingSight: There are often rather dramatic scripted events that can occur, drawing no reaction from the locals. As Night City is an UrbanHellscape, this is somewhat of a JustifiedTrope. As one example, during the "M'ap Tann Plenn" quest, V takes a short walk through Pacifica with a local ganger through a busy market. Nearby, a gangoon drives off an N54 News AV with gunfire from an assault rifle, and in the distance and in plain view of everyone, an attack helicopter is ravaging an apartment tower with its machine guns. Both incidents don't even get so much as a glance from the local populace.
* UrbanHellscape: Night City is overflowing with poverty, with at least half of the populace unemployed and/or homeless. The city is also so violent and dangerous that police barely have time to investigate accidents, suicides or non-violent deaths. The ''average'' Homicide Detective is working ''fifty'' homicide cases on a ''daily'' basis. Shootouts and crime scenes are everywhere, and the police are basically another gang, forced to pay deference to the local {{MegaCorp}}s and willing to accept "tribute" from the various gangs around town. The special MAX-TAC division are basically a militarized SWAT unit that gun down dangerous threats with deadly force, and are especially called in when there's a Cyberpsycho on the loose.
* ViceCity: While superficially it looks fairly decent (if crowded), Night City is absolutely one of these. According to the official trailer, it was voted the worst place to live in America due to rampant street violence and more people underneath the poverty line than above it.
* VideoGameCaringPotential:
** Many players actually fully paid their debt to Viktor, despite it being completely optional. Of course, you can't access his unique cyberware without doing so and by midgame it's pocket change in any case.
** Side jobs done for Judy, Kerry, River and Panam can be done for no reward, and they all center around V helping their friends with their problems.
** In one gig, V is tasked with procuring scandium rods for a client. They're currently being guarded by a man named El Gallo, who is on the verge of going cyberpsycho from the stress of being a veteran abandoned by Militech and the derision he gets from his superiors. V can potentially kill Gallo or sneak past him to swipe the rods, but a V with a sufficiently high tech level can explain how to fix an elevator without the rods. This ends the encounter peacefully and potentially saves Gallo's job and sanity.
** In the gig, "Hippocratic Oath", V is charged with rescuing a doctor named Lucy Thackery who sold her services to keep her brother out of the Maelstrom's clutches. They find her treating a wounded member of the Maelstrom and demands V help her save him. [[VideoGameCrueltyPotential V can either let the patient die or shoot him dead]] to get her to hurry it up, or help her treat him and save his life even though there's no additional reward to be gotten out of it.
** [[spoiler:V can show compassion to Barry, their neighbor who became suicidal after witnessing one gruesome murder too many in his line of work.]]
** [[spoiler:During the grave scene in "Chippin' In", V can be kind to Johnny from the get-go, or at least give him a second chance when he asks for it. You can also fulfill his request to go on a date with Rogue and check up on Kerry.]]
** [[spoiler:You can run back and save Takemura in "Search and Destroy", despite Johnny trying to convince you that he's gone, and you can't help him.]]
* VideogameDashing: Double-tapping direction keys allows you to dash away from incoming attacks.
* VideoWills: The Corpo V sidequest "War Pigs" opens with ex-coworker Frank sending a message about how his boss Abernathy (aka the one who got V fired) is purging everyone who's not 100% with her and he's gathering info on her before that happens. He adds that if V got the message, then Abernathy got to him first and he hopes V will finish the job. [[spoiler:He's not actually dead. He just sent the message as bait to lure V.]]
* ViolationOfCommonSense:
** If a quest has to be started at a certain hour of the day, when having arrived too early, V always gets an option to just sit down or lean against something and wait until the appointed time. This is an AntiFrustrationFeature from a gameplay perspective and [[TakeYourTime has no negative consequences]], but from a [[GameplayAndStorySegregation story perspective]], spending up to 23 hours leaning against a random guardrail is just about the most comically wasteful and nonsensical thing to do imaginable, for anyone, but especially for a person [[spoiler: [[YourDaysAreNumbered with only a few weeks left to live]]]].
** In one sidequest V pays for an unexplained BD that only plays on the vendor's personal rig on a whim. Predictably, it's a setup. Johnny compares it to sharing needles.
** To get the most out of ricochet effects for [[PinballProjectile Power Weapons]], you need to develop an intuitive sense of reflection angles so you can fire ricochets at the ground from the hip and let the Ballistic Coprocessor cyberware (or a weapon with an integrated Ricochet Engine if rolling with a Smart Link instead) take aim lock-on from there. It takes far less time to aim, allows you to move faster due to not aiming down sights (and even faster if you get a perk that enabels firing while sprinting). The violation of common sense? You're seemingly recklessly firing at the ground instead of at your target, something that anyone with a mind for gun safety in real life would be pulling their hair out over.
* VillainyFreeVillain: An ExploitedTrope. In the final fight of the "Beat on the Brat" jobs, Razor Hugh is a championship boxer and kind of a jerk, openly bragging about how you won't last a round against him. Just after you receive an offer from your coach to take a dive against him in exchange for a larger payout, a young girl comes up and tells you about how Razor Hugh beat her father nearly to death even after the ref called the fight, and asks you to avenge her father on her behalf. [[spoiler:Should you win the match, [[LittleMissConArtist you can find the girl outside gloating over the phone about her acting skills and how much money she made off the fight]]. A Street Kid V is genuinely impressed, and tells her there's no need to explain and she should make her eddies where she can.]]
* VomitIndiscretionShot: V will throw up multiple times during the story, for different reasons, and since the entire game is in the first person, seeing it can't be avoided. The corpo lifepath even opens with V [[StressVomit throwing up from stress]]. There's also a hack tree ability that makes the enemies keel over, puke their guts out and die.
