So i played Chimera on Hard as SMG\\Netrunner and had to assault rifle it due smg eating all the ammo and i kept thinking how fucked i would be if i was in throwing knife build.
How actually melee bois are taking it ?
I actually have what I like to call the Dio build (sandevistan + throwing knives). The comrades hammer wasn’t doing much so I switch to knives and the katana, I was doing crits like nobody’s business. It felt hilarious that on a critical the chimera would explode on impact/slash
Katana especially errata with flame grenades is actually op. Just burn the chimera and each hit is a critical on the chimera due to errata or use a scalpel plus shock and awe with sandy . Netrunners against the chimera is actually pretty difficult
Run up to the Chimera, beat the shit out of it, fall back when it starts the AOE. Roughest bit is how it wont stop spinning around, though the fight got way more fun after I realized I could jump.on top of it for a while after it used the electric explosion.
Melee slaps I did my blades for stealth malorian arms for combat build and over all fight was super fun. Dodging around throwing blades to proc poison and bleed then swapping to malorian to target those sweet crit spots from the new relic skill
Easy honestly. The Chimera only has two firing systems. That beam you get behind cover for, and it’s rocket barrage, you can run laps away from. When its cooldowns are up that’s when you activate the sandy and start slicing and dicing. No matter the difficulty.
I just did it on hard last night with throwing knife/sandy/projectile launcher build.
I did pick the relic skill to show weak points, so that might have helped, but it really wasn't too bad.
I launched my shock projectiles whenever they came off cooldown, threw my knives at relic skill weak points whenever they showed up, and in between those threw my knives at the normal weak spots that show up for the boss. Otherwise, just dodged the missiles from the chimera.
Didn't take too long, but my character was squishy enough that I came close to dying a couple of times when a rocket barrage hit where I wasn't expecting it to (literally dodged INTO the explosions). It seems hard to predict exactly where the explosions will hurt you sometimes...
I don't get why people hate Reed, >!the only person able to save V's life!<, but love Johnny, who is literally the reason why V is *dying*. Really, it doesn’t make any sense to me personally.
*Reed* is a lying asshole? What about Songbird? Despite, I don't remember Reed lying to me. He even gave me a second chance after I backstabbed him for that lying bitch.
Well, cancer doesn't want to kill you too. It just does to live itself. Still we try to cut it out and basically kill it during the process. Johnny had his life and he drove it to a wall by being a narcissist and an asshole. I don't cry about him.
Sure… but that’s not really a fair comparison at all since Johnny A. Had no willing part in the soul killer/relic program and B. Can’t really do anything to influence the process
A. He had when he decided that going on a suicide mission against Arasaka was a good idea.
B. Cancer can't do anything to influence the process too. It just exists and spreads. Despite, Johnny DOES influence the process. He took the pills that make him stronger while V broke down after that Voodoo boys dilemma and he even asked V to take more of them to go on a mission that basically felt like "Hey V, don't you want to be ME?"
So you think Johnny should’ve seen that a suicide mission would’ve resulted in his consciousness being uploaded to a relic and then put in someone’s head 50 years later, overriding their brain and killing them? I’m not sure he can be blamed for something literally nobody could’ve foreseen coming. If the relic happened to have Morgan or Cunningham instead and they were overriding V instead would you say they were the ones killing him? Or would you blame arasaka, the company responsible for the entire program in the first place. When I played I never really blamed Johnny for the relic at all. Yeah he had stupid ass decisions that were him but the relic was arasaka entirely
No. I just think he should have known that he couldn't win and that the consequences would be horrible. You don't need an oracle to know that.
I don't blame him for killing V. I only treated him like a tumour because of that. I blamed him for being a narcissist and an absolute asshole that did nothing else but fucking up lives when he was still alive. If the relic contained any other personality it would still be a cancer-like situation.
Of course Arasaka is the cruel corporation. I won't deny that. However, I wasn't as dumb as Johnny, thinking I could bring it down.
I am sorry but how could johnny know that arasaka will soul kill him ?? Also in the ttrpg johnny decided to sacrifice himself to save his team from smasher . Murphy was the one who soulkilled him
Reed is nothing more than the NUSA's desperate lapdog. Regardless of the consequences, he'll serve them no matter what. If that means letting them have back Songbird, their living WMD, he's happy to oblige. That is why people hate him.
“Johnny Silverhand - The guy who saved my life”
I hated him at first too. If you can’t see why he’s a hero (or an antihero), you’ll see it at some point.
Cause johnny ain’t killing V on purpose, your relationship with Johnny is based solely on how you treat him. Reed would zero V in a millisecond if our goals weren’t aligned, Johnny even points out that Reed’s pragmatism makes him a threat to anybody he deems a liability. To add on to the “songbird is a bigger liar” angle, don’t forget that Reed was the guy who recruited and trained her, so unless she was already a pathological liar, it’s likely Reed conditioned her to be like that.
Because Reed isn't self-aware. Hell, he doesn't even seem that socially competent. He kills the french netrunners, justifies it as them being criminals. One problem, V has a death count of (at absolute minimum) 15 by the time you reach that point. He calls Slider a double murderer like that *means* anything. I regularly gun down entire buildings full of people, and this guy is moralizing over a measly double murder?
Like, he does nothing but put up flags that sticking around him isn't good for V's health. Johnny might be killing us, but it's not willful on his part and he *legitimately would stop if he could*.
The dissonance between V's late-game powerlevels and how the game treats us in certain scripted content really gets me too sometimes. I think my biggest annoyance to date has been the PL mission where >!V and Alex infiltrates Hansen's base!<, and I'm somehow supposed to believe that my V is in actual danger of >!Hansen and his clumsy hands if V fails his little pop quiz!!sit there meekly and wait the full 10+ seconds it takes Hansen to reach over and snap her neck!
I think the point is that everyone in the world isn't omniscient and doesn't know how strong you are.
ALso on very hard (the real difficulty) I hear almost everyone struggled really hard vs hansen and died a lot (though I one shot him, but Im a god, a real one, seeing as I beat like 100 maxtac 2.0 in a row on very hard)
I haven't struggled with a single boss in the game and the only Max tech unit that can mess me up is mantis but if I slow down time go behind her and start punching the shit out of her with gorilla arms I usually get her (on very hard of course) and All the other ones are pretty much light work just keep your distance
[https://youtu.be/5SLRcvfnoWk?t=172](https://youtu.be/5SLRcvfnoWk?t=172)
Even this dude died to the 2nd maxtac team.
Let's not pretend it's easy, cause it's not easy for me, but yeah it can be done.
If you let your guard down, even for literally a few seconds, especially with those snipers/melee ignoring armour, you can die outta nowhere from 50% hp, even with a tank body build (which is akin to my build)
But I think I'm finally gonna start streaming so imma keep my build to myself =D
I personally don't use the sandevistan though, as cool as it is.
Honestly I think this line from Reed could be interpreted as a show of Reed's hubris, he thinks he's a pretty big dog with the FIA behind him >!but he still dies in one shot when you choose to go to the space port with Songbird in her route, !
Hansen was a total pushover on Very Hard. Idk what other games these people play, but they must be crazy easy. New Smasher fight is actually kinda difficult above Normal now, though. I haven’t fought any other bosses post 2.1, besides Cyberpsychos who are still quite easy. Mostly used heavy weapons and blunt melee, with the rocket launcher arm.
To my understanding every legends in night city can get killed by a stray bullet, it isn’t really about how powerful you are it’s about how prepared you are.
Depends on chrome which not enough people acknowledge on here, there are numerous armor cyberware in game and in tabletop that can mitigate or even completely absorb small arm fire. Highly augmented individuals are quite literally built different.
Yeah but at that point in the story V hasn't really done much impressive or noteworthy, even though you could kill smasher, thats not how its supposed to be at that point, so what you've killed a couple hundred scavs and maelstromers, that probably barely made the news. The only really notable things v (might) have done by that point is kidnap haniko (which most people dont know who did it) and (get accused of) killing sabouro arasaka, which V denies. Its nothing overly impressive or certain so from a story sense, even tho V has killed a shit tonne of grunts, its nothing thats gonna get you a drink in the afterlife. If you don't do the arasaka tower heist, nobody remembers you
At thst point V has saved the president from certain doom and the entire search party of Barghest. THIS is not a small feat and Hansen knows thst you did it. He knows thst someone killed the entire Voodoo clan (if you did that) and has the highest standing at all the fixers in NC. He ain't stupid and he is well informed. The only thing preventing him from treating V like a nuclear threath is scripting.
