Cyberpunk 2077 The Pickup Walkthrough

The Pickup is the 5th main story mission in Cyberpunk 2077 (CP77). This walkthrough will guide you through all objectives, paths, dialogues, choices (best choices and worst choices) and endings of The Pickup Main Job.

Area: Watson
Quest Giver: Dex
Requirement: Complete The Ride
Reward: XP / Street Cred, If you kill Royce: Chaos pistol, Spiked Maelstrom Short-Sleeve Jacket
Mission Info: Know what I like about your run-of-the-mill gangoons? They know what they like. Cash, sex, power… maybe just the sight of their enemies’ blood. Real rays of sunshine, they are. But these Maelstrom cabrones… shit, never can be sure. They look at you with those creepy-ass toaster faces and you can’t get a read of ’em, got no clue what twisted thoughts are racin’ through their processors. You ask me, that’s why biz with Maelstrom never turns out pleasant. But… sometimes there’s just no gettin’ around it. Let’s grab that spiderbot, yeah? Make Dex proud.
A Lilitech corpo-cunt lost an arms shipment, and if she doesn’t find it, she’ll be paddling up shit-creek with stumps for hands. I’m betting it’s not even about the weapons – Militech could lose a tank and it’d make no difference to them. It’s about principles. One thing’s for damn sure – someone’s talking the fall for this.
Turns out Meredith Stout will do anything to stay in the corp’s good graces. Unfortunately that means her “colleague” might get demoted… or worse. All in all, Militech recovered their property, putting the Maelstrom freaks in a shittier mood than usual. A day like any other in Night City.
Romances: This mission has choices required for Meredith Stout Romance. Either pay Royce with the infected chip, or take him down during his dialogue to make Stout prevail over Gilchrist, which is needed for her Romance.

Objectives:

• Meet Jackie
• Call Militech agent Meredith Stout. [Optional]
• Meet with the Militech agent. [Optional]
• Talk to Jackie
• Go to the gate of All Foods
• Use the intercom
• Talk with Maelstrom via the intercom
• Get to the main production floor of All Foods
• Get in the elevator
• Talk to the Maelstromers
• Sit on the couch
• Talk to the Maelstromers

Peaceful Options:

• Take the Flathead
• Pass through the maintenance tunnel > If you take the credchip from Meredith, then wipe it and give it to Royce.
• Take the elevator down with Dum Dum > If you pay with your own money.
• Follow Dum Dum
• Talk to Dum Dum
• Leave the Premises of All Foods

Violent Options:

If you attack Maelstrom in the factory before reaching the negotiation dialogue:

• Defeat Maelstrom
• Enter the elevator with Jackie
• Defeat the Maelstromers
• Find the case containing the Flathead
• Open the Case
• Take the Flathead

If you go through negotiations:

• Defeat Maelstrom (if you attack Royce during the dialogue or after he uses the unhacked Militech chip)
• Take the Flathead
• Pass through the maintenance tunnel
• Turn on the production line to clear passage
• Escape from All Foods
• Find a way to free Brick [Optional]
• Use code 9691 to free Brick [Optional]
• Talk to Brick [Optional]
• Disarm the trap preventing Brick’s escape [Optional]
• Talk to Brick [Optional]
• Defeat the Militech agents (This objective is if you fight your way past Militech with the help of Maelstrom)
• Defeat the Maelstrom (This objective is if you killed Royce earlier)
• Sneak past Royce [Optional] (This objective is if you fight your way out past Maelstrom without having killed Royce earlier)
• Defeat Royce and his crew

Mission End Outcomes:

• Talk to Meredith Stout (If you gave Royce the infected chip without hacking it or killed him during negotiations)
• Talk to Anthony Gilchrist (If you rejected the chip, hacked the chip and gave it to Royce, or payed with your own money)
• Talk to Jackie
• Call Dex

The Pickup Flowchart – All Endings & Outcomes

Here are all Endings for The Pickup Mission and how to get them:

Starting Location: The Pickup

Meet Jackie

From the start of the mission, your first objective is to meet Jackie. You can go straight to him and ignore the optional objective for dealing with Meredith if you want, but this always results in the “bad” outcome with Meredith later in the story, even if you don’t interact with her at all during this mission.

Call Militech agent Meredith Stout. [Optional]

Pull up your phone and call Meredith, who will be the first option.

Dialogue:

• Let’s meet up, cut a deal.

Meet with the Militech agent. [Optional]

When you arrive, go up directly in front of Meredith to have the dialogue options appear. If you’re playing the Nomad lifepath, you should select those options when they come up.

