The Blackwall is a mysterious — and tremendously dangerous — place in Cyberpunk 2077 lore, and in Phantom Liberty, you can wield a bit of its power through either the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack or Erebus Iconic SMG. However, because both are exceptionally powerful, you can’t get them without jumping through some hoops, and you’ll need to invest heavily in a particular stat if you want them at all. We’ll show you how to get both the weapon and quickhack in this guide.
How to Get the Erebus Iconic Blackwall SMG in Phantom Liberty
Of the two items, the Erebus is technically the harder of the two to acquire, as you’ll need 20 levels in the Technical Ability Attribute to open the door that leads to its crafting blueprint. During the Somewhat Damaged mission, you’ll be chased by a Blackwall AI-controlled Cerberus robot across two areas of the Cynosure facility.
The blueprint for the Erebus SMG is behind a locked door in the first area. The sign above the door gives directions to both Storage and Engineering.
The keypad controlling the door, however, lacks power. To power on the keypad, you need to go to the fusebox in the nearby room and use your Technical Ability at level 20 to rewire it.
I spent a long time looking for another way to open the door, and despite my best efforts, having full investment in the Attribute was the only way to get through it. Once you are through, however, the power in the room beyond will come back on, and you can pick up the Erebus blueprint off the table near the windows. It should be marked with a bright yellow icon on your HUD.
Just having the crafting spec isn’t enough, however. You need a special item called a Behavior System Component, which you can only get near the end of the mission. After you disable all the parts of the Cynosure core, you’ll be attacked by the Cerberus as part of a lengthy cutscene. At the cutscene’s end, Songbird will have deactivated the robot and you can collect the Component from the inert robot’s body. From there, complete the mission as normal, either sparing or killing Songbird.
How to Get the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack in Phantom Liberty
To get the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack, proceed to the second area of the Cynosure facility, where you have to take out the core’s remaining systems. There, you’ll find a door marked as Experimental Prototyping.
The door is locked, but you can hack the keypad as long as you have 15 Technical Ability. While it’s probably possible to find the code for the door, I spent a long time searching for a computer terminal or datashard that contained the code with no luck.
Go to the second set of yellow-lit displays once you’re in the room beyond the Experimental Prototyping locked door. You’ll find the crafting spec for the Militech Canto MK.6 cyberware. Like the Erebus blueprint, you need the Behavior System Component from the Cerberus robot.
How to Complete This Corrosion in Phantom Liberty
After you return to Night City, to finally get your hands on the Erebus SMG or the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack, you need to wait until you get a text message from a mysterious caller (likely one of the Blackwall AIs or a collective of them), which will start a short quest called This Corrosion. It starts with directions to meet a netrunner in Kabuki.
Head to Kabuki and speak with Yoko at the netrunning shop in the main plaza. Ask her to help you with the behavioral circuit; though she has immense reservations, she does so. Shortly after, she’ll give you the Cerberus’ Decoded Behavioral System Component, which you can use to craft either the Erebus or Blackwall Gateway.
No, you can’t have both the Erebus Iconic SMG and Blackwall Gateway Quickhack at the same time. The decoded Component is a one-time use item, allowing you to craft the weapon or hack, but not both. Blackwall Gateway costs an additional 12 Tier 5 Quickhack Components and 50 Tier 5 Item Components. The Erebus only costs 50 Item Components alongside the decoded Component.
Should You Use the Erebus SMG or Blackwall Gateway Quickhack
While both the Erebus and Blackwall Gateway items grant you incredible power, I find that the Erebus is the much better option. As a gun, it’s not bound by your Intelligence Attribute or investment into quickhacking. Additionally, while the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack can instantly kill rank and file enemies, it only does around 20% of a boss’s health and stuns them for about five seconds. Full disclosure: I tested it on MaxTac.
Blackwall Gateway also has a very long activation time, and it takes a lot of RAM to use. The Militech Canto MK.6 operating system also reduces your overall RAM, meaning you’ll rely on the Overclock ability or tons of other netrunning abilities and cyberware to compensate for the deficiency.
The Erebus, on the other hand, does solid damage out to middle-range, has a huge magazine, applies damaging quickhacks after dealing enough damage with bullets, and deals much more damage to enemies with low HP. I tested it on MaxTac with almost no investment into Reflexes or gunplay (my build was based around Cool and stealth), and I had much better luck dealing with “NCPD’s most badass” than Blackwall Gateway ever let me be.
Of course, you can always make a save file before crafting the one you want to use and trying out the other, though I think you’ll find the Erebus a better overall option. It’s just easier and more consistent to use.
That covers where to get the Blackwall Gateway Quickhack and Erebus Iconic SMG in Phantom Liberty. For other weapon and quest guides for Phantom Liberty, check out our articles on all the available Iconics, how to complete Shot From Both Sides, and more in our Cyberpunk 2077 guides hub.