* WallOfWeapons: V can build an armory in their apartment which sports a variety of guns, blades, grenades and other hardware on the walls. One wall is reserved for iconic weapons received from main story characters and love interests, the other for iconics crafted from the specs you can loot off of certain sidequest bosses. An unfortunate side effect of this distribution is that players who don't specialize in the Tech attribute will always have one of their armory walls decorated with empty gun racks.
* WaveMotionGun: The Militech-manufactured MiniMecha suits that some bosses wear have an inbuilt {{BFG}} that shoots a giant beam of energy at enemies. Royce, the ArcVillain of the heist preparation arc and the game's potential WakeupCallBoss, is the most prominent user, but there are others as well. The "beam of energy" itself is implied to have originally been a plasma cutter or welder, either modded or overclocked into an impromptu PlasmaCannon, due to the presence of the exoskeletons at construction and industrial sites.
* WeirdCurrency: The primary form of currency used in Night City is the European Economic Community's digital currency, known as the eurodollar, or "eddie" for short. Cards containing them, such as [[spoiler:the one V gets from Meredith holding Militech's payment for the Flathead]], can include viruses.
* WhamEpisode:
** The final quest in Act I, "The Heist". [[spoiler: The biochip job slowly deteriorates into chaos when Saburo Arasaka suddenly arrives in the penthouse to confront his son Yorinobu over the theft of the chip, forcing V and Jackie to hide. In a fit of rage, Yorinobu strangles his father to death and then frames the killing as an assassination, which leaves V and Jackie as the perfect scapegoats. The ensuing mayhem results in the deaths of both T-Bug and Jackie, and the quest ultimately ends with [[BoomHeadshot V getting shot in the head by Dex]] in [[HeKnowsTooMuch a desperate attempt to tie up loose ends]]. This mission starts off the primary plot of the game while also ''fully'' cementing that AnyoneCanDie.]]
** The quest "Both Sides Now". It starts with Judy asking you to come to her place right away while clearly not sounding alright. When you arrive, [[spoiler:you find that Evelyn killed herself sometime between when you left her with Judy and now due to everything she went through.]]
* WhamShot: In the conclusion of the E3 2019 trailer, after V is shot, he wakes up in what looks to be a garbage dump and is approached by a man with a silver cybernetic arm. The man in question is a character modeled and voiced by ''Creator/KeanuReeves''. And according to official materials, ''he's the long-thought-to-be-dead rock star Johnny Silverhand.''
-->'''Johnny:''' Wake the fuck up, ''samurai''. We have a city to burn.
** While the scene above isn't in the game, V does wake up in a garbage dump and witnesses another WhamShot, namely that [[spoiler:[=DeShawn=] is forced to get them out of the trash heap by [[TheDragon Takemura]], since V is the sole witness of Saburo Arasaka's murder and the key to bring Yorinobu to justice]].
** A moment in the game itself: During the flashback to Alt's kidnapping, Johnny is stabbed from behind by one of the "drunken groupies" that attacked him. He looks up to see the "groupie" standing over him...with some clearly high-end cyberware very unlike what an almost penniless drunkard would have, and ''very'' like what an Arasaka ninja would have. It's a rather subtle nod to the revelation a few minutes later that Arasaka was behind the kidnapping.
* WhatAPieceOfJunk:
** The Nomad lifepath's starter car, a junky Thorton Galena hatchback with the "Rattler" nomad kit, is more potent than it's portrayed to be. It's introduced in a garage [[TheAllegedCar getting a janky electrical system worked on, and has rust and bullet holes riddling the side]]. Its exhaust pipe also apparently vents in a clearly unmuffled manner out a cut hole in the hood, and it and the attached turbocharger also sticking out through the hood glow red-hot when revving. It also lacks the Crystal Shield display tech seen on all the other Nomad-kit vehicles for sale later in the game, and has plain ol' glass windows. However, it has incredible acceleration, topped only by hypercars and other beefy cars with near-hypercar performance, has a fair bit of ground clearance for off-roading, and can make it into the mid-160s in top speed. It beats out its more regionally common nomad car cousin, the Galena Gecko, in most performance areas. [[spoiler:Though it gets wrecked before the prologue time-skip, an Act 2 Nomad Lifepath-specific quest pops up offering the chance to reclaim the Galena Rattler in working condition.]]
** V's starter car that they receive after completing their lifepath is an Archer Hella sedan, which already has a reputation for being so BoringButPractical that it almost bankrupted the company that made it because once a customer bought one, they'd basically never need another car ever again. V's Archer looks even rougher than the ones driven around by the other denizens of Night City, having apparently being repaired several times with jury-rigs and kludged fixes, including the entire rear bumper being removed and replaced with what appears to be a welded pipe frame. Performance-wise, however, while it is no Quadra or Caliburn, and it ''certainly'' won't win any beauty contests, it is pretty speedy and maneuverable for its size, and is sturdy enough to take more than a few hits before it bursts into flames. While it tends to get out-paced by more high-performing cars later in the game, it's a great starter vehicle and ideal for zipping across the city or just cruising and taking in NC's sights.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: What happened to the iguana V and Jacky acquire in the Nomad prologue? The fact that iguanas can live for up to 25 years makes it unlikely it died of old age during the six-months TimeSkip. It's likely they sold it for some quick cash, but without any actual information about its fate, all we have is conjecture. It's alluded to that the iguana found in [[spoiler:Yorinobu Arasaka's Konpeki suite]] is the same one, as it was pilfered from Arasaka Corporation to begin with, and he may simply have determined it'd show up on the black market (since he has some experience with the criminal underworld). Jackie, however, claims that it couldn't be the same one because it had "more wrinkles."
* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman:
