Which Cyberpunk 2077 lifepath should you choose?

What's the best Cyberpunk 2077 lifepath for your V? Choosing your backstory is one of the first important decisions you'll make. You can pick between three personal histories for the opening of your game, each of which is unique.

Cyberpunk won't forget your decision after the prologue, either. Your choice will be woven much deeper in the game, influencing your dialogue options, quests, and more throughout your adventures in Night City. And with the new Phantom Liberty expansion coming soon, you'll need to know which lifepath you want since it's so big you'll probably want to start a new playthrough. In this guide, we'll help you make an informed decision when picking between Cyberpunk 2077's lifepaths. Here's what you'll need to know.

Ahead of the big Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update and Phantom Liberty expansion, we've updated this guide to ensure you're ready to rock, Silverhand.

Which Cyberpunk 2077 lifepath should you choose?

Corpo

Fancy playing the part of an Arasaka counterintel agent? When you've worked your way to the top, it seems as though there's only one way to go, so you're in a sticky spot at the beginning of this intro. Everyone's on edge and it looks like it's your responsibility to clean up this mess.

Corpo V is uniquely clued up on everything Corporate, so you can use this to your advantage to trip up others, and even persuade them to do things for you. Others within the company depend on you, but someone you think might be trustworthy can turn on you quickly. Your experience makes it a lot harder for others to influence you, unless they happen to be your boss, of course.

Don't expect Corpo V to be a ruthless, cruel negotiator no matter the playthrough, though. You can use their biz experience both to work with and work over the corporate elite of Night City, with some helpful dialogue choices offered up on the side of some smaller players in and outside the city. But the Corpo path also means you can usually extract whatever you want from whoever you want, without explicit force. If you want every last drop of intel and eddies in your pocket no matter who gets burned, the Corpo path is definitely for you (you delicious monster).

James Davenport finished the game (and wrote our Cyberpunk 2077 review) as a reformed Corpo V and dug how well his intended roleplaying path was supported throughout, even if the meaningful Corpo dialogue choices are pretty rare. Most often the Corpo dialogue options are there just to color in your character and rarely influence quest outcomes, but the Corpo options are frequent and diverse enough to keep the head canon running.

As Corpo V you understand that you need to do whatever it takes to get results, and there's no such thing as playing fair.

Nomad

As the Nomad, you start off in the Badlands, the arid desert stretching around the periphery of Night City. You've broken away from your clan and you're traveling solo, but you won't be alone for long. You're leaving Southern California and making your way to Night City to begin a life there, but there's a job to do first. There's some questionable cargo that needs to be taken across the border and it's on you to ensure it slips through safely.

As you're experienced in this line of work, it'll come in handy later down the line. You'll have Nomad dialogue options in some conversations that'll let you draw on your knowledge and use it to negotiate. It may just score you some info for free. Then there are quests and characters that'll be tailored to your backstory, too.       

Emma enjoyed the Nomad intro as V is getting ready to start fresh in the city, and this eases you into the game comfortably. If you like being nosey, it's interesting to get a feel for the area and check out the town before zooming off in your car, even though you can't speak to many characters at first. 

Driving off-road in the Badlands desert is also great fun, so set a little bit of time aside to test out your car. Later on, the Nomad dialogue options have been useful for digging deeper for more information in quests, and they help you stay on the right side of certain characters. With regards to Nomad V's values, if being honest and having strong moral principles is a high priority for you, Nomad is the way to go.

Street Kid

The Street Kid knows the city well, and it's fair to say that you're used to getting into scraps. This story starts in the El Coyote Cojo Bar in Heywood, where you'll take on a job to help your friend, who's having some money troubles. You'll meet a few characters along the way, including Padre, who V is already familiar with.

This intro gives you a brief glimpse at the friction between gangs in the area, and you can see that tensions are running high. Street Kid V has their family and friends at heart, so it's natural that you'll want to stand your ground against other gangs. However, having deep roots in the city and lots of connections going back years also gives you an edge. When speaking to other gang members, you'll have more options to extract information without parting with cash or having to use force.

Andy Kelly reckons that of the three life path intros, the Street Kid’s is the shortest—and arguably the least interesting. You don’t do much before you befriend Jackie, triggering the montage that leads into the game proper. He recommends sticking with the Nomad or Corpo if you want a more elaborate and involved introduction to the game. 

The Street Kid’s unique dialogue options are spread all over the city (unlike the Nomad, which appear mostly in the Badlands), but this does mean they have less focus. This V tends to know the names of gang leaders, the history of parts of the city, and other such details. But this knowledge isn’t as distinctive, or specific, as the other two origin stories. Street Kid V is like a jack of all trades, and their past doesn’t seem to factor as heavily into their dialogue.