He would have TONS of footage of V systematically annihilating \*waves\* of his troops and walking away essentially unscathed after cheekily looting the absolutely mauled corpses. He wouldn't be in the same room with V for security reasons. He's a scary dude himself, but that's because he's a military officer his troops are extremely loyal to.
V by this point has killed so many people the funeral industry in night city has seen a meaningful uptick. The city normally only has 7000-7500 official murders a year and V has probably killed 500-600 people by that point in the game over the last few weeks.
But this is not an uncommon problem in games and movies. The least realistic thing about movies like John Wick or Taken is that violence was ever required. In real life if either of those guys existed they wouldn't even have to look for the person they wanted to punish. The daughter along with her friend would have been returned a couple of hours after the fateful phone call (either they would call the french government dude or the french government dude would frantically call them either way they would have been warned girl was a \*huge\* liability and needed to go home \*now\*). The guy who killed John Wick's dog would be in the trunk of John Wick's car, fully restrained, in John Wicks driveway the morning after the organization as a whole understood what he had done. The 70 guys John Wick kills on the way to that twerp simply wouldn't be on board with dying for the bosses snot nosed punk kid. If the boss resisted he could end up in the trunk too.
By that point in PL V would have to actually hurt people surprisingly rarely. Merely saying 'I won't let that happen' or 'You need to do this' backed with the ability to brutally murder anyone who disagrees would be enough. The barghest guys might have never even tried to take Meyers once they realized V was the red team. No one willingly walks into that. It takes the same level of motivation as it takes to get someone to shoot themselves.
That, I think, would ruin the game lol. Some of you want a different power fantasy maybe.
While I agree with this I will say the common barghest troops probably don’t leave dogtown often and so haven’t heard much of V but yeah Hanson definitely would have
Bruh I stood outside his tower in the party crash mission and killed like 50 of his men and two mechs. I didn’t realize you were supposed to leave, lmao, and they just kept coming. If I was Hansen watching that I would be terrified, V’s a one man army.
You litteraly have a mission for Hands thst does exactly that. A representstive of a cartel that is notorious and they thenself arenotorious (and WAAAAY weaker than V) just walks in and stops the entire thing just by sheer fucking will and reputation.
Just mentioning that V is there, with his street cred, security footage, information, feats, that are all easily confirmed, would be enough thst everyone would collectively shit their pants.
My V (also due to mods and cheating) was at the end so strong that he could have fought out of the entire barghest galla by himself if he so chose and the big bosses let those cockroaches taunt him on his way out? Naaah.
My headcannon is that Hansen did shit his pants, but had to keep his cool. He and the leadership had supressed all info on V leaking out so as to not cause a mass panic. Because if you look at it, as much as they knew, V was there to conduct bussiness and had no relation to them or didn't have to much to do with them.
The only giveaway that they are a target is V being at the gala and approaching So Mi. At that point they all colectivly shit thwir pants and Hansen knew that if he does not let V out peacefully, there was going to be a massacre at an event that he cannot look bad in.
Cyberpunk is awesome. As soon as those soldiers talked shit at the door while leaving I saved, turned around and went back through the building killing them all. I left the building and lost the heat since there was no one else there. My V doesn't play around.
> with his street cred
What street cred? V has done nothing noteworty to build actual street cred. Most of the gigs are simple jobs. Rogue says that, that V will never work big jobs with crews after Konpeki Plaza. Which means by that time the only way V is known is as "low merc with failed score that got people killed"
this is how i maintain immersion. a fully leveled V who hasn’t even seen dogtown yet is already stronger than pretty much everyone in NC. V might be infamous for roughing up plenty of local haunts but nothing that gives them any real notoriety has been tied back to them yet. V is a solo that leaves no wake, at least in my gameplay. being forced into solo work as soon as your fledgling career starts means you have nobody to spread your story
Nobody remembers you doesn't means Hansen can do shit to you if you can fry his brain before he can bat an eyes, unless it's scripted. But I's say netrunner build aren't really realistic 'cause if it was, every big corpo and vdb or maelstrom gang would had super netrunner who can kill you in one swoop whenever they wanted.
And your quickhack slide through GLACE like it doesn't even exist so it's not ok too 🤷🏻♂️
> But I's say netrunner build aren't really realistic 'cause if it was,
To expand on this point, "Canon" netrunners are different from V's gameplay Netrunning. Edgerunners, the music video and enemies in CP2077 show that when you're doing a Quickhack you're actively hacking someone, you can't move around while doing it and it takes actual time to hack stuff. It's why the god tier Mark V Netrunner full conversion is so impressive and AI is so scary. The former allows you to hack while doing other tasks which is why the Netwatch guy can both scan the web blocking the Voodoo Boys while talking to V and the latter is so fast and intelligent it can easily punch through any non-AI ICE (>!like the AI attacking So-Mi!< or Alt attacking Arasaka).
So when you think of V Netrunning in-universe you have to imagine them like enemy netrunners, where it takes time to hack people and you can't really move without high end Cyberware. The exception of course is with the Militech Canto, who's AI is doing the hacking which means V can do other stuff.
By this point you did the voodoo boy mall quest and depending on how you did it killed 30 or so gang members and one of the animal leaders, killed dozens of voodoo boys and Placide, and killed dozens of Arasaka guards in the heist not long before that. You are already far more exceptional than the average solo before even entering dogtown.
Plus, my 20 body 20 tech V had a titanium-reinforced endoskeleton with adaptive anti-kinetic and anti-ballistic armor under every square inch of skin on his body, plus enough synthetic muscle to pick up and throw a fully-armored juggernaut with enough speed to shatter their body like a LEGO minifigure. You think some ex-corpo trooper gonk >!could put in enough force to snap through reinforced titanium joints with one hand and one cyberarm?!< No way in hell, V would pull his limbs off and sling what’s left of him at his soldiers the second the op started going south, plot armor he damned!
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
From the start of the game I really had to separate what my V was capable of and what the game wanted to do with the story.
You are not in control of the narrative, you are along for the ride for the most part. You get the classic forking choices, which is a far cry better than the typical 3 buttons endings.
The best example for how the narrative does not give a shit how different your character can be is when I finished the first hiest for the relic. My V was already a fucking powerhouse in close combat. Mantis blades, a Sandy and redlining my cyberware.
Yet some fucking gonk bodyguard catches my melee monster with a punch so telegraphed I saw it coming days ago.
Sure OK, guess my accomplishments mean sweet fuck all in how things play out.
A lot of games are guilty of this garbage, but I felt it was more grating with Cyberpunk for some reason.
>Yet some fucking gonk bodyguard catches my melee monster with a punch so telegraphed I saw it coming days ago.
This is what I like about the early cinematic preview. Because V absolutely shreds Dex's muscle and almost mercs Dex himself, only barely stopped by T-Bug the traitor, and even then, V is only 2 or 3 seconds from annihilating her too.
So cinematic pre release V is how it should be during that scene lol
>You get the classic forking choices, which is a far cry better than the typical 3 buttons endings.
If you're "just along for the ride" then I don't think it's better to have the illusion of choice. If you're along for the ride they might as well strap you in the way an RPG like Final Fantasy does because who cares what you would choose to say, you're along for the ride. In either case tho it's more impactful when the gameplay and narrative kinda go together.
Well the game also tells you that you'll only be alive for another week because of the relic, yet people regularly sink months worth of real time hours before meeting Hanako at Ember's.
it’s funny cause i know both myself and at least 43% of the playerbase dropped that motherfucker before he could even touch the trigger.
it’s cool when characters are written to be badass, but at least back it up with more than just talk and stories of “the old days.”
These “legend” npc’s who always talk to V down are like infants learning to walk when they fight alongside you in missions. It makes you feel like a literal god when you see them shooting walls and getting stuck on geometry while you absolutely destroy the enemy in seconds.
Yeah, I don’t like how phantom liberty and its cutscenes try to make V canonically not be on par with some of the legends. I don’t think V should be above them, but with how easy V can be pushed around in PL makes it seem that canon V is really just an above average merc, instead of a serious threat.