** AIs require licenses to continue operation and will be erased if they can't justify (or afford) their license. Regina resets Skippy without a qualm, even though he had attained true sapience. V generally averts this, showing as much -- often ''more'' -- empathy for artificial beings as organic ones, including Skippy, Delamain, and Delamain's "children".
** Throughout the game, V has multiple opportunities to treat Johnny either as a person or as lines of malicious code they can just ignore (by taking omega blockers). The game has no definitive answer as to what exactly an engram is (a person, a program, or something else entirely), so V (and through extension, the player) can grant or take personhood from Johnny however they see fit.
** It is generally averted with engrams, from what you see [[spoiler:and the way people interact with Saburo Arasaka's]], most people seem to treat engrams similarly to how they would the human they're based on, only occasionally acknowledging that they're not the same. Except for Anders Hellman, one of the scientists involved in the creation of engrams, who constantly refers to them as "data" or "construct".
* WhipItGood: The Monowire cyberware is, as the name implies, a monomolecular wire V can use as a powerful melee weapon that can instantly dismember most human enemies. It charges while not in use, making its damage fall off quickly with every successive strike, so it's mostly geared towards stealthy players looking for an efficient emergency weapon that doesn't take up an inventory slot. [[GameplayAndStorySegregation Strangely]], despite the wire being SharpenedToASingleAtom, V's idle animation shows them holding it taut with their free hand without cutting their own fingers off, though the addition of special pads on V's hands and fingers with the mods implied they're there specifically to prevent accidental finger-lopping.
* WhereAreTheyNowEpilogue: During the ending credits, you will get to listen to voice messages left by the friends you've made along the way, with all of them giving you a short update about how they're doing. The message changes depending on how far you've gotten into their personal quest or on which main ending did you choose. The only exception is [[spoiler:"The Reaper" ending, where all characters will leave a message about how devastated by V's suicide they are, no matter their status before.]]
* WhoForgotTheLights: There are several buildings where lighting is either almost or completely nonexistent, a few sidequests also taking place in these dark buildings. Turning up the gamma is about the only way to see anything in these areas, and it's become a [[https://www.reddit.com/r/cyberpunkgame/comments/px5bqt/you_know_what_cyberpunk_2077_needs_a_flashlight/ common]] [[https://forums.cdprojektred.com/index.php?threads/night-vision-or-a-flashlight.11047127/ question]] why CDPR didn't include a flashlight or some form of night vision optics which led to someone creating a [[https://www.nexusmods.com/cyberpunk2077/mods/2913 flashlight mod]].
* WhyAmITicking: The Detonate Grenade quickhack does ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin -- it forces the target to detonate one of the grenades they're carrying. Moderately useful because you don't know what type of grenade will go off, plus not all enemies carry grenades in the first place, but at least [[TheJoysOfTorturingMooks it never fails to entertain]].
* WideOpenSandbox: Night City is a completely open world that is smaller than ''The Witcher 3''[='=]s Continent but vertical in a way that its predecessor wasn't.
* TheWorfEffect: Invoked when [[spoiler:Judy is demonstrating her fighting reflex doll software. She invites V, an experienced solo, to spar with Tom, a male doll, who promptly thrashes V and tosses them onto Judy's couch.]]
* WretchedHive: Night City is a ''shithole'' and that is putting it mildly. Not only is it full of violent crime, but whole districts are also ruled by gangs, corporations exist above the law, poverty is everywhere, deranged cyborg spree killers stalk the streets, and you personally witness a few suicides happening randomly about you. The police brag about the murder rate going down, but you can find out from a detective that they achieved this by reclassifying the most violent part of Night City as a different jurisdiction. The abundance of technology has done nothing to make the world's problems any better and has actually made many of them worse. No wonder it was voted worst city in America. The "Postcards from Night City" featurette highlights the rapidly increasing number of homeless people, and the crime rates are twice as high as the New United States' average.
* WritersCannotDoMath: Averted. If you listen to the news broadcasts and do the math for NC's murder rate, it does indeed have a murder rate more than five times higher than modern-day Tijuana and more than ten times higher than the worst murder rate in the modern US: St. Louis MO. A single district in NC having 30 murders in one day is not considered remarkable on the news.
* YouDontLookLikeYou:
** Downplayed. The female V design revealed during the E3 2018 demo had pale skin, dark hair with red tips and wore quite a lot of eye make-up. The design used in newer promotional materials has her as an AmbiguouslyBrown redhead with a magenta undercut. Her male counterpart, on the other hand, was kept relatively consistent.
** Johnny Silverhand was portrayed as a blonde who was based on Creator/DavidBowie in the original [[{{TabletopGame/Cyberpunk}} tabletop game]]. Here, he's played by Creator/KeanuReeves, so not only are his looks much different (including [[AdaptationalDyeJob dark hair]]), but his entire design leans more into the "punk rebel" aesthetic much more than his original glam rocker influence.
** While Kerry's 2023 design is relatively faithful to his tabletop depictions, the difference between the concept art from the artbook and actual in-game model for his 2077 design is staggering, to the point where it's difficult to say that it's the same character. The most noticeable differences would be the fact that his concept art has tattoos on his stomach that are completely absent from his game design, his sleeves look wildly different, and his neck cyberware implant has a different look. The artbook design is actually used on some in-game posters.
* YourMom: One gig in Watson has you rescue the coach of a prizefighter who went into self-imposed exile after agreeing to take a dive for the Tyger Claws and then secretly betting on his own win, and the Tyger Claws are none too happy that he skipped town. Being a DefiantCaptive, the coach antagonizes his torturer with zingers comprising of this trope while being interrogated as to where the fighter is.
* {{Zeerust}}: Most of the vehicles have digital gauges, that were considered very cool and futuristic back in the 1980s. Averted with Neokitsch-themed cars, that have much more modern (by Real Life standards) dashboards.
[[/folder]]

