Decisions are tough throughout anyone’s life, virtual or otherwise. Taking a path that isn’t right for you may grant you experience but not before taking away a lot of valuable time, so naturally, it’s important to get things right on the first go. With Cyberpunk 2077 having three different life paths, starting a new game can be a bit of a pain when trying to decide which one to go for. Although you may know what to expect on your 2nd or 3rd playthrough, this decision certainly becomes much more daunting on your first crack of the whip.
So, for those who are on their first go-around, the life path is the first big choice you’re going to make and it’s arguably one of the biggest role-play choices throughout the entire game. The main effect of your life path is that it changes V’s (your character) dialogue to reflect your background. Gameplay-wise, it only really affects the prologue but all the same, it’s an important decision that will influence your game time. If you’re feeling unsure of which path is best for you, allow us to take you through this short guide of all paths’ prologues, then decide for yourself which is best for you!
First thing’s first, make sure to read the description of each life path on the game’s selection screen or on the Cyberpunk Wiki. If one immediately jumps out at you then trust your gut. If not, trust us to take you through each one in turn and read on!
The Street Kid
Starting things off with the very first playthrough I did myself, we have the Street Kid. The main thing that drew me to the street kid was the fact that the description says this character knows their way around the gangs of Night City, implying a lot of exploration of the city’s underbelly. The prologue sees V sitting in the El Coyote Cojo, a bar owned by Mama Welles in The Glenn. V shares a drink with Pepe the bartender, who tells them that he owes money to a man named Kirk.
With some hesitation, V decides to go upstairs and talk to Kirk, who agrees to settle the debt but first V has to steal a car for him. Once V exits the bar to go about this, they bump into Padre, one of the fixers of Night City, stuffing a body into the trunk of his car. Once Padre drops V off, they are clear to make a B-line for the car and try to get in but soon end up with a gun to their head from an auto thief. After they all receive a beat down from the Night City’s police, the thief reveals his name to be Jackie Welles. He says the two share obvious chemistry and then we are treated to a compilation of V and Jackie doing various jobs.
Outside of the prologue, the Street Kid also has one unique quest that links back to Kirk. He contacts V at a later date and wants her to steal a van of ‘high-class goods’ for him. V fights their way to the van and opens the doors to find it’s loaded with fake samurai goods; a fake jacket even reads ‘SAMEREI’ and has some more botched spelling in the item description. But you can’t deny, what it lacks in spelling, it does make up for in style!
After getting the jacket, the player hears gunshots in the distance and races to Kirk, only to find him dead. Johnny suggests letting someone know he’s gone but V tells him there is nobody to call, a truly sad story, which ultimately draws an end to all the Street Kid quests. Ultimately, a story about people risking their lives just for a load of fake goods that weren’t even worth it anyway.
Outside of this, the dialogue choices are more centered around the gangs of Night City. An example of this is in the quest named ‘Down On The Street’ which sees V meet with Wakako. When trying to convince her to work with them the street kid can say “Heard Arasaka killed your grandkid”, in order to gain the Fixer’s cooperation.
Overall, the Street Kid is exactly what the description says, a kid who has lived and been around gangs of Night City all their life. I loved this one and am confident that anyone who enjoys gang-orientated tasks would too!
The Nomad
Continuing on the order of my own playthroughs, the Nomad was my second go-around. This prologue was very different from that of the Street Kid and sees V in a garage, ripping their nomad clan patch off. We learn that their clan joined a group called Snake Nation, resulting in it losing all of its reputation, hence V decides to leave for Night City. They enlist some help from their former clan member to find someone named Jackie Welles. Once V links up with Jackie, they attempt to smuggle something over the border and into Night City, which swiftly ends them up in a car chase and then a hide-out.
After opening the cargo, they discover an iguana lizard, quite the rarity in 2077. After their discovery, much like the Street Kid scenario, we are once again treated to a montage of Jackie and V getting up to all sorts of hijinks.
The unique quest for the Nomad life path is honestly one of my favourites purely down to its inclusion of a surprise cameo from Alanah Pearce in act 2! V acts shocked when they receive a random text message that contains both a location and a tracker for the old car from the prologue. From there the player has various options to get back the car if they so choose; whether it be killing the new owner, buying it back, or simply stealing it. If you’re a goody-two-shoes, you can even gift it to a new owner.
The Nomad dialogue choices are best brought out when around Panam and the Aldecaldos. Many times when talking to them, V has the option to talk about their old clan the Bakkers. It’s even revealed that the Aldecaldos almost joined Snake Nation at one point, something V remarks as a “lucky escape” as they have watched their own clan join Snake Nation and “go to s**t”. One of my favourite uses of the Nomad dialogue is in the mission ‘Gimme Danger’ where V can tell Takamura about their Nomadic upbringing.
Overall, the Nomad option is for those who enjoy a life of travelling and a life against the system. Given that Panam is closely tied to the main story of the game and even one of the endings, the Nomad definitely has more main quest dialogue options than the Street Kid path, but ultimately is just as enjoyable.
The Corpo
The Corpo, as you might have guessed it was my last playthrough and one I was truly reluctant to start mainly because once I had completed this, I would kind of be almost finished with the game. Of course, with 80 hours of play on my street kid alone, this wasn’t the case as every quest has some kind of dialogue option for you to choose from but The Corpo is definitely the most ‘in your face’ one. Given how this path is all about stopping an evil corporation, it’s not exactly the most nuanced storyline.
The Corpo prologue will see the player be a part of Arasaka, a worldwide megacorporation dealing in corporate security, banking, and manufacturing. The player is revealed to be part of Arasaka’s counter-intel section and working under a man called Jenkins and is tasked with killing a woman working above them named Abernathy. Strangely, Jackie Welles is already a friend of V’s in this scenario and soon meets with V to discuss it all. After a short ride in an AV, V arrives at Lizzie’s bar and begins to discuss this with Jackie who says he wouldn’t kill someone and doesn’t want anything to do with this. Not long after, a group of Arasaka agents show up to seize V of all their company assets, from her bank account to her living quarters. Jackie then announces that this is the beginning of V’s new life which then cues the usual montage.
The unique Corpo quest is called War Pigs and involves meeting an old friend from when V was at Arasaka. The person calls V and tells them that they have dirt on Abernathy, the very person that had V exiled from the Corpo life. I won’t spoil the whole thing but you can kill this old friend and get a pretty good handgun from him too!
Overall, given the fact that the game is all about taking down an evil corporation, this life path gives plenty of opportunities to shine the Corpo dialogue through, especially with Takamura.
A Summary
To sum up, there is no ‘best’ life path as all each path does is give you different dialogue options and one unique quest along with a unique prologue. Personally, I chose the Street Kid, and after playing all of them that one is still my favourite. With these, there are no ‘wrong’ and ‘right’ answers. This is purely down to the discretion of the player.
That concludes this short guide on the various life paths in Cyberpunk 2077. If you found it helpful please do let me know in the comments or even join the All Maverick discord to join in with all out conversations relating to all things gaming and entertainment!
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