Tarot Cards

There are a total 22 tarot cards in.

Overview
The cards appear first after V's mind becomes entangled with Johnny Silverhand's engram. 20 of the tarot cards can be found throughout Night City and the Badlands, with the final two being mutually exclusive to each other, found in the various endings of the game.

These tarot cards are a part of the Fool on the Hill sidequest.

The Fool


The image shows a red industrial background of cascading metal buildings, wires, and infrastructure. At the center in the foreground lit in yellow is a punk walking on a roof top with a malnourished dog by his side, walking to the left, one arm stretched in front of him, and his other arm carrying a stick. His right leg is in front of him, hovering over the edge of the building, as though about to step off the building's edge, unaware.

The Magician


In the background various distorted masks tinted red seem to line an implied wall, in the mid-ground, a figure lit in yellow in a high-collared jacked, short, upwards-spiked white hair, and a skull mask over the face, if not the figure's own skull itself. At the center of the figure's torso is an infinity symbol. In front of the figure in the foreground at the bottom of the card, close to the viewer is a grey, metallic table, with various jagged knives lain out, blades towards the viewer. A red-tinted soda can is upright to the right of the knives.

The High Priestess


The background is abstract, with a black tower to the left with the letter B at the top, and a yellow tower on the right with a J at the top. The center of the background is a yellow shape, vaguely like a window or trap, with a shadow cast by the figure in the mid-ground on the right. The central figure, adorned in white robes and a white hat of some sort with three points, seems heavily cybernetic or robotic in form. Its head, yellow around the perimeter and somewhat angular, is dark and black on the inside, with a lone red dot for an eye. The figure stands, arms stretched out at either side in a T-pose.

The Empress


In the background, a mix of two towering skyscrapers tinted red against a pitch black sky at the top of the card, and from the middle down, floral, natural imagery with flowers, plant stems, and other such scenery about, tinted in a gradient from muted purples at the middle to reddish pinks at the bottom. At the center of the image and slightly to the right, a lone female figure tinted in blue stands, eyes closed, facing to the left. Long white hair flows behind her as her face is tilted upwards. On the left sleeve of her long kimono is a female-gender symbol, and grasped in her left hand is an unsheathed katana.

The Emperor


The background, tinted yellow, is almost entirely obstructed bar the upper left, which seems to emulate either warehouse windows or computer monitors stacked in a grid. Taking up the majority of space in dark hues of black, purple, and blue is machinery and wires forming a throne-like chair, viewed from behind and to the left. Hooked into the chair with many wires connecting to the head is a humanoid figure, head turned towards the viewer, with two bright red eyes, and no other clearly visible facial features. The figure is draped in loose, robe-like clothing.

The Hierophant


The background consists of cracked buildings and machinery tinted in hues of blue and purple, with some kind of smoke rising from the bottom left. At the center in hues of red is a figure, hovering in a cross-legged sitting position, a machine-like head with two bright red eyes, and tubes and wires snaking out of the front and back of the head, falling below and rising above the figure. On his chest are two keys, crossed against each other, their teeth pointing upwards, and in the figure's right hand is a staff with three key-like teeth at its tip, going across the entire stem of the rod. The figure's clothes are tattered and old.

The Lovers


The image background is abstract and in layers; the backmost layer is simply a shade of slightly dark orange, in front of that is a yellow circle, and in front of that is a black triangle. At the bottom of the background is some sort of plant, seemingly with small green and red flames on a few points on its snaking, jagged branches. The card's main feature are the upper halves of two skeletons, one coming from the bottom of the card look up, and the other coming from the top of the card looking down. These skeletons are facing each other, with unnaturally long and pointed tongues slithering from their mouths, curving such that they come into contact with each other. The top skeleton has a snake of purple and white stripes slithering from the mostly-unseen ribcage around the neck and to the left of the top skeleton's skull, just past its lower jaw. The bottom skeleton seems to have more damage, and seems to have cybernetic wires and nodes on the left half of its skull, the left half being most visible to the viewer.

