-> "''Wake the fuck up Samurai. We have a city to burn.''"
-->--Johnny Silverhand's famous quote from the E3 2019 trailer.

Starting from the bottom in Night City isn't easy. But there are plenty of awesome moments in ''VideoGame/Cyberpunk2077'' that you'll witness as V becomes one of the most respected Edge Runners in Night City.

'''Keep in mind: spoilers are unmarked on all Moments pages.'''

[[foldercontrol]]
[[folder: V]]
* V starts at the bottom of Night City's hierarchy no matter what: whether as a Street Kid who failed to make it big in Atlanta, a Nomad whose clan was subsumed and they couldn't stand to be part of the new group, or a Corpo who has been stripped of all their privilege due to their boss' backstabbing and general incompetence. V proceeds to rise from the ashes like a phoenix and establish themselves as the most dangerous, respected Edgerunner in all of Night City.
* The Assault and Crime in Progress missions are an interesting set of activities from a SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration perspective. It implies, sick of the corruption of Night City's police, V works as a VigilanteMan in their spare time. [[AlternateCharacterInterpretation Admittedly, it also allows them to loot their fellow criminal's stashes and gets them paid automatically for the bounties on their heads,]] so it's not like they weren't going to do that one way or the other.
* In the Gig: Guinea Pigs, you track down Joanne Koch for her unethical testing. When you confront her, she'll beg you to allow to at least save the data so those people didn't die in vain. If you do, she'll use it as an opportunity to go screaming for security. If you've already dealt with them, when you grab her from behind V gleefully tells her something terrible has happened to security and now it's going to happen to her.
* In the gig "Gun Music", V stumbles upon a deal being set up between the Aldecaldos and Scavs. At first it looks like the deal can go wrong for the Aldecaldos, with them being outnumbered, surrounded and being monitored by a nearby sniper, and even worse, the Scavs are part of the same group that you and Jackie took down on your very first mission together in-game, and are looking for some payback. Of course, the deal can go south almost immediately but if your V has sunk a ton of points in their Body stat to get it up to 18, you can flat out admit that you killed the Scavs earlier and that you'll gladly do it again if they don't comply. Regardless of whether V could handle them or not, you straight up outbluffed a vicious gang and bragged to their faces how easy it was to dispatch them. Easiest job ever.
* V can be a ManipulativeBastard. Like for the Maelstrom deal, they can contact Meredith Stout to get a huge number of credits, remove the virus inside them, pocket the money, eliminate the Maelstrom gang, and [[TheScapegoat then get Meredith eliminated by her superiors for failure to deliver a scapegoat]].
* V can hunt down over seventeen cyberpsychos, heavily modified cyborgs and power-armor users on a psychotic break and can even manage to subdue them all for the sake of researching cyberpsychosis. Given that an entire tactical unit of the police exists purely to take down cyberpsychos, and that you usually come across cyberpsycho killing grounds littered with corpses (some being hardened mercenaries or armies of gang members), automated security measures, and/or landmines, it makes V an undisputed OneManArmy.
* Upon discovering they're possessed by Johnny Silverhand and going to spend the rest of their short life fighting him for control, V simply stops giving a fuck and repeatedly insults him despite the fact Johnny can very much harm the body he's in. Indeed, in their first encounter, Johnny delivers a NoHoldsBarredBeatdown only to disappear due to V taking some medication that blocks the personality takeover.
* The mission Don't Fear the Reaper is full of this. Once V decided to go and raid Arasaka Headquarters in Night City on his own, they proceed to massacre all the Arasaka soldiers, security guards, and even Adam Smasher without any help, thus cementing V as a true Night City Legend, especially if Johnny doesn't take control of V's body.
--> '''Johnny:''' Time to party like it's 2023.
** The amount of Awesome in this ending when put into perspective. V is on their last legs, with the Relic extremely close to killing them. [[SlidingScaleOfGameplayAndStoryIntegration Their maximum health even gets lower in gameplay]] as they progress through Arasaka Tower. They are also facing Arasaka's forces as well as Adam Smasher all by themselves in this state. Even Night City Legends like Johnny had to go in with substantial backup and could not stick around for long. The Arasaka soldiers and security guards themselves initially have tones of disbelief at one mercenary facing off against them which turns into sheer terror later on.
