You’re standing in a cramped, neon-lit alleyway outside an old food processing plant. Your palms are probably sweaty if you’re playing on a high-immersion rig. Inside that plant is a group of Maelstrom gangers—chrome-addicted psychos who’ve replaced most of their faces with red optical sensors—and they have something you need. This is The Pickup Cyberpunk 2077, and honestly, it’s the moment most players realize that Night City isn't just a backdrop; it's a complicated, messy web of consequences.
Most games promise that your choices matter. Usually, that means choosing between a "Blue" ending and a "Red" ending thirty hours later. But this mission? It’s different. It’s dense. It was the vertical slice CD Projekt Red showed off years before the game actually launched, and for good reason. It’s a masterclass in branching paths that don’t just change a line of dialogue—they change who lives, who dies, and who shows up to help you (or kill you) much later in the story.
The Militech Variable
Before you even step foot near the All Foods plant, you’ve got a choice. You can call Meredith Stout. She’s a high-strung Militech agent looking for a fall guy because she lost a shipment of Flathead bots. Meeting her is tense. She’s got a bodyguard who will literally jam a probe into your brain to see if you’re lying. If you play your cards right, she hands you a Credchip with 10,000 eddies on it.
But there’s a catch. Obviously.
The chip is infected with malware. If you use it to pay the Maelstromers, it fries their system, and a firefight breaks out immediately. If you tell Royce—the terrifying new leader of the gang—that the chip is hot, you’re basically siding with the gangers against the corpo. Or, you could be a total pro, hack the chip yourself, strip the virus, and keep the money. It sounds simple when I type it out, but in the heat of the moment, with Royce’s gun literally pressed against your forehead, it’s a different story.
Meeting Royce and the Ghost of Brick
Inside All Foods, the atmosphere is suffocating. It smells like rotting meat and ozone. You’re there to meet Brick, the guy Dexter Deshawn originally made the deal with. Except Brick is gone. Royce took over in a bloody coup and now he’s the one holding the Flathead.
👉 See also: When Was Monopoly Invented: The Truth About Lizzie Magie and the Parker Brothers
Royce is a nightmare. He’s unpredictable, loud, and heavily augmented. When you sit down to talk, the tension is thick enough to cut with a monowire. You can try to negotiate, but if you don't have the money or the Militech chip, things go south fast.
Here is a detail a lot of people miss on their first run: Brick isn't dead.
If you poke around the back rooms while moving through the plant, you’ll find him locked in a room, trapped by a laser mine pointed directly at his chest. You can save him. You can let him die. You can even set off the mine yourself if you’re feeling particularly cruel. Saving him seems like a side quest, but it’s actually a long-term investment. If Brick lives, he remembers the favor. Later in the game, during the "Second Conflict" mission at the Totentanz club, having Brick in charge instead of Royce or Patricia makes your life significantly easier. You basically walk in and walk out without a scratch. If Royce is in charge? Good luck. It's a bloodbath.
The Chaos of Choice
Let’s talk about the combat. If you decide to blow Royce’s head off during the conversation—which is a legitimate dialogue option if your Reflexes are high enough—the fight starts right there in the office. It’s chaotic. If you went the Militech route and used the infected chip, Militech "cleaner" teams will actually assist you in the final breach.
The loot is the real prize here. If you kill Royce, you get Chaos, a Tech Pistol that randomizes its crit chance and damage type every time you reload. It’s a wild, unreliable gun that perfectly fits the theme of the mission. If you side with Maelstrom, you miss out on the gun but gain a powerful ally for later.
✨ Don't miss: Blox Fruit Current Stock: What Most People Get Wrong
Then there’s Meredith Stout. If you helped her by using the infected chip (and didn't screw her over), she wins her internal corporate power struggle. This leads to the infamous "Venus in Furs" side quest. If you didn't help her, or if you hacked the chip and kept the money without telling her, she ends up at the bottom of the harbor with concrete shoes. You can actually find her body underwater later in the game. It’s grim, but that’s Night City for you. There are no clean wins.
Why It Still Matters in 2026
Even years after the 2.0 and 2.1 updates, The Pickup Cyberpunk 2077 remains the benchmark for how RPG missions should be designed. The developers didn't just give you a fork in the road; they gave you a four-way intersection with no traffic lights.
It highlights the core philosophy of the game: Every action has a reaction. You might think you’re just buying a robot, but you’re actually deciding the political future of a major gang and the career trajectory of a corporate executive.
The mission also serves as a tutorial for the game’s systems without feeling like one. You use your lifepath (Nomad, Streetkid, or Corpo) to unlock unique dialogue. You use your technical skills to hack the chip or the door locks. You use your combat build to survive the exit. It’s the first time all the game’s engines are firing at once.
Navigating the Outcomes
If you’re heading into this mission now, you should probably decide what kind of V you’re playing. Are you a corporate shill? A man of the people? Or just a mercenary looking for the biggest payday?
🔗 Read more: Why the Yakuza 0 Miracle in Maharaja Quest is the Peak of Sega Storytelling
- The Big Payday: Hack the Militech chip, remove the virus, and use your own money (if you have it) to buy the Flathead. Then kill Royce anyway. You keep the 10,000 eddies and get the loot.
- The Diplomat: Save Brick. Seriously, just save him. It saves you so much headache ten hours down the line.
- The Militech Loyalists: Don't hack the chip. Give it to Royce. Watch the fireworks. This guarantees Meredith stays in power.
The beauty of this mission is that there isn't a "canon" way to do it. It’s your story. Just remember that the red optical sensors of Maelstrom don't forgive easily.
Actionable Insights for Your Playthrough
To get the most out of this encounter, keep these specific triggers in mind before you enter the All Foods plant.
First, check your Technical Ability. If it's at least 6, you can crack the Militech chip yourself. To do this, go into your inventory, scroll to the "Shards" section at the bottom, and find the Militech chip. Cracking it requires completing a short Breach Protocol minigame. Doing this allows you to keep the 10,000 eddies for yourself, though it does make Meredith Stout pretty unhappy.
Second, don't rush out of the plant after the boss fight. The room where you find the Flathead has several weapon crates and some decent lore shards that explain exactly what Maelstrom was doing with the bot. There's also a jacket in the locker room near the exit that has decent armor stats for the early game.
Finally, if you want the "secret" romance/encounter with Meredith Stout, you must not only use her chip but also make sure you don't warn Royce about the virus. She needs a decisive win to maintain her status within Militech. If she's replaced by Anthony Gilchrist, that storyline is permanently closed for that playthrough.
The complexity of this mission is why people are still talking about it. It’s a dense, reactive piece of game design that rewards players for paying attention and punishes those who think they can just click through dialogue. Next time you're in Watson, take a second before you knock on that door. Everything you do in the next twenty minutes ripples across the rest of the game.