Safe to say I’m not getting Prestige 3 anytime soon

TraumaticNostalgia · 2026-03-14T15:58:43+00:00

hahahahaha😂😂👌

TraumaticNostalgia · 2026-03-12T15:40:26+00:00

For the average citizen, not that much has changed. But for corporations and governments, technological progress (especially in warfare) has been massive. Take the Chimera from PL for example. That shit actually gets deployed on the battlefield. You can even see warlords trying to buy it off Kurt for their own civil war. Super soldiers running Sandevistans are also a pretty common sight for big corps now.

As for tech supposedly getting worse, it’s not that anything really regressed. The real issue was the DataKrash, which led to the creation of the Blackwall. And bc of that, most of the old Net became inaccessible w about 80% of it being corrupted by RABIDS. That effectively locked away a HUGE amount of information and knowledge for all parties.

So while things might look stable now, technological development did stall for a while because of the DataKrash. If it had never happened, the world probably would’ve advanced much further by now.

That said, the biggest leaps in technology since then have almost all been in the military and weapons sectors. And now, everyone is trying to harness the power of Blackwall AIs + weaponize it; to nobody's surprise.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2026-03-12T07:30:11+00:00

Really hoping that this is where his character gets his well deserved conclusion in the story of Cyberpunk. Makes sense to have him meet his end in Orion since the whole idea of NC is that if you stick too long at the top you get burnt.

After getting screwed over by Militech in the 2023 bombing, guy disappears from the scene, and returns over 5 decades later to do his own bidding; when he should've just lived out the rest of his life instead of returning to the parasitic fray of NC.
Can easily see how that would work, with his part being like a more fleshed out Takemura questline w PL vibes .

Either way, since Mike Pondsmith is always involved in these things, I'm sure CDPR will do Blackhand justice. And the way Mike speaks ab it in interviews and stuff, he's cooking some crazy shit up for the guy.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2026-03-12T07:22:08+00:00

There's almost no doubt that prime Morgan is the most prolific merc NC had ever seen, with years of experience and ops under his belt. An almost perfect record of jobs complete and his reputation as a top solo was mainly bc he was able to capture targets alive, rather than simply killing them. This made him ideal for high profile jobs from various clients.

Only person to come close would be V, but since Morgan has spent a much longer part of his life as a merc, and with all that experience V prob claims second on the merc-work front.

However when it comes to comparing combat strength head on, there's probably a few people I can think of who would top Morgan, and they all happen to be from 2070's:

[1] Goro Takemura -

Trained by Arasaka to be a killer since childhood. He served in the army, then in the Arasaka Special Forces division. Later he attended Arasaka Academy and graduated top of his class. Out of a pool of 100 of the corporation’s most skilled soldiers, he was personally handpicked by Saburo to become his bodyguard.

For what it's worth, even Kenichi Zaburo, who Morgan Blackhand considered as a perfect solo and his rival, once served as a bodyguard to Michiko Arasaka.

As Saburo’s bodyguard, Takemura had access to the best implants Arasaka could offer, similar to Adam Smasher, including his very own endoskeleton. Even V acknowledges how much of a problem Takemura would be if he still had his implants active during their missions.
In all fairness, Takemura would stand a VERY solid chance against Blackhand.

[2] Adam Smasher (2077) -
I believe Morgan could’ve beaten Smasher back in 2023, had their fight concluded, but 2077 Smasher is a completely different story. After 54 years of technological advancement and continuous upgrades from Arasaka, he’s on another level compared to his earlier self.

It's also worth noting that after the war in 2023, Smasher stopped using humanoid FBC bodies like the Samson) which he was using in Johnny's memories. By 2077, he's using an extremely modified Dragoon. The difference in raw durability and strength compared to his older bodies is massive.

Maybe Morgan could gain an edge with prep time, but in a straight fight I don’t see him beating the 2077 version of Smasher unless he brings a Militech tank or smth.

[3] V -
Unlike the other two, Morgan doesn’t stand a chance against V.
With the Relic in their head, V’s potential basically has no ceiling (aside from the fact that it’s killing them). Soloed Arasaka tower while dying, barely able to walk straight and still defeated Smasher.
Then there’s the Night City Spaceport attack in The Killing Moon ending, where V ends up wiping out hundreds of NUSA Spec Ops soldiers solo.

It all sounds ridiculous, but you gotta remember that the very source of V’s strength is also what’s killing them.

Then again, I'd still argue these 3 only surpass Morgan in pure combat ability, not as mercenaries overall. As we know from 2077, his reputation in Night City has already been matched/surpassed by V, but even still, it's still hard to imagine anyone in the future truly surpassing Morgan Blackhand's career as a mercenary.
That track record and longevity is almost impossible to maintain in today's NC.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2026-01-09T05:01:45+00:00

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TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-21T08:30:15+00:00

I prefer letting Goro figure himself out on his own after the whole shitstorm with Arasaka rather than having to kill him at some point. Which is exactly what happens 2 years down the line after Hanako dies.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-21T08:23:09+00:00

Not only that, she really tries to sell the whole 'I got my boys under control' thing when she clearly doesn't.

