Cyberpunk 2077 dataminer finds unreleased quest descriptions
Potentially for upcoming free DLC.
Cyberpunk 2077's big 1.2 patch rolled out at the end of last month, promising a huge amount of bug fixes and performance improvements (and delivering some significant boosts for PS4 Pro, at least). But it seems the patch may have quietly added some content for upcoming DLC updates, as a dataminer has discovered new files referencing previously-unseen "episode one" street story quests.
Discovered by a member of the modding community who goes by the username romulus_is_here (shortened to Romulus for this article), the quest descriptions were recently added during the 1.2 patch. Using modding tool "CP77 Tools", Romulus has been unpacking archive data to browse quest files for some time, and told me he does this as a hobby.
Romulus told me that main quests in Cyberpunk 2077 are normally split into three categories: prologue, part one and epilogue, numbered from q000 to q204. A couple of quests, however, can be found in the localisation directory, where they are named q301 - outside the parameters of the regular quests in the game. They're also named "story-ep1", presumably short for story, episode one. (Romulus credited fellow community member MorningSpice for encouraging him to explore the text database.)
Romulus believes this name confirms the "very first large story-based DLC", and although a few of these files have been in the game since launch, a significant amount of content with the "ep1" tag was added in the recent 1.2 patch - and the new additions are a lot more interesting. Romulus showed me two screenshots showing how his search hits for ep1 went from five in the game's 1.03 launch version, to 220 after the 1.2 patch. Eurogamer also separately checked the files and was able to view the ep1 quests.
Dig into these ep1 files, and you'll find story plots for "street stories" that aren't currently playable in vanilla Cyberpunk 2077 (as spotted by community member Lexigraph). For context, CDPR used the term street stories to describe "around 75" small quests ahead of Cyberpunk 2077's release (via GamesRadar). Some of these only have placeholder text, but others list objectives and email exchanges - including a discussion between two characters about a quest character called Wagner. There's mention of a hostage situation involving a group called "Kurtz Militia". Another street story requires players to find a hidden den of netrunners, and there's mention of a bomb in a swimming pool.
One of the quests has a full description, and centres on a character called Anthony Anderson who the player is expected to rescue from the Scavengers gang. If Hugo Weaving doesn't pop up to say "Mr. Anderson", I will be very upset. Anyway, it features a new location called Newcomers Haven, described as an "unfinished church repurposed as a shelter", which is presumably located in Pacifica - as the fixer giving out the quest is Mr. Hands.
On this note, Romulus said he believes "the majority of the street stories introduced in episode one will centre around Pacifica", and indeed, several of the ep1 street stories feature Pacifica fixer Mr. Hands. When Cyberpunk 2077 released many players said Pacifica felt a little unfinished, with surprisingly few gig quests. It seems likely that these Pacifica quests were not finished in time for the game's release, and could be added in through free DLC patches.
As for whether these street stories could be played in-game right now, Romulus said that theoretically, this might be possible. But the process of confirming it would require digging through thousands of unaccounted-for files: a truly Sisyphean task. Yesterday's 1.21 patch has apparently not made any changes to the text files - although police will no longer spawn directly behind you on rooftops, so that's good.
Alongside the street stories, Romulus said that a significant amount of content has also appeared to supplement the existing story arcs - such as dialogues and texts for main characters "or even characters in side quests to keep things interesting". Meanwhile, some photo mode poses that have been in the files since the game's launch, titled "photomode facial singing", have now been added in English. Romulus said new files are normally first introduced in Polish, and the translation indicates they are closer to being finalised for implementation in the game.
It's worth noting that although these certainly exist in the files, we won't know for sure if they're being implemented until it's officially announced by CD Projekt Red. Development plans can change, and we still don't know when the "ep1" files will be made playable (if at all). CD Projekt Red declined to comment on the newly-found files. Still, the fact many of these files were added in the 1.2 patch - and the whole thing fits in with CD Projekt Red's current roadmap plans - hints that we might see these quests sometime soon. And if not: well, it still makes for an interesting look at unreleased content.