* PistolWhipping: This is an optional QuickMelee tactic if you're carrying a firearm and a hostile [=NPC=] is close enough to you to get within melee range. You can strike them with the frame of your firearm to inflict some damage, but it's not as powerful compared to ''[[VideoGame/{{Halo}} Halo's]]'' near-instant kill variant of this trope, and you have to bash them a few times until they're actually dead. It's more of an emergency move during battle if you're not carrying or using a melee weapon or not having arm implants installed in your body. Unfortunately, it's not a viable tactic to use during boss fights as they usually have a lot of health and take way too much weapon-bashing to even try.

* EveryoneIsBi: Well, not ''everyone''. But in addition to Kerry being bisexual [[note]]In lore; in gameplay, he's only available romantically to a V with a masculine voice and body type[[/note]], Panam can be romanced by a female V with a masculine frame and vice versa for River. [[spoiler:Meredith Stout]] is available as a one night stand for any V if you side with her in The Pickup and respond to her texts the right way. Rogue is willing to sleep with Johnny regardless of V's body [[note]]Though it's difficult to say if this is a reflection of her actual identity or more of a IfItsYouItsOkay kind of situation[[/note]], and Johnny himself alludes to [[AnythingThatMoves not really caring about the gender of someone willing to sleep with him]]. V can also be played as bisexual. The only character with an explicitly confirmed orientation that isn't bisexual is Judy, who's a lesbian.

