You’re crouched behind a dumpster in Kabuki. Your health bar is a sliver of red, your ammo is gone, and a single stray bullet from a Maelstrom grunt will send you back to a save file from twenty minutes ago. This is it. This is the Cyberpunk 2077 only pain experience. It isn’t about power fantasies or feeling like a chrome-plated god. Honestly, it’s about suffering.
Most people play Cyberpunk 2077 to live out a sci-fi dream. They want the flashy cars, the legendary Quickhacks that melt brains through walls, and the feeling of being an unstoppable mercenary. But there's a specific subset of the community that decided the base game—even on Very Hard—was just too forgiving. They wanted the city to actually feel as hostile as the lore claims it is. They wanted the "Only Pain" run.
What Does Cyberpunk 2077 Only Pain Actually Mean?
If you're looking for an official menu setting, you won't find one. "Only Pain" is a community-driven challenge and a specific modding philosophy. It’s basically a self-imposed nightmare. At its core, it’s a commitment to extreme realism and punishing difficulty that strips away the safety nets CD Projekt Red built into the game.
Think about the standard gameplay loop. You get shot, you hide, your health regenerates, or you huff a MaxDoc and you’re fine. In a Cyberpunk 2077 only pain playthrough, one bullet can end you. Literally one. We are talking about a "One Hit Kill" (OHK) environment where armor ratings barely matter because the incoming damage is scaled so high that it bypasses your sub-dermal plating entirely.
It changes the genre of the game. It stops being an Action-RPG and turns into a survival-horror tactical shooter. You stop running into rooms guns blazing. Instead, you spend ten minutes scanning the environment, hacking cameras not to kill, but just to see where everyone is standing so you don't accidentally walk into a firing line.
The Modding Scene Behind the Suffering
To really achieve this level of masochism, players usually turn to the PC modding community. This isn't just about tweaking a few numbers in an .ini file. It’s about a complete overhaul of the combat AI and the economy.
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Mods like Hardcore22 or Wannabe Edgerunner (the Cyberpsychosis mod) are staples here. Hardcore22, for instance, makes damage realistic for both you and the enemies. If you headshot a scav, they die. If they headshot you, you're done. No level scaling. No "bullet sponge" enemies that take three magazines to the face. It’s fair, but it’s devastating.
Then there's the economy. In the base game, V becomes a multi-millionaire pretty quickly. In the "Only Pain" mindset, you are broke. You’re always broke. Rent costs money. Food costs money. Bullets are expensive. You find yourself looting every single piece of junk just to afford a single stim because the game's economy has been rebalanced to make you feel the "low life" part of "high tech, low life."
Why Would Anyone Do This to Themselves?
It sounds miserable. Why spend your limited free time being stressed out by a digital city?
Because Night City feels real when it’s dangerous. When you can breeze through a gang hideout without breaking a sweat, the atmosphere of the city starts to vanish. The "Only Pain" style forces you to engage with the mechanics you usually ignore. You actually care about which consumables you're using. You care about the caliber of your gun. You care about the time of day because shadows actually matter for stealth.
The Psychology of the Struggle
There is a specific thrill in overcoming an encounter that took you twelve tries. It’s the Dark Souls effect, but translated into a sprawling metropolis. In Cyberpunk 2077 only pain, finishing a simple "Sospicious Activity" hustle feels like a major cinematic achievement. You aren't a superhero. You’re just a person with a gun trying not to die in a gutter.
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You start to appreciate the quiet moments. Sitting at a ramen stand in Watson feels like a genuine reprieve because you know the moment you stand up and head toward your next objective, the world is going to try to kill you again.
The Technical Reality of Damage Scaling
Let's get into the weeds for a second. The way Cyberpunk 2077 handles difficulty is through multipliers. On Very Hard, enemies have more health and deal more damage. But "Only Pain" takes those multipliers and breaks them.