The Chariot


The image background is abstract, dark purple, with light purple lines conveying a sense of momentum and speed. The main figure of the card takes up roughly the top two thirds of it, being a figure hunched over in thick, seemingly leather clothing, also tinted purple, with a black curved helmet that curves downwards to a point in front of where the figure's nose would be. The figure's open mouth is visible, its skin pure white and ghoulish. The figure rides a motorcycle, noticeably natural in its light grey, reflective, and metallic coloration, with only the center of the motorcycle's body visible and not the wheels, and the figure drives the motorcycle towards the left.

Strength


The background is basically non-present, as a feminine figure from the chest-up takes up the majority of the image, bar dark, dirty yellow in the top two corners. The figure is hooded, but where their face would be is entirely visible. Instead of a face however, is only hollow metallic beams and supports criss-crossing to form a chasis-like structure, with two red dots for eyes un-centered, instead located shifted to the left and askew. The only human part of the face remaining is the chin and bottom lip. Below the head is clear human skin, as the neck leads to a partly bare chest, with a tattoo of a woman on the left prying open the jaws of a wolf at the center of the chest, the tattoo tinted deep blue. The clothes of the figure seem to be a hooded cloak with metallic features around either side of the torso's front, and the neck dips down to reveal most of the center of the female figure's chest, though her breasts are mostly covered by the U-shaped curvature of her robes.

The Hermit


This card takes place in metallic beams and supports, with a gradient of a deep red the further away from the focused scene the background is, to a brighter yellow from mostly unseen illumination. Towers and support beams make up the upper background, whereas the central background is of a short wall, and the bottom of the card features a concrete ledge with unseen lighting below. A cloaked figure with staff in right hand and torch in left stands on the ledge, facing towards though a bit facing to the left of the viewer. Their robes are dark and the figure seems to wear a gas mask with a tube that snakes downwards and behind their torso. One eye of the gas mask is partially visible under the figure's hood, and it is a mild yellow in hue.

Wheel of Fortune


The background of this card is a wall, pillar, or very large stone tablet of some sort, with a multi-part design on it not dissimilar to a clock. 8 equidistant symbols are spaced around the inner-perimeter of this design, between the two concentric circles that form the primary bounds of the design, and each symbol looks similar to a very simple letter or character. At the center of this circle are four lines intersecting at one center, creating what looks like the letter X and a plus sign combined. All lines have a perpendicular line at the very tip. However, at the tip of the vertical and horizontal lines are various shapes: the left tip of the horizontal line has a circle, the right has a triangle with a very short line just to the left of it, perpendicular to the horizontal line. The bottom tip of the vertical line has two horizontal squiggles, and the top tip has, from top to bottom, a U-shaped curve, a circle that just touches the curve above it, and a line just below the circle. In front of this design, a figure lays dead against it, slumped over to the left. Bleeding bullet wounds riddle the figure's torso and blood pours from the neck and mouth, while an open briefcase full of credit cards sits near the figure's legs, seeming to have just fallen from their hands. The figure is clad in green and white the tablet behind them is a muted orange and the floor below is purple, pink, and red.

Justice


The background is abstract but somewhat symmetrical; the bottom of the card is a haze of orange, the top of the card splits down the middle, with black taking the center, and two purple, towering buildings with various pipes and wires coming from them rise out of the orange hue below. At the center of the card stands a figure, back to the viewer yet head turned left as though to look behind, at the viewer. The figure's body is entirely black, with some light purple accents. On the figure's back is a bone-like design, slightly emulating typical skeletal structure until the shoulders and arms are noticed, whereupon the viewer realizes that the bone designs form the shape and form of scales, such as in the idea of the scales of justice, with the scale plates being skulls. The figure's left hand is clenched, right hand holding a sword, both arms at his side. The figure's head has numerous wires, tubes, and cables stemming from the back of the skull, and what seems to be the left eye of the figure looks like a muted grey, as though looking through goggles of some sort.

The Hanged Man


The background of this card consists of four onlooking figures with singular, cybernetic eyes against abstract shades of varying orange, brown, and pink from top to bottom. In the foreground is a man, upside-down, with legs tied and bound from some location above and outside of the scene of the card, the figure hanging by the legs. The figure's clothes are plain black paints, white shirt, and a black jacket of some sort, almost like a business-suit type outfit. The figure is bald, and their face gone, instead with a golden skull in place of where the facial features would be.