Dialogue:

• [Shake hand] Correct. > Both options have the same outcome
• [Shake hand] Got a proposition for you.
• Lemme go.  > Timed choice, both options have the same outcome
• Calm down > Timed choice
• Got backup. > Timed choice, both options have the same outcome
• Yep. All by my lonesome. > Timed choice
• Don’t know him. > Timed choice
• NOMAD: I can help with your mole problem.  > Pick this if playing Nomad lifepath, you can get extra rewards from Meredith at the end of the mission if you stick with her plan, then find info about the mole.
• Let me go. > Timed choice, if you pick this you have to pick the above option after to progress.
• You want info, I want a bot. Let’s make a deal.
  • NOMAD: Your convoy security’s a mess. I can help.
  • Coudn’ta talked normally from the start? > Optional
• [Take credchip] We got a deal, then. > Agree to take the credchip, can use it to pay off Maelstrom or hack it, leads to potential good outcomes with Meredith later in the story.
• No way, not happenin’. > Decline to take the credchip. This leads to the bad outcomes with Meredith later in the story.
• CORPO: [???] (There is a corpo lifepath dialogue option here, where you can call Meredith out on the chip being infected). You gain an optional objective to crack the chip in your inventory (you can crack it without doing this dialogue too, the outcome would be the same).

After making your final choice on whether to accept or decline the credchip, Meredith leaves and you can head over to meet Jackie.

If you accept the credchip, regardless of whether you are Corpo lifepath you can hack it and remove the infected data on it. It will appear in the Journal > Shards part of the menu.

Talk to Jackie

Jackie is waiting out front of All Foods on his bike, go up and talk to him.  Note that if you want to peacefully deal with the Maelstromers inside and get out without fighting, you need $10000 of your own money to pay them with, or to have hacked the credchip from Meredith to warn Royce about after giving to him. This is overall the worse outcome for this mission though and will void any chance at a romance with Meredith Stout, so think twice before you do it or keep a save just in case.

Dialogue:

• Maelstrom – We gotta meet ’em.
  • Been waitin’ long? > Optional
  • What’s the word on T-Bug? > Optional
  • NOMAD: You’re riding an Arch? > Optional
    • 6 TECHNICAL ABILITY: I’d swap out that tailpipe if I were you.
• Doubt this’ll go smoothly.  > Picking any of the two/three responses here doesn’t lock you into doing any of the choices, only for dialogue.
• We’ll pay again, but with the Miltech cred. > Option only available if you agree to take the credchip from Meredith.
• $10000 We’ll buy it off ’em.
• Onward
  • Need a minute. > Option if you wanted to wait and do something else before going into All Foods.

Go to the gate of All Foods

When ready, follow Jackie over to the front gate of the All Foods building.

Use the intercom

Interact with the intercom to talk to the Maelstrom guard.

Talk with Maelstrom via the intercom

Dialogue:

• Dex sent us.
  • Just open the fuck up. > Optional

Get to the main production floor of All Foods

Follow the marked path through the building. There are various items sitting around that you can grab if you want, you won’t get in trouble for stealing if you’re trying to go through peacefully.

If you wanted to not go through any of the negotiations, you can try to hack/destroy either of the turrets in the first room, or shoot the enemies in the second room, which forgoes negotiation dialogue and leads to bad outcomes with Meredith later.

Get in the elevator

If continuing peacefully,  enter the elevator with Jackie.

Talk to the Maelstromers

At the top of the elevator, you are stopped by Dum Dum, who insists on talking to you instead of you dealing with Royce.

Dialogue:

• Here for the Flathead.
  • Where’s Royce? > Optional

Sit on the couch

Go inside the room and interact with the couch to sit down.

Dialogue:

• [Calm Jackie] Jackie, sit down. > Timed choice, if you don’t select this before time runs out you start fighting the enemies, turns out the same as if you had attacked the Maelstromers before entering the elevator.
  • Jackie, what gives? > Timed choice, Optional

Talk to the Maelstromers

Dialogue:

• I’ll pass.
• [Take inhaler]
  • STREETKID: Black Lace? > Optional, when you select this option then [Take inhaler], Dum Dum will give the inhaler to you when you leave if you manage a peaceful option in the next section.
• Show it to me.
  • Militech’s not gonna come lookin’ for it? > Optional
• We’ll take it. > Both options have the same outcome
• It’ll have to do…
  • 6 TECHNICAL ABILITY: Raven isn’t the dedicated control unit. > Optional, extra dialogue, doesn’t do anything.

