Balls to the Wall is a new side quest from the Phantom Liberty DLC for Cyberpunk 2077 that revolves around a somewhat hapless new recruit from BARGHEST, the gang/ military unit that runs the streets of Dogtown.
The recruit in question is named Paco, and he and his fellow recruit Babs have found themselves in a whole lot of trouble. You are their only hope at getting out of this mess with all their limbs intact, but if you take on the mission, then it is up to you as to how you choose to help them out of their predicament.
We will be walking you through this side mission in this guide, and we’ll also take a look at the different choices to be made and their outcomes.
Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty Balls to the Wall quest walkthrough
Go to the BARGHEST camp in Pacifica
The mission becomes available after the Spider and the Fly quest is complete, which is one of the first missions that you will do when you begin the Phantom Liberty DLC. The mission can be found in Pacifica in Dogtown, which is close to the center of the district. The closest fast travel point is the Golden Pacific fast travel station. When you get closer to the mission marker, you will start approaching a BARGHEST camp. Enter the camp, and you will find the two recruits that you need to speak to on the left-hand side as you go in.
Speak to Paco and Babs
The recruits in question are Paco Torres and Babs Okoye, and if you talk to them, you will strike up a conversation and they will offer you a drug called Deep Dive. If you want to complete the mission, you will have to take it. I refused at first because drugs are bad, mmkay. I didn’t have much choice but to fold when it became clear that things weren’t going to progress if I didn’t take it.
Play as Kurt Hansen
When you take the Deep Dive, you will dive into Paco’s memory and relive his initiation into the BARGHEST group. Rather than through Paco himself, you step into the shoes of the leader of BARGHEST, Kurt Hansen. There are two sections where you play as Hansen and in this first one, all you need to do is speak to his second in command—Yuri—and then head down into the area where the recruits are gathering and beat Paco in a fistfight to complete his initiation into the group.
The second section involves much more in terms of gameplay, with you taking on the role of Hansen as you take down a group of scavengers. You will first be in a car with Paco as the driver as you engage in a gun battle with scavs in cars and on bikes. Once you get to a certain point under a bridge, the battle will take to the streets as you take on the scavs face-to-face.
Hansen has an awesome gun that is brutally powerful, as well as a very sharp knife in case anyone gets too close. He also has a ton of health, so it isn’t too difficult to take down the scavs. That being said, I did actually die in the street battle against the scavs the first time. Probably because I went running at the scavs thinking I was pretty much invincible. Hansen is hard to kill, but I can confirm that he is definitely not indestructible. Don’t make the same mistake I did.
Generator Theft
When these two sections of the mission as Hansen are complete, you will return to the present day where Paco will tell you about the trouble he and Babs have gotten themselves into. It turns out that Paco, being young, impressionable, and very, very dumb, decided to steal some generators from Hansen. Surprisingly, that business opportunity didn’t turn out exactly as he thought it would, and now both he and Babs are looking for help before Hansen has their heads.
Frame Yuri, Run for the Hills, or Call in Some Favors
This is where the first major choice in the game comes into play: Will you frame Hansen’s second Yuri, whom you briefly met in the memory sequence earlier, or will you encourage Paco to make a run for it? If you have done enough grunt work in the main Cyberpunk 2077 game, then you will also have the option to call in some favors. Let’s take a look at all three of these choices, so you can decide for yourself how you want to tackle it.
Frame Yuri
This is arguably the worst possible outcome for the mission, especially for Paco. If you decide to go with attempting to frame Yuri for the theft, Paco and Babs will ask if they can meet you at a spot in the underpass nearby the next evening. Go to the meeting spot and wait by sitting on a nearby bench so that time will pass. Before you do, Johnny will try to talk you out of the meeting. You probably should have listened to him this time around.
