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Mystery Moon

Edgerunners Moon

Moon Time

The moon in game does not behave as it does in real life. Through normal gameplay within Cyberpunk 2077, the moon rotates approximately 11° per hour. This is a significant deviation from reality, as the moon in real life is in lock-step rotation with earth and never changes its perceived rotation.

I have been able to tell time by comparing the in-game moon's rotation to this chart I put together:

Lunagraph

If you look at the moon at any point in normal non-quest gameplay, you can match the moon's phase to the chart and determine the time of day with 100% accuracy.

Why 11° per hour? I don't know. I just know that 10° per hour is too slow to stay in sync with the game's time, and 12° per hour is too fast. 11° per hour is the only value that works.

Limitations of the Lunagraph - Questions

The moon rotating 11° per hour raises the following questions:

  • If it spins 11° and there are 360° in a circle, then the moon will complete a full rotation every 32.7273 hours. This is problematic for a 24 hour clock. Where does the moon go for the other 8.7273 hours? Does this have to do with the extra loops in the serpent's body?
  • Several key moments, especially endings, seem to deviate from the chart. Is the moon moving or are we? What can account for these deviations?
  • When the moon isn't visible, is it changing rotation speed or direction? Is it flipped? Is it even moving at all? What rules is it playing by?

Hidden Moons

The game will often obfuscate the current time, while making the moon visible if you know where to look. I will attempt to catalog these moments below.

The StreetKid

The StreetKid: Moon in V's Apartment / 10PM

In the street kid path, you can catch a small glimpse of the moon immediately after leaving the bar by stand on some garbage bags. It's obscured for the rest of the opening. It points to 9pm.

The Corpo-Rat

The Corpo-Rat: Moon in Jenkin's Office / 11PM

In Jenkin's office, if you crouch down in the far right corner of his city-facing window, you can barely bring the moon into sight. This moon matches up to 11pm on the lunagraph. The same time of the Smasher fight at the end of the game.

The Heist

@todo (Konpeki Window) - what about before meeting dex and after waking?

Love Like Fire

Love Like Fire Moons Before getting on the AV with Rogue, you can see the moon by walking much further forward past the craft and then turning around. It is a 9pm moon, despite the clock moving from 9pm to 10pm for this scene. After landing on the roof, we can see a moon indicating sometime between 12pm and 1pm. This matches the current clock, which shows 12:10am. This is where things get strange. The subtitle that comes up on the roof escape sequence says 11:45pm. The clock still shows 12:10am. The moon puts it between 12pm and 1pm. The moon will remain in this rotation for the remainder of Johnny's scenes.

The Information

The Information / 8PM

When walking through Evelyn Parker's scroll of the penthouse suite, there are only a couple of frames where you can see the moon. If you stay in first person mode, You will have a very brief window to catch an 8pm moon as Evelyn takes a drink.

Endings

@todo (panam for sure, temperance, star, etc.)