---> '''Arasaka Soldier:''' ''[[PrecisionFStrike No fuckin' way!]] A single merc!? Alone!?''\\
'''Arasaka Soldier:''' ''Backup! Where is our fucking backup!?''\\
'''Arasaka Soldier:''' ''C-Control!'' '''''[[EverybodysDeadDave I-It's just me!!]]'''''
*** Watching the final episode of ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'' makes this ending just ''that'' much more awesome. When David staged his assault on Arasaka, he was armed with an cybernetic exoskeleton that pushed him to the brink of cyberpsychosis and beyond but also let him tear through NCPD, Arasaka, and even ''Max-Tac'' forces with relative ease, only getting his ass handed to him when Adam Smasher entered the picture. From there, Smasher ''wiped the floor'' with David despite the latter having the Sandevistan and his exoskeleton, establishing Smasher as Arasaka's ''[[TheJuggernaut juggernaut]]'', the unstoppable weapon they deploy when the GodzillaThreshold has been passed and it's time to simply cut their losses and LeaveNoSurvivors. But V? The same V who is slowly dying, almost constantly [[BloodFromTheMouth spitting up blood]] and, by the point that they meet Smasher, has already carved through a majority of Arasaka's elite forces? V ''takes down Smasher.'' '''''Alone.''''' It's hardly a wonder that V's One-Merc raid on Arasaka Tower practically catapulted them into Edgerunner ''legend'' overnight.
*** Speaking of ''Anime/CyberpunkEdgerunners'', it's possible to go into the solo raid on Arasaka HQ with the best Sandevistan implant you can buy, David's jacket, Rebecca's "Guts" shotgun, and Johnny's Malorian Arms 3516, and watch as V channels the spirit of 3 Edgerunners who were screwed hard by Arasaka and Adam Smasher and proceeds to get revenge for all 3 of them by tearing past the best defense Arasaka can throw at V in their HQ, becoming a speed blur that leads bodies that have holes in their heads or entire chunks of their bodies missing behind, robots and mechs that can't keep the merc pinned down for long, let alone kill them, and finishing up by taking on and beating Smasher. And again, this is all while the Relic has V on their last legs. [[LaserGuidedKarma Maybe there is such a thing as justice in Night City after all.]]
*** Update 2.0 upped the ante a bit more: a small number of the new perks reflect David (Edgerunner), Lucy (Live Wire Finisher), and Rebecca (Die! Die! Die!), while also adding ''David's Sandevistan'' as a piece of Tier 5 Iconic cyberware you can either buy or loot if you're high enough level.
* If V manages to win all five original fights of ''Beat on the Brat'', they become a legend in the underground boxing world, having bested Razor Hugh, a heavily-modded, roided-out professional heavyweight boxer who's more metal and synthetic muscle than anything else by this point. It gets even sweeter if you refused to throw the match and stick around to listen to him talk to his manager: not only did his "back to his roots" PR stunt backfire ''beautifully'', after this stunning upset all his sponsors and investors are backing out, and his team is at a loss of what to do next. There's also the heartwarming option of speaking to all your former opponents before and after the match, like good sports.
* Slaughter your opponents in short order and the survivors will often swear and say as much to themselves. Nothing makes you feel more like a badass than a Tyger Claw frantically screaming, ''"Ooh, dame da!"'' (roughly, "Ooh, it's all over!") as they're surrounded by crippled or dead bodies.
