While the thrill of pairing up with Idris Elba in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty is the main draw of the game’s expansion for many, fans of Night City and the many characters who live and die in its streets were most interested to see what kind of unique side quests would feature in the DLC. While there’s fun to be had to help shoot a Brain Dance in an effort to help a confused mega fan remember his true identity, it wouldn’t be a CD Projekt Red game without a decent helping of murder and mayhem. That’s the case with one particular gig that goes by the title “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman,” one of Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty’s more engaging stories. Pick up your magnifying glass and your Sherlock Holmes hat because V is about to become a private detective in an effort to bring a notorious serial killer to justice. It’s a daunting task, to be sure. V isn’t exactly a saint but at the very least they know that murdering innocent folks is wrong, so while the payout for “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman” is hefty, it’s also nice knowing you can restore some semblance of peace to Night City’s streets. If you want a step-by-step guide on how to catch the murderer known as Leon Rinder in “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman” gig in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty, I’ve got you covered with a comprehensive breakdown of everything you need to know.
How to Start “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman” in Cyberpunk 2077
To kick this particular gig off, you’ll want to head to Dogtown, the new area added by Phantom Liberty. Once you’re roaming the jampacked streets, you should see a green map marker with the quest title appear so head towards that and prepare yourself for a quick chat with Mr. Hands, the person who serves as your handler on this operation. You’ll learn that there’s recently been trouble in Longshore Stacks; bodies have started piling up and the local police force isn’t doing enough to find the culprit. Thus, you find your next gig. Mr. Hands will tell you to speak to a woman named Briana who is attending a vigil for the killer’s latest victim. It’s important to note that she’s only available from 10 pm to 6 am so you might need to cruise around and look for something to do until then.
A distraught Briana will explain that a man by the name of Leon Rinder is behind all the killings, giving you a shard that has evidence. Your objective is to stop his rampage, either lethally or non-lethally, a decision that V will have to make later on. She also requests that you snatch his BARGHEST dog tag as evidence that he won’t be a problem any longer. First things first, the shard Briana gave V is blocked by some hefty firewalls so we need to break in if we want the information we’re looking for. Go through the process of the letter-number matrix that you should be familiar with at this point and it’ll pop open. I wish I could give you some hints on how to optimally decrypt it but these puzzles are all randomized so you’re on your own here.
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Once you’ve bid your client farewell, you can start digging around for some clues. It’s not necessary (the shard gives you the details you need) but if you want to learn more about the situation you can go to the scene of the most recent murder and look around in a manner that’s very reminiscent of the Batman: Arkham games. The clues you’re looking for are on the building behind the vigil and to the left. You’ll need to find several points of interest to solve this stage, so pull up your scanner and keep your eyes peeled for:
- Bullet marks on the wall next to a door. V estimates them to be 50cal rounds, which are pretty beefy.
- Footprints left by a combat boot.
- A stash of ammunition on the bottom corner of the building.
- An indentation on the floor to the left of the door that’s covered with blood.
- A damaged metal roof.
I’ve seen some folks say that there’s a crashed drone in the area that also serves as evidence but I missed it on my playthrough. From what I gathered, scanning the roof is also unnecessary for completing the optional objective. In any case, once you’ve cracked open the data shard you can be on your way to Rinder’s hideout. It’s a sleazy motel on the outskirts of Dogtown, relatively close by. Just follow the map marker and you’ll get there in no time.
Once you arrive at the location, you’ll immediately figure out that something sketchy is going down. There’s an armed guard waiting outside the front talking with a drug dealer promising that he’s got the best product in all of Night City. How you approach this situation is up to you, all you need to know is that you need to get into the motel and make it up to the upper floors. For me, I killed every scav I saw in a hail of bullets. If you do go this route, there’s nothing too dangerous standing in your way, just the expected thugs and their rifles.
You could also go in silently. It’s entirely possible to sneak up behind the guard on the front door and dispatch him quietly. I’ve also seen a strategy that lets players access the garage, an entry point that has much less heat focused on it making it the perfect place to covertly break in. You can find this route hidden behind a trash container to the right of the main door. Just not that if you do go through the front door, every enemy in the entrance hall will be alerted so the garage might actually be the only way you can ghost through the place.
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Once everyone on the lower floor is dead or sleeping, move up the stairs and be ready for more scavs to ambush you. Kill them off and head through the broken walls in the bathroom down a dimly lit corridor where another couple of enemies will charge you from out of the shadows. Follow this route all the way to the end until you come to a doorway. Go through it and turn right, heading up the staircase and turning right when you get to the top, You should see a green door that can be opened, which you should obviously do. Move through it and run through the weird laboratory space, hooking a left when you get to the end. You’ll be staring at a door covered in red light, which would be ominous enough but Johnny Silverhand makes it worse when he glitches into view saying he has a bad feeling about what you’re doing.
How to Complete “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman”
Open it up and you’ll see a lanky man lying on a hospital bed wrapped in bandages. You won’t have time to process the sight for too long though as a massive enemy grabs V and throws them outside. Prepare for a boss fight! Yasha Ivanov, who you might recognize from the data shard we decrypted earlier, is a fairly standard fight. He has an SMG that’s tough to avoid but doesn’t deal a lot of damage and he also turns on his active camouflage, effectively going invisible. It’s worth noting that you either way to constantly hit him in the head or use a weapon with a very high rate of fire since Yasha does heal himself up over time. Get aggressive and try to pin him in a corner, avoiding the gas grenades he throws out. Once he’s dealt with, you can loot a datashard that contains some more information on Yasha’s involvement with Rinder but as far as special weapons or items, he’s empty.
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Head back to your target’s room and watch him fumble a pistol. He’ll try to talk you out of killing him, which you can do by simply selecting the option “Shoot: “I’m here to kill you.” If you’d rather hear him out you take a seat and chat with the killer. He seems pretty creepy but insists that he has no memory of killing anyone. It felt like a weak excuse to me so I ended up shooting him and taking his dogtag. I did reload and exhaust all the dialogue, which led to V taking Rinder’s dog tags and sparing his life. The choice is yours! If you do let him live, he’ll tell you about a secret stash and V will gain a new job titled “Addicted to Chaos.” More on that in a moment.
If you do end up killing Rinder, head back to Briana and give her his dog tags. She’ll thank you for her work before Mr. Hands calls and congratulate you on a job well done. The contract is closed and you can enjoy your eddies.
On the opposite end of that, if you picked up “Addicted to Chaos” then you can still give Briana the dog tags and lie about Rinder, wrapping up the gig. Then you follow the map marker to your target’s secret stash which contains a wealth of items including an iconic shotgun known as The Deserter. It’s pretty cool, I won’t lie. With the stash raider, you’ll have concluded “The Man Who Killed Jason Foreman” gig in Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty story.
If you’re looking for more on the game’s gigs and quests, check out how to complete “Dazed and Confused” in Cyberpunk 2077.
