Look, the Pacifica job with the Voodoo Boys is basically a rite of passage for anyone playing Cyberpunk 2077. You walk into that derelict mall, the Grand Imperial Mall (GIM), and you're caught between a rock and a hard place. On one side, you have Brigitte and Ti Neptune—netrunners so cold they make a freezer look like a sauna. On the other, you have Special Agent Bryce Mosley. He’s the face of the most feared organization in the digital world. "I don't wanna mess with NetWatch Cyberpunk players often say," and honestly? They’re right. It's a sentiment echoed by every street-smart merc in Night City because NetWatch isn't just "the internet police." They are the thin, fragile line between human consciousness and total digital annihilation.
Most players treat the choice in "I Walk the Line" as a simple binary RPG decision. Do you side with the "cool" rebels or the "suit"? But if you actually dig into the lore—the stuff tucked away in shards and the deeper Talsorian tabletop guides—you realize that messing with NetWatch is a death wish for the entire planet.
The Digital Boogeyman is Real
NetWatch was founded in 2021 after the R.A.B.I.D.S. virus, unleashed by the legendary Bartmoss, basically nuked the old net. Imagine the world's entire infrastructure—banking, medical, power—turning into a lethal minefield of sentient killer code. That’s what NetWatch stepped into. They aren't "the good guys" in a traditional sense. They are bureaucrats with the power to fry your brain from a satellite before you even finish typing a terminal command.
People say i don't wanna mess with NetWatch Cyberpunk because the organization operates outside the law. Technically, they are the law. They have treaty-level authority. Even Arasaka and Militech, the titans of the corporate world, generally step aside when a NetWatch agent flashes their badge. They are the only ones maintaining the Blackwall.
Think about the Blackwall for a second. It's not just a firewall. It's a massive, self-evolving AI built to keep the other AIs out. The ones that live in the ruins of the Old Net. These aren't Siri or Alexa; they are eldritch horrors that view human minds as playground equipment or raw processing power. When you mess with NetWatch, you are poking holes in the only thing keeping those monsters at bay.
What Happens in the GIM Stays in the GIM
When you meet Agent Mosley in the mall, he offers you a deal. He'll wipe the malware the Voodoo Boys put on you, and he'll let you walk away. If you’ve been paying attention to the dialogue, the Voodoo Boys have zero intention of letting you live. They call outsiders "Rags." Disposable tools.
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If you side with Mosley, you're choosing the status quo. You’re choosing the guys who want to keep the world running, even if that world is a hyper-capitalist nightmare. If you kill him or side with Placide, you're helping a group that actively wants to tear down the Blackwall. They think they can negotiate with the AIs on the other side. They're wrong. Alt Cunningham—or what's left of her—literally tells you that the Voodoo Boys are delusional.
Why the Street Fears the Badge
There’s a reason you don’t see NetWatch agents patrolling the streets of Watson or Heywood. They don't care about your petty theft or your street races. They care about "Net Nukes." If you start messing around with experimental Daemons or trying to bridge the gap into the Old Net, they will find you.
I’ve spent hours reading through the Cyberpunk RED sourcebooks, and the lore is consistent: NetWatch has a "Kill-on-Sight" policy for certain types of net-crimes. They don't do trials. They don't do due process. They send a signal that causes your cyberdeck to overheat and explode your skull. It's efficient. It’s terrifying. It’s why the phrase i don't wanna mess with NetWatch Cyberpunk is basically a prayer for safety among netrunners.
The Mosley Choice: A Deep Dive into Consequences
Let's look at the mechanical and narrative outcomes.
If you go against NetWatch:
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- You stay on the Voodoo Boys' good side (briefly).
- Mosley dies, and his team is compromised.
- You eventually realize you were a pawn for a group that hates you.
If you side with NetWatch:
- Mosley clears your system.
- The Voodoo Boys’ netrunners get fried through the link.
- You get a very powerful, very dangerous enemy in the Voodoo Boys, but you gain the temporary "respect" of a global superpower.
Most players who value their V's life choose NetWatch. Why? Because the Voodoo Boys are cultists. NetWatch are cops. Between a cultist who wants to end the world and a cop who wants to keep his job, the cop is usually the safer bet for a merc just trying to survive the biochip in their head.
The Blackwall: The Scariest Thing You Can't See
We need to talk about what NetWatch is actually protecting. In the Phantom Liberty expansion, we get a much closer look at the Cynosure project and the horrors of the Old Net. We see what happens when the Blackwall is even slightly breached. It’s not "hacking." It’s digital possession.
NetWatch agents are often portrayed as cold or arrogant. Mosley is definitely both. But imagine your daily job is standing on the edge of an abyss, holding back a tide of infinite, malevolent intelligences that want to turn every human being into a vegetable. You'd probably be a bit of a jerk too.
The complexity of NetWatch is that they are essential villains. They represent the ultimate form of corporate-government control, yet without them, Night City wouldn't even have electricity, let alone a Net to jack into. They are the ultimate "lesser of two evils" in a world where everything is a shade of grey.
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Real Talk: Can You Actually Fight NetWatch?
In the game, your interactions are limited. You can't exactly walk into a NetWatch HQ and start blasting—at least not in the base game's open world. They exist in the periphery. They are the shadows in the code.
However, during the "I Walk the Line" quest, your decision has ripples. Siding against them makes your later interactions with certain Net-based entities much more volatile. Siding with them provides a sense of "professionalism" that fits a V who isn't just a chaos-gremlin, but a high-level operative.
Actionable Steps for Navigating NetWatch Encounters
If you're currently staring at Agent Mosley and wondering what to do, here's the reality-checked advice for your playthrough:
- Read the Shards in the GIM. Before talking to Mosley, read the emails on the computers in the mall. They paint a picture of what NetWatch was doing there. They weren't just "spying"; they were tracking a massive breach attempt by the Voodoo Boys.
- Consider your V's personality. Is your V a "Burn it all down" anarchist? Side with the Voodoo Boys. Is your V a pragmatic survivor who knows that the Voodoo Boys will discard them? Side with NetWatch.
- Don't ignore the rewards. Siding with NetWatch is technically the "cleaner" path for your internal systems, but it makes the walk out of the Voodoo Boys' hideout a lot more violent. Be prepared for a fight either way.
- Watch the Blackwall effects. Pay close attention to the visual glitches when NetWatch is involved. The red "digital honey" effect is a warning. It’s the visual representation of the Blackwall. When you see it, you’re in the big leagues.
The lore is deep, and the stakes are higher than just one merc's life. NetWatch is the only reason the lights are still on in 2077. So, the next time you think, "I don't wanna mess with NetWatch Cyberpunk," just remember: that instinct is probably the only thing keeping your V's brain from turning into grey slush. They are the most powerful organization you’ll never truly understand, and in Night City, that’s exactly how they want it.
Avoid the red code. Keep your ICE updated. And for the love of Morgan Blackhand, don't try to out-hack a NetWatch Special Agent unless you've got a death wish and a backup brain.