A Hidden Cyberpunk 2077 Braindance Detail Uncovers An Eerie & Disturbing Truth

Summary Uncover disturbing secrets in Cyberpunk 2077's braindances, revealing the twisted past of a serial killer.

Explore different perspectives in the game's immersive braindance editor, highlighting key clues in investigations.

Encounter supernatural elements in braindances, like the mysterious figure linked to the killer's haunting past.

A hidden Cyberpunk 2077 detail makes one of the game's more disturbing braindances even more eerie. Throughout CD Projekt Red's sci-fi RPG, players are able to relive moments from other Night City residents' perspectives through a virtual reality-type recording called braindances, which lets V feel their emotional states and anything they physically felt, as well as watching events unfold. In the Cyberpunk universe, this is used as a major form of entertainment covering adult content, adrenaline chasers, and more, but V often uses them as ways to help with investigations, rewinding the footage and inspecting it on different levels to find clues.

Braindances can be viewed in three ways in its editor, Visual, which plays back events as the person recording would have seen them, Thermal, which highlights the temperature of some items or characters, and Audio, which hones in on specific sounds in the environment or dialogue.

This is the case during Cyberpunk 2077's The Hunt side quest, where V helps former NCPD detective River Ward with the search for his missing nephew, Randy. While searching on Randy's computer, V and River find various ominous files, and with the help of one of River's police acquaintances, Joss, they're able to pull several braindances from them that could lead to the location of Randy's kidnapper.

Related Cyberpunk 2077 Has A Surprising Reason For Why Its Side Quests Are So Good Cyberpunk 2077 has been praised for its storyline and characters, but as with many of the best RPGs, it's the side quests that truly bring it to life.

What Are The Braindances In Cyberpunk 2077's The Hunt Quest?

A Glimpse Into A Serial Killer's Mind

These braindances are all told from the perspective of Anthony Harris, a serial killer who abducted and murdered Night City's youth at Edgewood Farm over several years before he was ultimately defeated by the NCPD in 2077. Harris was raised by his strict father, who used corporal punishment if a young Anthony made any mistakes. This harshness seems to stem from the fact he seemingly blamed Anthony for her death, outright saying he "killed her" when chastising him for not checking the chemical and hormone levels of the livestock.

The braindances show several events from Anthony's childhood and explain how the abuse he endured seemed to manifest the pathologic behavior that would later result in his killings. One sequence involves his teacher confronting him for killing a classmate's pet turtle, with cruelty toward animals being a well-documented trait in those who have become killers in the real world, even though in Anthony's mind he was putting the turtle out of its misery.

Before his operation was uncovered, Harris was referred to as "Peter Pan" by River and the NCPD, but afterward, he was known as the "Meatman" by Night City because of how his victims were treated like cattle.

Whether Harris' memories offer a correct representation of the events or not has not been questioned within the game as they do ultimately lead to a real location in which V can save Harris' victims, but certain details do not fit within the borders of reality. The braindance has a surreal quality that feels out of place compared to other braindances in the game due to being combined with Harris' dreams, with elements such as Harris' teacher turning into a cow to represent how Harris saw his potential victims as cattle.

Related Cyberpunk 2077: 10 Best Side Quests To Complete The main storyline for Cyberpunk 2077 is a thrilling and detailed adventure, but there are so many other side quests to experience as well.

A Ghostly Figure Appears In Antony Harris' Braindance

The Figure Oversees Harris' Horrific Operation

Close

As pointed out by wrospierski on the r/cyberpunkgame subreddit, during the final section of Harris' braindance, in which the killer walks through his gruesome operation on the farm toward one of his victims trying to escape, a mysterious character could be spotted in the Thermal view watching from the distance. The figure also appeared during the sequence beforehand involving Harris' father, in the all three modes, she can be seen standing behind the plastic divider next to the farm's office, and disappears as soon as the divider is moved, suggesting a supernatural quality (as shared in a separate Reddit post by dulipat.

This figure is no longer scannable in the game following a patch, but originally, her name appeared as that of Anthony Harris' deceased mother. This suggests that, in Harris' mind at least, his mother's ghost was always haunting him, especially with her appearances starting shortly after his father comments on the young boy's role in her death. Fellow Redditor RBWessel poses the theory that in the final sequence where she watches Harris approaching his victim from outside, that she's observing from the spot where she's been buried, which is plausible as TheEvilCub states that when visiting that location outside of Harris' braindance, a body is located there, suggesting it's a known burial ground on the farm.

The Hunt is certainly one of Cyberpunk 2077's more memorable side quests, incorporating horror and psychological thriller elements using the unique technology of the Cyberpunk universe to put its own spin on things. Showing the damaged psyche with all of its surreal elements also better helped to truly immerse players inside the mind of one of Night City's more nefarious figures, and made the level far more disturbing than if the braindances just replayed events as they happened.

Source: wrospierski/Reddit, dulipat/Reddit RBWessel/Reddit, TheEvilCub/Reddit