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Cyberpunk 2077 brings you into the life of V, a mercenary that gets involved with multiple factions and shady figures of power throughout Night City. In a place like this, full of saints and sinners, you will get involved in a conflict between the Maelstrom gang and a corporate agent from Militech.
Most of the main story quests you will do during the beginning of the game probably felt pretty linear, but The Pickup completely changes that. This quest has tons of branching narratives and can be completed in a vast number of ways to trigger a wide variety of different outcomes.
Updated April 26, 2023, by Santi Leguiza: We've overhauled this guide to enhance readability and ensure that all of the information is accurate.
Cyberpunk 2077 The Pickup Main Quest
"The Pickup" tasks you with heading to the All Foods warehouse in Northside, which is currently occupied by the notorious Maelstrom gang. Your objective here is to retrieve the Flathead, a weird and expensive spider-bot device that Dex DeShawn paid for but has yet to receive.
Before you go to All Foods, though, you'll be given the option to meet with a Militech agent called Meredith Stout. This is optional, meaning you can ignore Stout if you want, but it's important to remember that your decision here will ultimately affect the outcome of the entire quest.
The Pickup - Meet With Stout
Once you meet with the paranoid Corpo, she will do an aggressive background check. Any dialog choice will have the same result, with Meredith offering you to pay for the Flathead with a loaded credchip.
The thing is, the credchip has a virus on it, which means you can refuse to take it from her. Whether you refuse or accept the chip, you will still have to negotiate with the Maelstrom gang, and the only difference will be the number of possible outcomes.
Obviously, you have the option to forego meeting with Stout entirely. There are two different routes you can go down here, but both result in the same outcome, with Gilchrist getting promoted while Stout is killed.
The Pickup - Negotiating With Royce
Once you enter the Maelstrom base in the abandoned All Foods building, you will watch a tense cutscene while sitting on a couch. Once the Maelstrom boss Royce shows up, different things can happen.
If You Refused The Credchip
If you refuse the credchip, you will have two different possible outcomes.
Choice |
Outcome |
---|---|
Shoot Royce |
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Buy the Flathead with your own money |
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If You Accepted The Credchip
While there still are two outcomes here, there are five different avenues you can go down to reach them.
Choice |
Outcome |
---|---|
Shoot Royce |
|
Buy the Flathead with Stout's credchip |
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Buy the Flathead with your own money |
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Buy the Flathead with Stout's credchip but tell Royce about the virus |
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Buy the Flathead with a cracked version of Stout's credchip |
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Saving Brick From All Foods
In the Northern corner of the warehouse on your map, Brick will be locked behind a door, left here since Royce took over. Luckily getting through the door is pretty simple - just scan the terminal to the left of the door, and use the Remote Deactivation hack option, which will quickly shut down the lock and open up the door.
If you haven't specced into hacking abilities, you can still get Brick out. There's a computer in the next room with the code to get the door open - 9691. Next, you will need to either disarm the laser mine itself or if you return to the room where you found the door code, you will be able to also find a detonator that you can disarm.
Of course, you could also kill Brick by detonating the mine yourself, or just leave him to wallow in his cell until the surviving Maelstrom members take pity on him. Your choice.