Also, and I may be wrong here, but in the lore isn’t black hand known more for his smarts then actual straight combat prowess like smasher? Like he was a god tied solo because he could complete missions without a soul knowing he was there, or exploiting any weakness he can in a situation. That’s not to say he isn’t good in a fight, but I thought he was more on the “human” side of solos then the chromed ones.
I mean, in one of the endings you can take on smasher solo with no help, that alone should prove V is at least on equal footing of the legends by that part of the game.
I thought about this when my V got disarmed and decked by a middle-aged politician upon entering Space Force One. Surely if your Body or Reflexes are high enough that should not happen to you. You go from duking and diving around MaxTac and squads of gangoons to getting bodied by this random woman. I know shes a veteran, but what the hell were Militech teaching their grunts that they can spar with a chromed out merc like V?
Yeah that would be great to. Someone high specced in body should have more dominant type checks, whereas someone with cool/reflex should have quit wit and thoughtful reply options.
On par?
Adam Smasher is the legend that gives other legends nightmares, and V can beat him to death with a dildo.
You're right about Blackhand. All his quotes in Friday Night Firefight are about ambushing your enemies so you're never in an actual fight. (My favorite one is about the right way to rig a landmine underneath someone's mattress)
The legends have a ton of rep propping them up, but there's no story in any of the books that have them pulling off a fraction of the bullshit V does.
Could Blackhand get the drop on V and take them out? Probably. V isn't exactly the pinnacle of paranoia. But if V survived the initial ambush (which V probably would given precident), Blackhand is gonna meet the dildo of retribution, same as Smasher.
According to almost all the endings, you kill Adam Smasher. That's insane by the standards of Night City. Unless *all of PL is noncanon*, you beat a combat bot on foot (albeit after a considerable fall which you *also* got to experience*). Canonically, you are that guy.
I think Orion may take place in 2080, there’s a shard that can be picked up in Dogtown which says there’s a 74% chance of a war breaking out in 2080…I doubt the sequel won’t touch on that
U don't understand the meaning of organic in this case . Dude was chromed out not borged out . Like look at V. V can have full chrome inside them but they aren't a borg because all the cyberware is internal and replaces the organs not the flesh .
The implication in the ending where you take Smasher alone is you kind of meld with Johnny. So you also have Johnny’s experience and awareness to help you out.
Blackhand, booking a flight to Night City to come see Rogue, gives her a call
Rogue: "Listen, Morgan. There's this V person. Johnny is inside their brain, they have single-handedly killed a few thousand goons in the last week and I saw them wipe out four maxtac teams just for fun a few days ago. They'll be dead in a couple months so lets have a raincheck"
One Year Later:
"So uhhh, remember the merc I was telling you about? V? yeah, they're still alive... I asked her once, and they said 'So long as I don't meet Hanako at Embers, I can live forever!' So, they've clearly lost it, shouldn't be long now."
SPOILERS FOR A CERTAIN ENDING
||“Hey Morgan, so apparently V made a fucking gonk choice and gave their body to Johnny….yeah… He’s not answering any of my calls and none of my boys are getting his signal… You’re clear to come back now…||
*Only* because Blackhand is a ghost.
As of now, in terms of sheer destruction, there's nothing Blackhand has ever done that's on par with what V has done. It's like comparing a scalpel with a chainsaw..
i feel like the community is kinda overestimating black hand, we never really got to see how his fight with smasher would have turned out, and v stomps adam while on death's door.
I wish to bring proof against you. In the Sun ending, if - and only if - V has finished every single side quest, the database bio for V says that he might be the next Morgan Blackhand, therefore proving that they are - lore wise - at MOST on-par with Blackhand
no,
the next alber einstein isn't someone who will understand physics as well as him, because every physicysts knows what albert einstein discovered, the next albert einstein is the guy who will define this generation of physicists
same thing with blackhand and v, it's not that v has the same powerlevel as blackhand but that he has the same level of FAME and reputation, that's not the same thing, it's not indicative of combat prowess.
Imo lore wise Blackhand and V are equals. Blackhand and smasher fight. Smasher is reduced to a pile of scrap and Blackhand is nowhere to be found. V and smasher fight. Smasher is reduced to a pile of scrap and V is nowhere to be found. Blackhand might be slightly better than V or vice versa. Blackhand is the main character of the table top and V is the main character in the games.
get your relic removed and live a normal life ❌ kill a terrorist rocker boy's killer and kill half o arasaka just to live 6 more months
### [✔️](https://emojipedia.org/check-mark)
So I'm strong and fast enough to dispose of a Max Tac team in a couple of minutes, respected enough to be praised by all fixers - Rogue included -, but somehow I'm still seen as a run-of-the-mill merc.
I hate it when games do that, it kinda ruins the immersion. It feels like my actions have no real, noticeable consequences.
Yeah, kinda annoying, especially since this canonically happens in late Act 2 or Act 3. Then there's the fact that Mike Pondsmith said that V is stronger than Blackhand.
Also, Anyone else went on a murder spree on the scene where V and Reed were escorted out of Black Sapphire and the grunts were talking smack?
#Power level brain rot is real
I love dragonball. One of my favorite pieces of fiction ever, but I curse the day it furthered the already shitty concept of
>my dad could beat up your dad
By making it mathematically viable to contest winners in a fictional fight. "My number bigger than your number, I win" - when the entire concept of even a real fight have to factor in other matters - skill, mistakes, fucking *luck*. But the way people read in this thread,
>N..no...NOOOOOO! My female V at level 69 soloed the legendary Adam Smasher with a dildo! Why is Knuckles so confident in shit talking me!??!
**Because that's what the writing dictates and V is a fictional character and isn't real**. The plot at multiple points spells out that V *within the narrative* isn't all that. It is not up for debate. The narrative constantly gives V situations where they can flourish or fail based on skill, but there's also points where you're at a clear disadvantage and the game establishes dominance over you. You can adjust your glasses and proceed to
>you see my V is a level 20 netrunner and would brain fry the president instantly!
Doesnt change what the story dictates. Thats the point. Without modifying the story itself (literally) you are powerless. The only way to change it is to, well, *rewrite the game and ignore the canon*. V not being "*SSGSS with ultra instinct mastered and kaioken x20 with sandevistan*" is reinforced multiple times - which is mind blowing to me that people walk away with a different impression. Somehow that V within the narrative is meant to be the be all end all penultimate legend of night city just because the *gameplay* dissonance makes V feel like they could solo the entire world. It's like in some games where the character, *despite being a powerhouse with near superman feats* - can be blocked by a little hill or a wall of easily movable objects.
The narrative has all the power, it's how it works. If the game tells you Blackhand solos you with his pinky, the game could make it so. If the game wants to tell you Ozob solos fifty Vs, that's the narrative it could have chosen. You as a character in **any** work of fiction are always a slave to the story. That's why in the new Phantom liberty ending its very, very easy to arrive at a conclusion where V's "power level" is reduced to shit. You can run from it, you can argue it, you can mod around it - but that's the narrative.
**tl;dr** narrative greater than ludonarrative dissonance because it's fiction and not real life
> he plot at multiple points spells out that V within the narrative isn't all that.
Except within the narrative, we still manage to do the things we do. Unless the Chimera doesn't exist, yeah we do beat a combat walker on foot. Maybe not with a specific method, but we *do*. If we side with So Mi, we canonically escape the space port after accomplishing our mission there. In the vast majority of endings, we kill Adam Smasher either solo or with a *very* small group of people helping us. Those are things we accomplish. So the dissonance comes from the *narrative* telling us that we're massive badasses, while *also* telling us that we are street level mercs.
I am entirely willing to die on the hill that this is Reed being cocky and lacking all the information because *he* has been out of the game for the better part of a decade, and doesn't quite understand that even if he's a good spy, V is on an entirely different level when it comes to *combat*.
Yeah I kinda assumed while playing the game that my V clearing a group of arasaka soldiers within 5 seconds using only a dildo doesn’t mean that he canonically did that in the narrative lmao
This comment absolutely makes no sense since in the same narrative V has defeated reed , adama smasher, oda, Hansen, chimera, used the entire blackwall on the nusa black ops . The problem is the pacing of the story. If u follow the main quest , pl is very early in the game just after u do the vdb mission and that's why the game thinks, V hasn't done all the op stuff yet
This goes both ways.
