You know that feeling when everything is going way too well? That's the vibe during the first half of Cyberpunk 2077 the heist. You're sitting in a high-end Delamain cab, sipping expensive booze with Jackie Welles, and thinking you’re about to become a legend in Night City. It’s the classic "one last job" trope, but CD Projekt Red executes it with such agonizing tension that even on a third or fourth playthrough, your palms still get a little sweaty when that elevator doors open at Konpeki Plaza.
Honestly, it's the turning point. Before this mission, the game feels like a fun mercenary sim. After? It’s a tragedy.
Most people remember the big moments—the Flathead spider bot, the biochip, the frantic escape. But the actual mechanical depth and the narrative traps set during this specific quest are what make it a masterclass in level design. It isn't just a story beat. It is the moment the game stops holding your hand and shows you exactly how brutal the world of Arasaka and Militech really is.
The Setup: Why Konpeki Plaza Works
The mission starts with a layer of "fake" security. You aren't kicking down doors; you're walking through them as an invited guest. This is where the world-building shines. You see the extreme wealth gap of Night City firsthand. The transition from the grime of Watson to the sterile, gold-plated luxury of Konpeki Plaza is jarring.
It’s about the atmosphere.
You’ve got T-Bug in your ear, Jackie acting nervous but trying to keep it cool, and the constant threat of a scanner picking up your fake identity. It’s a slow burn. Most games would have jumped straight to the shooting. Here, you spend twenty minutes just existing in the enemy’s stronghold.
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The Flathead sequence is often criticized for being a bit "point and click," but it serves a vital purpose. It forces you to look at the layout of the penthouse. You're scouting. You're seeing the vents, the cameras, and the sheer scale of the security you’re about to piss off. If you pay attention, you can actually see clues about Yorinobu Arasaka’s mental state just by looking at the items in his room. The guy is a rebel playing dress-up in his father's empire, and the mission design highlights that through environmental storytelling.
What Really Happened During Cyberpunk 2077 The Heist
The heist goes sideways not because of a mistake you made, but because of a cosmic stroke of bad luck. Saburo Arasaka—the living god of the corporate world—decides to show up at the exact moment you’re behind the glass.
Watching the patricide from behind a piece of high-tech plexiglass is one of the most effective uses of a "hidden" perspective in RPG history. You are a witness to a world-altering event, yet you are completely powerless. You can’t intervene. You can’t shoot. You just have to watch.
The Escape and the Stakes
Once the alarm goes off, the game shifts genres. It becomes a desperate survival horror. This is where your build starts to matter. If you went heavy into Body, you’re smashing through guards. If you’re a Netrunner, you’re desperately trying to overheat optics before the mechs turn you into swiss cheese.
Jackie’s injury is the emotional anchor here. It’s not a cutscene injury that disappears when gameplay starts. He’s bleeding out. He’s slowing down. The game uses his physical decline to pace your escape. You can’t just run to the exit; you have to wait for him, protecting a man who is clearly losing his grip on life.
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It’s brutal.
The moment you hit the garage and the Delamain starts the combat sequence, the realization hits: there is no "winning" this mission. Even if you get out, you’ve lost T-Bug. You’re losing Jackie. You’ve stolen a piece of tech that is literally eating your brain.
Things Most Players Miss in the Penthouse
A lot of people rush through the penthouse once the shit hits the fan. Don't do that.
- Satori Katana: If you head up to the roof where Saburo’s AV landed instead of immediately jumping out the window, you can grab one of the best blades in the game. Most players miss it because the game is screaming at you to leave.
- Saburo’s Diary: There are data shards in the room that explain why Saburo was even there. He wasn't just visiting his son; he was prepared to nuke Night City if he couldn't get the Relic back. The stakes were actually higher than just "stealing a chip."
- The Iguana Egg: Behind the pillar where the iguana sits, there’s an egg you can loot. If you take it back to your apartment, it eventually hatches. It’s a tiny bit of life in a game that starts with so much death.
The Technical Reality of the Quest
From a development standpoint, this mission is a massive script-heavy beast. It has to account for different player choices, even though the ending is largely set in stone. Whether you send Jackie’s body to his mother or to Viktor Veksler changes entire questlines later in the game.
It’s a "bottleneck" mission. Every choice you made in the prologue flows into this, and every choice you make during the escape dictates the tone of the next forty hours.
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The AI during Cyberpunk 2077 the heist is also tuned differently. The guards at Konpeki aren't your typical street thugs. They have better gear, higher health pools, and more aggressive flanking maneuvers. If you’re playing on "Very Hard" difficulty, this mission is a gear check. If you haven't upgraded your cyberware at Vik's or bought a decent weapon, the elevator lobby fight will break you.
The Aftermath: Why We Can't Stop Talking About It
The reason this mission sticks in the craw of every gamer who’s played it is the transition to the title card. The "Cyberpunk 2077" logo appearing only after Jackie dies and Dexter DeShawn shoots you in the head is a legendary move. It tells you that everything you just did—the hours of prep, the excitement, the planning—was just the prologue.
The "heist" wasn't the goal. The heist was the catalyst for the real story: V's slow death and Johnny Silverhand's resurrection.
Most people get frustrated by the linearity of the escape, but it’s intentional. It’s supposed to feel like a funnel. You’re being squeezed by the most powerful corporation on Earth. There is no "clever" way out because, in the world of Cyberpunk, the house always wins.
How to Handle The Heist Like a Pro
If you're jumping back in for a 2.0 or Phantom Liberty run, you need to prep differently.
- Level up before the meeting: Don't rush the main story. Do some NCPD hustles in Watson. Get your armor up.
- Loot everything: The items in Yorinobu’s suite are unique. You cannot come back here. Once you leave, the elevator is locked forever.
- Choose Jackie's destination wisely: Sending him to his family unlocks the "Heroes" quest, which is widely considered one of the best emotional beats in the game. Sending him to Vik leads to a much darker, corporate-focused outcome later on.
- Save your components: You’ll get some high-tier loot during the escape. Don't dismantle it immediately. Some of those Arasaka weapons have unique modifiers that help in the early game.
The beauty of this mission lies in its messiness. It’s loud, it’s tragic, and it’s deeply unfair. But that’s Night City. You go in looking for the big leagues and you end up in a landfill with a ghost in your head.
Next Steps for Your Playthrough:
Check your inventory for the Kongou pistol and the Satori katana before you leave the hotel. If you missed them, you might want to reload an auto-save; they are game-changers for early-game builds. Once you wake up in the junkyard, prioritize the "Heroes" quest to get Jackie's tuned Arch motorcycle—it's arguably the best handling bike in the game and a fitting tribute to the man who helped you pull off the biggest (and worst) job of your life.