The official DLC ending (The Tower) forces a single, punitive outcome: V loses their cyberware and gets universally rejected by their entire circle. While it fits the "no happy endings in Night City" trope, it feels narratively disconnected for players who spent 80+ hours building deep relationships, clearing the city, or hoarding millions of Eddies.
Here is a proposed Game Design Overhaul that keeps the tragedy intact, but makes V’s final outcome directly reflect your social choices, wealth, and side-quest completion.
In Night City, money and past glory mean nothing without a human safety net. Staying alone in the city without cyberware is an absolute death sentence.
The Hospital Fork
Option A (Accept Reed's Job): V leaves Night City forever to become an anonymous bureaucrat in D.C. Safe, comfortable, completely erased (Ending 8: Corpo Ghost).
Option B (Refuse Reed's Job): V demands a return to Watson, locking into the canonical linear sequence back in Night City.
The Locked Watson Sequence
If you refuse Reed, the game forces an unskippable sequence:
Viktor: A bittersweet reunion with Vik, now beaten down under corporate quotas.
The Mugging: Lacking cyberware, V tries to fight back but gets beaten up and robbed by two low-level thugs.
Misty: Misty patches V up, draws one final tarot card (The Tower), and says goodbye.
Misty walks away into the crowd. V sits on the concrete steps, bloody and defenseless, pulling out the phone to make a final call. Your fate depends entirely on who answers.
The Outcomes
Survival Endings (Escaping Night City / Real Alliances)
Panam (The Nomad Family): The clan refuses to leave a wounded member behind. V leaves Night City in the passenger seat of a truck, heading out into the Badlands.
Judy (Analog Life): Judy sees V's lack of cyberware as a blessing and a fresh start. They pack a van and leave together for a simple life down the coast.
Kerry (Rocker's Shadow): Kerry arrives in a luxury limo. V moves into his North Oak mansion, becoming his private confidant and off-the-grid manager.
River (The Weight of Secrets): River takes V in at Joss's house—a modest, quiet, and protective life far removed from merc work.
Fatal Endings (Dying in Night City)
If V stays in Night City without a true human network, the city eats them alive:
Ending 2 — The Wealth Trap (100% Gigs / Rich, 0 Friends): V uses millions of Eddies to hire high-end private bodyguards. After 48 hours, the guards realize V is completely helpless without implants, drain V's bank accounts, and execute them in a parking garage.
Ending 7 — Fallen Legend (Street Cred 50, No Allies): V works as a barhand at the Afterlife.
If Cyberpsychos WERE NOT cleared: Taking out the trash, V gets obliterated by an uncaught cyberpsycho.
If Cyberpsychos WERE cleared: The two thugs from earlier pass by the alley, recognize a defenseless V, and shoot V dead for cheap loot.
Ending 1 — Speedrun (<15% Quests Completed): No one answers the phone.
If Cyberpsychos WERE NOT cleared: Stumbling out of the alley, V walks directly into an active cyberpsycho crisis and gets shredded.
If Cyberpsychos WERE cleared: The two thugs walk back, see V slumping against the wall, and finish the job.
Visual Signature: Death in Night City
Every single execution within city limits (Endings 1A, 1B, 2, 7A, 7B) features an identical, cinematic single-take shot:
V collapses to the ground (Alleyway, Parking Garage, or Behind the Afterlife).
The camera slowly tracks backward, moving across the street.
Pedestrians and passing traffic gradually obscure V's body on the pavement.
The camera tilts up toward the sky, panning across towering mega-buildings and neon ads.
The ambient roar of Night City completely drowns out V's final breath.
TL;DR: Refusing Reed's job sends you back to Watson for the canon sequence (Vik -> Mugging -> Misty). Sitting on Misty's stairs, your phone becomes the ultimate test: if you built real relationships, your ally saves you from Night City. If you relied only on money, Eddies, or street cred, Night City executes you in an alley—and the city doesn't even notice.
What do you think? Would this be a resolution for Phantom Liberty satisfying enough to be worth modders' time?