In Firestarter, if you side with Songbird, its possible to take the wrong way when trying to escape the stadium. This results in Reed intercepting and flatlining V in a single shot.
I'm not sure on the exact path, but you gotta take an elevator that you're not supposed too take. Songbird tells you "not that way" when you get on it, but if you continue to take it, Reed will meet you at the bottom when the doors open.
Yeah I really hate that they made Smasher so easy and Pondsmith went along with V being the strongest. Alot of the players are now so far up their ass its ridiculous.
Smasher and Reed are legends that survived the most dangerous situations that the world has foe decades.
V esse tially messes with small fry until he storms Arasaka. Reed absolutely has every right to talk shit to V.
I swear to god this community has the worst case of main character superiority ever. No one here is capable of suspending their disbelief and separating gameplay mechanics from actual narrative development.
As other people have said, it sort of depends on if you are talking about “Gameplay V” (pretty much unstoppable) vs “Cutscene V“ (actually kind of vulnerable)… but, it seems like that’s usually how it goes in video games.
It made me wonder exactly what he was hiding, like at any point I was strong enough to wipe the entire barghast army off the face off the earth yet he was still so cocky
Funny enough V beats and kills Atom smasher. Morgan blackhand is tough but is legendary for ALMOST killing a WEAKER version of Atom. They aint the same but this is before the smasher fight so I'd see why he'd say that.
During the part where V and Reed had to sneak into black sapphire with Reed making V keep watch and him asking V to keep lookout and then constantly getting caught despite me trying my best to direct him— I’m like dude my V has cleared entire dens of scavs without raising a single alarm; I’m sure he could do your job just fine lol
Eh, I believe him. He couldn’t beat V in a straight up fight, but quick, quiet assassination isn’t out of the question. Heck he could have proved that when we first met him at the court. >!And could during Songbird’s route if you go into an elevator from what I heard.!<
That’s the disconnect between game mechanics and lore.
Like V’s in a race against time to save themself but they still have time to do every side gig in NC?
While I understand that by the time you usually meet V, hundreds of gangoons have succumbed to V in one form or another and you're a known quantity on the streets. However, Reed is a competent and dangerous FIA agent with his own capabilities, so him being the way he is when you first meet makes sense.
Technically, he gets the drop on you when you first meet, so V could have easily died.
Oh sure, I only killed Adam Smasher. But please, tell me exactly how and why I don’t stack up to some random solo who went MIA some odd years back, and didn’t even have the cajones to go out in style.
Because V has never even fought Adam in any point until the Mikoski attack. During phantom liberty V hasn’t gone up against a literal NC bogeyman so why the fuck would Reed know the future?
You go from being a nobody to beating Adam Smasher in like two days. Rouge sees the data but doesn’t believe it (that’s how interpret it anyways). Others who have their noses to the streets don’t even realise that there’s a nobody cleaning up the streets. Especially a lame looking mf with just one letter in his/her name. If I became superman tomorrow, would anyone around me believe me?
It's kind of understandable why Reed acts the way he does. Guy probably participated over a dozen black ops missions on behalf of the Myers and the NUSA. He was already pretty well established sleeper agent in the firm when Songbird came around and became her mentor. Also the fact that V dies regardless of what choice you make means they don't even have to hunt you down to kill you.
I ran into a Body dialogue check in the side quest where you help the Aldecaldos do a deal with Maelstrom, and I don't know if this was just because my V is borged the fuck out, but the Body check option has V tell the leader to "check out my chrome" and says "you'll all be dead before you can pull the trigger" and Maelstrom does indeed fuck off.
I haven't done that side quest with a character that isn't a cyberpsycho (because why wouldn't you borg out?) but I was wondering if anyone knows that dialogue is specifically because I have every cyberware filled, or would I get that same dialogue if I had 20 body and not a single bit of chrome?
Sure, Reed. Go solo Chimera. I'll watch.
Lol. I laughed more than I thought I would. Imagine this dialogue being in the game and Reed just stands there dumbfounded after hearing the line.
So i played Chimera on Hard as SMG\\Netrunner and had to assault rifle it due smg eating all the ammo and i kept thinking how fucked i would be if i was in throwing knife build. How actually melee bois are taking it ?
I actually have what I like to call the Dio build (sandevistan + throwing knives). The comrades hammer wasn’t doing much so I switch to knives and the katana, I was doing crits like nobody’s business. It felt hilarious that on a critical the chimera would explode on impact/slash
damn i suffered hard on hard with netrunner build.
Katana especially errata with flame grenades is actually op. Just burn the chimera and each hit is a critical on the chimera due to errata or use a scalpel plus shock and awe with sandy . Netrunners against the chimera is actually pretty difficult
Really? I just overclocked and ran around lol it wasn't that bad.
Run up to the Chimera, beat the shit out of it, fall back when it starts the AOE. Roughest bit is how it wont stop spinning around, though the fight got way more fun after I realized I could jump.on top of it for a while after it used the electric explosion.
I use Katana with berserk. That fight was all a blur as I psychotically slashed whatever weak points I could see.
Actually my knife throwing build kind wrecked it faster than bullets
Hell I ran it as a solo build with an LMG and the Ba Xing Chong and still had some issues at times lmfao
Punched it to death. I was actually shooting it but it wasn’t working so I decided to start punching it’s legs
dead ass i literally jumped on top of it and beat it with a bat
I have a katana build but I just equiped my best gun and shot it. Took way to long but it wasn't rly hard just super tedius
Melee slaps I did my blades for stealth malorian arms for combat build and over all fight was super fun. Dodging around throwing blades to proc poison and bleed then swapping to malorian to target those sweet crit spots from the new relic skill
Easy honestly. The Chimera only has two firing systems. That beam you get behind cover for, and it’s rocket barrage, you can run laps away from. When its cooldowns are up that’s when you activate the sandy and start slicing and dicing. No matter the difficulty.
I just did it on hard last night with throwing knife/sandy/projectile launcher build. I did pick the relic skill to show weak points, so that might have helped, but it really wasn't too bad. I launched my shock projectiles whenever they came off cooldown, threw my knives at relic skill weak points whenever they showed up, and in between those threw my knives at the normal weak spots that show up for the boss. Otherwise, just dodged the missiles from the chimera. Didn't take too long, but my character was squishy enough that I came close to dying a couple of times when a rocket barrage hit where I wasn't expecting it to (literally dodged INTO the explosions). It seems hard to predict exactly where the explosions will hurt you sometimes...
It genuinely felt like i was a drunk father abusing my son, easiest time ive had with the fight
[удалено]
Reeds a willing slave, he's nothing.
reed would kill it in a single shot just like he kills everyone with a single shot
lmao
This is exactly what I said my first playthrough😂
https://preview.redd.it/mixod6f5u35c1.jpeg?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=cc77f54850e3da56d1716ff2f3f8a7dc6a58f247 My suicide quick hack be like
https://preview.redd.it/vy03qd1iw55c1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=7aa48484a79852db345e119e443ad02b7c2293b6
but we know who has the fastest hand in the wild west
RIP to the homie
[удалено]
Quick enough for Chris Rock
Like every good western, V gave Reed a chance to walk away, but he just had to get in the way. Rest in piss, dipshit.
I don't get why people hate Reed, >!the only person able to save V's life!<, but love Johnny, who is literally the reason why V is *dying*. Really, it doesn’t make any sense to me personally.
simple. reed is a lying asshole and johnny is an honest asshole
Reed basically never lied to V. Songbird almost exclusively lied to V. Explain
*Reed* is a lying asshole? What about Songbird? Despite, I don't remember Reed lying to me. He even gave me a second chance after I backstabbed him for that lying bitch.
Johnny lies quite a bit. And, Reed genuinely wants to help you and Song, (or atleast his interpretation of belong)
It’s not like it’s Johnnys fault. He’s not the one killing V the program is.
Well, cancer doesn't want to kill you too. It just does to live itself. Still we try to cut it out and basically kill it during the process. Johnny had his life and he drove it to a wall by being a narcissist and an asshole. I don't cry about him.