Death


The background of this card is flat, light red. The card's entire focus is on its central figure, a left-facing cybernetic or robotic figure with a skull-shaped metallic head with spikes atop it and glowing yellow eyes. Out of the back of the skull, many wires and cables extend out of sight. The figure, with a forked organic tongue, seems to lick a short, angular sword held upright in its right hand, and the figure is adorned in samurai-like plated armor, creating harsh angular silhouette effects.

Temperance


The background is an purple-tinted interior, filled with cascading pipes and cables. Front-and-center of the image is a male figure, sitting on some surface, with a cybernetic or robotic face and a singular, centered, red eye. The figure wears a grey tank-top with a black triangle superimposed upon a white square at its center. The figure's right arm, completely metallic from the elbow down, firms grasps the limp, writing hand of a seemingly unconscious human figure lying at the main figure's feet. Connected between the left arm of the main figure and the right, grasped arm of the unconscious figure are tubes, connecting their blood streams. These tubes then extend further, into the main figure's clenched jaw, and then further up out of sight of the card's scene.

The Devil


The Devil is obtained after completing the Devil Ending. The actual tarot card can only be seen in-game during Where is My Mind?, when V breaks the Rubik's Cube in half.

The Devil is portrayed as a cruel face of a man on a blood-red background, hungrily smiling, teeth barred. His many eyes are red, their placement copies the shape of optic implants used by members of Maelstrom gang.

The Tower


This card is distinct from many other cards; it in its entirety consists of one primary, obelisk-like pillar or tower in dark purple rising at a slight angle to the left in the center of the card, with industrial infrastructure in abstract, transparent manifestations on either side at the center and bottom. From the top right is a sparking, jagged bundle of lightning crossing down through the middle of the image.

The Star


The background here is an abstract and unclear setting, dark, with purple sparkles about the scene. Numerous figures shrouded in darkness look onto the central figure with cyclopse-like singular purple eyes. The central figure, upon a crystalline-seeming purple stage, is in the midst of what looks like a dance, in this moment on her knees. Her dress, extremely open down the middle, shows much of her breasts and torso, with the edges just covering her nipples. She is posed facing to the right of the card, both arms up, right arm stretched higher, her purple hair flowing back, and her face obscured entirely by her right arm.

The Moon


The scene of this card is a hectic urban mess; the full moon tinted a light yellow illuminates and takes up much of the top center of the card, with infrastructure wires and cables tinted in fiery pinks and blacks crossing just over it, and a mass city scape in the distance framing the bottom of the moon. Close to the viewing angle are two wolves, the one on the right howling, amid a collection of scrap metal and bones, with one skull in the pile of rubbish.

The Sun


Against a night sky, seeming with a clear and close view of space, and backed by either a planet or moon tinted in a muted pastel orange and numerous space stations, there sits a robotic figure, dressed in a white cowboy outfit, sitting upon a golden motorcycle. The figure is turned slightly towards the viewer, right hand on a handlebar, left closer to its body. The figure seems to wear high heels and has a slight curve to the chest, insinuating feminine body type, and their face is obscured by a helmet or robotic metallic face, reflecting the light from what one would presume is the sun itself.

Judgement


Judgment can be obtained after completing any ending except for "The Devil" and "Path of Least Resistance", but in order to obtain it you need to inspect it in the area where you fight Adam Smasher.

The top two corners of this card features one eye each against a dark purple background, with the middle parted by a much brighter purple, jagged spikes from the darkness stemming from the corners' edges. The card heavily features a skeletal, slightly metallic figure towering over the center of the card, dressed in a flowing robe, hands contorted to play some strange, unfamiliar wind instrument. Wires stretch from both sides of the massive figure's jaw. Smaller than the figure, numerous human bodies, all naked, slowly approach across a purple platform, as though called to the figure by its instrument.

The World


This image consists of the silhouette of a person with a singular, yellow, cybernetic eye against a pink background, the pink only taking up small portions of either top corner. The silhouette itself, however, is not just dark; it is filled wit vibrant yellows, oranges, and greens of city lights along city streets, creating the images of numerous building facades along the bottom of the silhouette's torso up towards its shoulders. Around the neck area, buildings fade away into vein-like jagged and contorted lines that all seem to stem from or lead towards the eye-like circle at the center of the silhouette's head.

