The Afterlife: Night City's Merc Bar and Its Drinks Named After Legends

The Afterlife is Night City's legendary merc bar, the place where solos, netrunners and fixers drink, swap stories and take the jobs that make names. In Cyberpunk 2077 it sits in Little China, in Watson, and belongs to Rogue Amendiares, the Queen of the Fixers. Its best-known tradition is the menu: drinks named after mercs who made it into legend. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The Afterlife in the tabletop game#

The Afterlife started as a bar for professionals. The Night City sourcebook describes a former mortuary turned into a solo hangout, with three rooms that get darker and more dangerous the deeper you go, the last one full of the veterans who charged the most. It plays martial music and gothic rock, and the only dancing is the odd brawl, which by the regulars' code is for fun, not for keeps. (Night City)

It was the place to hire armed help. Clients could come in person or post jobs on a board that got passed around the room. Walking in was at your own risk. (Night City)

Cyberpunk RED moves the story on to the 2040s. After the 2023 disaster, Rogue, retired from front-line work after a car crash, bought the Afterlife with her savings and used it as her court for mercs and clients. Over time it became louder and more like a nightclub, but stayed the top solo bar in the city. (Cyberpunk RED)

That 2023 disaster is the bombing of Arasaka Tower. The tabletop books (Firestorm: Shockwave and Cyberpunk RED) have a Militech-backed team under Morgan Blackhand set the nuke and Adam Smasher kill Johnny Silverhand; Cyberpunk 2077 shows Johnny arming the bomb himself before he is captured and put through Soulkiller. Rogue was on that raid in both versions, and the Arasaka Tower attack page covers it in full. (Firestorm: Shockwave; Cyberpunk RED; Cyberpunk 2077)

The Afterlife in Cyberpunk 2077#

By 2077 the Afterlife has moved to Little China, in northern Night City, still in a building with a morgue's look. The game's database opens with an old saying: "There is only one path in Night City worth walking: the one that leads to the Afterlife." It's where the biggest deals get cut and the rewards have the most zeros. (Cyberpunk 2077)

You can't just walk in. Try it early and Emmerick, the bouncer, asks who referred you and sends you on your way. V and Jackie Welles get in on the night Dexter DeShawn briefs them in a back booth on the Konpeki Plaza heist, which Jackie treats as their ticket to the big time. (Cyberpunk 2077)

Rogue runs the merc trade from her booth. Around her are Claire behind the bar, the netrunner Nix in a back room and Weyland as her bodyguard. Nix is the one V brings Rache Bartmoss's booby-trapped cyberdeck to in the side job KOLD MIRAGE. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The database adds a ghost story. Regulars say Morgan Blackhand's ghost wanders the bar, switching off the safeties on customers' holstered guns. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The drinks named after legends#

The Afterlife's tradition is to name drinks after legendary mercs, usually ones who went out in a blaze of glory. Claire, the bartender, puts it simply: it's an old tradition, and drinks are named after the regulars. Jackie gives her his own order and tells her to remember it for when he's a legend. (Cyberpunk 2077)

What's on the menu in 2077:

• The Johnny Silverhand. A tequila old fashioned with a splash of beer and a chilli garnish, in honour of the rockerboy who never gave up. (Cyberpunk 2077)
• The Jackie Welles. Vodka, lime juice, ginger beer and a splash of love, the recipe Jackie gave Claire. It only goes on the menu after he dies, once V has been to his ofrenda. (Cyberpunk 2077)
• The David Martinez. Vodka on the rocks topped with NiCola, added in a 2022 patch for the hero of Cyberpunk: Edgerunners. (Cyberpunk 2077)

The missing drink says as much as the menu. Cyberpunk RED notes that a Johnny Silverhand can be ordered but a Morgan Blackhand can't, because no one has confirmed he's dead. 2077 keeps that gap. (Cyberpunk RED; Cyberpunk 2077)

There's a joke in the David Martinez. In Edgerunners, David doesn't like fizzy drinks, and yet his memorial cocktail comes topped with cola. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners; Cyberpunk 2077)

The Afterlife in Edgerunners#

The bar turns up in Edgerunners too. David's crew drink and pick up work there, and Rogue makes a brief cameo. (Cyberpunk: Edgerunners)

Who ends up owning the Afterlife#

The Afterlife's future depends on how 2077 ends. If V lets Johnny lead the attack on Arasaka Tower with Rogue, she dies fighting Smasher. In The Sun ending, V returns as the most famous merc in Night City and the owner of the Afterlife. On the secret solo route, Rogue survives and greets V at the bar instead. The endings explained page has every version. (Cyberpunk 2077)