* V can be specialized into just about any tree, and eventually become a terrifying threat. Focus on Body? Become a borderline unkillable juggernaut that can pull blast doors open with their bare hands and blow enemies away with fists, shotguns and light/heavy machine guns. Reflexes? Become an incredibly nimble opponent that can dash in mid-air and can be equally deadly with submachine guns/assault rifles or blades, especially so with cyborg arm-blades and implants that can effect bullet-time on command. Like the Technical attribute? Enjoy chroming yourself up with better cyberware stats and being able to go over your cyberware capacity limit, being able to charge up a powerful bolt shot with tech weapons, and faster recharge times on your health items and grenades as well as making your projectile launch system better. Wanna stick with Cool? Become a ghost slipping past your enemies, performing silent takedowns, knifes coming back to you faster after throwing them on top of poisoning enemies (even mechs, robots, drones, and turrets) with them, or being able to have superhuman-like focus while aiming with pistols, Revolvers, and powerful single shot rifles like sniper rifles to take down your enemies from afar. Intelligence seem weak by comparison? Not when you can hack literally everyone and everything in a building from outside, setting up hack queues so you can inflect several things to the enemies you're hacking, having your smart weapons be smarter and more deadly, and even being able to overclock your cyberdeck to make sure you keep hacking. Even scarier, you have enough points to play with to max out three of these attributes and two skill trees. And of course, if you play on PC, certain {{Game Mod}}s allow you to max out everything, turning V into a near-godlike MasterOfAll that would make Morgan Blackhand, Alt Cunningham and Adam Smasher look like lowly Scavs by comparison.
** There's also the Relic skill tree in Phantom Liberty, it allows V to upgrade their arm cyberware weapons to do new destructive tricks, (Mantis Blades have a improved leap attack. A strong punch from the Gorilla Arms can now do even more damage, sending the enemy flying if it ends up killing them, and potentially knock down nearby enemies as well. The Projectile Launch System can be charged up for a 5-shot burst. And the Monowire can upload control-style quickhacks with its strong attack.) improve their Optical Camo so they can get the drop on enemies or get out of combat, and being able to spot enemy weak points and hit them for extra damage.
* '''Phantom Liberty:'''
** V manages to defeat a Militech SpiderTank with President Myers, which is hands down the toughest thing they will ever face in the game up until this point. Notably, the boss is utterly invincible to even a chromed-out V and it requires dropping a building on the machine before it even becomes possible to damage it. It's a nice reminder that the Street versus Military is a difference in kind rather than degrees.
*** The finisher is also pretty badass. V quickly unlatches the cover of the mech's core and either cuts it out (mantis blades), rips it out (gorilla arms), or just leaves it (monowire, PLS, or no cyberarms at all). No matter which one happens, Myers tosses them a grenade to shove into the cavity, which ''finally'' destroys the mech.
** In Reed's Route, V gets to face Kurt Hansen in a unique boss fight. And Kurt proves to be one of ''the'' toughest boss fights in the game, with a [[MoreDakka suped up light-machine gun]], [[SuperSpeed his own Sandevistan with unique visual effects]], and a ''brutal'' second phase where he ''reveals a completely unique move set as he'' '''''dual wields bladed weapons''''', a machete and his knife, where he becomes a ''LightningBruiser'' with his aforementioned Sandevistan. ''And even then, Kurt is left as barely a'' '''''footnote''''' ''in Phantom Liberty's story after V is done with him.'' With V even giving him a scathingly mocking taunt that's either a PreMortemOneLiner or BondOneLiner depending on whether you choose the [[FinishingMove "Finish Him"]] prompt or choose to kill him manually respectively.
---> "[[AlwaysABiggerFish Dogtown alpha hound,]] ''[[AlwaysABiggerFish my ass.]]''"
** Songbird's Route at the climax of "The Killing Moon" has a shared moment with V and Songbird. Still faced with waves of FIA soldiers and their attack helicopter blocking their path to the rocket shuttle, Songbird decides to tap into the Blackwall one more time to even the odds and V, knowing full well that she can't pull it off on her own in her weakened state, decides to link with her to help her handle the load. The result? V can bring the wrath of the Blackwall upon the FIA soldiers and their chopper with a mere wave of their hand, all but frying them with such intensity that their eyes ''glow'' balefully through their helmets as they fall. It's at once awe-inducing and utterly horrifying.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Jackie]]
* In the Corpo opening, Jackie manages to intimidate a gang of Arasaka mercenaries that have come to deliver V to their death. Even though Jackie was disgusted by the wetwork he was involved in and corruption, he proved a true friend.