Peaceful Options

There are different options here that either lead to a peacful outcome (not recommended) or to a violent outcome with the Maelstromers. Be warned, doing a peaceful outcome (paying Royce) will lead to Gilchrist prevailing over Meredith Stout at the end of the mission which locks you out of the Meredith Stout Romance entirely! For a peaceful outcome you’d also need to pay off Royce with your own money (not recommended) after either having refused the credchip or not even met with Meredith, otherwise Militech will attack the factory.

• Really expect me to pay twice? > Timed choice
• Fuck Brick. Let’s cut a new deal. > Timed choice
• Prepared to offer us a discount? > Timed choice
• $10000 Got the scratch right here. > Timed choice, choose this to pay off Royce with your own money, resulting in peaceful outcome. > voids Meredith Stout Romance
• [Draw weapon] > Timed choice, don’t pick select this or the below to continue peacefully, let the choice timer run out.
• [Take down Royce] > Timed choice > the best option to get the Meredith Stout Romance later
• $10000 [Pay with own money] As we agreed. > Timed choice, choose this before time runs out. > voids Meredith Stout Romance

Take the Flathead

After successfully negotiating with Royce, take the Flathead from the box.

Take the elevator down with Dum Dum

Follow Dum Dum into the elevator.

Follow Dum Dum

Follow along with Dum Dum and he will lead you to an exit in the building.

Talk to Dum Dum

If you are playing as the Streetkid lifepath and selected the proper optional dialogue earlier, Dum Dum now offers you his inhaler from before. This is a single-use consumable that increases your armor rating for a limited time.

Leave the Premises of All Foods

Now that you’re done inside, follow the objective marker out the door. This then leads to the Mission End Outcomes section.

Violent Options

Below sets of options lead to violent outcomes either with the Maelstromers or Militech, depending on some prior decisions and what you do during the negotiations.

This first section is if you attack any of the Maelstrom enemies on the way into the factory, regardless of any prior interactions in this mission:

Defeat Maelstrom

In the room with the elevator, you will have to defeat all Maelstrom enemies before you can progress.

Enter the elevator with Jackie

After all the enemies are defeated, follow Jackie into the elevator.

Defeat the Maelstromers

In the room that the elevator stops at you will need to defeat two more enemies before progressing.

Find the case containing the Flathead

In this room, go over to the left side to find a side room. The case will be in here.

After obtaining the flathead in this room, the rest of the mission progresses the same from the Defeat the Maelstrom objective when you are fighting out of the factory.

Talk to the Maelstromers

During the negotiation portion with Royce is the major point for where the mission progression changes, depending on what you had done prior and what you do during the conversation. Note that if you don’t calm Jackie down before the Flathead box is brought out you fight the Maelstrom in the room, then go find the box in the room to the left.

This section starts from what happens once Royce has come out his office, and what choices you pick then. If you let the timer run out on any of the dialogue choices then Royce just shoots you and you need to reload your game (there is an autosave just before Royce comes out).

Dialogue:

• Really expect me to pay twice? > Timed choice, both options have the same outcome.
• Fuck Brick. Let’s cut a new deal. > Timed choice.
• $ [Show Militech shard] Eddie’s right here. Timed choice, all three options have the same outcome, you aren’t locked into a specific course of action yet.
• Prepared to offer us a discount…? > Timed choice
• $ 10000 $ Got the scratch ready. > Timed choice
• I need the bot. > Timed choice, both options have the same outcome.
• Want it or not? > Timed choice

After the dialogue mentions Dex and you get the two options in the above screenshot is a major divergent point. If you let the time run out on this dialogue Royce doesn’t shoot you, there is dialogue after, but it ends up with the same options as is you select [draw weapon].

• [Draw weapon] > If you select this you grab Royce and hold him at gunpoint, then get the below three options.
  • [Pay with Militech chip] Money’s on this OR Militech’s on your trail. > The option here is dependent on whether you hacked the Militech shard or not. Outcomes listed in next section.
  • [Shoot Royce] I’ve had enough. > Kill Royce, the outcome is the same as if you used the take down option instead of pulling the gun. > the best option to get the Meredith Stout Romance later
  • $ 10000 $ [Pay with own money] As we agreed. > Pays with your own money, either leads to peacefully exiting the factory or Militech attacking if you had accepted the credchip from Meredith. Outcomes listed in next section. > voids Meredith Stout Romance
• 6 BODY [Take down Royce] > If you have the required Body attribute level, kill Royce right then. Both this and shooting him results in the other enemies in the room attacking you, then you fight your way out of the factory against Maelstrom enemies, but then don’t face Royce as a boss in the final room, only three normal enemies.