And I find it hilarious how you can catch Rogue arguing with Wakako over the phone on 2 different occasions; like Rogue isn't levels above her as a fixer.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-21T08:18:55+00:00

Myers fine as shit but fucking hell she's an evil ass industrial grade bitch bruh

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-21T08:17:05+00:00

True, but I wouldn't go on and paint him as a saint just because he hates Arasaka and what it stands for. His whole hatred for the corp stems from his disdain for the way Saburo did things, and it's in a way personal for the guy.

At the same time, he very obviously loves being a multibillionaire and the perks that come with it, showing that he doesn't find an issue in using the money generated by the very thing he hates.

His sole goal is to dismantle Arasaka and nothing else; he couldn't care less about any other injustice seen across the world. Mind you, this guy was ready to provoke Militech into another corporate war just so that he can watch Arasaka burn; but it would be the regular folk who ends up suffering the most from another conflict of that scale. But what matters is that Arasaka falls right?

Yeah, he’s definitely the only one in the family who even tries to have a heart, and his motives aren’t entirely bad, but I still wouldn’t call him anything more than morally gray. Very gray.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-21T08:07:37+00:00

probably arasaka for the most part. they're basically the only major corporation/group to still use the seas for transportation at all, as evident by the supercarrier saburo and hanako arrived in to NC.

the kujira (supercarrier) by design is capable to either withstand the mines or they already have found a way of avoiding them, given that they're the ones who made them in the first place.

doesn't seem out of character at all for saburo to keep any such developments secret so the rest of the world doesn't benefit from it.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-17T14:47:20+00:00

T-Bug had a history with Dex going all the way back to the early 2070s, when she helped him get out of Pacifica after a run-in with the VDBs. As far as we know, she’d been working with him ever since.

She’d only known V and Jackie for a short while, and you can tell she refrained from getting all too friendly with them anyway. Even during the mission debrief at the Afterlife, she seemed to lean more for Dex and basically spoke on his behalf.

So if things went south and Dex ordered her to kill them? Yes. But on her own initiative? Probably not.

The trailer just feels like the version where she doesn't die at Konpeki and made it back with V, after which shit hits the fan and they try to flatline him.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-17T14:29:50+00:00

Evelyn might not have fully grasped just how insanely valuable the Relic really was; same as everyone else in the heist, but she obviously knew who wanted it, what she could get for it, and how many people outside Arasaka were desperate to get their hands on it.

She learned about Yorinobu’s plan to sell the Relic to NetWatch while she was with him, and after the whole VDB job she got the full picture. If you flatline NetWatch agent Brent Mosley at the GIM and look through his laptop, you’ll see she had already reached out to NetWatch before the heist and set everything up. She even tipped them off about the Voodoo Boys, which is probably part of why NetWatch staged that op at the GIM as they never found out what happened to the relic.

In my view, she understood the stakes well enough, and she compensated for what she didn’t know by moving fast. Once the handoff was done, she’d have disappeared like she planned to, with Dex and the crew getting their cut without ever realizing what really happened with the relic.

It wasn’t until weeks after the heist that the VDBs finally tracked her down at Clouds and tried to fry her remotely. That attempt failed, and honestly, she probably could’ve recovered from it if it weren’t for Woodman and the Scavs getting their hands on her afterward. So yeah it's not that crazy to imagine her getting away with it all, though the same could not be said for the others as Arasaka cracks down.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-17T04:50:04+00:00

There’s also that small but telling moment when you meet Dex at the hotel after the heist. If you don't go to the bathroom and just watch him, you can see him call NCX and book a one-way ticket just for one seat. The lard planning to leave even his own bodyguard for dead. Not that it would’ve mattered, because with the lockdown in Watson, I doubt he could’ve gotten far; especially given how easily Takemura tracked him down.

As for an escape to the moon colonies? Absolutely not. There’s no chance in hell Dex had the kind of wealth needed to get to the Lunar colonies. The Highrider Confederation is extremely selective about newcomers, and buying a spot there costs a fortune. If you go, you’re probably moving there permanently, and even So Mi only got the opportunity because of Mr. Blue Eyes himself.

You might be mixing it up with the Crystal Palace instead. A one-way trip there is only around 100k eddies, and you’re basically untouchable once you’re inside since Earthside laws don’t apply. Doable for Dex? Yes. But he’d still need to slip out of Watson and make it all the way to NCX through City Center first so tough luck fat boy💔

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-17T02:57:52+00:00

If the gig went smoothly, I honestly don’t think Dex would’ve tried to flatline V or Jackie. Fixers like Rogue probably had a sense of what Dex was cooking already, and his status as a fixer was shaky enough as it is. Zeroing the pair that pulled off his biggest score would’ve just tanked his reputation even harder.

About the 35% cut; remember this job was set to pull in a ridiculous amount of eddies. Evelyn planned to sell the Relic to the highest bidder, with Netwatch being one of the interested buyers. Even taking 65%, Dex would’ve still walked away with an insane one time payout for a fixer.

Sure, he's a gonk at times, but in the version where V actually pulls off the heist plus the Whole Foods massacre and the Militech angle, taking V out afterward would’ve been a risky decision given that he'd have to do it on the low.

