Johnny Silverhand | Cyberpunk 2077 Wiki

Johnny Silverhand
General Info
Role	Rock Icon
Location	Inside V's head

Johnny Silverhand (born Robert John Linder on November 16, 1988) is an NPC in Cyberpunk 2077. He was the leader of the Samurai band and a War Veteran. NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077 can interact with V and add contrast to the game's story, they provide various information, some give Quests, while others are special NPCs whom you can trade goods with or request for certain services.

Background Information about Johnny Silverhand

• Johnny Silverhand was born in 1988.
• Johnny Silverhand is one of Night City's most iconic figures. The frontman of chrome-rock rebel band SAMURAI, and as anti-corpo as they come, Johnny is the epitome of the term 'rockerboy'. Rebellious and stubborn, this hot-headed son of a ***** went out with a bang back in 2023; and come 2077, we find him stuck inside V's head. Our head. Meeting him as we do, he lives up to his reputation, and while he knows Night City better than anybody, and will provide V with key connections to the city's big players, he holds an agenda all of his own.

Johnny in 2020

Long before he became the rebellious rockerboy of Night City, Johnny - born Robert John Linder - was born into a military family. His time in this disciplined familial structure was cut short after the death of his father at the hand of rioters. His family was torn apart, and this left 6-year-old Johnny on the streets to fend for himself for the better part of a decade.

Eventually, Johnny was plucked into the Nomad life, when a traveling family took him on board and taught him the ways of the world. During this time with the family, Johnny learned some life-long skills including both how to use a gun and how to play the guitar. Again, disruption followed Johnny and a romantic entanglement left him with a rival's blood on his hands. He left the family, hitting the road and drifting between gigs until he decided that the military might just be the best place to hide out from those who wanted him dead.

But this kind of existence, at first, meant to be an escape, instead, left him completely disillusioned. Seeing human life tossed aside in the name of corporate dominance was enough to make Johnny desert - on the verge of cyberpsychosis thanks to the implants pumped into him as part of his service. He stole a car and sojourned west, eventually finding his way to Night City where the persona of Johnny Silverhand began to grow and thrive. Between his dealings with local Gangs, and his penchant for playing music in local bars, Johnny fell into the underground scene and turned his focus to music, using the energy and creativity it provided to kickstart a social mission, and spread the message that the system in place was once that needed putting down.

Thus, SAMURAI was born. The chrome-rock rebel band used incendiary lyrics and smash-mouth live performances to garner a cult following. With Johnny at the helm, SAMURAI’s anti-corp identity had a soul, one that could never sell out or be chained down by the oppressive regimes they fought against. But as time went on, Johnny’s innate restlessness kicked into overdrive. The band, the music, as loud and ferocious as it was, wasn’t enough of a message. It needed to be more. Johnny hooked up with some mercenary friends and entered the world of anti-corp terrorism. The plan: raid Arasaka Tower and plant a bomb right at the heart of the place, turning Johnny’s corpo nemesis to ashes. The job went almost perfectly, but with one caveat—Johnny himself was caught. Since his assault on Arasaka’s Night City HQ, nobody had seen or heard from him again.

Johnny in 2077

After being shot in the head and left for dead by Dex, V is brought back to life with the aid of the prototype chip stolen from under the nose of Yorinobu Arasaka. While this keeps V alive, providing a full-fledged second chance, it also embeds the personality construct of Johnny Silverhand within V. Their initial meeting sets the stage for their relationship; filled with paranoia and conflicting agendas—yet sharing an intertwined fate.

It’s during this introduction that we are taken for a ride into Johnny’s past, experiencing him at his peak as a no-****taking rebel with a gun that packs a punch and a plan to take down the systemic controlling forces of Night City—personified by the sleek, decadent Arasaka tower. As Johnny, we get a first-hand taste of the type of character V will need to coexist with throughout the rest of the game

Johnny Silverhand Location

• V experiences flashbacks where he relives Johnny Silverhand's memories thanks to the Relic. During the present time, Johnny can be found, anywhere where V is.

Jobs Related to Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077

• Playing For Time
• Love Like Fire
• Tapeworm

Notes and Trivia about Johnny Silverhand

• Played by Keanu Reeves.
• Johnny Silverhand was a central character in the original Cyberpunk 2020. He was a soldier in the Second Central American Conflict (you can see the dog tags around Johnny's neck in the trailer). In that war, the US experimented on its own troops with combat drugs and cybernetics. Because of this, Johnny deserted and moved to Night City under a new identity where he started the band "Samurai" that later became one of the most popular in the world. After the band broke up, a rival tried to blackmail him by threatening to talk about his past as a deserter. Johnny decided to make a solo album called "Sins of your brothers" talking about the war experiences that made him more famous.
  Johnny had a girlfriend called Alt Cunningham who was a netrunner that created a program called "Soulkiller". This program allowed for the digitalization of people's minds and the transfer between bodies. A corporation by the name "Arasaka" kidnapped her to recreate a newer version of the program for them. When Johnny found about it, he assembled a team of edgerunners to attack Arasaka HQ. When they finally got inside, they saw Alt body being carried away. What Johnny didn't know is that she had uploaded her mind to the HQ computer in order to destroy Arasaka from inside and then go back to her body and escape. This wasn't possible because of Johnny's incursion.
  Some years later, Johnny finds out that Alt was still alive as an AI, and that she was being forced by Arasaka to build a new "Soulkiller" version. He once again assembled a team of edgerunners to attack Arasaka HQ. They were defeated by the security forces led by a cyborg named Adam Smasher. Johnny sacrificed himself as a distraction providing the Edgerunners a chance to save Alt by transferring her into the net.
  Johnny was cut in half by a Shotgun in hands of Adam Smasher. After this, a nuclear head was detonated in the building, presumably vaporizing Johnny.
  We can presume that the Johnny we see talking to V in the trailer is a digital version of him uploaded with the "Soulkiller" software.
• If you somehow managed to obtain the game before the release date and try to play it through GOG Galaxy,  Johnny Silverhand will say "Go back to sleep, Samurai! It's not December 10th yet"
• His final design in game share similarities to future Ted Logan from Bill & Ted: Bogus Journey, who was played by Keanu Reeves.