Cyberpunk 2077 Fingers: Should You Punch Him in The Space in Between?

I’ve done The Space in Between mission more times than I can count. It’s always been a straightforward mission. Go in through the window because it’s easy. Fingers is always working on someone, and doing a complete botch-job on their face plate. You chat with him about it while he finishes up. Once you get the chance to talk to him in “his office”, you never punch him, because punching him used to lock you out of certain highly desirable fortified ankles cyberware. Same routine every playthrough to keep this exclusive to Fingers option available.

Finn Gerstatt aka Fingers Knocked Out Cold!

This time I did something different, almost by accident, and the mission gave me back three things I’d never seen before.

The Lounge Check

There are two women in the lounge before you get to Fingers. I’ve never spoken to them warmly before. Either I’ve walked straight past or I’ve gone in with a cold and unfriendly threat. This run I played it friendly, and it turns out that’s a check. They wave you through ahead of the queue. As you turn around, the person Fingers was working on is already leaving and the door’s open for you.

It’s not that the mission changed here. It’s that the branch was always there and my own roleplay habits had me miss out on it every single time.

Fingers Remembers You Now

If you’d been to his Jig-Jig Street clinic early in Act 2, before triggering this mission, Fingers actually remembers you. I’d been in there early to buy cyberware and get the iconic weapon, so this run he clocked me straight away instead of treating me like just another face. Small detail, but it’s the kind of thing that makes a fifth or sixth playthrough feel different.

Fingers: “You… I recall you visited me before. Who were you? I can’t quite place… Let me guess. Tyger Claws?

Before he turns to Judy and asks who she is…

The Punch Isn’t JUST a Punch Anymore

I finally hit him this time. Used to be one punch and that was it, Mr Finn Gerstatt would sit there nursing a bloody nose and an even bloodier ego, and hold a grudge… forever. And you’d move on, not quite satisfied with the outcome and dreaming of that now unavailable cyberware. Well, Not anymore. Now it’s a proper satisfying two-punch combination and he goes down cold. Fully unconscious on the floor when I left the clinic.

Whether he stays down or you can still question him once he wakes up, I didn’t stick around to check – and I haven’t been back since. But it’s a real shift from “consequence you avoid” to “consequence you actually see play out.”

Why This Matters

Firstly – roleplaying remains intact. This is a key because I went into this run expecting to play it exactly the way I always have. Window in, chat while he works, never punch him, never talk to the lounge crowd. But I chose to keep the roleplaying immersion this time, and instead I got three moments I’d never triggered before, just from making slightly different choices.

Secondly – because of the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 Update all ripperdocs now stock exactly the same inventory. I’m ok with the slight loss of in-game diversity of goods, in exchange for quality of life upgrades like that. Trying to remember who stocked what isn’t really an important part of the game in a complex world like Cyberpunk 2077; I think niche vendors and what not certainly do add a special touch, but the reality is you end up having to fast travel to get what you want, and it’s not as fun as it reads on paper.

Thirdly – This shift has affected my entire playstyle this run through. Because of the changes, I’ve decided not to isolate to this mission only. I’m playing female V this time and I’ve been fairly cold with Panam, skipped the Nash mission entirely (something I’ve never done before), and only just found out Rogue rewards you with the genuinely great Archer Quartz “Bandit” car (you know CrystalCoat, auto-drive, all the bells and whistles) for not entertaining Panam’s revenge agenda. Small choices are opening up entire branches I didn’t know existed, patches or not.

I have another mission, that I had totally forgotten existed, that I’ll also talk through how to trigger. (will link from here when I get that live).

Final thought: The thing about CDPR’s work on the game at this point, is that it’s not just bug fixes and balance changes. They’ve built enough reactivity into the world that even someone who’s replayed it as many times as I have can still get pleasantly surprised.