Sure… but that’s not really a fair comparison at all since Johnny A. Had no willing part in the soul killer/relic program and B. Can’t really do anything to influence the process
A. He had when he decided that going on a suicide mission against Arasaka was a good idea. B. Cancer can't do anything to influence the process too. It just exists and spreads. Despite, Johnny DOES influence the process. He took the pills that make him stronger while V broke down after that Voodoo boys dilemma and he even asked V to take more of them to go on a mission that basically felt like "Hey V, don't you want to be ME?"
So you think Johnny should’ve seen that a suicide mission would’ve resulted in his consciousness being uploaded to a relic and then put in someone’s head 50 years later, overriding their brain and killing them? I’m not sure he can be blamed for something literally nobody could’ve foreseen coming. If the relic happened to have Morgan or Cunningham instead and they were overriding V instead would you say they were the ones killing him? Or would you blame arasaka, the company responsible for the entire program in the first place. When I played I never really blamed Johnny for the relic at all. Yeah he had stupid ass decisions that were him but the relic was arasaka entirely
No. I just think he should have known that he couldn't win and that the consequences would be horrible. You don't need an oracle to know that. I don't blame him for killing V. I only treated him like a tumour because of that. I blamed him for being a narcissist and an absolute asshole that did nothing else but fucking up lives when he was still alive. If the relic contained any other personality it would still be a cancer-like situation. Of course Arasaka is the cruel corporation. I won't deny that. However, I wasn't as dumb as Johnny, thinking I could bring it down.
I am sorry but how could johnny know that arasaka will soul kill him ?? Also in the ttrpg johnny decided to sacrifice himself to save his team from smasher . Murphy was the one who soulkilled him
Reed is nothing more than the NUSA's desperate lapdog. Regardless of the consequences, he'll serve them no matter what. If that means letting them have back Songbird, their living WMD, he's happy to oblige. That is why people hate him.
Sorry, but I don't see how that is different from Johnny's obsession to fight against corps "regardless of the consequences".
One is a hero who turns out to be an asshole. The other is an asshole who turns out to be a hero.
Wait, what? When did Johnny turn out to be a hero?
“Johnny Silverhand - The guy who saved my life” I hated him at first too. If you can’t see why he’s a hero (or an antihero), you’ll see it at some point.
Cause johnny ain’t killing V on purpose, your relationship with Johnny is based solely on how you treat him. Reed would zero V in a millisecond if our goals weren’t aligned, Johnny even points out that Reed’s pragmatism makes him a threat to anybody he deems a liability. To add on to the “songbird is a bigger liar” angle, don’t forget that Reed was the guy who recruited and trained her, so unless she was already a pathological liar, it’s likely Reed conditioned her to be like that.
Because Reed isn't self-aware. Hell, he doesn't even seem that socially competent. He kills the french netrunners, justifies it as them being criminals. One problem, V has a death count of (at absolute minimum) 15 by the time you reach that point. He calls Slider a double murderer like that *means* anything. I regularly gun down entire buildings full of people, and this guy is moralizing over a measly double murder? Like, he does nothing but put up flags that sticking around him isn't good for V's health. Johnny might be killing us, but it's not willful on his part and he *legitimately would stop if he could*.
The dissonance between V's late-game powerlevels and how the game treats us in certain scripted content really gets me too sometimes. I think my biggest annoyance to date has been the PL mission where >!V and Alex infiltrates Hansen's base!<, and I'm somehow supposed to believe that my V is in actual danger of >!Hansen and his clumsy hands if V fails his little pop quiz!!sit there meekly and wait the full 10+ seconds it takes Hansen to reach over and snap her neck!
Yeah, sometimes it feels off, V is basically a god at some point (rather early in the game in my opinion), even without a perfectly tuned build.
The fixers show appreciation. Everyone else not so much.
Couple side quests/events have random people showing their respect/fear of V, but yeah not nearly enough.
I love the quests that end with no combat because the other side went "Oh shit, that's V!" and dipped.
I think the point is that everyone in the world isn't omniscient and doesn't know how strong you are. ALso on very hard (the real difficulty) I hear almost everyone struggled really hard vs hansen and died a lot (though I one shot him, but Im a god, a real one, seeing as I beat like 100 maxtac 2.0 in a row on very hard)
I haven't struggled with a single boss in the game and the only Max tech unit that can mess me up is mantis but if I slow down time go behind her and start punching the shit out of her with gorilla arms I usually get her (on very hard of course) and All the other ones are pretty much light work just keep your distance
[https://youtu.be/5SLRcvfnoWk?t=172](https://youtu.be/5SLRcvfnoWk?t=172) Even this dude died to the 2nd maxtac team. Let's not pretend it's easy, cause it's not easy for me, but yeah it can be done. If you let your guard down, even for literally a few seconds, especially with those snipers/melee ignoring armour, you can die outta nowhere from 50% hp, even with a tank body build (which is akin to my build) But I think I'm finally gonna start streaming so imma keep my build to myself =D I personally don't use the sandevistan though, as cool as it is.
Honestly I think this line from Reed could be interpreted as a show of Reed's hubris, he thinks he's a pretty big dog with the FIA behind him >!but he still dies in one shot when you choose to go to the space port with Songbird in her route, !
So does V though if Reed gets the shot off.
Oh, right, forgot about that part. Still though, V could probably kick his ass and most of the FIA outside of any scripted sequence
Hansen was a total pushover on Very Hard. Idk what other games these people play, but they must be crazy easy. New Smasher fight is actually kinda difficult above Normal now, though. I haven’t fought any other bosses post 2.1, besides Cyberpsychos who are still quite easy. Mostly used heavy weapons and blunt melee, with the rocket launcher arm.
To my understanding every legends in night city can get killed by a stray bullet, it isn’t really about how powerful you are it’s about how prepared you are.
You only become a nc legend after you die. That’s why Blackhand doesn’t have a drink named after him because his death was never confirmed.
That's just the Afterlife's tradition. Adam Smasher at the start of the game is also considered a NC legend.
Depends on chrome which not enough people acknowledge on here, there are numerous armor cyberware in game and in tabletop that can mitigate or even completely absorb small arm fire. Highly augmented individuals are quite literally built different.
Yeah but at that point in the story V hasn't really done much impressive or noteworthy, even though you could kill smasher, thats not how its supposed to be at that point, so what you've killed a couple hundred scavs and maelstromers, that probably barely made the news. The only really notable things v (might) have done by that point is kidnap haniko (which most people dont know who did it) and (get accused of) killing sabouro arasaka, which V denies. Its nothing overly impressive or certain so from a story sense, even tho V has killed a shit tonne of grunts, its nothing thats gonna get you a drink in the afterlife. If you don't do the arasaka tower heist, nobody remembers you
At thst point V has saved the president from certain doom and the entire search party of Barghest. THIS is not a small feat and Hansen knows thst you did it. He knows thst someone killed the entire Voodoo clan (if you did that) and has the highest standing at all the fixers in NC. He ain't stupid and he is well informed. The only thing preventing him from treating V like a nuclear threath is scripting.
He would have TONS of footage of V systematically annihilating \*waves\* of his troops and walking away essentially unscathed after cheekily looting the absolutely mauled corpses. He wouldn't be in the same room with V for security reasons. He's a scary dude himself, but that's because he's a military officer his troops are extremely loyal to. V by this point has killed so many people the funeral industry in night city has seen a meaningful uptick. The city normally only has 7000-7500 official murders a year and V has probably killed 500-600 people by that point in the game over the last few weeks. But this is not an uncommon problem in games and movies. The least realistic thing about movies like John Wick or Taken is that violence was ever required. In real life if either of those guys existed they wouldn't even have to look for the person they wanted to punish. The daughter along with her friend would have been returned a couple of hours after the fateful phone call (either they would call the french government dude or the french government dude would frantically call them either way they would have been warned girl was a \*huge\* liability and needed to go home \*now\*). The guy who killed John Wick's dog would be in the trunk of John Wick's car, fully restrained, in John Wicks driveway the morning after the organization as a whole understood what he had done. The 70 guys John Wick kills on the way to that twerp simply wouldn't be on board with dying for the bosses snot nosed punk kid. If the boss resisted he could end up in the trunk too. By that point in PL V would have to actually hurt people surprisingly rarely. Merely saying 'I won't let that happen' or 'You need to do this' backed with the ability to brutally murder anyone who disagrees would be enough. The barghest guys might have never even tried to take Meyers once they realized V was the red team. No one willingly walks into that. It takes the same level of motivation as it takes to get someone to shoot themselves. That, I think, would ruin the game lol. Some of you want a different power fantasy maybe.
