CP2077 No Easy Way Out: How to get the best reward in Phantom Liberty's first side job

Not long after you arrive in Dogtown, the new area added in Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty DLC, you'll receive a phone call from your buddy Coach Fred about a young boxer in the area who could do with V's distinctive brand of mercenary assistance.

By the end of the mission's story, you may find yourself simply wanting to side with whoever gives you the best rewards. Unfortunately, the game doesn't tell you who that is in advance. In this guide, we'll explain the pros and cons of siding with Aaron or Angie in No Easy Way Out.

Beware spoilers for the No Easy Way Out mission below.

How to start No Easy Way Out in CP2077

Aaron is a promising professional athlete, but has found himself in hot water with the Animals gang, who've installed a chip in his brain that forces him to take falls in fights so that they can rig their bets. You'll need to accompany Aaron and together fight your way through an enemy base to his Ripperdoc, Demir, who is the only one who can remove the chip.

It's all fairly straightforward until Angie — leader of the Dogtown outpost of the Animals — shows up and lets you in on the rest of the story. Aaron is a former member of the Animals himself, and from Angie's point of view it's the cyberware they paid for that makes him such a good boxer, hence she feels rigging his fights is just a sensible way to recoup their investment.

No-one exactly smells of roses at this point — Angie is a violent and controlling thug, but Aaron has fed you a heavily sanitised version of his backstory to get you to help him. So, who do you side with?

Should you side with Aaron or Angie?

There are two main rewards for the No Easy Way Out mission, but you can only collect one of them at the very most. So, unless you have a particularly strong sentiment about how you want to roleplay this mission, it makes sense to know which choice leads to which outcome:

• Side with Angie and take her deal, and she'll reward you with 22,000 credits from the rigged prize fight, which she'll arrange to deliver to you after a few in-game days have passed.
• Side with Aaron by refusing Angie's deal and you'll have to fight Angie and her guards, allowing you to loot her Iconic Power Pistol Cheetah once she's down. (However: if you're invested in Aaron's wellbeing, it's worth knowing that — counterintuitive though it seems — this is actually the ending where he dies.)

There's also a third option that only seems to appear if you've completed some early base game boss fights before dipping into Phantom Liberty. It gives you the chance to intimidate Angie into leaving Aaron alone. This represents the best in-story ending for Aaron, even though it's still a little bittersweet. But be warned that you get neither of the big rewards this way, leaving you with just the base payout of 5,000 credits and 1,520 XP for completing the mission.

No Easy Way Out is a perfect side-activity to take on while you're forced to wait two in-game days for Solomon Reed to contact you — see our Lucretia My Reflection main job walkthrough if you're looking to pinpoint a convenient break in Phantom Liberty's main action to take on this side job.