If you don’t select either of the options above and let the timer run out:

 

• [Pay with Militech chip] Money’s on this OR Militech’s on your trail. > The option here is dependent on whether you hacked the Militech shard or not.
  • If you hacked the shard > Militech starts attacking the factory, fight your way out with the help of the Maelstrom. > voids Meredith Stout Romance
  • If you didn’t hack the shard > Royce uses the shard, Maelstrom attacks you and you fight your way out against the Maelstrom and face Royce as a boss at the end. > leads to successful Meredith Stout Romance
• $ 10000 $ [Pay with own money] As we agreed. > Pays with your own money, either leads to peacefully exiting the factory or Militech attacking if you had accepted the credchip from Meredith.
  • If you refused the Militech chip or didn’t talk to Meredith at all > Peaceful outcome, get lead out of the factory. > voids Meredith Stout Romance
  • If you have the Militech chip on you regardless of hacking it or not > Militech starts attacking the factory, fight your way out with the help of the Maelstrom.

Defeat the Maelstrom

If you attacked the Maelstrom in the room or Royce uses the unhacked chip, you will need to kill the rest of the enemies in the room to progress.

Grab the Flathead

Take the Flathead from the box on the table.

Pass through the maintenance tunnel

Whether you are fighting against Militech or Maelstrom on the way out, the path from here is effectively the same until you reach the final room. Before going up the ladder to the maintenance tunnel, you should go into the room to the far left, then through the second door into the room Royce comes out of. In here there is a safe with a Blue Smart Sniper rifle, which might be useful depending on your loadout coming in.

Turn on the production line to clear passage

In the next room, you climb the boxes to the left to get to the upper area, then press the button beside the passage to start the factory production line, allowing you to continue out.

Escape from All Foods

Now regardless of whether you are fighting your way out against Maelstrom or Militech, you take the same path out of the factory. Each of the rooms will have cameras around them which will spot you if you go in their vision paths, and an enemy Netrunner can hack you and cause a burning effect which damages you repeatedly for a few seconds.

In the first room you drop down into, directly across from where you drop down there is a door you can go through into a red-lit room. If you are playing the Nomad lifepath and picked the Nomad dialogue option when meeting with Meredith, you can find information on the mole on this computer. View the first message in the Messages tab to learn about the mole, then you can use this information later if you finish this mission and have Meredith meet you at the end.

When you’re done in the first large room, proceed into the second where there are the two smaller rooms with windows on the left.

Find a way to free Brick [Optional]

In between the two smaller rooms, there is a locked door, and if you go near you find out that Brick is actually still alive, and locked in this room.

You can open this door either by hacking the keypad to the left of it if you have the ability or by finding a door code. In the room to the right, there is a computer you can use, and the last email gives you the access code for the door.

Use code 9691 to free Brick [Optional]

Enter the code into the keypad to open the door.

Talk to Brick [Optional]

Brick has a tripwire mine pointed at him and can’t move while it is active, so you need to find out how to disarm it.

Disarm the trap preventing Brick’s escape [Optional]

If you have the ability you can hack the mine and disable it yourself, or for a guaranteed way go back into the room with the laptop. Just to the left of the door you can find a detonator, then select the second option to disarm the mine.

Talk to Brick [Optional]

Go back in the room and speak to Brick now that he is free.

Dialogue:

• You owe us.
  • They been holding you long? > Optional
  • Dex sent us. > Optional

Brick says he can’t help now, but he’ll help you out if you run into him again later on.

With Brick freed (or ignored or killed if you really wanted to) you now have two more rooms to get through. First is the room you came through on the way in before getting on the elevator. There will be enemies all over, and this room seems pretty tough to avoid the cameras in, so better to just take out the enemies as quick as you can.

In the next room, there may be an enemy standing by a ledge in front of you which you can get an easy stealth takedown on.

If you want to stealth through this room the enemies are all largely spread out so are easy to get with stealth takedowns using a couple of distraction hacks to make them look away from each other. When you go up the other set of stairs where the closed door is, you will be about to enter the last room of the factory where you may have a boss fight, depending on how you have progressed.

Defeat the Militech agents

If you have been fighting your way past Militech on your way out, in this final room you will find a handful more Militech agents, along with three large mechs.