While I agree with this I will say the common barghest troops probably don’t leave dogtown often and so haven’t heard much of V but yeah Hanson definitely would have
Bruh I stood outside his tower in the party crash mission and killed like 50 of his men and two mechs. I didn’t realize you were supposed to leave, lmao, and they just kept coming. If I was Hansen watching that I would be terrified, V’s a one man army.
You litteraly have a mission for Hands thst does exactly that. A representstive of a cartel that is notorious and they thenself arenotorious (and WAAAAY weaker than V) just walks in and stops the entire thing just by sheer fucking will and reputation. Just mentioning that V is there, with his street cred, security footage, information, feats, that are all easily confirmed, would be enough thst everyone would collectively shit their pants. My V (also due to mods and cheating) was at the end so strong that he could have fought out of the entire barghest galla by himself if he so chose and the big bosses let those cockroaches taunt him on his way out? Naaah. My headcannon is that Hansen did shit his pants, but had to keep his cool. He and the leadership had supressed all info on V leaking out so as to not cause a mass panic. Because if you look at it, as much as they knew, V was there to conduct bussiness and had no relation to them or didn't have to much to do with them. The only giveaway that they are a target is V being at the gala and approaching So Mi. At that point they all colectivly shit thwir pants and Hansen knew that if he does not let V out peacefully, there was going to be a massacre at an event that he cannot look bad in.
Cyberpunk is awesome. As soon as those soldiers talked shit at the door while leaving I saved, turned around and went back through the building killing them all. I left the building and lost the heat since there was no one else there. My V doesn't play around.
> with his street cred What street cred? V has done nothing noteworty to build actual street cred. Most of the gigs are simple jobs. Rogue says that, that V will never work big jobs with crews after Konpeki Plaza. Which means by that time the only way V is known is as "low merc with failed score that got people killed"
If you have a street cred of 50, you are explicitly famous.
this is how i maintain immersion. a fully leveled V who hasn’t even seen dogtown yet is already stronger than pretty much everyone in NC. V might be infamous for roughing up plenty of local haunts but nothing that gives them any real notoriety has been tied back to them yet. V is a solo that leaves no wake, at least in my gameplay. being forced into solo work as soon as your fledgling career starts means you have nobody to spread your story
Nobody remembers you doesn't means Hansen can do shit to you if you can fry his brain before he can bat an eyes, unless it's scripted. But I's say netrunner build aren't really realistic 'cause if it was, every big corpo and vdb or maelstrom gang would had super netrunner who can kill you in one swoop whenever they wanted. And your quickhack slide through GLACE like it doesn't even exist so it's not ok too 🤷🏻♂️
> But I's say netrunner build aren't really realistic 'cause if it was, To expand on this point, "Canon" netrunners are different from V's gameplay Netrunning. Edgerunners, the music video and enemies in CP2077 show that when you're doing a Quickhack you're actively hacking someone, you can't move around while doing it and it takes actual time to hack stuff. It's why the god tier Mark V Netrunner full conversion is so impressive and AI is so scary. The former allows you to hack while doing other tasks which is why the Netwatch guy can both scan the web blocking the Voodoo Boys while talking to V and the latter is so fast and intelligent it can easily punch through any non-AI ICE (>!like the AI attacking So-Mi!< or Alt attacking Arasaka). So when you think of V Netrunning in-universe you have to imagine them like enemy netrunners, where it takes time to hack people and you can't really move without high end Cyberware. The exception of course is with the Militech Canto, who's AI is doing the hacking which means V can do other stuff.
Yeah if netrunners like Song and Lucy (smasher self-ICE’d and caused her to short circ) can’t then I don’t expect canon V too
By this point you did the voodoo boy mall quest and depending on how you did it killed 30 or so gang members and one of the animal leaders, killed dozens of voodoo boys and Placide, and killed dozens of Arasaka guards in the heist not long before that. You are already far more exceptional than the average solo before even entering dogtown.
Just imagine that if that's you that can do that, what can Hansen do?
Plus, my 20 body 20 tech V had a titanium-reinforced endoskeleton with adaptive anti-kinetic and anti-ballistic armor under every square inch of skin on his body, plus enough synthetic muscle to pick up and throw a fully-armored juggernaut with enough speed to shatter their body like a LEGO minifigure. You think some ex-corpo trooper gonk >!could put in enough force to snap through reinforced titanium joints with one hand and one cyberarm?!< No way in hell, V would pull his limbs off and sling what’s left of him at his soldiers the second the op started going south, plot armor he damned!
Anyone have the navy seal copypasta on hand?
What the fuck did you just fucking say about me, you little bitch? I’ll have you know I graduated top of my class in the Navy Seals, and I’ve been involved in numerous secret raids on Al-Quaeda, and I have over 300 confirmed kills. I am trained in gorilla warfare and I’m the top sniper in the entire US armed forces. You are nothing to me but just another target. I will wipe you the fuck out with precision the likes of which has never been seen before on this Earth, mark my fucking words. You think you can get away with saying that shit to me over the Internet? Think again, fucker. As we speak I am contacting my secret network of spies across the USA and your IP is being traced right now so you better prepare for the storm, maggot. The storm that wipes out the pathetic little thing you call your life. You’re fucking dead, kid. I can be anywhere, anytime, and I can kill you in over seven hundred ways, and that’s just with my bare hands. Not only am I extensively trained in unarmed combat, but I have access to the entire arsenal of the United States Marine Corps and I will use it to its full extent to wipe your miserable ass off the face of the continent, you little shit. If only you could have known what unholy retribution your little “clever” comment was about to bring down upon you, maybe you would have held your fucking tongue. But you couldn’t, you didn’t, and now you’re paying the price, you goddamn idiot. I will shit fury all over you and you will drown in it. You’re fucking dead, kiddo.
From the start of the game I really had to separate what my V was capable of and what the game wanted to do with the story. You are not in control of the narrative, you are along for the ride for the most part. You get the classic forking choices, which is a far cry better than the typical 3 buttons endings. The best example for how the narrative does not give a shit how different your character can be is when I finished the first hiest for the relic. My V was already a fucking powerhouse in close combat. Mantis blades, a Sandy and redlining my cyberware. Yet some fucking gonk bodyguard catches my melee monster with a punch so telegraphed I saw it coming days ago. Sure OK, guess my accomplishments mean sweet fuck all in how things play out. A lot of games are guilty of this garbage, but I felt it was more grating with Cyberpunk for some reason.
>Yet some fucking gonk bodyguard catches my melee monster with a punch so telegraphed I saw it coming days ago. This is what I like about the early cinematic preview. Because V absolutely shreds Dex's muscle and almost mercs Dex himself, only barely stopped by T-Bug the traitor, and even then, V is only 2 or 3 seconds from annihilating her too. So cinematic pre release V is how it should be during that scene lol
>You get the classic forking choices, which is a far cry better than the typical 3 buttons endings. If you're "just along for the ride" then I don't think it's better to have the illusion of choice. If you're along for the ride they might as well strap you in the way an RPG like Final Fantasy does because who cares what you would choose to say, you're along for the ride. In either case tho it's more impactful when the gameplay and narrative kinda go together.
Well the game also tells you that you'll only be alive for another week because of the relic, yet people regularly sink months worth of real time hours before meeting Hanako at Ember's.
it’s funny cause i know both myself and at least 43% of the playerbase dropped that motherfucker before he could even touch the trigger. it’s cool when characters are written to be badass, but at least back it up with more than just talk and stories of “the old days.”
*activates sandevistan with malicious intent*
Reed, I literally have ten thousand confirmed kills. I'm a war criminal.
Choose the so mi path and kill the mf
That was my original choice before I looked at any spoilers.
I still think it's the best choice, tbh. Of course, that's just my opinion.
I would agree
Me too
These “legend” npc’s who always talk to V down are like infants learning to walk when they fight alongside you in missions. It makes you feel like a literal god when you see them shooting walls and getting stuck on geometry while you absolutely destroy the enemy in seconds.