* In the first mission post-origin story, Jackie can tackle the scavengers' [[{{BFG}} HMG]]-wielding leader and punch him to death.
* Jackie will help you handle the Maelstrom gang no matter how you want, including a suicide mission where you'll trap yourself in the middle of their base in order to impress Meredith Stout.
* Jackie, for all of his HeroWorship, doesn't hesitate to get in Dex's face about their measly 30% cut of the Heist job.
* Jackie has the bravado to tell Claire, the bartender of Afterlife, what his drink will be when he dies.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Johnny Silverhand]]
* While a dark example of it, Johnny being the party responsible for nuking Arasaka's Night City headquarters and bringing an end to the Fourth Corporate War is certainly an example of this. It's why he's known as a terrorist as well as history's greatest Rocker.
** The attack on the Arasaka Building is one awesome moment after another starting with Johnny doing a helicopter machine gun attack on Arasaka's defenses after starting a massive riot (one of the Rocker Boy's abilities) to distract Arasaka forces enough to make the attack feasible. He then proceeds to tear his way through the defenses so he can plant a nuclear bomb. Only then does he reveal he plans on making a download to justify his YourTerroristsAreOurFreedomFighters attack. This ends up with him being ambushed by Adam Smasher and an army of hoods. You then have an OffscreenMomentOfAwesome where Johnny somehow fights them off and escapes. He's only captured by Adam Smasher due to the fact ''he's hanging from a helicopter at the time.'' Johnny Silverhand at the top of his game was an unmitigated badass and the greatest of all Edgerunners.
*** When playing as Johnny, you start out firing a helicopter-mounted heavy machine gun at a rooftop full of enemies. Johnny's HP is ''400'' and it regenerates from near-dead to full ''in less than ten seconds'', Johnny's pistol deals more damage than a sniper rifle (and [[GunTwirling the reload is awesome]]), and ''is even equipped with a flamethrower'' for its quick melee attack so you can basically spam fire damage. V can acquire it later on in the game and use the exact same moves, flame melee included.
** He even insisted on one last concert before his attack to say goodbye to his fans.
* After Alt gets kidnapped by Arasaka agents, Johnny mounts a rescue with Rogue, Santiago, and a friend in the media. What do they need? A distraction that will let them infiltrate Arasaka Tower. How do they do it? A concert at Arasaka's doorstep, where Johnny whips his fans into a frenzy and has them start a riot!
-->'''START! THE! RIOT! ''START! THE! RIOT!'''''
* Johnny's first act upon awakening in the "real world" after a fifty-year cyberspace imprisonment is to ''beat the shit out of you'' despite the fact he doesn't have a body.
* ''Chippin' In'', for all its humor, shows us exactly why Johnny lasted as long as he did. Despite or [[DrunkenMaster because of]] immediately going on a massive bender in V's body, he is able to question several people without letting them onto his true intentions and is able to track down and take out Adam Smasher's second-in-command in only a few hours.
* The final battle with Adam Smasher in the finale is [[AwesomeBosses/VideoGames pretty great]] no matter what, but it's ''most'' awesome in the Temperance ending, where you give Johnny your body and play as him for the last portion of the game. The boss fight becomes an epic, brutal, final DuelToTheDeath between Johnny and Adam, ending with Johnny [[DefeatingTheUndefeatable finally defeating his old nemesis]] and avenging all of Smasher's victims (especially Rogue/Saul) by blowing the sick bastard's brains out. It's ''especially'' [[CatharsisFactor satisfying]] if you finish Smasher off with Johnny's old pistol, and a lot of players bring that pistol along for that express purpose.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Regina Jones]]
* Only becomes apparent as you complete her quest change but she's waging a one-woman war against the horrors of Night City in Watson. She eliminates numerous serial killers, child-molesters, slavers, and worse while attempting to protect the good people from the corrupt system.