You can take out the agents yourself, but the mechs are best left to Royce, who is in there in the mech suit. He will take them out basically on his own, so just defeat the agents then make sure you aren’t killed by any of the mechs while Royce is working on them. After all of them are defeated, make sure to loot them and the items from around the room, then you can exit the building.

Defeat the Maelstrom

If you had killed Royce earlier and were fighting your way through the Maelstrom to get out, you will just find another three regular Maelstrom enemies in this room. Deal with them then you can leave.

Sneak past Royce [Optional]

If you hadn’t killed Royce earlier, you will find him and one other Maelstrom enemy in this room. Right when you enter you are on a raised platform and should mark both enemies before dropping down.

When you start out in this room you are in stealth, and if you want you can sneak directly to the exit door and leave without any fighting. If you are spotted though, the doors in this room become locked, and you actually have to engage in the boss fight.

Defeat Royce and his crew

Royce is the first story boss that you will face during the game. He is in a mech suit that has a large shield and cannon attached. If you want this is a boss that you can beat using stealth if you want, or by shooting him. Whether you are planning to do stealth or not, your first want to take out the normal enemy that is in the room with him. Royce normally goes to the left of the room, while the other enemy goes over to the right. You can sneak over to the right side, get a stealth kill on the normal enemy if you don’t want to alert Royce yet.

If you want to try and stealth the boss, you will want to get around behind him to perform a takedown. If you’ve alerted him you can make him lose track of you sometimes by just walking around the boxes with him on the other side so he eventually loses you, or do the [DISABLE OPTICS] quickhack and then being behind cover when it goes off to make him instantly lose track of you. Either way, get behind him in stealth for a takedown, which destroys the mech battery and deals 25% damage to him.

Destroying the battery disables the shield, and he won’t hold it up in front of himself anymore. After this first takedown if you are quick, you can get behind cover again and he won’t be tracking you once he stops recovering from the takedown. You can then stealth behind him once more to do a second takedown, finishing off the rest of his health.

If you don’t want to or are unable to stealth the fight, your first goal when dealing with Royce should be to shoot the battery on his back left to disable the shield (the orange highlighted item in the screenshot above). He then won’t hold the shield up anymore, making it much easier to put damage into him. If you keep one of the boxes around the area between you and him, most of his attacks won’t actually hit you because they’re coming from about waist height, so they’ll hit a lot of cover instead of you. Once defeated make sure you loot the items from him (and shoot him in the face if you want) along with the rest of the room, then you can exit.

Mission End Outcomes

Depending on your actions through the mission, you will have either Meredith, Anthony, or neither show up outside of All Foods.

Talk to Meredith Stout

Meredith shows up if you accepted the credchip from her, then gave it to Royce without touching it. This is likely the “best” outcome for the mission because you can then deal with Meredith later on in the story and she is a potential romantic partner.

Dialogue:

• You tricked me.
• Yeah, maybe. > Agree to potentially work with Meredith later, highly recommend selecting this dialogue.
• Fuck you.
• I keep my word.

If you are playing the Nomad lifepath and found the information on the mole earlier, you then get this dialogue:

• I know the mole’s identity.
• No biggie.

When speaking to her, select “Yeah, maybe” as the positive answer, then she will call you to do work later on.

Talk to Anthony Gilchrist

If you met with Stout before, then did basically anything other than giving Royce the untouched credchip, Anthony will be waiting for you once you leave All Foods whether you fought through Militech or Maelstrom.

Dialogue:

• What do you want? > Both options lead to the same outcome
• Think we’re done here.
  • What happened to Stout? > Optional

Anything will more or less say he was hoping to find out who the mole was that was giving info to Maelstrom (it’s actually him), and you can ask what happened with Stout. He’ll basically say she won’t be around anymore, which is true because if you get this outcome for the mission she is killed by Militech and you can’t deal with her again during this playthrough.

Talk to Jackie

After talking to either Meredith or Anthony (or no one if you didn’t meet Meredith to begin with) talk to Jackie outside All Foods, then he’ll leave.

Dialogue:

• It’s over.  > Both options have the same outcome.
• Good work, Jack.

Call Dex

You will then automatically call Dex, and give him the rundown over what happened during the mission, then The Pickup will be completed.

 

This finishes The Pickup main quest in Cyberpunk 2077 (CP77) with all its dialogue choices, paths, outcomes and endings. Now if you have finished the other unlocked quest The Information, the next quest The Heist becomes available.

For all other Quest Walkthroughs, check out the complete Cyberpunk 2077 Walkthrough.