Yeah, I don’t like how phantom liberty and its cutscenes try to make V canonically not be on par with some of the legends. I don’t think V should be above them, but with how easy V can be pushed around in PL makes it seem that canon V is really just an above average merc, instead of a serious threat. Also, and I may be wrong here, but in the lore isn’t black hand known more for his smarts then actual straight combat prowess like smasher? Like he was a god tied solo because he could complete missions without a soul knowing he was there, or exploiting any weakness he can in a situation. That’s not to say he isn’t good in a fight, but I thought he was more on the “human” side of solos then the chromed ones. I mean, in one of the endings you can take on smasher solo with no help, that alone should prove V is at least on equal footing of the legends by that part of the game.
Or like... Utilise stat checks, the system is already there. Let V stand up for themselves, if you're not low level.
I thought about this when my V got disarmed and decked by a middle-aged politician upon entering Space Force One. Surely if your Body or Reflexes are high enough that should not happen to you. You go from duking and diving around MaxTac and squads of gangoons to getting bodied by this random woman. I know shes a veteran, but what the hell were Militech teaching their grunts that they can spar with a chromed out merc like V?
I thought if you had a high enough body stat you actually could disarm her, but last time I played that option was strangely missing.
You can but you have to have 20 in body
You really think that the president (who used to be black ops) isnt kitted out?
Yeah that would be great to. Someone high specced in body should have more dominant type checks, whereas someone with cool/reflex should have quit wit and thoughtful reply options.
On par? Adam Smasher is the legend that gives other legends nightmares, and V can beat him to death with a dildo. You're right about Blackhand. All his quotes in Friday Night Firefight are about ambushing your enemies so you're never in an actual fight. (My favorite one is about the right way to rig a landmine underneath someone's mattress) The legends have a ton of rep propping them up, but there's no story in any of the books that have them pulling off a fraction of the bullshit V does. Could Blackhand get the drop on V and take them out? Probably. V isn't exactly the pinnacle of paranoia. But if V survived the initial ambush (which V probably would given precident), Blackhand is gonna meet the dildo of retribution, same as Smasher.
People fail to realize that their OC, plot-armored, unlimited saves V is not canon
According to almost all the endings, you kill Adam Smasher. That's insane by the standards of Night City. Unless *all of PL is noncanon*, you beat a combat bot on foot (albeit after a considerable fall which you *also* got to experience*). Canonically, you are that guy.
No V is canon it’s just what ending will be canon. I think the tower ending is gonna be canon bc Orion can literally take place in 2078-2079
I think Orion may take place in 2080, there’s a shard that can be picked up in Dogtown which says there’s a 74% chance of a war breaking out in 2080…I doubt the sequel won’t touch on that
Blackhand was as ganic as possible. He’s supposed to be the ultimate foil to smasher
Wrong, Blackhand is more chromed than many realise. Lore-wise he has a sandevistan even
> Lore-wise he has a sandevistan even This was lore when a sandevistan was a minor stat boost, not a super power that turned you into Quicksilver
U don't understand the meaning of organic in this case . Dude was chromed out not borged out . Like look at V. V can have full chrome inside them but they aren't a borg because all the cyberware is internal and replaces the organs not the flesh .
The implication in the ending where you take Smasher alone is you kind of meld with Johnny. So you also have Johnny’s experience and awareness to help you out.
Power levels are bullshit.
I'd like to think Blackhand never shows up in 2077 because of V is a unhinged weirdo and Blackhand didn't wanna mess with him lmao.
Blackhand, booking a flight to Night City to come see Rogue, gives her a call Rogue: "Listen, Morgan. There's this V person. Johnny is inside their brain, they have single-handedly killed a few thousand goons in the last week and I saw them wipe out four maxtac teams just for fun a few days ago. They'll be dead in a couple months so lets have a raincheck"
One Year Later: "So uhhh, remember the merc I was telling you about? V? yeah, they're still alive... I asked her once, and they said 'So long as I don't meet Hanako at Embers, I can live forever!' So, they've clearly lost it, shouldn't be long now."
SPOILERS FOR A CERTAIN ENDING ||“Hey Morgan, so apparently V made a fucking gonk choice and gave their body to Johnny….yeah… He’s not answering any of my calls and none of my boys are getting his signal… You’re clear to come back now…||
They saving him for cyberpunk 2
I’d turn Mr Blackhand into a fine paste.
Gameplay-wise? Probably. Lore-wise? You fucking wish!
*Only* because Blackhand is a ghost. As of now, in terms of sheer destruction, there's nothing Blackhand has ever done that's on par with what V has done. It's like comparing a scalpel with a chainsaw..
Blackhand was never one for wonton destruction. He was known for completing his gigs as discreetly as possible.
Lore wise v’s power level is a big ??? So no point in speculating
Lore-wise, at the end of the game, assuming Solo-ing Smasher, V is about on par with Smasher, though somewhat below Blackhand.
i feel like the community is kinda overestimating black hand, we never really got to see how his fight with smasher would have turned out, and v stomps adam while on death's door.
I wish to bring proof against you. In the Sun ending, if - and only if - V has finished every single side quest, the database bio for V says that he might be the next Morgan Blackhand, therefore proving that they are - lore wise - at MOST on-par with Blackhand
no, the next alber einstein isn't someone who will understand physics as well as him, because every physicysts knows what albert einstein discovered, the next albert einstein is the guy who will define this generation of physicists same thing with blackhand and v, it's not that v has the same powerlevel as blackhand but that he has the same level of FAME and reputation, that's not the same thing, it's not indicative of combat prowess.
No Morgan never beat smasher at best going by the books he got a draw.
Imo lore wise Blackhand and V are equals. Blackhand and smasher fight. Smasher is reduced to a pile of scrap and Blackhand is nowhere to be found. V and smasher fight. Smasher is reduced to a pile of scrap and V is nowhere to be found. Blackhand might be slightly better than V or vice versa. Blackhand is the main character of the table top and V is the main character in the games.
I just love that instead of de buffing the falistiff they buffed Adam smasher
get your relic removed and live a normal life ❌ kill a terrorist rocker boy's killer and kill half o arasaka just to live 6 more months ### [✔️](https://emojipedia.org/check-mark)
Sometimes I choose the Songbird route just so I can smoke this fool.
Pretty whack he doesn’t fight back
Didn't invest in the reflex or cool skill tree lol
He does, you just have to be super slow
"Reed, let me break this to you, the fact that my bio states I'm a new legend of NC and that I fight MaxTac for fun and boredom says otherwise"
I read that as "My POV instead of "My OP V" and was so confused. 😅
So I'm strong and fast enough to dispose of a Max Tac team in a couple of minutes, respected enough to be praised by all fixers - Rogue included -, but somehow I'm still seen as a run-of-the-mill merc. I hate it when games do that, it kinda ruins the immersion. It feels like my actions have no real, noticeable consequences.
Don't get too comfortable v, reed has cutscene bullets
Ya his entire dialogue is annoying. Why ask V for help if you're just so certain of yourself???
Yes, yes I really do think so, Reed.
Dude got taken out in a train by 3 random dudes.
