A Rare Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Mystery Creates More Questions Than Answers

Summary Random attacks in Cyberpunk 2077 sometimes lead to Datashards with clues about the attackers' motives and employers.

The Phantom Liberty DLC introduces a trio of mercs tied to Biotechnica, coming after V for reasons both murky and vengeful.

The mission "One Way or Another" unveils a complex web of betrayal and setups involving Nele, Biotechnica, and unaffiliated mercs.

Sometimes, going down a Cyberpunk 2077 lore rabbit hole can only make things more confusing. That's the case for one late-game encounter that V may or may not experience, depending on their decision in a much earlier mission. Random attacks by heavily-armed gonks aren't unheard of in Cyberpunk 2077; the mystery usually relates to where they came from. They'll usually have some sort of Datashard on them, which may reveal who they are and who they're working for, or at least confirm whether they were hired to take out V specifically.

Even so, and especially since Phantom Liberty's introduction of Dogtown, Cyberpunk lore goes deep. Sometimes, simply reading one Datashard isn't enough to understand a character; they may be further expanded in a series of documents, a paper trail that expands the entire game. This goes for minor characters as much as it does major ones. However, with a little understanding of how the corporate world works, and a lot of persistence in collecting loose documents, it's possible to infer even the most obscure characters' motivations.

Related Forget Realistic Textures, There's One Way To Truly Immerse In Cyberpunk 2077 A Cyberpunk 2077 VR mod lets players fully immerse themselves in Night City, making the towering Megabuildings feel more oppressive than ever.

Who Are The Mercs In Cyberpunk 2077: "One Way Or Another"?

How Linda, Miriam, & Gabe Tie Back To Nele Springer

In Cyberpunk 2077, Linda Sherman, Gabe Fuller, and Miriam Levy are a trio of mercs with a tenuous connection to Biotechnica. They make for a pretty tough fight, so it's immediately clear that these aren't the average thugs. Whether they appear in the game at all depends entirely on V's decision during the much earlier mission "Roads to Redemption."

"Roads to Redemption" only becomes available late in Phantom Liberty, after the player chooses either to side with Reed or Songbird in Cyberpunk 2077's DLC.

This job is part of the Phantom Liberty DLC. It's a relatively simple mission with an easy choice at the end. Mr. Hands puts V in touch with Nele Springer, a member of the Crimson Harvest terrorist faction who wants out. She tells them of an impending attack: Crimson Harvest has a net-nuke pointed at Biotechnica's headquarters, and she asks them to stop it before it goes off. After V deactivates the bomb, Nele comes to pick them up. But there's a problem - a pair of Biotechnica agents are hanging out in her backseat.

The corpos explain that they hold Nele responsible for the deaths of 32 civilians in a previous bombing operation. V can either decide to turn Nele into the Biotechnica agents, or fight them and give her the opportunity to escape. If they let Nele go, they won't hear anything from her for a few in-game days. Then, they'll suddenly get a message from Nele asking them to meet her in a shipping container. This starts a second, even simpler quest: "One Way or Another."

Besides unlocking a whole follow-up mission, freeing Nele also has a greater reward: V takes home €$7,000 for letting her go, compared to just €$4,000 for turning her in.

Now, the quest's flavor text already warns that there's something fishy about this arrangement. In case that's not enough, the "Hostile Area" popup appears as soon as V approaches the designated meeting place. Once they're inside, they'll hear a distant shout as a grenade goes off next to them. They'll then fight three pretty well-equipped mercs, who, scans reveal, are named Linda Sherman, Miriam Levy, and Gabe Fuller, and are all known to frequent the Afterlife mercenary bar.

Related Cyberpunk 2077 Fan Fixes One Of Johnny Silverhand's Most Annoying Problems A talented Cyberpunk 2077 shares their creation that removes the restriction on where Keanu Reeves' Johnny Silverhand can spawn during his downtime.

Archived conversations found on their bodies reveal that they recruited each other: Linda appears to have been aware of the job first, and to have recruited Miriam to help, after which Miriam brought Gabe on to help. One Archived Conversation also reveals that has Miriam describing the attack as a Biotechnica gig, probably a retaliative strike for V helping Nele escape. There's just one small problem: in order to accept this mission, V has to have killed the Biotechnica agents who tried to take Nele captive. So who else knows about Nele, and who set V up?

Who Set V Up In Cyberpunk 2077: "One Way Or Another"

Biotechnica, Linda Sherman, Or Nele Herself?

Close

In order to get a hint as to where these gonks came from, V has to look back at some older conversations they may have recovered from the Biotechnica agents during "Roads to Redemption." One of them actually features a familiar friend: Linda Sherman. In it, she reports on Nele's movements after meeting with V. She explains that she saw Nele's accomplice (V), and believes they're tied to Crimson Harvest as well. No matter how anti-corpo the individual V is, that's of course not true. If anything, they're actively sabotaging Crimson Harvest.

The Archived Conversation between Linda and Miriam that V may recover during "One Way or Another" reveals that, even after Nele escaped, Linda was able to hack into Springer's data and retrieve her contacts. That's how she got V's number in the first place, and was able to lure them to the shipping container. Miriam wonders who V is, but Linda refuses to answer. So, it's pretty clear that of the three mercs, only Linda is aware of V's true identity. The rest of them simply know that V's connected to Nele and Biotechnica somehow, and someone wants them dead.

Related A Confusing Cyberpunk 2077 Mechanic Would Be A Great Addition To The Sequel The inclusion of one confusing Cyberpunk 2077 mechanic could actually enhance its sequel, Project Orion, if CD Projekt Red were to build upon it.

But a further conversation between Linda and a Biotechnica employee reveals that the original mission was simply to arrest V and Nele. Linda clearly believed that they had more to offer alive. But at some point between V meeting Nele and Linda attacking V directly, someone decided that V needed to die. Of course, it's possible that Biotechnica got all the intel it needed off Nele's phone. And it's also possible this was an attempt by Biotechnica - or Linda acting as a lone wolf - to make an example of V.

But this could also be another kind of setup entirely. Maybe Nele, or someone who remained with Crimson Harvest, decided that V knew too much. Unaffiliated Afterlife mercs aren't exactly known for their loyalty, after all. If the money was right, they may have even turned on their former employers. Getting revenge on V for killing their comrades would just be a bonus.

While there's a lot of data on Linda Sherman, Miriam Levy, and Gabe Fuller - much more than the average gonk - a lot of their background still remains a mystery. It's not entirely clear who at Biotechnica wants V dead, or even if they work for Biotechnica at all. In the end, it seems like they get the message. "One Way or Another" is the last time V hears anything about Nele, although maybe not the last time they run afoul of Biotechnica. For the time being, it'll remain one of Cyberpunk 2077's great mysteries.