Secret Ending

[Chip Patton]

After a few play throughs I've been able to consistently achieve the secret ending now a few times. For those of you who are asking here is how you achieve it:

They say be nice to Johnny, but the trick is to tell him what's on your mind and be honest with him and this all boils to a head when you're sitting at his grave-site and he asks what you would write. You will want to respond with the "he saved my life" out of honesty and when he says he didn't fk up your friendship with him, you have to correct him and say "nah you ♥♥♥♥♥♥ that up too" then follow the dialogue to convince him to get back up with Rogue.

Essentially if you get to Kerry's house and Kerry asks Johnny if V would be okay with the band getting back together, Johnny replies, "Yeah, the kid loves me" this is your indicator that you are on the right track but not finished yet - you still have to finish out all of the side-quests for his friends even after the concert. If you get the "Dunno, we're not on the best of terms" or such, start back at the oil field and go through the dialogue again or you may have to go back even further if you tried to intentionally piss Johnny off.

The easiest way to know if you'll have the option presented to you is right before the point of no return, hit I and look at the middle box at the top. If it's at 70%, paydirt. If it's less, you're not going to be presented with that option.

So the two indicators is Johnny's mention of "the kid loves me" and the 70% indicator in the inventory (I) screen.

Once you go past the point of no return and you have the pills in your hand after Misty takes you to the roof chose the "Rogue" option and when Johnny asks "are you sure, there is no turning back", do not reply... Just sit and wait and he will reply with an alternative - that's the best ending in the game if you can get through it without dying. It's also the only ending that is a death-match like ending. If you die at any point, that's it. Game is over and you watch the credits. So make sure you're very prepared for it, have armor at least in the 2,000's and make sure you call your romantic partner before you make that final choice - you will thank me later.

Hope that helps for anyone struggling to figure out how to achieve the best ending.

[Questionable Dragon]

Publicado originalmente por eides72:

Definitely not the best. That'd be the Aldecados ending if your character is with Judy. You survive, are told that they have leads for better treatments, ride off into the sunset; honestly I don't think there could be an ending better for V than that.

totally agree with this, i just recently got this ending. this is definitely the best possible ending.
out of curiosity i did all the other endings but not a single one was good. all other endings are depressing.

[Wisp Cat]

Publicado originalmente por Questionable Dragon:

out of curiosity i did all the other endings but not a single one was good. all other endings are depressing.

How many other endings did you do?

I ask this, because I did one of the "secret" endings, and i noticed the likelihood for half a dozen variations on that theme and possibly a dozen or two (but I would have to try them out to see how different they would be, in terms of being depressing or not).

A problem I think we are all having is that we are relying on early reports on how the game plays out. But there just was not enough time for the people who rushed through to the endings to notice all of the possible variations on the endings (especially where the endings depend on stuff which happens well before the end game).

[Questionable Dragon]

Publicado originalmente por Wednesday Crisis:

Publicado originalmente por Questionable Dragon:

out of curiosity i did all the other endings but not a single one was good. all other endings are depressing.

How many other endings did you do?

I ask this, because I did one of the "secret" endings, and i noticed the likelihood for half a dozen variations on that theme and possibly a dozen or two (but I would have to try them out to see how different they would be, in terms of being depressing or not).

A problem I think we are all having is that we are relying on early reports on how the game plays out. But there just was not enough time for the people who rushed through to the endings to notice all of the possible variations on the endings (especially where the endings depend on stuff which happens well before the end game).

1. i did 3 endings. only one of them had 2 variations. i read somewhere there are five endings in total, i can assume the secret ending is in those five.

2. i say 4 out of the 5 endings are gonna be depressing and the only variation that can be is which characters appear, and i could elaborate more on that if it's interesting

[Wisp Cat]

Publicado originalmente por Questionable Dragon:

Publicado originalmente por Wednesday Crisis:

How many other endings did you do?

I ask this, because I did one of the "secret" endings, and i noticed the likelihood for half a dozen variations on that theme and possibly a dozen or two (but I would have to try them out to see how different they would be, in terms of being depressing or not).

A problem I think we are all having is that we are relying on early reports on how the game plays out. But there just was not enough time for the people who rushed through to the endings to notice all of the possible variations on the endings (especially where the endings depend on stuff which happens well before the end game).

1. i did 3 endings. only one of them had 2 variations. i read somewhere there are five endings in total, i can assume the secret ending is in those five.

