The Somewhat Damaged quest from Cyberpunk 2077 is a quest you may encounter towards the end of Phantom Liberty — and it’s a tricky one.
This article will walk you through this quest and how to finish it.
How to access the Somewhat Damaged quest in Phantom Liberty
The Somewhat Damaged quest will become available to you if you choose to side with Reed towards the end of Phantom Liberty, in the crucial Firestarter mission.
How to complete Somewhat Damaged in Phantom Liberty
You’ll start the quest by tracking the truck Songbird ran through the wall. You won’t find her in there, but will see a strange aura tracked across the ground. Reed informs you this is the residue from Songbird’s Blackwall virus. He tells you to follow this trail to Songbird but not to kill her, as he needs her alive.
Following the trail will first take you directly to a gated door blocking your way. If you have a Body score of 20, you can force this door off its hinges and continue. If your Body stat isn’t this high, there’s an “EXIT” latch on the floor that leads to an underwater passage.
There’s only one path underwater, and it leads you to a ladder that takes you out of the water. Follow the piping on the left side and turn left at the end of the little hallway.
Take a right at the following hallway and you’ll find a little drop off which leads to more water. When you’re underwater, swim forward and then right. At the next juncture, make a left to come up for a bit of air, then head back down straight.
Continue forward underwater towards the yellow marker that comes up on your map until you get to a yellow ladder that you can climb to get out of the water. From here, you can pick the Blackwall trail back up. While on this path, you’ll be haunted by Songbird’s memory, since your brains are synced up together.
To deter you, Songbird will make tech stop working for you, sever your connection with Reed, and eventually sever your connection with Johnny so you have to face her alone.
As you follow Songbird, she’ll lock herself in the Cynosure core terminal to stay away from you. You’ll need to hack into the Alpha and Bravo terminals.
Access the Alpha terminal by making your way through the gate on the opposite side of the door she shuts on you. Hop on the computer there and select the option that lets you use your personal link to override the terminal.
The Bravo terminal is tricky. To disconnect it, turn around and hop down into the shaft behind you. To stop you, Songbird will send out a Blackwall attack. Scanning the terminal will reveal there’s a crawl space behind the terminal that has a potential weak point. Select the option to crawl under the space and disconnect Bravo from down there.
This triggers the most difficult part of the Somewhat Damaged quest.
How to beat the robot in Somewhat Damaged in Phantom Liberty
Upon disconnecting the terminals, you’ll unwittingly activate a deadly AI robot that will hunt you down. This robot is unkillable, so do your best to run and hide and remember that any of the following instructions should be delayed if you see the robot coming.
To gain progress, you need to open the Sierra and Victor terminals. To get a better sense of where these are, enter the engineer’s room and pick up a map on the table so they’ll be marked on your map.
Sierra is in a room that’ll be labeled “Engineering.”
Victor can be found inside the Maintenance room, which you can re-write open quickly if you have a Technical Ability of 20. If not, you’ll have to progress through the Main Corridor, which leads you wide open for the robot to attack.
On one of the tables, you’ll find the plans you can use to build the Erebus submachine gun. If you have time, grab this, as it’s one of the best SMGs.
After this, make your way back to the gate, open it up, and sprint across the bridge. At the end, take a left and open the door to the air duct. Close it fast, and you’ll get a little setpiece that closes on the robot’s arm just in time.
From here, you’ll pick up Songbird’s trail once more and follow her to the Core Control Room. Initiate the shutdown of the core starting on the terminal in front of you. Before this can be completed, you’ll need to unplug three mainframes.
Then, you’ll have to disable six physical firewall devices, the search for which will expose you to the AI robot again. The last device you have to unplug is far away from the core in the Thermic room.
From here, you have to make it back to the main core, but the robot will be on the lookout for you. This is largely regarded as the most challenging part of the quest.
We recommend trying to stay crouched and out of sight rather than trying to outrun the robot. When you return to the control room, you can finish shutting down the core and progress to finally find Songbird.
When you find her, she’s being eaten by the virus. She tells you to put her out of her misery by killing her right there, and that being kept alive is a fate worse than death.
This is your last choice in the DLC, and your choice determines the ending you get.
What should you choose at the end of the Somewhat Damaged Quest?
We recommend killing Songbird rather than handing her over to Reed. Though it’s a cynical ending and only gets you measly pay rather than a cure for your Cyberware infection, this is a blessing in disguise.
The ending that allows you to cure your Cyberware infection backfires on you, and causes the most depressing ending in the game.