* GunsAkimbo: The weapon of choice for Jackie Welles. V can eventually obtain Jackie's guns, both of them, but can only use one at a time, which makes them the only iconic gun you can wield and display on V's WallOfWeapons simultaneously.

* ShameIfSomethingHappens: How Jackie scares off the Arasaka goons sent after V in the Corpo-Rat beginning. He notes to the goons that they're ''way'' out of water, neck-deep in Mox territory (not to mention inside the middle of what is, for all intents and purposes, the Mox's HQ) and that causing trouble, such as trying to kidnap his friend V, may cause people to start shooting, and that "somebody might die today!" The Arasaka goons wisely back off, saving V from whatever grisly fate they had planned for them.

* SlashFic: In universe example. During the side gig “Psychofan”, you can find a particularly bad Slash Fic, full of StylisticSuck, which ships Johnny Silverhand and Kerry Eurodyne.

** After destroying the Arasaka Tower in 2023, Johnny is mostly remembered to the mainstream publc as a [[BombThrowingAnarchist terrorist]] who killed thousands of civilians, and not as a hero who valiantly fought capitalist tyranny. Additionally, aside from inadvertently killing around a half-million mostly innocent people, the main impact of Johnny's attack was to benefit a different sinister megacorp, Militech. In the end, the only people who actually ''like'' Johnny in 2077 are anarchist conspiracy theorists, dedicated Samurai fans (who likely shared the same political opinions anyways), and the few surviving close associates of Johnny [[spoiler: who knew the true reasoning behind the Arasaka attack]].

* OneSteveLimit: Averted for the name "Elizabeth" and related. One instance is Elizabeth "Lizzie" Borden, the madame for the brothel that was where Lizzie's Bar is now. Her murder at the hands of Tyger Claw gangsters was the ''casus belli'' that led to the formation of the Mox gang before the game story's time frame. The second instance is pop music star Lizzy Wizzy (birth name Elisabeth Wissenfurth), famous for her full-borg cybernetic transformation in the middle of a concert. Third instance is Elizabeth Peralez, wife to Night City Councilman and mayoral candidate Jefferson Peralez. Thankfully, the story spaces the three characters out so that they do not associate, and each have a different context to keep them from getting confused: Elizabeth Borden is a PosthumousCharacter who has no real prescence in the game other than some brief mentions in dialogues and datashards; Lizzy Wizzy and Elizabeth Peralez are physically present, but the former almost exclusively goes by "Lizzie" and is only around for a single side mission and associated phone/text conversations. Elizabeth Peralez is the most involved of the three, being connected to a major sidequest chain, and moves in completely different circles than both Lizzie Borden and Lizzy Wizzy.

* OptionalBoss: The vast majority of bosses are optional, being either part of side missions or [[SkippableBoss avoidable by making certain decisions]] in the main story. Only a grand total of two bosses must be fought with no way around it.

* SuddenDownerEnding: [[spoiler: Dying in "(Don't Fear) the Reaper", one of the more-optimistic endgame routes, and the Reaper ending credits will roll instantly where V's friends and allies will berate them for selfish decision or sobbing over them being killed in action, even though this is a SuicideMission they decide to do alone.]]

* SuddenDownerEnding: [[spoiler: Dying in "(Don't Fear) the Reaper", one of the more-optimistic endgame routes, and the Reaper ending credits will roll instantly where V's friends and allies will berate them for selfish decision or sobbing over them being killed in action, even though this is a SuicideMission they decide to do alone.]]