I remember that night in Night City. The Aldecaldos' fixer, Dakota Smith, had a job for me. A smuggler's drones were going missing near an old railway station, and the Wraiths had made it their nest. The gig, Flying Drugs, seemed like another standard infiltration. I geared up, expecting a long night of silenced pistol shots and hiding bodies in dark corners. Little did I know, I was about to stumble upon one of the most hilariously efficient—and ultimately, most loot-poor—solutions in all of Night City. It was a lesson in how speed doesn't always equal riches.
My plan was simple: be a ghost. I approached the perimeter of the weathered station, the desert wind whipping dust against my jacket. I could see Wraith patrols through the chain-link fence. My idea was to use the building's security system against them. I spotted a camera perched high on the rooftop, its red lens glowing like a malevolent eye. I jacked in, my cyberdeck humming. From this remote vantage point, I started tagging enemies and planning a series of quickhacks to disable them before my boots ever touched the concrete inside. Ping, Reboot Optics, Weapon Glitch—I was setting the stage for a clean, silent sweep.
Then, I saw it. As I panned the camera view, the mission objective itself—the disruptive antenna—swung into the frame. It was right there, in the camera's direct line of sight. A laugh escaped me, a short, sharp sound lost in the wind. Why risk life, limb, and a ton of ammo? My finger hovered over the command. With a thought, I initiated an Overload quickhack directly through the camera feed. A shower of sparks erupted from the antenna on my screen. Mission Updated: Destroy the Antenna - COMPLETE. I had finished the gig's primary objective in under a minute, without firing a single bullet or alerting a single soul. I just walked away, leaving a confused pack of Wraiths guarding an already-solved problem. The sheer, cheeky efficiency of it was brilliant.
But Night City always collects its due. As I drove back to Dakota to collect my eddies, a nagging feeling settled in. The payout was... standard. Good, but not great. Later, talking with other mercs on the data pool, I realized my mistake. My clever shortcut had cost me. The station was a treasure trove I never entered.
Let's break down what I missed by taking the easy way out:
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Combat & Stealth Takedown XP: Every Wraith I avoided was experience points left on the table.
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Access Point Hacking: The station's computers held access points loaded with eurodollars and quickhack components. I hacked zero.
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Environmental Loot: Weapons, armor mods, crafting specs—all the goodies lying on tables, in lockers, and on the bodies of the guards I never fought.
This isn't unique to Flying Drugs. Think about the gig An Inconvenient Killer in Charter Hill. You can sit on a rooftop across the street and use a Contagion quickhack to eliminate the target through a window. It's clean, untraceable, and fast. But if you never enter that sleek office, you'll miss the unique iconic weapon or the encrypted shard with bonus payment details sitting on the desk. The fixer, Dino, pays the same base rate, but the enterprising merc who gets their hands dirty walks away significantly richer.
So, what are the alternatives I skipped? The game, especially with its 2.0 update and dynamic scaling, offers a spectrum of approaches for Flying Drugs:
| Approach | Method | Consequence | Loot Potential |
|---|---|---|---|
| My "Camera Hack" | Quickhack antenna via security camera. | Instant completion, zero detection. | 🙁 Very Low (Just fixer pay) |
| Full Stealth | Infiltrate station, use Technical Ability to cut power to antenna (rank may vary). | Silent and professional. | 🙂 Moderate (Some looting possible) |
| Loud & Proud | Blast the antenna base with explosives or guns. | Triggers full combat, daring escape needed. | 😀 High (Forced to loot during fight) |
| Methodical Clearance | Fight or stealth-takedown every Wraith, hack every computer. | Time-consuming, high risk. | 😍 Very High (Maximum rewards) |
This is the beautiful tension at the heart of Cyberpunk 2077. Every mission is a series of trade-offs. Do you value your time, or the potential reward? Is your V a pragmatist who takes the cleanest exit, or a scavenger who leaves no credstick unturned? My experience with that rooftop camera was a masterclass in the former. It was incredibly satisfying to outsmart the game's systems in such a direct way. The power fantasy of solving a problem from a kilometer away with just your mind is pure cyberpunk.
Yet, as I build my legend in 2026's Night City, I find myself leaning toward the latter style more often. The streets are mean, and eddies make the world go 'round. That quickhack shortcut is a fantastic trick to have in my back pocket for a speedrun or when I'm just not in the mood for a fight. But for building a truly legendary V, drenched in the best cyberware and armed to the teeth, sometimes you just have to walk through the front door, sandy wind be damned, and take everything that isn't nailed down. After all, in a city that's always trying to chew you up, you need every advantage you can grab—even if it means getting your hands a little dirty.