Last time I wrapped up the great River Ward side missions and moved right on to the even better Cyberpunk 2077 Panam side missions. The main story requires you to meet with a famed fixer, Rouge, and she introduces you to Panam.
During your first meeting with Rogue, she wastes no time making you a deal to help Panam fix the job she screwed. This was the price to gain Panam’s help with you mission to find Anders Hellman, creator of the biochip residing in your head.
Taking Back Panam’s Ride
Meeting up with Panam starts with her looking under the hood of a not so impressive station wagon style car. It’s almost like the developers were trying to Channel the infamous scene with Megan Fox from transformers.
Panam explained she was robbed by her former partner, He stole her car and the delivery she was supposed to make for Rogue. We agreed to help each other.
She took me on a nice scenic drive to the Aldecaldos camp where her Nomad group make their home. All the off-road style cars and the badlands vista was a great change of pace from the busy city. Seriously, the ray traced sunlight shining through the cacti looked fantastic.
We met her friends Scorpion and Mitch to get some help with our mission, but they refused. She was not in the camp’s good graces and we were on our own for another Cyberpunk 2077 Panam mission.
The next step involved driving to a Raffen Shiv gang meeting place. We were tasked with turning on the power to the abandoned stores and preparing traps for the incoming gang members. It was a fun little distraction using her borrowed car to jump the power system.
Once the gang approached our ambush, we hit the lights to the stores. The neon lights looked fantastic at night. My quick hacks then made quick work of the gang members. We were easily able to steal her car back.
She promptly asked for more help to take out the partner that betrayed her, Nash. That involved her driving us quickly into their cave hideout where it was a nice little gunfight, but my quick hacks made quick work of those gang members.
Cyberpunk 2077 Panam Missions Sunset Hotel
With her old partner Nash out of the way, we went to the Sunset Motel to meet with the buyers of the merch she stole back. It was a nice tense meeting watching to see if they start shooting.
Surprisingly, the 6th street gang buyers (basically the equivalent of the Vietnam vet biker gangs) completed the deal without incident. That was our queue to head to the hotel for a celebration drink.
You have choices on whether to drink, flirt or be a jerk while you celebrate you victory with Panam. I chose to share a room to “save money”. In the end, it was just a quick sleepover (separate beds) before the next Cyberpunk 2077 Panam mission, hitting the Kang Tao AV.
Taking Down the Kang Tao AV
In the morning, Panam was off working on her ride and cooking up the plan to hit the AV. She gave me a quick tutorial on how to jack in (like the matrix) to her ride’s HMG to take out drones we would run into. Turrets aren’t new, but the jacking in was a nice touch.
The first step in her plan was breaking into a nearby power station to overload the antennas while the Kang Tao AV was flying over. This is where I got to use the turret to take out security drones for the first time in a Cyberpunk 2077 Panam mission.
With the drones taken out, we went to each station to overload the circuit. It freaked Johnny out since it kept zapping the Relic chip he was living on. It was funny to watch him tweaking out in the backseat after getting zapped.
With our trap setup, I was given the honor to press the button as the AV flew overhead. That EMP blast did not force the AV to land, so Panam shot it down with a freaking rocket launcher.
On our way to the crash site, Mitch and Scorpion were on the radio headed to the crash site. We had no way to warn them to stay away from the heavy security. We had to fight drones on our way to them and the HMG jammed, a bit predictable.
Kang Tao Crash Site
Once we had a visual on the crash site, Panam gave me access to a drone to survey the area. We only found Mitch alive and he was taken prisoner, but no sign of Scorpion. I knew I would have to go in alone since Panam conveniently was shot.
I enjoyed using the drone to recon the robots and guards I would have to face. It gave me time to setup my short circuit hack to takeout the robot security. That hack let me take care of the security pretty quickly. I love frying robots with it.
With the bots no match for that hack, we had a little standoff with the guard that took Mitch. Panam took him out before I could think to shoot. Before he caught a bullet, he did let us know Hellman was taken away. Mitch confirmed the worst, scorpion was dead.
Chasing after Hellman
The mission took a turn towards detective work as I had to search for evidence of where they took Hellman. The tire tracks I found activated an AR recreation of the vehicle path. The detective mode for you Cyberware is used a lot in the game and I love that mechanic.
Panam and I took the Nomad bikes left behind by Mitch and Scorpion. I’m not a motorcycle fan, but it was a perfect fit for the terrain.
Our pursuit brought us to an airstrip where I fought guards with some smart gun and quick hacks. If you have the right Cyberware to go with smart weapons, it will guide the bullet to your target like each bullet is a mini rocket.
Hellman wasn’t around there, so we continued our search by following the AR tire track trail. Those finally led us to the gas station that he was being held at. Reinforcements already arrived.
Meeting Anders Hellman
Using optic Cyberware, I did a little recon of the gas station. I found a ton of guards, drones and some turrets, but I was lucky to have the quick hacks to handle them.
It is great that someone playing the same life path could have a completely different build from me. My approach was to use hacks, but others might use brute strength, guns, stealth or something I’m not thinking of.
After breaching the code of the camera system, I used that to hack into the turrets and turn them on the guards. Between the turrets and my quick hacks, I took out all the guards and drones.
With my path clear, I busted in on Hellman. He was afraid I was from Arasaka to take him back to his old job or take him out. There wasn’t much talking after that since I put his lights out with the butt of my gun.