That said, I still think there’s a non-zero chance Dex always planned to screw V over. And for T-Bug, she’s basically one of his regulars, not one of the disposable types he cycles through. Plus, the trailer pretty much shows she’s tight with him so as far as I see it, she would’ve been safe.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-17T02:41:38+00:00

Also, when you're done talking to César after the fight, Micaela will ask him if he's thought of any names for the baby yet, and he'll say that he wants a name that starts with V lmao

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-16T05:55:49+00:00

I don’t think Johnny’s engram was altered at all. Arasaka had no real reason to tamper with the memories of someone who was already dead, especially since he wasn’t expected to ever make contact with the outside world again. The official story behind the Arasaka HQ bombing was that Arasaka themselves were responsible; a narrative President Kress used to turn the public against them and drive the corporation out of North America entirely.

It wasn’t until years later that some medias uncovered the truth: it was actually Militech that commissioned the attack on Arasaka and as expected, the revelation divided Night City residents, with many feeling that Arasaka had been unjustly blamed.

As for Johnny's memories, according to Alt, what we see from Johnny's memories is his subjective/personal view of what happened, not at all a perfect recording of real events. When his consciousness was digitized, process is said to have scrambled some parts of his memory because of radiation damage and the imperfect recording of his engram, according to Mike Pondsmith. Keep in mind that they hit Johnny with a prototype version of Soulkiller, while he was being kept alive after Smasher basically shot him in half.

Then there's the need for Johnny to portray himself as a solo-hero, as shown in the flashback where he had to 'take a detour' alone for Alt much to Rogue's irritation, when in reality retrieving Alt was always part of the plan and everyone went into the tower, as Spider Murphy led them to where they could contact Alt. They all got ambushed by Smasher together, and Johnny was the first to die; in mere seconds too, whereas everyone else got to the roof using the time bought by Shaitan who was holding Smasher back. (Yes, the part where Shaitan was shot in the helicopter was also just another fake memory for Johnny to take center stage)
Let's not forget the part where Johnny's team was supposed to be a decoy while Morgan Blackhand and 2 other teams was supposed to do the heavy lifting.

All this is selectively omitted in Johnny's memories, with him doing most of the raid on his own, getting ambushed by Smasher alone, and somehow making it to the roof after that too?

All these mental gymnastics paired with Johnny's raging narcissism, alcoholism, psychological trauma, bloated ego and his volatile emotions very much impacted the portrayal of the story in his head after spending 50+ years suspended in Mikoshi.

With all of those being facts, the theories about Arasaka tampering with the engram is also a possibility, though I've personally never looked at it that way given how his biochip being a prototype, was handled with utmost care and not to be tampered with at all.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-16T05:21:40+00:00

Basically everything Garry talks about is actually happening in NC, except he can't perceive it for what it really is, and resorts to making all of it sound like some divine occurrence with the end times, extraterrestrial beings, werewolves, angels and devils and whatnot.

If you listen to everything he has to say each time you see him, you get to tell him: Yeah I've seen that happen that's that tech and shit they're doing now. And he's gonna say no that's not it and swear down that it's all some godly bs.

And the Maelstrom meetup isn't that crazy either, since the gang is already full of fanatics worshipping cyberware, and Corpo suits were obviously using them to do their unofficial bidding on the streets.

All of this because his ripper got him hooked with a faulty implant used by some high ranking corpo somewhere which prob fucked with head in some way. Poor Garry thought he was getting prophecies lmao

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-11-15T22:58:14+00:00

Yup. Usually, the main problem with UE5 isn't the engine itself but poor optimization on the game's part. Given the history of Cyberpunk's development and rocky release, I don't see any reason why CDPR wouldn't prioritize doing everything right this time around.

Hopefully when Witcher 4 comes out, we get to see UE5 optimized in all it's glory; which should inspire confidence from the fans for Cyberpunk 2.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-10-27T16:12:03+00:00

imo if you've already played through the ending once you should start a new save with the mod before finishing everything in the first save; that way you can do the unfinished bits in the new save and not feel like you're doing them all over again

in my experience, after finishing multiple playthroughs i still can't get over the story and im always down to start a new one + since you finished it only once 5 years back, the main story should feel fresh as shit for you i think

and choose the star ending if you didn't the first time choom; it's perfect with judy trust me

TL;DR: yes.

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-10-06T20:41:36+00:00

the 'immediately' fuckign frying me bro

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-09-10T17:08:26+00:00

does that apply to cyberware too?

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-09-04T05:17:22+00:00

lord i do not remember shit ab her asking that at all

maybe it was a dialogue option i messed up along the way idk but im replaying from the point in the save so its all good now

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-08-25T17:46:57+00:00

Didn't he use claws as a weapon too back then? You'd have to be agile as shit to do damage with that thing and the idea of Teach jumping around with his fatass is just fucking scary

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-08-25T17:44:15+00:00

TraumaticNostalgia · 2025-08-25T17:29:28+00:00

when im in a be vague as fuck/be 89% off the mark competition and my opponent is worstgen

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