Fight Yuri
As soon as you wake up, Yuri will be there and ready for a showdown. He was one step ahead the entire time and is now very much pissed off. The Yuri boss fight isn’t too difficult, but he does have a lot of armor and grenades, as well as two pretty strong SMGS that he will duel wield. When the fight is over, loot Yuri’s body, and you will get two rare guns—the M-10AF Lexington and the M-76 Omaha—as well as a shard of a conversation between Yuri and Kurt. The shard reveals that both Kurt and Yuri were aware of the robbery, which doesn’t end well for Paco.
Find Paco
After a talk with Johnny, travel to the marker on the map, and you’ll find that Paco has suffered from the worst possible fate. Underneath the Needle location, you will find his headless corpse strung up for everyone to see. Yeah, he was kind of stupid for doing this in the first place, but he didn’t deserve that. Interact with Paco’s body, and you will be prompted to text Babs and ask her what happened. She is safe, having called in some favors to secure passage out of Dogtown. Too bad the same can’t be said for Paco.
So that is the end of the Balls to the Wall mission if you chose the frame Yuri option. Not many positives to be had here, except for Yuri being out of the picture and a couple of rare guns. Let’s check out the results of the other options. They are definitely less depressing choices, at least.
Run for the Hills
Running away is definitely one of the better choices here, especially if you want to see Paco escape with his head intact. If you opt for this, Paco will approach a nearby car, and you will need to put him in the trunk and drive him out of Dogtown. You won’t need to go far, though, as the drop-off location is the Grand Imperial Mall just outside the main Dogtown gates. That’s all you need to do for this option, as you will then have to wait two in-game days before the mission will continue.
A Text from Paco
After these two days, you will get a text from Paco wherein he will ask for a meeting at the Afterlife club. Head to the waypoint and you will find that Paco has become a scav. Not exactly the best outcome, but definitely better than being found headless and hanging upside down. You can still chew him out for his life choices, though, and also point out that he might have to go up against his bestie Babs in a firefight one day if he continues working as a scav (as Babs is still with BARGHEST). You’ll get 8,000 eddies for your troubles with this option, as well as the Carmen Power Assault Rifle. It’s not the perfect ending, but you get money and a pretty good weapon, so it’s certainly an improvement from the framing Yuri choice.
Call in Some Favors
The final choice revolves around calling in a favor from either River, Panam or Rogue, characters, and potential romances from the main game. This is the option that I went with in this mission, as I had built up relationships with both Panam and River that were strong enough to be able to call in some favors from them. You can also call in a favor from Rogue if you got her on your side during the main campaign of the game.
Rogue’s Help
With Rogue, she will be able to find some replacement generators and will tell you where you need to go in order to collect them.
Panam’s Help
Panam will call in her fellow Nomads from the Aldecados crew to help smuggle both Paco and Babs out of Night City altogether.
River’s Help
River is my V’s beau, so of course, I had to call up my boo to see if he would help me out. If you opt for River, then he will use his contacts from his old job at the NCPD and have replacement generators dropped off in an area where Paco and Babs can go and grab them.
No matter which contact you choose to help you, the result will basically be the same. After a day has passed in the game, Paco will text you and thank you for your help. He will even send a selfie with the generators if you opted for River or Rogue’s help. Once you have received the text, a new marker will appear on the map that will take you back to the tent in the BARGHEST camp where you first met Paco and Babs. Go to the chest in the tent, and you will receive the same Carmen Power Assault Rifle that you will get if you opt for the running for the hills choice. You’ll also get a Solo skill shard, which will give you 400 XP for the Solo skill.
What to do in Balls to the Wall side mission in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty
For the best possible rewards and a happier outcome, opt for getting Paco to run away or calling in some favors. I personally prefer the favors option, as it means that Paco won’t turn into a scav who will likely end up dead further down the line anyway. Even if you aren’t bothered whether Paco lives or dies, the frame Yuri option is undoubtedly the worst choice in terms of rewards.
Call in some favors or help Paco run away so that you will get better rewards by the end of the mission. Paco gets to keep his head too, which is a nice bonus for those trying to play as good guy V during their time with Cyberpunk 2077.