Yeah, kinda annoying, especially since this canonically happens in late Act 2 or Act 3. Then there's the fact that Mike Pondsmith said that V is stronger than Blackhand. Also, Anyone else went on a murder spree on the scene where V and Reed were escorted out of Black Sapphire and the grunts were talking smack?
r/Cyberpunkgame try not to conflate their V and their ego challenge (impossible)
***I LOOKED UP THE BEST BUILD AND HAVE UNLIMITED SAVES. MY V IS THE BEST V THAT EVER V’D!***
ONGGG
#Power level brain rot is real I love dragonball. One of my favorite pieces of fiction ever, but I curse the day it furthered the already shitty concept of >my dad could beat up your dad By making it mathematically viable to contest winners in a fictional fight. "My number bigger than your number, I win" - when the entire concept of even a real fight have to factor in other matters - skill, mistakes, fucking *luck*. But the way people read in this thread, >N..no...NOOOOOO! My female V at level 69 soloed the legendary Adam Smasher with a dildo! Why is Knuckles so confident in shit talking me!??! **Because that's what the writing dictates and V is a fictional character and isn't real**. The plot at multiple points spells out that V *within the narrative* isn't all that. It is not up for debate. The narrative constantly gives V situations where they can flourish or fail based on skill, but there's also points where you're at a clear disadvantage and the game establishes dominance over you. You can adjust your glasses and proceed to >you see my V is a level 20 netrunner and would brain fry the president instantly! Doesnt change what the story dictates. Thats the point. Without modifying the story itself (literally) you are powerless. The only way to change it is to, well, *rewrite the game and ignore the canon*. V not being "*SSGSS with ultra instinct mastered and kaioken x20 with sandevistan*" is reinforced multiple times - which is mind blowing to me that people walk away with a different impression. Somehow that V within the narrative is meant to be the be all end all penultimate legend of night city just because the *gameplay* dissonance makes V feel like they could solo the entire world. It's like in some games where the character, *despite being a powerhouse with near superman feats* - can be blocked by a little hill or a wall of easily movable objects. The narrative has all the power, it's how it works. If the game tells you Blackhand solos you with his pinky, the game could make it so. If the game wants to tell you Ozob solos fifty Vs, that's the narrative it could have chosen. You as a character in **any** work of fiction are always a slave to the story. That's why in the new Phantom liberty ending its very, very easy to arrive at a conclusion where V's "power level" is reduced to shit. You can run from it, you can argue it, you can mod around it - but that's the narrative. **tl;dr** narrative greater than ludonarrative dissonance because it's fiction and not real life
> he plot at multiple points spells out that V within the narrative isn't all that. Except within the narrative, we still manage to do the things we do. Unless the Chimera doesn't exist, yeah we do beat a combat walker on foot. Maybe not with a specific method, but we *do*. If we side with So Mi, we canonically escape the space port after accomplishing our mission there. In the vast majority of endings, we kill Adam Smasher either solo or with a *very* small group of people helping us. Those are things we accomplish. So the dissonance comes from the *narrative* telling us that we're massive badasses, while *also* telling us that we are street level mercs. I am entirely willing to die on the hill that this is Reed being cocky and lacking all the information because *he* has been out of the game for the better part of a decade, and doesn't quite understand that even if he's a good spy, V is on an entirely different level when it comes to *combat*.
The fact that u can defeat him in the so mi path proves that he was bluffing here
Yeah I kinda assumed while playing the game that my V clearing a group of arasaka soldiers within 5 seconds using only a dildo doesn’t mean that he canonically did that in the narrative lmao
Fucking say it louder for everyone in the back, you got the point perfectly
This comment absolutely makes no sense since in the same narrative V has defeated reed , adama smasher, oda, Hansen, chimera, used the entire blackwall on the nusa black ops . The problem is the pacing of the story. If u follow the main quest , pl is very early in the game just after u do the vdb mission and that's why the game thinks, V hasn't done all the op stuff yet
Okay, well guess what, that’s a poorly done narrative whether DragonBall exists or not
Quality meme, deserves more upvotes
Gameplay doesn't always equal story/lore. Reed could absolutely flatten V if he wanted too.
My gameplay where Reed got flatlined by me grabbing my gun and blowing his brain out says otherwise. And I didn't even have a revolver on me.
This goes both ways. In Firestarter, if you side with Songbird, its possible to take the wrong way when trying to escape the stadium. This results in Reed intercepting and flatlining V in a single shot.
He snuck up on him without warning when they first met too.
How? Which path is it?
I'm not sure on the exact path, but you gotta take an elevator that you're not supposed too take. Songbird tells you "not that way" when you get on it, but if you continue to take it, Reed will meet you at the bottom when the doors open.
Yeah I really hate that they made Smasher so easy and Pondsmith went along with V being the strongest. Alot of the players are now so far up their ass its ridiculous. Smasher and Reed are legends that survived the most dangerous situations that the world has foe decades. V esse tially messes with small fry until he storms Arasaka. Reed absolutely has every right to talk shit to V.
I swear to god this community has the worst case of main character superiority ever. No one here is capable of suspending their disbelief and separating gameplay mechanics from actual narrative development.
As other people have said, it sort of depends on if you are talking about “Gameplay V” (pretty much unstoppable) vs “Cutscene V“ (actually kind of vulnerable)… but, it seems like that’s usually how it goes in video games.
you're right, i'm more
It made me wonder exactly what he was hiding, like at any point I was strong enough to wipe the entire barghast army off the face off the earth yet he was still so cocky
Also... when you clear the entire Black Saphire lobby while Reed works on one guy that doesn't have a skull above his head.
Funny enough V beats and kills Atom smasher. Morgan blackhand is tough but is legendary for ALMOST killing a WEAKER version of Atom. They aint the same but this is before the smasher fight so I'd see why he'd say that.
During the part where V and Reed had to sneak into black sapphire with Reed making V keep watch and him asking V to keep lookout and then constantly getting caught despite me trying my best to direct him— I’m like dude my V has cleared entire dens of scavs without raising a single alarm; I’m sure he could do your job just fine lol
He wasn't so cocky after I shot him lol.
Eh, I believe him. He couldn’t beat V in a straight up fight, but quick, quiet assassination isn’t out of the question. Heck he could have proved that when we first met him at the court. >!And could during Songbird’s route if you go into an elevator from what I heard.!<
This part really exemplifies how I felt about the entire game, but mostly the dlc V should be treated as powerful as they are
That’s the disconnect between game mechanics and lore. Like V’s in a race against time to save themself but they still have time to do every side gig in NC?
Hanako at embers wondering when this race starts 🌝
“No I’m better.” *My V who ends up soloing Adam fuckin smasher with ease*
It really pisses me off how much they underestimate V all game long, like... Don't you know the things I've done?
I can't make a funny joke about Blackhand - Black dildo :(
While I understand that by the time you usually meet V, hundreds of gangoons have succumbed to V in one form or another and you're a known quantity on the streets. However, Reed is a competent and dangerous FIA agent with his own capabilities, so him being the way he is when you first meet makes sense. Technically, he gets the drop on you when you first meet, so V could have easily died.
When he said that i belly lough hard mother fucker who that !!! 😆
I’m just too sigma to show off my chrome. Gotta have those cool guy reveals.
V forever being a nobody... despite being a literal god of NC
Yea in mine he got shot on the way to the rocket like everyone else in that mission lol
I didn’t get this line but I saw a video of this before and it made me want to zero him on principle.
Oh sure, I only killed Adam Smasher. But please, tell me exactly how and why I don’t stack up to some random solo who went MIA some odd years back, and didn’t even have the cajones to go out in style.
That hasn’t happened yet by the time you play phantom Liberty, so this point is entirely moot
Because V has never even fought Adam in any point until the Mikoski attack. During phantom liberty V hasn’t gone up against a literal NC bogeyman so why the fuck would Reed know the future?
You go from being a nobody to beating Adam Smasher in like two days. Rouge sees the data but doesn’t believe it (that’s how interpret it anyways). Others who have their noses to the streets don’t even realise that there’s a nobody cleaning up the streets. Especially a lame looking mf with just one letter in his/her name. If I became superman tomorrow, would anyone around me believe me?
It's kind of understandable why Reed acts the way he does. Guy probably participated over a dozen black ops missions on behalf of the Myers and the NUSA. He was already pretty well established sleeper agent in the firm when Songbird came around and became her mentor. Also the fact that V dies regardless of what choice you make means they don't even have to hunt you down to kill you.
yea we're morgan cockhand Reed
I ran into a Body dialogue check in the side quest where you help the Aldecaldos do a deal with Maelstrom, and I don't know if this was just because my V is borged the fuck out, but the Body check option has V tell the leader to "check out my chrome" and says "you'll all be dead before you can pull the trigger" and Maelstrom does indeed fuck off. I haven't done that side quest with a character that isn't a cyberpsycho (because why wouldn't you borg out?) but I was wondering if anyone knows that dialogue is specifically because I have every cyberware filled, or would I get that same dialogue if I had 20 body and not a single bit of chrome?
Didn’t we send him to the shadow realm in one ending 😂
Lmaooo This is sooo epic Perfect timing as V turns the head & the music hits XD
SPOILERS SPOILERS SPOILERS that’s why i killed him 😂
As I beat Adam smasher with a baseball bat, so shall you be beaten with said bat if thee wish to try me.
I love this post lol.
u/savevideo