Johnny Silverhand's Gear: the Malorian 3516, the Porsche 911 and the Silverhand Arm

Johnny Silverhand's gear comes down to three things: a custom Malorian Arms 3516 pistol, a 1977 Porsche 911 Turbo, and the chrome left cyberarm that gave him his name. All three go back to the Cyberpunk tabletop game, and in Cyberpunk 2077 V can claim two of them, the gun and the car, in a single side job, Chippin' In. The arm stays Johnny's. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2020)

The Malorian Arms 3516: Johnny's gun#

The 3516 is a heavy pistol from the gunmaker Malorian Arms, built to Johnny's own specification. In the tabletop catalogue Chromebook it is made for one job, stopping a fan in the grip of cyberpsychosis at a hundred paces however much armour they wear, and Johnny didn't care what it cost. Its cyber interface was designed so that only a user with a cyberarm and a smartgun link could get the most out of it, which ties the gun to the arm. (Chromebook)

Johnny carried it to the end. In the tabletop account of the 2023 raid on Arasaka Tower, he goes into the tower with a Malorian and an SMG and dies facing Adam Smasher. By the Cyberpunk RED era, in the 2040s, the 3516 is a rare luxury that almost never comes up for sale. (Firestorm: Shockwave; Cyberpunk RED)

Cyberpunk 2077 gives the gun a new look. Its database entry calls it the only one of its kind, made specially for Johnny, a semi-automatic pistol with a prototype smart link that takes several types of ammunition. In the current version of the game, its iconic perk turns a quick melee attack into a burst of fire that sets the target alight, at the cost of every round left in the magazine. (Cyberpunk 2077)

How V gets it. In Chippin' In, Johnny wants Smasher, and Rogue Amendiares wants in. Their lead takes them to the Ebunike, an old container ship moored in Northside, where Smasher's right-hand man Jeremiah Grayson is hiding. After the fight, V takes Johnny's gun from Grayson, who came by it through Smasher. The job starts once V agrees to let Johnny take V's body for a night, which plays out as A Cool Metal Fire. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Chippin' In"; "A Cool Metal Fire")

The Porsche 911 Turbo: Johnny's car#

Johnny's car is a 1977 Porsche 911 Turbo, the 930, which makes it a hundred years old in 2077. In the game's database it is a classic that few people can still find, and one that nobody looks as good in as Johnny did. It is also the car Johnny drove when he and Rogue were together, and Rogue recognises it on their date in Blistering Love. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Blistering Love")

The car is older than the video game. In "Never Fade Away", the short story of Johnny's 2013 attempt to rescue Alt Cunningham that runs through the Cyberpunk rulebooks, Johnny's team falls back to his Porsche before an Arasaka AV forces them to ditch it. (Cyberpunk 2020; Cyberpunk RED)

For 2077, CD Projekt Red rebuilt the car with Porsche. The studio's concept and vehicle artists kept the classic 1977 shape and added a lidar on the front, sensors and markings that identify it from the air, and electronic mirrors with screens inside the cabin. A real, working replica in Johnny's livery was put on show outside the Porsche Museum in Stuttgart from 15 to 22 October 2020. (Porsche rides into the dark future of Cyberpunk 2077)

How V gets it. Grayson tries to buy his life with a keepsake of Johnny's: the key to a shipping container. Spare him and he hands it over, or take it from his body. V climbs a crane on the Ebunike's dock to lower the container, opens it and pulls the canvas off the Porsche. V then drives it out to the Northern Oil Fields to find Johnny's grave, where the conversation that can lead to the secret ending takes place. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Chippin' In")

The Silverhand arm: where Johnny got his name#

The arm comes first in Johnny's story. In Cyberpunk 2077's version of his past, Johnny was born Robert John Linder, lied about his age to join the army and lost his left arm fighting in the Second Central American War. He deserted, came to Night City, and took his stage name from the silver cyberarm that replaced it. CD Projekt Red's official account gave the rest in 2022: born on 16 November 1988 in College Station, Texas, he used the name Linder until he lost a friend and an arm in that war. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077 on X: Johnny Silverhand's real name)

In the tabletop game the arm was there from the start. Johnny's write-ups list a chromed left cyberarm with a built-in recorder among his cyberware. In 2077 it is part of how V sees Johnny every time his engram appears, chrome hand and all. (Cyberpunk 2020; Firestorm: Shockwave; Cyberpunk 2077)

Can V get the arm? No. Cyberpunk 2077 has no cyberarm of Johnny's for V to install, and the arm stays part of his engram's image. The nearest V gets is wearing his clothes: in Chippin' In, Rogue gives V a replica of Johnny's Samurai jacket. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Chippin' In")

Why the gun and car were with Smasher's crew#

In the game's version of 2023, Johnny is captured on the roof of Arasaka Tower and his mind is copied with Soulkiller. Somewhere in the decades after, Smasher got hold of Johnny's things, and by 2077 the gun is in Grayson's hands and the car is locked in a container at the Ebunike docks. Taking them back is part of why Chippin' In matters so much to Johnny and Rogue: they come away with the rockerboy's legend in their hands, even if Smasher himself is out of reach in Japan. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Chippin' In")