* Her attempt to discover a cure for cyberpsychosis confirms that it doesn't exist and is just a way of covering up untreated PTSD, drug abuse, faulty combat modifications, [[ReligionOfEvil Satanic worship]], and other conditions which have a cumulative effect on the brains of already violent individuals. You know, like a lot of Night City's residents. The only difference is cyborgs with full-body mods are treated differently from other violent criminals.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Moxes]]
* The Moxes Gang exists purely to protect sex workers in Night City from abuse, femicide, and the DisposableSexWorker trope. They may be a small gang, but they absolutely refuse to be intimidated or wiped out by the larger gangs.
* Their founder, Lizzie, gave up her life to protect one of her workers from the Tyger Claws (specifically by literally shooting his balls off, and getting killed in retaliation). Her selfless act inspired the others to follow in her footsteps and leave her bar as a safe place for Night City's working girls (and boys).
* The Mox generally try to avoid stirring up shit as Night City's smallest and least powerful major gang. However, they still take the risk of putting out a hit on Jotaro Shobo. They may not be able to defend all of Night City's sex workers, but they maintain some of their old fire. This despite the fact he's a high ranking and powerful member of the Tyger Claws.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Others]]
* The tension-filled and practically Shakespearean spectacle of the scene where Yorinobu Arasaka confronts his father Saburo Arasaka during the Heist and ultimately strangles him to death, which is the moment where ''everything'' goes straight to hell for Jackie and V. The combination of the music, the acting and everything else makes this one of the game's more iconic moments.
* Mitch gets an {{Offscreen|MomentOfAwesome}} one in the "Star" ending, where he singlehandedly pilots the damaged Basilisk and HoldTheLine for the rest of the clan, Panam and V, massacring scores of Militech troops with it. Keep in mind, the Basilisk is meant to be piloted by two people, and Mitch not only did it ''alone'' (as the data overload was slowly frying his brain), but he was back on his feet to repair the Basilisk mere days afterward.
* ''Phantom Liberty'' from previews alone promises to be just as good as the main story. Described as a high-octane spy-thriller, V gets the unenviable job of protecting ''the President of the NUSA'' when her shuttle crash lands in the Pacifica Combat Zone, which is still ripping itself apart. That's to say nothing of Patch 2.0 which will drop alongside the expansion. Arguably everything about the trailer is awesome by itself, but the end of the trailer sees V apparently taking the "spy-thriller" theme to James freaking Bond levels. Don't believe us? [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBrkG3aeWCc&ab_channel=Cyberpunk2077 See the trailer for yourself.]]
* The ''Phantom Liberty'' mainquest gives you a front row seat to a live performance by Lizzy Wizzy, one of Night City's most famous singers. The entire quest stops dead in its tracks to let you enjoy a ''spectacular'' holographic stage show, accompanied by a fully realized song that'll give you goosebumps if you're into trance music. CDPR were apparently so proud of this scene that they let you relive it afterwards as a bootleg braindance in V's apartment whenever you like, something no other scripted scene in the game can lay claim to.
* One for Padre, both for his respectable restraint but also his ''absolute'' ruthlessness: during the Streetkid opening, a Sixth Street gangoon threatens V and Padre in the Padre's car. V can tell the gangoon to fuck off in no uncertain terms, which Padre appreciates (apparently disappointed by how many Heywood up-and-comers freeze when a gun comes into play). The gangoon leaves, not that Padre takes Sixth Street's insult lying down:
-->'''V:''' He pulled iron on you, Padre.\\
'''Padre:''' (''*[[TranquilFury calmly but with obvious anger]]*'') He did. ''And he will pay for doing so''.
** If you dig around in Heywood some time in Act 2, you can find the same goon tied to a chair in a back alley, extremely dead, surrounded by the equally brutalized corpses of his fellow Sixth Street thugs. The evidence strewn around suggests that Padre had the goon and his posse abducted and beaten to death in a filthy alleyway--a shard on the goon's corpse indicates that Padre had tried to get him to apologize and walk away, but when the goon threatened V, that was when Padre decided he was going to have to MakeAnExampleOfThem. A brutal and bloody reminder of why one does not mess with the Padre.
[[/folder]]
----
-->''"Huh. You just discovered what it takes to become a legend. Grab your iron. Let's mobilize."''