Is Alt Cunningham the Blackwall? No, and Here's the Difference

No. Alt Cunningham isn't the Blackwall, and she didn't build it. NetWatch developed the Blackwall as a firewall inside the Net, and Alt is a digital mind that lives on the far side of it. The mix-up probably comes from the fact that you meet her beyond the wall in Cyberpunk 2077. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk Wiki, Blackwall)

Who built the Blackwall?#

NetWatch did. After the DataKrash, per the wiki, NetWatch failed to regain control of the Net from the rogue AIs, so it began building what it named the Black Wall in secret in 2044, with help from the Transcendentals and the Ghosts. The goal was to keep part of the Net safe for people and hold the dangerous AIs back. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Blackwall; Cyberpunk RED)

Alt doesn't appear in that history. Her work in the tabletop timeline is the human-to-Net transfer program that ITS turned into Soulkiller, years earlier. I couldn't find a page that names her as a builder of the wall, so if you've read that she created it, I'd treat that as a mix-up. For her side of the story, see why Alt created Soulkiller. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Altiera Cunningham)

How did Alt end up behind the Blackwall?#

By the wiki's account, her body died in 2013 when Johnny disconnected her from Arasaka's mainframe, and her digital self stayed behind in Arasaka Tower. In 2023 Spider Murphy scattered her into the Net after Smasher's ambush, hoping to retrieve her someday. After the Fourth Corporate War she built a digital refuge for other Soulkiller victims. In Cyberpunk 2077 she gives a different account of 2013: her engram went into the Net during the raid, and her consciousness split from it when Johnny pulled the plug. By 2077 the wiki still ranks her among the Net's great powers. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Altiera Cunningham)

What the sources don't give is a scene of her crossing the Blackwall. They put her in the Net, and later beyond the wall, without saying when or how she got there. That's a gap, and I'd rather flag it than invent a route.

How does Alt survive beyond the Blackwall?#

By staying shaped like a person. In Cyberpunk 2077 she says you last beyond the wall by taking a human form, so that you don't dissolve into raw data and act out of animal instinct. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Blackwall)

The wiki's summary of her story adds that the engram held on to Alt's image so it wouldn't lose its mind, the fate of other AIs left in the Net for years. It also has her telling V and Johnny that she is only an image of Alt, not Alt herself. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Altiera Cunningham)

That's the part worth arguing about. My read is that the "Alt" you meet is best treated as a copy that wears Alt's face and memories, which is the same position our Alt Cunningham profile takes, rather than the woman who died in 2013.

How does V reach her?#

The Voodoo Boys force V to cross the Blackwall, hoping Alt will show herself to a familiar mind. V relives Johnny's memories of her, and she recognises Johnny's engram, then brings V and Johnny somewhere safe behind the wall. Later, depending on the ending, either V or Johnny can choose to go beyond the Blackwall with Alt and merge with her, as the other Mikoshi constructs do. See the endings guide. (Cyberpunk Wiki, Altiera Cunningham; Cyberpunk Wiki, Blackwall)

Canon Notes#