Card Appearances
In Cyberpunk 2077, 20 of the 22 Major Arcanum tarot cards appear in the quest The Fool on the Hill, the only two not included are "Judgement" and "The Devil". "Judgement" is found in any ending sequence involving attacking Arasaka Tower and battling Adam Smasher. The "Judgement" will be on the left wall just before the hallway that leads to the port to jack in to Mikoshi. "The Devil" is found upon accepting help from Hanako and Arasaka to remove Johnny Silverhand. During the tests in Where is My Mind?, V will experinece a nightmare in which, when trying to solve the puzzle cube and almost completing it, the cube breaks in two, revealing part of "The Devil".

Throughout the game, V can ask Misty Olszewski for a tarot reading, throughout which her tarot-divination foreshadows and foretells what V may encounter in the main story of the game through the cards. This all comes to a close in the ending character messages of the game, where in almost every ending, Misty provides what seems to be a three-card spread for the player to see how their life may turn out. The card results for each ending is listed below.

Storyline
[This section is incomplete]

Nocturne Op55N1
During the final part of Nocturne Op55N1, if you choose to call Panam Palmer and the Aldecaldos for help in breaking into Arasaka Tower, Misty will offer you a tarot reading before leaving, having set up a special pattern for you and Johnny, a type of four-card draw. The first two cards seem to refer to the "now", and in this case, the "who", as Misty draws first "The Fool" and second "The Magician", the former referring to "the inner child -- curious of the world, but also naïve and reckless", and the latter "a person of great talent and charisma, a leader", but reversed, implying "a tendency towards addiction [and] mental instability". The last two cards, Misty says, are "about your futures", the first card for V, the second for Johnny, drawing "The Lovers", meaning "Balance, friendship, [and] love", and further revealed if playing as female V, that "it can also mean difficult choices ahead". The final card, implied to be the card foretelling Johnny's future, is "The Moon", which is described as "mystery", essentially the unknown, an allusion to the fact that Johnny's fate is truly undetermined, regardless of the choice V makes in the end.

Endings
Each ending is named after one of the cards, possibly hinting the overall message behind it, and what it means for V's and/or Johnny's future.

Arasaka Ending ("The Devil")
In this ending, Misty draws the cards "The Fool", "The Moon", and "The High Priestess", though inversion is not detailed. Misty says that ("those are bad cards"), and that V should ("keep a close eye on [their] new friends").

Path of Glory Ending ("The Sun")
In this ending, Misty draws the cards "Strength", "The Emperor", and "The World", remarking ("the world's gonna hear about you") to V, implying positivity.

Aldecaldos Ending ("The Star")
In this ending, Misty draws the cards "The Chariot", "The Lovers", and "The Sun", remarking ("Looks like you've got a good life ahead of you in the badlands").

Johnny's Ending ("Temperance")
In this ending, Misty draws the cards "The Hanged Man", "The Magician", and "The Star", though inversion is not detailed. Misty says that ("those are not good cards"), and that they mean ("something like death, but not quite").

Related achievements

 * The Wandering Fool - Find all the tarot graffiti for the job Fool on the Hill.
 * The Fool - Become a mercenary.
 * The Lovers - Steal the Relic.
 * The Hermit - Find Alt Cunningham.
 * The Wheel of Fortune - Interrogate Anders Hellman.
 * The High Priestess - Talk to Hanako Arasaka.
 * The World - Complete the main storyline.
 * The Devil - Help Takemura avenge the death of Saburo Arasaka.
 * The Sun - Become a legend of the Afterlife.
 * The Star - Leave Night City with the Aldecaldos.
 * Temperance - Let Johnny Silverhand keep your body.

Phantom Liberty

 * King of Cups - Help Reed capture Songbird during Firestarter, then kill So Mi during Somewhat Damaged.
 * King of Pentacles - Help Reed capture Songbird during Firestarter, then spare So Mi during Somewhat Damaged.
 * King of Swords - Help Songbird escape during Firestarter, then give So Mi to Reed during Killing Moon.
 * King of Wands - Help Songbird escape during Firestarter, then kill Reed and help So Mi embark on the shuttle during Killing Moon.