2. i say 4 out of the 5 endings are gonna be depressing and the only variation that can be is which characters appear, and i could elaborate more on that if it's interesting

My (currently limited) understanding of the endings is that someone wrote that two variations exist for each ending, and then whole swarms of people jumped to the conclusion that there were the only two variations for those endings.

Sooner or later, though, I expect some people to care enough to actually go into details. And, then I expect a few people will start noticing that it was not "only two variations" -- I expect some people will start noticing that instead it was always "at least two variations".

I saw a necessity for half a dozen variations in the ending I played. The events in the game and the events I experienced require that. And it's entirely possible that there would be other variations which I was not in a position to notice.

But, also, given the dark themes of the game, having no depressing endings would be just cheap.

Anyways, ... if you want to be going into details about the endings you encountered, feel free.

[Mrrshal]

If you save Takemura the Arasaka ending is less grim.

But back on topic: To understand the Secret ending, one should know Cyberpunk lore.
After you finish Arasaka tower in Secret ending, you end up discussing a contract with ''Mr. Blue Eyes''. In that discussion you agree to do the heist on orbital casino, in turn - Mr. Blue Eyes will fulfil his end of a bargain.
What did Blue Eyes promise to V? We don't yet know, but in old Cyberpunk lore Mr. Blue Eyes is powerful A.I. that can modify human genome and brain.

[Gnarl]

In the menu screen that has 3 percentages, like "Edgerunner", "You Only Live Once," and "Down to the Wire." What are those?

Is there a guide that explains how gameplay effects all those?

The secret ending is supposed to activate at 70% YOLO, I have 60%, is there any means of grinding YOLO? Like can I just go kill Araska's? Drink lots of booze or something to make Johnny happy? I think I did all the diagloues. Did the cat matter? Does riding the roller coaster matter? Any other activities maybe to boost me?

Thanks in advance. I really enjoyed the two paths I tried, but I want to see this 'hard mode' gameplay. On Very Hard the other game modes were easy. I can't take damage.

[Wisp Cat]

Publicado originalmente por Gnarl:

In the menu screen that has 3 percentages, like "Edgerunner", "You Only Live Once," and "Down to the Wire." What are those?

These represent your progress through various quest stages.

"Edgerunner" is basically V's night city rep. It's sort of a companion to streetcred.

"You only Live Once" is basically how much Johnny liikes you.

"Down to the Wire" is basically how badly the relic has damaged V's health.

[Gnarl]

Publicado originalmente por Wednesday Crisis:

Publicado originalmente por Gnarl:

In the menu screen that has 3 percentages, like "Edgerunner", "You Only Live Once," and "Down to the Wire." What are those?

These represent your progress through various quest stages.

"Edgerunner" is basically V's night city rep. It's sort of a companion to streetcred.

"You only Live Once" is basically how much Johnny liikes you.

"Down to the Wire" is basically how badly the relic has damaged V's health.

Is "Down to the Wire" on any timers? Like I took the time to level to 50, and maxed out almost all my useful skills, except Engineering. I'd have to huck like 300 more grenades to max that out maybe, haha.

Sometimes I feel like V's Relic Malfunctions when I'm goofing off. Is exploring too much bad for it?

My %s are 90/60/40.

What happens at 0% "Down to the Wire?" Or is it counting up?

Thanks.

[Wisp Cat]

I think it's counting up. I have not looked at any of them too closely though.

But, I did an ending where I had let Johnny drive a bunch of times, and I had severe health problems during ending battles.

[Gnarl]

What?! Johnny can drive?!

[Wisp Cat]

Publicado originalmente por Gnarl:

What?! Johnny can drive?!

I meant the stuff where you let Johnny take control of V's body.

[Gnarl]

Right on. Is there an inventory item that lets us do that? Or is it only during some story parts?

[Wisp Cat]

Publicado originalmente por Gnarl:

Right on. Is there an inventory item that lets us do that? Or is it only during some story parts?

I do not think that there's an inventory item for that. There are some unlabeled inventory items in my current character's inventory, but I doubt they matter.

The events where Johnny takes over are intensely scripted, so basically they're "quests".

You having Johnny take over, outside of carefully chosen circumstances, should maybe be an inventory item, which has you commit suicide right then and there. However, this probably should not be CDPR's the highest priority gameplay issue right now.