The name of the suicide run ending is “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper,” a reference to the famous song by Blue Oyster Cult. It’s also a very appropriate name for the most difficult ending Cyberpunk 2077 has to offer. What makes it even more difficult is the fact that players can’t save manually during the ending, but the right approach can make surviving the mission very possible.

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How to Get It

At the end of the side job “Chippin’ In,” Johnny and V go out to the oil fields north of Night City and have an important conversation. Players can say whatever they like during most of it, but there are three things they have to say to unlock the secret ending.

“Nah, fucked that up too. " “What do you want from me?” “OK, but as second chances go, this is your last. "

Saying this will unlock the secret ending and open up “Blistering Love,” which is the side job that unlocks Rogue’s ending. However, Rogue’s ending doesn’t need to be available and players who want to attempt the Reaper ending can head straight for the point of no return.

The next step is to move through the plot until Johnny and V discuss how to get into Arasaka. Instead of choosing one of the available options, players must wait five real-time minutes without doing anything. At this point, Johnny will suggest going in alone on a suicide run and “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” will become an option.

General Tips

If V dies at any point during the suicide run, the credits will roll and clips will play showing how people react to V’s death. To avoid these credits, players should bring up the menu while V is still falling over. The game disables both manual saves and quick saves during this sequence. However, it will autosave after V takes the elevator and just before the boss battle with Adam Smasher. The enemies V encounters have far more health and deal far more damage than in any other part of the game, including the other endings. V’s max health constantly drops during the run, so players have to be fast. Stealth is possible to some extent, but enemies usually know where V is when they appear.

The Lobby

Combat begins immediately after V enters Arasaka Tower. There are five powerful enemies, all of whom can see V. Behind them, two hallways lead to an atrium that contains two combat mechs and a constant stream of reinforcements. V must defeat several waves of reinforcements before a soldier spawns who has an access card for the elevator, and after getting the card V has to call the elevator and wait for it to reach the lobby.

Arasaka soldiers run in from every angle except the one V came from. This means the best way to get cover is to run back down the hallway and attack from the front area of the lobby. The reinforcements that pour into the lobby aren’t infinite, but since V’s health constantly drops it’s better to engage with the soldiers rather than defeat them all. The first autosave is at the bottom of the elevator, so if V dies in the lobby players will have to load a save from the rooftop and wait another five real minutes for the secret ending to unlock. Keep this in mind before taking too many risks.

The Netrunner Operations Floor

After leaving the elevator, V must fight through several corridors full of enemies to reach the terminal where they can plug in Alt.

The first corner has a side door to a security room. Keep an eye on it because soldiers will use it to flank V. At one point, V steps onto a catwalk above a large mech and several robots. The robots have fewer hit points than human soldiers, but their concentrated fire can end V in a second if players aren’t careful. Much like the lobby, V has to wait several seconds for the terminal to lift out of the ground before they can plug in Alt. However, as soon as Alt is in she’ll disable all the currently active enemies.

Adam Smasher

The last combat sequence of the Reaper ending is a boss fight between V and Adam Smasher.

Adam will lose the first half of his health bar quickly, but the rest will take a lot more effort. V’s best defense in this fight is mobility. Adam has tons of rockets and loves to fire them in large batches. Enemy reinforcements will spawn in throughout this fight, but they don’t have quite as much health as they do in previous areas.

Once V defeats Adam, any remaining reinforcements will fall and V can choose to kill Adam or leave him be. After that, players have one more important choice to make, but the hard part of “(Don’t Fear) The Reaper” is over. The epilogues that follow are the same as if V had chosen Rogue, except that everyone who would have died during the Rogue ending is still alive.

Cyberpunk 2077 is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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