- Enemy Accuracy: In standard play, enemies have a "grace period" where they miss their first few shots to give you time to react. "Only Pain" removes this. If they see you, they hit you.
- Stamina Management: Every action costs more. If you run out of breath, you can't aim. If you can't aim, you're dead.
- Healing Limitations: You can't just spam heals. Most "Only Pain" setups involve a cooldown on stims that lasts minutes, or they require you to actually perform a long animation that leaves you vulnerable.
It's brutal. It's frustrating. It's often unfair. But for a certain type of player, that unfairness is the point. The world of Cyberpunk is supposed to be unfair. The megacorps own everything, the police are corrupt or overwhelmed, and life is cheap. Playing the game this way aligns the gameplay with the narrative themes in a way the developers couldn't do for a mass-market audience.
Survival Tips for the "Only Pain" Path
If you're actually going to try this, you need a different mindset. Forget everything you know about being a "solo."
- Recon is everything. If you haven't tagged every enemy in a building before entering, you've already lost. Use your Kiroshi optics like your life depends on them—because it does.
- Specialized builds are mandatory. You cannot be a jack-of-all-trades. You either go full Netrunner to kill from the shadows, or you go full Tech to shoot through walls without ever exposing yourself. A "balanced" build will just get you killed.
- Cover is not optional. In the vanilla game, you can slide-jump around like a maniac. In Cyberpunk 2077 only pain, if you aren't behind a solid object, you are a target.
- Consumables are your best friends. Those various food items and drinks you usually ignore? They provide small buffs to stamina regen and health that become the difference between life and death.
The Gear That Actually Matters
Forget the gold-plated pistols. You want silenced weapons with the highest possible single-shot damage. The Overwatch sniper rifle (Panam’s quest reward) is basically a requirement because it allows you to clear outposts from a different zip code. For close quarters, a high-tier Sandevistan is your only prayer. If you can't slow down time, you can't react fast enough to the AI's instant-aim.
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Misconceptions About the Hardcore Community
People think we're just "gamers who want to brag." Honestly? No. Most people playing Cyberpunk 2077 only pain aren't streaming it or posting it on Reddit. They’re doing it for the immersion. There is a specific feeling of "being" V when the stakes are that high. You feel the desperation. You feel the weight of the city.
It’s not about being the best; it’s about the atmosphere. It’s about looking at the neon lights and knowing that beneath that glow is a world that truly doesn't care if you live or die. That is the essence of Cyberpunk.
How to Set Up Your Own "Only Pain" Run
If you want to dive into this, don't just crank the difficulty to Very Hard and call it a day. That's not enough.
- Step 1: Get a Mod Manager. Use Vortex or Mod Organizer 2.
- Step 2: Install "Custom Damage Multipliers." Set your damage taken to 3x or 4x and your damage dealt to 2x (to avoid bullet sponges).
- Step 3: Remove the HUD. Turn off the mini-map and the enemy overhead icons. If you want to know where someone is, you have to look for them.
- Step 4: No Fast Travel. Walk everywhere. You'll realize how dangerous the back alleys actually are when you can't just teleport past them.
- Step 5: Permadeath (Optional but Recommended). If you die, you delete the save. This is the ultimate "Pain" experience. Most people don't make it past the prologue, but those who do have a story to tell.
Actionable Insights for Your Next Playthrough
Whether you go full "Only Pain" or just want a tougher challenge, start by changing how you view the environment. Stop treating Night City like a playground and start treating it like a war zone.
- Prioritize Stealth: Even if you aren't a stealth build, use it to thin the ranks.
- Invest in Cyberware Early: Don't save your eddies. Spend them on armor and utility immediately.
- Read the Shards: They often give hints about back entrances or environmental hazards you can use to your advantage.
The Cyberpunk 2077 only pain journey isn't for everyone. It’s for the players who want to feel the grime of the city under their fingernails. It’s for those who want every victory to feel earned and every mistake to feel heavy. It turns a great game into a visceral, haunting experience that stays with you long after you turn off the console.