Who Is Johnny Silverhand to V?
Johnny Silverhand is the dead rockerboy living in V's head: a copy of his mind on the Relic chip, which saved V's life and is now overwriting V with Johnny. He starts as V's enemy and can end as V's closest friend. Here is how their bond works and where it can end.
Johnny Silverhand is the ghost in V's head. He is an engram, a digital copy of the rockerboy's mind made by Arasaka after the 2023 tower attack, stored on the Relic chip that ended up in V's skull. The chip saved V's life after a bullet to the head, but it is slowly writing Johnny over V. So Johnny is V's parasite, V's death sentence and, if the player lets him, V's best friend. (Cyberpunk 2077)
How Johnny ended up in V's head#
The job was meant to be a theft. The fixer Dexter DeShawn hired V and Jackie Welles to steal the Relic from Yorinobu Arasaka's suite at Konpeki Plaza. The heist fell apart, the chip's case was damaged, and V slotted the Relic into their own head to keep it working. Then Dex shot V and dumped the body. (Cyberpunk 2077, "The Heist")
V should have died. Instead the Relic rebuilt V's brain around itself, and the mind stored on it woke up. That mind was Johnny's, copied when Arasaka ran him through Soulkiller after the 2023 attack on Arasaka Tower and kept for decades in Mikoshi. The page on how Johnny got into the Relic has that side of it. (Cyberpunk 2077)
The ripperdoc Viktor Vektor gives V the bad news. The chip can't come out without killing V, and in a matter of weeks there will be nothing left of V but Johnny. (Cyberpunk 2077, "Playing for Time")
Enemies sharing one body#
At first they want the same thing, and only one of them can have it. Johnny attacks V in a bid to take over. He appears in mirrors and passenger seats, comments on everything, mocks V's choices and pushes his own old grudges, above all against Arasaka. He can also seize V's body for short stretches. (Cyberpunk 2077)
The game's own database entry sums up the arrangement: Johnny is "currently residing in V's brain as a digitized tenant". (Cyberpunk 2077)
Since neither can get rid of the other, they work together. Johnny gives advice, V relives Johnny's memories through the chip, including the failed 2013 rescue of Alt Cunningham and the night the tower fell, and both need the same cure, even if they disagree about who it should save. (Cyberpunk 2077)
From enemies to friends#
How far the bond goes is up to the player. V can stay cold and hostile, or listen. Side jobs built around Johnny, such as "Chippin' In" (the hunt for what happened to his body), "Blistering Love" (a last night out with Rogue Amendiares) and the Samurai reunion with Kerry Eurodyne, give him chances to face what he did to the people around him. (Cyberpunk 2077)
The closer they become, the more Johnny changes. That closeness is tracked by the game, and it decides which endings appear. If the two are close enough, Johnny himself suggests the secret ending: storming Arasaka Tower with nobody else, just the two of them. (Cyberpunk 2077, "(Don't Fear) The Reaper")
Interpretation: the game is a long argument about whether Johnny can be better than the man he was, and V is the person who makes him try. Our reading is that V is the first person in a long time whom Johnny treats as an equal rather than as a tool for his cause. (Cyberpunk 2077)
One body, two minds: how it ends#
Everything comes down to the rooftop at the end of "Nocturne Op55N1" and then to Mikoshi. Alt, now an AI beyond the Blackwall, tells them the damage has gone too far. If V goes back into V's body, V has about six months to live. Johnny's mind, though, would take to the body without trouble. (Cyberpunk 2077)
- V keeps the body. In The Star and The Sun, Johnny lets V go back and leaves with Alt across the Blackwall. (Cyberpunk 2077)
- Johnny keeps the body. In Temperance, V chooses to go with Alt, and Johnny lives on in V's body, says goodbye to V's friends and leaves Night City. (Cyberpunk 2077, "New Dawn Fades")
- Johnny is cut out. In The Devil, Arasaka removes him on an orbital station, and he tells V how disappointed he is in that choice before he goes. In Phantom Liberty's The Tower, NUSA doctors take out the Relic and Johnny goes with it. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
No ending is treated as canon. What happens to V at the end covers each one from V's side. (Cyberpunk 2077; Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty)
Read more#
Johnny Silverhand has his full history, from Samurai to the bomb, and the Relic explains the chip that ties him to V. For the other big question about him, see is Johnny Silverhand evil.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Johnny Silverhand real or in V's head?