While dragging him out of the station, I heard a bunch of cars outside and was expecting a fight. Lucky for me, Panam’s Aldecaldo’s group showed up at Mitch’s request to help. I got see a little family drama between them and their leader Saul.
This mission ended with me taking Hellman off to a motel where Takamura and I would be interrogating him for the main story. I’ll leave that part for a future post.
Cyberpunk 2077 Panam Missions Rescuing Saul
This is where the Cyberpunk 2077 Panam side missions really start. Everything before was required for the main story, but this was an optional loyalty-like mission (that I highly recommend).
Saul was taken prisoner and Panam needed my help to rescue him from the Wraiths gang. The rest of the Aldecaldos group viewed it as suicide mission, so it would be just Panam and I again. Mitch gave us the assist with drone footage of the area.
With his help, I found a camera system that I knew I could use to quick hack my way around and through all the gang members. Just like I did with the gas station. After breaching and hacking the camera system, that’s exactly what I did. A combo of my short circuit and synapse burst hacks ripped through each and every one of them.
There were gruesome sights showing they were scavenging body parts from their victims. I found Saul pretty beat up, but in one piece. I had to give him something like a shot of adrenaline to get him going.
The shot got him ready to back me up for the inevitable fight on our way out, but we were in luck. My looting led me to an access hatch for a drainage system. That let us go out the back way and Panam simply had to pick us up.
It’s worth noting that going out the front would have led to a fight with reinforcements and they would end up chasing you in cars. There’s also the option of abandoning Panam and Saul. That would lead to Saul dying and Panam hating you for the rest of the game.
In short, the people that say choices don’t really change the game just complain and haven’t played very much. The Cyberpunk 2077 Panam missions are just 1 example
Riders in the Storm
Since Saul and I were able to sneak out the back, we didn’t have to deal with anyone chasing us with guns, but we were being chased by a sandstorm. The latter led Panam to find a place for us to seek shelter from the storm.
For the Cyberpunk 2077 Panam missions it was a great little break from the action to bond with Panam and Saul. I was tasked with getting the lights and heat on, after which we all shared a drink. The banter with Panam, pretending to be a snooty hotel guest, was fun and gave more depth to her character.
After that nice little break, is was off to sleep. Waking up to the ray traced sunset over the dessert setting was fantastic. The game just keeps reminding me how good it looks during these missions.
The reward for my help was Panam’s sniper rifle, a kiss and further support from the Aldecaldos. Building these types of relationships is something this game excels at.
Basilisk Heist Setup
Not long after we parted ways, Panam called for my help again. This time, her and Mitch had a heist planned that Saul was against. The plan was to steal a Basilisk tank. Others wanted in on the action, so we were off.
It was fun driving alongside of the Aldecaldos over the desert-like terrain and getting to know more about the characters. Our first stop had us activating an old train car we would use to block the tank convoy.
After we set that up, we all gathered around a camp fire to watch the stars, as one of them played the guitar. We shared a drink and got to know each other better. It help build even more attachment with the group to give them more depth than you average NPC. Ray traced fire is great by the way.
Cyberpunk 2077 Panam Missions Stealing the Basilisk
The next morning we drove off with the train car to cutoff the tank convoy. I got to use the turret again, but it jammed once we reached the convoy location. Can’t make it too easy. My quick hacks and my backup took out the Militech security, even without that turret.
With all the enemies downed, we stole all the convoy vehicles and took them back to camp. I was actually surprised there were no drones or anything to fight on the way home. There was another type of Cyberpunk 2077 Panam Mission fight though.
Panam and Saul got into a screaming match over the stolen equipment and his concern it would bring the corps down on them. Lucky for Panam, Saul was busy getting ready for a meeting with Biotechnica and the rest of the group got to readying the tank for a test.
Cyberpunk 2077 Panam Missions Testing the Basilisk
Days after our heist, Panam called me in to help test the tank. It was truly a sight to behold and even gave Johnny a little flashback of his time in the Corpo wars. I’m assuming that’s where he got that silver arm of his.
I was given the honor to pilot the tank, while Panam took the copilot seat. It was fun watching her button mashing and banging on instruments to get the Basilisk to start. It was so cool to see the hex panels in front of me turn into virtual windows to the outside (cameras on the outside display on panels inside for heavy armor with high visibility).
The other cool thing about the tank is you have to jack in to control it and your senses also meld with the copilot. It was pretty freaky, but then that was quickly followed by the actual test. It was basically a hover tank in the way it would move and shoot.
Our little test ended with an awkward sex scene in the tank with Panam, where we could see through each other’s eyes and feel what each other felt. It was a little weird and eventually interrupted by an explosion. The Raffen Shiv gang found us and we had to rush back to defend camp.
The tank was pretty quick and totally obliterated the gang members. It wasn’t even a fair fight. I just quickly mowed them down. Sometimes it’s nice to have these overpowered moments in game.
The result of our little rescue forced Saul to agree to have Panam lead the clan by his side. Completing the Cyberpunk 2077 Panam mission earned their loyalty and we shared another celebratory drink. That was right before the Relic chip in my head tweaked out and I fell to the ground.
Upon waking in Panam’s tent, I had to fill her in on the whole Johnny Silverhand in my head perdicament. She pledged whatever help the clan could give before I went off to another set of side missions elswhere.
Jackie was a great companion, but I think many will put Panam at number one. These missions really can’t be missed and it’s surprising they were not part of the main mission. I have a feeling they may have originally been exclusive to the Nomad lifepath.