- Both, in a way. He is a real person's engram, a digital copy of Johnny's mind stored on the Relic, but he only exists inside V. Nobody else can see or hear him.
- Are Johnny and V friends?
- They can be. It depends on the player. Choices in conversations and side jobs such as Chippin' In decide whether they stay at each other's throats or become close, and the closer they get, the more endings open up.
- Can Johnny take over V's body?
- Yes. During the story he takes control for short stretches, and in the Temperance ending he keeps V's body for good while V's mind leaves with Alt Cunningham.
- Is Johnny V's father or relative?
- No. They are strangers. Johnny died in 2023, fifty years before the game, and V only meets him because the Relic chip ended up in V's head after the Konpeki Plaza heist.
Sources
- GameCyberpunk 2077, CD Projekt Red, 2020 (including update 2.0, 2023)
- GameCyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, CD Projekt Red, 2023
Spotted a factual error or a primary source we missed? Email a correction. Every flagged claim gets reviewed.
Followed from this entry
How Did Johnny Silverhand Get Into the Relic?
Arasaka captured Johnny in 2023, copied his mind with Soulkiller and kept the engram in Mikoshi for decades. Then Anders Hellman loaded it onto the Relic 2.0 prototype, the chip V ends up with after the Konpeki Plaza heist. Here's each step, and how the tabletop differs.
Is Johnny Silverhand Evil?
Not quite, but he is no hero. Johnny is a selfish, violent egomaniac who, in Cyberpunk 2077's version, nuked Arasaka Tower. He also really does hate the corporations that run Night City, and if V lets him, he changes. Here is the case against him, the case for him, and what the game itself says.
What Happens to V at the End of Cyberpunk 2077?
It depends on your choice on Misty's rooftop. In every base-game ending where V keeps their body, V has about six months to live. Only Phantom Liberty's The Tower saves V, at a heavy price. Here is what happens to V in each ending.
Alt Cunningham: the Netrunner Who Created Soulkiller
Alt Cunningham was Night City's best netrunner, Johnny Silverhand's girlfriend and the first victim of the program she invented. Here's her story from the tabletop game to Cyberpunk 2077, and what the thing behind the Blackwall really is.
Dexter DeShawn: the Fixer Who Shot V in Cyberpunk 2077
Dexter DeShawn, Dex to everyone, is the Night City fixer who sets up the Konpeki Plaza heist in Cyberpunk 2077, then shoots V when it goes wrong. Here's who he was, why he pulled the trigger, and how he ended up in the landfill himself.
Jackie Welles: V's Partner and the Heart of Cyberpunk 2077
Jackie Welles is the big-hearted Heywood merc who becomes V's partner and dies after the Konpeki Plaza heist. This covers who he was, how the heist killed him, and the choice V makes about his body.
Mentioned in3 entries
Is Johnny Silverhand Evil?
Not quite, but he is no hero. Johnny is a selfish, violent egomaniac who, in Cyberpunk 2077's version, nuked Arasaka Tower. He also really does hate the corporations that run Night City, and if V lets him, he changes. Here is the case against him, the case for him, and what the game itself says.
Johnny Silverhand: the Rockerboy Who Nuked Arasaka
Johnny Silverhand is the frontman of Samurai, the man who attacked Arasaka Tower twice, and the engram living in V's head in Cyberpunk 2077. Here's his life in the tabletop game and the video game, where the two tell it differently, and what happens to him in each ending.
V (Cyberpunk 2077)
V is the mercenary at the centre of Cyberpunk 2077, a merc who steals the Relic from Arasaka and ends up sharing a skull with Johnny Silverhand. This covers the three lifepaths, the heist, what the Relic does to V and how every ending decides V's fate.
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